Hope. My background has heavy roots in the bay area. I was born in san diego and adopted out to San Francisco when i was about 17 years old. I bounced around a little bit here in high school, but ive always been here in the bay. We are an inclusive preschool, which means that we cater to emp. We dont turn anyone away. We take every child regardless of race, creed, religious or ability. The most common thing i hear in my adult life is oh, you dont seem like you have autism. You seem so normal. Yeah. Thats 26 years of really, really, really hard work and i think thises that i still do. I was one of the first open adoptions for an lgbt couple. They split up when i was about four. One of them is partnered, and one of them is not, and then my biological mother, who is also a lesbian. Very queer family. Growing up in the 90s with a queer family was odd, i had the bubble to protect me, and here, i felt safe. I was bullied relatively infrequently. But i never really felt isolated or alone. I have known for virtually my entire life i was not suspended, but kindly asked to not ever bring it up again in first grade, my desire to have a sex change. The school that i went to really had no idea how to handle one. One of my parents is a little bit gender nonconforming, so they know what its about, but my parents wanted my life to be safe. When i have all the neurological issues to manage, that was just one more to add to it. I was a weird kid. I had my core group of, like, very tight, like, three friends. When we look at autism, we characterize it by, like, lack of eye contact, what i do now is when im looking away from the camera, its for my own comfort. Faces are confusing. Its a lack of mirror neurons in your brain working properly to allow you to experience empathy, to realize where somebody is coming from, or to realize that body language means that. At its core, autism is a social disorder, its a neurological disorder that people are born with, and its a big, big spectrum. It wasnt until i was a teenager that i heard autism in relation to myself, and i rejected it. I was very loud, i took up a lot of space, and it was because mostly taking up space let everybody else know where i existed in the world. I didnt like to talk to people really, and then, when i did, i overshared. I was very difficult to be around. But the friends that i have are very close. I click with our atypical kiddos than other people do. In experience, i remember when i was five years old and not wanting people to touch me because it hurt. I remember throwing chairs because i could not regulate my own emotions, and it did not mean that i was a bad kid, it meant that i couldnt cope. I grew up in a family of behavioral psychologists, and i got development cal developmental psychology from all sides. I recognize that my experience is just a very small picture of that, and not everybodys in a position to have a family thats as supportive, but theres also a community thats incredible helpful and wonderful and open and there for you in your moments of need. It was like two or three years of conversations before i was like you know what . Im just going to do this, and i went out and got my prescription for hormones and started transitioning medically, even though i had already been living as a male. I have a twoyearold. The person who im now married to is my husband for about two years, and then started gaining weight and wasnt sure, so i we went and talked with the doctor at my clinic, and he said well, testosterone is basically birth control, so theres no way you can be pregnant. I found out i was pregnant at 6. 5 months. My whole mission is to kind of normalize adults like me. I think ive finally found my calling in early intervention, which is here, kind of what we do. I think the access to irrelevant care for parents is intentionally confusing. When i did the procespective search for autism for my own child, it was confusing. We have a place where children can be children, but its very confusing. I always out myself as an adult with autism. I think its helpful when you know where can your child go. How im choosing to help is to give children that would normally not be allowed to have children in the same respect, kids that have three times as much work to do as their peers or kids who do odd things, like, beach therapy. How do speech therapy. How do you explain that to the rest of their class . I want that to be a normal experience. I was working on a certificate and kind of getting think Early Childhood credits brefore i started working here, and we did a section on transgender inclusion, inclusion, which is a big issue here in San Francisco because we attract lots of queer families, and the teacher approached me and said i dont really feel comfortable or qualified to talk about this from, like, a cisgendered straight persons perspective, would you mind talking a little bit with your own experience, and im like absolutely. So im now one of the guest speakers in that particular class at city college. I love growing up here. I love what San Francisco represents. The idea of leaving has never occurred to me. But its a place that i need to fight for to bring it back to what it used to be, to allow all of those little kids that come from really unsafe environments to move somewhere safe. What ive done with my life is work to make all of those situations better, to bring a little bit of light to all those kind of issues that were still having, hoping to expand into a little bit more of a Resource Center, and this Resource Center would be more those new parents who have gotten that diagnosis, and we want to be this one centralized place that allows parents to breathe for a second. I would love to empower from the bottom up, from the kid level, and from the top down, from the teacher level. So many things that i would love to do that are all about changing peoples minds about certain chunts, like the Transgender Community or the autistic community. I would like my daughter to know theres no wrong way to go through life. Everybody experiences pain and grief and sadness, and that all of those things are temporary. About two years ago now i had my first child. And i thought when i come back, you know, im going to get back in the swing of things and ill find a spot. And it wasnt really that way when i got back to work. Thats what really got me to think about the challenges that new mothers face when they come back to work. When it comes to innovative ideas and policies, San Francisco is known to pave the way, fighting for social justice or advocating for the environment, our city serves as the example and leader many times over. And this year, it leads the nation again, but for a new reason. Being the most supportive city of nursing mothers in the work place. I was inspired to work on legislation to help moms return to work, one of my legislative aids had a baby while working in the office and when she returned we had luckily just converted a bathroom at city hall into a lactation room. She was pumping a couple times a day and had it not been for the room around the hallway, i dont know if she could have continued to provide breast milk for her baby. Not all returning mothers have the same access, even though theres existing state laws on the issues. These moms usually work in low paying jobs and returning to work sooner and they dont feel wellsupported at work. We started out by having legislation to mandate that all city offices and departments have accommodations for mothers to return to work and lactate. But this year we passed legislation for private companies to have lactation policies for all new moms returning to work. With the newcome accommodations, moms should have those to return back to work. What are legislation . We wanted to make it applicable to all, we created a set of standards that can be achievable by everyone. Do you have a few minutes today to give us a quick tour. I would love to. Lets go. This is such an inviting space. What makes this a lactation room . As legislation requires it has the minimum standards, a seat, a surface to place your breast on, a clean space that doesnt have toxic chemicals or storage or anything like that. And we have electricity, we have plenty of outlets for pumps, for fridge. The things that make it a little extra, the fridge is in the room. And the sink is in the room. Our legislation does require a fridge and sink nearby but its all right in here. You can wash your pump and put your milk away and you dont have to put it in a fridge that you share with coworkers. The new standards will be applied to all businesses and places of employment in San Francisco. But are they achievable for the smaller employers in the city . I think Small Businesses rightfully have some concerns about providing lactation accommodations for employees, however we left a lot of leeway in the legislation to account for Small Businesses that may have small footprints. For example, we dont mandate that you have a lactation room, but rather lactation space. In city hall we have a lactation pod here open to the public. So the more we can change, especially in government offices, the more we can support women. I think for the work place to really offer support and encouragement for pumping and Breast Feeding mothers is necessary. What is most important about the legislation is that number one, we require that an employer have a lactation policy in place and then have a conversation with a new hire as well as an employee who requests parental leave. Otherwise a lot of times moms dont feel comfortable asking their boss for lactation accommodations. Really its hard to go back to the office after you have become a mom, youre leaving your heart outside of your body. When you can provide your child food from your body and know youre connecting with them in that way, i know it means a lot to a mommy motionlely and physically to be able to do that. And businesses and employers can just provide a space. If they dont have a room, they can provide a small space that is private and free from intrusion to help moms pump and that will attract moms to working in San Francisco. If you want more information visit sfdph. Org breastfeedingatwork. May i ask the audience to come to order and please have a seat . Good morning everyone. The meeting will come to order. Welcome to the november 18, 2019 meeting of the rules committee. Seated to my right is walton, and to my left, mar. Our clerk is victor young. I would like to thank sfgovtv for taping this meeting. [reading notes] can you please call item number one. Hearing to consider term ending february 1, 20202 the parks and recreation and open space Advisory Committee. Come on up. Good morning. Did you want to share any remarks with us . [laughter] thank you very much. Morning. Thank you, supervisors, for hearing this agenda item. My name is james, im a resident of district five and a volunteer leader with friends of the urban forest. Im here today seeking this appointment to the park recreation and open Advisory Committee. I work in environmental policy why Research Environmental regulations and i provide Program Support to babbitt private clients. In order to support the Advisory Committee, particularly interested and to apply my expertise in order to advance biodiversity and resiliency efforts, bike and pedestrian safety. More generally to review and commenting on the San Francisco rec park Strategic Capital and operation plans. As a volunteer leader with friends of the urban forest. I am meeting on engaging with san franciscans. Helping in the plant trees in our neighborhood. Professionally i am about public hearings. If appointed, i will apply this expertise in communications and Stakeholder Engagement to serve as representative of the Advisory Committee to my district and the community at large. Lastly, i am happy to take any questions from the rules committee getting my qualifications. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. We appreciate your willingness to serve. Any questions . I dont think we have any questions. Thank you so much. I will now open up this item to public comment. If you wish to speak, ands your time. Seeing none. Public comment is closed. Is there a motion . I move. Supervisor mar i recommend appointment of james falino to the rec park open space Advisory Committee, seat number 19. Supervisor ronen without objection that motion passes. Can you please read item number two . A hearing consider appointing one member to them ending march 1, 20202 the commission on aging advisory council. Supervisor walton i dont see ms. Leslie smith in the room i now. Oh, she just walked in. Perfect. [laughter]. Supervisor ronen good morning. How are you . I am fine. Please excuse my tardiness. Hello supervisor walton, thank you so much for inviting me. Supervisor mar, my name is diane smith. I am appearing before you today because i am one of the few left to live long enough in San Francisco, having grown up in Hunters Point housing projects. My mother views education as a bootstrap to hold our family at their education. I am now a Senior Citizen, 67 years old. Ive seen so many things happened. I stand here by gods grace as a homeowner, have a wonderful home, that is just increasing in value. The things that i have been able to accomplish, this is what i want for other people and its just something that can be done. The train has left the station but it is still making stops. From my generation, there is nothing available, the people that are my age, so they didnt plan. Whatever it was, people are where they are now. My generation is in trouble. I like what i see with the agent commission. I just want to help shorten it up. There is nothing new that we need to do. We just need to do what is already there. We need actions and to the plan. We need resources. I thank you so much for this opportunity. My track record is very long. Ive always been an advocate for society, because my mother taught me i had a responsibility supervisor walton, that is live i was so active when i was your age, you know . It just never stopped for me. And then i see people that i know, they dont have a place to live. They can get a job. We need partnership with these Tech Companies for older peopl people there are certain things we can do very well. With or without education. Im asking, i am planting the seed that we create some partnerships with viable senio seniors, we are mindful of the transportation accessibility. By gods grace, i started exercising. If i were to beg my foot, how my going to get around . I see it is getting very difficult for poor people. Blessed. Finally, theres something called the certificate of preference. I would like to see an amendment with the Senior Citizen agenda. Seniors of 65, but with what has happened in our district and the things that you fought for, the contamination, the lack of opportunities and the drug addiction and various impedance. Things that have impeded our progress. We got caught up. The fact remains we are dealing with the results of this and we need to do something about it. We have the resources. A lot of these people, you know im old enough to be a grandmother. People are old enough to be your parents. If you live long enough, right, you will be here. We can do something about the quality of life. I love San Francisco. They let the fact that we are growing and breathing. Lets not forget about the elders. And the disabled. Do you have any questions for me . You know i can go on. [laughter]. Supervisor ronen really appreciate your presentation. Supervisor walton as you can see, ms. Smith is very passionate and dedicated to making sure that their lives are improved not only for seniors, but for everyone in San Francisco. I am happy to have someone who is willing and ready to go to bat for our seniors and all of our communities. That is why im a denomination. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor ronen i will now open this site for public comment. Does anybody want to speak on your appointment they can come forward and now is the time. I dont see any public comments. I will close public comment. Supervisor walton, would you like to do the honors . Supervisor walton i would like to move this forward with a positive recommendation to the full board. Supervisor ronen without objection that motion passes. Congratulations. Thank you so much for saving. [applause] serving. President trumps. That rarely happens by the way, he made quite an impression. Supervisor walton knows how to pick them. Thats all i have to say. Thank you so much. Can you read item number three . And motion or rejecting the mayors nomination of the appointment of susan dimon to the Planning Commission for a fouryear term ending june 30, 2020. Supervisor ronen hello. We talked on the phone, but i do not see him person. I did not know who i was looking for. Good morning. How are you . Thank you so much for having me this morning. The las vegas at that bar really high. I am susan diamond and im very honored to have been honored by the Planning Commission. Ive long been interested in city planning issues. After graduating from stanford and 79, i obtained a law degree from harvard and a masters degree in city planning from mit. I wanted to live in San Francisco so i took a job with the big San Francisco law firm, practicing landuse law. Representing primarily companies and seeking entitlement for the headquarters and other facilities around the bay area. In 2,003, my 100yearold firm abruptly went bankrupt. It was a brutal wakeup call to me about what was important and how i wanted to devote my energy going forward. I threw myself into Community Life serving as a volunteer board member for the numerous organizations in our community. Two that really resonated at me was jcc of San Francisco for many, mercy hous