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Meeting Information



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2009 2008 2007 2006 

                                   

Informal Meeting--No Quorem

Board of Supervisors Asthma Task Force

 Minutes of meeting held on June 25, 2007

 City Hall,1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place

 San Francisco, CA

 

Members In Attendance:    Karen Cohn, Neil Gendel, Marie Hoemke,   Nan Madden,  Anjali Nath, Nadia Thind, Gloria Thornton, Benjamin Heckman,  Raymond Manion and Vince Fabris (for Louise Kimbell).

Absent Members:  Mary Higgins, Peg Strub, Rose Toney, Marlo Simmons, Kimberley Knox, Meyla Ruwin, Natasha Madaris and Louise Hill.

Guests and Staff:   Tirtza Pearl, Kate Lorenzen, Stephanie Manfre , Diara Austria and Gail Herrick.

 (* = pending appointment)      

 

1.  Introductions, Agenda Revisions, Approval of Minutes

 

The May minutes were not approved due to lack of a quorum.   There were no modifications to the agenda. 

 

2.  Updates

 

a.  ATF Membership

Anjali Nath has sent a resolution to Supervisor Maxwell to continue all Task Force members membership until June, 2008.

 

3.  Addback Budget Status/Fiscal Report

Gloria Thornton, Anjali Nath and Stephanie Manfre went to the Public Comment for the Budget Committee last Thursday to urge the Board of Supervisors to include the Asthma Task Force in the budget for $102,000.  Karen Cohn stated that, while the public comment part of the budget approval has ended, the budget process will be delayed by at least a week.  Some departments still need to go before the Board for their final review.  The final approval of the budget is expected mid July. 

 

Karen Cohn announced Ed Ochi has relocated.  He now works for San Francisco General Hospital.  His position with San Francisco Unified School District is vacant. 

 

Vicki Wells said the requisition is approved for the part-time Tools for Schools Industrial Hygienist position, but would still needs a final approval by the Mayor’s Office, which sometimes takes three to six month.  Karen Cohn will draft a letter to the various political parties involved to speed up the process. 

 

3.  Media Planning

Anjali Nath showed the “Agents of Change” video vignettes.

 

The vignettes will be archived, so people can access them on the government TV’s website.  Currently they are being randomly shown on the government TV.  They are also being shown to the policy makers in an effort to restore funding for the Task Force.  Gail Herrick suggested the vignettes could be used in the Clinical Director’s meetings as an advocacy piece.  Anjali Nath pointed out these vignettes were unscripted.  They were sincere responses to questions put forth by the interviewers.

 

Karen will be researching various video company possibilities for next year.

 

4.  Committee Milestones

a.  Clinical

Gloria Thornton reported the Clinical Committee discussed the October 12 event. 

 

Anjali Nath stated the plan is to outreach the top level administrators

 

Karen Cohn stated she had a discussion with Susan Jackson about the website development. 

During the conversation, Susan told Karen RAMP’s Action Plans were adopted by the national guidelines committee of Asthma Management Control.

 

Gail Herrick reported an Asthma Clinic is being started at SouthEast Health Center.  Karen Cohn offered to talk to Ginger Smyley to clarify how HERC can help the center.

 

b.  Environmental Committee

Karen Cohn stated the committee has met with the City Attorney’s Office and a an from Supervisor Maxwell’s office regarding the legislation on healthy housing.  The focus is on four categories:  indoor air quality; outdoor air quality; reduction of toxics in consumer products use and code enforcement resources. 

 

Karen passed around a sample of a Healthy Housing Guide she and Louise Kimbell have been working on.  The focus of the pamphlet will be to inform property owners how to be compliant with the law, in providing healthy housing, and how to get resources. 

 

Tom Rivard will be moving into Karen’s office.  Dr. Bhatia was asked Karen to develop a Healthy Housing Program in collaboration with Tom. 

 

c.  Schools/ChildCare Committee

Stephanie Manfre reported the first “Train the Trainer” has been scheduled for child care/asthma education.  Dr. Karen Smith is scheduled for November 1.  Wu Yee will be providing a space.  Anjali and Stephanie are working with City College to have some of their Child Development Professors to attend the training. 

 

Anjali Nath reported a training on Tools for Schools was held May 16.  There will be another training in the fall.

 

Anjali stated that in preparing the training she discovered that the San Francisco Unified School District is not currently eligible for William’s Funding.  They did not document a sufficient match of deferred maintenance funding.   Neil Gendel stated the committee is working on urging the schools to acquire the available funds by encouraging people to file William’s complaints. 

 

Karen Cohn reported the The Department of the Environment is working with the schools in a pilot project for using environmentally friendly products. 

 

Marie Hoemke spoke about the asthma management aspect of the San Francisco Unified School District.  Collected data is not being input into the system.  Faculty and staff are not being trained.

 

 July 1, 2007 Carlos Garcia will begin work as the new Superintendent of Schools.  The committee is planning to meet with him.

 

Eric Mar is attending a conference in New York today of a national organization of school board members where he will hear what is being done in other school districts around the country.  The committee when he returns. 

 

5.  Sustainability Planning

Anjali Nath stated that outreach to the stakeholders regarding questions related to sustainability of the Task Force efforts is continuing. 

 

Next week Stephanie and Anjali will be talking to the Task Force members about their input and ideas regarding the sustainability of the Task Force in some form and the projects and programs of the Task Force.

 

A meeting was held of the organizations who are currently supplying administrative support to the Task Force, i.e., DPH, Breathe California (through CAFA), Asthma Resource Center, Inc. and RAMP.   The discussion revolved around the main sustainability questions:

 

Should a coalition, task force … exist to keep the work of the Task Force going?

If an entity should exist, what would it look like?

How will the various projects of the Task Force be continued?

Who will take on the various projects?

 

Anjali listed various possibilities:

 

Different project would be given to different programs.

A task force, or similar coalition, would be formed to take over the projects.

 

Karen Cohn stated that since the meeting she has been given the instruction to focus on healthy housing, to consider more proactive housing inspection for Health Department employees, to look at community partnerships with high risk groups of residents and to do inspections for high risk groups or areas. 

 

Gloria Thornton pointed out there are various organizations who are responsible for some of issues being addressed by the Task Force.  A possibility after sunset would be to have an oversight committee. 

 

Kate Lorenzen pointed out that when the Task Force is no longer legislated, it can still meet under a different structure, leadership….

 

Karen Cohn suggested there be a written sustainability plan.  This will avoid duplication in services and will document who does what to enable people to find who is available.  Gloria stated the web site would accomplish this. 

 

6.Announcements

Anjali Nath announced Breathe California will be holding “Bike for Breath” on July 14. 

She asked if the Task Force would like to form a team and informed everyone they could set up information booths.

 

Karen Cohn announced dust control ideas from Dr. Bhatia, relating to construction, were passed to Supervisor Maxwell’s office.  Supervisor Maxwell is planning to introduce them as legislation.

 

Meeting Adjourned (4:00p.m.)

The next meeting will be July 23, 2007 at 2:00.  Members were asked to contact Anjali or Stephanie to determine a quorum.