February 24, 2010

 

COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

5:00 PM

City Hall, Room 408

1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place

San Francisco, CA 94102

Members Present Staff Present

President Andrea Shorter Executive Director Emily Murase, PhD

Commissioner Dorka Keehn Policy Director Ann Lehman

Commissioner Carolene Marks Policy Analyst Anu Menon

Commissioner Katherine Munter Grants Administrator Carol Sacco

Commissioner Julie Soo Commission Secretary Cynthia Vasquez

Excused: Vice President Kay Gulbengay

I. CALL TO ORDER/ AGENDA CHANGES

President Shorter called the meeting to order at 5:10 pm.

Action: Approved agenda.

m/s/c (Marks/Shorter/Unanimous)

No public comment.

II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

President Shorter asked Commissioners to review the minutes from January 27, 2010.

Action: Approved amended minutes from January 27, 2010.

m/s/c (Keehn/Munter/Unanimous)

No public comment.

Commissioner Keehn requested an update on when the Advisory Committee will be formed for the U.N. Global Compact Center. Dr. Murase stated that the Office of Economic and Workforce Development has not begun its recruitment of committee members yet.

III. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT

Dr. Murase directed Commissioners to her written report. Dr. Murase announced that on March 30 the Department will be holding its annual Women’s History Month Celebration. The theme for 2010 is “Writing Women Back into History.” The Board of Supervisors will acknowledge and recognize leading women in our community during the regularly scheduled Board meeting. The Board’s presentation will begin at 3:30 pm in the Board of Supervisors Chambers. The Mayor will also recognize his honoree at a reception in the North Light Court for the honorees, their friends, and family to follow the Board of Supervisors presentation.

Dr. Murase reported that the Gender Equality Principles (GEP) website has made exceptional progress. This will be the first website of its kind to provide companies with a self-assessment test, best practices, tools, and extensive resources to help them determine where they stand in relation to the Gender Equality Principles and how they can improve gender equality within their workplaces. The launch is scheduled for March, but a temporary homepage is at www.genderprinciples.org. In April, Anu will be attending the final presentation by the Northeastern Law School project GEP #2, Work Life Balance and Career Development. This is a research project that will provide a comparative analysis between useful work-life balance practices in the US, California, and San Francisco with practices in the European Union. Private sector human resource professionals will be able to use this information to help them gain support for and implement work-life balance practices in their companies.

Dr. Murase announced that the Mayor has approved a joint release of our gender budgeting report, Path to Accountability and Data-Based Policy Making. Later in the meeting, Commissioners would be hearing presentations from staff, First 5 San Francisco, and the Juvenile Probation Department on the report’s results.

Dr. Murase reported that together with Ms. Menon and Ms. Lehman will be presenting at the UN Non-Governmental Organization Committee on the Status of Women in New York during the 1^st and 2^nd week in March. They will be presenting 3 workshops. The first is entitled "CEDAW Goes Local -- San Francisco Plus Ten Years" and will review the last decade of local implementation of CEDAW. The second is called "Violence Against Women: Perspectives from Bahrain, Ecuador, Iran, and the US." The final workshop, “Gender Responsive Budgeting in the US: A Tale of Two Counties,” will be conducted with Fulton County (Atlanta). A report will be provided at the March Commission meeting.

Dr. Murase announced that the Department will soon begin the first session of the "Bridges to Freedom", a language fluency training program for City employees with a focus on domestic violence responders: March 10 for Spanish and March 12 for the Cantonese session. The Department has recruited participants from criminal justice and other city agencies for the 16 week training program. Commissioner Soo expressed interest in attending.

Dr. Murase thanked Commissioners for attending the various human trafficking awareness events sponsored by the Department and the San Francisco Collaborative on Anti-Human Trafficking between January 11 and February 9.

The Department will be meeting with staff and Commissioners from the Fire Department to discuss possibly conducting a gender analysis of one of their programs.

Dr. Murase reported on the office interns. The Department welcomed a new Willie L. Brown, Jr. Public Policy Intern Jessika Lopez who is an undergraduate at San Francisco State University, the Pacific Asian American Women Bay Area Coalition Intern Jamie Kozono who recently graduated from UCLA, and Graduate Social Work Intern Mariya Taher who is completing her master's in social work at San Francisco State University. Dr. Murase expects to receive a new staff person through the Mayor's Jobs Now program sometime in March.

Dr. Murase reported that the Department of Human Resources provided statistics on the city employees who were laid off between November 16 and December 31, 2009. The analysis showed that of the 150 laid off employees, 75-80% were women and the majority were minorities.

Dr. Murase stated that she submitted the department budget with the required reductions to the Mayor’s Office.

Beverly Upton asked the Commission to hear from community members for a special presentation. Maria Chavez, Executive Director of the Riley Center, explained that the papier mache hearts presented to Commissioners and staff were made by young residents of Brennan House to say thank you for the Commission and Department’s continued support. The young women at LYRIC created a Valentine's Day card for the Commission, and young women from the Community Youth Center read a message of thanks. Emberly Cross presented a Valentine's Day message from the Cooperative Restraining Order Clinic. Pablo Espinoza of Community United Against Violence expressed thanks to the Commission for its work protecting vulnerable women. Rachel West of Women in Dialogue also expressed appreciation to the Commission. Ken Theisen stated that he has worked with the Commission for 29 years and he thanked the Commission for its work.

Commissioners thanked the agency representatives for their dedicated efforts and expressed their deep appreciation for the heart-felt messages.

Commissioner Soo reminded the audience that February is Heart Health Month.

Commissioner Marks thanked all of the Partner Agencies for the work and service they provide the women and girls of San Francisco.

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 International Women’s Day and the San Francisco Chapter of UNIFEM

B. Resolution Recognizing Clare Murphy on her retirement

C. Resolution Recognizing the 2010 Women’s History Month Honorees

D. Resolution Recognizing Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White

E. Resolution Recognizing the Late Evelyn Haas

F. Resolution Supporting Public Financing of Campaigns

Dr. Murase stated that Commissioner Munter had concerns about the resolution on public financing and asked the Commission to sever the item from the Consent Agenda so that further discussion could take place.

Action: To sever Item F from the Consent Agenda.

m/s/c (Shorter/Soo/Unanimous).

Public Comment:

Jennie Watson of the Evelyn & Walter Haas Jr. Fund thanked the Commission for this honor. She expressed that it was a fitting tribute to a woman who gave most generously to the community.

Commissioner Marks stated that, in honoring Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White, the Commission should also acknowledge the many contributions of her late father Thomas Hayes, a major figure in the community.

Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White expressed her appreciation to the Commission not only for the resolution but for its daily work. She thanked Commissioner Marks for her kind words about her father who passed away exactly a month ago, after leading a very full life of 85 years. She explained that she was the 6th woman ever hired by the San Francisco Fire Department which now has 250 women firefighters, or 6% of the workforce. This percentage is among the highest in the nation.

Action: To approve the Consent Agenda.

m/s/c (Shorter/Soo/Unanimous).

B. Resolution Supporting Public Financing of Campaigns

Commissioner Munter explained that her concern was based on a procedural matter. Dr. Murase stated that at the last Commission meeting, Commissioners had a question about the sources of public campaign financing. Joni Eisen explained that public financing can take many forms. Current proposals in California based on a pilot program involve raising the registration fee of lobbyists from $12.50 to $350 which is commensurate to other states. Commissioner Soo inquired about the sources of public campaign financing in the event that all offices come under the policy. Ms. Eisen stated that this is not yet known since the focus so far has been on a pilot program only. Commissioner Keehn expressed her strong support for public financing of campaigns. She explained that she was a founding board member of Emerge, a political training program for Democratic women which started in California and has expanded into other states. She stated that the reason why Emerge chose to expand to Arizona and Maine was that these states had public financing of campaigns which opens up new opportunities for women and minority candidates.

Action: To approve the resolution supporting public financing of campaigns.

m/s/c (Keehn/Shorter/4 in favor, 1 opposed. The resolution was adopted.)

V. NEW BUSINESS

A. Gender Budgeting Report

Policy Director Ann Lehman presented a report on the gender budgeting initiative that was launched in partnership with the Mayor's Office of Public Policy and Finance. She began by highlighting the mandate contained in the 1998 San Francisco CEDAW Ordinance:

"The City shall ensure that the City does not discriminate against women in areas including employment practices, allocation of funding, and delivery of direct and indirect services..."

Ms. Lehman explained that gender responsive budgeting ensures that government budgets and the policies and programs that underlie them address the needs and interests of individuals that belong to different social groups. This approach examines funding allocations and their impact on men and women. Where the needs are different, gender responsive budgeting encourages budget allocations to reflect these differences. The approach promotes accountability and transparency in public funding. Gender responsive budgeting has been conducted in such countries as Australia, France, South Africa, Spain, and Tanzania.

The Mayor's Office sent an inquiry to all City departments asking 4 basic questions:

1. Do you collect disaggregated data?

2. How is data used for policy/budget?

3. If no data, how could you collect it?

4. Interested in learning more about this topic?

Results from this inquiry form the substance of the new report. She cited examples of responses, including the District Attorney's Office which adjusts resources based on spikes in domestic violence cases, and the Arts Commission which analyzes the degree to which grants are being awarded to a broad range of diverse communities. She also explained that the Department requires Partner Agencies to provide quarterly reports that require client data disaggregated by gender, race/ethnicity, native language, etc.

Some of the challenges that departments reported included adherence to public meeting laws, time or staffing constraints, process constraints, and data source constraints. There is a widespread misperception that Proposition 209 prohibits the collection of demographic data. While Proposition 209 prohibits requiring demographic data from members of the public seeking government services, this data can be collected on a voluntary basis.

The report recommends that this work be pursued further by a city-wide workgroup and follow-up roundtables. A city-wide data collection plan should be created and technologies assessed for their ability to facilitate data collection. Departments must be educated about the limits of Proposition 209 and strategies for voluntary data collection. Finally, additional research should be conducted.

1. Case Study: First 5 San Francisco

Gloria Corral, Deputy Director of First 5 San Francisco, explained the her agency that focuses on the needs of children between 0-5 years old. Ms. Corral stated that First 5's main goals are:

· child health

· child development

· family functioning

· systems of care

Ms. Corral explained that all grantees are required to report on performance measures. The Universal Pre-School program looks at who and where clients are being served, as well as the race/ethnicity and income level of those being served. The agency evaluates if the care children are receiving is appropriate and if there are any disparities. The program also provides local evaluation reports to measure programs based on the agency’s strategic plan.

Ms. Corral explained that the agency asks for a variety of information on a voluntary basis such as cultural background and single parent home vs. 2 parent home to indentify the different variables that have an influence on children.

Commissioner Soo expressed how important it is to educate parents on recognizing and promoting the aptitudes and aspirations of their children. Parents need to encourage their children to do what ever they are good at.

2. Juvenile Probation Department

Allison Magee, Director of Administrative Services at the Juvenile Probation Department, thanked the Commission for the opportunity to elaborate on her department's efforts in this area. She explained that the Juvenile Probation Department issues regular reports documenting the demographic profile of youth. She highlighted the fact that girls have needs that are significantly different than boys. She stated that a major challenge is the variability of the numbers of girls in the system. In December 2009, there were 7 girls, but today there are 17 under direct supervision. Regarding the ways in which disaggregated data is used to shape programs, she cited the example of evening reporting centers that the department administers. The number of young women utilizing the evening reporting center dedicated to girls was so low that, unfortunately, the department could not justify funding it.

Commissioner Soo asked for further details about the collected data, particularly related to foster children. Ms. Magee stated that the department does have detailed data on each youth, including foster care history.

VI. PUBLIC COMMENT

Den Quinsay of the Community Youth Center brought youth from the Young Asian Women Against Violence and Sisters Against Violence Empowerment Programs, both funded by the Department on the Status of Women. The peer leaders conveyed a message of thanks to the Commission. They presented a short skit demonstrating the public speaking skills they learned as part of the program.

VII. Adjourn

Action: Motion to adjourn.

m/s/c (Keehn/Shorter/Unanimous)

The meeting adjourned at 6:55 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: ethics.