Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Budget And Appropriations 20240712

Good afternoon, everybody. Im cherie miller. Im located in district 5, and also, i am an originating member of the African American art and cultural district in district 10. The San Francisco board of supervisors historic use of laws and policies have targeted and harmed the African American community intentionally and the eventually, and its the cause of Police Brutality and the loss of black lives, and our health and wellness in our community. Defund sfpd. The Police Department has not used the public funding for all of the public good. Greater funding should be directed more intentionally to Community Programs and spaces to strengthen us. No more intentional racist laws and policies . Find subprime loan lenders. I want to thank all of the supervisors for their work. I look forward to meeting dean preston. I have not met him yet. Shamann supervisor shamann walton, thank you for your work and your excellence. We want to continue fighting for our health and wellness and our prosperity. Thank you for your time. I yield my time. Have a nice day. Clerk thank you. May we have the next caller, please. Good afternoon, supervisors. My name is yolanda [inaudible] and im a case manager for the [inaudible] empowerment program, which is part of the San Francisco Sheriffs Department, and i am calling to support the San Francisco Sheriffs Department programs. The department Empowerment Department is a collaboration between the department and nonprofit agencies. The program was started in 2002, and the purpose of the program is to assist victims of Domestic Violence and to help them in their human practice. We have establishing healthy relationship social security, parenting, knowing your rights, and other topics. In my 17 years working with the San Francisco Sheriffs Department, Health Supervisor for Domestic Violence, we have witnessed many stories of survival of Domestic Violence. Many of them got their immigration visa working permits, temporary residency, and have become u. S. Citizens. Including, some became financially independent. Some went back to school, etc. Our survivors have some very diverse ethnicity from all over the world as well as the united states. As you probably know, our current Political Climate clerk thank you. The speakers time has elapsed. Thank you. Can we have the next caller, please. Hi, good afternoon. My name is carla lorell, and im the director of west bay Filipino Service center. Im also a member of a. P. I. Council and soma youth collaborative . I im asking you to support the only learning hub in soma . Today, we started to support 100 young people because our kids cannot virtually learn from home . We are excited and ready to support through Community Hubs while all students are asked to do virtual learning, but it is unequitable and unjust to ask c. B. O. S to do that without additional funding. Currently, we cannot do that. Our program is currently with after school programming, and asking us to expand to before School Without funding is impossible . Now that kids are asked to learn from home, its hard for them to do. Soma youth need to be prioritized. We are not teachers, but we are willing to provide as much inperson support to make sure our kids have a chance to be successful . Please support our youth people and the soma youth collaboratives request for 400,000 to support our Community Learning hub . I have one other speaker . Hi, my name is Heather Phillips and im the director of programming for united players and the soma youth collaborative. I just want to add my voice that these Community Hubs are vitally important, especially for highrisk youth that are dealing with so much in their young lives, and the inperson support that were able to provide is going to ensure violence prevention, less earning loss, and though we arent educators, we can be supportive adults who help take care of young people, help get them into the virtual classroom and make sure that they feel connected. We appreciate all of the work that dcyf is doing, and we would just ask that you continue to add the resources necessary to make this happen as we have the people on the ground willing to do the work. We just need the money to allow them to do it. Thank you. Clerk thank you. Thats all our callers. Thank you. Clerk to the public, if you have not already done so, please press star, three to speak. If you have already done so, please wait in the queue until you are unmuted. At this time, we have 93 people in the queue waiting to speak. Can we have the next caller, please. Hello. Clerk hello. Please proceed. Hello. Can you hear me . Clerk yes, we can. Hi. My name is shonnie jones, and i am with the San Francisco black Led Initiative organization. I am here because its time for the black San Francisco to have a black budget and that means that basically black lives matter and, and we need to be paid in investments and by our governments. Were not being represented by groups that the city needs to hear and feels safe in engaging. We want land and meaningful opportunities and equity for blacks in San Francisco, and that means that the board of supervisors have to get in gear and on board for separation in the city of San Francisco. I yield my time. Clerk thank you. May we have the next caller, please. Hello. Good afternoon, board of supervisors. My name is alison lin, and im with [inaudible] member of local 21. [inaudible] increasingly, your workforce cannot afford to live in the city, and the situation gets worse with every contract negotiation. I was born in San Francisco and have lived here all my life. Growing up in districts 2 and 3 and now living in district 7. I know i want to live in San Francisco, just as i have for 34 years. We bought a house in San Francisco because we plan on working for the city and living in the city until we grow old. [inaudible] i urge you to support a fair budget that supports the workers of San Francisco. Thank you. Clerk thank you. May we have the next caller, please. Hi. My name is shirley, and we have three members of speakers. Hello . Clerk yes, please proceed. Hi. So my name is shirley sang, and i am [inaudible] Chinatown Community Development Center for over five years. [inaudible] that allows youth to gain more experience by leaning towards and giving back to their community. Due to the pandemic, we have [inaudible] and thank you so much for your time and consideration. And next, ill pass onto my next speaker. Clerk is your next speaker ready . Hi. Im calling in support to the points of megablack s. F. , in terms of reallocated funds from the Police Department into the black community. In particular economic justice. San francisco board of supervisors, since the 1950s to today has systematically destroyed the black Community Like freeway projects, allowing for the war on drugs, and other government policies. And so i believe, and im asking the board that it is time now to invest in the black community, and this would be a black budget. I want to thank you for your time and consideration, and in closing around economic justice, i ask that the board of supervisors ensure that theres funding for the Fillmore Heritage Center and other land obtained through urban renewal in historically black communities like bayviewhunters point, lakeview, sunnydale, and make sure that any black land intended to be for private use is allowed to be owned by members of the black community. Thank you very much. Clerk thank you, mr. Crawford. Next speaker, please. I believe he has one more speaker on the line. Clerk yes. Oh, theres no one else on this line. Clerk okay. Thank you, mr. Crawford. Okay. Operations, next speaker, please. [providing comments in spanish] interpreter muchas gracias. I will now convey the message in english. My name is annette. I am a mother of four children, and i am very interested in the wellbeing of my community. My children need to grow up in a safe manner, and they will be safer in my community is doing better. We need subsidies for to be able to afford rent, and we need these subsidies to be easy for us to access so that we can have a dignified place to live, especially for our immigrant families. There are children and young people who are living, sharing their space with a lot of other people, and there are no low cost or affordable houses that we can have so we can have a better life, and the children need them so we can have better conditions. This pandemic has affected our community and has impacted it in a very harsh manner, and we are sharing bathrooms, we are sharing kitchens. So i am pleading with you, supervisors, to please help us out with this situation. Thank you very much. Clerk thank you to the speaker. Next caller, please. Hi, board of supervisors. This is emily lee with San Francisco rising, and we actually have a video Public Comment video that can be queued up now. Its called s. F. Rising combined comments. Are you all able to find that file . [video] [providing comments in spanish] interpreter okay. I will proceed to interpret this portion. Actually, we already have interpretation for the video. Its already interpreted. Clerk okay. You can just let it keep playing. Hello, supervisors. My name is andrea paz. Im a mother, a leader, a primatora, and i live in San Francisco. I would like to talk to you today about stopping the budget cuts to families and communities of colors. Im here to talk to you today on behalf of immigrant families in San Francisco. I hope im able to touch your heart when i ask you to approve a budget that is fair, a budget that will help families like mine to obtain resources either low cost or free. As you know, during these difficult times, many of us, especially immigrant families, have been impacted by the coronavirus. We have lost our jobs our got reduced working hours in our jobs. It has been very difficult for us to pay rent and cover other expenses. It is imperative that we need all supervisors to stand firm and approve a budget that includes full funding for all Community Based organizations that serve the needs of families like mine. Especially i would like to ask you for the restoration of funding for the San Francisco Rapid Response hotline. The hotline provides valuable resources to immigrant families, especially for during the time for crisis like now. Especially for families like mine, the Rapid Response has been like a lifeline during a time of crisis when i. C. E. Has conducted raids in my community. We know you must find the money in the budget to support other programs, so i ask you that you make reductions to the Police Department or other Law Enforcement agencies. Please support the Rapid Response hotline and the families of San Francisco. Thank you. Hello, supervisors. Im joyce lam, political director at the Chinese Association center. We have been supporting chinese families in San Francisco and Building Communities of color for almost 50 years. Im here to ask you to stop the cuts to communities of color. Community serving organizations are facing funding cuts of over 350 million over the next two years, including Rapid Response network, to protect immigrants from i. C. E. Any cuts of services to our communities right now is even more detrimental than it normally would be because people are holding onto a threat to survive right now. We know you must balance the budget and find additional money and we ask you to do that by cutting money from places like the Police Department. Thank you for your time, and please vote for families like ours as you vote for your city budget. Hello, supervisors. Im kevin, and i work for department of children and youth, and im asking you to pass a budget that stops the cuts to communities and children of color. We need all the supervisors to stand strong and vote for a budget that prioritizes the community. We know you must balance the budget and find additional money to do so, and we ask that you do that by looking at Law Enforcement spending which has not served our communities well. We do not believe that we need more police academies, and cutting that program would save 24 million each year that could Fund Important social programs. Thank you for your time, and please stand with families as you vote on our city budget. Thank you. Hello, supervisors. My name is mario. Im with soma filipina and filipina Cultural Heritage districts. Many of our filipino working families are struggling with unemployment and being able to pay their rent which leads to housing insecurity. We need the supervisors to stand strong and vote for a budget that includes programs to protect tenants and provides essential services because these programs are the safety net for the communities that have been hit the hardest by the coronavirus. We know you must balance the budget and find additional money, and we ask you to do that by looking at departments like the Police Department and other Law Enforcement which dont serve our communities. We do not believe that we need more police academies, and cutting the program could save 24 million each year, which could Fund Important social Service Programs like the ones i mentioned. Thank you for your time, and please stand with working families as you float the city budget. Thank you. Hello, supervisors. My name is becky hong. Im urging you to pass a budget that helps s. F. Families and communities of color. During a time of pandemic, mass unemployment, and more, we need to support communities because the decisions that you make will profoundly affect working class people of color for years to come. We also support immigrants through our work with s. F. Island to make sure that families are able to stay together. We know you must balance the budget, and find additional money, and we ask that you do that by looking at departments like the Police Department or other Law Enforcement which has not served our communities. We do not believe that we need more police academies, and putting that program cutting that program will save 24 million each year that could Fund Important social programs like the ones i mentioned. Thank you for your time and fund our services now. Hello, supervisors. My name is david, and today, im joining the call that urges you to fund the programs that support s. F. Families and communities of color. We remain deeply concerned kb t abo [inaudible] last year, the hotline received almost 3,000 calls, and theres no reason for us to believe that next year will be any different. Currently, i. C. E. Activity in the bay area is on the rise. Community members are being hit hard by the covid19 pandemic, and theyre relying on the hotline to get connected to life saving services. So right now, we need all supervisors to stand strong and unite behind a budget that includes programs like these. We need a just economic recovery in this city, and that requires real cuts to programs like police, that do not serve our communities and really investments in the safety nets that already exist and can be built upon to create a Recovery Plan that includes all san franciscans, including those who are most marginalized. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your comments. Before we bring up the next speaker, there is currently 120 people lined up to speak, and with that, operations, next speaker, please. Good afternoon, supervisors, office of the clerk, and everyone present. Thank you for having us with you today. Im doug, cochair of the support Housing Provider network. Our network is part of the Budget Justice Coalition, and we urge you to fund the b. J. C. In this challenging moment in our city, we must also have laser sharp focus on Racial Equity and economic equity. Our citys current Supportive Housing is underfunded to achieve any of those reasons. The support Providers Network urges the following three priorities. At the core of our ask which aligns with the