Connected to Public Health and public safety. What i want people to know this month, and i want people to still know it, know it even better in november, and even better in december, and be able to tell all the people you know about it, but not so much that they dont invite you to their parties anymore, that violence violent armed perpetrators are a deadly force in america and also here in our city and San Francisco. And ending Domestic Violence is central to saving lives, to saving childhood, to saving our Public Health and our Workplace Safety and our school safety, and ultimately our future. So to all the partners here, whether you are in government, whether you are a nonprofit, if you work at night, if you answer the crisis line, if you are an advocate with infants or an advocate with adults or seniors, thank you so much for your creativity and your stamina and you are not alone. None of us is alone. To the survivors out there, i want to tell you that when you feel at your most alone, somehow , a tiny place in your mind and heart, belief that you are not. We are out there. We are scattered all across the city and we are scattered all across the bay area. We speak your language. We grew up in a family like yours, we grew up in a neighborhood like yours and we cannot wait to support you to find all of your strengths and decide what you want to do to have a better life. You can call us. You dont have to know what you want to do. Most of us have no idea what we want to do with our life. You dont have to know, either. But you can call and we can talk about it. We wont judge you, and we wont gossip about you, and we care. It is our whole life. This is what we care about the most. To the kids out there, to the kids that are being woken up several nights a week in fear, to the kids that wake up and spend their night time comforting their younger siblings so that they wont make anything worse, to the kids that then have to get up and go to school and they cant focus and their grades arent good, and theyre making disruptions and having marks of negative attached to them, i want to tell those kids, i want you to know, we cant wait to work with you. We want to help you with your homework, we want to help you rebuild your relationship with your nonviolent parents, we want you to have a safe place at night and to sleep with stuffy his and have hope for your future because we have hope for your future and we are going nowhere until this issue is gone thank you. [cheers and applause] another round of applause for orchid. There are a few more City Department heads that have joined me, in addition to fire chief janine nicholson. Linda, department of department apartment of technology, we could not have done the app without her and her staff. Please recognize linda. Also, walking torres has joined us, director of the office of economic and workforce development. Our next speaker is kathy black, executive director of the [speaking spanish] the first domestic shelter in california. Please give her a warm welcome. Thank you. Orchid, you are awesome. I just want to say that. In keeping with todays theme, building pathways to safety, i want you to know, i will take it a little bit more local and i want you to know that we respond to calls for help from victims of Domestic Violence of all ages , 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We give survivors the tools to transform their lives. We seek to prevent future violence by educating the community and redefining Public Perceptions about Domestic Violence. We attempt to accomplish this by engaging nearly 20,000 women, teens, men, older adults and children each year through a continuum of expert intervention and prevention services. We also envision a community where Domestic Violence is not tolerated in equal access to asset asset building opportunities that is freely available to all. I want to talk about a local stat from our shelter. That is of the 7,000 hotline calls we take every year, or this last year, 500 of those were from the San FranciscoPolice DepartmentLaw Enforcement and from the medical community. We are working really hard to engage Community Partners who are out, First Responders, and to make a difference in that way i feel like that ties to the mayor mayors press release today because we believe these early interventions are really key to future safety. That by connecting victims and survivors with Community Resources like the ones represented here, and all out there, i see my crew out there. That helps reduce the incidence of future violence. And some other highlights from this past year, just so you get an idea about the scope of the work that some of our programs provide, we provided 10,991 nights of shelter to 368 women and their children. Eightyseven of the mothers who stayed in our shelter participate in Family Counseling and support groups. People are eager to learn and eager to get resources. We often operate at or over capacity. Last year, it was 22 of the year that we operated either at our full capacity or over. What that means is that in the middle of the night when the Police Department calls, we bring out, and we are full, which we are a lot, we havent rollaway beds, we have couches, we figure things out and we will shelter victims and survivors overnight while they are figuring out what their next move might be with the expert help of the staff and our Community Partners. Also, i think i want you to know that, again, whether it is 10 0a First Responder is going through the legality assessment lethality assessment tool, that when they connect that victim with an advocate at our shelter, and they decide to do an intake, that victim is going to meet the same advocate at the door of our shelter so that it is not theres compassion, theres consistency, and i think that makes a big difference for people. It is a real personal connection over 92 of clients, of our clients report, and im sure this is true of my partner programs, as well, over 92 of clients report positive outcomes across our five key metrics, which is, i have to look and see what it is, knowledge, safety, his stability, agency, and isolation. With that, i want to really say that we are one agency as part of a larger safety net, and i see my friends here, and my allies, and we couldnt do the work without city partnerships, political allies, people like joaquin who has been a friend for years. Thank you for everything you do for us. And the Community Partners we work with. Thank you very much. [applause] our third and final representative of our Domestic ViolenceEmergency Shelter community is sherry, executive director of the riley center, Saint Vincent de paul society. Please give her a warm welcome. [applause] good evening. If we are to address and prevent Domestic Violence holistically, we must provide comprehensive Supportive Services centred on the survivors trauma and need while highlighting their individual family and Community Systems, strength and protective factors. And if we focus our efforts in providing client centred, trauma informed and culturally sensitive Supportive Services, we will support the longterm healing of intergenerational cycle of violence experienced by survivors and their children. This will lead to a stronger, safer, and healthier family and Community System free of violence. This is what we work on at our center. We have four major programs in which we do this. We have our transitional housing program, we have rosalie house which is our Emergency Shelter and our crisis line, we have our Community Office where survivors can get the services they need, education, workshops, support groups, and then we also work with the Family Services department, and so if there is an incident of Domestic Violence , we have a specialist that helps that family moved to a healthier life. We have been in this city of San Francisco for 35 years and we are very proud of the work that we do. I want to take this time to thank our consortium, beverly, our domestic our department on the status of women, and the staff and all our Community Partners that do the work we do. This is how we survived the Domestic Violence system in the city. Thank you. [applause] thank you so much. As president zawart stated, prevention is a critical part of our work to stop the cycle of violence. For over 20 years, asianPacific Islander legal outreach has engaged youth through its Youth Advisory Council to address genderbased and dating violence in asian and Pacific Islander communities. Please join me in welcoming the Youth Advisory Council at the youth coordinator. Give him a warm welcome. [applause] good evening, everyone. We are the Youth Advisory Council from the legal outreach. We strive for and accepting an equitable future in which everyone is helpfully loved. As youth in our communities, it is important we engage in work against a mystic violence to educate our peers and prevent its occurrence in our everyday lives. Through this work, we believe in setting pathways to safety. The Youth Advisory Council meets to share a safe space where we are able to become activists and create positive change in our communities. In honor of Domestic Violence awareness month, every year the Youth Advisory Council sets up press sets of presentations about teen dating violence to youth organizations, schools, and Community Spaces oh, oh, all over the bay area. We inform our peers and give them a better understanding of healthy and unhealthy relationships and we also empower other youth and equip them with the skills and knowledge to make change in their communities. As youth ourselves, were able to directly connect with other youth and encourage them to be active and involved in their community. We believe in encouraging our young, male identifying peers to break the culture of silence regarding violence within our communities. We also seek to empower youth from the lgbt plus community, people of color, and women. They are patriarchal and systematic effects that are prevalent in our underserved communities, specifically low income people of color. There are societal norms that places men in positions of power over women. In my experience as a young woman of color, i have seen the cultural and societal expectations of gender roles placed upon women of color that make it difficult for women of color to tell the truth. These marginalized women are survivors and deserve justice, with this Justice System abuses their power to oppress this community. [applause]. We believe that in order to be helpful he loved, education is crucial. It is important to be able to identify an unhealthy relationship. For starters, and any relationship, it is important that both partners know what consent really is. Consent is a strong and continuous yes. It is also a decision that cannot be influenced by power imbalances. Another vital factor in safety and determining unhealthy relationships is the cycle of violence. A cycle of which the abuser or abusers traps a survivor in an unhealthy relationship. Through the Youth Advisory Councils presentation, we also shuck the importance of a pragmatic and optimistic mindset everyone should feel safe opening up to others, but we should still take the necessary precautions to ensure our safety and wellbeing. It is also crucial to be wellinformed of the reality of Domestic Violence, including some societal factors that perpetuate this issue. This mindset combines both positivity and it helps to avoid violence and or aggression. [applause] it is important among San Francisco teens because we present students with Accurate Information about Domestic Violence and the resources they can use to confront these situations. Often, teens take to social media to speak about issues, but only to the extent of republishing a post. They dont necessarily check their sources, and this leads to people being misinformed and quickly disinterested. We are helpful in this way because it gives straightforward and reliable information on Domestic Abuse and dating violence, as well as resources for people in these situations. This is especially needed in metropolitan areas such as San Francisco where there isnt a strong sense of community or people to watch out for one another. [applause] too often, youth are unaware of the resources that they have at hand if they find themselves in an unhealthy relationship. These resources include hotlines , restraining orders, and measures of selfdefence. Through our presentation, we work to bring attention to these issues, which are often not touched upon in schools. Our work as youth is equally, if not more important as the work of previous generations. Our actions will lead to pathways to safety for our youth , not only now, but as they grow into adult hood in the future. We urge you to listen to the youth around you. Encourage them to become involved in our communities, provide them the support that they need to make profound changes in our society. But most importantly, give them the resources to protect themselves and find pathways to safety and their environments. [cheers and applause] another round of applause for our Youth Advisory Council. So our final speaker tonight, before our concluding performance and group photo, please be sure to stay for the group photo, our final speaker is april mcgill, a california native and director of Community Partnerships and projects for the California Consortium of urban Indian Health. April will share about the incredibly important project called red women rising, which advocates for culturally Responsive Services for urban, indian survivors. Please give a warm welcome to april. [cheers and applause] [speaking indigenous language] my name is april mcgill. I am in the enrolled member of rep round valley indian tribe california native, San Francisco resident, and i want to recognize our ancestors whose land we reside on today. I just want to remind everybody that we stand on stolen land. This land was stolen by violence so we have a history of violence and all of our lives, in every single one of you. You have experienced experience that energy and that violence from this land. Our what red women rising project brings attention to the to Domestic Violence and missing and murdered Indigenous Women here in california. We work with all the urban Indian Health and tribal consortiums to bring more attention to violence against native women. As california indian women, we have experienced this violence since the gold rush. We know this violence. This has been happening throughout indian countries, that many nations, but our work is to make change with our rising project by bringing attention to policy and legislative initiative that can change and impact issues around Domestic Violence and missing and murdered Indigenous Women and in california. We work with many legislators to make change. We work with sovereign bodies institutes, we work with strong native women coalition, and we partner with all of our other grassroots organizations here in San Francisco that are also standing behind me. I wanted to share with you some statistics from sovereign bodys institute about california. Statewide, there are 135 missing and murdered Indigenous Women and girls cases across california that have been identified. California is number five for total number of missing and Indigenous Women and girls cases , alongside washington, new mexico, arizona, and montana. Seventyfive of all cases in california occurred in northern california. Nearly one third, 28 of all cases in the state, a humble of the humble county are involved with victims involved in tribes. Of the 135 cases, only seven have information on alleged perpetrators available to the public and only one of those alleged perpetrators has actually been charged. Over half the cases documented in california occurred in the last three years. From 2013 through 2015, the rate of these cases per year statewide increased by approximately 20 each year. In 2016, the right out the rate of cases increased, and in 2018, the rate increased, as well. San francisco is one of the highest in the state, which is really embarrassing considering that we have such a progressive state. One of the things that i can say is we are making change with the port with support from the mayor. Thank you, london breed for all your support for the American Indian community. Thank you supervisor ronen, and supervisor brown because we were able to pass a legislation a resolution in may recognizing may 5th as the national day of awareness ongoing missing murdered Indigenous Women. [cheers and applause] i would like to read the resolution. Were as Indigenous People have inhabited the north American Continent including the state of california for many centuries, and from the First Contact with settlers from other countries, native americans share their knowledge of the land and its resources and have continued to play a vital role in the development of local communities , the state of california, and the nation. Whereas, the missing murdered Indigenous Women and girls report from the urban Indian Health institute released in 20 2009 provides data from 71 urban cities across the United States on missing and murdered Indigenous Women and girls. Recognizing that a number of factors, including or Data Collection by Law Enforcement, and limited health resources, that there is an undercount of these women in urban areas such as San Francisco, and we are ranked tenth among cities with the highest number of these cases. Whereas the 2009 apology to native American People of the u. S. Recognizes special legal and political relationships Indian Tribes have with the United States, and the land we share. Recognize that there has been years of official policies and the breaking of laws by federal Government RegardingIndian Tribes. Apologize on behalf of the people of the United States to all native people for the many instances of violence, maltreatment, and neglect inflicted on native people by citizens of the United States, and commend that the state governments that have begun reconciliation efforts with native american tribes, located in the boundaries, encourage all state governments to work towards rock and say it reconciling relationships with Indian Tribes within their boundaries, were as the city and county of San Francisco has a responsibility to address the disapproved and an victimization of Indigenous Women from domestic and sexual violence, including missing and murdered Indigenous Women, and whereas, our sister, Jessica Nicole alva, lassie died on april 6th, 2019 at the age of 35 after being in a coma for four days as a result of an abusive domestic relationship. Jessica grew up in reading and lived in San Francisco for five years. She is survived by her mother cindy and her six children and four siblings with a stepbrother and stepsister. And whereas, in 2005, grassroots movements for the safety of Indigenous Women led to the struggle to include safety for indian women under the violence against women act. Whereas, of the last decade, awareness of the National Issue has increased, but more must be done at all levels to stop the disappearance and save lives of our women. Whereas, may 5th, 2017 was designated as the First National day of awareness for honoring missing and murdered Indigenous Women through the efforts of survival families, native american tribes, national, indigenous organizations and law and policy makers. Now resolve, this city and county of San Francisco permanently designates may 5th as honoring missing and murdered Indigenous Womens day in the city and county of San Francisco , and furthermore, will begin discussions with urban indian organizations, neighboring native american tribes, local tribal organizations to develop recommendations for local and indigenous victim advocacy services. Local and tribal justice responses including coordination and identifying the implemented solutions to strengthen the safety and health and wellbeing of our Indigenous Women. Thank you, San FranciscoMayors Office for this resolution. [applause] [cheers and applause] and i would like to ask my sister aurora to come up and introduce our red lightning women singers. Good evening, relatives. We are from the red lightning woman power group. We came about the name through our sister betty over here in regards to missing and murdered Indigenous Women. We started about a year and a half or two years ago through a red ribbon dress workshop where we had some workshops on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault awareness. We created, 21 we created and so 21 ribbon skirts. Red represents are missing and murdered women and Domestic Violence. We are from the native American Health centre here in San Francisco, the wellness department, located on mission and seventh. We believe that women are sacred and when we wear our skirts, we are sacred, and also native women, is april mentioned, have the highest rate of Domestic Violence. We believe in saying her name for our sisters that are no longer here due to Domestic Violence, and we come from Matriarchal Society originally, before colonizers came. I just want to say, remake treat we will sing a missing and murdered Indigenous Women and girls song this evening. Thank you. [applause] [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] [applause] lets give another hand to the lightning singers, the red women lightning singers. There are three people i want to think as we close. First, nicole, the Senior Adviser to the mayor for helping us put together today. Give us a wave. Secondly, and finally i want to thank elise of the the department of the status of women. Please waive. She held she helped put all of todays logistics together. I want to thank all of my staff at the department. Please join us for a very Large Group Photo which we want to do really quickly. Everybody come on up. [ ] i just wanted to say a few words. One is to the parents and to all of the kids. Thank you for supporting this program and for trusting us to create a Soccer Program in the bayview. Soccer is the worlds game, and everybody plays, but in the United States, this is a sport that struggles with access for certain communities. I coached basketball in a coached football for years, it is the same thing. It is about motivating kids and keeping them together, and giving them new opportunities. When the kids came out, they had no idea really what the game was. Only one or two of them had played soccer before. We gave the kids very simple lessons every day and made sure that they had fun while they were doing it, and you really could see them evolve into a team over the course of the season. I think this is a great opportunity to be part of the community and be part of programs like this. I get to run around with my other teammates and pass the ball. This is new to me. Ive always played basketball or football. I am adjusting to be a soccer mom. The bayview is like my favorite team. Even though we lose it is still fine. Right on. I have lots of favorite memories, but i think one of them is just watching the kids enjoy themselves. My favorite memory was just having fun and playing. Bayview united will be in soccer camp all summer long. They are going to be at civic centre for two different weeklong sessions with america scores, then they will will have their own soccer camp later in the summer right here, and then they will be back on the pitch next fall. Now we know a little bit more about soccer, we are learning more, and the kids are really enjoying the program. We want to be united in the bayview. That is why this was appropriate this guy is the limit. The kids are already athletic, you know, they just need to learn the game. We have some potential collegebound kids, definitely. Today was the last practice of the season, and the sweetest moment was coming out here while , you know, we were setting up the barbecue and folding their uniforms, and looking out onto the field, and seven or eight of the kids were playing. This year we have first and second grade. We are going to expand to third, forth, and fifth grade next year bring them out and if you have middle school kids, we are starting a team for middle school. You know why . Why . Because we are . Bayview united. Thats right. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you so much for joining for the grand opening of our public lobby. It has been a long process. Were so honored to have you all here today. First, before we get into our short speaking program, i first want to acknowledge a few parties that have worked really hard to make this all possible. Id first like to thank our budget analyst and project Management Team that have worked really hard to make this run smoothly. Thank you very much for that. [ applause ]. Theyve also worked very closely hand in hand with the mayors budget office. Id like to thank Kelly Kirkpatrick for coming here today. Thank you. [ applause ]. Next i would like to thank our public facing team who provides excellent Public Service. Our Public Service team and our recorder division. Thank you very much. [ applause ]. They provided Excellent Customer Service even throughout a lot of yay. They provided a lot of Excellent Service even throughout a lot of construction. Thank you for keeping the office running. We also are joined by some neighborhood friends. So thank you to them for coming. We have some people from the womens building here. Yay, thank you. [ applause ]. And we also have people from the dog patch northwestern petril hill green benefits district. Its a little bit of a mouthful. Thank you for coming. Of course thank you to our neighborhood historians who have joined and helped us go through a lot of historic photos that we have and we have been able to create a little wall. Thank you for that. We have the western neighborhoods project, s. F. Heritage, glen park history project and sunny side history project. Thank you. [ applause ]. So now i would like to introduce our beloved assessor carmen chu who is newly back from Maternity Leave and later we will be hearing from our director of public works and also our city librarian. Thank you. [ applause ]. I have to say that its rare that i ever hear the word beloved and assessor in the same sentence, but here we are. I want to thank isabella from my team. Theyve done quite a lot of work to help and partner with our publicfacing folks in order to make sure that our lobby is well thought out and we have a great plan to help improve service. Thank you to isabella and vivian. [ applause ]. So when i first started as assessor years ago, i think when i first came in, i think i walked into this office and probably like a lot of taxpayers i came in through different doors at different points in time and at the time it was confusing. How do you get into the office and where do you go for service. And if i couldnt speak the language, which luckily i could, where do you go for help and who could assist . It was with that eye that we started to take a look at our front lobby area to see how is it that we are able to improve Customer Service and access and be cognizant of the different people coming to our city every single day, whether you are an immigrant who cant speak the language well like my own parents or someone with a disability who needs assistance or people who dont know how to find documents in our system. How is it that we as a Public Service and government serve our public in the best way possible. We started on this process to say, well, the first thing they do is come into our office and try to figure out wayfinding signs and the way forward. We need to make sure that when people come into our office they feel welcomed and they feel that we have an abundant amount of Services Available here. With that, we really started to say lets do a few things. I think today when were doing our big unveiling along with the blue angels out there cheering us on that were showing our good faith. A few things that we want to point out to you here, and this is something we couldnt have done without the partnership of our dpw is that weve done a few things to reconfigure our lobby area to improve public access. Weve transformed the physical space. We have a wonderful and lovely seating area for people to come here and wait comfortably, to be able to get their documentation and information. We actually have implemented a kiosk system so when people first come into our office they can directly find and get tickets, that theyre served in an expeditious way. We have implemented a lobby navigator, someone who is greeting people when they come in to make sure theyre in the right place to make sure theyre not wasting valuable times waiting in the wrong lines. That does happen at city hall. We want to make sure were preventing that. If you look around our office, you will see many of our kiosks and information are in multiple languages. Were cognizant of the fact that San Francisco is a Universal City with universal languages that we want to access and share with people. This is also something that is part of our lobby system. Of course were doing a lot more to make sure that its a welcoming environment here. So we hope that some of these improvements are really going to show that government is open to everyone, its accessible, transparent, and we welcome you here. Were here to serve you. With that, i want to say thank you. We hope youre going to take a look at around. We have more spaces for people to be served. We know this is going to be a public improvement for the public as a whole. We couldnt do this without the partnership of wonderful people. I know some of our folks behind the scenes that were helping. I want to thank the Mayors Office for helping us fund this, but of course i want to say if we bring in the money, help us serve the public better. Thank you for all of your assistance and your partnership. No further ado to bring someone forward who ive known for quite a long time, who most of the time is doing work outside on the streets, picking up litter or cleaning up graffiti, but one of the lesser known things he does is help our buildings function better and stay in a state of good repair. With that i want to introduce mohamed nuru and thank him and his team for the fantastic work helping us make these improvements in a historic building. Thank you, mohamed. Thank you, carmen. Yes, kelly and carmen bring in the money. I get to spend the money. [ laughter ]. I think a few years ago when carmen brought up the idea of doing the project, we were very excited. It had a lot of different work that needed to be done. It is a historic building. So trying to match things and to really make a place that really works with all the things we heard from carmen was something that we were excited about. Whats great about this project is it involved many parts of our building of bureau repair, carpenters, glazers, locksmith, laborers were all involved well in fact, every shop in public works was involved in one way or another in making this happen. Its a very unique project because we have a lot of staff that actually custombuilt many of the shelves over here, matching the doors, all the things that we had to work with. All of those were built at public works at our shop. It was really an exciting project for the team. I think we delivered. I think youre very happy about that. Just so you know, we do a lot of these type of services for all over the City Departments. City hall was very special, trying to match the wood, the different glass and just making the rails, building all the cabinets, painting and sprucing it up. You know, the paint was actually peeling in some cases. So doing all the scraping and going through all the processes making the space happen. Im excited and our teams are excited. Well continue to serve you or any of the City Departments that want us to do work for them. We actually do many of the jobs in many of the city offices. Thank you very much. Well enjoy it. Thank you. [ applause ]. Mohameds nickname is mr. Clean. Now that extends to cleaning up our city buildings as well. Thank you, mohamed. When we talked about the services here, again, city hall is very special and unique to all of us because of its historic nature, but also because it is an essential place people go when they want to access government and the people who represent them. Its important to make sure that these doors are open and accessible to everyone who comes in. I think theres no other patron group that feels that same way than our public libraries. We know that no matter which Branch Library it is that we go to across the city, we have an open door where people can find a safe space and learn and get educated and borrow materials and really explore. We have worked in Great Partnership with our city librarian Michael Lambert who is also working with us. You might seen behind me is a wall of 15 different curated historic photos. One of the things you may not know is in order for this to be accomplished, we had to clear out many of our old property files. We went through this intensive process to digitize over a million files. When we went through that process, we found many, many historic photos we thought was not only worth preserving but sharing and putting out to the public space. Something that is important to our history, buildings that used to look a different way but are important of our fabric, it is important to share that with san franciscans to come, not to put the away in a box never to be seen. We worked with the library to make sure we cataloged and got those photos to them to be accessible. Were proud to announce we have over 92,000 photo images that are available at our San FranciscoPublic Library in order for people to see our history and our shared buildings and resources. These photos here are just a small set of the photos that are now available in our Public Library. We couldnt have done that without our city librarians staff and time. I want to invite michael up to say a few words. Thank you. It is so wonderful to be here with my esteemed city colleagues and so many members of the public. This lobby is magnificent and sparkling. I want to congratulate assessor chu and all of her staff. What a remarkable job youve done with public works to transform this space. I admire the commitment to Service Excellence with all the tenant improvements and significance enhancements. What a warm, friendly atmosphere youve created here. I appreciated the office of the assessorrecorder, not only for providing the library the biggest book budget in the country, but also for the partnership we enjoy. Earlier this year, assessor chu and her team transferred over 92,000 photographs to the Public Library. You see a sampling here on this wall. It really makes history come alive for all the visitors to this space. These photographs are priceless. They are an invaluable snapshot in time of San Francisco and some places that dont exist anymore. These photographs are now accessible to any member of the public that wants to view them. They can come into the library to the San FranciscoHistory Center and they can take a walk down memory lane and reminisce and relive some treasured memories of their past. Its so wonderful to have this partnership. I want to congratulate assessor chu and her team again. Thank you so much for the partnership. [ applause ]. All right. So now id like to ask evelyn and amy from glen park and sunny side to come up and woody and nicole and david from western history project to come up as well. Thank you. Chairman good morning, everyone, the meeting will come to order. Welcome to the thursday, october 23rd is special meeting of the government audit and oversight committee. Im supervisor gar gordon mar, and im joined by supervisor peskin. Thank you to this committees clerk, john carroll, and i would like to thank corwin and calana at s. F. Gov. Tv for staffing the meeting as well. Please ensure you have silented your cell phone and other electronic devices, and your documents should be submitted to the court. Agenda item number one is a hearing to review external auditors Financial Report and single management letters for the fiscal year ending june 30th, 2018, and the audit plans for fiscal year 2018 2019. Chairman i would like to welcome controller ben rosenfeld. Good morning. Ill briefly introduce it and hand the floor over to our external auditor. As you know, the city has two key financial documents that we prepare each year. The first, at the beginning of the year, the adopted budget, which is the plan on how the city is going