San Francisco Youth Commission
Minutes - Draft
Monday, July 20, 2015
5:15-8:00pm
City Hall, Room 416
1. Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Pl.
San Francisco, CA 94102

There will be public comment on each item.

Jillian Wu, Lily Marshall-Fricker, Rosa Chen, Emily Guo, Luis Avalos Nuñez, Precious Listana, Joyce Wu, Noah David, Alex Berliner, E’mani Davis, Joshua Cardenas, Michel Li, Anna Bernick, Sophie Edelhart, David Zheng

1. Call to Order and Roll Call for Attendance

The meeting was called to order at 5:17 PM. Commissioners present: Jillian Wu, Lily Marshall-Fricker, Rosa Chen, Luis Avalos Nuñez, Joyce Wu, Alex Berliner, E’mani Davis, Joshua Cardenas, Michel Li, Anna Bernick and Sophie Edelhart. There was quorum.

Commissioner Emily Guo, Precious Listana, Noah David, and David Zheng were noted absent.

There was no public comment.

2. Approval of Agenda (Action Item)

Commissioner Sophie Edelhart, seconded by Commissioner Luis Avalos Nuñez, moved to approve the agenda. There was no public comment. The motion was approved by acclamation.

3. Approval of Minutes (Action Item)

A. June 1, 2015
(Document A)

Commissioner Anna Bernick, seconded by Commissioner E’mani Davis, moved to approve the minutes. There was no public comment. The motion was approved by acclamation.

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

De’Anthony Jones, from Mo’ Magic, came to give thanks to the Youth Commission for all of their work this past year and particularly for giving an energetic presentation on policy change a few weeks ago.

A youth from Mo’ Magic, Adriana, also spoke and gave her thanks to the Youth Commission for all their hard work. She also stated that they would love to partner again with the Youth Commisison.

De’Anthony also invited the Youth Commission and staff to their summer program project presentations on Tuesday August 4th at 7:30 pm at the Ella Hutch Community Center.

5. Legislation Referred the Board of Supervisors (All Items to Follow Discussion and Possible Action)

A. [File No. 150683] Resolution Establishing a Multidisciplinary Process for Determining Police Staffing
Sponsor and Presenter: Supervisor John Avalos
(Document B)

Jeremy Pollock, legislative aide for Supervisor John Avalos, gave a presentation on the resolution. He began by discussing the history of police staffing in San Francisco. In 1994, Prop D was passed that established San Francisco needed a minimum of 1,971 police officers. There isn’t an exact explanation of how this number was formed. In 2004, then Supervisor Ammiano introduced Prop C which stated that they should reduce that number based on civilianization, which meant that staff at police departments could be civilians and not officers. So now, the Board of Supervisors plan to hire 250 more officers this year and 150 next year with a goal of hitting the minimum 1,971 officers. Just last year, the BOS passed another resolution stating that the minimum staffing level should increased based on population of San Francisco. This was a high debate and there was discussion based on whether crime increases linearly with population growth. Some statistics show that even though the population of San Francisco has increased since last year, crime has not increased. Additionally, statistics show that there isn’t a linear correlation with how much is spent on police and their crime rates.

Therefore, this resolution is asking the Budget and Legislative Analyst and City Controller to look at best practices on establishing how much city police we need. We would also like to talk to community groups to see what the best number would be.


Commissioner Luis Avalos stated that property crime has been increasing and that was a concern of some of the supervisors for wanting more officers. He wondered how does that correlate to this legislation. Jeremy Pollock stated that property crimes correlates with income inequalities. Dealing with inequalities is a better way to address property crime because it’s challenging to have a cop address property crime. It seems a bit inefficient to hire more police to make things safe.

Commissioner Alex Berliner stated her opinion on not needing more police. She stated that it’s important to challenge the narrative that with a higher population there will be more crime. She felt the legislation is really important. She thanked supervisor Avalos office for the work they’ve done on these issues and with services for formerly incarcerated.

Commissioner Cardenas asked that when Supervisor Weiner introduced the resolution to increase number of police based on population, did he talk to the police commission or SFPD? It seems as though there wasn’t as much police input. Jeremy Pollock stated that there wasn’t a hearing at the police commission and that there wasn’t any testimony by the police commission or police department at the BOS hearing. Supervisor Avalos spoke with some people from the police commission who also believe that it should be discussed by them.

Commissioner Cardenas asked why is supervisor Avalos pursuing this through a resolution at the board of supervisor’s level? As opposed to through a code change. He also asked that if this resolution passes, would it nullify the recent resolution regarding increasing population increase. Jeremy Pollock stated that Supervisor Avalos tried to amend the earlier resolution with these changes, but it did not pass. He introduced a new resolution because although it is a non-binding it was important to keep a discussion open.

Commissioner Cardenas asked what data did Supervisor Wiener use in his resolution. He stated he knew there was some data from PERF but that is outdated research. Jeremy Pollock stated that the PERF report, although from 2008 is one of the most recent reports with an interesting view.

Commissioner Davis, you mentioned that SF is currently violating the 1,900 minimum recommended number of officers. How many officers does SF currently have? Jeremy Pollock stated that there are currently 1730 sworn active duty police officers at the moment.

Chair Li had a question regarding staffing and different districts, for example how they determine how many officers go to each station in San Francisco. Jeremy Pollock stated that he’s not sure exactly how they establish how many officers for each station. Chair Li followed up if this question would be something this resolution would address. Jeremy Pollock stated that this is something they would like to look into, specifically more foot patrols in the community. He also stated that when big events happen a lot more officers are pulled to those areas and the outer parts of the city have less police.

Commissioner Davis asked about the part in the resolution about establishing more police stations in new neighborhoods, such as candlestick point, hunters point shipyard, etc. all areas in district 10. She wondered why they specifically chose those neighborhoods. Jeremy Pollock stated that, that was put in there to ensure that all neighborhoods aren’t being short staffed because of new development in existing neighborhoods.

Commissioner Cardenas, asked who would be in charge of organizing this process considering it is a BOS policy. He was trying to envision what it looks like once it’s passed or if it gets passed. Jeremy Pollock states that the resolution says that the Budget Analyst would review best practices for police staffing levels.

Commissioner Avalos Nunez asked if there is any more talk about diversifying the police force that reflects the diversity of the city. Jeremy Pollock stated that state law limits SF on giving preference on local police officer or fire fighters, unfortunately. The police department is trying to diversity the academy class. If this is something that the YC feels strongly about, maybe if we can’t give preference to local residents then maybe there are other ways to do it, such as a city college class for young locals to give them a leg up into getting into academy classes.

Commissioner E’mani Davis motioned to provide equity in staffing amongst all the geographic regions in San Francisco.

Chair Li, perhaps motion to extend the multidisciplinary approach

Commissioner Cardenas believes police staffing shouldn’t be based on population staffing. If research holds this is a bad public policy idea. Therefore a multidisciplinary approach is better so he supports this legislation.

Commissioner Berliner stated that if we’re going to hire more police or work on any legislation on police we need to urge the police to have youth police training. She stated that the youth commission has been pushing for this for 3 year and we really need it. She also stated that if there are going to be more police we need them to know how to interact with the youth and people who were here before everyone else came.

Commissioner Davis sated that the concern she has is that the relationship the community currently has with the police officers isn’t that good. If the city could fix the current issues we have with the current police I’d rather have that before we begin to increase the numbers of police and then there are more incidents.

Commissioner Berliner stated that if they’re hiring more police they need to completely reform the current policies used to train police.


Commissioner Davis a motion to provide equity in staffing in all geographic regions in San Francisco.

Chair Li stated that Commissioner Davis is making a motion to extend this multidisciplinary process to all parts of San Francisco.

Commissioner Berliner seconds Commissioner Davis’ motion.

There was no public comment. The motion was approved by acclamation.

Chair Li stated that Jeremy Pollock asked about other stakeholders they might want to see involved in this process.

Commissioner Avalos stated that it could be good to look into City College or community colleges.

Commissioner Berliner stated that as far as stakeholders I would suggest working with the City Wide Tay Advisory Board or any organizations working with formerly incarcerated people or with formerly homeless people, organizations working with children of incarcerated parents or any community groups that are working with people that are marginalized and oppressed by police officers. Police should be aware of the adversities of the communities so they can be better trained.

Commissioner Berliner made a motion for general support for the legislation, seconded by Commissioner Avalos.

There was no public comment. The motion was approved by acclamation.


B. [File No. 150643] Administrative Code – Mandating Data Collection and Reporting of Detentions and Traffic Stops
Sponsor: Supervisor Malia Cohen
Presenter: Mawuli Tugbenyoh, Legislative Aide to Supervisor Malia Cohen
(Document C)

Youth Commission Staff, Monica Guzman, gave a short explanation of this resolution.

She stated that the main purpose of this ordinance is to prevent pretextual stops based on race and gender. This is to capture concerns of the transgender community.

This ordinance requires that the gathered information become public. If data is collected and a correlation between age and stops is present the youth commission would like to implement youth training for police department.

Motion of support by Commissioner Edelhart, seconded by Commissioner Joyce Wu. No public comment. The motion was approved by acclamation.

6. Presentations (All Items to Follow Discussion and Possible Action)

There were none.

7. Youth Commission Business (All Items to Follow Discussion and Possible Action)

A. Report from Kinetic Konnection D6 Townhall Event
Sponsors: Immigration and Employment Committee
(Document D)

Chair Joyce Wu gave a brief presentation on the Townhall report. She stated that the latest update is that surveys have been sent out to participants and liaisons and that they will be updated the report with that information.

Motion to approve report by Commissioner Edelhart, seconded by Commissioner Bernick. No public comment. The motion is approved by acclamation.


B. Youth Commission 2014-15 Annual Report
Presenters: Staff
(Document E)

Youth Commission Staff, Adele Carpenter, gave a brief description of the annual report. She requested that the Youth Commission approve pending further staff edits.

Motion to approve by Commissioner Joyce Wu, seconded by Commissioner Bernick.

Commissioner Cardenas stated to add Generation Citizen and police commission Suzy Loftus to the list of ally organizations. Commissioner Avalos Nunez stated to add OCEIA as community partners.

The motion was approved by acclamation.

8. Committee Reports (Discussion Only)

A. Executive Committee

Edelhart thanked everyone for all the work everyone has done this past year!

B. Housing, Environment, and City Services Committee

Chair Chen stated that there wasn’t a formal meeting, but there was a working session about meeting with Supervisor Mar regarding their Park Equity resolution. She also stated that the Year of Homeless youth resolution will be sponsored by Supervisor Kim.

C. Immigration and Employment Committee

Chair Joyce Wu stated that at their meeting they discussed the townhall report and next steps for that.

D. Youth Justice Committee

Chair Berliner stated that their next and last meeting will be next Tuesday and they will have a special guest, Police Commissioner Suzy Loftus.

E. Vote 16 Updates

Commissioner Cardenas stated that Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi spoke in support of lowering the voting age. Another update is that YC is currently in the development stage of forming a vote 16 campaign academy.

F. Youth Advisory Council

The Youth Advisory Council has no more meetings for this term.

9. Staff Report (Discussion Only)

Staff member Adele Carpenter will be out of the office from July 27 – August

There will be a retreat planning meeting tomorrow at 4:30 pm at the office. If anyone is interested in helping please attend the meeting.

The Port of SF is creating a community advisory panel and would like more youth participants.

The YC has staff evaluations so please fill out electronically or on paper.

On Friday July 24th Spotlight on the Arts will be at City Hall and wanted a short presentation on the YC.

On Tuesday, August 4th, 100 high school students from Japan will be visiting City Hall and would like a presentation on the Youth Commission.

Young Community Developers and City Works invited the Youth Commissioners to an event on Monday, July 27th in the bayview.

10. Announcements (This Includes Community Events)

Commissioner Cardenas invited his colleagues to Sunday Streets at the Excelsior this coming Sunday.

Commissioner Berliner invited her colleagues to an event called Mad Props in Oakland.

Commissioner Luis Avalos Nuñez invited his colleagues to an event at UC Merced for undocumented college students on August 1st.

11. Adjournment

 
The meeting was adjourned at 6:48 pm.