Of the public may observe this meeting via sfgovtv. They may offer Public Comment by calling the Public Comment phone number. I want to welcome members of the public and staff. We ask for your patience during these unprecedented times. We respectfully ask the public to have patience in delays and gaps during the meeting particularly during Public Comment. Madam secretary, would you please call the roll . thank you commissioner. Please say present when i call your name. roll call and please note that executive director is present. We have a quorum. thank you. Commissioners the next item is item three, communications that wed like to provide further instructions for the Public Comment process. Callers can dial into the toll free number and wait for members to be announced. Three minutes to provide comment on each item. During each Public Comment period callers will be instructed to call 18774153612. You will hear a notification when your line is unmuted. It is best to call from a quawet location and turn your television or radio down. Are there any communications from the Commission Members . okay. Hearing none. Next agenda item four approving minutes from wednesday june 3 Commission Meeting. Any comment regarding the june 3 meeting . Hearing none, is there a motion to approve the wednesday june 3dos Commission Meeting minutes . so moved. moved and seconded. Madam, second, please take a roll call vote to approve the Commission Meeting minutes. roll call the vote is unanimous. thank you. Commissioners item five is executive directors report. good morning, commissioners. Great to see everybodys face. I just wanted to start with the federal level actions that are taking place. Following months of delay due to the pandemic, congressional appropriators kicked off the funding debates. House lawmakers are moving through the funding bills for next fiscal bills. However, regular appropriations discussions are occur inning the background of this unprecedented legislative year. Since covid 19 began congress has passed trillions of dollars in emergency funding including discretionary programs normally funded through the discretionary cycle. More than one billion for the Older Americans act programs to respond to increased need ses. S. Additional measures and changes to address the growing economic changes and disasters. We have benefited from the money coming out of the federal government so far and are very much advocating for more dollars. Advocating through c 4a the california area of aging and the National Association of aging. I know that members of our Advisory Council and some of you have advocated for those dollars as well. Thats something that were really going to need in the next year. Despite the continued need for emergency funding, lawmakers are advancing the annual Fund Proposals for all discretionary programs. This has just been a really complicated process. The debates were ultimately insufficient and the restricted budget caps that were established before the pandemic really caused a lot of confusion and problems with getting money out the door. Now congressional appropriators have little legal room to conduct adjustments in the spending bill. This is an on going budget. A lot of the money that is coming down is through emergency processes that they are working on. Hopefully we will find out in the very near future if were getting an infusion of cash for nutritious and Supportive Services for caregivers but we dont know yet. Theres just a lot of influx at the federal level. As we get information about with a we can advocate for well get that information out to you so that either you can decide as a commission or as individuals that you want to help advocate for these dollars to come out. At the state level, the state department of aging is coming out of with guidelines on reopening for organizations that serve over people with disabilities, they are saying that they think they shouldnt fully open up until stage four which is when arenas will open up and concerts and things like that and sports events. The reason they are saying that is the California Department of Public Health is maintaining that older adults are really at risk for covid 19 and given the surge that were in right now they are concerned about saying anything more than that. That said, they did build in some flexibility so that local triple as can figure out how to handle some of these issue with their providers. When talking with the state i like to give the example of Career Center which is open right now and is open right now because they feel they are serving such an at risk population, that population is more at risk if they are not open for them to come in and charge phones and get food and things like that. Im glad for the flexibility and well continue to work with our providers in the community to figure out what works best. Also at the state level there is a focus now on equity and aging. At the state level they have that echoed. The director of department of aging realized there was a lot happening with covid 19 and older adults are most likely to die from it. There were some strange decisions made around crisis care and things like that. The voices of older adults have gotten lost in a lot of the conversations. They are kicking off a series of anti age conversations and the state director of aging asked me and commissioner spears and kelly and katekelly with the ihss authority and kate with the community campaign. We had planned to present at the American Society on aging on the very same issues. They asked us to present to them and a wider audience on some of the work weve done. How agism is particularly prevalent during covid 19. Like weve talked a lot about in San Francisco. Its great were going to be part of that kick off but its a year long process, well have different ways to engage with that process. In addition to that, they are really looking at Digital Divide issues and social engagement. Were engaged with google to obtain a number of devices that i think there are echos that can go into the homes of older adults and help people engage with technology and other Community Using those devices. Now the California Association areas on aging is workingwhat the best way to get those out into communities. Having a pilot to really learn how we can bridge the Digital Divide. Maybe showing that into something bigger which is a partnership with more corporations and, you know, really addressing the Digital Divide knowing people are going to be at home at least for the near future. The other thing thats happening at the state level is the California Departmentsorry. I have all the acronym ns in my head. The state is thinking of proposing a new benefit, a new medical benefit called Long Term Care at home which will help people who need home care, Skilled Nursing care remain in community. A lot of people working on what this will look like. It will be an actual benefit. It will keep people from going into Nursing Homes and get the same services are home. Make a way for people to come out of Nursing Homes and do it safely. Theres been a number of people come out of Nursing Homes because their family is worried about them. The death rates in Nursing Homes and close to 50 of people who died in california as a result of covid 19 have died in Nursing Homes. This is a way of having people come out and live in community with whatever supports they have and added supports from this program so that its safe. Whats been happening is people have brought their Family Members out and they dont have alllet services and infrastructure at home. Its pretty exciting on one hand. There are a lot of other programs that the state already has that they can build upon. There are a lot of questions from the community about what it all means and who will qualify for it and all of that. Im involved in some of those conversations. Cindy has been really helpful with that. She has a lot of knowledge around programs at home like this. We will continue to have San Franciscos voice heard as that unfolds. Locally, the Emergency Operations center, i think most of you know i was working there for a number of months with the feeding unit. The Emergency Operations center for San Francisco has gone to a unified command for a covid 19 response. They haveessentially whats functioning is a new department called the covid 19 command center. Everything covid 19 related is run out of that center. Its still right now, at the center. A number of staff has been offered up from various departments to staff that department and were expecting that those staff deployments will be six months to a year while in the process to continuing to respond and moving into full recovery. Thats been really interesting to see that develop and build. Some of the major things were involved with still are continuing to ensure that people who are continuing to care due to covid 19 continue to get food and on the human side also includes our in home sup rtive e services program. People who are continuing to shelter in place in hotels until theres a Recovery Plan for them and move back out into the community. Thats what that looks like. Were very fortunate and grateful that we have some staff that stepped up to continue that work and who would be deployed at the covid 19 command center for the next six months or so. The next thing is the great plates program. Youve heard me talk about and hopefully heard about in the community. The governors plan to invest in restaurants but also to get meals out to older adults was extended to august 9th. That program is serving over two thousand people at this point and thats really impressive if we look at the other counties in california including la county, were doing really well. I think were the most aggressive in terms of getting people on that program in the county and state. Based on the size of our population. Thats exciting. We are working with the Mayors Office on disability and providing in place. Its with the ihss Public Authority to distribute personal protective equipment to the community starting next week. Thats been a really big effort. Its been a really Great Partnership with the Mayors Office and department of disability. One of the things through the covid 19 response ive noticed the departments have worked closely together to provide the best access and were thinking about how to breakdown silos and this is one way weve done that. Moving on were pleased that we added our new county Veterans ServiceOffice Manager to the dos management team. He has a great history. He came out of the army. Has done a lot of work with hud and other programs, he is knowledgeable about Community Needs and veterans and specifically he has really great leadership skills. We were hoping that the board of supervisors would appoint him as a county veteran Service Officer. That process is a little bit kn fusing becausconfusing because t under the City Administrators Office back in the day, in the year 2000. A number of other offices came under, we never changed the local legislation around how appointment gets made. What happens is still the city administrator makes a recommendation to the board of supers. Were going through that process right now working closely with the City Administrators Office and the board. Were hoping very much that he will be the appointee from the board. That the county Veterans ServiceOffice Manager and the kowpty cy Veterans Service officer will be one in the same person. From a policy point of view, the board of supervisors will agree to that sm wer. Were working to comply with the governors executive order which requires ihss to start conducting initial home visits starting august. We do this virtually when we can. Its very clear from the Governors Office that he would like us to begin going out and seeing people in person. Were working to make sure people are tested for all the equipment they need and they are ready to go in august. Were also working to bring our field based social workers into compliance with the new protective equipment guidance from the department of Human Resources and work with testing approximately one hundred field based social workerred within the next three to four weeks. Theres a lot going on. Its been really interesting to come out of the eo c and begin working remotely and try to make sure that were continuing to have some sort of continuity with our staff and that were having somewhere that were communing in the ways that we did before. It definitely feels different. For meits probably hard on all of us. Got very used to seeing staff in the elevators and lunch room and office, i do a lot of my work that way and engage with people that way. Its difficult getting used to this very different way as the department head. Im proud of our management team, all of our staff because people are just continuing to find new way it Work Together and communicate and to coordinate. I assume that we will continue to do that at the highest level possible as we move through this process over the next year or so. That is it for my report, im happy to answery questions that you may have. no. Thank you so much for that extensive and exhaustive report. I think that the commissioners are begin so grateful for the work that you are doing and the staff. I want to make sure that were expressing that. Especially doing that right now. My response to your report, i just know that you are all working triple what you usually have been. You are all essential. Making a huge difference in our population of San Francisco. Thank you very much. I think when you mentioned our helping in any way, we do get information from staff on how to advocate and what to sa advocate for. Please continue sending us that. The net works that we have, well definitely deploy and provide as much assistance as we can. Any other comments or questions from the other commissioners . Commissioner wong. thank you. Good morning. We appreciate the work that you are doing under such difficult circumstances. You mentioned that the county Service Officer appointment or recommendation has been sent to the board of supervisors. Is the appointment process under the purview of das or are we just a partner of . its interesting because the office thats with usthe responsibility for running the office. The county Veterans Service office itself. The appointment of the county veterans officer actually sits with the board of supervisors. For a number of yearsi have been with the department for 17 years next week. When i got here the officer actually wasnt part of the office, he actually was an employee of the City Attorneys office. When he retired one of the things we talked to the city administrator and the board about was how nice it would be is if the office and officer were actually together. Thats what weve been working to do. It also is a fact that the money for the manager position sits with das. If they wanted somebody else to be appointed they would have to figure out a way to pay for that person. Its a little confusing. One of the things we need to do is fix the legislation. The City Administrators Office would like to be out of this because they dont really work with this office anymore. The office no longer sits under the City Administrators Office. We just never clean up that legislation. We cant do it immediately. Well be doing it hopefully in the next year, next few months. Its a little confusing commissioner. Its one of those city things that just hasnt gotten fixed yet and its not very clear. i appreciate the answer. I just wanted to let you know within the veteran community for veteran Affairs Commission here in San Francisco has registered a complien complaint that no Ven Organization has been considered for this process. And again, i just wanted to get clarification as to how thishow the hiring process actually works. Im being asked questions within the American Legion as to why is it they were never consulted. Not to say that the gentlemen being recommended is not qualified or anything like that. There was no consultation whatsoever. what has happened so far is that our hiring process is a process where we have to go through same