Emergency, the commission on the environment meeting room is closed. Commissioners and Department Staff will be participating in the meeting remotely. This precaution is taken per student to the pursuant to the statewide stay at home order. Public comment will be available on each item on this agenda. Sfgov tv. Com is streaming the number at the top of the screen. When connected dial star three to be added to the queue. Best practices are to call from a quiet location, speak clearly and slowly and turn down your television or radio. Alternatively you may submit Public Comment in the following ways. Email to the department of commission affairs, if you submit Public Comment via email it will be part of the official file. I will call the roll. [roll call] we have a quorum. President stephenson next agenda item please. Clerk next item is the president s discussion. President stephenson good evening everyone thank you to everyone who made it to this meeting. Let me share some best practices. If they havent already done so i will ask all member of the commission to mute themselves to minimize background noise. You have to remember to unmute yourself in order to comment. There are Staff Members in the background who will be managing the technological functions of the meeting. Again, we ask everyone to be patient as we make these adjustments. Since we expect several Public Comments from the public tonight, well be holding each Public Comment on each agenda item to two minutes. I appreciate the diligence of the staff that facilitated the meeting. Each commissioner who gave their full attention to the digital experience. Were Getting Better about each time we do. Another good news were opened up a policy Committee Meeting in september. Please be on the lookout for more information about that. Personal note, over the past weeks and months, i spent lot of time looking for Silver Lining in all of this covid stuff. When i enjoy a walk or bike ride with my family down a busy street that are nearly traffic free, i try to take a moment to notice the slowness, to reflect on it and feel the gratitude that grabs me these days. Each evening when my family dinner we spent few minutes doing what we call are grateful. Even my 4yearold gets into it. Talking about what she was most grateful for during her day. Despite the difficulties of these times there are Silver Linings. That are found that our mild weather let us spend lot of time outside, were able to site in the park 6 feet away from our friend and laugh over picnic and that our hospitals are staffed with some of the greatest talent in the medical world. When i take the time to look for i notice the quietness and lack of traffic and the things we once took for granted. Noticing these things on a personal level made me think before broadly about our city. Other opportunities that exist now that didnt exist before. Conversations that we can have now that were not available to us before. Can we rethink about how we live and work and travel within our city. My challenge to all of us here on this commission is this, are there opportunities to be found specifically in our environmental work for the city. Does this covid slow down give us a chance to do things that we couldnt have imagined before. If it does, what are those things and what are the first steps we need to take that off. I think one of the best examples can be found within the important topic of Environmental Justice. This is a moment where we can ensure all the work we do as a commission and department, helps nose among us who need it the most. Can we ask ourselves every time and for every decision we make, who does this help first . Until we make sure were trying to assist the neediest among us first. We want to improve not only our ecological home but livelihood of our resident the and businesses through our Climate Action initiative. As city continues to focus on racial equality we as a commission need to do likewise. Im very much looking forward to all the presentations and discussions in tonights meeting. Is there any Public Comment on the president s welcome . Lets open up Public Comment for this item. Members of the public who wish to speak, you should now dial star 3 to be added to the speaker line for this matter. Clerk operations can you let us know if there are any callers ready if they have not already, please press star 3 to be added to the queue. For those already on hold in the queue, please continue to wait until your turn to speak. Operations . We have one caller currently in the queue. Clerk go ahead caller. Hello. My name is barbara im a San Francisco resident in district 6. Its polluting and its dangerous to life property. I work about gas leaks especially in earthquake zones like ours and have experienced of 1989. In addition, i used gas stoves in the past i thought them to be superior to electric. Ive now used an induction stove for several years and its much cleaner and works just as well. Its a fact that electrification reduces Greenhouse Gas emissions by up to 60 compared to mixed fuel construction. It will also result in lower utility bills, something we all want. Finally, eliminating natural gas installations will be safer for families, leaks, fires and associated Health Problems from the pollution. Causes. San francisco will be a leader in driving construction thats all electric across the state. Somebody to be proud of. Im asking the committee to consider the following changes to the ordinance. Eliminate the feasibility exception and make fully electric Ready Construction of flying requirement for new construction. Change the definition of mixed fuel buildings to include commercial and industrial uses of natural gas and make the exception process more transparent through the public and for cases that are strictly in the public interest. Thank you for your consideration and taking up this vital issue for our communitys health, safety and the environment. Clerk thank you. I want to remind callers please keep the substance of your Public Comment to the agenda items thats at hand. This is the president s welcome. Well be commenting on the president s welcome. If you wish to comment on natural gas, i believe that is later on the agenda. Operations are there any other callers in the queue . There are no more callers in the queue. President stephenson thank you. Hearing no callers, Public Comment is now closed. Next agenda item please. Clerk [agenda item read]. President stephenson commiss ioners is there any discussion on the minutes of the june 10th commission on the environment special meeting . All right, do i hear a motion to approve the minutes . Ill move to approve. Second. President stephenson second by commissioner wan. Are there any discussion or changes to the minutes . Is there any Public Comment . Lets open Public Comment. Members of the public who wish to speak on this item can dial star three to be added to the speaker line. Clerk please let us know if there are callers ready. If it they have not already p please press star three to be added in the queue. There are currently no callers in the queue. President stephenson okay. Thank you. Seeing no more Public Comment or discussion, call the roll. [roll call vote] motion passes. President stephenson all right. Next item please. Clerk [agenda item read] next item is general Public Comment. This item is for Public Comment and discussion. President stephenson lets open Public Comment. Members of the public who wish to speak should dial star three to be added to the seeker line for this matter. Clerk please let us know if there are callers ready. We have one caller in the queue. Clerk caller, you have two minutes. Good evening commissioners. Im Richard Rothman im a senior citizen. I have to comment about i worked for the city, communicated with City Department over my lifetime. The staff on the environment is the worst department ever. If you spend a general comment in, if they answer, they dont put their name or the last one i got was from julia, she doesnt give her name or phone. When you call City Department, you should get a Contact Information and somebody to talk to live because these people dont respond to emails. They didnt answer my basic question, which im going to discuss now. Ive been recycling the i use recycle bags when the pandemic started, i started using paper bags and i recycle them to put my dry garbage in. I found out on a newsletter supervisor fewer, that now you have to pay a quarter for a paper bag or take your groceries outside. I did it twice. I went to one large store and where they are set up area was, i was kissing the people coming out. So much for social distancing. The second Corner Grocery store i went to [indiscernible] were in the middle of a pandemic. I think my life is more important than having to pay a quarter for a paper bag. I think this should be suspended for Senior Citizens or suspended period until the mayor says that were going back normal and. [beeping] thank you, caller. Are there any other callers in the cue operation . No more callers in the cue. All right. Thank you, operations. Thank you, charles. The next item is item 5, an update on the departments ongoing Racial Equity hish tive. The speaker is timmy [indiscernible]. This item is for discussion. All right. Director felled, take it away. Thank you. And good evening commissioners and everyone who is listening in. This is really exciting and im excited about todays agenda. And this particular agenda item is near and dear to by heart. You may remember, commissioners, at our last Commission Meeting in june, i stressed the importance of our continued work on Racial Equity in my directors report, i emphasize the work that all of us in the department are doing, in light of the murder of george floyd as well as our ongoing commitment of equity. And clearly, the need for this work is selfevident. Its all around us, covid19 is just the most recent example, traumas that are disproportionately impacting black people, indigenous people, and all people of color. So back in march of tween 18 you may remember that the commission passed a resolution to affirm our commitment to racial inequity. And allot over a year later in october of 2019, the city of San Francisco opened up an office of Racial Equity and also the supervisor, mayor, signed legislation that are mandating changes to City Department and alaska tifts, in order to refine City Departments, on Racial Equity in all the things that they do. In january, we welcomed that feel like hand years ago now but january of this year when, we had our inperson Commission Meeting, we welcomed our Equity Committee leadership and they came to the commission and delivered a presentation. That was talking about the work we were doing to develop a Racial Equity plan. We were vownlded by this critical need right now. And we are committed to examining our role in the department. As staff, and as Community Members of San Francisco so we wanted to bring to you, an update on what we have been doing in the past month and cindy combford, ive asked her to come and present tonight. She manages our climb 8 criminal justice program. Shes going to review with you, some of the work weesk doing on the department, as well as a survey that we have participate in, and qat future of Racial Equity looks like in the next few months for the department. Cindy [indiscernible]. I am the Climate Program manag manager. Debbie, talk about what im going to present today, so im going to start off with some reflection over the last couple of months. Reaffirm our commitment to Racial Equity. Talk about some of our immediate commitments. A survey that we participated in with the office of Racial Equity, and then conclude some next steps. So the San Francisco, department of environment, has reflected on Current Events of covid19 and its disproportionate impacts on American Indian communities, black communities and communities of color. The mores of george floyd, brieona taylor, and countless others, and the under lying government and economic structures that create the platform of these events. We have a responsibility to do better and continue making progress on this critical Racial Equity work. We have also seen an extraordinary mobilization across the country. Every walk of life, every race and every religion vocalizing that this is our time to do something. We see a legacy of white supremacy. Access to nature and other environmental benefits have provided to privileged Community Bus environmental harms continue to disadvantage neighborhoods of color. The environment isnt really about [indiscernible], its about water in michigan and about the air in new delhi. While were not going to solve all of these problems in one day, im proud to work for a department qoz a long history of the Environmental Justice work and we are continuing to grow together. We have so many other dedicated Staff Members that are continuing to address race for the environment. So pursuing Racial Equity say process and its something that we have all been going through together, as a city, as a department. And as a commission there office was founded under the human race comig a city wide gap to close the gaps of racial inequities, found in all fangt ors of city work and to look at our policies through a racial len. This is not something new to our department. Our cole core values is around equity and we have also had Environmental Justice program for over two decades the commission has also adopt aid resolution, affirming our commitment to Racial Equity, and we have been working hard on our Racial Equity plan after the george floyd traj, our director vocalized her commitment to our core values and [indiscernible] our director also identified three immediate next steps when im going to briefly review in the next three slides. Next slide. You may recall from our presentation in january, we provided a summary of our Racial Equity survey, that we administered about a year and a half ago and one of the findings from the survey was staff did not feel comfortable talking to a supervisor about race. And there were many suggestion that is key leereds have needed white [indiscernible] training. Our leadership team, at the department of environment, took a halfday seminar robin deangelo, she offered findings of her work, on analysis of white supremacy, work around whiteness and wight agility. Dr. Diangelo spoke about racism, and the specific ways racism manifests in ways progressive. Via workshops, offered a leadership team, trying for personal reflection which was really an opportunity to identify our complacency with the system of white supremacy. And why i dont want to speak to everyone on our leadership team, i personally walked away from that training next slide. Our next commitment we made was for every staff member to provide mile stoins into their Performance Plan around [indiscernible]. Like many of these other commitments, this is still a work in progress. Several weeks ago, my staff and i developed a template and my team has been pilot pressing work. That may be something within their personal journey or would benefit the Department Around hiring or recruitment and then also one external goal, that would be about engage wct community or around policies. We plan to share it with the rest of the department so everyone can have Racial Equity goals as part of their work plan. Next slide. Our last was training, continuing to make sure that all of our staff is trained on Racial Equity. Well be having staff trainings on our raicialg and social Equity School either next pont or in early september. And also, well be providing on our equity policy, which ill get an opportunity to discuss later in our presentation around the instruction. So that was the summary of our immediate commitment and well continue to develop more as we go through. Several weeks ago, the office on Racial Equity requested all City Departments, fill out a comprehensive survey on Racial Equity