Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Full Board Of Supervisors 20240713

Trying to find out a way of funding if we spread it out too thinly, but which could support advertising if our board approves. In the short run, we are making sure that we are eliminating driver renewal fees for the extent of the Health Emergency. Drivers can continue working out on the street without paying their renewal fees while were in this Health Emergency. Its the least that we can do in order to support our operators. Were also thinking about if we can waive the taxi fees for the next two fiscal years, given the huge impacts being felt by our taxi operators. Those are things under discussion outside of our budget but which we would likely do. Im going to shift my bicycle gear and move on and talk a little bit about the Golden State Warriors. During this last fiscal year the chase arena was open and we were successful in that opening because this agency partnered with the Golden State Warriors and provided excellent transit and Parking Management and curb management. One of the most innovative and really exciting things that we did was that the muni ticket is included in ticket of your event or Golden State Warrior game. Thats an Exciting Development and i think it has facilitated folks riding transit to the events or to the basketball games. So how do you envasing maybe expanding that program . In particular, are you envisioning partnering with the giants to do something similar . I think the m. T. A. Should be so proud of the work that you did. All that happened before i arrived, i had nothing to do with it. I sat back and watched and was braced for a disaster and instead it was a phenomenal success. You should be proud of that success. Sfmta charges 1. 50 on services on those nights and makes it possible for the arena to function with people coming in and out and without a lot of gridlock. This is an amazing success. So i would love to expand on the success of that program. If anyone from the San Francisco giants is listening, call me. Were ready to expand the success of a program like that. Similarly, if and when our Convention Center is open again for business, and it will be, i would love to have every conventioneer badge be a muni fast pass. I would love all the hotels plastic card keys to be a muni fast pass. For all major employers in San Francisco to chip in to help us deliver the Transit System that we need, particularly given the economic crisis, while at the same time having us deliver free transit to their employees. As an agency, were really eager to make some savvy deals in order to be able to maintain service in these times. And its going to require really, really active participation from the private sector in order to allow us to do that. Very good. One question that we get from time to time is about our crossing guard program. In particular one person asked can we increase the number of hours that crossing guards work. For example, the way it is today, we have crossing guards in the morning for an hour and a half making sure our kids get to School Safely and a shift in the afternoon when everyone is leaving school. Its not a long day. A person or two are curious can we give the crossing guards more hours. What do you think about that . I love our crossing guards. They help me cross the street at harvey milk school. They provide a phenomenal amount of service and keep our kids safe. In our budget, he had a choice to make about whether we expand the program to more schools or expand the hours to individual crossing guards. If we add more hours, we serve fewer schools. If we add for guards, we can serve more schools and enhance safety. We have chosen the latter and have allocated additional budget to hire 20 new crossing guards, but not expanded their hours. In fact, in talking to many of the guards, including the ones i have seen, most of them live in the community. Many of them are older adults. All of them are interested not so much in more hours, but are happy to get out in the Community Every day. We feel more safety for more schools is going to serve San Francisco better than more hours for fewer guards. Very good. Live from twitter, what is the planned schedule for sfmta to hire more supervisors in 2020 . Yes, this is a hugely important question and one of the questions that comes straight out of the Muni Reliability Working Group recommendation. If you want a lot of detail on that topic, search for Muni Reliability Working Group and also look into the detail of our budget. So in order to so back in the last recession, back in 2008, in order to hold onto our core service, the Previous Administration widely chose to slash line supervision, the people who are in charge of making sure that buses are evenly spaced out, that operators leave their terminals on time, when there is a problem there are many places in the system that we have recurring problems. That there is a supervisor there with operational experience that knows how to sort out those problems. In order to improve reliability and to have steadier service, we need to staff up with those supervisors. Those supervisors can also take advantage of the investments that weve made in technology. Years ago people thought that all of the Global Positioning satellite trackers on the buses would allow us to automate supervisor. In reality, what we find is that that data requires a detailed understanding of whats happening out on the street and what buses can and cannot actually do. So what were finding is that having a new array of supervisors allows them to get the data that were getting, which basically is a force multiplier on the supervisors and where were applying the supervisors, were getting huge increase in reliability as well as headway maintenance. This is a question of whether we will actually be able to hire the new supervisors. Im getting a question. Any Job Opportunities offered to recent College Graduates at the sfmta. Ill pipe in and say that we of course have an Internship Program that is amazing at sfmta, truly a trainingground. Many people who have gone through our Internship Program end up working at sfmta. And really people should be looking on our linkedin website and the city website. We post a diverse range of positions. Its important to retain and attract talent. If you google jobs with the sfmta, the jobs portal will come up. Another position that just opened up just today is our transit ambassador program, which is a really fascinating job. Its for entrylevel people, particularly san franciscans, who live in the southeastern neighborhoods to ride our School Tripper services in order to help ensure that muni is civil. Its our alternative to having a police force ride muni. Instead we train people in the community who understand the kids in their neighborhoods and can engage with riders in order to support civil behavior and that we all need to get to what we are getting to. There are 13 of those that were advertising today. Another person from twitter says why is the fine for fare evasion in some cases more expensive than a parking violation ticket . Can sfmta look into the aggressive action that requires payment for fare. This is important to me. It was one that would take too long for our budget conversations, but we are going to take a longer program that may require advocacy at the state level that restrict our ability to manage fares. It is very important to me that we look at our fare Evasion Program not as a way of making revenue off citations, but as a way of encouraging people to pay their fair share. Rather than charging people fines, i would so much rather people who havent paid their fare, instead be required to buy a clipper card that would be the value of that fine, but instead gets them into the business of actually of paying their fare. Or instead of asking them to pay a fine, that it allows them to contribute their time to a Community Service function. The thing that irritates me is the fine for not paying your 3 bus fare for taking up 3 feet on the bus is greater than paying your parking fine for 300 square meters on the street. We need to equalize the fares for the impact they have on the system. There is too much complexity or resolving all of that in this particular budget, but that is something we are absolutely committed to coming back to and revisiting in several phases over the coming year, particularly relative to the legislative effort we want to have at the state with the equity question as well. Very good. Staying with fares, we have a question, do parking permits go up by the same amount as the muni fares. Why is parking so much cheaper than a muni pass if we are transit first . Speaking of things that drive me nuts and require legislative change. Our residential parking fees are currently 144 a year. Were raising them by some tiny amount. A residential parking permit is basically 0. 30 a day to store your car on public property in our neighborhood or at least have a license to do so. The reason it is only 144 a year is that it is illegal for us to charge more for the residential parking permit than it costs us to administer that parking program. So this is really frustrating. Unlike parking meters, which we have a great deal of flexibility in terms of how we set the rate, the Residential Parking Permit Program is fundamentally broken. A result of that is in our urban communities, it is a hunting license. It is not a tool for making sure that residents coming home at night can find a parking space near their homes. Changing that requires significant changes to state law as well as changes to a Court Decision called richardson v. Arlington. We need to figure out whats the optimal way for managing parking in our residential neighborhoods that provides some reasonable assurance that our residents can find a Parking Spaces near their home, at night, in the rain, makes it difficult for commuters to the financial district to park their car in the neighborhood to avoid paying in the garage and at the same time make it is it possible for the employees in our neighborhood commercial districts to find a place that they need to park thats not just in front of the business across the street. Its part of the complete madness of the rules governing that looked only at a single mode at a time. We want to think comprehensively across all modes of transportation and have the tools to manage the entire right of way in San Francisco for the public good. Again, would love to take care of that in this budget, but we really cant. I should add as well, on the parking meter side, again, it is our policy that the parking meter rates achieve a good rate in the communities. If we doubled the parking meter rates, we dont double revenue. Our rates for parking have a much greater impact on the demand for parking than our muni fares. So were trying to have a parking meter rate that optimizes revenue and accessibility to the commercial districts at the same time. These are some of the many things we struggle with as were trying to put together this budget that brings together the budget that we need and that does so in an equitable way for those who travel to San Francisco, whether by foot or bus or skateboard. Moving on to an email. What lowcost measures will muni undertake to improve service. For example, providing Faster Service to make the service cheaper to provide. Is muni willing to give more priority to buses through signal priority as an option or to eliminate bus stops that are spaced too closely together, i would add to that maybe doing transitonly lanes, and so on. This is a program that im so excited to move forward with. Most of that was developed before i arrived, but that we have new tools to move forward really quickly. This is called the Muni Forward Program. You can google that on our website. But just last month, our m. T. A. Board of directors gave us authority to implement our Muni Forward Program so much faster than before. As some of you will know, we have this thing called the quick build program. We applied it to bike lanes where we go in and engage with a community in the corridor and do some pilot implementation with some cheap and easily reversible materials with paint and plastic posts. Youve seen it and some of it looks ugly and slash dash in part because we wanted it to that way. We wanted to get data and make adjustments as we go along. In the corridors where weve made these bike lanes, weve seen huge increases in bike ridership. Weve also been able to generate trust with the businesses and residents in those corridors. Weve also been able to make adjustments in realtime based on the data. We then make a report and decide to make the changes permanent. Then there will be a separate project that uses concrete and trees and nice materials. We want to take all of that success and apply it to muni. Weve already seen the muni forward projects, where we did a thousand small projects, including implementing the five rapid. The result of that was a 60 increase of ridership and a 40 decrease in collisions on the street. This was a success for a relatively lowcost project. That project took us a couple of years to implement. We can now do many of these projects more quickly. Weve been experiments with that on the nine. We want to move faster than in the past. The Muni Forward Program and the new projects that were just approved by the m. T. A. Board on tuesday allow us to move forward. If we have any capital money and can maintain our current staffing levels, we are ready to move forward with dramatic improvements on the muni lines that our riders use the most. I have a specific question asking us when will the fare increases start. So if we get approval in april for the fare changes, those would be in effect on july 1 im sorry, im being corrected. If we get approval in our budget in april, the fare changes would go into effect on september 1. This is going to give us time to actually understand what are the implications of the financial impacts of the global pandemic. So again, i want to emphasize why were wanting to approve this budget now. We need a budget that is clear about its values and we need a Reference Point for making changes. Our current budget is not very rooted in values. Its pretty strict and rooted in values. One very important question thats not related to the budget that were getting, but its absolutely critical is from a youtube user asking are we cleaning our buses. Yes. This is definitely a question weve been getting almost every day. Were doing a couple of things. Every night when the buses and trains go to sleep at night, they are thoroughly cleaned and scrubbed and completed desanitized. Were fortunate, given all the guidance from Disease Control and global authorities is that the virus itself is fairly delicate. Its easy to kill the virus with straightforward materials. Were making sure were doing a thorough cleaning and similarly were doing a wipe down using simple chemicals four times a day. As the epidemic has gone on, were also gone on to activate what are Disaster Service workers. All of us who work for the city, one of the things we signed is that in the event of an emergency, we can become endeared to serve essential functions. One of those functions is increasing the sterilization of our vehicles during the middle of the day when operators are taking a break. I am doing my car cleaner trainer duty this friday morning. We feel sorry. We feel very strongly that all of us here at the sfmta are in the service of the public and that were not just going to ask our maintenance crews to step it up even more than they have. In fact, the thing that is making me most proud of serving this agency right now is the way our but operators, maintenance crews, communication teams, station agents, they are all here at basically a 100 level. They understand that they are in service to the public. It is my job and the job of the professionals to serve our operators and other frontline workers, which means we need to step it up to protect our operators and protect our riding public. So i will be serving my shift on cleaning down the vehicles in the coming vehicles and im expecting the same from my other managers. This is the time this agency has to come together and to remind our Service Mission to the public and to our frontline workers. Excellent. As you can see, i feel a little strongly about that. Yes, and im glad that you do. We will be working together and we will get through this very challenging time. Once we do and looking a little bit into the future, i want to talk to you about and bring you back to the budget. We talked about the structural budget and the fact that its going to grow over time. In the long term, were going to need to think about ongoing new revenue sources. Can you talk about what work has been done to identify new revenue sources, what they look like, and what are your thoughts on that. It was about a year ago, the 2045 work, its not like our structural deficit is a new problem, but an ongoing problem that all transportation agencies in california face. This program investigated all of the various ways that sfmta could either temporarily or, better yet, permanently create a Revenue Program that would close the gap and deliver the service that san franciscans need. There is a long list of those measures. San francisco now has the authority to create a special vehicle license fee that would go to transportation. That is a possibility that has not polled well. Here in california the things that tend to poll the best are sales tax measures for transportation. We could consider doing a special election at any time to put a sales tax measure on the ballot. It is too late for the november 2020 election. Putting something on the ballot requires a huge amount of work and will compete with other priorities. We could go to the voters for a general Obligation Bond that would be particularly useful for capital money, but could also for a certain degree be used for operating support. One mechanism were particularly interested in is a Community Benefits district. This is a district where individual Property Owners vote to tax themselves on their Property Value in exchange for specific Community Benefits programs which could include a expansion of the transit service. It is one of the easier taxes to talk about administratively that doesnt have to be tied to a major election. Were not going to be having a major election for a while after november 2020. Another thing that has been talked about as well is changes to the ridehailing tax. Voters approved last november which is bringing in a fair amount of money, but not a lot given our needs. There are different ways of taxes ride hail. This is a fee on using ride hail. So it doesnt tax the way in which ride hail operators drive around empty, which is a significant portion of their time. Another really, really important revenue measure that is currently under study and is arguably, if it is done appropriately, the most equitable and Sustainable Way of closing our revenue gap, is congestion pricing. This is similar to what milan and london and singapore and stockholm have done, which is to say that for every commodity in our society, we use price to balance supply and demand. In mobility we use time to balance supply and demand. So congestion is simply what happens when the demand for mobility equals the supply. And rather than using price to balance supply and demand, we asked people to queue and this reduces the amount of people our Transportation System can serve. It is a huge problem. In 2013, the San Francisco transportation authority, which is our sister authority, did a downtown congestion study that looked at how much revenue could be raised by charging a fee to drive in and out of downtown San Francisco during the peak time. It was focused on revenue and it resulted in many concerns by people who said that this is just a way of taxing the poor in order to allow rich people to drive more easily downtown. That was not implemented. This time around were asking a different question, which is how can we use systematic mobility pricing in order to advance mobility and to allow our streets to move more people. What if we looked more holistically about this pricing and looked at it as rent. I charge 3 on the bus, but its free to drive down the boulevard to get downtown if your office gives you free parking. Why am i charging someone to use our roadways efficiently and making it free for the most inefficient use of our mobility space . Similarly, for example, for a shift worker who works in a restaurant downtown who starts their shift at 5 00 p. M. And has to drive downtown at 5 00 p. M. Because when they get off work at 2 30 in the morning theres no transit service. Its cheaper for me to subsidize their drive trip or uber or lyft trip than to invest in Better Transit Service at 2 30 in the morning. How can we think about advancing the he could by basically stealing from the rich and giving it to the poor, rather than stealing from everyone to advance the poor. These are complicated questions and i would encourage all of you to follow the sfmta downtown congestion study and get involved in that, particularly as Economic Conditions are changing, to make sure as we think about mobility pricing that were using it in a way that advances equity and makes it easier for everyone to move around San Francisco and that values peoples time, including lowincome people who have the greatest time burdens. Lowincome people are more likely to work multiple and shift jobs. Im not fired when im late for a meeting. Shift workers are fired if theyre 10 minutes late too often for their jobs. This is a way longer answer than you wanted, but its a question thats super important to me. We are at time, but i wanted to wrap up. I went over time. These are important topics, but i wanted to thank everyone for joining us and appreciate the time that you were taking to write and to engage with us. These are important questions so were grateful for everyones engagement. Do you want to offer any Closing Remarks . The engagement that were doing is substantive. Weve got thousands of emails, comment cards, letters, all kind of contributions. I want you to know that we take these comments seriously. Our staff have read every single one of those comments, and i have read most of them themselves, including all of the comments i get on the twitter feed, which is hundreds and hundreds. Im sorry i dont respond personally. Again, i want to emphasize that there is no greater statement of an agencys values than our budget, and thats why were trying to build values into this budget, while being aware that we are in very, very economic times, our balance must balance, and we have deal with tradeoffs, these tradeoffs of fares versus service. We have hard choices to make as i know all of you do. I wish you all the best in these difficult times and that you stay safe and your family stays safe. Thank you so much for listening. [ ] president yee okay. Good afternoon. Welcome to the march 17, 2020 regular meet ongoing meeting of the San Francisco board of supervisors, even though its not regular. Madame clerk, the roll . Fewer present. Haney present. Mandelman present. Mar present. Peskin present. Preston present. Ronen present. Safai present. Stefani present. Walton present. President yee present. All members are present. President yee thank you. Would you please join me in 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. President yee so on behalf of the board, i would like to acknowledge the staff at sfgovtv who record each of the meetings and make the transcripts available to the public online. Thank you. Madame clerk, any communications . None to report, mr. President. President yee thank you. I do want to take this opportunity to share with the public that given the stayhome order issued yesterday by the mayor to reduce the spread of covid19, the board of supervisors will continue to meet and deliberate on essential action items during this time. Members of the public are advised not to leave their homes unless it is essential, however, we recognize that open access to this government body is a basic tenet of democracy and civic engagement. To the extent possible, were working on ways to allow for remote Public Comment during this emergency order. We are in extraordinary times and want to ensure that members of the public are able to engage in the safest way possible. During this emergency well we may also be moving the board of supervisors meetings and Committee Meetings remotely through video conferencing. These meetings will still be streamed online and to the public over sfgovtv. Colleagues, we are in this crazy time and would like us to formally decide on these future possibilities once the system is up and running. I would to ask for a motion to allow remote teleconferencing of future board of supervisors meeting and remote Public Comments . Can i have a motion . Made by ronen and seconded by safai. Madame clerk, please call the roll. On the motion, mandelman aye. Mar aye. Peskin aye. Preston aye. Ronen aye. Safai aye. Stefani aye. Walton aye. Yee aye. Fewer aye. Haney aye. There are 11 ayes. President yee thank you. The motion passes unanimously. Thank you, colleagues, and members of the public. As were still finalizing details of the remote access, please continue to check our website at www. Sfbos. Org for updates for future meetings. I want to remind the public we have teleconferencing over this emergency period. We will return to meetings back at the board of Supervisors Chamber as soon as we feel appropriate to do so. And we look forward to that time when were back to business as usual. Please stay safe and stay home. If you are able to. Call 311 if you have any questions or need nonemergency assistance. 311 is for nonemergency. Today, were approving the minutes from february 11, 2020 board meeting. Are there any changes to the Meeting Minutes . Seeing none, can i have a motion to approve the minutes . Motion made by supervisor fewer and seconded by supervisor preston. Without objection, those minutes will be approved as presented after Public Comment. Colleagues, i want to take a moment to explain several agenda changes we intend to make during this meeting. First, when item 16 is called, the public hearing on the findings and recommendation of Law Enforcement staffing numbers, i will ask for a motion to continue item 16 to the date of april ill give you the date later, but basically, its not crucial they present today even though it would have been a good discussion, but we can wait for that to happen. Now, to the purpose of this continuance, circumstances are changing rapidly with the covid19 disease and the citys response is ever evolving. For item 25, supervisor ronen is requesting this body to meet as a committee of the whole for the public hearing on the citys preparations on response to this Health Emergency and global pandemic. Originally, this public hearing was scheduled for special meeting on thursday, march 19, 2020, but due to the urgent nature of the Health Emergency, i do not believe it is prudent to wait until thursday to provide Important Information to the public and learn the citys response. Ill be asking for a motion to amend item 25 to reflect the public hearing for todays meeting in addition to thursdays meeting. If necessary, to ensure the public can learn information today. Further, before the public hearing takes place, i will be introducing an imperative item to call for a closed session to also take place today at 3 00 p. M. The closed session will be to discuss potential threats to the security of or the Public Access to public buildings, services and public facilities during the local Health Emergency. With the following Department Heads reporting. That would be william scott, chief of police, sheriff of the sheriffs department, chief of the fire department, chief of staff for the Mayors Office, city controller, director of Human Resources, executive director of department of emergency management, director of health for the department of Public Health, executive director of Human Services agency, director of department of homelessness and Supportive Housing, director of San Francisco international airport, port of San Francisco. As already indicated, after the closed session, the public hearing on city preparation will be called and open to the public. It is urgent we have an open discussion about policy proposals and responses to the Economic Health service and housing impacts with respect to the covid19 Health Emergency. Do any of my colleagues have questions . Okay. Madame clerk, can you please read the consent agenda. Items 1 and 2 on consent. If a member objects, an item may be removed and considered separately. President yee anyone want to sever any items . Seeing none, madame clerk, i think we already called roll. Can we just take this same house, same call . Okay. This item is finally passed unanimously. These items. Lets go to regular agenda. Call items 35 together. Items 35 are three resolutions submitted to the board from the Airport Commission. For a term of ten years, a minimum annual guarantee of 240,000 for the first year of the lease. Item 4, resolution to approve the terminal 3 boarding area f food and beverage kiosk lease between sidewalk juice as tenant and the city acting through the Airport Commission for a 10year term and minimum annual guarantee of 136,000. Item 5, resolution to approve the terminal 3 boarding area f between elevate, a joint venture and skyview concessions. President yee same house, same call . Without objection, these resolutions are adopted unanimously. Please go to item 6. Resolution to approve and authorize the director of property to lease Real Property at 1156 valencia street at base represent of 400 rent of 400,000 a year to expire february 28, 2023. Plus twoyear option to extend and authorize the reimbursement of 300,000 toward the cost of lease hold improvements and to execute the documents and make modifications in furtherance of the lease. President yee same house, same call . This is adopted unanimously. Item 7, resolution to authorize the department of Public Health to accept and expend 3 million grant to the Tipping Point community to participate in a program entitled hphh, Tipping Point. To create new psychiatric Respite Center beginning january 16, 2020 through january 15, 2022. President yee colleagues, same house, same call . Without objection, this resolution is adopted unanimously. Lets go to item number 8. Item 8 is resolution to authorize the San Francisco Police Department to accept and expend 66,000 grant from the state of Department Parks and recreation to procure equipment and gear for the period of november period to commence following board approval through november 30, 2020. President yee same house, same call. Adopted unanimously. Resolution to provide Revenue Bonds for the financing and accusation of 108 multifamily rental using product consisting of three structures. President yee colleagues, can we take this same house, same call . Without objection, this resolution is adopted unanimously. Madame clerk, lets go to next item. Item 10, resolution to approve and authorize the execution of Loan Agreement with Mission Housing development corp, California Limited Partnership in an amount not to exceed 28 million. President yee colleagues, can we take this same house, same call . Without objection, this is adopted. Item 11. Item 11 resolution to urge the administrative staff of the department of Public Health to include frontline registered nurses and physicians in their decisionmaking process to implement to the extent possible an expedited hiring process to less than 90 days of application, to see staffing requirements with contracted registered nurses by implementing a ceiling of 5 or less. And to provide annual violence prevention and Disaster Preparedness training. President yee same house, same call . Without objection, this resolution is adopted unanimously. Item 12 is ordinance to amend the police code to make existing exemption to paid parental leave ordinance for employers with fully paid family leave policies consistent with recent changes to state law. President yee colleagues, can we take this same house, same call . Without objection, this ordinance is passed on First Reading. Item 13, ordinance to amend the administrative code to require that mayoral and board of supervisors appointments to Reentry Council expire following a members hiring. And to require that the fifth officer be a formally incarcerated member and to increase the number of 12 to 13, the number of members that constitute a quorum . President yee same house, same call . This ordinance is passed on First Reading unanimously. Item 14, motion to approve the treasurers nomination of Meagan Wallace to the Oversight Committee for term ending june 17, 2022. President yee same house, same call . Without objection, this is approvedly. Item 15, a motion to appoint janice petty to the commission on the aging Advisory Council for term ending march 31, 2022. President yee same house, same call . Without objection, this motion is approved unanimoussy. Unanimously. President yee madame clerk, even though its not quite 2 30 there is nothing to discuss to continue an item. Could we take it right now before the time set . Clerk no, mr. President , but we could go to roll call for introductions. Mandelman submits. Mar . Supervisor mar thank you, madame clerk. Colleagues, i have one resolution im introducing today that relates to the topic of the day. San francisco has led the nation as the first place to enact mandatory paid sick leave as well as Family Friendly workplace and paid parental laws. These were ground breaking, but they were not designed with Public Health emergencies in mind. San francisco must lead once again to ensure that everyone is economically healthy as well as physically healthy and workers can afford to shelter in place. The emergency expansion of paid sick leave announced by mayor breed yesterday is a positive step forward, but its not enough to leave it up to the employers to decide. Over the weekend, the house of representatives adopted a comprehensive Coronavirus Relief bill that includes expanded paid leave, but shockingly, it exempts the largest employers who represent 54 of the workforce. The largest corporations dont need a bailout. Workers do. We need all hands on deck from washington to sacramento to city hall to ensure our workers are taken care of. So today im introducing a resolution along with supervisor haney urging action to expand access to paid leave during Public Health emergencies. We need to make sure workers know what rights they have and that those rights are enforced and protected. Some will have accrued paid sick leave they can use under San Franciscos paid sick leave ordinance and some will be eligible for unemployment insurance, but not all employees know their rights or how to access the benefits. So this resolution calls for the creation of a multilingual workers right hot line so everyone can access the information and rapid enforcement action to know their rights and protect them. We need to expand workers rights where they feel to meet the urgency of our current crisis. Under the law today, there is no assurance that workers who must stay home will be paid. Under the law today, nontraditional workers, domestic workers, laborers and undocumented workers do not have access to safety net programs like unemployment insurance. Under the law today, nearly one quarter of the United States workers receive no form of paid sick leave. So this resolution urges the United States congress to mandate that all employers provide their employees with additional 14 days of paid leave during Public Health emergencies. With public funds provided to make it possible for small and mediumsized businesses to comply. And it further urges action by congress to the governor and state legislature to meet our current needs. With this resolution, we will support bills on the state and federal level that would move us toward these needs and commit to act locally to fill gaps where state and federal action falls short. The rest i submit. Clerk thank you. Supervisor peskin. Supervisor peskin ive got one in memoriam that i submitted and in the interest of time will submit the rest. President yee supervisor ronen skipped . No, im after preston. I dont know how that happened. Im sorry. Thank you. Supervisor preston . Supervisor preston thank you, madame clerk. Colleagues, i have several items today and just wanted to start by thanking deputy City Attorney for moving very, very quickly on these items. I greatly appreciate it with everything going on. I appreciate the quick turnaround. So, first, i am introducing a resolution calling on the governor, the courts, and the mayor to immediately suspend all eviction activity, except evictions necessary to protect for safety. Im sad to report as i speak today, eviction notices are still being served in San Francisco and eviction cases of our residents are still moving forward in our courts. This is absolutely the last thing we need right now. To quickly recap where we are in residential evictions, there has been a lot of discussion and activity. I introduced an ordinance last week to ban nonpayment evictions arising the crisis. The mayor and i had an opportunity to meet and she issued a directive against nonpayment evictions from covidrelated loss of income. This was an important step. Its a start, but unfortunately, its not enough. I urged mayor to broaden her directive to create a real Eviction Moratorium that is comprehensive and includes no fault evictions. Barring action on that, well continue to move forward with the ordinance i introduced last week, tailored to make sure we address no fault evictions. I want to thank the Mayors Office for her work on these issues. Sophia kitler. The San Francisco superior court has given at best a mixed message. The court changed its website in a way that suggested that all jury trials, including eviction cases would be continued and delayed for 90 days, but tenant attorneys are told its business as usual and eviction cases are proceeding in the courts. People obviously cannot shelter in place if theyre having to show up and defend themselves from eviction, so i call on the San Francisco superior court and state Judicial Council to make sure these cases are postponed and wanted to thank the folks at the eviction defense collaborative for bringing this to our attention. The governor has weighed in with an executive order as you know, yesterday, this was an important step forward. Id like to thank the governor for this action and in particular the ordinance lays out the stakes and why keeping people housed is so critically important. However, like the mayors directive, the governors executive order addresses nonpayment arising from loss of income and does not address other types of eviction, so our resolution urges further action from the governor. Colleagues, ive seen a lot of good from folks in the last week with outpouring of neighbors reaching out. Some of those include landlords in my district, but, unfortunately, there are those who seem to lack the most basic compassion at this time and its to deal with them that we must take the actions at all level of government to stop evictions during this crisis. I want to thank my cosponsor on this resolution, supervisors ronen, haney, mar and fewer, and look forward to working with you all to pass this resolution as quickly as possible. Second, im introducing an emergency ordinance to protect Small Businesses from eviction due to nonpayment of rent arising from covid19 measures. I want to thank my colleague supervisor ronen, who ive been working with closely on this issue for more than a week and weve been trying to find a way around state law limitations and fortunately, some of those were lifted yesterday by the governor. Even before this Public Health crisis we heard daily from Small Businesses worried about making rent and the current Health Crisis has made those fears more intense and immediate. And many businesses are wondering if theyll ever financially be able to reopen. With april 1st approaching, many are concerned about paying the rent when the revenues have been reduced and in many cases complete completely eliminated as most businesses have been shut down. The fear eviction and default is real and growing. We need to make sure help is coming from the many levels of government. Locally, the private sector. Small businesses, as we know, are the life blood of our local economy and define our neighborhoods. So thanks to the executive order issued by the governor. Yesterday, we were freed from some of the limits that normally restrict our ability to take action around rents and evictions when it comes to Small Businesses. So to make sure that businesses are not displaced and permanently closed during this state of emergency, and after the state of emergency, im introducing an eviction ordinance covering Small Businesses, the first of its kind in any municipality in california. I want to recognize in addition to deputy City Attorney, business leaders, including Kristin Evans and the Fillmore Merchant Association and the Small Business commission for their advice and counsel on this measure and for their advocacy. I understand from a press release that i received while walking into the chambers today that the mayor has announced an intention to move in a similar way around to prevent Small Business evictions. I welcome learning the details of the proposal which we havent seen to date. And finally, with apologies for the long roll call for introductions, there are others we will submit on, but one other, which is that as we urge everyone to shelter in place, we obviously have many who have no shelter. Even as units sit vacant across the city that could be housing folks that are vulnerable. One such property that is vacant in my district is 555 fulton street, which many of you will sound familiar to you, because its been at the center of the ongoing corruption investigation in the federal the criminal complaint. What a lot of folks dont know about 555 fulton, its a vacant, 139unit building sitting there, turnkey ready, with permissions for folks to reside there. We have a family sleeping on mats on a floor, kicked out, despite our shelter in place, theyre kicked out each day in the morning to fend for themselves for the day. And we also know a considerable number of the people who are most at risk right now in our homeless are seniors. We need to house these folks in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus. I think the property at 555 fulton presents an opportunity to help meet this need. Thats why i issued a letter to the owners of the property urging them to use these available units for temporary housing for homeless families and seniors. And given the severity of the crisis and the importance of the shelter in place directive, units that have not been committed to buyers should be made available for temporary occupants. I want to assure all with vacant units, now is the time to step up and contact your District Supervisor and make these Units Available for temporary occupancy. As a remind der, San Francisco has a Good Samaritan law, so if you provide temporary housing youre not necessarily making a longterm commitment to house folks indefinitely. Well need all the units in the days and weeks ahead. Thank you. The rest i submit. Supervisor ronen yes, thank you, colleagues. And first i just wanted to thank every city leader and member of our departments who have been working around the clock on this crisis and to protect as many people as possible. Your work is amazing and i wanted to appreciate each and every one of you. I speechly wanted to especially wanted to thank my colleague, dean preston, never been so happy to have a leading tenant rights attorney on the board of supervisors as i am right now, the ability to write your own legislation with the help of the City Attorney office in this matter has been incredible and i really appreciate the work that youve done to stop evictions, not just nonpayment, but no fault evictions of resident and commercial businesses. Thank you so much. Its been a joy to work with you. Thank you on that. And towards that end, supervisor preston and i, together with supervisor haney have also been working on a Small Business rent Stabilization Loan Program for the city and county of San Francisco which would help to stop the irreversible loss of Small Businesses due to the coronavirus public Health Emergency. Because of restrictions on travel and gatherings, patronage has decreased to Small Businesses substantially, putting tens of thousands of Small Businesses and hundreds of thousands of workers at risk. It has businesses scrambling to see how to stay afloat. Some businesses wont survive without us. They need our help and need it now. The state and local officials are working to open the way for supervisor preston to introduce the legislation he Just Announced preventing Small Businesses from being evicted. There are now some immediate resources on the way for shop owners. And it is an essential, but businesses will need more than a stopgap moratorium. They will need replacement income to pay rent the minute that moratorium is lifted. And honestly, it is discouraging that our state lawmakers have passed a 1. 1 billion measure that includes nothing for individuals and Small Businesses. And then they suspend the legislature for four weeks. I want to interlude to say that im proud of us, colleagues, for continuing to work nonstop during this crisis. It did shock me to read this morning that the state legislature has recessed until april 13th. Ive been depending on the legislature to pass several laws and for us to fill in those gaps, but now it appears that its hard to defend that we may be the only game in town for a little while. That has upped my urgency when it comes to the workers that supervisor mar just listed that are left out of state and federal programs. Its incumbent upon us more than ever to lead the way here. So this rent stabilization loan and whatever is coming on behalf of independent contractors and immigrant workers is at the forefront of my mind. I also wanted to thank supervisor mar for taking such a lead in the area, especially with jobs of justice, which is an organization that works with workers that earn money in nontraditional ways and are in the low age workforce. I wanted to mention that the federal Business Administration has declared a disaster in the bay area, while impressed with speaker pelosis ability to broker an agreement for action, it doesnt go far enough. Thats why this rent stabilization at the local level is needed. This will open the door for larger Economic Injury disaster loans, but everything ive heard about the Small Business administration at the federal level, it will take a long time to get it up and running. And it may be very hard for Small Businesses to access. And it may be impossible for many to apply. These loans in cases in many cases will have to be secured and will require a level of proof and documentation and bureaucracy that many of our Small Businesses will not be able to get through. So my legislation is intended to respond to the urgency that our Small Businesses face right now. Ive been working with the Treasurers Office to move quickly to create a 20 million Small Business rent stabilization program. Im introducing the ordinance authorizing the city to secure a line of credit and accompanying ordinance creating the funds. The city will provide no interest loans to cover three months of rent, mortgage or other fixed operating costs with no payment due to the city for 12 months. I have heard some comments that 1. 1 million gross receipt threshold is too low. And im really open to feedback on this issue. We can change that amount at Committee Without expanding the time for us to pass this ordinance. This will help businesses hold on through the immediate month ahead and will pair well with the federal and state help. The treasurer has included a generous estimate of 600,000 to cost the total cost of the program, 300,000 for staffing. Current Interest Rates are expected to cost 250,000, but the appropriation will accommodate 300,000 just in case. Because these are nointerest loans, this will be the city covering the Interest Rates from the bank. Again i wanted to thank supervisor preston and haney. I am asking and have asked president yee to waive the 30day hold. Ideally, id like to hold the committee this week or next and get this before us at next tuesdays board meeting. As the covid19 crisis evolves, we want to send a message loud and clear, San Francisco Small Businesses and employees, weve got your back and youre not alone. The second item im introducing is a resolution together with supervisor mandelman. We have a constituent who often talks to both of us when she reaches out shes my constituent. Catherine kuszczak, thank you for the suggestion. She reach out urging us to enter a resolution and talk to grocery stores, hours or time periods where only those that are strictly sheltering in place, but need to access groceries can have time where theyre not going to have contact with people who have not been sheltering in place to get those groceries. So were introducing a resolution today in order to urge those stores that are considered essential to have senioronly and immunocompromised only shopping hours. We will send that to the organization and as many essential business groupings that we can find and well be asking the mayor to include this official petition on behalf of the city. Once it passes on outreach that the city is doing for coronavirus. With that, the rest i will submit. Clerk thank you. Supervisor safai . Supervisor safai thank you, madame clerk. I have one item. Its part of the conversation that is happening at the National Level. I think its many of the things were hearing about on the National Level are emanating from the local level because were the ones dealing with this on a daily basis and have the most interaction. So some of the things youve talked about in terms of eviction defense, i know last week we introduced resolution on banks, moratorium, utilities, moratorium, so people wouldnt get their Services Shut off, we need to do more to put pressure on the banks. I think that is coming. I think there is a time when people are not going to be able to pay their mortgages as well as their rent. What im calling for today, a conversation is happening at the National Level, but its essentially a resolution urging the United States congress and the executive branch to enact an economic stimulus package that relates to the coronavirus, giving every american and adult 5,000 for every 30day period that this National Emergency stays in effect. They need to survive. Without income, because theyve been asked to stay home, they wont be able to do that. Here in the chamber, were deemed essential employees. Our salaries ill continue. There are certainly salaries that will continue. When youre talking about janito janitors, Hotel Workers, Small Businesses and all of us and the mayor have talked about, so many people will not be able to go to work. Without going to worker theyre not going to receive a paycheck. And without a pay check, how are they going to survive . Ive been talking with and working with janitors on a daily basis and working with their leadership. Weve been talking to Hotel Workers, those in the tourist industry. I know that the tourist industry as well as the hotels have been talking with supervisor peskin and the Mayors Office how we might be able to change many of these hotels into shelter in place for those who need it, for the need of quarantining and how are those buildings and all those places being cleaned by Hotel Workers and janitors and so on. So this is important aspect. There is a conversation that will come hopefully sooner rather than later once there is immunization, that immunization will be free to every american in the United States or any individual living in the United States and there would be a robust paid leave, sick leave package. Anyway, i dont know if well be able to vote on this at a certain time. I would ask the president to waive the rule, but we wanted to get in on the record so we could have this conversation and push we happen to have the luxury of having speaker of the house represent San Francisco, so hopefully this package will be talked about. Hopefully theyll be expanding it beyond a 1,000 check to every american and increasing it to a point where its usable, particularly in the bay area. Just also wanted to say, ive been monitoring all my colleagues work theyve been doing in terms of getting information out. I want to appreciate all the hard work that every one of have done contacting your constituencies, contacting your providers, getting the information out as quickly as you can. Its helpful, because were all able to feed off of one another, the mayor and her team, the clerk included. All of us out here doing our job. Something i might have missed, maybe supervisor peskin and his team are dealing with, or whoever it might be, but its been helpful to have the information on social media and the way youre getting it so quickly to constituency. Thank you, mr. President , and the rest i submit. Clerk president yee . President yee i have two imperative agenda items today. The first is motion to convene in closed session today at 3 00 p. M. To discuss the potential threats to Public Services and facilities which i discussed previously. This an important meeting given the sensitive nature of emergency were in. And i want to thank several of you that have brought this up. In particular, supervisor peskin for really putting a lot of meat into the thought of why we should do this and how were going to do this. The second is demotion to concur with the mayors supplements due to the proclamation declaring an existence of a local emergency that were issued on march 11, 2020 and march 13, 2020. These include important orders that allow for deadlines to be suspended during the emergency and allows bodies such as the board of supervisors the ability to attend meetings remotely. These supplements to the emergency order need to be ratified by the board in seven days. As such, i hope we can approve this motion later today. The rest i submit. Clerk thank you. Supervisor fewer . Supervisor fewer thank you. Colleagues, today i am introducing a resolution that calls for every San Francisco resident to step up and do their part to help stop the spread of the coronavirus and help each other during this crisis. These are unprecedented times and unprecedented times calls for unprecedented actions. According to the New York Times today, drawing on a scientific report, without action of individuals to suppress new cases, 2. 2 Million People in the United States could die. Were all needed to step up and fight this crisis. Today, im calling on residents, elected officials, and communitybased organizations to join forces to unite and protect our communities. This is something everyone can and should do. The Treasurer Office was in the news discussing her experience in italy during the outbreak. She made a good point. People here have been focusing on the Economic Impacts of this crisis which is obviously important to all of us, but our top priority at this time must be to contain the virus and preserve human life. Im introducing a citywide callout for every San Francisco resident to step up. Im asking for every Supervisors Office to take leadership to ensure in their districts there is a streamlined conduit for accurate uptodate information to reduce calls to 311 and Public Health. Im also asking them to coordinate volunteer efforts in the community to assist with communitybased organizations, food delivery, distribution, food preparation, supporting Small Businesses and checking in on neighbors and friends. Im asking the department of disability to expedite the volunteer screening process, to get more volunteers to the food and delivery service. I am asking for everyone to do your part. If youre able bodied, help unload groceries and package them. If you have a car, bicycle, scooter, help deliver a meal. If youre homebound, call a friend who is vulnerable to check in with them. Or join a phone tree to check in on isolated seniors. If you want to support Small Businesses in your neighborhood, buy them from online. Make a donation to the San Francisco food bank. Do something. If you are sick, stay home. If you think you have been exposed, stay home. Follow Public Health mandates. Take this seriously. Being a san franciscan means something. Yes, we are complicated, we are also compassionate. We care and when we need to, we step up. This is our strength and the core of who we are. We can do this. In doing so, we can save lives and show the rest of the country how absolutely fabulous we are. Today, i am also introducing a resolution that calls on Governor Newsom to if have a moratorium on Small Businesses and follow new yorks need by allowing on sale to sell alcohol. This pandemic will have a listing effect on our economy for years to come. We must do everything we can to help our Small Businesses stay open during this unprecedented time. Especially our Corner Stores and small grocers who provide crucial access to food and other resources. For hundreds of thousands of residents in the city. A moratorium on fees would provide overdue relief for Small Businesses struggling to weather this storm. The governor should also take action to temporarily alter state alcohol licensing policy by allowing bars and restaurants with on sale alcohol licenses to sell food and alcohol for o offsale. By allowing our bars to sell alcohol along with food, we can provide immediate substantial lifeline, hopefully preventing closures. To be clear, this policy change would only apply to purchases that include food as alcohol alone is not an essential service. New york has already taken the step to allow residents to order in from their favorite restaurants, bars, wineries and other establishments. California should follow before its too late for Small Businesses. By urging the authority to make this small change to our state alcohol licensing laws, the governor could save treasured institutions across the city and help ensure greater access to food delivery at a time when social distancing is an imperative to Public Health. Finally, colleagues, i want to make a couple of other comments as each and every day we learn more about the ripple effects related to covid19 crisis in our necessary efforts to spread the illness. Today im reminding everyone that during this busy time it is also the time to fill out the United States census. The census happens only once every ten years and its important everyone fills it out. The remain in place order, all outreach has been suspended, so were asking people to go online and fill out the census information. It gives us an accurate account about our population. Some of the top census funded social services in San Francisco are children and education, transportation and infrastructure, and housing. I just completed the census myself after receiving my notification to participate in the census last week. I urge everyone to do the same. It only takes a few minutes and it is online at finally as budget chair, the Economic Impacts are likely to be staggering while the mayor and board are looking at ways to support Small Businesses and families, well see a big impact on city revenues. More discussions to the citys economy and the citys budget will progress in the coming weeks, but i just want to note as others have, this city truly needs leadership from the state and federal government to help provide relief. Locally, we will need to rethink our approach to the budget process. My office will be working with the Budget Committee members, departments and Mayors Office to discuss possible changes and share updates as soon as possible. Thank you. The rest i submit. Clerk thank you. Supervisor preston . Supervisor preston apologizies, i forgot to request to waive the 30day rule to emergency ordinance as related to evictions. No you did, you said it. President yee before supervisor haney, im getting texts from my staff who i usually have to listen to. My staff is pointing out that we are not practicing good social distancing, so im going to recommend that the end people stay at their desk for now and the middle person stay in the desk and the other two back up so youre six feet away. So like supervisor mandelman, could you back up a little bit . Thank you, i dont want to get in trouble with my staff. Thank you, president yee. I also just want to acknowledge all of the work that everybody has been doing and to thank everybody for their leadership at this time for all of you who are here as well as the mayor and her staff. I know everybody is working harder than ever during the time of this crisis and so i want to appreciate everybody. I have a few resolutions i want to speak a couple of other issues that other folks introduced. The first is im costatesponsoring resolution with supervisor mar closing the gaps that exist on paid sick leave and other types of leave that individuals, workers, need to be able to access right now. In these times of great need, we want to make sure that our workers know that we support them and currently California Law and San Francisco law does not include sufficient provis n provisions for the Health Crisis were facing. We want to change those laws at the federal and state level. Business 6 has a high concentration of businesses, hotels, bars, cafes, arts, and like many of you, ive been hearing about the challenges theyre facing. Supervisor mar and i introduced a resolution that calls for the support of a number of bills that can help to provide needed leave and relief at this time. The first is the family first Coronavirus Response act, h. R. 6201 which was recently passed by the u. S. House of representatives. As written, the bill would amend the family and medical leave act and expand needs related to the coronavirus, but it exempt large employers with 500 or more employees. Were asking that the act be amended to apply to all companies, including those with 500 or more employees. We call on Governor Newsom and the California Legislature to address gaps in Financial Support or paid leave for workers ordered to stay home. There is a bill, ab3123 that protects workers from retaliation when they take leave during Public Health emergencies like the epidemic. They can use their earned sick leave if their place is ordered close, or if the employee is providing care or assistance to their child whose school or Child Care Provider is closed by order. Under this proposed bill, if an employee is complying with an order issued by public official, ab3123 states that employer may not discharge or retaliate against that employee. We also want all of the effected workers to access information, so the resolution calls for oawd to jointly create a multilingual hot line for San Francisco workers to access information and rapid Enforcement Actions to protect the rights and benefits to eliminate language barriers. We know that the health of our residents comes first and in order for folks to be certain theyre safe and secure in following the health orders, whether that is any individual resident but especially low wage workers in the heavily impacted service industry, hospitality, tourism, folks who are already having a hard time struggling in one of the most expensive cities in the world, this is especially trying time for them and we have to make sure that our laws reflect the needs of our workers right now. We are also looking at the ways to close the gaps here locally and our own paid sick leave laws. Secondly, im introducing a resolution in support of emergency earned income tax credit which would provide a tax relief check between 1,000 and 6,000 to every american who earned less than 65,000 last year. As supervisor safai spoke about, its critical that we call on federal and State Government to step up. The level of need and impact is far beyond what we could provide on our own. There would be more than 200 million American Workers who would qualify for the tax relief and we have to prioritize the needs of our workers as events are cancelled, work hours cut and theyre laid off. The goal of the earned income tax credit, within three weeks, 200 million americans would receive tax relief checks followed by Monthly Payments through the end of 2020. In our city, many that employ working class people will have a significant climb in their consumer base. We have a Hotel Occupancy rate that has plummeted from 80 to 20 over the course of just one week. The proposal would serve independent contractors and hourly gig workers by providing a refundable tax credit, equal to 100 of family leave wages by employer. I know many of us are concerned about the fact that there are many independent contractors, gig workers, rideshare drivers, who are not going to be able to access the same level of unemployment, dont have access to paid sick leave and other things that can protect them during this time. So across the board earned income tax credit that would come in the form of a check immediately to families would alleviate the devastating impacts that people are feeling right now. This is one of the things i think the federal government can do to assist us during this time. I want to speak in support of two of the measures that were introduced by me colleagues, supervisors preston and ronen. I know many of us have heard extensively from Small Businesses in our districts, folks who are having to shut their doors because of the prohibition on certain types of businesses being open. Dramatic loss of revenue, fear they have to lay folks off and cant pay their rent so im really excited to be cosponsoring the two ordinances, one that would offer this Small Business loan program for businesses. Many folks need urgent injection of cash. This would provide that. And also giving them the same assurance weve given residents, which is not have the fear of eviction over their head. These are two important things. Ive also reached out to sfmta and am going to engage with their board about some of the questions around enforcement and fee enforcement locally. And well be putting something forward around that to make sure that during this time were not putting excessive and unnecessary burdens on our residents because of either tickets or fees that can add up and create unnecessary burdens making it difficult for them to abide by the Health Measures as well. The rest i submit. Clerk supervisor ronen . Mr. President. That concludes the introduction of new business. President yee i see there is probably going to be Public Comment short, so i wont divide it up, because there are items we need to hear since its about already past 3 00. Ill take Public Comment on general Public Comment. Go ahead, sir. 36,000 people died last year of the flu. 50 have died of the chinese wuhan virus. Why isnt somebody saying this . And fewer are believing the democrats, honestly. This is nothing more than a new russian collusion hoax by the democrats. That is exactly what it is. And nobody here is saying anything because you hate trump, you hate america, and thats your goal, okay . Thats your goal. 36,000 died of the flu last year. Weve had 50 so far. Thats how many get hit by lightning. Thats how many are eaten by sharks totally every year. Having said that, i am asking people to read luke 21 for an hour, nothing but luke 21 for an hour, do mark 13 for an hour, and then matthew 24 for an ohou. Thinks the longest discourse that christ gave. It answers two questions. Question number one, when is the temple going to be destroyed . And number two, when are you going to return . Jesus said this, there will be signs in the sun, moon and stars and upon the earth there will be distress of nations with the sea and the waves roaring, men fails them for fear of looking after those things which are coming upon the earth. Two years ago we had a total solar eclipse, think about that, coast to coast. The last time that happened is 1776. Its true 99 years before the one we just had, we had a coast to coast, but that was not only in the water. This was only in the water. This is a sign. And its still not too late [bell ringing] president yee any other speaker . President yee madame clerk, any callers on the line . I believe there is one, mr. President. President yee lets make it happen. Im on the phone ready to make Public Comment at the board of supervisors. Please proceed. Just one moment, ill start my timer here for my two minutes. And here we go for two minutes. Hello, my name is michael. Im a public advocate for the city. First of all, thank you for taking remote Public Comment. I ask that you in the future have Public Comment at a fixed time for every meeting at the start of the meeting, take 15 minutes of Public Comment so the public knows when to call in to make Public Comment. That is how berkley and Oakland City Councils deal with general Public Comment. My next item is every supervisor i am asking you to hold regular virtual town Hall Meetings about the coronavirus epidemic. Please start using zoom for regular virtual town halls. My next item is, im calling on every member of the board of sups on the d triple c to immediately resign. Supervisors, you have one job, protect the city from the coronavirus. Supervisors cannot moonlight with a second job. You need to pass a law that prevents supervisors from doing any other job but being a member of the board. Finally, im asking every District Business organization [bell ringing] to set up Senior Citizen shopping hours. Im a Senior Citizen with aids. I need to know there is a special time in the morning for me and my husband to safely go shopping at stores in the castro. Again, please set up seniors shopping hours in your districts so we can take care of our supplies. Thank you very much. [bell ringing] president yee any other Public Comment . Seeing none, the Public Comment is now closed. Madame clerk, at this time its past 3 00, i would like to call item 27 out of order. The board convene in closed session to consult with various Department Heads, police chief, fire chief, chief of staff, the director of the department of Human Resources to discuss the potential threats to the security or the Public Access to public buildings during the local Health Emergency regarding the Novel Coronavirus disease, covid19. President yee we have an imperative item which requires the board to adopt two separate findings by eight votes before unanimously adopting the item itself. Lets take the sunshine ordinance finding first. Is there a motion that finds this resolution is imperative as to threaten serious injury to the Public Interest and thus meeting the standards of the sunshine ordinance made by supervisor peskin seconded by supervisor walton. Without objection, this finding is accepted. Now, to the brown act finding. Is there a motion that finds that the need to take action came to the attention of the board after the agenda was posted and thus, the motion meets a standard of the brown, motion made by supervisor peskin, seconded by supervisor stefani. Without objection, this is accepted. We already had Public Comment on this item or we have general Public Comment. Is there any mr. President , just caution, please call for Public Comment on the imperative motion . President yee sure. Well take Public Comment on this item. Is there any member that wishes to speak on the imperative item. Seeing none, then Public Comment is now closed. Now, on the substance of the imperative motion itself, a roll call vote. Madame clerk. Mandelman aye. Mar aye. Peskin aye. Preston aye. Ronen aye. Safai aye. Stefani aye. Walton aye. Yee aye. Fewer aye. Haney aye. There are 11 ayes. President yee okay. Then without objection, this motion is approved. So now we will be moving into closed session, so i ask the public to leave the room and. President yee so the public is still welcome i guess. We have another imperative item i forgot. I dont know i guess im supposed to do something . Madame clerk, call item 25. Clerk item 25 motion directing the clerk of the board of supervisors to schedule a committee of the whole hearing on march 19, 2020 at 11 00 a. M. For members of the board of supervisors to convene and departments to report regarding city preparations in response to the covid19 Health Emergency. President yee im totally confused. This is not on there. I understand there are amendments that would like to be introduced by supervisor ronen. Are you ready . Supervisor ronen id like to amend item 25 to replace march 19 with march 17. Second. President yee motion made by supervisor ronen and seconded by supervisor preston. I dont think this is an imperative item. Thats why its so confusing. There has been a motion made and can we take this without objection . Then motion passes. Mr. President , im assuming the time doesnt matter, it says 11 00, should i strike the 11 00 a. M. As well. Supervisor ronen id like to do an additional motion to strike 11 00 a. M. President yee okay. As the seconder, basically the thursday meeting is being supplanted by todays meeting. I maintain my second on the second motion. President yee okay. Any objection . Without objection, the motion carries. Im sorry. This is really confusing, so bear with me, folks. Im supposed to take 3 00 imperative item 27 first, then we come back to the items. Got it. All right. Colleagues, now i have to ask the public to leave if there is any more public members in here. All right. Sheriffs . Are we set . Colleagues, we are now back in open session for the board. May i have a motion that the board finds that it is in the best interest of the public that the board elect not to disclose this clos closed sessions deliberations. A motion, please. Made by supervisor stefani. Can i have a second . Supervisor preston. If theres no objection then the motion shall pass. Madam clerk, lets go to item 26. 25. Clerk 25. Item 25 motion to direct the clerk of the board of supervisors to schedule a committee of the whole hearing today for members of the board of supervisors to convene and for departments to report regarding city preparations in response to the covid19 Health Emergency. President yee supervisor ronen my apologies in public that we went long, but we will get something out of this. Go ahead. Thank you so much. Colleagues, i want to thank you and to all of the departments that are still left, which a few of you, but i appreciate that you have been here for so long when you have so much work that youve been doing nonstop. But the reason that i called this committee of the whole was because we have a lo law in california called the brown act. Which is really important to ensure the Government Accountability and transparency. But it has made it extremely difficult for all 11 supervisors to talk to one another and to talk at the same time to our department staff. And as a result many of the departments that have been working nonstop are getting 11 phone calls asking the same question and having to report the same thing. That seemed like it made no sense to me whatsoever. That at the same time the public deserves to hear whats going on from the department and the board of supervisors should be working as much as possible in a coordinated fashion. So i asked i introduced this item so that we could have that conversation. Unfortunately, we had a closed session before this that lasted a lot longer than any of us anticipated. And so were not going to have that much time today for this open session. But i know that many myself and many of my colleagues have burning questions for some of our departments that were going to ask today. And then most importantly once all of the departments leave its an opportunity in public for all 11 of us on the board of supervisors to have a conversation about what it is that were working on and how were talking to our districts so we can get ideas from one another and so that were not doubling up on work, that we can join forces and make sure that were maximizing our limited time during this crisis. So for the departments that are still here, i wanted to call you up and to just ask you if youre working on or developing any sort of program or precaution that you have not yet publicly announced so that we know thats in the works and can be collaborating with you. Because we know that there is many holes in what we need to do as a city to make sure that were helping every single resident through this. So if we can call up first trent warr from the department of Human Services because he has to leave soon. And then Mary Ellen Carol from the department of emergency management. If theres anything, thank you so much for sticking around, that you have not yet announced to the public that youre working on, including what you told us about in closed session. If you could announce that so its public information, we would appreciate it. Thank you, supervisor ronen. The director of Human Services agency. We did announce to our to the 250,000 or so clients who received services from h. S. A. As well as Community Partners that we closed all of our Client Service centers to the public as of friday at 5 00 p. M. Our benefits, should there be any issues with the current benefits, should folks need to apply for benefits, meaning cash assistance, cal fresh, formerly called food stamps or medical were Available Online and via the phone. Our Service Centers are still operating with essential staff who are doing their work from home. But, still available. And we do have staff onsite for the follow inperson needs. Replacement of your medical card or e. B. T. Card to Access Health care and food, and emergency housing vouchers and emergency food boxes and any other issue that may come up that cant be dealt with over the phone. As well as for clients who dont do Internet Access and they can do anythingal those Service Centers. So we havent announced all of that. And we have suspended all of our welfare to work activities, sort of doesnt make a whole lot of sense to be helping people to look for jobs right now. So we closed that service to the public. I could go into our care in shelter plans now citywide if youd like, supervisor. That sort of concludes the Human Services specific information. Sure, if you could explain to the public what you explained to us in closed session. Yeah, id be happy to. So the Human Services agency per the citys Emergency Operations plan is charged with providing care and shelter for the residents of San Francisco in the case of a natural a case of a disaster, any sort of disaster. In this case we activated our departments Operation Center a week ago monday because it was very clear at that point that this virus was moving much quicker and much broader than we had anticipated. Our housing response is for the following populations primarily populations who need to be quarantined because theyve been exposed to the virus or they need to be isolated because they have tested positive for the virus. And they do not have a means, given their current housing situation, to quarantine on their own, to selfquarantine. So who is that population . That is the 19,000 or so individuals who live in single occupancy hotels with shared bathrooms on each floor and shared often shared kitchen or eating facilities. These are both privately owned s. R. O. S as well as publicly leased or operated by nonprofits. So thats 19,000 or so people. And the other population that cant selfquarantine is, of course, our Homeless Population. And the numbers, you know, always elusive and were operating around 10,000 for that. And this includes both Homeless Individuals who may be on the streets as well as our Homeless Individuals and families in the shelters and Navigation Centers and the like. Now very, very difficult, of course, to predict onset rates. Not only in terms of pace, but in terms of numbers. In consultation with the department of Public Health, epidemiologists and the director, and the target that we laid out last week was 3,500 units. The units were looking for would be units that are going to selfquarantine, they have their own bathroom and we have the ability to bring them food and the ability to provide services onsite should we need that. The 3500 is broken down as follows, about 2,500 for individuals who need to selfquarantine and about 1,000 for individuals who need to be isolated. The difference between, again, quarantine and isolation quarantine is someone who has been exposed but not tested positive. Or someone awaiting a test. And isolated is someone who has been confirmed. And the reason that we operate separate those two because the room characteristics and the needs are different depending on that population. So, so far the population that we need to address immediately, meaning they are in the hospital now and need to get an alternative place to be are Homeless Individuals who are aiting test results. Its only a handful. And at this point the hospitals are either at green or yellow and theyre not taking up bed space that we need for others. However, that number will grow. And so we have secured 86 units, i believe yes, 86 units, that we have right now to begin moving those folks from the hospitals into those units. No one has moved yet and that needs to be in consultation with the health side of the house. In addition we have identified an additional 508 units at six Different Hotels throughout the city and were currently in purchase rent lease negotiations with them as well as setting up staffing plans, feeding plans, etc. And that would bring the total number of units i keep saying units, its generally hotel rooms to 594. We hope to have it secured for our use by the end of this week. Were confident that that number is sufficient for the Public Health needs. We, however, are not stopping there and were continuing to deploy our staff and others to assess hotels that have now come forward to us. Just in last hour sitting in the closed session, five hotels totaling over a thousand rooms were brought to my attention and my staff will be following up on the next day or two. And, unfortunately, for our Hotel Industry and most particularly our workers prenomnantly who are facing layoffs and the loss of money to the hotels, they seem very eager to partner with us on this. So were i am confident that we will have enough rooms for the Health Population or the population that needs it through the department of Public Healths intervention. If i could talk a little broader, so we prioritize as i said individuals who need to be quarantined and isolated per Public Health orders. The second population, we are setting up alternative shelter for our individuals and families who are currently residing in our Emergency Shelter system who are in facilities that dont allow, dont have enough space, to provide the social isolation they need. Meaning six feet of separation. We are deploying my Department Operation staff to assess asitey shortly, so this comes in the form of churches and the Interfaith Councils are very generous and coming forward with plenty of sites for us. Because the schools are closed ill now look at potential cafeterias or gymnasiums and several other sort of larger facilities to assess and then the most difficult part with those congregated areas are the staffing. And the nature of some of the needs of the population and their acuity sometimes requires a higher level staff than simply hotel staff or a volunteer or a Disaster Service worker. So thats the next sort of phase that were looking at. And then the final phase would be the general Homeless Population, individuals who are on the street. I know that director kazinski and the team has been doing work around education on isolation even on the street and the separation among tents and educating and providing them with resources that they need. But the governors orders recommended this and i think that its good Public Health practice that we look at expanding our shelter capacity for individuals who are currently on the street who havent shown any signs of being exposed or havent, you know, been tested and the like. And so thats sort of our third phase. We can really do that in conjunction with phase two which is assessing for what im calling shelter thinning and sort of decreasing the populations in our shelters, obviously, for our Homeless Population. So the heavy lift for that again is staffing and the high level of professional staff needed, especially given the needs on the Public Health side for trained clinicians. So two quick questions before supervisor haney who is also on the roster. Do you what about People Living on the streets that are experiencing homelessness that are over 65 or immunocompromised . Excellent question, supervisor. You know, again, were sort because this is our third phase we havent sort of ironed out all of the questions. Certainly wed want to prioritize that population and working with, again, director kazinskis team and the outreach teams to identify those people. Another population, since were sort of breaking down subpopulations, are seniors living in our shelter system. And different alternatives for them, perhaps providing them with Hotel Vouchers or some of the hotel rooms that i mentioned for the other populations because of the vulnerable nature of their situation and their age and other health conditions. So we dont currently have any plans to address that population . Street population that is possibly vulnerable . We do not. Well, planning is one thing and we could think about plans in terms of executing that plan, no, we have not begun to execute a plan to get vulnerable 65 plus year old people off the streets and into shelter. And then the 3,500 units or beds or independent units with independent bathrooms, how did you come up with that number if theres 19,000 people so ill tell you. So the we used a range, an onset range with the department of Public Health. And its ranged from. 07 of the population to 5. 8 , ballparking it, i could look it up but the decimal is not germane. 5. 8 of 19,000 is about 1,700. But we put sort of a vulnerable population kicker on that 5 , 5 plus percent. And assuming that the rates can spread in homeless shelters or on the street would have a higher incidence of onset. So the 3,500 really represents over 10 , 13 . You know, again, its so difficult to nail down the numbers and this is far from precise and were taking the best direction from the health experts. Its not my area of expertise from the onset in china and italy and the best advice from the c. D. C. As well. And i would just argue for planning purposes, i think that my colleagues will ask questions, but every person sleeping on the streets has a weakened immune system because of the elements that they deal with, the lack of sleep they get because its almost impossible to have a good nights sleep, etc. So i hope that collectively we can develop a plan. Supervisor haney . Thank you, president yee. My questions were along those lines about the general Homeless Population in particular, older individuals, obviously, these folks cannot home isolate. They cant shelter in place because they dont have access to it. Why why arent we planning right now to get all of those folks inside immediately . I dont supervisors, i dont want to leave you with the impression that were not planning. Were always planning. Its figuring out how to execute that. And, you know, were taking the best we can from the Public Health. And their biggest concern was viruses ripping through s. R. O. S and shelters where we have particularly s. R. O. S where we have a lot of vulnerable people. And as you know among the 19,000 s. R. O. S, and particularly with privately s. R. O. S, a lot of seniors are among those s. R. O. S in very tight communities. That threat per the department of Public Health is more imminent than a threat of people being disbursed on the street. So thats where we took that guidance from. Certainly, individuals on the street are vulnerable and theyre vulnerable for a lot of reasons. And were tackling that. You know, we, the city, staffing, only have enough resources to tackle this, much like the medical community. And we need to triage where we see the greatest need and the biggest risk and that assessment is through health and the 19,000 people that i spoke about earlier, the people in shelter already and s. R. O. S. So you said that we had about a thousand at the hotel rooms and 500 plus that have already been secured and should be online. Those are almost entirely it sounds like for people who need to be isolated in some way, and it sounded like you felt like were sort of getting to a stage where were going to have enough of those rooms. Why isnt our goal to actually go out and get enough hotel rooms and spaces that wed be able to house this much Larger Population and if there is state resources. So the department of Health Guidance is not to take a homeless individual who is on the street and to put him or her in a hotel room with no services. Very difficult for d. P. H. To work with that client. They would prefer that they stay on the street . No, i didnt say that, supervisor, thats not a fair interruption, please. What would they prefer . Can i finish . Sure. They would prefer that people on the street are placed in shelters and congregate areas where they can better monitor them and bring the services onsite to make sure that theyre safe. Were talking about people with addiction problems. We dont want folks by themselves in hotel rooms and we dont want people who we quarantine to need to go out and treat their addiction by leaving quarantine. This is not the portrayal that we dont care about this population its offensive. I didnt say that. Well, it was implied, okay . Im following the department of Public Healths guidance and they want more congregate settings, and also for folks on the street. They do not feel that its in good health for them and Public Health to isolate individuals like that in hotel rooms with a closed door and no services. So is there a plan to get the folks who are on the street right now into congregate settings . I told you earlier in the response to supervisor ronen that our priority is the 9,000 people in 19,000 people in homeless shelters and s. R. O. S and that is our number one priority. As we build up capacity to deal with them well move to the next phase which is those on the street. Now in the last 3 1 2 hours that i stood in that bench back there, i have been working with the Interfaith Council and others to get specific sites and my team will go out and assess probably beginning tomorrow. So the planning is occurring 24 7. So is there a number of beds that were trying to secure to get people to congregate settings and how many have been expanded so far . At this phase its just probably not necessary to target a number at this point. Were running as fast as we can go to get as many congregate settings as we can. Today were going to activate bill graham for tomorrow, and bill graham is not suitable and cant come online for a couple weeks. Have there been any public buildings, you know, either like bill graham or rec and park buildings or other facilities that have made been made available and to expand bill graham is not suitable. Theres too much for various reasons. You know, st. Marys cathedral has always been a good partner and thats a very good facility. And the Interfaith Council through the winter interfaith shelter that occurs during the rainy months would offer their churches. Certainly, the gymnasiums and the schools that are closed and the cafeterias. We could have capacity just back of the envelope given all of that for easily a thousand, 2,000. The key though and the difficulty is that this is not this is a population that as you know very well, supervisor, that has some very acute needs. No health needs, addiction and we cant just get volunteers and Service Workers from other City Departments to staff them. Its not safe for them and not safe for the Homeless Individuals. So the key is really less individuals and identifying them and providing the cots and everything else, which we can do pretty much in 12 to 24 hours at any particular site. Its the staffing and because d. P. H. Is so stretched and because our nonprofit partners are so stretched its a difficult thing. President yee if you dont mind and supervisor preston dont mind to hold your questions for a minute, and mary ellen has to leave in a minute. So if you can stick around i have about another 14 minutes before i meet with the policy folks, thanks. Mary ellen, i just wanted to make the announcement that we talked about but i want to say publicly that i cannot thank you enough for everything that youre doing. Youre truly a hero. Well, thank you. Im not a hero. Im a public servant. This is my job. This is the work that my team has prepared for. It wasnt quite exactly what we thought that we were going to get but its what we got. So i just wanted to share with the board that at muskoni city that is the city emergency Operation Center on monday you might want to clean that off before touching the microphone. That in order to both expand our operations and in order to have the appropriate social distancing, so that we could have the safest environment for the over 120 staff from 26 departments that are activated at mumusconi. The question if theres anything that were doing that the public doesnt know about we are working in every area of the city and every area of response that you can possibly imagine. So im very pleased that the board is going to send a liaison and a liaison team that. Is going to be the best way for you to all understand whats happening there. I welcome you there. However, i do want to let folks know that we have very Stringent Health screening protocols in place that we put in place today. And so whoever is coming which i havent gotten the final on what that is i need to share with the folks this evening. But im very proud of the work that were doing there. Were here to support the department of Public Health and were here to inform the public. We are here to protect the most vulnerable and ultimately our number one goal is to protect the health and the safety of all San Franciscoians and everyone who is here in San Francisco. Well the me demonstrate what we do a lot. Thank you. One of the things that i will mention quickly and then ill done unless you guys have questions is a critical function in the e. O. C. Is the logistics and resourcing. So we we coordinate all of the city resourcing there and so were very acutely aware of the there are many supplies and things that City Department needs that we do not have. This is a state and a global many of these things are shortages globally and were working incredibly hard to try to source these materials that we need. I will just say that on a final note i thought that it would be fuel that would bring us down but apparently its Hand Sanitizer that will bring us down to a crashing halt. So thats all. Any questions from you . President yee no, but i have to make a comment supervisor ronen. You know, not only you but your whole team have been marvelous in responding and so its not just your team i know how you feel, supervisor. President yee anybody ask to ask questions of mary ellen. No . Mr. President , i saw supervisor prestons name on the roster. President yee i wasnt too sure. Thats why i asked. Are you asking her a question. That was on for go ahead. If you press your button your name will be removed. President yee you can press it twice. I dont know if hes done. President yee no, no, hes coming back. So press it twice. So supervisor preston, mr. President , thank you for your indulgence to miss carol. Pursuant to the board of president s delegation, i will be there tomorrow morning pursuant to the direction of the president and i will appear with one of my staff, that will be my legislative aide, and i will appear with one member of the clerk staff, that would be mr. Wilson ing. I have been informed in the ever changing protocols that our original notion of doing this on a daily basis has changed. So i will be at the e. O. C. For one week continuously during the operational hours, which i now believe that are 9 00 to 5 00, although those may expand. And our team of three will be there. To my colleagues, as we try to optimize and make more efficient the communication with every Single Department head, as we try to optimize our communication with our constituents, starting tomorrow morning at 9 00, send me everything. I will triage that as i learn how this works. I have been to sims nems training 17 years ago after there was an earthquake. But if you can send me all of your communications, i will run that up the chain, ill run that down the chain, it will be a twoway source of communication. And if you need to call me, call me and well take it from here going forward. President yee thank you. So i have my composure. Adding to what supervisor peskin said, supervisor peskin, myself and sonny and sophia were able to go on the first day that it set up. I wanted to see how they were setting up so that we could actually give everybody a sense of what we should be doing. And the teams down there are just fabulous. Theyve been working day and night. The second team which is a volunteer team, put out to try to manage who is participating. So the second team will be my office which is after the first week, with the second week, and then supervisor safai already came to me because he heard about it. So if your offices are willing to do this, can you please let me know and i could help. Were trying to juggle which office should be there first or next after three weeks. And im pretty sure by the time that the first week would have been completed, a lot of the kinks would be worked out of the situation. For instance, i think that we should have a dedicated phone down there with a phone number so that we dont have to worry about who we call now, you know, just call that number. Thats one thing. And the other thing is that i want to let you know that the quick thought around this link, when you think about volunteering your office and i dont want to pick on anybody, that if youre relatively new to being a supervisor and your whole team is relatively new, you know, theres something to think about. Theres for more experienced aides, they know how to navigate those departments a lot easier. So theres something for us to consider that we want good experience with this so it doesnt become a burden on the other Staff Members of the other departments trying to do emergencies. So thats what im requesting of all of us, okay . And, mr. President , if you will give me, colleagues, 48 hours to kind of figure out the basic protocols and mary ellen will let you in and youre not covid19 p. U. I. I. L. I. Or presenting, please feel free to come in and watch and help us out. President yee yep. Thanks, we look forward to seeing you in the morning and working with all of you. Were all in this together. President yee okay, thank you. And are you still here . Theres a few more questions. Supervisor peskin . Supervisor peskin . Sorry, supervisors, i had to take a call. President yee supervisor haney, were you finished . Im sorry that i cut you off. Not quite. Do you have a sense of how many shelter beds and congregate settings we have expanded so far . Do we have more people now inside over this week . We dont. We havent expanded beds in our congregate facilities yet. But thats being worked on . Absolutely, yeah. You speak about the plans to use public facilities and schools as shelters and have you been in touch of School Board Members and they werent aware of it. So the easier facilities are ones that we had a prior engagement with, primarily churches and public buildings, nonsfud buildings but city buildings like bill graham as an example. Were also repurposing one of our Navigation Centers by moving the central waterfront, by hopefully moving them from one n. A. V. Center to another which i think gives us 65 spaces. So the combination of churches and that n. A. V. Center and im blanking right now, theres a whole other group of folks im happy to provide specifics. But, again, with the churches and that were probably at 350ish. Again though, staffing is the issue. One thought that we had is to identify within the existing adult shelter system which is close to 2,000 beds, 1,955 or Something Like that, identifying individuals who are in that system who would be able to who would be okay should we put them in a hotel room, who dont really need the intensive services, who can manage their own affairs and, of course, there are people who fit that description who live in our shelters. So its just a matter though of being able to identify them. So that would relieve some space, of course, from shelters and provide that social distancing or allow others to come inside. And then, you know, its not unlike our drills for earthquakes or elnino which i, unfortunately had to do many times and expanding our facilities. Supervisor ronen, i appreciated asked earlier about what can you do as the board. And talk to your constituents about if they feel that theyre able to, to step up and volunteer. We dont need 100 of people in a shelter who have special training. We also need volunteers to just help with flow and, you know, light supervision and running errands and things like that. What is the best way for people to sign up for that . Is there a centralized place . Well first go to the d. S. W. S, theres plenty of city workers who have been furloughed who we would call back to help with this. But the Interfaith Council has a very large list of folks who are happy to volunteer and they have in the past. So thats where well go at first. But we can raise that at im sure that there is a community branch, at the u. O. C. Can put out a call for them at their Emergency Operations center. So that all makes sense. Just last thing they want to say is that if there are spaces that are like commercial spaces or other sort of vacant spaces that may be privately controlled and they want to make those Spaces Available or even we might identify those spaces that we might want to use, is that under consideration for that is the third category of offers that i have set in my mind. Yes, weve already had two offers of that. The Salvation Army generously reached out and the one on valencia, i believe, and then a private building in the southeast is currently being available. I think that they said 1 150 to 200, so those are starting to flow in and as part of our team of folks who are going out and assessing, that is something that theyll be looking out as well after they have done the easier lower hanging fruit facilities. There was one more question and in terms of staffing were doing expedited staffing to get people in as quickly as possible into the Public Health space. Because staffing sounds like its a big barrier for us and in this space as well. Are there ways that youre expediting hiring and doing things and able to get people online much quicker, and offering incentivized pay to be able to bring people on and keep them on . You know, were not at this point, supervisor. Im not sure well, well explore it. I mean, i think that the easiest way is to deploy our Disaster Service workers and our City Employees who are furloughed. In my department right now of our 2,400 employees, those who cant telecommute who are nonessential i probably have a couple hundred at least. So thats easier to do and that is their responsibility as a city employee. Thank you. Sure. President yee okay, so before i propose a question. indiscernible supervisor preston . Thank you, president yee. And thank you to supervisor haney who asked many of the questions that i was going to ask and i appreciate your answers so ill keep it short. What im trying to understand is on the individual units or predominantly it sounds like hotel rooms, if youre successful in securing the numbers of those that you have referenced and if there are potentially more, is the idea to have that excess capacity available for the phase one folks . Or to move into it sounds like you were considering some of the folks in phase two who may be able to live independently. Yes. Which is the plan . So the plan is to so heres the difficult balancing effort. We know that theres going to be much larger spread of the virus and people are going to be infected. We know that a lot more people are going to be exposed and need to be quarantined. We dont know that curve. Its very difficult to predict. So were going to want to hold back a certain percentage of those rooms that we have secured as vacant to manage that flow or surge. Thats, you know, thats difficult mass and a difficult analysis to do. Once we have the universe of rooms under our control, well be able to look at that better. But, yeah, certainly, people who are not in that sort of first category of 19,000 who could manage in a hotel room and dont need access to services and dont have other needs that we couldnt address in isolation, sure, that would be an appropriate use. And the other piece that i had mentioned in closed session and i havent yet today in the open session is the need for First Responders. And, again, supervisor peskin, and thanks for him for raising this and i think that its vital that they can stay healthy and serving the city. And lumped into that is not just First Responders and the health care world, its things like transit operators and other people that are vital to the operation of the city. And i know that hotel owners, you know ill say this in the Public Meetings that theres going to be hotel owners that would love to do that and would love to market themselves as a First Responder hotel does thats not a problem. Its a massive deployment and a massive exercise of thousands and thousands of rooms for these populations. And supervisor haney, ronen and supervisor preston are certainly mindful of your concerns over the general Homeless Population and where they fit in that prioritization and well take that back to our leadership there and make plans to address that and get that online quickly. My folks are doing fantastic work. To be able to get 600 rooms in a matter of days is impressive. So we can pull this off. I think we are i think that as it relates to us, whether with Property Owners and Apartment Building owners that have empty units and the list goes on as well as the hotels, right . What is unclear to me still understanding that the number of units that you need for your top priority folks is not you know, you dont know for sure what you need but i assume that you know for sure the number that you need to set aside and prioritize for that. How do we get there as quickly as possible and get beyond that so that we can start doing the triage of the priority two and three groups to get them into those units . Again, as i said in closed session, we have a meeting and ththe mayor is meeting with dr. Cool colfax and i to see what we have to offer. And we have over a thousand rooms in five hotels that have approached me in the last few hours. So im confident that well get there, supervisor. If i could do this since this is a public meeting. Should you all and your aides and the public hear of folks reaching out, we have a tracker email that goes into our doc. And its hsadocplanning sfgov. Org. And every request is put on a tracker request and followed up on. Again, hsadocplanning sfgov. Org. Thank you. Supervisor fewer . Yes, thank you, supervisor. I just wanted to mention to my colleagues that the resolution that i proposed today is for our offices to actually help to facilitate a smoother transition than rather than we know that there are people who want to volunteer and were at a shortage now of workers, shelter workers, and that there are people so within our communities that as just said that could volunteer some hours. Im asking everyone and supervisors to use the power of your office to actually consolidate and be a Clearing House for these volunteers to direct them to certain places. And so that everyone isnt just calling this number or 311 or all over the place, but that theres actually a centralized place which is your offices and actually its serving your constituents to have more of a micro handle on what is sort of going on in our districts, but also to be able to funnel people direct people to their website or to their offices versus them getting like a million calls or 311 getting a ton of calls. So i wanted to say that on the ground we could do that type of helpful work when i know that the city is working on a very macro level. Supervisor walton. Is there a regional conversation about cal pal yes, also on our list, yes. Id say lastly to the staff and then weve got to run. One of the other ideas is, you know, obviously former retirees who are in the Health Care Work as well as volunteers who have Training Background and are formally working with nonprofits or not, but sort of a Health Background or a clinical background. And the third is a lot of our communitybased organizations are deemed nonessential per the order so reaching out to employees from those c. B. O. S who are still getting paid. Were going to im going to bring that up through the or the emergency Operation Center community branch, thats where all of those requests lie just as an information item. Thank you very much, supervisors. I believe supervisor ronen that indiscernible might be next. Good afternoon. The department of homelessness and Supportive Housing. I wanted to share a couple thoughts with and you ill take your questions. My main thought would be that we should remember to take always remember to take advantage of a crisis. I think that theres going to be opportunities for all of you to think about in the future around acquiring some of these hotels that will be going out of business, that maybe some of them that were using for temporarily housing but would be great Supportive Housing sites. And the other thing that were should be thinking about is that were learning a lot right now on how to respond to high needs individuals very quickly in an emergency manner. Homelessness is an emergency for everybody who experiences it every single day so im hoping that the learnings and the collaboration that were seeing happening right now could be written down and applied to the citys homelessness response system moving forward. The other things they just wanted to share that have not been shared yet is that were working closely with our providers, all of their services have been deemed essential services. None of our providers, bless them, have stopped doing their work. Theyre all struggling with staffing and struggling with supplies. So were doing two things in partnership with them. One is that we have created a central supply warehouse for our providers and theyll be able to fill out a form and say that i need toilet paper and then well email them back and say come to this location and you dont even need to get out of your car and drive in and well throw it in the back of your trunk and off you go. So we are also servicing our providers to understand what their staffing needs might be and these are essential services and we have created a number of job descriptions for the city disaster workers if necessary. So that is happening as well. Were sending them out daily email blasts, some are having calls two times a week with our providers and were in constant communication with them and supporting them and we want to thank them all and all of the city staff for staying on the frontlines and doing this work and, frankly, risking their own health. And dealing with, you know, family anxietyiettettey, and tod you that were doing that every single day for 13,000 homeless and formerly Homeless People and those services have to continue. Then well working with director roar and the e. O. C. To ensure that in the event that theres an outbreak that were prepared to address that as quickly as we possibly can. Well take any questions that you may have. Yes, what is the policy right now towards tents . Are you removing tents from the street . Or are you letting people stay and trying to space them out . So as of yesterday, weve briefed all of the key departments, the police and h. S. H. , of course, and public works, on a new procedure around addressing this. Essentially were not going to take peoples property away from them during this situation. We are going to ask people to not be in groups of more than five. To keep tents six feet apart. And not to share tents with somebody unless its your partner and not to go into one anothers tents during this crisis. Based on the guidance from the public Health Departments and dr. Evans and street medicine, we think this is the best practice. Well continue the Police Department will continue to enforce the law as needed and if theres criminal activity theyll address it. And if they need to compensate property in those cases i imagine they will. Public works will continue to clean but theyre not going to take peoples property. In fact, what we have recommended is that they give people who are in tents garbage bags and suggest ask people to clean up their areas themselves and then leave the garbage bags in a place that is good for the public works employees. That way they can minimize social contact and maintain a good distance from folks. But still keep the streets clean. Theyre going to continue to be Power Washing and keeping the streets clean as usual. Thats a Public Health need that needs to continue, but well not be removing encampments. This is a good way to model how to develop a more cooperative spirit with people who are on the streets. I dont think that its okay for there to be large tent encampments and i dont think that its okay for people to be disrupting and blocking sidewalks and disrupting other peoples lives, but i also dont think that id constantly be trying to move people around, especially during this crisis. And the team is 100 focused on this and were not responding at this time and we dont have the capacity to respond to 311 calls and were going out and talking to people in encampments and giving them hygiene kits and knowing where they can meet their basic hygiene needs and asking for cooperation on spacing. I hope that this will work and that is because just like the communities and we see people coming together and being their best selfs in this situation, that applies to people unhoused as well and doing their best to do their best and to help the community to get through this crisis so im optimistic that this will be successful immediately, but also well have a good longterm impact to how we do this work in the city. Are they doing to develop plans to make sure that no individual 60 or older and, again, this is hard because my argument is that all people experiencing homelessness are immune their immunity is compromised. But at least for seniors. Is h. S. H. Coming up with a plan to get everyone indoors . Yes. Well, to get everyone indoors everyone at the high risk category. So ideally, what we would be doing and we have put this forward and working on it with h. S. A. S to utilize Hotel Voucher program which is used off and on in San Francisco over the years. We still have small programs to get people who are over 65 out of the shelters. And we also are looking at reorganizing our shelters and creating more space between beds, as well as creating areas to segregate people who are at risk or maybe segregating people who are sick. So those kind of physical redesigns as well as looking at potentially using a Hotel Voucher program as well as director roar said that once we make sure that we have the beds that we need for quarantine and isolation beds and that were able to add additional beds that we might need to do spacing people out. Spacing the beds out. Because thats going to make us lose capacity. And we should look for additional shelter beds if we can get them. And, again, hopefully modeling how to quickly set up shelters to get people off the streets. However, you know, we have to deal with the Public Health needs first and make sure that the hospitals dont get overwhelmed by getting these other beds set up for quarantine and isolation as the director said theres huge staffing challenges that were going to face. But were looking at creative opportunities, both using Disaster Service workers and also potentially volunteers. So, yeah, were actively engaged in working on this. And then the other thing that were working on with the department of Public Health has been an amazing everyone is an amazing partner but we have been working with the public Health Department on folks who have Serious Mental Health issues or Substance Use disorders who need to be quarantined and isolated and we need to accommodate their needs and were working on that as well. So theres a lot going on and its complicated but were moving quickly and keeping things in place. And by the end of the week well have a substantial number of beds stood up and ready to go. Supervisor haney . Thank you, president yee, and thank you for your work. I than youre working at all hours of the day and your team as well. A couple questions. One is on the status of the supplies for the shelters and n. A. V. Centers and Supportive Housing. I have communicated this to you but i wonder if you could give us the latest on this. And i heard from three providers who said they have run out or theyll run out soon of toilet paper and bleach and sanitizing wipes and other essential supplies. How are we securing these supplies . Do we have a shortage . Is there a way to help, do we need donations . Yes, yes and yes. And were going to businesses and asking for donations. I know that some companies that have donated handwashing stations to us and we are reaching out. So any suggestions or contacts that you have we essentially went to our supplier yesterday and bought everything that we possibly could. Its now at a location that our providers we were just made aware at 4 00 today, im on a call with them. But well run out very quickly. We think that we have like a weeks worth of supplies. And then, you know, we have 100 facilities that h. S. H. Operates. Shelters and permanent Supportive Housing and dropin centers and were serving, again, 13,000 people a day in shelter and housing. So we have a huge need and were happy to accept donations, but, you know, we have put our requests into the e. O. C. But many systems need these supplies los angeles and well keep doing the best we can. And were happy to accept any and all donations of toilet paper, cleaning supplies and bleach, anything like that. So it would be great if you and your team could communicate that to us so we can communicate it out publicly who the people would donate to and where to drop it and what is needed. Because i think that theres a lot of people and businesses and Larger Office builds that probably have a lot of supplies they could give. I started to reach out to folks and directing them directly to the providers but i dont know if theres a more centralized way to do that. Yes and i will write that up and send that out to you this evening. And i think my staff probably have already been working on this today because i know that it was discussed on a call that i was on this morning. So i know that all of us are concerned about staffing from a number of different angles. We have to quickly expand in terms of the shelter beds and the hotels and everything that is happening. Do you have a way to and i asked a similar question but to expedite hiring, training and there may be a lot of folks out of work right now who want to help either as volunteers. And with that, how we are making sure that folks who are working in these spaces are safe and healthy. Ive gotten feedback from folks who have worked at shelters in Supportive Housing saying that a lot of the members dont want to come in because they feel they dont have theyre not able to wash their hands and theres no protection for them. And so its adding to the shortages. Yeah, i dont want to speak for director callahan. I know that they issued a department of Human Resources issued a memo about expediting hiring in certain cases and i know that shell be back to speak to you as well and you can ask her for a copy of that guidance. So as far as the city goes and the safety of city workers, thats in her purview and theyve issued quite a lot of guidance to City Employees around hiring and around safety. We have issued that same guidance that weve gotten from the Department Public Health Department to our nonprofit omaha ployees. I think that employees. And a lot is with information and theres a lot of myths about the need for masks and how the disease is transmitted. Were doing our best to make sure that staff are kept safe. We do have a protocol at the sthelters and our other sites if theres a client who is coughing to immediately give that client a mask. Again, theres a shortage of everything as dr. Colfax had mentioned so were using what we have in the most effective way that we know how based on the Health Departments recommendations. And that theres a huge need to give every employee masks. And its important to put that mask on them and we have delivered supplies to the shelters and we continue at the pace that were at right now to have enough to give out for that purpose. Thank you. And i think that is going to be an ongoing issue to prepare for because we obviously we have so many people on streets and we say that we have the space now but not the staff. And another thing is that we have hundreds of people in the shelters and in the n. A. V. Centers who are not able to maintain the social distancing and theyre in congregate settings and large rooms eating together, and this is an unhealthy situation. Many of the folks are older, 334 people in a shelter and over 60 of them are over 65. So as i understand it theres a plan or there will be a priority to try to find the folks in those shelters and to get them into hotel rooms and then also in the shelters to create new policies and rules so that we can maintain distance and people can be protected and healthier and that the virus wouldnt spread rapidly within the shelters. Yes, you characterized that correct. Well, as soon as that could happen. Yes, you know, wholeheartedly agree. And well start screening clients when they come into shelters and ask them Health Questions to make sure that we, unfortunately, cannot get thermometers that we need to safely take peoples temperatures. But we are going to be asking screening questions and if folks need to be selfisolated were going to set up a situation where we can help that person not deny them a place to sleep but to find a place to go immediately. And im sure that youre looking at this, but a policy where lots of new people are coming in all the time and if theyre presenting symptoms or theyre very sick or have a fever, how theres some level of screening. Yes, there is and theres a process in place that we encounter a client that we know to contact the d. P. H. And they will instruct us what to do in that situation. But that also reminded me of one other thing is that we had suspended all time limits on all shelter beds. So, you know, it doesnt make sense for people to be kind of coming in and out and in and out of the shelter system. So now everybody is able were just doing 30day chunks but everybody in the shelter got an automatic 30day extension and that will continue throughout this crisis. And well also ultimately, if this continues for a long period of time, well ultimately point to the need for us to expand shelter capacity. Because the more that people dont have access to a safe place to sleep, because a lot of people use shelters as a respite from the street for 90 days and their shelter stay is up and theyre back on the streets again and well need to find other places for people to go. And a last question, for folks in Supportive Housing we have concerns about food insecurity, that is an ongoing issue. And now when theyre asked to shelter in place theres a lot of concern from providers that theyre not going to be able to access food, and is there a plan in place to get them access or delivery of food . Yes, there is. Theres a whole food group set up at in the h. S. A. Doc. One of my Staff Members is on that and we have a plan for delivering meals to people. And were working to increase meals at the shelters. And some shelters only have two meals a day and well increase it so all shelters have three meals a day and people dont have to be hungry or go out looking for food or unnecessarily out on the streets. So for folks in Supportive Housing theres a way to get food to them . Not for everybody in Supportive Housing or people who have to selfquarantine or are not able to come out, we will expand our contract with meals on wheels and other food providers to do that. So, absolutely. Thank you. But, supervisor, if we could go back to one point that you brought up which i thought was a really great one is thinking about people who are losing their jobs in this crisis. Which are many, many people. I mean, all kinds of businesses are closing and its having an impact on lowwage workers and we need staff. So i think that its worth figuring out how we can marry those two needs together. Because we certainly need people. All of our providers need folks. So if theres anything that you all could do to help to think that through, we would be grateful. I think that its a great idea. This is a great time to open up the doors to try to get more people to come, and either staff or volunteers to help with this work. So whatever we can do to help. Thank you. President yee so just i had a quick thought as you were discussing these issues with toilet paper and other supplies. Im sure that you guys or the city people have thought of this already. One some of the institutions that are closing down, im thinking in terms of universities that are pretty much done for the semester, has anybody approached them because you have, you know, storage and you have supplies that is in store for quite a few lengths of time and maybe that could be available to your situation. I think dillon is back there taking notes. That is an excellent idea. And i really appreciate that one. Dormitories that are being emptied out. And potentially could serve as excellent places. Supervisor peskin . Thank you mr. President , and thank you director kazinski that you just presented and the only sub detail that id like to ask you about is how the 5 million per month package that the mayor rolled out relative to you spoke to part of this which is meals but as it relates to sanitation and congregate housing, how is that going . Thank you. And so the other thing is acquiring additional Janitorial Services through a master contract. I think that theres a number of companies that have been engaged on this. And were setting up a system where if they need additional service, the same way they need supplies or staffing, we have created a form for them to fill out and theyll send it to us and theyll get the janitoral support. And that extends to private s. R. O. Buildings that may not have the Janitorial Services and they need to keep their residences as safe as they can be. And part of that is education, voluntary compliance. Part of that is enforcement. And part of that package included hiring up two additional enforcement people at d. B. I. Do you know how thats going . I know that just today this is taking a little bit longer than any of us would have liked when they had the task force that includes d. B. I. Staff and City Attorney staff and Environmental Health staff as well as h. S. H. Staff who are all i dont know where theyre at in terms of the hiring but this group is now working together. Theyve been kind of doing things through email or phone calls and now theyre meeting every day at the e. O. C. And weve got a fulltime staff person assigned to work on that. So im hopeful that things will start to move quickly. But im not sure where d. B. I. Is in terms of hiring . Thank you for that answer ill be at the e. O. C. At 09 00 and well figure it out. President yee supervisor walton. A brief question. The information in terms of what were doing around the new tent policy. Is that something that were going to be putting out around . The tent policy . Thank you for that question. We will eventually when i begin my new job and maybe have five more minutes than i do now, well work on writing that down. But right now its not in writing. I had a Briefing Call with the key departments. I have confirmed with the chief of police and the head of public works that that message is being passed down to their staff, confirmation from my staff, that that is now what is happening. And we will eventually put this in writing. But probably, you know, probably monday or tuesday of next week. Thank you. I think that is it. Thank you. Oh, im sorry, superv