Transcripts For SFGTV The Mayors Press Conference 20240713

Details around neighborhoods, of around race and ethnicity and other information on this tracker that we will continue to update. In addition, there is information on this tracker, as well, regarding our hotel rooms and the number of hotels rooms that are available and also occupied by Homeless Individuals, our Public Health and our Public Safety workers and so lots of great information on the tracker. Today, as im sure you know, that the Area County Health officers announced Additional Details regarding the stayathome order which has been extended through the month of may and the new guidelines include outdoor businesses, the ability to open outdoor businesses, like fle fle marketd hiking and fishing and golfing and these are things that can be done through social distancing and its just providing additional opportunities for people to not only have some flexibility but to get back to work and speaking of getting back to work, theyve provided the opportunity for construction to resume in our city. Thats all construction projects. And this is really great that we are at this point, but i want to be clear that we have a long way to go. And the work that the Economic Recovery Task force is doing to work with the department of Public Health, to provide guidelines for various industries as we look into the future and reduce the curves and get back to the lives we know and love, we know there will be real changes. Our goal is to work on what those changes might be and to provide guidelines in advance so that so many of our businesses in San Francisco are prepared when we are able to resume business. And i know that this will be a gradual undertaking and we appreciate, again, your patience and your cooperation as we deal with this very challenging time. Im committed to not only getting through these next few weeks, but also making sure that we are able to provide you wail a little more guidance, a little more certainty and understanding about exactly what could potentially be available. We know that so many of you are anxious to know that if you are able to go back to work, what will happen with schools, what will happen with children, what will happen with ederly parents or exposure for yourselves and those are the kinds of things we want to make sure we have the answers to as we gradually begin to reopen various sectors in our city. So again, thank you for your cooperation and thank you four r your patience. I want to talk a little bit about how excited i am that construction is able to resume in San Francisco. It not only means opportunities for the people who are working in this industry, to go bac baco work and again, there are guidelines that are been put in place to keep workers safe, but it provides the opportunity to continue what we know important construction work around housi housing. Housing production is necessary because even though were in the midst of a Public Health crisis, we are already experiencing a huge homeless challenge. And the need to make sure that we are not stopping Housing Production because of what will be needed on providing us the ability to move forward and to make sure we have this muchneeded housing. Its so important to move forward and so, we know that this has been a problem in our city and its something ive been pushing for, this challenge of providing housing and the issues around homelessness because of this crisis could potentially get worse and this is why its so critical that we continue to build housing and so, im excited about this and i know that this will make a real difference in our city and in the bay area. Housing shortages, as we also know, lead to higher costs and higher housing costs leads to more people becoming homeless. From this population, they cannot just stay at home, because they dont have a home. We see playing itself out all over the city with the number of tent encantments and so far weve placed almost a thousand people and s in hotel rooms whie been an incredible logistical challenge and continues to be. But as weve talked about before, we need hotel rooms for frontline workers who are out there, working every single day, essential workers who are putting their lives on the lines because we dont want to risk them in affecting other people and their families. In addition to securing and staffing hotel rooms, were creating alternative shelter locations, including 120rv 120 v trailers at bayview and Hunters Point. This will provide a safe place for people who are homeless in the southeast part of the city. And i want to be clear that these rvs will serve the bayview, Hunters Point community and trent roher will speak more in detail, but the hotel rooms we are provides are for people who were homeless in San Francisco before this crisis. The rvs that we are providing in the bayview Hunters Point are for the bayview Hunters Point community and we are only going to serve during this crisis and i want to be clear because ive heard a lot of conversations, a lot of talks and a lot of feedback from people out there on the frontline, where people are showing up in San Francisco from other places and asking where their hotel room is. Thats a room problem for me because again, we have a real challenging problem as it relates to homelessness as it is and i want the message out loud and clear that the people who are already in our system of care, we have a coordinated system to help and if you were no in the system in thnot in the beginning, we will not prioritize you for the resources that we have available. You will not be prioritized over them. So i want to make that loud and clear. Only people who are currently in a homelessness system of care may qualify for the rooms and at bayview Hunters Point or other folks in the coordinated care system may qualify for the rvs and trailers we have available. No one from other cities should be coming to San Francisco, expecting theyll get prioritized over the people who are here. And to be clear, we are going to have we have enough challenges with trying to provide services and support to our existing residents and we are most likely not going to be able to serve everyone as hard as we are trying to do exactly that. So i just want to be clear so that we can make sure that that word gets out because sadly, that is what we see happening and playing itself out on our streets. And what i want to also talk about is density and crowding and how theres a National Conversation around the fact that places that are more dense, that have a lot of housing are places where there are real challenges with the virus. In San Francisco, in particular, we have been able to not necessarily reduce the curve but keep it relatively flat as a result of the work that we have all done together, but we also know that the lack of housing, the inability to have places for people to live where they have their own bathrooms and their own kitchens and theyre not sharing these congregate Living Spaces and more importantly, we know that the cost of living has made it difficult for families who are living with one or two families and extended Family Member exposs and those are thes of environments that make it possible to spread the virus quickly and the conditions that people sometimes live in are very challenging and this is, again, why the need to build more housing and to have more opportunities for people to not be in units where there is crowding or overcrowding is important, especially during a pandemic as we can see. Weve also seen how our lowincome communities have been hit harder, in part, because people in those communities are often forced to live with multiple roommates or other Family Members in the same unit. And this is what i moon b mean e housing impacts, the fact were not building enough faster is having a tremendous impact on our city. Although in comparison to other cities, San Francisco is relatively flat. I mean, we are the second densest city in the country. Yet, we have not experienced, you know, close to the impacts that other cities who are far less dense than we are have. So i wanted to spell the myths of the need to not produce more housing as a result of this pandemic. It is a serious need in our city executive wanand i want us to co move in this direction. Its one of the reasons why i, along with the president of the board of supervisors, norman yee, we moved forward the balance bobalboaresident projec. This will create permanent jobs and 1,100 new homes with 50 , which will be affordable right next to city college. There will be housing for teachers, for families, for lowincome residents. There will be a great new addition to the neighbor near Public Transit and near city college and this is absolutely incredible and this is what we need to do. And its really why i am very surprised and extremely disappointed that the board of supervisors yesterday decided to continue the mission rock project, the mission rock project which provides 1,200 homes, 40 of which are affordable and 14,000 construction jobs and over 10,000 permanent jobs. When were thinking about what is happening with this pandemic, we cant wait around to move these projects forward. People have lost their jobs. Over 60,000 people in San Francisco have filed for unemployment and we anticipate that 40,000 more will. We cant stop our economy. We cant stop moving forward. People are going to need tack as to Employment Opportunities and people are going to need places to live. So it would be interesting to hear exactly what the reason is for why this very important critical housing and jobs project was delayed by the board because this does not help our city move forward. Finally, i want to talk about the support we announced yesterday for workers. In San Francisco, we have a law that requires employees who dont provide insurance to pay into a fund that gives workers access to funds for health spending. And you think the citys bureaucracy is challenging, i mean this program which is meant to help workers and the challenges that they have had in maneuvering this system has made it difficult for them to access money that theyre entitled to. And were not just talking about a few dollars. Were talking about in this particular case, 138 million. Its just sitting in healthcare accounts and because of restrictions and bureaucracy, its too hard to spend and yesterday, we were able to announce what we did to fix it and i will tell you this is something weve been working on for a long time. And thanks to the City Attorneys office, the office of economic and workforce development, some people from labor and other great minds, we were able to come up with a really great solution so that we can get the hands, the money from this account directly into the hands of the people who need it the most. And so, we are going to do just that. Every Single Person who owns one of these accounts and there are over 100,000 accounts, will now be able to access this money and we will make it easy and quick for them to get it. This is really something that will help tremendously with what some workers and in many cases, these are the workers who have most likely been laid off from work and could use what could amount to anywhere on average 1300 per person. So im really grateful to all of the people who worked on making this resource available. As we deal with this real challenge around Public Health, simultaneously, we must ensure that the things that we are able to do and provide, we need to do it. People need to work and theyre going to need jobs when this is over. People are going to need to have places to live. Were going to continue to need to deal with the challenges around homelessness and so, this will be very difficult and require some very difficult choices. An estimated 1. 1 to 1. 7 billiondollar budget deficit is nothing to sneeze at. So as we are making decisions today, we have to be mindful of that and what that means to the success of our city and the future. The success of our economy in the future. And those are the reasons why these housing projects are so critical, the Job Opportunities that they create are so critical, our work to support, our existing residence, including our existing Homeless Population and to not increase that significantly is so critical. Its why we have to draw the line somewhere because we dont have an endless pot of money available to serve everyone who needs it and that is going to be our challenge as we go into the future and make the decisions we need to make around Public Health and safety and our economy, its important that we do everything we can to support our existing workforce, to support our existing homelessness population and to get through this pandemic together. So with that, i would like to introduce dr. Kolfax is not with us, but dr. Philips from the department of Public Health will be providing an update. Good afternoon, im dr. Susan philips. Thank you, mayor brisked. Breed. Today there are 1,497 San Francisco residents with confirmed cases of covid19. And a total of 23 people in San Francisco have died. I send my condolences to their loved ones. Mayor breed also begins her remarks with these numbers as a way to honor those who have become sick and those who have died. But also an and important reminder to us all. Even though we have made tremendous progress as a community to slow the spread of the coronavirus, it is still here and can spread as easily as it did a month ago and will thrive if we let it. We announced when the stayathome order expires sunday night, a new one will take effect. That will last through the end of may, giving us time to build the systems we need to support or recovery. I know this is hard. I greatly appreciate the sacrifices everyone in San Francisco and the greater bay area have been making. When we think about the family and friends we are missing, we must remember, they are the people we are protecting by staying apart. When we think about the jobs changing or lost, we must remember or economy would Face Even Greater setbacks if we did not slow the spread of the virus and we are slowing the spread of the virus. We have saved lives. We have to keep it up. Our goal is not changing. We want to slow the spread of the virus and see San Francisco and the bay area recover. Imaginesince january 21, we havn responding to the coronavirus our top priority. Since february 25th, when mayor breed declared a local emergency, we have mobilized the entire city to slow down this deadly threat and to keep our Health System stable and ready to care for all who need it. Since march 16th, when 7 Million People in the bay area joined the fight, we have stayed home to protect one another. Today, we renew our commitment to the fight. We will continue staying home, continue covering our faces when we have to go out and continue to keep six feet away from people outside of our households. Yet, we will also make a few minor modifications when the order takes effect on monday. The new orders allow for some lowerrisk outdoor jobs and activities to resume. For example, as the mayor said, all construction may start again as long as each project follows the safety protocols in the order. Certain outdoor businesses can open and that means nurseries and gardeners, for example and it does not mean that a restaurant can open its outdoor patio. We can get outside for exercise and the city has closed roads in Golden Gate Park and mcclarin park to make that easier but we cant share equipment, whether thats a playground or basketball or have physical contact with anyone outside of our households. While San Francisco and the bay area keep up the good work that has gotten us this far, here is how we at the Health Department and City Government will prepare for the future. We will continue to follow the science data and facts. We will continue to build out the Public Health infrastructure to support a gradual reopening and eventual recovery. We will watch a state level to track our progress and these are the questions well be asking. Number one, is the number of patients in the hospital with covid19 decreasing or staying flat . Number two, do we have enough of the critical personal protective equipment, ppe, for all of our healthcare workers . Number three, are we expanding our testing capability to meet the need, especially for people in vulnerable populations . Number four, do we have the capacity to investigate every case of covid19 to trace each persons close contacts and to isolate and quarantine the people that need it . And number five, is the total number of cases of covid19 in San Francisco and across the bay area decreasing or staying flat . As we expand testing, we expect the number of cases to increase at first as we are doing more of this testing. Well be looking at the rate of positive cases to help us gauge the spread in the community and once weve billed out our full Testing Program and have increased access to testing, we then will be looking for the cases to flatten and go down. Weve been laying the foundation for recovery from day one and testing is really an important part of that strategy. We have expanded testing from when we first began testing in our Public Health laboratory on march 2nd and well continue to increase testing in San Francisco. To date, weve collected close to 18,000 test results and expanded testing criteria as supplies permit. Today, we are able to test anyone with any symptom compatible with covid19, as well as people without symptoms we find through Contact Tracing and investigations. The next steps in our expansion of testing will include People Living in congregate settings and healthcare workers and were working with the zuckerburg initiative. Theres Research Underway that using testing to help us learn about the prevalence of the virus in our communities. And three recently announced or even started projects will test residents in the mission, a random sample of the pay area and healthcare workers. Each of these will provide important data and insights to help us see a clearer picture and make wellinformed decisions. We are also getting ready in other ways. We are learning everything we can about this virus, developing more sophisticated responses to outbreaks and training a small army of contact investigators. Were working with the Human Services agency and the department of homelessness and Supportive Housing to provide safe housing in hotels and shelters for people experiencing homelessness with and without covid19 and we must continue this focus on our vulnerable populations as they will remain at highest risk from the virus as we start to open up. That means people who are over 60 or with certain Chronic Health conditions and we must continue to prioritize them and People Living in congregate settings, such as longterm care facilities, homeless shelters, sros and jail. As we look ahead to our renewed stayathome order, let keep these Vulnerable People in San Francisco in mind and remember that the virus exploits longstanding inequities and lets Work Together to protect everyone we can. Thank you for continuing to stay home, for staying six feet apart, for covering your face when you go out, for washing your hand frequently. S frequently. Together theyre make a big difference and were making a big difference. Lets use the next month to get these habits engrained so we can open as safely as possible is ill now turn the podium over to chief scott. Good afternoon, everyone. Again, i would like to thank our mayor, london breed, for our outstanding leadership during this time and our director of health and his Leadership Team including dr. Philip for their leadership. We continue to staff to help prevent the spread of covid around the city and our officers are out in parks and some of our more popular spots and they will continue to remind people about social distancing. In some cases, we provided Face Coverings to help people to comply with the Public Health orders. Weve received complaints regarding alleged violations of the Public Health orders and they are taken seriously and investigated. Were finding, as ive said in previous preferences, that the majority of people in San Francisco are cooperating and complying wi with the health ors but we have cited individuals who have flouted the order. We have 19 citations that weve issued, up several citations since we spoke. The breakdown is ten businesses and nine individuals and weve admonished or weve issued 86 warnings and as ive stated from, those incidents in which we have taken reports. That breakdown is 52 businesses and 34 individuals. You can visit our covid19 website on the sfpds website to learn more about the enforcement protocols. We continue to use a path of progressive plans and that means education, asking for voluntary compliance, warnings and citations when necessary. We work with director cheryl davis, with our hrc and other Community Advocates in trying to get the community with us to help spread the covid19 virus, to help prevent the spread of the covid19 virus. And that has been largely effective. We want to continue that path and again, when you see our officers out there, we will be engaging with the public and well do everything that we can on this weekend and moving forward to help prevent the spread with this latest renewal of our Public Health order. Were glad to work with the community and i would like to specifically thank, again, dr. Cheryl davis and many of the other Community Stakeholders who have been working withs. Were still seeing decreases in crime overall, 19 decrease in Violent Crime and 34 decrease in property crime this week and a 23 decrease in overall crimes which equates to 142 fewer crimes. But we have had some issues that i want to point out to the public because were going to need the publics help to make sure that number one, we look out for each other. Secondly, when you see crimes, we need you all to report crimes. A couple of things i want to make note of, yeartodate, we have two homicides above where we were last year. We have 14 homicides year to date and we were at 12 last time this year. A disturbing trend that were seeing is weve had four ederly victims robbed, some at gunpoint, over the past 11 days. These are all women and they were all robbed of their purses and this is just simply unacceptable. So i ask all of you to please lets look out for our most vulnerable population, our ederly and our city and lets not have this happen to our most vulnerable population. And these folks were, in some cases, thrown to the ground and a couple of them were at gunpoint. Our victims were ages 85, 69, 70 and 84 and thats simply unacceptable. And we have enough challenges in our city with the covid19 pandemic and this is just that we cannot tolerate. So look out for your neighbors, report crime when you see it, call 911 when you see things that look suspicious, text 911 when you make the call but we need these crimes reported, but we have to make sure that we dont have people in our city victimized. Weve also seen a couple of shootings that are very concerning, including one overnight in the bayview Hunters Point area, where over 100 rounds were fired. Now, nobody was hit, thankfully, but this is, again, unacceptable. Our investigators are working hard to make sure that we try to solve this crime and put these folks where they belong and that is in jail. But we cant allow this type of violence in our cities and although crime in down, we have challenges we need to tack example we will need the publics help in working with us to keep our communities safe. Weve continued to investigate reports of burglaries in our city and as ive stated in the preferences, crime overall is down but weve seen an uptick in burglaries, particularly commercial burglaries. Our officers have been on patrol, and weve made arrests and to date, weve had 34 instances of books where additional challenges of loots have been adding because these burglaries occurred during a Public Health emergency. I want to again thank the District Attorney and his office for working with us on that. This weekend, moving forward, tomorrow, thursday, and through the week, i want to remind everyone that if you have to travel, travel only when its necessary and essential. Act responsibly and maintain a social distance of six feet. Please wear your Face Coverings and we will again be out in the hot spots this weekend and well enhance that deployment this weekend to make sure were educating the public, but also for those people that arent complying, we have to go to a more aggressive nature on making sure we get compliance on social distancing and the wearing of Face Coverings. So well be out and about moving forward as we have been, but well step it up a notch. I want to thank all of the people in San Francisco and people who come to our city to work and to visit, for their compliance up to this point and we want to continue to keep the momentum going and to prevent the spread of this virus and flatten the curve. So again, i ask for voluntary compliance but know that the San Francisco Police Department is out there. Were go tokin go go to be engae need your assistance to make sure that we stop the spread of this virus. Again, i want to repeat, the Crime Reporting numbers as i close, for those individuals who have a nonviolent or crime that has occurred where you dont need Immediate Police services, call 415 5530123. Or you can utilize the 911 or the San Francisco Police Department website to file a report or to request a report. Again, thank you all for your cooperation and lets keep our momentum going so we can stop the spread of this virus. Good afternoon, im the executive director of San Franciscos Human Services agency. As ive spoken about before, the Human Services agency role in the Emergency Response includes provision of mask care and shelter. From the onset of this crisis, our mayor and the city agencies have prioritized safeguards for populations who are most vulnerable to the coronavirus, including our homeless residents. Were following the latest guidance from Public Health experts to minimize exposure for those who do not have adequate housing, to safely shelter in place and to ensure that there are enough beds in our hospitals to treat patients with covid19. And to this end, we focus not own on improving the health and safety, as ive said before, inside our shelters and Navigation Centers, but moving individuals who have heightened risk due to age or Underlying Health conversations from our shelters, streets and hospitals into hotel rooms. San francisco continues to adapt to the needs of out residents and adhering to the Public Health guidance at a pace weve never seen before. Im incredibly proud of the achievements of our city workforce, our public agencies and under the leadership of the mayor to provide thousands of hotel rooms to some of the most vulnerable residents. With the addition of the alternative Housing Program dashboard, to the citys open data attacker, the publi trackee better insight for those in need at this difficult time. As of today, we have 2,741 rooms under contract at 19 Hotel Locations throughout San Francisco. The city has moved over 950 people from shelters, the street or hospitals into Hotels Thanks to the careful guidance and coordination from the department of Public Health and Supportive Housing. I want to emphasize and to clear up any misunderstanding that the city continues to implement or hotel plan and we continue to bring hotel rooms and other Housing Options online to meet the needs of these vulnerable populations. As i said, we have 2,741 rooms cutely under contract and wcurre have 2,153 rooms. Its important to note that these are all in a negotiation stage and at different stages of the negotiation and some are farther along than others and from our experience, we know that even if we move far along in the negotiateds negotiationss we cannot come to an agreement. The mayor mentioned pier 94 and the trailers and recreational vehicles that we are going to activate. And i want to provide an update and detail on that today, as well. In march, as the city continued to strengthen this response to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, we announced the leasing of recreational vehicles to provide indoor spaces for Homeless Individuals to help protect them from covid19 and to help protect the surrounding communities. The city is now operationallizing a temporary shelter using these lease recreational vehicles to new resources provided to us by californias office of emergency services. 29 recreational vehicles and 91 trailers arrived at seawall lot 344, known as the backlands of pier 94, to provide indoor shelter for Homeless Individuals living on streets or in shelter in district 10, including the Bayview Community and southeast sector of the city. I want to give a huge thank you to the port of San Francisco commission for approving our landuse agreement for this critical need last night in a unanimous 50 vote. Following the assessment of several public lands, the city selected this location for the rv and trailer deployment because it provides land management, utilities and rent relief through a partner city agency. , adequate ac acreage and a direct benefit to people in neighboring communities which i want to speak to now. Weve come to understand that across the nation, people of color and lowincome communities have been hardest hit by the coronavirus. Sadly, we know these disproportionate impacts are found here in San Francisco. Weve heard from dr. Kolfax and the department of Public Health that locations in the city that are most affected by health despairties, income quality and social racism are the most affected by the pandemic to date. This data trend of positive cases in our communities of color demonstrates the citys ongoing focus on equity and efforts to support vulnerable populations during the coronavirus response. During yesterdays port hearing, the Port Commission president characterized district 10 as ground zero for the coronavirus in sanfrancisco. This district has the second highest rates of those experiencing homelessness in the city, more than 1800 people and the majority of which are living unsheltered. We hear the communitys call to bring forward Immediate Solutions and strategies to address these inequities. The new shelter location will provide temporary housing resource for at least 120 individuals in the eas in the st sector of the city. We will prioritize those aged 60 or older or Underlying Health conversation making them extremely vulnerable and susceptible to covid19. By prioritizing people experiencing homelessness, the shelter site will not only prevent people from getting infected but help to reduce the spread of coronavirus in the community. The temporary shelter site plan for pier 94 will be developed and managed by the Human Services agency, the department of Public Health and the department of homelessness and Supportive Housing. It will include 24 7 site monitoring and security, asle well as meals and animal care. Were drawing on the expertise to implement screenings that will continue to protect the guests from the spread of the coronavirus. Similar to our leased hotels, we want to provide people with what they need to shelter in place. While the location does not have any immediate residential neighbors, were approaching the development of this temporary shelter in a responsible way, addressing the safety and Health Concerns of the surrounding port tenants and the supporting community. I want to express our sincere gratitude to our partners, at the port for preparing the staging area and the utilities and all of the trailers and rvs have been delivered and are on site now. We anticipate the shelter being ready to accept guests next week and will operate throughout the duration of San Franciscos declared Health Emergency. Weve said before that are our capacity to contain the coronavirus and flatten the curve to stop the spread depends on the ability to protect all people in San Francisco, to acquire compassion from every Community Across San Francisco to step up and take action. This shelter is an important part of the larger city efforts that we continue to implement to provide equitable, temporary Housing Solutions for vulnerable populations in need during this stayathome order. Ill now be available for questions. We will begin the q and a questions with dr. Roher, and this is from the San Francisco public press. Question is there still a plan to lease 700 hotel rooms for First Responders and covid19positive Homeless People in San Francisco . As i said in my remarks, the city continues to implement the plan that we announced seven weeks ago. I dont know and im not aware of an announcement that went out that said we were ceasing this plan, despite comments in the community. We continue to implement this plan. Weve brought online over 2700 units and our negotiation with 14 hotels, totaling over 2,000 hotel rooms. Question can you provide an update on reaching that goal and a timeline for filling these rooms . Its difficult to project a timeline. Each hotel has to be negotiated individually and sometimes the owners are local and sometimes on the east coast and sometimes international groups. Each contract has provisions unique to the hotels and its difficult to estimate the time for negotiation. In addition, weve said before once the hotels are under contract, it tables takes a nuf days to secure the appropriate staffing, supplies and then to move individuals in the rooms. And so i cant give a definitive timeline on when we will reach our goal of 7,000, but i can say is that we have brought on, as i said earlier, 2741 rooms, at 19 Hotel Locations and our negotiation with 14 other hotels, totaling 2,153 rooms. Its also important to note that the response to this pandemic requires multiple Housing Solutions. In addition to the hotel rooms, i talked about the 120 rvs and trailers and we have 643 beds at congregate sites to provide places to shelter for folks who have passed through their theird phase and theyre now no longer infectious and well be placed in congregate shelters and we are planning for sites, for covidpositive individuals who need more intensive supervision and medical support in a congregate setting. The next questions are for mayor london brisked. Breed. Madam mayor the first question is from kathy novack. Question imgrant and undocumented workers are calling for my assistance beyond the 5 him thousand from givetosf for 200 gift cards. Will more help be available for more undocumented communities. We have identified around 6 million for undocumented people who have been laid off, as well as many of our lowincome families and we havee working on philanthropic support and what we have done to make Resources Available from the state. We know some may not qualify for benefits and that its important to provide the resources and we definitely plan to. The next question is from sf chronicle. Question the board of supervisors is exploring legislation for sanctioned encantments in the city. Are you open to the idea . Why or why not . So we have already begun exploring locations for sanction ten encantments in the city and we want to make it clear that our priority is for the people, the Homeless People who have been in San Francisco before this pandemic and the priority has been our hotel rooms, dealing with our challenges, with our shelters and focusing on our vulnerable populations, the trailers that we Just Announced today. So moving full speed ahead in trying to make sure that we are meeting the need and in the process, we have identified a number of locations that we are seriously considering and as soon as we are able to get those up and running, wel we will. The next set of questions for dr. Susan philips, the department of Public Health. Questions for the chief . No questions for the chief. Your first question is from mission local. Question why does the city have the capacity to do 4,300 tests a day, but its only doing 700 or so . Why not use the unused capacity to test at congregate living places . Thank you for the question and opportunity to elaborate. We think testing is an important component of our moving forward as we outlined in the five indicators that well look at. So while we do have 4,300 test Slots Available in our laboratories that we directly work with, both at our Public Health laboratory, at the clinical laboratory, the San Francisco General Hospital and with our partners at ucsf, we need to match that test with collection supplies. So we need to get the specimen from the patient, take it to the laboratory to be run in that capacity and both numbers have to match. Until last week, we were having real challenges with our supply of testing specimen collection materials to do the tests. That has improved and so now we are more able to ramp up testing. So one of our main goals is to increase that number, the 700 number that was cited, that you cited is higher than it had been a week ago or days ago and so were heartened by that and we need to continue to increase that. So now we recommend that people can access testing for a wide range of symptoms that are compatible with covid19. They also should access testing if they speak with one of our skilled investigators and are told they may have been in contact to a person with covid19. So with both of those expansions, we are anticipating that testing will increase. We are also focused on trying to ensure safety for populations in congregate settings. Testing is one part of that, but not the own part, there is a lot of prevention work our teams are doing in those settings. But expanding testing to those sites is a priority. So you will see the numbers reported of tests completed go up over the coming days or weeks. The next question is from wilson walker, kpix. Question in regard to the city testing well below current capacity, do you think people in San Francisco are aware of the testing opportunities now offered by the city . Great, yes, again, another Good Opportunity to reinforce and clarify the importance and the increased access that were promoting now to testing. So its only been within the last week that we have increased or expanded the symptoms that were qualified from testing and weve brought online more testing capability within the city. I want to remind people that testing may also be quite available through their own providers. There are private providers in the city that have access to testing and the ability to get those results back in much faster time than true even a few weeks ago or months ago. And so that is important to understand and continue. The city expanded options for testing, including our city test sf sites which are important for people to know about. Theyre located in two places and one is at piers 30 and 32 on the ebarcadaro and so ma at seventh and brandon streets. People can gone online through sf gov and sign up to have testing there without requiring providers authorization if theyre not able to easily access the test in any other way. People experiencing any of standpoints osymptoms with covit opportunity to get tested and this is a Good Opportunity to make people in San Francisco aware that resources are available to them in addition to their routine care at their provider. The next question is from joshua sabatini. Question under the health order, can the citys golf courses open as early as next week and are people permitted to play tennis under the new health order, as well . The answer for golf courses is yes. People are able to utilize golf courses and those can be open under the new health order next week. For tennis and other sports that utilize shared equipment, even though people are able to maintain their fisca their physl distance, theyre sharing the ball and that would not be allowed. Question there appears to be confusion over whether summer camps are allowed under the new health order. Are summer camps allowed . So childcare provision or Recreational Activities such as summer camps are allowed to provide childcare for workers doing essential work, including under the broadened definition of these orders. Ithey cap cap allow for cleanin, Face Covering and groups with dedicated caretakers and teachers so the answer is question but there are caveats to keep people safe. Question how will the city enforce safe distance orders on construction sites. Through the department of building inspection. Question is the city presuming workers coming down with covid19 were exposed on the job. So for people who develop covid19 and tested and are positive, we interview every single one of those people as part of our Case Investigation and Contact Tracing work that you heard as another pillar of the work that we need to build up and be ready to do as we loosen the shelterinplace orders further into the future. We would be interviewing people and through that answer view, we woulinterview, wasthis a resulte exposure or Community Exposure and we would do further investigation before assuming it was or was not. Question can you please explain why some outdoor businesses, like flea markets, have been cleared to open while restaurants with outdoor seats have not . Yes, and i want to remind everyone that the orders are regional orders and thats really important because as all of the orders have been taking this regional approach ensures that we have the best possible outcomes since we cross the county line so often. This was by the health officers. For flea markets and other Outdoor Markets such as that, the transaction can happen with relatively small amount of contact and the seller and buyer can wear masks the entire time. For a restaurant, even if they were able to do spacing of the patrons, space them out, its very difficult to maintain spacing for the server, for the actual restaurant employee. And in addition, in order to eat, sit down and eat at the outdoor space, people are removing their masks and that combination of risks to the workforce and the risk potentially to other patrons with having masks removed was the reason that restaurants, outdoor spaces were not allowed under the new order. To follow up, what progress has been made to determine Additional Health code regulations for restaurants when they do reopen. Yes. So i think that that will be in progress over the next month and there are steps that restaurants and other businesses can take now and many have adapted their models to really focus on takeout or delivery, but there are models put in place to think about spacing for patrons when that is allowed for ways in which the weight staff and other restaurant workers can be kept safe. So there will be more guidance and information to come specifically to restaurants. Thank you, dr. Philips. The next question is for dr. Abigail kahn, homelessness and Supportive Housing. Question is the rvs will be reserved for the bayview Hunters Point area, what resources will be offered to the Homeless Community throughout the area. I think you heard a part of this answer from dr. Roher from the services agency. I want to underscore, because a part of the values of the department of homeless and Supportive Housing are to be as honest as possible with people experiencing homeless and i want to underscore while unsheltered Homeless Individuals are on the list to move into hotels and we are working as fast as we possibly can to stand up more hotels, those resources are limited and standing up hotels is a significant piece of work. And so, what i want to underscore is that while we know all people in San Francisco and vulnerable residents are really suffering, its really important that those who have been in San Francisco and who have roots in San Francisco and known to our homeless response system, these individuals have been waiting for ten years on our streets to get help and these are the individuals that we will be looking for. When we do have rooms available. And we are looking for vulnerable individuals based on age and medical conditions as weve discussed many times and we need all of our counterpart sister communities to be doing the same kinds of work and we know that they are. We talk with them twice a week and we know that hotels are a part of the plan for all of the surrounding areas. And so, if youre experiencing unsheltered homelessness in San Francisco and youre not from here or known to our system of care, you are not going to be able to move in quickly to a hotel room in San Francisco. Thats part of the honest city thahonesty thati need to provid. Its not that we dont want to help you. It will take a tremendous amount of time and we need you to return to your Home Communities and get the resources there. So we will be placing people in our system who are known to our system who are vulnerable. To the specific question around gegeography. Are they in our system and have San Francisco roots and where are they located . This is similar and we know where people are experiencing homelessness and know where its increasing. Its increasing in the bayview, and increasing in the tenderloin and hence our focus on the tenderloin to move people from that community who have been unsheltered in that community historically into hotel rooms and we will be looking at impacted neighbors across the city with the same lense. Thank you. That concludes or questions for todays press conference. Roughly five years, i was working as a high school teacher, and i decided to take my students on a surfing field trip. The light bulb went off in my head, and i realized i could do much more for my students taking them surfing than i could as their classroom teacher, and that is when the idea for the city surf project was born. Working with kids in the ocean that arent familiar with this space is really special because youre dealing with a lot of fear and apprehension but at the same time, a lot of excitement. When i first did it, i was, like, really scared, but then, i did it again, and i liked it. Well get a group of kids who have just never been to the beach, are terrified of the idea, who dont like the beach. Its too cold out, and its those kid that are impossible to get back out of the water at the end of the day. Over the last few years, i think weve had at least 40 of our students participate in the city surf project. Surfing helped me with, like, how to swim. Weve start off with about two to four sessions in the pool before actually going out and surfing. Swimming at the pool just helps us with, like, being, like, comfortable in the water and being calm and not being all not being anxious. So when we started the city surf project, one of the things we did was to say hey, this is the way to earn your p. E. Credits. Just getting kids to go try it was one of our initial challenges for the first year or two. But now that weve been doing it three or four years, we have a group of kids thats consistent, and the word has spread, that its super fun, that you learn about the ocean. Starting in the morning, you know, i get the vehicles ready, and then, i get all the gear together, and then, i drive and go get the kids, and we take them to a local beach. We usually go to linda mar, and then occasionally ocean beach. We once did a special trip. We were in capitola last year, and it was really fun. We get in a circle and group stretch, and we talk about specific safety for the day, and then, we go down to the water. Once we go to the beach, i dont want to go home. I cant change my circumstances at home, but i can change the way i approach them. Our program has definitely been a way for our students to find community and build friends. I dont really talk to friends, so i guess when i started doing city surf, i started to, like, get to know people more than i did before, and people that i didnt think id like, like, ended up being my best friends. Its a group sport the way we do it, and with, like, close camaraderie, but everybodys doing it for themselves. Its great, surfing around, finding new people and making new friendships with people throughout surfing. It can be highly developmental for students to have this time where they can learn a lot about themselves while negotiating the waves. I feel significantly, like, calmer. It definitely helps if im, like, feeling really stressed or, like, feeling really anxious about surfing, and i go surfing, and then, i just feel, like, im going to be okay. It gives them resiliency skills and helps them build selfconfidence. And with that, they can use that in other parts of their lives. I went to bring amy family o the beach and tell them what i did. I saw kids open up in the ocean, and i got to see them connect with other students, and i got to see them fail, you know, and get up and get back on the board and experience success, and really enjoy themselves and make a connection to nature at the same time. For some kids that are, like, resistant to, like, being in a Mentorship Program like this, its they want to surf, and then later, theyll find out that theyve, like, made this community connection. I think they provided level playing fields for kids to be themselves in an open environment. For kids to feel like i can go for it and take a chance that i might not have been willing to do on my own is really special. We go on 150 surf outings a year. Thats yearround programming. Weve seen a tremendous amount of youth face their fears through surfing, and that has translated to growth in other facets of their lives. I just think the biggest thing is, like, that they feel like that they have something that is really cool, that theyre engaged in, and that we, like, care about them and how theyre doing, like, in general. What i like best is they really care about me, like, im not alone, and i have a group of people that i can go to, and, also, surfing is fun. Were creating surfers, and were changing the face of surfing. The feeling is definitely akin to being on a roller coaster. Its definitely faster than i think you expect it to be, but its definitely fun. It leaves you feeling really, really positive about what that kids going to go out and do. I think its really magical almost. At least it was for me. It was really exciting when i caught my first wave. I felt like i was, like it was, like, magical, really. When they catch that first wave, and their first lights up, you know their face lights up, you know you have them hooked. I was on top of the world. Its amazing. I felt like i was on top of the world even though i was probably going two miles an hour. It was, like, the scariest thing id ever done, and i think it was when i got hooked on surfing after good morning, everyone. The meeting will come to order. Welcome to the april 27th, 2020 meeting of the rules committee. Im supervisor hillary ronen, chair of the committee. With me on the Video Conference is rules Committee Vice chair catherine stefani. Id like to thank sfgov for staffing this meeting. Mr. Clerk, do you have any announcements . Clerk yes. Due to the covid19 Health Emergency and protocols, Board Members, City Employees and the public, the board room is closed. However, members will be participating remotely. This caution is taken pursuant to the statewide stayathome order and proceeding local, state and federal orders, and directives. Sorry, guys. Supervisor ronen sorry, i thought you were done. Clerk Committee Members will be attending through Video Conference and participating in the meeting in the same extent that they were physically present. Public comment will be available on each item on the agenda, both channel 26, sfgov. Org are streaming the number up. At the top of the screen. Each speaker will be allowed two minutes to speak. Comment or opportunity to speak during the Public Comment period are available via phone call by calling 888 2045984. Again 888 2045984. Access code 3501008. Again 3501008. When connected, dial 10 to be added hot queue alternatively, you may submit Public Comment in either of the following ways, email myself, the rules Committee Clerk at cictor. Oyung cictor. Oyung sf. Gov. Org. Written comments may be sent by u. S. Postal service to city hall, 1 dr. Carlton b. , good let place, room 244, San Francisco, california, 9410. Finally, items acted upon today are expected to appear on the board of supervisors agenda of may 5th, unless otherwise stated. Supervisor ronen wonderful. Can you please read item number 1. Clerk item number 1 my apologies. Switching papers. Item number 1 the motion approving rejecting the mayors nomination for the reappointment of crstina rubke to Municipal Transportation Agency board of directors, term ending march 1, 2024. Supervisor ronen wonderful. And i understand that ms. Rubke is on the line and ready to join us. Clerk go ahead. Yeah. She is go ahead. Clerk hello, ms. Rubke. Hello. I had you bleeped out for a moment. So i couldnt hear anything. Now i can hear you. Supervisor ronen thank you so much for joining us in this remote way. We really appreciate it. We would love to hear any remarks you have on your nomination and then well turn it over to the supervisors to ask questions. Thank you. Thank you so much for taking the time today to hear my nomination to serve on the sfmta board. For the last eight year, i have had the privilege of serving im willing to serve a third and final term, should the board of supervisors confirm the mayors nomination. You have my rezmy and i understand that were focused on many other important needs. Ill keep my remarks short. But, of course, im here to answer any questions you have. Very briefly about me. Im a trademark lawyer, an avid sailor and a huge fan of Public Transit. I have a disability and used a wheelchair to get around. As a result, i rely on accessible Public Transportation to live an active life. One of the main reasons i moved to San Francisco and since moving here in 2005, i have regularly been on muni. My main lines are the t, the n, the 47, the 10 and the 82. As an sfmta board member, i have focused on the overall accessibility of our transportation system, including physical, economic, and programmatic accessible. Very quickly highlight a few of the things i have worked on, let me know if you want more details. In the last six months, i have attended several San Francisco Human Rights Commission meetings that address transit equity. I hope to continue to work with the Human Rights Commission, and the willingness to partner with sfmta on the critically important access issues. Currently serve as the chair of the sfmta boards policy and governance committee, that meets monthly to look at the Strategic Plan goals and how the agency is meeting or missing Key Performance metrics. I hope that we can take this unique opportunity and time to examine our expectation work as a whole and come out of this with a better, more equitable system. And to me that would be better prioritizing our transit, pedestrians and cyclists. I look forward to working with the other directors. Another thing i have advocated for is expanding the accessibility of emergeing mobility like car share. To me the mode shift goals we need the options to be accessible to as many people as possible, including populations that have historically been excluded from such options. One initiative is the bike share pilot that sfmta ran last fall in Golden Gate Park. Finally and probably most important to me over the last eight years, i have focused on Pedestrian Safety. Im a huge advocate of automatic speed enforcement, as well as other dataproven tools. Additionally, i have focused specifically on Pedestrian Safety for people with disabilities and seniors, who as you know are statistically more likely to be victims of traffic violence. And i hope this continue this important work. If there were Public Comment, i would already have been cut off. So i will stop there. Im happy to answer any questions you have. Supervisor ronen okay. Thank you very much. Appreciate you joining us today. And your service thus far and your willingness to serve into the future. And im sorry i didnt have a chance to speak with you prior to today. But i know that you spoke to my staff and i really appreciate that as well. Im just going to start it off with one question. I was very concerned that the m. T. A. Board, including you, voted to increase fares on clipper card users during this period, when so many san franciscans have lost their jobs, are struggling to put food on the table, when service cuts on m. T. A. Have been extensive. Im sure that you know that the board of supervisors voted 101 urging you not to increase fares. And its its really concerning to me. And i wanted to hear more of an explanation on why you chose to vote to increase fares during this time. Absolutely. Thank you for that question. I voted without you know, there was much hesitation and thought and consideration that we that myself and i know all of us gave to both the board of supervisors perspective on this and frankly just a lot of compelling Public Comment. So i voted for the budget because i really do think it balanced the needs of the agency to move forward in a sustain financially Sustainable Way to be able to provide Transportation Service as we come out of this. So to be clear, the increases that were that are part of our budget will go into effect at the earliest in november of 2020. They arent going into effect now. One of the reasons that we chose to reduce the discount on clipper, which has the effect of raising the fare on clipper, is because when we did an analysis of the populations that use clipper, versus cash fare, the data though that more with this budget we were able to maintain fee cash fare at 3 for the next two budget cycles, the for the next two fiscal years. And so we in doing all of those things, in fact, we deviated from the board policy, thats a fair indexing policy that i very much believe in. Financial sustainability for the agency, as well as transparent and, you know, public transparency for what fares are going to look like as we move forward. The fare policy basically increases fares on an incremental basis over time, to match the cost of providing Transportation Services. As you probably know about 20 of our operating budget comes from transit fares. Thats not an insignificant amount of money. We as Board Members have a responsibility to make sure that sfmta is in a position to continue providing service into the future. Row the exact circumstances youre pointing to. We do have various we have in addition to the muni use program, we have free muni for low and moderateincome senior and people with disabilities. We do have a lifeline pass for lowerincome folks. And we do have other discounted programs. So i think the direction that our staff they were already working on this. But i think were always looking for more options to better serve lowerincome folks who may be in the middle zone, where basically they may not qualify for the lowincome discount. So i think our focus moving forward should be trying to capture folks who may not qualify for the lowincome discount programs we have in existence. I would look forward to input on those issues. Because i think thats really important. Supervisor ronen so i serve on the m. T. C. And we recently were successful in getting 100 i believe its 197 million from the care act in congress for the m. T. A. , which almost covers the cost of the losses during the shelterinplace and covid crisis. Was that considered when making this choice to raise the clipper card fares . It was. And i think an important thing to note that we entered this budget cycle with already basically, as i think the citywide is experiencing, a structural deficit that we needed to close the gap on. That was before coronavirus and covid, you know, that were seeing now. So we are very grateful for the federal funding. Its allowing us to move forward and not have to make drastic service cuts in the future, when were not social distancing. We also have, as you know, a backlog of funding that we need to address, to ensure liability of our transportation system. So we did consider all of that when we approved the budget. Supervisor ronen okay. Okay. Thank you. Do my colleagues have any questions . Supervisor mar yeah. Thanks, chair ronen. First of all, thank you, ms. Rubke, for your service to the m. T. A. Board and for your willingness to continue to serve. Its critically Important Role in our city and for our communities. I just had some followup questions, sort of im drawing on chair ronens questions around how you would approach the difficult and challenging decisions that the m. T. A. Board is going to have to make in light of the significant increased budget deficit. So, yeah, thank you for sharing your sort of general priorities around equity and expanding access, particularly for the disability disabled community and Pedestrian Safety. But i was just wanting to hear a little bit more about how youre going to approach making these really difficult budget decisions, particularly to ensure equity in our Transit Service and Transit System in our city. Yeah, i guess. Im sorry. Just a little more. Id appreciate it. Go ahead. Supervisor mar a little more elaboration on how you approach these difficult decisions. Right. Sees as a we move forward in just the financial situation, that we all are facing. Is that right . Supervisor mar yeah. Right. I think this goes back to one of the reasons i approved the budget, which included fare increases to make sure that we are appropriately or as appropriately as we can, under the circumstances, funding our agency, so that were not making painful cuts to service. Because we already know that in communities of concern and theres certain parts of our city that are, you know, still would benefit from more reliable Transit Service. And so i think, as you know, the m. T. A. Has an equity strategy. I think that strategy is something that im really proud that our agency does. And i think that would be kind of my first starting point as far as, you know, when were having to make difficult decisions. You know, using that as a guide to making sure that were providing service where its needed most, in communities that are historically, you know, left out or not, you know, have been have not had the service that the financial district has, for example. So i would start there. So, you know, transit improvements to the 3rd, for example. I mean thats just one obvious line that needs a lot of attention. But i would, you know, try to make sure that we are funding those that service appropriately, as we move forward, before cutting anything, you know, improving service all together i guess. That would be kind of where i would start. Supervisor mar yeah. Thank you. Just on that, you know, as we look at restoring service, you know, that has been so drastically cut down to the bone right now, besides you mentioned prioritizing the tline, can you mention how you would approach prioritying prioritizing which Service Lines to restore and if theres any other specific priorities specific priorities in terms of service restoration. Yes. I mean, i think as you said, the equity strategy has a really good menu of the things we know we need to do. And so i would, you know, i would want to look at those particular line and get those up and running, you know, as we restore service. And as things go back to normal. We also want to and i know the agency is very committed to doing this, as we ratchet back up as a society in general, see where the riders need the service. See where people are traveling and because i would imagine that in the transition back to transitioning out of shelterinplace, i would imagine transit trends would be slightly different than what we would expect before covid. I would be kind of looking at those two things. And i would also be i think its really important that we look at nontransit options as well. So i think some of the initiatives that we have in place right now are really exciting to me. And i hope that we can use them as a way to transition back. So, for example, making safer streets for people who are cycling and walking. Those are the Streets Initiative thats been really successful. Id be interested in hearing the supervisors perspectives on that. But i think enabling those types of modes to really to flourish as we transition back. I think its really important, because i dont think its appropriate to go back to businesses a usual with Traffic Congestion every business as usual with Traffic Congestion everywhere. Supervisor mar thank you. I dont have any other questions. Thank you so much. Supervisor ronen supervisor stefani, do you have any questions . Supervisor stefani yes, thank you, chair ronen. I thank you for meeting with me last week over zoom. Thank you for your eight years of service thus far. I do have one question that came up subsequent to our meeting. And one of the issues that i have had and ongoing problem with with the sfmta is communication. And it seems like at least, as far as im concerned, i feel like im always the last person to find out whats happening in my district and what the sfmta is doing in my district. For example, the most recent announcement of street closures, the Streets Program during the shelterinplace was announced as we all know, without any input whatsoever from the supervisors. There were no streets that were considered in district 2 at all. And i think its absolutely vital that when the sfmta is doing things that affect our constituents in our districts, that we be involved. And, first of all, i want to know your opinion on i dont think its just anecdotal. I think it does happen. I dont know if the other supervisors feel the same way. I know supervisor peskin made the comment about it. Why does that continue to happen . It seems to be a culture of lack of communication. And whether or not you see it as an issue at all. Do people really think the supervisors need to be involved in these types of decisions . And also will you commit to making sure that we are involved going forward, because i think when issues are affecting our constituents, we should not be the last to find out. So physical you can just opine on that a little bit. Yes. Thats pretty much it. Okay. No, thank you for that question. Youre certainly not the first supervisor ive heard that from. I think the sfmta has an amazing, talented, skilled staff. And i know that theyre committed to communicating with you. I know that me as a board member, i very much value, you know, partnerships with the board of supervisors, because i think our projects are more successful when the supervisor in the district, is not only in support, but just engaged. Because you are talking to your constituents and youre able to get a fuller discussion of the issues. And i think we end up with better projects that way. So im personally very, very supportive and very, you know, i think its very critical that you all are involved in whats happening in your districts. And i you know, like i said, this is not the first time i heard a supervisor complain about this. I know that our staff is working amazingly difficult during this time. I know that the safe streets issue i do think that this was the closed streets, sorry. The initiative i know that came out very quickly. And i did hear that from other supervisors as well that they didnt get advanced warning. I would i hope to look at this as a like an emergency precaution that, you know, rolled out very quickly. And so that is why that was that was the case. And i hope that that is not seen as a, you know, ongoing practice and certainly i hope that you all feel free to reach out to me if you feel this is a continuing issue moving forward. Supervisor stefani thank you for that. I just want to make sure that when items become when we have items that are before the board of supervisors, just to take note of that and make sure that thats a question. And thats something that you ask about to make sure that were involved. Because a lot of times what happens is that we react. And then were pegged as is not being supportive of the sfmta or the underlying project, when we havent even had a chance to evaluate it. So in that thats unfortunate as well. That were pegged as not liking bicycles or not liking this or that, when all were doing is actually reacting to the fact that things are rolling out without our input, without us being able to even have a conversation with our community. And so i just really think that that needs to be a priority going forward. And it sounds to me that youre committed to that. So i appreciate your answer. Thats all i have. Thanks, supervisor ronen. Supervisor ronen thank you. I just want to echo everything supervisor stefani just said. The rollout of the slow streets was pretty disastrous. And it was it was really shocking to all of us that the m. T. A. Didnt consult with us on the streets, that it chose which were very strange choices. And certainly didnt have to do with anything that anyone wanted in my district. So i couldnt agree more with supervisor stefani on that. And we would ask you, if you are reappointed, to please make sure that the staff is communicating with supervisors in a much more direct and consistent way. Supervisor mar chair ronen. Can i just yeah. Just wanted to add on to this. And also say that thanks to supervisor stefani for raising this issue around the sfmtas practice of moving ahead with significant decisions without adequate input from the supervisors or in other cases from neighborhood residents or businesses. And and i think for the slow Streets Initiative, i think thats a good example. That i totally agree with both of you on that it was very problematic how that went forward. Although i do want to add that im very supportive of the slow Streets Initiative and the fact that it was something that i had already been in conversations with sfmta staff about. And in looking at how we could implement slow streets strategy in district 4. And specifically we had already spoken earlier with the sfmta staff about 41st avenue being a good candidate for traffic calming and slow streets. And so i was happy to see that 41st avenue, you know, was one of the first two streets to be implemented, you know, as a slow street on friday. And i was actually out there this weekend on 41st avenue with my daughter bicycling on it. And it was wonderful. You know, enough space for walking and bicycling. But i think, ms. Rubke, your sort of explanation about the problematic process with slow streets and the lack of engagement with the supervisor offices around, your explanation that was mostly due to an emergency the need to sort of act quickly during the emergency situation, that were facing in a city, you know, really doesnt you know, thats not a question adequate or even reasonable explanation, because the slow streets, you know, initiative is something that clearly, you know, wasnt an urgent Emergency Action that had to be taken. And could have and should have been done in more collaborative way with the District Supervisor offices in our communities. Thanks. I just wanted to say that. Supervisor ronen yeah. Understood. I appreciate that feedback. I guess maybe i just think that our staff is working so incredibly hard, kind of around the clock at the everchanging needs of the Transit System. So i just think that this is a very unique time. I just hope that the inadequate communication that you all very well articulated isnt seen as kind of thats business as usual and thats our trend. That is not what were aiming for obviously. Supervisor ronen okay. If theres no more comments from my colleagues, questions, well open this item up for Public Comment. Mr. Clerk, are there any members of the public who would like to speak on this item . Clerk madam chair, operations is actually sfgov is checking to see if there are any callers in the queue. Mr. Chair, there are no callers waiting to speak. Supervisor ronen okay. There are no callers, that what i heard . Clerk yeah. Just to say, if you were on the line and wish to speak, please press 10 to be added to the uaw. To the queue. Give them a few moments if they decide to speak. Supervisor ronen sure. Clerk it appears just checking in with sfgov, it appears there are no speakers for this item. If you could confirm that, please. I can confirm there are no speakers. Supervisor ronen okay. Thank you very much. Public comment is closed. Colleagues, do either of you have a motion on this item . Clerk please note an amendment is required on this item. Supervisor ronen right. Supervisor mar chair ronen, id be happy to move that we amend the motion to remove reject. Supervisor ronen send this forward to a Committee Report . Supervisor mar yeah. So the motion states that we approve the mayoral appointment of crstina rubke to m. T. A. Board of supervisors, recommendation to the bull forward. Supervisor ronen great. Can we have a roll call vote. Clerk yes. On that motion. Supervisor stefani . Supervisor stefani aye. Clerk supervisor mar . Supervisor mar aye. Clerk chair ronen . Supervisor ronen aye. Clerk this matter will be recommended as a Committee Report, as amended to remove the word rejecting throughout the motion. Supervisor ronen thank you so much, ms. Rubke. Congratulations. And hope to talk to you again soon. Thank you so much for your time. Take care you guys. Supervisor ronen bye. Mr. Clerk, can you please read item number 2. Clerk item number 2 is a hearing to consider appointing one member term ending august 1st, 2022 and two members, term ending august 1st, 2023 to the south of Market Community Planning Advisory Committee. Members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment on the item should call 888 2045984, access code 32501008. I believe at this time we have two members two applicants on hold. I believe that mr. Elberling has not called in. Supervisor ronen okay. Before we call the applicants, i was wondering if abigail from supervisor haneys office wanted to make any comments . Clerk give us a moment while we unmute her line. Supervisor ronen okay. Good morning, chair mar, stefani and ronen. This is abigail from supervisor haneys office. Today for your consideration, is the south of Market Community Planning Advisory Committee nominations. Supervisor haney is unable to join us this morning. But would like me to convey that our office has nominated three people for those seats. Seat 4 is john elberling, seat 5 is Heather Phillips, seat 6 is jane weil. Before we hear from the applicant, we have jessica look, a representative from the Planning Department here today, to briefly give some background about this c. A. C. And what the body hopes to achieve during its time. Miss look are you there . Good morning. Can you guys hear me . Supervisor ronen we can. Good morning, supervisors. My name is jessica look. And im a series planner with the Planning Department. A product of the central soma plan, which was adopted in 2018. The c. A. C. Was created in response to both community and Planning Commission desires and introduced into a legislation in 2019 by supervisor matt haney. The soma c. A. C. Will be comprised of 11 members, seven appointed by the board, and four appointed by the mayor. There are also 11 alternates, which are appointed in a same manner and these board appointees will be before this committee. The c. A. C. Is charged with providing advice on not just the implementation of the central soma plan, but also the east soma area plan and the western area plan. The c. A. C. Is responsible to help prioritize projects funded by the eastern neighborhood area plan impact fees, that are collected in soma, along with projects funded by new central soma funding sources. In addition, the c. A. C. Is able to provide input on proposed revisions to documents, that implement the respective plans. And the c. A. C. Can also provide input on individual development proposals, comprised by individual Development Projects and the design and programming of open spaces, including so once the soma c. A. C. Is seated, hell be working with the Committee Members to finalize the bylaws and develop a calendar of agenda items for a monthly meeting. This concludes a really brief overview of what the soma c. A. C. Is. But im happy to answer any questions that you might have. Thank you. Supervisor ronen thank you so much. Is there any questions from my colleagues . I dont think we have any questions. But thank you so much for joining us and for that presentation. Appreciate it. So now we will hear from the applicants. Why dont we start with ms. Phillips for seat 5. Are you on the line, ms. Phillips . Good morning supervisors. Supervisor ronen good morning. Yes, im here. Supervisor ronen please. Good morning, supervisors. Thank you so much. I am Heather Phillips and i just want to say thank you so much to supervisor haneys office for nominating me for this opportunity to apply to serve on the south of Market Community Planning Advisory Committee. A little about me, for the last 14 years ive lived and worked in the south of market. And ive had the privilege to work with many Different Community groups, collaboratives, neighborhood projects. Currently i work full time as the director of programs at united players, where i have the opportunity to work directly with young people and their families, as well as supervise a Program Staff of 14 amazing people. I am also one of the founding members of the friends of jean and Victoria Park, a group which advocates for the only fullservice public park and rec center in south of market. As well as activate these spaces. Most recently i was appointed to serve on the eastern neighborhood c. A. C. And that experience has helped me understand how Community Members, like myself, can influence the longrange planning that theyre preparing for. Ultimately the communitys voice in this process is vital to understanding how to prioritize the needs of residents, stakeholders and most importantly our vulnerable populations, who often dont have the access or the resources to influence these huge systems. I do have a masters degree in urban studies and i feel that this gives me some insight. However, i think what makes me most qualified to serve on this committee is the experience that i share as a district 6 resident, a former Service Provider and a person committed to justice and equity. I would be proud to serve as a member of this committee and im happy to answer any questions that you have for me today. Supervisor ronen thank you so much. Is there any questions . I dont think we have any questions. So thank you so much for your willingness to serve in another capacity. We really appreciate it very much. Thank you all so much for the opportunity. Supervisor ronen of course. Next we would love to hear from jane weil, if you are available. Hello. Can you hear me . Supervisor ronen yes, we can. Okay. Well, hello, supervisors. My name is jane weil. And i appreciate speaking to you today to seek your approval for my appointment to the new soma Community Planning c. A. C. I live in midmarket on mission, between 7th and 8th. The densest, most quickly developing part of the city. And its essential that we try to balance the positive aspects of progress with the needs of the people who already live here. I represent several constituencies, homeowner, seniors, spanish speaker and grandparent of Public School students. And i have worked closely with members of the Filipino Community, who have made soma their home for decades. And are trying to preserve the family neighborhood that exists today. Gentrification and the lack of open space are a real problem here. As is the concentration of Supportive Housing, Navigation Centers and poverty. Making midmarket a containment zone is not healthy for anyone. Its fair that the impact fees from the Rapid Development in soma be plowed back into the community, to stabilize it and enhance services to the lowincome family and seniors live here. The fees generated by the central soma plan are used to benefit everyone. I have worked with the other nominees on earlier c. A. C. S and were all committed to balance the needs of soma residents and work with planning and all city departments as the construct impacts us all. I have lived around the country and committed to making my home in the heart of San Francisco. But i want our central city to be the best it can be. And i want to leave with one sentiment, housing without green space is unhealthy. We cant continue to build highrise buildings with thousands of new units, including many for families of all incomes, and not include more green space thats open to all. We cant rely on developers to provide open spaces. Theyll put it where they want on shady back corners and ask to buy it back later as the public wont use it in the case of being a continental hotel. I represent district 6 to the park and rec open space, Advisory Committee. And i also look forward to serving on this new c. A. C. To help manage the development of soma. Thank you so much. And im happy to answer any questions. Supervisor ronen thank you so much. Is there any questions . I dont think theres any questions. Thank you so much for serving on yet another body to make soma even better. Appreciate it. And then i just wanted to check thank you. With the clerk to make sure mr. Elberling hasnt joined us . Clerk i believe that mr. Elberling has not called in. Can you please confirm . That is correct. Mr. Elberling has not called in. Supervisor ronen okay. Well, i am very familiar with mr. Elberlings work in soma. And its been topnotch. So i am happy to endorse his appointment to seat 4. Can we now open this up to Public Comment. Is there any member of the public who wishes to speak on this item . Clerk madam chair, were checking to see if there are any callers in the queue. Sfgov, please let us know if youre ready. For those already on hold, please continue to wait until youre prompted to speak. Okay, mr. Chair, i see one right now. If you want to please wait a moment to allow them to call in. Otherwise there are none in the queue. Supervisor ronen great. Well wait a moment. Okay. There is one call in the queue. Supervisor ronen fantastic. Caller announcer you have one question remaining. Supervisor ronen good morning. If the Public Comment is on the line, feel free to begin. Has anyone called in for item number 2 to speak in Public Comment on the appointment of the soma Community Planning Advisory Committee . Announcer you have zero questions remaining. Okay. It appears that caller has dropped the line. Supervisor ronen okay. So i think is it appropriate now to close Public Comment, mr. Clerk . Clerk yes, it is. I am happy to make a motion to move these nominees forward. John elberling for seat 4. C. Heather phillips for seat 5 and jane weil for seat 6, with positive recommendation. Can you please take a roll call vote. Clerk on that motion, supervisor stefani . Supervisor stefani aye. Clerk supervisor mar . Supervisor mar aye. Clerk chair ronen . Supervisor ronen aye. Clerk the motion passes. Supervisor ronen wonderful. Congratulations. Thanks again for your service. Mr. Clerk, can you please read item number 3. Clerk item number 3 is a hearing to consider appointing nine members term ending december 1st, 2023 to the Soma Community Stabilization Fund community Advisory Committee. Members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment, should call 888 2045984, access code 3501008 and press 10 to line up to speak. For this item, we have two members who are not able to call in, as of this time. Shannon amitin and conny ford. Supervisor ronen okay. I wanted to see if abby wanted to speak before we opened the floor to the applicants . Is abby from supervisor haneys office still on the line with us . Clerk yes, she is. Chair ronen, thank you so much. Im here. Can you folks hear me . Supervisor ronen yes. Now we can. Wonderful. Thank you, chair ronen, and supervisors mar and stefani. Im here again on behalf of supervisor haney. Thank you for all of our applicants that have applied previously. I know that this matter has been heard by the rules committee at a prior hearing. Today, for your consideration, are two remaining members of two remaining applicants for the permanent seated numbers, as well as alternate seats. Just a brief background and a continuation of supervisor haneys remarks from the first meeting, the Soma Community Stabilization Fund was created in 2005. The mission of this Soma Community Stabilization Fund is to stabilize the community and promote equity through funding recommendations and priorities that mitigate the impact of development. Throughout the funds history, the board of supervisors has always honored the recommendations of this e. A. C. So it has very much had a very real influence on shaping the neighborhood and prioritizing investments to stabilize residents and businesses and their expertise, history and relationships within soma, who will be critical in making impactful decisions in allocating the public dollars. The c. A. C. Will work in partnership with the soma planning c. A. C. To ensure that its investments are aligned, cohesive and strategic. I would like to thank rosario from o. C. D. For all of her hard work with the c. A. C. Throughout the years. We appreciate you calling in and thank you for your dedication to the c. A. C. Chair ronen, we do have some recommendations following the applicants comments. So i would like to turn it over to you to call the applicants for seats 6 and 7. Supervisor ronen sure. So if we can hear from Christian Martin first. That would be great. Is Christian Martin on the line . Yes, i am. Supervisor ronen wonderful. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning, chair, good morning supervisors. My name is Christian Martin. Im the founding executive director of the newly formed soma west benefit district. The notforprofit entity, our mission is to improve the quality of life for all of the residents, businesses and visitors to the western part of soma, through a variety of programs. The boundaries range from mina in the north to thompson in the south and 5th in the west. All 107 blocks, this will touch the lives of many diverse constituencies and people from many walks of life. Our 20member board of supervisors has broad representation of the western Soma Community. And we are continuing to develop and expand our diversity and representation currently. We launched services in march and we provide daily cleaning and maintenance to this large and diverse neighborhood. We sweep trash, remove Hazardous Materials from sidewalks, remove graffiti, on public and private property and work to improve the conditions in the public realm. We ploy predominantly lowincome residents dad this work and to do this work and we engage others through programs that bring clean, green and active public spaces to our neighborhoods. We will prioritize routes to school and transit stops, which disproportionately affect lowincome residents. We prioritize bike Safety Policies and work to bring more green, open spaces to the public realm for the benefit of all living, working and visiting the neighborhood. Once the stayathome order is lifted and he can be with each other again, we will activate the Victoria Park with free books, games and activities for all. We will sponsor and support local arts and cultural groups, highlighting our historic and vibrant filipino culture. We will also activate the newly created eagle program, help ensure the park remains clean and a neighborhood asset that celebrates our community. And all of its beauty and diversity. So all of these programs will be free of charge and designed to make designed to be accessible and welcoming to lowincome residents. In addition, we have hired personnel to conduct outreach to our unhoused persons and link them to services, deescalate conflicts on the street and protect the health and safety of the vulnerable population. In addition, our outreach personnel will be responsible for responding to the unique and immediate needs of very lowincome people who are at risk of becoming homeless and currently homeless as theyre transitioning into housing. This is a role that im familiar with, since ive served in similar roles in the past, most recently at the lower Pope Community benefit district, where we developed a tenant landlord clinic that aims to prevent homelessness through displacement. And throughout my career, i have aimed to give Employment Opportunities to individuals experiencing homelessness, formerly incarcerated, folks with mental and physical disabilities. And i have aimed to empower them to participate in the communitybuilding process. I take pride in developing people, helping them advance in life and overcoming obstacles and setbacks along the way, as i have. Cleaning and outreach jobs, offering outreach, an opportunity to provide stable jobs for very lowincome residents and their families. Almost all of San Francisco residents and representatives offer diversity of the soma neighborhood. I thank you for the opportunity to serve this population. And im happy to answer any questions you may have. Supervisor ronen thank you so much. Do any of my colleagues have any questions . Seeing none, we will move on to the next applicant. Is Janetta Johnson available . Good morning. This is Janetta Johnson. Good morning, board of supervisors. Supervisor ronen good morning, janetta. Ive been an organization that serves Community Members that are currently in the janetta district. We have lived and worked in district 6 in the janetta area for over 20 years, providing district services, supporting members of the community and particularly working with members of the community that have been kicked out of various organizations. And have had many discipline problems, to help them stabilize and get back into access for services. Supporting them to get to their next steps. And were an organization that is very diverse in our staff. I feel like every race and culture is represented in our well not every but primarily. We have a Diverse Group of staff, not just gender orientation and sexuality, but also various cultures that represent the city and county of San Francisco. And i would like to emphasize on that we have been housing and supporting people in getting into weve been housing and supporting people in getting into stable, Affordable Housing opportunities and structures and a large part of that is through a grassroots plan. And really like using private Foundation Money and supporting people into getting into Affordable Housing opportunities and structures, that could be a little bit more sustainable for various individuals, based on their income. Or lack of income. Supervisor ronen thank you. Thats it. Supervisor ronen thank you so much, janetta. Is there any questions . Thank you so much for your willingness to serve and your presentation. Next if we can hear from shanon amitin. Clerk i believe that miss amitin was not able to call in. Supervisor ronen okay. That is correct. Miss amitin has not called in. Supervisor ronen and then carolyn caldwell. Hi. Good morning, supervisors. This is carolyn caldwell. Can you hear me . Supervisor ronen yes. We can hear you. Okay. Haney, good morning. Thank you so much for this opportunity to speak and thank you to supervisor haneys office for the recommendation to be an alternate on this board. I am the director of operations at united players. And a cofounder along with rudy and alisha. The Organization United players has the same timeline, trajectory as the fund. We incorporated in 2005. And we are a direct beneficiary of the fund. And a really great example of the impact the fund has had in stabilizing the community, by looking at the growth of our organization. And what we have been able to accomplish through the support of the fund. I do all of the grant writing for united players. So im deeply experienced with the fund. And understand what it is set out to accomplish in the community, as well as all of the back end, you know, process and procedure and familiarity with how the fund operates. And so would just be so very grateful to be able to serve in as an alternate in helping the fund reach a greater impact across soma. Supervisor ronen wonderful. Thank you so much. Any questions . Seeing none, we will move on to another applicant. Christian martin on the line . Wait, we heard from christian. Is kris romasanta on the line . Hi, im here on the line. Supervisor ronen good morning. Good morning. Good morning, supervisors. Thank you so much for this opportunity. Im here to be considered for reappointment to the soma stabilization community Advisory Committee. Ive served on the fund for about seven years. I was the vice chair occupying the housing seat. And i previously served as a cochair of the soma fund for the previous four years. In addition, i served as a member of the eastern neighborhoods for five years. I lived in the south of market for six years. Im very familiar with the neighborhood. I have also volunteered my time and have been active with many of the soma groups, the nonprofits, all that are related to land use, the filipino cultural district and the Affordable Housing issues. My professional background is in land use and Community Development. As an urban planner and a Community Development practitioner for various local governments, including aba, city of oakland and south San Francisco. I currently work for the city of south San Francisco and management the kdbg program. A program geared towards serving lowincome families. In addition, i work on regional and local housing policies that directly affect lowincome residents. So more specific to the fund, over the last four to five years the funds made Great Strides beyond the original intent, investing in small sites, nonprofit ownership and programming for access to Affordable Housing. Our early purpose of the fund wasnt really to purchase property, but in 2014, me and along with others soma fund members, thought it was time to step in and invest in the first small sites property on natoma street. And this is where we were able to stabilize five very lowincome residents, some making less than 20,000 a year. And a couple of them were seniors. This first site jump started the Mayors Office of housing small sites program. And weve subsequently invested in additional sites in the neighborhood. As a member of the fund, ive introduced proposals of financial empowerment, cultural public events, programming for eviction defense. And have been an advocate for nonprofits to purchase their own buildings. In addition, the fund has invested in areas of the city that the city has not made a priority, such as pedestrian improvements near bessie, carmichael and acquisition nonprofit acquisitions, mainly for united players. The fund has a finite amount of money. And soma continues to develop, the fund will need to see more proposals for the potential acquisitions. And we definitely need this more creative financing. And i want to be able to make sure that we adapt to these needs and changes especially now, since were in this bit of a crisis. And now with the emergence of the Planning Committee, there needs to be more coordination between the two bodies, since i was a member of the eastern neighborhoods. And it was a very more it was a more technical body. And having coordination will have more seamless dialogue if we understand the social and the technical aspects, that will that will be on the ground in soma. So thank you again so much for your consideration. Supervisor ronen sorry, i was on mute. Thank you so much. Is there any questions . Seeing none, thank you again for your presentation and willingness to serve. And i wanted to see if gina rosales is on the line . Im here. Can you hear me . Supervisor ronen we can hear you. Thank you, gina. Awesome. Hi. Thanks so much for having me speak today. My name is gina rosales. Im an s. F. Resident and a former business owner. Some of you may know me as the cofounder of undiscovered s. F. Creative night market, also run an Event Planning committee. Prior to starting my company, i was also director of a nonprofit Dance Organization in soma, where organized dance workshops and classes at city dance, as well as annual shows at the regency ballroom. Im also a dancer myself. Ive been dancing since my High School Days at shcp. Of course, im heavily involved with soma programming. In addition to undiscovered, i also run a nonprofit, which is dedicated to building strong and empowered Filipino Community in the bay area. Im also a recent partner in the new creative project, which is working on building programming to build the future filipinoamerican arts and Cultural Center in soma. And through my work, ive been really excited about this important work weve been doing around traumainformed systems. And how to address Community Trauma by creating organizations and programs. So i now apply the t. I. F. Work into all of our events in soma. And all of our events. Dishly, weve been doing a lot of crosscultural and collaborative work over the years. Im an active supporter of the trevor project, fundraising for lgbtq youth work. I was a former crisis counselor for them. And im also the event planner for a large tech. And prior to covid happening, i was suppose to be the planner of building strong partnerships with cultural district. During these times of crisis, i know that ours are typically the first things to get cut. Its my strong belief that arts and culture is exactly what we need during this time, to provide hope and life. And im committed to doing this collaborative work in soma and throughout San Francisco. And im sure that t. I. F. Is being kept centered for all of our arts and culture work, to keep it thriving and inclusive in soma. And also to work on getting more young people to be active and involved in this work. So thank you so much for the opportunity. Supervisor ronen thank you so much for your willingness to serve. Any questions . Seeing none, i just wanted to check to see if conny ford had called in or if she had not . Mr. Clerk. Clerk i believe miss amitin has called in. Supervisor ronen okay. I had asked about conny ford. Go ahead, shanon amitin . Clerk miss amitin, are you on the line . Give me one second. Please. I believe she is. She is unmuted. Is available to speak. Supervisor ronen shanon, are you there . Hello, miss amitin . Can you hear us . Hello, ms. Amitin, can you hear us . Supervisor ronen i believe its mr. Amitin . Clerk hello, caller . Can you hear me . Supervisor ronen thank you. We can hear you. All right. Excellent. I just want to give a shoutout to jonah. Weve had a chance to Work Together on lesbian 2 tech. And im a huge fan. My name is shanon amitin. Im currently on staff with San Francisco pride. And i am also a representative today for the cultural district. I am a huge fan of the cultural district being a part of both the community and working sidebyside with our City Government to preserve arts, culture, Small Business and especially lgbtq culture. Do you guys have questions for me . Do you want to hear a little bit more about me . Supervisor ronen any questions . I dont have any questions. Im just excited to be here. Supervisor ronen okay. Thank you so much. Then last but certainly not least just checking to see if conny ford had called in. Miss ford has not called in. Supervisor ronen okay. We will now open this item up for Public Comment. If theres any member of the public who wishes to speak, now is the time. Madam chair, we are checking to see if there are any callers in the queue. Please let us know if they are ready. If you have not already done so, please press 10 to be added to the queue. This those on hold, please wait to be prompted to begin at the beep. Madam, there appears to be three callers on the line. Announcer you have three questions remaining. Hi. My name is kevin. Im a resident of the castro. Undeafed ph. D. Candidate. And i just wanted to speak on behalf of shanon. Shanon is a wellknown advocate for the lgbtq plus community, both from the side of private enterprise and a long history of public service, too. The Lgbtq Community and with s. F. Pride and the castro hopeful, the castro cultural association. I just wanted to say that to speak on his behalf that he plays a lot of involvement in the Lgbtq Community. Fully endorse shanon for this position. Thank you. Supervisor ronen thank you. Announcer you have two questions remaining. Hi. I am beth hunt. And im the cultural district manager for the lgbtq cultural district here inssoma. Im a resident of 12 years of soma and active participant and Community Organizer of the Lgbtq Community. I am calling in favor of two candidates today. First would be shanon amitin, who is a wonderful advocate for the Lgbtq Community, as well as rather active in a lot of our local business in soma and castro. Also i would like to support Christian Martin from the soma west. I have worked with both of these individuals on various projects and it has been a wonderful and delightful experience. Great response and they really know how to activate constituents. Thank you. Operator you have one question remaining. Hello. My name is bob goldfarb. Im president of the lgbtq cultural district in soma. And i would like to speak in favor of two candidates, both Christian Martin, who i have worked with in my capacity with the leather district and i have found him to be well reasoned and insightful and i think he would be an excellent addition to the c. A. C. And i would also like to speak in favor of shanon amitin, who has Strong Community involvement as an activist, a Community Leader and an entrepreneur. He has involved excuse me, has volunteered with the compton transgender district, the castro lgbtq cultural district, has served on the Planning Committee for the trans march. And done a lot of fundraising in the bay area. In soma theres lots of placement going on. I think the c. A. C. Is a vital element in preventing that. And keeping San Francisco unique. And a wonderful place that i think we all enjoy to live. And i think that both shanon and christian would be excellent additions to the c. A. C. To help further those goals. Thank you very much. Operator you have zero questions remaining. No more calls, madam. Supervisor ronen im sorry, i was on mute. And with that i will close Public Comment. And well invite abigail from supervisor haneys office back to express supervisor haneys recommendations for this body. Thank you, chair ronen. This is abby, supervisor haneys recommendations for the following seats are as follows. For seat 6, Christian Martin. For seat 7, Janetta Johnson. For seat 9, which is the alternate to seat 2, carolyn caldwell. Seat 10, which is the alternate to seat 3, gina rosales. Seat 11, which is the alternate to seat 4, conny ford. Seat 13 excuse me, seat 14, which is the alternate to seat 7, is kris romasanta. Supervisor haney would also like to express that there are still some remaining seats open. Unfortunately our office hasnt wasnt able to connect with everyone. If there are still some remaining applicants, that were not seated, we will connect with you at a future meeting, since there are still some open seats. And we thank everyone that has applied. And we appreciate all of your support and hard work to make soma a thriving community. Supervisor ronen okay. Thank you so much. Do any of my colleagues have any questions or comments . Supervisor mar chair ronen, i would like to well, i just want to thank all of the applicants. Youre an amazingly talented and diverse and committed group of activists and leaders working to support the Soma Community, which has been ground zero of the sort of techdriven development, despite the boom. So thank you all for all that you do. And, yeah, im inclined to support supervisor haneys recommendations for the appointments today. Supervisor ronen thank you so much. Supervisor stefani, do you have any comments before im happy to make the motion. Supervisor stefani yeah, im supportive of supervisor haneys recommendations as well. And thank you everyone for coming out. Or for being on the line. Supervisor ronen yes. Thank you. I think its appropriate given that this community Advisory Committee is in supervisor haneys district, that we follow his recommendations. So with that i will make a motion to move to the full board, with recommendation for seat 6, Christian Martin, with a residency waiver. Seat 7, Janetta Johnson. Seat 9, carolyn caldwell. Seat 10, gina rosales. Seat 11 conny ford. And seat 14, kris romasanta. Mr. Clerk, can you please take a roll call vote on that motion. Clerk on that motion, supervisor stefani . Supervisor stefani aye. Clerk supervisor mar . Supervisor mar aye. Clerk chair ronen . Supervisor ronen aye. Clerk the motion passes. Supervisor ronen thank you so much to all of those who applied and were here today. Mr. Clerk, is there any other items . Clerk that completes the agenda for today. Supervisor ronen thank you so much. The meeting is adjourned. [ ] i am the supervisor of district one. I am sandra lee fewer. [ ] i moved to the Richmond District in 1950 mine. I was two years old. I moved from chinatown and we were one of the first asian families to move out here. [ ] when my mother decided to buy that house, nobody knew where it was. It seems so far away. For a long time, we were the only chinese family there but we started to see the areas of growth to serve a larger chinese population. The stress was storage of the birthplace of that. My father would have to go to chinatown for dim sum and i remember one day he came home and said, there is one here now. It just started to grow very organically. It is the same thing with the russian population, which is another very large ethnic group in the Richmond District. As russia started to move in, we saw more russian stores. So parts of the richmond is very concentrated with the Russian Community and immigrant Russian Community, and also a chinese immigrant community. [ ] i think as living here in the richmond, we really appreciate the fact that we are surrounded three natural barriers. They are beautiful barriers. The presidio which gives us so many trails to walk through, ocean beach, for families to just go to the beach and be in the Pacific Ocean. We also also have a National Park service. We boarded the Golden Gate National Recreation Area so there is a lot of activity to do in the summer time you see people with bonfires. But really families enjoying the beach and the Pacific Ocean during the rest of the time of year. [ ] and Golden Gate Park where we have so many of our treasures here. We have the tea garden, the museum and the academy of sciences. Not to mention the wonderful playgrounds that we have here in richmond. This is why i say the richmond is a great place for families. The theatre is a treasure in our neighborhood. It has been around for a very long time. Is one of our two neighborhood theatres that we have here. I moved here when i was 1959 when i was two years old. We would always go here. I love these neighborhood theatres. It is one of the places that has not only a landmark in the Richmond District, but also in San Francisco. Small theatres showing one or two films. A unique they are unique also to the neighborhood and San Francisco. Where we are today is the heart of the Richmond District. With what is unique is that it is also Small Businesses. There is a different retail here it is mom and pop opening up businesses. And providing for the neighborhood. This is what we love about the streets. The cora door starts on clement street and goes all the way down to the end of clement where you will see Small Businesses even towards 32nd. At the core of it is right here between here and 20 tenth avenue. When we see this variety of stores offered here, it is very unique then of the any other part of San Francisco. There is traditional irish music which you dont get hardly anywhere in San Francisco. Some places have this long legacy of serving ice cream and being a hangout for families to have a sunday afternoon ice cream. And then also, we see grocery stores. And also these restaurants that are just new here, but also thriving. [ ] we are seeing restaurants being switched over by hand, new owners, but what we are seeing is a vibrancy of clement street still being recaptured within new businesses that are coming in. That is a really great thing to see. I dont know when i started to shop here, but it was probably a very, very long time ago. I like to cook a lot but i like to cook chinese food. The market is the place i like to come to once a year. Once i like about the market as it is very affordable. It has Fresh Produce and fresh meat. Also, seafood. But they also offer a large selection of condiments and sauces and noodles. A variety of rice that they have is tremendous. I dont thank you can find a variety like that anywhere else. Hi. I am kevin wong. I am the manager. In 1989 we move from chinatown to Richmond District. We have opened for a bit, over 29 years. We carry products from thailand, japan, indonesia, vietnam, singapore and india. We try to keep Everything Fresh daily. So a customer can get the best out a bit. Normally during crab season in november, this is the first place i hit. Because they have really just really fresh crab. This is something my family really likes for me to make. Also, from my traditional chinese food, i love to make a kale soup. They cut it to the size they really want. I am probably here once a week. Im very familiar with the aisles and they know everyone who is a cashier cashier here i know when people come into a market such as this, it looks like an asian supermarkets, which it is and sometimes it can be intimidating. We dont speak the language and many of the labels are in chinese, you may not know what to buy or if it is the proper ingredients for the recipe are trying to make. I do see a lot of people here with a recipe card or sometimes with a magazine and they are looking for specific items. The staff here is very helpful. I speak very little chinese here myself. Thinks that im not sure about, i asked the clerk his and i say is this what i need . Is this what i should be making . And they actually really helped me. They will bring me to the aisle and say this is battery. They are very knowledgeable. Very friendly. I think they are here to serve not only the Asian Community but to serve all communities in the Richmond District and in San Francisco. [ ] what is wonderful about living here is that even though our july is a very foggy and overcast, best neighborhood, the sleepy part outside on the west side is so rich with history, but also with all the amenities that are offered. [ ] we have private and Public Gardens throughout the garden tour. All of the gardens are volunteers. The only requirement is youre willing to show your garden for a day. So we have gardens that vary from all stages of development and all gardens, family gardens, private gardens, some of them as small as postage stamps and others pretty expansive. Its a variety all of the world is represented in our gardens here in the portola. I have been coming to the portola garden tour for the past seven or eight years ever since i learned about it because it is the most important event of the neighborhood, and the reason it is so important is because it links this neighborhood back to its history. In the early 1800s the portola was farmland. The regions flowers were grown in this neighborhood. If you wanted flowers anywhere future bay area, you would come to this area to get them. In the past decade, the area has tried to reclaim its roots as the garden district. One of the ways it has done that is through the portola garden tour, where neighbors open their gardens open their gardens to people of San Francisco so they can share that history. When i started meeting with the neighbors and seeing their gardens, i came up with this idea that it would be a great idea to fundraise. We started doing this as a fundraiser. Since we established it, we awarded 23 scholarships and six work projects for the students. The Scholarship Programs that we have developed in association with the portola is just a winwinwin situation all around. The Scholarship Program is important because it helps people to be able to tin in their situation and afford to take classes. I was not sure how i would stay in San Francisco. It is so expensive here. I prayed so i would receive enough so i could stay in San Francisco and finish my school, which is fantastic, because i dont know where else i would have gone to finish. The scholarships make the difference between students being able to stay here in the city and take classes and having to go somewhere else. [ ] [ ] you come into someones home and its theyre private and personal space. Its all about them and really their garden and in the city and urban environment, the garden is the extension of their indoor environment, their Outdoor Living room. Why are you here at this garden core . Its amazing and i volunteer here every year. This is fantastic. Its a beautiful day. You walk around and look at gardens. You meet people that love gardens. Its fantastic. The portola garden tour is the last saturday in september every year. Mark your calendars every year. As a woman of color who grew up in San Francisco i understand how institutions can have an impact on communities of color. I think having my voice was important. That is where my passion lies when the opportunity to lead an office in such a new space came up. I couldnt turn it down. I was with the District Attorneys office for a little over nine years, if you include the time as an intern as well as volunteer da, all most 13 years. During the time with the das office i had an opportunity to serve the community not only as the assistant District Attorney but as director of community relations. That afforded the opportunity to have impact on the community in an immediate way. It is one thing to work to serve the rights of those without rights, victims. It is really rewarding to work to to further the goals of our office and the commitment we have as City Employees and advocates for people who dont have a voice. I dont know of anyone surprised to see me in this role. Maybe people have an impression what the director of the office of cannabis should be like, what their beliefs should be. I smash all of that. You grew up in the inner city of San Francisco. My career path is not traditional. I dont think a person should limit themselves to reach full potential. I say that to young women and girls. That is important. You want to see leadership that looks diverse because your path is not predetermined. I didnt wake up thinking i was going to be a prosecutor in my life. The city administrator reached out and wanted to have a conversation and gave me interest in the new role. I thought you must not know what i do for a living. It was the opposite. She had foresight in realizing it would be helpful for somebody not only a former prosecutor but interested in shaping criminal Justice Reform for the city would be the right person for the space. I appreciate the foresight of the mayor to be open how we can be leaders in San Francisco. I was able to transition to the policy space. Here i was able to work on legislation, community relations, communication and start to shape the ways our office was going to reform the criminal Justice System. It is fulfilling for me. I could create programs and see those impact peoples lives. I am the change. It took truants youth to meet with Civil Rights Movement leaders who fought to have access to education. Being a young person to understand that helped the young people realize this was an important thing to give up. What we find is that young people who are truanted have a really high homicide rate in our city, which is a sad statistic. We want to change that. Coming from a community we are black and brown. I dont reach out to other people. I dont think they feel the same way. I had the great opportunity to work on Prison Reform issues and criminal Justice Reform issues. We created a program at san quentin where we brought district opportunities t to lifs and talk about how we are all impacted by the criminal Justice System. We brought over 40 elected das to san quentin for the situation. Now we are inviting the Police Department. Our formerly incarcerated group born out of this programming asked for the opportunity to work on a project where we could bring the men in blue on the outside to come speak to the men on blue inside to start the healing dialogue around how the criminal Justice System specifically in San Francisco impacts the community. I was attracted to the role. There was a component of equity that was part of this process. The Equity Community here in San Francisco is a community that i had already worked with. Before i took steps to visit cannabis businesses i thought it was important my team have a chance to go inside and speak to men who ha had been impacted. That conversation needed to happen so we know how we are making an impact with the work that we are doing. The das office as we were leading up to the legalization of marijuana in the state we started having conversations on the policy team what that could look like. The District Attorney was really focused on the right side of history for this. We realized it would be quite a heavy lift for individuals who have been negatively impacted by the war on drugs to expunge the record. It was important to figure out the framework to make it seamless and easy. They put their minds to it after some time and many conversations the data analysts and other policy walk throughs on the team came up with the idea to engage the Tech Community in this process. Code for america helped us developed the rhythm to be used for any jurisdiction across the state that was important to create a solution to be used to assist all jurisdictions dealing with this matter. The office of cannabis is the first office to have a completely digital application process. We worked with the digital team to develop the online application. There are going to be hiccups. We are first to do it. It is one of the most rewarding parts to offer a seamless to offer a seamless approach. That is how they can find solutions to solve many of the community challenges. The best way to respond to prop 64 was to retroactively expunge 9,000 cannabis related records for San Francisco. It feels like justice full circle for my personal experience. In the past i was furthering the war on drugs just as my directive. Really coming from a place of Public Safety. That was the mandate and understanding. It is nice to see that pass a society we are able to look at some of our laws and say, you know what . We got it wrong. Lets get this right. I had the privilege of being in the existing framework. My predecessor Nicole Elliott did an incredible job bringing together the individuals superpassionate about cannabis. The office was created in july of 2017. I came in early 2018. I have been able to see the Offices Development over time which is nice. It is exciting to be in the space, stickily in thinking about her leadership. Looking for the office it is always we might be before my time when i was working for the board oforboard of supervisors. I learn new things every day it is challenging and rewarding for me. We get the privilege to work in an office tha that is innova. We get to spearhead the robust exprogram. I am excited she came on board to leverage experience as a prosecutor 10 years as we contemplate enforcements but approaching it without replicating the war on drugs. I was hired by cam laharris. I havent seen a District Attorney that looked kind of like me. That could be a path in my life. I might not have considered it. It is important that women and certainly women of color and spaces of leadership really do their part to bring on and mentor as many young people as they can. It is superimportant to take advantage of as many opportunities a as they can when they can intern because the doors are wide open. Plans change and that is okay. The way this was shaped because i took a risk to try something new and explore something and show that i was capable. You are capable, right . It was about leaning in and being at the table to say my voice matters. Voice matters. This is the San Francisco board of appeals. President and lazarus will be joined by honda, and santacana. Also present is the deputy City Attorney who will provide legal advice this evening. At the controls is the boards Legal Process clerk and i am julie, the boards executive director