Chair mar good morning, everyone. The meeting will come to order. Welcome to the thursday, february 20 meeting of the government audit and oversight committee. I am supervisor gordon mar, the chair of this committee, and im joined by Committee Member supervisor matt haney and supervisor raphael mandelman, who is substituting for supervisor peskin, who are unable to be here. Id like to thank john carroll, our clerk, and sfgovtv. Mr. Clerk, do we have any announcements . Clerk yes, thank you, mr. Chair. Please make sure you silence your cell phones and electronic devices. Copies of documents and completed speaker cards should be submitted to the clerk. Items acted upon today will appear on the board of supervisors february 26 agenda. Chair mar thank you. Mr. Clerk, please call item 1. [agenda item read]. Chair mar this item was continued from the last g. A. O. Meeting on february 6 and is sponsored by supervisor matt haney. Supervisor haney, the floor is yours. Supervisor haney thank you, chair mar. Before i address a set of amendments that were going to be putting forward today, i want to say a few things about what this proposal is and also what a Navigation Center is. San francisco piloted its first Navigation Center in 2015. The model was dubbed more than a shelter and was carefully crafted to be ta shelter for people seeking housing. The idea for a central lobby for front line city agencies to bring individuals to shelters and housing has been circulating in city hall since supervisors toured a Navigation Center in philadelphia. They viewed as a way to address a critical gap in San Franciscos shelter system. That is, everyone refusing to use shelters. Not only looks or feels the same, but there have been pros that make them successful like Onsite Services, 247 access, allowing pets, partners, and possessions and focuses on getting individuals experiencing homelessness permanent housing. Onsite Services Include those offered on a roving basis typically involve Mental Health care, Substance Use care, assistance with housing, employment, and other services. Other dedicated areas include space for possessions, pets, and storage. Within a week, they are identified with a care plan and services onsite, and they get the help they need. 52 of clients exiting Navigation Centers from october 2016 to october 2019 had a successful exit to permanent housing, temporary housing or being united with family or friends through home ward bound. Over 5,000 clients were served by Navigation Centers in 2019. The first Navigation Center served 212 unique clients in its first six months. A vast majority, 94 , had been continuously homeless for more than a year prior to the stay. 76 of recent clients had no recent shelter history. Since the first pilot, nine Navigation Centers have served thousands of san franciscans not previously accessing shelters and services. People in Navigation Centers are often the first in line because they have been assessed and are in process. We need more to serve the 5,000 experiencing unsheltered homelessness every night. Despite the success, the city has only built shelters in a limited number of neighborhoods, concentrated in districts 6, 9, and 10. From unhoused san franciscans who clearly are lining up for these Navigation Centers and access their services. An astounding 82 of san franciscans support Navigation Centers in this parts and other parts of the city. Ive visited all of the current facilities, and heres what ive heard and learned. One, they are good for everyone, for people accessing services and neighborhoods, and we need more. Many of my colleagues have been trying hard to identify a site in their district for a Navigation Center, and in many cases, theyve been told no or received little support. The department and mayor should be working closely with every supervisor to meet the needs of Homeless Individuals citywide. Often the Navigation Centers come with little transparency to neighbors citywide, even the district supervisor, and that has to change. Ive heard concern whether november gas station centers of certain sizes might Navigation Centers of certain sizes might affect districts. In response, i have amendments today that allow for greater flexibility in meeting the needs of specific districts, if a Navigation Center is not adequate, another Transition Center that houses at least 30 beds will meet this commitment. I believe this will meet the commitment to end street homelessness and getting people in services and shelter that they desperately need. I want to be clear about this legislation in particular. This is not about fixing the entire homelessness response system. That is not what this legislation is. It is about setting a clear commitment and responsibility for each of us, for each of our districts for citywide temporary shelter and for clear citywide transparency. It is not to establish homelessnesses because that should already be the plan. While we work on mayor breeds goal on 2,000 new shelter beds in the next few years, i hope we can agree that homeless shelters and Navigation Centers need to be placed in every district. Existing shelter beds in San Francisco simply do not meet the growing need. While we ramp up the work of growing needs, we must be equally efficient about finding safe places for people who sleep on the streets now. I want to read these amendments and just say one last thing in closing. First, the and my colleagues have copies of these. This will change the 72 hours requirement for a comprehensive assessment to five days, and will clarify the storage be for active residents, changes the frequency to frequent Onsite Services and activities, clarifies that nav centers provide access to transportation, rather than directly responsible for physically transporting clients, changes requirements to daily activities. It strikes a requirement for operator to maintain contact for 60 days after exit. Clarifies that cities and communitybased organizations can make referrals to Navigation Centers. Adds a requirement that h. S. H. Develop guidelines for communitybases organizations to send clients. It changes the reference to that hot team to outreach teams associated with h. S. H. It adds an options, as i mentioned, for temporary shelters, including transitional housing, and stablization less than two years. It requires that the city departments submit a list of sites that can support shelters in 60 days, and a funding plan in 120 days. This is a commitment, and it is something that this supervisor and this board of supervisors collectively commits to. All of us every day are contacted by our residents about challenges related to homelessness. Each of us are constantly call h. S. H. , constantly calling 311. Ive heard each of my colleagues talk about this in different ways, and it is critical in that context that we have available shelters to get people on a pathway to housing in our city. Homelessness is not concentrated in districts 6, 9, and 10, but we will continue to step up to fulfill our commitment to our poor unhoused neighbors. We did not have a system where someone calls 311 in the castro and the haight, that the only opportunity we have to get that person in a shelter is to tell them to go to the other side of town in soma to get shelter. Thats unsustainable, its not fair, and it is not treating this as the true citywide crisis that it is. We can do better, and we must do better, and i think we can if we step up to provide access to services and of course housing, as well, all over the city. So with that, ill turn it back over to you, supervisor mar. I know that supervisors ronen and preston also have representatives who wanted to provide comment. Chair mar thank you, supervisor haney. Supervisor mandelman, do you have any open [inaudible] chair mar okay. So i guess i wanted to invite, i guess, representatives from supervisor peskins office to share remarks. Gener general Jen Schneider. Thank you. Im Jen Schneider from supervisor peskins office. We cannot agree more that permanent supportive and deeply Affordable Housing is the solution to the homelessness crisis. Its obvious, but its worth emphasizing. Nothing solves homelessness like a home. We want as much Affordable Housing in district five as possible, but right now, we have an emergency. Thousands of people are sleeping unsheltered every night with nowhere to go. And even assuming that we aal alall alall all unite behind a plan, its still going to take years. Supervisors, an unknown man died in our district just the other day. He was found, and the paper didnt write a story about it. A lieutenant told us about it. He was a wellknown man, he was 44 years old. That the ground patrol found him there on the ground. That the death wasnt suspicious, that it wasnt an o. D. Were new to this building, and i dont think im naive, but i hope we dont get to the point where someone homeless dies in a city and no one will care. On sunday, we are hosting a meeting to talk to our district 5 residents about a Navigation Center. Folks really want one in our district. The lieutenant who told us about the death are coming, as well as the Police Captains and more. People want a shortterm solution and a longterm solution, not one or the other. Its tragic to witness the homeless crisis for all of us. We in supervisor peskins Office Support the proposal, and we are proud to sponsor the legislation. Thank you so much. Chair mar thank you. Is there anyone else from our colleagues offices who wish to make some remarks . None . Okay. Well, i just well, i i i guess yeah, ill just share my remarks, and i guess ill just share my thoughts, as well. I agree that Homeless People in all neighborhoods should have access to dignified services and an access point to provide services and permanent housing. I want to thank supervisor haney for pushing this much needed legislation to the citywide strategy on housing. Over the past year, i have been working actively with the sunset community, including both housed and unhoused residents to develop solutions to homelessness in our district. Last month, we partnered in [inaudible] chair mar to identify potential sites for a Navigation Center, as well as a comprehensive plan to create new transitional housing, Behavioral Health services and permanent housing for those experiencing homelessness in district 4. As discussed in the last g. A. O. Meeting, i am introduced amendments today to strengthen the departments ability to abdecisiv act decisive in every district right now, including adding permanent Housing Options for formerly homeless persons with flexibility for piloting new models of care. Number two, requiring the department to conduct a faezibility analysis as part of establishing the fair share siteing criteria. Number three, allowing the department to offer another type of housing facility. I would like to add my own amendments, as well, adding some districts may not have parcels to accommodate Navigation Centers but may have sites feasible for shelters or transition facilities. A policy can establish vision, but a successful policy should allow us to achieve that vision. I believe with my amendments, we can pass legislation that is both bold and achievable. The unhoused residents of my district have asked for flexibility. In my house, constituents who support bringing Homeless Services to the sunset have asked for flexibility. At the same time, they are asking for accountability for the department of homelessness and Supportive Housing. Since we are considering two sets of complex legislation today, i ask that we hear from supervisors, the department, if they so choose, and then Public Comment. It would be my intention to entertain motions to amend section by sex. I believe that the amendments that are being introduced today by supervisor haney and myself if adopted would be substantive, and for that reason, i anticipate this ordinance will be continued to the next g. A. O. Meeting. For members of the public, that means there will be another opportunity to weighin on the legislation and any amendments that we accept today. So unless there are objections from my colleagues, i would like to welcome nick minard from the b. L. A. Office. You presented at the last meeting, correct . Thats correct, but im happy to answer any questions about our report. Chair mar well, thank you for being here. And i would also now like to invite julie boyer from the department of homelessness and supporting housing to make a statement. Good morning, members of the government audit and the oversight committee. I am here today to read a statement into record on behalf of director kositsky. As h. S. A. Has informed Committee Members both verbally and in writing, i was unable to attend the committee today as i am speaking at the National Alliance to end homelessnesss annual conference. H. S. A. S Senior Management are also attending the conference to share San Franciscos best practices in learning with our National Partners and colleagues. We understand chair mars scheduling for today, and i apologize that neither myself nor an appropriate representative was able to attend to provide comments and answer the committees questions. We share with the committee our concerns with this proposes ordinance as its currently written in the hearing on thursday, february 6, and we look forward to continue working with the supervisors on this amendment. We appreciate chair mars amendments, but we know there is more work to be done. H. S. A. Looks forward to attending the next meeting. Thank you. Chair mar thank you, miss boyer. Is there a representative from the Mayors Office or any other offices that would like to make remarks . No . Great. Before we go to Public Comment, are there any further comments or questions from my colleagues . So why dont we move to Public Comment. I have two speaker cards submitted. Shelley carroll and francisco decosta. Other members of the public are invited to speak. Please lineup on the right side of the room. Mr. Decosta, you have two minutes. Yeah, i have two minutes. So i represent the first people, the ohlone. The spokesperson came up here and spoke to all the supervisors and told what she needs from all the supervisors, thats empathy and compassion. Now even before you make the amendments, they must be available to the public, not read to us at the last moment because at San Francisco, we have astute and stellar constituent taxpayers who understand amendments. Now, you may say we have 5,000, 6,000 homeless in San Francisco, we really have over 12,000, and Navigation Centers in every neighborhood is not the way to go. Putting people in small boxes is not the way to go. Now supervisors, you all know about the academy of Art University having thousands of units that it stole from us, rental units. Why dont we go over there, since we won the case . We need human beings to live in buildings with wraparound services. We dont need to have one single human being or our elders die on the streets of San Francisco. We do not know that. The legalese, he is a representative of somebody who came here who said oh, i was a representative of a committee, and i cant be here, San Francisco is corrupt. San francisco has lost its soul, so much so that the f. B. I. Is now involved in so many things, bringing up things that are hidden. You all clerk thank you. Next speaker, please. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello, supervisors. My name is shelley carroll. I live in district 6, two blocks away from the Navigation Center on the embarcadero. I agree that Supportive Housing is what we need, but in the interim, i support Navigation Centers in general, and Navigation Centers all over the city. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Good morning, supervisors. Calvin click from the San Francisco youth commission. We oppose this legislation unless amended to reinstate the hard need for a t. A. Y. Navigation center. I just want to reiterate that we are supportive of this broaden intent of this legislation to expand the model across this city, and we definitely appreciate supervisor haneys and supervisor prestons remarks. We agree it does not reflect well on the citys values if we remove the current mandate for a t. A. Y. Navigation center to be operated by the city, and there is good reason for the city being committed to address Youth Homelessness as a priority. I large a disproportionate number of people experiencing homelessness in the t. A. Y. Range, so if we support homelessness in that age range, we will be easing the burden on the alternate system and developing tools to better serve the population experiencing homelessness at large, so we believe we should not be backing off on our hard commitment to operating a t. A. Y. Navigation while such a Navigation Center still does not exist and will not for at least the rest of this year. We thank you for your consideration. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Supervisors, Brian Everett from district 5, for the coalition to end homelessness. We are in support of Navigation Centers as well as r. V. Centers. We are also in support of other transitional housing stopgaps to bridge when we actually have housing for folks. I do want to stay the Navigation Centers often end up being used for reasons of enforcement around them. Im always cautious when i see these things come up, because it gets promised to the residents, well, well create a clear zone or Something Like that, and its promising to your constituents that you cant deliver. The city does sweep people every single day and every single night, and they come back. It may not be the same people, but theres no place to go. Theres thousands of people that are caught outside the shelter system. So we support Navigation Centers, we support other transitional facilities, but we also want to make sure that this does not get used to promise housed people that their complaints will be responded to regarding unhoused people. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. My name is jordan, and lets talk about homeless shelters. Ive been in a conventional shelter in philly, and it was like a mini prison. I home that Navigation Center replace shelters, so thats good. Were a Housing First city, and i think we need to go further and that there should be housing for the formerly homeless in every district in the city, and they need to be in apartments not s. R. O. S, where people are treated like adults, not poverty pimps. Height restrictions should not matter in this regard. If the city wants to build a homeless shelter in lake merced or the marina, i think it should meet with approval, and no one should be able to cry boohoo and about how we lower Property Values in that neighborhood. We need to not focus on the interim things, but instead the permanent solutions. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Hi. Im with Community Housing partnership, and we are very supportive of Navigation Centers in every district. Its important that, like jordan just said, that we also realize that if we dont have housing exits for people in the Navigation Centers, then were just kind of spinning peoples wheels. If there was an earthquake now, we wouldnt have people to set up in each of the neighborhoods. The financial crisis and the gentrification crisis have affected our city, and we need to set up appropriately. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Hello. My name is shirley, and ive been homelessness. I just left, denver, colorado, and buried my sister and her son. Her baby boy is married to a woman that runs a homeless connection place. What they have is they have bought apartments, not this navigation system. It will not work. Im going to say it again. I lived in a tent. I was homeless for two years. That was almost 15 years. Im still struggling. Whats behind a navigation, that does not work. The place she works, they have bought apartment complexes, houses, homes, and they put them in there. They have social workers, everything. Its been 100 guaranteed, it works. They help people get jobs, they help people get on their feet, and they move on out. Theyre there for a period of time, and then, they move out. The money youre using for this, you can use it for homes and get the people in, and give them a certain amount of time, and i guarantee you it will work, but this is a waste of money. You can make some Navigation Systems for them to get from point a to point b, but this is not going to work. Its a waste of money. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Hello. Im here to let you know that the towns nice and all of that, but theres a lot of things that go into this that would help also. Social workers, doctors, nurses, people who are there to help them find housing, get stable jobs, all those things are great things that should go into that if you should actually do it right because if you dont do it right, youll have the same problem next year and the year after that, and the year after that. So im thinking that if you consider our neighbors who are homeless, as mr. Haney has mentioned, we dont know what its like to be homeless. We dont know what its like to be trapped in a situation they cant get out, and every time you look around, theyre getti getting harrassed. You have thousands of People Living on the streets. You have left them hopeless out there on the street. Its a nice sound when you say youre going to have Navigation Centers all over the city, but if you dont have the way to set up properly, youre not going to have any solutions. Lets put people out there to help our people. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Hi, good morning. Supervisors. My name is dale seymour. I now chair the local homeless board for the city of San Francisco, so im not talking to you off wikipedia or google. I actually spent time in their life. This is the city of st. Francis. Arent we our brothers keepers . Arent we required to do something for folks on the street . Most people in this room cannot last two hours on the streets, but we have people that have been there 10, 15 years and somehow managing, so it is our responsibility as a decent city and a people of love that we talk to San Francisco we love everyone and were so liberal and were so get down, and yet, were fighting Compassionate Service for folks on the street. Spend one night out there, and youll know what im talking about. At least we can and i am not a shelter person. I dont believe we can shelter our way out of this crisis, but in the meantime, weve got to think of tyrone, weve got to think of sheela, whos out there tonight while we go to our warm homes, theyre out there. Weve got to do this on a citywide basis. This is not a south of market problem, this is not a tenderloin problem, this is a San Francisco problem. No one can say, theyre not in my district. What the hell you saying, not in my district . Everyones got to cue on this because weve got a crisis outside that we have not figured out how to do it, so in the meantime, we need these manufacture gas station centers. We need these Navigation Centers. Please navigate for these, and find these other supervisors, and ill go to them door by door and say [applause] chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Good morning, supervisors. My name is lorenzo, and i am a Community Organizer with dndc in the tenderloin, peoples congress. Homelessness issue is in a crisis situation. We know that thousands of people are out there in the streets every night, every day, without you know, without housing. So so we also know that over the past three years, over 400 people died on our streets. So we need a comprehensive citywi citywide solution to address this problem because obviously, the Previous Solutions didnt work. We know that this is wrong. This is wrong, and it is embarrassingly wrong for a city that is, like, one of the wealthiest cities in the world to let these things happen to our neighbors. So i urge all of you to please support this, and especially the mayor, to build more housing citywide. Because this is urgent, and this is this should have been done years ago. We should not also stop on that, we should also think about providing services to them, because this is how they will be sustainable and build more housing citywide, as well. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Do we have any other people who would like to speak on this . Step forward. My name is liza. Im for Navigation Centers. The problem is we dont have people to help them. I went inside Navigation Centers and shelters, and they theyre deplorable. To walk in a shelter and watch 70 men of color watching t. V. Hurts my heart. Its like why arent we doing a group . Why arent we doing housing applications . Why arent we doing proactive things . We have 60 people waiting for beds, and we have 25 beds and two case managers. When are we going to realize that in order to help these people, we need to provide proper resources for proper growth so they can incorporate back into society. We need to differentiate between Mental Health and homelessness. Instead of building temporary places, why arent we investing in longterm housing for lowincome . Thank you. [applause] chair mar thank you. Is there anyone else that would like to speak on this item . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. [gavel]. Chair mar supervisor mandelman . Supervisor mandelman thank you, chair mar. And i will be brief. Im just visiting the committee. Im glad to be here today because i want to hear more about this proposal, and i did watch the prior hearing. You know, i think that if i were the district 6 supervisor, i would absolutely be putting geographic equity in Homeless Services as among my very Top Priorities because there is not geographic equity in the city right now, and if i were a resident of the tenderloin or soma, i would be very frustrated about that. As the district 8 supervisor, i see the problem from a different perspective, which is we do have unhoused on our streets, and so far, it has been cost prohibitive and nearly impossible to find spaces in the castro that would be feasible in getting people off the streets. Im glad we were able to find the hummingbird site. My concern about this particular legislation, and i appreciate the amendments that have been brought forward, is that it centers Navigation Centers as the solution to homelessness, and as i think about homelessness and how it impacts housed and unhoused people in San Francisco, if youre an unhoused person in San Francisco, the solution is a home. It is a way to get into an s. R. O. , permanent Supportive Housing, coop, something that permanently gets you off of the street and into a best space. If you are a housed person, frustrated about the encampments that are outside your home, you want the fastest, cheapest way to get a safe, humane alternative for the people who are being forced to camp in your neighborhood. And although i believe that Navigation Centers are important, and particularly important for people who are reluctant to come indoors, there are a lot of people who are not reluctant to come indoors, and we are leaving those folks by the hundreds and even thousands some nights without a place to go. And although i take the point about this, you know, not addressing the whole panoply of things, i am concerned that it will displace resources from permanent Supportive Housing on the one hand and from more immediate and Cost Effective ways to get people shelter on the other hand. So where im looking for faster and more Cost Effective than what weve been doing over the last few years, i fear this is going to be slower and more expensive. To that end, i think the amendments that are being discussed will improve this and help the legislation be less impactful in a negative regard. But i remain concerned that tasking the department of homelessness and Supportive Housing to tackle these goals in a sixmonth time frame when ive seen them tackle almost nothing in six months is unrealistic. Second, i think what constitutes the nav center is going to make it harder, more expensive, and slower to get these facilities up and running. So these are the concerns that i currently have. I will support the amendments today, but look forward to the conversation continuing. Chair mar thank you, supervisor mandelman. Supervisor haney . Clerk just a reminder in todays proceedings, please refrain from hissing, booing, or applauding so we can keep on track. Thank you very much. Supervisor haney thank you. I just want to thank everybody from the public who came out and for your thoughtful comments. I just want to respond to a couple of things that have been said. First, with the timeline, were going to meet the timeline with the hummingbird site and the site in district 3, and the other districts would have 36 months to build the remaining sites. I want to Say Something about permanent Supportive Housing. We absolutely need permanent Supportive Housing. We need it, and we need it fast. We just passed a 600 million housing bond. We passed an increase to the Office Development fee, which is going to bring in another 500 million, with a dedicated source of funding for homeless. We hopefully very soon are going to get money from prop c, which is another few hundred million dollars. We have thousands of units in the pipeline, and they absolutely need to come faster. If anybody wants to Work Together to ensure that theres a citywide commitment for that housing in every district, i will be the first to sign up to work on that with you. So lets do that. We need that, we need those exits, but lets be clear about what this is. This is also something we absolutely essentially need right now tonight. Many of the people who are going to be going into those housing exits, to that Supportive Housing, first need to be transitioned in a housing Navigation Center. They need to be in there tonight. Some of those folks will be able to qualify for housing in a certain amount of time, and right now, it takes a certain number of months for people to wait to be placed in housing. Other folks have other types of housing exits. In any case, our shelters are way over capacity to address the need that we have tonight, so i do find it hard to stomach that we have a situation where and i know, hopefully, supervisor mandelman, that your constituents are concerned about people housed constituents are concerned about people who are living in their doorsteps and on the commercial corridors, and youre call hsoc, and youre calling 311. What do you think is happening to those folks right now . They if we have opportunities for them to go anywhere, theyre going to shelters and Navigation Centers almost entirely in my district, district 9. So we do have a demonstrated clear urgent need for more Supportive Housing, and we have a clear need tight for more transitional shelter. And this proposal would fit perfectly with a proposal that also requires more permanent Supportive Housing citywide in every district, and i would support that entirely, but thats not what were doing here with this laemegislation. If we made this about permanent Supportive Housing, and we built, lets say, in district 1, where i know theres also challenging around homelessness in district 1, a 50unit permanent housing site, thats absolutely needed and required, and we should do that, but it doesnt allow us on an ongoing basis to address the urgent needs of getting people off the streets into temporary shelter, transitional shelter immediately. That would still leave district 1 without any transitional shelters tonight for people who need them, and i think thats a broken homelessness response system with massive gaps in it that will continue to leave so many people on the streets without a place to go. So i you know, i definitely support permanent Supportive Housing. I hear everyone, thats a critical essential support of the response system that needs to grow, but so is this, and thats why it was written as it is. And i think that for district 6 and 9 and 10, you know, ive built were building another two in district 6. The idea that other parts of the city i should say other elected officials in other parts of the city would continue to rely on sending folks solely to our district rather than stepping up and having that clear responsibility and mandate i think is very unfortunate and ineffective, especially when we know from what residents are saying and what polls have said that the neighborhoods themselves and the residents themselves want these services, want these transitional shelters in the neighborhood. They want them, so its really this building thats unfortunately behind the ball when it comes to stepping up and taking the responsibility to meet the demands of this crisis on our streets. So i i will im sure were going to go amendment by amendment, word by word, but i i support the amendments, and i appreciate the amendments that youve put forward, supervisor mar, but i i do not want to turn this into a a piece of legislation that requires permanent Supportive Housing in each district, though i would support that, too. So if you want to make this an and, or if you want to make a different set of legislation for that, i would complete to that, but i am also aware from the other coauthors that they feel very strongly that this needs to maintain the commitment to transitional, immediate shelters to Transitional Services onsite in the Navigation Center model. Lastly and this was said in the last meeting. You could have a parking lot in a district that is for 30 cars or r. V. S. They can be specifically focused on veterans or seniors or transitional age youth. They can be a hummingbird site for folks experiencing Mental Health or addiction. With these amendments, weve actually expanded it a lot more. So i think theres sufficient flexibility in here, and i would support the amendments you put forward, and i appreciate the work that youve put into these, supervisor mar, but with the exception of the piece around permanent Supportive Housing. Chair mar thank you, supervisor haney. Actually, just i wanted to see if we can just clarify one point that both you and supervisor mandelman, i think, referred to around the sixmonth time frame to create the first two Navigation Centers in districts without one. I think the b. L. A. Analysis, mr. Menard, you sort of looked at that and is six months a feasible yeah. Nick menard from the budget and legislative Analysts Office. We two have two Navigation Centers that are scheduled to open in the fall of this year, so assuming that timeline remains intact, they would meet the sixmonth requirement in the ordinance. Chair mar great. Thank you. That sounds good. And then, supervisor haney, one of your amendments is to extend, for the other nav centers to be opened, from 30 months, to 36 months. That sounds good. So yeah, i well, i actually, id like to move into the discussion about the proposed amendments. And again, supervisor haney and myself both introduced some proposed amendments today that i i guess are not necessarily i think a lot of them are complimentary and fine, and so but i would like to maybe i think process wise, its good to start with the section the amendments that are proposed for section 106. 31, requirement to open new Navigation Centers, because i think thats the section where there there theres some, like, sort of misalignment with the amendments were proposing. And i would actually, maybe i would just start off by saying that i support all of the amendments that youre proposing in the section with the exception of one, and thats in your new subsection d, other temporary shelters. So you know, so i appreciate the intent of that by allowing other types of shelters, you know, to be considered in fulfilling this you know, the nav center in every district. And so my the amendments that ive submitted, you know, are more are more descriptive of the other types of shelter and services that could be provided for the homeless homeless residents in every district. And and and i guess, you know so in i think were in agreement that other types of shelters if a Navigation Center are not feasible in a district, just that my amendments provide more description about what those alternative Shelter Services and services could be. The one significant difference that you highlighted is my amendments. Im also proposing that in addition to other types of transitional housing facilities, we also allow additional housing solutions, permanent housing to be considered in fulfilling the requirements of this legislation. And i i you know, i hear your points about how we need both, and the intent your original intent of this legislation with the focus on Navigation Centers and shelters and transitional housing to get folks living on the streets or unsheltered off the streets versus creating permanent Supportive Housing, but i think as you know, i i would i tend to agree with supervisor mandelman. And i think also what we heard from the department, from representatives at the last previous hearing and many of the speakers and the public that we have to kind of look at all you know, all of these these different strategies, and and and we need all of them kind of at the same time. And i think more more specifically, for some districts, like the sunset or district 4, you know, the built environment in the sense with its vacant homes and the more vacant parcels, it would be easy to find homes than a traditional Navigation Center. So i would like to start i would like to sort of propose for this section that we would accept all of the amendments that supervisor haney put forward except for the proposed new subsection d, in the section, other temporary shelters, and then accept all the amendments that i put forward for this section, which i think are would be complementary or work well with supervisor haneys amendments. Deputy City Attorney pearson, do you have any deputy City Attorney ann pearson. It might be simpler to take those two things one at a time and accept the amendments that have been introduced by supervisor haney with the exception of those made to section d, and following those, make a motion to accept the ones that you have suggested. Chair mar okay. Supervisor haney no, you cant clerk supervisor haney . Supervisor haney maybe my question might answer the publics question. So what we are going to do is take all of the amendments that i have proposed, except for the amendment that relates really to the type of shelters that would qualify, which would be 10 can you read the section that were and what well read it for the public. The motion that i heard articulated was limited to amendments that have been introduced to section 106. 31, and i understood the amendment to be a motion to accept the amendments that you have made, supervisor haney, to that section, with the exception of those amendments introduced to subsection d as an initial motion. Clerk just as for additional clarity, so we can make sure, there will be other later amendments proposed as we continue to go through this section 106. 1 through 106. 13, but for an initial point, im hearing the haney amendments, excepting for that subsection d, that first motion, from supervisor mar. Is that correct . Supervisor haney i thought you said be accepting them except for the ones in subsection d. Clerk thats right. Supervisor haney so thats different. Can we clarify which amendments that were talking about . Supervisor mar so i did think process wise, it would be good to start with section 106. 1 106. 31, and then, after that, we can go to the other substantive section, which is 106. 2, the operational requirement. But for now, i just think it would be helpful to focus on the the the proposed amendments to 106. 31, and i can am interested in making a motion to accept all of your amendments in this section, 106. 31, except for subsection d, because i think that the amendments that i introduced sort of expand on that. Okay. Supervisor mandelman . Supervisor mandelman well, im trying to figure out the overlay of the two amendments, because i think both supervisors have proposed to add flexibility, and i appreciate the additional flexibility that both are offering. I think that supervisor haneys legislation or amendment contemplates the possibility that a hummingbird could meet the requirements of this legislation by having the 30bed limit, and im not sure that i saw Something Like that in supervisor mars amendments, which i could be missing. Were quick reading up here, so im not sure. But if another temporary shelter includes something that has at least 30 individuals, im not im not sure if that was specifically done for, like, a hummingbird or something that catered to people with individual heightened needs. And im not sure a new homeless facility is defined as a nav center, which im not sure includes a hummingbird. It needs to have 150 beds or Something Like that. Theres some minimum that needs to be met to fit the definition of a nav center. So if we arent seaccepting supervisor haneys d, i would like to have some way to acknowledge shelters that are smaller for particularly good reason, like i think, you know, nav centers are, would be or hummingbirds are, would be included in the definition. Just a point of clarification in the process, and ill look to the clerk to correct me if im wrong. A motion has not been made with respect to subsection d, so if the committee were to vote to approve all of the amendments that are proposed to subsections a through c, it could move on and someone could make a motion as to the proposed amendments in subsection d. Chair mar yeah, thank you. I dont believe i made a motion, i just expressed an interest to make a motion. This is sort of complicated process wise. Supervisor haney well, i will move the amendment that i proposed to section 106. 31 with everything, with the exception of section d. Clerk everything on your text with a amendments that you presented on that section with the exception of subsection d . Supervisor haney yes. Clerk and moved by supervisor haney as a member of the committee. Chair mar great, and ill second that. Clerk okay. Would you like me to take a roll call vote on that or chair mar okay, yeah. I think we can do that can we take that without objection . Okay. [gavel]. Clerk so the motion is made to anticipate the amendments by supervisor haney to accept the textual amendments to subsection 1. Chair mar i then would like to make a motion to accept the amendments that ive introduced to section 106. 31 but with i think we can [inaudible] okay. Yeah but i would like to make sure that we address the point that supervisor mandelman brought up about acknowledging that the hummingbird place facility would serve this, as well, as a i think in my amendments it would be considered i think in my amendments, it would fall in a transitional housing facility with amendments. I think you supervisor mandelman mr. Chair, i think you could add other temporary shelters to the list of things that count as whatever the defined term is, list of homelessness facilities, and then have a definition of temporary shelter that basically mirrors yeah, i think that includes supervisor haneys language from d, i think. Chair mar mmhmm. Is it mainly the 30individual . Supervisor mandelman yeah, its an alternate type of temporary shelter that serves at least 30, but not limited to transitional housing or stablizati stabilization beds. That bill piece of d that has that would become part of new homeless facilities. Lets do your yours first, and then chair mar okay. Clerk can you restate your motion, please. Chair mar so i move that we accept the motions that weve introduced to 106. 31. Clerk would these override the amendments proposed by supervisor haney . Chair mar no, im proposing we do both, the ones that i and supervisor haney set, and then, my amendments in the entirety, i think they could go together. Clerk okay. You going to take a roll call vote on that . Chair mar yes. Clerk okay. Roll call vote on the amendments to 106. 31 as offered by supervisor mar. [roll call] clerk chair mar, there are two ayes and one no, with supervisor haney in the dissent. The motion prevails. [gavel]. Clerk thank you. Supervisor mandelman so its simple to do this now, so we can do this now or come back later. So the hummingbird solution, is to add a division of other temporary shelters that defines it as an alternative type of temporary shelter including but not limited to transitional housing, temporary, or shelter beds, and then, to add other temporary shelters to the definition in b1 of what is collectively new homeless facilities, so i would move that we do that. Chair mar i think thats good. Can i just ask a question. Why couldnt we include that under transitional housing facility . So youre proposing to add it as a new under definition as a fourth im sorry. I guess im just trying to understand why because under transitional housing facilities, i think that was meant meant supervisor mandelman i dont think hummingbird is a transitional shelter. Its a good model that helps people, but i dont think its good transitional housing. In a residential facility i dont think its a residential facility for Behavioral Health treatment, its a shelter with Behavioral Health treatment, so i think it does need to be separately called out. If theres discomfort with this, im also happy to work with work with the chair and to have somebody bring in the amendments next time were at the board or something, so either way. Chair mar okay. I think that sounds good. Supervisor mandelman okay. Then i rescind my motion. Clerk thank you. Chair mar all right. And then, maybe we can go to the other substantive section, thats 106. 2, Operational Requirements for Navigation Centers. I i would just move that we accept the amendments to this section, that supervisor manny has introduced in their entirety. Clerk do you have a second to that . Supervisor haney oh, second, yes, thank you. Clerk im hearing supervisor mar moving the textual amendments proposed by supervisor haney in their entirety. Do we need to take a roll call vote on that . Chair mar can we take that without objection . Okay. [gavel]. Clerk okay. Without objection. Chair mar are there any other amendments that i believe theres one amendment to the findings that hasnt been addressed yet. Chair mar oh, right. So that yeah, i did have one amendment to the findings stating that in districts that may not have applicable building, safety, or height requirements that meet the admin codes, there may be exceptions to transitional housing for persons experiencing homelessness. So so i would move that we accept that amendment. Supervisor haney can we take a vote . Clerk so on the motion to insert in the findings a new subsection i as offered by supervisor mar in his textual amendments, supervis amendments [roll call] clerk chair mar, there are two ayes and one no, with supervisor haney in the dissent. Chair mar thank you. Clerk the motion prevails. [gavel]. Clerk just a moment while i catch up. Chair mar and deputy City Attorney pearson, correct me if i am wrong, but weve dealt with all the amendments that have been introduced, and you can just deal with the other language thats right. I think youve proposed all the amendments, and we can work with your office to approve all the amendments that were proposed today and changes to the title, as well. Chair mar so again, thank you so much, supervisor haney, for sponsoring this important legislation and for pushing this discussion about expanding our services for the Homeless Population citywide to address the crisis on a citywide level. Supervisor haney thank you, yeah. Chair mar so well thisll be continued to the next i would i would like to move that we continue to the next g. A. On to. Meeting. Clerk the next regular g. A. O. Meeting will be march 5, 2020. Chair mar okay. Actually, since were considering scheduling a special g. A. O. Meeting that week because of the number of items, maybe we could continue this to the call of the chair so that we could schedule it clerk is that your motion . Chair mar yeah, so i would move that we schedule that to the call of the chair. Can we take that without objection . [gavel]. Chair mar thank you. Mr. Clerk, please call item number 2 oh, actually, there was a request to take one item out of order. Supervisor fewer requested that we take item 6, so mr. Clerk, please call item number 6. Clerk agenda item number 6 is a hearing on the citys preparation for the 2020 census. Chair mar great. Hello, supervisors. Good morning. My name is chelsea boylar from supervisor fewers office. We will be brief because i know that there are a lot of people here for item number 2. We didnt want to delay this hearing because census outreach is about to begin next month and is launching. But the intention of todays hearing on the 2020 census is to highlight the planning for the intensive undertaking for the census. Happens every ten years in San Francisco. We have a goal of counting all of our residents, especially those residents that are identified as hard to count for many reasons. To be counted is to have voice and power in our country. We rely on the census to define who we are. It ensures Representative Government at all levels. It is used to define congressional districts and provides the most complete data fosh research and policy planning in the public and sectors. As we head into the 2020 census, supervisor fewer is particularly concerned about how to ensure counting of children, noncitizens, limited English Speaking people, unhoused people, folks in Public Housing and more. We know theres a lot of work going into making this happen, so i am appreciative of you all taking the time to have this hearing today and appreciative for director of the Civic Engagement immigrant affairs, adrian tan, who is here to make a presentation, and then two community presenters, but hopefully, this item will be short, and thank you very much. Chair mar thank you. Supervisor tan . Good morning, supervisors, chair mar. Adrian pan, and im joined by my colleagues on the team, and we will breeze right through this presentation. A year ago we shared our initial thinking on the 2020 census and overcoming the many challenges to making sure that every San Francisco resident was accurately, fairly, and completely counted by the u. S. Census bureau during the 2020 census. We are asked today to we were asked today to provide an update on whats been done so far. So first of all, i want to thank you for your leadership on the board, and for president yee and supervisor fewer for keeping the focus on the 2020 census. Theres a lot going on in the city, but question need to get this but we need to get this done. Just the quickest recap on the census, census 101 is a count of everybody, and it happens every ten years. And why the census matters is about power, voice, and funding, as chelsea said. But more important, every person counted in San Francisco is worth about 2,000 in federal funding and resources each year for the next ten years, so the census will also impact our redistricting, our congressional representation, and the political voice. But if you think about just the money alone, thats about over the next decade, 17. 7 billion coming to our city, and we need that for all the essential services for our people. So i think that you are aware of the many, many challenges. Were not going to go through all of them. The census has been politicized, its been abused. Everything that youve heard, theres historic undercount, theres a lot of fear under our immigrant population, whether youre a long time immigrant or undocumented, all of the talk about adding the Citizenship Question has already done its harm and damage in making our people even more scared, and then, there are accessibility issues. Its the First Digital census, so we have language barriers. Were not sure if this is going to pose some risk or cybersecurity risk. Theres declining trust in government, especially in the last three years. I dont need to tell you that. Youre well aware of that. With every danger comes opportunity, so we look at this as an opportunity to mobilize the people of San Francisco. Its a call to action. Weve got to standup to hate and intimidation. Weve got to energyize the next generation, test the field for mass mobilization, and there are census Jobs Available that pay 30 an hour if we can get our people in the pipeline as quickly as possible. So now, im going to give you just an overview of the San Francisco effort. Its s. F. Counts for the 2020 census. And we say that every counts and needs to be counted. Despite what you hear from wilbur ross or the president or other people, yeah, our people count, and our focus is going to be on hardtoreach areas of the city. So what is s. F. Count . So this is a coordinated grassroots effort with a Broad Network of community arts, civic, education, labor, and faithbased organizations, to make sure that everyone in San Francisco is accurately counted in the census. Our goals are real simple. Increase the access, remove the barriers, foster trust because theyve got to at least trust us, and then motivate our residents, and there are different ways to motivate them. San francisco is the only county in the 2010 census to hit its goal of 73 in selfresponse, and thats our goal again this time. Its system bishs, and we have its ambitious, and weve got our work cut out this time around, but were not alone. Were doing outreach in every single neighborhood, doing relevant messages from trusted voices, boots on the ground operations, real Grassroots Community based organizations. And i have to give a shout out out, many of our community bases organizations are in the room based organizations are here in the room. They may be here for other items on the agenda. But we couldnt do the work without them, and you will hear from two of those organizations in a while, and making sure there are locations throughout the city, and making this a creative, inclusive arts based campaign. I hope its not going to be a representative not going to be representative of the u. S. Censusbased effort, but complementary. Were right in the middle of Community Outreach and education, and our Community Partners have been busy doing this since july of last year. The census goes live in march, and census day is april 1. But in between then, you know, people can jump online as early as march 12 to fill out their forms, which is what we hope most people will do, whether they need language assistance or need access to computer, were going to make that happen. On march 9, people can participate by telephone. They dont want to go online, there are other ways to participate. So finally, we did launch our San Francisco effort, s. F. Counts, with Speaker Pelosi and mayor breed on january 17. That was attended by hundreds of Community Members. Most of the 57 members of the San Francisco complete count committee, community leaders, grantees, labor and faithbased organizations, so it is game on for s. F. Counts, and im going to turn it over to robert clinton, our director of services. Good morning, supervisors. Thank you for having us. Just going to talk briefly about the things that weve done to make sure that our residents are being heard in the 2020 census. Children 05 were the most undercounted group in the 2010 census. Were making sure that everybody who is touched by this office is aware of the 2020 census. People experiencing homelessness are particularly vulnerable, especially in this First Digital census. Were working with the department of homelessness to distribute information, saying anyone can do the census and everyone should do the census. The Lgbtq Community, working with the office of transgender initiatives, working with the department of aging services. This is one of our outreach events, we have one of our superstar supervisors whos on screen there, also in front of us. This was an event at the Commonwealth Club that talked about the relationship between the Lgbtq Community and the 2020 census that went pretty well. Had some representation from our immigrant rights commission, from our leg aide. We had someone from the youth commission, as well. We are funding 30plus nonprofits who are doing census outreach and education work in their communities. They are doing work in language, they are doing work where people are at Different Community events, theyre creating bespoke census events, as well, and theyre spreading word about the census actively since last july. With the office of early care and education, they have Child Care Provider roundtables. Weve been at the last one, and the next one is on friday, providing information about the census in language to all Child Care Providers who are touched by this office. They all have received our census materials, they all understand how to help people to do the census, as well, so that is a really successful pard partnership. With h. S. H. , making sure they have bespoke materials, they are reaching out to people experiencing homelessness to let them know that the census is available to them, as well. O. T. I. , we are partnering with them in a number of days. They have a fellowship program, and their fellows are all being trained to give census assistance in spanish to people who are part of the Lgbtq Community. H. S. A. Has been one of our most important partners, and then with department of aging and adult services, we had a meeting last week that talked about the importance of our census for our aging and people with disabilities. We have a really robust complete count committee. Our census Community Partners are doing really fantastic work in the communities that they serve to tell people about the census, as well. Our arts based campaign is live. Youve seen some of the kiosks on Market Street that say come to your census, and theyre encouraging people to get excited about the census by using art. The interfaith partners have been great, and a lot of other partners, too. Weve done events in all of your districts, as well. We launched s. F. Counts, a soft launch, last autumn in the civic center commons. Were going to be at the Lunar New Year event this coming weekend. Supervisor mandelman was at the event we threw for the Lgbtq Community. We want to be out in the community wherever we can to tell people that the census is coming, 18 days away, and that they should shall be really excited they should be really excited to participate. My colleague, jamie, is going to talk about our communications. Good morning, supervisors. Im jamie richardson. Rober robert touched on this, but weve been focused on funding a hyperlocal campaign. The slogan is come to your census. Its provocative, its multilingual, and its funny, and the second phase of that will be multilingual bus shelters, bill boards, and more, including partnerships with local artists. Heres an example of some of these local kiosks. Theyre in chinese, spanish, filipino, and english, and all of the art on these kiosks are from local artists that are included in this active action. Not only are we doing outreach thats informational, but also provocative and gets people excited about doing the census. Our s. F. Counts communication strategy started back in the summer where weve informed people what is the census, why we do it, and so on. The toolkits are available to all of our nonprofit organizations, and anywhere we go, we make these available, with inclusive languages. Theyre available in spanish, russian, chinese, and filipino. Were on the second round of our outreach collateral to motivate people to action and participate in the census, and those will be in a lot more languages than the ones listed here . I want to share some Digital Tools that weve been building around the census. The first is working with the Digital Services team from the city and county doing census page, sf. Gov census. This is fully accessible, and its written at a fifth grade level, so its accessible to all of our residents. Weve also made an s. F. Counts website, sfcounts. Org. All of our census centers, and all organizations that have opted into this are providing census help starting in march where anyone in San Francisco can come to these organizations and say hey, i need help either accessing a computer to do my census or i need help in language doing my census or i just need some wifi, and i can do it on my phone right now. So all of these are available on our site. People can select the language that they need, and also by special needs, so theres a help for folks in the Lgbtq Community, for people that are unhoused, as well as a. D. A. Ak accessible locations. And theres an f. A. Q. Listed in spanish, chinese, and filipino. And weve been sharing all of our census outreach online in our social media counts which are listed there, and im going to kick it back to director pan. So supervisors in closing, we wanted to show this image and share why we chose to use an artsbased campaign for the people of San Francisco. This is different than other cities and counties, but we hope, you know, that they will adopt this too. So this gentlemans chamber is charlie, and he is a San Francisco resident. He was unhoused. There are thousands of charlies in San Francisco, and they all need to be counted and participate. And how we get charlie to come to a site and fill out a form that is only nine questions, but sometimes difficult for people to fill out is really the challenge to us. So we are using art to build the firstever San Francisco coalition for civic participation across arts, technology, philanthropy, and faithbased communities. We need every san franciscan to jump online march 12 and fill out their census form. Were going to provide the help they need, but theyve got to be motivated. We need to do it for our city, our family, our friends, our neighbors, and our communities. Thank you very much for your support, and we look forward to creating individual p. S. A. S with you and activating events out in your districts. I also want to give a shoutout to our Community Partners, and you will hear from two of them after you ask questions, or if there arent any questions, theyll be on desk. Youve heard hong may, and happy to answer questions or we can move to our Community Partners. Chair mar thank you so much. I think we can move to hearing from the Community Partners. Thank you. Thank you, director pan. Good morning. My name is hong may, and i represent chinese for affirmative action. Thank you so much for your leadership, and i want to thank president yee and supervisor fewer for calling the meeting on 2020 census implementation and inviting me to chair our work on census 2020. As you heard, we are in tminus 18 mode, going live on march 9. Chinese for affirmative action, c. A. A. , weve been working to tackle the appropriations for one of the most challenging federal census yet. We now know that there are three ways to fill out the census between march 12 and april 30. Online, by phone, and on paper, with language assistance depending on which method Community Members decide to employ. There will be a late submission, also known as the late response period, up to july 31, but we are working to make sure that all Community Members, hard to count or not, are filling out the ninequestion survey between march 12 and april 30 to make sure that our count is up and accurate. The nine questions on the survey does not include a Citizenship Question. It will not inquire about Sensitive Information such as bank account, citizenship, and employment efforts. I want to thank c. A. A. S Staff Members who have spear headed train the trainer workshops to train over 500 staff in the many neighborhoods to deliver 2020 2020 census messages. On that front, c. A. A. Has also set up a Technical Assistance hotline to troubleshoot during the implementation. The attitudinal barriers that arise from certain populations cannot be understated, some borne out of misinformation felt by people of color, immigrants, and marginalized communities. Untangling these from the access barriers, c. A. A. Has zeroed in on messages that first confronts confidentiality and Privacy Concern by reiterating that the census is safe and easy. Second, we are instituting a fraud and scam mechanism by provide Accurate Information so nobody falls prey to bad actors misusing the information. By completing the census, our communities can get a fair share in the coming ten years and help our democracy work again. C. A. A. Has partnered with s. F. Media services and we have received vibrant coverage since july 2019. We have also partnered with office of city engagement and office of immigrant affairs to put out census materials in traditional chinese script. C. A. A. Will publish accurate inlanguage and culturally competent content [inaudible] while march is right around the corner, and census 2020 quickly approaching, our work with local partners can help remove barriers can ensure that hard to count communities can participate in the census. We will be participating in s. F. Risings feed canvassing operations to inform and motivate hard to count communities and geographies to participate and offer mobile assistance in large scale events so that we are able to help hard to count communities complete the census on tablets on the spot. We look forward to working with you and collectively demonstrate our political courage to say we are here, were not going anywhere, and we count. Id like to invite my colleague, marian, to share her work. Thank you, hong may, for sharing your information. My name is Marian Elaine myers, and i am the Civic Engagement coordinat coordinator for s. F. Rising. We provide comprehensive census outreach and education to yu undercounted communities across San Francisco. Were trying to educate them and by focusing our outreach activity in those hard to count tracts, which include many neighborhoods in the southeast quadrant, including the bayview, excelsior, mission, o. M. I. , viz valley, and well also be spending operations to chinatown and the tenderloin. We spend last year planning our outreach activities and educating the community to dispel any concerns about privacy, the Citizenship Question, and many other concerns that they have. This march, well be sending over 50 canvassers throughout the city to make sure that residents are counting themselves in. Our outreach will take place in spanish, english, chinese, arabic, and filipino, among others. As you all know, this census has been politicized with the current administration, and it is the first online census. We want to make sure we close the digital gap by making sure that folks know how to access it online and also folks know what the exact questions being asked are, and that their information is secure. This is also our firstever time performing a comprehensive outreach using a voter Data Platform called p. D. I. , which will now give us information about all residents so we will be able to target all addresses and focus those addresses in the hard to count districts. We want to thank our Partnership Organizations for a complete count, and we look forward to working with you to make sure all san franciscans are counted. Thank you. Chair mar thank you so much. So thats the presentation . Great. Well, thanks thank you so much, director pan, and the ocaa team and all the Community Partners for leading this effort. Thank you, supervisor fewer, for calling the hearing and continuing to make this a priority here at city hall. Maybe we can go to Public Comment. Are there any members of the public who wish to speak on this item . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. So thanks again, everyone. Colleagues, can we file this hearing without objection . [gavel]. Chair mar thank you. Mr. Clerk, please call item number 2. Clerk agenda item number 2, resolution authorizing the department of Public Health to award a one time limited term grant to Edgewood Center for children and families for the purpose of maintaining the fiscal solvency of edgewood, in an amount not to exceed 350,000 for a period not to exceed 90 days, to commence following board approval. Chair mar the c. S. U. Is an unlocked 24hour Mental Health facility serving youth ages 517 with a team comprised of counselors, nurses, clinical administrators, and a psychiatrist available 24 hours a day. When children are referred to an age appropriate facility like c. S. U. , hospitalizations decrease. Children and families can access appropriate services from the c. S. U. , including acute intensive Services Provided onsite at edgewood. I am deeply concerned [inaudible] chair mar no matter their ability to pay. Without the c. S. U. , we are leaving many medical recipients without the specialty Mental Health services they are entitled to. I want to acknowledge the staff misconduct and why the department stopped placing children at edgewood last year, which has led us to this point. At the time, i supported the departments decision to end referrals upon the surfacing of the sexual abuse allegations. I welcome and encourage transparen transparency on this issue in our conversations today. We must put our Children First and problem solve together for their future. I have been working with d. P. H. And edgewood on corrective actions so that the facility meets our high standards of care and rebuilds the public trust so we can begin placing youth there again. Despite corrective actions and referrals from other entities that have deemed edgewood as safe, edgewoods action plan has not been approved. The agency is experiencing cash flow challenges due to lack of referrals and help from the city. Edgewood needs to remain solvent to complete the Community Action process. The onetime funding gives us an opportunity to save our one and last crisis stabilization facility for minors. Today, we will hear from the department, edgewood, the Third Party Consultant working on the corrective action plan, and the b. L. A. Before i begin with the presentations, would either of my colleagues like to make any remarks . Great. So we have four presentations today, and i would like to suggest we listen to all the presentations before we ask questions of the presenters and go into discussion as a committee. First, i would like to welcome greg wagner, chief Financial Officer from the department of Public Health. Thank you, chair mar, members of the committee. Greg wagner, d. P. H. As you mentioned 234 your remarks, edgewood has mentioned in your remarks, edgewood has been a community partner, and we request 350,000 to keep edgewood financially sustainable while we go through this process that youve referred to. As you mentioned, beginning in summer 2019, the city became aware of allegations of staff abuse of children at edgewood, and needless to say, that created significant concern by the city partners, d. P. H. , and h. S. A. , who use edgewood services. We, in response to these allegations, also, as you mentioned, in august 2019, froze placements collectively as a city in edgewoods Residential Programs and went into the process of working with edgewood on a corrective action plan that would remediation the safety issues and get us back into a place where we felt that it was safe and responsible to continue placements at edgewood. So in the intervening months, we, as a city, have been working closely with edgewood to talk through the issues and develop a court of action, and we agreed on a scope of a corrective action plan and are moving forward today with the request for this grant which would allow a period of time for edgewood, in consultation with the city as needed, to take those actions and also working with the city Going Forward on a longterm Financial Sustainability model so that we can work ourselves into a position where the financial concerns will not recur. As you pointed out, supervisor mar, separately and apart from the allegations that caused the cease in placements, we have been aware sometime in working with edgewood that there are financial concerns, and the fact that the city has frozen placements and therefore a reduction of funds to edgewood, edgewood has exacerbated that and put them in a difficult financial situation. We clearly want to get ourselves to a place where we can resolve the issues and continue placements, and we support fully this course of action. In terms of the mechanics of this action, the department of health does have the authority to enter into a professional Services Contract where we Purchase Services from edgewood, and we use that contract for our normal course of business, we do not have e the and thats the reason that we have requested and that you have brought forward this resolution, which would give us that authority to make the grant. The grant would include, as you also mentioned, a set of deliverables, including the collective action plan, a financial business plan, and would be paid over milestones as set forth in the grant agreement. So we are very hopeful about this process. I think both the city and edgewood are very committed to getting ourselves back into a place where any remaining issues are corrected, and we have a Comfort Level that we can resume services and also that we put ourselves in a position where we have a model that is financially sustainable for the city and for edgewood Going Forward. So we have our team here to answer any questions that you should have when you get to that point. Thank you. Chair mar thank you so much, mr. Wagner, and thank you to all the work that d. P. H. , h. S. A. , and the City Attorneys office have put into working this important issue. Next, id like to welcome lynn dulce, who is the c. E. O. Of edgewood. I was going to say good morning, but good afternoon. Im truly grateful for your support on behalf of the children and families we serve. You know, i know you know in San Francisco, nonprofits cant do our work alone and truly depend on the board of supervisors to make fair and measures decisions on behalf of your constituents. So as the chief executive officer for Edgewood Center for children and families, i am also a therapist, and i have served for 30 years in one way or another children and families in San Francisco. Prior to this position, i was the director of Public Health for San Francisco county. I cofounded the San Francisco department of Public Health trauma transformed trauma care curriculum that is considered a National Model for organizational change, and previously, i worked to advance and develop an a. P. A. , American Psychological association approved multicu approved multicultural program. I developed and oversaw outpatient Mental Health services and all services in the community. You may know that edgewood is the oldest nonprofit in San Francisco. We have served children and families in San Francisco since the gold rush. Through the world wars, San Franciscos coming of age in of 60s and 70s, crack, the racial crisis, and the challenges that are growing right now in our community. 90 of edgewoods work are done in the communities over the last 20 years, edgewood has served as the Training Facility for 1 of all child psychiatrists nationwide. Our partnership with ucsf extends beyond the school of medicine and into the school of nursing where we train Nurse Practitioner students who are interested in providing Psychiatric Health in under served communities. We have provided intergenerational family cancered care through our kinship support services, the very First Support services for grandparents taking care of their grandchildren before the state developed any care for these families. We keep children with their families in loving homes. When i learned about the devastating misconduct by two employees who cleared background checks and who were approved by the state to work in edgewoods residential Treatment Facilities, i fired them. I immediately set to work to fully understand the conditions at edgewood that led to egregious safety 3wr5e egregious breaches in the communities we serve. In order to ensure the safety of children in edgewood, we have made structural and procedural changes. Two months ago, in december d the california state licensing board closed all complaints against edgewood and issued our Permanent Operating license, something they definitely would not have done if they were at all concerned about the safety of children in our care. For over six months, my dedicated, talented and diverse team and i have worked with San Francisco county Human Service agency as well as the department of Public Health on a corrective action plan to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children in our care. The independent Consulting Team we hired per the countys mandate has submitted over 400 pages of documentation that addresses the countys concern for safety at Edgewood Center, and still, our publicly ensured youth and our families who are disproportionate lie African American and latinx have been denied to our services. Prior, children have had no disruption in services or treatment at edgewood. Specifically, without the Crisis Stabilization Service which is often the gate way to shortterm treatment, children as young as five and ad old as 17 are back to waiting for assessments in Emergency Rooms or being locked in units. I witnessed firsthand children waiting for Mental Health assessments in the emergency room and in the hallway in between the emergency room and the adult psychiatric emergency services, no place for children experiencing a psychiatric crisis. I think we all agree on that. My experience working with sfusd schools for children with Suicidal Ideation wait for hours in School Offices for someone with Decision Making power to come to assess them, someone who will tell them what the next step will be and where they will go. They are terrified, and their waiting increases their agitation as well as hopelessness. Six years ago, edgewoods crisis stabilization unit opened its doors. Led by director liz scilliado, it has been a place for children. Its a standalone unlocked pediatric setting where children and families receive immediate safety assessments and support by a highly skilled diverse Multilingual Team of professionals 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Im going to leave us with four takeaways today. The immediate safe concerns at edgewood have been addressed. There was no abuse alleged or reported in the crisis stabilization unit. The edgewood crisis stabilization unit funding needs to be secured today and into the future. The needs of our communitys most Vulnerable Children and families should always come first. The choice you make today will have a Lasting Impact on many, many young people and their families and in our community. Our prisons are filled with those who were once children left yun served, please do not fund the only c. S. U. For San Francisco youth. Lets put some focus on the need to build a sustainable system for children and families. I look forward to any and all conversations with the city and county and organizations who want to work with edgewood now and in the future. In times of crisis, we must come together to under the complexity of trauma and to collaborate, understanding what trauma entails, so that organizations like edgewood can prioritize education and healing for families. On behalf of the children and families we serve, thank you very much for your consideration today, and i look forward to questions later. Chair mar thank you so much, miss dolce. Next, id like to welcome john steinfirst with a Third Party Consultant working on a corrective action plan. Good afternoon. My name is john steinfirst, and a longtime resident of San Francisco, and by way of background, i began my career as a residential counselor, social worker, therapist, clinical supervisor, manager, a director, and c. E. O. , and interim of several agencies since my socalled retirement about ten years ago. For 20 years, i was the c. E. O. Of fred pinch youth center based in oakland with residential and Community Based services in california and as far south as san diego. I have a model consultancy practice with nonprofits and do Expert Witness work with attorneys, equally representing plaintiffs and defendants. Fred finch and edgewood are very similar in our mission and services, both beginning as orphan ages orphanages in the 19 century and emerging as family and Children Centers in the 21 century. I founded the Cypress Group several years. Carol schroeder, the retired executive director of the California Children and Family Alliance services. We contracted with edgewood in late september 2019 in response to the citys request to begin to look and assure by our study and assessment that youth who are referred to the Residential Programs at edgewood will be safe and who are served on the edgewoods vicente campus. We work closely and collaboratively with edgewood, the department of health and Health Services agency to complete a comprehensive top to bottom assessment of edgewood. Today, we are focused on edgewoods crisis stabilization unit known, as you know, as the c. S. U. To the best of our knowledge, based upon scores of interviews with staff and board members, after reviewing hundreds, maybe thousands of pages of documents, we have no evidence of any abuse or personal rights towards the children and youth served at the c. S. U. C. S. U. Has a rich staffing ratio, three staff to one child for 24 hours a day. Because of the acuity and Behavioral Health issues of those placed at the c. S. U. , ensuring the highest level of intense services. Despite a thorough review, no findings have been identified related at the present time to c. S. U. C. S. U. Leadership and oversight is strong, and the structure of the c. S. U. Facility is such that youth are visible to multiple staff excuse me at all times. In our february 10 meeting with city officials, the interim Behavioral Health Services Director emphasized how valuable their services are. The steinfirst group is a group of highly comfortable individuals saying that edgewood serves the most vulnerable in San Francisco, and that the c. S. U. Is needed by the city to serve those children and their families. Say with respect to you as the board of supervisors and to our city officials, we hope you will consider our thoughts and comments in your deliberations. Thank you very much. Chair mar thank you, mr. Steinfirst. Next, weve i just wanted to ask nick menard from the budget and legislative Analysts Office to share kind of highlights from your analysis on this item. Sure. Thank you, chair mar. So the proposed resolution states that it would authorize the department of Public Health to provide a grant of 350,000 to Edgewood Center for children and Family Services for a 90day period so that the organization may continue to operate. The grant moneys will be sourced from prior appropriations from the citys contract with edgewood, and as the presentation stated, they have sought board approval to issue this grant because the board doesnt issue grants for this purpose, so for that reason, we consider this to be a policy issue for the board. Chair mar colleagues, before we go to Public Comment, would either of you have any questions or remarks . Okay. Why dont we go to Public Comment. So i have a number of speaker cards that have been submitted. If you hear your name called, please step up to the right side of the room and step up to the microphone. Jessica anderson, kerrie kirby, chris bigs, chris rivers, michelle mcgriff, and nate lennox. First speaker, please. Hi. My name is jessica anderson. Im a resident of district 8 in noe valley. I have spent much of my life in San Francisco. I spent 25 years living in noe valley, and i have been working in San Francisco since the 70s. Im a banker, now retired. I urge you to allow for access for the c. S. U. For children who are relying on government funding for payment. This is absolutely critical. I also urge you to look at the delays that have been done in terms of ongoing financing, and also, the construction oriented financing that the department of Public Health is asking for, sort of pay as you submit. Its extremely difficult for any company, and as a lender, i know this to be true, for any company to survive, and for a nonprofit thats living on the edge all the time, it would make much more sense for everyone to get this resolved. It sounds like the state of california has given them a clean bill of health. Lets move forward. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. For give me. Im dr. Stewart butlare, and i was asked to go to the front of the line. Im regional director for Mental Health for kaiser permanen permanente. We have a longstanding relationship with edgewood. Weve continued to support the facility through its travails, primarily because of the transparency, the excellent care that they provide, as well as their plan of correction, which was very detailed. We continue to provide very substantial Case Management to assure ourselves of the safety of our patients and checked with the families of each of the patients that were there and discharged. About 20 of the patients who go to the crisis stabilization unit are kaiser kids. There are very few inpatient psychiatric beds in northern california. To give you a sense of it, from the oregon border to san luis obispo, theres about 20 patient beds, so these units are essential to provide crisis stabilization. They prevent suicides, which is the second leading cause, the second leading cause of death for kids ages 10 to 20. Its very crucial to have this type of support for children. There is no facility that provides crisis stabilization for ages 5 to 12 in the bay area, aside from this facility, and it is really a crucial program. I just wanted to point out that ooc oft oftentimes suicide is not the result of a psychosis chair mar thank you, doctor. [inaudible] chair mar yeah. Clerk next speaker, please. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker, please. My name is brandon carter. I had the privilege of being a resident at Edgewood Center for children and families for two years, from 1998 to about 2000, and also had the privilege of being able to work at edgewood as a team leader and residential counselor as well as in the schoolbased Service Program that edgewood provides. Ive also had the privilege to staff youth within the c. S. U. For brief moments of time. Im here to kind of just piggyback on the need for edgewood, what edgewood did for me, and why i feel like you dont take something off the board that is relevant and prevalent in the moment, and its something that we need. Its something thats ongoing. As ive heard many times, its one of the only services in the city that provides that acute services to the youth of San Francisco. Ive seen firsthand the work that is done there. I have i was at edgewood for three to four years, working as a staff member. Ive seen a lot, but well leave that out. I hate to hear that doors are being closed on youth or youth are being sent miles and miles away because we dont provide a certain service. I hope this pulls through, and i hope that edgewood is here for many years, and many youth are given the opportunity there, as well. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon. My name is dawn stickle, and im cochair of the juvenile Justice Youth association. Nancy rubin was the former chair of edgewood, until 2017 and has held a number of high level positions dealing with Psychiatric Services in the bay area. Edgewood as an agency has never backed away from the challenges. Rather, they have embraced the needs of the children and families unlike many such agencies in the state. Edgewood has never changed its mission or taken the easy way out. When faced with the current challenges of sexual allegations, edgewood did not back away. They immediately fired the employees, notified over 3,000 families and professional partners of the allegations, complied with all investigations, enhanced security practices over and above those required by the state, enhanced review and quality and on and on, like youve heard today. Im summarizing. I think its important to say San Francisco has not continued to work as a willing partner through this whole thing. As a former county health and Human Services director and a long time county manager, this is a surprise. Stri San Francisco worked with laguna honda and a number of other places, and we strongly urge you to work with edgewood in all the ways that matter. Maybe someone can read the rest of this letter. Clerk we will go to the next speaker who is in line for their two minutes. Thank you. Well start a new two minutes now. Yet the city has suspended admission since august 2019 to both the Residential Program and the crisis stabilization unit. Not only has this placed the agency under tremendous financial strain, but most importantly this policy by the city has deprived children and families of edgewood services. Children have been sent all over california and out of state. They are placed in adult hospital psychiatric facilities during crises. The city has created another crisis for our citizens, particularly those without means, by depriving them of edgewood services. Edgewood has been a loyal, steadfast partner for over 160 years. As new creative programming is being birthed for locking children up at juvenile haul, edgewood could play a key and pivotal role in developing new programming. I stand with my colleagues, imploring you to resolve this situation immediately. Your action to provide this bridge money is a first step in reopening the facility. This is an important next step. It must be done. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. My name is margaret broadkin. I have been an advocate for children since 1978. Edgewood is a treasure to this community. Theres maybe a handful of cities in the whole country that has a facility like edgewood with the resources it has, that its licensed, that is right in the city. They need to be our partners. We need to plan with them, we need to reopen the c. S. U. , we need to start referrals immediately, and its not going to stop there. This is a stopgap thing. We need to start a collaborative, respectful planning process with them, with h. S. A. , with d. P. H. , and with j. P. D. We think were going to plan alternatives for kids in the juvenile hall, most of whom have mental issues . How are we going to do that if were strangling organizations that have issues . Ive heard people say that oh, they cant manage their money. The amount that Residential Care providers get compared to what it really costs to do this is not reasonable. They have been amazing, that they have stayed in place, and theyve done it because of the generosity of their board and the amount of private dollars theyve raised. In the time ive been doing this work, i have watched Residential Care after Residential Care after Residential Care for kids close. We do not want to let edgewood close. Its a resource to us, its a treasure, and we need to collaborate together. And i want to say, were here because were frustrated. I feel like the citys been on a maybe well meaning but totally misguided crusade to make this to put crazy and bureaucratic demands im an lcsw in addition to being a child advocate chair mar thank you. Thank you so much. Clerk before we go to the next speaker, once again, for folks who have come in from the public for todays proceedings, please refrain from interrupting the proceedings by applauding, booing, hissing, or any other audible sounds that get us off track. Thank you. Good afternoon. Since 1851, edgewood has represented the best qualities of San Francisco, of a compassionate and nurturing response to the most Vulnerable Children and families in the community who have the least resources. Today at a time when the crisis stabilization unit is at risk, and most importantly, the children are unable to come to the crisis stabilization unit. I respectfully request that you approve this grant request so that we can continue the services that are so urgently needed. Thank you. Hello. Thank you for putting doing this taking this item under consideration today. My name is chris rivers. I work with greg on staff at edgewood. Ive been there three years, and i work with our Foundation Partners to Fund Additional services and needs in the organization. And over those three years, ive watched a rising tide of statistics, alarming statistics about teen suicide, those who faced untreated Mental Health in our country, and the c. S. U. Has continued to be a beacon of light for many children and their families. The work that i do works because its a Public Private partnership. I have many partners who want to continue to step up and provide tens of thousands of dollars to support the c. S. U. And the work that they do, but they can do it without your leadership. They cant do it without you standing up and saying you care about this facility because of what it does for the community. So i just want to thank you again for considering this, and i strongly encourage you to pass this 350,000 support for edgewood to allow us to continue to provide these Crucial Services. Thank you. Chair mar next services, please. Hello. My name is michelle mcgriff, and im a family partner at c. S. U. , and ive been at edgewood for 12 years now. Before the c. S. U. , there was the i worked in residential until the c. S. U. Opened, and so ive been there since it opened, and i just wanted to as a family partner, i wanted to touch on being a voice for the family. Since we dont have many families here, id like to be their voice, and i hope that you guys can find some empathy and compassion for the families that we serve. I have i came to the edgewood for being a client myself. The services there have helped i wasnt able to do it without them, so i know what the families receive at the c. S. U. , all of edgewood. I also work at the schools and in the Wellness Centers, and ive been told that because of us not being able to receive medical kids, the Wellness Centers now have to make appointments for the children, where that didnt happen before. And i hope that you guys will look at this and know that we are really needed in the community throughout the city. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon, supervisors. My name is yolanda jackson. Im the director and General Council of the Bar Association of San Francisco, and im here representing our 7500plus members. We handle juvenile and dependency cases in San Francisco, and therefore, theres a legal matter that this all impacts, as well, which im here to talk to you about. So children and family and juvenile and delinquency and dependency court, the cases have to go through the court. Their advocates cannot effectively advocate for their clients unless families participate in these services. Children and families are denied due process of the law and their constitutional right to family if they do not have adequate access to services. Edgewood has been a pillar in San Francisco Mental Health since 1851, as youve heard, and their treatment are often an essential component of Court Ordered services. San francisco has had a foster home for many, many years, with 65 of our youth being placed outside of San Francisco. It is now common for our foster youth to be placed in fresno, stanislaus, and other counties, away from their families. I encourage San Francisco to seriously consider the bridge funding thats being requested and to continue to provide the critical funding for the services needed to go forward. We are unique in San Francisco that we have these services, but most importantly, were not chair mar thank you. Thank you. Chair mar next speaker. Thank you for having us here today, and considering this. My names carrie kirby. Ive been a member of the Edgewood Community for 12 years as an employee and have had the opportunity to work with clients both before, during, and after the c. S. U. Before the c. S. U. Existed in San Francisco, i spent hours with children in e. R. S. I waited hours of time with children in crisis while we waited for mobile services as an alternative. Ive had hospitals say our patients are too acute, no thank you. Without these services, our kids have nowhere to go, and i hope you consider this budget bridge. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon. My name is nate lennox. I also work at edgewood. Ive been there about 15 years. Like kerrie, i work directly with youth and families in crisis before the c. S. U. , and i worked with them during the c. S. U. , and it would break my heart, not be too dramatic, to go back to how it used to be. Ive sat with kids for days in the e. R. , ive sat with them while theyre strapped to a bed. Then i see the c. S. U. , and i see the amount of compatission and the amount of kindness and the amount of care they get, so the thought of losing that is a bummer. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker . Im lisa neves. Im the current clinical manager of the c. S. U. And ive been with edgewood for about ten years. Prior to edgewood, i worked in so many different facilities, agencies in the Mental Health field. As a manager, as you can imagine, we tend to get a ton of phone calls, and a lot of them not so happy from parents that are complaining about the services, not happy with the way things have gone with their children, whatever. And i can honestly say in my entire time being manager of the c. S. U. , i have received a ton of phone call from parents, but not one has been in any negative whatever. Ive sat with parents just for a very long time, and so i just am hoping that this can go through because, you know, in a nutshell, it does save the lives of people in San Francisco, and i just hope that we can reopen and continue. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Hi. My name is natasha levine. We work with parents and youth and families across the city. One of the First Supports i always mention to parents in crisis is the crisis stabilization unit, and its highly utilized in our community and an extremely valuable resource. There are many parents here from our community. Many more couldnt come and sent in stories, so i would like to share some of them. Our family uses their services multiple times when our daughter tried to take her own life. The staff communicated kindly, were transparent about their process, had a highly skilled social worker to meet with us and made what is a horribly traumatic experience feel actually safe. The c. S. U. Saved our daughters life. Please consider saving it and expanding it so more can be saved. The c. S. U. Was the only place that the ucsf worker had to send my daughter while she was experiencing an issue. Within a couple of hours with the staff there, my daughter was smiling, telling them stories. She seem infused with enough hope to get through the night and begin healing. The last place any family with children want to end up is the emergency room. Thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon, supervisors. Thank you for having us here today. My name is martha ryan. Im the executive director and founder of the Homeless Prenatal Program here in San Francisco. Weve been in operations for 30 years. And i would say that 100 of the families that we serve, and we serve over 3500 families a year live on a budget of under 20,000 a year. Theyre all dependent on services from the city. But our kids, whove witnessed extreme trauma through their short lives cannot get into the c. S. U. Now because of the closure. I cant express more how important it is to provide this bridge funding, to provide a sanctuary and a safe place for kids to be and to get regulated and supported. Under the leadership of lynn dolce, i guarantee you, shell make it work. She did what she was supposed to do from the very beginning, and her very committed and illustrious career in San Francisco tells you she will, and it needs to work. On behalf of the most vulnerable families and children here in San Francisco, i urge you to provide the c. S. U. The bridge funding. Good afternoon, speakers. Im speaking here on my personal experience as a social worker. Many of our School Social workers are constantly consulted with our special team about students having Suicidal Ideation or thoughts of selfharming. The closure of the c. S. U. Has had a major impact on our most vulnerable students and families. The limited resources for youth who are having suicidal thoughts of suicide and selfharm. Our families end upbringing their child to Emergency Rooms, where the wait times are lengthy and staff are not always trained to work with our youth. The staff at the c. S. U. Are trained to work with our youth and families. For minors who dont qualify for involuntary hold, the c. S. U. Provides a safe place for our youth who are in crisis to stablize and to get support and resources they need to return home and back to school. Im asking you today to consider funding the c. S. U. As soon as possible for the safety and wellbeing of our students. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Good afternoon. My name is christina garcia, and im the regional director for Edgewood Center for children and families. Im here to read a letter sent by dr. Ken epstein, since he could not be here. Im writing in support of the continued funding for Edgewood Center for children and families. Ive been working with children and families in San Francisco for over three decades. During that time, ive seen great advances and great losses to our children, youth and family care. While appropriate focus has been placed on the wellbeing, safety, and sheltering of homeless adults, relatively little has been focused on building a sustainable system for children, youth, and families. The loss of edgewood would be another vital loss in this system. Having worked as a leader in both the public and nonprofit Mental Health system, drk i that San Francisco can effectively provide oversight to edgewood and can support the Safety Net Services they provide to San Francisco children, youth, and families. The defunding of edgewood c. S. U. , the only one in San Francisco city and county, would continue a sad tradition of choosing politics over children and breaches the countys obligation to meet the needs of children, youth and families in crisis. Please continue to fund the edgewood crisis stabilization unit. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Hello. My name is melic tota, and im the chief of finance and administration at edgewood. Ive been here five years. So i want to say, and its already been said, edgewood is one of the few surviving Treatment Facilities in San Francisco. This is in spite of the fact that Residential Programming is a money loser from an economic standpoint. Edgewood must maintain a 247 staffing for a full capacity program. While we are paid only for the clients there. This means a low economic risk for the client count. Besides the Community Benefits, the c. S. U. Was an opportunity to reduce our economic risk through a model that provided funds to cover the majority of our fixed costs despite the number of clients seen. Similar to an emergency room, we need to maintain the staffing to ensure that we can provide the appropriate service at any point in time. In the shortterm, this we need this bridge money of 350. However, please understand that the bridge funding will not be retroactive to january and february, which is when we lost our contract for the c. S. U. We also wont have access to all this 350,000 for up to 120 days. That means we now have to absorb these losses. We have been strapped for funding for years when we had to fund program gaps instead of funding for contingencies. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Hi. Im cheryl. Im one of the nurses at the c. S. U. , and i just and ive been there over four years. Kind of what somebody else said, like, the nurses, we make less than half of a nursing job somewhere else, but were there because of the mission and what the c. S. U. Does. Its like im a twospirit native person who mixed blood who had been praying for years, and when i went into the c. S. U. And saw what we what we do there with the families and environment and the care we work with children and families who fear that theyre going to be separated from their parents and are suicidal. Theres a lot of kids of color we work with, and because of the gentrification in the city, theyre getting bullied or theyre very poor, and its a really safe place to stay and show up, and yeah, ive never worked as a place where the staff is so committed and cares about the kids. And its sad that the c. S. U. Right now is closed, and im hoping you guys hear all these people. All right. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Its lit cthese services ar. The district sfusd is trying to figure out how to fund and support Mental Health care services, and were in a budget crisis on the other side of the street. What can we do here to help support this is a great first step . Thank you. Lets move beyond this, as well. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon. My name is diana. Im a licensed clinical social worker. Ive been working in San Francisco for the last 30 years. For the last 20 years in Home Health Care and social work and hospital settings, but in some settings with teen who had Mental Health issues. I understand the role that c. S. U. S play in teens with Mental Health challenges. If any of edgewoods programs were to be defunded, it would be a huge loss not only to San Franciscos children and families, but to San Francisco itself. Im a more to a daughter who a little over a year ago went through a Mental Health crisis of her own and edgewood was there for us. The hospital and the c. S. U. Program were quite literally life safers. Without those two programs, my daughter would have bounced in and out of hospitals and 5150s. She would have most likely committed suicide. She wants to go back to edgewood, and that says everything. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon. My name is alan stewart. Im here to urge you to authorize this grant for edgewood so they can maintain the services for youth experiencing Mental Health challenges in the city. I speak to you as a resident of San Francisco with a teenager who is diagnosed with Mental Health issues, and i know firsthand that even with all of the provision at edgewood in place, already, theres a shortfall between the provision and the need. Theres already more demand than the capacity can support, and so were actually heading in the wrong direction. If we can strangle edgewood, were actually reducing the provision. We need to travel the opposite direction. I understand that the reason were in this situation is due to harm that was identified occurring to children at edgewood, but now, i would ask you to consider what is the greater harm . Because if you eliminate edgewood as a resource, youre imposing harm on hundreds of families in this city in the future. So what does that look like . Youre actually harming the child, so the child experiencing Mental Health issues, but youre actually affecting the entire family. Its everyone in the household, and so its siblings, its parents, its the entire household. The funding, i know, has been reduced to medical and other families, but if you defund edgewood, people who need edgewood will have nowhere to go to. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Hello. My name is dr. Kelly little and ive trained and worked as a community Mental Health provider in San Francisco for the last six years, including six months of training in a rotation with a d. P. H. Comprehensive Crisis Services. Im also a trauma representative for my current employer, and im here to voice my support for the funding of the crisis stabilization unit at edgewood. Its a Mental Health clinician who has firsthand experience of utilizing and witnessing the Invaluable Service edgewood provides to children and adolescents in crisis. The c. S. U. Is set up to provide services to children and families in a manner that promotes safety and stablt during a ti and stablity durg a time of stress. Their team is culturally diverse and able to offer multilingual services. Furthermore, in my experience training with mobile crisis, i witness the importance of a firmly established relationship between the mobile crisis team and the edgewood c. S. U. Staff, and time and time again, their staff provided a collaborative Trauma Informed Care and consultation. The working relationship between these crisis teams enabled a calming and dependable process to aid kids in crisis to get the support they need, and i believe that edgewoods well established c. S. U. Provides an unparalleled Crisis Service to the community at large, and it would be a gross disserve to defund this. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon, supervisors. My name is patrick mahoney. Between 2000 and 2013, i served on the San Francisco superior court. Seven of those years, i spent dealing with juvenile and family issues, and so the significance of Behavioral Health services and the challenges that any judicial officer faced were first and foremost through my experience. Through that, i became ak waited wi acquainted with edgewood. Everything youve heard today in terms of the services, the care with which theyre delivered to children, the financial issues, are absolutely true. Id like to turn to Something Else in my experience. For eight years, i served as the chief trial deputy for the city of San Francisco. In that position, i viewed my role as a problem solver. After leaving the court, im presently associated with a National Mediation firm. What youve heard from margaret broadkin about what has transpired since these incidents reported, frankly, i join in her comments. I find how the city has preceded with this unbelievable, incomprehensible. What i would urge you to do is direct the departments to begin in a meaningful, clabstive process that brings the people around the collaborative process that brings the people around the table so that services are provided to the children asap. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon. Im julie tran. I work with the Bar Association of San Francisco. Im here to speak on behalf of those attorneys and also on paf of patty l behalf of patty lee, and she asked me to address you in her capacity as the chair of the working group to close the youth guidance center. I share everything that judge mahoney just said to you. Theres a reason you have so many c. B. O. S and stakeholders today, because of our frustration of the experience. I want to thank supervisor mar and mayor breed for coming to the rescue. The advocacy that weve undertaken in the last month or more have not been well served. I agree we need to solve this. The kind of transparency that edgewood has exhibited to every stakeholder in this room should be commended. We would kill for this kind of remediation, oversight, and accountability. They are to be commended, and as we move forward, we must support agencies like this so that we dont continue to use the criminal Justice System as a dumping ground for all the failed social programs and Mental Health programs. This is how it happens. When we start closing places like edgewood, we will fill our juvenile halls. So thank you, thank you for operating quickly at this point, and i really encourage you to adopt what judge mahoney said and bring everybody to the table. This has got to be solved. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Hi. My namesus teen king, and im a justine king, and im a clinical supervisor at edgewood. When a client heard about the c. S. U. Closing, she reached outaouai of concern to herself and others reached out of concern to herself and others that could be in this program. Im a 16yearold foster kid. Before foster care, i was in a longterm resident on edgewood, and i utilized the c. S. U. On two different occasions. Sadly, at 16, ive learned the harshness of the system very well. Despite this, ive been inqu inquisitive of the people and services they provide. Coming from a person thats been hospitalized, a person who at times did not have a warm place to sleep, a person who didnt have two loving parents picking me up and talking about my trauma with me, i know the difference between a safe and an unsafe place. [please stand by] im here today to offer unconditional support to the c. S. U. In edgewood. My jeblagency is partnered clos with the c. S. U. I cant stress this enough, they have been a critical and vital part of the safety net in this community for some of the most vulnerable young people and without it, our young people are less safe today. They offered tremendous support to our agency and our clients by providing the much needed stabilization services, the assessments, the treatment recommendations, and the referral to other services in this community. I would like to note this is an alternative. C. S. Ument performs an alternative. I urge you to offer the support to the c. S. U. Today. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker. Hello supervisors. My name is patrick, im the Program Director of huckleberry house. What we focus on is really family crisis, reunifying kids who have run away, who have been kicked out of their homes and working through a family crisis. We were relieved at huckleberry house for seven years and we were relieved when the c. S. U. Was created because it closed this hole in services between the shelter like ours and can be traumatizing for a lot of reasons. Were relieved they were closing this whole huckleberry house, and we are not a facility for young people experiencing acute psychiatric emergencies. So what were finding is that as was before the c. S. U. Was created, in the interim, we are becoming the safety net for these kids and were not equip to do it. Were a Great Program but were not designed, staffed, and we dont have nurses for kids who are in acute psychiatric emergencies. So i seen first hand what happens to young people and their families when theyre falling through this hole in services and i think we would be remised if we didnt identify that these kids are predominately kids who are of low income backgrounds, black and brown kids in our community that are not Getting Services they so desperately need. Thank you for supporting and creating this funding. Thank you, next speaker please. My name is shelly and Court Appointed special advocate and is nima here with me. Im with the board of directors of huckleberry youth programs. I had two youths that have lived at edgewood and i also had to travel as far as iowa to visit the youths i have been assigned to and ive been a caseworker for. We have to do all we can to keep our children in San Francisco, their city of origin. C. S. U. In San Francisco is crucial to our youth. There is a foster home in San Francisco and to begin their relationship with the department of h. S. A. , we arrive to a temporary shelter, which does not bode well for our city or children. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker. My name is cory, im a representative with teamsters 856. Im here to thank supervisor mar and mayor breed for introducing this funding to offer the Crucial Services to the children of our community here in San Francisco. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker. Good afternoon, im a coordinator working for support for families with children with disabilities. She couldnt be here, shes taking classes at the college, so she couldnt miss her classes, but she wrote a statement i want to share. Im here as an old client from edgewood. I dont know why theyre deciding to shut down this facility, but im here to tell you why you should take this into consideration. I was severely diagnosed with major depression at the age of 11. From then on, i was diagnosed with ptsd. Edgewood was a place that helped me understand all of my diagnoses. I also found the skills to manage my symptoms. I was in and out of the hospital for eight years, and edgewood was one of the many and first places that i was hospitalized in yet every time i was at edgewood, it didnt feel like a hospital. It just felt like a place where i could rest and heal. Thats what edgewood was and i hope still is, a place to heal, a place where children and teens in emotional pain and distress can go to get help. To be completely honest with you, i hated going to edgewood, but it was because i didnt want to get better. After i was there, it was a different history. It was comforting to know that so many wonderful people wanted to help me. Edgewood was always a place for me. She really wants to get the support for other children and my child would not be alive if it wasnt for places like edgewood. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon, im the reverend christopher chase and im a co director, cofounder of Brave Mission here in the city. We recruit and train volunteer mentors, mostly young tech workers to build community of mentors around youths who have spent time in foster care. Im here to talk about the heritage handed down. When edgewood was founded, it was founded of people of faith who felt a mandate from their god that they should seek the lost in their community, the most vulnerable, they should find the lost sheep, those who live in the margins and the church responded in a healthy way to that call and edgewood was founded and that mission of seeking those lost sheep, seeking those who are vulnerable, those who live in the margins has been continued over the 168 years in and through the work of edgewood. While edgewood is now just affiliated from the church, we are proud. Im a priest at the apis cal diocese here, to live out the mission of those founders to seek those vulnerable regardless of their faith or belief and tradition and i implore you to remember the heritage that was brought down and continue to built funding for a viable future for edgewood into the future. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker. Hello, im a t. B. S. Coach at edgewood. I worked there for six years. Im one of the few people in here who still work directly with the families and the clients. I wanted to make two points. I think the pull out of the c. S. U. Closing, i felt it firsthand. Its disheartening and it doesnt feel good when you have to tell a family. Its just the crisis that happens after that as far as safety planning. Were dealing with acute families. I just want to reiterate about reopening the doors as soon as possible, and second i want to share a story without going into too much detail. I had a client two years ago, we worked at the homes with the clients. He told me i had a dream last night that i shot at my school. So that to me brought up all these red flags, so at that point, i worked with his therapist and we were able to get him the help he needed. I come to find out this kid had the intentions, the manifesto, and he was an angry child and very sick. So edgewood was able to stop that and we were able to work with the San Francisco School District to get him the help he needed. I think unfortunately, that will not make the news, the guy who decided not to shoot up his school. So, the fact that edgewood is doing really good work and please let us continue to do so. Thanks for your time. Thank you, next speaker. Hi, my name is anastasia. Im a c. S. U. Clinician. Ive been with edgewood for over five years. I work with the Hospital Diversion Program and the kinship program. I really wasnt planning on speaking so thank you for having us here. Of course, i decided to come up here and ive been in the United States for 20 years. 17 of those years, ive been working in the Mental Health field. I try not to call myself an immigrant. Im more of a citizen of the world. Everyone i had worked with in edgewood is an exceptional person, has been a personal hero of mine. I wanted to say, from the face of the c. S. U. Team, while being shut down so rapidly, we were in a personal crisis of our own while holding the crisis of the clients that still continue to come through the door. This is something we do on a daily basis. The amount of secondary trauma that staff experiences is tremendous. Thats why they are my personal heroes. They dont do this for the money, right . So again to be faced with the c. S. U. Closure was so devastating for the population we serve and the staff. You have to understand that once you break down the team, the team is so unique that you will have a hard time putting this team together. So im just representing the c. S. U. Team, the Hospital Diversion Team and edgewood and the amount of good the organization does is disproportionate with the scrutiny that has been happening. So, i just want to be the voice of the c. S. U. And say this is a very exceptional place and just commend everyone that i work with. Thank you. Supervisors, im dan, the executive director of juvenile and criminal justice. Ive been working in San Francisco. We worked with edgewood for that entire time period and as i can tell you, its one of the finest organizations in california. They do great work. Its not perfect, sometimes we all make mistakes, but they are well run organization, they serve a need. They fill a vital gap within the Service Delivery system in San Francisco. Lynn is a fine executive. I dont know why were here today to be honest with you. My suggestion, i have a feeling that the problem doesnt rest with edgewood and the problem may rest with the city bureaucracy. I think you need to do a deeper dive here to find out what happened and why were here today and its going to cost the city money in order to make up this gap that shouldnt exist. So, i support what youre doing and i also urge that we keep edgewood as the necessary part of our service continuum and keep them funded. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker. Good afternoon everyone. My name is graham thomas, im a Program Director for larkin street services. Were been here since the mid 80s. Were always served youths and family facing trauma and i want to give 100 support to edgewood and the crisis stabilization unit. One of the things i had the privilege of working on is underage shelter. We partner with edgewood and the c. S. U. Regularly for all of the reasons you heard today so young people dont have to sit in hospitals that are designed for adults. They can go to edgewood and receive care that is family focused in a safe and stable environment. To close for today, i would say the beginning of your agenda today spoke about the Navigation Centers and addressing the needs of Homeless Services. Chair, im going to pause the speakers time for a moment. The committee has acted on agenda 1 and taken Public Comment on that item, so we will not take Public Comment on agenda one. If you want to reduce homelessness, you have to look at that at a youth focus. So many people homeless as adults start being homeless as youths. So to defund the c. S. U. , to defund the work of edgewood means you are aiding to the public problem of homelessness, right . So again, highly encouraging you to fund the c. S. U. , to do this for families in San Francisco and keep this Program Running because its absolutely, 100 needed. Thank you, next speaker. Hello, good afternoon. My name is julia and i am a nurse at edgewood c. S. U. I am also somebody as a youth that was hospitalized during a time of Mental Health crisis. Thats what makes me so passionate about this work. I believe it is a human right for everyone to have the least restrictive treatment during times of Mental Health crisis, otherwise people are further traumatized and it creates a negative cycle. Right now with the c. S. U. Closed, this is not happening. That is not okay. It is something that has to be changed before kids get more traumatized in hospitals. In fact, since the c. S. U. Opened in 2014, the number of cases of kids who have needed to have inpatient hospitalization has gone down by 50 . So, that is something huge and something we need to focus on. Thank you for having us here today. Thank you, next speaker. Hello, thank you supervisor mar and mayor breed for introducing this. My name is jill and im the dependency of our program manag manager. I was also a Court Appointed dependency for 15 years and i had the benefit of knowing lynn for some time in this capacity and also when she was the director of foster care Mental Health. I have absolute confidence in her leadership. The Court Appointed attorneys in San Francisco are absolutely supportive of edgewood and because theyre out there doing the work, they asked me to make some statements on their behalf. This is from, who has been doing dependency work for 16 years and before that was a deputy public defender. She said i had a child client that was first placed in a different residential setting. He ran outside and kicked in 17 windows, yelling and screaming and someone in the neighborhood called the police. Then she writes, bad results. I later learned that a deli delinquency was filed. He was later placed in edgewood. During a similar episode, a counsellor remained at his side, engaged in deescalation strategies. This is just one example of how edgewood has helped my 13yearold emotionally disturbed client from escalating into the criminal Justice System. I urge you to not only pass the bridge funding but create a financially sustainable solution for edgewood so they continue to fill this critical need in our community. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker. Hi, my name is may. I am a clinician. I work the night shift and i have been with edgewood for the past year. So i worked in the Behavioral Health field for several years and the c. S. U. Has been the most meaningful and impactful for me. Not only are we a receiving center for children in crisis, we help stabilized them and helped stabilize them, develop safety plans so they dont cause further impairments. Some of the things we do include links to Community Resources so they have ongoing support, facilitating conversations between children and parents who a lot of times children come to us and they are experiencing issues that theyre not telling their parents. We are the first person they tell, whether its gender identity, sexual orientation, whatever it is. We help with that conversation between children and their parents so it helps reduce their Mental Health symptoms. Im surprised with what we can do within a 24hour period another the c. S. U. I hope you consider that bridge funding to help us reopen. Without the resource, its a loss for the community. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker. Good afternoon supervisors, thank you for having us and thank you for taking the time for this. Im dr. Robin randall and i worked at edgewood for the last 20 years. Today, ive been asked to reexcerpts from a letter from nancy, a former employee of edgewood. She writes, im writing today as i am not in town for the hearing. I served at edgewood from 2001 to 2010 and then 2015 to 2017. Im also serving for 17 years as a senior manager at the department of Public Health. The vital Services Provided by edgewood will be heard at the hearing. 7 years ago, they opened the citys first and only emergency pediatric room to keep children out of adult psychiatric rooms. This serves children insured and uninsured. There is no other such resource in the city. When faced with challenges of misconduct by two employees, edgewood did not back away. They notified over 3,000 families and professionals about the allegations. The licensing body, child care licensing has fully cleared the agency. The neighboring counties and outside insurance agencies have reviewed all the corrective actions and continue placement in all of their programs. Edgewood has been a royal steadfast partner for over 160 years as knew creative programming is being birthed for a replacement of locking up children in juvenile hall, edgewood plays a key role in developing the programming, stopping all admissions, as well as depriving citizens of their services has been a travesty. I stand with my colleagues in imploring you to resolve this situation. Thank you, next speaker please. Thank you supervisors for having us here today. Im a 32 resident of San Francisco, with two children raised in the city. I have been a long time volunteer at edgewood and im on the board of directors. Edgewood center for children and families had an open door to the most desperate children for 170 years. Two of the earliest children advocates founded edgewood in 1851. It has a remarkable history of caring, counseling, housing, and saving the lives of our citys youths. Edgewood has not missed one day in 170 years of open arms for San Franciscos needest children. 170 christmases, 170 mothers day, and 170 years of no days off. We invite you to visit the edgewood campus and walk through the childrens cot ttagcottages we encourage you to see the caring units, the emergency facility for youths in the city and county of San Francisco. They have provided this specialized care to our most vulnerable youths with acute Mental Health issues. Why would you take that away . They had the foresight and compassion to open edgewoods doors in a time of need. Please do not shut the doors in a time of greater need. Refer children in need to edgewood. Edgewood is a treasure to San Francisco and our children. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker please. Supervisors today you heard many people come here and speak on topics very hard for you to listen to. Now, the skyline of San Francisco has changed drastically. Well its the people that bide the skyscrapers, we need Community Benefit set aside, just like you give 2 to the arts commission. 2 or 3 of the billions so that we can take care of our children and our youll youths and those organizations that cater to the children and the youths. We dont need to be rocket scientists. Now the Controllers Office monitors all the nonprofits. We have to have a mechanism where we have a leeway, where we have a commission or a committee that looks into situations like this where an organization that is wellknown falls on bad times and is given a helping hand. So, i know a lot about edgewood. They do good work, but also you all know, all of us know these times are difficult times. If you can help them, that would be a nice thing. Thank you very much. Thank you. Hi im the director to the crisis stabilization unit. I was hiding in the back. I just wanted to say thank you to everybody that showed up today. When we started in 2014, we were this idea and we wanted to reach as many people we could and the community and beyond. Today that shows me it happened. Please direct your remarks to the panel. Thank you. Thank you for your attention to this. We appreciate it. Thank you. Is there any other members of the public that would like to speak on this item . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. [gavel] i just really want to thank all the Diverse Community folks who came out to speak today in support of our children and in support of these Critical Services at edgewood. You know, i have to say, supervisor haney commented to me, we were surprised how many people turned out to speak at this hearing. We expected this resolution to move forward and be adopted by the board, but i think all of your comments were extremely powerful and helpful in helping us to understand these issues and more importantly, the critical importance and unique role these services play, the crisis stabilization unit and the other programs at edge one anothered edgewood, and for me as a parent of a teenager and someone who has had a Family Member that received critical treatment and services at edgewood recently, i understand the importance of this on a personal level. I think just hearing all the testimony today and also working with lynn and the edgewood staff and also the i think just heari testimony today and also working with lynn and the edgewood staff and also the d. P. H. Staff has helped me to understand these Critical Issues much, much better. I know that the funding that is allocated to edgewood through this resolution is very important on a shortterm level just to allow the crisis stabilization unit to be reopened and allow edgewood the time that is needed to finalalize the corrective action plan to the satisfaction of the city. I also think from all of the testimony today, you know, clearly theres a lot more work that needs to be done to strengthen the partnership between the city and edgewood and to insure that edgewood is suppo supported and to be able to stabilize its programs for so many youth and children in our city that are facing Mental Health, acute Mental Health issues. So im very committed to continuing to work with all of you to ensure that we really stabilize these programs for the children and youths that have high needs in our city. I want to echo that and thank everybody for coming out. I got to know edgewood in some ways when i was a member of the school board and to absolutely essential institution for our city and so i understand and appreciate why you are all here and came out and im glad were able to provide some shortterm stabilization. Obviously the longterm sustainability and health and support of this institution cannot be more important and its great to see all the people that came out and shared the stories on how it has impacted your life and the work you seen and all the work you do. Thank you and of course ill be supporting this. Thank you supervisor haney. So i like to move that we send this item as a Committee Report with positive recommendation to be heard by the full board on february 25th, without objection. [gavel] thank you again everyone. Mr. Clerk, please call item number 3. Agenda item number 3, approving a lease m. P. U. Incorporated for the United States old 88 fifth street requiring a tenant to be responsible for all utilities and services, requiring them to be sorry, requiring them to be responsible for all utility and services, and 50 of rental fees, and 2,500 for ticketed events upon approval by the boa board of supervisors and mayor, with one year option to extend, adopting findings and making findings of the proposed transaction is in conformance with the general plan. I like to pass it to supervisor haney. Thank you chair mar. This proposed lease is a critical component of the citys overall work with the ultimate goal of fully restoring the landmark building. The Lease Agreement will help keep this important cityowned building maintained and active, and the work related to them as ultimate restoration continues. Under the terms of the proposed lease, it will be made available for a wide range of activities, including community events, musical and theater performances, cultural programming and third party rentals, a rent credit feature incentivize work in the building and revenue will support the old mint restoration effort. John will be presenting and there are some amendments to the resolution that john will explain. After the presentation, i will move to have the committee accept coffin fo conforming changes to the resolution. Thank you supervisor haney. Thank you. Im john with the land use and Development Team with the office of economic and workforce development. Im joined today by deputy managing director claudia from Real Estate Division, as well as jordan, the president of m. P. U. , the proposed ten gnat tenant for this lease. If i could get the monitor please. So ill start by saying i will not spend a lot of time, given the long warning on the endlessly fascinating history. We could talk all morning about the architecture of the building and its unique history. Im available at any time for those topics. As the supervisor laid out, i do want to set a little bit of context quickly because its useful to see how this lease fits in the broader work related to the mint itself, which became City Property in 2003, with a series of agreements between the city and state and federal regulatory body handling Historic Preservation issues, agreements that we are still bound by in terms of work we still do on and to the building. The mint is significant in a number of ways. It appears on every important register, both locally and federally. So, until 1937, it was simply referred to as the mint of San Francisco, not the old mint. That function moved to a newer federal facility built near market and church. Now its referred to as the old mint. So, more recently at the direction of late mayor ed lee, he instructed his economic Development Team to reengage on the project. There were a number of prior arrangements from 2003 and 2006, which were not adequately or sufficiently helping to realize the full potential of the building ill put it that way. So we set about assembling an Advisory Group with relevant developments with expertise that could help us chart a path forward. We work closely with our partners at r. E. D. This is a Real Estate Division facility and we devised the longterm approaches to help realize more of this buildings incredible opportunity. So the near term, ill talk more in the short presentation and the longterm ill mention briefly here. Its not an item before you, but we did select the California Historical society as our partner in that ongoing Due Diligence and assessment effort. The goal is to ultimately bring before you a full reuse proposal for the building and to rededicate it as dynamic cultural facility in San Francisco. As to the lease, we again went through the process, selected nonplus ultra, a Venue Management and events production firm. Some key points on a lease we negotiated is now before you today. We negotiated a two year initial term with three one year renewal options. The reason for that is again this longer term restoration project i referred to, both these longterm and near term objectives really inform each other, and were able to make significant progress so in a years time, were able to press go in a more deliberate way. We have the near term lease with the m. P. U. And we can move forward with that parallel project. We do have a reservation rent, which the city shares in revenue from events that go on in the min mint, and the structure incentivizes tenant improvement work to the building, which you can imagine, 1874 building, there are plenty of things that need attention. So the goal of the lease is really activation. There is a wide range that is encouraged under the lease, everything from weddings to neighborhood gathers, musical and theatrical performances, special one off community affairs, small fundraisers, et cetera. Again, i mentioned the tenant improveme improvements, with so many de r deferrdefe deferrdefe defdefe deferred maintenance needs, pending the approval of this resolution, and we have an eye on the longterm project on these as well. We wont do things that will need to be redone in a few years. Its things that will help the facility in the near term and also help the facility as an successful event venue and save us some time and money down the road as well. I mentioned Historic Preservation, obviously anything we do and any work that the tenant does through a rent credit needs to be approved through the Real Estate Division and we work closely with our partners at the Planning Development and the reservation unit to make sure were doing work in accordance with the secretarys standards. Some examples of the Community Activations that occurred in the building in partnership with the m. P. U. As a permitee and we expect these things to continue. They helped us with an expo, an event that brings 10,000 people over the week to the mint, the night market launched, i believe or at least several of the first few occasions at the mint and c. H. S. , our long time partner in the Historical Society continues to offer tours and other programs in the building. All that encouraged and supported by the lease now before you. Im here to answer questions, as are my colleagues and thank you. So the resolution, there are as supervisor mentioned, some conforming edits i passed around. So thats now before you, largely to reflect new dates in the lease that we refreshed, as well as some Standard City contracting privations that have changed over time. We want to reflect that in the record. Thanks again. Thank you. Do we have any questions . Maybe we could go to Public Comment. Are there any members of the public that wish to speak on this item . Please step forward. You have two minutes. So back in 2000, 2001 and 2002, one of the things we proposed then was all Black Buffalo soldiers that accompanied the pioneers and played an Important Role in what california has obtained. We will promise, but as usual there was a lot of talk and no walk. So now in the 2020, it surprises me that having a budget of 12 million and again as i say, we have all this skyscrapers going up, we dont set aside a certain percentage so we can have the buffalo soldiers, for examp example, have an exhibition over there. We have memorabilia artifacts that belong to a gentleman. He worked over worth over 20 million. We planned to put this in the mint. So im asking the gentleman because i dont know if this looks like a deal that will go before the board and then theyll be talking about other things and i dont mind other things, but if promises were made way back in the year 2000, we need to be at the table to negotiate because we got something, a legacy of the buffalo soldiers. Thank you very much. Thank you, next speaker. Hello supervisor, david wu. We appreciate your support of the filipino Cultural Heritage district. As a living and thriving district, we recognize the importance of the old mint longterm renovation and Community Use activation. As you know the San Francisco old mint is located in the heart of our community and on a major corridor of the filipino Cultural Heritage district, surrounded by the many residents, community organizations, arts and cultural assets, as well as small businesses. A recent survey and art institutions demonstrated the great need for Performance Space in the neighborhood. We are very appreciative of m. P. U. S partnership in hosting the inaugural season of the undiscovered night markets in 2017 when cultivate successfully activated the old minute and the under utilized mint plaza to show the division as an economic, social and cultural hub destination, attracting 35,000 visitors, vendors, nonprofits and artists to the s. F. Mint, including neighbors from across the street and guests all over the country. For many who attended the free event, it was their first time to be in the old mint. After two years of discussions and thanks to the support of supervisor haneys office, we were happy to support this lease that provide Community Programming for 20202021 and future years. We want to thank jordan and his team for working with us and we are very excited to develop this partnership. Thank you thank you, next speaker. Hello supervisors, my name is jordan. Supervisor haney, thank you for sponsoring this. Im here as the near term ten tenant in the old San Francisco mint. We have a timeline and run way for us to do some of the projects very much needed in that space on the physical side of things and continue along with our really Great Community activation and Community Programming, all the while generating revenue for the city and county of San Francisco. Im excited to get to work at the mint. Thank you. Is there anyone else that likes to speak on this item . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. Supervisor haney, do you have a motion . Yeah, thank you their chair mar. I want to thank john for your hard work on supporting the old mint and to jordan, m. P. U. And your team for really working with us collaboratively and making sure that we in the near term are able to maintain this facility as available to the community and especially sitting in the heart of the filipino cultural district and their work in making sure we came up with an agreement that fulfilled that promise purpose and works with the lease and financially. I know it takes a lot of work and i want everyone to know i appreciate all the work you done to get us here and im excited to continue to support in the near term and longterm the restoration and the full activation of really, i think one of our most beautiful and important city landmarks, so thank you for being a steward of it and thank you for making sure the community has access to it. So i want to move the amendments. So if i can make that motion. Yeah. We can take that without objection. [gavel] i would like to move to the board with positive recommendation. Recommended to the board as amended. Amended, ill take that without objection. [gavel] thank you. All right, mr. Clerk, can you please call items 4 and 5 together . Agenda items 4 and 5 is a resolution to establish a city and county of San Francisco special tech and future annexation area, ordering and setting a time and place for a public hearing of the board of supervisors sitting as a committee as a whole on april 7, 2020, at 3 00 p. M. , determining the other matters in connection with it and making sequence findings. And agenda 5 is a resolution to declare bonded indebtedness in an aggregate Principal Amount for special tax direct 20201 for facilities and services, and ordering and setting a time in place for the committee of whole at 3 00 p. M. And determines other matters in connection with it to find the resolution. So i would like to welcome wyatt from the port of San Francisco to present on this item. Thank you. Thank you chair mar and supervisor haney for the time to speak on this item today. As the clerk mentioned, there are two items here, one for the resolution of the intention of the formation of the district and the second is a resolution of intention to include indebtedne indebtedness. The district process is a two part process. There is a first part which is a public notice, which is what were doing right now and later we will be coming back for a special election and the actual formation of the district. So this is that first part. Its just a brief overview of what i will be speaking about today. Ill go over what the project is, the timeline, and the work to bring us to today. Ill talk about the funding structures, which is one of the k keys for the project. Then i will talk about the Community Facility district which we are intending to form and then i will talk about the next steps as we move forward with the formation. So just a brief overview of the timeline, this process started over a decade ago as we looked at redeveloping the mission rock area that is currently serving as a Service Parking lot for the giant stadium. Over the last decade, we done significant work, earning entitlement, environmental review, and we are now in the design permitting and getting very close to construction, we hope to begin construction in the near term the next few months with the phase one buildings. So, what will mission rock look like at completion . We are partnering with mission rock partners, a joint partnership between the giants on this site. It will be 2. 7 to 2. 8 million gross square feet of building space. 1,200 units of housing, over 1 million square feet of office space and 8 acres of parks and open space along the waterfront and an area that definitely needs more open space. Some benefits for the site, so of that housing, 40 will be on site affordable. Prevailing wage, we will fund a transportation and Management Program to look at transportation on site and accommodate new people coming to the area. We will be rehabilitating historic pier 48, which is in a future phase of the project. We will be raising the site to accommodate Sea Level Rise and creating future Revenue Streams to continue work for sea level protection and providing on site child care. So the funding structure, the initial funding for the project is done through the developers and core equity, paying for the horizon Infrastructure Improvement such as roads, sewers, electricity and the parks. This is reimbursed later on through the land value on the site and ultimately through different forms of taxes, specifically the ifd, being the infrastructure financing district, which is property taxes and the cfd, which is a special tax assessment in addition, which is what were looking to form right now. This will be used to generate bond proceeds to refund the Equity Investments that have been made today. So prior public funding financing actions, so previously the ifd infrastructure financing district was approved in february of 2018 and last summer, in september of 2019, the board approved amendments to the special tax law, specifically aligned to the pier 70 and mission rock project, to include things like Sea Level Rise, protection, historic rehabilitation and seismic retrofits. So to what were looking at today, the mission rock, c. F. D. , the Community Facility districts, this includes all 11 buildings at the site. This is a future area that we can include when we move to the pier 48 rehabilitation and there are four taxes that will be assessed on the area, the development tax, the office tax, the shoreline tax, and the services tax. They each have a different purpose, so the develop tax is specifically for the development of the site, the roads, sewers, parks and other infrastructure. We have 40 years of Bonding Authority that will fund those initial improvements. The office tax is also funding infrastructure and parks. They have some additional flexibility under the tax law and it exists for 120 years. The shoreline tax is the revenue stream for shoreline pruchl improvements and that exists for 120 years as well and the services tax is targeted at maintaining the area and operating the sites, including parks, roads, sewers, et cetera. So the next step as i mentioned is a two phase project. So we will come back for the resolution of formation and special election in march and april. There will be a public hearing of the committee as a whole on april 7th and the election will occur on april 20th and we are currently targeting mid 2020 to issue bonds with the special access, secured by the special access to fund these events. So i would like to request your positive recommendation of the two items today, the resolution of intention to establish the district and the second item, the resolution of intention to incur bonded indebtedness. Im here, as well as my colleagues to answer any questions. Thank you so much. Thank you for all your work on this. Maybe we could go to Public Comment. Are there any members of the public that would like to speak on this item . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. Can we move these items to the full board for positive recommendation as a Committee Report. Can we do that without objection . [gavel] thank you so much. Thank you. So mr. Clerk, can you please call items 7 to 14 for closed session. Agenda items 7 through 14 are various ordinances and resolutions authorizing set settlements of lawsuits against the city and county. Okay, thank you. Before we go to closed session, are there any members of the public that would like to testify on these items to be heard in closed session. Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. Do we have a motion to convene and closed session . Who is the mover on that . Supervisor haney. Thank you. We are now in closed session. [ ] . Clerk we are now back in session for the government audit and oversight committee. And the committee moved to forward all items to the board with a positive recommendation. Chair mar great. Do i have a motion not to disclose the proceedings held in closed session . Great. We can take that without objection. [gavel]. Chair mar and mr. Clerk, do we have any further business . Clerk we have no further business. Chair mar great. We are adjourned. I went through a lot of struggles in my life, and i am blessed to be part of this. I am familiar with what people are going through to relate and empathy and compassion to their struggle so they can see i came out of the struggle, it gives them hope to come up and do something positive. I am a community ambassador. We work a lot with homeless, visitors, a lot of people in the area. What i like doing is posting up at hotspots to let people see visibility. They ask you questions, ask you directions, they might have a question about what services are available. Checking in, you guys. Wellness check. We walk by to see any individual, you know may be sitting on the sidewalk, we make sure they are okay, alive. You never know. Somebody might walk by and they are laying there for hours. You never know if they are alive. We let them know we are in the area and we are here to promote safety, and if they have somebody that is, you know, hanging around that they dont want to call the police on, they dont have to call the police. They can call us. We can direct them to the services they might need. We do the three one one to keep the city neighborhoods clean. There are people dumping, waste on the ground and needles on the ground. It is unsafe for children and adults to commute through the streets. When we see them we take a picture dispatch to 311. They give us a tracking number and they come later on to pick it up. We take pride. When we come back later in the day and we see the loose trash or debris is picked up it makes you feel good about what you are doing. It makes you feel did about escorting kids and having them feel safe walking to the play area and back. The stuff we do as ambassadors makes us feel proud to help keep the city clean, helping the residents. You can see the community ambassadors. I used to be on the streets. I didnt think i could become a community ambassador. It was too far out there for me to grab, you know. Doing this job makes me feel good. Because i came from where a lot of them are, homeless and on the street, i feel like i can give them hope because i was once there. I am not afraid to tell them i used to be here. I used to be like this, you know. I have compassion for people that are on the streets like the homeless and people that are caught up with their addiction because now, i feel like i can give them hope. It reminds you every day of where i used to be and where i am at now. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Or good afternoon, rather. And were glad to show you a picture of how our city did this past year on Public Safety. In particular our crime numbers, our crime statistics. We have a lot of good news to announce and were going to share with you the good news and some of the challenges and strategies that we have ahead for this year 2020. But i want to begin by welcoming our mayor here, mayor london breed. Shes been incredibly supportive of the men and women of our Police Department, and the work that were doing to make our city safer. So wowght further adieu id like to introduce mayor london breed. Mayor london breed thank you, thank you, chief and to the command staff that are joining us here today as well as all of the members of the San Francisco Police Department who serve our city every single day. I think that they do an amazing job. And its one that needs to be acknowledged and today we want to talk about some of the great work theyve been able to do over the past year that has gotten our city to a better place. But i do want to take it back just a little bit because i always talk about growing up in the city to give people a perspective of how things used to be. And where we are now. And many of you know that the community that i grew up in was very challenging community and there was a lot of violence. And, sadly, a lot of loss of life to gun violence in particular. When we think about what used to happen in the 1980s and the early 1990s and how things escalated and the number of homicides that happened all over the city, especially in neighborhoods that are in the western edition and in the mission, the fact that we are at an alltime low in homicides in our city is absolutely incredible. 41 homicides, of course, are 41 too many. But the fact is that this is the lowest number of homicides that weve seen since 1961. It is unbelievable, but we didnt get there by accident. We worked hard to achieve the success that weve been able to achieve. Ultimately we want to ensure Public Safety of all residents of San Francisco, and that involves, yes, police presence, but it also involves working together with the community. And so during the time when i worked in the community at the African American art and culture complex, in fact, many of the command staff served as the captain of a Northern Police station, including the captain mcgekrin and captain ann maddox who are now deputy chiefs for this department. We worked together on those issues to try and to address not only the Public Safety challenge, but also how do we do more to serve the community and to give back so that that never happens in the first place. And its a very wellrounded approach and its very necessary and we are seeing the results in the numbers that i know that the chief is going to talk about later on today. It does take a lot of hard work, it does as they say, take a village. And it does require a relationship with our police officers. And i will say that what i do appreciate about San Francisco Police Department in comparison to any other department in this country is how hard they work to develop relationships with the community. And oftentimes its not always acknowledged for things they do to go above and beyond which builds the bridge necessary in order to cop keep the communitis safe, not just around the challenges of what we deal with with Violent Crimes, but we know that San Franciscos largest challenge is homelessness. And we have many officers often times who are the first to encounter people out on the streets. What you dont hear about is when theyre spending their own money to pay for hotel rooms or socks or food or a number of other things, when they are providing services which are outside of the scope of what their responsibilities are. They care about the work that they do to keep the public safe. They care about the people of San Francisco. And they have a responsibility, of course, to ensure all residents are safe. But they are compassionate. They work hard. And many of the policies that we put into place here in San Francisco, including our policies around deescalation and antibias training and a number of other things have really set the stage for so many other departments all over this country to follow. And so i am proud of the work that they have done and theyll continue to do for the residents of this city. It is getting us to a better place as we can see with the statistics. But i know that these statistics dont matter when, sadly, you or your family are a victim of violence or any other crime that exists, which is why were working hard every single day to ensure that this department is fully staffed. And that continues to be a challenge. But the fact is that we are not fully staffed. And when we are being asked for support for beat officers and more Traffic Control officers and other things, you know, we dont always have the capacity to meet the need. And i am definitely committed to continuing to fund more Police Academy classes and to work harder on recruitment efforts, but this is going to be necessary providing additional officers, especially as the officers retire. Its going to be critical to the success of the future of this city and in keeping people safe. And we have added beat officers where we know that theyre needed and the things to help to deal with the challenges that we know that a growing city like San Francisco has. And we also are aware were not naive that there is definitely more that we need to do and can do to ensure safety for all of us. So im grateful and to the men and women of the department for everything that they have done to get us to this point. I know that working together we will be able to improve upon these numbers for next year and with that id like to take this opportunity to ask the chief to come back to the podium and to talk more in detail about where we are with our statistics here in San Francisco as it relates to violence and property crime. Thank you. Mayor, thank you. Okay, again, i want to emphasize the mayors leadership and how important it is to have a city leader that really takes a stand on Public Safety that she does. So thank you again, mayor, for your leadership and for your support. As i said were pleased with the way that our statistics trended in 2019, particularly with Violent Crime. The mayor mentioned our homicide rate being the lowest since 1961. But as most of you probably know, theres a monthly report that provides a snapshot of where we are at any point in time, monthtomonth. And you can see on the poster board that we have to my right, your left, highlights from our year end 2019 report. And what it will show you is that homicides which are down 11 as the mayor said, 41 homicides, the lowest since 1961, and the rates down 15 . And robberies and aggravated assaults each dropped 4 . All of this is thanks to the hard work of the men and women of the San Francisco Police Department which includes our Investigation Bureau and the units and our plainclothes officers and our foot beat officers and also in partnership with many Diverse Communities that we serve around our city. Our officers put themselves at great risk protecting the people of our city, oftentimes without recognition. And i want to thank them publicly today for the work that they do. None of this could be accomplished without the work of the men and women of the San Francisco Police Department. Violent crime is always going to be a top priority. And we think that what you see from our statistics is that were making steady progress to reduce Violent Crime in our city. As i said 41 homicide says the lowest since 1961, but to illustrate the point even more emphatically, since 2017 our city had a steady decrease in Violent Crime as we have shifted resources to impact the areas of the city, of our city that are impacted the most. Now this is at the same time that we had tremendous challenges with property crime as well. And as you will hear in a minute we have reduced property crime this past year and were pleased with the twoyear reduction and car breakins. But the mayor illustrated this and ill reemphasize this, when you are a victim of a Violent Crime really the stats and the statistics really dont matter when it happens to you. And we understand that. And thats why building relationships are so important. Thats why our strategies focus on prevention, rather than reaction. And thats why we work so hard to deter these crimes before they happen. We want you to know that for the people of San Francisco that we will do everything that we can to prevent you from being a victim of crime. At any event that you are, our job is to solve the crime, to catch the perpetrators so that person can be held to account for what he or she might have done. In that regard, you know, weve had a number of highprofile cases in 2019, and we have solved many of them. And now its up to the criminal Justice System and our jury system that we believe in and our court system to take it from there. But i want to reemphasize when those crime does occur, we will do everything in our power to solve these crimes and to bring these individuals to justice. And we have done just that. We dont solve them all. We work to solve them all. But we are going to work very hard to make sure that people who can commit crimes in our city are held to answer. With that our homicide rate this past year was 71 deterrence, which is a good thing for us because we do believe that not everybody is committing homicides in our city. Theres a small amount of people. And we could solve these crimes and get those people off of our streets, it will make our city safer. We want to be more visible. We want to have more officers on the street. We know that when officers are present, people think twice before they commit crimes. So its really important and we had a nonprofit or an academic researcher that came in and to study our foot beat strategies and what they told us is that there was significant reductions in both larceny and assaults when we deployed foot beats and we upped our foot beats in late 2017. We continue that strategy and we want that to continue. And thats why its so important that were able to recruit and get the finest in our Police Department to fill our ranks so we can continue these strategies and make them more robust. With that, we are boosting our policing efforts. We all know in 2017 that we took a stand in the u. N. Plaza area and we put out a mobile command post there. And we increased our foot beat patrol there is, and it made a difference. Well continue that with our midmarket foot beats and thanks to mayor breed and her emphasis on Community Policing with the men and the women that ill introduce in a minute, our Leadership Teams, well further increase our foot patrols and focus continually on the midmarket area. I talked to many people, business owners, residents and visitors, who have told me personally they have noticed a difference when our officers are out there. Thats why we need our officers out there and we need them engaged and to do the job of preventing and deterring crime. This will also support our deployment to other issues that we have to respond to throughout the downtown area to make the place safer for all to enjoy. The next thing that i want to talk about is education. Which is a key part of our Crime Prevention efforts and weve had our Smart Campaign for a number of years now, a couple years now, anyway. And we really do believe that that made a difference. But i want to go into detail on how that came about. And well have the chief there along the wall and we had many campaigns to reduce property crimes but the point is, number one, it was a collaborative effort. When it was assigned the deputy chief was captain lazar and with the Community Members it came from the community and we all helped to foster that but it came from the community. What we intend to do with that message is to be vigilant and be resilient. Dont leave your property to make it easy for somebody to make you a victim. Lock your doors and dont leave things visible in your car, because you have more of a likelihood of being a victim of property crime. Those Public Education campaigns work, theyre effective and we have to do them to work in partnership with our community. This is a community effort, a drop in property crime is a collaborative effort and we have to have that continue. Next i want to talk about our gunrelated violence. As we know the majority of the homicides in the city traditionally have been firearm related. In 2018 or 2017, actually, under the leadership of the then commander greg mccapern we had a crime gun Investigation Center with. That our focus is really on two things first of all, identifying those guns that are used repeatedly in crimes in our city, not only in our city but in the region. And the second is to identifying the individuals that use those guns so that we can hold them to account for their crimes. Last year our crimes gun Investigation Center led to the seizure of 96 firearms, not 96 in total but 96 from this Investigation Center. Some of which you see on the table to my right. These include unregistered machine guns, short billed rifles and silencers, and their efforts helped to bring about 90 federal and state arrests and indictments and generated over 300 leads to multiple firearm incidents. This has been a game changer in terms of building strong cases to get people who are willing to use firearms against another human being off of our streets which in turn makes our city safer. Now this is a key component of our Strategic Plan and our Strategic Initiatives which emphasize the collaboration with other city agencies and Community Members. In october we also hosted our first gun violence summit which is led by our director of crime strategies director Tiffany Sutton who is also to my left. In that summit we sat down with the Community Members to reduce strategies and to reduce gun violence, particularly in the bay view direct that is hard hit by gun violence. Each district has specific challenges and we have to be nimble and to work with communitybased organizations and Community Members to address our strategies to each neighborhood across our city. Our crime strategy division, theyre really doing the work of crunching the data and providing officers with the feedback on how to deploy resources to best meet the needs of our city. Ultimately we want to do all that we can to improve our responsiveness and to make our city a safer city. We have a lot more work ahead, we know that. Its been said, and the mayor said it, and i said it and you will hear us say time and time again, one homicide is too many and we know that we have challenges, but with that we intend to work with the community, we intend to continue to reinvent ourselves and to make the adjustments that we need to make in order to make our city the safest city that we can make. With that i thank you for joining us today. Mayor breed is on a very tight schedule and well take a few questions and shell have to depart in a moment but were glad to answer a few questions before she has to depart. Thank you. indiscernible how many do you need . We want to put them in the streets and our charter number is 1,971 and were about a hundred away but let me explain a bit of detail and that number does include our airport and it doesnt include other issues that have to keep the officers off the street so were about a hundred away and were doing to recruit and to put the people in the academy and to get them on the streets because thats where theyre going to go and and the bodies are needed and the officers are needed in the streets and so thats where we plan to put them. indiscernible . I know that in previous years we saw something less than 2 of the breakins. If you are talking about car breakins, that is hovering around 2 and thats a difficult crime to solve. However, what we have done in the last couple years and we have said this publicly is that we try to focus on those crews and individuals who we know are prolific and i think that our officers do a good job of that and we track who we arrest and we also track when they get out and if we get evidence or receive evidence that those individuals are involved in further car breakins we try to devise strategies to kept tiewfer them capture them again. But the numbers are important in terms of Holding People to account. But heres another thing that we all need to try to remember. Ultimately, you know, our leaders and our city and in our state and our voters have decided how they want to see things play out in terms of incarceration. The prison population is way too big and everybody has been working to reduce that, including our city leaders, so we have to be strategic and focused on those people that are doing most harm to our city and thats what we try to do and thats what well continue to do and we have had success with that so well continue that strategy and, you know, even if we were to solve 100 of those crimes, if were having 25,000, 26,000 car breakins every year and some are repeat offenders, we know that, we dont have the space in our jails for that type of population. So we have to think past just arresting people. Thats why prevention is so important and the backside of what type of programs they get involved in is so important. And the mayors programs and the jobs for all and those things to keep people out of harms way in the beginning, they all come together and they are presenting a strategy. So we need to support that. indiscernible the practices Going Forward and looking towards 2020, in other words, working with them. Number one, it tells us where we need to focus and we always assess what is working and not working. For instance, we made it definite to michaels question about the enforcement strategies a few years ago, we were arresting a lot of people. But the part that was missing is that we didnt complement that with the presence and the foot beat presence that we know that works. So now were trying to balance that and when we look back at 2019 and see what works and what we need to work on, well make those assessments again but its the balance of the enforcement side and the preventative side and making sure as much as we can that we focus on the preventative side. Thats our job, really to prevent crimes from happening in the first place. So well continue to do that and to focus on that. A followup. Looking forward then, and working with the new District Attorney, how does that work in templeterms of making sure thate arrests that you make are then prosecuted . Well, a few things that we have to do and i want to i want to, you know, to call out and thank my Leadership Team and our Leadership Team, and the assistant chief mosher and mcchecker rercen. And were all on the same page, we need to provide the best cases that we can provide the District Attorney so that his prosecutors when its appropriate to charge these cases can charge these cases. We have to stay focused on our jobs, our job is not to prosecute cases but to when those crimes do occur we do our investigation thoroughly and we make sure that we get the evidence there and we give the District Attorney and his team the good cases to prosecute. And we need to be open to new ideas. We have to be open to new ideas. And theres been a call for changes in the criminal Justice System. And were one piece of that system but we have to be open to strategies that hold people to account but past that as i said, what next. What happens after they do their jailtime, are they going to come back to our city and be assets and good for our city, or come back and victimize people and harm our city . So theres a lot that goes into that and its not just about policing and we have to support those programs that help us to do that. And equity is an issue in policing and we have to be equitable with how we approach our jobs and all of that matters. So its a lot to look at and very complex but were up to the test and were going to continue to push on. Getting back to auto burglaries. You have talked about prevention. Is there more that could be done there, particularly with people from out of town and rent cars and go to places where tourists go. There is, and were questioning questioning that and i know that when the mayor was on the board of supervisors they crafted legislation for the rental Car Companies to make it less obvious by the markings and that on the rental cars. They are big steps in the right direction and we cant control what happens outside of our city and county but we have been working with the rental Car Companies on safety messaging. You will see the park Smart Campaign, posted in the rental cars, and the offices, those things help. Working with our consular officers so when they have their constituents coming in from their respective countries that the message is consistent about prevention. People come here to visit our city and their cars get broken into or their luggage is stolen and their passports and all of their papers are gone, thats a big problem for people. So we have to spread that message anyway that we can and those things are continuing. Were always looking to improve them and to evolve in that regard. But there is more always more that can be done. A couple more questions or one more question and then smaller groups. Chief. indiscernible this is a National Emergency with the breakins. indiscernible . For car breakins, there is not a whole lot of well, as far as i know theres not any federal prosecutions directly related to car breakins. And some of the side issues that come from car breakins and guns are stolen and that type of thing, sometimes its appropriate to pursue federal pursue those relationships with our federal partners to hold to account those type of violations and somebody gets caught with a gun and theyre theyre a convicted felon and those issues, that it could be appropriate to pursue federal charges on those. Which car breakins, many times that happen. And we will pursue federal charges when its appropriate to do so, when we want to use every opportunity, every resource and every partnership to make our city a safer city. San francisco, 911, whats the emergency . San francisco 911, police, fire and medical. The tenderloin. Suspect with a six inch knife. He was trying to get into his car and was hit by a car. San francisco 911 whats the exact location of your emergency . Welcome to the San Francisco department of emergency management. My name is shannon bond and im the lead instructor for our dispatch add academy. I want to tell you about what we do here. This is San Francisco 911. Do you need police, fire or medical . San francisco police, dispatcher 82, how can i help you . Youre helping people in their what may be their most vulnerable moment ever in life. So be able to provide them immediate help right then and there, its really rewarding. Our agency is a very combined agency. We answer emergency and nonemergency calls and we also do dispatching for fire, for medical and we also do dispatching for police. We staff multiple call taking positions. As well as positions for police and fire dispatch. We have a priority 221. I wanted to become a dispatcher so i could help people. I really like people. I enjoy talking to people. This is a way that i thought that i could be involved with people every day. As a 911 dispatcher i am the first first responder. Even though i never go on seen scene im the first one answering the phone call to calm the victim down and give them instruction. The information allows us to coordinate a response. Police officers, firefighters, ambulances or any other agency. It is a great feeling when everyone gets to go home safely at the end of the day knowing that youve also saved a citizens life. Our department operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. This is shift work. That means we work nights, weekends and holidays and can involve over time and sometimes thats mandatory. This is a high stress career so its important to have a good balance between work and life. We have Resources Available like wellness and peer support groups. Our dispatchers of the month are recognized for their outstanding performance and unique and ever changing circumstances. I received an accommodation and then i received dispatcher of the month, which was really nice because i was just released from the phones. So for them to, you know, recognize me for that i appreciated it. I was surprised to even get it. At the end of the day i was just doing my job. A typical dispatch shift includes call taking and dispatching. It takes a large dedicated group of fifrst responders to make ths department run and in turn keep the city safe. When you work here you dont work alone, you work as part of a team. You may start off as initial phone call or contact but everyone around you participating in the whole process. I was born and raised in San Francisco so its really rewarding to me to be able to help the community and know that i have a part in you know, even if its behind the scenes kind of helping the city flow and helping people out that live here. The Training Program begins with our sevenweek academy followed by on the job training. This means youre actually taking calls or dispatching responders. You can walk in with a high school diploma, you dont need to have a college degree. We will train you and we will teach you how to do this job. We just need you to come with an open mind that we can train you and make you a good dispatcher. If its too dangerous to see and you think that you can get away and call us from somewhere safe. Good. Thats right. From the start of the academy to being released as a solo dispatcher can take nine months to a year. Training is a little over a year and may change in time. The training is intense. Very intense. Whats the number one thing that kills people in this country . So were going to assume that its a heart attack, right . Dont forget that. As a new hire we require you to be flexible. You will be required to work all shifts that include midnights, some call graveyard, days and swings. You have to be willing to work at different times, work during the holidays, you have to work during the weekends, midnight, 6 00 in the morning, 3 00 in the afternoon. Thats like the toughest part of this job. We need every person thats in here and when it comes down to it, we can come together and we make a really great team and do our best to keep the city flowing and safe. This is a big job and an honorable career. We appreciate your interest in joining our team. We hope you decide to join us here as the first First Responders to the city and county of San Francisco. For more information on the job and how to apply follow the links below. Hi today we have a special edition of building San Francisco, stay safe, what we are going to be talking about San Franciscos earth quakes, what you can do before an earthquake in your home, to be ready and after an earthquake to make sure that you are comfortable staying at home, while the city recovers. The next episode of stay safe, we have Alicia Johnson from San Franciscos department of emergency management. Hi, alicia thanks to coming it is a pleasure to be here with you. I wonder if you could tell us what you think people can do to get ready for what we know is a coming earthquake in San Francisco. Well, one of the most things that people can do is to make sure that you have a plan to communicate with people who live both in and out of state. Having an out of state contact, to call, text or post on your social network is really important and being able to know how you are going to communicate with your friends, and family who live near you, where you might meet them if your home is uninhab hitable. How long do you think that it will be before things are restored to normal in San Francisco. It depends on the severity of the earthquake, we say to provide for 72 hours tha, is three days, and it helps to know that you might be without services for up to a week or more, depending on how heavy the shaking is and how many after shocks we have. What kind of neighborhood and Community Involvement might you want to have before an earthquake to make sure that you are going to able to have the support that you need. It is important to have a Good Relationship with your neighbors and your community. Go to those community events, shop at local businesses, have a reciprocal relationship with them so that you know how to take care of yourself and who you can rely on and who can take care of you. It is important to have a batteryoperated radio in your home so that you can keep track of what is happening in the Community Around and how you can communicate with other people. One of the things that seems important is to have access to your important documents. Yes, it is important to have copies of those and also stored them remotely. So a title to a home, a passport, a drivers license, any type of medical records that you need need, back those up or put them on a remote drive or store them on the cloud, the same is true with any Vital Information on your computer. Back that up and have that on a cloud in case your hard drive does not work any more. In your home you should be prepared as well. Absolutely. Lets take a look at the kinds of things that you might want to have in your home. We have no water, what are we going to do about water . It is important for have extra water in your house, you want to have bottled water or a five gallon container of water able to use on a regular basis, both for bathing and cooking as well as for drinking. We have this big container and also in peoples homes they have a hot water heater. Absolutely, if you clean your hot water heater out regularly you can use that for showering, drinking and bathing as well what other things do people need to have arent their home. It is important to have extra every day items buy a couple extra cans of can food that you can eat without any preparation. Here is a giant can of green giant canned corn. And this, a manual can opener, your electric can opener will not be working not only to have one but to know where to find it in your kitchen. Yes. So in addition to canned goods, we are going to have fresh food and you have to preserve that and i know that we have an ice chest. Having an ice chest on hand is really important because your refrigerator will not be working right away. It is important to have somebody else that can store cold foods so something that you might be able to take with you if you have to leave your home. And here, this is my very own personal emergency supply box for my house. I hope that you have an alternative one at home. Oh, i forgot. And in this is really important, you should have flashlights that have batteries, fresh batteries or hand crank flashlight. I have them right here. Good. Excellent. That is great. Additionally, you are going to want to have candles a whistle, possibly a compass as well. Markers if you want to label things if you need to, to people that you are safe in your home or that you have left your home. I am okay and i will meet you at. Exactly. Exactly. Water proof matches are a great thing to have as well. We have matches here. And my spare glasses. And your spare glasses. If you have medication, you should keep it with you or have access to it. If it needs to be refrigerated make sure that it is in your ice box. Inside, just to point out for you, we have spare batteries. Very important. We have a little first aid kit. And lots of different kinds of batteries. And another spare flashlight. So, alicia what else can we do to prepare our homes for an earthquake so we dont have damage . One of the most important things that you can do is to secure your valuable and breakable items. Make sure that your tv is strapped down to your entertainment cabinet or wall so it does not move. Also important is to make sure that your book case is secure to the wall so that it does not fall over and your valuable and breakables do not break on the ground. Becoming prepared is not that difficult. Taking care of your home, making sure that you have a few extra everyday items on hand helps to make the difference. That contributes dramatically to the way that the city as a whole can recover. Absolutely. If you are able to control your own environment and house and recovery and your neighbors are doing the same the city as a whole will be a more resilient city. We are all proud of living in San Francisco and being prepared helps us stay here. So, thank you so much for joining us today, alicia, i appreciate it. Absolutely, it is my pleasure. And thank you for joining us on another edition of building my background is in engineering. I am a Civil Engineer by training. My career has really been around government service. When the opportunity came up to serve the city of San Francisco, that was just an opportunity i really needed to explore. [ ] [ ] i think it was in junior high and really started to do well in math but i faced some really interesting challenges. Many young ladies were not in math and i was the only one in some of these classes. It was tough, it was difficult to succeed when a teacher didnt have confidence in you, but i was determined and i realized that engineering really is what i was interested in. As i moved into college and took engineering, preengineering classes, once again i hit some of those same stereotypes that women are not in this field. That just challenged me more. Because i was enjoying it, i was determined to be successful. Now i took that drive that i have and a couple it with public service. Often we are the Unsung Heroes of technology in the city whether it is delivering Network Services internally, or for our Broadband Services to low income housing. Free wifi for all of the residents here so that folks have access to do job searches, housing searches, or anything else that anyone else could do in our great city. We are putting the plant in the ground to make all of the City Services available to our residents. It is difficult work, but it is also very exciting and rewarding our team is exceptional. They are very talented engineers and analysts who work to deliver the data and the services and the Technology Every day. I love working with linda because she is fun. You can tell her anything under the sun and she will listen and give you solutions or advice. She is very generous and thoughtful and remembers all the special days that you are celebrating. I have seen recent employee safety and cyber security. It is always a top priority. I am always feeling proud working with her. What is interesting about my work and my family is my experience is not unique, but it is different. I am a single parent. So having a career that is demanding and also having a child to raise has been a challenge. I think for parents that are working and trying to balance a career that takes a lot of time, we may have some interruptions. If there is an emergency or that sort of thing then you have to be able to still take care of your family and then also do your service to your job. That is probably my take away and a lot of lessons learned. A lot of parents have the concern of how to do the balance i like to think i did a good job for me, watching my son go through school and now enter the job market, and he is in the medical field and starting his career, he was always an intern. One of the things that we try to do here and one of my takeaways from raising him is how important internships are. And here in the department of technology, we pride ourselves on our interns. We have 20 to 25 each year. They do a terrific job contributing to our outside plant five or work or our Network Engineering or our finance team. This last time they took to programming our reception robot, pepper, and they added videos to it and all of these sort of things. It was fun to see their creativity and their innovation come out. Amazing. Intriguing. The way i unwind is with my photography and taking pictures around the city. When i drive around california, i enjoy taking a lot of landscapes. The weather here changes very often, so you get a beautiful sunset or you get a big bunch of clouds. Especially along the waterfront. It is spectacular. I just took some photos of big server and had a wonderful time, not only with the water photos, but also the rocks and the bushes and the landscapes. They are phenomenal. [ ] my advice to young ladies and women who would like to move into stem fields is to really look at why you are there. If you are if you are a problem solver, if you like to analyse information, if you like to discover new things, if you like to come up with alternatives and invent new practice, it is such a fabulous opportunity. Whether it is Computer Science or engineering or biology or medicine, oh, my goodness, there are so many opportunities. If you have that kind of mindset i have enjoyed working in San Francisco so much because of the diversity. The diversity of the people, of this city, of the values, of the talent that is here in the city. It is stimulating and motivating and inspiring and i cannot imagine working anywhere else but in san 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 good for the community. Food in just about expensive eat but food for everyone and theres organizations in the city that are doing really good work making sure that healthy food it assessable to everyone. More and more as follows are are becoming interested in upper arlthd they want to joy the open green pace sea know where their food it coming from well look at 3 programs talking ushering agricultural and garden to new heights. So what exactly it, your honor agricultural it the growing food or flowers within city limits traditionally weve been referring to communities gardener that is a raised bed over and over upper argument has a more a farming way of farming. So tell me 0 whats growing in this garden. A really at all plant. In the one of the rare places, you know, people have access to green space 24 is one of the places to grow things like the purple floor. It is sort of recognizing that the more diversity in given space the better not to just have one thing by everything supported each another it provides the community with an opportunity to get their hands dirty and reach 0 out and congressmen with the community in ways they might have not otherwise to engage with one other. Now the dpw urban Planning Program so see how the garden community. So i grew up on a farm in air force base we picked the foods open the trees and share with other families and as i drive around San Francisco i see any trees with apples or mrumdz and lemon trees i can see the food going to waste and brought that idea back to the Department Many of the trees where the fruit would go to waste we origin or crop and pick other fruits and delivery this to food banks or shelters to people who need them. Im here with nang wong hello nang. Hello. I need to understand house this gleaning work. We come and harvest like for example, well come over here this is the lemon and plug it like this. laughter . Made that good, good and ease. The trick is how not to hurt the branches. Like the thing. Im so excited about this. The people are so passionate about where the food goes to the private Property Owners give us the food theyre happy that no of a t is going to waste oh. Thank you. Thank you. Again job aura natural laughter . From backyards to back lots lets take a look at the food and Community Bonding at the free farm. My idea was to start growing food and giving it away. And getting my neighbors to who had space and having a kind of event that brings people together not to run our food program this time around but to share the wealth of the abundance of our welfare. We were all divorce and as part of our philosophy of working together and working together. Whats the most rewarding aspect of volunteering for the free farm stand. Well, we could is a generalic satisfaction but something about giving food away its giving something i brought that in and sort it and gave it to you its primitive to be able to give something some basically to someone else. Now serving number to 49 come on down. We have the capability of producing this food and in San Francisco you can grow food all year round so the idea were capable of prougdz food in our own backyards were here to demonstrate an bans of food and i think that giving it away for free we show individuals it in have to be a comedy. We build time together and its the strength of any ideas of the connections well turn that connection and the more connections you make no mistake about it the more you can have a stronger power and not have to rely on money thats the people power. In this episode weve seen the urban farms and gardens provide more in fruits and vegetation people can have the special produce available it can be a place to give back by donating food to others and teach our children the connection to the earth and environment its truly. Golden gate parks largest body of water ska great labor for scrolling and picnicking and both miking which can both be rented at the boat house and the lakewood design for leisure boatings and carriages and a treasure trove passing hunting ton water falls two bridges connect the Strawberry Island and inclient to the hills the highest upon the in Golden Gate Park and more than free hundred feet and you can catch glimpses will from the city at the top of a romantic look out and for all right. Hello, everyone. My name is Phil Ginsburg, and im the director of your San Francisco park and recreation department. In just 68 days, Golden Gate Park will celebrate its 150th birthday. On april 4, 1870, the California State Legislature passed a law creating the framework for this amazing park and San Franciscos own park system. For 150 years, San Franciscos parks have highlighted the importance of place in San Francisco, and Golden Gate Park might just be San Franciscos most important place. Since the gold rush, its borne witness to our remarkable history. From the post gold rush years to the 1906 earthquake and fire, from the International Exposition to the summer of love, from the aids epidemic to the explosion of technology, business, and jobs, Golden Gate Park has served as the citys pastoral oasis through its joy, sadness, and majestic restoration. Stories wi stories aboutratio race, relig and equity, stories about nature and suffering, stories about art, music, food. Stories about large gatherings and solitary strolls. Stories about communities, neighborhoods, families, stories about each and every one of us. Amidst this parks awe inspiring trails, meadows, lakes and groves, its ball fields and playgrounds, its museums and institutions, its amazing activities, both large and small, and amidst a few hundred of the 25 Million People who visit this treasure every year and make it part of their lives, were here today to officially kick off the 150th anniversary of Golden Gate Park. [applause] over the course of this year, well be joined by 150 park partners. Well undertake park projects both big and small, and on april 4, well host 150 activities, including free admission to our cultural specialties and gardens. Today, we begin with one of those 150 projects. Well be planting 150 trees in this beloved park. Today, were joined by our mayor, london breed, our district one supervisor, sandy fewer, or paur Park Commission tod todd anderson, and were also joined by our partner, drew becker from the San Francisco Parks Alliance, and i saw liz farrell, president of the sex alliance board. Were proud to stand with our volunteers in our organizations. Its our volunteers that make our parks beautiful yearround, and today, they will leave a legacy for the next generation by planting 150 trees that will thrive in Golden Gate Park. I want to thank our mayor for asking Parks Alliance to lead golden gates 150th anniversary celebration, for remembering whats right and important and for honoring our team of volunteers who ensure that Golden Gate Park continues to thrive for the next 150 years. Im very proud to give you our mayor, london breed. [applause] the hon. London breed well, first of all, phil said were celebrating 150 years of Golden Gate Park, and we have a laundry list of things we should be things about doing to highlight this significant milestone. And let me tell you, of course, what could i say but lets do it. Lets do it because phil cares about making sure our parks are thriving in San Francisco all over the various neighborhoods, issues around equity that he talked about include making sure that we are investing in communities throughout San Francisco. And as we are celebrating such an incredible milestone in Golden Gate Park, we are reminded that so many different people use this park for so many different things. And im so glad that miles is here today from the church of eight wheels because he actually uses regular roller skates. I dont know if any of you have experience with regular roller skates where theres two wheels in the front and two wheels in the back. So some of my fondest memories of Golden Gate Park is when my aunt, who was attending high school, would bring me to Golden Gate Park because thats where she and her friends would roller skate. Really, there were hardly any bikes. There was mostly people roller skating. The hon. London breed so im so glad i wasnt alive 150 years ago because i wouldnt be here today to celebrate, but im glad that im here with so many people to mark this incredible milestone. It is significant. This park has seen so many changes in our city, and as phil talked about, just our history, and how significant that is. And so that is a time we take a moment to reflect and pause to remember how far weve come, and to use this as an opportunity to celebrate, to celebrate with, yes, a large ferris wheel, with like it or not, im excited about it. Yes, to celebrate with free activities on april 4 to allow people from all over San Francisco to come and enjoy the park. But really, im excited about the shuttles that will bring people from the various communities from the bayview and Hunters Point neighborhood who will friday families here throughout the year. I want to thank the 150 organizations who joined this effort. I want to thank all the folks that are planting 150 trees here at Golden Gate Park. But you have to stop at 150. Theres opportunities to plant other trees at other locations in San Francisco. I want to thank everyone, especially Nancy Bechtel whos going to be chairing the committee, the Parks Alliance, and everybody whos concerned about maintaining these parks, including the Golden Gate Parks, so in 150 years, theres another group of people celebrating 300 years of this incredible milestone. Thank you so much for being here today. [applause] so we couldnt be luckier to have the supervisor representing Golden Gate Park. She is a fourth generation san franciscan. Golden gate park is woven into her own childhood memories. Shes an advocate for kids, and knows how important parks are for kids to remain healthy. And 70 of the park is within her district, and we have walked trails together and the smallest of spaces to learn how to make this park more accessible for people from all communities. Its my pleasure to welcome supervisor sandy fewer fuia. Supervisor fewer im thrilled that we are going to be kicking off the 150th anniversary of San Franciscos Golden Gate Park. I am supervisor of district 1, and as phil said, 70 of the park is in my jurisdiction. We know how important Golden Gate Park is to all San Francisco residents and to our city. We are looking forward to the yearlong celebration to highlight the beauty of the park and also as its legacy as a San Francisco institution that demonstrates not only our commitment to open space, nature, and our natural environment, but also has this park has remained a free and accessible asset to all who wish to enjoy it. It is true that i have lived out here for over 60 years, and this park is where i grew up. This is where i learned to ride a bicycle. This is where my children were raised, in this park, going to the academy of sciences. And i, like london breed remember field trips out here, family gatherings out here, indeed, many more memories that are soon to be added to our collection of memories as we embark on all these festivities. Id like to thank the staff for rec and park for all its hard work and all of our organizations and volunteers to help make the park the wonderful place it is for everyone. Thank you. [applause] thank you, supervisor. So this celebration wouldnt be possible without the organizations that are joining together to make this a reality. Were so thankful to kaiser permanente, and target, and the more than 150 organizations that are so important to this cause. Thank you very much. [applause] i want to also recognize i see ike kwan here from the academy of sciences, and scott mason, making the academy free here on april 4. Thank you very much. [applause] and a word about another planet, about last years outside concert, they worked with paul simon to make a donation to the friends of the urban forest and San Francisco Parks Department. And because of that donation, part of that is funding the 150 trees that were planting today, so thank you very much to gregg and allen and other planters. [applause] of course, none of this happens without amazing civic leadership, and leading this is some of the most amazing cochairs who have some of the most undying love for San Francisco, and are committed to making it a better place to live, work, and play. Please welcome to the lectern nanny bechtel and robert fung. Were just negotiating whos going to go first. Any ways, it is amazing that were celebrating 150 years of Golden Gate Park. When the mayor talked about roller skating in the park, i roller skates here as a kid, too. I dont know if anybody remembers this, but it used to have a lot of horses, and this is where you would go to ride horses. Anyhow, Golden Gate Park had a rather auspicious start, when they invited olmstead who designed central park. Well, he took a look at this terrible place, and he said, its not going to happen, so that was not going to be the end of the park because the city leaders wanted to have a park here, so they turned to John Maclaren who had a friend, john mueller, and he designed this absolutely beautiful park oh, here comes the rain. Liquid fog. Oh, its just liquid fog. We as san franciscans know its liquid fog. I have an umbrella here if anybody needs one Everybody Needs one. So when maclaren saw the park or this land, he thought this would be an absolutely great place to have a park, but he felt very strongly that it would never be a great park if there was ever a sign saying keep off the grass. So i think you all know there has never been and will never be a sign that says keep off the grass. So any way, its an honor to be involved with the celebration, the 150year celebration of Golden Gate Park. And i want to thank our sponsors, our volunteers, the tree planters, everyone whos involved with our park because it is a city treasure. Thank you. [applause] ill be very quick here because the rains starting to come down, but but like many people here have grownup in this park, skinned my knee on that hill bike riding, skinned my other knee over here, skate boarding. Like many of us, i love this park. I think Phil Ginsburg has done an amazing job of transforming and growing this park, and i think hes going to do great things, so i just want to say thank you so much. [applause] thank you for supporting our mayor coming out and supporting us. I see ben davis whos made contributions to this park, as well. I want to say go Golden Gate Park, go San Francisco 49ers. [applause] thank you, nancy, and rodney, representing your other cochairs, charlotte schultz, mayor willie brown, and park and rec president mark buell who couldnt be here today. Nancy, you should know that horseback riding exists. And on april 4, we will have free pony rides. Next, i want to introduce another person who understands that parks are a power for social good. He and his organization have become such incredible partners and enable us to, you know, really, really, really enable us to do great things. Hes the chair of the Parks Alliance, and our partner in transforming all of our city parks and infusing our parks in every neighborhood with love and attention and resources that they need. I want to thank him for and the organization for their creativity and for always encouraging community. Please welcome drew becker. Thank you, phil. Thanks, phil. [applause] i always like being introduced by phil. Its better than being introduced by my mother. Its awesome. Thank you, mayor breed and everyone who have been involved in making this yearlong celebration a reality. Heres to more than 150 partners and Community Groups who have come together to honor this amazing park we call Golden Gate Park. Today, our city has a narrative that is not as positive as it could be. Today, we start changing that. I believe the 150th celebration for this iconic piece of land that we call Golden Gate Park is just the piece we need. We need this 150year celebration of what we do right. Golden gate park is San Francisco, and we need a model of this in every single neighborhood. [applause] i love all of our partners, and we look forward to working with you all year to making this a very special event. We look forward to working with the men and women of the San Francisco park department, and thanks, and may the parks be with you. Board member laverdelevine [applaus [applause] all right. What makes Golden Gate Park so special is it holds the love and spark of our city. There is truly something for everyone here, from the individuals and families who explore every day, to the many cultural and exploration groups. Weve got soccer, and boat enthusiasts, and yes, roller skaters. Somebody who embodies this, yes, indeed is david miles, better known as the god father of skate, and an important part of our park and history. Roll on up here, david. [applause] what about this weather. You love it, right . You love it because youre in the most fantastic place that you could possibly be. I have been skating in this park for over 40 years. This is my granddaughter here. Im trying to get her to carry it on the next 150 years in Golden Gate Park. [applause] but what i want to say, when you come to San Francisco, when you get involved in San Francisco, theres a special energy about it that i think that ive tapped into it, and each and every sunday, right down the street here, i met my wife, rose roll, roller skatin years ago. And to this day, we still come out, we still have a fantastic time. The energy is just as strong now as it has always been. So when we do that celebration in april, oh, yes, we will have a skaters showcase in april. You will see skaters showing off their best talents, just an honor of being here, and honor of being in the best place, in San Francisco. [applause] actually, you look right across the street there. This is one of two outdoor roller skating areas in the country, but of course, we lead the way, San Francisco. You can come here and skate each and every day, but we come out here on sundays from about noon to 6 00, and on saturdays, as well. And if you want to go inside, we lead by example. Church of eight wheels, everybody. [applause] all right. So you want to join me back up here . Before we kick off this amazing celebration with the ceremonial cutting of the ribbon of vines you can find here in this park, we want to thank everybody in making this yearlong celebration a reality. Im going to miss people, but i see Stephanie Linder from the San Francisco botanical garden. I see steven, i see John Cunningham from the aids group, Michael Lambert from the library whos going to be having an exhibit at the library, and i think our Summer Reading program involves parks. Were going to have exhibits from the airport, tom campbell deyoung. Were going to have over 150 of them, and our support and leadership have been support so we can come together for Golden Gate Park, and show how much we love it and how much we can invest in it for the next 150 years. Our next thanks is for staff. Youre the heart of Golden Gate Park. If it werent for you [applause] if it werent for our working men and women who have cared for it for 150 years think about that. And for the sweat and tears our volunteers have put into this for 150 years, it wouldnt be the park that it is, so lets cut our garland. Thank you all. [cheers and applause] this lodge is home to some of the best fly casting pools in the world. These shallow concrete pools dont have fish. This is just a place where people come to practice their fly casting technique. Ith was built in the 1930s and ever since, people have been coming here to get back to nature. Every year, the World Championship of fly casting is held in San Francisco and visitors from all over the globe travel to be here. We are here with phil, general manage of San Francisco rec and Parks Department at the anglers lodge. What do you think about this . It is spectacular, travis from oregon, taught me a snake roll and a space cast. There are people from all over the world come to San Francisco and say this is the place to be. Yeah. Its amazing, we have teams from all over the world here today and they are thrilled. I flew from ireland to be here. And been practicing since for the competition. All the best casters in the world come here. My fellow countryman came in first place and james is on the current team and he is the head man. Its unique. Will not see anything like it where you go to compete in the world. Competitions in ireland, scotland, norway, japan, russia each year, the facilities here in the park are second to none. There is no complex in the world that can touch it. Im here with bob, and he has kindly agreed to tell me everything i need to know about casting. Im going to suit up and next, were in the water. What any gentleman should do. Golden gate angling has free lessons the second saturday of every month. We have equipment show up on the 9 30 on the second saturday of every month and well teach them to fly cast. Ok. We are in the water. Let me acquaint you with the fly rod. Nice to meet you. This is the lower grip and the upper grip. This is a reel and a fly line. We are going to use the flex of this rod to fling away. Exactly as you moved your hands. Thats it . Thats it. Im a natural. Push both arms forward and snap the lower hand into your tummy. Push forward. I did gave it a try and had great time but i might need some more practice. I met someone else with real fly casting skills. Her name is donna and she is an International Fly casting champion. I have competed in the casting ponds in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. I have been to japan and norway for fly casting competition. I spend my weekends here at the club and at the casting pond. Its a great place to learn and have fun. On a season day like this, it was the perfect spot to be. I find fly casting very relaxing and also at the same time very challenging sport. Takes me out into the nature. Almost like drawing art in the air. And then i can make these beautiful loops out there. Even though people from across the globe come here to compete, its still a place where locals in the know relax and enjoy some rely unique scenery. Until next time, get out and play George Washington High School Marching band. [applause] please welcome kayla smith. [applause] good morning, everyone. Hows everybody doing today . Thank you. Thank you for joining us today for this historical occasion. My name is kayla smith, and i will be your mistress of ceremonies for the evening. Growing up in San Francisco d5, hayes valley, to be exact, since the age of four, i have been privileged to receive mentorship from my community. I