2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 Minutes of the
Southeast Community Facility Commission
Thursday, November 12, 2009
1800 Oakdale Ave., Alex L. Pitcher Community Room
San Francisco, CA 92124
1.0 CALL TO ORDER
Commissioner Vice-Chair Louise C. Jones called the Thursday, November 12, 2009 meeting to order at 6:18 p.m. in the Alex L. Pitcher Community Room at 1800 Oakdale Avenue. Commissioner Jones read the Sunshine Ordinance.
1.1 ROLL CALL
6:07 P.M. Acting Commission Secretary – Lee Ann Prifti
Commissioners Present: Churchwell, Chung, Jones, Yang
Commissioners Excused: Kennedy, Sampson, Brown
Staff Present: Toye Moses, Executive Director
Ken Olivencia, Management Assistant
CONSENT CALENDAR
Commission Vice –Chair Louise C. Jones announced the
Consent Calendar.
It was moved by Commissioner Churchwell and seconded by Commissioner Yang to accept the minutes of Wednesday, October 28, 20009. The minutes were approved with two corrections submitted by Commissioner Jones
.
2.0 COMMUNICATIONS
Acting Commission Secretary announced the following:
a) Press Release: Mayor Newsom Lauds SFPUC Plans for Small Hydroelectric Plant at University Mound Reservoir
b) Job Announcement for a 9209 Community Police Services Aide
Items in Progress:
1. Letter of invitation to BVHP/Project Area Meeting Committee (PAC) and President of Citizen’s Advisory Committee (CAC) for a joint Town Hall Meeting with SECF Commission.
2. Letter of invitation to BVHP Police Captain Greg Suhr
3.0 PUBLIC COMMENT
Espanola Jackson advised that there is a new office being opened at 4911 – 3rd Street which is named the Alpha Omega Resource Center
for Asthma. There will be an attorney provided for people who are having problems with housing and mold in their homes. Ms. Jackson welcomed new Police Chief George Gascón into the neighborhood.
Tony Caruso from “Decorative Plants” gave a public “thank you to
his neighbors, the Southeast Water Treatment Plant.” He had an
incident where thieves were pulling scrap pipe through the business fence on the Quint Street side of the building. Before he got
to work, he had a voicemail from Laurie Kum at the Wastewater Plant
saying that someone had taken these items and that she had
called the police to report it. Shortly thereafter, Ken Olivencia went
by there to make sure that the business and other tenants had been made aware of it Mr. Caruso thanked Greg Mayer and Laurie Kum from the Plant for their help.
Commissioner Jones acknowledged and thanked Captain John Loftus
and Captain Greg Suhr, and Young Community Developers, Inc. Derek
Tolliver for attending this meeting. She also acknowledged and introduced San Francisco’s new Police Chief, George Gascón,
Presenter for the commission meeting.
4.0 PRESENTATION
New San Francisco Police Depart Chief George Gascón spoke about the current process of reorganization. He noted the promotion of
BVHP Captain John Loftus to Commander of Police heading the
Inspector’s Bureau. Captain Greg Suhr will become the new Captain
for Bayview-Hunters Point Station. He brings station experience and
community relations experience to BVHP.
Chief Gascón noted that homicides in the City are down 56% from
where they were one year ago. It has occurred because a lot of
people have worked very hard from the police department and the
from the community.
He cited the constant need for the community and police department
to work together to reduce homicides even more. He plans to have even
more resources located at the police stations in order to deal with
problems at the neighborhood level. Inspectors will now be assigned
to each station, not just at a centralized facility such as Bryant Street.
He expects communications between Inspectors, captains and patrols to deal with the issues which impact the neighborhood the most.
Another intent is to create a Community Police Advisory Board. Every
station captain will have an advisory board that will be composed of
community leaders working together with the goal to identify neighborhood-level problems and look for ways to work together towards a resolution at a neighborhood level.
Each community in SF can have tremendous differences from one another sometimes just within walking distance of 3 or 4 blocks. Chief Gascón wants to have community policing interaction to be driven with a neighborhood flavor, and with police resources applied at that level to deal with the various neighborhoods.
The Police Department is starting a new program called ConFab which
Is basically a police accountability process where they look at everything
they do - on a daily basis and twice a month. They meet and go over all
of the activities of the Police Department to make sure that they are being effective and efficient in their activities. This is a process that has
just started, a second meeting was held a week ago on a Wednesday, the public is invited from about 10:00 am to l: 00 pm. Chief Gascón
especially encourages attending when the Bayview Hunters Point is being confabbed, as it is a wonderful opportunity to see what the men and women in your station are doing, and to educate yourself more as to policing and public safety issues in your neighborhood.
Commissioner Churchwell asked Chief Gascón, “ how many promotions
are being made?” The Chief replied that approximately 45 sergeants, 6 lieutenants, one deputy chief, one commander, and four captains were being promoted. Commissioner Churchwell then inquired about the ethnic breakdown. Chief Gascón advised that the exact ethnic breakdown is available to the public on line and by contacting his office. He was asked to what did he attribute the decrease in violent crime in the BVHP? Chief Gascón answered that there are many factors and that one factor is San Francisco made a very concerted, very, focused effort to apply resources to the areas where violence is occurring. Nationwide there has been a significant reduction in crime in recent years. San Francisco actually did not enjoy this reduction, but is coming up.
Director Toye Moses cited that there are 10 district stations and asked if there are there any African-American captains? Promotions currently up to the rank of Captain are based on existing lists. The lists are based on written tests and oral interview, the rank order is where one is placed from the test scores. Then, secondary criteria which includes education, language skills and many other attributes, is used only as a tie-breaker. The SFPD follows the directions of the City Attorney.
A question from the public concerned comments that the Bayview used to be considered a Black Community. She states that this is no longer the fact that many Asians, Latinos, a large number of Samoans have moved here. She said that there used to be Community Relations with a community policing program and that it worked. When Willie Brown was Mayor, the program was no longer funded. She said that the BVHP community supported lowering height requirements for Asians to allow them to get into the Police Department and the Fire Department and that there is a language barrier. She said there is a need for community relations policing and that it would be good to have it back. Chief Gascón wants 10-20 community leaders to participate in working with the local Captains to address local issues and to deal with local priorities. It is not about community relations and that we have to be certain that we are not confusing the two.
The Chief’s office is in the process of creating an Office of the Chief of Police of Community Relations which will be his messenger around the City to talk about issues, about policing and outreach, and about insuring that there is good communication and bringing whatever is happening in the community to his office, who will then be bringing it back out into the community with his office’s input.
Community policing, on the other hand, is a much broader, much more complex concept. It is about identifying real problems, working together to come up with real solutions and always about working together to create real solutions, It is not about throwing rocks at the house; you have got to be willing to fix the window. What Chief Gascón wants to do with the community policing advisory board is to take our current efforts to the next level. The chief says that community policing is always evolving, it is not a destination, it is a journey, and there is always a way to make it better. He hopes the BVHP community will work with new Captain Greg Suhr to make sure that there is a high level of communication with the Police Department.
Melody Martin from the public inquired about arrests in BVHP after
she read an article in the Bay Guardian indicating that there were
few actual arrests in the l960’s and 70’s. She requested Chief Gascón to make comment on Juvenile crime In BVHP. Cedric Jackson from
the audience also requested that the Chief describe how he allocated police resources to various neighborhoods. Mr. Jackson suggested that some police officers should have mental health and social work skills
This would enhance the outreach effort to prevent crime. He believes
there is a large mental health and sociological component in the
disproportionate violent crime rate among African-American and Latino males.
Chief Gascón agreed with Mr. Jackson and said that the police department is trying to develop a different work force that has
to deal with a volatile and fast moving criminal scenario while experiencing a reduction in their budgets and funding. An $18 million reduction comes out of police social services that impact crime prevention. Policing is a lot smarter today than 20 years ago. It is a continuous process of improving quality of training and sophistication of intervention.
Paul Henderson, Chief of Juvenile Law at the District Attorney’s Office spoke about juvenile crime, peer-on-peer theft, at schools, on the bus; when a juvenile gets picked up, the charges will depend on what happens to that juvenile as well as other factors, i. e. first offense, a misdemeanor, the case may never even go to the District Attorney’s Office after an arrest Is made, it may be handled by the Juvenile Probation Department under their jurisdiction and they make an independent analysis on what happens to that child. If it is a multiple offense and violent crime, it will likely be referred to the District Attorney’s Office. Mr. Henderson grew up in BVHP and he disagrees with the Bay Guardian article citing no arrests in previous decades. Mr. Henderson observed plenty of people being arrested and prosecuted during his lifetime in BVHP up to current times. Mr. Henderson described the BUY/BUST Program between the SFPD and the District Attorney’s Office. If one is caught selling drugs to a police officer or an undercover agent, one will be prosecuted for selling drugs. Traditionally, it is the best method to identify who are the drugs sellers in the community and which type of communities get preyed upon.
Mr. Henderson also wanted to emphasize that violent crime is down
over 55% from the previous year and how significant that is and how
much work the SFPD and the DA’s offices did to bring this about. It
demonstrates leadership that the Chief and Captain Loftus are showing
to make this happen. The command staff appreciates knowing who in
the community and in the police force is doing outstanding work and
wants the community members to keep them advised for promotional
opportunities for blacks and minorities.
The SFPD wants to prevent drug sellers from poisoning the next generations by selling drugs outside school yards. They want to have good re-entry programs for people coming out of institutions because these people often do not have training to get jobs, they may have addiction to drugs and to provide them the supervision that they need so that they do not go back to drugs and crime. These are the programs that get eliminated when there are budget cuts.
Rene Gonsalves, the Executive Director of the Alpha Omega Asthma Resource Center and the Board of Supervisor’s Asthma Task Force spoke about the police presence outside of his building and that how
glad he is to see the officers from his window. People would not come
to BVHP for meetings and services until the police presence was established there.
Sam Murray, PUC, inquired about Chief Gascón’s future plans for the
Community and asked the Chief to get involved in the next Health Fair
Mr. Murray asked Captain Suhr to get more involved in Thurgood Marshall Career Day in BVHP. Captain Suhr says he looks forward to
being more involved with youth and having officers more involved with youth and also having young people be more involved with the police station. He said he would also be at the Health Fair. Commissioner Jones also recognized Officer Andre Barnes attending this meeting.
5.0 HEALTH AND HOUSING AD HOC COMMITTEE REPORT
Vice-Chair Jones reported that the overview and purpose of the Ad-Hoc committee was presented. The date of the Fair was set, it will be
held on May 22, 2010 and the date for the regular monthly meetings
was set to be the second Friday of each month at 1:00 PM.
6.0 STAFF/DIRECTOR REPORT
Executive Director Toye Moses had Ken Olivencia report on the process of doing a big maintenance project on the HVAC system at the facility which includes duct cleaning and a complete maintenance of all of the valves and fittings which should be complete by the first of the New Year. He reported that the budget is still in preparation and he will keep them advised as it progresses.
7.0 SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC UTILITES COMMISSION STAFF REPORT
AND UPDATES
Sam Murray, PUC, reported that the Digester Project has been narrowed down from 17 possibilities to 2 sites; the Southeast Plant and Pier 94 are the two sites that will be discussed. Commissioner Yang has attended the meetings as did Ms. Espanola Jackson and Ms. Holmes which was a grueling process for the Task Force with much reading and studying regarding the sewer system in the southeast sector. It is on the www.sfwater.org website. The SFPUC thanks everyone for their work and participation.
This Digester is working on the future of how sewage and waste is processed in the City and County of San Francisco. The SFPUC will also be involved once again in the Health Fair in 2010 and is glad to be a partner.
8.0 NEW BUSINESS REQUESTS
Dr. Moses advised that the next commission meeting is close to Thanksgiving time and should be rescheduled to November 23rd instead of the 25th. A motion was made by Commissioner Yang and seconded by Commissioner Chung.
Dr. Moses also advised the same situation applies to the December 23rd and needs to be rescheduled to December 21st. Commissioner Yang made the motion and Commissioner Chung seconded. Commissioner Churchwell abstained.
Director Moses spoke about Captain Loftus leaving the BVHP precinct to accept his new assignment as Commander and that he should be honored at the next commission meeting with a letter and a certificate.
9.0 ANNOUNCEMENT
Vice Chair Jones advised that there will be an Ad-Hoc Meeting
the next day and encourages all commissioners to attend at 1:00 pm.
Dr. Moses introduced Kevin Epps, a local filmmaker, activist who made a film called “Straight Out of Hunters Point” which was the voice of the community. He has a new film, The Black Rock” about the African-American experience on Alcatraz. He has a screening coming at the African-American Art & Cultural Center next week.
10.0 ADJOURNMENT
Vice-Chair Jones adjourned the meeting at 7:33 p.m.
