DATE: Monday, December 6, 2004
TIME: 5:00 p.m.
PLACE: City Hall, Room 416
1. Call to Order and Roll Call: Commissioner Lantz called the meeting to order at 5:00p.m. Commissioners Present: Commissioners Baires, Copi, Der, Hall, Herzallah, Jackson, Kwong, Lantz, Lauterborn, Lazer-Smith, McLaughlin, Moir, Mourning, Rodriguez, White, and Williams Commissioners Absent: Commissioners Chang Staff Present: Ron McCan, Colleen Montoya and Ayoka Turner.
2. Motion to approve agenda: There was a motion to approve the agenda. MOTION APPROVED.
3. Motion to approve minutes of November 15, 2004: There was a motion to approve the minutes. MOTION APPROVED
4. Committee Report:
Youth Justice Committee – Members of the youth justice committee are working on giving input on the MOU. The committee is also looking at the Police Department’s policies on arrests and detentions of youth to give feedback to the Police Commission. The youth justice committee is also still working to advocate for a strong chief of the probation department
Public Health and Housing Committee – The committee had a focus group at LYRIC to gather input about public health issues amongst LGBTTQQ youth in San Francisco.
Recreation and Services Committee – The last committee meeting was cancelled
Youth Employment Committee – The Youth Employment Committee went to a press conference and rally to announce the support for the Appeal for Justice and to continue to support the workers at the Cheesecake Factory. The Appeal was supported by: Tom Ammiano, Chris Daly, Matt Gonzalez, Sophie Maxwell, Jake McGoldrick, Gerardo Sandoval. Thanks to the Youth Commissioners who worked to get their supervisors to sign! A city attorney will be coming to the next Youth Employment committee meeting to help the committee and Young Workers United to talk about creating a charter amendment [like the minimum wage ordinance] that would give 2-4 days a year of sick leave for all workers in the city.
Executive Committee – The committee is discussing ways to further improve the meetings and ensure full participation by all commissioners.
5. Officer Report:
Chair – Chair had no report.
Community Affairs Officer - Commissioner Williams asked everyone to give her outreach numbers after presentations.
Operations Officer – Commissioner Mourning would like to set up check-in meetings with all Commissioners regarding their experience this term.
Government Affairs Officer – Commissioner Jackson alerted Commissioners of upcoming items on the Board of Supervisors agenda.
Media & Public Relations Officer – Commissioner White is working on contacting media outlets.
6. Public Comment on Items not on Agenda
7. Consent Calendar
- Referral from the Board of Supervisors, File 041515: Resolution authorizing the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) to accept retroactively and expend a grant in the amount of $30,429 from the California Department of Health Services (CDHS) to provide dental disease prevention services to children in San Francisco and to enter into an agreement for the use of these funds; for the period of July 1, 2004, to June 30, 2005. There was a motion to approve this item. MOTION APPROVED.
8. Legislation Introduced
- Resolution urging the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to urge the Governor of California to better monitor state prison spending and to increase funding for Community Colleges and State Universities. Commissioner Lauterborn introduced this item.
9. Old Business
There is no Old Business at this time
10. New Business
A. Discussion and possible action re: Resolution urging the Mayor to appoint a youth to the San Francisco Library Commission [Commissioner Jackson]. Commissioner Jackson introduced this item. Members from the library youth task force spoke on this item. There was a motion to approve this item. MOTION APPROVED.
B. Discussion and possible action re: Referral from the Board of Supervisors, File 041581: Resolution authorizing the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice (MOCJ) to accept and expend funds in the amount of $38,014 from the State Board of Corrections (BOC), from funds made available under the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 ("Federal Juvenile Justice Challenge Funds") for developing and adopting policies and programs to provide basic health, mental health, and appropriate education services, including special education, for youth in the juvenile justice system. There was a motion to approve this item. MOTION APPROVED.
C. Discussion and possible action re: Referral from the Board of Supervisors, File 041488: Ordinance adding Article 10.2 to the San Francisco Police Code, regulating businesses that rent computer time to patrons by prohibiting minors from using game controllers or renting computer time for purposes of gaming during certain times, requiring supervision, prohibiting loitering, regulating waiting lists, posting hours of operation, and providing for a penalty. Frances Hsieh, Legislative Aide from Supervisor Ma’s office presented this item and answered questions from the Commissioners. There was a motion to support this item. MOTION FAILED 15-1. . There was a motion send the following statement to the Board of Supervisors:
We, the members of the San Francisco Youth Commission had specific concerns about Supervisors Ma’s ordinance that would regulate computer rental businesses by prohibiting minors for using these facilities during certain hours of the day during the calendar school year. Among the Youth Commission’s concerns are:
- The elimination of safe spaces for youth in the evening/late-night hours (page 1 line 25). The San Francisco Youth Commission does recognize the problems inside these computer gaming facilities associated with the illegal activities that plague our city. The Commission does recognize that these problems must stop, however, we also recognize that there is a city-wide deficiency in safe spaces for youth in the evening/late-night hours, and we fear that the proposed regulations would greatly degrade and take away from the quality-of-enjoyment that the vast majority of youth receive from attending these computer gaming facilities.
- This ordinance doesn’t account for special/adjusted school hours, which differ from school to school on a regular basis, nor does it account for the needs of home school students and students who have graduated at an early age.
- The ordinance does not address the larger issue of impacting truancy. The San Francisco Youth Commission is in favor of solving student truancy, but in order to solve the issues of truancy, we first must find data that show us how many truant students are truant because they’re using computer gaming facilities. We must know the magnitude of the problem before we can support any legislation that places restrictions on youth recreation spaces.
- We are also concerned and confused about the definition of the word "loitering" (page 2 line 8-10), and how this term "loitering" will be used to impact youth activities around computer gaming centers. We feel that there must be a term that is both defined, and also agreed upon by policy-makers, police, schools, business owners, and most importantly, youth.
We, the members of the San Francisco Youth Commission support efforts to curb the number of truant students, but we are unable to support this piece of legislation at this time. However, the Youth Commission looks forward in working with the Board of Supervisors in finding alternative solution to the city’s truancy problem.
D. Discussion and possible action re: Youth Commission Statement in response to File 041307: Ordinance amending the San Francisco Health Code by adding Article 19 I, encompassing Sections 1009.80 et seq., to prohibit smoking on any unenclosed area of property in the City and County of San Francisco that is open to the public under the jurisdiction of the Recreation and Park Commission or any other City department if the property is a park, square, garden, playground, sport or playing field, pier, or other property used for recreational purposes. There was a motion to send the following to the Board of Supervisors:
On November 1, 2004, the San Francisco Youth Commission failed to approve a motion in support of the current plan to ban smoking in public parks across the city. The Commission believes that the proposed solution does not address the roots of litter in parks, teen smoking, or public health. Specifically, the San Francisco Youth Commission is concerned with:
- Youth being disproportionately disciplined regarding this proposal. Our experiences have shown us that youth are at times discriminated against more than adults.
- The clauses in the proposal that would require a police officer to ask the person who is smoking in a park to first extinguish their cigarette is well intended, but could easily be misunderstood as police harassment. Furthermore, we wish to reduce the amount of contact between police officers and youth due to the possibility of dangerous escalation.
- The majority of youth do not have the resources to pay the citation. An option for youth to pay off their citation through community service would be an improvement, but not ideal.
- It is important to focus funds away from higher police activity and more towards anti-tobacco education for youth.
- With record numbers of fatal crimes being committed in the City, many involving youth, we feel that the proper allocation of our police is with securing the safety of San Franciscans rather than park beautification.
- The difficulties in enforcing this proposal may result in less revenue though citations than is being promised.
- By not allowing adult smokers who have children to smoke in parks, they will continue to smoke inside at home, where second hand smoke is far more severe.
While the San Francisco Youth Commission does not support this proposal, it welcomes any amendments to the proposal that would address the above concerns.
E. Discussion and possible action re: Status of San Francisco's city budget and Youth Commission role in the budget process. Ayoka reviewed the state of the budget, and highlighted some key areas where the Commission would be effective.
F. Discussion and possible action re: Report back on Election Reflection Sessions at New College of California and David Binder Research. Commissioner Jackson reported on the Election Reflection Session at New College of California.
G. Discussion and possible action re: Resolution commending the Eleven Honorees for the Fourth Annual Youth Recognition Day for their dedication to being role models and leaders in their community [Commissioner Williams]. Commissioner Williams introduced this item. MOTION APPROVED.
H. Discussion and possible action re: Approval of Absences for Commissioners Copi and Rodriguez (11/15 meeting). Commissioner Copi (11/15): excused; Commissioner Rodriguez: excused.
11. Items for next Agenda
12. Announcements The Commissioners announced various upcoming community events
13. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 7:30 pm.