October 26, 2011

COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

5:00 PM

City Hall, Room 408

San Francisco, CA94102

Members Present                                           Staff Present         

                             President Kay Gulbengay                    Executive Director Emily Murase

Vice President Julie Soo                      Policy Director Ann Lehman

Commissioner Alicia Gamez               Grants Administrator Carol Sacco

Commissioner Becca Prowda             Commission Secretary Cynthia Vasquez

Commissioner Nancy Kirshner-           Youthworks Intern Elexus Hunter

Rodriguez                                           

Commissioner Andrea Shorter

 

Excused:  Commissioner Stephanie Simmons

 

 

I.       CALL TO ORDER/ AGENDA CHANGES                         

President Gulbengay called the meeting to order at 5:05 pm. 

m/s/c (Soo/Prowda/Unanimous)

No public comment.

 

II.                APPROVAL OF MINUTES          

President Gulbengay asked Commissioners to review the minutes from September 21, 2011.  Commissioners provided minor edits. 

Action: Approve amended minutes from September 21, 2011.   

m/s/c (Shorter/Prowda/Soo Abstained)

No public comment.                                    

                                                  

III.    EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT                               

        

A.           Executive Director's Report

Dr. Murase directed Commissioners to her written report.  She reported that October has been a busy month with various events in recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month.  Dr. Murase attended the District Attorney’s Office Stalking Summit entitled “Stalking the Stalker: Initial Police Response, Investigation, Prosecution, and Beyond” on September 29.  The day-long Summit addressed topics from initial police response to safety planning to U-Visas. Considerable time was devoted to a presentation and discussion on cyberstalking. The audience included representatives from all of the criminal justice agencies, as well as service providers.

 

Grants Administrator Carol Sacco reminded Commissioners that the Department is seeking 100% participation by staff and Commissioners in the annual Combined Charities Campaign, scheduled to end on October 31. 

 

Dr. Murase introduced Youth Works Intern, Elexus Hunter, a senior at RaoulWallenbergTraditionalHigh School. She will be with the department until the spring of 2012. Dr. Murase also welcomed Stacey Hoang as the Department’s part-time Outreach and Development Manager, responsible for a new partnership with the Child Support Services Department seeking new clients and for researching grant opportunities.

 

III.             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.

Action:  To approve the Consent Agenda.

m/s/c (/Unanimous)

 

A.     Resolution Recognizing Chandra Alexandre

B.      Resolution Recognizing Paul Oliva

C.      Resolution Recognizing U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for

         Convening the APEC Women and the Economy Summit

D.     Resolution Recognizing Antonio Flores in Honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month

E.      Resolution Recognizing Officer Al Louie

F.      Resolution Recognizing Anne Marie Monroe, San Francisco Department of Human Resources

G.     Resolution Recognizing Anu Menon

H.     Resolution Recognizing the Board of Directors of the Friends of the Commission on the Status of Women

 

Paul Oliva accepted the recognition on behalf of the California APEC Host Committee. He acknowledged the early work of Commissioner Kirshner-Rodriguez and the outreach by Dr. Murase during the meetings to APEC Leaders who will meet in Honolulu in November.  Mr. Oliva announced that registration closes on Friday, October 28 if anyone was interested or available to attend.

 

San Francisco Police Lt. Antonio Flores acknowledged his partner of many years Lt. Art Stellini. He stated that the collaboration in San Francisco was exceptional. A native San Franciscan, Lt. Flores accepted the honor on behalf of all advocates in the domestic violence community.

 

President Gulbengay introduced Officer Louie who went above and beyond his duties to assist a Chinese woman who was seeking to regain custody of her child.  Office Louie explained that the Chinese math and science teacher married an American man who was teaching in China. They had a baby in February and came to the US to visit the husband's family. The couple moved in with the husband's family in Modesto, but the woman was kept in the garage and fed subsistence provisions. When the couple was scheduled to return to China, the husband served her wife with notice that he had sole custody of the child and did not intend to return to China. Officer Louie worked very closely with the mother to ensure that she received appropriate social services, legal assistance, and housing. He drove the mother multiple times between San Francisco and Modesto. Through his efforts and collaboration with multiple service providers, the mother was able to regain custody of her baby.

 

Dr. Murase recounted the numerous contributions that Associate Director Ms. Menon has made to the Department. She is now a widely-recognized expert on the issues of women's human rights, including human trafficking. She was also instrumental in the policy development that led to the creation of the public database on boards and Commissions. Ms. Menon is moving on to serve as Chief Operating Officer of her son's preschool Presidio Knolls.

 

Dr. Murase introduced Ms. Monroe who served as the Personnel Analyst for the Department. She thanked Ms. Monroe for her dedicated efforts in support of the Department.

 

Commissioners expressed their deep appreciation for the work of each of this evening's honorees.

 

Public Comment: Beverly Upton, Executive Director of the Domestic Violence Consortium, thanked Lt. Antonio Flores and Lt. Art Stellini for their exceptional work. She also recognized the Commission, the Department, and community partners for their daily work in eliminating violence against women, a goal she believes is achievable.

 

V.     NEW BUSINESS                                                                   

Director, Nancy Alfaro provided an overview of data generated from the 311 Directory Service for all City services. 

Dr. Murase explained that Ms. Alfaro has been instrumental in the creation of the online data base for Commissions and Boards, as well as a crime victim resources website available at www.sf311.org.  311 went live on March 29, 2007 and has answered over 12 million calls to date.  The current call volume is approximately 220,000 calls per month, of which 80% of all calls are answered within 60 seconds.  311 has 67 Customer Service Representatives, 6 CSR Supervisors, 13 staff members in Executive, Business Analysis, Training, and Administration.  311 serves as a physical backup for 911, the Department of Elections call center, and Department of Health.

 

311 is also charged with maintaining the City’s centralized online database of appointments to advisory bodies. This database serves to promote opportunities to participate in, and serve on city boards, commissions, task forces, and committees.  Commissioners requested that the database gather the following fields as an option: age, sexual preference and nationality.  Commissioners also suggested working with other Departments to advertise 311 and the available services. 

 

A.     Woman Inc.                                                                                                                  

Roberta Toomer, Executive Director, and Mariya Taher, Content Coordinator, of WOMAN Inc., provided an overview of the Domestic Violence Information and ReferralCenter.  Ms. Toomer stated that the new website is a tool for even greater collaboration among domestic violence agencies. The website enables tracking of information requests. At its core, the DVIRC provides a shelter bed availability count for designated shelters located throughout the 9 Bay Area counties.

 

VI.    Reports                                  

Commissioners reported on their activities in the community.

 

VII.  PUBLIC COMMENT

None.

 

VII.  ADJOURNMENT     

 

m/s/c (Kirshner-Rodriguez/Gamez/Unanimous)

The meeting adjourned at 7:30 pm.

 

 

 

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