Which personally, i admire that priority. Sams experience in jewe juve nl call started. He took a ged, went t Junior College and San Francisco state and got a masters and two bachelors. He has been at Juvenile Hall for 15 years trying to wake youth up. Im going to talk about sam if thats ok. I currently, today, have youth on my caseload from sunny dale and the towers. And from the point and from oak dale and double rock and eddy rock, mack block, the chop, and all who hate each other. Neighborhoods who may hate each other but from my personal experience with these, every last one of them knows and respects and trusts sam. And from my conversations with sam, he knows and loves everyone of them. Imagine when a guy like this could do without being confined through the chains of our archaic system so thats all im going to say. Thank you. Constance walker, seat 11. Good afternoon, my name is constructor stance walker im a special education teacher. Im honored to be here today because i think its so important. I worked with the students at wood side for 22 years and its been a privilege to work with the amaze students and im a teacher for exceptional needs, co director of the juvenile justice restorative Garden Program and a teacher, trainer for culturally responsive teacher and the lgbtq coordinator. I acknowledge as a white teacher, the need to check my own bias and privileged and i continue to work on that. I learned from my students about their struggle with poverty, neglected communities, racism, and disconnect with schools. But what the kids say over and over again is that being separated from their family is the worse pain. And one student told me that we shouldnt make our School Program pleasant in anyway because it makes kids comfortable and institutionalized. And that really had a big impact on me. So the paradox is that no matter how much effort we take to create relevant curriculum and a warm school environment, its still a jail cell that they go back to. So, we know were failing because we see so many of the same kids over and over again and what were doing is not working. So maybe we can stop looking at them and what theyre doing wrong and start looking at ourselves and what were doing wrong. My students tell he me what support and resources they needed that would have prevented them from entering the system in the first place. If we all listen to them, i believe we have a chance to create a new future thats why im hopeful for this opportunity. I would offer my experience as an educator to work with students of different ages and skill levels and inclusive classrooms using trauma informed and culturally responsive practices. It would be an honor to help with this process. Thank you. Thank you. Kevin lewis, seat 11. Good afternoon, kevin lewis. I want to apply for seats 10 and 11. On the agenda it said 11. My name is kevin lewis im a native of San Francisco and work at jewel knif Juvenile Hall. Ive been working there for a decade and working with youth of San Francisco for 20 years. Prior to working at Juvenile Hall, i was a San Francisco school bis driver and i worked at the mission. I drove the school bus i was working on my degree in social work and i wanted to dedicate my professional life to helping marginalized and at risk youths in the city. In 2007, i fulfilled my goal and gained employment with the San Francisco jewel knife Probation Department as a councilor. While growing up, i was in trouble with the police. I turned my life around in my 20s and discovered that i had a gift that i wanted to use to help young people. And that give was my experience as a juvenile. Today i have another gift that i can use to help youth of San Francisco. Thats my experience working at Juvenile Hall. I work on the line oneonone daily. I sit with youth and listen to them tell me about their family and personal struggles. Quite often i establish relationships with youth that are based on trust and respect and sometimes never been established with any other adult in their life. I tend to sort the yearly Outdoor Adventure and camping trip where probation youth are given an opportunity to gain employment with the park and rec. Its a really good opportunity. And i support that. Ive seen a lot during my career. The most prevalent and disturbing thing is how the system quite often sets up youth for failure. Ill be bring that to the table. I would like to come to the table with my experience to Juvenile Hall. I will bring my coworkers opinions and concerns to the table. Im knowledgeable about title 15 as well as the Department Policy and procedures and im committed to working on this group to develop a realistic plan that keeps the best interest of the youth and in mind and keeping San Francisco residents safe. I ask that i be considered for either one of those chairs. Thank you. And is there anybody who applied that was not here when i may have called their name . Come on up. Thank you. Im danielle and i am working as a case manager at sunset youth services. A little bit about my personal and professional. I was able to attend old jewel juvenile so i got the experience to full both in. I can say that being jewel knife made me relapse and go back many of the best thing that happened to me was a Rehabilitation Program which im a proud alumni. It helped me and i group with gh that. Ill have my hands in Nonprofit Group being im from the bay view hunters point, im a single mom. I feel that they dont rehabilitate us, we dont give us the resources that we need to not go back in. They just lock us away and be like you are going to do your time and figure it out. I dont believe thats what should be happening. I believe that we need more programs that. That helped me to help these young people p thats it. Thank you. Is there anyone else that didnt get a chance to speak . With that said, we will now up for Public Comment. If you have Public Comment, please, lineup over here to my left, your right. You have two minutes. Good afternoon, supervisors. Kim San FranciscoLabor Council. I just want to say thank you so much for passing this legislation. One of my earliest experiences when i first came out to San Francisco was visiting my brother in stockton. And so i know how traumatizing it can be. With that said, on behalf of the San FranciscoLabor Council, i want to speak in support of three candidates for seats 9, 10 and 11. They would be constant walker, samuel carr and debra bill. Thats who the Labor Council has put forward fort labor seats and we strongly encourage to you appoint those folks. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon, supervisors. Political organizer for seiu local 1001. Im excited were at this juncture in this movement to close jewe Juvenile Hall. We know it was a challengely start and it required a lot of meetings. I think many of you got to meet samuel carr to speak with him to learn about his experiences and what he brings to the table. We are very excited he applied and were very excited that other members of sieu local 10 1 applied and. Aarti less of who you chose we will ensure that the voices of all of our members are part of the process. For me personally, because this is an exciting opportunity, i think an opportunity to create a bigger table that brings together the Public Sector workers but also the nonprofit Workers Community and people who have been directly impacted by Juvenile Hall in a positive and negative way to ensure we create a better system going forward. Were definitely committed at local 10 1 and ensuring the purchases ex the goals of the legislation are accomplished and that is for us that the main priority and again working with our members and empowering them and thank you for moving this forward. Thank you. Next speaker. Sabrina hall. Thank you for letting everyone have an opportunity to speak. I just want to say to whatever gets appointed, please keep in mind of what i said about district 10s plight. The juvenile system will never be restored. People are suffering. Our children are being stolen from us, blamed by cps and blamed on behavioral problems or something in the home. We go to these sigh psychologists and they dying noisdiagnoseour children that gm addicted to drugs or wind up in jewel knife or jail. Not only that, our and my 13yearold asked what language we speak. She said no what language we speak. We have no sense of belonging and we need, in order for juvenile, even if its closed or not for our children, to be sent on the right path. We need community involvement. We need a whole village to raise the children. We need our African American children to feel like they belong here. We have no classes for language up in there in schools. We have nothing for our simone a community that teaches them how to speak. We have no sense of belonging so it will be a whirlwind effect even if juvenile gets closed the plight of district 10 and being that the construction took the dirt somewhere else, no telling where else the dirt went around, we are still suffering. We should not be blamed for be breeders to have our children are stolen from us or our men stolen from us in jail because of something we did not even asked to be in. Thank you. Next speaker. Thank you for having me here. So i wanted to just give you a little bit more information about me and what im doing. That time has already passed. Community comment. If you want to speak on other applicants thats ok. I want to say that i will recommend that we do the best to pick the best people but i wanted to say that we dont want yall to forget about us that did apply because we all can be a working group at any other entity is what im trying to express because i am founding an organization because i am the voice of the aftermath on drugs for bay view so i have started an Organization Called born and raised Community Developers whereas one of my roles would like to be supervisor shaman is because were going to close juvenile we need to do some real good education around if its closed that we dont want our children in urban communities to just think because its closed that they can be doing things other than what we need them to be doing so i will likely consider grass root organizations to help yall move this mission. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon. Annabell political director of united e educators of San Francisco. I stand here in solidarity with the San FranciscoLabor Council in the appointments of constructor stance walker for seat nine and member of united educators of San Francisco and debra bill, member of teamsters local 856 for seat 6, samuel carr and for seat number 11. I want to state that there is evidence and research that has concluded that involvement in the juvenile System Reduces negative outcomes for young people simply stated incarceration increases a Young Persons likelihood of committing future offenses and we heard that today from many of the applicants. I also want to state that we had three amazing members who applied and that is constant walker, David Padilla and laura papplin and we support the appointment of constant walker who say teacher at juvenile Detention Center and she learns how time prove outcome for students by implementing corporately responsive teachers and studying experts in the fields like increase and in classroom. We surger urge to appoint her ft number nine 678. They have been working with the student population for over 30 years and understanding the needs of this youth and has worked in various programs which Service Youth needs so he understands how this program should come together in a designed to serve our youth. We support him foray pointment number 6. Seat number 6. I also want to state our support for lauren. And a member of uesf and she bring a vast of experience. Thank you. Next speaker. Hello, again. I just wanted to comment, Public Comment on supportive the parent and youth seats. I really want to echo to you all that it is priority to support youth seats in advocate for the seat for the youth on this working group and for the parent seat because right now, those are who is on the ground in the point and in the mission right now working with young folks. I also have those who are there are two cultures. So someone who is an ally to black folks, its my duty to fulfill that what does it mean to center a black leadership from the youth that the he willers to bheeldersand ive beg around what solutions are, how do we do how do we have extended working groups for the support of the working group and thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Hello. After sitting through the whole process, i would like to i think were in good hands with the applicants that are id like to withdraw my seat and endorse a few people that i feel like ive had experience and seen their work. The person that i would like to im withdrawing from seat one and two and i would like to endorse is vallentina. A native, ive seen her passion. Ive seen her work. And Denise Coleman for seat one. Denise coleman embodies San Francisco and shes been through the fight and struggle. Candy, who is for seat 4. Jane and i want to commend my poll Joanna Hernandez. Also for seat five. If we can open another seat, to add these two in here its very important. Lanni holmes. Ive seen him work at Juvenile Hall for seats 6, 8 and 9. Meghan macurio. Daniel macular. I dont think he knows he is my mentor but he still is. This guy, when there were, they promise when they built Juvenile Hall and they promised us not to fill it up, daniel was the only guy that showed up. He said, meet me up at Juvenile Hall. We went and spoke to the chief at that time. And you promised this, you said this, what can we do . And that same week released 20 kids that should not have been in there so i truly endorse him and last without least, lauren papilla for seat nine. Thank you for making a teeny bits year by withdrawing. The list that i gave you, thats it. [laughter] hello supervisors. I guess im the last one to speak, right. Serve a little extra time. [laughter] i know you guys have been here a long time. Let me give you a quick history. Im the first African American youngest commissioner up at Juvenile Hall that was appointed. Im the first and youngest fastest commissioner that was appointed to president at Juvenile Hall. I wish we had all 36 heats because you got wonderful candidates. And i wish you could appointment and i wish i could over rule you guys and appoint them. I cant. Let me tell you about those i have worked with. And since kimo withdrew, he made my life easy. So im going to start with nate ford. Ive known nate ford for almost 40 years. Born and raised in the western edition and grew up at the boys club when it was called the boys club. This young man grew up to be something spectacular. I watched him and ive seen him and i know him personally. Ron, always been my white partner who always had my back on all the occasions. He is right there. Always. We dont see color. We see human. At the end of the day when we bleed, we bleed red. Denise. I worked with denise tremendously. These are the folks im telling you about. Fierce fighter and has some of my staff working down there and we always make sure that my staff and her staff always do the right thing by these kids. Vallentina, what can i say about her . Shes dedicated. You already know. Sabrina, just met her. Hard. Fierce. Speaks her mind and the truth and says what is on her heart. Joanna. Advocate. Hardworker. Always has my back. Always supported me. Been dedicated from day one. The microphones have been turned off. [ off mic ] my more speakers for Public Comment . Seeing none. We will close the time allotted for Public Comment. I want to say a few things and my colleagues have some things that they want to say. But, you know, as we discuss at beginning, this is very hard. To take, of course, the nine people who are going to be selected today, is not an easy task for us. Everybody in this room has worked in juvenile justice in some way or is effected by the Justice System. Most of the folks in this room worked very hard for us to get to the point where we are today where we can talk about the type of reform that says were going to close down a place that needs to change and provide a real opportunity for our young people. We have to make decisions looking at the great folks in here and what communities are over represented and what communities are not represented and which professionals have opportunities to sit at table and we have to make our decision this is accordance with that so i want to say that im excited about every applicant here and i am. This is one of those times where i just get to be proud of folks in San Francisco and what they want to do. As we fight for our young people and a lot of us have been fighting for our young people for decades to have this quality of folks that step forward is important. Also, i want to say you know, as having a mother who was effected by me being in the juvenile Justice System and having to deal with me from their ages of 15 to 18 in and out of Juvenile Hall, all the parents i see here today that want to serve thank you for coming in and thank you for sharing your stories and your passion and like ms. Banks said, because we cant pick everybody, we definitely will work to make sure that there are opportunitieopportunities for oo play a pivotal role as we move forward and work to our decembei just want everyone to know that if you are not selected, this is a big conversation, a bigtent process that we have to have with all of our communities. We didnt get here. With a small group of folks and were not going to be able to really realize our vision without working together and so, i just want to say that because this is, by no means going to be a reflection of how qualified someone is or how dedicated and committed someone is, its just a matter of scheer numbers and having to make choices and as we move forward with the selection process. So with that said, colleagues, do you have anything you want to say . Sure, i just wanted to also thank all of the applicants. Just hearing nur stories and about all the work you do so support young people to achieve their full potential is not just impressive but truly inspiring. For me, as a member of this board, as a long time social justice organizer, and as a parent of a teenager i just really appreciate all that you do and your different ways and yes, we have some hard or difficult decision to make around the appointments and i want to say im going to sort of fall the lead of my colleagues because you have been leading on these important issues but i want to press one sort of personal preference and in support for ron and just because of his 28 years of tremendous experience, number one, just in his direct work supporting young people impacted by the Justice System with deep compassion and love and number two the advocacy and leadership that he has demonstrated over the decades towards reforming our juvenile Justice System and serving on working groups and including as a cofounder of jjpa and just for his personal qualities, in really treating others with the utmost dignity and respect and whether its the young people and their families or his fellow colleagues or comrades in this movement or even us as elected officials or city officials and i think his personal qualities are reflected in his successful history of Coalition Building and advocacy and in collaboration so i think even his presentation today reflect that and how he expressed his deep respect for all the other applicants and so ill leave it at that. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. I just want to say being involved in this process both in working with all of you and supervisor walton and haney to write the legislation and its to mounting the political fight that got it passed relatively quickly and enormous support from the board of supervisors. Until now, convening or appointing this working group that is going to really do the hard work of coming up with the visionary alternatives and to really give give every youth in San Francisco a real chance of getting the support that they need to be incredible members of this sis society that rerefuse to lockup youth and forget about them. We know we are do better. Being part of this effort has been the honor of my lifetime and its probably one of the most significant things that ive been involved in in these halls. Its the type of transformative vision and work that is going to transform our society and make it look like the one we dream about all the time and so i just wanted to, from the bottom of my heart, thank every single one of you who has been willing to stand up and in this really profound way and its exciting and i keep saying to people that ask us about this work that we sort of led on the hard political work to get this passed and now, were handing over the baby to you all to do the hard, real work to get it done and so i just cant appreciate you all enough and let you know that were going to be watching you closely and rooting you on every step of the way. Thank you. Thank you, so what that said, and again a disclaimer, because there are some folks in this room that i have worked with for years and several capacity to really improve the lives of young people. I have the utmost respect for you but as i make a motion foray pointments for seats, understand that i cannot make a motion to appoint all of you. With that said, our Work Together is going to definitely continue because again, these 15 people as a whole on the task force are going to dive in with the nitty gritty but the vision, the passion, the dedication, the commitment, the actual brain power comes from the masses on this work and so i just want to reiterate as i make my motion. With that said, i would like to move forward with the recommended appointments of Christina Gomes for seat one. For young Womens Development from the beginning of this process, shes been engage and helping to bring the voice and to the process. The center has been working on Justice Reform for decades and pushed policy reform for many years. And as a member of the jjpa, she comes highly recommended and im happy to move forward with her name for seat 1. For seat 2, this will require a residency waiver, vallentina sedeno. Im moving her forward because shes engage in Justice Reform herren tirher entire career. She has the home detention program, the evening reporting center, and has supervisorred staff who work in the home. She has a personal interest in having her own brother being a part of the juvenile justice advertise tom ansystem. She has a deep understanding of how it works and what we can do to truly reform. As we said before, seat 3 and 4, we will continue to a later date and so for seat 5, i am recommending Joanna Hernandez, who also requires a residency waiver. She is a parent whose son was failed by our system and who is still she still supports in the adult system. I believe that our work of bringing family and rights and fathers rights will be great editions to this Advisory Group and her work and experience has also demonstrated that her professional career has been working with youth in custody. As the home detention director, and the founder of young queens on the rise program, for young girls, she is familiar with the programming that keeps youth out of custody and supported by communities. For seat 6, lonnie holmes. Lonnie understands firsthand all the various services that are provided to the youth at ygc. He is familiar with budgets and licensing of facilities and has over seen group homes provided to youth on probation. We need someone with his deep knowledge of what a facility can look like and how we can make it happen. Seat 7, i move we appoint den ice coleman. She brings a unique perspective to this workgroup. Her experience in a us being abg drugs gives her a personal lens that is needed in this workgroup. And her work with programs in particular shows that herren tire professional career makes her the best equipped to fill this seat. I would also say for seat number 8, and a residency waiver will be required, mr. Dan macallair. For my entire career in San Francisco, i have received dans reports and data from cjcj and in addition to dan being our local data person, he has published reports dating back to as far as 1994. He has been in this work for three decades and he is supported by a Broad Spectrum of communities. And for seat 9, ms. Constructor stance walker. Uasf has gone through an extensive process to select a representative they would like to move forward. Also supported by the Labor Council. For seat 10, ms. Debra bill. Who also requires a residency waiver and teamsters 856 has undergone through an extensive process to select a representative as well as being supported by the Labor Council. And for seat 11, mr. Samuel carr who is already requires a residency waiver. And sciu has gone through an extensive process to select a representative as well as being supported by the Labor Council. And so, those are the nine people that i wish to move forward. And again, if this was not an easy choice. I work with every Single Person in here to get us to this point and i hope you do not feel snubs. Were all working together and there are people in this room that i know are excited about the work and i look forward to continuing to work everybody. Thats my motion. And can i take that motion without objection, without an objection that motion passes. Thank you so much. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. I would just like to repeat the seats just to be sure the motion is correct. Christina gomez, seat 1. Vannentina seat 2. I have Joanna Hernandez seat 5, lonnie homes seat 6. Denise coleman seat 7. Daniel macallair seat 8. Con distance walker seat 9 and samuel carr. Yes. Thank you for confirming. Is there any other items . That completes the agenda for today. The meeting is adjourned, thank you. In this San Francisco office, there are about 1400 employees. And theyre working in roughly 400,000 square feet. We were especially pleased that cleanpowersf offers the super green 100 clean energy, not only for commercial entities like ours, but also for residents of the city of San Francisco. We were pleased with the package of services they offered and were now encouraging our employees who have residence in San Francisco to sign on as well. We didnt have any interruption of service or any problems with the switch over to cleanpowersf. This clean power opportunity reflects that. I would encourage any Large Business in San Francisco to seriously consider converting and upgrading to the cleanpowersf service. Its good for the environment, its good for business and its shop and dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges residents to do their business in the 49 square files of San Francisco. We help San Francisco remain unique, successful and right vi. So where will you shop and dine in the 49 . Im one of three owners here in San Francisco and we provide mostly live Music Entertainment and we have food, the type of food that we have a mexican food and its not a big menu, but we did it with love. Like ribeye tacos and quesadillas and fries. For latinos, it brings Families Together and if we can bring that family to your business, youre gold. Tonight we have russelling for e community. We have a tenperson limb elimination match. We have a fullsize ring with barside food and drink. We ended up getting wrestling here with puoillo del mar. Were hope og get families to join us. Weve done a drag queen bingo and were trying to be a diverse kind of club, trying different things. This is a great part of town and theres a bunch of shops, a variety of stores and ethnic restaurants. Theres a popular little shop that all of the kids like to hanhang out at. We have a great breakfast spot call brick fast at tiffanies. Some of the older businesses are refurbished and newer businesses are coming in and its exciting. We even have our own brewery for fdr, ferment, drink repeat. Its in the San FranciscoGarden District and four beautiful muellermixer ura alsomurals. Its important to shop local because its kind of like a circle of life, if you will. We hire local people. Local people spend their money at our businesses and those local mean that wor people willr money as well. I hope people shop locally. [ ] tenderloin is unique neighborhood where geographically place in downtown San Francisco and on every Street Corner have liquor store in the corner it stores pretty much every single block has a liquor store but there are impoverishes Grocery Stores im the cocoordinated of the Healthy Corner store collaboration close to 35 hundred residents 4 thousand are children the medium is about 23,000 a year so a low Income Neighborhood many new immigrants and many people on fixed incomes residents have it travel outside of their neighborhood to assess fruits and vegetables it can be come senator for seniors and hard to travel get on a bus to get an apple or a pear or like tomatoes to fit into their meals my my name is ryan the cocoordinate for the tenderloin healthy store he coalition we work in the neighborhood trying to support Small Businesses and improving access to healthy produce in the tenderloin that is one of the most neighborhoods that didnt have access to a full Service Grocery store and we california together out of the meeting held in 2012 through the Major Development center the survey with the corners stores many stores do have access and some are bad quality and an overwhelming support from Community Members wanting to utilities the service spas we decided to work with the Small Businesses as their role within the community and bringing more Fresh Produce produce cerebrothe neighborhood their compassionate about creating a healthy environment when we get into the work they rise up to leadership. The Different Stores and assessment and trying to get them to understand the value of having Healthy Foods at a reasonable price you can offer people fruits and vegetables and healthy produce they cant afford it not going to be able to allow it so thats why i want to get involved and we just make sure that there are alternatives to people can come into a store and not just see cookies and candies and potting chips and that kind of thing hi, im cindy the director of the a preif you believe program it is so important about Healthy Retail in the low Income Community is how it brings that health and hope to the communities i worked in the tenderloin for 20 years the difference you walk out the door and there is a bright new list of fresh fruits and vegetables some place you know is safe and welcoming it makes. Huge difference to the whole environment of the community what so important about retail environments in those neighborhoods it that sense of dignity and Community Safe way. This is why it is important for the neighborhood we have families that needs healthy have a lot of families that live up here most of them fruits and vegetables so thats good as far been doing good. Now that i had this this is really great for me, i, go and get fresh fruits and vegetables it is healthy being a diabetic youre not supposed to get carbons but getting extra food a all carbons not eating a lot of vegetables was bringing up my whether or not pressure once i got on the program everybody o everything i lost weight and my Blood Pressure came down helped in so many different ways the most important piece to me when we start seeing the Business Owners engagement and their participation in the program but how proud to speak that is the most moving piece of this program yes economic and social benefits and so forth but the personal pride Business Owners talk about in the program is interesting and regarding starting to understand how theyre part of the larger fabric of the community and this is just not the corner store they have influence over their community. It is an owner of this in the department of interior i see the great impact usually that is like people having especially with a small family think liquor store sells alcohol traditional alcohol but when they see this their vision is changed it is a small Grocery Store for them so they more options not just beer and wine but Healthy Options good for the business and good for the community i wish to have brine is in the pro o bryan works on oceanside projects. We understand the infrastructure is old and there is new technology to incorporate. Bryans role is to manage the Capital Projects to update infrastructure and to make things more efficient. Bryan is a unique project manager. He brings technical experience but only that but he is a great mentor to young project managers in my group. Mentors is a lot about compatibility, too. He showed me his process and how he organized things and managed projects and had conversations on escalating things with contractors. Brine shows leadership. He is independent. We Work Together pretty well with the resources we have to get the best outcome for the city. I think we have an open communication and that trust again of teamwork. Bryan is a straightshooter, he likes to get things done. He doesnt seek praise. I think that is why myself wanted to nominate him for the award to get recognition for the things he does to go above and beyond in his job. He is committed. That is why he deserved the golden pride award. I havent been awarded anything like this in my 20 years. That is exciting to be recognized. It is special. It is excited to get recognition with the ongoing activities with the focus on the southeast. It is good to have a little bright light over here every once in a while. We are next to sor ocean beach. I am a project manager for the Sewer System Improvement Program at oceanside. For the first time in nearly two decades fishers have been granted the legal right to sell fish directly to the package right off their boat to the public right off their boats in San Francisco. Its not only helping local fishers to stay afloat but its evoking the spirit of the wharf by resurfacing the traditional methods of selling fish. But how is it regulated . And what does it take for a boat to be transported into a Floating Fish market . Find out as we hop on board on this episode of whats next sf. Were here with the owner and the captain of the vessel pioneer. Its no coincidence that your boat is called the pioneer because its doing just that. Its the first boat in San Francisco to sell fish directly from the boat. How did you establish your boat into such a Floating Fish market . Well, you know, i always thought that it would be nice to be able to provide fresh fish to the locals because most of the fish markets, you would have to do a large amount of volume in order to bring in enough fish to cover the overhead. When you start selling to the public that volume is much less so it makes it hard to make enough money. So being able to do this is really its a big positive thing i think for the entire community. A very positive thing. As a thirdgeneration fisherman joe as his friends call him has been trawling the california waters for sustainably caught seafood since an early age. Since obtaining a permit to sell fish directly to the public he is able to serve fish at an affordable price. Right now were just selling what a lot of the markets like, flat fish and rock fish and what the public likes. So we have been working for many, many years and putting cameras in them. Theres the ability to short fish and we have panels that we open and close so we target the different species of fish by adjusting the net. And then not only that but then the net sort out the sizes which is really important. Joe brings in a lot of fish, around 20,000 pounds per fishing trip to be exact. We had one day one time that we sold almost 18,000 pounds. Its incredible. I know, its hard to imagine. But this wasnt always the case for joe. The markets that we have left in california, theyre few and far between, and they really are restrictive. Theyll let you fish for a couple months and shut you down. A lot of times its rough weather and if you cant make your delivery you will lose your rotation. Thats why theres hardly any boats left in california because of the market challenges. My boat was often sitting over here at the dock for years and i couldnt do anything with it because we had no market. The ability to go catch fish is fine, i had the permits, but you couldnt take them off your boat. That was until the Port Commission of San Francisco rallied behind them and voted unanimously to approve a Pilot Program to allow the fish to be sold directly to consumers right off their boats. The purpose of the program is to allow commercial fishers to sell their fish directly from their boats to the end consumer in a safe and orderly manner for the benefit of the overall Fishing Community at the port of San Francisco. We have limited the program to certain types of fish such as salmon, halibut, tuna and rock fish. Crab is restricted from this program because we did not want to interfere with the existing crab sales on Taylor Street and jefferson street. So this is not meant to favor one aspect of the fishing industry more than another. Its to basically to lift up the whole industry together. And if joe the program has been doing just that. It was almost breathtaking whenever i woke up one morning and i got my federal receiver, my first receivers license in the mail. And that gave me permission to actually take fish off my boat. Once we started to be able to sell, it opened things up a bit. Because now that we have that federal permit and i was able to ppetition the city council and getting permission from San Francisco to actually use the dock and to sell fish here, it was a big turning point. Because we really didnt think or know that wed get such a positive response from the public. And so were getting thousands of people coming down here buying fish every week and so thats pretty cool. They like the fish so much that they take pictures of it when they cook it and they send us all of these pictures and then they ask us, you know, constantly for certain types of fish now. And when they come down here the one thing that they say is that theyre so amazed that the fish is so fresh they could eat a little bit during the week and its still fresh all week in the refrigerator. So thats really cool. The fish is very fresh and the price is super. I dont think that you can get it anywhere in the bay area. I can see it, and i can stir fry it, wow, you can do anything you want. I just can say this is a good place to shop and you have a good experience. This Program Supports the Strategic Plan in terms of engagement, people being connected to the waterfront, and also economic vitality. Because its helping the fishermen to make ends meet. They have no guarantees in their businesses, not like some people, and we want to do everything that we can to help them to have a good and thriving business. How does it feel to be able to sell your fish locally kind of in the traditional way, like your grandfather probably did . When i was a kid and i used to work in my dads fish market, a lot of the markets that we sell to now are second and third and fourth generation markets. So i remember as a kid putting their tags on the boxes of fish that we shipped out of monterey and ship down to l. A. So its kind of cool that were still dealing with the same families. And this is probably about the only way that anyone can really survive in california is to sell your own fish. One of the advantages of this program is the Department People that pull in the fish, they can find out where they caught it and find out more about the fisherman and that adds to their experience. The feedback from the fishers has been very good and the feedback from the customers have very good. And theres a lot of people coming to the wharf now that might not have done so. In fact, theres people that go through the neighboring restaurants that are going to eat fish inside but before they go in they see the action on the dock and they want to kind of look at whats happening on the boat before they go in and they have a meal. So its generated some conversation down at the wharf and thats a good thing. As you can see by the line forming behind me getting ready to buy fish, the Pilot Program has been a huge success. For more information visit sfsport. Com