San Francisco Youth Commission
Special off site meeting

Minutes
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
5:30pm-8:30pm
Bayview Opera House
4705 Third Street
San Francisco, CA 94124

There will be public comment on each item.

Mia Shackelford, Chair
Nicholas Persky, Vice Chair, Paul Monge-Rodriguez, Co-Legislative Affairs Officer, Rachel Brodwin, Co-Legislative Affairs Officer, Christine Huynh, Communications & Outreach Officer
Sarah Armstrong, Angel Carrion, Brian Chu, Kyron Covington, Ramon Gomez, Alex Guzman-Ramos,
Lily Marshall-Fricker, Mia Tu Mutch, Vee Taumoepeau, Eric Wu, Ariel Yu

1. Call to Order and Roll Call

The meeting was called to order at 5:33 p.m.

Commissioners present: Armstrong, Carrion, Chu, Gomez, Guzman-Ramos, Huynh, Marshall-Fricker, Monge-Rodriguez, Persky, Shackelford, Taumoepeau, Wu, Yu

Commissioners absent: Brodwin, Covington, Tu Mutch,

Staff present: Phimy Truong, Allen Lu, Adele Carpenter

 

 

2. Approval of Agenda (Action Item)

 

 

Commission Carrion, seconded by Commissioner Chu, moved to approve the agenda. This motion was approved by acclamation. There was no public comment.

The chair then called Item 4 out of order.

4. Youth Commission Business (Discussion Only)

A. Introduction and overview of Youth Commission
Presenter: Chairwoman Mia Shackelford

Chairwoman Shackelford proceeded to offer an overview of the Youth Commission, its function, and charge.

There was no public comment.

B. Overview of Youth Justice Committee’s priorities
Presenter: Commissioners Angel Carrion, Ramon Gomez, and Paul Monge-Rodriguez

Commissioner Carrion welcomed members of the public and introduced the commission’s Youth Justice committee.

Commissioner Monge-Rodriguez shared an overview of the Youth Commission’s recommendations to the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD). After a joint Youth Commission-Police commission meeting focused on youth-police relations, the Youth Commission made three recommendations to SFPD: 1) Establish a training on youth-police relations that highlights adolescent development, juvenile law, racial profiling, and practical de-escalation skills. 2) Distribute Know Your Rights pamphlets to schools and youth-serving organizations quarterly and 3) Establish an MOU with the school district that details the procedures for on-campus arrests and questioning. Commissioner Monge-Rodriguez explained these were important practices for the department because SFPD has strong community-policing values. At a Police Commission meeting last year, Chief Suhr agreed to the three recommendations. The Youth Justice committee met with SFPD the on April 15, 2013 to discuss the department’s progress on the recommendations. Commissioner Monge-Rodriguez invited Captain Lazar, of the SFPD Training Division, to speak to the Commission and the public.

Captain Lazar thanked commissioners for their time. He introduced Captain O’Sullivan of the Bayview Police Station and Captain O’Leary, who is working on the MOU with the school district. Captain Lazar explained that the police academy now requires every officer undergoing their seven month training to receive a two hour training on the importance of youth engagement. Additionally, recruits must volunteer at youth organizations such as the Boys and Girls Club, YMCA, Mo’ Magic and Ella Hutch. This is the first time this has happened in San Francisco. The police department is also encouraging officers to become sports coaches, especially through the police activities league.

As far as the Youth Commission’s recommendations, Captain Lazar explained that the police department is still evaluating the training recommendation. The Know Your Rights brochures are on the PD website and patrol officers are passing them out during patrols. Captain Lazar spoke about other youth engagement efforts of the department. The Police Activities League is a league where police officers are coaching youth. The Wilderness Program has served about 30,000 youth in San Francisco. The department has a toy drive every year. Chief Suhr promotes high school completion as a way to prevent juvenile crime. The department maintains an internship program. The Clean Team works with youth in the Mission to clean public areas in the Mission District. Finally, the department has a leadership panel that develops best practices for working with youth. Captain Lazar stressed that the leadership of the department takes youth engagement and relationship-building very seriously.

At this time, Captain Lazar welcomed questions from the Commission and the public.

Rebecca Gallegos from the Bayview Opera House asked how many positions will be made available through the internship program.

A member of the public who did not wish to identify himself spoke about the importance of youth sensitivity trainings for police, especially for working with traumatized youth.

Captain Lazar explained that the academy has trainings on racial profiling and the number of diversity and community policing trainings in the SFPD police academy are very high.

LysLynn from B’MAGIC expressed interest in hearing the plan on Summer youth hiring and the outcomes of the three recommendations.

Matt Bello, a teacher in the city, asked how the department’s efforts to mitigate racial profiling are working when the African American community makes up 6% of the city and 70% of those incarcerated for drug offenses. He explained this affects youth in his classroom who have a fear and mistrust of the police.

Captain Lazar explained that he has worked at eight of the ten district stations. There are arrests of this nature happening all over the city. For the first time in the history of law enforcement, there is training on racial profiling and a policy in SFPD that prohibits biased policing and racially motivated policing.

A member of the public asked what SFPD is doing to make sure youth know their rights besides distributing fliers.

Commissioner Carrion explained the Youth Commission’s suggestions for how to distribute the Know Your Rights fliers and affirmed that the Commission would like to hear suggestions on how youth can become aware of their rights before police contact.

Captain O’Leary spoke about the MOU between the police department and the school district. The Captain explained that the last MOU was required because of a shared grant and expired five years ago. The department is looking at how the school district graduates their enforcement of school-based offenses and a large part of the MOU has to do with arrests on school property. The department is now looking at developing two documents: a police general order, and SFUSD administrative regulations. He explained this has more authority than an MOU because it is signed by the Chief of police and can be used to hold officers accountable. Captain O’Leary affirmed the department is open to more discussion on this issue.

Anahita Medares of Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center explained that the Student Advisory Council and BHNC had provided feedback on the MOU draft, but had not heard whether it would be incorporated.

Captain O’Leary affirmed that the feedback from community groups was being used to inform the drafting of the documents, and that the drafts will be subject to public review.

Alex MacIver, an educator from Metro Arts and Tech, asked how the order would apply to charter schools.

Captain O’Leary responded that the proposed order applies to all schools.

Elena Hillard, a teacher at Mission High School, asked what kind of training the School Resource Officers receive.

Captain O’Leary explained that there is a 40 hour course mandated for school resource officers. The department is looking at training proposals on restorative justice. He would also like to see officers have an appreciation of what is involved in teaching and classroom management.

William Walker, Student Trustee from City College of San Francisco, suggested that the police at City College are unarmed. He explained that it puts students on edge when officers have guns on campus. The SRO program should be about building relationships with young people.

Captain O’Leary thanked Mr. Walker for his comments. He explained that the New York Times had recently run an article about how the presence of SRO’s in Houston schools led to increased arrests and citations. The SFPD proposal is meant to honor the district’s policies of warnings and referrals.

William Walker stressed the point about SRO’s being armed. The SRO program was an experiment 15 years ago, and it needs to be evaluated based on whether it develops relationships effectively.

Vanessa Banks, and SFUSD PAC member explained that as a part of the restorative justice project at the district. She stressed that SFUSD should be working on expanding those practices rather than expanding policing. She stressed that we should be using the models we already have in place to address issues at schools.

Chairwoman Shackelford thanked the members of the police department for their participation and for taking questions.

Commissioner Monge Rodriguez stressed that the Commission is asking for a joint document with the school district that honors the community feedback that has been given and spells out the respective roles of the district and the police department. He also affirmed wanting to hear ideas from members of the public after the presentation on all of the committee’s priorities.

Commissioner Gomez gave an overview of the Youth Commission’s work against tasers. He explained the Commission passed a resolution in February and had participated in community forums. The community opposition was successful in encouraging Chief Suhr to drop his plan to use tasers, and Commissioner Gomez stressed this was a victory that highlighted the importance of community and youth voice.

Commissioner Carrion gave an overview of the Commission’s work on issues at the Juvenile Probation Department, including access to the recreation yard for detainees at Juvenile Hall and the efforts to stop the arming of Juvenile Probation Officers. He explained that Chief Sifferman currently plans to export some juvenile probation officers to SFPD for arming and training and that the committee needs to understand more about this proposal. He stressed that the committee focuses on a preventative and rehabilitative approach to juvenile crime, and a respectful approach to dealing with traumatized youth.

There was no more public comment.

C. Community Feedback

Having concluded the presentation, Chairwoman Shackelford welcomed community members to share further ideas about the Youth Commission’s juvenile-justice-related priorities.

Rebecca Gallegos of the Bayview Opera House expressed concern that an hour per day of recreation is not much time. She explained that the community based organizations in the Bayview have developed a strong response to violence in the neighborhood and have a lot of capacity. She asked if there was any way that the area CBO’s could bring recreation programming into Juvenile Hall on a rotating basis to expand the offerings for youth there.

A member of the public explained that she has seen prison yards do a great deal of good for adults in prison. They have helped people turn their lives around. She affirmed the community should work together to get the rec yard reopened.

Another member of the public explained he feels that youth need more opportunities to express how they feel when they are justice-system-involved.

LysLynn from BMAGIC explained that BMAGIC did once have a mentoring project with youth who were being housed at YGC. It was really successful and BMAGIC would be open to working with youth at YGC again.

A member of the Juvenile Justice Providers Assocation spoke about the recreation yard and inquired about state law regarding recreation access in detention.

An educator from Civic Center school explained that many of his students are on probation. He explained that they had problems with SRO’s at their school site violating their authority and getting youth arrested. He wanted to voice his support for those opposing SRO’s in the city’s schools. He also explained that his school lacks P.E. and it makes healing for his students who are traumatized very difficult. He asked if members of the Commission would come speak to students, as he felt his students would be inspired by seeing young people advocating for themselves, especially those that were formerly system-involved.

Chris Jackson, a City College trustee and former youth commissioner, explained that there are several students on probation attending the college. Many youth speak about probation officers not being supportive of their educational plans. He would like PO’s to know how to better navigate the City College system, and CCSF should also work to build a better relationship with YGC so that people involved in the justice system can get their needs met and we can reduce recidivism.

A member of the public who wished to stay anonymous spoke about the need to differently evaluate outcomes than crime rates, and that we should start by addressing young people’s experiences, as well as decreasing juvenile PO’s caseloads. He also affirmed that the community should hold the police accountable to building relationships and being unarmed when doing so.

Mesha Irzzarry of the Idriss Stelley Foundation affirmed the importance of the Commission’s opposition to Tasers.

Captain Robert O’Sullian of the Bayiew police station thanked the commissioner for being in the neighborhood and explained he admired their efforts. He spoke about the community engagement efforts of the Bayview station, including working with youth programs at Bayview Opera House and with over 75 community based organizations. He affirmed he would like to stay in touch with the Youth Commission and expressed support for the issue of youth detainees accessing their recreation opportunities. He also explained that the Chief has a vision for crime prevention, not just enforcement, and that that vision begins and ends with youth engagement.

Commissioner Carrion thanked members of the public. There was no more public comment.

D. Presentation from youth serving organizations

Chairwoman Shackelford invited affirmed any organizations present were welcome to give comment or make announcements at this time.

Monica Flores of TAY-SF affirmed the Commission’s support for the police training recommendation and explained she would like to ensure that more targeted outreach is happening to system-involved youth.

A staff member from the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center explained that youth at BHNC were working on a youth-police summit. The event will be held at Balboa HS on Friday, May 3, 2013 from 4-7pm.She also explained that BHNC does Know Your Rights Workshops for youth.

There was no more public comment.

E. [First reading] Youth Commission Policy & Budget Priorities for Fiscal Years 2013-2014 and 2014-2015
(Document B)

Commissioner Huynh gave an overview of the Commission’s work on Summer Jobs Plus, and explained the Commission aimed to ensure that disconnected and undocumented youth were accessing opportunities through the program.

Commissioner Wu gave an overview of the TAY housing resolution which calls for 400 units of TAY housing from the Housing Trust Fund, as well as an evaluation of existing housing models.

Chair Shackelford gave an overview of the 12N administrative code that mandates sensitivity training on LGBT youth issues for youth-serving city staff.

Commissioner Chu explained that the commission wants to evaluate credit recovery opportunities, as 45% of the 2014 class is off track to graduate under the A-G requirements. The commission wants to see this as an important budget issue.

Commissioner Carrion affirmed the priority against the arming of juvenile probation officers.

Commissioner Persky gave an overview of the Free MUNI priority. The pilot was a huge community victory. The commission wants to find funding the make the program permanent, as well as look at transitional age youth and college students

Commissioner Persky also gave an overview of the work on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

Commissioner Carrion gave an overview of the Commission’s work on support for City College. He explained that Supervisors Cohen and Mar had sponsored legislation about the use of Prop A funds and City support for the College that was going to be heard by the Budget and Finance Committee the next day.

Chair Shackelford explained that the priorities were being read into the public record, not voted on, and will be up for approval at the next Commission meeting before presentation to the Board’s Budget and Finance Committee. The chair called for public comment.

Jeremy Miller commended the commission on their budget and policy priorities and suggested that they were all very on point, especially the response to the City College crisis. He affirmed his support for Free MUNI. He also extended gratitude from the Idriss Stelley Foundation for the Commission’s position on Tasers.
.
Staff member, Adele Carpenter reminded commissioners that the next draft of the priorities document should reflect commissioners’ edits and additions.

There being no further public comment, Chairwoman Shackelford called a short recess at 7:43 p.m.

The meeting resumed at 7:52 p.m. Commissioner Persky suggested more references to undocumented youth in the Summer Jobs Plus priority.

Commissioner Wu suggested that the TAY Housing priority refer to “residents in the City” not only “TAY” and that the document elaborate on the evaluation plan.

Commissioner Armstrong asked for reference to the Mayor’s kickoff event of Summer Jobs Plus to be added.

Commissioner Monge-Rodriguez suggested a diagram on page 11 showing who is off track to graduate high school.

The chair reminded her colleagues that the vote on the priorities document would occur at the upcoming meeting and to confer with staff regarding edits. Director Truong reminded committee chairs to go over their priorities with staff, and that Commissioner Persky would also reach out to his colleagues for edits.

 

 

5. Public Comment on Items not on Agenda (Discussion Only)

Mesha Irazarry asked the commission to consider the needs to transgender youth, who are marginalized in the shelter system.

Chairwoman Shackelford thanked Ms. Irazarry for her comments. There being no public comment, she returned to Item 3.

 

 

 

3. Approval of Minutes (Action Item)

A. Monday, April 1, 2013
(Document A)

Commissioner Wu, seconded by Commissioner Carrion, moved to approve the minutes from April 1, 2013. This motion was approved by acclamation. The chair resumed the order of the agenda and called Item 6.

 

 

 

6. Attendance Review

A. Monday, March 18, 2013
i. Commissioner Armstrong
ii. Commissioner Marshall-Fricker
iii. Commissioner Taumoepeau

B. Monday, April 1, 2013
i. Commissioner Armstrong
ii. Commissioner Marshall-Fricker
iii. Commissioner Guzman-Ramos
iv. Commissioner Carrion
v. Commissioner Monge-Rodriguez

The chair tabled this item without a vote.

 

 

 

 

7. Announcements (This Includes Community Events)

Commissioner Carrion reminded his colleagues about Frisco Day.

Rebecca from the Bayview Opera House invited everyone present to BVOH’s Earth Day celebration on April 20, 2013 from 11am-3pm.

 

 

 

 

Jeremy Miller updated commissioners about a talk by Angela Davis in Berkeley the next day.

 

 

 

8. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 8:07 p.m.

Any materials distributed to the members of the Youth Commission within 72 hours of the meeting or after the agenda packet has been delivered to the members are available for inspection—along with minutes of previous Youth Commission meetings and all supplementary information—at the Youth Commission office during regular office hours (9am to 6pm, Monday—Friday). The Youth Commission office is located at:
City Hall, Room 345
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
San Francisco, CA 94102
Phone: (415) 554-6446, Fax: (415) 554-6140
Email: youthcom@sfgov.org
www.sfgov.org/yc

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS UNDER THE SUNSHINE ORDINANCE
(Chapter 67 of the San Francisco Administrative Code)
Government’s duty is to serve the public, reaching its decisions in full view of the public. Commissions, boards, councils and other agencies of the City and County exist to conduct the people’s business. This ordinance assures that deliberations are conducted before the people and that City operations are open to the people’s review.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON YOUR RIGHTS UNDER THE SUNSHINE ORDINANCE OR TO REPORT A VIOLATION OF THE ORDINANCE, CONTACT THE SUNSHINE ORDINANCE TASK FORCE, please contact:
Sunshine Ordinance Task Force
City Hall, Room 244
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
San Francisco, CA 94102‐4689
Phone: (415) 554‐7724, Fax: (415) 554‐5784
E‐mail: sotf@sfgov.org
Copies of the Sunshine Ordinance can be obtained from the Clerk of the Sunshine Ordinance
Task Force, at the San Francisco Public Library, and on the City’s website at
http://www.sfgov.org.

The ringing and use of cell phones, pagers, and similar sound‐producing electronic devices are prohibited at this meeting. The Chair may order the removal from the meeting room of any person responsible for the ringing or use of a cell phone, pager, or other similar sound‐producing electronic device.

In order to assist the City’s efforts to accommodate persons with severe allergies, environmental illnesses, multiple chemical sensitivity, or related disabilities, attendees at public meetings are reminded that other attendees may be sensitive to various chemical‐based products. Please help the City accommodate these individuals.

To obtain a disability‐related modification or accommodation, including auxiliary aids or services, to participate in the meeting, please contact Phimy Truong, Youth Commission Director [phone: 415-554 7112; email: phimy.truong@sfgov.org] at least 48 hours before the meeting, except for Monday meetings, for which the deadline is 4:00 p.m. the previous Friday.