City and County of San FranciscoDepartment on the Status of Women

November 16, 2011

Family Violence Council - November 16, 2011

 

Family Violence Council:

Addressing Violence throughout the Lifespan

 

MINUTES

Wednesday, November 16, 2011, 3 - 5 pm

San Francisco Civil Court

400 McAllister St., Room 617

San Francisco, CA 94102

 

Members:

 

  Attendees   Attendees

 

Presiding Judge of the Superior Court, or designee

X

Director of Human Services Agency, or designee: (APS) Teresa Guillen, Melanie Shinn, Alexis Greene

X

Mayor, or designee: Paul Henderson

 

Director of Department of Aging and Adult Services, or designee

 

President of the Board of Supervisors, or designee

X

Director of Department of Children, Youth, and Their Families, or designee: Veronica Martinez

X

District Attorney, or designee: Maria Bee

X

Director of Child Support Services, or designee: Karen Roye

X

Public Defender, or designee: Simin Shamji

 

Director of Department of Animal Care and Control, or designee

 

Sheriff, or designee

X

Superintendent of San Francisco Unified School District, or designee: Ilsa Bertolini, Laurie Vargas

X

Chief of Police, or designee: Tony Parra, Jason Fox, Arthur Stellini

X

Director of Domestic Violence Consortium, or designee:  Beverly Upton

X

President of Commission on the Status of Women, or designee: Stephanie Simmons

X

Director of Consortium for Elder Abuse Prevention, or designee: Mary Twomey, Talitha Guinn

X

Chief of Adult Probation, or designee: Sergio Calizo

X

Director of San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Council, or designee: Kathy Baxter, Robin Rajalingam, Blia Mona

 

Chief of Department of Emergency Management, or designee

 

Chair of Batterer’s Intervention Programs Subcommittee

X

Director of the Department of Public Health, or designee: Leigh Kimberg

X

Executive Director of the Department on the Status of Women, or designee: Emily Murase

 

Other attendees: Meisha Vella (Rally Family Visitation Services), Mary Martinez (Woman, Inc.), Akiko Takeshita (API Legal Outreach), Robin Brasso (DWIA, Friends of COSW), Joyce Dorado (UCSF Hearts), Chuck Cruz (Mayor’s Office?), Helen Lei (DOSW), Stacey Hoang (Staff, DOSW)

 

I.          CALL TO ORDER/ AGENDA CHANGES

Kathy Baxter of the Child Abuse Prevention Council called the meeting to order at 3:06 pm. The Council approved the agenda. [Twomey/Upton/ALL]

 

II.        INTRODUCTIONS                           

Council members and attendees introduced themselves.

 

III.       APPROVAL OF MINUTES

The Council approved the minutes from August 17, 2011. [Shamji/Roye/ALL]

 

IV.       BUSINESS                                                                 

 

A.        Updates from Agencies                                                                                 

Beverly Upton of the Domestic Violence Consortium reported that State Assemblymember Fiona Ma declared for the first time October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

 

Karen Roye from Child Support Services reported that the growth of family violence cases has increased significantly: 392 cases in 2009, 591 in 2010, and 1170 in 2011. The trend her department is experiencing is that unemployed parents would pay their child support with unemployment checks for a period of time, and then pay nothing when it runs out. This often results in threats and violence, including family abandonment. She is looking at the Council for ideas to combat this growing trend. She is also looking for fiscal support for noncustodial parents to keep families safe.

 

Akiko Takeshita with Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach reported that recent trends show abusers using restraining orders against the victim. When the abused applies for a restraining order, the perpetrator counters it with his own restraining order. The result of which is seen as a continuation of abuse to the victim. With the rise in these counter suits, there is twice as much work for staff along with the need to spend more time on the same number of cases. Ms. Upton added that, with the cuts in the courts, this adds to the existing work load.

 

Veronica Martinez of the Department of Children, Youth, and their Families shared DCYF’s 2013-2016 preliminary plans for anti-violence programs.

 

Robin Rajalingam stated that she will be leaving SafeStart in January.

 

Dr. Emily Murase of the Department on the Status of Women announced the San Francisco Collaborative Against Human Trafficking poster contest and the upcoming party for outgoing Sheriff Michael Hennessey. She also reported that Associate Director, Anu Menon, would be leaving the Department to pursue another career.

 

B.         Review of Family Violence Council Work Plan/Recommendations            

 

  1. The Family Violence Council urges the completion of JUSTIS, the City and County’s complex Information Technology system.

Dr. Murase stated Linda Yeung from the City Administrator’s Office is now the executive sponsor of the JUSTIS project. Most modules are scheduled to be completed by March 2012. The Community Justice Center Module was recently completed, but the Domestic Violence Reporting Module is still in progress. The new SFPD database is necessary to complete the Domestic Violence Module.

 

  1. Family Violence Council recommends that the Department of Emergency Management implement 911 call codes specific to child abuse and elder abuse.

Mary Twomey of the UC Irvine Center of Excellence on Elder Abuse summarized the work plan and stated that it is now complete.

 

  1. The Family Violence Council urges the Department of Children, Youth and Their Families, through the San Francisco Violence Prevention Advisory Committee (VPAC) identified in the 2008 Violence Prevention Plan, to make family violence a priority issue and recognize the role of family violence as a predictor of future community violence and other crimes and victimization.

Veronica Martinez of the Department on Children, Youth, and their Families stated that their agency has proposed recommendations to the Mayor’s Office to include children when considering family violence. This work is still in progress.

 

  1. The Family Violence Council supports the current efforts of the City’s work to strengthen the capacity of the Family Resource Centers to address the needs of adolescents and their families, as well as the San Francisco Unified School District’s work to provide prevention and intervention services in cases of teen dating violence. The Family Violence Council urges these and other relevant agencies to address and highlight the unique needs of teens in the child welfare system, and in the realm of intimate partner violence.

Ilsa Bertonlini of the San Francisco Unified School District provided an update on the school district’s efforts related to the successes and challenges in teaching health education in school, and stated that sustainable funding sources for health education needs to be looked into. Some possible policy changes could include making health education mandatory on report cards, proposing curriculum changes to include health education, and ensuring that health education teachers have health credentials.

 

Laurie Vargas of the San Francisco Unified School District stated that the language in questionnaires should be revisited to include verbiage about abuse.

 

Ms. Upton asked what is the school’s response when a student states that they have been or have witnessed someone being slapped by his/her boyfriend/girlfriend. Ms. Vargas said that the data from the questionnaires is their justification for their request for health education.

 

Community member Robin Brasso stated that teachers need training as they are required to report abuse and questioned whether asking students to fill out a survey is enough to solicit a response. Ms. Bertonlini stated that students do respond to the surveys as it is anonymous.

 

Ms. Twomey asked how the school determines who is being abused from the surveys, and Ms. Vargas stated that is why they need to reword the survey.

 

Ms. Upton asked how the Family Violence Council can help SFUSD move efforts forward. Dr. Murase suggested organizing a presentation before the Curriculum Committee. Ms. Bertolini stated that the health curriculum is currently reviewed in-house, but a community dialogue would be helpful.

 

  1. Because training is a critical component of prevention, City-wide training efforts should be expanded and coordinated.

Police Captain Tony Parra provided an update on the Police Department. Art Stelline will be leading the entire Elder Abuse Division where there is an on-call officer available 24/7 to respond to elder abuse. Lieutenant Jason Fox is leading the Human Trafficking Division. All investigative units – domestic violence, human trafficking, sex crimes, missing person, elder abuse, financial crimes, etc. – will fall under the Special Victims Unit. SFPD has implemented a beta group to cross train officers for other units, but that special training is still needed for certain cases such as how to talk to child victims. After testing the beta group, they will evaluate and assess how it has worked and determine how to carry out further trainings. Chief Suhr attended a Bay Area wide conference with other jurisdictions to share best practices. Within the next two years, there could be a potential reduction of 30% in staffing for the Police Department due to retirement. It is estimated that 300-400 officers will be leaving. At this time, SFPD is looking at hiring only about 50 new officers. SFPD is looking at other sources of funding.

 

Ms. Roye stated that cross training is also required for staff at her department and asked whether the retiring/departing officers can be used as trainers. Captain Parra said yes and that they need to do the training now. The fortunate thing is that the Special Victims Unit has the least number of officers scheduled to retire in the near future.

 

Dr. Leigh Kimberg of the Department of Public Health stated that 50% of child abuse cases include family violence, and vice versa, and asked whether there is cross over of information at SFPD. Captain Parra said they are pairing different units that are closely related to each other.

 

Dr. Murase stated that her department received a two-year grant through Blue Shield to provide a cross training institute for 435 personnel. She offered to work with the Police Department to seek grant funding for cross training officers.

 

Ms. Brasso stated that the Police Department should look into The Body Shop for grants as the company is very interested in human trafficking issues.

 

  1. The budget for the City and County of San Francisco must reflect family violence as a priority and that the majority of victims utilize community support services in addition to or in lieu of a criminal justice response.

Ms. Upton stated that San Francisco leaders have placed family violence as a top priority as reflected in past City budgets. She thanked Deputy Chief of Staff Paul Henderson from the Mayor’s Office for his advocacy and urged the group to keep the momentum going. She has already met with the Mayor’s Office a few times already to discuss City priorities and urged all members to continue to advocate for family violence resources as this is an ongoing priority.

 

  1. To improve the outcome of cases, the City’s response must be coordinated with community providers.
    1. Mr. Henderson of the Mayor’s Office reported on the Council’s proposed child abuse intervention program and stated that it has been a challenge given the budget situation. He reported that decision makers still need to discuss and identify what needs to be done. Ms. Upton and Ms. Baxter have already done a lot of work in coordinating these efforts. Ms. Baxter provided background information regarding the City’s non-compliance with the mandated 52-week child abuse intervention program. Dr. Murase acknowledged Barbara Garcia and Wendy Still from the Probation Department for supporting this work.
    2. Ms. Baxter provided an update on the Child Advocacy Center and announced that the agency leased a building and will be building a new center called Partnership for Children and will be collocated with the Center for Youth Wellness. A $20 million capital campaign will be launched. The Center is scheduled to open in the second half of 2012.
    3. Talitha Guinn of the Institute on Aging provided an update on the Elder Abuse Forensic Center. The Institute partnered with the LGBT community and did a cross training on elder financial abuse and will follow-up with the challenges faced by seniors. They also partnered with UC Hastings to host an elder abuse roundtable to allow participants the opportunity to gather information about elder financial abuse and draft a blueprint on how to handle elder financial abuse cases across multiple disciplines. The Institute is in the process of printing a legal guide about elder financial abuse and a summary of the law. The guide should be available in May 2012.
    4. Ms.Upton provided an update on Courtwatch. The group closely monitors about 10-20 domestic violence cases a year. The courts have experienced an increase in open pleas and cuts in court reporters. The group is concerned with the courts’ language access capacity when dealing with monolingual and/or limited-English language speakers. There is currently only 1 domestic homicide case to watch. The trial regarding the murder of Perla Lewis is set for February 2012.

 

C.        New Business                                                             

1.   Planning for 2012

a. Identifying issues the FVC would like to address in 2012.

For 2012, the group will continue to work on #3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 of the Family Violence Work Plan/Recommendations. Other suggested projects for 2012:

-          Coordinate media campaign to link all forms of abuse (Dr. Kimberg).

-          Look into the gamut of activities different groups are doing related to family violence (Captain Parra).

-          Discuss child support service efforts (Ms. Roye).

-          Reinstate tools that were created 5 years ago to evaluate batterer intervention programs (Ms. Upton).

-          Revisit cross training of departments/agencies about their area of expertise (Ms. Twomey).

-          Request certification of the Batterer’s Intervention Program of the domestic violence unit. (Mr. Calizo).

-          Coordinate a presentation about brain development and its effects on the community; look into how early trauma affects children and their brain development; and find ways to engage children, teachers, and parents into preventing further violence (Ms. Upton and Ms. Bee).

 

Captain Parra invited the Council to meet its investigators at the Special Victims Unit. They have a conference room that is available for training of up to 15 people.

 

Dr. Murase stated there is a need to capture information regarding the inventory of training and resources that is available. She expressed the need to require city vendors to comply with domestic violence training, but this would be a long-term plan to consider for future legislation.

 

b. Futures Without Violence (formerly Family Violence Prevention Fund) National Conference, March 29-31, 2012

Ms. Upton will invite Futures Without Violence to speak on it during the February meeting.

 

2.  2011 Comprehensive Report on Family Violence in San Francisco: Addendum to 2010 Report

Dr. Murase reported that her Department has no staff to compile the report. The tri-chair will prepare an addendum to the 2010 report because many changes have taken place and will approach the Council for data collection. There is a need to include the progress that has been made, and incorporate new data to make a stronger case to the Board of Supervisors.

 

3.   Approval of 2012 Calendar  

The 2012 Council meeting dates were approved and will now take place in room 617.

 

V.        ANNOUNCEMENTS

  1. Ms. Twomey is now with the National Center of Excellence on Elder Abuse.
  2. The Rally Family Visitation Center just celebrated its 20th Anniversary.
  3. Ms. Baxter is coordinating holiday toy drives.
  4. Ms. Guinn is organizing a coat drive for the elderly.
  5. Ms. Roye is teaming with the Fire Department to give toys to 1,500-2,000 foster children.

 

VI.       PUBLIC COMMENT           

None.

 

VII.     ADJOURNMENT                                                     

The Council adjourned at 5:01 pm.