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Southeast
Community Facility Commission
M I N U T E S
THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 2001
6:00 P.M.
1800 Oakdale Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94124
I. Call to Order:
Commission President Millard Larkin called the Thursday, June 14, 2001 meeting to order at 6:18 p.m. in the Alex L. Pitcher Community Room at 1800 Oakdale Ave.
III. Roll Call:
Present: Commissioner Bobbrie Brown
Commissioner Millard Larkin II
Commissioner Malik Looper
Commissioner Enola Maxwell
Commissioner Atiliai Tofaeono
Not Present Commissioner Heidi Hardin
Commissioner Kim Nguyen
Staff Present: Robert Bryan, Dep. City Attorney; Toye Moses, and Exec. Dir.,
SECF; Kathy Basconcillo, SECF Commission Secretary; Jenny Yoo,
Clerical Asst.
IV. Approval of Minutes:
Commissioner Maxwell moved and Commissioner Looper seconded to accept the minutes of Wednesday, April 25, 2001 as presented. Motion passed.
Commissioner Maxwell moved and Commissioner Tofaeono seconded to accept the minutes of Thursday, May 10, 2001 as presented. Motion passed.
In order to accommodate the presenter's schedules, Commissioner Larkin moved Items V. Communications and VI. Director's Report down the agenda and moved directly into Item VIII. Presentation - San Francisco Police Dept. "Take killers off our neighborhood streets and stop the violence" and will be followed by a brief presentation to ex-captains of the Bayview-Hunter’s Point Station.
VIII. Presentation: San Francisco Assistant Police Chief E. Prentiss Sanders introduced himself and thanked the Commission for this opportunity to answer questions regarding the recent rash of violence - an issue of great concern to this neighborhood in particular and indeed the entire City. Progress is being made in terms of identifying, locating and preparing to arrest individuals involved for their participation in this violence. How- ever rules must be followed in order for this progress/the arrests to be valid.
Asst. Chief then suggested that answering questions might be the most efficient way to address the concerns of those present. To Commissioner Larkin's query about who the police have been working with and how are they working with them to prevent incidents of violence in the Community Asst. Chief Sanders replied that this was a two-fold response: 1) Regarding current open violent crime cases, a) because our doors are always opened, many people have come forward to offer assistance of information; b) working with (group of people organized by) Minister Christopher on "African American community matters"; c) set-up a some hot-lines, overseen by Inspector Hendricks (brought back from retirement on a part-time basis); d) established a witness protection program - anyone coming forward with information can be protected or relocated, etc., whatever it takes for them to testify. This course of action has resulted in search/desk warrants being issued, weapons are being recovered and information flowing.
Asst. Chief then introduced current Bayview Station Capt. Patricia Jackson to speak on whom and how local police have been working to prevent violence in the BVHP. Capt. Jackson explained that the Bayview Station has an on-going effort to work with the Community (Community Policing). Although the Community has been through a recovery stage and is in a rebuilding stage, because this is a crisis situation with all the homicides, local staff is working with the school districts, social service groups, every aspect of the Community the local police staff can identify with which to develop a relationship (of trust). The solution may not always be enforcement; sometimes we (local police) are in the role of facilitator as we work with groups like Infusion One, the Sheriff Dept.'s Garden Project, San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners (SLUG), and Victims of Homicide (currently as outreach for peace to the Community).
Commissioner Looper requested statistics on instances of crime towards organizations and tenants under the jurisdiction of this Commission. Capt. Jackson stated that stats are kept on "per call by area" basis especially for the child care centers. If the dept. doesn't get a call, then we don't response; calls for service must be documented. Commissioner Looper then replied that these organization and tenants can/will be informed of the procedures for reporting crimes so they in turn can present these procedures to their staff/clients, etc. Capt. Jackson added that staff would be glad to come out to give a little informative talk to each site upon request.
Commissioner Larkin commented that while several very active and worthwhile organizations were mentioned by name for working with the members of the Bayview Station there are several organizations/groups perhaps a little more covert in nature but just as active in the Community that were not mentioned for one reason or another.
His question is: What is being done to outreach to those people/organizations since this is where much of the violence either starts or has a closer/more profound effect? Capt. Jackson responded that the Dept. is also working with several individuals not associated with any of the organizations/agencies previously mentioned, either with other organizations or not necessarily with an organization at all for outreach and creating a list of valuable information.
Asst. Chief Sanders then added/reminded those present that this administration has a very open door policy, whereby the Community has access to both the local Station (the Bayview Station and Capt. Jackson in this particularly Community) and the Chief's Office - defining local and overall accountability to the public. The homicides plaguing this Community are not a general, everyday occurrence.- we know who is responsible, we know why they are doing it, but we need the Community to stand together so we can rid the Community of these violent perpetrators. The (Police) Dept. follows a philosophy of "fostering" whereby we know it's going to take a concerted effort to get to the next generation of our young people. We know if young people are not reading by the 3rd grade, they're going to have problems in school. We know the Community as well as the Dept. must interact to encourage these young people. That's why so many of our officers get involved or start their own programs both on and off-duty for young people. Programs like taking children from this side of town to the zoo and other educational places to expose them to a different world. However, don't be fooled, this epidemic is not just with our children - it's everywhere, nationwide and all generations. That's why the open door policy and the partnership with the Community of our officers are so important.
In response to a request for more officers on foot patrol in the neighborhood and during the evening shifts, Asst. Chief Sanders replied that because presence is based on calls for service to an area, if more police presence is required then more calls for service need to be generated from that area. It is also a known fact that the presence of uniforms is a deterrent to crime, so we have as many officers out on patrol as the schedule will bear. We are also graduating classes of recruits and transfer officers as fast as we possibly can and are actively recruiting for yet more; therefore, if you know of someone that would like a career on the police force, please send them our way.
Responding to Commissioner Larkin's concern for being stopped while driving through the neighborhood depending on what he's wearing (racial profiling), Asst. Chief Sanders stated that the SFPD has two ways of handling errant/disrespectful behavior of an officer a) the Office of Citizen's Complaints - an agency independent of the Police Dept. unique to San Francisco, and b) a policy of a minimum of 3 mos. review by the Dept. for any officer with complaints and provisions for responsive and corrective action.
The next speaker was Mr. Dwayne Jones, Exec. Dir. of Young Community Directors (YCD) who just wanted to comment of the fact that indeed a relationship has been established between the Bayview Station/Capt. Jackson and YCD where it was discussed that some jobs/positions would be available at 3 Com Park for trainees that came through YCD. Although it wasn't access that came into play here, it took a little more "coming out of the box"/outreach to the Community/organization for these positions to materialized.
One more comment from Residents of the Southeast Sector (ROSES), Mr. James Sheesley commented that many children on the streets are there simply because their parents or guardians don't know how to handle them/don't know how to parent. Are there programs where people can go to learn how to parent?
Commissioner Larkin then introduced a) District 10 Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, b) Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Commissioner Shawn Richards, and c) Mr. Alex Tourk, new Director of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services to those present.
To close out the presentation by/to the San Francisco Police Dept. the Southeast Community Facility Commission awarded Certificates of Commendation for Meritorious Service to Commander Sylvia Harper (Capt. Potrero/Bayview Station, 1996 - 1998); and current Capt. of Mission Station, Ron Roth, (Capt. Bayview Station, 1998 - 2000). In response, Cmmdr. Harper thanked the Commission and asked to share the acknowledgement with both the officers who worked under her watch ("No one person could possibly do all this alone".) and her predecessor Capt. Rick Holder. Capt. Roth accepted his acknowledgement by stating he was just continuing what was started before him by Capts. Holder and Harper and how pleasantly surprised he was when he first became Capt. how supportive the Community was of the officers of the Bayview Station and how well the Community and it's Police Dept. worked together. He also agreed with Capt. Harper that as Station Capts. come and go it's the Station officers that continue the day-to-day operations sometimes under the worst and violent of conditions, keeping their heads up, doing the right thing, keeping streets safe for all. - it's the officers that deserve the commendation and acknowledgement.
VI. Communications:
a) Ltr. of Support to Providence: Affordable Senior Housing in San Francisco;
b) Invitation to Chief Lau for "stop the violence" presentation;
c) Mission Bay Construction Report and Update Letter;
d) Final Environmental Impact Statement, Disposal Reuse of Shipyard, San Francisco.
VII. Director's Report:
a) The HVAC Energy Conservation and Upgrade Project is basically complete;
b) The ADA handicap access to the parking area project is still incomplete; however, by next meeting I should have more information on the status.
c) Update on General Fund budget, E.P. Mills has been increased by $100K..
Commissioner Looper requested a monthly update of the Commission website.
Commissioner Maxwell moved and Commissioner Looper seconded to accept the Director's Report. Motion passed.
IX. Presentation: Commissioner Larkin introduced Mr. Leonard Gonzales, Director of YO!SF (Youth Opportunity Grant Program) Center to present an update of the program and explain the plans and funding of the summer youth employment program. After Mr. Gonzales passed out a Private Industry Council folder containing YO!SF information he began answering questions from the Commissioners: How much of the approxi-mately $7M will be spent in the BVHP; how many young people from the BVHP will have job opportunities; how many BVHP residents will be hired the to administer the YOG??
Regarding funding: approximately 20% of the total Youth Opportunity Grant (YOG) goes to local sub-contractors like Young Community Developers (YCD), New Directions, YMCA Community Beacon Center located at Gloria R. Davis Middle School, Steps to Career Program - with the first three programs geared toward youth from the BVHP, the last being geared toward alternative high-schools City-wide. A proposal has been submitted for the placement of youth for the summer and we await budget approval for that program. This program won't start mid-June like the other programs, but we hope to start mid-July serving 400-600 youth (250 from the BVHP) who reside in a total of four different communities: Bayview-Hunter’s Point, Sunnydale, South of Market and Mission.
Currently three of the seven (7) YO!SF Bayview (Beacon Center) staff members are from the Community and we're looking for an outreach specialist . Although we want to hire from the Community, it is an open hiring process where anyone qualified may apply. Copies of the staff job descriptions (including salary and benefits) can be provided to the Commission.
Responding to how youth/applicants in the BVHP measure up in terms of experience, ability to handle work in a structured environment, Mr. Gonzales stated that a large portion of the 250 positions come through the subcontractors who provide actual job placement. YO!SF operates like a clearinghouse and provides more of an intense case management. YO!SF does testing and assessments for basic educational skills (reading & math); determines if there are learning disabilities or mental health issues; if the applicant/youth needs counseling, childcare, and/or transportation. YO!SF is mandated to follow eligible and referred youth for a minimum of 24 months minimum. The sub-contractors have done a quality job in preparing, training and placing youth in interim work experience situations. YO!SF focus is to ensure that after this interim work experience, they are prepared for a long-term work experience. Currently the Four Seasons Hotel is hiring for a variety of positions, Sports World is also accepting applications for Sports Trainers through the Mission Hiring Hall, and Bloomingdales is beginning to hire as well; however we do not yet have any contracts for filling local business positions.
Commissioner Larkin expressed concern that the YOGrant was secured a little more than one year ago through demographics from the Communities making the Bayview-Hunter’s Point (among three other areas) a priority Community, yet relationships still need to be established between the YOG administrative offices and local/community businesses. Mr. Gonzales replied several staff positions are in need of filling (i.e., job developers) which will assist in expanding the program to include building/fostering relationships/partnerships
with local/community business. YOG will then subsidize internships with these local/community businesses hopefully strengthening these partnerships.
Commissioner Larkin reiterated that these plans were more than welcome, however the implementation needs to be stepped up so as to affect as many young people from this area as soon as possible. Since school is already out and the young people need to be busy this summer, it is imperative this program move forward . This Commission is here to ensure that the young people, the businesses, the organizations in the Bayview-Hunter’s Point are not left out. To which Mr. Gonzales offered to submit a report of the summer program effort to the Commission office.
Mr. Gonzales then introduced the YO!SF members both that were able to be here to support the presentation: Jeremy Tom, Ashley Rhodes, Shawn Richards, all Sr. Youth Development Specialists; other staff not present: Michelle Daniels, Arlene Stewart, and Donald White.
In response to YO!SF's working relationship with YCD, Mr. Gonzales stated that one staff member in particular spends so much time at YCD that he almost maintains office space there, so yes, the working relationship with YCD is very close.
In the Public Comment phase of this presentation, Dwayne Jones, Executive Director at YCD expressed concern that information between the primary coordinator (YOG) and YCD (as subcontractor) is now as free-flowing as is could/should be. [For instance, does YOG/YO!SF know that YCD alone has a surplus (over the 250 allotted for this district) of 125 youth that still need placement? YCD has yet to be given word what services can still be offered these youth. When the current contract expires in 15 days, will it be extended/will funding last through the summer/should the applicants be turned over to MYEEP?]
YCD Summer Program Coordinator, Yolanda Harris stated that YCD, through the Chocolate City II program has been working with well over 100 youth in the areas of job readiness, education, empowering youth in their own neighborhoods; development of over 30 work sites (some thru EOC childcare centers, other childcare centers "on the hill"- Hunter's Point, some thru local merchants, some thru the Senior Centers); implementing workshops (presentations from City College/Southeast Campus Dean, District 10 Supervisor, GED and employment opportunities); some youth are already training on site in the Community and local government offices; and assessments have been performed to determine personal development needs, as well as medical and dental providers in the Community have been contacted to determine which are willing to work the young people in providing free exams. Therefore, it's a little unclear when YO!SF speaks of their doing intense case management and YCD only does interim job placement. YCD has been attempting to provide whatever service is needed by these young people and providing an opportunity for them to do much of it themselves: raising awareness in the Community, spreading the word between their friends, developing self-esteem and pride.
As matter of fact, some of these young people would be perfect applicants for the YOG Outreach positions - they live in the area, some have already developed a rapport with service providers in the Community, and are prime candidates for working positions.
After several more speakers from the audience, Mr. Gonzales finished the presentation with responses to a few of the more direct questions:
- All funding has been equally distributed between participating agencies/Community-based organizations (CBO's);
- All information regarding subcontracting is public knowledge;
- Services provided through the Beacon Center site does not target a specific ethnic base but include a program, which targets young Latinas, and another program, which targets young African-American women (both programs that Beacon Center had in place and YOG is looking to keep funding, perhaps expanding to include young men);
- Several Community Program Directors met for the first time recently at a funding meeting; which raises the questions of why would this be the first time these programs which are in and serving the same Community just meeting; however, YOG is doing what they can to facilitate these programs coming/working together;
- The YCD contract will be extended and funding rolled over to the next funding phase;
- As far as the subsidized internships, it is still up in the air regarding YCD's "over-target limit" youth; that has still to be worked out;
- The 14-17 yr. old age bracket has not been closed, so please continue to have them fill out and submit applications;
- Obviously the YO!SFF /YCD relationship needs to be drastically improved, and YOG plans to work with YCD to improve the lines of communication since this money is basically for the youth;
- YO!SFF can assist with getting youth into computer program.
X. Old and On-going Business - Commissioner Larkin announced that he would begin appointment of the Southeast Community Facility Commissioners to the Commission Committees at the next regularly scheduled Commission meeting when all SECF Commissioners are present. However the Facility Committee (Commissioners Hardin, Chair; Nguyen and Looper) members will receive packets to be reviewed prior to the next Commission where a Facility Committee meeting can be scheduled.
XI. Introduction of New Business - No new business was raised at this time.
XII. Adjournment:
Commissioner Maxwell moved and Commissioner Tofaeono seconded to adjourn the SECFCommission meeting at 7:43 p.m.
Respectfully submitted: _________________________
(Commission Secretary)
