Transcripts For SFGTV Government Access Programming 20240713

15 years trying to wake youth up. Im going to talk about sam if thats ok. I currently, today, have youth on my caseload from sunny dale and the towers. And from the point and from oak dale and double rock and eddy rock, mack block, the chop, and all who hate each other. Neighborhoods who may hate each other but from my personal experience with these, every last one of them knows and respects and trusts sam. And from my conversations with sam, he knows and loves everyone of them. Imagine when a guy like this could do without being confined through the chains of our archaic system so thats all im going to say. Thank you. Constance walker, seat 11. Good afternoon, my name is constructor stance walker im a special education teacher. Im honored to be here today because i think its so important. I worked with the students at wood side for 22 years and its been a privilege to work with the amaze students and im a teacher for exceptional needs, co director of the juvenile justice restorative Garden Program and a teacher, trainer for culturally responsive teacher and the lgbtq coordinator. I acknowledge as a white teacher, the need to check my own bias and privileged and i continue to work on that. I learned from my students about their struggle with poverty, neglected communities, racism, and disconnect with schools. But what the kids say over and over again is that being separated from their family is the worse pain. And one student told me that we shouldnt make our School Program pleasant in anyway because it makes kids comfortable and institutionalized. And that really had a big impact on me. So the paradox is that no matter how much effort we take to create relevant curriculum and a warm school environment, its still a jail cell that they go back to. So, we know were failing because we see so many of the same kids over and over again and what were doing is not working. So maybe we can stop looking at them and what theyre doing wrong and start looking at ourselves and what were doing wrong. My students tell he me what support and resources they needed that would have prevented them from entering the system in the first place. If we all listen to them, i believe we have a chance to create a new future thats why im hopeful for this opportunity. I would offer my experience as an educator to work with students of different ages and skill levels and inclusive classrooms using trauma informed and culturally responsive practices. It would be an honor to help with this process. Thank you. Thank you. Kevin lewis, seat 11. Good afternoon, kevin lewis. I want to apply for seats 10 and 11. On the agenda it said 11. My name is kevin lewis im a native of San Francisco and work at jewel knif Juvenile Hall. Ive been working there for a decade and working with youth of San Francisco for 20 years. Prior to working at Juvenile Hall, i was a San Francisco school bis driver and i worked at the mission. I drove the school bus i was working on my degree in social work and i wanted to dedicate my professional life to helping marginalized and at risk youths in the city. In 2007, i fulfilled my goal and gained employment with the San Francisco jewel knife Probation Department as a councilor. While growing up, i was in trouble with the police. I turned my life around in my 20s and discovered that i had a gift that i wanted to use to help young people. And that give was my experience as a juvenile. Today i have another gift that i can use to help youth of San Francisco. Thats my experience working at Juvenile Hall. I work on the line oneonone daily. I sit with youth and listen to them tell me about their family and personal struggles. Quite often i establish relationships with youth that are based on trust and respect and sometimes never been established with any other adult in their life. I tend to sort the yearly Outdoor Adventure and camping trip where probation youth are given an opportunity to gain employment with the park and rec. Its a really good opportunity. And i support that. Ive seen a lot during my career. The most prevalent and disturbing thing is how the system quite often sets up youth for failure. Ill be bring that to the table. I would like to come to the table with my experience to Juvenile Hall. I will bring my coworkers opinions and concerns to the table. Im knowledgeable about title 15 as well as the Department Policy and procedures and im committed to working on this group to develop a realistic plan that keeps the best interest of the youth and in mind and keeping San Francisco residents safe. I ask that i be considered for either one of those chairs. Thank you. And is there anybody who applied that was not here when i may have called their name . Come on up. Thank you. Im danielle and i am working as a case manager at sunset youth services. A little bit about my personal and professional. I was able to attend old jewel juvenile so i got the experience to full both in. I can say that being jewel knife made me relapse and go back many of the best thing that happened to me was a Rehabilitation Program which im a proud alumni. It helped me and i group with gh that. Ill have my hands in Nonprofit Group being im from the bay view hunters point, im a single mom. I feel that they dont rehabilitate us, we dont give us the resources that we need to not go back in. They just lock us away and be like you are going to do your time and figure it out. I dont believe thats what should be happening. I believe that we need more programs that. That helped me to help these young people p thats it. Thank you. Is there anyone else that didnt get a chance to speak . With that said, we will now up for Public Comment. If you have Public Comment, please, lineup over here to my left, your right. You have two minutes. Good afternoon, supervisors. Kim San Francisco Labor Council. I just want to say thank you so much for passing this legislation. One of my earliest experiences when i first came out to San Francisco was visiting my brother in stockton. And so i know how traumatizing it can be. With that said, on behalf of the San Francisco Labor Council, i want to speak in support of three candidates for seats 9, 10 and 11. They would be constant walker, samuel carr and debra bill. Thats who the Labor Council has put forward fort labor seats and we strongly encourage to you appoint those folks. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon, supervisors. Political organizer for seiu local 1001. Im excited were at this juncture in this movement to close jewe Juvenile Hall. We know it was a challengely start and it required a lot of meetings. I think many of you got to meet samuel carr to speak with him to learn about his experiences and what he brings to the table. We are very excited he applied and were very excited that other members of sieu local 10 1 applied and. Aarti less of who you chose we will ensure that the voices of all of our members are part of the process. For me personally, because this is an exciting opportunity, i think an opportunity to create a bigger table that brings together the Public Sector workers but also the nonprofit Workers Community and people who have been directly impacted by Juvenile Hall in a positive and negative way to ensure we create a better system going forward. Were definitely committed at local 10 1 and ensuring the purchases ex the goals of the legislation are accomplished and that is for us that the main priority and again working with our members and empowering them and thank you for moving this forward. Thank you. Next speaker. Sabrina hall. Thank you for letting everyone have an opportunity to speak. I just want to say to whatever gets appointed, please keep in mind of what i said about district 10s plight. The juvenile system will never be restored. People are suffering. Our children are being stolen from us, blamed by cps and blamed on behavioral problems or something in the home. We go to these sigh psychologists and they dying noisdiagnoseour children that gm addicted to drugs or wind up in jewel knife or jail. Not only that, our and my 13yearold asked what language we speak. She said no what language we speak. We have no sense of belonging and we need, in order for juvenile, even if its closed or not for our children, to be sent on the right path. We need community involvement. We need a whole village to raise the children. We need our African American children to feel like they belong here. We have no classes for language up in there in schools. We have nothing for our simone a community that teaches them how to speak. We have no sense of belonging so it will be a whirlwind effect even if juvenile gets closed the plight of district 10 and being that the construction took the dirt somewhere else, no telling where else the dirt went around, we are still suffering. We should not be blamed for be breeders to have our children are stolen from us or our men stolen from us in jail because of something we did not even asked to be in. Thank you. Next speaker. Thank you for having me here. So i wanted to just give you a little bit more information about me and what im doing. That time has already passed. Community comment. If you want to speak on other applicants thats ok. I want to say that i will recommend that we do the best to pick the best people but i wanted to say that we dont want yall to forget about us that did apply because we all can be a working group at any other entity is what im trying to express because i am founding an organization because i am the voice of the aftermath on drugs for bay view so i have started an Organization Called born and raised Community Developers whereas one of my roles would like to be supervisor shaman is because were going to close juvenile we need to do some real good education around if its closed that we dont want our children in urban communities to just think because its closed that they can be doing things other than what we need them to be doing so i will likely consider grass root organizations to help yall move this mission. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon. Annabell political director of united e educators of San Francisco. I stand here in solidarity with the San Francisco Labor Council in the appointments of constructor stance walker for seat nine and member of united educators of San Francisco and debra bill, member of teamsters local 856 for seat 6, samuel carr and for seat number 11. I want to state that there is evidence and research that has concluded that involvement in the juvenile System Reduces negative outcomes for young people simply stated incarceration increases a Young Persons likelihood of committing future offenses and we heard that today from many of the applicants. I also want to state that we had three amazing members who applied and that is constant walker, David Padilla and laura papplin and we support the appointment of constant walker who say teacher at juvenile Detention Center and she learns how time prove outcome for students by implementing corporately responsive teachers and studying experts in the fields like increase and in classroom. We surger urge to appoint her ft number nine 678. They have been working with the student population for over 30 years and understanding the needs of this youth and has worked in various programs which Service Youth needs so he understands how this program should come together in a designed to serve our youth. We support him foray pointment number 6. Seat number 6. I also want to state our support for lauren. And a member of uesf and she bring a vast of experience. Thank you. Next speaker. Hello, again. I just wanted to comment, Public Comment on supportive the parent and youth seats. I really want to echo to you all that it is priority to support youth seats in advocate for the seat for the youth on this working group and for the parent seat because right now, those are who is on the ground in the point and in the mission right now working with young folks. I also have those who are there are two cultures. So someone who is an ally to black folks, its my duty to fulfill that what does it mean to center a black leadership from the youth that the he willers to bheeldersand ive beg around what solutions are, how do we do how do we have extended working groups for the support of the working group and thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Hello. After sitting through the whole process, i would like to i think were in good hands with the applicants that are id like to withdraw my seat and endorse a few people that i feel like ive had experience and seen their work. The person that i would like to im withdrawing from seat one and two and i would like to endorse is vallentina. A native, ive seen her passion. Ive seen her work. And Denise Coleman for seat one. Denise coleman embodies San Francisco and shes been through the fight and struggle. Candy, who is for seat 4. Jane and i want to commend my poll Joanna Hernandez. Also for seat five. If we can open another seat, to add these two in here its very important. Lanni holmes. Ive seen him work at Juvenile Hall for seats 6, 8 and 9. Meghan macurio. Daniel macular. I dont think he knows he is my mentor but he still is. This guy, when there were, they promise when they built Juvenile Hall and they promised us not to fill it up, daniel was the only guy that showed up. He said, meet me up at Juvenile Hall. We went and spoke to the chief at that time. And you promised this, you said this, what can we do . And that same week released 20 kids that should not have been in there so i truly endorse him and last without least, lauren papilla for seat nine. Thank you for making a teeny bits year by withdrawing. The list that i gave you, thats it. [laughter] hello supervisors. I guess im the last one to speak, right. Serve a little extra time. [laughter] i know you guys have been here a long time. Let me give you a quick history. Im the first African American youngest commissioner up at Juvenile Hall that was appointed. Im the first and youngest fastest commissioner that was appointed to president at Juvenile Hall. I wish we had all 36 heats because you got wonderful candidates. And i wish you could appointment and i wish i could over rule you guys and appoint them. I cant. Let me tell you about those i have worked with. And since kimo withdrew, he made my life easy. So im going to start with nate ford. Ive known nate ford for almost 40 years. Born and raised in the western edition and grew up at the boys club when it was called the boys club. This young man grew up to be something spectacular. I watched him and ive seen him and i know him personally. Ron, always been my white partner who always had my back on all the occasions. He is right there. Always. We dont see color. We see human. At the end of the day when we bleed, we bleed red. Denise. I worked with denise tremendously. These are the folks im telling you about. Fierce fighter and has some of my staff working down there and we always make sure that my staff and her staff always do the right thing by these kids. Vallentina, what can i say about her . Shes dedicated. You already know. Sabrina, just met her. Hard. Fierce. Speaks her mind and the truth and says what is on her heart. Joanna. Advocate. Hardworker. Always has my back. Always supported me. Been dedicated from day one. The microphones have been turned off. [ off mic ] my more speakers for Public Comment . Seeing none. We will close the time allotted for Public Comment. I want to say a few things and my colleagues have some things that they want to say. But, you know, as we discuss at beginning, this is very hard. To take, of course, the nine people who are going to be selected today, is not an easy task for us. Everybody in this room has worked in juvenile justice in some way or is effected by the Justice System. Most of the folks in this room worked very hard for us to get to the point where we are today where we can talk about the type of reform that says were going to close down a place that needs to change and provide a real opportunity for our young people. We have to make decisions looking at the great folks in here and what communities are over represented and what communities are not represented and which professionals have opportunities to sit at table and we have to make our decision this is accordance with that so i want to say that im excited about every applicant here and i am. This is one of those times where i just get to be proud of folks in San Francisco and what they want to do. As we fight for our young people and a lot of us have been fighting for our young people for decades to have this quality of folks that step forward is important. Also, i want to say you know, as having a mother who was effected by me being in the juvenile Justice System and having to deal with me from their ages of 15 to 18 in and out of Juvenile Hall, all the parents i see here today that want to serve thank you for coming in and thank you for sharing your stories and your passion and like ms. Banks said, because we cant pick everybody, we definitely will work to make sure that there are opportunitieopportunities for oo play a pivotal role as we move forward and work to our decembei just want everyone to know that if you are not selected, this is a big conversation, a bigtent process that we have to have with all of our communities. We didnt get here. With a small group of folks and were not going to be able to really realize our vision without working together and so, i just want to say that because this is, by no means going to be a reflection of how qualified someone is or how dedicated and committed someone is, its just a matter of scheer numbers and having to make choices and as we move forward with the selection process. So with that said, colleagues, do you have anything you want to say . Sure, i just wanted to also thank all of the applicants. Just hearing nur stories and about all the work you do so support young people to achieve their full potential is not just impressive but truly inspiring. For me, as a member of this board, as a long time social justice organizer, and as a parent of a teenager i just really appreciate all that you do and your different ways and yes, we have some hard or difficult decision to make around the appointments and i want to say im going to sort of fall the lead of my colleagues because you have been leading on these important issues but i want to press one sort of personal preference and in support for ron and just because of his 28 years of tremendous experience, number one, just in his direct work supporting young people impacted by the Justice System with deep compassion and love and number two the advocacy and leadership that he has demonstrated over the decades towards reforming our juvenile Justice System and serving on working groups and including as a cofounder of jjpa and just for his personal qualities, in really treating others with the utmost dignity and respect and whether its the young people and their families or his fellow colleagues or comrades in this movement or even us as elected officials or city officials and i think his personal qualities are reflected in his successful history of Coalition Building and advocacy and in collaboration so i think even his presentation today reflect that and how he expressed his deep respect for all the other applicants and so ill leave it at that. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. I just want to say being involved in this process both in working with all of you and supervisor walton and haney to write the legislation and its to mounting the political fight that got it passed relatively quickly and enormous support from the board of supervisors. Until now, convening or appointing this working group that is going to really do the hard work of coming up with the visionary alternatives and to really give give every youth in San Francisco a real chance of getting the support that they need to be incredible members of this sis society that rerefuse to lockup youth and forget about them. We know we are do better. Being part of this effort has been the honor of my lifetime and its probably one of the most significant things that ive been involved in in these halls. Its the type of transformative vision and work that is going to transform our society and make it look like the one we dream about all the time and so i just wanted to, from the bottom of my heart, thank every single one of you who has been willing to stand up and in this really profound way and its exciting and i keep saying to people that ask us about this work that we sort of led on the hard political work to get this passed and now, were handing over the baby to you all to do the hard, real work to get it done and so i just cant appreciate you all enough and let you know that were going to be watching you closely and rooting you on every step of the way. Thank you. Thank you, so what that said, and again a disclaimer, because there are some folks in this room that i have worked with for years and several capacity to really improve the lives of young people. I have the utmost respect for you but as i make a motion foray pointments for seats, understand that i cannot make a motion to appoint all of you. With that said, our Work Together is going to definitely continue because again, these 15 people as a whole on the task force are going to dive in with the nitty gritty but the vision, the passion, the dedication, the commitment, the actual brain power comes from the masses on this work and so i just want to reiterate as i make my motion. With that said, i would like to move forward with the recommended appointments of Christina Gomes for seat one. For young Womens Development from the beginning of this process, shes been engage and helping to bring the voice and to the process. The center has been working on Justice Reform for decades and pushed policy reform for many years. And as a member of the jjpa, she comes highly recommended and im happy to move forward with her name for seat 1. For seat 2, this will require a residency waiver, vallentina sedeno. Im moving her forward because shes engage in Justice Reform herren tirher entire career. She has the home detention program, the evening reporting center, and has supervisorred staff who work in the home. She has a personal interest in having her own brother being a part of the juvenile justice advertise tom ansystem. She has a deep understanding of how it works and what we can do to truly reform. As we said before, seat 3 and 4, we will continue to a later date and so for seat 5, i am recommending Joanna Hernandez, who also requires a residency waiver. She is a parent whose son was failed by our system and who is still she still supports in the adult system. I believe that our work of bringing family and rights and fathers rights will be great editions to this Advisory Group and her work and experience has also demonstrated that her professional career has been working with youth in custody. As the home detention director, and the founder of young queens on the rise program, for young girls, she is familiar with the programming that keeps youth out of custody and supported by communities. For seat 6, lonnie holmes. Lonnie understands firsthand all the various services that are provided to the youth at ygc. He is familiar with budgets and licensing of facilities and has over seen group homes provided to youth on probation. We need someone with his deep knowledge of what a facility can look like and how we can make it happen. Seat 7, i move we appoint den ice coleman. She brings a unique perspective to this workgroup. Her experience in a us being abg drugs gives her a personal lens that is needed in this workgroup. And her work with programs in particular shows that herren tire professional career makes her the best equipped to fill this seat. I would also say for seat number 8, and a residency waiver will be required, mr. Dan macallair. For my entire career in San Francisco, i have received dans reports and data from cjcj and in addition to dan being our local data person, he has published reports dating back to as far as 1994. He has been in this work for three decades and he is supported by a Broad Spectrum of communities. And for seat 9, ms. Constructor stance walker. Uasf has gone through an extensive process to select a representative they would like to move forward. Also supported by the Labor Council. For seat 10, ms. Debra bill. Who also requires a residency waiver and teamsters 856 has undergone through an extensive process to select a representative as well as being supported by the Labor Council. And for seat 11, mr. Samuel carr who is already requires a residency waiver. And sciu has gone through an extensive process to select a representative as well as being supported by the Labor Council. And so, those are the nine people that i wish to move forward. And again, if this was not an easy choice. I work with every Single Person in here to get us to this point and i hope you do not feel snubs. Were all working together and there are people in this room that i know are excited about the work and i look forward to continuing to work everybody. Thats my motion. And can i take that motion without objection, without an objection that motion passes. Thank you so much. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. I would just like to repeat the seats just to be sure the motion is correct. Christina gomez, seat 1. Vannentina seat 2. I have Joanna Hernandez seat 5, lonnie homes seat 6. Denise coleman seat 7. Daniel macallair seat 8. Con distance walker seat 9 and samuel carr. Yes. Thank you for confirming. Is there any other items . That completes the agenda for today. The meeting is adjourned, thank you. Everything is done inhouse. I think it is done. I have always been passionate about gelato. Every single slaver has its own recipe. We have our own we move on from there. So you have every time a unique experience because that slaver is the flavored we want to make. Union street is unique because of the neighbors and the location itself. The people that live around here i love to see when the street is full of people. It is a little bit of italy that is happening around you can walk around and enjoy shopping with gelato in your hand. This is the move we are happy to provide to the people. I always love union street because its not like another commercial street where you have big chains. Here you have the neighbors. There is a lot of stories and the neighborhoods are essential. People have they enjoy having their daily or weekly gelato. I love this street itself. We created a move of an area where we will be visiting. We want to make sure that the area has the gelato that you like. What we give back as a shop owner is creating an ambient lifestyle. If you do it in your area and if you like it, then you can do it on the streets you like. [applause]. And so many Incredible Community leaders and friends who have gathered here today to support the signing of what i believe is important legislation that will hopefully make the changes in the city that are necessary to address what we know our inequalities and services, resources in general, and we know, as a city we have work to do. In fact, we can take this conversation back to two years ago. Starting with the unfinished agenda under the San Francisco redevelopment agency, recommendations back then of what should be done with the disparities that exist in the Africanamerican Community. Later on down the line, when gavin newsom served as mayor, he agreed to work with us and create a task force which produced a report that really highlighted the challenges that continue to persist in the Africanamerican Community despite changes, despite investments, the same problems that we are talking about today, were problems that were highlighted, yet there werent significant changes made. In growing up in San Francisco, i cant help but wonder, where did we go wrong . What worried the mistakes that we made, and how are we going to push forward the kinds of policies necessary to fix it . One such policy im really proud of that i helped to produce when i was on the board of supervisors, people try to fight is on it, people told us it couldnt be done, but thanks to our late mayor ed lee, former supervisor melia cone, we were able to finally get neighborhood preference legislation passed. [cheers and applause] let me give you an example of what a difference that makes. We know the challenges that exist with access to Affordable Housing. Time and time again we get asked if to support Affordable Housing in our community. But when the time comes to move into that housing, the people who grew up there, the folks so crowded up in their houses and living with their mamas and grand moments could not get access to those units. The first project where we were able to use neighborhood preference was the willie b. Kennedy apartment. Because of our efforts, 40 of the 98 units was the people who lived in the Community Community first. In fact, roughly 23 of those residents were africanamericans from that community. [applause] we understand that it may seem like a small number, but in comparison to the number of africanamericans who would get access to Affordable Housing, it is a big deal that we were able to accomplish this, but we know that there is so much more work to be done because when you look at the disparities that exist in San Francisco, sadly the numbers are clear. High school dropouts, disproportionally africanamericans are in the higher numbers of dropouts and suspensions, but less than 6 of the population. You look at the homeless population, you look at the challenges with mental health, disproportionately africanamericans are impacted by that. You look at access to housing and a number of other issues. The list goes on and on. I get that we are looking at an office of Racial Equity for the purposes of dealing with challenges that exist with minority communities, but lets face the facts. Sadly, time and time again, we have seen, on many occasions, the africanamerican communities lose time and time and time again. We cant just keep talking about these statistics and saying that we care about what happens to this community, and then also criticize me when i deliberately put money and resources into supporting and targeting this community so that we can really provide the change that we need. We need action. We need consistency. We need a change like never before. The office of Racial Equity is really about making that investment. It is about saying that we are tired of the reports, we are tired of the promises, and we need to start putting our money where our mouth is. On this issue and so many other issues. So i just want to take this opportunity to thank again supervisor sandy fewer and supervisor vallie brown for their courage. [cheers and applause] for their courage. For being leaders. For being unrelenting. For consistently talking about this, talking about the need to make real change. The Africanamerican Community may be less than 6 of the population of this city, but guess what . We are still here. We still matter. And it is time we come together and make real change. [applause] it is time we come together and hold one another accountable, but also lift one another up. Here is the opportunity to work with an office to provide that change. I went over my time, but i am excited about this. It is why we put money in the budget to make sure positions are funded. Nobody debated whether or not it should be, and now it is time we continue to work with this office so that policy is brought forward, so that more investments are brought forward, and so that everyone in this city, and all city departments understand that when i say we are going to look at everything through a lens of equity and make the kinds of deliberate changes and investments to address what we know has been a problem, then thats exactly what we are going to do. [applause] at this time, i would like to welcome up to provide remarks, supervisor sandra lee fewer. [applause] thank you, mayor breed. Im so proud to stand here today with the mayor and supervisor brown, and also my colleague and all of you as we sign this legislation to create an office of actual Racial Equity into law. Im a fourth generation San Francisco and san franciscan and chineseamerican. I remember growing up in a San Francisco where there was more opportunity for everyone. I remember when we had an africanamerican population of over 15 here in San Francisco. I remember the time when we had nader neighborhoods with Small Businesses that were owned by africanamericans. This is a very important moments today because, quite frankly, this is one of the reasons, the main reason that i ran for supervisor. I think that [applause] it is so delightful and refreshing that we have a mayor that actually impress it embraces this. We need an interruption and we need to interrupt what is happening and how can we get back to the San Francisco values that we are all so proud of and we all love. When you come to San Francisco, you expect to see diversity. When you come to San Francisco, the selfproclaimed, most progressive city in the united states, you expect to see people of color thriving here and yet we are not seeing that. I would like to take a moment of appreciation to really think my legislative aide for doing this work. [cheers and applause] and also district five legislative aide. [applause] and from the Human Rights Commission thank you. This is the hard work of determined women that we will write this and we will write it good. Historic race discrimination has manifested as exclusionary and destructive policies like creating obstacles for chinese residents from owning businesses the racial segregation to neighborhoods, and the internment of japanese americans and the destruction of historically black neighborhoods in the name of urban rule. Now racial it is not disclosure neri policy, but rather in the inaction of government to address and protect these past harms done. It is more insidious, and more harder to address. We see now incredible Racial Disparities in so many areas of life but also let specific islanders we see these disparities showing up in employment, our schools, housing , and the Healthcare System and more. These disparities prevent people from color in our city from leading lives that are happy, healthy, and economically secure today, we are taking a stand in San Francisco to say we will not stand for systemic racism. This legislation is a critical step in acknowledging the history and the Current Conditions of communities of color and making strong and concrete commitments to address those conditions. Thank you, supervisor fewer. At this time, the coauthor of the legislation, supervisor vallie brown. [applause] thank you, mayor breed for your support and your kind words i want to thank supervisor fewer intimate director davis for your fierce advocacy and hard work on this, but i also really want to appreciate the people behind us. A lot of times we push them in front that have really got into the weeds to work on this. Might aid, thank you my aid, thank you. I know supervisor fewer already thank you, but i have to thank you, too. You have to have a doublethink here. District 18, chelsea, and then Human Rights Commission, i want to thank brittany, raise your hand, brittany. Thank you. Everybody wants to know who she is. And other than the other h. R. C. Stuff that worked really hard on this. They really went deep and really drafted some amazing legislation for us to move forward. I really want to thank all of you for joining us here today for this historic signing of this office of Racial Equity. This office where we will work we will build and work on the legacy of the Human Rights Commission, and it is a powerful tool to break down years and years of structural and institutional racism. Our work has just begun, though, but we cant do this alone, and thats why we are all here today we need the support of each of you to repair past harms and work towards a brighter future. Its all about time, its all about time. I am so proud to stand on this land that we are here on and organize on behalf of the board. When i think about the native American Community in this city, the highest population of women that are murdered are american indians. Think about that. When they say we are 1 , why . This is something that i know we will dive deep into because these are things that matter to our community, matter to the city, matter to the elected officials, and as the years when i was a legislative aide, we used to do policy, we used to do funding, thinking we were really going to help a community, but we didnt know if it would work or not. For me, this office of Racial Equity will work with the community and bring things to us this is isnt that what we want . Dont we want the community to bring the policy, bring the funding suggestions to us . They have to come from the community, not from us telling you what you need. I am just really proud to stand here today and be part of this. Lastly, i want to make an important distinction. Equality means treating everyone the same. Equity means ensuring everyone has what they need to be successful. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you supervisor brown. Now a few words from the director of the Human Rights Commission in San Francisco, cheryl davis. [cheers and applause] this is quite an emotional day for a lot of different reasons. I want to first recognize the commissioners that are here. They are here from the Human Rights Commission. This work, i was just telling someone, it is actually just the perfect storm in terms of how it came out. I remember when mayor breed was president of the board. We had a conversation with james bell from the Burns Institute in oakland about the needs of doing something around Racial Equity. She was committed then and we were really try to figure out what it is that we wanted to do. What did we need to do, how did we work to build allies to move this forward. When supervisor fewer came into office, one of the first thing she said to me is we need to do something around Racial Equity in the city and she specifically said, i want to know what we can do to do better by africanamericans and black people in San Francisco. That was unusual, right . This idea that somebody who wasnt black was interested in doing right by black people was new for me. And then supervisor brown, they developed an Equity Program with the office of economic and Workforce Development for africanamericans in the western addition, fillmore, to help them develop the way to have access to city help. Put money for them to get paid to tell us what to do. When we talk about being committed to the work, i really have a little tolerance for people who just like to talk and i would like to say these three women have been committed to the idea and notion of Racial Equity and getting to the people who have been most harmed by the disparities and putting their money and their mouth where the work needs to be done. [applause] and i say it is a perfect storm because when i look around and i think about Felicia Jones and dante and the folks who have been pushing on the inside to say that we need to make change, michelle and cheryl, the folks that have challenged us, but at the same time, i think about ruth and their work in the mission. And the work that is being done. This idea that we want to transform city hall is not about transforming the work that happens in this building, it is about understanding how the work that happens in this building impacts everybody outside. [applause] so they wont. I am so full right now because i know that there is not just the accountability and the demand to make this happening from happen from communities, but these three women, coupled with the men over here from the board of supervisors, they will make it happen. Nobody here is afraid to be told that it is being done wrong and that we need to redo it. If you want it to work right, you all need to make sure that we are held accountable. I am excited about what is to come and being held accountable and moving this thing forward, and as mayor breed said, bringing the change that we have been waiting for for 50, 60, 70, 100 years. Thank you for being here today. [applause] thank you. As i said to all of you before, as someone who was born and raised here, im so honored to be the mayor and i still cant believe what an Incredible Opportunity this is, but i cant also help but think about the need to make sure that even though there were mistakes that were made in the past, that change the dynamics of our city, in the past, we have an opportunity to make things better in the future. We have an opportunity not to repeat the mistakes of the past and no, i cant turn turn back the hands of time, but what i can do is make sure that the policies and the investments and the decisions that we make now have a better impact on future generations to come. Today is an opportunity to do just that. Ladies and gentlemen, lets get this legislation signed. [cheers and applause] are we ready . [applause] welcome we are glad you are here. This is the regular meeting of the San Francisco school district. This is october 15, 2019. Now, i will call this meeting to order. Roll call, please. roll