Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Full Board Of Supervisors 20200208

supervisor stefani present. supervisor walton present. supervisor yee present. mr. president, you have a quorum. >> president yee: thank you. would you please join me in the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic, for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> president yee: on behalf of the board i would like to acknowledge sfgovtv. who record each of the meetings and make the transcripts available to the public online. madame clerk, any communications? >> none to report, mr. president. >> president yee: let's move to the consent agenda. >> items 1 through 18 are on consent. these items are considered to be routine. if a member objects, an item may be removed and considered separately. >> president yee: would anyone like to sever any items from the consent agenda? seeing none, on the roster, then please call the roll. >> on items 1 through 18, supervisor stefani aye. walton aye. yee aye. fewer aye. haney aye. mandelman aye. mar aye. peskin aye. preston aye. ronen aye. safai aye. there are 11 ayes. >> president yee: okay. so, without objection, the ordinances finally passed unanimously. let's go to items, 19 and 20. >> 19 and 20 two ordinances that levy special taxes. pier 70 leased properties. >> colleagues, can we take these two items, same house, same call? without objection, these ordinances are finally passed. madame clerk, let's go 21. >> item 21 is ordinance to appropriate $2.7 million of general reserve upon condition of executed agreement to support class reinstatement at city college of san francisco. >> president yee: madame clerk, please call the roll. >> on item 21, stefani no. walton aye. yee no. fewer aye. haney aye. mandelman no. mar aye. peskin no. preston aye. ronen aye. safai aye. there are 7 ayes and 4 nos with supervisors stefani, yee and mandelman, and peskin in the consent. >> president yee: that ordinance is passed with 7-4 vote. next item. >> item 22. resolution to authorize public works to accept and expend $260,000 grant from the san francisco bay area rapid transit district for the pit stop public toilet program termed july 21, 2019 through june 30, 2020. >> president yee: colleagues, without objection, we'll bring up jeremie spitz. oh. and he's from the department of public works policy and government affairs. here to speak on this item, but before you speak, supervisor preston? >> supervisor preston: thank you. no, i'm happy to speak after, mr. spitz. >> president yee: did somebody want to speak? i'm sorry. i'm getting confused. go ahead. >> supervisor peskin: hold on, i rise to point of privilege, but i'm sitting down, supervisor preston's name is on the roster. >> president yee: i called on him. >> he deferred, supervisor peskin. >> supervisor peskin: my bad. >> president yee: did you want to say something? supervisor preston? you want to wait, right? >> supervisor preston: mr. spitz is free to go on. >> i'll be brief. >> president yee: go ahead. >> thank you, president yee. briefly, supervisors, we would like to request an additional one week continuance on the item so our acting director has a chance to review the file? >> supervisor preston: thank you very much, appreciate the request for continuance. i think it is appropriate for the board to have additional information about acting on this item. and this was continued last week to underline contracts here -- underlying contracts were approved and signed. and particularly under the circumstances where the allegations in the federal criminal complaint relate directly to mr. neweru's involvement. i had a chance to speak to the acting director, welcome to the new role, and looking forward to this item being reviewed by new leadership before coming back before us. >> president yee: okay. is the motion by supervisor preston and seconded by supervisor peskin, to continue this item for a week to our february 11th meeting. then without objection, this resolution will be continued. to the meeting on tuesday, february 11, 2020. madame clerk, please call the next item. >> item 23 is ordinance to amend the planning code to allow authorization of limited restaurant use in the jackson square special use district under a circumstance to affirm the ceqa determination and make the appropriate findings. >> president yee: roll call, please. >> on item 23, supervisor stefani aye. walton aye. yee aye. fewer aye. haney aye. mandelman aye. mar aye. peskin aye. preston aye. ronen aye. safai aye. there are 11 ayes. >> president yee: without objection, this ordinance is finally passed unanimously. madame clerk, please call item 24. >> item 24 is a resolution to establish the fiscal year 2019 through 2020, california constitution appropriations limit of san francisco to be approximately $5.5 billion. >> president yee: can we take this item same house, same call? without objection, this resolution is adopted unanimously. madame clerk, please call the next item. >> item 25 is resolution to authorize and approve the lease of 1271 through 1275 mission street with mission 1277 and baskin investment group for office space for san francisco digital services, for six-year term, with two five-year options for renewal to commence february 2020, for total annual rent of $600,000, to figure in 3% annual adjustments thereafter and make the appropriate findings. >> president yee: can we take this same house, same call? without objection, this resolution is adopted unanimously. madame clerk, please call item 26. >> item 26 is resolution to approve a grant agreement second amendment between the city and institute on aging for the community living fund to increase the amount of the grant for a new total amount of approximately $11.6 million july 21, 2019 through june 30, 2021. >> president yee: can we take this same house, same call? without objection, this the resolution is adopted unanimously. madame clerk, please call items 27 through 29 together. >> item 27 through 29, three resolutions that retroactively authorize the fire department to accept and expend grants from the following, performance terms and to waive indirect costs. item 27, $1 million grant from the california office of emergency services to purchase one hose tender. for item 28, approximately $340,000 grant from the federal emergency management agency to purchase marine equipment, september 1, 2019 through august 31, 2022. and for item 29, an approximate $612,000 for the federal emergency management agency to purchase rescue tools and equipment september 5, 2019 through september 4, 2020. >> president yee: colleagues, can we take these items same house, same call? without objection, these resolutions are adopted unanimously. madame clerk, please call the next item. >> item 30 is resolution to authorize the san francisco office of cannabis to accept and expend an approximate $1.338 million grant from the california bureau of cannabis control for the local equity grant funding program for the term of february 21, 2020, through january 31, 2021. >> president yee: same house, same call? without objection, this resolution is adopted. please call the next item. >> item 31 is resolution to declare the intent of the city to reimburse certain expenditures from proceeds of future bonded indebtedenesindeb authorizing the mayor's director to submit documents to the debt allocation committee to permit the issuance of residential mortgage bonds in principal amount not to exceed $61.6 million for 55 mason street. >> president yee: same house, same call? without objection, this resolution is adopted unanimously. madame clerk, the next item. >> item 32, resolution to approve and authorize the amendment and restatement of an existing long-term ground lease with turk and eddie associates on city owned land, in order to refinance 100 affordable 82-unit rental housing development for low-income persons. >> president yee: can we take this same house, same call? without objection, this resolution is adopted unanimously. >> ordinance to amend the plumbing code to delete the local amendment to the california plumbing code, rules and regulations in the section on cross connection control and to add local cross connection controls for beverage dispensers and testing and to affirm the ceqa determination. >> president yee: can we take this item same house, same call? without objection, this ordinance is passed on first reading unanimously. madame clerk, please call the next item. >> item 34 is ordinance to amend the planning code and the administrative code to abolish the north of market affordable housing fund and have certain affordable housing fees collected in conjunction with the north of market residential special use district, deposited in a city-wide affordable housing fund and to make the appropriate findings. >> president yee: same house, same call? without objection, this ordinance is passed on first reading unanimously. madame clerk, please call the next item. >> item 35 is ordinance to amend the health code to authorize the director of public health to allow existing cannabis permittee to operate under that permit at a new location and affirm the ceqa determination. >> president yee: supervisor pesk peskin. >> supervisor peskin: i'll defer to supervisor haney. >> supervisor haney: i think supervisor peskin, i were to say the same thing, we want to ask for this item to be continued. we're working on a non-substantive amendment and we want to have it completed by next week. was that what -- >> supervisor peskin: supervisor haney, through the president, i would suggest that the item be continued to the meeting of 25 february, 2020. please >> president yee: supervisor haney, are you okay with that? >> supervisor haney: yes. >> president yee: motion to continue this item to tuesday, february 25 and seconded. is there any objection? without objection, this ordinance is continued to the meeting of tuesday, february 25, 2020. madame clerk, please call items 36 and 37 together. >> items 36 and 37 are two resolutions that determine to the premise to premise transfer, liquor license to destination bar's inc., doing business as the lark bar, and for item 37, a transfer of type 21 offsale general beer, wine and distilled spirits and type 86 instructional tasting license to future beverages inc. doing business as cassk. that both items will serve the convenience of the city and requesting that the california department of beverage control impose conditions on the issuance of both items. >> president yee: same house, same call? without objection, these resolutions are adopted unanimously. madame clerk, please call the next item. >> item 38, ordinance to amend the administrative code to authorize the department of public health to become a member of any health care group purchasing organization and to enter into contracts with suppliers and distributors to purchase commodities and services without competitive bidding and without approval of the city purchaser. >> president yee: okay, can we take -- these items -- did we call 36 and 37? >> yes, we called those items. we're on 38. >> can we take this item same house, same call? without objection, this is passed unanimously. call item 39. >> item 39 is ordinance to amend the administrative code to name the rotunda on the second floor of city hall in memory of former city attorney buck del veteran >> i want to thank the board of supervisors. when deputy city attorney passed away after 50 years of service to this city and county, this board of supervisors, the mayor's office, there was one member of the board not here, his name is on the roster, but i want to thank our city attorney, who i don't think has every signed an ordinance as to form until this particular ordinance, which is i want to salute the late great buck delventhal. >> >> supervisor preston: i'd like to be added as a cosponsor. >> supervisor peskin: that would make it unanimous. >> president yee: same house, same call? without objection, this ordinance is passed on first reading unanimously. madame clerk, let's call the next item? item 40 is ordinance to repeal ordinance numbers 38-17 and 102-19 and to reenact certain provisions by updating the hotel ordinance and update the ceqa determination. >> president yee: supervisor preston, do you want to speak? >> supervisor preston: no. >> president yee: supervisor preston? wes >> supervisor peskin: i would like to request a continuance? that's a motion. >> president yee: a second? seconded by supervisor safai. without objection, we'll continue this item to our meeting on february 25. madame clerk, please call the next item. >> item 41 is motion to reappoint, miriam zouzokunis. >> this motion is approved unanimously. please call item 42. >> item 42 is motion to reappoint marc brandt to the bicycle advisory committee. >> colleagues, can we take this item same house, same call? without objection, this motion is approved unanimously. let's go to -- i'm sorry. >> committee reports? >> roll call, is it? >> committee reports, mr. president? >> yes, committee reports. >> items 47 and 48 were considered by the land use and transportation committee at a regular meeting on monday, february $3 and were forwarded as committee reports. it's to amend land disposition and acquisition agreement with 2000 marin property, for the transfer of property on bryant street. in exchange for real property at 2000 marin street and to adopt the appropriate findings. >> president yee: colleagues, same house, same call? without objection, this ordinance is passed on first reading unanimously. item 48, please. >> item 48 was with a new title. resolution to declare the intent of board of supervisors to order the vacation of the sidewalk portion of streets on the south side of mission street at the intersection of mission and freemont and on the east side at the same intersection to allow a structural up grade of the millennium tower and setting a hearing date for the board of supervisors to convene as a committee of the whole on march 3, 2020, here in the board's legislative chamber. >> president yee: same house, same call? without objection, this resolution is passed on first reading unanimously. madame clerk, let's go to roll call for a couple of minutes. >> supervisor self-ny -- stefani, you're first up. >> i'm introducing a resolution to support bill 281, which will finally ban the sale of firearms and ammunition at the cal palace. since that time, the bill has changed and the newest version has just passed the state senate. despite ongoing support to end gun shows, the cal palace board of directors faces tremendous pressure from gun lobbyists. it is a publicly owned facility to showcase entertainment and host events that reflect the community. as we all stated many times, public facilities should be used for the public good and the costs of gun sale far outweigh the benefits. sp281 mirrors a similar bill which bans firearms and ammunition sales at the delmar fair grounds. last year, we saw the lowest rate of violent crime since 1961 and while that is worth celebrating, there is not a day that goes by in this country where there is the tragic loss of life by an individual who should have never had access to a gun in the first place. on sunday, night, patrons at a local sports bar had to run for cover when a man returned with a gun and open fire. we were lucky no one died. just yesterday, passengers on a greyhound bus open fire on fellow passengers killing a 51-year-old woman and injuring five others. there is no way to win the fight against the gun violence epidemic in our country, but we've had no chance. we will have no chance until we continue to work together to advocate for commonsense gun policy that save lives. i want to thank senator scott wiener for sponsorship and david chiu and phil tinge for their support. >> supervisor walton: thank you, madame clerk. today, i have one in memoriam in honor of mother essie. mother essie mcgraw web jones, also known as mommy was born in 1917. she was the third child of four children. in 1923, mommy essie and her aunt nellie relocated to lovejoy, illinois. after the birth of her oldest child, george thomas earl, she attended the madame c.j. walker beauty school. in 1942, she married webb senior in missouri. to that union, three children were born, nathaniel, alphonso and patricia. in 1949, she along with aunt nellie joined fake john missionary church. mommy essie was an active member of the church, a member of the chorus, the naomi circle of the mission union and much later, mother of the ministry of the church. the father of two children, robert alicia and alicia jones. adopted three brothers sandy and norman and linden. later mommy essie took on raising samuel warren james when he came to live with her. mommy essie had a very active life. she worked in a child care center, worked at the fairmont hotel in san francisco, served on the joint housing committee as a recording secretary and that committee was instrumental in getting the war projects torn down and the construction of the new apartment buildings in hunters point along with the u.s. post office on evans street. the committee also made sure that the new streets that came along with the buildings were named after some of the people who were responsible for the changes. mommy essie also worked as an intake referral manager for the economic opportunity council for more than four decades. she was a commissioner on the relocation of board, appointed by the late mayor joseph al oto. she and others were developing consent degree, fighting the school district to prevent the busing of children from the bayview hunters point community to other places in the city. and not busing other children to bayview hunters point. they were successful. she was helpful in getting youth in the community their first job. she was a member of the board of directors of the bayview hunters college, the first off-campus college of city college to offer accredited courses from city college. she fought to get the name of the bayview elementary school changed to dr. charles r. drew. on top of it all, mommy essie managed to operate a kitchen beauty barber shop, wash, press and curl or cut for $2. that's when her family began to grow. everyone loved her and she loved them. and referred to them as her children. mommy essie loved to cook, travel and take trips to the casinos. she attended all of her family reunions and made it duty to teach future generations about their history, knowing she was fourth generation descendant of former slaves. one of her proudest moments was to attend the inauguration of barack obama in 2008. she bragged about walking five miles to the washington mall with her son-in-law oscar and nephews perry and tyree. as she told the story, she left all three of them in the dust to witness the inauguration. she departed this life on wednesday, january 22, 2020. she is survived by 12 children, two daughter-in-laws. 35 great grandchildren, and host of nieces, nephews and cousins. the rest i submit. >> president yee: submit. >> supervisor fewer: thank you. colleagues, today i am introducing a motion with cosponsorship from all members of the budget and appropriations committee laying out the budget process for the board in the name of transparency for all city partners and members of the public. my office has been working to design a budget process that builds upon past best practices, changes aspects that didn't work last year and tries to build our capacity to make informed choices with regard to the budget. the city's $12 million billion budget is on the backs of hard-working residents of san francisco and i feel responsible for ensuring we hold ourselves accountable for how the funds are spent. our goals for this year are, one, to develop an understanding of the landscape facing the city budget for fiscal years 2021 and 2021-22. to engage in public discussion about policy priorities for the budget while the mayor is determining her priorities. three, to create space for public input on budget priorities. four, to provide accountability for departmental spending and efficacy of services. five, to identify areas for cost savings or reallocation. we'll be holding budget hearings in the spring based on key policy areas that may reach across departments. we'll be holding budget hearings with analysis from the budget and legislative analysis to be determined and are proposing to hold a committee of the whole in may on the mayor's budget priorities. my office will be publishing a calendar by tomorrow with the details about the upcoming budget meetings. this will be updated with more details. i look forward to working with you, colleagues, as well as the mayor, city agencies, city employees and members of the public, for a smooth and equitable budget process that prioritizes our vulnerable residents and makes use of our public resources for the public good. >> president yee: i see that the time is 2:35 let's go back to recognition of commendations. >> i have two special when indications, one from supervisor mandelman and one from supervisor walton. >> president yee: supervisor mandelman, would you like to present yours? >> supervisor mandelman: we have a special treat today. i'd like to honor patrick and lola courtney and if they and their folks are here, they should come on up. or if they want to -- i can say nice things first and then they come up, is it easier to stay there? okay. okay. so today we're honoring patrick and lola. they first opened courtney's produce in 1969 as farmer's produce. the current location at caster street opened in 1971 where it's remained for 49 years. patrick was born in ireland and growing up, everything he and his family ate were grown on the farm. they immigrated to the united states in 1940s, arriving in new york. several years later, they headed west, landing in southern california where they continued to sell produce. eventually, patrick headed north to san francisco where he met and married lola, who was born in alaska, but moved to san francisco with her family when she was 5. they started a farmers produce. two years later, they moved to 101 castro street where they could live and operate their store in the same building. when they took over the tiny store, they made engaging with the neighborhood a priority. removing iron bars from the windows and doors, stringing white lights in the trees and filling the sidewalk with perfect stacks of fresh fruits and vegetables. they made the corner bright, safe, cozy and warm. today, as they have for nearly a half century, visitors to the shop local produce. they insist that everything is fresh, including fresh bread delivered to the store every day and fresh ingredients daily. some of the items come from patrick's irish roots. one of these is a true kerry sandwich. courtney's peanut and butter jelly sandwiches are legendary. two thick slices of hala, topped with three strawberry halves. and, colleagues, we have these peanut and butter jelly sandwiches for you today. they will be in the back, so as not to upset our clerk, although, i hope our clerk will enjoy one as well. >> absolutely. >> thank you tom for going over to courtney's to get these. today, at 92, patrick still buys the produce and lola at 80 still takes care of the bookkeeping. it was an honor to nominate them the business registry and at their january 13 meeting, the small business commission approved the nomination unanimously. the commissioner spoke about taking his two sons to courtney's every day to get sandwiches for lunch. they remembered visiting a friend at the hospital and having a courtney's employee run a bouquet to him as he was stopped at the red light. commissioner adams said that during his years of involvement, they were always active in the neighborhood, quick to donate sandwiches for community events. i'm so happy to have patrick and lola here with us in the chamber, and i think their daughter robin as well. it's my honor to offer this commendation to them and invite them up. [applause] robin? >> yes, thank you for this special commendation of courtney's produce and my parents patrick and lola. for 50 years they've devoted their lives to producing fresh home to san francisco at affordable prices. my father at 92 still goes to the produce market. he still negotiates pricing so he can deliver quality products at affordable prices. the organic produce is purchased daily and sandwiches, juices and salads are made fresh on site. the business has stayed in business 50 years because of the community that has supported it. this is peter from the community. >> thank you. i wanted to say something because as you know, it's not easy to raise kids in san francisco. well, it makes it easier having a store like courtneys on the corner. we were in the middle of making something and go to the kids, run up to courtneys and get -- and they're already out the door. i want to leave with a story. it's on the way to school, the kids are walking up with the fifth grade classmate and the classmate sees something she wants and doesn't have any money. she says, give me a quarter. i don't have it. lola watches the whole thing and says, don't you pester my friend lorraine. lorraine says, it's okay lola, it's my friend, too. this is what they did, looked out for the kids. knowing that the eyes on the street were the heart at the courtney store and lola and patrick expanding that network of friends. the peanut butter sandwiches help, but i'm here because i've been so happy to live in the neighborhood with them as my neighbors and friends for so many years. >> thank you, peter. >> president yee: okay. next up would be supervisor walton. >> supervisor walton: thank you, president yee. colleagues, today i rise to honor a pillar of the bayview and black community, ms. eloise petten. [applause] as san francisco native, eloise is a highly motivated leader who is deeply passionate and committed to working with disengaged and disadvantaged communities. she has led, fa -- oversight of the coalitions, served on the task force to end exploitation of girls, the mayor's task for emancipated youth, facilitated programs in the southeast sector and achieved community benefits agreement as well as developed several sector-specific training programs benefitting both youth and adults in the southeast sector of san francisco. she is currently employed by arty j. enterprises as a project manager continuing her work ensuring social justice and a vision for future generations for ensuring access and participation in capital projects benefitting bayview and southeast residents. eloise's volunteer activities reflect her commitment to social equity. she currently serves as the chair of the bayview citizens advisory committee, serves on the legacy committee for the shipyard, the community-based transportation plan steering committee for bayview, india basin leadership committee and the bayview merchants association. as you can see, she is very, very busy. for over 30 years, eloise has demonstrated her commitment to racial equity and social justice through her continued advocacy focusing on creating opportunities for economically and socially disadvantaged populations to participate fully and equitably in society. by being a vehicle of expression for those who cannot speak for themselves. she spends her spare time with family, and her hobbies are reading, jewelry-making, yoga and cooking. she's beloved for her work and commitment in community. today, at this board of supervisors meeting, we honor you ms. eloise patton. [cheers and applause] >> thank you so much, supervisor walton. and all of the supervisors. i absolutely appreciate it. i waved at supervisor peskin over there. we go way back to the redevelopment days. back when both of our hair was brown. yours is national, mine is bought now, so that's a lot of years ago. so i want to thank everyone for taking the time out to honor me, but -- and i appreciate it, but there is a long line of energy and vibration that goes with this. i walk lock step with some of the most amazing women in bayview. i walk lock step with gina, with linda richardson, former supervisor sophie maxwell, dr. veronica honey cut. and a host of other women. we look forward and we can see all of the women that have gone before us. the thing that i hope is that as we march, we see a line behind us. a line behind us, because there is still much work do. many of you sitting around these tables i've worked with over the years at one time or another, in one capacity or another, in one way or another, but as you can see, our work is not done. i would like to honor all of those organizations that i work with now because they're all committed. they work very hard and i not be standing here if it weren't for the work they do and the work they do for the residents of the bayview hunters point community. we still have a lot of work to do. you'll still be seeing me in many different venues. i want that thank you supervisor walton for all of your work. if it were not for you opening the window for us to be some of the most aggressive work we've been able to do in a long time, i don't know if we'd be gaining the traction we do now. to you, i say thank you and i appreciate you. [applause] >> president yee: thank you. that concludes our special commendations. so, madame clerk, let's go back to roll call. >> thank you. supervisor haney, did you need to be re-referred? okay. thank you. supervisor mandelman, not in the chamber, we'll re-refer him as well. supervisor mar. >> supervisor mar: today i'm introducing an ordinance to reauthorize fee waivers for the building department. as we grapple with addressing the affordability crisis, we must ensure that the housing we build and preserve is safe. it was established in 2014 to encourage homeowners with unauthorized dwelling units or in-laws, to bring them out of the shadows. this voluntary program requires homeowners to meet the safety conditions -- life safety conditions making a habitable unit a legal part of the housing supply. my constituents in the sunset, include many single-family homeowners with unauthorized dwelling units and tenants living in the units. this is undesirable position for everybody involved. this ordinance will incentivize the establishment of safe and affordable housing to stabilize housing for the entire community. as i continue to implement all options for affordable housing in my district and city-wide, including my adu extension program, this is one additional tool to work toward our greater housing goal. the rest i submit. >> thank you. supervisor peskin. >> supervisor peskin: thank you, madame clerk. colleagues, i know this is on a number of our minds. and on the minds of the people of the city and county of san francisco. and today, i'm introducing a couple of items in furtherance of our collective work to enact reforms, probably long overdue at the department of public works and agency which clearly needs transparent oversight. let me start by saying, this should not belong to any one supervisor, it should belong to the entire legislative branch. to supervisor haney, to supervisor safai, who have both shared thoughts, to supervisor preston and i who are working on some legislation together. and i want to start by applauding the controller of the city and county of san francisco who has stepped out of these chambers, and the city attorney for pursuing independent investigation and the city attorney is an independently elected official who clearly made his beliefs with regard to the director of public works. i want to correct a statement that was made earlier. that is not the former director of public works. that is the director of public works who has been charged by the united states of america with two different crimes who has been suspended with pay, who for the record, is still the director of public works at this moment in time as long as this moment lasts. i want to say, as to the controller, the controller is a quasi independent official who is nominated by a mayor and confirmed by a board of supervisors, who i personally, having been on the board for a generation count that, that is 20 years, i have profound confidence in. i know he is diverting much of his staff resource and ms. rosenfield is committed to making this as transparent a process as possible. this board has the unlimited power of inquiry pursuant to the charter of the city and county of san francisco. we should use that, use it appropriately, but we should not get in the way of ongoing criminal investigations. and to that end, together with supervisor preston, we're introducing an ongoing set of hearings to have a spot at the government audit and oversight committee to receive regular reports and ask questions from the city attorney, from the controller's office. i think that is the correct way of proceeding. we are in the midst of charter season. and we'll hear from our colleagues as to charter reforms that are long overdue as it relates to the commission system of government. and i welcome those conversations, be they term limits, be they very, very clear instructions to commissioners about their roles as quasi judicial members, about what is expected from them, and about how to contact them. and thinks kind of interesting -- this is kind of interesting, in the universe of commissioners, unlike us who all have e-mail addresses, all have phone numbers, many of those individuals cannot be contacted directly or indirectly. and that, too, should change. whether it's taking department functions and putting it elsewhere, legislating more stringent protocols for contracting, clearly this board at the request of a mayor and i think this came to us in good faith around trying to loosen up certain contracting procedures around our shelter crisis, around our mental health crisis, clearly has been abused. and he is not here, he cannot tell us about the contracts, but there are a number of them and we need to get to the bottom of that. we're seeing it on tv, reading it in the newspapers, this board of supervisors has been obligation to shine light on that. i want to thank supervisor preston for joining me in creating an ongoing set of transparent open public hearings to get to the bottom of that. an additional legislation i'm also introducing a joint hearing request with this body and the public utilities commission, not the state public utilities commission, but our public utilities commission as it relates to acquisition of pg&e assets and distribution systems within the study and county of san francisco. and would like to acknowledge the efforts of senator wiener and governor newsom, amazing i'm invoking both of those names here in trying to municipalize gas and electric in the northern california territory and, finally, i am introducing a piece of legislation to amend the code in the north beach special use district to allow an expansion of the central police station. and the rest i will submit. >> thank you, supervisor peskin. preston submits. >> supervisor ronen: today, i'm offeri offering in memoriam for jackie jones. i just wanted to share a couple of minutes of a video with you on her life. i think it's more interesting than me speaking about her life. and, amy, is going to queue it up. -- cue it up. >> on old lady, if you don't have something interesting, you'll be left all alone. [laughter] [ ♪ ] >> thank you, amy for indulging. me. for 25 years, she was present at the farmers market with jazz tunes on a wash board guitar and surrounded my children. jackie, a self-taught musician played a wide variety of instruments. jackie was twice honored on the bay guardian best of the bay list. in 2003 for free act with strings attached. we salute jackie as a true san francisco treasure and love and clean condolences to her community of musicians. thank you for sharing the story of her life. the rest i submit. >> thank you, supervisor. supervisor safai. >> supervisor safai: in the spirit of similar to what supervisor peskin and supervisor preston were talking about, myself and supervisor haney are introducing and calling on the city attorney to draft a charter amendment. a lot of things came to light last week. one of which was the conversation about the amount of time that a citizen serves on boards and commissions. and when i became chair of the rules committee, one of the first things i tried to institute informally was a process where we limit the amount of time individuals serve on a particular board and commission. we received a lot of pushback to say the least. we believe in light of the things that came to light last week, we think in the spirit of good governance, in the spirit of promoting new and fresh ideas to have on new commissions, that we should set term limits. members of the board, in this chamber are bound by term limits. two consecutive terms. [please stand by] >> supervisor haney: i know that he and the controller will do their party to make sure that corruption as it relates to this case is investigated. as but as the city charter gives the power of investigation to not just the city attorney and the controller, the charter defines that there are, by design and very intentionally, four separate city appointments to investigate. the controller, who is appointed by the mayor and has the power to audit. the city attorney and the district attorney who are both elected by the people, and this body, the board of supervisors who is given the power to hold hearings, conduct audits, and hire special investigators and auditors when deemed appropriate. and i think in a situation like this, when the people of san francisco are losing faith in the department to conduct its business fairly and appropriately, we need to investigate these charges of corruption but how we got up to this point in the first place. how has one of the most progressive cities in the world been repeatedly rocked by these corruption scandals? i believe that this body needs to concurrently go beyond the investigations and look at the corruption scandals. there are certain questions we need to measure. are the current corruption measures strong enough? what do we need to do to ensure their transparency? these are questions that we've all been asking over the last few days, and it has reaffirmed my belief fully that we need a full investigation into the systems and processes that continue to fail our city. i have been contacted personally in my office by numerous people over the last week in regards of abuses of power, fearing retribution from supervisors and others who are involved in these schemes. even now, there are people afraid to come forward because they are afraid the city will be unable to protect them. what we have heard from whistle blowers has led us to propose a resolution to do the following. it is one thing to look at contracts and how they were corrected. it's another thing to look at the departments and make sure they're operating how they should. to conduct an analysis of and provide recommendations on the whistleblower program to create effective and independent oversight and value how the program has made improvements, and any retaliatory actions towards individuals. i believe that if the city of san francisco is truly committed to holding itself accountable and earning back the public's trust, then an independent investigation in -- along with the -- the investigations of the city attorney and the controller, an investigation which the board of supervisors needs is critical to ensure that's the case. i want to thank supervisors mar, preston, and ronen for your cosponsorship, and i know we are going to continue this sponsorship at the g.a.o. committee and further refine the scope of this investigation to ensure that the board of supervisors fulfills our responsibility to the residents that we represent. i also want to comment on supervisor safai and the charter amendment that we've put forward to be drafted. it seems clear that not only do we know the critical role that commissions play in providing over sight for our city departments. i know that some people have been outspoken about the fact that some departments don't have commissions, but when we have commissions, the fact that those commissioners are accountable, that they're regularly evaluated, that they have the independence required to perform those essential duties, i think is critical. so looking at how we can ensure that through some term limits so we don't have individuals who have been serving on these commissions for decades and decades is one of the ways that we can restore public trust. lastly and completely unrelatedly, i am supporting the dismissal of several individuals making allegations of cruelty at some of our animal farms. a similar resolution was passed at the san francisco democratic committee, and the city of berkeley recently passed a similar issue. last year, 148 residents were arrested in sonoma county while trying to document the condition of animal operations. this urges the sonoma county to dismiss the charges as these individuals were acting under california penal code 597. animal rights are important to the people of san francisco and california as evidenced by among other things, by 62.6% where voters established new resolutions for the confinement of farm animals. i want to thank everyone who brought this forward and worked with the animal welfare commission and my office. that concludes my statement. >> clerk: supervisor mandelman? >> thank you, madam clerk. >> humming bird place is a 24 hours behavioral health respite center with 29 beds serving people with mental health and substance use disorders. it other allows people to come in with partners companion -- partners, companion pets, and belongings. but unlike traditional centers, humming bird's services are tailored to meet the needs of people whose challenges won't allow them to be housed in a traditional shelter. we can see every day in san francisco what happens when we do not have appropriate places to take unsheltered people with behavioral health needs. too many end up in psychiatric emergency services or other emergency rooms or jail. i think everyone on this board is familiar with the stats. more than half of all patients seen at p.e.s. are homeless, and between october and january, p.e.s. was on diversion roughly 20% of the time. we know that people released from p.e.s. are back on the streets or back in another stay days or even hours later. i believe folks would have a much better chance of stablizing and recovering if we had more facilities like humming bird place. that's why i've been working to identify potential sites for more humming bird place since my first days in office. as a neighbor down valencia street, i'm eager to welcome the city's first neighborhood based humming bird. the lease will be for a three-year term with options to renew up to two additional years. it's my hope that the valencia street location will help make a difference in homelessness citywide and this model will be duplicated across the city. it is a step in the right direction. i look forward to working with the neighborhood to ensure the success of the valencia street community humming bird and look forward to working with mayor breed and others to bring this facility on-line. i want to thank salvation army for being able to entertain the important use for this property. lineally, i want to thank erin mundy for all her important work on this project. colleagues, i hope you'll support my resolution, and the rest i submit. >> clerk: mr. president, that concludes that order of business. >> president yee: okay. why don't we go to items 43 through 49. [agenda item read] [agenda item read]. >> clerk: item 44 is the motion to affirm the determination that the page street bikeway improvements pilot program is categorically exempt from further categorically review. item 45 is to reverse the determination subject further findings by the board, and item 46 is the motion directing the board to make the findings of exemption determination. >> president yee: okay. colleagues, we are now convening as a committee of the whole. colleagues, we have before us a determination of exemption for environmental review for the proposed sfmta page street bikeway improvement pilot project. for this hearing, we will be considering adopting -- i mean considering the adequacy, the accuracy, sufficiency, and completeness of the planning department's environmental review determination for the project on page street. without objection, we will proceed as follows: the appellant or appellant's representatives will have up to ten minutes for presentation, then up to two minutes per speaker in support of the appeal. then up to ten minutes for the presentation from the project sponsor, which is represented by sfmta and up to ten minutes for the planning department. then two minutes per speaker in opposition to appeal and in support of the project. and finally, a total of four minutes for appellant or appellant's representative to present a rebuttal. colleagues, are there any objections to proceeding this way? seeing knox, then, the public hearing is now open. -- seeing no objection, then, the public hearing is now open. supervisor preston, do you have any remarks that you would like to give us? not right now? no remarks. seeing no remarks from my colleagues, i will now ask the appellants or their representatives to present their case. you have a total of ten minutes. >> thank you. i'm mary miles for coalition for adequate review, appellant, and we are here today on the appeal of the page street bikeway improvement pilot project. we are here because this project is not exempt from the california environmental quality act, which is also called ceqa. under either the so-called data collection exemption that has been asserted by m.t.a., that would be 14 cal code regulations 15306, which is the ceqa guidelines, and it is also called a class 6 exempt. what is that exemption? it is for data collection in this case. the exemption plainly does not qualify for any other part of the class 6 exemption because it has been approved by m.t.a. on november 19, 2019 and because it has been publicly funded. those would disqualify it for any other reason than data collection, so all we're here today for is to understand whether this project is for data collection or to close a public street to public travel. we would alert that the latter is the reason for this so-called pilot project. we've written briefs. we hope that the supervisors have had a chance to read them. if they haven't and have any questions to put forward, i'd appreciate it if they'd let me know and not let me know on my ten minutes. i'd also appreciate it if the supervisors could refrain from yawning in my face or making physical gestures that are contemptuous of the public speakers. let's look at ceqa very briefly. what does it do? it is the premier environmental law in this country. it protects the environment, not just a small faction of 1%, but everyone, the entire public. it does so by two requirements. one, the project proponent, in this case, m.t.a., must show that the significant -- and it requires a showing of the identification of the significant impacts of the project, and it requires mitigation of those impacts. those requirements must be fulfilled before the project is approved. not after, not as a retroactive categorical exemption as happened in this case. the so-called data collection exemption under class 6 does not apply. as we've stated and as the city has stated in its papers for three reasons. one, it's been proposed, two, it's been funded, and it's a significant project. there are 5,400 travelers on page street, including about 3800, according to city's data, that are headed in the morning to the octavia boulevard freeway ingress, and they do it on page. all the other parallel streets have been totally congested, and so what will be accomplished here by collecting data? well, the city already has the data of how many cars are on these streets? there are 5,400 cars on page street. that's the existing condition. how many will there be after they block page street? let me save you the $350,000 that the m.t.a. proposed to count those cars. there will be zero if you block page street. the question isn't how many cars there'll be on page street after you block access to page street. the question is where are the cars going to go and how is it going to impact everything else? okay. let's look at oak street after they pledge making a circuituous route 18 times. that street is over capacity, already carrying 30,000 vehicles per day. let's stop the crock. here's the reason. two of the supervisors haven't been here through this presentation, and you are required by law to have a full complement of the board present. so should i start over so that those two that weren't here? >> supervisor safai: ma'am, we have a t.v. in the back before the chair? >> so they're going to watch it before they vote today? >> clerk: miss miles, you have four minutes left in your presentation. i suggest you proceed. >> well, i think this is totally biased just like it always is. you needed a full complement of the board to hear this thing. you didn't have it, but i've already said why this doesn't qualify. let's see why the city says it doesn't qualify. if we go to -- let's try page 2077 of your packet, it says here that the city's going to do this pilot because even though there won't be any significant accumulative impacts on all these other streets, it needs to determine whether there'll be cumulative impacts on these streets -- that, and the data counting of the cars after there aren't any cars on the street. like i said, i'll take $3.50 for that. you'll save yourself that $350,000. this isn't a categorically exempt project, this is a permanent project as we've shown in our briefs by the city's own statements. the city has said we intend this to be a permanent project. we're just covering our backsides with this pilot thing so we can pretend nothing's wrong here. when you close a public street to the public, something's very wrong, first of all, to send constitutional on its face, but we can't go there today because this is a ceqa hearing. second, the impacts on the other streets are obvious. you can't divert 5,400 cars to oak street. it's already beyond capacity. you can't put them on haight street. that's already over capacity. it's got 5,000 cars, so why are you really doing this? only the bicycle coalition m.t.a. can tell you that. they want page street for a -- their private use, their private use. again, unconstitutional. if you're going to close a street, you have to close it to everybody after making a final determination that it's not needed for anybody for any purpose. you can't do that. you are also making it, for some reason -- i don't mean you, the supervisors, i mean if -- in a hypothetical fashion, if you divert 5,400 cars to another street, you're making it difficult for people trying to get to work. why? page street isn't categorically exempt. this project is not categorically exempt through ceqa. you have to do an initial-type process where you first analyze whether there may be significant impacts, and you have to show there won't be any with substantial impacts. this hasn't been done. you have to do this preliminary study before you improve it, before you declare it categorically exempt, so we would urge the board to reject the proposed categorical exemption of this project. >> president yee: okay. thank you. supervisor peskin? >> supervisor peskin: thank you, president yee. so ms. miles? ms. miles? >> yeah. >> supervisor peskin: i've been paying attention. >> you're one of the only ones. >> supervisor peskin: so your position is the data obtaining exemption is not correct by virtue of the fact that the department that is undertaking this is going to do more research? that your fundamental argument? >> no, my fundamental argument is that the research that -- that the department claims it needs to do has already been done, first of all. they've already counted vehicles on all the neighborhood streets many times over. there have been many studies already. they don't need to do it -- they certainly don't need to close the street to do it, but it's also that it's not for data collection as shown by the city's own statements, both planning's and -- >> supervisor peskin: it is clear that you are contending this is a data collection posing as a permanent closure, and i just want to focus the issue so that when we have the sfmta up here, we can focus those issues after the planning department and the sfmta give their official statements. i just wanted to focus the issues. but thank you for your comment. >> yes, that's exactly what i'm saying. >> supervisor peskin: thank you, ms. miles. >> president yee: supervisor preston? >> supervisor preston: yeah, please. so you made the statement both in your brief and in your presentation that this would close a public street to the public, and i just want to clarify that because my understanding of this project is it limits the vehicular traffic on the three blocks and some of the turns onto the streets, but i don't -- i'd like to know what part of this closes a public street to the public. >> it's going to close access to page street at the intersection of webster. you won't be able to get on page street past webster, so you -- at that point, the traffic will be diverted. car traffic -- yes, that's what it's going to do. it's going to close it right there at webster and make all these 5,400 cars go somewhere else, and if you want me to find that in your papers -- >> supervisor preston: no, i just want to clarify. no portion of the street will be closed by the public. your argument is by limiting the vehicular traffic -- >> it'll be closed to the portion of the public that isn't riding bicycles or walking. part of the public -- they're part of the public. >> president yee: anything else, supervisor preston? okay. seeing no other names on the roster, i will open it up for public comment specifically for those who would like to speak in support of the appeal. is there anybody? come on up, lineup to your right. you have two minutes. >> my name is w.o. duffy. i'm a tender lane neighborhood activist. i don't mind destroying my political career. just a couple of points. i think she made a good presentation. it's very hard on these presentations. you've got an entire wall of city officials waiting here. i'd also point out that the cost of this public hearing -- i know that public comment costs about $50 a minute, and this is going to cost about $2,000 for this hearing, so it's not trivial. another point is ancillary, and it's where i'm coming from personally. when you talk about bicycle transit, what is the fuel consumption per mile, miles per gallon of a bicyclist? it turns out it's about 30 miles per hour. it's not much better than an economy car. what do you do when you ride a bicycle? you consume calories, and it goes to the amount of petroleum that it takes to produce the food that we eat. it's not really addressing global climate change in a very direct way, and that's where a lot of my commentary goes to. thank you. >> president yee: seeing no other public comment for this, then public comment is closed. [gavel]. >> president yee: okay. now we will have up to ten minutes for the san francisco municipal transit agency as a project sponsor to do their presentation. so is this matt trager? >> clerk: would you like some assistance? >> i would, actually, thank you. >> thank you for your patience. my name is mark trager, and i'd just like to give some brief remarks today to describe the pilot project so we're all on the same page and also why we decided as an agency to pursue this pilot project. so page street, we see as an important part of the modal hierarchy of moving people. together with haight street, which is the principal transit street in the neighborhood and oak and fell, which are the arterial couplets, page street is the proposed bicycle plan. a variety of improvements will be made next year, but nonetheless, issues still remain, and we've heard from folks in the neighborhood that have lived there many, many years about the cueing of vehicles who are waiting to get from page street onto the freeway. as our system continues to prosper economically, more people are on the streets and uber and lyft don't help with this. we thought this is something that's a little bit less common, something that we don't deal with every single -- in every single neighborhood in all of our streets. we wanted to peel it off into a separate pilot effort that we developed starting in summer of last year, so that's the page street bicycle improvement project separate and distinct from the improvements we had made prior. we think in this case the pilot is an example of good planning. it's taking a complex transportation issue, working with the neighborhood to resolve issues, putting our best foot forward and devising a robust plan. so yes, we know how many cars are on all of these streets in the neighborhood but what we don't know is how people are going to react to neighborhood changes such as restricting access to the freeway on page street. it's triple divergence, people responding to the mode that they take when traffic situations happen, and the times of day that they travel. we think that will very much show themselves with neighborhood-level traffic circulation changes such as these people we hope will shift over and stay on the arterial routes. we hope that it'll be time shifts, as well. we think that there's a huge benefit to putting these out there in a time limited fashion, again, putting our best foot forward in terms of what we think will solve these complex issues and then seeing what the public's reactions are. don't want to go into too many details here because there are a variety of term restrictions imposed. i can drill more on them if you have questions, but suffice to say these restrictions would limit access to the friday. these are term restrictions, so the street is still open to any mode of travel for anybody who would like to use page street, there are just turn restrictions at certain areas. but you would still be able to drive on these streets, residents would still be able to access their driveways, and people walking and bicycling would of course still be able to use these streets. we are planning a robust evaluation for this project, so it's not just looking at where these vehicles move to, but also looking at transit impacts on haight street, violations of the muni red lane and transit travel times in particular. we're also concerned with traffic safety issues, so blocking of intersections, blocking of crosswalks, which we see today. does this get better? worse? does it happen at different intersections than it does today? but also, we want to combine this hard data with people who live and travel and work in these neighborhoods, how it affects that on a daily basis. it's really the hard data with people's experiences, combining those two pieces together. since last summer, we had a very robust evaluation and public engagement process, such as traditional techniques of open houses and meeting with established neighborhood associations, but we also used essential techniques as a pack back mailer, translated into -- backpack mailer, translated into numerous languages. it's new for this agency, having coffee chats, so going to coffee shops, and having conversations with folks, and i intend to use that in future projects, as well. we look at it as outreach, so collecting these data, and using those techniques and others, and responding to people and being prepared to make adjustments and tweaks. so if we want to move -- if we were going to move forward with the project, we'd want to implement, evaluate soon after, and then again in the fall. we're planning to be nimble here, as well, so if we're seeing things on the street in a few months that we think deserve adjustment, we plan to bring those to our board in the summer. the pilot project is a 12-month limited pilot project, so it expires 12 months after implementation, so we would need to come back to our board in 2021 with a recommendation to either continue to make adjustments or to return the streets to the way they are today. so this is a true pilot. but the topics at hand today are related to ceqa, and the environmental determination, so i want to hand it off to my colleagues at the planning department, but of course i'm available if you have any questions. thank you. >> president yee: okay. >> mr. president? >> president yee: yes, supervisor peskin. >> supervisor peskin: to supervisor yee through to the individual whose name i don't know or have since forgotten, after the one-year period, what subsequent environmental review would be required? >> it would have to undergo an entirely separate environmental process, not under the class 6 exemption. >> and it would be formed by the data that's formed under the class 6 exemption? >> yes. >> supervisor peskin: thank you. >> president yee: supervisor preston? >> supervisor preston: thank you, through the president. my understanding is that the length of the project was -- was reduced. can you explain the circumstance of why -- of why it was reduced, how that came about? >> sure. so as presented to our board in november, it was an 18-month pilot project. given certain concerns in particular from folks who live on haight street, and other individuals, as well, our board was asked to think about reducing the period of the pilot project to 12 months, and there was a little bit of back and forth between the balance of wanting to study this in an expeditious fashion and also having a significant amount of data, so we decided on 12 months so we could have a school year, summer break, and we could have data over the course of an entire year, and then, we could come to conclusions. >> supervisor preston: and then, at the conclusion, there's a possibility that the pilot could be extended further, or it could go to what supervisor peskin -- >> i think right now, it's not possible, but i think we'll have a better sense by the summer check-in. >> supervisor preston: okay. >> president yee: okay. seeing no other names on the roster, then i guess we'll go to the presentation from the planning department. >> good afternoon, president yee, members of the board. i'm laura lynch, senior environmental planner with the planning department. today, i am joined by wade wickrip. on october 31, 2019, the department determined that the project was categorically exempt under ceqa. the california environmental quality act under class 6 which applies to temporary projects whose intent is to collect data and information. as described in detail in our appeal responses submitted to the board on january 21 and 31, the pilot project clearly falls into a class 6 categorical exempt. the appellant argues that the pilot project is permanent and does not meet the definition of a class 6 exemption, however, there is nothing in the record to support those arguments. there's also nothing usual about the project that would prevent this pilot from being exempt under class 6. as supervisor peskin alluded to, the streets must be returned to the prepilot status. an exemption to this is if the m.t.a. board proposed a permanent project. at that point, the board would conduct an environmental review, and it would have to go through the sfmta board for final approval. the decision before the board today is whether to uphold the board's decision to uphold the categorical decision, deny the review, or return the street to previous status. we welcome any questions that you have for the ceqa analysis and can also expand on any topics as you wish. thank you. >> president yee: okay. that was one of the best presentations by a department ever in two minutes. supervisor preston? can you speak into your mic, please? >> supervisor preston: thank you. regarding the length of a pilot project, there's no actual cap on the length of a pilot project, there's no legal barrier to a one-year pilot, is that correct? >> president yee: deputy city attorney or whoever's going to answer? >> there's nothing in ceqa that sets forth limits to the time a pilot can be established. the applicable section under the guidelines is 16307. it may be strictly for information gathering purposes or as part of a study leading to an action which the body has not approved, staffed, or funded, so there's no limits here. >> supervisor preston: thank you. and also, is the class 6 exemption limited only to data collection purposes as represented by the appellant? [inaudible] >> -- section says information or data collection. >> supervisor preston: and then just one more question. so in terms of the standard review for us where the department has represented consistently throughout this, both m.t.a., well, i guess, m.t.a., the objectives of data collection quite clearly throughout, appellant claims the purpose is not data collection. what is the standard that the appellant has to meet to overcome what is being represented by m.t.a.? approval basis m.t.a. was only for a 12-month period, and after every 12-month review, you have to renew for approval, at which time, the sfmta would be taking another discretionary action, where they would be taking another ceqa evaluation again. >> supervisor preston: i think maybe if i can just clarify my question, what i'm saying is m.t.a.s made clear the purpose of data collection from this project in order to be in the class 6 exemption. the appellant says that's not the case, and the purpose of this -- of this pilot is not data collection. i'm asking how we as a decision making body review that and what is the burden on appellant to -- to disprove what appears to be quite a clear record to me of a data collection purpose for this project? >> through the president, laura lynch. we required in our project description to really understand what data is being collected as part of the project. other m.t.a. or city projects where we get a class 6 exemption on the project, we make sure we understand what the goal on this is and the timeline for what -- when they expire. so i don't know if that answers your question, but we did make the determination and the analysis to make sure this does qualify as a class 6 exemption. >> president yee: are you finished, supervisor? >> supervisor preston: thank you. >> president yee: you are finished? >> supervisor preston: yes. >> president yee: okay. seeing no other names on the roster, i would invite members of the public who wish to speak in opposition to to please come on up. go ahead. >> good afternoon, president yee, board of supervisors. my name is david moore. i live in the area, so i'm your prime witness. the appellant mentions the fact of 5,000 vehicles moving down that street, which to me, as a resident, i would question to anyone supporting the appeal, would they enjoy living on an on ramp that has 5,000 vehicles acrossing in front of their front door daily. secondly is the congestion that happens at the corner of octavia and page where two lanes merge to head southbound to approach the freeway, which becomes a very dangerous loud intersection with the horn honking, the yelling from the drivers to pedestrians and back and forth. it happens day and night, and i live there, and i witness it. it -- to me, it's -- you should have received a letter from the hayes valley neighborhood association which summed it up beautifully and clearly. i couldn't say it any better than was stated in that letter. page street was a one-lane eastbound -- it's one lane either way, so it would still have the westbound traffic, and we're not cutting off, and it becomes an on ramp, as i said, to the freeway. thank you for your time and consideration. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is kristin leckey, and i'm an organizer on staff with the san francisco bicycle coalition. the sfmta voted unanimously to approve the page street pilot project. page street has 1.5 times more people on bikes than in cars during commute hours. it brings much needed safety improvements to its thousands of people who walk and bike the corridor daily. the project is one that neighbors, elected officials, and advocates have continuously asked for more than the past five-plus years of planning and public outreach for improvements to page street. the safety can't wait on this corridor. both the page and octavia boulevard and page street and goff street intersections are located on the city's vision zero high injury network. between 2014 and 2019 alone, there were 16 reported collisions, including a child struck while walking to school. the safety of our most vulnerable populations are in danger every day this project is delayed. we have the resources to implement this by the end of the month. let's do it. with all that said, i want to acknowledge that this is a true pilot with paint and posts that can easily be moved. we know there will be design tweaks, given the difficult traffic circulation issues we're deelg with. i'll be there and will continue to show up to partner with the sfmta to better understand the traffic impacts but more importantli importantly the safety benefits. thank you for your time. >> president yee: okay. next speaker. >> good afternoon, chair yee and supervisors. my name is brian hogsman, and i'm walk san francisco's vision organizer. i'm here to support the pilot project and reject the appeal today. it was through these years of community meetings and multiple rounds of feedback, including page street neighbors and community members who walk page every day that these projects were approved and designed. walk sf is ready to see new bulb outs, rain gardens, in the city's first new raised intersection because we know these will slow drivers, especially at intersections and protect people of all ages walking and biking at page, whether on their way to john muir, on the way to the park, or just on their way home. each year on average, traffic crashes injure five people walking, biking, and driving on just the three blocks of this project and people often walking off face a maze of freeway drivers stopped at crosswalks or in the middle of intersections. the people who use page street deserve this to be moved forward especially with traffic deaths and injuries still on the rise. please move forward with the project and reject this appeal today. thank you. >> president yee: okay. next speaker. >> can i use the overhead projector? [inaudibl [inaudible] >> okay. this is a video from this morning of page street. it's me commuting with my kid to taking him to drop him off at school then commute to work. here, you can already see the first block crosswalks that's right next to -- the first blocked crosswalk right next to john muir school. it's blocked constantly every morning while kids are trying to get to school. every intersection is blocked by freeway on ramp traffic. it's pretty much the most dangerous part of our commute at this point going page street to market street to polk street, except for maybe parts of polk street. so i've been involved in giving feedback on page street for five years at least, and then, i know the project finally went in high gear for this past year, and i pretty much support the project. you can see it's just going down -- it's a row of parks traffic. it's a few cars getting through the on ramp. it's not a very efficient aromp if it's supposed to be an on ramp, and it's mostly a dangerous for people using it to bike and walk. it's super dangerous for us. i'm sure it'll change traffic in the neighborhood in interesting ways. as somebody who lives on haight street, i think there will be a lot to evaluate how it affects the bus traffic on haight street, but the status quo is really untenable and unsafe for the hundreds of us who use it to bike every day, so please support the project and reject the appeal. thank you. >> president yee: okay. thank you. next speaker. >> hi. i'm robin lovett, a 25-plus year resident of market and octavia. first, i want to thank the m.t.a. for all the outreach they did to the neighborhood. i'm very supportive of the page street improvements. it's an important step of fulfilling the promise of the market octavia plan to make sure this is a walkable, bikable corridor that's not transit dependent. this is a local residential neighborhood street that most times serves as the de facto on ramp to a freeway. i -- i'm glad to see that video of laguna and page she just showed because that intersection is particularly chaotic. the honking that happens there is endemnic. you just saw it. there are blocked crosswalks, road rage. irresponsible driving, people driving the wrong way. i'm going to share a couple of experiences that i've had at the laguna page street intersection. usually, i walk my dog through there every day because the crosswalks are always blocked. one time, i let him walk, and i had to jump on the hood of one car to keep him from running over my dog. another time, i woke up from being unconscious in the hospital because i was run over at laguna and page. also, i've never had asthma in my life, but the air quality in this neighborhood is among the worst in the city. i now have to carry an inhaler. >> president yee: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is burt hill. i am the chair of the bicycle advisory committee. i have chaired the committee since 2005, and i -- and i was also the chair during the time of the bike injunction. how many of you remember that? five years on the injunction with it, and the -- the arguments were similar as what i heard today. we're going over this again. i hope we're not at the start of a new term on this, but this time is different. we spent millions over that five years paying for lawyers, paying for redesigns -- if you saw the booklet and all the work with it, i hope we don't do that. secondly, we have a time when we're -- we have a physicalality of climate change. as you know, you've signed an emergency declaration. we need to be aware that active transportation is not discouraged. [please stand by] >>... will address the issues i've seen on page for years. since 2015, i've been involved in the planning process about the future of page street. and i've attended events organized by the sfmta and the hayes valley organization. i've appreciated the sfmta community outreach. they're trying new efforts, mailers and outreach to people who english may not be their primary language. not just in hayes valley, but throughout the city, i hope you follow through on the need of safety improvements for all residents. i ask that you reject the appeal and allow the project to proceed as planned. thank you. >> president yee: next speaker. >> good afternoon. i live at page and fillmore so i'm a block or two away from the project. i'm very much in support of the paved street neighbor way. every day when i leave my flat, i see cyclists on the street, and i also see cars. and i would like to see a lot more cyclists, because they're more pleasant than the cars i see driving every day. sometimes i'm in fear of when i walk uphill from fillmore of being run over by a car that is zooming towards the stop sign. and then stops at the very last second, as if annoyed that i'm in their way. i hate to live in fear like that. i don't think there is anyone who really thinks about cars as i really want to live near a freeway. i really want to live near lots and lots and lots of cars going as fast as they possibly can all day every day. i don't think anyone in history has ever said that. i will also add that i looked up a page called energy efficiency in transport on wikipedia and it says that a lightweight moderate speed bicycle has the same energy efficiency of 732 miles per gallon. i have no idea how anyone could think a bicycle which consumes no gasoline, consumes the same gasoline as a car that holds 12 gallons and needs to be refuelled. we're in a climate emergency. so, please, reject the appeal. thank you. >> president yee: okay. any other members of the public who would like to speak? seeing none, public comment is now closed. so lastly, i'd like to invite the appellant or their representatives to present a rebuttal argument. you have up to four minutes. >> i would just like to rebut a couple of things that were said here that were egregiously false. one, that are more bicycles than cars on page street. that's negated by the city's own data which is attached to our brief. second, another member of bicycle coalition, 20 or so people there, claimed that this was in the vision zero city zone data. can i point to your packet at page 2197, does state this stretch is not on the vision zero high injury network. mr. preston asked what the burden is on the appellant. there is no burden on the appellant. the burden is on the city to show that this project fits within the asserted categorical exemption which is for data collection. this project is not for data collection as we've shown. and we've shown why. i would refer to pages 2130 through 2132 of our brief. in your packet, we've given several quotes from the city's own data, the city's own documents that say this is not about data collection, this is about a permanent project. city strategy isn't new. done it many times. they're in fact -- indeed, there isn't a single pilot project i know about. i've been doing this a long time, that hasn't been made permanent by the automatic yes-vote for the mta board. we're looking at a permanent project here. whether it's convenient for bicyclists or not, it is about air pollution, energy consumption -- which by the way under ceqa energy consumption has to do with added miles traveled by vehicles, which those add up. especially if you've got more than 5,000 vehicles being diverted in a wide circle or sitting there in traffic on oak street. and you know, will that be the next alamo for the bicycle coalition? only time will tell. the bicycle coalition has already captured market street, putting a number of small businesses out of business. and it's got a dedicated bicycle path there that are only two blocks away. what is wrong with riding your bicycle there to get where you're going? and why do you have to close another street? to cars? and it is closing the street to cars. when you close it to some vehicles and not others, when you close it to some people and not others, when you partially close one block, that is closing the street under the law. so it is unconstitutional. but that's the big elephant in the room we can't talk about today in this ceqa hearing. thank you. >> president yee: thank you. so, at this time, public hearing, item 43 has been held. it is now filed. we will now reconvene as the board of supervisors. we have now items 44, 45 and 46 before us. supervisor preston? >> supervisor preston: thank you, president yee. i want to thank mta and planning for their work on this pilot project and recognize we heard from many residents, not only the district impacted here, but from across the city who reached out in support of the project and against this appeal and no communications in support of the appeal. but, turning to what is before us, you know, this area as is made clear from the presentations from the public comment and the record, particularly the intersection at page and octavia really is a traffic and safety nightmare. and has been for some time and has been getting worse. i want to recognize all the important efforts that have gone into planning and gaining approval for this project. there really has emerged a broad community consensus that has come from extensive outreach, it was part of the mta presentation today. i think a model of engaging the community and developing consensus around improvements that get us to vision zero. this area, particularly the page-octavia intersection, the laguna-page intersections as well, have been bearing the brunt of the failure of the city to control our streets and advance a truly transit-first agenda. and the congestion has been on the rise. the threats to the pedestrians and cyclists there have been allowed to get worse and worse over time. add to that, the rise of tmcs, the advent of the apps that have rerouted drivers onto residential streets like page and the rising population and we have a situation with serious threats to the well-being of pedestrians and cyclists. this pilot is in response to that and i think the record is clear, it's intended to and will gather the essential data for the long-term planning. i don't think the fact that a pilot project often becomes permanent is in itself proof that a pilot project is not a pilot project and is a permanent project. i think that is flawed reasoning by the appellant. the record fully supports the city determination that the page street bike project is exempt from environmental review under ceqa. and i want to note that the city and mta held the public meetings and publications required by law, and in fact, the process resulted in changes to the project that actually shortened the length of the pilot project as we heard from mta staff from 18 months to 12 months, again, defeating any argument i think this is a de facto permanent project. so i fully support the right of appellants to file ceqa appeals when projects are improperly deemed exempt from full environmental review. i think there are times when that is a real issue. the exception to full ceqa review for pilot projects needs to be carefully invoked so it doesn't become a back-doorway to avoid complete environmental review, but in this case, the project falls squarely in the pilot project exception and i find no merit to the appeal. and for those reasons, would like this make the motion to affirm the categorical exemption determination. >> president yee: supervisor peskin. >> supervisor peskin: thank you, mr. president. i had a lot of things to say, but i think supervisor preston said most of them, so i will second the motion. >> president yee: okay. we have a motion to approve item 44, affirming that planning department's determination and table 45 and 46. motion made by supervisor preston and seconded by supervisor peskin. same house, same call? okay, without objection then, item 44 is approved and items 45 and 46 are tabled. madame clerk, i think that will bring us to our public comment. >> just for the record, there was an item, item 49, which under committee reports it was not forwarded to the board as a committee report and is, therefore, mooted. just for the record. >> president yee: okay. >> so onto public comment. at this time the public may address the entire board of supervisors for two minutes on items within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board to include items 52 and 53 on the adoption without reference to committee calendar items. please direct your remarks to the board as a whole and not to individual members of the board. speakers using interpretation assistance will be allowed twice the amount of time to testify. and if you would like to display a document on the overhead projector, just clearly state such to sfgovtv and then remove the document when the screen should return to live coverage of the meeting. >> hi, i'm marissa noel. i'm an -- >> president yee: excuse me. supervisor -- yeah. i'm sorry, were you first in line or was there somebody else? the lady behind you was lined up before you? >> i'm so sorry. >> president yee: okay. come on up. >> linda chapman. actually, i was trying to find out about the item about the residential hotels. and you know, the sponsor will know that i was one of the two people who wrote the original legislation. i had a lot of interest in this and i saw it friday coming up on the agenda. i wasn't able to get any information from the sponsor's office or the clerk who referred me back to the sponsor office. and between now and second reading would there be a possibility of conferring at least? obviously there are good things being done here. i finally got a copy of this yesterday. but i'm very concerned about having heard somebody from the mayor's office of housing saying we lost residential hotel rooms. i tried to get in touch with brad paul. the last i heard, we had safshed all -- saved all of them. i know some were lost in my neighborhood. one of them came back. but not entirely because i talked with one of the women who lived there. they said they caught the man. so some of the rooms were returned, but there were others that were not. and then colin beanie. you heard about that. i objected when i saw posting up on one of his buildings on hyde street it was going to convert. i was informed it was okay because he was going to give rooms that would be residential on bush street. but i think you've heard a little about that. what are they? they're a dormitory for his music students to run around naked, 15-year-olds and 35-year-olds. and when i go by there, there is a huge construction site. so whether there are hotel rooms there or not, i don't know. >> president yee: thank you. next speaker, please. >> i want congratulate supervisor preston and welcome him to the meetings and hope you're on our side. i'm a cab driver in san francisco. we've been coming here too long. the promises are not happening. we're tired. when we were sent letters from the sfmta in bold letters it said this will be your last chance to own a medallion, what do we do? drink the kool-aid, right? automatically do it. trust you guys. i forgot my glasses. we were unjustly backed up against the wall and both the sfmta and the board of supervisors that approved such an unlawful and cruel wrongdoing should be further investigated because the malfeasancmalfeasan. the city of san francisco generated millions of our dollars. not only should we be given our principles back and the medallion, but we should be given interest on the money that we lent to san francisco to bail us out of the recession. compound interest. i also want to add the continuing delay tactics that are currently being exhibited are almost even worse. you're causing many of us to stress level that we can no longer put up with. we now are in major state of depression that is only climaxed by suicide. some day maybe one of you will be the mayor of san francisco and i want to know, who is it? who is going to step up for us -- [bell ringing] >> president yee: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon. i'm speaking on the medallion holders. thoughtful, sfmta scamsteres have defrauded us. due to that, our families have been devastated. do not be misconception we will be repaying these payments. we will be bankrupted. our money should be refunded. sfmta developed their employment, we develop our taxi business. transportation supervisor to destroy taxi with uber and lyft. nothing is left for us. we expressed our deep anguish on the situation. you stole our money. hypocritely to delay our funds is to deny it. you put our life at risk. we're dealing with catastrophic situation. depression. we do not want to die in deficit. we do not want this bad karma, because bad karma suck blood. wake up, give us our money back and buy back our medallions, thank you. >> president yee: next speaker. >> good afternoon. i'm joe kelly, a resident of san francisco for my lifetime. i'm here today as a concerned citizen. many times i've attempted to make it down here and i haven't. i feel for these guys who just spoke. i really do. the mta, just general observations, i appreciate your service all of you, but my observations are not going to be kind today. compassion is a driving emotion in my life. i have deep, deep compassion for all human beings. but i'm completely frustrated with how this board operates. i wrote some things down. one of the things i wanted to decide, you know, the idea of these bike lanes. i came down here last time when we put the masonic bike lane in. i encourage you to go spend a sunday there. no one uses it. it was a complete waste of taxpayer fund. there is another bike lane two blocks over, for 25 years. i rode my bike 25 years ago on that bike path. please, please, please, stop wasting our money. i've taken time out of my work day because i've reached my boiling point with this body. you were elected to serve the citizens. i wanted you to know how disappointed i am with this body's performance. if i was a high school civics teacher, you would be held back a year. that being said, i understand the citizens need to accept responsibility for incompetency in the city's government, because we do not vote. but please, i encourage you to raise your level of discourse in this body. i come down here and you guys are talking about bike lanes. [bell ringing] we have a budget of billions of dollars -- >> president yee: thank you. thank you very much. >> hi, my name is jess. i'm a student at city college. today i was crying because of the vote as it just gutted me. as a student organizer we've been working so hard -- >> president yee: excuse me. stop the clock. just to remind the speakers -- >> i'm not going to talk about it, just my reaction to the vote, i'm sorry. when we heard today that supervisors had the obligation to shine light and we're asking to shine light on the situation at city college. students should not be punished by the corrupt and controversial chancellor or the incompetence of our board of trustees two of which work in city hall. last week they stated the same concerns that students share. and we'll tell you what we told our board of trustees this saturday. it's not what did you know and when did you know, it's what did you do? students don't have the political platform or clout to fix city college and we need our elected politicians and trustees to help. because students of color and marginalized communities are suffering. we cannot turn our backs to their narrative and suffering. that is privilege and inhumane. this is part of a long difficult dialogue, but it requires true partners who will listen, who truly listen to those who are suffering. our city did not win the super bowl, but our city deserves a win. labor council, harvey milk, glide and others support the emergency bridge fund. students have passed a resolution to do so, too. we are city college residents, voters and constituents. we should not be the hallmark of the trustees and asking for accountability. it's not fair for students. i used to work, so i know about fraud and i want you guys to listen. >> president yee: next speaker. >> my name is roger scott. i have been with aft2121. i taught at city college for that same length of time. i've been a teacher in other countries as well. i think all together, 48 years. and i believe in the value of education. i think the economic democracy and true equality have no greater allies than formal education, than accessible and affordable higher education. i believe that -- i'm skeptical of certainty to not be certain that the board should continue to support the bridge funding for city college. >> mr. president -- >> however -- >> sir, pardon me. mr. president, i'm pausing the speaker's time. this is an appropriate moment to say that you may not comment about the bridge funding for city college. that item has been continued to february 25th i believe? or february 11th? >> president yee: no. it was not continued. it was passed. >> so it is no longer before the board. my apologies. the other item, there is no speaking about the page street project as well. >> thank you, have a good evening. >> sir, you have a minute left, you are able to speak. >> i don't need it, thank you. >> president yee: thank you. >> good afternoon. i'm a disabled vet. i want to speak on the unethical practices compounding the homeless plaguing this town. superficial agencies that offer limited and inadequate services to tenants threatened with housing loss. they failed to act on tenant grievances and with no oversight, tenderloin development corporation violates federal housing codes, rat provisions. and in retaliation, tenants have been wrongfully evicted with unfounded stay-away orders by housing court judges haynes and lamb in collusion with a landlord attorney daniel bornstein. all this in violation of judicial codes. lawfully protected tenant defenses against retaliation on clean hands. and suppressing tenant evidence. if you wish to review incriminating material and more, i have it. at your request, i left my name, number and address. thank you. >> president yee: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon. i'm marissa noel, a tenant and artist at the dovetail community at 2021 11th street. i'm here today as our landlord is trying to evict us despite knowledge of us living in this space for over five years and despite us working in good faith with her to legalize our space. we are one of the last live-work artist communities in soma offering housing and work space at below market rate. we are also an activist collective and we host voting parties, we host spaces to meet candidates and talk about the issues. i've spoken at city planning twice. and they appointed me in the direction of the board of supervisors. so i'm here imploring your help to help us save our space and keep our home safe and sustainable. thank you. >> president yee: thank you. >> good afternoon. my name is edwin. i'm a codirector with legal services as well as a member of the bring omar home committee. this is in reference to item 52. and so i ask you to please vote in favor of this resolution to bring omar home and also to join the 31,000 online signatures that this committee has obtained over the last several weeks. this is an opportunity as a city to collectively stand up and not just in solidarity, but in action, to support black lgbtq muslim asylum-seekers and to proudly say that the department of homeland security and president trump are not above the law. and that we must urge d.h.s. to comply with a federal order that has already been issued. omar is a vital part of the social fabric of san francisco. he has touched so many lives, not just in the mission district where he resided for 10 years, but all over san francisco and the bay area. i'm here and joined with the bring omar home committee, which is the black alliance for just immigration, the black lgbtq ia+, community divided, omar's chosen family and legal services. so not only are we making a collective stance, but we're also as a city and county collectively standing up and saying that d.h.s. and the president are not above the law. they must comply with the order to bring omar home. thank you. >> hi. good afternoon. my name is hailey kay. i'm here to comment on item 52 as well, a resolution to have the board of supervisors urge the department of homeland security to comply with the federal order issued by u.s. district judge charles brier to return omar back to the united states. it is currently not being complied with and is incredibly urgent. please consider voting in favor of this resolution. your support means the world to us and it means omar's safety. thank you. >> good afternoon, i'm here to read a statement on behalf of scott wiener. i want to express my support for omar, an lgbt asylum-seekers. our president is now ignoring a court order directing his return. this is shameful. it's a matter of life and death. i urge federal officials to joinmy call and step up to demand he be allowed back in the u.s. i support the resolution to let omar return to san francisco. thank you. >> supervisors, i'm the director of the network. and i'm here to support, to ask you to support the resolution, because omar is in a very precarious situation. before this situation, no one knew that in chad omar has this sexual orientation. and now everybody knows it, so he's really, really at risk. to summarize his situation, what it is like to be immigrant, black, sexual orientation and muslim. when they decided they're muslim ban to go after more african countries. so leaving omar there is a death sentence. there has been justice decision. so why? can't we just all of us help immigrants who are fleeing in justice to believe that you're in america, justice is real for everybody. so, please, support this resolution and let's save omar's life. thank you. >> hello. i'm sandy. and i'm a bay area organizer and have been organizing in san francisco and i just want to express my support for the resolution on items 52. and i also just really want to challenge san francisco to think about even going a step further and looking at pursuing litigation and legal action against the department of homeland security. i really want to stress how important it is, not just this year, but going into next administration or even the continuance of this administration, that we really, really severely need oversight of local cities and local counties, because the federal government is not holding itself accountable. and we see that, which is why we're here. i just want to challenge you all to think about ways that you can take this a step further. and actually defend san francisco residents and prevent this from happening in the future, where challenging the federal government to do what a judge has already ordered them to do. so thank you so much to the leadership of hillary for taking this on. and hope that the board can support that. and look into what they can do even further. thank you. >> good afternoon. i'm a cofound over the black lgbtq project. i'm here also to comment on 52. organizing in san francisco, oakland and berkeley, there is a lot of fear in the central american, caribbean and african migrant community, particularly because omar was a beloved member. and they are constantly stressed out that what happened to omar is going to happen to them. this is a public health issue. it's not just about one person. it's about letting everyone know in san francisco that they are represented regardless if they're undocumented or underdocumented. i was undocumented for 17 years. i am now legal permanent resident, but i can still be deported at any moment. i am queer, black, transspectrum and i am black. if i am in fear, i can't imagine how undocumented are living. so i'm here to urge you to vote yes because it is a public health issue and not just about one individual. thank you. >> hello. i'm a community advocate for asian americans. thank you so much, for introducing this resolution. it is much needed. i'm also part of the bring home omar committee. excited to be here, because omar like many immigrants and refugees, because myself, as a daughter of a refugee, we know what it feels like having to flee from war. but where he's at, every minute these there, his life is at risk. i have protection. i can't be deported to cambodia, because a domestic abuse survivor. so i was grateful for an immigration judge who stepped in and offered that protection. if you want to encourage you to do that, because collective power is the movement in the making. and we do work around immigrants that are like omar and many that will face similar situations. and it's really for the pass to say that we stand with omar and san francisco and that california remains strong together and do what we can to bring omar home. and be that leading role for other cities, communities. >> president yee: thank you. >> hi, good afternoon. i'm sarah lee. i'm with asian law caucus. i join everyone else here to support the resolution to bring omar home. one thing i wanted to note, last year, supervisor walton introduced a resolution similar, condemning the deportation of southeast asian and lifting up. and the city of oakland passed their own resume loose and right now -- resolution, and right now the state. what happens here has impact, not only for omar, but others in his situation. >> thank you. tom gilbert. nightmares, the impeachment complete with mitch mcconnell's new standard of sworn oath. alternative facts, new version of the sworn oath, alan dershowitz, the president can do anything to get himself re-elected. nightmares. no republican senator standing up, no evidence, no testimony, lock stepped with a party that accepts jerry man derring. we call it a kangaroo court. that what i heard about the soviet union trials. now here we are. nightmares. kobe bryant. nightmares. collusion, hacking. who knows? the democratic party, new rules allowing bloomberg to enter. the s.f. scandal. trump's state-of-the-union address. nightmares. kangaroo courts continue. kavanaugh investigation. and this independence -- impeachment. turning a page. private lands. financially purchased for oil-drillers with their financial bankers making a strike, selling that oil for profit to -- pipelines. so refiners can make money. san francisco, private ownership of land sold to financers to make a profit on private property. [bell ringing] >> president yee: thank you. >> good afternoon, board of supervisors. i was looking last week at the minutes of the board of supervisors meeting of january 28. 36 votes were taken on ordinances, resolutions and other items. 35 out of the 36 passed with zero opposition. okay. this says one thing to me. that the real meeting has already taken place and this is just a show. this is a show meeting, much like the show trial on tv which we recently suffered. everybody knows the outcome. it has already been decided. which brings me to the january 7th resolution. 191301, supporting the resettlement of refugees within the city. now this is a federal program and not run by the city. but ironically, we fail to see the refugee population created by conditions in our city. the streets full of excrement, the lack of law enforcement, the corruption, most recently illustrated by our crooked d.p.w. chief. there is high cost of housing. low quality of life. and high taxes. refugees are created every day here. and they depart to escape the intolerable conditions i mentioned. it's hypocrisy so show humanity to strangers. residents are last. >> hi, good afternoon. my name is dana. i'm here to talk about corruption. i'm really happy to see my supervisor haney talking about corruption as a systemic issue related to the dysfunction in planning and d.b.i. i'm here to say, yes, keep pulling on the thread there. there is a lot of there-there. we have decided like our premium process is designed to be dysfunctional and that creates an environment where, of course, you have corruption because that's the only way to get anything done. we have a lot of discretion without accountability or transparency. and like all you need is a person to come through, like they always do, and take advantage of that. we need big structural change to clean up this mess. we need to replace discretion with clear, transparent rules wherever possible. we need to end the culture of anyone can appeal anything. looking at the planning code, a lot of it is designed to not have things happen. last year, a 10-unit apartment building was approved in bernal heights. it took 40 years. that is not a functional city. we need to fix this, because thinks at the core of -- this is at the core of all of the corruption we're seeing. >> i support oumar. i've probably made a mistake at street closure thing. just want to say that. but i want to go back to the point how heavily embedded petroleum and fossil fuels are in the way that we live. there is about a gallon or so of fossil fuels consumed just by the products we eat every day and if we have a higher expense diet than that, it can be 2-3 gallons. that thousand to one calories to the actually calories we consume. it's embeded as transportation. it's embedded as bringing water to distant parts, thousands of miles where the land is. it's embedded very much in the fertilizer that consume massive amounts of petroleum like ammonia. there is only two acres of productive farmland for every human in america. how do you make the magic of the food we get is heavily underpinned by petroleum at this point and speaks how difficult it is to address global climate change. it's going to be a challenge. and i've looked at it and i've come to believe the consensus of the evidence is that when you build a city with a population density over 10,000 people per square mile, certainly over 20,000, you don't get a net environmental benefit from that. it's too difficult. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> hello. my name is harry. i'm instructor at city college. i'm concerned with the manner that two public comments were reported from your january 28 meeting. the speakers were mayorly hearn, she's from the group equity for older students and advocating for older adults and the other speaker was myself. the description of the comments was generic. referring to the impact of the class cuts at city college, but that does not do justice to what you actually heard that day. so i was speaking basically about the -- not only the history of city college, how it was formed, but the education policy, so the official education policy of the state of california, the statement that all adults in california are entitled to quality publicly supported continuing education opportunity. so how does san francisco bring that about? is it by ignoring a city college that is cancelling its programs for adult education? it also goes on to say participation in other courses designed to meet the particular needs of the local community. so that's what we're about. as far as ms. hearn's comment, she brought to your attention that governor newsom's executive order n1419 from last june announced a plan to establish a master plan on aging to be written, coming effective this year. the executive order is inspired by the subgrowstantive growth i senior population, referring to dignity and how to enhance their quality of life. please consider that. >> any other public comments at this point? >> good afternoon, supervisors. i'm peter warfield. speaking for equity for older students and we can be reached at equity 4 older students at proton mail.com. late last week -- well let me start out, i'm asking the supervisors do not let city college die as a community college. and that's what is happening. you might say in what way it is dying? there are ways to describe it, but it looks like the board of trustees and the chancellor only have a plan to chop, chop, chop, cut, cut, cut, and not go for other potential solutions which i think you could help city college with. the city college needs a lot of help and when one of the things that joint committee heard supposedly from the chancellor, the trustees and the administration, the chancellor didn't know at the joint committee. and they basically ripped the chancellor and the folks that were there for not having any kind of plans or figures about what is going on and how they're supposedly taking care that city college is going to be on a solid financial basis. supervisors, the school board, and those members of that committee were very unhappy with the -- [bell ringing] -- almost no information that was related to the topic that they actually brought. the previous meeting of the joint committee, nobody showed up from city college whatsoever and even the two trustee members of the committee didn't show up. what is going on was asked? and we ask, too, what is going on? i hope the supervisors will seriously look into what is going on really. thank you. >> president yee: thank you. any other public comments? seeing none, public comment is now closed. madame clerk, let's call the adoption without committee reference items 52 and 53. >> items 52 and 53 were introduced for adoption without reference to committee. a unanimous vote is required for resolutions. alternatively, any member may require a resolution to go to committee. >> president yee: anyone like to sever any items? >> supervisor ronen: yes, please, 52. >> president yee: madame clerk, call 53. >> on item 53, supervisor stefani. stefani aye. walton aye. yee aye. fewer aye. haney aye. mandelman aye. mar aye. peskin aye. preston aye. ronen aye. safai aye. there are 11 ayes. >> president yee: so this resolution is adopted unanimously. let's see, madame clerk, call item 52. >> item 52 is resolution to urge the united states department of homeland security, u.s. senators dianne feinstein and kamala harris to ensure oumar's return to san francisco. >> supervisor ronen: thank you. i just wanted to thank all of the community members and organizations and friends and family of oumar for coming out, supporting him, having his back, fighting for him in the courts and in the halls of power. you're an inspiration to all of us. i want to pass this unanimously today and ask all my colleagues to support the resolution, because we need the help of our federal representatives, senators harris and feinstein to demand that d.h.s. bring back our community member to his home so they can fight his -- he can fight his case for asylum. i want to thank my colleagues who have cosponsored this item with me. supervisors mandelman, haney, fewer, mar, and stefani. thank you so much. and may he come home as soon as possible per the federal district court order of justice charles brier. thank you. >> president yee: okay. supervisor preston? >> supervisor preston: i would like to be added as a cosponsor. >> president yee: all right. same house, same call? without objection, this resolution is adopted unanimously. colleagues -- [applause] madame clerk, please read the in memoriam. >> today's meeting is adjourned in memory of the following. on behalf of supervisor ronen, for the late ms. jackie jones. on behalf of supervisor peskin, for the late mr. robert. and on behalf of supervisor walton for the late mother essie webb jones. >> president yee: that brings us to the end of the agenda. madame clerk, any other further business before us today. >> that concludes our business for today. >> president yee: thank you very much. we are adjourned. ♪ >> about two years ago now i had my first child. and i thought when i come back, you know, i'm going to get back in the swing of things and i'll find a spot. and it wasn't really that way when i got back to work. that's 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 don't know if she could have continued to provide breast milk for her baby. not all returning mothers have the same access, even though there's existing state laws on the issues. >> these moms usually work in low paying jobs and returning to work sooner and they don't feel well-supported 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. let's 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 doesn't 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 it's all right in here. you can wash your pump and put your milk away and you don't have to put it in a fridge that you share with co-workers. >> 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 don't 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 don't feel comfortable asking their boss for lactation accommodations. really it's hard to go back to the office after you have become a mom, you're leaving your heart outside of your body. when you can provide your child food from your body and know you're 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 don't 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. ♪ ♪

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