2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 APPROVED
MINUTES OF THE
SOUTHEAST COMMUNITY FACILITY COMMISSION
MEETING WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2009 – 6:00 PM
ALEX L. PITCHER, JR. COMMUNITY ROOM, 1800 OAKDALE AVENUE
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124
1.0 CALL TO ORDER
Commission Chair Willie B. Kennedy called the Wednesday, April 22, 2009 meeting to order at 6:10 p.m. in the Alex L. Pitcher Community Room at 1800 Oakdale Avenue. Commissioner Kennedy read the Sunshine Ordinance.
1.1 ROLL CALL
6:12 p.m. Commission Secretary – Carla Vaughn
Commissioners Present: Kennedy, Brown, Sampson, Churchwell, Chung, Yang
Commissioners Excused: Jones
Staff Present: Toye Moses, Executive Director
Carla Vaughn, Commission Secretary
Cheryl Berne’ Adams, Senior Clerk Typist
1.2 CONSENT CALENDAR
Commission Chair Willie Kennedy announced the Consent Calendar.
It was moved by Commissioner Churchwell and seconded by Commissioner Brown to accept the minutes of Thursday, April 9, 2009. The minutes were approved.
2.0 PUBLIC COMMENT
Francisco Da Costa, Director, Environmental Justice Advocacy, addressed the
Commission on the following issues:
- The Southeast Facility Commission’s lack of enforcement power.
- The ability of the Commission to be involved in an economic analysis of the area.
- Sensitivity to 50% of youth from this community that are unemployed and the rate of their incarceration.
- Sensitivity to the 80% of boarded up public housing.
Mr. Da Costa wanted the Commissioners to know he paid his dues by going to City Hall and addressing these issues at the various committees.
Mr. Da Costa said this Commission is the only Commission in the City that is placed in a neighborhood so the Commissioners must pay attention, be mindful, and ask the Mayor to restore clout to the Commission so they can do enforcement, monitor the Bay View Hunters Point Project Area Committee and see that the Committee fulfills the obligations. He noted for example, “This building was built so that young people could study. What has become of this building? It has been taken over by City College and here you Commissioners are sitting down while our youth who should study in this building, our youth who should be nurtured in this building, our youth who should be educated in this building, have not been given those opportunities.” Mr. Da Costa said when a future speaker comes and talks about the economic things that are going on in this city, or the benefits and resources that the City of San Francisco can give you, you have to be mindful that we have not done our duty for the youth of this community.
Chair Kennedy thanked Mr. Da Costa and said his comments would be taken into consideration.
Chair Kennedy welcomed and introduced Ms. Noriko Shinzato, Field Representative for Assembly member Tom Ammiano of the 13th District.
Ms. Shinzato thanked the Commission and community members for their support of the Bay View community. She extended an invitation from the office of Assemblyman Ammiano for help and assistance with issues such as housing, EDD, DMV, or any other issues.
Chair Kennedy thanked Ms. Shinzato and welcomed Mr. Tommy Moala, SFPUC Assistant General Manager and Ms. Tinish Hollins, Mayors Office of Neighborhood Services.
Ms. Hollins works in District 5 and 10 in the African-American community. She said she and was always happy to come to the Southeast sector and was looking forward to the presentation Ms. Hollins invited anyone needing assistance from the Mayors Office to contact her and she promised to keep the community informed of meetings and changes that are happening in the neighborhood.
Carla Vaughn, Commission Secretary announced the following:
- Thank you letters to Health Fair donors and participants
- Hunters Point Shipyard Artists Present The 18th Annual Spring Open Studios
- Press Release: Mayor Newsom Praises Police Officers Association For Agreement That Saves Money And Jobs
- Invitation from the Asian Pacific Democratic Club w/ Former Mayor Willie Brown, Jr. on Tuesday, May 12th
- Press Release: Sunday Streets Organizers Unveil New programs For This year’s Events
- Press Release: Mayor Newsom Calls On Big Three Auto Manufacturers To Reinvent Themselves To Save The American Car Industry
- Statement: Mayor Newsom’s Statement On The Vermont Legislature Overriding Veto To Legalize Same-Sex Marriage
- Press Release: Mayor Newsom Launches RecoverySF.Org To Highlight Federal Stimulus Dollars At Work In San Francisco
- Statement: Mayor Newsom’s Statement On The 6.3 Earthquake In Italy’s L’Aquila Province
- Statement: Mayor Newsom’s Statement On The Iowa Supreme Court’s Ruling That Same-Sex Marriage Ban Is Unconstitutional
- Press Release: Mayor Newsom Announces Homicides Down 61% And Crime Down 19.9%
- Press Release: Mayor Gavin Newsom And Superintendent Carlos Garcia Officially Rescind Teacher Layoffs
- Joint Statement: Mayor Newsom And SEIU Local 1021 Reach Tentative Agreement
- Press Release: In Response To Credit Crisis, Mayor Newsom Launches San Francisco Small Business Loan Fund
- Communities Of Opportunity 2008 Annual Report
- Press Release: Mayor Newsom Meets With Senior Aides To President Obama And Cabinet Secretaries At The White House
Commissioner Bobbrie Brown made a request to place the Sunday Streets event on the agenda to allow the Commission to discuss the impact of the event on community church services.
Chair Kennedy welcomed and introduced Ms. Karri Ving, Coordinator, SFPUC/WWE Biofuel Program.
Ms. Ving thanked the Commission for allowing her to provide an update on the
SFPUC’s SFgreasecycle Program and pointed out that SFgreasecycle was started as a Wastewater Program to eliminate fats, oil and grease from going into the sewer mains and laterals, which become a problem as it hardens and the grease takes over the pipes. A lot of people see the oil go down the drain in liquid form but once it hardens it can only be removed by jackhammers.
The purpose of this program is to protect our sewer system and primarily is a Wastewater responsibility, but also to generate fuel for our city fleet and to help San Francisco as a forward thinking community, generate its own fuel within the city borders.
What starts off as cooking oil gets turned into biodiesel and we’re now working through contracts to bring that material back into San Francisco from local vendors to run in our city fleet. We have 1500 vehicles across the city. Our fire trucks, Muni buses, street sweepers, everything that has a diesel engine currently runs on 20% biodiesel and we want that all to come from San Francisco. It’s been about a year and a half since the program started.
In the Fall of 2007 the program started by offering a free cooking oil collection to all San Francisco restaurants. There are approximately 2600 restaurants in the city. It has been a tremendous success. There are over 600 restaurants participating and a number in the BayView. There is a robust residential program partnering with COSTCO and all of the Whole Foods in the city as drop off points. The household hazardous waste has a permanent facility and we’re also setting up a facility in Potrero Hill with Dogpatch Biofuels as well as HANK, the recycling center in Golden Gate Park. Those various spots across the city will allow residents to bring their cooking oil that is set aside after frying bacon.
Since kicking off the program a map was chartered about a year into it to show sewer backups and establishments that had service interruptions that needed to have the sewers cleaned out due to fat, oils and grease. The red dots indicate those areas. The green dots are restaurants that signed up for the Biofuel Program and it has been a wonderful success to be in the communities that have the biggest problems and actually servicing the smaller restaurants that really needed help disposing waste. Now restaurant managers and staff are looking at it as a resource that they are donating to the city.
There are three collection crews in teams of two with three different types of collection vehicles. One is a 2300 gallon vacuum tanker that sucks out drums of oil. The drums are provided free of charge. There are two collection vehicles one of which is a stake-bed and is very versatile. This vehicle has two 300 gallon IVC totes along with a pump which pumps oil.
Cooking oil is collected in five gallon totes. This is common for some of the smaller restaurants that do not have a lot of space. The cooking oil is poured back into the original container, hand collected and brought back to the site.
Ms. Ving introduced Douglas Dixon and Roman Baldwin, staff/interns from the Workforce Development Program located at the Southeast Community Center and Torrance from the Global Exchange Program. The staffers are ambassadors to the city for the SFgreasecyling Program and for the SFPUC. They do hard work collecting cooking oil, pumping it out of drums into containers and transferring it on site. They also do a lot of education to restaurant owners and to restaurant staff on best management practices which teaches how to handle and store oil, how to keep their kitchens clean and free of rats and debris by properly containing oil. Information is provided in three different languages to get the message out that what is being donated to the program will power emergency vehicles.
When the program started there was a surprise at how sorely needed the program was. When free collection of cooking oil was offered calls were received from restaurant owners to set up collection times and the owners wanted immediate pick-ups. Stacks and stacks of cooking oil were encountered in their original containers. Some restaurant owners sent the oil home with their staff and this oil would be collected from their homes.
Ms. Ving provided a photo montage of oil improperly stored at restaurants which provided health and fire hazards.
Restaurant managers and staff are encouraged to think about best management practices and changing behavior, which includes providing clean oil and protecting the health of the program workers, and keeping trash and debris out of the oil.
The SFgreasecyle.org website shows locations throughout the city for cooking oil drop-offs in each community. The website also shows which restaurants have signed up for the program.
Ms. Ving said the residential component has also taken off. The 2007 post-Thanksgiving and post-Christmas drop off was very successful. This was done in partnership with Costco and a similar partnership was created with Whole Foods in 2008. There is now a permanent drop off location within Costco and we expect to have a similar permanent partnership with Whole Foods.
A really successful program was experienced in Chinatown. Supervisor David Chiu did a Chinatown walk through the community to talk to restaurant owners and residents. Supervisor Carmen Chiu accompanied the program through the Sunset district to talk to the residents and businesses about the program and people get it. They think it is a great idea and they are glad the city is doing this.
Another component of the program is not that just restaurants donate their oil there is oil generated everywhere. San Francisco General, a lot of high schools, two ships donate, along with Providence Baptist Church. There is a plan to reach out to the community organizations and work with them to set up mini drop off points throughout the city.
This is seen as an opportunity to get more people involved by getting out into the community, staying on site and processing the oil.
Currently there are Global Exchange internships available. Currently there are two people working from the Workforce Development Program and they want two more. They have set a four year plan for getting four to six more. There are 9910 public service trainees and 9920 public service aides working with the Biofuel Program. The SFPUC and Clean Tech have partnered on a grant proposal with the Department of Energy to provide apprenticeships. It is a Clean Cities Petroleum Reduction Technology Program and focuses on biofuel workforce training curriculum with City College of San Francisco at the Evans Campus.
This will lead to 7555 General Laborers and truck driving positions. The last success Ms. Ving announced was the acquirement of a $1.2 million dollar grant from both the California Energy Commission and the EPA to also work with restaurants to turn their grease trap grease into biodiesel. This material is a real headache for restaurants. They do not know how to dispose of it properly. Often they do not have the equipment to deal with it. Ms. Ving said they want to work with some fantastic small businesses and bring their technologies to market to turn that material into biodiesel at the Oceanside Plant and continue to expand the program.
In closing Ms. Ving stated the goal is for the WasteWater Enterprise to look at how services are provided to San Francisco, keeping it healthy and identifying certain materials that do not belong in the sewer and capture them at the source and find the best use for those materials.
Commissioner Brown noted the oil contribution from Providence Baptist Church was due to their daily service to the community feeding the homeless.
Gary Lynch, owner of the Monte Carlo Restaurant said he was in the program and his restaurant provides approximately 300 gallons of grease regularly.
Espanola Jackson, Community Activist thanked Ms. Ving for her presentation and asked if the current 9910 trainees would become permanent employees. Ms. Jackson also suggested a reusable container be provided to each household similar to the stainless steel containers provided for individual water consumption. She noted the container could be used to store the oil while it was being reused and then used to discard it for pick up by the biofuel program. Ms. Jackson suggested administering a fine for households that did not comply and continued to put grease down the sewer.
Mr. Tommy Moala, Assistant General Manager, Public Utilities Commission, in charge of WasteWater Enterprise, said regarding the 9910 Program it existed for a very long time and use to be called the 9916 program. The intention certainly is to give people the opportunity to become permanent employees, however, these particular individuals are coming off of other departments 9910 program, so we are always looking for people that are looking for opportunities. The two gentlemen here are coming off of the Human Services program. However, at the WasteWater Enterprises we have our own 9910 program and our intention in this two year program is to train individuals in preparation to become stationary engineers. From the previous class we hired every one of them. From the current class we did not feel they had enough time in the program based on their hiring date to prepare for the last exam which was last July. The exam is every other year and that is why it is a two year program. All of the trainees are from the 94124 area.
Chair Kennedy asked if they could graduate out of the two year program into permanent employment.
Mr. Moala answered that was the intent, but we do not have total control of that. He noted it was run by Local 39. He said our job is to educate them, give them math and English classes helping to prepare them for that eventuality.
Sam Murray, Communication Manager of the SFPUC said he brought the 9910 program to the agency when it first started. He said it makes the young men marketable so that they do not have to necessarily look at working here. They will have skills that will apply to other companies as well.
Commissioner Churchwell asked if the participants were under contract and if they were paid while in training.
Sam Murray responded they were paid in training.
Ms. Ving responded to the second half of Ms. Jackson’s question and said the ultimate goal of the biofuel plan was for curbside collection. In the meantime negotiations with Norcal are facing some logistical problems.
Espanola Jackson, Community Activist, said she does not want the Commission to forget the 9910’s were originally set up for this community dealing with the expansion of the sewage plant. Ms. Jackson said she did not want anyone to rely on the local union. She said it is the responsibility of the Commission to make sure the trainees succeed and the community should not see the program leave the community again. Ms. Jackson noted the program was returned to the community by Susan Leal, former General Manager of SFPUC.
Sam Murray, Communications Manager, SFPUC assured everyone present the program would not leave. The program has been developed to become larger for employment. The program will stay and Mr. Moala has discussed how to enlarge the program and ensure how individuals in the program will have a better chance to receive a permanent job.
Jesse Mason, community resident asked if the biodiesel program was set up with the Darling Project on the Port.
It was confirmed through audience members that it was not a part of that project.
Mr. Mason noted that through Toye Moses, Executive Director of the Southeast Community Facility Commission and YCD (Youth Community Development), ten people went through the 9916 in 1996/97. He said it was a very good program.
Sam Murray said the top scores of the program came out of the 94124 community and it is a great program.
Chair Kennedy introduced the Honorable President of the Board of Supervisors, Mr. David Chiu.
Supervisor Chiu thanked the Commissioners and members of the community for
the invitation and said he heard a lot about what the Commission does and was
happy to see it for himself, in person.
Mr. Chiu grew up in the Boston area and went to high school in a community that
looks a lot like the Southeast community. Extremely diverse, majority African-American, mostly working class, it was a corner of the city that was from the perspective of many, not really focused on by the power center, the elected officials.
Thirteen years ago Mr. Chiu moved to San Francisco after acquiring a law degree to work as a civil rights attorney for an organization called The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, Eva Patterson’s organization, which came out of the African-American Civil Rights Movement. This experience forms how he views the world. There is so much that folks who come from different backgrounds need to do to work together to make things happen because not everything gets handed to folks on a plate.
Mr. Chiu worked as a civil rights attorney on a number of different pieces of litigation involving discrimination and then worked for a time in San Francisco as a criminal prosecutor. He mentioned this because he believes our criminal justice system does not work as it should. We have a police department that tries mightily but are many years behind in implementing most cutting edge policing reforms that we know about, given where the field of policing is nationwide.
Mr. Chiu thinks our police department has not necessarily, in recent years, been able to develop the type of trust and partnership with some of our communities of color that are needed. This is an on-going conversation that we are going to have this year with the selection of a new police chief and with the recent reports that have been released that show that our San Francisco Police Department really needs to implement a lot to bring ourselves into the 21st century.
Before being elected to the Board of Supervisors Mr. Chiu chaired the board of a non-profit organization that builds affordable housing. The organization built about 2,000 units of housing for families, seniors, and low income folks in the northeast part of the city where he resides and where his district is located. This is a top concern given the expense of living in this city and the challenges of living in the densest neighborhoods outside of Manhattan.
Supervisor Chiu’s most relevant experience before being elected to the Board of Supervisors was running a small business for nine years in his district where he saw first hand how difficult it is in this city to really think about creating jobs and economic development.
Mr. Chiu thinks San Francisco needs to do a much better job of thinking about how to link our progressive values with thinking about economic development and creating jobs. As a city we do not make it very easy for small businesses to thrive. There are a lot of things about city policy that do not help folks that are trying to get by.
For example, we have a city contracting process that makes it very difficult for local businesses, particularly minority owned businesses and women owned businesses, to actually win city contracts. Many of you probably know that in the mid 1990’s after Ward Connolly passed Prop 209 it became more difficult to make sure these businesses got contracts. That is a problem that continues to this day.
At this time there are big questions regarding the federal stimulus dollars and whether those dollars will actually end up in the communities that need help the most.
Supervisor Sophie Maxwell and Supervisor Chiu sit on the Supervisorial Land Use Committee and Economic Development Committee and have been hearing reports about the Federal Stimulus dollars that are coming down. The question being raised by Supervisors Maxwell and Chiu is we need to understand who these dollars are intended to stimulate and they are not hearing what they want to hear about the jobs they need to see created. This is an on-going concern, not just about the contractors and the businesses that are going to get these jobs, but about the local residents who are not getting these jobs, and in particular the communities of color and the folks within those communities who are not getting these jobs.
In the context of all these things Supervisor Chiu discussed, affordable housing, jobs, civil rights, our law enforcement system, for government to do these things typically requires money and unfortunately the city is facing the largest budget deficit we have seen in recent history. Not only are we faced with the shot of the worst local recession in recent times, but our city has to figure out how to cut a half billion dollars from our city services. This is going to have tremendously negative impacts in every area of government. Every department has been asked to propose budgets that cut any where from ten to twenty-five percent of what they do, and it falls in every area that you can imagine. It affects our health care, our police department, our fire departments, social services, the network of services our city provides for all residents.
Supervisor Chiu said he wants the community to let him know what core services are needed the most. All of the above mentioned services are important and the Supervisor said he was also interested in investing in the transit system.
In closing, Supervisor Chiu thanked the Commission for inviting him and offered to answer any questions.
Chair Kennedy had questions regarding youth employment and healthcare.
Supervisor Chiu previously worked with the Youth Leadership Institute, an organization that has provided training for a lot of young people over the years in a variety of skills. He said a lot of these types of programs are being cut and he recently met with representatives from Coleman Advocates to discuss how these programs could be saved.
Mr. Chiu said San Francisco does not have a lot of families. There are a lot of single folks and seniors, but not a lot of families with young kids because of all these issues of there not being enough jobs, affordable housing and good schools. Being able to prioritize and spend money on youth employment programs is a very high personal priority.
With regards to health care unfortunately under this city budget the largest chunk of programs on the cutting block happen to be public health programs. In part, that has to do with some of the rules around our budget. These programs are a part of the discretionary portion of the budget, which is the part the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors can actually cut. Most parts of the budget are somewhat fixed from year to year. Unfortunately the largest chunk of our discretionary budget is public health dollars. This is very serious and the levels of cuts are very significant. These programs include primary care, mental health services and acute care services.
Supervisor Chiu invited the community to visit city hall during the budget hearings and say a few words about the importance of health care.
Chair Kennedy had a question regarding the possibility of bringing the Board of Supervisors meeting to the BayView.
Supervisor Chiu said he would love to see the Board of Supervisors visit the BayView and other communities. He noted the challenges of televising the meetings and providing access by SFGov TV, however he supports it if there is a way to do it.
Toye Moses, Executive Director advised the Board of Supervisors met in the BayView approximately 10 years ago.
Supervisor Chiu said he would like to discuss this further and explore the possibilities.
Chair Kennedy commented regarding the need for youth employment and said as a Supervisor she hired youth from the community and continued to follow their careers and they were all successful in their current jobs.
Chair Kennedy challenged the Board of Supervisors to begin to hire youth from the BayView community every summer. She said they would see a change in their behavior because for most of them it would be the first time they were exposed to city hall and it gives them a new experience and a new outlook on life.
Gary Lynch, owner of the Monte Carlo Restaurant spoke regarding some of the things the Board of Supervisors needed to do in the community. He invited Supervisor Chiu to visit the Monte Carlo and talk to people in the community to see and hear what is really going on in the community. Mr. Lynch said since the T-rail was added to the community the parking has been a mess and the loss of regular customers has affected the economic base of his business.
Dr. Tompkins, a member of the RAB Committee spoke regarding economic issues. This year $82 million dollars will be spent at the Shipyard on cleanup. Mr. Tompkins was asked as Chair of the Rules and By-laws Committee of RAB to investigate allegations that Dr. Bryant and the Economics Committee, as Jesse is also co-chair of, on discrimination at the RAB at the Shipyard. Unfortunately now the Navy is not meeting with the RAB once we want to talk about the money. In this room, on that board they presented in December and had the audacity to say “We’re doing something for you people”, that $86,000 was spent with community people. $86,000 divided by 6 is $14,000 per person working out there. Who can live on $14,000? When a preliminary investigation was done with Dr. Bryant and one other advocate, we found the Navy was in violation of 187 laws and regulations on federal acquisition, not including civil rights codes or even dealing with contracts. They are in violation of their own laws and now they will not even meet to discuss this issue.
We asked the Navy how much money was spent in the Black community with Black contractors. They had no answer. Ten years ago when we met at the police station less than one percent out of $300 million dollars was spent with black contractors. All of a sudden the U.S. Navy can not give you a straight answer, and they tell us be happy with $14,000 a year, that’s insane.
Dr. Tompkins asked Supervisor Chiu what could be done to engage the Navy to meet with the committee and to stop the discriminatory practices against Black contractors in this community.
Supervisor Chiu’s said he sat on the Small Business Commission for the last couple of years and was horrified to learn the vast majority of city contracts do not go to local businesses and certainly not to local businesses in this community. One of the first pieces of legislation he introduced was to change some of the rules in the city contracting law to insure that more contracts go to local businesses.
Apparently in some of the federal stimulus dollars that are coming down there are more explicit requirements that President Obama has placed that certain percentages need to go to African-American contractors. That is a good piece of news.
Supervisor Chiu does not know if this applies to the Navy, however, it is a step in the right direction and after eight long years it is a good step.
Supervisor Chiu said he would continue to look at the issue.
Lonnie Mason, BayView resident, thanked Supervisor Chiu for his presentation and said these issues had affected the community for a long time and he appreciated the opportunity of the forum, however, there needed to be more opportunities to see the Supervisor in the community.
Aleta Bryant, trucking contractor, said those exploiting immigrants the most were the ones receiving city bids. She explained that in order to provide the lowest bid and receive the work you had to exploit the migrants/immigrants. As the only African-American female contractor in a male dominated industry, in a super-fund hub zone disadvantaged community, Ms. Bryant said she was being blatantly discriminated against. She said the erosion of minority status programs have lead to situations such as hers where the discrimination is so blatant.
Ms. Bryant is the only trucking contractor doing long haul hazardous materials out of the shipyard for three years with a perfect record, which is almost unheard of. She was told by the Navy that she would receive the bulk of the contract. She was prepared to do so, spent money, moved, and hired an employee as she was advised to. However, the two 8A disadvantaged businesses that she deals with, that are not from here, one isn’t even an American citizen, which you have to be to claim 8A status, but he has a partner and that partner is the one that is up-front.
Ms. Bryant said after all of her preparation her company was been beat up. Her Dunn and Bradstreet status was growing, her company was growing and everything that was suppose to happen in an ideal situation for a small business to grow was exactly what was done and they planned to be that model company.
In closing, Ms. Bryant said a dichotomous message was being sent and the government says save dollars and in order for you to save dollars you have to take the low bid, but in order for you to do that you have to use the companies that exploit, and that are predatory. Her contract went to the big disadvantaged business that just took his company and put it in his wife’s name and that is a company that has a four story garage with several of their own cars. They are worth millions and millions of dollars. In fact, they sponsor a car in the Indy 500. This is the company that they are supposed to compete against. These are the companies they cannot compete against, and those are the people that are literally destroying her company.
Supervisor Chiu said Ms. Bryant was a brave woman and this issue of companies that say African-American companies competing with other companies that are profiting on the backs of immigrants is kind of a long standing issue and he often sees black and brown and yellow folks often get pitted against each other like crabs in a bucket. What happens is someone is trying to get out of the bucket, someone else pulls him down, and everyone is fighting for scraps and not realizing that the real problem is outside of the bucket. One thing we all have to do in our various diverse communities is figure out how to work together to change a little bit of the structure to make sure the playing field is leveled.
Supervisor Chiu is thinking about how to level the playing field with some of the contracting laws and President Obama has been thinking about that also. But, it is an on-going issue.
Mr. Perry Lang, small business owner and resident of the BayView community, said he appreciated the candor with which Supervisor Chiu spoke and he hoped the rhetoric would match the works. Mr. Lang is also interested in health issues that affect the community. One of the challenges faced by this community was folk with marginal credit were not able to start businesses. As the administrator of the African-American Health Equity Council he visited four traditionally Black neighborhoods in the city, OMI, BayView Hunter’s Point, Sunnydale, and the Western-Addition. He spoke with people about the health issues. Many do not understand that people are dying from environmental issues, a lack of understanding about chemicals in our homes, and the emissions from trucks and plants that are in our neighborhoods. People are also dying from post-traumatic stress and many of our neighborhoods are besieged with violence and other kinds of assaults, including economic, that have an impact on people. This has caused fatigue, burn-out and depression. People are walking around wounded and no one is doing anything about it. People in the community are talking about heart-attacks and strokes.
Mr. Lang said his committee is beginning to look at metabolic syndrome because it is all related. In closing, he said there are no programs created to address this issue. Mr. Lang said we cannot allow our health issues to pit one side of the city against the other. Supervisor Sophie Maxwell presented a wellness initiative so folks in the Southeast could access certain kinds of alternative health services, stress reduction services, etc. However, Mr. Lang’s agency can serve the folks in the BayView, but not in the Western Addition.
Carletta Jackson-Lane, President, Sojourner Truth Foster Family Service Agency spoke regarding the possible loss of mental health services to the community at large but especially to foster youth. Ms. Lane reminded the commission of the upcoming state election to be held on May 19th on the Mental Health Act. The Act is critical because it controls other monies that will be affected by the cuts that are coming. She encouraged the commission to make sure the families in the community are served.
Mr. Jesse Mason, BayView resident and business representative to the San Francisco Black Truckers Association, works with city agencies that use trucking companies and wants to set up a meeting to address the issue of contractors that come into the city and are able to bid so low the black truckers are not able to compete. Mr. Mason said the Association would like to sit down with Supervisor Chiu and discuss this issue.
Espanola Jackson, community activist, shared concerns regarding the solar installation contracts coming before the Board the contracts issued through the Electricians Union Local 6. She said they received contracts for 70 jobs and they only want to give 20 jobs to 8 communities in the city. This is a $30 million dollar program through the PUC.
Jason Trimiew, resident and member of PAC, said regarding the stimulus two issues stand-out that could use the Supervisor’s support and they are transparency and accountability. Mr. Trimiew noted the Supervisor’s work around the HRC’s (Human Rights Commission) 14B ordinance and said there was more that could be done. He said there are many enterprising non-profit run businesses that could provide procurement services to the city government and provide jobs for residents in this neighborhood.
Kristine Enea, BayView resident, spoke regarding three issues.
1) She serves on the RAB and wants help encouraging the Navy to come to the table not just to talk to the community about the environmental issues, but also the economic issues.
2) The affordable housing units coming into the neighborhood will not help the current residents unless they get into those units. Ms. Enea offered to work with the Supervisor to help change the laws on the State and Federal level to make the housing accessible to the community.
3) Regarding transportation Ms. Enea said not all neighborhoods have the amenities within walking or public transit distance. In her neighborhood it is more than a mile to get coffee, groceries, or a book store.
Toni Hunt Hines, resident, asked Supervisor Chiu who would respond to the community’s demand to have a SF Board of Supervisors meeting in the neighborhood. She said with all the issues within this community there was a need for the Board to meet with the residents.
Supervisor Chiu thanked everyone for attending and said he was aware of the needs of the community and more resources are needed. He encouraged the community to continue to require accountability from city government, to make the issues known, and also to invite the other Supervisors to address the community.
He provided his email address david.chiu@sfgov.org and phone number (415) 554.7450 for contact information and encouraged the community to be diligent.
Chair Kennedy thanked Supervisor Chiu for his presentation and had two issues she wanted to address.
1) The arrest of our youth who are cited with felonies for crimes that should be misdemeanors.
2) Chair Kennedy challenged the Board of Supervisors to create a program similar to one she created as a Supervisor which hired youth from the BayView to work at City Hall during the summer.
Chair Kennedy congratulated Supervisor Chiu for being elected President of the Board.
Chair Kennedy thanked Karri Ving for her presentation regarding the SFgreasecycle Program.
5.0 REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT
None.
6.0 HEALTH AND HOUSING AD-HOC COMMITTEE REPORT
Commissioner Churchwell said the Health Fair was successful and he thanked the staff, Commissioners, and everyone who participated in the Health Fair. He said we will continue to build on the event.
7.0 STAFF REPORT
2. The 09/10 budget is on-going. It has reached the Mayor.
8.0 NEW AND ON-GOING BUSINESS
The Commissioners accepted June 27th as the date for the Commission retreat.
Chair Kennedy thanked the community for coming out to hear Supervisor Chiu and invited them to continue to attend the Commission meetings to hear speakers that are talking about issues that affect this community.
Ms. Espanola Jackson, community activist, said the Commission has the power to do things on behalf of the community, but the community must participate.
9.0 INTRODUCTION OF NEW BUSINESS BY COMMISSIONERS
Commissioner Brown requested the Commission find a way to get additional information on the public health dollars being cut in the community. She also suggested getting information regarding the U.S. Navy and the Black contractors.
Chair Kennedy suggested inviting Chris Jackson, newly elected trustee of the Community College Board and John Scott of John Scott Consulting, Inc. to provide an update on the work at the Shipyard.
10 PUBLIC COMMENT
Carletta Jackson-Lane, Sojourner Truth Foster Family Service Agency, stated there was a desperate need for mental health services in this community and hoped the Commission would look into the issue of transitional youth who usually end up homeless and many of them are traumatized. Ms. Lane urged everyone to vote on May 19th for the state special election which would affect mental health services.
Chair Kennedy thanked Ms. Jackson-Lane and her mother for the work they have done in foster care over the years.
Ms. Bryant, trucking contractor, again urged the Commission to address the issue of leveling the playing field so minority contractors could profit from the jobs available and the children in the community would see that hard work is properly rewarded.
Chair Kennedy said this had been going on for years and something needed to done.
Mr. Tompkins spoke regarding Jimmy Potts who was a contractor who went through all the hoops and was told, “No, I don’t believe you Negroes can do the job”, and the job was given to the white contractor. Mr. Tompkins said Ms. Bryant was an example of someone who did everything right, got an education, and came back to the community, and then to see the Navy systematically violate the law and say, “For the flow down, I’m only going to deal with the prime contractors”, the law is not written that way.
In closing, Mr. Tompkins said if the laws were obeyed as written this would not be happening. He said there needed to be compliance with the law.
Lonnie Mason said the community needed to stick together and keep bringing up the issue until it was resolved. He had a question and a comment regarding the manner in which the public is notified of commission meetings.
Chair Kennedy responded the community is too fragmented and needs to organize
and unify in order to get anything done.
Mr. Jason Trimiew, BayView resident, said the community was coming together and was a part of the Southeast Coalition who went to PUC and talked about the disadvantaged communities. They are also in talks with the Black Chamber of Commerce who have approached the Human Rights Commission regarding the discrimination in contracts.
Chair Kennedy mentioned because of the low percentage of African-Americans in the City and County of San Francisco they are almost ignored. She suggested the Coalition contact all of the African-American organizations that could contribute and benefit, such as; National Council of Negro Women, NAACP, sororities, fraternities, churches, bring them all together.
Carla Vaughn, Commission Secretary provided the office phone number (415) 821.1534, and invited those present to access the city website for information regarding upcoming commission meetings and events, access to previous agendas and commission meetings, or contact the office directly and advise if they would like to be on a mailing list or email list.
11 ANNOUNCEMENTS
None.
12 ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 8:10 pm.
Respectfully submitted
Carla Vaughn, Commission Secretary
