City and County of San FranciscoDepartment on the Status of Women

Family Violence Council - November 20, 2013 - Meeting Minutes

Family Violence Council - November 20, 2013

 

Family Violence Council:

Addressing Violence throughout the Lifespan

MINUTES

3 - 5 pm, Wednesday, November 20, 2013

San Francisco Superior Court

400 McAllister St., Room 617, San Francisco, CA 94102

 

MEMBERS:

X

Presiding Judge of the Superior Court, or designee: Kathleen Kelly

X

Director of Human Services Agency, or designee: Sylvia De Porto

X

Mayor, or designee: Paul Henderson

X

Director of Department of Aging and Adult Services, or designee: Jill Nielsen

 

President of the Board of Supervisors, or designee

 

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

X

District Attorney, or designee: Marshall Khine

X

Director of Child Support Services, or designee: Karen Roye

X

Public Defender, or designee: Elizabeth Hilton

Director of Department of Animal Care and Control, or designee: Rebecca Katz

X

Sheriff, or designee: Delia Ginorio

X

Superintendent of San Francisco Unified School District, or designee: Kevin Gogin

X

Chief of Police, or designee: Captain Jason Fox

X

Director of Domestic Violence Consortium, or designee: Beverly Upton

X

President of Commission on the Status of Women, or designee: Nancy Kirshner-Rodriguez, Amy Ackerman

X

Director of San Francisco Elder Abuse Forensic Center, or designee: Talitha Guinn

X

Chief of Adult Probation, or designee: Tina Gilbert

X

Director of San Francisco Child Abuse Council, or designee: Kathy Baxter

X

Chief of Department of Emergency Management, or designee: Lisa Hoffman

  

Chair of Batterers Intervention Programs Subcommittee, or designee:

X

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

X

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

Other attendees: Marianne Barrett (District Attorney’s Office), Maria Bee (Victim Services), Denise BonGiovanni (Animal Care and Control), Fred Collier (Juvenile Probation Department), Andrea Evans (Fire Commission), Shelli Rawlings Fein (First 5 San Francisco), Vicky Guldbech (Animal Care and Control), Minouche Kandel (DOSW), Jerel McCrary (Bay Area Legal Aid), Stephanie Nguyen (DOSW), Teresa Guillen (Aging and Adult Services), Ramona Massey (Adult Probation), Sunny Schwartz (Adult Probation), Kristin Snell (DOSW), Iris Wong (DOSW), Sharon Woo (District Attorney’s Office)

 

I. CALL TO ORDER/AGENDA CHANGES          

The meeting was called to order at 3:10 pm. The Council approved the agenda. [Murase/Upton/ALL]

 

II. INTRODUCTIONS                                                 

Council members and attendees introduced themselves. Ms. Upton made an announcement on the Family Violence Council’s 5th year anniversary. She thanked Commissioner Andrea Evans, the Department on the Status of Women as well as all Family Violence Council members for their dedication to the Council.

Council tri-chairs Ms. Upton, Ms. Baxter and Ms. Guinn spoke individually, thanking members for their efforts, and detailing key accomplishments of the Family Violence Council over the past few years. Dr. Murase and Mr. Henderson echoed the praise from the tri-chairs, noting that through the collaborative work initiated by the Family Violence Council, San Francisco has become a model county for other jurisdictions fighting to combat this violence statewide. A cake was presented to celebrate the Council’s anniversary.

III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES                                   

The Council approved the minutes from August 21, 2013.
 

IV. REPORTS                                                           

A. Updates from Agencies                                                                                 

1. Police Department
Captain Fox addressed the Council, and reported that because the training video on Limited English Proficient issues has not been cleared yet by the City Attorney, he is unable to share it at this public meeting. He assured members that he would share it as soon as he could, hopefully in early 2014.

Captain Fox reported that the Police Department has begun the process toward the General Order on elder abuse. He noted that this is a very long and complex process, and estimated it would be 18 months before it would be completed.

Captain Fox then reported out on the most recent statistics collected around use of the language line for limited English speaking persons in San Francisco, broken down by district. He stated that the line averages about 150 calls per month, or around 5 calls a day.

He broke down Special Victims Units reports for July and August 2013, noting that an average of 10 women was arrested for domestic violence per month. In July, 20% of the domestic violence arrests involved same-sex couples, and in August the rate was 30%. He observed that opposite sex rates remain the same overall. He also discussed trends on the times people are more and less likely to be arrested. Friday and Saturday including evenings, had the lowest rates, while business hours during the week had the highest. Captain Fox observed that the next steps are to figure out how to incorporate these trends into the police response.

He then updated the Council that every single SFPD officer is being issued a smartphone. Every smartphone that every officer has is linked to the DOJ database. As of right now, officers can go to any website. The information is web enabled but is not housed in the phone. He noted that no jurisdiction has done this before, and that these phones have great potential, but before they are issued they need to be vetted and tested to pass all possible security measures.

 

2.    Department on the Status of Women                    
Dr. Murase reported on the Workplace Violence training that Minouche Kandel of the Department gave to the Department of Human Resources at the end of October, noting it was very well received. She also reported on the work the Department is doing to lobby for a San Francisco city-wide domestic violence in the workplace policy, mentioning the progress being made in this area through meetings with Department of Human Resources officials.

Dr. Murase then reported on the Justice & Courage Oversight Panel, praising the collaborative work the group has been able to do over the past ten years. She discussed the collective decision that has been made to issue a final report and phase the panel out, and to transition the energy and efforts into the Family Violence Council.

Policy Fellow Iris Wong then shared information about the Affordable Care Act, delivering the message from the Mayor’s Office about the priority to train staff on how to help people enroll through the website, over the phone or in person at 1440 Harrison Street. Dr. Kimburgh noted that even with the passage of this legislation, people who are undocumented are still eligible for HealthySF healthcare access program.

 

3.    Child Support Services
Ms. Roye acknowledged the accomplishments of the Council, and thanking Ms. Upton and her team for their great work on child support cases where domestic violence has been an issue. She reported on a proposed Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement mandate that includes a child support and fatherhood initiative to promote visitation rights, which will begin in FY19. She discussed the huge challenge this presents in San Francisco, highlighting the implementation of this policy where domestic violence is involved. She reported that a collaborative has already gone into action around this issue, which includes members of the Domestic Violence Consortium, Family Court, a family law facilitator, Bay Area Legal Aid, the 4D Commissioner, the Department on the Status of Women and others, who are working to better understand what San Francisco currently is doing in relation to these issues. This team plans to present the San Francisco model to the state of California as an option as it rolls out ‘parenting time’ orders and other access and visitation policies. Ms. Roye reported this collaborative is currently building a document and a policy statement that they can deliver to San Francisco which includes robust training and referral options, and will report further on their progress in the next meeting.

 

4.    Adult Probation Department
Ms. Schwartz reported out for the Adult Probation Department, mentioning Chief Still’s recent commissioning of a team to audit all Batterers Intervention Programs in San Francisco. The team worked together to review the 10 licensed programs in these major areas: facilities, content, training, record keeping, program and agency accountability, facilitator and staff accountability. The team found a lot of compliance issues across the board, citing lack of proper record-keeping, compliance of sending out victim notification, and class content issues that the team felt needed to be addressed. This audit resulted in 2 programs being de-certified, and recommendations for improvement in process and accountability being made for the 8 programs that remained certified.

Ms. Upton also mentioned the full day workshop on shelter-based training for Batterers Intervention Programs that was recently conducted by the Domestic Violence Consortium recently.  

Dr. Kimberg noted how helpful it would be for her department and other to have a robust list to offer folks, which listed the characteristics of each program so people can decide on what works best for them. Ms. Schwartz stated that this list of certified programs is currently being created and will be disseminated as soon as it is ready. She also mentioned the Department’s goal to complete an in-house study on more in-depth statistics of these programs, focusing specifically on recidivism rates and examining risk versus support factors for this population. The Council discussed the availability of voluntary, community-based programs, and it was noted that GLIDE has a free program, which is currently over capacity.

 

5. Adult Protective Services
Ms. Nielsen from Adult Protective Services reported that the department is currently working on improvements to the current cross-reporting system between Adult Protective Services and the San Francisco Police Department. There has been a concern over the inconsistency in the ways social workers were cross-reporting cases, making subjective decisions about strength of cases and whether or not to report if they deem they will not go to trial. Adult Protective Services is working to shift this to a more standardized protocol. It is working to set up a systematic way to send reports for review by Special Victims Unit case inspectors. The goals of these changes are: significantly reduced amount of time in sending reports over to the Police Department, so that social workers and inspectors can collaborate around these time-sensitive cases to improve client outcomes.

Members discussed the results that the state realignment of Adult Protective Services has had on the Department. In 2011, as a fiscal remedy, the state realigned multiple programs, shifting programmatic and fiscal oversight back under local county control. From a fiscal perspective, the realignment has worked – income has been generated from a number of areas that goes directly to these programs. However, the realignment has resulted in further under-regulation of Adult Protective Services departments throughout California. This lack of accountability at the state level has resulted in tremendous inconsistency in counties in regards to casework practices, staffing standards, and case standards.

Ms. Guinn reported that Adult Protective Services missed out on a $5 million federal grant due to the lack of state oversight of these programs on a state level.

Dr. Murase thanked Ms. Neilsen for surfacing these issues, noting that this is a policy area that has been understaffed. She appreciates leadership and bringing this information to the table, so that Family Violence Council members can talk to people in state legislature and work to make changes.

 

 

B.  Key Issues in Family Violence                                                                 

1.    Child Abuse Updates                                                                         

Ms. Baxter reported that the Child Abuse Prevention Council is about to launch a massive campaign to bring awareness, education and training around the issue of child sexual abuse in January 2014. Ms. Baxter noted that the “Enough” campaign is already partnering with 10 other counties, and she asked whether the Family Violence Council would consider being a formal partner to the campaign. The campaign will focus on a number of prevention initiatives, and has designed evidence-based curriculum to be taught in schools, as well as training programs for administrators and direct service workers in every county. The Child Abuse Prevention Council will be presenting to Google in January, and hopes it will be a key sponsor, among other notable partners. The kickoff will be at the Divisadero Car Wash, where a camera will be setup for people to put their hand up and say “NO” to child sexual abuse. Ms. Baxter invited all members to attend and join in as the public voice of this campaign.

 

Action: move that the FVC become a partner for the campaign

[Murase/Upton/ALL]

 

The motion was approved unanimously.

 

2.    Current Issues in Domestic Violence                                                        

Ms. Upton reported on a very successful domestic violence awareness month, praising a number of members in the room for specific efforts. She acknowledged Ms. Kandel for her idea to light up city hall purple in honor of domestic violence awareness, and noted the very effective training series that Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach put on that reached many vulnerable and impacted communities.

 

She also reported on the recent passage of the ‘Due Process For All’ ordinance, remarking on what an honor it was to be able to stand with the immigrant rights community publicly on this issue, and how important it is for domestic violence survivors and their children. She also noted that they are coming close to San Francisco Police Department adopting a General Order on Officer Involved Domestic Violence, and will report back when it has been made official.

 

3.    Elder Abuse Updates

Ms. Guinn reported on the updates to the ‘368 Plus’ Elder Abuse “App,” planned to roll out early in the new year. Ms. Guinn reported that the Elder Abuse Forensic Center had been having a really good year, and praised the participation and collaboration with the District Attorney’s Office and Police Department. Also noted was the recent Access to Justice Project event which featured Judge Joyce Kram as keynote speaker, on elder financial abuse and civil law that was very well received. There will be a follow up with the Legal Aid Association of California on the 12th. This training will help attorneys better identify cases where there might be civil legal remedies for their clients. It will help attorneys that are interfacing with complex family dynamics, and train them around some of the social work skills so their case outcomes will be better. The focus next year is on the criminal justice system. They are also producing a large print brochure for seniors that will list all local legal aid organizations, so that they can quickly reference what their civil legal options are. There is also going to be a webpage that will be up soon.

 

4. Sentencing Commission Report

Mr. McCrary reported out for the Sentencing Commission. He discussed the law enforcement assisted diversion program, whose objective was to provide repeat offenders in drug and prostitution cases with expanded wraparound services and treatment, in the hopes it will reduce recidivism. Mr. McCrary reported that there has been reduction of inmates, from 25% to 9%, which they believe to be a direct result of these efforts. San Francisco is looking at this as a potential model. Santa Fe has begun to implement a similar model.

 

Mr. McCrary also reported on the restorative justice project, an initiative that facilitates a meeting between a perpetrator and victim, in which the victim has the opportunity to create what the appropriate restoration is for them. This practice is principally being used in the juvenile context, and has a program operating in Oakland focused exclusively on robberies, that is being very well received. San Francisco is in the process of piloting a program focusing on juveniles who live in San Francisco and have been convicted of burglary, robbery and auto theft; it will apply this model, and review the effects.

 

Mr. McCrary then discussed the prison reduction plan taking place throughout California that has come from a federal court mandate, and noted the 9th Circuit’s refusal of the Governor’s request to delay implementation.

 

V. NEW BUSINESS                                                    

Ms. Snell reported on the Department’s work toward collecting and compiling data for the Family Violence Council report for FY12-13. 

Ms. Kandel reiterated the request for volunteers to be on the public outreach and training committees that are forming to implement Family Violence Council recommendations.

 

VI. ANNOUNCEMENTS                                       

Commissioner Kirshner-Rodriguez requested to adjourn the meeting in memory of Anita Sanchez, in memory of her extraordinary role as a public servant.

Ms. Upton paid respects to the two Family Violence Council members who lost their fathers recently, District Attorney Gascón and Chief Still.

Dr. Murase reported that January 10th a kickoff for Trafficking Awareness month will be held at 11 am at City Hall, Room 400. The winners of the teen poster contest will be announced at this time, and a number of prominent figures will speak on the issue.

 

VII. PUBLIC COMMENT
A meeting attendee reported that today is Transgender Day of Remembrance, and noted that in the Bay Area there have been a number of recent assaults on members of the LGBT community.  She highlighted this to raise awareness, and in addition noted an event happening at the LGBT center in December.

VIII. ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 5 pm.

Next meeting set for: Tuesday, February 19, 2014 at 3 pm.

Location: San Francisco Superior Court, 400 McAllister St., Room 617