Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Budget And Appropriations Committee 20240712

And appropriations meeting. Assisted by several staff in the clerks office. I would like sfgovtv for broad casting this meeting. To protect the employees and the public due to covid 19 the meeting in the chambers is closed. Due to state and federal orders and directives. You can participate in the meeting through Video Conference. Comments are available through each item on this agenda. Comments or opportunities to speak during Public Comment period will be available during. Best practices are to call from a quiet location, speak clearly and slowly. Turn down your television and radio. You can make Public Comment in the following ways. Provide Public Comments via email, it will be forded to the supervisors and be included in part of the decision file. Thank you very much. Can you please call items one, two, and three together. Sus spendin suspending the ct policy and recurring expenditures. Item number two all estimated receipts and expenditures of the city by july 31. Item no. 3 annual salary ordinance and annual budget ordinance for the fiscal years ending 2021 and june 302022. If you wish to give Public Comment on these items police dial 415 6550001 the meeting i. D. 1465718890pound pound and press star three to be added to the speaker queue. Madam secretary will you please open up Public Comment on these items. We have two caller ns in the queue. I will unmute the first caller. Good morning supervisors. I hope im on the right item. I dont see the agenda. Im an African American native since the 40s. Im standing in solid yairity witsolidarity toform a more perr domestic tranquility and asking you to pass the entire 120 which is a modest amount for the next two years for the black community. Im asking that explicitly it would go to the black community for Health Emergency and when you direct fund frs from our poe department. We have to ensure Police Resources respond immediately thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Hi. Im the executive director of thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Madam chair, that completes the queue. Thank you. Public comment for items one, two, and three are now closed. Welcome to the final day of the Budget Committee meeting. This revised plan is our response to feedback from the public and colleagues this is not the final list. Were figuring out how to give feedback on more priorities. Programs and services cut or reduced in the mayors proposed budget. Targeted investments in black communities and covid 19 response and Food Security. We have some business to get to this morning and well recess this meeting to finish doing our work to finalize the spending plan. This morning i would like to have a presentation to item number one. We h have some final work to Don Department of Public Health. We also have the ability to further reduce departments budget without calling departments back to this committee. We will include those deliberations as we finalize the budget. With that, let me call our controller and also our mayors budget director to discuss item number one. You have the floor. Good morning, madam chair. The city has a number of financial policy thats have been adopted under procedure nz ths inthe charter. One time revenues should match one time uses in the budget. That policy was adopted eight years ago at this point. The budget thats before you though has three hundred thirty two Million Dollars of one time revenue resources and less than that in one time uses. Theres an imbalance between those as we talked it out earlier in previous weeks. Thats permitted but it does require the board to suspend that financial policy for the upcoming period. Thats what the legislation before you here today does. Thank you very much. Do you have anything else to add . No, madam chair, nothing to add. Thank you very much. So, i think well helpany colleagues have any comments or questions about item number one . Seeing none, lets go ontooh, yes. Go ahead. I just wanted to say that im very supportive of this item. I just wanted the public to know that while this is not normally a prudent budgetary strategy were in a very very unique and strange year where we have many Revenue Generating measures on the ballot that we hope will pass in november. That will make this one time usemake the use of one time funds for ongoing costs a prudent strategy right now to teal with crisis we have in the city. Because we have potential new revenue coming in that could fulfill those needs in the future. I thought it was important to explain to the public why im going to be supportive of this resolution. We do have a plan for those on going costs in the future. If those crucial ballot measures didnt pass, which i hope will not be the case, well have to come back as a committee and redo the whole budget any way. Well take care of this issue. Just to explain to the public what the thinking is behind this measure. It might appear financial irresponsible, it isnt. Thank you for that clarification. I think it was very helpful. Thank you supervisor for giving that explanation. Since were not going to be able to find out until after november, i doubt if this particular budget compli commitl be handling it but yes. Good luck to everyone. We cant do it without supervisors until we finish the bummingebudget. Okay. Here we go. With that lets here from our departments. Department of Public Health. First i wanted to make an announcement that we have asked also, we have two departments that we asked to come back. One was the Fire Department. We were able to come to a agreement with the Fire Department that we will not be bringing them back today. This committee would like to reject to cut the funds the department is able to identify six hundred fifty thousand dollars in cost savings in two years. Is this committee in agreement with this plan. I think i see agreement. Mr. Controller no. Sorry. I have a question. The only question i really have is the identified additional cuts. What are they . They found additional cuts in overtime and in the travel budget. Overtime cut is how much of the cut is left . Mr. Controller, do you have those numbers . I do, madam chair. Let me pull them up. Its three hundred ten thousand dollars in the first year of the two year budget. Three hundred five thousand in the second year of the two year budget. All but a couple thousand dollars of that is to overtime. That couple thousand dollars is the reduction to the travel budget that the chair mentioned. And whats left in that line item . Are they cutting anything . They are eliminating the travel budget in year one with those reductions. The reduction to overtime does leave a remaining overtime budget for both years but its reduced by those amounts. I could get you those amounts if that would be helpful. Yeah. The only thing im worried about is all these fires. Were going to be extending these for mutual aid. I want to ensure that the budget will be able to cover that. Through discussions with the Fire Department and the chief and the financial officer. They recommended this cut from their overtime. It was their recommendation not the bla or our recommendation. They assumed they had enough then . Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Are we in agreement. Lets give the controller the indication that we are. Can you please note that theres a thumbs up. We accept the recommendations for cuts this department. Thank you very much. I just want to say because i do have the floor and ability to that i have three Fire Fighters who are in my district and i want to wish them great health and be safe during this time of the fires and thank them for their service. Now we go to the department of Public Health. Dr. Ko colfax. I believe there were a few residual issues for us to address. Can you give us an update that shows your existing budget. I personally would like to followup on a conversation on infant health investments. Are we able to dedicate general funds money into these programs. I believe theres a question about Testing Capacity for the Community Hubs. Dr. Colfax you have the floor. Thank you. With regard to the three items that you mentioned. We will go in order and our budget director will provide further information to the conclusion for health sf and the other questions you had. I will turn it over to mr mr. Wagner. We have a solution that appears to work from a technical and budgetary perspective to get us where we hope to be. Essentially what this is is in the mayors budget submission there was an assumption thati dont have the exact figure but eight point x Million Dollars was associated to the Capital Budget for Mental Health sf plan. Were able to fund that cost with a one time cost measure. That creates a surplus available for the first year in the two yeer budget. Year budget. It allows us to expand the number of joint crisis teams to six which would provide 24 seven coverage to those teams. That budget balances over two years and then of course as we discussed that the previous hearing, it does leave the issue in the third year, theres a deficit of eleven point four Million Dollars that would be unfunded and i understand theres conversation about the use of additional revenue it fill that gap. Just that third year issue that this expansion would not be in this budget funded in the base for the third year. Any comments o comments or q. No questions or comments with gratitude for all their scored nary work oscorednaryscorednart. Good morning supervisors. Thank you, chair for giving me the opportunity to respond to the concerns youve raised that weve heard loud and clear. Were fully committed to addressing Prenatal Health disparities. Up to this point we have really relied on state and federal funds, grants and philanthropic gifts as youve noted to help health disparities. This new item in the budget this year is our first major investment to augmenting those funds most of which continue in building a sustainable cohesive coordinated program thatto bring those together into a coordinated set of programs all with the same Population Health projects which are to reduce disparities due to preterm birth among African American birthing and low birth weight and moabith morbidity and mortality. Address different silo ses and address different points of this complex problem. We know many disparities in this determinants of health that impact pregnant women including depression, including poor access to prenatal care during the first trimester, including gestational hypertension. We know there are disparities. Instead of the number of programs coming at it from different points our commitment with this new funding is to continue and augment some of the successful initiatives which have been started at the state and federal level building on the gifts that we have received to support this work. Were excited about the direction were going but we know what weve been doing up to this point is a thousand flowers blooming phenomenon. With a collective impact approach, we think we can do better. Thats where were going in the future. I hope to report back to you on what our targets are. How to track those targets, narrow disparities and really address this in a very meaningful way for our families in the scommin coming year. You mentioned there was a new investment . In this years budget almost six thousand dollars of new funding for these programs. I think theni understand what youre saying. I think it is in the right direction. As we sit on the legislative branch. This could also be recommendations brought to this board around things like housing, food insecurity, and those types of safety nets that we need to get to actually before these women are pregnant. How do we support their children afterwards. I think that working in coordination and everyone, when you look at these Health Determinants it starts before then. Before even pregnancy. How do we create a safety net around these women so when they do give birth and have children they are healthy and able to thrive. What i was really looking for was a general Fund Investment in this. I feel like San Francisco need it put some skin in the game. Its not just enough to say philanthropy. In San Francisco this is an important issue and were going to dedicate our hard earned tax dollars to this because this is what San Francisco does. Thank you so much for your attention to this major issue. You did draw out the number of investment which is 600k. Is this for other programs to address infant mortality. Yes. That budget item includes 200,000 for the dual Access Program which as you may know started up this year with seed money from San Francisco health plan and bpm c. It also includes two hundred thousand dollars for the abundance birth project and another almost two hundred thousand dollars which actual ri would blywould be in our officeh equity. That would provide staff which we hope will help us do this coordination work to bring together the different programs and see where we have synergies. Really through this collective impact approach pull together all these programs with Community Input and make sure our dollars are used in a meaningful way where we see the health impact. Community and likely to be greater risk than there was earlier in these settings with children. It was also clear on the call this morning with the cadence of testing in these situations certainly there needs to be testing of those adults and children. The degree to which theres a optimal benefit is achieved is not clear. There obviously has to be balance of many of the testing needs that we havethe science around how to do this the best is rapidly evolving. In the context of where we are for covid 19 more resources for testing will allow us to do more. Were looking at having many of the people who would be engaged in this activity to have coverage through private insurers and have private insurers cover this. Were looking at all of the options on the table. Our testing budget is substantial thats proposed and cad icandidly, i think had we n the covid 19 spread, weve been clear that more resources may be needed to do everything as practically as possible. Now having said that i just want to reiterate that there will be some risks in these contacts and in certain situations there will be out breaks even with mitigation. In the context of prevention activities the maps and cohorting of groups and good hygiene practices. There are differences in terms of transmission risks versus Young Children versus middle schoolers. I know you are focusing on the hubs right now. I think what we do to engage in the hubs just as we take the learning from the camps and day care for the hubs. The hubs would help better inform what we do in other educational institutions as they reopen. Unfortunately, i dont have a concrete number for you to tell you, this is absolutely enough. Because this such an evolvingthats what i would say is in the context of where we are and where were headed, certainly i think having Additional Resources in the budget would give us more ability to expand more testing. This is one of my Top Priorities in the budget. I think these hubs are the most essential way that we can help families get through this crisis and fight the achievement gap that has plagued our School System for a very long time. We want parents to feel as comfortable as possible and we want the adults to be as safe as possible in there. I will fight for, i know my colleagues feel the same way. Well fight for what you need and were try to go come up with a figure that makes sense. The figure that we came up with is three point five million, and matching money so it would be seven million matching for the hubs. I know you cant say with certainly but does that say its a fair estimation to greatly run the risks of the hubs . To appease every concern we would test everybody everyday. But thats not feasible. This will certainly help and give usi dpes m guess we havenn able to weigh in on this with the cadence and subject matter that our proposing here. If those resources were made available and we talked to subject Matter Experts at u c sf and there were a site modification or modification of that cadence of best evidence available at the time. I would say based on the current state guidelines as we currently reviewed them, this is more adoptive than what the state is recommending for schools at this time. Once again San Francisco would be lead inning our efforts to mitigating the spread of the virus in these situations from a health perspective, we obviously want to focus on covid 19 but the educational component, the warning gap, we know this has direct Health Effects on kids and their developments. I want to emphasize this is a Health Development mitigating because learn sing can key to familys health. Lastly, i just wanted to followup on the west side Community Health center, a main provider of Public Health. I wanted to make sure that i restated the black community has been very vocal about not tieing up investmen investment in the k community. We would not like to put it for the black community on reserve. He did give us a blue print on how to ensure transparency through reports of proposed expenditures, this will eliminate the bureaucratic barriers and allow the black community along with the hr c to decide how these expenditures are expended. This is the black communitys request. We asked you to come back to us withare you saying that you are suggesting what we did with director torres recommendation to put this on reserve and replace it with a report back to the board on expenditures and spending plan; is that correct . Correct. And actual expenditures, yes. Okay. Thats great. We have an agreement with our colleagues. President yee are you raising your hand . This actually has nothing to do with the department of Public Health. Ill save my statement. Thank you. I think were in agreement then. One, tomr. Controller whatever we said here and also, im sorry. And also that were rejecting the recommendation to put that money in reserves and instead what has been proposed to a proposed spending plan to the board so we can keep track of where these expenditures go and not put that money in reserves. Okay. Thank you department of Public Health. We greatly appreciate you are coming back. Thank you for all your work. Thank you for your investment in the black internal health. I want to have a conversation about attrition. We can have mr. Rosen field come. Weve asked the controller to do an analysis for us on attrition saving trends over the last few years. We have the ability as a board to actually take more savings from the departments without the departments coming back to us. I think this is analysis is really important for us to look at because there may be money left on the table. Having said that, could you please give us the report. Certainly, i can give you an update. Were not yet completed with this work. As you said to review pattern ses of Department Spending o pah an eye towards reasonableness of the budgets towards years ahead. I hope to have a report for you later in the day. Were making progress with it and should have it to you shortly. Having said that. Yes, president yee. This is going to be a random statement. I just didnt know where to interject this. Just say it. Just say it. This is related to the community hub, i know theres been some discussion around the risk factor of the people that are going to operate this. It will be operated by nonprofit organizations that dont pay much. Certainly less than a teacher would make. I dont know how far weve got wen the discussiowith the discud way with those workers. Its something that im interested in pursuing if somehow we can find the funding for it. I dont really have a price tag because at this point we dont know how many people are going to be involved with the Community Hubs as they keep expanding. This realization that if we dont increase it at least during this time, this period, they are going to run out of people to actually work in these homes. I just want to put it out there that we should think about that. Thank you. I think another consideration is existing contracts with the c bo and this extends beyond their contracts and compensation for that. Thank you very much. I just really wanted to agree with both of you on that point and just, you know, maybe work today. Im happy to take on this task of working with maria to try to cost some of this out. In terms of equity during this time in this city, i cant think of anything more important than these hubs for families. I think we have to do them right. I just agree so much with both of you. I think we could do our best to cost that out today and make it a priority of this committee and would be happy to take the lead while supervisor is working non stop to try to get us to a global deal if thats something the committee would like me to do. I think that would be helpful. I think it would be helpful to bring to the Committee Meeting on friday too. If we are saying well open the Community Hubs, what is the total real cost of hoping these Community Hubs. It will lead us to how many we can open. If were going to open more, we should have a real budget that we can do this safely and very well. Because these are our childrens lives that we have at stake here. Thank you very much. Having said that. Committee members, i would like to recess this meeting now until 3o clock this afternoon. Ill just make a brief statement to the members of the public who is watching, Public Comment has already been satisfied today. Thank you very much. Thank you to everyone who offered Public Comment. We will recess until 3 00 p. M. Today. Thank you ver we are reconvening the budget and appropriations Committee Meeting. We are recessing until 7 00 p. M. Thank you very we are reconvening the budget and appropriations meeting and ill call a recess until 9 00 tonight. Thf existing living area that is in the planning code section until 11 00 p. M. I will see you then. Thank you, very much. Amount c Health Crisis and where do we go from here. Today im joined by our department of Public Health director. Today we have six thousand ninety two cases and sadly sixty seven people have died from covid. Until we have a vaccine and until we are in a better place, we know that we need to continue to socially distance ourself from one another. Wear our mask as much as possible and follow our Public Health guidelines. We know that for months to come, this is something that we are unfortunately going to be living with and the fact is, there is still a lot of work to be done. I just want to say a few things before we get into the details of the budget. The fact is, weve come a very very very long way. Many of you remember even in january where we declared a state of emergency and we Start Talking about the crisis and whats to come, and when we shut down the city, that was back in march and here we are. Its august. We thought that in august wed be in a different place. I think whats happening with san franciscans as hard as weve worked to contain the virus, its gone up and down, and up again. We still have a long way to go. As tired as we are of doing what we need in order to keep one another safe, we have to start getting comfortable with it. We have to start changing our behavior. It really is whats going to make the difference because we notice that recently we had to basically put a pause on our oopenning. Reopening. We saw the numbers spike. Once we saw the numbers spike, behaviors started to change again. Now we see the numbers declining. That doesnt mean we dont have several people every single day testing positive for the virus. That doesnt mean that some of those people, sadly, have lost their lives. We anticipate seeing more. Only we can be the solution to this big challenge. Just think about it. When we first started off, the big conversations were around ppe and testing and other things, weve definitely come a long way. Although, its clear that due to, what i believe a lack of federal response and coordination with our state and cities, its been very difficult for so many of us. We didnt let that stop us. We prepared, we worked hard, we redirected resources, we redirected staff from all over the city. We adjusted to our situation and because of that San Francisco has been a model for the rest of the country. I want us to be even better than that. Its up to us. Its up to us to change our behavior. Its up to us especially because when you think about it, sadly, what we see in terms of businesses not being able to open. Some of our favorite restaurants and retail shops and places where we get our hair and nails done, they may never return. People who need to send their kids to school because we, regardless of the achievement gaps and equipment were providing for low income students were still seeing problems and increase in the achievement gaps. We have work to do. Im asking people in San Francisco to just really change their behavior. I know its not easy. I know we want to enjoy ourselves. But its up to us to make a difference. Today, i want to really talk about our budget and the proposed budget thats working its way through the legislative process as we speak. Part of why we are investing 446 million in response to covid has everything to do with the understanding that were going to be living with this for some time. Thats money that i wish we could divert to other things. But unfortunately this is the reality of today. I hope thats not the reality of our next budget cycle. Were committing about 93 million directly from the general fund. Again, thats money that i wish we could be diverting to other places and the fact is, its going to be important that were prepared and doing whats necessary to keep the public safe. Today, i want to get into our slides and talk a little about our investments so you have a clear understanding of why and whats being invested based on our response based on our budg budget. So lets look at exactly what it is that our response is this year in the budget. It includes 16 point five million for operations. Health response. 62 million for Food Distributions and housing and shelter programs. Its important to remember that this funding really assumes that we dont see any major surges. If that happens, we will need to divert even more resources. Thats why it is so critical that everybody does their part to stop the spread. It assumes that well continue to be reimbursed by fema. We all know how the federal government has been. This is only through june of 2021 for the next year. If this stretches beyond june theres even more of a drain on our budget next year. The funding for communications and operations is critical to not only staffing our Covid Command Center but also providing communication in the many different languages and cultures in San Francisco in different ways. 50 of our cases in San Francisco have been in our latino community. Visitation valley have the highest rates of cases in the city. Communication is key in a Public Health response. Thankfully we have an Incredible Team of people doing this work every single day. One hundred eighty five million for Health Operations is a lot of money. Its important to understand in the context of all the things that were doing as a city. Were talking about testing, ppe, surge capacity, preparations, Contact Tracing, community out reach, out break mitigations and Everything Else required to fight this virus and keep our re residents safe. We have massively expanded our Food Distribution to people in the si city and will continue to this for as long as needed. Keep people fed and increase sanitation conditions on the streets. Pit stops we chose to expand city wide for an additional 16 million. As you can see from the slide, this is a significant investment. In short term options to keep people off the street. Continuing to fund hotel rooms and shelter in place. We also know we need more housing for people which is why this all feeds into our homeless Recovery Plan to create six thousand replacements for our homeless residents. These are absolutely critical for our plan to work. Building on some of our existing programs as well including our waste replacement, meantle healtMental Health programs. Educational efforts to support our schools. Mobile testing for neighborhoods that are disproportionately hit. These investments in our budget this year as we know, are absolutely critical in order to get us through the very challenging time and i cant reiterate enough the need to make changes to our behavior. I dont know about you, but as i said before in some of these press conferences, i was a very challenging kid to deal with for my grandmother who raised me. I can remember time and time again, when you tell someone to do something over and over and over again. Dont touch that fire, dont touch that fire. Youre like, i wonder what the fire feels like. You touch it the fire and youre like, ill never do that again. Thats the kind of kid i was. It feels like im a parent telling people in San Francisco over and over again wear your mask, socially distance, do this, do this that. Really, this is about protecting Public Health. This is about getting us back on track. This is not just a problem in San Francisco, its a problem all over world. When you think about it theres some countries in the world that have reduced the virus and gone back to normal. Thats where we want to be. The only way were going to get there. The only way were going to be able to open the gyms and nail salons and visit our parents and grandparents in senior homes and places they are housed, is if we change our behavior. We listen to our Public Health expert. Especially in places like dolores park. Especially in places where people continue to gather and not socially distance. From our contact tracers, we know that many people who are contracting the virus are contracting the virus because they are having gatherings. They are having family gatherings and birthday parties and other events. You know what . Today is my birthday. Im going to socially distance myself and talk to people op opn zoom. If we all did our part rkts wher, where wewould be today. I know youre tired of hearing it from me. I say it time and time again. I cant reiterate enough that we need to do our part. We can be a leader and crush this virus if we all do our part. With that, i want to ask the director of the department of Public Health dr. Grant kol fa x fax to please come forward now. Good morning. Im dr. Grant colfax director of Public Health. Happy birthday and thank you for your commitment when it comes to covid response. When it comes to shelter in place, a surge of covid 19 cases. Our investments in testing, Contact Tracing and Food Security among other items have helped San Francisco manage to slow the spread of the virus. Thank you again for your ladership anleadership and dire. Here is an update of where we are with the virus. As of this morning. Six thousand forty two have been diagnosed and sadly sixty seven of them have died. Were currently caring for 88 in our local hospitals. Thats a slight drop from last week. Its a 20 reduction from our peak in july. Because of our efforts. Because of your efforts such as face coverings and social distancing, we have lowered the effective reproductive rate to just below one. The effective reproductive rate or re is a key measure of how fast the virus is spreading. Its the average number of people who become infected by an infectious before. If its above one, the virus will spread and it will spread quickly. When the re factor is below one, its slowing. Our best estimate is that re has been just below one, between point nine eight and point nine five. We continue to exceed our daily testing goals and lead the state and nation it testing. In this next phase of our testing strategy, well be more targeted in our testing even as we expand Testing Capacity in the city. Last week, we brought mobile testing to communities with highest infection rates of covid 19. Including in the bay view, sunny dale, mission and omi. We are indeed following the day awe to identify the communities where testing can have the greatest impact to identify and slow the spread of covid 19. As you saw in the budget presentation, the mayor is proposing a nearly 56 milliondollar budget in testing next year. That number has started to drop from the high point a few weeks ago. Its a cause for great concern and could easily go up again. This is one of our key health indicators. Anything above 15 new cases per day puts us in the red zone on our highest alert level. Were been there for the past few weeks. Weve seen our numbers improving. Lets stay vigilant. Weve seen issues with the state reporting system that may have caused issues with cases. We see many many san franciscans covering their faces. Recent Research Indicates if 80 of a population is regularly using face coverings we can prevent out breaks of covid 19. Please, be one of those 80 . Thank you to everyone who is doing their part to reach that critical mat. Why dont we make it ninety. Why dont we make it 100 of people wearing face coverings in our city. We know unfortunately some people are not covering their faces complicitily. I see some people trying but maybe they dont know both their nose and mouth need to be covering. Maybe they dont know that face could havings are required in San Francisco for everyone age ten years and up. If you have any questions or doubts, wear a facial covering. Its right thing. Its the safe thimg t ting to t. Its like remembering your wallet or keys. Its a habit were going to need to develop and have with us for some time. My mask protects you. Your mask protects me. This is something we can all do and indeed we must do for each other. We must keep up our momentum and stand our ground and sustain our gains and continue to make progress. Were seeing some hopeful signs. As weve seen before this virus is persistent. We cannot let our guard down. Please, again, continue to do your part. Continue to take caution and care. Take care of yourself. Call your friends and family. We are all in this together. We will get through this together. Together we have the power to save lives and again, crush that curve. Thank you. Thank you dr. Colfax and madam mayor for your time. Well begin our q and a portion. First we have Health Care Related questions for dr. Colfax. What specifically is the city doing to shorten the time it takes to get test results and boboaster Contact Tracing. The turn around times have averaged general 48 to 72 hours. We did fall behind because of the great surge in testing. We have caught up on that. Were increasing looking to expand our city test sf capacity. Those times will hopefully continue to be shorter than a few weeks ago. Weve trained three hundred people in Contact Tracing. Were try to go catcing to catcm the flood of cases. Making great progress on that. We continue to expand our capacity and Contact Tracing. As you see in the budget theres investments to strengthen that work going forward. Thank you doctor. Have any out breaks been traced to a gathering in dolores park. Where are the out breaks happening. We know that out breaks occur when people gather. Indoor gatherings are more at risk than outdoor gatherin gatheringpeople doing essential work and need to work in close proximity, we need to have that happen. Lets not gather for things that could otherwise be delayed or be done on zoom or in other virtual ways. With regard to specific out breaks, i cant comment on drawing conclusions from the gathering at dolores park except to say thats behavior that were very concerned about it. Our message continue continues o not gather unless absolutely essential. Do not gather out side your immediate household. If you do, wear those face masks and use good hygiene and socially distance when possible. Look, when i walk or drive around the city, we know this is still not happening to the degree it needs to be. We need to hit that 80 mark. Lets go for 90 or one hundred. We need to crush this curve. Thank you. The next set of questions are from the associated press. How have the states problems with cal ready effected San Francisco effective reproductive rate. Its based on the number of hospitalizations. Our data is not part of that calculation. Were confident in our ability to estimate based on the hospitalization rates in the city. How can we be sure cases are going down if there is under reporting by the states system. The number of hospitalled cases are going down in our city. Thats what we base the reproductive rate on. Its on those numbers sm the nu. The number of cases diagnosed with covid 19, that number could change based on the correction from the state. We hope to have tha that tha th. Thank you, doctor. What are the major factors contributing to the numbers leveling off . What wewe cant draw any one action with regard to cause and effect with regard to the decline in the number of cases. I do think a few weeks ago our recognition that we were in the midst of another surge and the reproductive rate was going up rapidly. We worked with comeupit communiy members, key stake holders and people in neighborhoods most effected to work to really get the message out that everyone needed to be aware of this. Access testing. If you were in an area experiencing out breaks to wear those facial coverings and not gather. I hope people heard this and people are doing their part to flatten and hopefully crush the curve. I will say that the reproductive number is just about at one now. We need to see that trend continue so we get much much lower. Im hopeful that we continue to go in the right direction. Thank you, doctor. Have you considered further restrictions or enforcement measuremeasures foreplaysesmea. We need to give people thank you, doctor. The next question comes from sf examiner. Business owners from the small industry and other personal services have been frustrated that they cannot fully reopen even after sanitation guidelines. What is your level of concerns. Right now we are on the state watch list and have been since late july. No further reopenings can happen until were off that watch list and receive updated guidance from the state. And what might be plausible going forward. Thank you. Our next question. If the reproductive rate is not below is only based on hospitalization and not positive tests it does not include asymptomatic people. How is that viable. Its an estimate. Its an estimate that we have been working with u c berkeley and u c sf and cal San Francisco researchers with regard to developing a model that takes exactly that into account. Uses the hospitalization number and extrapolates that to the broader population at large to come up with an estimate of the reproductive rate. Its publicly available with regard to what the reproductive rate estimate is. You can dig deeper into that on the website which we can certainly provide to you. Thank you, dr. Colfax. There no further questions at this time. This concludes todays press conference. Thank you madam mayor and dr. Colfax for your time. Announcer youre watching coping with covid19. Hi. Im chris manus and youre watching coping with covid19. Today my guest is anastasia klaste and were going talk about how the pandemic has affected our school community. Welcome to the show. Hi thank you. I understand that our students and teachers have adopted Video Conference as Distance Learning tools to be able to continue studying remotely and this is clearly new for everyone. Do you have some suggestions to students and perhaps their parents that could help them manage this new approach . I think the best advice i can give students and parents is to really be gentle on yourselves during this time. The thing we dont really want to do is increase stress and anxiety amongst our students because they know it is a scary, uncertain time aside from the work. So, we are engaging in Distance Learning and providing work for students to engage in. The Mental Health of students and their wellbeing and safety is really at the forefront of our minds and so were asking parents to keep an eye on their kids and also asking kids to speak up and let us know if theyre having trouble f they need to talk to someone, if they need to take a break or they need more time to do work. Because that is really whats most important for us. Right. And what would you say to teachers having a hard time adjusting as well . I think our faculty is really lucky in that we were already utilizing google classroom in all of our classes. So the switch from inperson to online is not as extreme as it may have been to some other faculties in other schools. That said, most of us had never engaged in Video Conferencing or done any sort of daily online lesson planning. So, i think the same thing i say to parents and students i say to teachers is to just be gentle and give yourself space and know its ok to make mistakes and its ok if youre not perfect and were all sort of learning and doing at the same time. So, that can also be anxiety provoking and that can be hard for taoefers that are used to being really good at what they do and knowing what exactly to say and how to do it every day are grappling with new technology and theyre finding that students [inaudible] what they do in person. Are there concerns about College Admissions for High School Seniors and juniors . I think at first there was a lot of sort of confusion and anxiety for juniors and seniors about colleges. And now that the system has come out with some guidance and we understand that, you know, the s. A. T. And a. C. T. Tests wont be required for the next year, we know that universities have only agreed to accept credit or no credit or passno pass grades and looking at students across the country knowing that were in unprecedented situation now that weve got guidance of clarity around that. Students are feeling a lot more comfort. Comfortable. For our current seniors, most of them got their College Acceptances in february and march so those things shouldnt be changing that much. For juniors, you know, now that they know that they have to step it up for the next year because the grades that theyre getting this semester may not be letter grades, it might be a passno pass, creditno credit. But it seems from everything that i read or hear, theyre working really closely with School Districts to make sure that no student is, you know, adversely affected by the pandemic because of this sort of universal experience for all students. Indeed. I heard that some kids are worried that they may have to make up the work or retake the whole year . How likely are those scenarios and how will grades be assigned for this semester . Well, San Francisco unified has made a decision through the board of ed that there will be a signing. Creditno credit for 6 through 12th graders and that means that basically they will either full credit for the glass or wont receive credit for class, based on the work that they do and that goes into a gaap of neutral so it shouldnt raise or lower any specific students g. P. A. , but just give them credit toward graduation. From what i can tell, california has been pretty clear that no student will have to retake this year. As educators, we do acknowledge that thereby a little bit of catchup happening in the fall. Right. Have your students had a variety of different experiences during this pandemic . Yes. I would say definitely. Our school serves a big atrisk group of kids. We have students from every zip code and city, basically. And students from all sorts of backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses so on one hand they have their high speed wifi and its no problem for them to hop on a zoom call or get their google docs turned in and then we have a lot of situations where they may not have wifi so theyre delivering hotspots or they have a device but it is shared among several siblings or the parents are using it during the day and the kids have only a certain amount of time that they can engage. So, you know, something that the teachers have talked about being mindful of and im definitely being mindful, as a principal, is that our students are in various situations and we cant assume anything about their access in their ability to [inaudible] right now. For some of them, theyre caring for siblings or grandma, living at home. Many of them have family members affected by covid and so theyre in a space where theyre really just trying to take care of those around them. And academics are sort of on the backburner and for right now thats ok. You know, we sort of support them in whatever way they need. I understand. Have you been able to provide any Technical Assistance to your students or faculty . Yes. The School District had hotspots so i personally delivered about 50 chrome books to students and now were getting hotspots, which are wifi devices that utilize cell phone coverage in an area so homes that dont have wifi or homes that have spotty wifi can use these hotspots and the kids are saying that they work really well and now the district just got a bunch of them so were able to list them. So any family that needs them right now, which is really great. Now all of our faculties have access to high speed wifi and technology at home. We are providing them with the technology that they need to be engaged in this. I see. And finally s there any news about Summer School . There is. Sort of. Its happening. In some way, shape or form. But we dont really know how or where. Im assuming it will be online and, as usual, seniors or kids about to graduate will be prioritized so therell definitely be some Summer School, im just not sure where or what at this point. But theyre going to share information about that pretty soon. Unfortunately all the fun summer programs and jobs, the arts programs and language programs, the acceleration programs are probably not happening. But there will be some sort of Credit Recovery option for kids who need it. Right. Well, thank you for coming ton show. I really appreciate the time youve given us today. Yeah. Great talking with you. Thank you so much for having me. That is it for this episode. Well be back with more covid19 related information shortly. Youve been watching coping with covid19. Im chris manus. Thank you for watching. Tenderloin is unique neighborhood where geographically place in downtown San Francisco and on every Street Corner have liquor store in the corner it stores pretty much every single block has a liquor store but there are impoverishes Grocery Stores im the cocoordinated of the Healthy Corner store collaboration close to 35 hundred residents 4 thousand are children the medium is about 23,000 a year so a low Income Neighborhood many new immigrants and many people on fixed incomes residents have it travel outside of their neighborhood to assess fruits and vegetables it can be come senator for seniors and hard to travel get on a bus to get an apple or a pear or like tomatoes to fit into their meals my my name is ryan the cocoordinate for the tenderloin healthy store he coalition we work in the neighborhood trying to support Small Businesses and improving access to healthy produce in the tenderloin that is one of the most neighborhoods that didnt have access to a full Service Grocery store and we california together out of the meeting held in 2012 through the Major Development center the survey with the corners stores many stores do have access and some are bad quality and an overwhelming support from Community Members wanting to utilities the service spas we decided to work with the Small Businesses as their role within the community and bringing more Fresh Produce produce cerebrothe neighborhood their compassionate about creating a healthy environment when we get into the work they rise up to leadership. The Different Stores and assessment and trying to get them to understand the value of having Healthy Foods at a reasonable price you can offer people fruits and vegetables and healthy produce they cant afford it not going to be able to allow it so thats why i want to get involved and we just make sure that there are alternatives to people can come into a store and not just see cookies and candies and potting chips and that kind of thing hi, im cindy the director of the a preif you believe program it is so important about Healthy Retail in the low Income Community is how it brings that health and hope to the communities i worked in the tenderloin for 20 years the difference you walk out the door and there is a bright new list of fresh fruits and vegetables some place you know is safe and welcoming it makes. Huge difference to the whole environment of the community what so important about retail environments in those neighborhoods it that sense of dignity and Community Safe way. This is why it is important for the neighborhood we have families that needs healthy have a lot of families that live up here most of them fruits and vegetables so thats good as far been doing good. Now that i had this this is really great for me, i, go and get fresh fruits and vegetables it is healthy being a diabetic youre not supposed to get carbons but getting extra food a all carbons not eating a lot of vegetables was bringing up my whether or not pressure once i got on the program everybody o everything i lost weight and my Blood Pressure came down helped in so many different ways the most important piece to me when we start seeing the Business Owners engagement and their participation in the program but how proud to speak that is the most moving piece of this program yes economic and social benefits and so forth but the personal pride Business Owners talk about in the program is interesting and regarding starting to understand how theyre part of the larger fabric of the community and this is just not the corner store they have influence over their community. It is an owner of this in the department of interior i see the great impact usually that is like people having especially with a small family think liquor store sells alcohol traditional alcohol but when they see this their vision is changed it is a small Grocery Store for them so they more options not just beer and wine but Healthy Options good for the business and good for the community i wish to have more shop and dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges residents to do their shopping and dining within the 49 square miles of San Francisco. By supporting local Services Within our neighborhoods, we help San Francisco remain unique, successful, and vibrant. So where will you shop and dine in the 49 . My name is ray behr. I am the owner of chief plus. Its a destination Specialty Foods store, and its also a corner Grocery Store, as well. We call it cheese plus because theres a lot of additions in addition to cheese here. From fresh flowers, to wine, past a, chocolate, our dining area and espresso bar. You can have a casual meeting if you want to. Its a Real Community gathering place. What makes little polk unique, i think, first of all, its a great pedestrian street. Theres people out and about all day, meeting this neighbor and coming out and supporting the businesses. The businesses here are almost all exclusively independent owned Small Businesses. It harkens back to supporting local. Polk street doesnt look like anywhere u. S. A. It has its own businesses and personality. We have Clothing Stores to gallerys, to personal service stores, where you can get your hsus repaired, luggage repaired. Theres a music studio across the street. Its raily a diverse and unique offering on this really great street. I think san franciscans should shop local as much as they can because they can discover things that they may not be familiar with. Again, the marketplace is changing, and, you know, you look at a screen, and you click a mouse, and you order something, and it shows up, but to have a tangible experience, to be able to come in to taste things, to see things, to smell things, all those things, its very important that you do so. Announcer youre watching coping with covid19. Hi. Im chris manus and youre watching coping with covid19. Today my guest is anastasia klaste and were going talk about how the pandemic has affected our school community. Welcome to the show. Hi thank you. I understand that our students and teachers have adopted Video Conference as Distance Learning tools to be able to continue studying remotely and this is clearly new for everyone. Do you have some suggestions to students and perhaps their parents that could help them manage this new approach . I think the best advice i can give students and parents is to really be gentle on yourselves during this time. The thing we dont really want to do is increase stress and anxiety amongst our students because they know it is a scary, uncertain time aside from the work. So, we are engaging in Distance Learning and providing work for students to engage in. The Mental Health of students and their wellbeing and safety is really at the forefront of our minds and so were asking parents to keep an eye on their kids and also asking kids to speak up and let us know if theyre having trouble f they need to talk to someone, if they need to take a break or they need more time to do work. Because that is really whats most important for us. Right. And what would you say to teachers having a hard time adjusting as well . I think our faculty is really lucky in that we were already utilizing google classroom in all of our classes. So the switch from inperson to online is not as extreme as it may have been to some other faculties in other schools. That said, most of us had never engaged in Video Conferencing or done any sort of daily online lesson planning. So, i think the same thing i say to parents and students i say to teachers is to just be gentle and give yourself space and know its ok to make mistakes and its ok if youre not perfect and were all sort of learning and doing at the same time. So, that can also be anxiety provoking and that can be hard for taoefers that are used to being really good at what they do and knowing what exactly to say and how to do it every day are grappling with new technology and theyre finding that students [inaudible] what they do in person. Are there concerns about College Admissions for High School Seniors and juniors . I think at first there was a lot of sort of confusion and anxiety for juniors and seniors about colleges. And now that the system has come out with some guidance and we understand that, you know, the s. A. T. And a. C. T. Tests wont be required for the next year, we know that universities have only agreed to accept credit or no credit or passno pass grades and looking at students across the country knowing that were in unprecedented situation now that weve got guidance of clarity around that. Students are feeling a lot more comfort. Comfortable. For our current seniors, most of them got their College Acceptances in february and march so those things shouldnt be changing that much. For juniors, you know, now that they know that they have to step it up for the next year because the grades that theyre getting this semester may not be letter grades, it might be a passno pass, creditno credit. But it seems from everything that i read or hear, theyre working really closely with School Districts to make sure that no student is, you know, adversely affected by the pandemic because of this sort of universal experience for all students. Indeed. I heard that some kids are worried that they may have to make up the work or retake the whole year . How likely are those scenarios and how will grades be assigned for this semester . Well, San Francisco unified has made a decision through the board of ed that there will be a signing. Creditno credit for 6 through 12th graders and that means that basically they will either full credit for the glass or wont receive credit for class, based on the work that they do and that goes into a gaap of neutral so it shouldnt raise or lower any specific students g. P. A. , but just give them credit toward graduation. From what i can tell, california has been pretty clear that no student will have to retake this year. As educators, we do acknowledge that thereby a little bit of catchup happening in the fall. Right. Have your students had a variety of different experiences during this pandemic . Yes. I would say definitely. Our school serves a big atrisk group of kids. We have students from every zip code and city, basically. And students from all sorts of backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses so on one hand they have their high speed wifi and its no problem for them to hop on a zoom call or get their google docs turned in and then we have a lot of situations where they may not have wifi so theyre delivering hotspots or they have a device but it is shared among several siblings or the parents are using it during the day and the kids have only a certain amount of time that they can engage. So, you know, something that the teachers have talked about being mindful of and im definitely being mindful, as a principal, is that our students are in various situations and we cant assume anything about their access in their ability to [inaudible] right now. For some of them, theyre caring for siblings or grandma, living at home. Many of them have family members affected by covid and so theyre in a space where theyre really just trying to take care of those around them. And academics are sort of on the backburner and for right now thats ok. You know, we sort of support them in whatever way they need. I understand. Have you been able to provide any Technical Assistance to your students or faculty . Yes. The School District had hotspots so i personally delivered about 50 chrome books to students and now were getting hotspots, which are wifi devices that utilize cell phone coverage in an area so homes that dont have wifi or homes that have spotty wifi can use these hotspots and the kids are saying that they work really well and now the district just got a bunch of them so were able to list them. So any family that needs them right now, which is really great. Now all of our faculties have access to high speed wifi and technology at home. We are providing them with the technology that they need to be engaged in this. I see. And finally s there any news about Summer School . There is. Sort of. Its happening. In some way, shape or form. But we dont really know how or where. Im assuming it will be online and, as usual, seniors or kids about to graduate will be prioritized so therell definitely be some Summer School, im just not sure where or what at this point. But theyre going to share information about that pretty soon. Unfortunately all the fun summer programs and jobs, the arts programs and language programs, the acceleration programs are probably not happening. But there will be some sort of Credit Recovery option for kids who need it. Right. Well, thank you for coming ton show. I really appreciate the time youve given us today. Yeah. Great talking with you. Thank you so much for having me. That is it for this episode. Well be back with more covid19 related information shortly. Youve been watching coping with covid19. Im chris manus. Thank you for watching. My name is Angela Wilson and im an owner of the market i worked at a butcher for about 10 years and became a butcher you i was a restaurant cook started in sxos and went to uc; isnt that so and opened a cafe we have produce from small farms without small butcher shops hard for small farms to survive we have a been a butcher shop since 1901 in the heights floor and the case are about from 1955 and it is only been a butcher shot not a lot of businesses if San Francisco that have only been one thing. Im all for vegetarians if you eat meat eat meat for quality and if we care of were in a losing battle we need to support butcher shops eat less we sell the chickens with the head and feet open somebody has to make money when you pay 25 for a chicken i guarantee if you go to save way half of the chicken goes in the enlarge but we started Affordable Housing depends on it occurred to us this is a male field people said good job even for a girl the interesting thing it is a womens field in most of world just here in United States it is that pay a mans job im an encountered woman and raise a son and teach i am who respect woman i consider all womens who work here to be impoverished and strong in San Francisco labor is high our cost of good ideas we seal the best good ideas the profit margin that low but everything that is a laboring and thats a challenge in the town so many people chasing money and not i can guarantee everybody this is their passion. Im the ive been cooking mile whole life this is a really, really strong presence of women heading up kitchens in the bay area it is really why i moved out here i think that we are really strong in the destroy and really off the pages kind of thing i feel like women befrp helps us to get back up im definitely the only female here i fell in love i love setting up and love knowing were any food comes from i do the lamb and thats how i got here today Something Special to have a female here a male dominated field so i think that it is very special to have women and especially like it is going at it you know im a tiny girl but makes me feel good for sure. The sad thing the building is sold im renegotiating my lease the neighborhood wants us to be here with that said, this is a very difficult business it is a constant struggle to maintain freshness and deal with what we have to everyday it is a very high labor of business but something im proud of if you want to get a job at Affordable Housing done nasal you need a good attitude and the jobs on the bottom you take care of all the produce and the fish and computer Ferry Terminal and work your way up employing people with a passion for this and empowering them to learn hi. Im Chris Mathers with channel 19, and youre watching coping with covid19. Today, im going to be talking about exercising during the pandemic. First, im going to tell you what ive been doing, and then im going to be checking in with some friends and family. Ive been riding my bike. All i take is a pair of gloves and a mask if i come into contact with anyone. I try to ride my bike during the time im sheltering in place. I try to ride for at least 30 minutes. Surfing is my other regular outdoor activity. California state guidelines recommend you dont drive more than ten minutes for a spot to exercise, and although im close to ocean beach, im a bit wary to go there, so im using the time to do some maintenance. Filling in gouges and dings, and sanding it down. Im also repairing holes in my suit. Fellow sfgovtv producer chris took his first yoga lesson a couple of years ago and used to go to a class regularly before the lockdown. He and his wife set up a space in their garage for exercising. This routine is from an online class by power yoga. Deann and andy have been using the ping pong table that they bought off craigslist and set it up in their back yard. Ellie has been using this home gym to stay fit. It has everything she needed. And lastly, if the weather is bad outside, you can exercise your mind by doing a puzzle, sudoku, or just by reading a good book. Heres a quick recap. Since i started this episode, the guidelines have changed. For instance, jack may be able to go golfing with some restrictions. Go to sf. Gov to get the most uptodate third thursdays at the commons is a monthly event series to really activate krisk centkrisk civic center, fulton mall, and other locations through social operation. In 2016, an initiative called the civic Center Progress initiative was launched, it was launched by a bunch of city agencies and community partners, so they really had to figure out how to program these places on a more frequent basis. Im with the Civic Center Community benefit district, and im Program Manager for the civic center commons. Also, third thursdays will have music. That was really important in the planning of these events. We wanted to have an artist that appeals to a wide range of tastes. Im the venue manager. Good music, good music systems, and real bands with guitar players and drummers. We turned uc center and fulton street into a place where people want to be to meet, to laugh, and its just an amazing place to be. Theres a number of different exhibits. Theres food, wine, cocktails, and the idea, again, is to give people an opportunity to enjoy what really is, you know, one of the great civic faces in america. When you look from the polk street steps, and you look all the way down the plaza, down market street, daniel burns design, this was meant to be this way. Its really special. The city approached us off the grid to provide food and beverages at the event as kind of the core anchor to encourage people who leave a reason to stay. Its really vibrant. Its really great, just people Walking Around having a good time. This formula is great food, interesting music, and then, we wanted to have something a little more, so we partnered with noise pop, and they brought in some really fun games. We have skeeball, we also have roller skating lessons, and weve got a roller skating rink. If youre a passion jail skeeball player like me, and youre deciding whether youre just going to roll the ball up the middle or take a bank shot. Our goal is to come out and have fun with their neighbors, but our goal is to really see in the comments that its a place where people want to hold their own public event. I think this is a perfect example of all these people working together. Everybodys kind of come together to provide this support and services that they can to activate this area. Theres no one agency or organization that really can make this space come alive on its own, and its really through the collective will, not just of the public sector, but both the public and our business partnerships, our nonprofits partnerships, you know, neighborhood activists. I really like it. Its, like, a great way to get people to find out about local things, cuisine, like, its really great. Its a really good environment, really welcoming. Like, were having a great time. We want to inspire other people to do this, just using a part of the plaza, and its also a good way to introduce people if theyre having a large scale event or small scale event, well direct you to the right people at the commons so you can get your event planned. Being a San Francisco based company, it was really important to connect and engage with san franciscans. How great is it to come out from city hall and enjoy great music, and be able to enjoy a comtail, maybe throw a bocci ball or skee ball. I find third thursdays to be really reinrig rat reinriggating for me. Whether youre in the city hall or financial district or anywhere, just come on down on third thursdays and enjoy the music, enjoy an adult beverage, enjoy the skee ball; enjoy an the Bicycle Coalition was giving away 33 bicycles so i applied. I was happy to receive one of them. The Community Bike build program is the San Francisco coalitions way of spreading the joy of biking and freedom of biking to residents who may not have access to affordable transportation. The city has an ordinance that we worked with them on back in 2014 that requires city agency goes to give organizations like the San Francisco bicycle organization a chance to take bicycles abandoned and put them to good use or find new homes for them. The partnerships with organizations generally with organizations that are working with low income individuals or families or people who are transportation dependent. We ask them to identify individuals who would greatly benefit from a bicycle. We make a list of people and their heights to match them to a bicycle that would suit their lifestyle and age and height. Bicycle i received has impacted my life so greatly. It is not only a form of recreation. It is also a means of getting connected with the community through bike rides and it is also just a feeling of freedom. I really appreciate it. I am very thankful. We teach a class. They have to attend a one hour class. Things like how to change lanes, how to make a left turn, right turn, how to ride around cars. After that class, then we would give everyone a test chance chance to test ride. We are giving them as a way to get around the city. Just the joy of like seeing people test drive the bicycles in the small area, there is no real word. I guess enjoyable is a word i could use. That doesnt describe the kind of warm feelings you feel in your heart giving someone that sense of freedom and maybe they havent ridden a bike in years. These folks are older than the normal crowd of people we give bicycles away to. Take my picture on my bike. That was a great experience. There were smiles all around. The recipients, myself, supervisor, everyone was happy to be a part of this joyous occasion. At the end we normally do a group ride to see people ride off with these huge smiles on their faces is a great experience. If someone is interested in volunteering, we have a special section on the website sf bike. Org volunteer you can sign up for both events. We have given away 855 bicycles, 376 last year. We are growing each and every year. I hope to top that 376 this year. We frequently do events in bayview. The spaces are for people to come and work on their own bikes or learn skills and give them access to something that they may not have had access to. For me this is a fun way to get outside and be active. Most of the time the kids will be in the house. This is a fun way to do something. You get fresh air and you dont just stay in the house all day. Iit is a good way to exercise. The Bicycle Coalition has a Bicycle Program for every community in San Francisco. It is connecting the young, older community. It is a wonderful outlet for the community to come together to have some good clean fun. It has opened to many doors to the young people that will usually might not have a bicycle. I have seen them and they are thankful and i am thankful for this program. As a woman of color who grew up in San Francisco i understand how institutions can have an impact on communities of color. I think having my voice was important. That is where my passion lies when the opportunity to lead an office in such a new space came up. I couldnt turn it down. I was with the District Attorneys Office for a little over nine years, if you include the time as an intern as well as volunteer da, all most 13 years. During the time with the das office i had an opportunity to serve the community not only as the assistant District Attorney but as director of community relations. That afforded the opportunity to have impact on the community in an immediate way. It is one thing to work to serve the rights of those without rights, victims. It is really rewarding to work to to further the goals of our office and the commitment we have as City Employees and advocates for people who dont have a voice. I dont know of anyone surprised to see me in this role. Maybe people have an impression what the director of the office of cannabis should be like, what their beliefs should be. I smash all of that. You grew up in the inner city of San Francisco. My career path is not traditional. I dont think a person should limit themselves to reach full potential. I say that to young women and girls. That is important. You want to see leadership that looks diverse because your path is not predetermined. I didnt wake up thinking i was going to be a prosecutor in my life. The city administrator reached out and wanted to have a conversation and gave me interest in the new role. I thought you must not know what i do for a living. It was the opposite. She had foresight in realizing it would be helpful for somebody not only a former prosecutor but interested in shaping criminal Justice Reform for the city would be the right person for the space. I appreciate the foresight of the mayor to be open how we can be leaders in San Francisco. I was able to transition to the policy space. Here i was able to work on legislation, community relations, communication and start to shape the ways our office was going to reform the criminal Justice System. It is fulfilling for me. I could create programs and see those impact peoples lives. I am the change. It took truants youth to meet with Civil Rights Movement leaders who fought to have access to education. Being a young person to understand that helped the young people realize this was an important thing to give up. What we find is that young people who are truanted have a really high homicide rate in our city, which is a sad statistic. We want to change that. Coming from a community we are black and brown. I dont reach out to other people. I dont think they feel the same way. I had the great opportunity to work on Prison Reform issues and criminal Justice Reform issues. We created a program at san quentin where we brought district opportunities t to lifs and talk about how we are all impacted by the criminal Justice System. We brought over 40 elected das to san quentin for the situation. Now we are inviting the police department. Our formerly incarcerated group born out of this programming asked for the opportunity to work on a project where we could bring the men in blue on the outside to come speak to the men on blue inside to start the healing dialogue around how the criminal Justice System specifically in San Francisco impacts the community. I was attracted to the role. There was a component of equity that was part of this process. The Equity Community here in San Francisco is a community that i had already worked with. Before i took steps to visit cannabis businesses i thought it was important my team have a chance to go inside and speak to men who ha had been impacted. That conversation needed to happen so we know how we are making an impact with the work that we are doing. The das office as we were leading up to the legalization of marijuana in the state we started having conversations on the policy team what that could look like. The District Attorney was really focused on the right side of history for this. We realized it would be quite a heavy lift for individuals who have been negatively impacted by the war on drugs to expunge the record. It was important to figure out the framework to make it seamless and easy. They put their minds to it after some time and many conversations the data analysts and other policy walk throughs on the team came up with the idea to engage the Tech Community in this process. Code for america helped us developed the rhythm to be used for any jurisdiction across the state that was important to create a solution to be used to assist all jurisdictions dealing with this matter. The office of cannabis is the first office to have a completely digital application process. We worked with the digital team to develop the online application. There are going to be hiccups. We are first to do it. It is one of the most rewarding parts to offer a seamless to offer a seamless approach. That is how they can find solutions to solve many of the community challenges. The best way to respond to prop 64 was to retroactively expunge 9,000 cannabis related records for San Francisco. It feels like justice full circle for my personal experience. In the past i was furthering the war on drugs just as my directive. Really coming from a place of public safety. That was the mandate and understanding. It is nice to see that pass a society we are able to look at some of our laws and say, you know what . We got it wrong. Lets get this right. I had the privilege of being in the existing framework. My predecessor Nicole Elliott did an incredible job bringing together the individuals superpassionate about cannabis. The office was created in july of 2017. I came in early 2018. I have been able to see the Offices Development over time which is nice. It is exciting to be in the space, stickily in thinking about her leadership. Looking for the office it is always we might be before my time when i was working for the board oforboard of supervisors. I learn new things every day it is challenging and rewarding for me. We get the privilege to work in an office tha that is innova. We get to spearhead the robust exprogram. I am excited she came on board to leverage experience as a prosecutor 10 years as we contemplate enforcements but approaching it without replicating the war on drugs. I was hired by cam laharris. I havent seen a District Attorney that looked kind of like me. That could be a path in my life. I might not have considered it. It is important that women and certainly women of color and spaces of leadership really do their part to bring on and mentor as many young people as they can. It is superimportant to take advantage of as many opportunities a as they can when they can intern because the doors are wide open. Plans change and that is okay. The way this was shaped because i took a risk to try something new and explore something and show that i was capable. You are capable, right . It was about leaning in and being at the table to say my voice matters. You find your passion, the sky the market is one of our y vehicles for reaching out to public and showing them how to prepare delicious, simple food. People are amazed that the library does things like that. Biblio bistro is a Food Education program. It brings such joy to people. It teaches them life skills that they can apply anywhere, and it encourages them to take care of themselves. My name is leaf hillman, and im a librarian, and biblio bistro is my creation. Im a former chef, and i have been incubating this idea for many years. We are challenged to come up with an idea that will move the library into the future. This inspired me to think, what can we do around cooking . What can i do around cooking . We were able to get a cart. The charlie cart is designed to bring cooking to students in Elementary Students that has enough gear on it to teach 30 students cooking. So when i saw that, i thought bingo, thats what were missing. You can do cooking classes in the library, but without a kitchen, its difficult. To have everything contained on wheels, thats it. I do cooking demonstrations out at the market every third wednesday. I feature a seafood, vegetable, and i show people how to cook the vegetable. A lot of our residents live in s. R. O. S, single resident occupancies, and they dont have access to full kitchens. You know, a lot of them just have a hot plate, a microwave, and the thing that biblio bistro does really well is cook food accessible in season and make it available that day. We handout brochures with the featured recipe on the back. This recipe features mushrooms, and this brochure will bring our public back to the library. Libraries are about a good time. I hired a former chef. Shes the tickle queen at the ramen shop in rockwood. We get all ages. We get adults and grandparents and babies, and, you know, schoolage kids, and its just been super terrific. I was a bit reluctant because i train teachers and adults. I dont train children. I dont work with children, and i find it very interesting and a bit scary, but working here really taught me a lot, you know, how easily you can influence by just showing them what we have, and its not threatening, and its tasty and fun. I make it really fun with kids because i dont look like a teacher. In the mix, which is our team center, we have programs for our kids who are age 13 to 18, and those are very hands on. The kids often design the menu. All of our programs are very interactive. Today, we made pasta and garlic bread and some sauce. Usually, i dont like bell pepper in my sauce, but i used bell pepper in my sauce, and it complemented the sauce really well. I also grated the garlic on my bread. I never thought about that technique before, but i did it, and it was so delicious. We try to teach them techniques where they can go home and tell their families, i made this thing today, and it was so delicious. Theyre kind of addicted to these foods, these processed foods, like many people are. I feel like we have to do what we can to educate people about that. The reality is we have to live in a world that has a lot of choices that arent necessarily good for you all the time. This is interesting, but its a reaction to how children are brought up. It is fastfood, and the apple is a fastfood, and so that sort of changes the way they think about convenience, how eating apple is convenient. One of the things that i love about my program out at the market is the surprise and delight on peoples faces when they finally taste the vegetable. Its been transformative for some people. They had never eaten those vegetables before, but now, they eat them on a regular basis. All they require is a hot plate and a saute pan, and they realize that theyre able to cook really healthy, and its also tasty. They also understand the importance of the connection that were making. These are our small Business Owners that are growing our food and bringing it fresh to the market for them to consume, and then, im helping them consume it by teaching them how to cook. It connects people to the food that theyre buying. The magic of the classes in the Childrens Center and the team center is that the participants are cooking the food themselves, and once they do that, they understand their connection to the food, to the tools, and it empowers them. Were brokering new experiences for them, so that is very much whats happening in the biblio bistro program. We are introducing kids many times to new vocabulary. Names of seasonings, names of vegetables, names of what you call procedures. I had my little cooking experience. All i cooked back then was Grilled Cheese and scrambled eggs. Now, i can actually cook curry and a few different thing zblz a. And the parents are amazed that what were showing them to cook is simple and inexpensive. I didnt know this was so easy to make. Ive only bought it in the market. Those comments have been amazing, and yeah, its been really wonderful. We try to approach everything here with a well, just try it. Just try it once, and then, before you know it, its gone. A lot of people arent sure how to cook cauliflower or kale or fennel or whatever it is, and leah is really helpful at doing that. I think having someone actually teaching you here is a great experience. And its the art of making a meal for your family members and hope that they like it. I think they should come and have some good food, good produce that is healthy and actually very delicious. Cooking is one of my biggest passions, to be able to share, like, my passion with others, and skills, to h i personally love the mega jobs. I think theyre a lot of fun. I like being part of a build that is bigger than myself and outlast me and make a mark on a landscape or industry. We do a lot of the big sexy jobs, the stacked towers, Transit Center, a lot of the note worthy projects. Im Second Generation construction. My dad was in it and for me it just felt right. I was about 16 when i first started drafting home plans for people and working my way through college. In college i became a project engineer on the job, replacing others who were there previously and took over for them. The Transit Center project is about a million square feet. The entire floor is for commuter buses to come in and drop off, there will be five and a half acre city park accessible to everyone. It has an amputheater and water marsh that will filter it through to use it for landscaping. Bay area council is big here in the area, and they have a gender equity group. I love going to the workshops. Its where i met jessica. We hit it off, we were both in the same field and the only two women in the same. Through that friendship did we discover that our projects are interrelated. The projects provide the power from san jose to San Francisco and end in the trans bay terminal where amanda was in charge of construction. Without her project basically i have a fancy bus stop. She has headed up the Womens Network and i do, too. We have exchanged a lot of ideas on how to get groups to work together. Its been a Good Partnership for us. Women can play leadership role in this field. I tell him that the schedule is behind, his work is crappy. He starts dropping fbombs and i say if youre going to talk to me like that, the meeting is over. So these are the challenges that we face over and over again. The reality, okay, but it is Getting Better i think. It has been great to bond with other women in the field. We lack diversity and so we have to support each other and change the culture a bit so more women see it as a great field that they can succeed in. What drew me in, i could use more of my mind than my body to get the work done. Its important for women to network with each other, especially in construction. The percentage of women and men in construction is so different. Its hard to feel a part of something and you feel alone. Its fun to play a leadership role in an important project, this is important for the transportation of the entire peninsula. To have that person of women coming into construction, returning to construction from family leave and creating the network of women that can rely on each other. Women are the main source of income in your household. Show of hands. People are very charmed with the idea of the reverse role, that theres a dad at home instead of a mom. You wont have gender equity in the office until its at home. Whatever you do, be the best you can be. Dont say i cant do it, you can excel and do whatever you want. Just put your mind into it. The meeting will come to order. We welcome to the thursday, august 20 meeting of the government audit and oversight committee. Im gordon mar, the chairman of this committee. Joining me is supervisor aaron peskin and matt haney. Mr. Clerk, do you have any announcements . Clerk yes. Thank you, mr. Chair. In order to protect City Employees, the board, and the public during the covid19 emergency, city hall and the board room is closed. Committee members will participate remotely in the conference to the extent as if they were physically presen