hopelessness that some of our residents feel in this world. many problems arise from language access. without this, communication between physicians and patients is not a two way street. to many times, i have seen them sit, stair, and not to a request for question. what is wrong with this picture? can you simply imagine not into everything, not understanding what was communicated? we trust health care professionals to take care of us. we need to trust that they have our best interest in hand, which means they're patient fully comprehending their care. as a nurse, i feel i have the responsibility to change the situation. many times, i am used to translate for a patient because of their limited knowledge of medical jargon. i feel the need for translators in the hospital, and hope to be a part of this implementation.

health care reform proposed by president obama is revolutionary. if universal health care becomes a reality, we need to ensure immigrants are included and have proper access to this plan. i do not believe the commission currently has anyone from the medical field. health care is such an important topic right now, and having someone with firsthand experience, is vital to the committee. i stand before you as someone who sees the problems, struggles, and possible solutions. i can and will contribute dues from the medical profession. i feel my experience growing up in an immigration -- it immigrant family and my professional life had prepared me well for this position. thank you all for your time. supervisor campos: thank you. supervisor mar: could i just asked ms. chee -- i agree health

care is critical. you are a registered nurse. there are a number of community- based organizations that you have worked with. you are multilingual -- >> i am fluent in cantonese, mandarin, two other dialects, and a little bit of spanish. supervisor mar: thank you. supervisor campos: next, if we could call on solomon jones. >> good morning, supervisors. i am a commissioner of the immigrants' rights commission. i have been a commissioner for several years. i would like to be reinstated. i need your approval for this. i am a community court operator. i am also a member of the

momajic collaborative organization. i am in the community center right now for african immigrants. also, we have an african academy at the northern police station at fillmore and turk, where we teach african students about their history, culture, language. we want to expose our culture to the majority of the population because we are the children of the cradle of civilization. we are the children of the first humans on earth -- i do not know who can speak about this -- but according to the bible, the land is called eden. we feel we have a lot to contribute to the commission and city to make it a viable entity, to make it a productive

society, and we want our people to be productive members of our society. we want to expose our children and people that come into this country. we understand the problem with immigration. it is have a crucial year for immigrants. we need to make improvements. the second issue, this is a critical time. immigrants want to be productive members of society. they want to be a part of our society. they want to be able to develop. they want to grow. they need social, economic help. a lot of this is of great concern for their community. i would like to have another session to finish the work that i have done. i have been writing a resolution for the commission.

i had been writing a letter to the commission. also, there are different layers of immigrants in america. some are coming in in the past, some are coming here legally, illegally, but they are coming to be a part of our civic society, get education. i think i have been representing that part of the issue. i have been working, listening, going to community meetings, i have gone to africa and advocacy, the japanese community center. my interest is to help secure san francisco as a sanctuary city. supervisor campos: if i could

ask a question, commissioner. it is something that i always aske any commissioner that is asking for reappointment, where issues of this type come up. what is your attendance like to the commission meetings? do you attend the meetings, do you get there on time? could you sit a little bit about the work that you have done? clearly, we want people who have the right perspective, who are committed to working with the city, but there has to be a demonstration of that commitment through the work. if you could comment on that. >> i think i have a near-perfect record this year. there have been a couple of times where i was late. there has been a great deal of

development. there has been a great deal of work that i have done. i have gone to many, many other commission meetings. i have gone to the middle east discrimination of human rights meeting -- many other meetings. i have been putting in my full effort, as far as i'm concerned. i do not think there is an issue with any of my attendance. supervisor campos: thank you. supervisor mar? supervisor mar: i wanted to ask more about the african-america institute that you are the head of. >> i am the creator of the organization. we build relationships between africa and america. it was started in 2005 -- 2003,

something like that. we have evolved to the african cultural community center. we won a community center for our people where we can meet, where we can help with social services, education. we have been offering the african educational program at the northern police station. we have evolved but there are some problems in the community. there are all kinds of frictions, and we are trying to help them understand, by being productive and understanding history. supervisor campos: thank you, commissioner. if we could call wilma parker de pavloff.

good morning. >> good morning. i am here to introduce myself and talk about my interest in the immigrant rights. i also need to clear up a little bit confusion. i am here today, obviously, to represent myself, and also it says on the program i am interested in seat number three. in fact, i have spoken to people and it should read seat 5. supervisor campos: if i may ask, when you submit your application, did you check a specific box for the seat? >> i submitted that back in may, and this is the first time that i have heard much information back from anyone. supervisor campos: in your

application, you actually have seat 3. for purposes of the meeting, the way that public meeting laws work, we can only act on what is noted on the agenda. what is on your application is seat 3. >> ok, it was back in may but that can stand. i am very interested in education and how it affects the community. i am myself an immigrant, coming from the east coast and chicago. i have, for 30 years, made east market my home. in a chicago, i was a public- school teacher. very interested in how that would be affecting students there, the kinds of opportunities they would have. when i got to san francisco, --

i am an artist -- so i decided to open up an art school. i do have board experience. i have been a trustee at the rhode island school of design for four years, which was my first school. they were very concerned about their school going global. we have a very large caribbean community coming to our school and we are -- korean community coming to our school and we are trying to promote that. i am very familiar with redevelopment. i went too many meetings, sometimes five a week. in fact, we are now living through the plan for the area and are seeing great changes. i have supervised an art gallery on sixth street. i am concerned about the safety of the businesses opening up

there. but i am most interested in education, how people come here, how they can get a foot in the door. i recently attended a 50th anniversary for one organization who worked with a brilliant engineers, thinking outside the box, and they were willing to hire. that is my interest in art education. i feel is a segue into medicine, engineering, and it is important for people. also, how i am those are my qua. supervisor campos: thank you. samer danfoura.

>> [inaudible] supervisor campos: do you know how late? let's move to elahe enssani. >> good morning, supervisors. thank you for this opportunity to come here to speak before you. my name is elahe enssani. i am a professor at san francisco university. i am also a founder of a technology firm. i am also on the board for women in science, technology, and engineering, with the purpose of educating women to get into the industry of science.

above all, i am an immigrant, which is the hardest thing i have done in my life. forget about the other things that i have done. all these connections make you who you are. being, on this commission has been a privilege and an honor for me. it is something that is very close to my hard and my whole purpose had been not only to be here and let people know how difficult it is to be an immigrant, as to improve the quality of life for them. but also, wringing my community, the iranian-american community into the larger american community. because we are relatively new immigrants, we live and hang around with iranians, but we

need to make sure that they are part of another larger communities, irish-americans, chinese americans. i will give you a couple of examples and then i can open up to questions. one that i am really proud of, in 2006, we got a call from someone whose wife was in prison from i.c.e. they did not know what to do. he had heard of me, heard that there was an iranian on the arts commission. he had no idea what the commission was about. i was able to get in touch with our executive director's office. i must say, we have some great people in our condition. we were able to contact nancy pelosi. through that, another congressperson. we found the real issue was not legal.

she was being represented. something was simply missing somewhere. so we had a campaign to get her to her family by thanksgiving, and we were able to do that. just last year also, someone was about to be evicted. they came to us, and through our wonderful director, the chair of the commission, we were able to prevent this. these are just two examples. aside from that, making sure that we can promote the accomplishments of the people in my community and other communities to let people get to know each other. supervisor campos: thank you. if we could now call samer danfoura. >> good morning, supervisors. i am not samer but he is held up

in court. he is an immigration attorney. he was not able to control the situation, so i will speak on his behalf, with your position. as you know, the irc has been working with my office on a number of different areas including importcomprehensive immigration reform, muni regulation, language access, a century city policies. as many of you have said, this is a critical time in our work, and we ask you again to appoint commissioners who have the expertise and competency to advance our work with integrity and credibility. just showing up for a meeting does not mean that someone is active or knowledgeable or able to articulate the needs of the immigrant community. so on behalf of staff, we would like to recommend for your consideration the following

individuals for reappointment. commissioner ver haile for seat number one. you have heard what a change she has been for the women's community, elderly community, and people of color. samer danfoura for seat number three. he was in our commission as a mayoral appointee, but was not reappointed. he has been comprehensive in our immigration reform work, instrumental in helping us draft the report. elahe enssani, she is a well qualified individual that we would recommend. we do not have anyone foresee no. 5. supervisor campos: thank you. let's open this up to the public. this is an opportunity for the public to come up and speak on vacancies. you each have two minutes.

>> thank you, supervisors. i was the first batch of the immigrant rights commission. later on, i was joined by vera haile, and before she came to our commission, she worked in the chinatown self help for the elderly, and she is knowledgeable of all of the commissioners, knowledgeable of the needs of the committee. currently, i am on the condition of aging. we -- commission of aging. we rely on vera a lot for

information. she would often come to our commission meetings to solve some problems for the benefit of the commission. i urge you to reappoint her. i also support teresa chee. she is very active in the chinese community. she also belongs to the american legion. ina regular member and she is an auxiliary member. both of us belong to the chinese democratic club. she really knows her stuff. she knows what metical, medicare is. lots of people ask her what this is, getting the views on part d and c. i urge you to appoint these two ladies. they will be very worthy.

supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker please. >> good morning, supervisors. i am on the staff for planning for elders. i am here to speak in favor of the reappointment of vera haile to the immigrants rights commission. she has worked with our organization for over 20 years where she is loved and respected as a strong advocate for seniors, people with disabilities, immigrants in the city. when i started a year and a half ago, whenever i have a question about anything that i was working in, all roads seemed to lead to vera. we worked together on the task force that entered the seniors with disabilities would be able to live at home and not have to

go into nursing homes. i can say from my own experience when there is discussion about policies regarding ihhs, vera always has a lens on how this affects the immigrant community. she is very conscious of these issues. one thing that i think is important to know about her, she is really in the community every day. when she talked about our campaign to pressure muni to freeze the discount fares for seniors and people with disabilities -- those 4600 signatures that we got -- i think she probably got about 2000 of them because she was at meal sites talking to people. she has deep knowledge of the issues facing the people. she thinks outside of the silos that often trapped us where we

are often trapped under one issue and she understands the multiple issues that can affect the well-being of people in the city. supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker. we are happy to see mr. paulson back in city hall. >> good luck with these appointments. and remember if -- if you want good appointments, get there in a hurry immigrants will not have to worry ain't no mountain high enough ain't no valley know enough ain't no city good enough from picking a good commission remember when they came to the city at the rules committee, they can always count on rules committee

from that day on i made a vow that we would be there to help them somewhere somehow ain't no mountain high enough ain't novella low end of a no citywide and the to keep you from picking a good immigration commission the day they came to the city they were so free they knew the rules committee they wanted to count on you from that day on we made a vow we would be helping you somehow ain't no mountain high enough ain't novella low enough we will be there to help you ♪

supervisor campos: thank you >>. good morning, supervisors. i am supporting teresa chee. she has the experience. we need somebody in care from this commission. universal health care is going to be revolutionized. the u.s. will have universal health care soon, hopefully. i think she will be a fair and partial person to this commission. thank you. supervisor campos: seeing none, public comment is closed. -- thank you, the speaker please. >> good morning, everyone. i am an immigrant myself. i have the experience of an

immigrant. i know how hard it is to be an immigrant. no access. this one is important to me. i worked heavily with the community, i am a community activist. i am active with cathy and we've worked with theresa, and she is a dedicated person. hawaii am also a member of the asian pacific americans center. recently i also ran for the district 10 supervisor. i talk with thousands of people every day. i hear a lot of people saying that they need someone with language access. teresa has the experience.

we have worked together. i know she has dedication. i urge you, please appoint teresa chee as your next commissioner. supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker please. >> good morning, commissioners. i am the commander for capapost. we have so many members in the asian community. i come from a family of immigrants. my father, my parents, they had problems understanding english, access to what they deserved. my father was a veteran, too -- how important it is to help these people -- how important it

is to help the people who do not know english, do not know how to get help. teresa is the perfect person. she speaks so many different languages. she is involved in health care as a nurse. i support teresa chee to be a new immigrants rights commissioner. i hope that you will also consider her. thank you. supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker please. >> my name is centered more. i am here for teresa chee. i will keep thing short and sweet. she has been in health care for a while. knowing her personally, she has the credibility and positive energy. she cares deeply about the immigrant situation and the

issues they are having out there. i am here to just be in support, let you know, it is hard for me to be here. i do not like being in the spotlight, but i want to be supportive of her and let you know that she is someone that you can truly count on. i hope everything goes well. thank you. supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker please. >> my name is bradley lim. i am a retired businessman. i am also in support of teresa chee. i know she is a registered nurse. she does were close with immigrants. i know she deeply cares about this position. supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker please.