Full_Commission
2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 26, 2002 REGULAR MEETING
held at City Hall rm 408 1 Dr. Carlton B Goodlett Place San Francisco, CA 94102
The Minutes of this meeting set forth all actions taken by the Commission on the matters stated, but not necessarily the chronological sequence in which the matters were taken up
1. (ACTION) Roll Call
The meeting was called to order at 6:47 pm by the President. Comms. Bonilla, Chuck, Dupre were present at the gavel. Comms. Ricci and Richard arrived at 7:00pm and 7:24pm, respectively. Comm. Grossman was excused.
2. (ACTION) Review and approval of October 23, 2002 meeting minutes
The minutes werea approved as written.
(public comments) There was none.
3. (DISCUSSION) Chief Probation Officer’s Report:
a. Status of Budget FY 02-03 and FY 03-04
Mark Lui, Acting Director of Finance, gave a short report on the status of the current fiscal year’s budget and the upcoming budget year’s planning. It basically was the same as the one given at the Finance Comm. mtg of this morning (see minutes of that meeting). In summary, the current year’s budget is tight due to a call for a 3% reduction which will have to take place in this second half (deadline for submitting this reduction plan to the Mayor is Dec. 9 Most of the reduction will be accomplished without loss of staff or cuts in program services, but this may not be the same for the upcoming year. With the reductions, the Dept’s budget would have experienced a net shrinking of 25% over these past two year.
CBOs have been apprised of this situation and are being enlisted to think of ways to meet the upcoming cuts without severe injury to services provided.
A continuing problem for the Dept is OT and workers comp. The Dept has to deposit some $900K into the workers’ comp. fund, just to cover medical costs. There was a short discussion about the third party administrator of workers comp. called Cambridge, dealing with the Dept’s claims, and how it has changed, for the better. They are hoping for a tighter review of these claims, in order to try reducing the enormity of payments.
All labor contracts are going to be re negotiated this June 03, for the new fiscal year.
The budget process has also been compressed one month so that a final Dept budget will have to be submitted by the end of Jan. 03.
The impact of all the cuts mentioned to date, do not factor in the possible recommendations from both Harvey Rose, and the Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee. M. Lui stated some impacts of the cuts: reduced timely and accurate accounting of payables/receivables. Less attention to cost effective purchasing. Less frequent contract monitoring. Greater employee absenteeism, low staff morale.
Comm. Hale noted that these years are going to be tough on everyone and encouraged everyone to be attentive to ways the Dept can get through it. He also asked the Commission Secretary to expedite preparation of the meeting minutes, as well as place the topic on the next couple of Commission agendas so that the public and all concerned could know what the situation was and have the opportunity to speak to the Commission about it. The Chief said that there may be a chance to do a community briefing where they can discuss it in detail with the community.
Comm. Bonilla commended the Finance staff, and the Chief for their diligent work on this.
b. Status of Juvenile Hall Replacement Project
Two units of the hall, the chapel, computer lab, admissions are now closed for hazardous materials abatement –due to complete by end of Feb, 03. A pre bidders’ conference was held and hopefully a bidder can be selected by the end of Dec. 7 staff attended a workshop on transitioning to a new facility.
(public comments)
There was none.
1. Public comment on any matter within the subject matter jurisdiction of the Juvenile Probation
Commission
5 (DISCUSSION/ACTION) ) Consideration of Conditional Approval of the Contract with Center for Juvenile and Criminal Justice, for DDAP Services.
Liz Jackson-Simpson reviewed that the Dept had some concerns regarding this contract, put out in July of this year. Various requests for them to clear up these questions had gone unanswered until last month when they appeared before the Commission and made a presentation. This still did not answer the questions of three City agencies which dealt with them. A joint letter from these three agencies (MOCYF, MOCJ, JPD) was sent to CJCJ Nov. 21 asking for answers to several questions. A deadline was given, and CJCJ submitted a response which in her opinion substantially answered the concerns. She is asking for a conditional approval so that the contract process can proceed, and they (the agencies) can have follow up discussions with CJCJ to further clarify and resolve issues. Dan Macallair, Executive Director of CJCJ was given the opportunity to respond to Commission questions.
Comm. Hale stated that if the Dept has a CBO providing needed service, he doesn’t think it should be lost. He just wanted the Dept to be held accountable for making sure services are delivered, and CBOs are helped in that process. D. Macallair said he also wants his program to be accountable to the youth, and has no problem with responding to the Dept’s request for accountability.
Comm. Bonilla commended them for their work and asked how the other aforementioned partners felt about this contract? L. Jackson-Simpson said they agreed with going forward.
NTanya Lee reminded the Commission that while she was in support of approving their contract, it should remember that there needs to be more than just the 2 pre adjudication detention alternatives available, that this needed to be maximized as a strategy of the JDAI work.
It was asked what conditional meant. Ans: while the contract processing would proceed, the Dept would continue meeting with the agency, follow up with the POs regarding the quality of services, evaluate all program reports on service activities.
Comm. Bonilla asked that the Community Program Division make periodic reports to the Program Committee on the continuing status of the contract.
Upon motion (Comm Chuck), and second (Comm. Ricci), a voice vote was taken on granting conditional approval of the contract. It carried unanimously 6-0.
(public comments)
There was none.
1. (DISCUSSION) Status Report on PrIDE.
Liz Jackson-Simpson introduced Laura Lanzarotti and Sara Barengo of LaFrance Associates. They gave a summary of what has been happening since taking over the work begun under the American Justice Institute. They want to have a clear criteria for what information they want to collect and why they want to collect it. The purpose of the project is, in its simplest form, to be able to gather real time information which will allow the Dept to make decisions based on real facts regarding service population, program effectiveness, and revisions and improvements that can and should be made.
They reported that the data set compiled under the former contract is very sparse, missing not only intake data but essentially having no exit data, so they haven’t been able to analyze much in the way of program efficacies. They have been doing reports using the available data, augmented by other data they have generated (via interviews, satisfaction surveys, other databases) and are in the process of making system changes to the PrIDE system, so that data can be obtained in a more timely and complete manner, and so that it is more user friendly (easy for CBOs to comply). They have streamlined many forms, discarding some instruments which did not seem productive. They are also providing ongoing support to CBOs in gathering the data.
Sara Barengo, the liaison to CBOs, briefly highlighted the 3 reports they produced since coming onboard. (all reports are available through the Community Programs Division).
L. Jackson-Simpson commented that in order to obtain exit data, they will be conducting incremental assessments and not just wait til the end of a contract. This would allow them to capture participants who might exit before a stated end date of the program.
Ques: what training is being given to CBOs to give them an understanding of the data being gathered. Is any technical assistance given to help CBOs use these evaluations for their own fund raising efforts?
Ans: support is given to the CBOs in reference to how to gather the information and how it might be useful to them in evaluating their own work, and help in improving it. LaFrance Assoc. continues to have dialog with CBOs in translating and interpreting the data for the CBO’s benefit.
L. Jackson-Simpson said that some of the training is in helping the CBO understand what the information says and how it can be used to change their services. She gave one example.
Ques: how quickly could a report be generated for looking at a program, on demand? Ans: with the current data collected, it couldn’t be done. There isn’t enough outcome data to make significant analysis. If all the data were there it should be very easy to generate a report at any one moment.
Comm. Chuck commended them for their work and the effort they make to construct easily understood reports. He encouraged them to also meet with CBOs Boards of Directors so they have a better understanding of their organization’s activities.
Comm. Bonilla asked if it was possible for the PrIDE program to generate reports on youth needs by neighborhoods? Ans: no. it is specifically regarding participants in the CBOs.
Comm. Hale asked whether this program (PrIDE) is intellectual property that the Dept/City needs to protect. Deputy City Attorney Rosa Sanchez said that the product of this program (PrIDE) is property of the City.
(public comments)
There was none.
7. (DISCUSSION) Recommendations from the general public to the Juvenile Probation Commission regarding
implementation of FY 03-04 Budget Reductions.
There was none
Comm. Hale asked that this be put on upcoming meeting agendas.
1. (DISCUSSION) Committee Chair Reports
· Program Committee: report on the discussions held in meeting of November 19, 2002
Comm. Richard reported that after discussing with members of the LCRS Advisory Committee, and fellow Program Comm. members, he has decided to disband the Advisory Comm. in favor of working in ad hoc task forces which will tackle individual projects at LCRS. He has invited all those who previously met as the LCRS Advisory Comm. to join these task forces and work toward accomplishing the comprehensive plan. The first one is working on improvements of the tennis courts.
Dep. City Attorney Sanchez clarified that Comm. Richard was going to recommend the full Commission approve the disbanding of this committee. It will be agendized for the next full Commission meeting.
(public comments)
1. Public comment on any matter within the subject matter jurisdiction of the Juvenile Probation Commission
NTanya Lee commented that in her work with young people, she is finding a level of anger and frustration since Oct. 11, that is greater than at any time she can remember. There is anger for how the police are treating young people, especially African American (characterized as a "crack-down"), and frustration that programs and services for youth are just being ignored. She felt that the Commission needs to be concerned and find ways to help facilitate a wider dialog between youth and City resources to de-fuse a potentially incendiary situation.
Comm. Hale said that the Commission should possibly meet in the Bayview district at least once a year, given the needs of the community. He suggested calling on Dr. Frank Tom, SFUSD, to help set this up, maybe at Marshall HS, sometime in the new year.
The Chief suggested having contact with the African American Police Community Relations Board (set up by the Mayor to respond to such incidents in the community).
Comm. Bonilla suggested holding a townhall meeting, similar to how the Youth Commission held meetings, where issues could be raised, and referrals to services could be made.
Comm. Hale commented that this was sometime the Program Comm. could take up.
2. (DISCUSSION) Announcements, requests for future agenda items.
Comm. Richard announced his Thanksgiving dinner to be held tomorrow, at 131 Kiska Road.
Comm. Bonilla asked the Chief to give an update on the 4/10 work plan. The Chief said that it hadn’t been initiated yet, but he will give a status report on its planning.
Comm. Hale took time to thank everyone, from the CBOs, the Dept, staff, the Probation Commission, its Secretary, for their fine work in serving the youth in the Dept and City and making the process an open and positive one. And he wished everyone a good Thanksgiving.
1. (ACTION) Adjournment
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:50 pm.
