Family Violence Council Minutes

May 31, 2017

3:00-5:00 pm

400 McAllister, Room 617

San Francisco, CA 94102

 

Present:

Chief of Adult Probation, or designee: Ramona Massey

Chief of Juvenile Probation, or designee: Paula Hernandez

Director of Domestic Violence Consortium: Beverly Upton

Director of Elder Abuse Forensic Center, or designee: Tamari Hedani

Director of San Francisco Child Abuse Council, or designee: Katie Albright

Director of Department of Children, Youth, and Their Families, or designee: Aumijo S. Gomes

Director of Department of Child Support Services, or designee: Freda R. Glenn

Executive Director of Department of Emergency Management, or designee: Cecile Soto

Human Resources Director, or designee: Reyna McKinnon

President of Commission on the Status of Women, or designee: Olga Ryerson

Presiding Judge of the Superior Court, or designee: Charles Crompton

District Attorney, or designee: Gena Castro Rodriguez

 

Absent:              

Mayor, or designee

Chair of the Consortium of Batterers Intervention Programs, or designee

President of the Board of Supervisors, or designee:

Chief of Police, or designee

Sheriff, or designee

Superintendent of San Francisco Unified School District, or designee

Director of Department of Aging and Adult Services, or designee

Director of Department of Animal Care and Control, or designee

Public Defender, or designee

Director of the Department of Public Health, or designee

Director of Human Services Agency, or designee

Chief of the Fire Department

 

Other attendees:

Glenn Fishman, Institute on Aging; Monica Gutierrez, SFAPD; Cindy Hendrickson, Santa Clara District Attorney’s office; Elise Hansell, Department on the Status of Women; Minouche Kandel, Department on the Status of Women; Nicolas Marino, SPAPD; Jerel McCrary, Bay Area Legal Aid; Dr. Emily Murase, Department on the Status of Women; Isis Sykes, Office of Citizen Engagement and Immigrant Affairs; Connie Swain, La Casa De Las Madres

 

I.  Meeting agenda was approved. [Emily Murase/ Jerel McCrary]

 

II. Approval of the Minutes

    The February 15 2017 minutes were approved. [Emily Murase/ Olga Ryerson]

 

IV. City Efforts on Supporting Immigrants

 

Isis Sykes from the Office of Citizen Engagement and Immigrant Affairs, presented on what the City is doing to enhance protections and resources for immigrants. The City has reaffirmed its commitment to being a sanctuary city. Sanctuary city means that the City does not enforce federal immigration law.  The City has put new financial resources towards immigration legal services, for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and in deportation defense.

 

Sykes also outlined a new project called the ‘Know your Rights Rapid Response Network’ to combat the intense fear in undocumented communities surrounding Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It is a hotline that is available for immigrants to call and confirm suspicions of a possible ICE raid. The hotline will also dispatch an attorney right away when an ICE incident is reported. In addition, Sykes reminded the Council that the City should not be asking anyone their immigration status and if this is happening, the person involved can lodge a complaint.

 

V. Implementation of FY 2015 Family Violence Council Report Recommendations

 

A.Update on San Francisco Police Department/Adult Protective Services cross reporting protocol (recommendation 1B).

 

Tamari Hedani updated the council on the problem of delays for Adult Protective Services (APS) workers when they report elder abuse to the Police Department. The Elder Justice Committee has developed a sheet for APS workers to use to document basic information about the details of the crime and how long they waited. APS will compile this data and present it to the SFPD.

 

B.Elder Abuse Investigation Tool for Special Victims Unit (recommendation 9).

 

Tamari Hedani described the updates for the tool used by SFPD to investigate elder abuse cases. The Elder Justice Committee developed a supplementary check list which asks specific questions about the victim and the suspect, with some questions that pertain specifically to elders (e.g. smells, pathways, and space).  The tool has been finalized but not yet implemented.  SFPD is working on an Elder Abuse Manual.  If anyone would like to be involved in helping with the manual, please let Tamari know.  Adult Protective Services has added a new unit which will shrink caseloads and allow for more time to be spent on cases. They hope to find better ways to help with longer term, psychological issues like hoarding.

 

C.Presentation on Santa Clara County Domestic Violence Death Review Team (Recommendation 2).

 

Santa Clara County Assistant District Attorney Cindy Hendrickson presented on Santa Clara County’s Domestic Violence Death Review Team. The goal of their team is to create a comprehensive data base with all the information from domestic violence deaths, to identify trends. They include their recommendations in an annual report which is given to the Board of Supervisors and posted online. Members of the team include: District Attorney, law enforcement, victim advocacy groups, LGBTQ community, Medical Examiner/Coroner, probation/Batterers Intervention Program services, medical and mental health professionals, Adult Protection Services, Family and Children’s services, Family Court Services, and attorneys (children and family law). The cases discussed include any death that results from a case in which the perpetrator and victim were ever romantically involved, including the death of family, friends, or first responders involved. They also discuss high lethality cases, using the lethality tool which asks a series of questions regarding the perpetrator and their history. Procedure includes presentations from the coroner and law enforcement. There is a signed confidentiality agreement for team members. Their team begins looking at cases before they are adjudicated, sometimes reviewing cases in the early stages of trial. Public defenders do not attend the meetings, nor does anyone who could be called to testify.

 

D.Update from Strategic Planning Retreat (recommendation 12) – Creation of Training Committee

 

Katie Albright updated the Council on the recommendation of creating a training committee to bring together all the disciplines and discuss how we can move the field forward. Jenny Pearlman from the Child Abuse Prevention Center will be reaching out to members of the Council about the committee.

 

 

VI. Committee Updates/Related Efforts

A.Housing and Domestic Violence Committee Update

 

Connie Swain updated the Council on the Housing and Domestic Violence Committee and the work it has done with the San Francisco Housing Authority.  Because of advocacy from the committee, the City has funding for La Casa de las Madres to place two advocates at the Housing Authority who work with victims of domestic violence living in public housing. Members of the committee have also conducted targeted trainings for the Housing Authority. La Casa advocates has successfully purged the emergency waitlist for housing and enrolled 180 victims in their programs that move, relocate, change locks, connect them to shelters, offer court accompaniment and help with restraining orders.

 

B.Language Access

Beverly Upton updated the Council on the collaboration with the Department of Police Accountability, the District Attorney’s office and several community based organizations. Language has been an issue in some of the homicides they have seen and is also incredibly important with immigration issues. There have been several instances in which the survivor has been deaf or hard of hearing. The group is discussing deafness or being hard of hearing as a language issue in addition to a disability. The work group identified the need for finding more ASL and ISL translators for the city. Their next meeting is July 8 at 9:30 am at Mission Station.

 

C.Non-Profit Working Group Update

Katie Albright informed the Council that the Mayor announced he was putting forth 1.2 million for non-profits. This will account for a 2.5% increase each year. The work group is looking to explore issues surrounding sustainability and accountability.

 

 

 

 

VII. Update on FY 2016 Family Violence Council Report

Minouche Kandel updated the council on the report. We are still waiting on the data from the Police Department and the District Attorney’s office so the draft report will not be ready until the August 30 meeting. Katie Albright discussed the hearing on the Family Violence Council Report at the Board of Supervisors Committee on Public Safety and Neighborhood Services in March, and that their presentation was well received. Supervisor Sheehy raised concerns about teen homelessness and landlords evicting seniors. He hopes to create policy that would make landlords required to report senior evictions to APS in order to increase support services for that community.

 

VIII. Key Issues in Family Violence

A.Domestic Violence Update

Beverly Upton discussed the homelessness intake system and the need to figure out a way to protect the confidentiality of domestic violence survivors in the system. There is also a push towards challenging domestic violence agencies to work more effectively with survivors who are heavily drug addicted and vulnerable.

 

B.Elder Abuse Update

Tamari Hedani informed the council that June 15 is World Elder Abuse Day and that the Institute on Aging will be hosting an event on June 6 where all city agencies are welcome. At this event, the new director of APS will be introduced.

 

C.Child Abuse Update

Katie Albright announced an Our Children Our Families council meeting. There is a lot of hope for the new efforts coming out of this committee and they hope to make great strides in the next coming months.

 

IX. Public Comment

               There was no public comment.

 

Next Meeting: August 30, 2017; 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm; 400 McAllister Street, Room 617, San Francisco, CA