Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Budget And Appropriations Committee 20240712

Mandelman and yee. I would like to thank sfgovtv for broadcasting this meeting. Madam chair, any announcements. Clerk due to the covid19 Health Emergency and to protect board members, the City Employees and the public and the and Public Comment is available on each item on this agenda and both channel 26 and fof fof. Org and our streams the number across the screen. You can call 1 415 6550001 and 926891085 code. Again, 1 415 6550001, and then press pound and pound again. And you will hear the discussions that you will hear music and be in listening mode only. And when the item of interest comes up star star, 9 to be added to the speaker line. And you can email comment to myself at linda. Wong sfgov. Org. And if you submit Public Comment via email it will be forwarded to the board of supervisors and it will be included as part of this file. Madam chair this concludes my announcement. Supervisor fewer thank you very much, madam clerk. Call item number 1. Clerk the status of nonprofit sustainability in the impact of covid19 on nonprofit staffing and funding and programs and services and the role of the city in supporting the Nonprofit Sector and requesting the office of the controller and mayors Budget Office to report. Members of the public can provide Public Comment and should call the 1 415 6550001 and access code 926891085. And then press pound and pound again. If you have not already done so, please dial star, 9 to line up to speak. A system indicates that you have raised your hand and wait until the system indicates that you have been unmuted and you may begin your comments. Supervisor fewer so today we have mr. Ben rosen field, our city controller and the mayors Budget Office, and wes light list hiet . Is that how we announce your name . Im sorry, youre on mute. Did you say i think youre on mute. Lifeheight, like life how you live and height, how tall you are. Supervisor fewer from the indiscernible and the office of economic and Workforce Development. I believe that you have a Powerpoint Presentation for us, each of you . Or not . Yes, madam chair. Supervisor fewer thank you very much, mr. Controller. indiscernible . Supervisor fewer yes. Madam chair and members of the committee, thank you for having us here today. Im the city controller. We have a short presentation to walk through related to some of the citys work with supporting nonprofit organizations and ill start off and hand it over to my colleague and the Mayors Office and the office of economic and Workforce Development for pieces of the presentation. To start off, as you know, the nonprofit organizations provide over a billion dollars of Critical Service that is kind of at the backbone of a lot of the citys provisions across a wide array of Different Service types. To do that work your credits with over a dozen City Departments and so part of my offices role is to help with some coordination of that process of doing business with the city. And so part of the work that we do from the Controllers Office is to help to standardize how the departments work with nonprofit organizations. Some examples in recent years, in recent months we have been working to standardize the policies that are specific to covid19. We have issued several directives out to the departments related to that which ill talk through. As you know, madam chair, last year we worked through a process to help to implement the minimum compensation change that the board adopted and funded. And then we also do work weektoweek and monthtomonth, on kind of smaller issues involved with the administration of that relationship between nonprofits and the city. Things like cost categorization in their contracts and how the rates get calculated across the city and those sorts of things. We do have a nonprofit Monitoring Program that our office administers working with the contracts departments. Our hope there is to make that process more efficient for both the city and the nonprofit organizations to have clear standards and processes by which monitoring happens. And then, secondly, to provide the services to nonprofit organizations that need them. So to talk through a couple of the policies that we have put in place during this current emergency period, within a few days of shelterinplace commencing we had a policies, and our hope was to support the sustainability of nonprofits during this highly unusual circumstance. And through direction to the departments to continue to provide full or partial payment in the event that nonprofit organizations Service Delivery was interrupted as a result of the emergency. So as you know, Many Service Providers have remained open with new demands on them during this emergency. And while others have been required to close their programs and the purpose here with this policy was to ensure that we did not cut city payments to providers that are unable to provide services during this period of time. And then to jeopardize their sustainability. And we have also worked on more administrative issues and anticipating how challenging this moment is on administrative finance and other staff and nonprofit organizations and the city. One example of that, the beginning of a fiscal year is typically a challenging time of nonprofit organizations and the city. Because we have a lot of work to do on both sides of that relationship to put new contracts in place is timely so that we dont see service or payment around the cutover when you cut from one contract to another. So recently we issued guidance to departments to allow them to modify their contracts around the fiscal year cut over and to help to ensure that we dont have interruptions of payment or services for a period. So this is a new allowance that is provided during this emergency period to nonprofit organizations and City Departments to help to ensure that fiscal year cutover goes as swiftly as it can. We do provide indiscernible services to the nonprofit organizations. We continue to do that during this period of time, even remotely. We do have upcoming workshops that are available to nonprofit organizations on various portions of Financial Management practices coming up in over the next two weeks. We do provide oneonone coaching and assistance to nonprofit organizations and will sometimes arrange for nonprofit organizations having issues to receive contracted help in an area of weakness or where they need focus. And i will briefly touch on the m. C. O. , i know that this committee is very familiar with it. A bit over a year ago the city did adopt changes to the minimum compensation ordinance that increased the wages for nonprofit organizations. Minimum wages to 16. 50 an hour in july 2019. And then that applied to most nonprofit organizations that we do business with. So those with five or more employees or more than 50,000 in funding. The board and the mayor appropriated 5. 8 million to implement the cost of that program in the first year and our office allocated that in a rational way across all of these departments to provide the contracted nonprofit providers services. We completed that distribution of funds and that those funds will now be moved into the Department Budgets and indiscernible that went into effect last year. I know that you will have the interim budget before you next week at this committee. The Mayors Office has proposed a pause on the n. C. O. Increase that otherwise would have gone into effect on july 1st of this year so that decision can be made with the full budget picture in august and september by the mayor and the board. Supervisor fewer thank than. Thank you, ben. I wanted to touch on another investment in nonprofits. Over the last five years the city has been able to allocate over 190 million in costofbusiness increases to nonprofit providers. And similar to the n. C. O. That ben mentioned previously, the ability to fund the increase for the upcoming fiscal year would be considered as part of the larger budget context in those conversations that well have over august through october. And with that ill turn it over to the next indiscernible to discuss programs that her department runs. Sure. Good afternoon, madam chair and members of the committee. Im the Senior Business Development Manager in the office of economic and Workforce Development. Last year, as you know, you have heard from the controller that the city invests sizeable amounts close to 900 million in transactional funding for nonprofits for services and resources to advance its ongoing strategies. And the controller just addressed the efforts to understand, monitor and to more fully support the true cost of our nonprofit partners work. The office of economic and Workforce Developments Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative is focused on transformative funding for change in capital that extends the reach and deepens the impact of these investments. And in addition to support for the high cost of real estate, which remains at its second highest expense for most organizations after labor, the n. S. I. Has assisted nonprofits to assess their overall capacity needs and assign skilled volunteers and strengthen grant proposals and implement mergers and other forms of strategic restructuring. Annual funding of 3 million is administered by oewd in partnership with the Arts Commission and the Mayors Office of housing and Community Development. And this partnership has been very effective for referrals and providing a continuum of support for organizations that wear many hats and address many needs in our city. Because the impetus for the Technical Assistance within the n. S. I. Comes from the nonprofits themselves and their vision for the states growth and partnership, were aiming to have durable change that is collectively desired by the board of staff and community and can withstand turnover which is a reality in the Nonprofit Sector. This years Sustainability Initiative funded included onetime increases for permanent Space Acquisition as well as funding to mitigate the high cost of construction of Community Facilities within 100 Affordable Housing sites. With the expanded support our nonprofit and intermediary vision has provided in response to the Global Pandemic as well as the ongoing needs the lease negotiation and site identification and Financial Planning as well as grants, including onetime expenses necessitated by a new lease. And eligible expenses, include up to six months of the differential between the existing rent and the new higher rent. So since launching our first grant three years ago we have stabilized 178,000squarefeet of nonprofit space with leases averaging seven years. And had the acquisition of more than 128,000squarefeet of newly nonprofit owned space. And it is governed by communities of color and lowincome communities and we have limited the access to capital. We have stable stabilization i talked about that, with the differential between the existing rents and the grants up to 75,000 for nonprofits to secure a lease for five years or more. And, again, the acquisition awards support that newly nonprofit owned space. Thank you. Supervisor fewer thank you very much. Any comments or questions from my colleagues at all on the presentation . None . Okay. Supervisor supervisor fewer excuse me, im sorry. I have a question but i was going to wait until after all of the presentations. Supervisor fewer okay. So we have we have guest speaker next. So we have people from sherry adams and steve gills from the Network First and then joe wilson and jenny freedenboch from the indiscernible commission. Supervisors, would you like to wait for your questions now or after we hear from our nonprofit providers . I would rather that we hear from our nonprofit providers in case they might touch on it. Supervisor fewer thank you very much. Okay. So lets get started. So id like to invite chairman adams and steve fields from the Human Services network. So can you hear me . This is steve fields. Supervisor fewer yes, steve, we can hear you. Good. Im never sure where i am in these pictures. Thank you, chairperson fewer, for holding this hearing. And im we in the Nonprofit Community hope that it is the beginning of a dialogue between the sectors and the government to take an unprecedented look at the status of the critical Nonprofit Service community in San Francisco. And we were reaching a point as a sector over the last several years of becoming increasingly concerned about the issue of sustainability. And it was reaching a point in the Nonprofit Service sector where it wasnt the large agencies were secure and the small ones were not, it was across the board based on all kinds of factors, whether or not we were going to have a kind of ad hoc loss of Critical Services or we were going to be able to get in front of the growing crises in our various systems of services to make sure that essential services were continued. And wiper planning around the issue of sustainability. And, obviously, circumstances have completely shifted the concerns and the resources and the energies of the entire city, let alone the nonprofit and the City Department sectors. So i want to say then a couple of things in the context of this. Those of us who remain optimistic, well come out of this covid19 crisis and were going to get a place where we Start Building back up again. And our major concern is the weaknesses and the vulnerabilities of the Nonprofit Sector that were growing and becoming more acute in january of 2020, are going to be there in whenever we come out of this crisis and start getting our sea legs again and able to get back into Building Systems of care with the budget and everything else. And so those the only differences that those vulnerabilities have been exacerbated and theyve been accelerated by the covid19 crisis. And charlene will address those specific issues. But the enduring ones, the ones that we all have to understand in the context of whatever were trying to do to respond to the economic crisis, the budget crisis, and the Health Care Crisis were facing now, is that the Nonprofit Sector as referred to in the earlier reports is the frontline response system in this city and county to not only enduring longterm health and social service and Behavioral Health issues, but also the goto sector to respond quickly with we need to stand something up in the face of an enduring as well as an insipient crisis. And i would have to say that probably the Biggest Issue facing our sector before the covid19 crisis, and the one that were going to be facing coming out of it is how do we recruit, retain and inspire our staff so that we can continue to do the work that we are doing . The ability to recruit the kind of staff that we always have and then retain them has been severely affected in a negative way by the economics prior to the covid19 crisis. And those are going to be things when we come out of this if were going to build this sector and maintain its strength to respond to the most vulnerable citizens in our city, were going to have to address. And that isnt just about salaries. That isnt just about benefits. But it is about providing people who are a core part of our citys capacity to do the things that were famous for, which is responding to emerging and new issues, finding ways to get something open and on the street quickly, hiring, recruiting and hiring different kind of worker, not just the traditional credentialed workers, but also the people that actually across many of our services have been our most effective. Which those are people who come out of the experience that theyre now recommitting as workers and as people coming to work in nonprofits to help to build up the capacity of the neighborhoods and the individuals that we serve. So we need to have a different discussion for the Nonprofit Sector around a salary structure, around a job structure and around a retention structure. That is different than just the early steps that we were able to achieve through the cost of living increase and then the cost of doing business increase. Those are essential underpinnings of the structure of our nonprofits. But i think that we move now where we need to take a look at how we fold the Nonprofit Workforce into a fundamental understanding that they are the workforce of the county, they are the city and county employees, the essential parts of our ability to respond. In some cases, in some kinds of crises, they can respond faster and more relevantly to the needs of the clients that we serve. So thats the first thing that we need to address. We cant just keep doing a cost of doing business increase that may be there one year and not there another. We need to look at the structure of how we fund our nonprofits. How we how once we decide that a particular set of services, whether its Children Services or services to youth, whether its Food Security services, whether its violence prevention services, whether its Behavioral Health or housing, that we need to pay a living salary, we need to give the people who work in those settings the security of being able to come to work knowing that they can raise a family in this city and they can be here in the long haul to continue to provide services. Second thing that i think that is critical going into the discussions that were in now and, obviously, the very tough budget discussions that are coming up, it is our strong position in the Human Services network that we all need to do the work now of prioritization. We need to make some hard choices as were looking at what we can afford and what we cant afford. What we see as essential services. We need to make some decisions about how broad the Nonprofit Sector can possibly be as were trying to get back to some form of economic strength and normalcy in our system. And, you know, frankly, the nonprofits for quite some time have been more inclined to say if youre going to take a 10 cut, never seen as much as a 15 cut in my 50 years of working here, take it across the board. And we cant afford to do that anymore. We have learned from the kind of crises that we were facing coming into covid19 that we had priorities that we had to address. And we have to address housing. We have to address homelessness and all of the elements that go with that experience for people on our streets. We have to address community Behavioral Health services. Were moving toward a new vision for community Behavioral Health in conjunction with the Mayors Office. It has been temporarily been suspended but when we get back to work we know that we need to build that new vision and the participants in that are going to be as much in the Nonprofit Sector as any other. We have to address the longstanding disparities, health disparities, in our community. We cannot keep loading programs and interventions on a fundamentally flawed structure where our different communities, communities of color, have a different experience of service availability, responsiveness, than other parts of our city. We have to look at that issue and the service approaches, whether its in the city or the nonprofit or the private sector, that will give us a chance to address that problem once and for all. We have to address Food Security and the elements that go with it in our communities. And we have to address Workforce Development. And we the Nonprofit Sector for a long time have been an entry level for people to come into working in the service sector, having come out of the experience that these programs are designed to serve. My Agency Foundation has been hiring consumers, clients, now persons with lived experience for 45 years. Not because were trying to do them a favor, but because they are among our best staff and always have been because of the experience that they bring. A lot of the nonprofit programs become ways for people to reinvest in the communities that gave them support and help when they were struggling. So were a Workforce Development powerhouse in many ways, particularly in looking at the way that we view who we will recruit, who were looking for to come add to the strength of our workforce. And then i think that the last thing that i wanted to say these are more structural, obviously, but we talked for a long time in the Nonprofit Sector about the relationship between the departments that fund us and contract us and the other elements in our system that provide the funding. And the process of making decisions on a policy level about where were heading. We have to address as we come out of the covid19 crisis, and the budgeting crisis that were going to be facing, weve got to address this archaic topdown process that starts in departments, comes down to the community, and then the Community Reacts to ideas and it goes back up into the departments. And then it comes back down to the community. Its not only time consuming, but it takes a long time to get to innovation and change. We need a new partnership. We talk rhetorically about partnerships all of the time in this city and county. But we need to actualize what that looks like. A lot of the institutional knowledge, a lot of the creativity and a lot of the ability to actually to implement a program that somebody thinks of is in the Nonprofit Sector for all kinds of reasons. We need to be sidebyside with the City Departments when theyre deciding on an approach to homelessness, when theyre deciding on how to implement Behavioral Health services. And that requires a flattening of the idea processes in San Francisco. Everybody knows who makes ultimate decisions, but there shouldnt are a hierarchy of how we draw upon the creativity and the energy of the various members of our community. Nonprofits can do a better job of bringing in the voices of the people that we serve. Were Getting Better at that. We have a long way to go. But then the three sectors, the people that we serve, the programs that are serving them, and the departments that fund them, need to talk early and often to come up with the ideas that we need that are different than the old ones to do our business differently. So thats my urging for nonprofits for susceptibility and sustainability is to move from susceptibility to sustainability. And we need to do things differently. And not to just incrementally change it. And i hope that this is the beginning of the discussions that can lead to that. Thank you, steve. Sorry. This is cherylene, can everyone hear me. I will go quickly. I just wanted to can you hear me, steve . Yes. Great. So i just wanted to add a couple things to steves points which i thought that were well articulated. When we want to think about nonprofit sustainability, we think of it as services sustainability. Its our ability to be responsive to the needs of the folks that we serve. And in addition to thinking about it as a Covid Response and the needs that need to shift and the increased costs that were experiencing around important safety precautions and the janitorial and all of the things that all of us are facing. We need to be thoughtful as we look into this budget process and sustain the critical and the essential services that are necessary. So that the folks that we all serve and care about, that we do this with a realistic and honest assessment of the costs incurred to be sure that we can be responsive. And i would like really to stress that its important that we think about this from a racial and Economic Justice perspective. So i think that the visioning and the changing of the systems and there are things that we have been doing for a long time that are not working for communities of color, for the most impacted by covid, by racial violence and by all of the things that we are facing. And that we are deep in conversation and struggle with today. That we want to make sure that as we are rebuilding the systems that were doing that differently through that lens and to do that we need to effectively to fund organizations that are providing key services in communities that are not formed by the communities that are most impacted. We want to join the city in those conversations so that we can have our system and structures in place. But ultimately to ensure that we can meade meet the needs of our most vulnerable San Francisco residents and the people that we care so, so much about. And i know that joe and jenny are up next and thank you, chair fewer, and the Committee Members for this time and this opportunity. We are grateful. Chair fewer and thank you for your presentation. Now joe wilson. Joe, my old friend. And jenny. Good afternoon, chair fewer. Thank you for having us here representing the Budget Justice Coalition, a coalition of nearly 45 communitybased organizations really committed to racial and Economic Justice, particularly in the budget process. So just summarizing in terms of nonprofit sustainability in a time of covid19 next, please we are in a Health Emergency and a recession. While this situation is unique, it has pointed out that the Public Health crisis, the Public Health pandemic, has come up against the existing twin pandemics of poverty and racism. In order to effectively to invest our way out of this crisis, we need to leverage the collective expertise, knowledge and people power of the entire community, not just those offering the service but those being served. And we need to value, maintaining essential services that poor San Franciscoians rely on. And we need to value reducing and demilitarizing police and decreasing our reliance on incarceration in favor of lifting up communitybased responses to poverty and reducing or eliminating highcost harmful uses of city revenue that further criminalize poverty. We need to bring true collaboration that allows for communitybased organizations and community selfdetermination to define what services and programs are most critical for those communities. And we need to value, maintain the rich and diverse tapestry of our nonprofit Human Services field. We absolutely need to value wage and compensation equity for those shouldering the burden. We believe that frontline staff across the city, whether theyre city workers or communitybased organization staff, must be compensated with the inherent risks they take and for the responsibility that they incur in rebuilding our communities. And, again, this this is an opportunity to avoid austerity and prioritize prosperity. And to really invest in rebuilding the Community Infrastructure so that we are not beset by this kind of Public Health crisis again. Next slide, please. Yeah, so this is jennifer indiscernible and, you know, we want to really to draw some lessons from the 2009 great recession. There were a lot of mistakes that were done there that hopefully we dont indiscernible and that had austerity measures and that was a mistake and it indiscernible and we have to instead look at new revenue, really utilizing all of the reserves and having that to be the solution. And through all of this we have to talk about we have to have Racial Justice as a core value. So to break it down a bit. We know that austerity measures hurt the economy. So what that means is that it will take us longer to recover. Someone just kind of gave this example to me, you know, the fire off the pier and the Fire Department came and said, okay, were going to do a little bit of water and see if it works. No, they drown the fire in water. And then did little bits after that in terms of other small fires that were takes taking place. We need to basically exacerbate all of the issues that are being experienced by especially the poorest members of this city. So that means what . That we need to ensure that Public Education and an approachable equitable workforce are at the center of our efforts. It means that we need to instead of cutting essential services, to do new revenue. So lets not just avoid the cuts, we have to move forward on addressing new unmet needs. So were going to have, for example, tons of people at risk of losing their housing. Were going to have these different situations that were facing. We have to value the longer term basically we have to its okay to use the reserves and maybe we see that as destabilizing the health in the short term of the city, but that means faster recovery in the middle term and allow us to then to recover those expenses. If you think about whats going to happen and were having less income now and revenue now and later were hopefully the economy will stabilize and well have more revenue. So we dont need revenue later, we need revenue now. So thats not just using the reserves to stave off cuts and prevent destitution but to address the inequity that the pandemic has exposed and using new revenue to do that. So when joe talked about really recognizing the work of frontline workers, what this means is rethinking our Spending Priorities. We feed to rethink, what were the Spending Priorities that created the pandemic that was exposed. And its like a doll house at a toy store they used to look at and id peel back the roof and look inside. Thats what the pandemic has done. So we need to take the opportunity to deeply analyze those injustices that our system produces and to correct them through the budget process. Does that mean Defunding Police, deincarcerating and stopping spending money on basically criminalizing the poorest members of our community. And instead investing in communities so that those issues dont are not faced in the first place. So that folks have access to housing and theyre not stuck on the streets and so that folks have access to jobs so that theyre not susceptible to being caught up in the criminal justice system. And so i just want to end it with this note if nothing else, this pandemic has exposed just how interconnected all of us are. It has shown us that the health of all of us, you know, of the folks that are housed and the folks that are working on the frontlines and the folks who are working at our grocery stores, their health affects all of our health. We can no longer ignore that and we have to completely do things differently. Thank you so much for the opportunity to share. Chair fewer thank you very much. So id like to ask my colleagues now for comments or questions. I believe that supervisor walton you had a question that was pending . Supervisor walton thank you so much, chair fewer. And thank you all for your presentations. I do have a question. Back in my former life there was a time when we would convene as executive directors along with the Controllers Office and i know it was part of the work that we were doing on nonprofit sustainability. That was prior to the passage of the n. C. O. Of course, prior to this covid crisis that were in right now. But as i look back at controller rosenfelds presentation im curious to where we are now in terms of the conversations that were having around things that would be very helpful to our nonprofit partners and to the system that werent just related to increased resources, like the flexibility to have different admin costs reflected in budgets across across our nonprofits like the Capacity Building work, particularly for some of our smaller nonprofits. Im wondering where that work is right now and where it was prior to this crisis . Supervisor walton, through the chair, a lot of that work you remember from leading nonprofit organizations continues. Its obviously been interrupted in the last several months. We have we had a work plan for the current fiscal year working with nonprofit organizations and contracting departments on a few key issues related to flexibility and improved management of nonprofit funding and administrative practices. So we were working on proposals to standardize advance allowances across nonprofits. We were piloting a new indirect approach with two departments with the hope of expanding that more globally throughout our contracts in the future years, but based on that experience. And a couple of other kind of administrative procedures. Thats been paused, unfortunately, at the moment. We do think that well pick that back up once we get through this years budget. We had all of the other things that we have started in the past year that has been a more regular convening for nonprofit providers to hear updates from the city on a host of different administrative and financial and other rules. So we have turned that into kind of a quarterly gettogether in the current year. We actually have one later this week to provide it will be virtual this time and not inperson, but to provide updates on finance and budget and other issues. So and its unfortunately been paused for the last couple months, to be frank. Supervisor walton thank you, controller rosenfeld and if any of our nonprofit partners have anything to share or add to that, feel free to do so. Thank you, supervisor. And this is cheryl ann. I would concur with the controllers statement. The process has been slow and i would say that it was interrupted by more things over the past several years than solely the most recent or this current pandemic. Although, obviously, this is huge. But we do seek to continue and we have appreciated the more recent efforts through the response to the crisis to allow for greater flexibility at the departmental level and within the City Contracting system for us to be able to use funds more flexibly across and as opposed to the strict line item reviews that happens and to push for a streamlined contracting process. So that we can more quickly to be able to execute contracts and expend funds as new and emerging needs occur. And to be responsive to the needs of our the folks that we serve. So a lot of work to be done and we have appreciated the efforts, especially on the part of the Controllers Office to make those to help us to facilitate those processes. Just to underscore, supervisor, in some very specific way this issue of indirects. It is a critical one to get addressed i think in the overall i think when we can come to terms with that it actually becomes in its own way its in a different discussion about differentiating how we work with contracts, not trying to find a onesizefitsall necessarily. We were making good headway on that when the controller is absolutely correct that we got side tracked a couple of times. Thank you, thank you, chair, those were my only statements and questions. Chair fewer supervisor ronen . Supervisor ronen sorry. Im here. Thank you so much. Thank you for holding this hearing, chair fewer. I just wanted to start out by appreciating not only the tremendous work of steve and cheryl ann and joe and jennifer, but of your comments. They were very helpful and they were very concrete. And i just want you to know that i heard them and i very much appreciated them. And it would be you know, i think that the devil is obviously in the details, right. Its when we start balancing this budget when were going to have to reconcile and reckon with all of the issues that you bring up and all of the guidance that you have given us here. And to put those values and that practice into effect. And so i am looking forward to our next item for discussion over the rebalancing strategies to take some of what you shared with us and to put it in practice. It is hard its harder to talk about it in the abstract, although you did a fantastic job of that. What i will say having now worked in both nonprofit and government sectors throughout my career, in fact, i had never worked outside of the nonprofit or the government sectors, is how, you know, how how much we are dependent upon both in order to meet the needs of our community. And while i, you know, i really oppose contracting out, and sometimes wonder what should be a Civil Service position and what should be a nonprofit position, i also very much understand these organizations that are built organically from the people that have experienced whatever the issue that the nonprofit is trying to alleviate or to address. And that the dynamic nature of those organizations is important. And it is something that i value very much. Aside from the cultural competency, theres a lot of that too. But i dont really have any questions because, again, i think that my questions will come as were rebalancing the budget. But i just really felt that it was important to just thank you so much for weighing in today and for doing so so thoughtfully and, most of all to you and all of the people that you work with for your tremendous work. Thank you. Chair fewer yes. Supervisor yee did you have a comment . Supervisor yee yeah, i do have a comment. Thank you for the presentation and as you know i spent 35 years of my life doing nonprofit. And i guess its probably not quite related to what youre talking about but it is. As in an organization for a long time and i have seen so Many Organizations and their e. D. S and the way that you think and so forth and im not talking about large organizations. A lot of them are really small, you know, 20 people, 10 people, Something Like that. And one of the things that, you know, as we talk about this, you know, what the government position is what are the nonprofit positions and how much does the nonprofit really going to tie themselves with government. And i was running my organization, last one, and a some of it was advocacy. And im finding now that if you get tied too personally to government money, in particular as a source of funding, that theres a danger that the organization becomes a little muffled. Or they are almost like a gag order or something. Like oh, you shouldnt be saying this. And you shouldnt be you shouldnt do this. And so theres a little of that that i have seen over decades. And it comes and goes. So its not a question as much as a playing out of reality that i have seen that if you get too tied into a source of money where if youre saying, geez, this is not the best way to use the money, but the Department Might think otherwise and also your budget gets slashed and i have seen that. So i really dont have a question. But i thought that id add to the conversation. Chair fewer thank you very much. Colleagues, any more comments or questions . Okay, seeing none, i think that i have a few comments before we have Public Comment. And i just want to say thank you very much for sharing with us today. And as you know that weve had many conversations in my office and around my table about the same subjects repeatedly. And i think that covid19 is an opportunity to, frankly, to start rethinking our relationship and of our commitment. I also want to say that during my time in City Government and joe and i go back, we worked indiscernible and another nonprofit, but i just want to say that i actually think that it is an opportunity too. So people have said how can we get back indiscernible and where we were wasnt great after all. We had the largest wealth that we had ever experienced in San Francisco, but quite frankly, the largest wealth gap in the nation. We also had the highest rent, right . We have this and we have this problem i think and its persistent, i think that, steve, what you said about recruitment and retention. But its really more than that. Its really also about investing in our nonprofit workers, our executive directors, people who lead these organizations and never really having the funds to actually to invest fully in the health of nonprofit organizations. And that has been left up to nonprofits themselves to fundraise for and indiscernible that actually when the city has such a large indiscernible on nonprofits to deliver the work of the city, then we also have an obligation to not only to i think retain and recruit, but also to build the capacity of these nonprofit organizations and to help them with things like investing in mentorship and leadership and also how to lead organizations in times like this. And i think that as you have an opportunity to not just indiscernible because we now have a small window of opportunity with an economy that is looking at a recession. We have almost like a recess. Yes, the city will have to go after more revenue and try to fulfill 1. 7 billion shortfall in our budget, but, actually, this is a time to reprier to tease. Reprioritize. It gives us a time to have a revision what we could be doing. We have talked a lot about unhoused populations and we have talked a lot about housing and giving them shelter, but we rarely talk about giving them a life. And i want to say that when we invest in people. And it comes with indiscernible that we have to believe that these people who have been unemployed and these people who have not been a part of our society, these people on this treadmill, again, in and out and we have to believe that they we can actually have workforce training and they can be employed. They can actually use their lived experience to do these jobs that are so necessary, to take people from where they are to come back into into general society of work and jobs and people. And i just think that we cant just think anymore about sheltering them or for temporary 90 days, but actually think if theres an opportunity to really look at really investing in people. But, again, the city and county of San Francisco also have a core belief that these people can work and these people do want to work. And we can actually improvise and we can make it sustainable. And so i think that what you bring about nonprofits, indiscernible that it is nothing new from what i have heard around the table so many times. I have heard as budget chair and also chelsea has been hearing as my legislative aide on the budget, is that it is it is true that nonprofits indiscernible if we are feeling it as a city theyre feeling it even 10 times more because they actually started from a place of deficit. And a lack of resources. And i have been hearing it for nine months in the neighborhood that every single one of them have openings. And they cannot retain people. But also are saying, you know, we also cant give them the even if you work for a lower wage, of getting professional development, of developing your skills, quite frankly, so that you can usea use as a stepping stone. So i want to say i see what is said about nonprofits indiscernible . And dont bite the hand that feeds you. Quite frankly, i think that we need sort of a new model and maybe a model that really is shaking the hand of those that guide you. I think that nonprofits do provide because they are the firstline providers of health and resource. And many times people transitioning back into a job, nonprofits are their first place that will hire them as it was with me for 19 years out of work and children at home. And i was given a chance and hired me as a parttime worker where i became a fulltime worker and then i became a commissioner and im here today and i serve you and the residents of San Francisco as a supervisor of district 1. Many of us get our starts and its from the nonprofits that gave us a chance. So with that i see no other comments on the board here. So lets open this up for Public Comment. Madam clerk, please see if theres anyone for comment. Clerk yes, operation is checking to see if there are any callers in the queue. Operations, please let us know if there are any callers that are ready. If you have not already done so, please press star, 9, to be added to queue. For those already on hold, wait until the system indicates that you have been unmuted. Is there an callers who wish to comment on item number 1 . I do have a number of callers. I will unmute the first caller. Clerk thank you. Caller good afternoon, supervisors. I am emily lee, the director of San Francisco rising. I want to thank you for your leadership during these really difficult times as our country and our city struggles to confront the White Supremacy that it was built on. And really our community making very honest demands that black lives matter in our city. And at the same time we have a Public Health crisis which is really hitting black Community Members the hardest and other communities of color the hardest. So uprising is low income communities of color across the city and our member organizations represent chinese, black, latin and filipino families. We organize in the neighborhoods across the city including the soma, chinatown and bayview and excelsior and mission. And at the core is recognizing that while all of our communities have very different experiences which is in sharp relief during this moment, what we have always united on is that justice for any of us requires justice for all of us. And that we must stand in solidarity in this moment and hold each other up during these urgent times. In the spirit of our alliance testifying today to highlight the need for Racial Equity lens to be front and center during our city budget process. As you consider the budget cuts and budget investments at this time we believe that the following must be used to really preprioritize and reenvision as supervisor fewer said what is needed in these crises of coronavirus and police brutality. We hope that the board will address emerging and urgent needs of immigrants and communities of color that are disproportionately impacted by covid19. And we sent data shown that we have at least 76 of all current virus deaths are people of color in San Francisco. We need help preventing displacement of atrisk communities of color as many of them are out of work and unable to pay rent during this time. And we also need to ensure that the survival of d. B. O. That provide these services. Thank you so much. Caller hello. My name is indiscernible and im with children making change from the advocates and im speaking on behalf of the members. They say, hi, we are children with human change and with everything going on right now we really need Mental Health services in our communities and schools. This is important because students need someone to talk, talk to to let go of the stress, and to be able to work better. The violence that the media is choosing to show is important to help to educate students about there and help them to heal. And we believe that the issues continue to be funded to provide students ways to cope with the aftermath of Distance Learning and these Police Issues that have arisen. Thank you for listening to them and us. Chair fewer thank you. Caller hello, my name is kimberly porteratrey and i work for alternative family services. Were a nonprofit in San Francisco that works primarily with foster children and also children at risk of being removed so theyre some of the most Vulnerable Children in the city and county. And im actually not asking for money. We are funded by medical and the local portion of our funding is met through state realignment funds and otherwise is not principally impacted and it doesnt impact the county general funds. What i really want to communicate is that since the pandemic that most counties have switched from a feeforservice model of our contract to cost reimbursement system for the remainder of the fiscal year which is just until the end of june, of course. And the federal government has notified california that it will allow us to use a cost reimbursement model on an ongoing basis. Since the shelterinplace order we have switched almost entirely to Telehealth Services and my entire program of which im the Program Director has had to learn a completely different model of providing services and that is now figuring out which of those services that need to be returned in person and its been a very challenging time for our agency. And being in this shelter mostly telehealth model now has so altered our Service Delivery clerk your time is ended. Thank you for your comments. Thank you for your call. Next speaker. Caller good afternoon, supervisors. Thank you for your leadership on the city budget and for looking out for communities and all of San Francisco during these very challenging times. My name is christian ascalante and i lead the workers right program and we have seen the impacts of the Health Pandemic and the challenging to our most vulnerable Community Members. We serve mostly low income immigrant filipino families who are struggling to city in the city due to the high cost of housing and the ongoing displacement of our community from manila town to soma, mission, Bernal Heights and the excelsior. And we have Domestic Workers in care homes and theyre facing a reduction in hours or have been laid off all together. And now were worried how they will make ends meet. Every day were doing our best to address our Community Members urgent needs and filling out unomaha Employment Unemployment applications and building capacity among filipinos and in partnership with other low income communities and organizations. We have always been an essential bridge between the city and our Community Members who would otherwise not know where to go to access resources or services in San Francisco. We have helped to have Language Access for filipinos throughout the city. As you look at budget investments at this time its important that the city keep whole and prioritize communities like the Filipino Community that is already so vulnerable and now with covid19 are at the highest risk of further displacement. Thank you. Clerk next speaker, please. Caller hi, good afternoon. Thank you, supervisor fewer, for holding this extremely important hearing on nonprofit sustainability. My name is lina schotts and i Welcome Health institute today. And providing Early Education and senior and social services. While theres been longstanding issues that have seen to increased costs and recruitment challenges and others that have been discussed during this hearing, one critical issue that we feel and have felt during this covid19 period is the availability of cash to sustain us through this uncertain period. Particularly as we move to the end of the school year. So we successfully applied for the Small Business Assistance Program through the federal government, a paycheck plan, and p. P. O. Loans, not grants, from the federal government. And now with weve gotten guidance from the controller level, and were getting instructions that are to not dwell on city contracts because it is viewed as double dipping. I think that some of our concern is that this is a loan and it is forgivable if we are able to prove that it is forgivable. But it is clearly not a grant at this time. And so given the upcoming federal legislation we need to determine what part is loan and what part is forgivable. And from your direction as a county controller, we could actually technically receive a loan from any other Lending Institution and not a bank in that instance and not be given this direction. Ill just kind of share with you some of the challenges that were feeling because of this sort of endofyear crunch. So the San Francisco Suicide Prevention which i directed as an interim director last year emerged with indiscernible Institute Last year. It took us several months to negotiate in terms to the contract in the early fall but the contract was drawn up and completed and still have carried 1. 2 of burden. So the reason that we felt we needed the p. P. E. Is that the county clerk thank you. Next speaker, please. Caller hi, can you hear me now . Clerk yes. Caller hello . Clerk hello am. Caller i have interpretation and im interpreting for juanita so we request two additional minutes. [speaking spanish] voice of translator good afternoon to all of the supervisors and thank you for providing a space for me to talk today. [speaking spanish] voice of translator and also acknowledging that you have done a lot of work to support our communities. [speaking spanish] voice of translator my name is kwana, and we support women and lowincome families. [speaking spanish] voice of translator and even before the covid19 pandemic, many of our members, theyre single mothers and mothers with children that have suffered a lot of challenges coming into this country and living here. [speaking spanish] voice of translator after the covid19 pandemic we saw that many of our Community Members, may be of them mothers and latina were cleaning houses and they lost their job and many of them were out of work. [speaking spanish] voice of translator the story of many of them is that once they lost their job they didnt know how to access the Government Resources and they were really left behind in this. [speaking spanish] voice of translator this is hugely impactful because since they didnt know where to Access Services and how to seek support, we were the ones that connected them to food, connected them to resources that would help them in this difficult time. [speaking spanish] voice of translator and without having the documentation or the Language Access, they cant access supports. [speaking spanish] voice of translator the most threatening part of this right now is housing. They dont know if they will be kicked out of their house if they cant make rent. [speaking spanish] voice of translator these communities need a lot of attention and a lot of resources and guidance right now and they have been left out and we are the ones that are providing them. And we ask that you continue to fund these programs and these organizations that are the lifeline for these Community Members right now. Thank you so much for your attention and for letting us speak today. Chair fewer thank you. Clerk thank you. There are approximately 26 callers in the queue. I wanted to mention that. Next caller, please. Chair fewer thank you very much. Caller i was having a conversation about the hello . Chair fewer hello, speaker caller i am joyce lamb, the codirector indiscernible [broken audio] and we have worked with lowincome families and across the city. And indiscernible our community has been hit by indiscernible since the beginning of the year. So, you know, lowered Small Business activities compounded gentrification and high cost of housing, our members have been living in fear of losing their jobs and housing for all of 2020. Now with covid19 were very worried that well be pushed out of the city all together. Our community is prostly comprised the hospitality workers and theyre largely unemployed. We have families who lost all of their income in march and theyre not sure if theyll have a job to return to. We have Domestic Workers who still go to work every day as part of the essential workforce and concerned about their health and safety and desperately needing protection and information about their workplace. Since indiscernible and Unemployment Insurance and we have received over 600 calls since march. Responsible in this time especially in this time when we have unprecedented need and the City Departments are overwhelmed, nonprofit organizations like ourselves are an essential bridge between the city and those who would otherwise be disconnected to services. So what were asking is that, you know, as you consider the budget cuts and budget investments at this time that its really important that the city prioritize and to keep hold with the organizations that are directly serving their community that were already vulnerable and are at the highest risk of displacement. And to guarantee everyones success and wellbeing i urge the community to apply a Racial Justice lens and think about clerk thank you for your call. Next speaker, please. Hello, caller. You can caller caller chair fewer hello, caller. indiscernible . Caller caller hello . Hello. Caller hello. Yes, you can speak for Public Comment. Go ahead. Caller hi, this is farrah short with the Community Housing partnership and were a nonprofit Supportive Housing provider. We house over 1,700 residents and employ over 230 staff members. And i just wanted to thank the board for taking this issue on today and for truly examining it and caring about, you know, the future of nonprofits in San Francisco. And i wanted to point out just a little irony that i think that is relevant that many of our staff who are employed serving residents of our supportive lowincome housing, themselves they do not have housing stability. And that is because of the wages that were able to provide in the Nonprofit Sector right now in a market like San Francisco where many, many of our staff are not far really from the Living Conditions of the folks that they are serving. And that is something that is it should be shocking. And it should be certainly be addressed. And we need to have a system of sustainability. We need to provide for workers who are doing essential work on the frontlines, providing services that, frankly, the city should be providing. And we are stepping in to do the good work and folks need to be compensated fairly. Were unable to do that and you know, not just us but im speaking speaking on behalf of a lot of nonprofits in this city that are plagued with things like high turnover and retention issues. And hiring problems in terms of getting quality and qualified staff. And that all has to do with the in fact were being undercompensated. And that we dont have a sense of the longterm sustainability knowing that well be supported wholly. So we just encourage the board to continue. Clerk thank you, your time is ended. Next speaker, please. Hello . Hello, speaker . Caller hello . Clerk yes, please begin. Caller good afternoon, supervisors. Thank you for your leadership and advocacy in these tough, trying times. Im with the Community Services and our organization is a member of emphasizing and hedge funds. We provide social services and Leadership Development and Community Engagement and advocacy for the immigrants and working class. They have been marge marginalized and a vulnerable population. And covid19 has exacerbated their hardship and put their housing at risk. Our organization is hearing from a large number of our members that they are worried that they will be evicted from their housing, that they are harassed by their landlords for lack of rent, of payment. And it is critical for our latin and immigrant communities to be able to remain residents of San Francisco because of the protections that our sanctuary city affords them. A working class that is deeply impacted by covid19. Some who immediately lost their only source of income and theyre uncertain if theyll have a job after this order is lifted. Others found themselves working essential jobs and have exposed them to covid19. Many of our Domestic Workers who are often single mothers found themselves unable to provide food for the children. Our day lane laborers too koirk thank thank. Clerk thank you, your time is ended. Next speaker, please. Caller good afternoon, chair fewer and supervisors. And thank you for your leadership and making sure that the needs of the most vulnerable residents in San Francisco are being addressed at this extremely difficult time. My name is antonio diaz and im the organizations director and a member of San Francisco rising. And the organize with the latino families and youth in the mission, excelsior and other San Francisco neighborhoods. These families were already facing challenges to surviving in San Francisco, one of the most expensive cities in the country prior to covid19. It has been well documented that communities of general in color have been disproportionately impacted by the covid19 pandemic and its Public Health and economic impacts. And as essential workers who live in overcrowded housing, and the citys lowincome latina population has been particularly been vulnerable with high infection rates. Our members have been impacted by job losses and inability to pay rents and covid infections. In one instance a whole household of our members were diagnosed with the coronavirus. As an organization we have visited to provide essential Service Support work for our members and we believe that we, along with the Community Organizations in San Francisco, are trying to meet the needs of the most vulnerable residents. As you look at decisions its crucial to uplift justice and the austerity is made worse by the covid19 pandemic. To prioritize the communities that are the most vulnerable and at the highest risk of displacement. We ask that you look at the budget and deprioritize those things that have questionable value like police and enforcement. Thank you, supervisors. Caller thank you, chair fewer and supervisors walton and yee and ronen. And chair fewer and supervisor walton and yee and ronen, thank you. Im the executive director of for health and wellness. Im speaking on behalf of the San Francisco black coalition. And s. F. Black is a coalition of African American and indiscernible churches that are concerned about current and previous funding that existing within black led organizations. Organizations led by black people that have less funding than our nonblack counterparts. And rebuilding the communities that are deeply harmed by the Structural Racism of this city will only be when black communities are centered and prioritizes. In the midst of this pandemic we must be included in that process as a people with a history of exclusion and Structural Racism, if were not included, then were not in the conversation. There must be equity in this process because there definitely wasnt equity before covid19. And if our s. F. Black agencies are cut there will be no equity for black African Americans. We must be part of this process now. I thank you so much for this time. Clerk thank you. Currently there are approximately 23 callers in the queue. Next speaker, please. Caller hello, i am with the Mental Health association of San Francisco and im the outreach manager for our agency. We have been around since 1947, and i like a lot of the discussion that i have heard today. I appreciate the opportunity that the supervisors are giving us to comment on what has been talked about. And we share a lot of the same values that i have heard mentioned. We are i say a 90 run pure agency and i hear a lot about Peer Development and thats a priority for us. And we also last year had a conference, redefining crazy conference, with the idea that our system is broken and i feel like everything that im hearing today that is being confirmed more than ever. We are a lot of our funding right now we actually administer the california peer line. And we are hiring peers and so if people know of candidates that might be interested they can contact us at our with website at mentalhealthsf. Org. And our wages are competitive. And like mentioned earlier a lot of peers are just theyve experienced homelessness already and Mental Health challenges and so that theyre also part of a vulnerable population. So we also have questions about the funding. I realize that some of the contracts have been funded through the end of this year and were wondering what will happen after that. And our shelterinplace services have been expanded and the need is very great. So thank you so much for this opportunity and i look forward to more discussions. Thank you. Clerk hello, next speaker, please. Caller hello, can you hear me . Clerk yes, please begin. Caller thank you. Hi, good afternoon. My name is jenny pearlman, im the associate director of Strategic Partnerships and policies from safe and sound. And im here today representing the Family Resource alliance which is a unique network of 26 Resource Centers that reach at least 13,000 children, youth and parents and caregivers each year. Families who are the most vulnerable families in our city and we reach them in every neighborhood. With families in San Francisco already struggling before the outbreak of covid19, we have seen a significant increase in the need for families. Especially with respect to Food Security, stable housing and Mental Health supports. We are essential for the safety net both before and after the shelterinplace orders. And decades of work and vulnerable families have shown our cities how to overcome ethnic and racial barriers and historical discrimination. This is even more critical now with the current exposure of racial injustices. These impede healing by making families reluctant to engage in services. And to engage families, we tailer to the client population, often with direct input through the parent advisory councils. When shelterinplace is lifted we anticipate that the need will exponentially increase as families who are on the edge of struggling to find employment and housing and Mental Health care find themselves with little stability and in need of significant supports. The estimated capacity to reach 40,000 parents and caregivers and children and to be that link to the government services. The and we cant do this unless they are sustained to ensure the stability and the strength of longterm funding. Needed supports include the support for advocacy and research to increase families access to benefits, including very lowincome immigrant families. Clerk thank you, your time is expired. Next speaker, please. Caller good afternoon, supervisors. Hi, can you hear me . Clerk yes, please begin. Caller thank you. Deborah with sab fran Domestic Violence consortium. I just want to thank chair fewer and the members of the subcommittee and our friends and colleagues at the Human Service network and the Budget Justice Coalition. Domestic Violence Consortium represents 17 agencies that do workshops throughout the city and theres another probably 10 or more that are doing it very quietly and very confidentially to try to save peoples lives. But the cost of doing business in San Francisco and trying to keep the doors open have really hollowed out nonprofits over the last few years. And theyre spending a lot of their time raising additional dollars to continue to provide these essential services to the city. And so what you have heard from my colleagues about this really being a part of the citys workforce is so very true. And theyre so important because in our example that they never missed a step with shelterinplace and they figured out right away how to continue to meet the needs of this very Diverse Community of Domestic Violence survivors and their children. They continue to shelter them. They continue to answer the crisis lines. They continue to provide legal services, restraining orders. And working with the courts. And then the beloved community that is so indiscernible that continued to hand out groceries and continued to support their participants. So were just a vital part and were up like everybody else, up for very large cuts. Most of our funding comes from the department on the status of women and the commission on the status of women. And were very, very concerned about our own sustainability and we look forward to continuing these conversations. This is a segment that really cannot go away. And even though were not always front and center clerk thank you, caller, your speakers time is expired. Hello, caller, you may begin. Caller great, thanks. Good afternoon, supervisor fewer and walton and ronen and yee, controller and colleague. Thank you all so much for your work in these incredibly challenging times. Im doug gary, im the cochair of the Supportive Housing network and with delivering innovation and Supportive Housing. And nonprofit sustainability only happens with economic stability and includes equity. And as joe wilson noted the wages for the most essential workers in our city are currently insufficient. To create instability and they are hitting our systems of care. In this moment in our city and indiscernible nonprofits are honoring the courage and the amazing work of our sisters and brothers on the front lines to pay for the essential services that we agree with the city that must be provided. But the city has not yet funded those expenses on contracts and the gap is crushing our nonprofits. And we call on the board and the mayor to fully fund Supportive Housing and homeless Emergency Services, especially in a time when the necessity to serve our city is mostly based in need. And to sharply and painfully in view. Thank you for holding this hearing and your time and support. Clerk hello, caller. Caller good afternoon, supervisors. Hello, good afternoon, supervisors. I am mary kate, the policy director at indiscernible and a 30 Member Agency who are part of our homelessness responsiveness. And thank you chair fewer and supervisors for being present and for being supportive during this hearing today. And indiscernible and such a compelling way. And so i want to urge a holistic approach to sustainability that puttings people first. Financial unsustainability in our sector has profound and direct impacts on our communities and our families. Including especially people of color and immigrant and undocumented families. And its widely known and well documented that the government contracts pay about 70cents on the dollar. And this translates to a National Deficit across the Human Services sector of about 40 billion to 50 billion to restore nonprofits to solvency. And it translates directly and powerfully into the lives of our people. I think that the big issues are fair wages for our essential service workers. That is 70cents on the dollar that goes directly to those who are operating our essential Service Systems who cant afford to live here but who are continuing to show up every day to make it safe for the rest of us to be here. And speaking broadly it means that we have where we can pay for the door but we cant fully pay to keep it open enough to get everybody inside. Because limited funding means that we need complicated rules and requirements for whoee can help and with what and how. And so in this moment when our nation is rocking from intersecting pandemic with covid19 and poverty and racism, we need to uplift an antiracist agenda that gets people the help that they need, that keeps the door open for them. And that brings them inside in a sustainable way. I believe that clerk your time is up. Thank you. There are approximately to mention that there are approximately 13 callers in the queue. Next speaker, please. Caller hi, i am ahmed, im an administrator for four nonprofit agencies in this city. And to adco separate for seniors and people with disabilities. And working group for the children and youth fund. And the coalition indiscernible and in my capacity i work with over 19 nonprofit organizations and indiscernible theyre all very concerned. The wage equity and the lack of outreach support is a major concern. And the members are small agencies which are looking at closing their doors which means that the communities they serve which are people that are vulnerable, will be deprived of programs and services that are vital to their wellbeing and engage the community in a manner that adds to inclusion, and, c, to benefit the Overall Health of our cities. And the vital social support is critical in building a safe and healthy San Francisco. Now we need to have sustainability as a role from the effects of the covid19 pandemic. I would like to suggest investing in the following. One, technology, particularly connected to the internet. And services to keep populations so they dont fall through the cracks. And three, vitality of nonprofits. Or the measures indiscernible and, five, mostly, the collaborative process. And we need Clear Communication between the departments and relevant Service Providers with a need to responsiveness and transparency and accountability and equity. Thank you to the Committee Members and i support staff for holding this meeting and thank you for the supervisors of making San Francisco a model for not only this nation but other global scales. Clerk next caller, please. Caller hello, my name is teresa imperial. Im the executive director of a housing program. Bishop is an organization that provides housing counselling and tenants rights, counselling and for Affordable Housing. 90 of our clients range from extremely low income to low income populations and 40 of them are the latino population. We have indiscernible with the implementation for Affordable Housing. Im happy to hear the discussions are actually being put out today regarding retention of staff and other causes in order to continue our service. We need to increase in terms of the p. P. E. S and other social distancing tools, especially if youre going to continue this social distance. And also i agree with all of the other callers to invest in the Technology Transition as we are still in this pandemic. And i would like to add in terms of barriers in terms of nonprofit sustainability and the processes for processing invoices which i feel that its also a part of a barrier in keeping the costs down. And also i would like to add or emphasize on adding costs when it comes to Mental Health service as part of the benefits for essential workers. Because in this pandemic theres an increase of anxiety for all of us and i tang think that we all need that support for essential workers and to deal with the crisis. So as you are going through sustainability and balancing the budget, i hope that you emphasize more in providing support for essential services. To let people who are most affected and in the most vulnerable communities. Thank you for your time. Clerk next caller, please. Caller hi, this is the foundation indiscernible i want to thank the board for their comments and for holding this. Its been very heartening to hear the rounding support for keeping the integrity that we have in the system as whole as much as possible. And i want to echo the sentiments that we really cant afford to reduce the investments that we have here. They are too vital. And theres numerous speculations on what kind of changes that we see, and the social difficulties such as homelessness and obviously joblessness and related problems. Ive been heartened to hear all of the explanations of solidarity and selfleflexion by selfreflection by the combined sector to change. And, thereby, how we are complicit in what is going on. And i want to highlight what sticks out the most which is that we remain underfunded and we remain underresourced and underrepresented by the people that we serve. And that contraction is something that we need to think about how to take those resources that the areas areas e know that its not working. You have this more than other and the criminal interventions for poverty are completely inappropriate and racist. I hope that we can really make changes that take the funding that we see being put towards criminalizing the unhoused and incarcerating people who are trying to get by and make them something that we can use to keep ourselves as whole as possible and invest in the areas that we know that were going to need more help. We dont want to see things kept this way. Thank you so much. Clerk thank you. Next caller, please. Hello, caller. Caller hi, this is kevin bogus, from advocates for children and youth and a part also a part of San Francisco rising. And were here today to call on the supervisors to figure out a way to make sure that whatever decisions they make are based in equity and lifting up the communities that are historically oppressed in San Francisco. And understanding that the African American community and other communities of color have typically been left behind in San Francisco. And how to make sure they dont suffer the worst impacts of this virus in this economic downturn. So i really call on you to be creative and innovative and not feel constrained by what past boards and elected officials have done and to find new solutions to these problems and prioritize the communities that are hurt the most and support their recovery in ways that other boards havent. Thank you. Clerk thank you. Next caller, please. Caller this is debbie learner from the San Francisco Human Services network. As you have been hearing today our nonprofits play a Critical Role with the City Partners in delivering services for thousands of our most vulnerable residents every year. We continue to provide those services during the covid19 outbreak, to provide Supportive Housing and Behavioral Health care and serve residents who are confined to their homes. Workforce development and child care. We have 25,000 workers in our sector. But our nonprofits are facing a crisis, we have a broken business model. The adverse conditions that existed before the outbreak are exacerbated and nonprofits are struggling with recruitment and retention of employees who cant afford to live in the city where they work. Most nonprofit contracts do not fully fund the cost of providing the services and complying with city mandates around wages, benefits, operating costs and administrative requirements. We now are looking at budget cuts and the expectation of increasing needs in a recession. And covid Cost Increases for incentive pay and other safety costs. Programs are going to have to be redesigned to address these new realities. And these are systemic issues threatening individual organizations and our sector as a whole. We have to protect essential services and maintain the infrastructure of our nonprofits so that we can continue to be part of our economic recovery. And we need to Work Together in equal partnership with the city. We have decades of experience and we are instrumental in designing and implementing effective programs. We need to be involved as partners with the city and in Program Planning and in developing new funding models that ensure the strength and the effectiveness of our Crucial Services both during the pandemic and ongoing after it. Thank you again for holding this hearing today. Clerk thank you. Next caller, please. Caller hello, good afternoon. Thank you for your leadership and the opportunity to speak today. My name is dan gallagher. Im the executive director of stepping stone health here in San Francisco. We provide health care to adults and older adults and adults with disabilities. At our core centers in the tenderloin and south of market. Over 300 older adults and adults with disabilities daily. Health care services, to help to maintain our clients to remain at home with their families and away from the institutionalization of hospitals and or nursing homes. The clients are extremely vulnerable. They are frail adults, people of color, impacted by poverty from their experience of homelessness. And our contacts with the city are extremely important in maintaining these services and it gives us the ability to retain and recruit employees to deliver Critical Health care. And health care is now facing a proposed eliminatation in the fiscal year 2021 state budget. And if this occurs the impacts to the workers will be enormous. To name a few of those impacts, there would be a loss of expertise of professional staff to assist with navigation and the translation of medical services. There would be a loss of over 200 Health Care Jobs throughout the city. And a total of 13. 6 million spent in the San Francisco economy. And there would be an increase in nursing home placements, hospitalizations and a decrease in the Overall Health outcomes due to a lack of integrated care core funding of our local contracts is never more critical at this time. I appreciate the opportunity, again, to speak and thank you again for your leadership in holding this hearing. Clerk thank you. Colleagues, there are 10 callers in the queue. Next caller, please. Caller thank you, supervisors, for your time and attention on this important issue. I am malia chavez with the homeless prenatal program. We have a diverse staff of over a hundred people, many of which are former clients and people who have lived experience that is similar to the community that we serve. And we serve approximately 4,000 clients a year and 95 of our clients identify as nonwhite. We are also a member indiscernible and i want to echo the comments of all of those who have it come before us who testified today. Nonprofits serve an important and essential service to strengthen and support our community. I would like to highlight a couple of key areas that are very important when it comes to supporting nonprofits with longterm sustainability. In addition to the cost of doing business and making sure that were advocating for living wages for our staff who are struggling to support their own families. Also disparities across providers, specifically those organizations that are led by and they serve communities of color and communities that have traditionally been underserved. And in addition to that, serving undocumented communities. So services throughout the city that focus on undocumented populations mean special support or unique support, i should say, because the need is really great and growing. And its very challenging when trying to spend restricted dollars. I want to highlight the need for support around Food Security. Many of you, supervisors, on this committee you also have participated in ongoing issues around Food Security. And we have a food pantry on fridays that is part of our f. R. C. Services and we grew from serving a little over a hundred families a week prior to covid19, to now serving 500 families a week specifically for food needs. This is a huge growth and it is needed throughout the city. I would also like to highlight the need for Mental Health support for both clients as well as for staff. And right now. Clerk thank you. Thank you, your time has ended. Next call, please. Hello, caller. Caller hi, good afternoon, supervisors. I am a sixyear San Francisco resident in the bay area native and currently residing in the Mission District 8. First off, thank you for your time today and everything that i have seen discussed so far has been hopeful about the priorities of the board and the leadership in this meeting is using an equity and justice framework to interrogate and to find solutions to empower San Francisco nonprofits and the communities that we serve. That said, i want to take my time today to specify that when we talk about nonprofit sustainability in the age of covid, we need to make sure that we are including and prioritizing blackled and blackcentered nonprofits and organizations programs and services that benefit and raise up the black community. Especially with respect to Public Health and the age of covid as theres been noted disproportionate impact of covid19 in the black communities and with financial and economic hurt as well. So i speak in solidarity with the black lives Matter Movement and the movement for black lives and local groups like the al baker center among others in demanding the defunding of the Police Department and balancing that towards True Community care, including blackcentered nonprofits as relevant to the agenda items today. I hope that the committee and our board of supervisors will formally put this on your agenda and followthrough on the progressive direction that i have seen in your presentation so far. San francisco should be a leader in the black lives Leader Movement and prioritize this. Our health is intertwined and we can no longer neglect this. Ill be watching and we all look forward to your progress. Thank you. Clerk thank you. Next caller, please. Caller good afternoon, supervisors. This is indiscernible the director indiscernible in the heritage district. I want to thank you for your leadership for Racial Equity and Police Accountability during these times. I want to echo all of the comments that have been made by the speakers previously regarding the need for resiliency and supporting nonprofits. As you know even before the pandemic, filipinos have already lost half of our population and our remaining families continue to struggle to maintain a foothold in the city. Now with covid19 were worried about another wave of displacement. Many of our Community Members work in health care and the Hospitality Industry on the frontline and the firing line of this Public Health and economic crisis. They are working to apply to deliver groceries for families and needs. Were an essential bridge for those who would otherwise be disconnected from services. As you face tough budget choices at this time its critical to prioritize communities that were already vulnerable and now with covid19 are at the highest risk of displacement. For our Community Even before covid, we were already going to make close to half a million in cuts to the filipino groups and providing Language Access and culturally Competent Services. Including the budget being cut in half in the coming year. As we ask you to partnership with the communities to champion a Just Recovery along with the organizations like rising that spoke previously. Addressing cuts from emerging needs of communities disproportionately impacted and preventions specific to immigrant people of color communities already at the high risk of displacement. And to ensure that the survival of the communitybased organizations that provide cultural Competent Services and Language Access to peak communities. Many departments like the Planning Department and the Arts Commission are starting to use their Racial Equity lens and the creation of the office of Racial Equity clerk thank you. Thank you your time has expired. Next caller. Caller good afternoon board of supervisors. I am chris keata, and the chair for the Service Provider working group that advises the committee with children and youth and families. I want to thank you first and foremost for creating values and principles for this process. Specifically which i want to highlight inclusion and transparency. Which we believe that closely aligns with the principles and the values outlined by the Budget Justice Coalition and we want to highlight the working group is in full support of these principles and values. We recognize that during this time that covid19 is having a particularly difficult creating difficult challenges for our nonprofits and even more so for our employees. In 1819, to provide a little bit of context, c. B. O. S and the youth serving field provided nearly 7,000 jobs for San Franciscoians of which 4,000 of those youth workers made under 50 of the Median Income. This is extrap extrapolated over the course of a years salary so many parttime workers will be hit harder during covid19. Additionally, in addition to this we have provided 3,000 jobs for young people and its been highlighted the importance of providing youth Workforce Development for our communities. So we do ask that the department of children and youth and families and the board of supervisors and mayors fully Fund Programs that support youth and families and knowing that in previous years of 1819, the grant awards covered only 60 of the expenses in the field. And that this needs to increase in order for us to be fully sustainable with future threats, including cuts to the grant proposed in the may budget for the state of california. So i appreciate and i thank you for all of your work and we want to encourage you to keep up the good fight. Clerk thank you. Next caller, please. Caller good afternoon, supervisors. My name is hannah and i work with project emotion and we serve children and families in the Mission District. We provide bilungual and english and spanish and health and wellness and Educational Programs that has a preschool, summer camp and afterschool programming and partnerships with schools and Community Organizations. So on behalf of our staff and our families, our staff are 76 staff of color and our families that we serve are 92 children and families of color, and we are urging you to prioritize child care and services for children along with multilingual health and wellness services, specifically Mental Health services for our vulnerable communities. And were also asking that you provide fair compensation for these nonprofit staff that are providing these essential services. Thank you so much for your time. Clerk next caller, please. Caller good afternoon, thank you, supervisors, for the leadership that you have provided and this particular space in the fight for Racial Equity in our city. I am vanessa moses, the executive director with just cause. We are serving workingclass and poor immigrant latin x and black communities across the city but especially in the mission and bayview districts. By providing services, so for tenants to keep them in their homes and immigrants to defend their civil liberties. We are here today with s. F. Island, and the Justice Coalition and San Francisco rising and i just want to thank the other speakers and echo what im sure that most of you already know well that our people were struggling desperately in these current pandemic and we continue to be at the risk of loss of life and wellbeing across all aspects of our lives. Many of you have demonstrated Racial Equity and youre clear about the power of the budget as a way to put our money where our mouths are. And so i want to lift up that despite the really painful and unjust denamic and circumstances that our people are facing right now, that the board has an Incredible Opportunity to really shift things and have this moral document really reflect our collective commitment to Racial Equity. Were seeing it across the country that people are demanding these shifts and specifically with the power of the purse we can decarserate the budget right now and decriminalize the communities that keep this city running and are otherwise, again, at the greatest risk. So thank you in advance for the creativity and the vision that i know that you will bring to bear. And in the unprecedented moment where we can run with this opening that we have. Our people desperately need it. Thank you. Clerk thank you. There are approximately five callers in the queue. Next caller, please. Caller supervisor and Community Members, good afternoon. Im jose indiscernible the Program Manager and im speaking on behalf of indiscernible and its an organization for indiscernible and together we have communitybased organizations across diverse and racial immigrant communities. And from african, arab, asian and latino communities. So we started networking in 2006 and we have helped tens of thousands of lowincome residents with legal and educational subjects whether theyre looking for immigration relief to have looked at their status, or where their families will be penalized if they apply to federal and state and local covid19 Economic Relief. And indiscernible the policies such as immigration status. Im here to ask for your support for our diverse San Francisco immigrant communities. With no further cuts to our budget. And indiscernible has already sustained 182,000 for the upcoming fiscal year. And, secondly, the immigrant communities are among the population that have been hit the hardest by this pandemic. Our network and our outreach has stepped up to reach the communities. By providing information and connecting our community to resources in a timely manner. Otherwise our immigrant community whose first language is not english would not have the ability to access all of these covid19 resources. Lastly, i want i want you to ask you to support our family by supporting these Emergency Services and specifically for immigrant population as many of our Community Organizations are currently operating beyond our capacity. Clerk thank you, speaker. Your time is expired. Thank you for your time and support. Clerk thank you. Just wanted to make a quick announcement. For those of you who would like to speak on this item, if you have not already done so, please press 9 to be added to the queue to speak. Next caller, please. Caller good afternoon, supervisors. I am regina chung, the director of we Children Services. We employ about 270 individuals, the majority are women of color and we serve thousands of immigrant and marginalized families. We are a Family Resource center and child care subsidy and child care and small Business Development and we are the large provider of early headstart. During this time of covid we have continued Remote Services and distribution of food diverse formula and Early Learning tools for our families. And our families have been left out of the stimulus programs and we have tried to close the gap. The pandemic has forced us to cut the noise and laid bare for the entire world to see a system that exploits those who are most vulnerable, people who are low income and people of color. The fog has been lifted for all to see, which sectors are truly essential for the city. Those are at the highest risk and those who have been the lowest paid. We are trying to accommodate for underinvestment in nonprofits and Public Health services that were created to protect our homeless seens yours seniors and young families and more. About a third of our staff are considered vulnerable populations under covid, but theyre still willing to put themselves at risk because they know that the families and children are counting on them. When Health Care Workers need child care our teachers volunteer to serve them. For the families that we serve, they will risk exposure to covid because they know that a safe child care environment is safer than staying at home. What message do we send to our teachers and future workforce what we value as a community if we continue to cut funding for essential services now when in the most challenging of times they stood up for us . Funding for our child care and essential services to pay teachers and parents, to be able to safely leave their children to go to work is critical for an equitable recovery and it allows every other industry to get back to work. Most importantly our children, those who need a headstart are falling behind. And we will leave behind the generation of kids clerk your time has expired. Next caller, please. Caller thank you, supervisor. The Chinatown Community development center. Thank you for having this hearing. I think that the sustainability of nonprofit is really key and an important issue. You know, i was really inspired by everybody who spoke today and i wanted to uplift a couple of things. One was the need for revenue. I think that i was around in 2008 when the recession hit and so importantly one of the strategies that was not pursued was additional revenue. I think that uplifting that is so important. Which also on its flipside is a need for aggressive cuts to City Departments that do harm to our communities. I think that in this moment as we can see we need to re, value reevaluate and look at that from an Equity Perspective very deeply. And finally the last point is for us to keep in mind that the communities that we are serving, are not changing. I looked at a recent survey that we did of families that live with their children and in single occupancy hotels and weve had 95 of those families that were employed precovid. And 45 of those families that reported an income of zero dollars during the covid crisis. So i think that, you know, keeping that in mind and uplifting Worker Development and retraining and Job Opportunities is really important in this moment. Thank you. Clerk thank you. Next caller, please. Caller good afternoon, supervisors. I am with the council of Community Housing organization. I want to echo what has been said at the beginning, this is really not a time for austerity. Our communitybased nonprofits are the nimble and responsive front line workers at every crisis that has come our way. And mobilizing to provide Food Security, to distribute masks, to mobilizing in our homes and our housing organizations, and to provide that security for our own tenants. And to provide operating support needed for them. At this time i think where the temptation is to take on this approach is to take on acrosstheboard budget cuts. This is a time that we can see what is happening across the country and to make new priorities with a Racial Equity perspective to deprioritize policing and jailing and Prioritize Services and Workforce Development and housing support. And as well this is a time to be thinking not of austerity but to be thinking of revenue. And so whether that is coming together around reforms or confronting the gross receipts the way that it is or proposing new kinds of measures, its really the time to look forward and not bardz are backwards for austerity. Thank you very much. Clerk thank you. Next caller. Caller hi, thank you, supervisors. This is jacqueline morgan, the executive director at third street clinic and representing the blackled organizations of San Francisco. Going into this pandemic the black community was already at risk of extinction. Queue the roasters. And we roasters. We are concerned how theres a lack of support going into this and coming out of this and how we need to prioritize the blackled organizations at this time and beyond. If we are going to save the black community in San Francisco, its going to take the real investment. Its going to take money, its going to take dollars and its going to take infrastructure. We need the support that our leaders, our organizations get development and our boards get development, and putting money into the pockets of our families and into our communities. Thats going to take economic recovery. Thats going to take support from our leadership at the board level and its going to take influence from our mayor. If were going to save black San Francisco, we are going to have to put the black community at the forefront. And to really look at how our Median Income is less than everyone in the city. And were going to have to look at what sort of resources at the school level in our organizations and in homeownership. Were asking for you to really look at this budget and to put your money where your mouth is. Thank you. Clerk thank you. Next caller. Caller good afternoon, supervisors. And thank you for your leadership and for the community. indiscernible im with the Community Action network. indiscernible and the Justice Coalition. We were founded in 2000 and we serve immigrant and youth and families. indiscernible . And the strategy in the organization, we echo what the previous speakers have said, especially around equity. indiscernible were providing language support, tech support and helping our community indiscernible and so they understand their rights and such as having p. P. E. Given by employers. And to have housing indiscernible . In addition were helping to help to pay the rent since the pandemic. And also inform them about their rights. We are continuing to provide supports to get every person indiscernible in San Francisco, especially the Filipino Community. As you know our city is way behind in indiscernible and culturally competent indiscernible and to provide language support. And to help indiscernible . We had a report lasted year that shows indiscernible are providing services that are not being compensated for. We are an essential bridge for the city and the indiscernible for services. So as you occur budget cuts and consider budget cuts and budgets at this time its important that the city prioritize the organization and communities that were already vulnerable and now with covid at the highest risk of displacement. Thank you. Clerk next caller, please. Caller thank you, this is the c. E. O. Of the California Association of nonprofits, a statewide alliance of more than 10,000 nonprofits headquartered right here in San Francisco. I hope that i have something additional to say that you may not have heard before. First of all, when we compare San Francisco county and the leadership in terms of contracting flexibility with nonprofits, San Francisco is really in the forefront and a leader in making those contracts flexible and supporting the delivery of services. I wanted to give you some kudos for that compared to some of the other countries that we see in the state. Secondly, in addition to seeing nonprofit and Service Providers, i want to draw your attention to nonprofits as an economic driver for the recovery. With probably one of the highest multiplier rates when it comes to economic activity. We estimate that San Francisco nonprofits every year bring in more than 1 billion every year from out of california into the city and the state sorry city and county of San Francisco. That money comes from the federal government and from out of state foundations and out of state donors who appreciate the innovation and the world leadership of so many of San Franciscos nonprofits. San francisco nonprofits are located, physically located in underserved communities. They hire from underserved communities. They keep jobs there. And any money that they make is in those communities and it doesnt leave the county for outside investors or owners. San francisco volunteers mobilize more than 400,000 people as volunteers. Again, a huge economic generator of our activity that is really often kind of neglected when thinking about the impact of nonprofits. So as you think about nonprofits and Service Providers, also think about us as economic drivers and a smart investment when it comes to making highly leveraged investments towards an economic recovery. Thank you. Clerk thank you. Next caller. Caller hi, this is patty keto, the executive director for family Community Development centers. And we thank you for giving me the opportunity to provide im on here just to make sure that you dont forget us. We never our community has never asked of anything from the folks that are in power. And so im on here to tell you to ask to not overlook us any longer. We have been at the forefront since this lockdown and march 16th and providing Food Services and care packages for Pacific Islander communities that are concentrated here in the southeast sector. And im just here to advocate to not forget about us because we have always been forgotten and now that we have a platform to speak, i want to be the one to speak on behalf of all of us and for the community that has been here in San Francisco, making to deserve a place at this table. To make sure that were seen and not forgotten. And so just asking that you continue to keep us at the level of your other folks are at and not to forget us. Though were a Small Community that we can uniquely practice what we preach. You know, we are the arms and legs of this city. So let us lift let the city lift us up as we lift the city up. Thank you. Clerk thank you. Next caller, please. Caller im winnie yu for a member of a. P. I. Council. 42 of asian Pacific Islanders in San Francisco live in poverty. A third are seniors. And its a communitybased Organization Serving over 45,000 seniors a year. And its requesting support for our jackie chan center which provides Adult Day Services which as you might know that are processed to be eliminated on the state budget. And Services Provide Critical Care for seniors so that they might stay healthy and remain in the community and to prevent premature institutionalization which will cost millions and millions of dollars and break families apart. Right now were providing critical essential services during covid 19 crisis and epidemioic and when services resume, vulnerable seniors still need to be supported with homebased services. We urge and ask supervisors for your continued support of seniors and the most vulnerable and the marginalized Community Members. So that they can continue to live and thrive in the city. Thank you very much. Clerk thank you. Next caller. Caller hello, this indiscernible in the sunnydale neighborhood, community. Formerly j. J. Resource center. Our communities in district 10 have been error very neglected for a very, long time and we are down to 2 of the funds being funded from the city. A lot of our organizations that have been forced to close down because the funding is not there so we still hold a large amount of our people inside of these communities. And were not being funded. The way that we see it youve got to take a look at some of the things that youve got to take a look at when you make these decisions. And to take the effort to have these organizations to be funded and to put the money back into the communities where they need to be because were doing the most with nothing. And we can really help a lot more people if theyre not in the communities. Thank you. Clerk thank you. Next caller. That completes the queue. Chair fewer thank you very much. At this time i want to thank all of the public speakers that came out with Public Comments on item number one, its now closed. And i want to just circle back with our guest speaker to see if they had any last comments to make. And just a sentence or two to end this conversation for today. But to be continued. So i am going to call on cheryl ann or steve or joe wilson or jenny, if you have a last sentence or two to add to this conversation. And seeing none id like to open up to my colleagues for comments and questions. Any, and i see no comments or questions from my colleagues. And so i am wondering if anyone from the from the Controllers Office or the mayors Budget Office or oewd that would like to make any last comment or two. Seeing none, okay. Id like to make a motion to move this to continue this item to the call of the chair. Second. Chair fewer okay, second. Thank you very much. And a roll call vote. Clerk yes, on the motion supervisor walton. Supervisor walton aye. Clerk walton, aye. Supervisor mandelman. Mandelman, aye. And supervisor yee. Yee, aye. And supervisor ronen. Ronen, aye. Chair fewer . Fewer, aye. There are five ayes. Chair fewer thank you very much. And can you call item 2. Clerk yes item 2 on the mayors rebalancing plan to address the deficits for the school year 20192020 and associated reductions and impacts. And the members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment should call 1 415 6550001. And 926891085 for the code. And press pound, pound. If you have not done so, press star, 9 to line up to speak. Wait until the system indicates that you have been unmuted and you can begin your comments. Chair fewer thank you very much. And we have ashley brockenberger from the Budget Office and was a b. L. A. With us too. So i wanted to say, okay, ashley, give it to us. This is on the current rebalancing plan. Yes, thank you, chair fewer and members of the committee and ashley brockenberger and the mayors Budget Office. So im here to talk about the mayors current year rebalancing plan. And i prepared a couple of slides to update the committee on the governors main revise. And im happy to talk about that next week if that would be okay. Or, you know, whatever you want to hear about today. But im happy to focus on the rebalancing plan. Chair fewer okay, thank you. We can continue that conversation next week also. Okay. Thank you. So im going to share my screen. I have a brief presentation. Everyone able to see that. Chair fewer yes, thats fine. Okay, thank you. So let me get to the rebalancing slides. Okay. So on may 13th, our office and in accordation with the Controllers Office and the budget and legislative analysts released a budget outlook report which have identified 1. 7 billion budget shortfall over the next three years. So im going to walk you through today is kind of the first step of solving that. Its the 250 million shortfall in the current year. And the plan represents mostly onetime choices to look at the problem in the current year but it leaves many hard choices to resolve that 1. 5 billion shortfall that we see for the upcoming budget year. Given the timing of the covid emergency and the economic impact, many programs and projects have begun to spend and have money had gone out the door. So this is a challenging exercise and really what was small limited choices. But i wanted to highlight that, you know, any reductions or choices not represented here are certainly available for the mayor and the board to consider as we work through the upcoming budget process. So to quickly summarize and ill walk through more detail, the 250 million short fall is through a combination of Capital Project reductions, and reductions of priority or eraf allocations and utilization of the citys general reserve. And the b. L. A. Report breaks out a lot of the details under these numbers that are high level and im happy to speak more specifically if the members have questions. Okay, so the plan assumes about 52 million of savings, onetime savings, related to general fund Capital Projects. As you know the general Fund Supports are very robust cash funded pay programs to support the projects throughout the city. And were proposing 35 million of reductions in those projects. And thats made up primarily of repurposed justice Improvement Project funds, reductions to the city of Capital Planning fund, either because the funding is not needed anymore, or that it could be moved to an alternative source. And were also assuming some savings on Public Safety projects by pushing those sources by pushing those projects to the approved indiscernible and there are also 13 million of other projects savings across many, many departments, various Capital Projects including hvac projects and city renewal projects and a smattering across a number of departments. Were also proposing 11. 5 million of savings from the d. P. W. Streets project program. And i think that the important thing to note here is that there are no specific reductions or projects that will be cancelled or delayed. D. P. W. Is currently evaluating its sources and well be able to do a better evaluation of that with the conclusion of the fiscal year 2021 budget process so well be able to update you at that time about any foregone projects as a result of the reductions here. And also important to note that that 11. 5 million in Street Project savings does not jeopardize any alternative sources of funds, be it from the state or other sources. And, lastly here on capital, we are about 5 million in savings. In facilities and maintenance projects and pothole repairs and programs like that. As well as a number of small amounts of surplus funds from numerous projects and contracts as the department of public works. And the plan also assumes about 39 million of departmental savings and thats comprised of 17 million of certain departments fully or partially closing the shortfalls identified at nine months and that is in the recreation and Parks Department, Human Services agency, and juvenile Probation Department. We have all identified a variety of project savings in additional revenue off that in the department of Public Health, the department of Human Resources, treasurer and Tax Collector and h. R. C. And then we have assumed about 9 million of other departmental savings be it from purchase order closeouts, reduced utilities costs as a result of city buildings being unowmed due to the shelterinplace and material and supplies and travel and training funding. So as many of you are well aware the city has had the fortune of spending about 500 million in discretionary access that you have had over the last year. This is where most of the citys Discretionary Spending has happened as a result of those excess eraf funds. So we are proposing that 59 million of savings from priority erac allocations and a big bulk of that is made up by shifting 40 million of Affordable Housing Gap Financing on to the 2019 geo bond. And very importantly the projects that would be affected by this would not be delayed as a result. And were simply shifting the source on to the bond. And we have identified 3 million of unspent Capital Funding for child care facility projects. We allocated 10 million of that in through eraf, and theres 3 million that is currently unspent. And we are also proposing to utilize 1. 8 of m. T. A. Capital savings that were allocated out of eraf as well as a Million Dollars in unspent Mental Health Center Funding for sfsud. That was the fiscal year 2021 allocation. And that was unspent. We identified 6 million of savings or were assuming 6 million from allocations to the working families tax credit. The amount that was allocated for fiscal year 2021. And some savings from Affordable Housing predevelopment that can be shifted into an alternative source. And then savings from the treatment bed allocation. Were also proposing to reduce the number of indiscernible from four to two with savings of 2 million. We are also to within 2. 5 million from a result of shifting projects to the 2019 Affordable Housing bond. And, lastly, 2. 5 million of savings from the expansion of Early Education, stipends and for subsidies. And then lastly to round it out we are assuming about 15 million of debt savings. We were able to budget some prepayments of debt at the department of Public Health and for the convention center. Theres theres no you know, no harm in delaying the prepayment and we just dont get to reap the benefits of paying down the debt sooner. And were assuming about 4 million in i. T. Savings across a variety of general funded projects and closeouts and reductions. And, lastly, the plan proposes to utilize about 78 million of the general reserve which is the max allowable draw down in accordance with the city policy. And others are available with certain conditions in the budget years. And with that, that completes my presentation on the rebalancing and im happy to take questions. Chair fewer colleagues, any questions on the mayors current rebalance in finance . Supervisor mandelman. Supervisor mandelman it left a question or a comment, i guess. I want to thank you for your work on this. If this is a morphinefree part of this exercise i am, you know, just not at all looking forward to the next few months. Because, you know, shifting 40 million of investments in Affordable Housing and it may sound that were going to pay for it out of the bond but theres 40 million of investments that will not happen because were doing that. And particularly as we go into a moment when there may be opportunities to acquire sites or to think about doing some bold things with housing to have 40 million to play with. Its very, very sad and upsetting to me. So thats not really a question. I am sure that youre doing the best that you can. I do think that as we go through this in the next few months though, its important to keep the priorities around housing and Mental Health, you know, kind of at the foreground of our thinking and i dont know what it means to require deeper cuts in other areas, but, you know, i think that it may you know, i know that everyone else knows this, but prioritizing some of the essential things that the city has to work on around housing for lowincome folks and the services for the very, very poor and particularly people out on the streets. I want to underscore, like, you know, for me thats very, very important. So, all right. Im done. indiscernible ill stop talking about it. Every time you see my face i feel over the next few months youll feel bad. Thank you for the comment. Chair fewer thank you. Supervisor walton. Supervisor walton thank you, chair fewer and mine is brief on slide eight. I know that you talked about the reduction in terms of some of the projects with d. P. W. And not affecting what is already funded and whats in place and just curious, out of curiosity, how will we prioritize those Street Projects because i know that theres capacity issues right now because of the crisis and in terms of folks coming to work and being available to actually to take care of some of these improvements. So is there a priority conversation that has been had or is that something that well talk about later, which is fine. Im just curious. I dont have the exact answer but im happy to, you know, to go back to the department to understand how they prioritize these types of projects and to bring that back to the committee. Again, i think that its going to all be part of the conversation that well all have over the next two months about funding for the upcoming year. But im happy to move back on to the method for prioritization. It seems that with the focus that we are really going to be making sure that we preserve services that are most needed in our isolated isolated and disens communities, like around our Mental Health, making sure that we are able to provide the right services throughout the city because that is something that is priority for all of us. But it looks like were going in that direction and i just hope that we can continue to as we think about reductions that we can make sure that were preserving the most needed services for our communities. So thank you. Thank you. Chair fewer supervisor safai . Supervisor safai thank you, madam chair. And ill be brief because i dont want to be overly redundant want but since this was part of the meeting and supervisor mandelman brought it up, that the 40 million, theres a little bit of confusion out there with members of the public for those who happen to be the pro projects in my projects in my district that are close to the finish line. We have worked tremendously hard over the last 3 1 2 years to ensure that almost all of the their 117 mill 117 million was put in place to fund around the same amount around 120 million and upper yard and so this funding was a commitment that was made that we advocated really strongly for. Thank god for eraf funding at the time. Because putting that money into the bucket allowed both projects then to apply for a state tax credit money and bond financing which anyone that understands Affordable Housing understands that theres all of these different layers, financing like a cake. So all were doing is were changing and switching one of the ingredients and this is not losing any time, this is just switching Funding Sources. And to supervisor mandelmans point, i think that it was in later years some other identified projects. So it doesnt reduce the capacity for Affordable Housing, it just foregoes the additional Funding Sources in the later year and it causes us to then look for additional funding. But its not going to jeopardize any projects in the city as i understand it. Ill let the Budget Office Say Something about that. But for the specific of my projects in district 11, both will be funded and both will remain on time and, in fact, both are being delivered in an ak accelerated fashion because we were able to get this money last year. Thank you, madam chair for your support back then and leadership. And thank you to the mayor for hearing us. And prioritizing a district in the city that has never, ever built any family Affordable Housing ever in its history. So i wanted to say that for the record but wanted the Budget Office to clarify 100 that neither of those two projects would be slowed down or removing any funding in any way. Thanks for the question. Youre right, the rebalancing exercise by shifting sources does not delay the projects as we know it. Chair fewer thank you very much. Is that it, supervisor safai . Supervisor safai i wanted to also reiterate some of the things that supervisor walton said, prioritizing street immovement and projects that i understand that the department the Budget Office said that no projects would be jeopardized but ultimately thats money that public works and public Improvement Projects need in the long run. And so it is painful and its hard pill to swallow on top of the Mental Health and on top of all of the other things that are happening. So i just wanted to say that. But thank you, madam chair. Thank you. Chair fewer supervisor ronen . Supervisor ronen thank you. I thank you for your work in this impossible endeavor that were all going to engage in over the next few months. I just wanted to say that in the places where you were able to find savings in City Departments that are lumped together and dont have specifics, can you go on more where those savings came from . And i find it curious when theres millions of dollars of savings without specificity. Absolutely. And yeah. Absolutely. So in the particularly the 13 million in project savings in departments, is that what you were curious about . Okay, yeah, happy to walk through that. So its primarily from four departments. The first is the department of Public Health and thats about 8 million. And its from three sources. The first is 4 million of additional medical revenue that is the department received after the ninemonth report. Our waiver, the current medical waiver is expiring at the end of this calendar year and the state is doing a lot of auditing to close out prior years and so we often get positive audit findings and sometimes we get negative audit findings. And so this was a positive one of about 4 million. And theres also three million in the department of Public Health that we had budgeted last year. And with the Health Record system. The very large project in the i. T. Project where they were switching over their medical records. And we had budgeted a 3 million sort of patient census reserve should we have needed to move patients to other facilities during that transition time. And it turned out that the department was very successful in implementing the program and did not need the patient reserve. So its been 3 million from that. And were also assuming about a Million Dollars in savings from a Capital Project at laguna honda. There had been a Million Dollars budgeted in last years budget to do some audiovisual upgrades at the laguna honda theatre. And given the fact that contractors are not going into the laguna honda at the moment and given the covid emergency and sort of the unlikelihood that there will be settings in the theatre, that project was unlikely to move forward. And then theres savings at the department of Human Resources. We had budgeted last year if you recall funding to support the transition of Housing Authority employees from the Housing Authority. President yee. On mute, president. Thank you, chair fewer and thank you for your presentation and this is not easy but certainly a lot easier than what well be facing for our new budget. So member cuts, i like to see. Of course, i like to see the savings. A portion will be cutting Early Education. This was just waiting around for someone to come up for something and then in the 2. 5 million, i know there was some discussion whether it should be a stipended piece or the additional slots and i indicated to ingrid that you guys dont have to theres no good answer for this one. And so, i want to say this publically that i will assume there will be, maybe some money coming down and the first thing that needs do is backfill this amount. These two amounts, which is hardly any of it. Its pretty small compared to everything else, but still. And were going to talk about at what theyll do and hopefully feel find out what they will do about that. They spent several months in this discussion, a presentation about certain things that were cut could be backfilled by the bond erb and i think its really important the board has not discussed the bond measure yet and to make all these assumptions that these things would be backfilled by the bond measure is a little bit premature, i think. So im hoping that the Budget Committee at the least will get it on our agenda pretty soon and we could actually see how realistic these are in terms of backfilling and so forth. This balancing plan wont work. Something has to give here. So i want to make sure we have that discussion, also. Just to clarify, were shifting to the previously approved 2019 for the housing bond and not the future bond thats being discussed, but happy to have a conversation about what that bond what that 2019 bond includes and plans have been working and having that conversation. I think there was also mention of some other projects that seemed to be eluding to that. It was eluding to unless it was an old bond. No, thats a good question. No, there were some Public Safety projects that were moving to a previously approved ether bond. Its to shift to a loader bond but not future bond. Thanks for the explanation. Chair fewer, i was prepared to provide details on all of the different aspects of the rebalancing plan and im happy do that, but some of it might be duplicative but if you would like me to focus on one area or certain areas, i could just give the whole overview. Im happy to do that either way. And how long is your presentation, sam in. I estimate about ten minutes. Ok, lets hear all of it. Ok, thank you. So as you all know, the controllers fiscal year 2019 budget had a shortfall of 246. 2 million and the Mayors Office, as you know, transmitted mayor breeds current year general Fund Rebalancing plan to the board last wednesday and the mayors rebalancing plan largely relying on the use of reserves onetime project related reductions to close out the current year deficit and those solutions are detailed in exhibit two on page 5 of our report. Youll see that the largest source is use of the general reserve, about 78 million by prior ewrap alo allocations of 59 million and Capital Projects and 39 in Department Savings and reductions and 15 million in debt savings and about 4 million in it projects. So the proposed 77. 6 million withdrawal from the general reserve is the maximum allowed under the administrative code. Excuse me, im sorry. Are you looking at something . Youre just kind of rattling numbers. Is there something i should be looking at . There is a report. I do not have any slides for the presentation, but i am reading from a report. Do you have a copy of that . If you like, we can request a power point for this. If they want to keep on going been thats just fine. Its just easier to follow when im looking at something. This is a whole new format for us. Why you dont proceed. I will proceed and as im talking, im going to forward the report again to president yee. Thank you. Yes, no problem. You should have it in a minute. Ok, the next big source that im going to talk about is the capitol project adjustments. So the rebalancing includes reductions and savings to Capital Projects totaling 62. 5 million. These reductions include 35. 5 million in reductions and savings to the general fund payasyougo programme and 11. 6 million for the Department Works Streets Programme and 5. 4 million to the department of public works Capital Projects and exhibit 3 on page 6 of the report, it gives a breakdown of those three buckets and whats in those buckets, the largest sources. So the first is the general fund paygo program and within that bucket, the largest source of funds come from reducing the justice facilitys improvement program, also known as the hall of Justice Project by 14. 3 million and this includes 13. 3 million in reductions to improve the property at 777 branen street for the Police Departments storage unit and property storage unit, as well as the Identification Bureau and Sheriffs Office central warrants unit. The Capital Planning previously planned to use this property, 777 branen street as a location. The unit will now move only once to the 1828 edward avenue instead of moving twice versus the 777 branen and then 1828 edward avenue. In addition to the 13. 3 million in reductions to improve 777 branen street, the plan includes a 1 million reduction to the costs at 943 bryant street for deputy probation move from the hall of justice and this includes 500,000 reduction and contingency and 500,000 to reduction, furniture and equipment. According to miss heather green, the change will not impact the departments move from beyond reduced flexibility for change orders and furniture. Given the changes in this project, and our understanding is that there could be further changes to the planning for this project, one of the two policy options that will be included in our report is that the board could consider requesting the city administrator provide a presentation to update the board on future planning for this project as the budget process continues. In addition to the justice facilitys project, the city is using uses a revolving Planning Fund for the conclusion in bonds and it will be reimbursed at bond issuance. Theres surplus funds for preplanning that is to longer needed and for removing Free Development funds to bond sources. As was mentioned, the rebalancing plan includes about 2. 7 million in savings by moving some police and fire Capital Projects to the earthquake safety and emergency response, also known as the ether bond and other Capital Project savings include 13. 6 million to heating ventilation and project contingencies and facility renewal across multiple apartments. We included so there are several projects in that bucket and we included the five largest sources at the bottom of page 8 of our report. And thats the bucket within the Capital Project is the street works projects of 11. 5 million and this comes from the reduction of general fund for dpw Street Projects. Project. 2. 8 million is four curb ramps and 6. 6 million is for street resurfacing projects. The department of Department Works staff has told our office that they are in the process of conducting a reassessment of the Street Project funding to minimize the impact for the balancing reductions. I know that supervisor walton had a question about how the department prioritizes their projects and i can speak a little bit to that. My understanding is that many of these projects leverage outside funds such as federal and state grants and i think that the department is in the process right now of trying to minimize having to give up any of the outside funds. So to the extent that they can give up projects that were entirely or mostly supported by local funds, and i think those will be the projects but the department of public works will speak better to that than i can. A total of about 73 million was allocated in the current year for Street Projects with about 30 millions of that 73 million coming from the general funds tort. So this reduction would represent about 16 of the total allocation for Street Projects and 38 of the general funds of such projects. And theres one more project and thats other types of public works capital reductions and thats approximately 5. 4 million in the mayors rebalancing solutions and that 5. 4 million insists that 1. 2 for facilitys maintenance, sidewalk remayor and plaza repair and popover repair programs. So when theres a deficiency in the citys infrastructure that this money goes to repair that and so this is a portion of that. Additionally, 1. 5 million in savings from the closeout of inactives public works projects and surpluses and 2. 7 million in dpw closeouts which comes from numerous small project surpluses. So thats the Capital Projects. The next major source for the rebalancing was the Department Savings and reductions and the rebalancing plan includes reductions in savings to the Department Budgets totaling 38. 6 million and we have a list of the departments and the types of reductions in exhibit 4 on page 10 of our report and ill go quickly through those. The first is 9. 1 million in reductions to the reparation and Parks Department to offset the projected net operating deficits in the may outlook report. On the reparation of Parks Department, they will be closing that 9. 1 million shortfall for a combination of strategies, the largest of which is 4 million in overtime and salary savings due to the citys salary freeze and 4. 4 million in Capital Projects, as well. Other sources include purchase orders to closeouts. The Department Staff does not expect an impact from these reductions. Next department is Human Services agency, including 4. 8 million in increased revenues to hsa, includes 4. 4 million on the anticipated closeout from the state. And juvenile probation, the rebalancing plan including 3. 2 million to the juvenile Probation Department unde. The department will be expected to claim that same amount in state revenue and understand that the Controllers Office has been working with the juvenile Department Staff to assist them in claiming those delayed revenues from the federal and state sources. With Public Health, as was spoken about, the rebalancing plan includes 8. 2 million to the department of Public Health, which includes 4. 2 million in unanticipated revenue from the state from a retroactive audit finding from the prior year of medical waivers and the transition at zuckerburg San Francisco general hospital. They were budgeted to help manage the census levels and the gph was able to maintain a workable census and playstations using regular operating budget so those funds were not needed and further includes 1 million savings from canceling the upgrades plan at the hospital. At the Human Resources department, the rebalancing plan including 1. 5 million in general fun reductions from an original of 2. 5 million to assist former Housing Authority staff and employment and the Mayors Office staff has told our office that 1. 5 million can be covered within the Housing Authority budget. And within the treasurer and Tax Collector, theres 1. 5 million in surplus monies allocated to the Tax Collector and that project was able to close with surplus funds. The rebalancing plan includes 1 million that were included for the opportunities for all program thats lead by the Human Rights Commission and this Program Provides access to Career Exploration and Workforce Development for San Francisco youth, age 13 to 24. The Program Includes eight mentorships and panelways to employment and as was noted, the Mayors Office has committed to make up that reduction in general fund support through private fundraising. The additional reductions comes from multiple departments as discussed, about 8. 8 million in additional savings. These come from closeouts to unspent purchase orders across departments and it also includes 3. 5 million assumed utility reduction from reduced use of city offices. And that would be reduced costs for water, sewer and power and it includes a 5 reduction for trading, travel, material and supplies totaling 2 million across departments. The last major bucket for the rebalancing is, of course, from the surplus adjustments and over twothirds of the eraf savings come from shifting about 40 million in Affordable Housing financing to the 2019 Affordable Housing bond and there are three projects on that, including that 40 million, that was previously discussed, the 4840 mission street, the station upper yard and 772 pacific street, which has a smaller amount of that larger 40 million. Mayors office staff has told us that none of these projects will be delayed as a result of shifting the funding from those monies to the 2019 Affordable Housing bond. But as supervisor mandelman did note, that means theres 40 million less money right now for Affordable Housing but that doesnt mean there isnt time for the city to buy new sources for projects that are farther down the line in terms of development. The rebalancing plan includes 3 million from the eraf funding out of a total of 10 million allocated for childcare facility rehab. The mayors staff reported of the 10 million in eraf money set aside, 6 million has been committed to six different childcare facilities either under construction or with construction planning to start soon. They said another 1 million, so 7 million total, was dedicated for facilities and 1 million dedicated under the purview of San Francisco. The remaining 3 million for the Childcare Capital would be used would been used for Debt Financing for projects in the childcare facility pipeline but has not been identified. And the details of the childcare facility is what is remaining on exhibit 5. The rebalancing plan includes 1. 8 million from mta out of the 2. 5 million in the 1920 revisio. These funds were mostly slated for repainting equipment. The rebalancing plan includes 1 million from 3. 5 million over multiple years for Mental Health services at several San Francisco unified campuses and the Mayors Office staff has reported to us that the reduction will be reflected in the fiscal year 2021 allocation and the staff reported to us that the program serves nine middle and high schools that receive that each receive one fulltime staff for Emotional Development and Mental Health needs of the students. As i think everyone is aware, all school and district buildings are currently closed to the public due to the covid19 pandemic. Its unclear when theyll reopen and i just want to include that. The mayors rebalance plan is 1 million from the allocations for the working familys credit. The working familys Credit Program offers up to 250 a year to families who qualify for the federal income federal earned income tax credit. The mayor rebalancing plan includes 3 million from the 1920 allocations that was slated for predevelopment of a senior Affordable Housing project on a cityowned parcel next to laguna honda hospital. The staff has told us that these predevelopment funds will now be supported by the 2019, 600 million Affordable Housing bond and there will be no Immediate Impact on this project due to shifting of those funds. The rebalancing planl plan incls transitional age for Behavioral Health treatments. Operator press star 9 to raise a hand to ask a question and star, star for the menu. The Mayors Office reported to us that theres no specific Program Identified there was no specific plan identified and that no site had been identified in the interim for these beds. The firehouse intenders enable movements of water through the city, particularly to area areat it does not extend to. The plan includes 2. 5 million from a total of about 28. 5 million and alo allocations projects. The mayors staff reported that alternative funding including the 2019 Affordable Housing bond has been identified to fund all active small sites projects. As a result, the Mayors Office does not anticipate any active small sites projects will be delayed at this time. Iexhibit 6 on page 16 of our report details the multiyear allocations to these two purposes. As youll see, the new childcare subsidy had alo allocations of 3 million a year in the next two years and the new teachers stipend had 3 million last year, 10 million in the current year, 13 million next year and 5 million in the following year in 2122. The Mayors Office staff have noted the plan anticipates using 2. 5 million from either or both of these buckets from 12. 9 million, from next years allocation of the teachers stipend and or 3 millions of the fiscal year 2122 new subsidies. And we have an option included in our report that the board to request to work with board staff on those and i will go over policy options in a moment. These are the major buckets. There are a few other smaller buckets of adjustments in the rebalancing plan and that includes 15. 1 million in debt savings in the current year and those come from two different Debt Repayments that wont happen. One is 11. 1 million in canceled repayment for a generator at the zuckerberg hospital and 4. 1 million Debt Repayment for the masconi center. While the city does not face any immediate consequences for these debt payments, of course, we are foregoing reduced borrowing costs from not paying. Finally, on the preplanning plan, includes 3. 1 million to Information Technology projects and this is from the department of emergency managements public radio replacement and reduced contingency and Radio Communications system and Public Service agencies. What came to our attention is that the board of supervisors requested the city administrator report back to the board if a Budget Appropriations Committee on further developmented related to the justice facilities Improvement Projects as we learned there have been some fairly significant shifts in that project. The second policy option is that they could request the budget mayors director to ensure allocations from the eraf funds for early childcare subsidies or the teachers stipends minimize the impacts communities and in line with the Boards Community im available for any questions. That was very thorough. Operation is checking to see if there are any callers in the cue and please let us know if there are callers that are ready and if you have not done so, press star 9 to be added. For those on hold, continue to wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted. If there are any callers to comment on this item. Yes, i do have a number of callers and i will unmute the first caller. This is cindy with neighborhood centers. Id like to thank you chairperson fewer and supervisors for listening to us. I realize that this is a extraordinary situation that we find ourselves in and i understand the empathy that has to be taken in dealing with the budget cuts and on that note, i want to also bring to your consideration the deep need for exposing the structural fragility of the deep inequities in the care and Education System which was already not where it needed to be before the great recession. This pandemic has pushed the Early Childhood sector to the brink of collapse and what were going to do is not allow our children theres not going to be space for our children to be able to come and be in quality care and this is because we have to have enough physical space with physical distancing to care for enough children to restart our economy. And we are asking that the Program Capacity were letting you know that that capacity has been reduced by 5 to 75 because of this social distancing. In San Francisco, osce says because of the requirements, theyll be spaced for 4,000 fewer lowincome children compared to the number who received those ece subsidies prior to the pandemic. Please, these funds are essential to make the funds that im asking in particular about are the shovelready Construction Projects that as one of the Mission Neighborhood centers is ready to go, to be able to expand and to be able to serve more of those children and subsequently, their families, to get back to work and help with the economy. So, please support the preservation of the ece funds and for infrastructure. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you, next caller. Hi, im the organizer for parent voices. Ii had to pull my child childret and sent both children to their grandparents. We finally got them back here and im glad i was able to get the childcare. This is the story of many families. Although we entered this year with very robust economy, covid1covid19 indiscernible . The memory of the last recession is still fresh in our mind and the lesson this is more important than preserving it. When it closes its doors, a childcare business dies. Childcare is the largest business in the state that allows the city to work. It is the most people organized and allows the rest of us parents to do our jobs. Childcare is essential to reaping the economy. And we need a childcare system that is stable didnt not parents cannot pay more than they already are paying. Please do not harm this fragile childcare system. Balance the budget. Thour chirp cannot wait. Thank you. Hello, thank you for these important topics your. Im asking to not allow the survivor to be overlooked during this time when their safety and survival is more at risk. Im requesting your support for our program expect workers delivering essential services. We are open for business. We have many frontline workers who engage face to face with no opportunity to work from home. These are our janitors, maintenance staff andfront clerks who keep the building clean and safe and who help residents to their housing environment. As we are talking about the balancing plan, here is a reality check, its june, the end of this fiscal year is coming to an end and we have not yet received our grant proceeds from bills that weve paid in april. We have spent april and may on salaries and expenses and have not been reimbursed and we have no funding struck instructions h the end of june. Since youre asking about looking for a savings, i wonder if the board of supervisors have considered a review of the leases with the sro buildings. Of course the private owners are vital partners in our response to homelessness but benefit from guaranteed lease payments regardless of occupancy and the city invests a large amount of Financial Resources into their buildings by funding, repairs and upgrades. So im asking the board of supervisors to not forget the survivor and to fund the essential workers who are providing frontline essential services and to ask these special forprofit providers who are partners with us to ask if they can help bear some of the burden that we are all experiencing. And again, i thank you for your time. Next caller please. As mentioned early, if were serious about equitable recovery after this pandemic and decarceration as stopping the killing of black americans in our streets, it cannot go through the proposed increase for police funding. Instead, we should redirect funds to communitybased organization, especially blacklead organizations. Thank you. Thank you. Next caller, please. Hi, good afternoon. Ii have to say that i hope thank you for the hearing, but i hope you can find better ways to rebalance the budget. The budget should not be rebalanced, you know, by defunding special programs. How about Defunding Police instead . You know, and the priorities, i dont know how they decide on stopping Affordable Housing in district 11. Theres nothing that has been built in 20 years there. So please reconsider to find ways to rebalance this budget. Thank you for your comments. Next caller, please. Hi, supervisors. Im jessie fernandez. Im the Program Manager for alliance called communities for health and justice. Thank you for this discussion. Certainly encouraged to hear the funding is secure for the Affordable Housing projects in district 11 since that is the only two projects in our neighborhood in 20 years. I want to take a moment to invoke some of the neighborhood planners, who over the course of several years spent Significant Energy to secure public investment, as well as plan and design both the upper yard expect mortuary project. You know, our 2015 report, people in power planning were serving hundreds of Community Members in four languages was referencing the rfp for the upper yard and identified the valencia mor mortuary as a site. We have had to weather multiple delays for projects and all the while experiencing a surge in Market Rate Development and spike in nofault evictions and the brunt of rampant unemployment and Economic Relief in the wake of this pandemic as were largely a lowincome people of colour neighborhood and im delighted to hear that the city is rebalancing will not result in those delays and unwavering commitment from the city. I know this is no easy task and looking forward to that aforementioned case. Thank you for your comments. Next caller, please. Good afternoon. Im gloria and am a Childcare Provider in oceanview. I was born and raised in San Francisco and its been an honor to serve my community. Im here because i just this defunding and just cutting funds for chil childcare, im heartbr. I became a part of the els, Early Learning Scholarship Program in march right before the pandemic and i did it so that i can serve more of the children. Ivi currently have children wih these vouchers that cant even there is no funding for them and when you have more funding, i dont think they will get im charging them half tuition that they can also have Quality Childcare and its been really thank you, your time expired. Madam chair, that completes the cue. I know weve had a long meeting and i wanted to ask my colleagues one last time. Public comment is closed on item number 2 and any comment or questions, colleagues . If not, i can make a motion to continue this item to the call of the chair. Could i have a second, please . Second. Thank you very much, supervisor walton and a role wall vote, please. role call . There are five ayes. Any more business before us today . No further business. We are adjourned. Thank you very much for your patients. clapping . We are very happy to be here at the library in San Francisco. Thank you for having us. But we want to talk about its not so much your background but really more about cheese and how we worked with it in the book. Wed seen a lot of books that were really resident we wanted to do a book about classifications and how you look at cheese and how you use f it in had a resident rather than being specific about taking a pound of something and putting it in a mixture and having that be the resident we decided to work with cheeses in classifications and if you understood how the chose was made it would inform you on how to cook with it right. So it was really what er7 trying to achieve. We teach you how to cheese is made by describing our journey. Starting with fresh cheese n starting with milk. Starting with milk