San Francisco Youth Commission
Minutes to the Meeting of Monday, March 15, 2010
5:30-8:00pm
City Hall, Room 416
There will be public comment on each item.
1. Call to Order
Chair Quesada called the meeting to order at 5:35pm.
Commissioners present: Deng, Marshall-Fricker, Jones, A. Chan, Hirano, Quintero, LaCroix, Davidson, Quesada, Ellington
Commissioners tardy: Liang
Commissioners absent (excused): J. Chan, Williams
Commissioners absent (unexcused): Carlson, Vasquez
2. Approval of Agenda (Action Item)
Commissioner Marshall-Fricker moved to approve the agenda, seconded by Ellington. This motion was approved unanimously by acclamation.
3. Approval of Minutes (Action Item)
Commissioner Hirano moved to approve the minutes of the meeting of March 1, 2010, seconded by Marshall-Fricker. This motion was approved unanimously by acclamation.
4. Public Comment on Items not on Agenda
There was none.
5. Staff Report
Commissioner Ellington announced that the Youth Commission’s Juvenile Justice committee would be hosting an informational session at 5pm this upcoming Thursday with representatives the offices of state Senator Leland Yee and assemblyman Tom Ammiano concerning recent statewide legislative developments in the field of juvenile justice.
6. New Business
A. Discussion and Possible Action: Legislation Referred from Board of Supervisors:
Proposed Ordinance file no. 100233
[Prohibition on sitting or lying on public sidewalks.]
(Mayor, Supervisor Alioto-Pier)
Presenters: Nicholas King, Mayor’s Policy Advisor—Public Safety; Youth and Staff, Homeless Youth Alliance; Bob Offer-Westort, Civil Rights Organizer—Coalition on Homelessness
Mr. King (Mayor’s Office) introduced this item by explaining that, given the facts that sidewalks are public spaces and that San Francisco is a very dense city, the right of all people to move on and occupy sidewalks without harassment from others is of the utmost importance. Mr. King said that, as a number of news articles in the San Francisco Chronicle have described, a significant number of San Francisco’s residents, merchants and visitors have been complaining in recent months of aggressive, abrasive harassment on the part of people sitting and lying on City sidewalks—particularly in the Haight Ashbury neighborhood. Mr. King said there was considerable community support for this proposed ordinance, and he asked the Youth Commission to support it.
Mr. King then laid out the basics of what the law would do: quite simply, the law would make it illegal to sit or lie on public sidewalks between 7am and 11pm. He argued that the aim of the law was not to arrest people, nor to create a new source of City revenue through fines. Rather, Mr. King argued that, if it is passed, the proposed ordinance would be used as “just another tool” among others that are available to San Francisco’s public safety officers in the course of their work. Moreover, Mr. King pointed out that written into the ordinance are many exceptions where the law does not apply, including parks, benches, public plazas.
The nearby cities of Palo Alto and Berkeley currently have sit-lie ordinances on the books. Mr. King went on to say. In fact, in a court case decided a few weeks ago, Palo Alto’s law, which as initially passed in 1997, was found to be constitutional. –This ruling, along with the fact that the case represented was the first serious challenge in 13 years of the law’s existence, suggested that laws like the proposed sit/lie ordinance are reasonable.
Mr. King continued by saying that the proposed ordinance addresses an existing gap in laws regulating the potentially harassing behavior of people sitting and lying on public sidewalks. Police are ultimately, by and large, reasonable, said Mr. King. For example, a driver rarely gets ticketed for driving 28mph in a 25mph zone. The proposed ordinance, Mr. King said, complements existing Citywide policy on obstruction of public space.
Mr. King concluded by mentioning that Mayor Newsom—in the second to last year of his term—has long supported bolstering the City’s robust health & human services sector. For example, the Mayor started Project Homeless Connect. Mr. King urged youth commissioners to recall that at a recent Board of Supervisors Public Safety committee hearing where the possibility of a sit/lie ordinance was discussed, many members of the general public, including residents of the Tenderloin, came to argue in favor of such a law because of how unsafe they feel in their neighborhood.
Commissioner Hirano asked about the potential of this proposed ordinance opening up increased opportunities for harassment, for example, an intensification of racial profiling.
Mr. King responded by asking commissioner Hirano to consider that, after the passage last year of an ordinance that prohibits loitering in front of nightclubs, there have been no citations or arrest for violating this year-old ordinance, because the law is just another tool that allows public safety officers to do their job.
Commissioner Jones began by saying he comes from a low-income background and lives in public housing on Divisadero St in the Western Addition where gentrifiers—“folks who live across the street”—don’t want him, his family or his community to continue living in their home neighborhood. Jones went on to express his worry that the proposed ordinance would continue such a culture of displacement, though in this case a displacement of homeless people as opposed to African-Americans in the Western Addition. Jones asked about why the Mayor was not presenting legislation that would expand the kind of homeless services Mr. King mentioned earlier.
Mr. King responded by arguing that the Newsom administration has already created 5,300 units of supportive housing.
Commissioner LaCroix pointed to the technicalities of the ordinance, pointing out that, if approved the law would potentially criminalize people who are homeless or otherwise have nowhere to be indoors; for example, given that City parks close before 11pm and the proposed ordinance would ban sitting or lying on public sidewalks until that hour, where should people go?
Mr. King replied by arguing that considering whether or not to support the proposed sit/lie ordinance doesn’t require one to have all the answers to the social problems of marginally housed San Franciscans.
Commissioner LaCroix: countered by respectfully disagreeing and arguing that introducing a punitive and prohibitive law, does behoove the legislator to think about the effects it will have on the populations it will most directly affect.
Commissioners Deng, Quesada and Jones offered clarifying questions.
Bob Offer-Westort (Coalition on Homelessness) then argued that the proposed ordinance criminalizes activities that don’t contain criminal or bad intent, including, for example day laborers who sit and wait for work, seniors or those with disabilities, girl scouts selling cookies. Mr. Offer-Westort argued that history should influence youth commissioners to oppose the sit/lie law: he mentioned that San Francisco passed a very similar ordinance in 1968, and that it was repealed because the discretionary powers it gave to police were found to cause problems.
Mr. Offer-Westort continued by stating that the experiences of many homeless people in San Francisco are arguments against granting more discretionary powers to public safety officers. He cited the free legal services that the Coalition on Homelessness’ provides to homeless people charged with low level infractions: in the vast majority of cases, the homeless advocates win because police officers’ charges are baseless. Mr. Offer-Westort concluded by stating that homeless people’s needs are not separate and discrete from the needs of people who are housed.
Lani Riccobuono (Homeless Youth Alliance) said that making it illegal to sit or sleep on the sidewalk is absurd. If passed, the proposed ordinance would affect the most vulnerable people: poor and homeless youth. Ms. Riccobuono urged the Youth Commission to come out against the law. She then asserted that in her experience as a woman of color, police are often not reasonable.
Justin Castello (Homeless Youth Alliance) spoke about his work as a therapist counseling homeless young people in the Haight Ashbury district. He argued that, in his professional experience—which has also included working with many youth in the Tenderloin—many homeless young people cannot and should not return home: they are victims of sexual, physical violence and often suffer post-traumatic stress.
Public Comment:
Shannon, 19 years old, homeless and from St. Louis, spoke against the proposed ordinance;
Luke, a minister and social worker who is part of “a grassroots movement for homeless people,” spoke against the ordinance.
Carol Harvey, a journalist who’s been spending lots of time in the Haight recently, spoke against the ordinance.
Sarah Menphy, a San Francisco resident for 30 years who has worked with street kids on Polk Street, spoke against the ordinance.
Chair Quesada set the stage for the youth commissioners’ subsequent deliberation. After discussion, commissioner Marshall-Fricker motioned to support the proposed ordinance, seconded by Quesada. In his capacity as Chair, Quesada then stated that—to avoid confusion for youth commissioners and given the polarized conversation that had just happened—a “Yes” vote in favor of this motion would be taken to constitute support for the ordinance and a “No” vote would be taken as opposition. (He said that commissioners should feel free to make a subsequent motion of no support.)
The motion to support (whereby a “No” vote constitutes opposition) the proposed ordinance failed by the following roll call vote: Yes—Marshall-Fricker; No—Deng, Liang, Jones, A. Cahn, Hirano, LaCroix, Davidson, Quesada, Ellington.
B. Discussion and Possible Action: Resolution 09-10AL10
In Support of Mayor’s Legislation Concerning Youth Smoking and the Addition of TURF’s Proposed Amendments (Commissioner Deng)
Presenters: Commissioner Deng; Jason Elliott, Mayor’s Policy Advisor; Matt Rosen, Luisa Sicairos, Jesus Sicairos, Joshua Pooner, Tobacco Use Reduction Force
Commissioners Deng and Jones read the resolution into the public record, explained that they had introduced the resolution on behalf of the Tobacco Use Reduction Force (TURF) and then invited TURF members Jesus Sicairos, Lina Tam Li, Hector Echeverria, Luisa Sicairos and Youth Leadership Insitute (YLI) staff member Matthew Rosen to explain the importance of the resolution, which calls on the Board of Supervisors to amend by strengthening the proposed ordinance introduced recently by the Mayor that the Youth Commission voted to support at its last meeting of March 1, 2010.
Jason Elliott (Mayor’s Office) began by thanking both TURF and the Youth Commission for making the Mayor’s proposed tobacco policy better. He said that while the Mayor had not determined his final position concerning all of the amendments desired by TURF and articulated in Commissioner Deng and Jones’ proposed resolution, the Mayor’s Office would continue to be actively involved with all of the stakeholders. The draft ordinance that the Commission voted to support last week—and which TURF and Commissioner Deng and Jones’ resolution want to be strengthened—would be amended to reflect some of these desired changes. For example, an amendment would be included calling on the Department of Public Health, the Small Business Commission and the Youth Commission to convene 12 months after the law goes into effect for the purpose of determining whether or not there has been attrition in the number of tobacco licenses. Mr. Elliott concluded by acknowledging the wonderful work of the Youth Leadership Institute.
Commissioner LaCroix asked a clarifying question. Seeing no more discussion, Chair Quesada closed the item.
C. Discussion and Possible Action: Legislation Referred from Board of Supervisors:
Proposed hearing file no. 100159
[San Francisco’s New Day for Learning Initiative]
Presenter: Margaret Brodkin, Jamie Harris, New Day for Learning Initiative
Margaret Brodkin, who ran Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth for 26 year and the Department of Children Youth and Their Families for over 4 years, explained her current work at New Day for Learning, where she works to create more community schools in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD). The Tenderloin Community School is an example of a community school: it has a dentist’s office, 26 after school programs, and is generally a 24/7 safe space, not only for its students, but the family members and friends—indeed, the entire community—of the people the school serves.
Ms. Brodkin explained that 5 SFUSD schools have been chosen to be “early adopters” of New Day for Learning’s principles: Burton, Paul Revere, John Muir, Charles Drew, and Hillcrest.
Commissioner Marshall-Fricker moved to support the proposed hearing, seconded by Davidson. This motion was approved unanimously by acclamation.
7. Announcements (This includes Community Events)
Commissioner Davidson encouraged everyone to attend the Walk Against Rape on Saturday, March 24th.
Commissioner Liang invited everyone to come to the Chinatown Adopt an Alleyway event on Saturday, March 27.
8. Adjournment
Commissioner Quesada adjourned the meeting at 8:07.
Supplemental documents for agenda items are available for review at City Hall Room 345. Minutes are also available on the Youth Commission Website at www.sfgov.org/youth_commission
ACCESSIBLE MEETING POLICY
The Youth Commission meeting will be held in City Hall Room 416. The formal address of City Hall is 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, San Francisco, CA. The closest accessible BART station is the Civic Center Station at the United Nations Plaza and Market Street. Accessible MUNI lines serving this location are: MUNI Metro Lines J-Church, K-Ingleside, L-Taraval, M-Oceanview, N-Judah, and T-Third Street at Van Ness and Civic Center Stations; 9-San Bruno, 19-Polk, 47-VanNess, and 71-Haight Noriega. For information about MUNI accessible services call 923-6142.
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(Chapter 67 of the San Francisco Administrative Code)
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