Transcripts For SFGTV Remote Police Commission 20240713

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, includi . 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. Good evening, everybody. The chair has called the meeting to order. Please silence all electronic devices, and please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Vice president would like to take roll call. President hirsch is excusessed. Excusessed excuseed. [roll call] you have a quorum. Also president are chief scott of the San Francisco police department. We also have a cantonese translator in the back for those that need it. Good evening, everyone. This is the february 19th meeting of the San Francisco Police Commission. We have a special meeting in the ingleside district, this is my Police Station so im really happy to be here. We dont have too full of an agenda tonight, so well allow three minutes for Public Comment. With that, lets get started. Call the first item. Line item 1a. Chiefs report will be limited to a brief description of the significant incidents. Commission discussion will be limited to determining whether to calendar any of the incidents in the chief describes for a future commission meeting. Thanks for welcoming me to ingleside. Im going to be brief in my report today. And ill open it up for questions from the commission. Basically i will discuss our crime trends for the week and for those of the folks in the audience who have not attended a Police Meeting weekly, i report the crime trends to the commission and then they ask questions, depending on what is reported, they ask questions from there. So ill start with the crime trends. Overall, part one crime, it is defined as a serious crime such as homicides, rape, robberies, aggravated assaults, Motor Vehicle theft, arson and larceny. Those are all part one crimes. And this is what i report to every week. Our part one crime overall is up 1 . Its still early in the year. But this trend is something that we take very seriously, and we are going to try to wrap our arms around it and make sure that we continue the trend weve had over the last several years of Crime Reduction. The breakdown of our part one crime is broken into Violent Crimes and property crimes, our total property crimes are actually down 1 . And property crimes make up the biggest percentage of our overall crimes in terms of part one crimes. When we break down our top property crimes, it breaks down as follows burglaries are down 1 , Motor Vehicle thefts are up 7 , and just to put it in context, our burglaries, we have had 638 reported burglaries year to date, compared to 646 year to date in 2019. So thats a 1 reduction. Our Motor Vehicle theft, cars that were stolen, we have 551 year to date compared to 516 this time last year for a 7 increase. And that is the majority of our property crime increase, our Motor Vehicle theft. Our arsons are up by five. We have 26 year to date compared to 21 this time last year and thats a 24 increase. In our larceny or theft, they were 4,884 reported this time last year and 4,882 this year. So its a reduction of or increase of 2. Our total property crimes, we had 6,099 this year, and 6,065 last year, so 34 crimes above this time last year for a 1 increase in property crimes. In terms of our Violent Crimes, good news on our homicides, we had three homicides year to date, this time last year we had sick sixth so thats a 50 reduction. Our rapes are down. We had 65 reported this time last year and we had a 58 reduction. Our robberies are up. We have 397 reported year to date compared to 354 this time last year for an increase of 43 robberies, thats a 12 increase. Our assaults are up. We have 266 year to date compared to 239 last year for an 11 increase in our Human Trafficking are down, its a very small number to begin with but we have had three reported Human Trafficking cases year to date compared to five this time last year for a 40 reduction. So overall, its a 1 increase in crime year to date. Captain woon actually will speak directly about ingleside, your home station. But that concludes that portion of my chiefs report. I want to just add one thing with our major vehicle traffic collisions, we had three major injury vehicles this past week. The most significant one was at 23rd and mission where a vehicle was traveling westbound on 23rd street, turned northbound onto mission and struck two pedestrians before continuing along mission street. The vehicle drove into the sidewalk and struck a muni bus and a passenger who was on the bus. The driver and passenger initially fled from the scene butted to the but but returned to the sustain and were retained. One was transported to the hospital with lifethreatening injuries and Bus Passenger complained of pain and was released and detained. The investigation is ongoing but luckily we didnt have any fatalities. Year to date on traffic fatalities we have had fouryear to date and none for this past week. So that actually is it for crime and traffic. I wanted to speak a little bit about whats been happening around the country in terms of Homeland Security and mainly i. C. E. Agents. There was a news article that agents would be assigned to San Francisco. From what we know, the agents have been assigned to the bay area, not just the city of San Francisco. As always sfpd will stand behind the citys sanctuary City Ordinances and we will not assist on civil immigration issues at all. We are not a part of any of those operations. So we just want to make it clear to the public that we want people to call us when they need it. We dont inquire about immigration status, we dont enforce immigration status, and we dont enforce that, and we want to let the public know the sfpd is not a part of the federal actions and Immigration Enforcement. The mayor and i put out a joint Statement Today which will probably air on the news tonight but its a big teal for our city and we want the public a big deal for the city and we want the public to feel safe to call sfpd and not worry about Immigration Enforcement. That concludes my report. Thank you, chief. I dont know if any of my fellow commissioners have questions, but i have questions about the crime statistics. So we are used to sitting here and getting news to you about general Crime Reduction when it comes to part one crimes. And tonight we are here, and we have Motor Vehicle theft up, arson is up, and robberies are up, assaults are up. It would be interesting to know if this continue, i hope it doesnt continue, but what you attribute this to and what you are doing to stop it. And by you i mean the department. Yes. And that is the discussion that we have daily about number one, stopping this trend. Robberies are very concerning. Some districts are up more than others. What we believe at this point, some of it are people that have been the criminal justice involved or people that we have arrested. Thats another issue. We had a very good meeting, our command staff with the d. A. s top Leadership Team on how we are going to work together. Some of it is enforcement, some of it is what we do in the back end after we make the arrest. But we will work with the d. A. s office and our officers to get a handle on it. Robbery is a significant concerning. Our shootings and homicides are down but robberies and car thefts are going up and we need to turn that around. When you say Motor Vehicle theft, you are talking about stealing cars . Actually stealing cars. Our car breakins are down, we are down 2 on car breakins, they are down for the year. But we havent been up in Motor Vehicle thefts in a few years so we need to get a handle on that. Thank you. Commissioner dejesus. I didnt see your statements on the i. C. E. Raids, potential i. C. E. Raids, but thank you for putting that out. Two questions on that. They talk about bringing in extra forces, tactical people. I had two questions. One of them is do they notify the department when they come to do a raid. And secondly, when they did do raids a few years ago they wore a big jacket that said police, which misled the public, and the public was very upset that the police were participating in these raids. We had talked about how to do it, but they are not police, they have a different title. I want to know how you can handle that or what you can do about that. Yes, maam. To the first question, when they are doing an enforcement action, they dont always notify us. If there are issues concerned with deconfliction, in other words they dont want to come in and do an enforcement action and us not know about it, and it has the potential of blue on blue as it is called, type of conflict. So we have in the past gotten basically notifications right when these actions were taken, but not advance notification. When weve had instances in the past, some of them have these things get in the community, and people get very anxious about them. We have asked for notification. Its up to them to honor that. And they have in the past, but its usually right before something actually happens in terms of an enforcement action. As far as the jackets, the raid jackets as they are called, with police on the back. We did voice that concern with leadership that was there at the time. They changed leadership too. They have a different special agent in charge now than they had. What we did see is the lettering on the jacket, although it said police, it did say i. C. E. Or customs enforcement. So that helps because they were able to distinguish from Municipal Police department. I need to revisit that with the current staff. That person just got into place, so we will revisit that so we can have an understanding. But we did get a little bit of traction on that. Commissioner hamasaki thank you. Whoa, too close. Good evening. I had a question or a followup question to commissioner taylors, regarding the its a little bit early in the year to draw any conclusions about a statistical bump in certain crimes and what it means. But can you and again, i think my view is that theres only so much the department can do with certain types of crimes to prevent them. However, on the back end of that, closure, how is the departments closure rate on the more serious part one crimes . Well, i can quote homicides, they were 68 percent clearance rate on homicides. I have to follow up with you on the robberies and assaults. Thats going to be a lower number usually but ill follow up with you and have that for the next commission meeting. In terms of closure property crimes, your car break in is very difficult. Still hovering in the single digits, about 2 in terms of arrest and closure on those cases. Auto theft is higher than that. But ill follow up with more specific clearance rate numbers for across the part one crimes. Right. Okay. I do understand the challenge with investigating a pile of broken glass outside of a car window. The other question i had was relating and i saw a headline today about Immigration Enforcement raids in the bay area in the courthouse. Are you familiar with that . Yes. And obviously for all the anybody that works in the criminal Justice System, the impact of Immigration Enforcement in the courthouse tends to deter victims, witnesses, basically can potentially shut down the criminal Justice System. Do you have any concerns or in what way can we ensure that our courts are kept safe so that victims and witnesses and defendants can attend Court Without fear of Immigration Enforcement . Well, i saw the sheriff put out a statement yesterday similar to what im telling our public tonight, the Sheriffs Office will not assist in those civil immigration issues as well. I dont know of anything that happened in our court, which is a good thing, but i know the sheriffs are prepared. And again, they are just like the rest of us in terms of their values of this city. They dont plan to assist. Cant guarantee what they will do. Thats a Different Branch of government yes. But they will definitely not assist. And the sheriff has been very vocal about that. Cant guarantee, but we are going to do what we can to make sure our folks are, as much as anxiety as we can relieve, at least reassuring people that we are not participating. Thank you, chief. I want to second commissioner hamasakis call for hopefully this wont continue, but if it does, what follow up we can provide. So the city clears what happens with those pieces so they go forward with the d. A. s office. Yes. Just to followup, we can take a look by district. I think theres a trend that would be good for the public to know the trends we see in terms of vehicles that are being stolen, where are they being stolen from so we can alert folks in those areas to be more vigilant so we can have our eyes open as well. Thank you. Next line item. Line item 1b, dpa directors report. Report on recent dpa activities and announcements. The d. P. A. s report will be limited to a brief description of d. P. A. Activities and announcements. Commission discussions will be limited to determining whether to calendar any of the issues raised for a future commission. We welcome Paul Henderson from the department of police accountability. Good evening, director henderson. Good evening. I made it. I dont want to tell you how long i was at the front door ringing the doorbell because i didnt see the sign up here and walked that way, but thats okay. I have a couple updates for you on what the department is working on and where we are with our numbers. So right now at the department of police accountability, we have opened 102 cases so far this year, and thats up from 80 cases which is where we were this time last year. In terms of cases closed, we have closed a record number, 169 cases so far this year, and that is up from 83 cases this time last year that we had closed. In terms of the cases we have pending, theres still that uptick in cases we have experienced over the past 18 months. So we are at 366 cases that are pending right now. This time last year, we were at 278 cases. In terms of sustained cases so far this year we have at seven. This time last year we were at 12. In terms of cases that have ongoing investigations beyond the ninemonth mark, we are at 29 cases. And this time last year there were 25 cases that were taking longer than nine months. Of those 29 cases that we have going on, 14 of those cases are told, meaning that they are not the time deadline isnt running out for 3304 deadlines. In terms of cases mediated, we have done seven cases that have been mediated this year versus three the same time last year. The biggest news i wanted to talk about today was our move that is coming up. We have been talking about it for a while now, but now its actually about on to happen. So the department is moving its location. I say going kitty corner from the current location. The restrictionses on restrictions about the public going to our location so there werent a lot of places in the City Real Estate areas where we could just pick up and go when we are moving. Our location is being taken over by d. P. H. They are taking over the current property and bumping us into this other property. Relocation is more easily accessible by public transportation. Its 240 feet away from the van ness muni station. So the new location will have a big welcoming, both for the public and for the commissioners and everyone else as well, the whole whole city family. The new space has four interview suites equipped with Video Conferencing equipment finally, and this is going to help us with our various groups, so complaints that are unable to easily travel to our office and expansion for folks that are multilingual. The rooms will have a. S. L. Translation services so we can continue to reach folks that dont speak english. And the lobby will have a computer terminal built in so people can fill out complaint forms and review some of the public reports. All of that is being built into the new space. Another couple things just in terms of overview, well all have the same phone number so no one has to change the phone numbers. Only the Mailing Address will be changing. The new address is 1 south van ness avenue, the eight floor, those of you familiar with the e city family may remember that was the old executive level for s fm ta. So we will be in that space. The move is taking place the last saturday of this month. Yes, the last saturday of this month. Anybody wants to come and help and carry some boxes, just let me know, after you sign a waiver. [laughter] no one is carrying boxes without signing waivers. We are also updating our brochures and signage. We are going to be getting the word out including contacting our Community Partners and online announcements through twitter and our website. But its happening pretty quickly now. Its been delayed two or three times during the construction and the update of the new space. So thats my update so far . I also wanted to say the 18th we participated in the tar very l community meeting. We also participated in the black History Month celebration which had delicious food. Here in the audience is senior investigator steve if any issues come up and someone wants to talk to my investigator. One of our new attorneys is here and my assistant Mary Ann Mccormick is here. So thats it. Thats my update. Thank you. I see no questions from commissioners. Really quick. Thanks for that, paul. As you know, im the liaison for the d. P. A. , we didnt get an opportunity to speak today. I want to apologize for that. I want to see what your thoughts are around our uptick. We had 102 cases versus 83 from last year. What do you attest that to . Do you think its Human Capital . Technology . Process . I think its all three of those things. Over the past 18 months or since i came into the position, more and more people are learning about the agency and hearing and seeing what it can do . And i think many of the restrictions that people had in coming to the offices, those barriers have been removed. And so now even easier to access the agency through the website on your phone, by calling in, the technology has drastically improved so we can receive that information from outside an external sources in ways that were not possible in the past. I will say another big transition, i think, has been having access to the language lines and having our information redistributed and printed in various languages throughout the city. So having the seven languages, the principal languages identified in San Francisco, for folks to be able to get that information is a big deal, and having that information is a bigger deal, compounded by the personnel that are focused on doing outreach work, both to identify how the agency works, the voice that we represent for various communities and passing out information. I think thats what led to it. And i think that its still growing, theres a groundswell that isnt reinflictive of an uptick in more bad behavior or something happening. Its just more people understanding how to use agency and coming to the agency for help questions or input about things that they are seeing, experiencing daytoday. Thank you. Any other questions from commissioners . I see none. Next line item. Line item 1d, commission reports. Commission reports will be limited to a brief description of activities and announcements. Commission discussion will be limited to determining whether to calendar any of the issues raised for a future commission meeting. Commission president s report, commissioners reports, report from each commissioner on status of assigned projects. Any reports . All right. Im excited to see the presentation today. So unless theres objection, i want to dive right into captain woons presentation. One second. Sorry. Captain woon, im being interrupted. Dont want to ruin the surprise. Scratch that the next Police Commission meeting is wednesday, march 4 at 5 30 at city hall room 400. The public is invited to comment on line items 1a through 1c. I guess im just if you have comments on any of the line items we have discussed thus far, the podium is yours. All right. No one is rushing to the podium. Public comment is coming. Line item 2 is captain christopher woon, Commanding Officer of ingleside station to address the commission on Police Activities and the ingleside district staffing, Community Policing and ingleside station demographics, discussion. Good evening, everyone. Vice president koppel. Commissioners, chief scott, the command staff, director henderson, members of the community, welcome. I would like to thank the principal of Visitacion Valley Elementary School for allowing us to have this opportunity to have this presentation here today and also for her support. I would like to thank the members of my team for this support as well. In addition to my staff, sergeant, officer brandt, officers for helping me organize this presentation today. Not that im counting but this is my fourth month, 24th day, 18th three quarters of an hour being a captain at ingleside station. [applause] now, the reason i bring this up is because i want to give a big thank you and shoutout to my predecessor captain jack hart for his dedication to the job. Its under his leadership that most of these programs im going to discuss came into play and are very successful. So thank you to captain hart. Before i move forward with todays presentation, i want to give an instruction of myself. I was born and raised in ingleside district not too far away from here. I went to Public Schools in the neighborhood, attended San Francisco State University as well. This is my fourth time at ingleside station, started here as an officer, came back a few times, came back as lieutenant, 25 years later, im back now as the captain at ingleside station. Im so honored and grateful, and i want to thank command staff for giving me the opportunity to serve as the captain here where i was born and raised. I dont think too many people can say that. I have a variety of assignments during my career at the ingleside station. I was doing patrols, investigations, doing administrative work as well. I was a robbery decoy. That was very interesting and also i was a canine handler. So my favorite partner of all time is my canine friend. I brought my canine home every night. That was very nice. However, the one bad thing was my wife was very jealous because it was a female dog, and i think my dog saw me more than my life. But thats another discussion later on that well have. [laughter] but im very grateful for the position. Lets move forward with the presentation. And tonight ill be talking about the overview of the district facts of ingleside, crime trends, strategies, traffic enforcement, Community Partnerships and what we stand for at ingleside. The next slide, please for district overview. And one more slide, please . And one more after that. Moving forward, district overview. The ingleside district has six car sectors. The boundaries extend from the north side, cesar shaves street, the south, the daly city border, the east east shore boulevard and the west, saxon avenue. Im fortunate to have five