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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1.17.23 Commission on Equity and Public Safety Meeting MinutesCity of South San Francisco Minutes of the Commission on Equity and Public Safety Tuesday, January 17, 2022 Zoom Teleconference Meeting 6:00 pm Commission Members: Present: Krystle Cansino, Salvador Delgadillo, PaulaClaudine Hobson-Coard, Arnel Junio, Alan Perez, Carol Sanders, Steven Yee Staff Members: Present: Amy Ferguson, Management Fellow Maryjo Nuñez, Management Fellow Guests: Deputy City Manager Arroyo, Police Chief Campbell, Director of Public Works Kim _____________________________________________________________________________________ CALL TO ORDER The Meeting was called to order at 6:05pm. AGENDA REVIEW No changes to the agenda. APPROVAL OF MINUTES The Minutes from the December 5, 2022, minutes were approved. LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Commissioner PaulaClaudine Hobson-Coard read the Land Acknowledgement. PUBLIC COMMENT No public comment. AGENDA REVIEW No changes to the agenda. MATTERS FOR CONSIDERATION 1. Approval of Minutes from December 5, 2022. Commissioner Yee motioned to approve the minutes, seconded by Commissioner Hobson-Coard. The Minutes were approved 7-0. 2. Presentation from Comprehensive Crisis Services from San Francisco Department of Public Health by Cheryl Martin, Ricardo Carrillo, Stephanie Felder, Neftali Ramirez, Shivika Dharamrup. Part One—Presentation Overview -Provide a holistic approach in terms of serving the clients -Many languages: Spanish, Tagalog, Chinese, Russian, Arabic, Vietnamese—team meant to reflect the diversity of San Francisco. -Basic needs: not eating, sleeping, no shelter will place folks in -Program created to fill gap when little to no assistance Part Two—Questions from the Commissioners Commissioner Yee shared that he is still learning and appreciates learning about 5150 and 5585. He asked about if they break down the two main groups into different subgroups. Cheryl Martin: We have the data and can pull it up. Commissioner Perez had 2 questions and asked 1) if they have a sense of which groups are disproportionately represented and 2) if the data/the trends has changed during the pandemic? Felder: doesn’t know if the demographics have changed since the pandemic as collecting data. From her experience, it doesn’t really vary from this, and it could have changed slightly during the pandemic. Ramirez: with the street crisis response teams, don’t see children, so the data is not going to be responsive to that. Amy Ferguson: staff can work with SFDPH to acquire the data and send it to the Commissioners after the meeting. Commissioner Yee asked what is the chunk that is called “other?” Cheryl Martin shared that she’s not aware of other. Chair Cansino shared that it could be Suicide Hotline that called in, basically just calls not attached to the City and County, for example parents who live outside the United States but have adult children living in San Francisco. Chair Cansino asked on average how many years per year does SFDPH receive? Director Felder shared that it’s about 30,000. Chair Cansino shared that when you are looking at the data and going out into the field, data is important to look at because more than half are for “Danger to Self” so this helps moving forward. The way SSF has its pilot program in here, with Mika and a team of officers to make sure the scene is safe, and then she is able to do her assessment to see which services they need. So, if half the cases are more so about danger to self, then there might need to be more focus on what else are we looking at? Mental health at home vs. if danger to others, then have to think about public safety. Especially, as we are tasked with expanding the SSF program, this is something I’d like us to have in the back of our minds as we discuss. Chair Cansino: the triage aspect of calls, sometimes it’s a focus on the linkage: already linked to services, so this is something on the back end that we can help with. Basically, looking at natural safety nets rather than looking/getting strangers—unless it’s warranted—so there is quite a bit of effort, de- escalation starts before and sometimes don’t have to get crisis team on the field, still provide that linkages and do follow-ups. Commissioner Yee: what kind of transformational data do you have? Cheryl Martin: from an operational standpoint, we do have a data person… Chair Cansino: there is data available online and every year, puts together a presentation with the context. Those numbers are based on what to do for budget—where are we going to allocate the city’s budget—so when looking at the data, that helps to see where outreach is needed/where the gaps are. The big gaps are for example, the building has never gotten bigger, but now we need 8 doors. Cheryl: if there is not a consensus among the crisis care specialists, go back to the Director and present the case, so it’s not necessarily all up to one person about what happens clinically. Also, this is a very intense job, as supervisors, we need to make sure people are safe to minimize burnout. Commissioner Yee asked the presenters if they would describe this more as homegrown? Dr. Carrillo: we say that the job is like going to boot camp—you have a lot to learn, learn the newest technologies, do training, then go out as a observer and do this at least 6 times to be a leader. But you have to know theory so you can incorporate that. This job is no joke. And this relates to quality of care; not everyone can do this job, so we need to find out if folks are committed to team, city and county. Chair Cansino: it is homegrown. We start our practice when you walk into the door. Our clinic is very unique and constantly changing. Neftali: it started out by going out to folks in the street, homeless, drug induced psychosis, business owners wanted them to move, domestic violence… so whether that be someone who wants shelter, we are allotted beds in the city’s shelter, so those arrangements could be made to get folks out of the street. For his other team, we do have the capability of working with police; the collab that we have with comprehensive services is better than the street crisis response team (working with police) probably because we don’t train with them. As of November 2022, we are at 18,000 calls. We get dispatched like ambulances, so if we are in the vicinity, we send whoever is closest and there is a 15 min. timeline, so beyond 15 min., will send an ambulance. Commissioner Yee: is the ~20,000 a good or bad number? Neftali: well, folks describe crisis in different ways. For example, in the mornings, we usually get calls from business owners when someone is on their business. So sometimes, the client is not necessarily the person needing the services, so we educate them on what we can do as well as the rights of the unhoused. We cannot move the unhoused. Amy Ferguson asked if there perceived some different pros/cons with working with or without the police? Shivika: also working with Berkeley and responds with the Police with the most of time; have a police radio, get dispatched like how officers do. It depends on the agency, BPD has good de-escalation techniques; sometimes it depends on the relationship too, with PD due to their uniform, sometimes they have the better relationship or sometimes they have a better relationship with her because of that. She also works with Marin County mobile crisis team but theirs is not based with police. Chair Cansino: when we do get referrals from the public, sometimes it is requested that police do not accompany; if it is safe then ok, but if there is an inkling of uncertainty, sometimes police are stationed nearby. There is a new law that unless there is a crime being committed, officers cannot break down that door, so if there is someone who needs more help, police cannot drag someone out, etc. This will be a big game changer to the field in general. Neftali: working with the police, you can get more information. Some officers do know about the clients and what their triggers are, so we can receive that information when working/engaging with the clients. Chair Cansino wonders if this is different for Mika and SSFPD, Chief Campbell does Mika have collateral information for a patient is about to see? Chief Campbell; yes, she does have access to county records. Commissioner Yee: what is something that you recognize that you are not going to do again, systems- wise? Shivika: if there’s an inkling of unsafety, then will not chance it. She has been in situations where it was not fine. Neftali: it is very important to have a colleague with you, especially when going indoors into a confined safe, so yes, the safety aspect is very important. The questions that dispatch is asking is also about judging the safety of the officers, as well as the client. Chair Cansino shared that next month, the Commission will have Berkeley, so they are doing their due diligence to look at what our neighboring cities are doing so that they can offer recommendations to City Council. 3. Election of Chair and Vice Chair for 2023 Commissioner Junio nominates Krystle Cansino for Chair. She accepts the nomination. Hobson-Coard nominated Arnel Junio for Chair. He declines the nomination. Votes for Krystle Cansino: Commissioner Yee: Yes Commissioner Sanders: Yes Commissioner Perez: Yes Commissioner Hobson-Coard: Yes Commissioner Junio: Yes Commissioner Delgadillo: Yes Commissioner Cansino: abstained Motion passes and Krystle Cansino remains the Chair. Chair Cansino nominates Arnel Junio for Vice Chair and Steven Yee for Vice Chair. Commissioner Yee declines the nomination. Commissioner Yee: Yes Commissioner Sanders: Yes Commissioner Perez: Yes Commissioner Hobson-Coard: Yes Commissioner Junio: Yes Commissioner Delgadillo: Yes Commissioner Cansino: Yes Motion passes and Arnel Junio remains the Vice Chair. 4. Future Agenda Items Commissioner Yee: I’m noticing we explore different agencies which is interesting, but it might be helpful to have some sort of scorecard of some core things to cross-check. Chair Cansino: yes, she is on the same page. She also would like discussion time. Is that something that we’d like to have agendized? Sanders: yes, would appreciate this. Amy: There will be staff reports moving forward. Cansino: and maybe the mental health subcommittee can meet more regularly. Amy: Also, Commissioner Perez had asked for data to be received earlier, so staff can work on this. Chair Cansino: is everyone still good with Feb. 21? Commissioner Yee: can still make it but will have to be 30 minutes late. Deputy City Manager Arroyo: we have DEI application in CalOpps, so we are moving forward that as a high priority. She appreciates the work that the Commission is doing. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 8:08pm.