San Francisco Youth Commission
Executive Committee
Minutes
Wednesday, December 11th, 2013
6:45-8:30 p.m.
City Hall, Room 345
1. Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Pl.
San Francisco, CA 94102

There will be public comment on each item.

 

Members: Michelle Kong, Joshua Cardenas, DeAsia Landrum, Angel VanStark, Nicholas Persky

 

1. Call to Order and Roll Call

The meeting was called to order at 6:51 p.m. Commissioners present: Kong, Cardenas, Landrum, Persky. Commissioner tardy: VanStark. There was quorum. Staff present: Phimy Truong.
 

2. Approval of Agenda (Action Item)

There was no public comment. Commissioner Cardenas, seconded by Commissioner Persky, moved to approve the agenda. This motion was approved by acclamation.
 

3. Approval of Minutes (Action Item)

A. November 27, 2013
(Document A)

There was no public comment. Commissioner Cardenas, seconded by Commissioner Landrum, moved to approve the minutes to November 27, 2013. This motion was approved by acclamation.
 

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

There were none.
 

5. Business (All Items to Follow Discussion and Possible Action)

A. Executive officer updates and scheduling special committee meeting on December 20th, 2013 to approve January agendas

Commissioner Kong provided the following updates: she attended Commissioner Wu’s Children’s Fund and PEEF youth town hall and was happy with the youth turn out; and she attended and spoke in support of affordable housing for families in SF at a Board of Education meeting. Commissioner Persky provided the following updates: he had a meeting with his Supervisor’s office recently to share updates on the commission’s work; he attended the recent youth town hall and was happy to be a part of the meeting; he has been meeting with Student Advisory Council representatives and student delegates to provide peer support; and is looking forward to the midyear retreat. Commissioner Cardenas provided the following updates: the soda tax legislation won’t be ready for the commission to review and vote on until next year; he has been regularly reviewing legislation introduced when it is released; he has been meeting regularly with staff in his appointing official’s office; and he will be meeting with Coleman Advocates to speak more about youth priorities in D11. Commissioner Landrum provided the following updates: she attended and facilitated the closing session of the youth town hall; she will be attending Civic Day with the Generations Citizens group; attended the Youth Are Resources summit; gave a presentation at Wallenberg high school, and will continue to attend as many outreach opportunities as possible. Commissioner VanStark shared the following updates: VanStark has been working on planning a town hall with his appointing officials’ office and will provide more updates in January.

After these detailed updates, commissioners then engaged in a discussion on whether or not to cancel the January 6th, 2014 full commission meeting. Commissioners Kong and VanStark spoke in support of having a regular meeting on January 6th. Commissioners Landrum and Cardenas spoke in favor of cancelling the January 6th meeting so that commissioners can have a break, and prepare for the all day weekend mid year retreat of January 11th-12th, which will happen four days after the January 6th meeting. Commissioners Landrum and Cardenas spoke about the importance of having a full and productive meeting, and not having a meeting for the sake of meeting. Commissioner Landrum stated that it did not make sense to have a short meeting. Commissioner Cardenas reaffirmed Commissioner Landrum’s points, and pointed out that he did not want to have an issue with quorum, and pressed on about having quality and productive meetings. Commissioners Kong, VanStark, and Persky spoke about the importance of having a full commission meeting and that if there wasn’t a meeting on January 6th, commissioners will have to wait until February to introduce items. Ms. Truong shared that commissioners can introduce and discuss business at the midyear retreat, as the retreat is calendared and scheduled as a public meeting.

There was no public comment.

Commissioner Kong, seconded by Commissioner VanStark made a motion to have a full meeting on January 6th, 2013. The motion was approved by the following roll call vote: Ayes (3) – Kong, VanStark, and Persky; Nayes (2) – Cardenas, and Landrum.

Commissioner Kong, seconded by Commissioner Persky made a motion to have Executive Committee reports at full commission meetings be shorter, and more in line with other committee updates where the committee Chair is the sole person giving the update. The motion was approved by the following roll call vote: Ayes (4) – Kong, Cardenas, VanStark, and Persky; Nayes (1) – Landrum.

Commissioners then agreed to hold a special Executive Committee meeting to approve and post the January meeting agendas on Friday, December 20th, 2013.

B. Issue-based committee reports

Commissioners received brief updates from the following committees: Education, Employment/Immigration, Youth Justice, and Housing, LGBTQ, and TAY.
There was no public comment.

C. Committee goals: status updates and deadline for 1-on-1 meetings

Each officer then provided an update on the status of their check in meetings with the rest of their peers. Commissioner Persky has completed all of his check in meetings, with the remaining committee members still working on theirs.

Commissioner Kong then asked to set a deadline for committee members to complete their check in meetings with their colleagues on the commission. Members agreed to have meetings completed by January 19th, 2014.

There was no public comment.

D. Approve the agenda for the December 16th, 2013 full Youth Commission meeting

Commissioners reviewed the multiple requests for items on the upcoming full meeting agenda. Commissioners Kong, Persky, and Cardenas presented their proposed amended language to for the commission’s attendance policy. Commissioners spent time reviewing the proposed amended language and debating on which versions to share. Commissioners Cardenas and Persky wanted to amend the language to allow commissioners the opportunity to request advance authorization of absences both before and two days after a full commission meeting. Their amendment would still have the full body in charge of approving the absences. Commissioner Kong’s amendment would allow for advance authorization and post meeting authorization, but have the responsibility of approval absences go to the Executive Committee only. Points were then made about the accountability of commissioners when attendance review goes before the full body, and the balance of power Executive committee members have with absences. Commissioners agreed to propose both amendments to the full body at Monday’s meeting and get feedback then.

Commissioners then agreed to have the following items on the agenda: a 20 minutes presentation from Shape Up SF on their priorities; a presentation on the District Attorney’s Victim Services Youth focus group efforts; a presentation and request for support from Project What and their survey outreach; a second reading of Commissioner Wu’s resolution supporting the California Homeless Bill of Rights; a third reading of the outreach officers and staff’s outreach work plan for the full commission; a presentation and update on the YC’s work on 12N; a revision to the 2013-2014 Youth Commission bylaws; and regular standing items.

There was no public comment. Commissioner Persky, seconded by Commissioner Cardenas, made a motion to approve the agenda for December 16th with the above items. This motion was approved by acclamation.

E. Bay Area Youth Commission collaboration

There was no public comment. Commissioner Kong, seconded by Commissioner Persky, made a motion to table this item. This motion was approved by the following commissioners: Kong, Cardenas, VanStark, and Persky.
 

6. Staff Report

A. Programmatic updates, reviewing upcoming events and capacity building workshops offered to commissioners

Ms. Truong provided a brief update regarding general YC office events. Commissioners were reminded to complete their anti workplace harassment training before December 20th, 2013 and to participate in the midyear retreat planning meetings.

There was no public comment.
 

7. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 8:48 p.m.