Transcripts For SFGTV BOS 20240702 : vimarsana.com

SFGTV BOS July 2, 2024

Supervisor connie chan, chair of the committee. Im joined by, supervisor myrna melgar and Shamann Walton and today, supervisor matt dorsey has been temporarily appointed to replace president aaron peskin, our clerk. Its brant saliba. I would like to thank jamie ivatury for from sfgovtv for broadcasting this meeting. Mr. Clerk, do you have any announcement . Thank you, madam chair. Just a friendly reminder to those in attendance to please make sure to silence all cell phones and Electronic Devices to prevent interruptions to our proceedings, should you have any documents to be included as part of the file. This should be submitted to myself. The clerk, Public Comment will be taken on each item on this agenda, when your item of interest comes up in Public Comment is called, please line up to speak on the west side of the chamber to your right, my left along those curtains and while not necessary to provide Public Comment, we do invite you to fill out a comment card and leave them on the tray by the television, to your left by the doors. If you wish to be accurately recorded for the minutes. Alternatively, you may submit Public Comment in writing in either of the following ways. He mailed them to myself, the budget and Appropriations Committee clerk hat brant d. O. J. A l i p a at sfc gov. Org if you submit Public Comment via email, it will be forwarded to the supervisors and also included as part of the official file, you may also send your written comments via Us Postal Service to our office in city hall at one doctor Carlton B Goodlett place, room 244 San Francisco, california 94 102. And due to the memorial day holiday act, items acted upon today are expected to appear on the board of supervisors agenda of june 4th unless otherwise stated. Madam chair, thank you. I just wanted to say that given the fact the volume of todays agenda and that numbers of City Departments are going to come back to make their presentation, as well as trailing legislation, i would like to limit todays Public Comments to one minute. And so with that, before we get started, i want to let people know that what to expect for today, for the remaining of agenda. Item number one is a piece of legislation, the sponsor is supervisor sherman walton, which im a cosponsor to, this actually, this item has already been approved and recommended, by the rules committee. But since it has a fiscal impact. So thats why it has to be scheduled to be heard by this committee as well. And this item we will take normally, like, like a regular item that we do on agenda. However next we will hear item two and eight, which are what we call, budget trailing legislation associated with the may propose budget. And since item two applies to multiple departments and item eight applies to, a department that does not have a bla report, budget and legislative Analyst Report, we will take those two items separately. Finally we will call items three through five together and hear the budget and legislative Analyst Report on their recommendation and hear back from the departments. There are also additional budget trailing legislation, which are items six through 13. And i will also call those up together with the department that it is affiliated of it is affiliated with. And so with that, mr. Clerk, please call item number one. Yes, madam chair, item number one is an ordinance amending the administrative code to amend the Language Access ordinance to clarify departments responsibilities, to provide Language Access Service Services to members of the public and to clarify the role of the office of Civic Engagement and immigrant affairs in administering the Language Access ordinance to require Language Access service to be provided in chinese, spanish, filipino, and any other language for which the requisite number of persons qualify. Has a substantial number of limited English Proficient persons. To lower the threshold amount for the requisite number of persons needed to meet the definition of substantial number of limited English Proficient persons to amend the formula for determining when the language becomes eligible for Language Access services. To require departments to translate signage. To require departments to translate Digital Content provided on digital platforms. To clarify that crisis situations also includes, but is not limited to, pandemics, refugee relief, and disaster related activities is to require departments that provide Emergency Response services in the event of a crisis, situation or Disaster Related Services involving an immediate threat of serious harm, mass casualties, conditions of Natural Disaster or conditions posing extreme peril to the safety of persons and property. To provide Language Access services. To rename the annual Compliance Plan to annual compliance report. To impose requirements for the Language Access ordinance. Summary report to require departments to inform members of the public of their right to file a complaint and of a process for providing feedback on the departments Language Access services to require office of Civic Engagement and immigrant affairs to create a know your rights brochure. To require departments posting notice of the availability of Language Access services and a know your rights brochure to require departments to budget and plan for delivery of Language Access services. To require office of Civic Engagement and immigrant affairs to prepare an investigation. Summary report of each investigation that will include findings and recommendations to address the issues raised, and to create and maintain a website for the posting of investigation summary reports, and to delete the Financial Disclosure requirement for immigrant Rights Commission members. Madam chair, thank you. And, supervisor sherman walton, would you like to make opening remarks . Thank you so much, chair chan. And as chair chan stated, we actually did, address these changes in rules committee and just really excited about the opportunity to do everything we can to provide Language Access for more communities in San Francisco. This will strengthen the current Language Access ordinance that we have in place, lower the threshold, provide more opportunities for more languages to be, utilized across City Departments, but also puts in ways and strategies for City Departments to be able to comply and does a lot to make sure that our, our departments are going to be held accountable for providing this access through the Language Access ordinance or the language ordinance access. So im just excited about these changes, and i want to thank, of course, oca, for working with us on this. The office and immigrant affairs commission, for working with us on this, and of course, all communities who came to the hearings that we had at the rules committee and also came to the rally to express their gratitude and thank you for us increasing Language Access here in San Francisco. So thank you so much, to everyone whos worked on this with our office, a special shout out to my chief of staff, natalie g. And again, thank you so much, chair chan, for making sure that this was heard today. Of course, supervisor melgar, thank you, chair chan, first, i want to, profusely thank supervisor walton for his continuing work on this issue. I think Language Access is a just, crucial, fundamental component of full civic participation, by the totality of our San Francisco population, that being said, i do worry that we are literally not putting our money where our mouth is, because we struggle with Language Access, a lot, not just in written communication with folks, tax bills, you know, all kinds of things, but also, here in these chambers, to appropriately staff, the need for translation. And so i am wondering, how this, you know, Going Forward will affect the budget for oca or if there are other ways that we are looking at funding, you know, the new state mandates, or the expanding need for Language Access, because, you know, i know some of the state stuff came out after oca had submitted its budget to the mayor. So im just i mean, you know, it may be something this committee has to address, but i wanted to say both that i, think that we here in this, chambers are very committed to this issue and to full participation. And i worry that we say these things, but then we dont actually, you know, fund it as we should. Thank you. And so super visor walton. Thank you, chair chan. And thank you, supervisor melgar , for bringing up one of the major issues and concerns about actually achieving complete access when it comes to making sure that all of our, our language needs are met, we are having conversations about hiring the appropriate staff, of course. To hold departments accountable during this budget process. But another thing, and i do just want to note that weve had conversations our office with several City Departments because the requirements and these new amendments are going to require that our departments really take the time to step up and provide Language Access opportunities in their printed materials on their website, and making sure that forms are available. And the languages here, that are most spoken and most needed in the city. And so we do have a long way to go in terms of getting the resources to achieve complete compliance, and definitely want to make sure that thats known. But these amendments are intent of course, is to make sure that we are intentional about addressing the Language Access needs that exist here in the city. But we are going to work to get some positions in place during this budget process to help us do a better job as we continue to move forward. But thank you for bringing that up, because that has always been the case. Weve never completely put the resources in place that are needed to achieve complete compliance. Yes. Thank you, supervisor walton. Im going to call up on to the office of Civic Engagement and immigrant affairs to make a brief presentation on the legislation, and which and then we will then go to the bla report, which actually has indication about the fiscal impact. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning, george rivas with the office of Civic Engagement, immigrant affairs. Good morning, supervisors chair chan, i wont go into a lot of the details because a lot of the details have already been shared. So well go right directly into, maybe we can do the second to the last slide just to give you a picture of, like, where were at currently the one before that. And then we can go into the details of what we would need minimally, to implement some of the amendments that we, proposed or considered. So, heres a chart reflecting the current Staffing Levels at oca that provide Language Access services, our unit includes three language specialists, one per current required language and a Language Access assistant. These roles are supervised by the Language Language Services supervisor. Our policy and Civic Engagement officer role supervises the Language Services supervisor and our Language Access data and research specialist, which is currently vacant. This is the unit that provides Capacity Building and support to City Departments and provides supplemental services. Oversees the citys citywide vendor contracting list for Language Services as well, and then this next slide, the elements proposed would expand and deepen the units responsibilities and activities. As mentioned by supervisor walton, for example, implementing amendments would require more frequent, individualized, customized training and Technical Assistance provided to Department Staff. The amendments would also result in changes to Language Access complaints, resulting in additional communication and other administrative tasks for processing and reporting. Those complaints, based on the changes proposed here, are the minimum resources that i foresee oca would need in order to implement the main amendments being proposed. This includes upgrading two existing positions and adding two new positions. Upgrading. In 1823. Role to a manager. One classification would be reflective of the increased requirements of this role, including managing a larger team and more responsibilities. Increased Team Activities and increased engagement with community and policy makers. The amendments will also result in Additional Data analysis responsibilities for oca, for example, working more closely with departments and recommending programmatic and operational changes in response to the complaints data compliant compliance data. The role would also have additional responsibilities related to being lead investigators. So now we have to work more closely with departments and investigate the complaints and provide systemic recommendations to those departments. Upgrading 1840 role to an 1824 classification will reflect the increased responsibility. On the topic of new positions, we would want to see the additional Training Officer to the Language Access unit team through. Our team does provide some annual trainings to departments throughout the year. We anticipate more frequent, more customized training to departments based on their needs and compliance. Lastly, the lao language amendments were also lower the threshold to 6000. We project at. At least one new language will be added in 2026, the knees and would become a required language, which we will need at least one new specialist to fulfill that duty in our office, to provide support to departments and also fill any gaps in the citys translation interpretation requests. And im here for any questions, and im joined by some of my colleagues from the office and also by katie prelature, from the city administrators office. Good morning, madam chair. Members of the committee, dan gonzales with the budget and legislative analysts office. Item one is a proposed ordinance that would amend chapter 91 of the administrative code to add new requirement to the Language Access ordinance. The proposed ordinance would make several changes as listed on page two of our report. The primary incremental fiscal impacts of the new Language Access requirements are. The new signage requirements, the new Digital Content translation requirements, reducing the threshold number of speakers for requiring Language Access services, which will likely require citywide document translations into vietnamese. Starting in 2026, and new staff for the office of Civic Engagement and immigrant affairs exhibit one, on page three of our report shows our estimate of the citywide costs for the new requirements. We estimate 730,000 in new translation costs in calendar year 2025, and 1,695,000 in new translation costs in calendar year 2026. In addition, oca reports it will need four position reclassifications and three new staff, with a total cost of approximately 6,000. Starting in fiscal year 2425, we will evaluate all position changes if they are included in the mayors proposed budget for the next two years, and we do consider approval of the proposed ordinance to be a policy matter for the board of supervisors. Thank you. Thank you. I dont have any other, questions at the moment, and so lets go to public. I dont see any name on the roster. So lets go to Public Comments on this item. Yes, madam chair, we now invite members of the public who have joined us today who wish to speak on this item. Number one, now is your opportunity to app

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