Their dbt relief practices that are said. What i understand is that they are not taking into account peoples ability to pay and they are automatically assessing this 300 dollar fine and i dont understand that to be in the spirit of San Francisco in terms of the way we treat our members of our community. Alliance one has contracts with as i understand with alameda as well as contra costa. They are out of san diego. In San Francisco they assess these fines in fees in San Francisco if you do not appear to set a court date for your traffic matter, you are not only given a failure to appear and failure to pay, you are given the 300 dollar fine and then you are not able to actually add yourself to calendar unless you pay the full fine thatthe full fee of the expense you are charged with. If im charged with speeding which carries probably 550 bail, if i dont present in the court in a timely manner based on a citation i will then get assess a 300 fine for not appearing in a timely manner plus i have to pay 550 and 300 to add myself to calendar, so the way i under it and this is based you know on the information that i get from my clients and on the information i have gotten from attorneys that work in Traffic Court, the practices the court has beenit has beenour client as in the client of the Public Defenders Office are excluded from being able to meaningfly paritous pate unless they dot all the is and cross all ts from beginning and to a moreto the picture of what is morethe larger picture, i dont think it is service San Francisco in the sense that if you issue warranty for people that cannot appear or do not appear for lack of ability to appear for money and or cannot then therefore make reparations for their inability to pay or inability to make bail or pay tickets what good does it do San Francisco . In other words, the community that i see they are not able to pay at all, so by issuing warrants and putting them in and out of custody isnt doing anything toward the goal of trying to make suresee San Francisco gets reparations. Im 100 percent in support of the Lawyers Committee for civil right on the idea that we have like a Debt Forgiveness program. I also think if someone cant pay we should make it more accessible for them to do Something Like project 20 but i just touched briefly on the issue of the Amnesty Program. Our client dont have any idea the Amnesty Program. I created fliers myself to pass out in department 17 in the Misdemeanor Department of the hall of justice because it isnt a accessible concept and there are limitations to the Amnesty Program as well. I think it was october 2013 you i dont recall but there are concern time limitations and it isnt a widely understood concept that you can actually get Debt Forgiveness through the Amnesty Program and think post ferguson and i again will echo the sentiments of my colleague of 7 times more likely to be arrested if and are person of color in San Francisco and that leads to infractions and license suspension and the license suspensions leads to misadumeaners for failing to have a valid license while you are driving so ito me it doesnt seem like the system as is is working. It seems we need to come up with something that serves the needs of the community of San Francisco so that the needs the government can be met as well as the needs of the members of the community so they can meet the expectations made of them without having to choose between whether i put dinner on the table or whether i make rent or whether i make bail to appear in Traffic Court and contest my ticket. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay. We will go to Public Comment and thank you for sitting in and hearing the presentations. Now is the chance for the public to weigh in. I have cards and if you can come more or less in the order names are called that is great. Karen shane. Cristina [inaudible] johnny davis. [inaudible] brittany [inaudible] which already spoke and [inaudible] james tracey and meredith [inaudible] my name is karen shane. I staff the Reentry Council of San Francisco and i just wanted to reiterate what ever wn said. This is a reentry problem and Racial Justice problem. It was very exciting when the Lawyers Committee came out with the report nost just the ferguson problem. San francisco has to do better than this. There are several thingsthality would really help. In particular why is San Francisco, why is the court still charging the 50 fee . That something that is a county by county way of doing business. Los angeles doesnt charge anyone 50 to go into the amnesty prm. If San Francisco thinks we need to do it for some people i would suggest the people who fit into the 80 percent reduction which means extremely low income shouldnt be charged on top of Everything Else to participate in amnesty. I think that is the least we can do and there is a lot more we can do. This is a Workforce Development problem and probation prm. I work in the Probation Department and most the clients that we talked to and asked do not have drivers licenses and it is time for us to get our act together and really move through this problem to make it something much more productive. Thank you very much. Next speaker. If you heard your name called if you dont mind lining up at the side where the windows are. Good afternoon. Cristina [inaudible] im here and know we didnt talk about it much and know this is focused on infraction related fines and fees and also want to bring to the boards attention fines and fees associated with misdemeanor conviction or felony conviction such as probation costs, in[inaudible] often people are being made to pay the full maximum amount allowed by statute on probation cost which is up to 50 even though they are not assess on their ability to pay that much and they are oftenalliance one also is responsible for collecting these fines and fees and many of our clients who we work with through the Second Chance legal clinic which provides legal advice on barriers to employment and housing as a result of conviction are being aggressively having these debt pursued by alliance one. Being demanded to make payments in the full amount and then if they dont plake that payment then being assess additional 300 dollars on top of that amount. I just want to say that i see so many folks who are rehabilitation and gotten their lives together and have gotten jobs and are unable to really pay and provide for themselves because often these debt is sent to the state tax franchise board and the wages are being garnished. Often when they want to get a expungement or dismissal in california a lot of judges wont grant expungement if they still owe criminal debt so wanted to point that out and have that also be considered within the Debt Relief Court calendar some of my colleagues suggested and people could get expungement through the calendar and have old debt dismissed along with expungement. I just want to say as many people said as a civil right organization we want to emphasize that this is a civil rights issue. Drivers license suspensions disproportioninately effect black and Brown Community members and as karen shane mentioned the report not just the ferguson problem shows how Traffic Court drive inequality in cal and San Francisco as well so we want to emphasize the court should think of this as a civil right issues thank you very much. If you can leave ithow long has alliance one the contract and if alliance one isnt doing it is it just someone else, new boss same as the old boss or what is put in place that would be different . I see mrs. Hewn coming. Amanda freed through treasurers office. [inaudible] beginning fiscal year 1213 and we ceased collecting all debt at the end of 2014 thank you. Good afternoon my name is [inaudible] Community Housing partnership i part the debt Free Coalition that you heard from. As you might know, debtfry San Francisco started in 2012 as the organizing group for fair chance ordinance so zee a number of Community Residence who have taken time off to share their stories. We created a video. We were told we could share it with you. James and i are willing to forgo our time to do that. How long is it all together . 3 and a half minute. Great. [inaudible] its like drowning in a big pool. Like they got us by the short hairs helpless, frustrated, it is like a fire. If you dont care of it [inaudible] build and build and you know [inaudible] build and build and destroy your home and destroy your whole life. I have a lot of court dates [inaudible] all my money is [inaudible] i barely live. [inaudible] now it is a thousand dollars. I got a ticket for a moving violation [inaudible] i like having driving jobs but i cant get one because my license is suspended. [inaudible] people getting tickets all the time and [inaudible] people are not able to do things for their families because they have to spend money on court for ridiculous tickets and stuff like that. It is hurting the community and the people and it is hurting everybody. I got a ticket for [inaudible] they just waved that instead of trying to [inaudible] i have no control of my life and my transportation to work and to drop my daughter off at school. I cant do much for my family and stressful because the [inaudible] is like a big [inaudible] it has been a struggle because i go to the hospital likethere isnt a year where i havent been in the hospital in my life like from birth i was diagnosed at 11 months and it is hard to get medicine, hard to travel, how am i supposed to live day today . In order to pay off the court fees it is a struggle literally i cannot save, i cant catch up to the debt, i cant drive, i cant even work outside the city if i wanted to which is limiting me because my company has work outside of San Francisco. So, when they dont have work in San Francisco i have to go home. [inaudible] lower income and their ability to achieve quality of life to others and it isnt fair. It isnt fair to take from people that dont have much already. [inaudible] eliminating the debt period. [inaudible] period, thats it. We have things that happen. [inaudible] start taxing corporations. The city is our [inaudible] the income for the city is too great for them to not take care of the homeless and those with low income problems. Thank you. Thank you very much. That was really powerful. Mu queesha willis[inaudible] darsy jackson. [inaudible] ruben. Please come forward. Good evening, my name is niquesa [inaudible] here to talk about the Court Ordered debt and how it impacts me and the community. [inaudible] i have a never ending cycle of debt and i had a failure to pay and failure to appear. I cant go to work, i cant miss work to go to court. I tried to get a later court date. I barely make it [inaudible] i need ever dollar i can get. I didvent the money to pay for the tickets. Not only that i already deal with homelessness and fighting an asane amount of debt with fast track. I have been fighting that for over a year and nothing i can do but they wont give me a payment plan, i did disputes and appeals and write letter and dont have money for lawyers and [inaudible] somebody stold my front license plate so cant get that unless i pay fast track andinose are my only tickets and my car keeps getting towed because i dont have a garage. It is numerous things going on and finally get the license back with the help of the community and waiting for vacation checks to make payment for the ticket but cant drive my car and cant getting tickets for registration. Im losing years of my life just trying to pay off Court Ordered debt. I lost my job because i lost my license. Couldnt get that back for a while. After i had the show them what i was going through as far as the process to this program that helps you get your license back while making payments so they had me on limited amount of work because i cant travel and go to the job sites. There is a lot going on. I had my license for 8 years and lost it recently that was your time, but thank you. Thank you for coming. Next speaker please dars sell jackson. First of all, the 70 percent versus 7 percent of the population i think that is a problem. I have been saying that for 55 years and good to hear from someone else that you are 7 times more likely to be pulled over because you are african american. First i like to talk about you get tickets on it bus and they go to third street coming out of the bayview i Latino Community trying to get to work and coming out of Mission District and those are the lines they concentrate on. They go to providence when they let the people out of the shelter they go two stops down and know they get on the bus because they need to come to the services and ticket those people. They took my car and what i did is call the finance company and tell them they got your car because i knee i didnt have the money because i wouldnt have got paid for two wooks. Quh i asked how much it cost it was 1700 dollars and didnt have that so called the finance company and had a adverse effect on the credit. They got the car back because they wanted to sell it. The tickets on the bus is hurting poor people. You need to take a look at alliance one, the biggest problem is why you cant hire somebody in San Francisco to call and tell you to come pay your fine. Why is it a outfit out of san jose. You take people and hire people out of San Francisco. These finesthey gave me a ticket and i put it in the[inaudible] i put in the waste basket. Thank you. Next speaker. Supervisors my name is steve [inaudible] and work for bay area legal aid for 23 years, excuse my voice. First of all i want to thank you you for doing this, this is just tremendously important and what you are learning here today and i hope this isnt a [inaudible] in the pan and there will be a decision to legislation to continue this process to create real solutions. One of the tricky things is the court represented some things you can do and some things the court and do and it is important to figure out what those are. Several people have mentioned alliance one and i strongly urge you to put that near the top of the agenda in terms of talk ing to the court which made the decision and they run it throughout the state to make contracts with alliance one as a public defender said they are being sued. Our experience of legal and not speaking on behalf of legal has been in the other advocates as well they dont get the Amnesty Program and constantly make mistakes. The 25 limit that minimum that you have to pay is a deal breaker for a lot of our clients. Think about Child Support that has a zero dollar built into state law so people can acknowledge paternity but not make a payment when they cant afford invented the right stuff it needs to be brought into the system. I do want to briefly answer your question about funding because that is important. Legal has a contract with the Welfare Department and dhs to help people to [inaudible] and that is partly state money and a little general fund money but there is a vast and real need for support from the city to dhoo do the work you heard about. Thank you good afternoon everyone. Benson and life long citizen of San Francisco and thank you supervisors avalos and came for allows us to speak. Want to talk about alternatives for paying Court Ordered daebt and fees. Project 20 and amnesty which seems not too many people know about and ran at a dismal level. Amnesty should be clear, accessible and not overically complicated. Project 20, if you allow someone to convert 7 dollars a hour for community suvs you may as well just work since that is around 2 3 of what minimum wageicize. The fines should be based on the peoples ability to pay and should favor Community Service rather than paying tickets out of pocket. Thank you very much. Next speaker ill read a few more cards. Duwane sears, scott nelson, boris bors off, alexander [inaudible] carmen [inaudible] good afternoon. Minister [inaudible] rube kwrn here on behalf of Community Housing partnership so tell you a little about my story. Looks like i acquired a ticket that i was unaware of where the ticket came from. I got sent to my apartment when i lived in socal and left socal about a year ago and got a second ticket while visiting family during the thanksgiving holiday. When i got that ticket i had to financial struggles while in Southern California and there is no way for me to get from Southern California to bay area in order to meet my court date. I couldnt take time off work and didvent the money to pay to get to the bay area. So, i missed my court date and as a consequences of that i received a notice in the mail that said that my license was suspended. This was very disheartening to me seeing that my contract ended in