Transcripts For SFGTV Government Access Programming 20240714

I would like to invite all of you to go and see the last black man in San Francisco. It is very chilling. But on this on this day in which we stand before this body, and i applauded the gay community. I was one of the first preachers to stand up against proposition eight. And other mentions for gay rights. But for us to acknowledge that community, and unfortunately, i did not hear of any measure. Finish your sentence. Around june, nothing was said that was indifference on the part of this body. This is the 400th year of the acknowledgement of the slave trade. We in San Francisco can do better than that. Thank you. I ask you, just a minute, i ask you to not be in different to these young men who are standing here, who fled with district five and our supervisor of the district to make sure that the africanamerican heritage building stays in the hands of that community. I was on that board when the late sue bierman initiated a measure to give the Asian Community their own library for a dollar, and i supported her. What is good for the goose is good for the gander. Thank you. We hope that this thank you, reverend brown [indiscernible] all right. Next speaker, please. [applause] i am a longtime resident of San Francisco. It is unfortunate that way only get we are asked if it is something that is already ours. We are out here and we have been out here in this community struggling and fighting, and now it is getting down to the nittygritty. We are still up here talking about stuff that we are already entitled to. Theres too much politics going on, you know, you have taken out whats important to us, and you are not even looking to the simple things. I am here standing with my brother. I am at a loss. I dont understand it. They should have been back up there at that center. My daughter just got her master his. We wanted to celebrate at a place. That building was a big part of us. [please stand by] we are celebrating the Lgbtq Community and i appreciate you saying that. I am here today basically to speak i want you guys to support us, and that is what im here to speak on today. I remember when i was born i was at filbert in high school. Syndic to go demaio shut down the whole school and had a celebration. We did this for Chinese New Year , the same thing. We went to the celebration performances. I knew for black History Month that it would be lit, we have a whole month. The whole month went by and nothing happened. I asked a faculty member, i said , what were you guys do for black History Month . They said, that is for you and your people. So i just want to see the same kind of extension towards other communities as we see towards africanamerican towards african communities. Also with some of our School District. He helped found the San Francisco Unified School District. I want to see a celebration of our people across the city. That is why im here today to speak on a citywide black agenda i would like to support you all as well for making the city better. Unite the city. Thank you. Next speaker. [applause]. Before the next speaker begins, i will remind the good people in the audience that this is a rulesbased organization and the rules say no clapping. We allowed you to klopfer reverend brown, but we would we allowed you to clap for reverend brown, but if youd like to show your support, just shake your hand. We really should mourn the lgbt key lgbtq not being celebrated. We cant make wrong right just by giving people words awards surely Judgement Day is near. It is now 8,490 days from the 40 th jubilee from christ. How long am i waiting . I dont know, but im counting for them. It is very, very near. You know what bothers me the most, there is a guy who is from the naacp. He is lost, he is going to hell. Anyone who says homosexuality is good is celebrated. Theres lots of fake christians and he is one of them. But i actually am saved. The thing is, what bothers me is a christian says it is hateful to point out what god says is wrong. Leviticus says thou shall not hate done brother, but theyll shall rebuke thy neighbor and not allow him to sing when it comes to talking about dont avenge your brother, love your neighbor as yourself. And you are saying i am hating people, but in reality, god says you are being loving. You should also be forthright. Speak the truth and love. Homosexuality is always wrong. If one gets saved, then they are forgiven, they are justified, they are sanctified. And they no longer continue in their pack during of wickedness, whatever it was, whether they were homosexual, and adulterer, a fornicator, there are many seen since, but surely Judgement Day is coming. And all the fake christians are going right to hell with all of the rest of the loss. Jesus said i dont have time to quote it, but i hope you read it. John 645. Next speaker, please. I would like to see you practice what you preach when you say 100 Affordable Housing for all incomes for the teachers lets see you do that for the nonteachers. That is an example of the treatment. Teachers is not the only population here. Is that clear . You talk about Affordable Housing. This technique you are using, peskin is talking about 40 , that means that everyone who has an income that is low 40 of the a. M. I. Is a plaintiff in the housing discrimination lawsuit. You discriminate, you price fix it again. My topic here today is about the San Francisco Police Officers and other officers. Im pointing out that Police Officer suicide is that more than 1642018. Having risen for a Third Straight year. It has tripled in the year 2018. Is that clear . Suicide among serving Law Enforcement happens every 17 hours at a rate among the violence it is sharply increasing. I want to point out to you that i have watched two hearings pertaining to the redevelopment agency. You say there are rules and regulations, this one here pertains to low income, and 15 are coming out of the god damn Mayors Office of housing is supposed to be for low income to low income people. [indiscernible] Affordable Housing at 144 units, 56 million in 87 units and 57 million. I want two of those floors, which is six stories, to be for reability of Police Officers, veterans, and people that are homeless that are suicidal. I want another section to be for the Homeless People to take care of the homeless problem [applause] next speaker, please. Carl magnolia. Thank you for the Land Use Committee taxi hearing last week sfmta refuses to admit the medallion Sales Program is defunct because language in the contract with the credit union triggers major financial consequences were it to do so. In general, i agree with supervisor sandra fewers suggestion to blow up the medallion system. But for card medallion holders who have invested their entire career 250,000 to payments of taxi medallions, individual medallion holders might be viewed as a necessary middleman component. The year 2020 bond measures needed to come and see the medallion holders adequately. [indiscernible] separately, Aaron Peskins charter amendment, which assigned chart taxi jurisdiction to the empty has a clause affording m. T. A. Exclusive authority over taxi related functions. And highly suspect opinion, the citys board of appeals has rolled up a luminary authority language in it means that no taxi permit holder has any due process appeal rights. Also, m. T. A. Appeals that prop k. Had the attention to [indiscernible] this interpretation is dangerous and violates americans for disability act. The San Francisco Taxi Coalition asks this board to sponsor simple housekeeping amendments for prop a of 2007, on the november knowledge to specify due process and disability rights. Unfortunately, i have been put in charge of making that happen, so in the next week or two, i will call around to a few supervisors and hopefully we can find a sponsor to lead the effort. Thank you very much. Next speaker. Good afternoon, supervisors. I too m. A medallion holder, although i dont want to be one. But you see, when the m. T. A. Took over, it had a policy that instead of us retiring with our medallions, we would be able to sell them to new taxi drivers, but something happened. They had a budget shortfall so they created 400 new medallions. This is an approximate figure. I believe it was 400 and something and something. By doing so, we lost the ability to sell our medallions. Now this wouldnt matter, but the m. T. A. Now tells us at least half the proposition k. Medallion holders are actually too old. I am 80. So what do we do . We dont drive, and they say, well, we have a rule that says after three years you have to give up your medallion, but this was brought about by the fraud of the m. T. A. , which has a similar attitude now to the people they sold the medallions to. They directly compete against them by releasing out the medallions of people who have defaulted and are renting these out. It is crazy. Next speaker, please. All right. Ready . My name is dane johnston. A peace sign, a trash. I have been in paper headlines [indiscernible] people out there watching, you have to free yourself. These people are going to help the homeless, but they have started. We will they said we will get rid of the homeless. We will put so many negative stories in the paper. That is what they have been doing. That is where their salvation is at. Dont believe that they will help people. I will go back. [indiscernible] i will tell you what. You will be right beside me on the highway. I will tell you what, in 1994, the media scapegoated the Homeless People saying all the trash was the Homeless Peoples, they did not mention 50,000 gay sex people every month. I can prove it happened. Drugs, condoms, sex from the gay people, maybe maybe some Homeless People. That is the first time they have escaped. The second time, here is a second time. I will sell you down the river now. Heres the thing. When you get rid of the Homeless People, what will you say about the cockroaches and all the rats that live inside of buildings that have nothing to do with Homeless People. They will say, those arent rats , those are big cats. We are, levelers here. Dont believe it. Stop hating people. Four days i went without food. None of you gave me a bread stick, not one of you. People on death row and animals get bread and you make sure they get bread every day. It takes away your humanity thank you. Next speaker. I am a career cabdriver and he medallion holders since early 2009. As you may already know, the medallion Sales Program was masterminded by gavin newsom and carried out by late mayor lee. In january 2013, years after the program was first approved, and seven months before the cpuc had given t. N. C. s any legitimacy, ed lee praised the Ridesharing Companies in his state of city address and proclaimed july 13 th live today in San Francisco. And as Lieutenant Governor in 2014, gavin newsom urged the California Legislature not to stifle innovation by heavily regulating t. N. C. The positions taken by lee and newsom to promote and facilitate unfair competition, at the same time the city profited from medallion sales was sleazy, immoral, unethical, and very costly and illegal. May i have the projector, please this is a letter that the m. T. A. Sent to a fellow cabdriver, who in 2013 believed in the m. T. A. s promise of a future medallion market. Even though the taxi industry is the real victim here, the credit union is there is in the claim against the m. T. A. If the law firm steps forward to represent the taxi industry on a contingency basis, we could file a lawsuit against the m. T. A. As well. As i said to supervisors on the land use and Transportation Committee for having a hearing on this matter, i urge all of you good evening, supervisors. My name is michiana, i am the Government Relations manager for Kaiser Permanente. We have officially had the opportunity with supervisor moore and other offices as the board considers approving a resolution in support of senate bill in support of a senate bill. It is targeted solea Kaiser Permanente. The current law acknowledges our unique financial and clinically integrated model and reflects how we budget and forecast to meet the needs of our patients to support the wellbeing of our employees. In its current form, it is no such structure, and there are many benefits to our model. Kaiser permanente is committed to transparency, which is the aim of this bill. As we have shared, we are currently in negotiations with the bills authors and sponsors and we have made Great Strides towards consensus, just this week, we agreed to an amendment that is reflected in the current bill text and is the basis for your resolution. For these reasons, we feel any action is premature. We are hopeful the board recognizes our ongoing efforts and we will consider tabling or continuing this item. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon. I stand to speak with my colleague. My name is dr. Shannon, i am a pediatrician at Kaiser Permanente where i have been seeing patients for 18 years. I wanted to clarify that senate bill 343, that we are not exempt from reporting requirements and that the accommodations were made just to reflect our unique model. A different structure is allowing for that regional reporting, and we stand by this truly integrated model that a lot of the country is looking to try and emulate as the rest of the country is trying to move towards valuebased care, which we really are the model for. As my colleague mentioned, we stand by transparency and we have been working with senators and the authors to move forward to make sure that all of our needs are met as we are moving to this. We accept the need that we need to modernize some of the recordings, but we still want to make sure that we can do the right thing, and it is this group, as well as the state that feels that we need to make differences about the way we are reporting, so we want to make sure the understanding is there about the cost. It is those costs that arent really truly necessary because we value making sure that the costs, we are maximizing our resources. The resources are our patients dollars that we want to make sure we are maximizing the most efficient use. I stand and ask you to table your vote for a couple of weeks for a very we are very close. All voices are on this. Then we can stand together and all stand in support of a really good resolution and legislation. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon, supervisors. I am currently an employee with the San Francisco Housing Authority, and as you all know, the Housing Authority is going through transition right near right now. That transition will have impact on the 200 plus employees that are currently working to help resolve the homeless issues here in the city. We have a body of very dedicated employees who are continuing to do the work that is necessary to provide housing, however, with the upcoming transition of basically 90 or more of the staff that will be laid off, and we are, i am hearing from the different unions that are there that they feel that the negotiation process for severance packages, of course, nobody wants to have a severance package. There are very few folks in that position to be able to take advantage of a severance package most folks are looking for another opportunity to continue in the housing area, or within the city, or at least to try and find some other gainful employment. We are about ready to have another 200 plus employees that are currently dedicated to the city, adding to the problem. Now, while we do realize that everybody has to do what they need to do in order to survive, and nobody is entitled to a handout, we really would appreciate support in trying to help these hardworking individuals find gainful employment somewhere in this city, in the system, sister agencies, whatever you can do to bring the parties to be to negotiate in good faith. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello, everybody. Pull the microphone close. Thank you. Hello, everybody. I am a kaiser worker. We are here for the appeal. We want to help and establish the cost. We are here to support todays resolution. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon. I am an employee of the San Francisco Housing Authority. I have been here for 25 years. As you know, the Housing Authority is privatizing the entire agency, and we know what that means for black and brown people. I am a resident of San Francisco , i live in the western edition. Miss brown, i would appreciate your support. I need you guys to assist us in this transition. We need city employment. The majority of our employees are black and brown people. We have the highest level of africanamerican managers at the San Francisco Housing Authority. I ask myself, why are we being chosen for contract out . We want to make sure that, you know, the city helps us with employment. The mayor made a promise to ensure that we all are employed after the Housing Authority. Negotiations are not going well. That is not happening. I am appealing to you. I do not want to be the last black person in San Francisco. I live in a coop, one of the oldest coops in San Francisco. I have history here. My coworkers have history. I am appealing to you guys. Introduced a resolution to save the San Francisco Housing Authority. If we do not have money from them right now, if the budgets are being shortened, what makes you think that a privatization of an organization can come in and manage it any better . We have been standard for three years. We are working hard. Think about that, asked the mayor the hard questions. How much will this cost the city to come in and privatize this organization . Just remember that. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Happy pride. Im going to also support the woman who spoke about privatizing housing. I was a tenant at mercy housing. Before mercy housing took over, i was living there eight years, but after they took over, because of my gender identity, i lost my housing, and im concerned about the privatizing of housing because we are losing our civil rights. We are losing our ability to file a complaint internally. The Mayors Office of housing does have an eviction prevention program, but you have mercy housing too cozy, and we are losing our rights, and i support supervisor brown on the violence against womens act because in 2014, i had my first assault inside the housing program, but, currently, there is no Emergency Transfer Program in place. In 2016, i was assaulted again. In 2017 so, my biggest concern is, mercy housing is not complying with h. U. D. Regulations. No one is holding them accountable, and because i went to coop in 2014, i went to San Francisco women against rape in 2016, and i went to another. They protected me by providing counciling services, and thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. My name is krystal prior. Im here as a member of the sciu california. I also am a kaiser member, and i hope that you guys will support the resolution. Transparency is really big considering kaiser is considering making their profit. I know coming from medical to go into kaiser, it is important that the members know what is going on with the money and that they can be accountable to all other standards and all other hospitals. Im asking that you support the resolution to provide transparency for all members and for all people to know what is going on. Thank you. Thank thank you. Next speaker, please. Last week i spoke about the Mental Health centers, the safe harbor, and adding to that, a safe injection site with a doctor prescribing drugs. I head two locations, one of course, in the tenderloin, and i had one at the mcdonalds property on hate and standing in hate on haight street. I dont think too many neighborhoods will be fighting for this, for anything like that in their neighborhood, but i want to sweeten the deal. How about if we have a neighborhood walk in Medical Clinic sponsored by the city . How about adding a gerontology clinic . One that not only lets people walk in, but actually organizes home visits for the people in the neighborhood . Then i added lets add a new clinic with an experiment with the lst and the suicide, and if what is happening, if what they are promoting and talking about now continues, that maybe very progressive for helping both seniors with their whoa of old age, and helping drug addicts break some of the bonds that are holding them down. I think both those neighborhoods would like Something Like that. What we cant do is, we have to break the laws of the state and the federal government, and what we need to do is bring our Government Back home, be efficient and effective where we live. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. I only have two minutes, i wish we had more time, but i will applaud all the people who came down here to speak. The powers that be to keep them accountable. You will not get everything you wanted, at least you were holding them to the fire. Keep speaking out and we will move to get something done. Anyway, i want to mention, we have a lot of problems here in the city. We have traffic, health issues, and i want to applaud the Toronto Raptors for the championship, the great job done now that the chase center is opening up, not all is well here in the city. The data is groundbreaking. As a supervisor peskin, i dont know if you knew this, there was groundbreaking at the chase center. I spoke to an x supervisor. I said, why did they rule against us citizens to disallow this arena . And he said, rodney, they only take 5 of the cases, it is at the discretion of the judge. The judge did not hear us in our final argument to our appeal. We do not want that arena down in the mission bay, potrero hill , so what i am calling for down the road, if this doesnt pan out, and the traffic the powers to be will be ousted at that point. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I am with the sciu. I am here to speak in support of the resolution on s. B. 343. I wanted to talk about some of the comments around the amendment. There will be some amendments, but i want to say the bill will remain the same, and the vote on the resolution is not on the language of the bill. I wanted to comment that a bill like this on transparency for companies, especially nonprofit companies, is especially important for communities, just like San Francisco where we are seeing a housing crisis and we are seeing folks that are on the lower end, they are having to pay more on rent, more on food, they shouldnt also have to pay more on healthcare. Thank you. Anymore yes . Come on up. Hello, i have spent half of the past four and a half years visiting some 40 cities around the globe hoping to obtain multiple perspectives to better shape my opinion as a distant onetime member of the San Francisco mycological society. I applause them in their decision, but when it comes to it comes to me as an observation that you have spent no less than 1 million per 260 working days out of the year, generating what perhaps a majority of local residents regarded as a fictitious report that concluded that city streets are clean. The report was produced by a. Company. Perhaps this was done with the intention of shaping Public Opinion for political reasons, while you are apparently willing to spend no less than 380 a day to have someone take briefs walks along streets. You appeared to adamantly refused to pay teachers in our most troubled schools and give them incentives, which is 340 less then the amount i have seen recommended of 7,500. Your attitude undermines your underlying attitude with regards to basic equity and education. The Million Dollars you spent so frivolously could readily have provided adequate and substantial benefit to 133 secondary School Teachers who struggle to meet payment. It appears the education gap is unfortunately the space between the undercarriage and the asphalt. It comes as an additional unfortunate need to have found that 75 million for local School Teachers was left on the table in sacramento a year prior to the departure of the School District. I counted the fact that the administrator failed to turn in their paperwork. Funding which could have provided Financial Relief for 1,000 San Francisco schoolteachers. Thank you. Any other Public Comments . Seeing none, Public Comment is now closed. Madame clerk, please call the adoption without committee agenda. Item 56 through 59 were introduced for adoption without reference to committee, unanimous vote is required for resolutions on First Reading today. Alternatively, any supervisor may require a resolution to go to committee. Okay. Would any of my colleagues like to sever any of the items . What number is that . Number 56. I would like to sever that. Fiftysix . Okay. Anybody else . Seeing none, 57 through 59 i believe has changed house again. Roll call, please. Items 57 through 59. [roll call] there are ten aye. Okay. The resolutions are adopted and the motion is approved. Madame clerk, please call item 56. Item 56 is a resolution to support California State Senate bill 343 authored by state Senate Health Committee Chair richard pond to create uniform healthcare data disclosures and parity and data reporting across the healthcare industry. Supervisor mar . Thank you. First i wanted to thank supervisors peskin, brown, haney , and ronen for cosponsoring this resolution. I would like to thank others for working with my office to draft a language, and finally, of like to acknowledge kaiser for reaching out and even being here to speak in Public Comment today about as. Supervisor cohen fortythree to explain the practical challenges they face as an integrated system in complying with the same cost reporting requirements as other health plans and hospitals in the state i was pleased to hear from kaiser that they are working with the bill sponsor on amendments that would create a cost reporting structure that complies with s. B. 343 and is workable for kaiser. I am hopeful that the end result will create a more uniform reporting structure that will allow the city and county of San Francisco, other employers, workers, and consumers a fuller picture about healthcare cost while acknowledging kaisers integrated model of healthcare. I look forward to seeing the end result of those negotiations, and i am happy to move this resolution forward to support those conversations. Thank you. Okay. Colleagues, can we take this same house, same call . Without any objection mr. President , different house. Now it is a different house. Roll call, please. On item 56. [roll call] there are 11 imacs. This resolution is adopted unanimously. Madame clerk, please read the in memoriam. The meeting will be adjourned today in a memory of the following beloved individuals. On behalf of supervisor mandelman, for the late mr. Michael lipp. On behalf of president g. , for the late miss joanna, and on behalf of supervisor stefani, for the late young, barack johannes. Okay. , colleagues, that brings us to the end of our agenda. Is there any further business before us today . That concludes our business for today. We are adjourned. [ ] hi, im corn field and welcome to doing building San Francisco, we are doing a special series, called stay safe, how you can stay in your home safely and comfortable, and we know that an earthquake is coming and there are things that you can do to reduce the effects of the earthquake on your home. Lets take a look at that. Here at the spur urban center on Mission Street in San Francisco talking about staying in your home after an earthquake. I have guests today, pat buscavich and his dog, harvey and david, and both Structural Engineers and we want to talk about things that you might do before an earthquake to your home to make it more likely that your home will be ha bitable after an earthquake, what should we do . Both structural and maybe even important nonstructural things. You hear about how to prepare an earthquake kit and brace your book shelves and water tank and that is important. What you have to be careful is make sure that you are not going the easy things to make yourself feel better. If you have a bad structure, a bad building, then you need to be looking at that and everything that you do to keep your collectables in place is small and compared. If you have taken care of your structure, then there is a lot of stuff that you can do in your house that is nonstructural and your chimney and water tank. Lets talk about what the structural things might be. And he is exactly right. You dont want to make the deck chairs safe on the titanic, it is going down, you are going down, you have to make sure that your house is safe. There are basic things that you need to do including bracing the water heater, not just because of fire hazard but because of the water source and the damage, but basic things are installing anchor bolts, and adding plywood and strapping your beams to column and posts to footings and foundations are really easy things to do and most contractors can do the Building Department is set up to approve this work, and these are things that every home owner should do, and it is a little harder because you have to get a Building Permit and hire a contractor. But you want to be able to after a big earthquake to climb in bed that night and pull the covers up and say i dont have to worry about going to a government shelter. That is the main focus that it is great to have an earthquake kit to be able to bug out for 72 hours. Here is a better idea, stay in your own home and in order to do that you have to be make sure that your structure is okay. If you have a house, the easy things to do with the wood construction is feasible. If you have a renter or you live in a concrete building, you need to talk to the building own , and make sure they have done their Due Diligence and find out what the deficiencies are. When i have looked at damaged buildings,vy seen that a little bit of investment in time and money and structural work provides great dividends. Especially if it is the wood frame, typical house that you can do the things that i was talking about, the anchor and the plywood in the first garage area, you know if you refinanced in the last three years, get some of that savings and it is a really good investment. And the other thing that i try to tell people, earthquake insurance is not the solution to the shelter in place, if there is a big earthquake and your building is damaged, you are not in your house, you may be somewhere else, if you work in the city, it is going to be really hard to commute from sonoma, you want to do what is necessary so that your house is retrofitted and a couple of years of earthquake premium could get you to a level that you could be in the house after a significant earthquake and it may have damage and there is still a shelter in place where you are at home and you are not worried for the government taking care of you and you are living in a place where you can go to work and you want to have your wood frame house is really easy to get to that level. On top of the wood frame house, i mean every wood frame house in the west half of the city have a water tank and the water tank fall over because they are gas fired and start fires. And that is something that you could do for yourself, and for your neighbors and for the whole city is make sure that your water tank is braced. If you look at the studies that are predicting on fires, we are going to have a lot of fires and for every water tank that is braced there is a potential of one less fire that the Fire Department is going to have to fight and we dont want to have any more fires than we need to. So bracing the water heater is the first thing that you want to do. And so easy, and you go online and you google, earthquake, water and heater and you google the sites where you can find the details and you can put them out there on the Hardware Store and you can hire a small contract tore do that for you. That is a couple of hundred bucks, the best investment. If you are in other types of building it is complicated. If you are in a highrise building you just cant anchor your building down because there are no anchor bolts, but at that point, the tenant should be asking questions of the owners and the managers about earthquake preparedness and dont take the easy answer, oh, our building is safe it was designed to code. That is not the right answer, ask the tough questions and see if you can get a report that has been given to you. What is the right question . Will i be able to stay in my home after the expected earthquake . Is that a good question to ask . Yeah, you may be more specific if you talk to the owner, if it is not a recent building, if it is ten or 20 years old see if they had an inspection done and there you will have a written before that will tell you all about the structure. Thanks, pat. Thanks, harvey. And thanks david for joining us and thank you for joining us on look at that beautiful jellyfish. The way to speak to students and motivate them to take action, to save the planet, they do, they care and my job is to speak to them in a way that they can understand that touches their heart and makes them feel powerful with simple actions to take every day. I was born and raised in the desert of palm springs, california. My dad was the rabbi in the community there. What i got from watching my father on stage talking to the community was learning how to be in the public. And learning how to do public speaking and i remember the first time i got up to give my first school assembly, i felt my dad over my shoulder saying pause for drama, deliver your words. When i was a kid, i wanted to be a teacher. And then when i got into high school, i decided i wanted to get into advertising and do graphic art and taglines and stuff like that. By the time i was in college, i decided i wanted to be a decorator. But as i did more work, i realized working my way up meant a lot of physical labor. I only had so much energy to work with for the rest of my life and i could use that energy towards making a lot of money, helping someone else make a lot of money or doing something meaningful. I found the nonprofit working to save the rainforest was looking for volunteers. I went, volunteered and my life changed. Suddenly everything i was doing had meaning. Stuffing envelopes had meaning, faxing out requests had meaning. I eventually moved up to San Francisco to work out of the office here, given a lot of assembly through Los Angeles County and then came up here and doing assemblies to kids about rainforest. One of my jobs was to teach about recycle, teaching students to reduce, reuse, recycle and compost, im teaching them they have the power, and that motivates them. It was satisfying for me to work with for the department of environment to create a message that gets to the heart of the issue. The San Francisco department of environment is the only agency that has a full time educational team, we go into the schools to help teach children how to protect nature and the environment. We realized we needed animal mascot to spark excitement with the students. The city during the gold rush days, the phoenix became part of the city feel and i love the symbolism of the phoenix, about transformation and the message that the theme of the phoenix provides, we all have the power to transform our world for the better. We have to provide teachers with curriculum online, our curriculum is in two different languages and whether its lesson plans or student fact sheets, teachers can use them and weve had great feedback. We have helped public and private schools in San Francisco increase their waste use and students are working hard to sort waste at the end of the lunch and understand the power of reusing, reducing, recycling and composting. Great job. Ive been with the department for 15 years and an environmental educator for more than 23 years and im grateful for the work that i get to do, especially on behalf of the city and county of San Francisco. I try to use my voice as intentionally as possible to suppo support, i think of my grandmother who had a positive attitude and looked at things positively. Try to do that as well in my work and with my words to be an uplifting force for myself and others. Think of entering the job force as a treasure hunt. You can only go to your next clue and more will be revealed. Follow your instincts, listen to your gut, follow your heart, do what makes you happy and pragmatic and see where it takes you and get to the next place. Trust if you want to do good in this world, thattttttttttttttttt the teams really, really went above and beyond and is continuing to do that today. This past year, the San Francisco Public Utilities commission Water Quality division started receiving many more requests to test for lead in the Public School system here in San Francisco as a result of legislation that had passed from the state requiring all of the Public Schools to do lead testing. And so as a result, the Public Utilities commission and the Water Quality team in particular was asked to meet with the San Francisco Unified School District to begin to prioritize which schools to test to meet that state mandate. The team that tests, were a full Service Environmental laboratory, and we take care of both the needs of the Water Quality division and the waste water enter price. And on the Water Quality enterprise, we have to also have Drinking Water that meets all federal and state quality regulations. And lead in schools, were playing a problem in remediating this problem of lead in schools. Our role here in communications is being able to take the data that we have that we know is protective of Public Health and safety and transmit it, give it to the public in a way they understand we are really doing our jobs well and making sure that they are safe always. The public learned very quickly all the accurate facts and all the critical information that they needed to know, and its up to these individuals and their agencies and their commitment to the city. I enjoy the work because i can help people, and i can help the utilities to provide a better Water Quality, make sure that people feel that drinking hetch hetchy water is actually a pride. Hats off to the Water Quality team because between them working on late nights, working on the weekends when the schools are closed, and working as a partner in the School District for the times they found a higher lead sample, they worked through to address that, so the team went above and beyond and is continuing to do that today. All right. Hello, sunny day. [cheers. ] so, so excited to be here with each and every one of you. I am sorry for those we dont have chairs for. We didnt expect a big crowd, but when you talk about the city