A lot of people talk about who they are and whats going on. We have to understand who we are. If we understand who we are, we understand who they are. Because its not us versus them. I spent a year in jail, ms. Richards is a great strong leader and i appreciate her. The reason why im here today is because Restorative Justice for me has been the answer. We believe in respect, care, trust and empathy. Im here to say change is possible. Former gang member, sold drugs, dealt drugs, used drugs. Family membered o. D. Ed but change is possible and it comes through care and concern. Its not about whether we are going to be consistent, its about who is speaking that language. Its not what i say, its how i say it. Ive seen the pictures of the young men and women that were arrested and put on the tenderloin website and most of them were friends. All i saw was trauma, victimization. So whats really needed for us is just for us all to come together as we have here and all these people here are stakeholders, just as they are in the streets, and i believe the empathy we are bringing will be the difference. What i would hope to bring, specifically to this agape love that says no, this is the truth. The truth needs to be spoke. Theres places in the city where its not allowed. There are places you would not see this level of drug use. Lets start there. Lets take that model, lets bring that love and the resources that we have, the outreach would be the biggest difference. If we can provide a difference for them in their lives and the hope, lifestyle, addiction is reel. Beliefs, habits and traditions have been handed out that makes us think this is the only way. That is another thing that has to be challenged. So i say thank you, whichever way you go, im glad you are going in that direction, and i will support you in any form. Thank you. [applause] good morning, honorable supervisors. My name is rhiannon bailard. Im the executive director of operations at uc hastings law and i serve as Vice President of the board for the Tenderloin Community benefits district. Im here today applying for a seat as a Business Owner representative on the task force, because uc davis law wants to be part of the solution. We understand this is an incredibly complicated problem and one that can only be resolved by having a multidisciplinary, multiinstitutional holistic approach as youve heard from so many different perspectives that we have heard today. My background, among other functions, i oversee safety and security. So what that means is im responsible for 1500 people that live, work or study here in the city and specifically in the tenderloin. And 300 of those are student residents. Im the one thats responsible for their feeling of a lack of safety. We have had others have commented increasing violence that weve seen, increasing frequency, increasing in the extremity of it. Weve had multiple homicides in and around the campus. We have had assaults in our parking garage. I think anybody here can speak to the amount of violence that weve seen. And im responsible for responding to my community. And i also know that the tenderloin has more children than any other neighborhood in San Francisco. Its completely unacceptable in terms of whats happening right now. At the same time, i absolutely agree with the comments that have been provided by sam and others that its not black and white of us versus them, victims versus perpetrators so we need this holistic approach. And what i bring in addition to having that safety and security background is someone who really focuses on consensus building, who focuses oncoming to compromisetype solutions to be able to hear all the voices that are attributing, seeking to resolve it. I appreciate your time today. Thank you. As curtis comes up, is kim diamond, teresa lynn friend, eric brizee my name is Curtis Bradford. Im applying for seats 8 or 99. Im in the tenderloin district. Ive lived in my current s. R. O. For the last ten years. Prior to that ive been homeless and using and couch surfing and room hopping and sometimes doorway sleeping and using and sometimes dealing in the tenderloin for many years prior to that as well. I got clean nine years ago through the storm wall project and through glides 90day outpatient drug Treatment Program. After that i became a facilitator at the Treatment Program for eight years. Im one of the founding members, along with jesse here and cochair of the tenderloin Peoples Congress which is a Grassroots Organization in the tenderloin. Im currently serving my third year as a board member of the Tenderloin Community benefit district. Spent five years on the board at t. N. D. C. s reportable housing developer. Im a fulltime employee as a Community Organizer in the tenderloin. As you can see tenderloin is in my dna. And im deeply engaged with the community, with the residents, the families, the seniors, the small Business Owners, nonprofits, with the staff. I have this Broad Spectrum of folks and thats what we need. We need somebody who can bring all these broad semi trust specm together. This is a challenging subject and its going to require someone who has relationships and can build relationships throughout a spectrum of perspectives in the neighborhood. And i believe that i bring that to this. Im one of the members of the Steering Committee of for the masses. I think i have a lot to bring to this, and i hope youll consider me. Thank you. Hello. Good morning, supervisors. My name is kim diamond. And im a voice, just a human voice. All i bring to you today is life experience. This is what will be my first board appointment. Im a resident of k. C. C. Since 2012. Ive been on the homeless route, ive used drugs to survive. I walk outside my door every day to drug deals being made. I want to be a point to help accomplish find Real Solutions for these problems on our streets, just like many, many more of those beautiful voices before me and have spoken all of this too. I want my grandchildren to be able to visit me. I want them to be able to be safe. I was unsure that i was qualified for this position in the beginning but going through the process showed me some things. I already knew the tenderloin had given me my street experience and smarts and i was surprised by the awesome support letters i received. I didnt get started until just last thursday. I found the email explaining the process so i sat down, sent out requests to everyone i could think of and i received good ones but there were a couple that threw me a little. They stated they couldnt support me, they had to support their people in their organization and thats one thing that really stood out that made me realize that i could hear my dad telling me to get my head out outside clouds. I had only one thing in mind, to Contact People who know me personally so i truly bring to this seat a representative of none and representative of all. I will listen to everyone and speak for all. Inclusion is not just a word to me, it is a way of life. Exclusion of any kind is a wall. I put your attention to remember the idea i put forth in my paperwork that i dont have time to go into. I dont care who gets credit for it, i just think its a program that is worth it in our neighborhood. Thank you for your time. Thank you so much. Good morning. My name is teresa friend. Im the director and managing attorney of the homeless advocacy project of the Justice University of the bar association. We provide social services to individuals and families who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in San Francisco. Ive supervised it for over 25 years. It is located in the building we own at haight street in the tenderloin. We have 20 employees. We serve 1500 clients a year at that location. Our block of haight street, 100 block, is the site of active drug dealing on a daily basis. You have excellent applicants. You cant go wrong. I will tell you why i would like to serve. But i cant say that im any more qualified than the number of people who have spoken. I believe i would be a good addition because first, the office is at ground zero of the issue so we have every incentive to find an answer that works. Every day my staff and our clients have to navigate through a crowd of drug dealers to get and out of our building. In addition to other issues that have been mentioned, some drug dealers sometimes sexually harass our female staff members, just on friday we had a dealer threaten our security guard, threaten to kill our guard because he asked them to move away from the front of our building. At the same time we represent a lot of clients who have serious addiction issues who liv on the street. Our staff has been traumatized by watching police sweeps with people thrown on the ground and their things thrown away. So figuring out the most effective way to address the problem is a high priority for me and our organization. I also just want to say in addition to having been an attorney for 35 years im a certified mediator. It will be important for everyone to really listen to each other. And i think i can help facilitate some of that communication. So i thank you for your consideration, as i said. You cant go wrong. Thank you. Im also going to call up nicole richardson, tom whalen, max young. Good morning. My name is eric brizee. Im Operations Manager for american conservatory theater. We operate on Market Street, a costume shop on Market Street and the theater on geary street. So we circle the entire district. I also chair a meeting, the 1100 block meeting. We work with health and safety issues on the midmarket corridor. Weve been meeting for about a month with support from city, law enforcement, d. A. s office, health and human services, et cetera. I have been educated a lot this past year on the different aspects of whats going on in our streets. I think that we can all say we are at ground zero. I tend to think of them as hot spots. We have a bad hot spot at seventh and market which really affects our patrons to the theater, our actors, our staff, anybody in that area knows it can be cyclical and the intention on the task force is im an Operations Manager. I work with research, finding out what the problem is and supplementation. I previously managed i was executive officer to the citywide alcoholism advisory board, members appointed by the rules committee. I believe they still are. So i have a background in substance abuse. Mostly treatment. What i hope to bring to the task force, and i agree you cant go wrong. You have so many qualified applicants that i dont have quite qualifications but im willing to serve as a voice, administratively, if not appointed i really do plan on attending and listening and having input. Thank you very much. Hello. My name is nicole richardson. And i am a married mother of two boys under two years old. Pray for me. Im a woman of color who has lived in the tenderloin for four years at the intersection of turk and jones. I lived in the bay area for six years total. Throughout that time ive lived in the other areas such as the mission district, the sunset district and east bay. I have a bachelors degree in advertising and a masters degree in arts administration. Im originally from flint, michigan, which is another community with its own issues. And i lived and worked all over the united states, such as detroit, michigan, atlanta, georgia, boston, massachusetts, portland, oregon, and of course San Francisco. Since living in San Francisco, i have only worked in the tenderloin. I started working at San Francisco city impact, which is an organization that introduced me to the tenderloin. While working at this organization i developed relationships with residents, while being a resident myself, and i received access and inside look inside many of the s. R. O. S. My husband and i have become Business Owners of a Marketing Agency within the past two years. And we have had the pleasure of Services Businesses off of Market Street such as restaurants, and we are currently involved with the Tenderloin Community benefits district or the tlcb. Throughout my time living here, i have witnessed many drug interactions during the day. And it ranges from the obvious with the groups of drug dealers around a particular area to the not so obvious coordinated operation with cars and lookouts and things of that matter. This is something that affects me every day as a resident and most importantly as a mother. It is very traumatic for me and my children to constantly witness open air drug usage as a result of drug dealing. Its so bad i dont let my child walk on the sidewalk, due to the feces and the needles. There has been numerous times when ive seen needles on the sidewalk and ive had to teach my twoyearold its something that is bad and is to never be touched. This is a huge problem. And i feel remiss to live in a city where i have to teach this to my child for his own safety. Within the past two months alone, ive been assaulted on the street of the Police Station and have come home to an open box of needles in front of my door where my family come in and out of with strollers. This makes me emotional to this day. I feel like i could offer solutions from my unique perspective and as someone who has lived in various areas. Is that my time . It is. Thank you so much. Thank you. Hi. Good afternoon or good morning. Im the last one. I am max young. I own a business and building on 34 seventh street and have been directly impacted by the drug dealing thats taken place. Ive been in that location for 20 plus years. Im a native san franciscan. My grandfather had a shop on market. My great uncle lived in the tenderloin. Im familiar with the neighborhood and the city. And i am pissed. I amex trimly frustrated with i am extremely frustrated with whats going on out there. We need a change. Ive been yelling about this for five years. Ive watched my neighborhood degrade. It was moving the right direction for a number of years and it seemed to slide back downhill. The previous speaker, i feel for her. I cant imagine what it would be like. I have two little girls. I dont take them to my neighborhood where i work. I cant. I dont feel its safe for them. Next door to me theres a ballet studio in the odd fellows building. Im watching their students get out of the car and run up the street. Ive watched their enrollment decline. It is not safe out there. People cannot walk up and down the street. Just recently weve had a police car parked in Civic Center Plaza 24 7 with the lights flashing. Thats the only thing thats made an impact but its not sustainable. We need to make a change. Ive been complaining about this the whole time and screaming and yelling so i need to throw my hat in the ring and say i cant just complain, i have to be able to do something. So if i can help, im in. We appreciate what you guys are doing. We are thrilled to see this task force take place. I think i can speak for everybody in this room that we are excited to see some change. So thank you. Thank you so much. I just wanted to give one last chance to the five applicants that didnt yet speak. If any of them are here, michael michael, not here . I will open this item up for Public Comment. Anyone who wishes to speak on this item. I will ask applicants not to can applicants speak during Public Comment if they are speaking about other candidates or in general . I believe they can provide support for other applicants but they cannot speak on behalf of themselves okay. So if applicants want to speak in Public Comment on behalf of other applicants, feel free to do so. But please dont speak about your own candidacy. That time has come and gone. David, please start us off. Thank you. Good morning. Holiday greetings. David eliott lewis. You have a tough job. 25 applied, 20 spoke. Theres nine seats. And from the 20 that spoke, they all sound amazing. All of them. How do you choose . I have personal experience with about five of them. And i i want to highly recommend, because they live in the neighborhood, theyve been impacted by drug dealing. Several of them have lived experience as theyve already shared, with the experience of open air drug dealing. And i think the committee would be wellserved. And these are Jesse James Johnson, sam dennison, Cheryl Shanks and Curtis Bradford. All amazing people. And also i would like to mention kim diamond too. I know all five of these individuals. They all do really good work in the neighborhood. And i think the committee would be well served. They understand processes, they know how to work in the group. They live and work in the neighborhood and real life experience. Let me read this one more time. Jesse james johnson, sam dennison, Cheryl Shanks, Curtis Bradford and kim diamond. I hope youll give due consideration to those five but whoever you choose, it will be a good committee. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Supervisors, my name is brian edwards. Im a Community Advocate and organizer with the coalition on homelessness. I have a Harm Reduction background. I want to echo what david said. Theres a lot of great, qualified people applying for these seats. I want to speak to three specifically. One is Curtis Bradford. I first met curtis year years ago when he had his life together and i didnt. And i have consistently seen him in the Communit