HomeMy WebLinkAbout03.06.2023 Youth Commission MinutesCity of South San Francisco
Youth Commission
Meeting Minutes: Monday, March 6, 2022
City Manager’s Conference Room, City Hall
400 Grand Ave, South San Francisco, CA 94080
6:30 pm
Commission Members:
Present: Ethan Mizzi, Ingrid Jimenez, Aaron Adriano, Daniella Acevas, Jasmine
Ho, Daniella Leong, Claudia Miller, Nataly Quinteros, Jiancarlo Ray, Julia
Tsuei, Sophia Cyris, Ingrid Jimenez, Nika Mariano, Sara Vides,
Megan Yoshida
Absent: Melissa Hua
Staff Members:
Present: Tamiko Huey, Management Analyst II
Maryjo Nuñez, Management Fellow
Sharon Ranals, City Manager
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Call to Order:
Meeting called to order 6:39pm.
Agenda Review:
No changes to the agenda.
Approval of Minutes:
Motion by Commissioner Yoshida, seconded by Commissioner Miller.
Minutes from February 6, 2023, approved.
Maters for Consideration:
Presentation on SB 1383 Reducing Short-Lived Climate Pollutants in California (Kamille Lang, Climate
Action and Youth Engagement Specialist and Marissa Garren, Management Analyst II Public Works)
Mission: building a sustainable community that fulfills the needs of the present and the future
There are 4 different work groups: 1) climate protection, 2) livable communities, 3) waste &
consumption, 4) climate resilience
SMC has the highest risk of loss due to sea level rise: from the pacific and the bay sides:
• Vulnerability analysis
• Engage youth→ Youth Climate Ambassador Program
• OOS has a dual approach to mitigate climate change effects
o 1) mitigation
o 2) Adaptation
• Dual approach allows county to prep for the future, not just the present
Questions from the Commissioners
o Commissioner Ho: how is the youth climate ambassador program promoted to schools?
▪ She hasn’t heard about it and know that many students would be interested in
this
▪ Kamille Lang usually outreaches to the different youth commissions as well as
going to the different science teachers
• Targeted outreach→ they don’t have too many students from the coast
like HMB and Pescadero
▪ Commissioner Leong: is lucky to have an internship with the City to learn about
wildfires and how that affects our communities and shared that she thinks it’s a
very valuable program
▪ Commissioner Yoshida: what do you do during the different field trips?
▪ Kamille Lang: takes students to different parks, usually state parks, customized
to teachers’ needs, etc.
▪ Kamille Lang also brought boba straws and zero waste pencil pouches so that
they can show their friends
Climate change already negatively affects California
o It is the most significant waste management program in recent decades
• Methane is up to 84% more potent than C02
• Need to move away from landfilling and head toward more sustainability
• 6 million tons of food are going to waste every year
• SSF is currently working with the SMC office of sustainability
• Goal is by 2025, the state of CA wants to increase edible food recovery by 25%
• City staff has been working with waste management provider to make sure that residential and
commercial properties are in compliance with this
• Conducting education and outreach → would like the youth commission to get the word out to
youth
• Capacity planning→ with the additional organic waste, we are going to need more capacity to
take the waste and turn into something else like biogas which fuels the trash trucks going
around
• 2025 is when going to be issuing violations and fining people
• Education and Outreach (via paper copies and online)
• Residential compost pail program → can apply online and is free!
• Waste matters newsletter also shares details of this program along with other programs
• Field trips: SSF offers trips to their plants so that folks can see the volume of
trash/organics/recyclables they handle, not just from South City, but also Millbrae and Brisbane
o Trying to get into the schools, would like the youth commission to help them reach out
to the youth and teachers about this program
Questions
Chair Mizzi: where we apply for the green bins?
• It’s on the SSF website or can reach out to Marissa directly
City Manager Ranals: do the HS have ecology clubs?
o The factor to look at is if SSFUSD has the right size container based on the amount that
they generate
City Manager Ranals: how involved is the SSFUSD?
Kamille Lang: how well are you versed with the green clubs?
Commissioner Aceves: once every trash bins are full, all the other containers turn into trash bins
Commissioner Marino: some students also just throw away perfectly good food if produce and they
don’t want it
Commissioner Ho: Westborough middle school has composting bin but they had a composting machine
and garden; at ElCo only has trash bins and only container for paper recycling
Commissioner Aceves: problem is not necessarily education, but that trash is just not taken out often
enough
Kamille Lang: some students do a waste audit
Commissioner Leong: ElCo doesn’t recycle, less than 8% of the recycling actually gets recycled
Commissioner Vides: was informed that the cans like when charged by CRV; she recommends that some
clubs take the cans and use that as money to generate for the clubs
Chair Mizzi; the community college system is pretty good at separating their goods
Kamille Lang: interesting to look at the high school level vs the community college level
Marissa Garrens: what other clubs are there besides the earth club could help and guide the
administrations?
Marissa Garrens: feel free to call and email her for outreach for the green clubs
Commissioner Ho: in HS it’s harder to get things started, but nothing has been done bc folks don’t know
where to start/have access to resources
Commissioner Leong: a lot of folks get burned out, so having adults to guide youth can help a lot
Commissioner Yoshida: the main reason that it’s hard for clubs to stay alive bc there’s not a lot of
teachers to help with the clubs, so maybe connecting the teachers with Marissa and Kamille would push
this forward more
Commissioner Cyris: for all the youth you are advertising to, what is the central message you are
spreading/what them to share?
o Helpful to have a shared goalpost: Marissa: it really starts with the impact and how it
starts and how to work towards fighting against it, have city programs to help and trying
to get word out as fast as we can, like the city wide newsletter anything related to
sorting smart and quick tips, even if it’s quarterly just to start the education and gain
interest and see that trickle down to the kids, social media, etc.
o Anything that you can visually see
Chair Mizzi: how many commissioners are separating food at home?
Commissioner Quinteros: yes
Commissioner Aceves: yes, they wash the dishes first and put things in the compost and then put it into
the dishwasher
Commissioner Ho: for the collection of the bins are the same as the regular bin?
o Doesn’t have a green bin in their neighborhood
o Ho can call Marissa to get in touch with Scavengers
Chair Mizzi: it’s very easy to apply for the green thing, he just did that
Commissioner Mariano: appreciates that it’s going to be mandated bc then adults can teach kids and
then kids can have it as a habit, so that they can grow up with this
Lang: wants to see a paradigm shift→ starts at home→ then eventually affects policy; we are all in this
together
Debrief on Boards and Commissions
-Commissioner Cyris: a lot of talk on how the economy affects the city (she attended the housing
authority meeting)
-feedback should be given to the Mayor: if weren’t assigned one, can choose any one
Discussions on Youth in Government Day
-Packets sent to the high schools; 10 students per school
-Youth Commission Ad Hoc Committee also created a video to share with the schools, and that was also
sent to the schools
1) need to decide on a guest speaker
• Already narrowed down to news reporter vs mental health
• Cyris: would prefer to have a mental health speaker since she also agrees that there is a great
shift in how to handle things so that transition from hs to college will be difficult to navigate and
thinks that it’s a great resource to see how it’s also respectable in that context
• Ho: who is the specific person for mental health?
• Tamiko: It’s Kerry Kirby from CTK, from all aspects of mental health
• David Canepa, Phil Ting, Shireen M., Janelle Wong, and Kery Kirby
• Mizzi: could we have 2 speakers?
o Having someone talk about mental health is great, but since it is youth in government
day, it would be nice to have someone from gov’t.
• Yoshida agrees: it would be more relevant if it was someone in politics/gov’t. so maybe
someone in gov’t AND mental health would be good
• Becker was already busy during the 19th
• Cyris: how long is the segment going to be?
• Tamiko Huey: we have 1 hr scheduled out
2) what would you like to do for the YC boba segment (4/19/23)
Commissioner Yoshida: if I wanted to participate in YIG, can I still do that?
• Looking for 4-5 commissioners to be moderators
• YC will have 45 min with students
Chair Mizzi: thinks plugging the youth commission would be good
Commissioner Cyris: it’s important for the youth specifically to out themselves out there in this kind of
environment so that kids can understand the impact of what things like the youth commission does
Tamiko Huey: is the goal for engagement in general or of SSF?
Chair Mizzi: both, a lot of young people don’t know the extent of local government; he is interested to
see what he thinks the big issues in the community is
Commissioner Mariano: making it an open round table discussion like what the public thinks we do, and
then we can add on or clear up things rather than just lecturing, to see like what the limits are of what
they already know
Commissioner Ho: have an open discussion to hear what the public is passionate about, and then share
what they know about how to get them involved in things they are passionate about
o Providing more resources and tips would be really helpful and efficient
• Ad hoc committee to meet again for the April meeting right before YIG day
Vote to change meetings from monthly to bi-monthly
Commissioner Yoshida: if it would every other month, would be double the time or the same?
Tamiko Huey: it would be the same
Chair Mizzi: being in person has been productive, so would like to keep it to once a month
Commissioner Ho: what month does people’s terms end?
Tamiko Huey: July
Commissioner Ho: then keeping it monthly would be ok bc they’re not going to be moving until next
school year
Chair Mizzi: motions to keep the meetings monthly, and seconded by Jimenez, no absents, no nays
Items from staff
• Youth Art show happening in March at the MSB
• Youth Arts Scholarship
• Mayor’s scholarships
o People would have to get paid for June
• Mizzi enjoyed the video!
Adjournment
Meeting adjourned at 7:54pm.