San Francisco Youth Commission
Youth Justice Committee
Minutes
Tuesday, April 15th, 2014
5:00-7:00pm
City Hall, Room 345
1. Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Pl.
San Francisco, CA 94102

There will be public comment on each item.

Members: Sophie Edelhart-Chair, Ramon Gomez, Joshua Cardenas, Denesia Webb; Part-time member: Monica Flores

1. Call to Order and Roll Call

The meeting was called to order at 5:08 p.m. Commissioners present: Sophie Edelhart, Ramon Gomez, Joshua Cardenas, Denesia Webb, Monica Flores. There was quorum. Staff present: Phimy Truong.

2. Approval of Agenda (Action Item)

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

3. Approval of Minutes (Action Item)

A. March 11, 2014
(Document A)

There was no public comment. Commissioner Webb, seconded by Commissioner Cardenas made a motion to approve the minutes. This motion was approved by acclamation.

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

Two students at San Francisco State University stated they were observing the meeting for a Political Science class.

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

A. Overview on SFPD police training
Presenter: Lieutenant Fatooh, SFPD

Commissioner Edelhart had her colleagues introduce themselves and provided an overview on the committee’s priority in urging for a police training help improve youth and police training, provide better understand of working with youth and use of de-escalation, and training to understand the MOU just signed between the school district and police department. Lt. Fatooh then introduced herself to the committee members and shared contextual background information related to the MOU when it was for the “Cops in Schools” program. Lt. Fatooh was the lead staff on MOU then, and hopes to be able to be the lead staff on the new MOU between school and police department. Lt. Fatooh shared additional information on SROs (school resource officers). As of 2009 SROs are no longer centralized as school resource officers are now individually stationed at their district station. Lt. Fatooh spoke about training curriculum provided then and welcomed youth commissioners input in the new training curriculum for school resource officers. She explained that she has been in communication with school district staff and that they are all reviewing funding for training of school resource officers.

Commissioners asked clarifying questions related to the training, youth input in training, process of community and youth groups being involved, and restorative justice practices within schools. Lt. Fatooh explained that she will find out if she would be the lead staff of MOU soon, she would be following up with the commission on next steps for the training curriculum. Lt. Fatooh encouraged commissioners to continue researching best practices and models for training. Commissioner Edelhart shared the committee’s priority of recommending Lisa Thurau for police training.

There was no public comment.

Committee members directed staff to continue following up with Lt. Fatooh and the police department regarding training for police officers. Committee members agreed to host another youth community meeting to plan next steps on ensuring youth specific police training.

B. Update and Preparation for Children with Incarcerated Parents Hearing

Commissioner Edelhart shared that the CIP general order item at the Police Commission has been postponed again until May 7th, 2014. She asked commissioners to save the date and be prepared to speak in support of the establishment of a general order for time of arrest protocols.

Commissioners Edelhart and Webb provided brief updates on the CIP (Children with Incarcerated Parents) hearing which was picked up and sponsored by Supervisor Cohen. Commissioners reviewed the list of departments and organizations that Project WHAT youth leaders had sent over. Commissioners agreed to invite the following departments to the hearing: Department of Children, Youth, and Families; Department of Public Health; Human Services Agency; Juvenile Probation; Adult Probation; District Attorney; School District; Sheriff’s Department; Police Department; Police Commission; SF Re-entry Council. Project WHAT youth leaders shared they would also like to invite the following community organization and advocacy groups: Project AVARY, SFCIPP, Centerforce Youth Court; All of Us or None, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, Center for Young Women’s Development; Teacher’s for Social Justice; Social Justice Academy in Alameda County; and invite Oakland city departments to see what is going on in San Francisco and speak about their experiences during public comment. Commissioners then spent additional time brainstorming other San Francisco community, justice oriented, and youth organizations to outreach to. Commissioners agreed to work on a flyer for the hearing. Commissioner Edelhart directed staff to follow up on when a hearing can be scheduled after school so that they can start with outreach.

There was no public comment.

C. Update and planning next steps on SFUSD and SFPD MOU priority

Ms. Truong provided the following updates: staff joined a phone conference with community advocates and school district on Monday. Mr. Truitt shared that he had visited all of the school sites and reviewed the signed memorandum of understanding. He has also emailed a memo detailing the MOU to all principals. Each school site is expected to pass along the MOU information to their staff. Ms. Truong shared that Public Counsel has worked on a checklist for implementation based on all of the community and youth feedback, and that the document will be shared with all soon.

Commissioners asked the following questions: would this affect Charter schools as well, should we focus on implementation for all schools or high schools first? How can we loop in the training curriculum with our police training priority? How are we going to ensure that the MOU is fully implemented? How can they ensure youth voice and input is included in the MOU implementation and training? When will the restorative practice task force be created? How are youth involved? The Student Advisory Council is specifically cited in the MOU, but this has not been their priority in the last several years. How can the commissioners include their peers in ongoing conversations with the hopes that they will join and make it their priority as well?

Commissioners agreed to set up another community youth meeting to review staff’s updates from school district and police department. Commissioners would like to review the implementation check list with staff.

There was no public comment.

D. YC Budget and Policy Priorities and Annual Report
Presenter: Staff

Ms. Truong provided the following updates: the commission’s budget and policy priorities will be going up for a first reading on May 5th, and second reading on May 19th. Commissioners will be presenting their budget and policy priorities to the Board’s Budget and Finance committee on Wednesday, May 28th at 4:30 p.m. Committee Chairs are expected to make time to come into the office to work on their priority documents and review committee highlights for the Annual Report. Commissioners asked clarifying questions. There was no public comment.

E. Review other committee priorities

Commissioners Edelhart and Gomez asked their peers to review their letter of support for the reappointment of Angela Chan to the Police Commission. Commissioners discussed coming out to the Board’s Rules Committee meeting of Thursday, April 17th at 2 p.m. Commissioners may be able to leave school early and will try to make the meeting to speak in support.

Commissioner Cardenas will be joining Ms. Carpenter on a visit to CARC on Thursday, April 17th. Commissioners Webb and Gomez were not able to join. Commissioner Cardenas will return with additional information for the committee.

There was no public comment.

6. Staff Report

There will be a workshop presented by the Educators 4 Fair Consideration organization on Friday, April 18th in room 278, City Hall. Committee members were invited to attend.

7. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 7:01 p.m.