Employment Advisory Committee Meetings
1. Call to Order/ Roll Call
The meeting was called to order at 1:32p.m. A quorum was present.
Members Present
Commissioner Faye Woo Lee, Commissioner Carlota del Portillo, Molly Baier, Jose Bondoc, Larry Chatmon, Cameron Douraghy; Jerry Jones, Warren Mar, Patrick Regan, Ronnie Rhoe, Ken Stram, Norma Tecson, Adrian Trujillo, John Weber
Members Absent
John Crowley
Staff Present
Linda Chin, Kabir Hypolite, Mary Gin Starkweather
Guests
Rhonda Simmons, Director of the Workforce Development Division - Mayor’s Office of Economic & Workforce Development; Donna Levitt, Manager – Office of Labor Standards Enforcement
2. Adoption of Agenda
Jose Bondoc moved to adopt the May 3, 2007 agenda. Larry Chatmon seconded and the motion was carried unanimously.
3. Adoption of April 5, 2007 Minutes
Commissioner Carlota del Portillo moved to adopt the April 5, 2007 minutes. Jerry Jones seconded and the motion was carried unanimously.
4. Public Comment for items not on the Agenda
None
5. Commissioner Report
Commissioner del Portillo announced the completion of the newMission campus located at 1125 Valencia Street near 22nd. The new campus will register students beginning July 5, 2007. All City College classes will begin on August 15, 2007. On Friday, October 19, 2007, there will be a ribbon cutting ceremony and all committee members are invited to attend.
Commissioner Lee reported that the Chinatown Community campus was on schedule until the Hilton Hotel filed a complaint and stated that the Chinatown campus building would block the sun-light for forty five minutes in the morning and block the view from several of the hotel rooms. There has been active discussion in the community regarding this issue.
Commissioner Lee announced that on May 9, 2007, there will be a celebration for the Asian Pacific Islanders Heritage Month located at the Herbst Theater at 5:30pm and at 6:30pm refreshments will be served at the Green Room.
Commissioner Lee informed the committee members that the HRC Commission approved the following Employment Committee recommendations in principle: requesting that the City departments that fund or offer transitional youth services coordinate their resources and planning efforts; and the recommendation to encourage the City to build a Teen Center in the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood. But there will still be some changes in the language. John Weber thanked everyone and suggested a slight amendment to the language to include “Youth” and “Youth with Special Needs.”
6. Staff Report
Kabir Hypolite reported on the committee priorities for the term 2007 in accordance to the April 5, 2007 planning meeting.
Mary Gin Starkweather reported that she attended the State of the City’s Children’s summit on Thursday, April 19, 2007. There were great workshops and speakers, and was very well attended.
7. Old Business:
None
8. New Business:
Rhonda Simmons, Workforce Director of the Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development - gave an overview of the progress her office has made in their Workforce Development Strategic Plan including the proposed establishment of partnerships with the business community and academic sectors and the roles of the Work Investment Act of San Francisco and Youth Council Boards.
The Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development serve as the oversight and policy-making body for employment and training programs and services in San Francisco. Its broader mandate is to oversee the implementation of a comprehensive city and county-wide workforce strategy that will coordinate all city department resources connected to workforce development to meet the needs of job seekers and employers.
Ms. Simmons spoke of Proposition I, passed in November 2004 and the goal was to coordinate implementation of economic and workforce strategies and programs among City department and partners.
Ms. Simmons highlighted some of her analysis of the San Francisco workforce. The City of San Francisco has employment workforce resources spread out among twenty departments on the adult side. On the youth side, there are three or four departments. The difficult task was to coordinate twenty departments to embrace a certain way to implement workforce programs and to have outcomes agreed upon. The City of San Francisco receives approximately sixty to seventy million dollars toward workforce from a combination of Federal, General funds, and some Foundation funds. Ms. Simmons stated that her challenge was to access the best possible way for the City of San Francisco to gain the most results.
Commissioner del Portillo stated that currently, City College has four job openings. If only there was a connect, a way of linking people who are job ready and have skills to link them to learn the little bit that they need to learn in order to be hired. The City & County of San Francisco offers good benefits and health insurance.
Ms. Simmons stated that UCSF, City College, and the City & County of San Francisco are the largest employers in San Francisco. City College is one of the partners in the Workforce Development Strategic Plan. The strategy is to work with City College in a much more comprehensive way. Employers want a central point of contact, to know where to go to have job orders filled. The One Stop Centers work in partnership with community based organizations (CBOs) as one of the central points of contact for employers.
The Mayor’s office of Economic and Workforce Development will develop workforce policies and coordinate activities across city departments to support employment and training activities in the following priority industries:
Biotechnology, Construction, Health care, Information Technology, Retail, and Transportation.
There were discussion among issues regarding immigrate workers in the housing market, a clearinghouse data system for employment seekers and companies seeking to hire, and the need for one stop centers that are neighborhood based.
Donna Levitt, Manager, Office of Labor Standards Enforcement - presented an overview on the Paid Sick Leave Ordinance that has been in effect since February 5, 2007. All employers must provide paid sick leave to each employee who performs work in San Francisco, including on a part-time or temporary basis. Paid sick leave shall begin to accrue as of February 5, 2007 for employees working for an employer on or before February 5, 2007.
After February 5, 2007, paid sick leave begins to accrue 90 calendar days after the employee’s first day of work. An employee accrues one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. There is a cap of 40 hours of accrued paid sick leave for employees of employers for which fewer than 10 persons (including full-time, part-time, and temporary employees) work for compensation during a given week. An employee’s accrued paid sick leave carries over from year to year. Employees are entitled to paid sick leave for their own medical care and also to aid or care for a family member or designated person.
Under the Ordinance, employees who assert their rights to receive paid sick leave are protected from retaliation. The City can investigate possible violations, shall have access to employer records, and can enforce the paid sick leave requirements by ordering reinstatement of employees, payment of paid sick leave unlawfully withheld, and penalties.
The Committee members asked questions and there was active discussion. Ms. Levitt announced that the third and last public hearing for the Paid Sick Leave Ordinance was on Thursday, May 3, 2007. The location of the public hearing was City Hall, room 238 at 5:30pm.
Larry Chatmon, Senior Contract Manager at the Department of Human Services and also a Committee member presented information on the history and development of the One Stop San Francisco System from 1997 through 2000.
In 1997, 180 business executives, labor leaders, job seeker representatives, city department staff, and community leaders, San Francisco’s Mayor’s Task Force on Welfare Reform issued a report which included recommendations for creating a coherent and coordinated workforce development system that could be easily accessible to both residents and employers. Specific characteristics of the system were to include: 1) coordination of existing workforce programs and initiatives: 2) assurance of universal access by all San Francisco residents; 3) provision for a centralized point of access for workforce information; and 4) establishment of a centralized database of all workforce development resources.
The Private Industry council of San Francisco, in partnership with the San Francisco department of Human Services, State Employment Development Department, City College of San Francisco, National council on the Aging submitted a proposal and received a one-time grant of $651,625 to implement a One Stop System in San Francisco. The project goals were the following: 1) To provide “Job-Education-Training Seekers” easy access to a range of core career development services; 2) To provide employers from all industry sectors easy access to a range of core services; 3) To create and maintain effective communication links with organizations offering services, education, training, or jobs; 4) to establish long-range financial stability and deliver services in a cost-effective and efficient manner; 5) to access and improve services by using ongoing evaluation of process objectives, measurable outcomes, and client satisfaction
The One Stop San Francisco Partnership was committed to advancing the economic well-
being of the San Francisco community by offering high-quality, user-friendly career development activities, referral services, employment connections and economic forecasting to individuals seeking jobs, education and training as well as employed workers and employers.
Mr. Chatmon discussed the four key strategies and spoke about the project challenges in terms of bringing all partner agencies on board with the need for a universal system of communication and sharing information.
There was active discussion and great interest in the One Stop San Francisco system. Ken Strand made a motion to have this item continued for the next meeting on June 7, 2007 and it was seconded by Rich Bondoc.
9) Announcemnts/Calendar Matters:
The next meeting will be held:
Date: Thursday, June 7, 2007
Time: 1:30 to 3:30 PM
Place: HRC Offices
25 Van Ness Avenue, 8th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102
10) Adjournment
John Weber moved and Norma Tecson seconded to adjourn at 3:35pm. It carried unanimously.