Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Rules Committee 20240712

Assistant to the energy and Airline Sector . Well, its a very good first measure. But as i said to the deputy Prime Minister today, i suspect that the canadian economy will need measures that are in order of magnitude larger than this. I noted yesterday, the British Government announced an good morning, everyone. The meeting will come tomorrow. Welcome to the august 31, 2020 meeting of the rules committee. I am supervisor hillary ronen, chair of the committee. With me on Video Conference is supervisor kathrin stefani, and supervisor gordon mar. Mr. Clerk, do you have any announcements . Clerk yes. Due to the covid19 Health Emergency and to protect board members, the city, and the public, the board room and legislative chambers are closed. However, members will be participating in the meeting remotely. Committee members will participate in the meeting to the same extent as if they were physically present. Public comment will be available on each comment on this agenda. Both channel 26 and sfgovtv are streaming the numbers across the screen. Comments or opportunities to speak during the Public Comment period are available by calling 4156550001. Again, thats 4156550001. The meeting i. D. Is 1466702563. Again, that is 1466702563. Then press pound, and pound again. When connected, you will hear the meeting discussions, but you will be muted and in listening mode only. When your item comes up, press star, three to be entered into the comment line. Best practices is to speak slowly and clearly and turn down your television or radio. Alternatively, you may submit comments the following ways. Email myself, the clerk, victor. Young sfgov. Org. That concludes my Public Comments. Supervisor ronen thank you. Can you please read item 1 . Clerk madam chair, i just wanted to let you know that i made an error on item 1. This is a direct appointment by the board of supervisors, and i it does not need to be heard by the rules committee. Id ask that you table this matter. Supervisor ronen yes, im planning to do that item item item one is appointing a motion to the Mental Health commission to june 30, 2023. Supervisor ronen i will make a motion to table this item. Clerk just as a precaution, i think we should take Public Comment. Supervisor ronen very good. Clerk mr. Qu, are there any members of the public that wish to speak on item number 1 . Operator there are no members of the public wishing to speak. Supervisor ronen Public Comment is closed. Please take the role. [roll call] clerk the motion passes without objection. Supervisor ronen thank you so much. Can you please call item number 2. Clerk item number 2 is a hearing considering appointing one member, term ending october 31, 2022, to the advisory council. One member, one applicant. Supervisor ronen and i believe mr. Cooper is here on the line . Yes. Supervisor ronen hi, mr. Cooper. Would you like to make any comments . Well, its been a pleasure to serve a relatively shortterm, and ive learned a lot, and i hope to continue to serve the next two years. Supervisor ronen thank you very much. I happen to be a big fan of your work, so im sure that youre learning and contributing quite a bit, so thank you for your willingness to serve in this capacity. I appreciate it. Youre welcome. Supervisor ronen do any of my colleagues have any questions or comments . No . And i dont know if anyone from supervisor haneys office is here, but if she wanted to make any comments, shes more than welcome to, and if not, then we can open this item up for Public Comment. Clerk yes. Members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment on this item should call 4156550001. The meeting i. D. Is 1466702563, then press pound, and pound again. If you havent already done so, please press star, three to lineup to speak. A system prompt will indicate that you have raised your hand. Please wait until the system indicates that you have been unmutes and then begin your comment. Mr. Qu, do we have any Public Commenters on this item . Operator madam chair, there are no callers in the queue. Supervisor ronen okay. Thank you. Then Public Comment is closed, and i would like to make a motion to send this appointment forward with a positive recommendation. Can we please have a roll call vote . Clerk i believe the motion is to recommend the appointment of mr. Cooper to seat two of the commission and advisory the commission on aging advisory council. On that motion [roll call] clerk the motion passes. Supervisor ronen thank you so much. Thank you, mr. Cooper. Have a good day. Thank you. Supervisor ronen mr. Clerk, can you please read item number 3 . Clerk item number 3 is a hearing considering appointing one member, term ending october 19, 2022 to the bicycle Advisory Committee. We have one seat, one applicant. Supervisor ronen supervisor stefani, would you like to make any comments . Supervisor stefani yes. Thank you. Today, im delighted to nominate sarah gaudreau to the basic advisory community. Sayer is a licensed Civil Engineer with a masters in Geotechnical Engineering from u. C. Berkeley. She also has considerable experience in advocating for safer streets for all and especially women bicyclists and the lgbtq community. As we know, San Francisco is faced with an incredibly challenging environment when it comes to making decision about the future of our transportation network, but between slow streets, shared spaces, and more, theyve also seen opportunities to reimagine how we enjoy our public spaces and move throughout the city. During this difficult time, i am confident that test test te. Thanks for the introduction. Good morning. I wanted to say a few quick things. Why i love bicycles. Bicycles represent many things to many people. It is inexpensive, freedom to travel on your own schedule, great way to get exercise outside. Especially today it provides transportation with social distancing allowing people who are not comfortable on Public Transit to good where they need to go and opening up space for those that rely on it for their needs. I am excited for the opportunity to provide safe enjoyable way to ride bicycles. I look to support more shared spaces, more open streets and Safe Enforcement for bicycle advocacy in the city. Thanks. Thank you so much. If there is no questions from colleagues, i will open this up for Public Comment. Yes. Members of the public. Do we have any Public Comments for this item. There are no callers in the queue. Public comment is closed. Supervisor stefani. Thank you, sarah for willsness to serve. I with like to move with a positive recommendation so sarah may it is on the Advisory Committee in seat two. On that motion. Supervisor stefani. Aye. Supervisor mar. Aye. Chair ronen. Aye. The motion passes without objection. Congratulations. Thank you for your willingness to serve. Item 4. Resolution authorization San Francisco care and roll to enter into use with big fish to develop and produce documentary series about sfatc Animal Rescue calls and animal control officers and grantingness trademark rights and exclusive rights for one year to digital networks. Thank you so much. I will just say i am very excited about this item and this documentary. I rescued my again m guiney. It is great to have you with us today to share any information. Thank you. This is our first time for the shared screen. If it doesnt look right, please let us know. I am the executive director of San Francisco animal care and control. Today i am asking for positive recommendation on the resolution authorizing animal care and control to enter into a film agreement with big fish entertainment. To be featured they do live rescue. Animal care and control is the citys taxpayer funded shelter. We enforce state and local animal control and welfare laws. In existence since 1989. Provide housing, care and medical treatment to wild, exotic, domestic, stray, lost and injured animals. From addition to enforcing state laws we are First Responders for animals in natural disasters and other emergencies. Big fish entertainment are a production company. They have the live rescue show which we would participate in with your approval, animal er live, top dog. It is run on Major Cable Networks like discovery, a and e, national geographic. The live rescue series follows firefighters and paramedics. Some of the work our animal control officers were doing they saw and asked if we could participate in the series. Health and safety are a top priority during row individual. We are working closely to make sure that the proper rules are in place regarding that. Is there any questions . This is captain corso. They were the two officers had captured the Mountain Lion in june. Sorry to interrupt. We are not seeing your presentation at this time. It is a bacit is a black screen. We got the first half. The last minute we had a black screen for your presentation. Okay. Let me see if i can fix that. This is an interesting resolution and exciting to think about our animal care and control being featured or on a documentary series, Animal Rescue. Or live rescue. I was wondering if you could speak a little bit to how you think this furthers the mission and the work of animal care and control to be able to have this visibility. Frankly, this is always a position difficult to recruit for, so if i can get any kids on tv or High School Students watching animal control and say, hey, thats what i want to do when i grow up, that would be phenomenal. But i think, also, it just encourages the public to understand wildlife issues. People are informed about dogs and cats, but in terms of wildlife, thats an Important Message for us. The officers are so jazzed. In the Mountain Lion rescue, i think one of the best moments was after they had scooped up the Mountain Lion and had him in a container. All the Police Officers rushed up and said, oh, my gosh, that was the greatest thing weve ever seen in our life. Really, how often do you see two women wrestle an 80pound Mountain Lion . [ laughter ] thank you, thank you so much for all of your work and we will now open this item up for Public Comment. Yes, members who wish to provide Public Comment should call 415 6550001 and the meeting i. D. Is 146 6702563 and then press pound and pound again. If you havent done so, please dial star three to line up to speak. A system prompt will indicate you have raised your hand. Wait until youre unmuted and you may begin Public Comment. Are there any speakers on the line . No callers in the queue. Chair i am very excited and very happy to make a motion to submit this resolution forward with positive recommendations. Can we have a role call vote on that. On the motion role call . The motion passes without objection. Chair thank you and well see you soon. Mr. Clerk, can you please read item number five. Item number five is a hearing on the department of elections reports submitted to the board of supervisors on june 30th, 2020, pursuant to ordinance 8820 on plans for implementation of municipal Election Code 1102, expansion of votebymail by San Franciscos november 3rd, 2020, consol consolidated election and elections to report. Thank you so much and i am appreciative of the director of elections for being here today. In early june, the board passed legislation requiring to submit by june 30th. Its required to vote by mail to all registered voters and safein person voting, ballot drops and robust plan for education and outreach, including coordination to engage in historically low turnout communities. Director arntz, i believe the plan you and your team have prepared is both impressive and ambitious and a lot of work to be sure people are educated and informed and supported to adjust to the new way of voting. I wanted to hold this hearing to be sure that the public has a chance to learn about the plan and to weigh in. The november election may be the most important of our lifetimes. During the state of m. P. And during this state of emergency and more important that we keep us safe and secure. Welcome, director arntz and thank you for being here. I just wanted to mention to my colleagues and the public that shikars miley, the director of the office of Racial Equity and director gerald davis from the Human Rights Commission with her chief of staff are also here and available for questions. And with that, director arntz, i dont know if you have a presentation or just want to describe what your plans are. Thank you, supervisor ronen. Good morning. I do have a presentation, but even though i joined the meeting, i cant open it up to present to the meeting right now. There we go, ok. Can you see the presentation . Yes. Today ill give a pregnant, an overview and this isnt everything were doing for this election. This is an overview of our efforts in relation to the ordinance the board passed earlier this year regarding election planning for the november election in relation to covid19 responses. And so the topics that ill cover in the presentation also relate back to the ordinance and the topics are voter outreach and education, universal votebymail, inperson Voting Services at the outdoor Voting Centre outside of the bill graham auditorium, polling places and compliance with health guidelines, health and safety protocols and service to voters in hospitals or homebound and so on the voter outreach piece. So the departments objective for the november 3rd election to inform City Residents about expanded votebymail voting, safe inperson services and key dates and to provide focused outreach for vulnerable and hardtoreach populations. And to reach these two objectives, they applied no contact strategies, increased use of official elections mail and direct and indirect digital and print and election materials. The Department Also intends to engage inperson outreach for in election as long the groups are small in number and meet all of the health and safety protocols that the dph has put forward. And then regarding election mail, this summer, the department began sending City Residents a series of outreach print and email notices, highlighting information about the november 3rd election. First in june, we sent 7,000 email notices regarding Language Preference. They registered to vote or are registered to vote and nod indicated a Language Preference and were born in chinese, spanish, fill pe philippino and japanesespeaking countries. We told them how to request these details. With new people registered to vote in San Francisco, we noticed that theyre born in these countries and speak these languages listed, they will reach out and indicate that there are materials available in those languages regarding the election. And the vote options noticed in august, the Department Mail the qadralibera alinual and people e to become voters three ways to access voting in the upcoming election and to check the registration. We reminded voters they have an opportunity to return ballots back to us by email or fax. Now, the return of ballots by email and fax is only available to people who are living overseas or are in the military. So i want to put this dont wanl emaiits for all. During the stayathome period, it continued to update and monitor the Voter Registration information that we have and many people now register to vote online and so were able to process that and do our work, our maintenance offsite but then on a regular basis, we had people coming into the office to scan the hard copy registration forms and also any notices or information that voters sent to us. And so weve never stopped the processing of information regarding the Voter Registration database. And then for future outreach notices, Going Forward, well distribute additionadistribute l College Students whose residents might be impacted by covid19 and so, people whose addresses are on college campuses, were assuming theyre College Students and if we have email addresses for these voters, then were sending them information about updating the mail address so they can get their ballot, mail it in and receive it and cast it in time to be counted for this election. Were also sending emails to voters experiencing homelessness, informing them that they could benefit from providing us with a Mailing Address where we can actually mail a ballot to them for the election and some people provide cross streets as their residential addresses and so we cannot mail so just a cross street and if we have a maildrop address, we can send these folks ballots. If we dont receive a mailin, they are assigned to polling places, just like any voter in the city. They can go to the assigned polling place or to the Voting Centre outside of the bill graham auditorium. And about half of our voters, 250,000 voters provided us with the email addresses and well be sending them notices Going Forward in an email regarding online selfhelp tools on our website. The voter information pamphlet, really, the book, its rather large and one of our main ways of providing outreach and information to the voters before the reelection, the november 3 edition will discuss voting of courses and draw voters attention to key dates and resources. We create four versions of the voter information pamphlet, and if people indicate a Language Preference, then we also produce and send the information pamphlets out in those languages and then we have an accessible version of our voter information pamphlet on our website in hthl, xml and we work to provide formats that people can use so listen to the pamphlet, as well. Other outreach media, if addition to direct mail and email, the department produced digital is print voter materials and so for this election and all elections, we distribute the print and email materials to City Residents with those in low income or vulnerable communities. The department is collaborating including communitybased communications, local businesses, local Government Agencies and departments such as the office of Civic Engagement and immigrant affairs and how the office of Racial Equity. And educational videos, the department created two education equal videos for this election, both of which are available in chinese, pil philippino and spa. The second video covers rankedChoice Voting and how to mark rankedchoice contest. Both have been place on the other hand our website for a few weeks now and weve provided this to our Community Partners and well push this out more as we go forward in the election cycle. So the department is currently developing a Public Service announcement, 15 and 30second spots, the psa will be translated to spanish and chinese and the chinese spots will be translated to both mandarin and cantonese and well air these starting in september and then, through election day, essentially. And the print materials, we included fliers, posters and door hangers highlighting key dates regarding the election. And just distributing the material, for the last few months, weve been working with the covid command center, distributing materials to residents in several neighborhoods that have tended to have a turnout lower than the citywide average and one of the items are the door hangers. So thats been ongoing for the past few months. One thing thats new for this election im ahead of myself. We also have a lot of information about the election and one key tool that we have is the voter portal. The voter portal allows voters to access information thats specific to their record. And we also have an election, my election navigator which can take someone from the point of regular straightening to develop to sidin deciding how the persos to vote, how to get the ballot back to the department so its counted in time. And so, the budget that the board just approved allowed us to expand 250,000 on grants to community organizations, to get information out to vulnerable and hardtoreach populations. The department has issued the rfp, completed the contracts with these organizations and weve conducted the training with the groups and supplied them with multilingual, multiformat materials. They are using our materials and they will continue through election day. And also, one component that was in the ordinance and also later in the governors executive order and legislation passed in august is universal votebymail and for this election, every voter in San Francisco, every registered voter in San Francisco will receive a ballot in the mail about one month before election day, which is around the first week of october. So voters should see the votebymail arrive on october 5th. If people have not received their ballot by october 9th, we ask they contact the department. If people need a replacement ballot sent, thats through october 30th. Anyone receiving a ballot early in the cycle, misplace the ballot or need a replacement plot, whatever the reason, they have until october 30th to contact us and request we send them that second ballot. To prepare for universal votebymail, weve been a part of our budget was that we got additional equipment to procure, the extraction machines and we have relocated much of our ballot processing activities over bill graham specific auditorium. And weve been in contact with the usps through the summer. The information has come out about potential problems with ballots being made to voters and mailed back to the departments of election. And also just with the impact of covid19 on mail stream, not just in this country but worldwide, weve been in contact with the usps. Weve provided the usps with the artwork for our voter guides and they know what will be coming their way and to approve the artwork so theres no confusion with emailing it out to users. Weve provided the usps for the envelopes, with the votebymail ballots. Both envelopes go to the voters and return envelopes back to the department and we provided that over to the post office so that they have a chance to review and verify and also to indicate now that the artwork is fine and there wont be any issues within the mail stream. And weve provided samples to the post office. So we provided packets of votebymail for the outto the voters for testing by the post office and weve provided packets of the return ballots that voters will send back to the department. So the post office has been able to run these samples through their equipment, to determine that the ballot packets will run through the equipment without issues so theres no delay with the mail getting to the voters or back to the department. Were trying to reduce a lot of invoting person and one person has been the i voted sticker. They go to the polling place and cast their ballot and people can wear it proudly throughout the day on election day. And so now, for this election, weve included an i voted sticker in the inserts and everyone who cast the plot, they can save it until election day or put it on even earlier to encourage early voting because thats something we want everyone to actually think about is getting to us earlier so were not having a lot of ballots to process right around election day. And then, also, the insert describes the three steps regarding mailin ballots and signing the return envelope and getting the ballot back to us on time. Theres also faqs regarding how to place a ballot and ranked Choice Voting or people who are sick or ill or hospitalized. Once you register, youll get a test email that its been registered. Also on our website, our voter portal, we have a ballot tracking mechanism that weve had more many elections and in our ballot tracking, its more robust than what the state provides. Our tool doesnt provide the text alerts and the email messages regarding ballots being mailed to voters or received by the department. But our tool indicates the entire ballot cycle that voters ballot will undergo from the time its printed, put into an envelope and its mailed, we receive it and then, just as important when we start to process the ballot for counting. If theres an issue with a ballot we cannot process, the voter portal will indicate the issue and the remedy to cure that issue. So, one example when people forget to sign the envelope when they send it back to us and the information on the portal will indicate theres a signature missing and the site will provide the form that people need to fill out and get back to us as a pdf to resolve in the instance of no signature, resolve the issue. But also, when it comes to issues with ballots, if we cant process them, we do contact all voters via hard copy mail. If we have known numbers and emails, well also contact them using their email addresses and phone numbers to alert voters that they need to take action with any potential issues with their ballot. As i mentioned, the budget for this year, allowed us to purchase extractors to pull the cards from the envelopes when they come back to us. This is important because now we can spread our process out in greater space and we dont have pinch points in the processing of ballots. This allows us to spread out the processing and our personnel can practise safe distancing safe social distancing throughout the timeline. Once a signature verification is complete, then we can transport the ballots over to bill graham auditorium. The way we transport the ballots will be safe and secure and, also, it will be monitored by sheriffs deputies and well note which ballots are leaving the hall and put the ballots on a box truck, well drive them and they wont be over to bill graham and we wont have the ballots exposed in open containers going across the street to the bill graham auditorium and once we get over to bill graham, well account for the ballots wel. Every electiowere allowed to cs later in the election cycle and we could not process ballots until ten Business Days before election day but with the volume coming back, the state has passed legislation and allowing us to start processing ballots as receiving ballots in the mail, 29 days before election day which is the sandra hart ofe voting ballot. Again, we can move the ballots of our processes without having people gathering in Small Businesses or having people together for longer periods of time than is necessary so that we can operate with being mindful of covid19. And then we also have more time to count ballots to come back to us in the election cycle. And so, past elections, we had until the friday after that arrived to us that had ballot postmarks on or before election day and now we have until 17 days after to process vote votebymail. This is a message well be putting forward a lot in this election forward, whats key is the envelopes the return votebymail must be on or before election day. Even though we have more time to count for this election cycle, if theyre not postmarked on or before election day, we wont be able to count those ballots. And if people have concerns about the post office, moving ballots through its system on time, they should be very aware of what the pickup times are on the blue boxes that we have throughout the city. But its also not just a blue box. Its apartment buildings. A lot of apartment buildings have Mail Services and so residents need to be aware of how fast, how quickly the apartment Buildings Service will have that mail picked up and postmarked by the post office. Or if they use a maildrop location. Its postmarked on or before election day and if we get it by the 17th day after the election. The outdoor Voting Center and to protect the department of health, theyre relocate the Voting Center to the outdoor area in the bill grahams auditorium on grouff street. To back up, so the idea behind the Voting Center which has been in city hall before decades, long before i showed up, there was a voting hall for every election. We dont want people to be exposed to covid, an. The Mayors Office and city administrates office has been driving this with us to set up the tents and voting stations at bill graham and well have 60 stations and 200 voting booths and proper lighting and Security Services and organize three closures so that we have safe areas for people to go vote and to cast their ballots and, also, logistic. Even though well have 60 stations at bill graham, its less than what we had at city hall for the march election. We had 85 stations for the march election, and so, even though well have a safer setup outside in front of ib bill gra, there will be voters with ballots. Were putting in plans to have people line up in ways to maintain social distancing and how we can move people through lines and they maintain social distancing and also, all of the personal Protection Equipment available the voters. So the bill graham Voting Center will have the same days of operation and same hours if we would have had the Voting Center in city hall. So the bill graham Voting Center will open on october 5th at 8 00 a. M. And be open daily except for the weekends, the first two weekends first three weekends, from 8 00 to 5 00 and opening from 10 00 to four before the election. Now, the entire time the center is open, it will have ballot Dropoff Service and so, if people have voted their ballot and just want to drop it off and get it to us, well set us stations at bill graham so people dont have to get in line or congregate in number to drop off their ballot. And so, in compliance with Public Health guidance, they will adopt protocols at the Voting Center. The department will set up ballot issuing stations and voting boths to facilitate social distancing and sanitize voting supplies, equipment and hightouch surfaces. Voters will be offered face coverings, Hand Sanitizer and gloves and are offering this Service Provided in multilingual notices at the Voting Center. And as i noted, to minimize congestion, there will, two ballot controversyof dropoff. Starting october 31st, the department willing open additionadepartments will open l sites. One site in hand for november is chase center. And so we will have a ballot drop off location at the chase center working with the lawyers to get that organized and so that will be in place and then well also have ballot dropoff in district ten and another in district 11. The reason for placing these ballot dropoff locations in districts ten and 11, theres neighborhoods that tend to turn out lower than the citywide average for an election and were not trying to draw people to one location. Thats what we dont want to do with this election due to covid, having the dropoff locations in those areas. It will draw more attention to the election and make people think about casting a ballot in this election. And polling places, so, to settlemensupplement the voting , there will be 500 polling places from 7 00 a. M. To 8 00 a. M. For all and having 58 588 polling places, w. This way people wont be putting themselves at risk to get sick with covid while trying to exercise their right to vote. So by having 588 locations throughout the city, were reducing the need for people to move through the city and take Public Transportation and gather in large numbers and also, with our polling places, we try to have out sites around six, eight blocks away from any resident within a precinct. And so, every polling place we have is assigned to a specific precincts and every precinct is one thousand registered voters, except for the 1,000 voters, we try to have the polling place located within six to eight blocks. We identified about a hundred sites to replace and in addition, another 30 sites that canceled on us. And that work has been ongoing for a couple of months. We have about 23 more sites to locate, but i will say, too, that we are still looking for sites and so, if people think they have a site that might be eligible to be a polling place to let us know and dont ask us if we have a site for a precinct and dont make a decision that your site is not sufficient for a polling place. Just contact us and we can ask questions. We can make an assessment on the phone regarding this election as a polling place. But also, we need standby polling places in case we can cancellations. For example, if theres a surge of covid infections closer to election day, theres a possibility we could lose polling places as they cancel on us. If we have standby sites that we can put into use, it won it woe helpful. Noand then regarding polling places, theres no one area of the city we need polling places more than other. There are a few more sites around the tenderloin, the part of district three and the eastern part of district five and theres a few more there than in other districts. Every district has a few precincts for which we need sites. So in keeping with Current Health public guidelines, the department introduced significant changes to both the format of the poll worker training and made changes to polling place procedures to have protocols in place at all polling places. The training will be online and so all past elections, probably since the beginning, with the first election was inperson. For the past many elections, weve had training in city hall and all workers would come to city hall, receive their training and some materials and they would go back home and wait for election day. Now, the training is online and for anyone that doesnt have access to Online Access or the equipment, to do Online Training, weve set up kind of quasi, inperson training seconds inside the bill graham auditorium and were adhering to health and safety guidelines. So for people who want to be poll workers who dont have access, Internet Access tor equipment to watch an Online Training session, they could come to the bill graham auditorium and set them up and have Training Session but do so inperson but under safe conditions adhering to safety protocols. The department will adopt protocols at all polling places and will post multilingual signage and maintain social distance. Poll workers will complete and post a polling place health and safety checklist and placed outside of every polling site and serve notice to voters at the polling places in compliance with current Public Health guidance. Every site has a Protection Plan on the characteristics and Available Space at each site and so, what this means that every polling place in the city, by taking measurements and creating diagrams, thinking how we can have the election process occur within that specific space. So were considering ho consideo place the table, the accessible voting equipment at the polling place and how to locate the voting booths that voters can vote their ballots using safe social distancing. Also, the ingress and egress from polling places and all of this thinking about the health and safety practises in the diagrams, theyre specific to each polling place. Poll workers will be accessible to ppes, including face shields, gloves and Hand Sanitizer and also, the poll worker training and all of the materials will remind them to remain six feet apart while performing their tasks and weve revised poll worker duties for this election specific to covid so that the poll workers can perform duties while maintaining social distancing. All poll workers will share responsibility to clean and sanitize their polling places, including common voting supplies and equipment and hightouch surfaces. Poll workers will have specific cleaning tasks to perform throughout the day and theyll be responsible for recording these tasks have occurred. One, just to provide notice to the voters that the polling places are safe for inperson voting and remind them to keep cleaning throughout the day. Also, the department is organizing poll workers to be greeters at these polling places and they will be stationed at the entrance of each polling place. And so greeters will assist voters dropping off votebymail ballots. The greeters will offer face masks, Hand Sanitizer and the greeters will answer voter questions and, also, the greeters will be mindful of my lines that occur at the polling places and mindful that the voters maintain social distancing from one another. Then, also, the ordinance reference are providing health and safety protocols and have them practise by our vendors and other city agencies. So the vendors that are working with the department for this elections, like our Voting System vendor, they also have following a selfcertification process with all of their employees and before any vendor personnel come to city hall or to the warehouse, they are selfcertifying that they are able to work on site and, also, the vendor that will do the delivery of polling equipment, voting equipment and voting place supplies, their personnel will be selfscreening and theyll be practicing good habits, like facial coverings, handsanitizing and wearing gloves. And so every impact of getting materials and equipment information to polling places, everyone involved in the department, the vendors and other city agencies will be practicing these health and safety protocols throughout the election cycle. And then, everything that were doing on the health and safety protocol front is moving along with the program of Public Health review and input and so theres nothing that were doing for this election regarding health and safety that were not putting forward to the department of Public Health and, also, were getting information from dhr, from the notices theyre putting out and following the center for disease control, as well. And so, for the 588 polling places, we need about poll workers and we need 3,000 and right now we have 1800 people signed up to be poll workers. This sounds like were close, but well have a lot of cancellations as we move towards the election cycle and were still involved in recruiting for election day. What were seeing are a lot of people who served as poll workers in march and many have decided not to serve for the november election and a lot of the workers we have are new to the process. And people were hearing the call to serve the community and to be involved in the elections process for november and so, we have a lot of new people who are saying, count me in, i want to be a part of this process and join this election and i want to be a poll worker. So far, thats really saving us and were hoping that continues. My concern for having a sufficient number of pope poll workers, i intend to seek a waiver in the city charter that this allows city workers to support the department in conducting elections in San Francisco. Those who dont know, the city past, voters adopted a charter in 2002 that this allows City Employees to support the department in conducting elections, unless they obtain a waiver and that waiver is approved next by the board of supervisors. Ill be allowing for employees to serve as poll workers for this election. The ordinance requires considering service to voters who are in hospitals or homebound. And so, the department will offer additional voting oxe for those experiences quarantine and generally due to covid19, who would otherwise be able to participate in the election either by mail or inperson voting. This is allowing voters to mark a screen readable ballot from the internet connected device and the votebymail ballot is compatible with shift devices. In previous elections, only voters with disabilities and in the military or overseas by state law were allowed to use this system. And now state law permits all to use this system, but this would be potentially a Greater Service to people who can vote if vote by mail is sent to them or participate inperson voting. And also curbside. Were enhancing procedures for Curbside Service to voters who choose to go to a polling place, but not actually summe enter. If you want to participate with inperinperson but not go in, e establishing procedures for this to occur. With the covid and health and safety protocols in mind. Every election, theres been curbside but whats new is trying to provide this service to voters so both voters and poll workers can interact in a way thats within health and safety protocols. And so we created new training materials for poll workers and, again, this is done with the guidance of the department of Public Health. And so the poll workers will make sure they sanitize any materials they bring out to curbside voting and make sure they maintain a distance, you know, offer any ppes to the voters who are doing curbside voting and this will all go into new procedures and materials. This can require a lot of resources at the busiest time, but for this election, due to covid, well increase our resources, and well also increase the knowledge that people have of this program. If they need the department to organize a pickup during the last week of the voting period, then well make that happen. Were just preparing for this to happen in greater numbers and previous election and one, because of covid and two, also were going to put out the notice thoroughly throughout the city that this is a possibility. We prefer voters send ballots back to us or do inperson voting since this is a rather resource intennive service we have. So this is the emergency ballot delivery program, we have not finalized this with the department of Public Health. This is trickier because youre going to places that are Healthcare Facilities or people who have symptoms of covid or have tested positive and so we want to make sure our personnel involved are safe and theres protocols in place to maintain their health. In summary, theres a few slides. The departments plan for the november 3rd election demonstrate the ongoing commitment to providing a full array of oa outreach allowing Te Department to maintain Election Services to members of vulnerable and hardtoreach and seniors with disabilities and members with the groups and residents of neighborhoods to turn out below the city average. Now, that said, were still recruiting poll workers and i want to put that information in this presentation. Inspectors can receive a stipend of about 240 and then clerks, who provide assistance and several tasks at the polling places can receive a stipend of 180. People who are interested in serving as poll workers for this election can contact the department, sfelections. Org pwa. And, also, as i mentioned, were still looking for polling places and were not looking just to get a polling place for each precinct but also looking for standby polling places if thats a possibility and, again, were not asking for people to decide for us if their site cant be a polling place. If people think they have a location to contact us and we can do a survey, even over the phone, to determine if we need to go forward using that as a polling place. Even though were changing the locations of where we do activities, and identifying how we get ballots to people and were modifying how we count those ballots and even though the department is making a lot of change, voters for the most part are going to experience very few and miner changes when i comewhenit comes to voting. Most are votebymail, about 71 receiving ballots before each election and now there will be an additional 29 of voters receiving ballots in the election. But even with the extra 29 , well provide noticing, a phone bank to respond to voters calls. But for the most part, voters wont experience much change at all. When they go to the polling place, they wont be able to potentially put their bot in thn the tabulators. If they get a ballot from the polling place, theyll actually place that in another envelope which comes back to us for review, but still, the polls places are available and voters can still receive ballots and go to the local place to do inperson voting. And thats what really theyve been driving at the city, when the board was discussing the ordinance back in april. The board was very cognizant that we didnt want a lot of change for the voters. The board did want to support the idea of getting the votebymail out to the voters so they could vote without going to polling places or without coming to city hall but in the ordinance and in our conversation regarding the ordinance, the board wanted to have inperson voting and they wanted inperson voting so people didnt have to gather together in large numbers, like having Voting Centers in various parts of the city to maintain and retain the poling places we had so that voters can still go do inperson voting but in smaller numbers in a safer manner. So all of the thinking that has gone into this election on the boards part, the mayors part, the city administrators part, its to provide election to voters for the november election. Every voter in San Francisco will have an opportunity to vote in a safe deny using a safe voting option. And so, thats the end of slide show. There were a couple who had to leave and if we could open this up to Public Comment and then we will have a chance to ask questions, that would be great. Yes, members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment on this item call 415 6550001 and the meeting i. D. Is 146 6702564 and press pound and pound again. If you have not done so, dial star three to line up to speak. Please wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted and you can begin your comments. Are there any speakers at this time . There are currently two callers in the queue and i will unmute the first caller. Speaker ii want to congratulate the director on this very detailed and thoughtout plan. Its one of the strongest plans for the administration. Thank you, next caller, please. Speaker i would like to raise some concerns regarding how coworkers fit into this. So a number of the people who have traditionally worked as coworkers are older and more subject to more likely to be compromised and more prone to covid19 infections. And the hours that the department of elections asked of poll workers is quite long because youre expected to get there, i dont know, 5 00 or 6 00 in the morning and stay until, basically, whenever the sheriff comes and picks up basically sometime until late at night until 9 00 or 10 00. I know 240 sounds like quite a bit of money, but when you factor in theres training and a full day, its a lot less than minimum wage. And the department of elections is requiring on bilingual coworkers who are exposing themselves to a wide variety of people who you dont know what their infection stats are and theres more duties involved, they dont have to sanitize things and so, yeah, im just concerned, like, are poll workers, is if safe for poll workers . Are they adequately compensated . And yeah, i just have concerns about whether or not enough is being done. Thank you, speaker time has elapsed. Can we have the next speaker, please. Speaker i would like to comment on thcompliment for thef directors being proactive. Because so many voters might be voting absentee when they hadnt previously, the important of having clear instructions whats necessary for an an absentee bat tballot. So just lots of clear and thorough instructions and this is crucial to making sure that everyones vote is counted. Thank you, next caller, please. Madam chair, that completes the queue. I believe your muted at this time. Sorry about that. I wanted to give my colleagues an opportunity to ask questions to mr. Arntz unless director smiley has any comments that she would like to make prior. Thank you, chair ronen. I do have several comments, if its ok for me to talk about them. So good morning. Im the director for the office of Racial Equity through the San Francisco Human Rights Commission and i am excited that were talking about this and thank you, supervisor ronen, for your proactive nature on this very important issue. I want to commend director arntz for your consistency and hard work in making sure that this years election is inclusive, adaptive anadaptive. We need to do as much to promote an excessive ballot. Ive been a San Francisco voter over 12 years and weve been consistent in having one of the best systems in the country. In the words of obama, we would have to vote early and often and Racial Equity is not an afterthought. It must act as an artery for this work and the office of Racial Equity is ready and willing to be a partner. We foe that our electoral is increasingly brown and young and bili to ngu arc l and folks ari. Well be happy to put forth strategies and i want to say with equity considerations that goes beyond community outreach, there are so many considerations on every piece. So i want to make sure that conversation actually happens. And so again, again, want to be available and we need to make sure we do a little bit of extra, right, and we cant assume everyone has equal access to information and to voting. And a couple of key areas, if its ok, chair ronen, just to bring up, and number one, making sure were thinking ge thinking, thinking about shuttles in which we can be connecting folks to polling places and making sure were leveraging all city resources. You mentioned needing additional facilities. That would be great to talk about the geographical diversity. There are places where people are continually marginalized. And how can we target those to facilities that are equitable and accessible. We want to make sure one college did bring up to the diversity of poll workers, i do support the idea of the waiver for city workers. Because of the racial diversity of city workers, also the ability diversity of city workers and the language ability of city workers and i think that can be an important intervention when it comes to supporting our elections this november. And i did have a question about the health and safety protocols of our sites and will they have equal access to ppe to do that work for polling sites that are communitybased. I did also want to bring up the fact that im going very fast, excuse me, but this is fascinating and i love the topic and care about this and i want to make sure as many folks as possible have access to do this. I th wanted to bring up the fact theres some key populations and i did read the outreach plan and i am appreciative of your presentation. But there are key populations that we need to pay extra attention to and i wanted to hear from you, director, arntz, through the chair, what are we doing for formally justiceinvolved individuals so they can exercise their right to vote. We know the criminal Justice System impacts our black and brown communities and as their Voting Rights are restored, how do they know they, too, can participate in our democracy . Its important to have trusted messengers. How do we have Sensitive Community conversations, particularly for noncitizens who are allowed to vote in School Elections . We need an update and also, what kind of Voter Education can we tdo with mixed status . Thats an important intervention, as well. I did look at your contract that went to your Community Partners and thank you for sharing that information and i did have a concern that most of the contracts that went to apilead communitybased organizations, which is fantastic for those specific communities and neighborhoods and when were were not talking about equality but equity and were reaching out to our black, our latino, american indian, specifi specifc islander and reach the sunnydale, tenderloin, Treasure Island and, also, thinking about some of the key populations, like our queer tlgb, young people. And then lastly, you know, im happy to talk more about strategies. I want to make sure we go where community is. Theres a lot of fantastic learning from the outreach programs that director davis has lead that we can learn due to covid on how we can pair this important Voter Education with, you know, outreach or reaching out to pantries or talking to our School District in Distance Learning or talking to parents or how do we learn to help us connect to individuals and families. And theres a lot of learning and things that are happening that are robust that i feel like can be tapped into to strengthen the outreach efforts. It just takes connecting with us, like i said, early and often to make sure were doing it just a little bit more for our marginalized communities. And so those are my comments and im happy to take comments, as well. Thank you for the opportunity to present today. Thank you so much. Those were useful comments and i had some similar questions. I am excited that your office will do based on Equity Analysis and im happy to bring that back to committee when its complete so that we can have the opportunity for the public to weigh in and hear it, so i appreciate that offer and im glad to hear the two of you will be working together offline to make that happen. So please, just let us know when and if you would like us to hold a hearing on that equity plan and im certainly very, very interested in it. So thank you with that. And colleagues, did you have ano respond . No, thank you. But thank you, chair. Chair supervisor stephanie, any questions for either director arntzosimli. Yes. I just want to say one of the reasons i love being in Public Service is because i get to work with incredible people like this. Thank you for calling this work on the topic. Its so important and thank you, again, dr. Arntz for joining us and thank you everywhere at the department oi want to thank you. Im been cochairing the Opening Group and weve been making sure we can provide our Government Services to the public and, of course, this is the one that was on everyones mind and so, i am really grateful we have a robust votebymail program. Thank you for your presentation, director and so many other factors to consider this year. Between the pandemics impacts on our capacity to really facilitate inperson voting and, of course, the trump administrations attacks on the Postal Service and voting by mail and the fact that this could very well turn out to be probably one of the highest turnout elections in our lifetime. And i know that the anxiety we feel is that we cant afford any missteps, oversteps or errors so the questions raised by director simle around access is reassuring. I do have just a few questions in terms of the presentation and how we can help to facilitate everything. Theres a lot of neighborhood organizes in my district, in district two and i know there are throughout the city and so im wondering if you plan to do any outreach to the neighborhood associations in terms of everything you mentioned. I know the Planning Department has a list of associations and i dont know if that was on your radar in terms of who to give the information to. Supervisor stephanie, before reelection, we create outreach packets that we send to organizations and so all of the fliers and handouts and information on our website, Contact Information for the department, we send that out to all of the organizations. We also send it to the supervisors offices. So every supervisor should receive a packet, as well. And the only reason why we wouldnt send a packet of outreach to a group is because we dont know about that. And so, if we have Contact Information for a group that were sending out information, trying to get a continuing identified contact. And then, we really tried to also recommend to organizations that they use our Digital Content when they create an issue with their newsletters or notices. Were happy to work with anyone, providing a content for Digital Information which is probably eager to get out than the hard copy at the moment. Thank you so much. And on page ten, in the report, you discuss how the department has been collaborating with the United States Postal Service to plan and organize a Timely Delivery of an increased volume of packets, as well. Given the alarming changes from the postmaster dejoy, im wondering whether this has changed or whether theres anything the supervisors can do to facilitate. Wvery alarming we asked questios whether or not hes going to reverse any of the changes and he just out and out said no. Im woman dering i wondering ifr relationship wi with the post office has change and if you can give us an update. The relationship with the local usps and the department has been on Good Standing for many years and everything going into this election, our relationship remains in Good Standing. The post Office Representatives are very aware of the environment in which theyre working and very aware of the concerns that people have, especially around election mailin ballots. And they also take it personally that they achieve the responsibility to fulfill the obligation to give ballots to and from voters to this election can happen. The postal representatives in San Francisco for the last many years and showing itself again to the cycle, theyre very responsive to any requests this department makes and any question that we have. If we ask for potentially some work outside of the normal practises, theyre willing to do so within reason, of course. The post office, at least in San Francisco is very much focused on getting the ballots into the mail stream. So no, i have not seen a difference in the viewpoints or action and i really think with all of the attention on this, theres always attention on the post office and election. Every election, this is not new. But being president ial and extra factors, they are feeling more of a squeeze. But they want to succeed, do well, they dont want to be in the news. They want the election to do well. They communicated that and acting that way. If there are issues that come to the department, i have direct contacts with the people, higher up in the administration with the post office that i call to get information, to have them look into issues and activate people and response to any issues. I think that will continue for this election. Im sure the post office isnt perfect and there will be issues, but i dont think it will be large, programmatic hazards to and from the voters. If theres any language you can give us to include in our newsletters to constituents, that would be good, making sure we get the right language and we can email our constituents. So i had a question around that, but handled it and i wanted to add that little bit. Absolutely. In terms of the polling locations, again, too, have you when do you start notifying voters that the polling location might have changed and is that something we can help with in our districts . Well, voters will know when the polling changes when the letters land in their mailboxes and the letter o address on ther will be different than the one they received in march. Just around the start of early voting or so regarding a change in polling places from march to november and then, also, election day, outside of the polling places and if someone goes to the polling location, they know to go to the new location. I would love to send information to the supervisors to communicate with their constituents that a polling place has changed in a district. That would be wonderful. And a couple of other things ive thought of, im looking for additional polling places and, you know, where were at in terms of the pandemic and theres so many empty spaces, whether its the School District, gyms or parking lots, i dont know if those have been considered. I heard something about the giants parking lot, maybe that will be a place where people will do voting. I dont know if that was offered up. But i have this idea of drivethrough voting wasnt my idea, i saw senator harris talking about it. But after i did the covid testing at pier 30 twice, it was so easy. I was so impressed. The drivethrough and everything i had to do to check that out. Wouldnt it be great to have a location where we could drivethrough vote. Not just drop off ballots but get the ballots and i dont know if thats considered at all. I think thats something in the future we have to look to and it seems like we were able to pull it off for the pandemic and hopefully we can pull that off for voting. Anyway, i want to thank you so much for everything youre doing. I feel like were in good hands. Yesterday i was calling voters in North Carolina for i know theres no electioneering. But i was calling voters in North Carolina and telling them that they had to be very careful when they registered to vote because they have to have a witness, 18 years or older, sign it for them. And it made me so grateful that we dont have to do that here in San Francisco and that we hold our elections is dear. And well do everything we can to turn out the vote. We have people like director simli at the office of equity to make sure we hit every neighborhood and person and that we really do everything we can. And so however we can help as soup storesupervisors, thank yor calling this hearing. It is so important. With that, i think ill turn it over to my colleagues for their question. Thank you to you both for those presentations. Thank you. Supervisor mar, any questions . Yes, thank you, chair. Actually, thank you just for your leadership on these issues, for calling for this hearing and sponsoring the resolution ensuring that were as pro active as possible in planning for the election and, also, thank you to supervisor stephanie for all of your comments and questions. I appreciate all of that. I touched on a number of my points and questions i was thinking about raising. And thanks, director arntz for your presentation and the great work that you and the Department Staff have been doing to prepare for this incredibly important election, unprecedented election. I appreciate all of the thought you put into the targeted outreach, hardtoreach and vulnerable and vulnerable, particularly nonlimited englishspeaking voters and also glad to hear that director simle and the office of Racial Equity will be following up and really working with you to ensure that we have a Strong Equity frame and strategy in our elections. And you know, just thank you for all of the thought planning that you have done, you know, to prepare for the election. I just had a question around the voters who have still continued to vote inperson. In recent elections, wev most e by mai. There are about 145,000 s and probably more in this election since it will be such a high turnout. And so do we have sort of an analysis of who those voters are that have still preferred to vote inperson, like the oldschool way and in terms of the demographic group, characteristics and the geographically, the voters that voted in person, geographically and demographically, where they are, is that reflected in our planning . Those are the ones that would have to make the biggest change in this election. So, the answer is yes and regarding demographics and when people register to vote, dem demographic information is optional. But when it comes to knowing where the high turnout parts of the city are, we know that each election because we provide by default, extra support for those locations every year, every election cycle. And so, we still expect people to go to polling places and we still expect them to want to capacity a ballot, but i think covid is going to also reduce the number of people that go to polling places. And i think the ballot lanking g in peoples mailboxes are reducing the people in polling places. But having i voted sicker on the insert will reduce the number of people going to polling places. Thats one of the largest statements is that they want their i voted sticker. Thats why they go and drop off ballots. Now they can get the sticker and mail it back to us. I know a lot of voters, my family included, tend to drop off or ballot on election day and theres a growing number of voters that do that because maybe they waited until the last minute. So every election we get at least a 25 of the vote is cast by people dropping off their ballot at polling places and for this election, we expect that number to potentially double. It will be between 20 and 50 of the vote and depending on the location of the polling place. And i forgot this and i wanted to focus on this and i didnt do it. Theres been a lot of discussion in the media, especially, social media, about dropoff locates,. I know the warriors want one at their site and other people are contacting us. But the dropoff site draw people in larger numbers and so, the idea going into this election cycle is also thinking with us having the same number of polling places for november we had for march. Every polling place is a ballot dropoff location. In San Francisco, on election day, well have 588 ballot location sites. If theres any message that we can put out there, that theres 588 ballot voting locations on election day and then there will be another program on our website, an app, we include for this election, so that if people want to know the closest polling place they are i work in the civic center and this app for the november election will inform voters were at one indiscernible . Whats the closest polling place. So, yes, we expect a higher turnoff with people dropping off ballots and every polling place is a ballot dropoff location. Thank you again, dr. Arntz is simle for your work and presentation today. Thank you. Yes, i just wanted to echo my colleagues and just say that, you know, the anxiety that were all feeling, i think, as we watch this president dismantle our most cherished institutions and traditions, its so anxiety producing. And i feel the same feeling of relief just listening to your presentation about how well prepared we are in San Francisco to make sure that every individual who wants to exercise their right to vote, has that ability without any hindrance. So thank you, thank you for that. Of course, being San Francisco and having the office of Racial Equity, we go even further in that we proactively target communities that have for for fs of different complicated reasons, that we proactively engage with those communities to try to get over those historic barriers and do right by those communities so that they exercise their voice and their vote. So director, gosh, ive always been excited about your office and your role, but putting it in this context, it makes so much sense. And so, just really glad that youre going that, just a couple questions, because i know this has been a long hearing. Since everyone will get a who is registered to vote will receive a mailed ballot, regardless whether theyve registered or vote by mail, what is the deadline to register to vote in order to receive that ballot . October 19th. October 19th, ok. Because if youre voting inperson, you can register the same day didnt vote inperson, but if you want to receive that mailed ballot, you have to register by the 19th. Correct. And then, im just wondering if you talked to us about the education strategy and i very much appreciate it. But theres still continues to be a lot of misunderstanding of what the votebymail deadline is. Many people think the office of elections needs to receive the ballot by election day as opposed to it being postmarked by election day. Im just wondering if theres any additional outreach that is being done to correct that misunderstanding by voteby mail, above and beyond what youre planning, especially for the communities that have been shown in studies to have that belief. Yeah, that is one of the basis of our outreach Going Forward, especially as we move through the election cycle. And a lot of our messages will be around postmarks. And were glad to give any information that the supervisors offices content regarding to get that message out to communities and get it out to San Francisco, but its going to be a mainstay of our messagings Going Forward an. Theres a lot of mentioned messages, but as long its post marked on or before election day, we can count it and thats the main message to hear. I dont want them to know 17 days after election day. Just get it post marked and get that ballot back to us. And then, my last question and it was eluded to, first of all, can you explain the scope of work done by the communitybased organization that has been selected to do sort of Voter Engagement and outreach . And then, i too, was disappointed to see there was only one organization focused on serving the Africanamerican Community and i did not see any organization specifically providing outreach and service to the l Latino Community . Can you response to that . The groups that responded are the ones that we were able to select and we sent out notices to all of our contact list informing everyone that we had the grant funds and outreach programs in place and so, essentially, those who applied or the ones that applied received the grants. And so a lot of the work now for the outreach will be digital because of the covid but theyll be doing inperson, as much as possible because one of the important aspects of reaching people who dont were infrequent voters is the inperson outreach. These arent the voters usually motivated by the mailings or seoul. Isocial media. It seems like the direct oneonone to make them think they need to get out and vote. As much as these groups can with the covid safety and Health Protocols in place, we want them to be out doing their personal outreach in the communities. And if they cant do interpersonal, making phone calls to people trying to Contact People that way. And so, yeah, really, the idea going into selection, the same we had for march, was that these groups would augment and be the next step into the community that we cant reach because we dont have the resources, we dont have the contacts, they have more of the interpersonal is there any additional money left to add additional organizations . Not under that grant situation. If more money can be put in, im not against it, but i dont know the process. Certainly, whoever is the contact for that, we can talk to. How Many Organizations received the contract . It was eight. And am i correct theres to organization that has a history of working in that next community . I cant remember the groups off my head. I thought there was. And well have someone check right now, actually, too. I dont know, director simle, if you had any response or comments to those questions . Qu . I didnt. I do not recalling seeing an organization that directly supports the Latino Community. And youre correct, only one organization that particularly serves the Africanamerican Community and parts of the southeast of the city, which we i want to uplift working together early and often. They are some so dedicated Like Community care hav caravans. Pair operato indiscernible . Im not sure what the funding will look like but that was something a concern beginner the eight contracts that were provided. Hoping we can close the equity gaps in regard to the black and to the Latino Community. So coleman advocates will be doing outreach under this grant and one of the organizations that received funding through this grant process. Coleman advocates is fantastic and serve a multiracial base. But in terms of an organizat