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HomeMy WebLinkAbout4.17.23 Equity Commission MinutesCity of South San Francisco Minutes of the Commission on Equity and Public Safety Monday, May 17, 2023 Council Chambers, Municipal Services Building 33 Arroyo Dr., SSF, CA 94080 6:00 pm Committee Members: Present: Krystle Cansino, Sal Delgadillo, PaulaClaudine Hobson-Coard, Arnel Junio, Carol Sanders, Steven Yee, Alan Perez Staff Members: Present: Amy Ferguson, Staff Liaison Maryjo Nuñez, Management Fellow Guests: Devin Stenhouse, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Officer Chief Scott Campbell, South San Francisco Chief of Police _____________________________________________________________________________________ CALL TO ORDER Meeting called to order at 6:00pm. AGENDA REVIEW No changes to the agenda. APPROVAL OF MINUTES The Minutes from the March 20, 2023, minutes were approved. Commissioner Yee gave the motion, seconded by Commissioner Delgadillo. ITEMS FROM STAFF MEMBERS -Devin Stenhouse is the new DEI officer for the city! Devin has worked with the City before, acting as the Recreation Manager for the Parks and Rec. Department. He is excited to be here and carry the baton from Amy Ferguson. -Devin shared that the REAL Institute is part of the National League of Cities, and its goals is to help community leaders across the country to address racial inequities within their locations. He said meeting leaders from other states make you appreciate where you are but also inspire you to do better. Commissioner Yee shared that it is crucially important to be aware of these events given that we are the Equity Commission. Amy stated and she and Devin will work together to plan the retreat for May 6; think late morning into the afternoon. Chair Cansino: May 6 does not work with them. Does May 7 work or perhaps earlier on May 6? Vice Chair Junio would prefer to have the retreat on a Saturday. Chief Campbell shared that he watched the CARES presentation, so now he is up to date and able to speak with the Commissioners on this topic. MATTERS FOR CONSIDERATION 1. Approval of Minutes from the March 20, 2023, Meeting. Collection of Commissioner Feedback on Mental Health Crisis Response Models. The Minutes from the March 20, 2023, minutes were approved. Commissioner Yee gave the motion, seconded by Commissioner Delgadillo. 2. Collection of Commissioner Feedback on Mental Health Today is a working session to discuss the various presentations and models that the Commission has seen. There are boards across the room from the different expert presentations as well as post-its to write down their likes and dislikes. The Commission set aside time for brainstorming at 6:18pm -Amy invited the Commissioners to think primarily of what is applicable to SSF; what Commissioners liked/disliked; what they want to keep on the radar for SSF. Chair Cansino thinks that Alameda was all over the place. Commissioner Perez asked if Alameda was decentralized or not. Chair Cansino stated that yes, it is decentralized because they are different phone numbers for them, and it even depends on which city you are in. It was even confusing for those in Alameda County too. Vice Chair Junio: really enjoyed Half Moon Bay’s model. Vice Chair Junio: enjoys that folks have licensed experience, but worried that they don’t need to be licensed. Chair Cansino: to be able to be certified to 5150 or 5585, don’t need the license, but once need to diagnose, then cannot be unlicensed. She continued, sharing that the majority of the time, just responding is important and don’t even have to put anyone in a hold. Also, if we look at the data for SSF, there wasn’t an overwhelming amount of 5150s. Commissioner Yee: all of the models have some value. He sees HMB as the start-up/initiation phase, then as they develop, they can become like Berkeley, then Alameda, to San Francisco. So, his thought is to just to think that from granular to macro scale, we can glean value. Chair Cansino stated that if somebody is 5150’ed and goes to court, Mika should be protected in the case of a lawsuit… With HMB, a pro there is that they respond. They have the quick response and daily… Commissioner Delgadillo mentioned that HMB is denser and a less populated city though, so that might affect SSF in terms of difference. Chair Cansino stated that the more you have lay people/civilians responding, then law enforcement could focus on criminal intervention. Vice Chair Junio: Should the 2-person team co-respond with PD? HMB responds when the incidence has no crime, otherwise PD would arrive… Chair Cansino even if weapons, emergency, or crime occurring, we still need a response even if the person is not there to lead, just being there to help console family is important, esp. since SSF is a family-oriented city. Commissioner Yee: agrees. Only a certain percentage gets to an escalated point, so having that person there to console while PD covers, then that includes that humanity aspect. Chair Cansino shared that yes, and it helps with keeping things streamlined. Key takeaways: -immediate support to family (civilian responders); peer support -rapid response Commissioner Yee: are the Guardian Angels still around? (engage the community for gang violence) -Chair Cansino shared that yes, in the past, if there was a shooting or something, they would support the family -Vice Chair Junio doesn’t think that PD should respond every time; thinks that it would be too much strain. It thins out PD and if SSF could have a team—especially a 2-person team for safety—that could go sideways, no matter the time. He is a proponent of the 2 people and that they would only go given the 3 criteria are met. However, they should still have direct communication with PD; would like to have PD respond only when they are needed. Chief Campbell: the HMB model is similar to what we do in SSF. Usually, Mika goes out by herself and is given a radio to communicate with PD and agrees that PD doesn’t have to go but should still be ready to respond. If Mika is not there though, then PD is the only one who can 5150/5585. But for safety, it would have to be dual response team. Commissioner Yee: are there other options to 5150/5585? Chief Campbell: it’s determined by law actually, only doctors, clinicians, and PD/peace officers are able to commit someone to 5150… Commissioner Perez: how do they have the option for community members to call directly? Mika doesn’t get direct calls, right? Chief Campbell: there are 911 and 988, also Mika is not instructed to give out phone numbers and can only visit the person 2 times max. We provide transport to get folks to where they need to go as long it is available, for example: pay for the uber. Amy: what did you mean when you say that HMB is the start and then move along? Commissioner Yee: it’s based on the simplicity vs. the complexity of the program. HMB seemed simple and Alameda and SF are very complex, and they are in a different realm. Also, with any operational start, start small, get some learnings, and then build upon that. So, his thought is that it is almost a snapshot of a life. Chief Campbell: another critique is that bc folks don’t need to be linked to health system, they cannot access the history due to HIPAA, but learning this history is important to help learn about the individual’s story. Commissioner Yee: Commissioner Perez’s point about the ecosystem of resources is important. Even though we start small, we can tap into others for their support. Commissioner Yee: is there a list of the mental health systems? Chair Cansino stated that Mika does have a list of resources. Commissioner Delgadillo: SSF is a working city, so he thinks would need to have more time available during the weekends and in the evening especially as people take on more shifts. Chair Cansino said that they (SF) still triage the calls, if it’s not appropriate for them, then call PD or call PPS. She wonders if there is a way for SSF to do this, so if nobody responds, then it gets sent to dispatch so that not flooding 911 with behavioral calls. 988 connects you to suicide prevention and then connects you to responses based on your county. The Vice Chair doesn’t think a 2-person team is enough, but given the financial restraints, thinks 2- person is what is available to us… also how would this work? Would they work the 4-10’s? Chair Cansino said they could rotate, so 4 persons and then 2/2. Does SSF have an on-call system? Vice Chair Junio said they would still be compensated for their time, right? Chair Cansino: yes, and they could get paid a percentage and then once called, be paid their hourly rate. Commissioner Delgadillo thinks that HMB is the base; thinks that SSF is behind, esp. when compared to other cities in the county. The people and the PD deserve this advancement. Chief Campbell: what was notable was that it was a non-profit that had the footprint in the community, so doesn’t know if there is a strong enough SSF based group to be able to provide this like with HMB. Star Vista’s biggest challenge is that everyone is competing for the same people. Amy: given the cost, doesn’t think that SSF could hire 2 clinicians… might SSF could have 1 clinician and 1 person with lived experience. Chair Cansino: if the training courses are already there, just need the people. Vice Chair Junio: Mika is in-house. Chief Campbell likes having Mika in-house to keep each in the loop and the relationship building is there. Vice Chair Junio said this sounds like in-house is the way to go. Chair Cansino: personal preference to be in their own building together, but they have 40 staff, so if just 2 people makes sense to be in PD. Chief Campbell: thinking of HMB, they started at HMB and then expanded to mid-coast and became a joint effort, so we could do that, but it would mean a lot of stakeholders involved. Chair Cansino: doesn’t like that Mika is contracted by Star Vista so she doesn’t get paid enough and supervision is split between Capt. Plank and SV who is removed from the day-to-day. She thinks they need a mental health supervisor. She has to get a lot of consent from different people. She doesn’t even get hazard pay. Vice Chair Junio: in his mind, seeing 2-person plus supervisor, so we are looking at 3 people? Chair Cansino: yes, ideally. All 4 are contracted with Star Vista. Commissioner Delgadillo: the county is expanding to have Chair Cansino: this job takes a toll—they need benefits, just so they could even have their own therapy. Vice Chair Junio: could Mika be a city-employees and a contract with another person from Star vista? Chair Cansino: as long as our licensed people are county employees, this helps with lawsuits too. The clinician definitely should be a city-employees. Chief Campbell: the pay is a big deal, bc it started with 4 people but now someone left bc the opportunity elsewhere was better. Commissioner Yee: pay is important, but is there something we could weave in to make this job an attractive location, like housing or food amenities? Vice Chair Junio: Jeff is all for sharing his thoughts and experiences about how they started—he was even willing to talk about budget. He would love to talk more in-depth with him to talk about the program. He seemed invested to help us get up and running. Commissioner Perez: are there any other grant programs that could fund something like this? Like state or federal options? Chair Cansino: there is a state mental health option. Chief Campbell: the city pays into a bunch of different non-profits and each city pays into the county- wide aspect, so it could be a similar model, JPA (joint powers agreement). Commissioner Perez: wonders if Alameda was decentralized but if they were still able to be efficient and work together for the different cities in their county. Commissioner Perez: this doesn’t get into the weeds, but some overall points to consider, what do we want to recommend and we should try to center our discussion on what goals we are trying to achieve, ex: theory of change from Gardner Center, like decreasing arrests, and we should also consider the evidence we have for what parts of our program is effective. One example is to randomize whether a police officer co-responds and then the Gardner Center could evaluate that. Amy: thinks that this should be a slide on the slide deck. Commissioner Perez: also wanted to share if the Gardner Center could look into high-utilizers and see if there are a lot of high-utilizers in the data to see “need to do a better group connecting these people to resources.” Chief Campbell: works with the homeless outreach team, and they are walking around the encampments, checking in with trailers, etc. Commissioner Yee: when are we planning to propose? Amy: let’s talk about all this feedback, work on presentation, and then have staff check-in. This is an interim to address like “this is what we’ve learned” Chief Campbell: the Gardner Center is finalizing their current report. Vice Chair Junio: stuck on point of high utilizers of how Sean shared that there was a person who used Narcan 4x but they just see the numbers, not the story, but this would be important to know if it’s they’re going. Commissioner Delgadillo: some people have different desires too… he just recently learned that some homeless people are perfectly fine being homeless. Commissioner Yee: devil’s advocate comment, thinking that we’d like to have licensed clinicians, but what perceptions do we assume/know when people see a clinician? Some people have an aversion to doctors, so what kind of perceptions of clinicians do people have? Amy: yes, how do they respond to an authority of a clinician and the authority of a police officer? Chair Cansino: important to remember it’s all about the engagement… I’m dressed in normal clothes but with something that identifies who we are, like a badge or a jacket. We need to think about the nature of the call too. Families like it when we are around and so does PD. Commissioner Yee: appreciates that perspective, but wonders from the perception of the individual, esp. with some cultures, even with the license/education, they aren’t not responsive. Amy: there was some intentionality with Mika’s attire to be non-threatening. She wears khakis, polos, and her jacket has an insignia. Also, with the Promotores, they used to wear vests, but community members were scared so they switched to polos. Chair Cansino: there was also a time, where she worked with an elderly Filipino lady who did not appreciate that Chair Cansino, as a younger person was in the position of authority. Commissioner Yee: yes, that’s something to consider too… but also we are just a few voices. Does it make sense to outreach to the community, like ask them, what do you think? Are we on track, are we representative? Commissioner Perez: another question he had was how member community members are aware of this program? Commissioner Delgadillo: it’s because people are busy… even just having a job is lot, and many people of our community have multiple jobs. Chair Cansino: we haven’t marketed that much though bc we haven’t completed our bylaws yet and community engagement. Chair Cansino: liked how Alameda and SF are diverse in terms of languages and cultures available. The data from the Gardner Center showed that more than half of the person spoke another language besides English. Commissioner Perez: even when we hire someone, we should consider language and cultural competency. Commissioner Yee: what are your thoughts on what you’re seeing so far? Devin: purposefully not jumping in, trying to fill in a lot of blanks right now… didn’t know that bylaws haven’t been finalized yet. He agrees with the rational for hesitancy, before reaching out, let’s make the bylaws a priority, if there will be a potential form for community members to address their concerns, that is something we need to have confidence in for this. Chair Cansino: if there’s an event coming up, maybe we could table and introduce ourselves and get name out there. Devin: there is a focus for each individual event, but with the commissions, the P&R is definitely open to having tables there. For example, there was a realty group at the Easter event. Chief Campbell: The Farmers’ Market is starting up as well. Devin: there are always events on the table. For these events, people are constantly moving, really they are just looking for a QR code. Chair Cansino: wonders if the complaint form could also be a QR or a google form too. Devin: Commissioner Delgadillo mentioned that lots of people work, so who you are going to hear from are people with time on their hands. Amy: the complaints here are pretty serious. So, if you submit a complaint, it goes directly to HR? Commissioner Yee: what would be our triage? There is a reference to the original Commission on Race and Equity, so even for him, it can be confusing. Amy: we talked about youth issues, elder issues, substance use, and homelessness Commissioner Perez: his response is based on what do we need to pay attention to? Commissioner Delgadillo: there are other models in the city, so for example, with the RVs, there is a RV park and navigation center for RWC. This is another example of South City being behind. Even with the youth and seeing what the high schools are providing with them, it looks like we are going to the right direction, but the homeless are being left behind and this is all ages. Not all of them are transients, and the City doesn’t even help them (or doesn’t know if they can). For example, Saint Vincent de Paul always has a line for people trying to get food. Amy: think it works for them to work with the Homeless Outreach Team? Chair Cansino: we need a resource hub. Some of us know a little, some of us don’t know anything. Amy: There is a social services page. Chair Cansino: is there a 411 for SSF for them to learn about the resources? Chief Campbell: yes, there is a 411 but it’s county-based Commissioner Yee: what is the connect with the marketing and the community? Amy: we could use our resources… so it’s matter of how staff could support you. Chair Cansino: there are common themes: • Logistics • Relationships with other cities and agencies • Budget • Training → example CIT is culturally sensitive • Access: how could this program be successful? Think phone calls, availability Commissioner Yee: what is the difference bet. Access and logistics? Chair Cansino: logistics is more like how the program is going to be run throughout…Then this is the area of focus we can home in on Vice Chair Junio: is there where we could lean on staff to do more research on? What does a similar staffing state mean? Commissioner Yee: perhaps it’s the size of the city, etc. Commissioner Delgadillo: I think it’s about the shifts’ timing Vice Chair Junio: remembers Steven talking about that. Devin: Speaking of dates, does that mean that there is no location too? Amy: yes, that’s right. Chair Cansino: is there any way we could do the retreat in the OMP? Devin: Fernekes would be mostly likely be booked, but there are rooms in the MSB that could be open, just depends on goals Commissioner Perez: it would be good to discuss at the retreat or at a future meeting for things to discuss next; one thing he’s thought about a lot is policing and youth. For example, during the pandemic, police approached at-risk youth, so this topic is something he’d like to explore. Chair Cansino: one thing they were thinking about doing is that one of her coworkers died today, so wanted to dedicate one of the Equity Commission’s meetings to that person. Vice Chair Junio: not opposed; doesn’t have to be every meeting, but certainly sees how it could arise. Commissioner Yee: thinks that our volunteers would be a good sounding board for the Commission to reach out to Chair Cansino: would think to dedicate meeting to volunteers and then invite them to come and talk about their input Commissioner Delgadillo: they were recently awarded at the Gala too. Meeting Adjourned at 8:18pm