Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Public Safety And Neighborhood Services Committeee 20240711

And federal orders. Declarations and directives, excuse me. Committee members will attend this meeting through Video Conference and participate as if theyre physically present. Public comment will be available on the agenda. Channel 26 and www. Sfgov. Org is streaming. Your opportunity to provide Public Comment will be available by calling 4156550001. Once youre connected and prompted, you should enter todays meeting i. D. The i. D. For todays meeting is 1462673919. Following that, you press the pound symbol twice to be connected to the meeting. When youre connected, youll hear the meeting discussingses but your line will be muted and in listen mode only. When your meeting comes up, dial star 3. The speaker prompt will indicate youve raised your hand. Wait until the system indicates youre unmuted and you may begin comments. Best practices is call from a quiet location to speak clearly and slowly and turn down your television or streaming device. There be discrepancies we may encounter between live streaming. You may submit Public Comment on todays agenda to email me, john caroll, the clerk of the Public Safety and neighborhood servies committee. My email is john. Carroll sfgov. Your written comments may be send to our office to 1 dr. Carlton b goodman place room 244, San Francisco, california, 91402. If you need reference for this information, you can consult the agenda. Where all of the Contact Information is listed for you. And finally, mr. Chair, items will appear on the board of supervisors agenda of february 9, 2021 unless otherwise stated. Supervisor mar thank you, mr. Clerk. Could you call item one. Clerk agenda one is hearing to consider transfer of type21 offsale general beer, wine, and distilled Spirits Liquor license to Grocery Outlet, inc. Doing business as Grocery Outlet. Members of the public who wish to provide public should call 415655001 and enter the i. D. Of 1462673919 and press the pound symbol twice. The prompt will indicate you raised your hand. Wait until the system indicates youre unmuted and you may begin your comments. Mr. Chair. Supervisor mar thank you, mr. Clerk. Were going to hear from the liaison unit. We have officer here to prepped the report. Good morning. You have before you have before you for a Grocery Outlet applying for type21 license. This would allow them to sell offsale beer, wine and distrilled spirits. There are no letters of protest. Theyre located plot 328, considered high crime. Theyre in census track 9809 considered high saturation area. The station has no opposition. A. U. L. Recommends approval with the following conditions. Number one, sales, service, and consumption of alcoholic beverages should be permitted only between the hours of 7 00 a. M. And 11 00 p. M. Each day of the week. Number two, the sale of distrilled spirits in size smaller than 200 millimeter is strictly prohibited. Number three, beer, malt beverages and wine coolers in containers of 16 ounces or less cannot be sold by single containers from a refrigerator, cooler, but must be sold in manufactured prepackaged multiunit quantities. The restriction apply to say beer not sold or marketed by the manufacturer in a multiunit package quantity. And finally, number four, petitioner shall actively monitor the area to prevent the loitering of persons on any property adjacent to the licensed premise on 253. And as of december 17th, the licensee agreed to those conditions. Supervisor mar thank you so much, officer. Next, were going to hear from the applicants, Justin Zucker and darius terachi. Good morning. The Grocery Outlet operations owner is available for questions. Were excited to be here before you for the public convenience and necessity request for type21 license for a new Grocery Outlet in the bay view, which has been a food desert since the closure of the smart and final in the same location early 2019. The Grocery Outlet will occupy the site of the former smart and final, which itself had a type21 license. Allowing Grocery Outlet to have a type21 license would be in line with what the residents in the neighborhood got used to with the smart and final. Due to the transfer of the alcohol license after 90 days smart and final closure, there must be convenience and necessity. The Grocery Outlet seeks type 21 license to complement its offerings to be a fullservice Grocery Store reducing the need for residents to drive distances to maintain basic daily necessities while being able to obtain alcoholic beverages. In a time when shopping has become a high risk activity and going to the market requires individual to say armour up and protect themselves from covid19, which im hearing requires now two masks, reducing the number of places residents need to patronize, would be a good outcome. The Grocery Outlet will have security measures in place as mentioned by the police officer. And support of the department. And as mentioned, no opposition to the project has been received today. That concludes my presentation. Were available for any questions. Supervisor mar thank you so much, mr. Zucker. I dont have any questions. Do you have any questions . Great, seeing none, why dont we go to Public Comment on this item. Mr. Clerk, are there callers on the line . Clerk thank you. Operations is checking to see if we have callers in the queue. Please let us know if we have callers who are ready. For those of you who connected to the meeting by phone, press star 3 to be added to the queue. Those on hold, wait until youre prompted to begin. Youll hear a prompt that your line has been unmuted. Those watching on cable channel 26 or streaming link or www. Sfgovtv. Org, if you wish to speak, call in now following the instructions which should be displaying on your screen. Ill repeat them. You would lisle 4156550001. Enter the meeting i. D. For today, 1462673919. Press the pound symbol twice. And then press star followed by 3 to enter the queue to speak. Do we have callers for agenda item number one . Mr. Chair, we have no callers in the queue. Supervisor mar thank you. Operations, Public Comment is now closed. I understand that supervisor walton is supportive of this license transfer in his district. So given that, and also the testimony provided by the a. L. U. And applicant, i would like to move that we direct the clerk to prepare a resolution determining that public convenience or necessity will be served by the issuance of a type21 offsale Liquor License to Grocery Outlet at 355 bayshore. Secondly, i move that the resolution incorporates the four conditions recommended by the sfph alu. And finally, i move that we send the resolution to the full board with positive recommendation. Mr. Clerk, can you please call roll. Clerk on the resolution that the public will be served by the service premise, and that that resolution be recommended to the board of supervisors for february 9th consideration vice [rollcall] clerk mr. Chair, there are three ayes. Supervisor mar thank you. Mr. Clerk, can you call item number two. Clerk agenda two is ordinance amendmenting the police code for right to reemployment for certain employees laid off due to covid19. If their employer seeks to fill the same position held by a laidoff employee or similar position and reasonably accommodate employees who cannot work because of family hardship. Members of the public which wish to comment should call the Public Comment number. Ill revideopeat the number, 4156550001. Following that, enter i. D. 1462673919. Press pound symbol twice to connect to the meeting and star key followed by number 3 to enter the queue to speak. The system will indicate you raised your hand. You may begin your comments. Mr. Chair. Supervisor mar thank you, mr. Clerk. Colleagues, the back to work ordinance is an ordinance that would codify policies in effect and through last july through the emergency ordinance reenacted by the board of supervisors and reenacted three times. Simply, this ordinance ask that larger employers rehire rather than replace their laidoff workers. We know workers who lose jobs involuntary have worse Health Outcomes and reduced life expectancy. Prolonged unemployment can suppress wages and earning potential. This impacts workers of color, the right to reemployment offer helps thousands of workers as it does codified in collective bargaining agreements across the country. And now in effect for nonunion employees of larger employers in San Francisco through our emergency ordinance. Laidoff workers have the right of first refusal for their jobs if or when their former employer reopens and rehires. Hiring is prioritized by seniority for each job classification. If a former employees position is not retired, they will be offered any other similar position they are qualified for. It requires employers to provide notice to the city of layoffs, maintain records of laidoff workers and provide information on city resources. It covers employers with 100 or more employees who lay often or more eligible workers within a 30 day period. Eligible employees are laid off 90 days or longer because of the Public Health emergency. All Small Businesses and healthcare operation employers are exempt, as are independent contractors, employees covered by collective bargaining agreements and employees with severance agreements or committed misconduct discovered after layoff. Based on feedback for the emergency version of the ordinance, we made a series of amendments. Many amendments were based on feedback from the Small Business commission and chamber of commerce. The prior amendments that weve made include exempting employers with fewer than 100 employees, exempting Healthcare Operations employers, removing the 90day retention requirement. Adding an employee misconduct carve out for the reemployment offer, carving out employees with severance agreements, removing all of the employ option requirements, the biggest administrative burdens. Offering employment notification by email before mailing. Requires mailing only if email and text is not an option. And streamlines the process. We authorized olcs to issue regulations and do rule making. And finally, we directed layoff and reemployment notifications to oawd and replaces the hotline included in the employee notification with one already managed by oawd. Now, since then, weve made some additional changes for this, the regular version of the ordinance. We updated the employee definition. The definition in the regular ordinance is based on the term used in state labor code. Wage orders, and regulations. Which in turn is also used in the citys minimum wage ordinance, the Healthcare Security ordinance, and the paid sick leave ordinance. Under the emergency ordinance as well as the regular ordinance, if enacted, if an employer is an employer under San Francisco minimum wage law, they are covered. Those apply to employers 100 or more employees regardless was location. In short, theres no intended substantive difference between the definitions. We simply changed the wording to be consistent with the wording of the definition in many labor laws in San Francisco. And then, we also updated the rule making. Theyre receiving the notices in managing the hot line. So it made sense to also shift rule making responsibilities and abilities from olsc to the office of economic and work force development. You know, were going to have a presentation today from oawd on the implementation of the right to reemployment emergency ordinance. Are you here . Yes, supervisor. Supervisor mar great. Thank you. The floor is yours. Thank you, chair mar, supervisors haney and stefani and the office of economic and work force development. Im joined by our strategic initial director and Business Services director. And were going to share information about the activities with the back to work ordinance, the right to reemployment ordinance as its also referred to in the text. Were going share some of the outcomes. And some of the Lessons Learned and some of the feedback and experience with the ordinance to date. Again, thank you for inviteing us to presented to. Im going to go ahead and share the screen with some information here to help guide the conversation. I think weve got screen share take two. Maybe not. Lets see here. Im going to do it this way. Looks like i can share here we go. Take three, four, five. Im going to go ahead and share an overview of notices received to date. And this is information as chair mar shared, this is a process whereby as we said when the ordinance was first proposed, were here to make stuff work. And so in our instance, we levered the San Francisco hotline, which since the first shelter in place order in march of 2020, received more than 12,000 calls. To date with our staff with oawd and Human Services agency staff and Community Partners to help assist with translation in up to seven languages. And of course through our Business Services unit, we received more notices of layoffs for the larger employers and larger layoff events and right to reemployment back to work ordinance, respect to smaller employers though, theres exemptions for Small Businesses. That work is done with the partnership of the first source hiring team. So the data that we have to date again, thanks to our team for sharing and enabling us to present this data to the board and committee, the layoff notices weve received through right to reemployment, as of july 3rd, 2020, up to january 27th, 2021, weve received as of yesterday, 124 such notices. And thats affecting a total of 9,901 employees, as you see. Subsequent to that, weve received with respect to those 124 notices, 45 notices of rehire in the same time frame. That would be with respect to 3,489 employees that have been laid off. Then, of those 3,489, 1,562 is the number that were offered reemployment under the provisions of the ordinance. 991 of whom said yes. And 637 of whom declined. One item i know that chair mar requested of us is to get a kind of comparison with respect to more notices. That will be on the next slide. This gives you a little bit of the demonstration of the monthbymonth activity. You see the peak in terms of receiving the right to reemployment notices here was september 2020. And then, around that same time frame, August September is the peak in receiving the layoff notices. This total is the layoff and rehire notices. The peak for rehire was september. And certainly, less within the months that followed. Again, thats january data through the 27th, which was yesterday. Last slide before turning it back to chair mar, after providing observations and experiences with the policy, weve got a summary of the notices seen within the same time. Those are the larger employers, larger layoff events required under federal law, as well as the state act. 95 notices affecting 5,419. Heres the activity. You see the peak in terms of us receiving more notices in that same time frame. In other words, you see a degree of the pacing of more notices filed with our Office Around the same kind of curve as it were with respect to right to reemployment notices as well. The item i think important to say as we have a degree of knowledge where theres overlap. And where theres separation, there is some degree, not substantial, but some employers that are doing both. And other employers as per the intent of the ordinance that are smaller layoff event that wouldnt be worn required filing this notice with us. Ill turn it over to you chair mar, after making a couple of observations. We look through the first slide. Its important data. Its a good thing to know 991 individuals were offered the ability and the right to return to the work that they had before they were laid off. We dont get the data to know whether or not they would have been offered in the absence of the ordinance. We have data we wouldnt have otherwise had. We have staff that spends time putting the policy to work as part of the work assignment. With respect to implementation of the policy, were able to do that. We do know we have heard from some businesses and policy makers have as well, some businesses have spoken to the administrative work involved. We of course got the letter of opposition from the Small Business commission, who unanimously voted not to support the policy but with respect to our office, were providing the information. Were able to do that and share that with you today. I would like to pause and turn it back to you, chair mar, for questions from you and the committee. Thank you. Supervisor mar thank you so much for the presentation. And for all of the work you of you and your team implementing this really important workers rights and emergency ordinance. I did have a question just from the data that you presented on that. Theres a discrepancy in well, actually, just to note, there are looks like theres 10,000 workers that are covered by the right to reemployment notices that employers have filed with the city. So thats good to see such a large number of workers covered. But then, for the workers that were covered by the right to rehire or the rehire notices, there was a discrepancy, quite a bit, in the number of workers that were covered compared to the number of workers that actually received an offer of reemployment. Yeah. Supervisor mar looks like, yeah, im referring to the under the right to reemployment rehire notices. The number of employees who have been laid off and rehired. Youre showing 3,489. Then the number of employees offered reemployment, 1,652. I was wondering if you have thoughts about what that discrepancy was causing that discrepancy . Thanks, supervisor, for the question. I think even in we were thinking about this even yesterday and discussing and preparing for today. And even this morning, i was doing research with with respect to some individuals, who weve emailed with and had phone dialogue with, who have expressed desire to know more about what is happening with respect to the 9 thousand 901, who we know are laid off. And then, the 3 thousand 489. Our office has from day one as weve shared with you, that we would have promulgated rules, has provided awareness, in partnership and through the leadership of our Department Director joaquin torres. Weve made sure weve done our part to do what the ordinance says to provide the framework for employers to comply. And to in many instances ask for this information and to receive it. And log it and share it with you. But the one thing i just as i was looking through with some of our dialogue with callers to the hotline or individuals that have emailed us, and in some cases, weve spent as many as 1214 conversations working through the questions that folks have, specifically the question what can be done . The policy refers to the Enforcement Mechanisms through the private right of action. So we provide referral to public interests, legal guidance around trying to find out that information, what is really going on there. We dont have the Compliance Authority or the mechanism or staffing to do that. The but we feel that within the spirit and the intent of you and your colleagues, of the board to present and collect the information, we can do that and have conversations like what were having right now. Supervisor mar great, thank you. Actually, do you since you mentioned that you have fielded calls from workers wanting clarification of their rights under the right to reemployment emergency ordinance, do you have any do you know like roughly or specifically how many calls oawd has received to the hotline from workers about this particular emergency ordinance . I am going to estimate, chair mar, and say at least several dozen. I know in some instances, there have been some callers who have really engaged in dialogue around the nuts and bolts and even circling back with us to get guidance. So i can quantify that. Weve got a pretty good system whereby we can run a report and get the number for you. I dont want to be wrong. But im going to estimate hearing from staff and fielding some calls myself, that theres at least several dozen over the past time. Several being in the one to three dozen range. Thats going to be an estimate ill shore up, and well get you a firm number on that. By the end of the week. Supervisor mar okay. Thank you so much. Colleagues, do you have any questions . Okay. Seeing none oh, sorry. If i may, chair mar, this is the blessings of having a really fantastic staff here at work force division. Our Business Services director has informed me that weve received 56 emails, so not being too much of a math whiz, is that approximately four dozen. Thats on the emails, and we can run a report on the calls. Thank you for that. Supervisor mar thank you. Great. Why dont we go to Public Comment on this item. Mr. Clerk, are there callers on the line . Clerk thank you, mr. Chair. Operations is checking now to see if we have callers in the queue. Please let us know if we have callers that are ready. For those who have connected to our meeting please press star followed by 3 to be added to the queue if you wish to speak for this item. For those on hold in the queue, please continue to wait until youre prompted to begin. Youll hear a prompt your line is unmuted. For those watching on tv or online, if you wish to speak on this item, call in now by following the instructions on your screen. Ill repeat them. Youll dial 4156550001. Enter the meeting i. D. For todays meeting which is 1462673919. Following that, press the pound symbol twice. Then, press star. Followed by 3 to be entered into the queue to speak for this item. Do we have callers for agenda item number two . Mr. Chair, we have no callers in the queue. Supervisor mar thank you so much, operations. Public comment is now closed. Supervisor stefani . Supervisor stefani thank you, chair mar, i want today reserve my comments until after Public Comments. Thank you for holding this hearing. Weve spoken about this in the past. In the last four times its come up before the board of supervisors, ive voted no. And i have because in theory this sounds like a good idea, but in practice, i believe it has serious negative outcomes, and ill tell you why. At the height of the pandemic, unemployment in the city was over 12 . At that time, more than 122,000 san fransiscans were newly out of work and filed for unemployment. I agree that we need to do everything we can to help them get back to work. Local unemployment has since declined to about 6 . But that number is deceptive, because it does not necessarily mean san fransiscans is back to work. Its more likely businesses are closed permanently. Weve seen that throughout our merchant corridors. And those employees likely have left the area. This underscores the importance of helping businesses remain viable. Ive heard from so many local businesses on the brink of closing, who have rightly testified, that this will delay staffing up for reopening at a time when every hour counts. Many of our beloved local restaurants, who previously employed parttime workers, at more than location, they just hover right around the threshold for this legislation. And they continue to testify that they cannot withstand the cost and time this legislation puts on them. The owners of pizzeria del fina and the grow, as well as others, were in strong opposition to this legislation, because it will jeopardize their ability to reopen all their locations in San Francisco. And losing the jobs that come with it. Even businesses that are now exempt remain opposed. The owner of bowser books on fillmore, who owns green apple books, told me his business relies on foot traffic, populated by locallyowned businesses. His business will not survive if his neighbors do not survive. If these loved institutions close their locations, the beneficiaries as we know are going to be large, big box chain retail, who will have the capital to better withstand the recession and absorb these additional compliance costs. The businesses ive heard concerns from are not large corporations. These are the locallyowned, Small Businesses we all love and that we all rely on. The revenue they generate stays in our community. They employed our residents. And the pandemic and recession are hard enough to overcome without the city adding more red tape, and the cost associated with complying with this legislation. Prior to this pandemic, 265,000 workers travelled into the city for work. This legislation would require that our local businesses offer these individuals jobs before they offer them to any other the newlyunemployed san fransiscans. Meanwhile, our own residents will not benefit from any Similar Program from neighboring cities and counties. The nature of covid has required our opening and closing be sudden and unpredictable. As we have seen time and time again. Businesses had just a few days to be ready to reopen for today. And this legislation requires giving the most senior former employees two days to respond to the offer. If they declined it, it will leave these businesses scrambling to staff appropriately. The Small Business commission unanimously opposed this legislation, and they raised two additional concerns i believe are worth considering. Given that this benefits employees with the longest tenure, it likely provides a great advantage to white employees over people of color, and men over women. The issue for women is especially acute, because women are very likely to have interruptions in employment due to family care obligations. The Small Business Commission Also pointed out this legislation could jeopardize individuals who receive unemployment benefits, if they decline the job offer that their former employer was required to offer. Unemployment benefits, i shouldnt have to say, are a lifeline for women, who disproportionately bear child care responsibilities. And i worry this could force women who must remain home to care for their children to do so without that unemployment support. If they deny the job because they cant go back to it, they dont get unemployment, but theyre having to stay home with their children, because we know our School District isnt open. So make no mistake, women have borne the brunt of this recession. Theyve lost their jobs at higher rates, and nationally, 2. 1 million women have left the Work Force Entirely because of the lack of child care hags put them in an impossible situation. This legislation will not reduce unemployment. It does not create jobs. And it will not guarantee wages. It puts severe new restrictions on our small and mediumsized businesses. At a time when they need more support and more flexibility. And it is likely going to have a disproportionately negative impact on women for the reasons ive just stated. So i have voted no on this four times at the board. And now that its coming before us again, i have to be adamant in the reasons why ive voted no. And although, i think supervisor mar, that the legislation is wellintentioned, i just cannot vote yes on this based on what i think are serious, unintended conwhenses and negative outcomes of this legislation. For that, again, i will be voting no today. Thank you. Supervisor mar thank you, supervisor stefani. I really appreciate your engagement and discussions around this the emergency version of this ordinance. And again, you sharing your perspectives on it as were considering the regular version of the ordinance. However, i want to respond to a few of your points. Maybe starting with the equity issues that you raised. And, you know, i want to say that really respond to specific assertion made in the legislative review connected by the office of Small Business, which suggests this ordinance will affect women of color. We disagree. And find the fact cited in the report counter it. Workers of color and women are overrepresented in the Hospitality Industry thats been the most impacted by the pandemic. And that has seen the highest number of layoffs. Those workers who are disproportionately who are women and women of color are the workers who most benefit from this ordinance. According to the same center for American Progress report, the office of Small Business cited in their legislative review, workers of color are often the first to be fired during economic downturns. And they are often the last to be rehired during recoveries. Racial discrimination will prolong the economic fallout in communities of color, unless lawmakers act now to prevent it. By way of example, we can look at the data from when this ordinance was drafted. From march 1st, to july 24th of 2020, 80 of the employees affected by warn act noticed layoffs in San Francisco were in just three industries, accommodations and food services, arts and entertainment, and retail trade. And of those three accommodations was by far the most impacted. Representing nearly half of all warn act noticed layoffs. These are the same industries that the center for American Progress report cites as being the most vulnerable to potential layoffs during the coronavirus pandemic. In those that more likely to employ workers of color. The workers of color are specifically overrepresented in lowwage accommodations jobs. The very same that have experienced the highest number of layoffs. And the very same that would most benefit from the Worker Protections this ordinance codifies. This report calls for lawmakers to act and act now to help prevent Racial Discrimination in rehiring as businesses recover. Thats partly what this ordinance does. And then, you know, supervisor stefani, i want to also reiterate that we worked with the employer group, including the chamber of commerce and Golden Gate Restaurant Association and the office of Small Business to incorporate their concerns and their input and concerns about the earlier version of this ordinance. And we made it made a number of amendments and changes, as i stated in my opening remarks. Including exempting Small Businesses, you know, less than 100 employees. So, you know, again, the back to work emergency ordinance and now this regular ordinance is based on clear, simple and morale idea. Businesses should retire, not replace their laidoff workers. Covid19 is a crisis for workers and businesses alike. But the cover of a crisis should not be used to treat workers unfairly and replace long time employees with younger and cheaper alternatives. Were uniquely positioned to addressing it. This is a labor town. Today, i ask for your support and your vote in moving this item forward. Thank you. Any other remarks from colleagues . I would like to move i apologize, chair mar. I wanted to add one element to a question you had had because, again, having a great team means access to information quickly. And it was just one further response to your notation around the 9,901 layoff notices. And the 3,489 workers impacted that we learned about through rehire notices. We dont have the information to tell us whether all of these employers have in fact begun rehiring and not filed a notice with us. Or whether they too have not yet rehired because of the pandemic and may do so in the future, meaning that number goes up. I wanted to clarify. Its not known to us what is the number that havent filed a notice or havent filed a notice because they havent rehired. I wanted to make that clarification. Thats the total universe that we anticipate in the 6,000. Thank you. Supervisor mar yeah. Thanks again for that and again for all of the work from you and the oawd team on implementing and overseeing this important workers rights ordinance. So colleagues, i would like to move we send this item to the full board with positive recommendation. Mr. Clerk, can you call roll . Clerk on the motion offered by chair mar the ordinance be recommended by the board of supervisors. Vice chair stefani . Supervisor stefani no. [rollcall] clerk mr. Chair, there are two ayes and one no with supervisor stefani with the dissent. Supervisor mar mr. Clerk, further business . Clerk there is no further business. Supervisor mar we are adjourned. Thanks, everyone. Have a good day. [adjourned] San Francisco mayor london n. Breed. For persons who wish to ask questions, include your name, outlet and up to two clearly stated questions in webex chat. And now we welcome mayor london breed. Thank you so much. And good morning, everyone. I am excited to be here today because we know that most recently we have a vacancy in the City Administrators Office, and i am so proud to announce that i am nominating carmen chu to serve as San Franciscos city administrator. Many of us know carmen over the years. She has served the city and county of San Francisco since 2005. She currently serves as our assessor recorder and in that role she is responsible for managing a team of over 200 people. Under her leadership, the aAssessors Office has reversed a decades old backlog of assessment cases and generating 3. 6 billion in property tax revenue annually to support Public Services in San Francisco. Had it not been for carmens leader snip that role, we would have a budget that was deficient in the amount of 3. 6 billion. That gives you an indication of how amazing and how valuable she is to San Francisco. Such achievements have earned her office the prestigious 2020 Good Government award, an honor recognizing excellence in Public Sector management and stewardship. She currently serves on the San Francisco employees retirement system board where she oversees the investments and policies of a 26 billion public Pension System in San Francisco. Assessor chu has really stepped up during covid to lead our Economic Recovery Task force as one of the cochairs. This was not in her job description, nor was it her responsibility, but when i called carmen to ask for her help because we needed all hand on deck to address the challenges that none of us thought we would be dealing with with covid, she immediately said yes. And with her leadership the task force developed 41 recommendations and policy ideas to make the citys economy stronger, more resilient, and more attainable. Prior to the career as assessor, she was an elected representative of the board of supervisor. When she served as budget chair of the board of supervisors, there was no one who was more fiscally conservative and focused on equity and serving the publics best interest and made sure we understood the value of every single dollar we spent. There was no one more of an advocate in that role than carmen chu when he served as the budget chair of the San Francisco board of supervisors. She also served as the Deputy Director of Public Policy and finance for gavin newsom when he was mayor. Shes been actively engaged in really changing bureaucracy in San Francisco on so many levels. And just to go back to some information about the assessor Recorders Office which was experiencing a lot of challenges, a lot of uncertainty, a lot of confusion, the work that she did to put everyone for the most part on an Electronic System and to reorganize the files in that system was pretty amazing. Now, i know its very bureaucratic and very technical, but to make San Francisco work in a more efficient way that provides information to the public in a way that people can understand so that they can pay their taxes and they can do whatever business they do with the city t work she has done has really been about making sure that the average, everyday citizen in San Francisco who is not connected to city hall, who is not involved in city hall in any way, that they have a voice. And they have some level of understanding and access to the resources we provide. She is the only Asian American woman elected as assessor in the state of california, and she is the daughter of immigrants. Her family worked hard to make sure she had some amazing opportunities to succeed in life, and boy, has she made them proud. The City Administrators Office consist of more than 25 departments and programs that provide a broad range of services to other city departments and the public. And ladies and gentlemen, i am so honored to introduce the next city administrator for the city and county of San Francisco, assessor recorder carmen chu. Good morning, everybody. First off, i just want to say thank you so much, mayor breed, for your confidence in me. I am humbled and im honored by your nomination, so thank you so much for this opportunity. Thank you. If confirmed by the board, of course, i look forward to working not only with you but also with the board to make sure that we continue to move San Francisco forward. I want to speak a little bit about my parents as i start off with the this. My parents were immigrants. Mayor breed spoke about this a little bit ago, and my parents had a small restaurant and we all grew up, my sisters and i, working in that restaurant. I tell you this and i share this with you because so much of our service and so much of what we do in life is grounded by our life experiences. How we were raised. The people who loved us. Those who supported us. Those were part of our lives. And what they taught me was the importance of making sure that we provide honest day of hard work, and making sure you do everything you can in every single role that you play is important. But they also taught me the importance of helping those who are in need. Mike like my parents, not everybody starts off with resources. Not everybody starts off with money, with support, and not everybody starts off with even the ability to communicate or speak english. And i think its recognizing that so many people start off from different places that its a privilege when any of us have the ability to serve in the public capacity. It is this grounding, this belief that government can serve and the belief that government can help to support people, especially in their greatest times of need that gives me the privilege and honor of working as a Public Servant for the city and county of San Francisco. First off, i want to recognize the people of the City Administrators Office. Your responsibility is a big one. The span of your responsibilities serve as a backbone for all of the citys operations. And i really want to thank you, a heartfelt thank you, especially during this time this, time when were asking you to not only carry on with that work that you do, but also to do double duty especially as we continue to respond to an active Global Pandemic. This is something that is not easy. And i know that San Francisco is better off for all the work that you are doing not only in your existing roles but also in the extra work that you are doing to make sure that we respond to with the best way possible to serve is city well. To the people of the Assessors Office, and i simply put and i want to tell you that i will miss you. We built a really great team in the Assessors Office and we have accomplished so much. And things that seemed insurmountable to do and reversing a decades backlog and exceeding revenue expectations in half a billion during my time. And making sure we are completely overhauling outdated tools and systems that we have in our office. These may sound boring to many people, but honestly, it is this kind of attention and this kind of work that really drives change and excellent Public Service. I want to thank each and every person in the Assessors Office. I enjoy working with you on the professional growth and challenges that you took on and i hope you will carry on the accomplishments and legacy with you as you go forward. And finally, i want to close by recognizing and thanking the contributions as city administrator naomi kelly. I understand your decision was a difficult one. And thank you for helping meet the needs of the city during the Global Pandemic when we needed the support to lift up so many things that we have done. The accomplishments are not to be diminished, and icismly want to say thank you. With, that i am available, of course, for any questions. And i am really honored for this responsibility coming forward. Thank you, assessor chiu and we are honored that you are willing to take on this responsibility. I want to provide member of the public with information about the City Administrators Office. They are responsible for overseeing animal care and control, the office of cannabis, the medical examiners office, and the real estate division. The technology division. Our Community Challenge grant, our grants for the arts program, the Mayors Office on disability, risk management, and all of the things, many of the things that make the city run and often times we may have an interaction with any of the departments and not necessarily fully aware that they are all within the scope of the City Administrators Office. It is a major responsibility, one that i know you are up for the task. And i am excited and grateful that you are willing to put your hat in the ring and allow yourself to be nominated for such a position. So thank you so much again, aseser to thank you, assessor chu, and with that we can open it up to any questions. Thank you, mayor breed. Before we start the question and answer portion, we are going to take a moment to allow reporters to submit questions on webex. Okay. No questions, leo . Thank you. Okay. When mayor breed, the first question comes to you from joe with kqed. Mayor breed k you ask ms. Kelly to resign . If so, or if not, why . Well, many of you know better than to ask about personnel issues. The fact is we cannot discuss them. So we will not be discussing anything regarding anything that is personnel related. Thank you, mayor breed. And should she be confirmed, are you tasks carmen chu with any specific tasks to address the allegations of corruption within the city that would be in her purview . What are those tasks . So just to be clear, last year when many of these allegations first began to surface, i immediately sent out an executive directive asking our City Attorney and our Controllers Office as well as all city departments to not only investigate many of the allegations but to also look at ways in which to strengthen our policies so that we can make sure that the things that we saw happen or that people were being accused of are not easy to be able to happen moving forward. So what we did was to make sure that people are on alert when they are making recommendations and changes to the policies for the department. And there is not a doubt in my mind that carmen chu will manage her department and make the appropriate changes necessary to address many of the challenges that we have heard over the past year as it relates to some of the department. Thank you. And if i could just add to, that i think in any person who is assuming a role whether you are leading an organization as the assessor or city administrator, one of the things all of us will be doing is looking very, very closely to make sure we have the systems in place to ensure that there is transparency and how were delivering the Public Service and how it is that we run our organization. These are all things that i am absolutely committed to. It is a fundamental piece to make sure that we have public trust. And there is no Public Servant more respected, who has more integrity, who just basically is one of the most incredible, admirable persons that we have serving the city and county of San Francisco than carmen chu. Thank you, both. There are no additional questions for mayor breed. The next question is for assessor chu from ktfs. As the First Chinese female administrator, what does this mean to you . I think this is this is always a heavy responsibility. I recall back when i served on the board of supervisors. At that time when i was nominated to the role, i was the only elected, only chinese american supervisor serving in the entire San Francisco board of supervisors. And since that time much has changed in the city, but i think any of us, any of us who fill these roles understand that we play a very important spot in making sure that not only do we lead the way but we also create opportunities and how people see no matter where you come from, no matter where you start from, there is an opportunity for you and a seat in government that no matter whether you had resources coming in or whether you were immigrants, that you have the opportunity to serve. And so i think serving as the First Chinese woman as a city administrator, i hope to be able to to put my mark on creating a San Francisco government that works well, that earns your trust, that is delivering services that you can be proud of in San Francisco. Okay. One moment. An i thought someone was going to ask me about taxes. The only questions about taxes is why is my bill so high . Indeed. And the next question is whats carmens first responsibility after the nomination . And that comes from sky link. I think immediately especially during this time when so much of the citys response to covid is important, it is very important to make sure we continue to deliver on what is necessary and respond not only from a Public Health perspective, but also to support the city in the economic recovery. First and foremost, that has an impact on the lives of residents and operations. A big focus right away will be starting to take a look t a making sure we continue to support the efforts. That we do that in an Excellent Way and we also look forward to the future means. In addition to that, were going to continue to look for more efficiencies. Whats going to happen is were going to go through a very tough time. I think the city is understanding that not only are we going to be coming to recovery, but that will mean we have fewer resources at exactly the time when san franciscans need us the most. And that will really require that we do more, that we work harder, and that were creative in terms of how we deliver the best services possible to the city. So in my role were going to be taking very much a close look at this recovery effort, how we support that recovery for the city as well going forward. There are no additional questions. This concludes todays press conference. Thank you, mayor breed and aseser to chu for your time. If you have questions, email the Mayors Press Office at sfgov. Org. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you again. Youre watching coping with covid19 with chris manners. Todays special guest is joshua arsay. An im chris maners and you are watching coping with covid19. My guest today is joshua arsay. He is the director of Workforce Development at the oewdt citys office of economic and Workforce Development, and hes here today to talk to us an about the resource and services that are available to the recently unemployed or for people who are looking for work. Mr. Arsay, welcome to the show. Thank you. Thank you, chris. Thanks for having me. The pandemic has devastated large part of our local economy, and in particular the Service Sector, but i understand there are some services and Resources Available to help the recently unemployed and for people who are looking for work. Could you talk to us a little bit about the workers hotline . The citys resources to help people apply for edd unemployment insurance, and the right to recover program . Absolutely. Chris, as you said, the pandemic has had such an incredible impact on the local economy, and thats because we had to make the necessary Public Health steps and safeguards early on and several times throughout the pandemic when the surged and that has meant closures of businesses and loss of work for so many workers. The resources that you mention are critical. You mention the San Francisco workforce hotline. That was one of the first efforts out of our office in partnership with the Human Services agency to provide a live voice to those men and women who in the earliest days of the first shelter in place order wanted someone to talk to. We were all overwhelmed at the local level, state, and federal to answer the questions and a lot of people were really struggling just to get someone on the phone. And an email address or a voicemail is one thing, but we really found that people wanted to have someone that talk to. As soon as the shelter in place order went in place in mid march, we actually in our office stood up a hotline. We answer phone calls in seven different languages. If we cant get you live in your language, we will call you back in your language. Organizations like mission, Economic Development agency, selfhelp for the elled elderly and help us with spanish, cantonese and mandarin. It is 4157014817 is the San Francisco workforce hotline. There is no question that we wont do everything in our power and ability to answer whether thats applying for unemployment and maybe not getting through with one of our partner. We work very closely with at the state edd to help deal with the historic demand for their services and unemployment benefits. We will help you create your account. We will help you log on. We will help you find out information as best we can about the status of your claim and your benefits. Well do whatever it takes helping you access paid sick leave if thats available to you. Referring you over to our Training Programs which i know is some important we want to talk about a little bit later as well. But with respect to programs like right to recover and other covid relief programs. Not everyone is eligible for unemployment. That might be because they havent worked long enough to accrue the benefits or ones immigration status or any reason at all, there are people that fall through the cracks of the benefit. May not have access to paid sick leave or quality for other public assistance. The right to recover program which was introduced by supervisor ronen and partnership with mayor breed, our office, department of Public Health, will help get you funds to safely quarantine and isolate should you, god forbid, test positive and need help to make ends meet. We will provide some resources to help you with your stay. There is other funds there, again, and the way to access those information and access to those programs specifically is to call notline 4157014817. Five days a week. 8 00 to 5 00. And were ready to answer calls in seven different languages. What resources are available for somebody whos lost their job in, say, the Service Sector . What kind of train canning they get to move into a new industry . For the pandemic, we are foes kued and four areas we are focused on four areas of opportunity. When we look at jobs that are available, we look at the availability of someonement coing from a nontraditional pathway into a good paying job that leads to a career. Those industries identified were tech, construction, health care, and hospitality. You can get training today to go out to learn the skills that will make you a competitive candidate out there in the tech industry, which has had impacts, but is hiring now and we expect is going to grow once again as we reemerge. City build, one of the flagship Training Programs for construction, opportunities with the Building Trades and construction through city college and Union Apprenticeship programs is available. Our next class will start in february. We just graduated close to 40 participants a couple of months back and they are all out there going to work because construction hasnt been as impacted as other industries. Health care will be essential, is essential today, and will be. There is opportunity there is, again, through the website oewd. Org. And Hospitality Initiative and talked about Training Hotel workers, training for restaurant and culinary experts. That work doesnt exist the same as it did before the pandemic. So right now theres opportunities to get some skills in the security industry, preparing for tourism once again, but really what were doing with respect to Hotel Workers and culinary workers especially in partnership with labor unions is supporting those men and women who lost work to prepare to reemerge. I know the citys job centers are still open, but i hear theyre operating a little differently because of the pandemic. What can a job seeker expect when they get in touch with one of the Neighborhood Centers . Right now if you go into one of the job centers, youre going to be at this time doing it virtually. You will be logging onto our website, oewd. Org jobsenters and you can pick one of the different sites. You can call, go online, you recollect email. Weve got a jobs board we put out every week from our office. You can sign up and you can even on our website sign up to get that list of all those opportunities of employers that are hiring. When you go to the job center, you will learn about opportunities to train. We have talked about the opportunity to train in technology, construction, health care, or hospitality or elements where there still is opportunity right now. You will learn about those opportunities and more than anything you are going to get a sense of resources that may be available. Some assistance as we mention around accessing unemployment and other benefit programs, covid relief funds you may be eligible. The most important thing is just to connect whether its calling the workforce hotline, whether its logging on with the job center. The most important thing is to stay connected with us so that we can do whatever we can to support you. So you can go to oewd. Org job centers. Spelled just like it sounds. And access one of these seven great organizations and whether its Young Community developers, meta in the mission, over in the omi lakeview, inner city youth, self help for the elderly. And Central Hospitality house and tenderloins, south market, or the Western Addition Success Center are great organizations to start with. A lot of the work will be virtual right now simply because of the realities of covid19 and not being able to get together and do the work. But the work is happening. Well, thats great. Finally, lets talk about the recent stimulus bill. What measures were included to help workers with covid19 relief . One of the really important steps that our partners at the Human Services agency did was to work with the mayor and our office to relaunch and expand the jobs now program. Jobs now is a weight Subsidy Program and certain workers and can have access to wage subsidy to help pay the wages with an employer who commits to bringing on that individual and going to work. I bring that up because that was a very early stimulus strategy during the last Great Recession under president obamas leadership. And were really hopeful in the early days of the new administration we might similarly see a scaling up of that investment. There is Something Else that were really excited about that is going to happen with the federal government that will impact and benefit san franciscans, and that is in the last year we were able to get some resources, some National Grants to support dislocated workers whove lost their work in particular industries with the state of california, edd office, we got a 1 million grant to support as many as 1200 laid off masconi trade Show Convention center workers. Close to 400 have signed up with the city build program to do a special training to get skills to transition into construction work. We have a similar grant with San Mateo County and San Francisco airport to support the thousands of workers who lost work at s. F. O. And there is a proposal in with the federal government as well to fund that through a retraining and support program to again support hundreds of workers that have lost work. Were very hopeful that we can continue to work to bring those resources to bear and support those san franciscans who need it, those worker who is lost work or struggling or getting ready to come back even stronger. Well, thats very useful. You have given us some great information today, mr. Arsay. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Awe thank you. Thank you, chris. Well, thank you, again. And that is it for this episode. Well be back with more pandemicrelated information shortly. You have been watching coping with covid19. For sfgov tv, im chris manners. Thanks for watching. Good morning, everyone. My name is susan breel, and i am a judge here in San Francisco, and i am the chairman of the San Francisco Human Trafficking collaborative. I want to give a welcome to everyone at this press conference today. We have over 170 people who are currently logged on, including the press. Im going to ask everyone to mute themselves, and i do want to begin by acknowledging the traumatic and horrific events of wednesday at the capitol, a spectacle that radiated contempt for our country, for its laws and traditions, and most of all, for its citizens. I find it profoundly reassuring today to be here with citizens who are responsible, who are concerned, and who are compassionate. I find it conspireing to be here with esteemed and duly elected public officials, who by their concern for Human Trafficking both honor and reaffirm the worth and dignity of every human being. This is our 12th annual antiHuman Trafficking press conference. At our First Press Conference who was then District Attorney Kamala Harris who is about to be the Vice President of the United States of america, so who knows what is in store for our illustrious Public Servants who are here today. Im going to turn it over to my cochair, bonita hawkins, to introduce herself and who is our first speaker. Thank you, judge breel. I echo your sentiments of this week, and a hearty welcome to all who are watching here today and who have joined us here for our annual event. It gives me great pleasure to start our program today with none other that the mayor of the great city of San Francisco, mayor london breed. Welcome, london breed. The hon. London breed thank you, so much, bonita, and thank you so much, judge breel, for the work that you continue to do to address Human Trafficking in our city and throughout the bay area. Thank you to the San Francisco collaborative against Human Trafficking and its cochairs for having me here today. I want to start by recognizing all of the partners, advocates, and awardees who are doing so much work every day to prevent Human Trafficking from occurring in the first place. Your work helps make the city a safer place for everyone. Every san franciscan deserves to feel safe and live without exploitation, but for too long, these tragic crimes have persisted throughout the day despite our best efforts. The risk of being trafficked are very real. Even as we face one of the greatest Public Health crisis of our lifetime, our work to end Human Trafficking in our city must continue. No one should have to wonder every day how they escape from an unsafe situation or experience the daily trauma of being taken advantage of. We in San Francisco have a responsibility to protect survivors and implement new policies and programs that will help us end Human Trafficking in San Francisco, and i really want to take this opportunity to point out the need to address the challenges that continue to persist in the tenderloin, the people who are being trafficked to sell drugs, that is definitely something we should take on and address as soon as possible. It has been going on for far too long. As we are here today to commence National Slavery and Human Trafficking month, i am announcing two new initiatives to prevent Human Trafficking in our city. First, all of our inspectors under the department of Public Health will be trained to recognize the signs of Human Trafficking do you remember their inspections at hotels, restaurants, bars, and other sites. They will be required to report their findings immediately to our San Francisco Police Department for investigation. This gives us one more tool we can use to identify people who may be the victims of trafficking and then take action to get them out of that very dangerous situation. Second, the San Francisco International Airport has installed multiple signs in multiple languages to inform people of the signs of Human Trafficking and encourage them who might find themselves in danger to call the airport hotline and get help immediately from trained s. F. O. Staff. As we know, in these situations, time is of the essence. Our goal is to be both vigilant and responsive so that we can prevent Human Trafficking and get people the care and services they need. I want to thank everyone in San Francisco. I want everyone in San Francisco to know that help is here if they need it, and they do not have to suffer in silence. If you or someone you know is a victim of Human Trafficking, you can call 911 or reach out to the national Human Trafficking hotline at 8883737888. During this years National Slavery and Human Trafficking prevention month, we renew our focus on supporting survivors, honoring their strength, and working on preventing trafficking from occurring in the first place. Thank you to the San Francisco collaborative against Human Trafficking for organizing this very important event and keeping it in the hearts and minds of people throughout this city. Thank you, again, for all the Service Providers and Law Enforcement partners who are working day in and day out to serve and protect survivors of Human Trafficking. I know that, working together, we will make San Francisco a safer place for all those that find themselves in this unfortunate situation. Lets continue to do the work. Thank you so much. Thank you, mayor breed, and thank you for those two initiatives. Please know that we join you in continuing this work. Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule these days during these unprecedented times. And now, i would like to introduce the u. S. Attorney for the Northern District of california, david anderson. Thank you, bonita. Thank you so much for including me. I want to thank you and i want to honor the remarks by the mayor and also judge brielle, and also everyone who has joined here the San Francisco collaborative against Human Trafficking, and this conference at the beginning of every year is such an important reinforcement of work that were all doing to combat Human Trafficking. So as u. S. Attorney, i lead all federal prosecutors, also known as ausas, in enforcing federal law in northern california. And i want to mention one particular ausa to this group, someone whos known to many of you in this group. Marissa harris is a past speaker of this event and i feel a force of rare force and power. Marissa ensures that any referrals make their way quickly to an ausa who can evaluate that case referral for the filing of federal charges, and we at the u. S. Attorneys office are joined by ten federal agencies in the federal Human Trafficking collaborative, and included in that is Homeland Security investigations. I know that tatum king, the special agent in charge of Human Trafficking investigations, is on this call, and youll be hearing from him momentarily. But i just want to acknowledge ausi in the importance of investigating Human Trafficking. I feel strongly that we are all safer when we work together. Ill close, and i know that there are many speakers, and ive been asked to speak for just a few minutes. Ill close with my observation that at the federal level, we dont just work the cases, but we also feel the pain that these cases represent, and i think that in some areas of the law, there can be a tension between Law Enforcement and compassion, but in the Human Trafficking area, we really see that enforcement is compassion in so many ways, and vigorous enforcement of the laws against Human Trafficking are critical in the fight against the misery and the suffering that we all in our own ways are trying to bring to an end, so i honor you for your work, i thank you for your work, and i look forward to working with you, and with those comments, ill pass the podium back over to you. And ill pass it over back to you, judge brielle. Excuse me. It looks like we are at capacity. I want to encourage all members of ncaw to leave the call, and all the volunteers so that we can admit the District Attorney. I think our next speaker is public defender. Is he has he been able to log on . Yes, im here, judge. Okay. Thank you. So i do want to thank our u. S. Attorney and all the great work that hes doing. And now, its my great privilege to introduce our public defender, mr. Raju. I think he is the only public defender to be an elected official in the United States. No other elected public defender, and hes not only one of our public officials, he is really an amazing Trial Attorney in his own right. [inaudible] im going to ask everyone to mute themselves other than mr. Raju, and it is a my privilege to ask its my privilege to ask him to say a few words at this press conference. Thank you, judge. Its an honor to be here at this collaborative. The empowerment and Holistic Solutions and people on this call really represent that. As a San Francisco public defender, i think its crucial that people are aware that we view ourselves as a Public Safety organization. And what i mean by that is when you truly see someone, when you truly hear someone, when youre really willing to see and hear their complete story. That in and of itself can be a spring board to moving ones life in a more positive direction, and we really encourage all of our staff to develop that trusting relationship with every Single Person that we represent because its only when you have that relationship of trust that someone will confide in you Something Like they may be a victim of trafficking, so we encourage and insist that our attorneys have those long meetings with people that we represent. We encourage that they reach out to community members, also, because each person is a member of family and communities in some ways. You know, what is important that im seeing in things like the collaborative is were thinking about longterm visions of a more just world. Theres a lot of people who get caught up in our system for a lot of very complicated reasons, and its very important that we listen to the victims. Its also important that we address the condition that lead to the proliferation of trafficking, that we look at things to see if were doing things in a way that empowers individuals and communities as opposed to disempowering them. We try to do that one client at a time. We also work on local policy, we also work on state policy, but i think if were guided by few principles, that we are aware that, you know, there is a lot of intergenerational trauma, but there is also a lot of intergenerational resilience in our communities, and i think if we tap into that resilience, we can come up with solutions that both empower individuals and implicate systems in a way to reduce trafficking going forward. So i just want to tell everyone here that im honored to be here, honored to be in community, and look forward to working with everyone going forward. Thank you. Thank you so much, and we look forward to working with you. I think our District Attorney is having trouble logging on still, im wondering. Hi, i just made it just made it on. Oh, im so glad to have you. We are so glad to have you. Its my pleasure to introduce the District Attorney in the city and county of San Francisco, chesa boudin. He is one of the new wave of District Attorneys who always has something provocative, intelligent, and interesting to say in Human Trafficking, so we give it to you. Well, thank you, judge brielle, and i hope next time we can have a zoom account that has unlimited access so all of the people that want to participate can. It took me a while to get in this morning because it was full. I think its a good sign that theres so much interest in this issue, and i hope the next event will have a bigger space, whether inperson or virtual to accommodate every Single Person in the city who are as dedicated as i am, and who i know as you are, judge, to discourage the scourge of Human Trafficking. Let me just start by thanking the heads of this initiative. Judge brielle, antonio breen, and marissa hawkins. Without your leadership, we would not be here today. I also want to thank fellow he leaders for coming to this call to action. I want to congratulate the champions that we are honoring today. May we continue to learn from and be inspired by you. Each year, this event creates the opportunity to raise voices often not heard or forgotten, the opportunity to address concerns shared across system partners, and the opportunity to discuss our plans for the year ahead. Today, id like to share three main priorities to combat human traffics in 2021. Human trafficking in 2021. First, continue to provide high quality Victim Services to survivors of child sex and labor trafficking. As a lead Law Enforcement official in San Francisco, i am working with our system partners to design and implement new strategies to identify victims and address criminal exploitation and trafficking in all forms. The District Attorneys office continues to have a dedicated Human Trafficking advocate who provides support to victims and survivors. The Victim Services division Human Trafficking Team Provides multilingual trauma Responsive Services to survivors for both crisis and ongoing needs. We collaborate and partner with other city nonprofit and Government Agencies to ensure that all Human Trafficking victims receive comprehensive and coordinated Victim Services. AntiHuman Trafficking Networks Like the San Francisco collaborative against Human Trafficking and its member agencies are essential in order to increase the identification of victims of Human Trafficking and coordinate timely humane response and services. In addition, my office funds two Community Agencies Huckleberry Youth Services and safehouse to provide services to victims and survivors of human traffics who may not choose to Access Services through the District Attorneys office directly. In 2021, we are committed as ever to working together to ensure that even those who do not identify as victims or survivors are able to receive the support they need. Now second, as guardians of the constitution, we need to ensure that all victims and survivors, regardless of immigration status, feel comfortable reporting to Law Enforcement and seeking services. Criminalizing undocumented individuals and immigrant communities increases the motivations for traffickers by driving the immigrant community further away from the resources that can help to keep them safe. Exploitation of the most vulnerable population is a Public Safety issue for all community members, and when victims cant come forward, harm is perpetually underground. Third, my office is developing and implementing new strategies to identify, investigate, and hold those who harm and exploit others accountable. Covid19 has pushed trafficking victims and survivors further into the shadows, making it more difficult for people to come forward or cases to be discovered and investigated. Victims and survivors of all forms of trafficking have several unique and layered needs for safety, basic resources for daily life, Trauma Recovery and life skills development. Victims and survivors frequently experience trauma, linguistic and cultural isolation, fear related to immigration status, and cultural, familial and societal attitudes and believes to perpetrators control, exploitation, and violence. We know that a person may be arrested for assault, drug sales, or other crimes, and when we look deeper into the case, that behavior is an expression of trauma linked to Human Trafficking. We know that a person may be identified as a victim of domestic or intimate partner violence, and when we look deeper into the case, they are being trafficked. We are instituting criteria for additional case review, leveraging analysts to flag cases with characteristics common in exploitation. Once these cases are flagged, my team Works Towards Solutions centered in healing and recovery that simultaneously hold people accountable for harmful behavior. These three priorities will prevent future acts of exploitation, allow for successful criminal prosecution, and protect all san franciscans. We look forward to your partnership in making this vision a reality. Lastly, my office, under the leadership of dr. Gina castro rodriguez, is hosting our annual Human Trafficking Awareness Training on monday morning at 10 00 a. M. I encourage all of you to end at that. For more information, please go to our website at www. Sfdistrictattorney. Org. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for your information, and i didnt know about the link with huckleberry link services. Im very impressed with all of the programs the District Attorney is implementing. Im now going to turn to our next speaker, patty lee, from the public defenders office. She is the head public defender of the juvenile division and an expert on children who are exploited and trafficked and, really, a mentor to me. Patty . Hmm, she might have had trouble coming on. I am here. Oh, there she is in hawaii. Yes, im in hawaii. I bring the sunshine to you all. So i am deeply, deeply appreciative for all of the work of the San Francisco coalition against Human Trafficking. Thank you, thank you, judge brielle, antonio, and bonita, for always being there for us. During covid, it has become even more difficult in providing advocacy in this Virtual World for trafficked youth. Theyre likely to fall through the cracks as theyre hidden from view during shelter in place, and this was mentioned by our District Attorney, and theyre trafficked over the internet and over our borders. The juvenile justice focus for children who have been sexually exploited is generally one of girls that we deal with in our system, and theyre trafficked locally county by county and even across state lines. Our system involved girls, however, really require a wider lens. None will admit on our first meeting that they mighting victims or at risk of being trafficked, but on further assessment, i would say that 99 of our girls have either been propositioned by pimps or their boyfriends or actively engaged in their own exploitation or previously engaged. They suffer from substance abuse, and many become addicted to heavy drugs such as coke, meth, or heroin provided by their pimps to keep them coming back for more. Sadly, we know that system involved in the Child Welfare and juvenile Justice System are at highest risk for exploitation. They experience failed home environments, multiple placements, and awol. Even in foster care placement and juvenile hall, we know of situations where girls are being recruited or pimped by their peers to be sexually exploited. Fortunately because of the work that the partners here in the coalition over the past decade, weve seen a huge shift in treating sexually exploited children. No longer are children charged with prostitution in california. We divert them from the juvenile Justice System, and we provide humane treatment and resources to heal the child. Unfortunately, we have also seen a Huge Population of undocumented youth who are trafficked by drug pushers and cartels. We are a sanctuary city, and we must focus on the boys, as well, who have been sexually exploited. They come over the border at a young age, experiencing some of the most horrific circumstances of physical violence or sexual abuse just to come to the u. S. These youth are pawned off on the street corners in the tenderloin, and that was mentioned by mayor breed, to sell their bodies to payoff their debts owed to their traffickers. The majority are unaccompanied youth who suffer from isolation, extreme poverty, and resulting complex trauma. Our office has provided incredible advocacy to immediately contact the families in their native countries to secure the birth certificates and work to reunify them or advocate for other placements or work with our immigration unit for immigration relief or those who might qualify for asylum. So i want to extend my sincere thanks and gratitude to the coalition and all of the partners here, and a big congratulations to the awardees for more commitment and dedication to end human traffics in all of its insidious forms, and i really appreciate the opportunity to speak to you all today. Thank you. Thank you so much, patty, and i should mention that patty lee was a modern day abolitionist award winner last year, and ill turn it back over to you. It is now that i get to introduce one of the the project director of one of the leading childrens clinics not only here in oakland but the bay area who has been very concerned with the assessment of our children as well as just the care of our children there at west coast childrens clinic, and that is, may we welcome hannah haley. Good morning, everyone, and thank you, to the collaborative for inviting us to share our work today. West coast was founded in 1979 and provides Mental Health services to 1500 children and youth in the bay area each year. Almost all of our clients are involved in either the Child Welfare or juvenile Justice System. Almost all of them are living in lowincomes and almost 86 of their are children of color. We have researched training and policy departments to inform our own practices to see if what we do helps with legislation. By 2009, we had noticed a growing incidents of teens in our program demonstrating troubling behavior, running away, drug concerns, and they were all suspected Human Trafficking. Sea change works with youth through all stages of exploitation to provide Case Management and therapy. Because the trauma of exploitation occurs within a relationship, thats where we focus or services, as well. Our staff offer a relationship that expects nothing in exchange from the youth, countering the message that all relationships are transactional. Through this, theres an opportunity for youth to build trust, develop their sense of agency, and restore faith in themselves and other people. We were recently approached by the partners of the San Francisco safety opportunity and learning project to provide sea change services to San Francisco youth through a pilot project, and we were honored to come on board. The s. F. Soul project, as we call it, includes a sand plaster care pilot, a hype center, and multidisciplinary collaboration with other partners, and we seek to do just that through the project. We are proud to be part of this partnership with the San Francisco department on the status of women, freedom forward, huckleberry Youth Programs and family builders, and to continue building knowledge about how to best meet the needs of children who have been trafficked. And lastly, i just want to congratulate all of the awardees today, but in particular, our own team member, sable, for her award. Thank you so much for being part of our team, and we thank you for your work. Thank you so much, hannah, for those fine words. And moving right along, whenever we have asked for help or have a committee that is seeking help, this person is always raising his hand and volunteering, and that is Homeland Security investigations special agency tatium friend, but here tatum king, but here at sfcaht, we call him friend. So turn it over to tatum king. Thank you. Again, just tremendous professionals, we know that this work really requires, you know, specialized experience, knowledge, and patience, to thank you very much to them. You know, without their leadership, we would not be successful in working on this critical issue. So good morning, distinguished speakers and distinguished guests. My name is tatum king, and im here to represent Homeland Security investigations. Thank you very much to sfcaht leadership team, cochair hawkins, and executive director levine. These meetings are getting fuller and fuller, and its all hands on deck, and we appreciate everyone working together. So for sfcaht, they have more than 11 years sustained efforts combatting Human Trafficking in the bay area. They bring together a wide array of individuals, agencies, organizations to support Human Trafficking survivors. I would also like to offer my congratulations to the 2021 modern day abolition awardees. It is their collective grass roots work which has significantly contributed to addressing the and discouraging the reason. We at d. H. S. As a d. H. S. Partner agency, we understand getting the word out to all agencies, all divisions, is so important to let folks know what to look for and, of course, report it to competent authorities. Too often, the perception of our Law Enforcement work only consists of Enforcement Actions and incarceration. For h. S. I. , we ensure support and recovery of the survivor as our priority. Whether or not a particular case results in a criminal prosecution, while ideal, h. S. I. Will still strive to be a voice for all survivors, regardless of immigration status, and provide services to which they are entitled, including immigration assistance, and we work with our partnership agency, United States Immigration Services to help with obtaining any visas. Last year, we established the center for Human Trafficking, and this is an integrated Law Enforcement operations center, and this center consolidates 16 d. H. S. Programs and is led by Homeland Security personnel. With this center, together with new partnerships and more public awareness, we believe we can better tackle Human Trafficking and provide survivors with the hope they deserve. Last year, h. S. I. Has grown our team so that we can increase support to survivors, and during 2021, well continue our partnerships to continue to work to get the information out. At sfcaht continues to build bridges in our community, this is hope that victims of human human and survivors of Human Trafficking will reach out for help. We are collaborating more efficiently to provide better awareness and knowledge of the Resources Available to survivors of Human Trafficking. Thank you very much to sfcaht, coalition on the status of women, c. B. O. S, u. S. Department of labor, the f. B. I. , u. S. Attorney anderson and team as well as District Attorneys in the region making San Francisco a safer place, and i appreciate your effort. Thank you very much, special agency king, and thank you for always being there and lending a hand, you and your team. And now, we will hear from craig baird, f. B. I. Special agent in charge. Hi. Thank you very much for having me. Its a pleasure to be here. Id like to thank the u. S. Attorneys office for the Northern District of california, San Francisco District Attorneys office, and the other supporting organizations. So the f. B. I. S work in 2020 certainly was not done in a vacuum. A majority of the operations that we participated in were done with our task forces, and that includes san jose Human Trafficking task force, the bay area Child Exploitation task force, the bay area innocence lost working group, San Francisco Santa Clara County working task force, and the vice and Child Exploitation unit. So our efforts and approach, much like h. S. I. , are victim centric, and the ultimate goal these past four environments are to recover victims and investigate traffickers at the state and federal level. The f. B. I. Also employs three victim specialists in our division here in San Francisco, and those victim specialists work with victims long after they have been recovered. These Task Force Operations in 2020 have led to the arrest of 42 traffickers who were mostly involved in trafficking of underaged victims, and those operations allowed us to look at 17 underage sex trafficking victims. So the f. B. I. Investigates all forms of Human Trafficking regardless of the victims age, their nationality. What were finding is the number of cases are growing, and its unclear if this is because theres a greater awareness of the problem or because the problem itself is growing. Nationwide, the f. B. I. Caseload has increased significantly in the past several years, and as of november of 2020, there were more than 1800 pending Human Trafficking investigations. 2020 also marked our annual human empowerment annual art, or heart. That art was displayed throughout the bay area, and its also did i employed in the offices of the f. B. I. Here in San Francisco. So in closing, Human Trafficking has been and will continue to remain amongst our highest priorities here at f. B. I. San francisco. Thank you very much for having me today. Thank you, mr. Fair, for all the work that youre doing. I also want to take the opportunity to acknowledge the work for Alameda County District Attorney omalley who is also a modern day abolitionist awardee from a couple of years ago, and thank you for being here today. Next, we will have herinana utarte, and shes representing the asian womens shelter in San Francisco. Thank you. Good morning i guess its good morning. Good morning, everyone, and thank you, sfgov, for having me, and congratulations for all our awardees, number one. Many of you know about asian womens shelter. Were an older organization, and we are an agency that provides social services for all survivors of violence in 40plus languages, including the rare ones like mongolian or arabic. In the last few years, we have expanded our services. We provide shelter in our safe house, but we also provide shelter for women ready to go out on their own. Many, many of our trafficking survivors actually have a need for our support. So secondly, i want to highlight also our support for our survivors of violence. Our program here is called queer, asian women, and transgender support. I want to emphasize, that even though we have the word asian there, we serve everyone. 70 of our clients do not identify as asian. We know that violence happens in all relationships, and we all know that survivors who are lgbt identified have less and less places to go as opposed to the other folks. And also, when they speak little english, there are less resources for them. I want to share with you that we have quite a bit of cases of young people especially both in labor and sex trafficking situations, and they run into this situation when they left or disowned by their homophobic or transphobic families. This is something that i would like all of you to think about, and when they come from a smaller community, then, they also face all kinds of persecution by their own communities. Any way, i also want to let you know that our work is not only about sadness and strife but happiness and hope. We try to provide as soon as we can wraparound support for our clients and survivors, so i think this is it for now. Thank you, sfgov, for highlighting our work, and thank you all for the opportunity. Thank you, heriana, and thank you for the great work. Judge brielle. Yes, i just wanted to say to miss dutarte that its a lucky day when we have a representative from the asian shelter to support survivors. Thank you very much for all of your work. We are very lucky because we have now, as our next speaker, a real live deputy consul general, the honorable raquel solano, the honorable philippine general consul for San Francisco. Thank you, city of San Francisco mayor london breed, and everyone. The philippine consul in San Francisco joins the San Francisco coalition against Human Trafficking in acknowledging Human Trafficking month. Cognizant of the plight of filipino women and children and even men becoming victims of Human Trafficking, our country was among the first in the world seeking to prevent trafficking, protect the victims, and prosecute the perpetrators. The antiHuman Trafficking persons act of 2002, this law has made it possible for the philippines to comprehensively deal with the issue of Human Trafficking. This law was amended in 2012 with the passage of the public act then 364, or the expanded antitrafficking in persons act of 2012 which expanded the list of crimes prosecutable in this act. The Interagency Council against trafficking was created by the head of the department offus i say who moderates for the implementation of these laws. All the Philippine Foreign Service Posts are working towards the elimination of Human Trafficking. The philippines has made significance in its inroads to combatting Human Trafficking. In 2016, the philippines was declared a tier one country dealing in trafficking persons report. Much still needs to be done, however. Every day, women and men continue to fall victims to Human Trafficking. It is important to hold events such as this to shed light on this serious issue. It is our hope that our collaborative efforts will be able to help us make significant and lasting changes towards finally eliminating the scourge of Human Trafficking. Thank you very much. Thank you so much, and our last speaker before we get to our awards winners our award winners, last, but not least, is lori cohen. She is the executive director of expat u. S. A. Thank you, miss hopkins, judge brielle, and the San Francisco collaborative against Human Trafficking for inviting expat u. S. A. To join identifying preventing Human Trafficking month. Expat is the nations First Organization to address the crisis of child sex trafficking and exploitation. Founded 30 years ago, it belongs to a Global Network active in 104 countries, all sharing the goal to halt the online Sexual Exploitation of children, the trafficking of children for sexual purposes, and the Sexual Exploitation of children in the travel and tourism industry. We came to prominence when we led a National Campaign against the immensely profitable but deeply exploitative child sex industry fueled largely by north american and western european men. With the passage of federal legislation, banning pedophile tourism, we turned our attention to events happening on our home turf. We saw that our youth were being criminalized as child prostitutes, when in fact they were victims of domestic sex trafficking. Working with coalitions across this nation, we advocates for safe harbor laws that offered Children Supportive Services instead of arrests and incarceration. We have an inextra gram campaign by trains educators and students on healthy relationships in Instagram Campaign by trained educators and students on healthy relationships in online events, and we do this through our work with local, federal, and state law makers advocating for education and policies that protect our kids while holding exploiters accountable. But our work remains more urgent than ever. The covid pandemic, which has shuttered schools and i say other owe lated students, has also heightened the vulnerablities for child sex trafficking and exploitations. As a response, we quickly rolled out an Online Safety campaign for young people, their families, and educators, with no nonsense guides on way to protect their virtual identity from predators. The guides are available and downloadable on our website for free in english, spanish, and in honor of todays event, chinese. We have also moved our content to a virtual format so that schools worldwide can participate in our learning workshops. We have launched a free course for the Hospitality Industry, available in 17 languages, to ensure that Hotel Workers can identify indicators of Human Trafficking and respond to it safely and quickly. We are honored to partner with the San Francisco collaborative against Human Trafficking, and we look forward to working with you throughout 2021 and beyond to ensure that every child has the right to grow up free from the threat of Sexual Exploitation and trafficking. Thank you. Thank you so much. Bonita, im going to turn it over to you for the awards, to kick them off. Yes, the moment that many of us have been waiting for. Thank you to all of our speakers this morning. We are so honored to have you all, to take time out of your busy schedules. Earlier, i neglected to acknowledge our Planning Committee members, and i want to do that at this time and thank you all for your hours in preparation for this event, our kickoff event, as well as the rest of our events for national Human Trafficking awareness month. Our Committee Members and partners are team from h. S. I. , as has been mentioned, mayor breeds office, the department on the status of women, and the women of the National Council of jewish women San Francisco, who is the sponsor of todays event. Thank you, one and all, and for all of the volunteers who were on the committee with us. Thank you soso much. Its at this time that i would like to acknowledge also my fellow Award Recipients over the years past. We have mentioned patty lee was here with us. If you could just those of you that are on the call, i see so many of you, if you could just let us know by raising your hand or giving a shoutout or something to let us know that you are here, that would be great at this time. I know heriana and, i think, sharon denoa is on the call, who was a fellow awardee with myself the year that we were awarded. Thank you all for being here today. And now, its my greatest pleasure to open our awards ceremony. Today is different than any other previous awards ceremony, and that is we have an inaugurate award that well be offering today, and it is my greatest pleasure to introduce this person. If you are not familiar with her and her bio, it is online at sfcaht. Org, but im going to give my own personal experience, so im going off script just for two second here today. Noah brantley has made an indelible mark on my life. Shes an inspiration, an educator, a trainer, master trainer, visionary, and friend. I had the privilege of sitting under her tutelage, her training, when i was first introduced to this issue of Human Trafficking back in 2007, 8, or 9. I couldnt quite remember the year, but to hear her speak what was happening, and right here in our own backyard. We dont even have to go outside of our state, but right here in our area, i was appalled as an educator in a school at that time, and i knew then and told her then that our paths would cross. Needless to say, i did not know how often our paths would across over the course of these years, but miss brantley has done amazing person and is an amazing person. The person who nominated her said this miss brantley, with her fierce heart, rare love, and strong vision, created the foundational and necessary blueprint for abolitionists work in San Francisco and beyond. Her heart is both the Creative Force and the enduring model, and i might add, is still used today. Nola brantley is our modern day harriet tubman, sojourner truth, all rolled into one. Sometimes we are privilege to walk the earth with someone who possesses tremendous amounts of courage and grace. They are truly magical, and we are blessed to be in their presence. Nola brantley is such a soul. It is my greatest pleasure to present sfcahts inaugural member of the decade award we had to make it special to nola brantley. Going to make me cry before i get a chance to say a few words. Well, good morning good afternoon, actually, everyone. Its both an an who and a pleasure to be receiving this ard with a, especially given the award that it is. Thank you so much to the San Francisco coalition against Human Trafficking, and for all the work that you have done. I started my work in 2005, under the leadership of gary thompson, barbara loza, and shandra murray of Alameda County. I was joined and supported by local leaders, grass roots organizers, fellow professionals, concerned community members, policy makers, and the faithbased community, and together, we were able to make an incredible impact. I am so grateful for every Single Person that i have been supported by on this journey. In the beginning, we were addressing a journey that we had referred to as teenagers in prostitution. Thanks to our partners in atlanta, georgia, who had already begun to address this issue, we began to understand it in the sense of exploitation. In the years to umm can, i was introduced to an incredible human being by the name of david backston of not for sale. David helped me connect the dots of people in my community and the broader issue of Human Trafficking. It was then that i began to understand this issue through the framework of commercial Sexual Exploitation, the language used in the victim and trafficking protection act of 2000. I was able to learn that commercial Sexual Exploitation was not the only form of Human Trafficking, but there were many, many individuals suffering as victims and survivors of labor trafficking, so thank you to mayor breed and others that have mentioned that because its important that we begin to highlight that, as well. And since that i am too, it has been a since that time, it has been a constant learning journey. Collectively, we have been able to learn about that, the needs of the population and how to better support victims and survivors while taking care of ourselves, and we still have so much more to learn. The experiences and knowledge of victims and survivors is key to our continued learning. One thing that has become clear to me over the years of doing this work is that Human Trafficking and commercial Sexual Exploitation are symptoms of much, much larger societal ills. In order to truly, truly address the issue of Human Trafficking, we have to be willing, as hard as it is, we have to be willing to address issues such as historical oppression, abuse of power, and without addressing those core issues, we will never eradicate Human Trafficking. I would like to dedicate this award to all of the advocates who have dedicated their life to this work. I admire you, and i would like to dedicate this award to my family, who have sacrificed and supported me every single step of the way. I adore you. Most importantly, i could not have done any of this without jesus christ, who strengthens me. Thank you. Thank you, nola. It was at that First Global Forum with days of stone that we met, and i think the audience can understand the indelible imprint that this person has made in my life. Antonio, im going to pass it over to you to show off this beautiful plaque and certificate from the Mayors Office. [inaudible] denise, can you mute yourself . Thank you so much. Thank you, antonia. And now, our next recipient is a young lady who is making her mark and making her mark quickly in here in the bay area. Sable marie horton is a survivor consultant at west coast childrens clinic, who we heard from earlier. She is the owner of agape design, and she is the founder and executive director of shades of beauty, and an educator and survivor leader with love never fails. When i first met sable a couple of years ago, i could tell, i could look at her and tell that great things were ahead for her, and man, has she blossomed, and were so proud today to honor and award sable marie horton with the award for outstanding advocacy. Sable well, actually, antonia, will you show us sables award . Yea. And certificate. Thank you. And sable, would you share a few words with us . Sure. Thank you so much to everyone for being here today, and thank you so sfcaht for this award. Im super grateful for it. I actually wrote a poem when i was being trafficked. Its called, does anyone hear me . She cant stop crying, but no one can see her tears. She was forced to grow up so quickly, barely reaching her adult years. Shes so young, but has lived through some of her biggest fears and then some. Men enjoying her body and threatening her just for fun. They threaten her body with knives, sometimes with guns, and when she thinks its over, here comes another one, and another, and another, and another, and another, and they come all throughout the night, constantly giving this girl a fright, and finally, she gets mercy, and daddy calls it a night. Shes finally allowed to clean herself up in the shower, finally free to allowed to try to sleep, but she wont be able to, and it wont help to count sheep. Shell have nightmares as she tries to sleep. Shes have a smile on her face as people tell her shes adorable. Shes expert at Walking Around outside, but on the inside, she knows shell have to soon perform for men, knowing to the world that shes invisible, and if she see her wounds, theyll become judgmental. Make no mistake, this isnt a choice she decided to make. Shes afraid and wounded, and hundreds of times, shes been violated, been raped. Wondering in her mind what freedom looks like and to get there what it would take. This young person, like so many others, has been trapped in the 21 century, and the modern demagoguery slavery. Thank you so much for this. Thank you, sable, for that beautiful poem, and thank you for being here today. Now we know why you were recommended by so many people this year for this award. Thank you so much. Judge brielle, for our next awardee . I just want to say to sable that theres many things in the chat box, and one of them says thank you, sable, for your fierce vulnerablity, and we all thank you, and we all want you to know that we see you and we hear you, just to respond to your poem. I am very excited about our next award winner. Its the modern day abolitionist award winner. Our award winner is carly murray with huckleberry youth program. Carly has worked with huckleberry Youth Programs since 2016 on the huckleberry advocacy and response team, and thats for youth experiencing Sexual Exploitation. In addition, carly has provided a variety of training, shaping city and statewide policies supporting vulnerable youth here in San Francisco. Her successful youth has been based on honoring the guiding principle that youth are experts in their own experiences, and that effectively supporting them involves prioritizing their voices and their definitions of safety, wellbeing, and justice, and i just have to really say that carly devlin has made me a much better judge by listening to her, having better conversations, and having her, like, personally helped me and trained me on many of these issues. I could not be more proud to present this award to carly devlin. Thank you. It is such an honor to be recognized by sfcaht for hard work, for huckleberrys work. I just wanted to start by recognizing my team, and they are working hard to provide the direct support to young people that we work with. [names read] and i am so deeply appreciative of their contributions, creating heart, sustaining heart, and just the approach that everyone has created around youth empowerment, equity, and harm reduction, so these are all really incredible people, and we have really seen that young people can move towards healing, and when providers and systems truly meet them where theyre at. And i also want to thank the many bay Area Partners and across the state that ive had the pleasure to work with in the last couple of years. Its been a pleasure to work with everyone and move the needle forward when it comes to systems and policies that can benefit young people. And i also wake up every day thinking about the young people that we work with, and i want to recognize and prioritize that reason why were all here is youth themselves and really holding that their voices and erns spoos should lead the work were doing, especially taking into account the issues of marginalization, invisiblization, especially classes of young people and thinking through issues of equity. I think our role is to provide support and change the systems that enable this issue all coming from youth centered perspectives. I have been and am so humbled to witness so many young peoples processes in doing this. Its great in receiving this recognition and all of the work thats being done around the bay area with these young people and for these young people. Thank you. Thank you so much, carly, and i know youre not on video, but antonia, can you show the plaque and the mayors commendation. Just know its there for you, and its very impressive, carly. So turning now to our next modern day abolitionist award, and this is for outstanding legal policy and achievement, this award goes to ruth silver cow. She is the attorney at the catherine and george [inaudible] a delegate to santa clara Human Trafficking commission, and coordinator of the santa clara wage theft coalition. Ruth has conducted numerous trainings on civil litigation and Human Trafficking cases. She has assisted forced labor Human Trafficking clients, seeking civil remedies. She has trained transit operators to identify Human Trafficking, and she has partnered with minority bar associations to hold clinics to screen for Human Trafficking. Ruths tireless and highly inspirational work in advocacy has yielded numerous awards, and we are proud to add to that, sfcahts prestigious award. Ruth . Thank you so much to the collaborative, and judge brielle, i echo the sentiments in the morning at the very beginning. Im humbled to be a recipient of this award and in the company of such colleagues. The name of the award abolitionist harkens back to my days teaching at a school in sierra leone. The british navy intercepted slave ships and settled liberated slaves in sierra leone after the liberated the slave trade in 1803. However, they were never truly liberated. They were sold for amounts as slow as 20 to british under the false premise of apprenticeships. Today, labor trafficking victims are unpaid or receive minimal pay, and theyre forced or coerced into working against their will. In the past few years, the south Bay Coalition has participated in operations in cases that are eerily similar to the 1800s. Care homeworkers receiving little pay rate, forced to clean assault weapons and threatened with deportation. A man forced to live in the back room of a liquor store and forced to wash up in a sink, 15 People Living on the floor of an apartment, and a worker told hed be forced to jump off Golden Gate Bridge if he tried to escape. Unfortunately, trafficking abounds in our culture, and theres little understanding of what trafficking really entails. Its falsely equated with smuggling. It conjures up images of barbed wire fences. To dispel these myths, theres been training of Hotel Workers. This morning, before this ceremony, i trained both v. T. A. Bus drivers, who ive trained for almost six years, as well as sfmta bus drivers that ive been training for several months. I also was gratified to hear d. A. Chesa boudin about trainings in the area. Fairly recent positive developments include the fact that by statute, the department of fair employment and housing now has jurisdiction over civil sex and labor trafficking claims. Wage theft is a pernicious part of Human Trafficking and, at the location i trafficking, we screen for trafficking. I started a coalition six years ago to advocate for legislation at the local level to combat wage theft which will help to combat and detect wage trafficking. Weve had success in enacting wage theft legislation, but theres more work to be done. We need to eradicate the system that was established in the 1800s to an intersectional and collaborative approach, which all of these attendees are doing. With the work of the San Francisco collaborative against Human Trafficking, my fellow awardees, and the attendees, im optimistic that we will make great strides. Again, im grateful to you all for your work, im grateful to the San Francisco collaborative against Human Trafficking for honoring me today with a modernday abolitionist award. Thank you all for the great work you do. Thank you so much, ruth. Antonia is showing the plaque to everyone, and i love what you said about wage theft being a pernicious part of Human Trafficking, and who knew that there was a canadian peace corps. Thank you so much for all of your hard work, and im going to turn it over to you, bonita. Thank you, ruth. Thank you, judge brielle, and thank you, ruth, so much, for all the work that you have done over the years. We so appreciate you. Last, but not last, we would like to honor our last two awardees. This is the second time that im aware that we have coawardees, and these two are being recognized as modern day abolitionists for outstanding modern day abolition. Betty Ann Kavanaugh, and brian wo, the chief Program Officer and cofounder of the bay area antitrafficking coalition. Wed like to call baatc have both been prominent leaders and speakers throughout the community on this issue and has been instrumental in their strategies to fight Human Trafficking. In betty anns case, it has been over 18 years. She started her career with International Justice mission, whom im sure we all know. She has worked collaboratively with over 100 antitrafficking organizations and Government Agencies here in the bay area and around the world, and i think that she would say that the most compelling and the most rewarding, teachable experience that she has been a part of has been her 18 months that she spent interviewing former human traffickers in san quentin prison to better understand the lucrative Business Practices and to inform the development of baatcs current strategies and programs. Brian, on the other hand, participated in an antitrafficking work back in 2008 in thailand, and that opened his eyes to this travesty of a crime here in our area. He worked diligently to dill Collaborative Networks through outreach organizations, Service Providers, and Government Agencies, and both of them have been very instrumental the District Attorney mentioned the training at the airport, and mayor breed mentioned that, as well. They have been instrumental in a lot of the training at all of our local airports here in the area as well as restaurants and hotels and motels. It gives me great pleasure to introduce and to award betty Ann Kavanaugh and brian wo the modern day abolitionists award for Outstanding Community innovation. Wow. Im taking all of this in. I want to thank noble, carly, and sable. I think ive taken all of this in today and seen so many faces over so many years, is brian and i thought we should come today with the thought of what gets us up in the morning and what keeps us going in the fight . Everyone who has spoken before me, this idea of that its going to take all elements of our community in order to fight such a heinous crime, and one of the things about the collaborative piece that has always been key to our d. N. A. From the very first day was literally opening the doors to our first Freedom Summit back in 2011 and seeing 2,000 people show up, seeing every speaker on the podium tell us what was happening in our neighborhoods, and even then as i was holding the microphone, having come from an International Perspective of talking about this issue, and then trying to have a forum for talking about it in the bay area was a sense of being a learner along the journey, just being open to say were going to stand here with you so that everyone saying whether they are with a government agency, a local agency, or someone showing up saying i care, was just to honor everyones voice in this and the collaborative piece of being willing to come together, willing to work together, i think has benefited the region in three ways. One, i think its given us an amplified victims at the center of this issue, being at the center of all, and bringing knowledge to this issue. As nola talked about how far weve come, even how we identify victims of trafficking in the midst of their exploitations and talk about those terms, our angles of approach have not only influenced things here in california but around the country and around the world. I think its also given us amplified voice. I am honored every day by how much the work in this region really is a voice that is carried around the world, and i hear that reflected especially by individuals that have moved to different parts of the country or the world and how their work here is touching the very work, the very people, the very organizations that we have heard from today, how it has inspired them to go do Something Else when theyve moved out of area, and lastly, i would say that our collaborative spirit has led to amplified impact. I remember the first time that sfcaht held this press conference, and how honored i was to sit in that room with so many people who are sacrificing not just when the spotlight is on, but even in the midst of much, much darkness. So as weve kind of been walking this journey together, i think i would love to just reiterate how thankful i am for such a strong and steady cofounder in brian wo, the many volunteers that helped us carry out the large trainings of the treedom summit from 2011, 2013, and 2015, the huge super bowl effort that was put together and so many agencies that have partnered with us over the years. Obviously, our tireless board that has helped strategically lead our efforts. But i think one of the things is weve tried to remain as nimble in the ongoing efforts that needs to shift and adjust in how the crime is taking place, how traffickers are actually learning ways in which we are trying to combat this, and then adjust accordingly to be effective, and that is where we find ourselves now, having taken the advice of the former traffickers who said you know what . General trainings and whatnot, yes, that raises the watermark, but the thing is show up in the place where i conduct my business, you disrupt my incredible profits because youre changing the places where i need to move, work, and sleep my victims every day. So were showing up in hotels, motels, and all sorts of property trainings where people are definitely identifying that this is where trafficking is definitely taking place. So by that inspiration, we are seeing more and more just actually coming to light, again, bringing the light to the darkness so that we can all see this eradicated from our community. We are strengthened by everyone who is on this call. Id also like to thank my family. There are many days that they endure long hours. Even my young daughter says go out and keep tackling against the bad guys. So thank you, everyone. Its such a gift. Thank you, betty ann. Brian . Thank you. Im going to segue off of betty anns comments. One of the founding values of the coalition has always been to equip the individual. We believe you dont have to be a full time Human Trafficking organization to make a difference. You can be a teacher, an artist, an engineer, and have an impact and make a difference in peoples lives. Weve been blessed to walk alongside people to identify their gifts, identify their passions, help them see their skill sets and their particular spheres of influence and help them step up. Weve been blessed by people stepping7into those roles, and as betty ann mentioned, we focused a little bit more on the general public, and weve been blessed to work with employees who work in industry that are more likely to see human traffics every day when they go to work, and helping them not only recognize suspicious signs of trafficking but making sure that the workplaces theyre at has protocols in place so they can report those suspicious identifications and that they can receive a timely response so that the people that need help will get help when they need it. As i look at all the people in this press conference, weve been privileged sips we started this almost ten years to continue collaborations like this to be a part of people creating new coalitions and task forces. Were encouraged to see not only growth in each county in the response to Human Trafficking, but as we look at the bigger picture, the whole region of the bay area has developed a more strategic response, and were sharing information and working together and developing best practices. It really has been a privilege. We appreciate all the work that has happened through sfcaht who has really been a cornerstone in the response against Human Trafficking, and thank you for all the work you do and thank you for the modern day abolitionists award. As antonia is showcasing your awards and certificates, i would just like to piggyback on what brian said. The baatc has been no toreous for bringing the every day person notorious on bringing the every day person together to help them find out what it is they can do to engage in the fight against trafficking. I remember before they formed, they were just having groups come together to talk about, what is it that we can do to shed light on this issue, and i was very privileged to be a part of that group way from the beginning, before it even started, so thank you all for your work and partnering in the classroom and around the bay area with educating the area. I was so pleased to see that you were nominated for this award. Well deserved to you and all of our awardees today. Thank you so much, and i thank you all for being here. I am going to turn this back over to judge brielle. I echo you, bonita. I am so blown away by our awards recipients. I know we have at least one questions from one of the members of the press contingent whos here from kqed. Did you want to ask your question now, and now if its to a specific Award Recipient or to us, but go ahead and ask your question. Thank you, judge brielle can i just tell you, i listen to you all the time on kqed. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much for this event, and congratulations to the awardees. I feel like ive learned a lot about the this very important today just from listening to you. I do have a couple of questions. Miss patricia lee, i believe she was with the public defenders office. She mentioned shes seen a growing number of minors who are victims of Human Trafficking, and i wonder if she could give me a sense of the latest demographics of victims, like, who the victims are and how what is the share of unaccompanied minors or undocumented boys that she mentioned who are victims, either the number of cases they have or how do they know that, basically . And then, i have another question, which is completely unrelated, im sorry, for u. S. Attorney anderson. I believe hes still on the call. Can you comment on the attack on the u. S. Capitol and president trumps involvement in inciting the violence, and the charges against any rioters in the bay area . So lets start with patty lee. Are you still on the platform . Yes, i am, judge brielle. Great. And you might want to talk about the minors that are trafficked into drug sales and whatever else you want to talk about in your answer. All right. Since covid shelter in place, we have seen a drastic reduction in the number of youth being arrested. No surprise because theyre staying at home, or unfortunately, however, with the traffic the youth, as i mentioned, these are the youth that are falling through the cracks, and so we have had fewer girls come in and, for a period of time, we actually had no girls in juvenile hall. I would say in the past since march, weve had approximately ten to ten to 15 girls coming in, and we do not represent all of the girls, but i address only the girls we represent. I cannot talk about specific facts because the information is confidential, but i would say specifically about ten. And i would mention, we have to have a wider lens on these girls because they are at great risk and virtually all of them have experienced incidents of trafficking either to themselves, their friends or being solicited by actual strangers or boyfriends. And in terms of the undocumented youth, i know theres been a concerted effort to cleanup the tenderloin, and rightfully so. However, that has a large umbrella and has brought in a high number of young boys into the system for drug transactions. And in terms of the numbers, it actually was creating a problem for our attorneys because of the bilingual nature of the youth, monolingual for the families, and recently, we had in the past month or so, i would say we had anywhere from or two months, from five to six new youth. This is a high number because we and judge brielle knows this. We have not had many new children coming in, and they pose a great problem because we have nowhere to placement place them. They do not qualify for federal title e funding for outofhome placements or foster care, and so were put in a position of having to find placements that are not federally funded and hopefully also secure immigration relief for these youth, and we also have worked actually in the past with Law Enforcement to ascertain the trafficking nature of these youth in order to secure trafficking relief in immigration court, and were also securing immigration status for these youth so that they can be placed into foster care and hopefully in the Child Welfare system, so i hope ive answered that question. Is it accurate that its, like, a growing number of victims. I believe the f. B. I. Agent on the call said its a growing number of cases . It is a growing number, and im only addressing the young people, and those would be youth 17 and younger. And for us, weve noticed for us, its a huge increase, and they present many, many challenges in providing the defense for them, but more importantly, the outcomes for them, and they do have theyre going to stay in longer. The average length of stay for any youth that is detained is approximately two to three weeks, but for these youth, they can be in custody for months or longer. So just to im clear, its so im clear, its a growing number of people younger than 17 who are victimed and also a growing number of undocumented yes. My office in the yufl unit, we only represent youth juvenile unit, we only represent youth 17 and younger charged with criminal offense does. I do believe we have the same situation in our adult courts. So patty, youre actively seeking immigrant juvenile status for these youth, correct . We [inaudible] that involved a lot of work in terms of outreach to family members in their native countries. Primarily, we know its in guatemala, some from el salvador, nicaragua. Any further questions . And maybe just your number, miss lee, if we want to follow up . We can even put it in the chat . Ill put it in the chat. Thank you so much. And pass it off to the u. S. Attorney. Exactly. To marissa, maybe if theres any comments on what happened in the capitol . I dont know if youre able to comment on that. Any comments . Is marissa still on the call . I believe its mr. Anderson, the u. S. Attorney. Oh, mr. Anderson, are you still on the call . Yes, i dont think he i think he left. How about miss harris . Is miss harris on the call . Miss harris is there . I am on the call. Unfortunately, i cannot give any comment as to the ongoing nature of the federal investigations into the events that happened at the capitol. Thank you. Okay. Are there any followup press questions . And im not hearing yeah, i have one question. Greg and youre from what press . San Francisco Community news bay area radio coalition. Okay. Great. My question is to the Mayors Office, hearing about how the tenderloins really being looked at closely by all agencies and departments in San Francisco. Is there any plans that the Mayors Office, for instance, will set a curfew in that area to help keep people off of the streets . And number two, will the federal agencies collaborate more with sfpd and agencies to clean it up . Number one reason is because funding from the city, a lot of times, are not able to prosecute, so will there be more federal charges instead of state . Unfortunately, i dont think we have the representative any longer from the Mayors Office, and i dont know if, miss harris, you can address collaborations with local Law Enforcement or not regarding cleanup of the tenderloin or prosecutions in the tenderloin . I would direct the gentleman to the offices public statements regarding the fit initiative for the tenderloin. You can find those statements on the d. O. J. S website for the Northern District of california. I know its a a very Important Initiative to u. S. Attorney anderson, and that initiative remains ongoing as to various types of streetlevel crime thats happening in that neighborhood and affecting quality of life. Thank you so much, and i think at this point, i wanted to direct everyone to San Francisco sfcahts website, because theres a lot more information on the website and theres a lot morpublic events throughout january, and i just want to thank everyone, along with bonita and antonia, for say staying so long at this press conference and for being so valuable to this collaborative. We cant have a collaborative without all of you, and so that includes the press, and so thank you for being here. Thank you so much to all. Hey, judge brielle . Yeah. Hey, this is tatum. I can make one quick comment about the federal initiative to the tenderloin. Okay. Great. Obviously, its led by u. S. Attorney anderson, but the h. S. I. Is involved in that initiative. Its important to us for Public Safety, and many other federal agencies are on that task force, and well continue working with closely with the San Francisco Police Department and other federal and local agencies to to address that situation. And, once again, thank you, everyone, for your commitment and for saying on this call and at this press conference. We hope to see you at our team summit in february, and please check our website for all the details in that regard. On behalf of the recreation and Park Department and with gratitude for the partnership of 261, local 38, Building Trades, labor council, Parks Alliance i will welcome you to the William Hammond hall awards. This is the 12th annual awards, this years ceremony is a first. Thank you to everyone who joined us virtually to honor our 12 new award des with exceptional dedication to their craft. With covid19 pandemic in our midst for most of this year, our parks and open spaces have never been more important. We are will learning that parks are essential providing Natural Escape and boosting the mental and physical health of people when they need it most. It is named after a civil engineer, visionary and stewart who was hired to lay out the design for golden gate park. He, not the more famous john mclaren, was the first superintendent in 1871. It is fitting this was named after william