Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Budget And Finance Committee 20240713

And appropriation committee. Thank you. Can i have a second please . Roll call vote, please, madame clerk. The motion . Walton aye. Mandelman aye. Yee aye. Fewer aye. There are five. Supervisor fewer thank you. Welcome. Madame clerk, any announcements . Yes, madame chair. Due to the covid19 Health Care Emergency and to protect members of the public, the board of supervisors and chamber room are closed. However, members will be participating as if theyre physically present. All the comments will Public Comment will be available. Streaming the number across the screen. Each speaker will be allowed two minutes to speak. By calling 888 2045984. Press pound and pound again. When youre connected, dial 1 and then 0 to be added to the queue to speak. Youll be lined up in the order. While youre waiting the system will be silent. The system will notify you when youre in line and waiting. All callers will remain on mute until their line is open. [inaudible] and streaming. Call from a quiet location, speak clearly and slowly and turn down your television or radio. Alternatively at [inaudible] if you submit Public Comment, it will be included in the legislative file as part of the matter. Written comments may be sent via u. S. Postal service. Finally, items acted upon today will be forwarded to the full board for consideration on april 28 unless otherwise indicated. Madame clerk. Thank you. Can you please call items 1 through 3 together . Item 1, emergency ordinance amending the administrative code to establish the covid19 disaster Family Relief Fund. Item 2, emergency ordinance amending the administrative code to establish the covid19 disaster Family Relief Fund and item number 3, appropriating 10 million from the general reserve for the creation of the Family Relief Fund that will serve undocumented and extremely lowincome families with children 0 to 18 years old and who do not qualify for stimulus relief. Supervisor fewer thank you very much. We continued this item to the meeting for this meeting by supervisor walton. Supervisor walton thank you, chair fewer. I want to provide an update and say weve been working closely with the leadership of the Human Rights Commission as well as with the Mayors Office and were going to be providing relief for this population working without doing this the legislative process. So i think its appropriate items 1, 2 and 3. Supervisor fewer thank you very much, supervisor. So we have a motion to file items 1, 2 and 3. Before we do that, lets open up for Public Comment. Madame clerk, can you call for Public Comment . Yes. Madame chair, checking to see if there are any calls in the queue. Operations, please let us know if there are any callers that are ready . Madame chair, there are no callers wishing to speak. Supervisor fewer Public Comment is now closed. There is a motion to file this item and could we have a roll call vote, please . On the motion to file items 1, 2 and 3, supervisor walton aye. Mandelman aye. Fewer aye. There are three ayes. Supervisor fewer congratulations, supervisor walt walton. Can you call items 4 and 5 together . Item 4, resolution retroactively authorizing the department of Public Health to expend a grant in the amount of 900,000 for participation in the program entitled california injury and Violence Prevention Branch overdose data to action for a period of january 1, 2020 through august 31, 2022. Item 5, resolution retroactively authorizing the department of Public Health to accept and expend a grant in the amount of 750,000 from the California Department of Public Health for participation in the program entitled california injury and Violence Prevention Branch overdose data to action, peer to peer opioid Stewardship Alliance for period january 1, 20 through august 31, 2022. Supervisor fewer thank you. We have dr. Phillip kaufmann here from the department of Public Health. Good morning. These are a continuation of expansion on work weve been doing for years as a health department. Weve been providing services of training providers and Health Departments and health plans around california state in how to train other providers in opioid stewardship and managing opioid use disorder and clinical practice. Those efforts were supported by the cdc through the department of Public Health and the second project so thats the first project, a continuation of that of those efforts for another three years. And then the second project is expanding to provide Technical Assistance on these issues nationally. Supervisor fewer okay. And the yeah. Ill stop there. Supervisor fewer please continue. The reason for this delay is the usual reasons of the time it took to process the receipt of the award. Supervisor fewer okay. Thank you very much. Colleagues, any comments or questions for dr. Kaufmann . Seeing none, there is no on this, lets open the items up for Public Comment. Are there any people that would like to comment on items 4 and 5 . Please get in the queue and dont forget to press 1, 0. Clerk operation is checking to see if there are callers. Operation, please let us know if there are callers ready . Madame chair, there are no callers wishing to speak. Supervisor fewer its closed. I move to move these items to the board. On the motion, walton aye. Mandelman aye. Fewer aye. There are three ayes. Supervisor fewer thank you. Please call item number 6. Item 6, easy lieutenantgovernors recei resolution retroactive authorizing the department of Public Health it accept and expend a grant in the amount of 87,000 for the period of july 1, 2019 through june 30, 2022. Is [inaudible] from the department of Public Health. The presenter is not here today. I make a motion to move this item. There is no report on this, so lets open it up for Public Comment first. Any members of the public that would like to comment on item number 6 . Madame chair, there are no callers wishing to speak. Supervisor fewer thank you. Public comment is closed. I make a motion to continue this item until the next meeting of the budget and finance committee. Could i have a roll call vote, please . Ms. Wong, i think youre muted. My apologies. On motion to continue item number 6 to the next budget meeting, walton aye. Mandelman aye. Fewer aarti . Fewer aye. There are three ayes. Can you read number one of the budget and Appropriations Committee. Yes. Item number 1, hearing to review the budget process and related updates for the school years 20202021 and 20212022 and requesting the Controllers Office and the budget and legislative analyst to report members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment on this item should call the number across the screen, press 1 and 0 to speak. Supervisor fewer we have the mayors Budget Office and our controller. Good morning, supervisors. This is kelly kirkpatrick. I have a brief update for you all as i provided last week on the citys kind of current operational spending since last week as well as an update on state and federal relief. As well as the state budget outlook on the l. A. O. Provided at a Committee Hearing last week, a look at the state budget. Im going to do a screen shot to give you a highlight of the topics. All right. Can you see that, chair fewer . Supervisor fewer yes, i can. Thank you very much. Wonderful. So update to our current year direct operational spending of the city from last week we spent about 42 million. The majority of which youll see is additional salary and benefit costs for city staff involved in the Health Crisis. As weve gotten to better understand fema reimburse, this is an accounting tracking as ive shared before. This is what departments have input as money that has gone out the door. So most of the costs for staffing is what i would call the peoplepower dedicated to our response. Capturing people who have been reassigned or reallocated to doc or e. O. C. Work. The majority of this is fema reimbursable. We expect them to include overtime, comp time and any new staffing added for direct Health Crisis response. But were working to just try to capture in the Accounting System peoples time dedicated toward this and were working with the Recovery Team to parse out and make sure were going to capture as much as reimbursable funding as possible. Its helpful to know how much staff time is being dedicated towards this response and the peoplepower i would say. Additionally, weve spent checks out the door of 9 million to house equipment and safety supplies. This is up about 3 million from last week. Its almost all new p. P. E. For the department of Public Health. And then notably here as well, again, this is cash out the door, bills that have been fulfilled, about 5. 7 million for a noncongregate shelter and other support services. This includes our noncongregate sheltering and it represents some initial deposits and costs for april for hotels that have billed us. I know there is a lot of other contracting in the works, just wanted to show this money has come through and gone out the door for shelter support and noncongregate needs, as well as i. T. And other Transportation Needs in the department. Last week the state announced a targeted program, a Disaster Relief fund for undocumented immigrants. 75 million represents the states direct contribution. Additionally 50 million will come from nonprofit foundations. And this represents 125 million total for undocumented adults. Its estimated that 150,000 adults receive onetime payments of 500 with the cap of 1,000 per household. Additionally, at the federal level, the Senate Passed as im sure we heard on the news another half billion dollars on Small Business and health care funding. And the majority of which is replenishing the 310 billion paycheck protection program. Its for Small Businesses to retain their workforce. The initial program for this was 350 billion and as we all know, the need far outpaced the funding available. There is additional funding for other types of Disaster Relief funds as well as 75 billion for hospital relief and 25 billion for testing and contacttracing. Thats another typo. I apologize, were working quickly. Contacttracing. And then the senate will resume in early may. Its our sense and the news is reporting that additional relief efforts will be discussed when the senate reconvenes. You know, the mayor as well as other local leaders and even state governors, including Governor Newsom are pushing hard at the federal level to ensure we have relief at the local level through the next cares 2. 0. One thing of particular interest to this director and hopefully to the council is [inaudible] we have received 150 million for the first cares act for the operation directly related to new covid spending, but it does not allow to backfill any lost revenue. That is a push. Advocacy amongst ensuring that we have support of our Small Businesses and vulnerable populations who are disproportionately impacted. Last week, the state l. A. O. Provided a report at the Senate Budget Committee Hearing on the state of californias economy. L. A. O. Reported and the governor stated that california has entered a pandemicinduced recession. The drivers of this are covidrelated costs, higher benefit drawdowns. In california, people are eligible for various Entitlement Program based on income, so we have significantly more people drawing unemployment, medicaid which is additional costs to the state and this is compounded by decreased revenues. The state is, as im sure were aware, 1215 of californians have lost their jobs which is contributing to these macro budget impacts. The budget shortfall, the upcoming fiscal year for the state to reach 35 billion. This is exceeds the state spending of 20 billion. And this revenue loss, according to l. A. O. Is on par with revenue losses during the great recession. As a result, l. A. O. Recommended that the legislature in the near term. Its kind of more messaging weve been sharing over the last couple of weeks. It will take us several months to get a fuller picture of the impact on our budget of this dual increased costs and Community Need with a rapidly shrinking and diminishing revenue. The l. A. Oo. , similar to what were planning for with the support of this committee, has moved their budget process back by a couple of months to allow both of those things to happen. The l. A. O. Has projected two different shapes to the economic downturn. In our march joint report update we provided two scenarios of recession. One was a v shape, meaning it was a rapid decline of revenue and a quick snap back. The l. A. O. Provided two scenarios and theyre different letters. Our high end scenario was the same as the one that includes a ushaped downturn. So it was a more prolonged kind of impact, but there is a pronounced recovery kind of snapping the economy back. Theyve also presented something theyre calling an lshaped downturn. Which is a sharp downturn with a slow resolution to the covid response. Inadequate as they framed it and creating a protracted recession. As i said, it will take more time to understand the shape of this, but just trying to help people understand the potential or the magnitude that could come as result, depending on what the pandemic looks like in the coming months. In terms of expenses, the state is estimating at least 67 billion of additional spending related to covid response. This does not include entitlement spending, for programs like medicaid or cal works or unemployment, but just like weve been saying at the local level, current federal funding will cover some covidrelated spending, but not revenue losses. Similar kind view of how this is impacting the State Government like were viewing it for our local budget. I just wanted to highlight that yesterday the mayor and the treasurer announced additional deferrals of various businessrelated fees. The newest one that we announced yesterday and that the mayor is introducing in an executive directive amendment this week is extending the Business Registration fee deadline by four months. This is 49 million of deferrals that impact almost 90,000 businesses, the majority of which are Small Businesses in San Francisco. Weve also further delayed the unified license bill which includes many different departments such as food safety and fire safety permits and businesses will not be penalized by individual departments for not having paid these. It feels like a 14 million relief to our local businesses. Well still ensure there is safe food and fire safety, but its just the fee part by businesses providing that relief. And of course weve done a lot at the local level to help support our local businesses. I know there is a lot of need out there. But weve done weve done taken many different angles at trying to support our Small Businesses, Small Business community. With that, im happy to answer any questions. Or take any feedback for subsequent presentations that would be helpful to you all over the next couple of weeks. Supervisor fewer thank you. I see president yee in the queue. President ye president yee thanks for the update. Just curious, we have some information about the state unemployment. Just wondering, do we have anything local . Does San Francisco in particular how badly this has hit the unemployment . Thats a great question, president yee. I dont readily know that. That is an indicator that tends to lag in terms of our ability to receive it. I can get something for you all next week. President yee thank you very much. Supervisor fewer any comments or questions . I actually want to comment. We had a conversation, my staff and the Controllers Office about how were filing for reimbursement. And i just thought it would be good information to share with the rest of the budget committee. I was concerned that the reimbursements will be lump sum coming in after we hit sort of the first wave and we wouldnt get reimbursement in a timely manner, but perhaps the Controller Office can explain the reimbursement and how were filing for the reimbursements . Sure. Hi. This is the Controllers Office. I can speak a little bit to this now. Were happy to provide more information at next weeks meeting. In general, for our fema reimbursements, were submitting a request every two weeks. I believe weve submitted at least two at this point, but we can confirm that. And there is a number of pieces of information that come into that, so it sounds like that would be more of the details about what were collecting and how were submitting that would be helpful for the committee. And we can definitely get that for you. Supervisor fewer i think that would be great. Im wondering, are we able also to know ament 0 amount of reimbursements were actually filing for every two weeks . I can tell you that the first one was for 26. 5 million. I need to check on the subsequent. I dont want to tell you the wrong number. Supervisor fewer sure. I just meant ongoing for the budget committee. Were keeping close watch on because of the budget deliberations in august about how quickly were getting the reimbursements and an idea how were replenishing the costs were putting out. If we could have an update. And when you are submitting those requests for reimbursements, the amount of reimbursements. And then later on if were receiving those reimbursements and reimbursements to date. Sure, well definitely have that. Supervisor fewer thank you very much. Any other comments or questions for the Controllers Office or the mayors Budget Office . Seeing none, this is open for Public Comment. Any members of the public that would like to comment on item number 1 of the budget and Appropriations Committee . Madame chair, operation is checking to see if there are any callers in the queue. Operation, please let us know if there are any callers ready . Madame chair, there are no callers wishing to speak. Supervisor fewer thank you very much. Public comment is now closed. Id like to make a motion to continue this item to the call of the chair. Could i have a second, please . Second. Supervisor fewer thank you, supervisor. Madame clerk, roll call vote on the motion. On the motion to continue this item to the call of the chair, walton aye. Mandelman aye. Yee aye. Fewer aye. There are four ayes. Supervisor fewer thank you. Is there any other business before us today . No further business. Supervisor fewer were adjourned. Thank you very much. Mayor breed is joined by the director of Public Health, grant colfax. The director of the department of Human Services, trent noor. The director of the department of Public Health, dr. Grant colfax. The director of the department of emergency management, mary ellen carroll. The director of the department of Human Services trent rhorer. The director of the department of homelessness and housing, abigail stewartkhan and our police chief bill scott. Thank you for joining us this afternoon. I want to start by providing the most updated numbers currently. We have 1,058 cases here in San Francisco of those diagnosed with the coronavirus. And sadly, we have 20 people who died from this illness. And for more information, please visit data sf. Org covid19 for our full tracker and more information that you may be interested in reviewing. Today i just wanted to talk about the anniversary of the 1906 earthquake. This weekend marks the 106th anniversary of the earthquake. When we all can look back on our history and remember during that time, not only did the earthquake hit and it really physically destroyed buildings and many parts of our city, there was a very devastating fire that occurred. And, in fact, over 3,000 people lost their lives. And during that time, san franciscans didnt throw up their hands. We took to our feet, we came together with businesses, with people from all over the city and we focused on rebuilding. We got through that because we came together. We got through the 1906 earthquake because we worked together. Because we didnt throw up our hands. We focused on recovery. And that really is the spirit of what it means to be a san franciscan. It really does represent who we are, because we focus on how do we get through this and how do we move forward and how do we become better than ever . This is a resilient city because of that. And just like after the 1906 earthquake, the work that went into rebuilding our city and making it stronger for future earthquakes that we knew were coming, we also really rebuilt this city and we have been through a number of challenges that have made us Even Stronger and better. This is a pandemic like no other. And this is a challenge that we will get through. And just like in the 1906 earthquake, we will rebuild and thrive. Today i want to talk a little bit about our new directive that dr. Colfax will provide more information about. And that is a new requirement to wear Face Coverings. We recommended Face Covering in the past and now as of midnight tonight, it will be a requirement. But i dont want you to be alarmed. I want to make sure that people know our goal isnt to enforce until april 22nd to give people who may not have access to Face Coverings the opportunity to get access to them. We are working to distribute some to many of our vulnerable populations, but we want to ask members of the public to do this now if you can. Whether its a mask and there is no need to wear an n95 mask. Those should be reserved for Health Care Workers, but any type of mask, facecovering, a scarf, something that covers your nose and mouth, this will be a requirement for people who are standing in line at Grocery Stores or any other places open for essential services. Its going to be required when youre inside of those locations. Any time youre indoors or within close proximity of others within an essential business or at work, like many of our City Employees who are essential workers on the front lines, you will be required to wear a mask. Now, if someone is out walking and theyre with other folks, someone is out and theyre with other people in their household, or youre running or exercising or doing something out in the open and youre social distancing yourself from others, that is not as problematic as when youre standing in line and in other locations where there are a lot of people. We want to be clear that the requirement to wear Face Coverings does not take the place of social distancing. Maintaining six feet regardless of this new requirement. And i also want to make it clear, if you are not a police officer, dont act like one. Were not expecting people to police one another, because the fact is, you cant control what other people do. You can only control what you do. And what we ask you to do is, if you can obey the order and have a Face Covering on and keep your distance at least six feet from anyone. I want to be clear, what we dont want is more confrontation, more stress and more drama in general as a result of this order. We dont expect anyone in this city to step up and Police Anyone other than the people who work for the San Francisco Police Department. So, please, do your part to follow the order and worry about what you need to do and not what someone else is doing. And well do our very best in order to manage this situation. And dr. Colfax will talk a little bit more about the Face Covering requirements, but this does not this does not change the need for us to social distance ourselves from one another, it does not change the existing rules, it does not make it better, its just an additional requirement, an additional allayer that is an additional layer that is necessary to help us flatten the curve. So far youve been doing an amazing job. So many people in the city doing an amazing job of keeping your distance, following the order, respecting one another and your space. And we want to continue is that and were just adding an additional requirement that will also help in this effort. Speaking of staying at home, i just want to remind people that during 420, we are going to be add golden gate park. Were going to fence up golden gate park. Well have Police Officers out in force. And we will not allow any large gatherings of any kind at golden gate park. So i am asking you to stay at home for 420. It is not going to happen at golden gate park. So, please, follow this order and not just as it relates to large gatherings for 420, but for any other large gathering. I just want to remind people, for example and i talked about the choir where they practice social distancing and they had rehearsal and 45 people were infected and two died. Situations where people and families have gotten together anyway and only to discover that they are now infected with the coronavirus. This is real. It can hit you at any time. And even if you dont care, if you get infected, please care about your family members and the other folks that you come in contact with. You know, i always bring this back to my grandmother who raised me. There is no way that if she was still alive today that i would want to be the reason why she was infected or i would want anyone to infect her because of being irresponsible in this effort. So just keep that in mind. So many people are counting on us to do the right thing. Stay home for 420. Dont come to San Francisco. We are not welcoming any large gatherings of any nature, not just during 420, but any other time as long as the stayathome order is in place. Thank you, all, so much for your understanding and your cooperation. I want to also take this moment to talk about a few expanded resources, because we know that our seniors and our disabled population, they are probably struggling in some instances. They have neighbors who are looking out for them or family members or folks volunteering to run errands and do grocery shopping, but the fact is they may need to take essential trips. For Health Reasons or what have you, they may need to go somewhere and theyre concerned about getting on the bus and theyre concerned that because theyre part of the vulnerable population about getting around the city and there are mobility challenges that exist that make it difficult to do so. The sfmta has created an essentialtrip card program which provides reduced cost taxi trips for older adults and people with disabilities. So while this is an important resource for people who may have limited mobility and who dont have other Transportation Options available, with this program, people can get a card that allows them to take 23 trips per month at 20 of the cost of a regular fare. So, for example, if the fare is 10, then the person only pays 2, which is really incredible for our senior population and those who have disabilities. We want to make sure that transportation for essential needs or things you may need to do, that its not a barrier during this time. Its important that we provide Creative Solutions for our vulnerable populations. And thats exactly what were doing with this program. If you want more information, please call 311, or you can visit the sfmta website. We are here for you and we are here to do all we can to take care of the residents of San Francisco. I want to, again, express my appreciation to each and every one of you. It is the people of San Francisco that are following the directives, cooperating and doing the best that you can youre the reason why San Francisco is a model for so many other cities to follow. Youre the reason, your cooperation. And i want to be clear that as difficult as i know it is for you, i know that we have parts of our communities that are not complying with the orders that we put forth, whether they are being defiant or they may not have the mental capacity to really understand and follow the directive, there are challenges we know that exist with people who arent able to follow the order. Again, we are going to do everything we can to get people to comply, but the fact is, what all of you are doing, how you have all participated by following the order, has put us in a great situation, but we cant let up. We cant let up because the fact is, sadly, 20 people have already lost their lives. We have over a thousand cases in our city and growing. And we cant let up because that could mean the possibility of other people getting infected and seeing the numbers surge completely out of control. That is the last thing we want. And that is why i want to remind you as the weekend comes, make sure that you are keeping your distance from people who are not a part of your household. Make sure youre not making this onetime exception of getting together for a dinner party or any other event. Make sure that you are using the telephone or other resources to call and check on family members to make sure that their Mental Health and wellbeing is okay. But we need you more than ever to continue down this path so that we cannot only flatten the curve, but make it nonexistent. Thank you, all, again for your cooperation. At this time i would like to introduce the director of the department of Public Health, dr. Grant colfax. Thank you, mayor. Thank you, mayor breed. Im grant colfax, director of health for the city and county of San Francisco. As we Work Together across the city to flatten the curve, and even as we all do our part and even as we see signs of progress, i want to acknowledge the grief, anxiety and perhaps for some even anger that we are experiencing during these unprecedented times. The department under the direction of the mayor with other city departments, with Key Community stakeholders, and from people like you, the department is doing all it can to address and mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. In doing so, the department of health will always listen, welcome feedback and strive to refine and improve our response. This is particularly important as it becomes increasingly clear that the coronavirus will exploit longstanding challenges and disparities as it spreads, whether this be related to other Health Issues such as Mental Health and Substance Use disorders, or broader inequities, such as homelessness, housing challenges, or income disparities. This is why we must continue together to be unified and vigilant to slow the spread of the virus. And to make difficult decisions and to prioritize our actions. We must continue to follow the science, data and facts as we move forward together. I would like to provide an update on the data, including citywide cases as well as at the jail, the msc south shelter and laguna honda hospital. Today as the mayor said there are 1058 San Francisco residents with confirmed cases of coronavirus. Out of a total of 10,077 tests reported. Sadly, 20 people have died and i send my condolences to their families, loved ones, community and friends. There are 91 patients with coronavirus hospitalized across the city and about 30 of these cases are in the intensive care unit. Our hospitalization numbers for covid19positive patients have been holding relatively steady for the past week, which is welcome news, but again, that could change at any time, especially as we expect to see continued outbreaks. Across San Franciscos Hospital System today, there are 1,048 acute care beds and 445 intensive care beds available across the city to meet the demands of a surge. Yesterday the city had its first positive case confirmed in our citys jail. The person showed no symptoms, but was tested and isolated as part of routine testing of all new bookings that are housed in the jail. A contact investigation is under way. As i reported last week, there was an outbreak of coronavirus at msc south, the citys largest homeless shelter. As of today, 95 guests and 10 staff there have tested positive for the coronavirus. And at laguna honda hospital, there are 19 confirmed cases of coronavirus. 15 of the confirmed cases are among staff and 4 are among residents. There have now been no new cases among residents since april 7th. All the residents are in good condition. And, again, we are doing everything we can to reduce the spread of the virus in our community, protect vulnerable population, Health Care Workers and first responders. Now i would like to provide more details about the new action that san franciscans that we are taking to help san franciscans fight the spread of the coronavirus. Because even as we respond to outbreaks now in the Homeless Community and in longterm care facilities, we are also looking ahead. Today, as the mayor announced, we will residents and workers will be required to wear Face Coverings at essential businesses and public facilities and on transit. This requirement is a legal health order and takes effect at midnight tonight. It strengthens a recommendation we made on april 2nd and is informed by the centers for Disease Control and prevention guidelines. Like our shelter in place order and many of our approaches, this is a regional effort. The Face Covering requirements have already been announced by Sonoma County and several other bay area jurisdictions will announce similar orders today. By Wearing Masks or Face Coverings when interacting with other people in public, san franciscans will be less likely to transmit the coronavirus to one another. It is important to understand that todays order is part of a broader strategy to establish new ways of interacting and behaving. This will help us now and it will help us in the future as we hope to be able to relax the stayathome order. By then people will already be in the habit of wearing Face Coverings at the Grocery Store, in lines, while riding a bus, taxi, or uber. It is likely that we will need to continue to do this for some time, even after we start to emerge from our home. And, please and i cant emphasize this enough please know and please remember that wearing a Face Covering is not a substitute for staying at home, staying six feet apart, and frequent handwashing. The purpose of covering your nose and mouth is to protect other people. Face coverings help to stop droplets that may be infectious, even if the person wearing the mask has no or mild symptoms. In other words, my mask i want to assure you i was wearing a mask until approaching this podium my mask protects you and your mask protects me. Covering your face is a great way to show you care for your neighbors, your friends, your community. We are going to have to continue to Work Together to slow down the virus and reduce transmission. The virus is still out there, so we must continue to be vigilant. I want to emphasize that the Face Covering is just one part of an Effective Response infrastructure. Other components include aggressive outbreak investigation, expanded testing, contacttracing, and adherence to isolation and quarantine orders and continued prevention. All of these all of these will be critical in the future to maintaining any gains we are making due to our current efforts to flatten the curve. There are good signs that we are, indeed, making progress, but we still have a long way to go. Thank you for everything you are doing to protect the health of our community. Together, every day, we are saving lives. Thank you. Now id like to introduce the director of mta who will make a few remarks. Thank you, dr. Colfax. Once again, my name is jeffrey tumlin. Im the director of transportation at the sfmta. I have four key points to make. One is a reminder. Muni is for essential trips only. This means essential workers and people making essential trips like going to the Grocery Store, going to the pharmacy or going to seek social services. If you have another means of making your essential trip, please choose to do so. Its very important that we save seats for essential workers that have no other means of getting to work. The second point and this is again to emphasize what dr. Colfax and the mayor have said if youre riding muni, please wear a Face Covering. This is incredibly important and again, it is not about protecting your health, its about protecting the health of the other passengers and our operators. Please wear a face mask when riding muni. My third key point is something that the mayor mentioned, which is our new service offering. We know as muni cut back its service to the 17 most essential routes that serve the majority of our riders, that we left parts of the city behind. So my team has worked rapidly this week to develop the essentialtrip card. This works effectively as a debit card and if youre an older adult over the age of 65 or somebody with disabilities, you can order your essentialtrip card by calling 311 or going to our website at sfmta. Com covid. The card works for any taxi service. Call the cab and use the card like you would a debit card and it gives you an 80 discount on essential trips. Trips to the pharmacy, the Grocery Store or other essential services. At the same time, it supports our taxi operators who have been hit hard by this crisis. We have partnered with the taxi industry to support them in making sure that all drivers have personal protective equipment as well as cleaning supplies for their vehicles so they can make sure the vehicle is clean on every trip. Were happy to have announced this partnership with the taxi industry and hope it will help provide important connections to members of our community who have suffered from the decline in muni service. My final point is about our muni ambassador program, which we also started piloting yesterday and goes into full effect today. Were having teams of sfmta employees stationed at the main bus stop throughout the system. Theyre wearing yellow vests, so you can see them. And theyre helping passengers with a variety of healthrelated objectives such as standing six feet apart at the bus stop, making sure that passengers are Wearing Masks. Were partnering with other departments to distribute masks and other Face Coverings to our riders. Theyre also making sure that our buses are not getting too crowded. We set passenger caps on all the buses. Were limiting the 30foot buses to 15 passengers. 40foot buses to 20 passengers. And our 60foot are limited to 30 passengers. What this mean is, you may be passed up by our operators if the bus is already full. It may also mean if youre not wearing a Face Covering, that the operator may also pass you up. Please be patient with us and wait for the next bus, or if you have another trip alternative, choose that alternative. Were so happy to be partnering with the health streets Operation Center as well. In order to direct people in need of Homelessness Services and other social services to those Services Rather than taking refuge on our muni buses. The sfmta is proud to be able to keep essential workers moving, making sure that the nurses and janitors and cooks and cleaners are able to get to work to keep all of us happy. And were relying upon all of you to do your part as well in order to keep our passengers and our operators healthy. With that, id like to introduce the chief of the San Francisco Police Department, chief william scott. Good afternoon, everyone. Im chief william scott, the San Francisco Police Department. First id like to again thank our mayor london breed for her leadership during this challenging time and thank our Public Health director, dr. Grant colfax for his leadership. I want to update you on the enforcements efforts of the Public Health order. With the good weather weve increased our presence in city parks and other popular places where we know people enjoy walking and getting out of the house for exercise. With the park rangers from the parks and rec department, weve been able to educate the public and continue to warn the public to make sure they stay a safe distance away, the six feet that has been recommended by our Public Health officials. With that, were still enforcing where enforcement is appropriate and ill get to that in a minute. As i stated before, our officers found that the vast majority of the public in San Francisco have been compliant. Id like to reiterate what mayor breed said a little while ago. We also would like to thank the members of the public who have vastly been compliant with this order. There are still some challenges and we continue to work through the challenges, but the men and women of the San Francisco Police Department want to be part of the solution and we are here to help and help keep our city healthy and safe. With that said, our citation has not changed from the last press conference on wednesday. We still have nine citations in connection with violating the countys Public Health order. We have issued a number of warnings for the nonessential businesses since wednesday and that continues. Also we are still receiving calls regarding social distancing at essential businesses. I must say most of the businesses, the majority of the businesses for that matter, have been compliant with that. In terms of crime, we are still where we were as of wednesday. Same report. Our total overall crime, we have 25 reduction which equates to 130 fewer crimes than the week before. And that breakdown is a 29 reduction in property crime, which equates to 130 fewer crimes, and a 0 change for our violent crime. So we are exactly the same as we were the week before on violent crimes. Compared to march 31 through april 5, the third week of this reporting period, were still seeing overall decreases in crime. Thats both yeartodate and week to week. We want the public and the people who would take advantage of people during this challenging time to know that we take crime seriously. Nothing has changed in terms of our enforcement of the law, although, the jails have had to make adjustments and other parts of the criminal Justice System have had to make adjustments to keep everybody safe, laws are still being enforced and we will make arrests and working with the sheriffs and the sheriffs department, they will accommodate violent offenders and people who threaten public safety. So we want to make sure that message is reassured. That the public knows were out there and well continue to be out there. Were still seeing some challenges with burglaries. And were working through that. With that, id like to thank partnership with the District Attorney and his team at the District Attorneys office. Weve made a number of arrests and the District Attorneys office has charged looting charges. I would like to thank them for their attention to that matter. This week i also want to give a shoutout to our dispatchers. This is basically national dispatchers week. Our dispatchers work 247 to reassure the public when people call and sometimes the most difficult times in their lives, those dispatchers are there to reassure them that things are going to be okay as much as we can make them okay. They do a phenomenal job. Theyre by our side and we want to reach out and thank them for the work they do in this challenging time as well. Also, this week is actually the crime victims week and its a time to remember those survivors who have lost their loved ones to victims of crime such as murder and other violent crimes. And i want to reach out to our victims and remind them, we are there for you, the San Francisco Police Department and the city of San Francisco will always be there in your time of need. We know this is a time there are normally activities surrounding National Victims week in the state capitol, and those festivities were not able to happen this week, so we want to let you know, we do remember what you all have gone through and were there for you as well. Couple notes to reiterate about 420. I want to, again, thank the mayor for her leadership on this and reiterate what she said. We will be out in full force this weekend, including 420, the date of 420. You will see officers . The parks, street clothes. You will see us out with the area fenced off. We want to remind people, please do not engage in 420 festivities. We cant afford to let up right now. The city is doing well. Our public has responded to the calls to stay at home and we really need you to heed to that advice and stay at home. And if you dont follow that advice, well be there. And, again, we will cite, we will arrest if we have to, but well be there to make sure that we keep this city as safe and healthy as we can. Just a reminder again, please do not engage in 420 activities in the city or anywhere else for that matter during this pandemic. With that, i close and thank you again, and turn this over for questions. Reporter okay. Our first set of questions are for dr. Grant colfax. Reporter dr. Colfax, the first question is from fox news. Today the first Antibody Test results showed an infection rate in Santa Clara County up to 85 times higher than the number of people who actually tested positive. For an infection fatality rate of 1. 2 , what do you make of the numbers and how might they be used to formulate adjustments to the current recommendation . So i think that those data are important and certainly significant. I think its too early to generalize them with regard to how theyll apply to our recommendations. Were reviewing that study and im hopeful there will be other data similar in other jurisdictions that will be produced to help us make more informed decisions moving forward. As ive alluded to in previous conferences, were working hard with scientists at ucsf to conduct similar studies to get better data on the prevalence of coronavirus in our community. Right now, remember, the numbers are based on the number of people we are testing. It does not represent the total number of coronavirus circulating in the community. Those are important data and we are working hard to obtain them as quickly as possible with scientists in the at ucsf and other institutions. Are there exceptions for Face Coverings in public like kids . How should parents get their kids to wear masks . Well be releasing frequently asked before the order goes into effect tonight. There will be clear guidelines on how to support your children in Wearing Masks. I also want to emphasize that in very Young Children, our recommendation, we strongly discourage the use of masks in very Young Children. There is a risk of suffocation, so you want to make sure that Young Children do not wear masks. Those guidelines will be provided. Children under 12 are not required to wear masks. Children under 2, we do not recommend maskwearing for children under 2. Reporter and from shannon lynn, how is San Francisco testing Homeless Populations both in shelters and encampments . So with regard to testing in those situations, we follow our policy with regard to testing people in general. With regard to focusing on people who have symptoms. If people are positive, we focus on doing intensive contact investigation and testing people who have had close contacts or who are otherwise at risk or who show symptoms. This is what were doing, again, across the city as we continue our number of outbreak investigations. Reporter okay. Thank you, dr. Colfax. The next questions for trent rhorer, Human Services agency. Trent rhorer, Human Services agency. Reporter how are the shelter hotels run . Are they safe for nearby neighborhoods . Thanks for the question. First, let me say that because there has been some confusion. When the city enters into a contract with the hotel, were taking 100 of the rooms in that hotel. There has been some confusion that were taking or contracting a portion of the rooms in a particular place. Were not. We have the entire hotel. And we staff it accordingly. Specific to the question, individuals who are placed in hotels who need to be isolated or quarantined are arrive to the hotel and theyre counselled by the department of Public Health staff on site about the need to remain in their rooms. In addition, all of the needs that the patients might have when theyre in the hotels are met in their rooms. Most notably, the food. We bring three meals a day directly to the patients door. The patient, when theyre done, leaves the empty or the dirty dishes outside where theyre picked up. Same with laundry. Everything is sort of oriented towards keeping that individual in his or her room in order to satisfy the quarantine or isolation requirements. Reporter just iterate, after moving confirmed cases, contacts or vulnerable populations to hotel rooms, are they allowed to leave the room . Lastly, are there professional staff on site in each hotel . There are professional staff on it in each hotel. The case of isolation and quarantine rooms, there are clinical staff from the department of Public Health to support the patients medical needs. In addition there are Hotel Operational staff, largely coordinated by the Human Services agencies. These would be basic hotel operations. There may be nonmedical type staff to support the staff as well. As i said earlier, individuals who are there to isolate or quarantine are counselled at the beginning when theyre placed. Theyre to remain in their rooms. There are wellness checks in the rooms throughout the day, in addition to dropping meals off. So the patients that are there are seen many times throughout the day to make sure theyre in their rooms and complying with the directions to remain. Reporter thank you. The next question is for director abigail stewartkhan, homelessness and supportive housing. Reporter okay. This question comes from shannon lynn, can you share why there is a delay with placing more Homeless People into hotel rooms . There is no delay. We are placing people into hotel rooms on a daily basis. We have opened four hotel rooms for the noncovid Homeless Population in a very short period of time. There is another one opening today. And more opening over the course of the next week in rapid in a rapid approach. Reporter okay, thank you. That concludes all the questions for todays press conference. Roughly five years, i was working as a high school teacher, and i decided to take my students on a surfing field trip. The light bulb went off in my head, and i realized i could do much more for my students taking them surfing than i could as their classroom teacher, and that is when the idea for the city surf project was born. Working with kids in the ocean that arent familiar with this space is really special because youre dealing with a lot of fear and apprehension but at the same time, a lot of excitement. When i first did it, i was, like, really scared, but then, i did it again, and i liked it. Well get a group of kids who have just never been to the beach, are terrified of the idea, who dont like the beach. Its too cold out, and its those kid that are impossible to get back out of the water at the end of the day. Over the last few years, i think weve had at least 40 of our students participate in the city surf project. Surfing helped me with, like, how to swim. Weve start off with about two to four sessions in the pool before actually going out and surfing. Swimming at the pool just helps us with, like, being, like, comfortable in the water and being calm and not being all not being anxious. So when we started the city surf project, one of the things we did was to say hey, this is the way to earn your p. E. Credits. Just getting kids to go try it was one of our initial challenges for the first year or two. But now that weve been doing it three or four years, we have a group of kids thats consistent, and the word has spread, that its super fun, that you learn about the ocean. Starting in the morning, you know, i get the vehicles ready, and then, i get all the gear together, and then, i drive and go get the kids, and we take them to a local beach. We usually go to linda mar, and then occasionally ocean beach. We once did a special trip. We were in capitola last year, and it was really fun. We get in a circle and group stretch, and we talk about specific safety for the day, and then, we go down to the water. Once we go to the beach, i dont want to go home. I cant change my circumstances at home, but i can change the way i approach them. Our program has definitely been a way for our students to find community and build friends. I dont really talk to friends, so i guess when i started doing city surf, i started to, like, get to know people more than i did before, and people that i didnt think id like, like, ended up being my best friends. Its a group sport the way we do it, and with, like, close camaraderie, but everybodys doing it for themselves. Its great, surfing around, finding new people and making new friendships with people throughout surfing. It can be highly developmental for students to have this time where they can learn a lot about themselves while negotiating the waves. I feel significantly, like, calmer. It definitely helps if im, like, feeling really stressed or, like, feeling really anxious about surfing, and i go surfing, and then, i just feel, like, im going to be okay. It gives them resiliency skills and helps them build selfconfidence. And with that, they can use that in other parts of their lives. I went to bring amy family o the beach and tell them what i did. I saw kids open up in the ocean, and i got to see them connect with other students, and i got to see them fail, you know, and get up and get back on the board and experience success, and really enjoy themselves and make a connection to nature at the same time. For some kids that are, like, resistant to, like, being in a Mentorship Program like this, its they want to surf, and then later, theyll find out that theyve, like, made this community connection. I think they provided level playing fields for kids to be themselves in an open environment. For kids to feel like i can go for it and take a chance that i might not have been willing to do on my own is really special. We go on 150 surf outings a year. Thats yearround programming. Weve seen a tremendous amount of youth face their fears through surfing, and that has translated to growth in other facets of their lives. I just think the biggest thing is, like, that they feel like that they have something that is really cool, that theyre engaged in, and that we, like, care about them and how theyre doing, like, in general. What i like best is they really care about me, like, im not alone, and i have a group of people that i can go to, and, also, surfing is fun. Were creating surfers, and were changing the face of surfing. The feeling is definitely akin to being on a roller coaster. Its definitely faster than i think you expect it to be, but its definitely fun. It leaves you feeling really, really positive about what that kids going to go out and do. I think its really magical almost. At least it was for me. It was really exciting when i caught my first wave. I felt like i was, like it was, like, magical, really. When they catch that first wave, and their first lights up, you know their face lights up, you know you have them hooked. I was on top of the world. Its amazing. I felt like i was on top of the world even though i was probably going two miles an hour. It was, like, the scariest thing id ever done, and i think it was when i got hooked on surfing after the goal is simple. Its to raise womens voices. Learn a little bit about what you should be thinking about in the future. We had own over 300 over 300 people who signed up for the oneonone counseling today. I think in the world of leading, people sometimes discount the ability to lead quietly and effectively. The Assessors Office is a big one. There are 58 counties in the state of california and every single county has one elected assessor in the county. Our job is to look at property taxes and make sure that we are fairly taxing every single property in San Francisco. One of the big things that we do is as a result of our work, we bring in a lot of revenue, about 2. 6 billion worth of revenue to the city. Often, people will say, what do you do with that money, and i like to share what we do with property taxes. For every dollar we collect in property taxes, about 68 cents of it goes to support public sstss, our Police Officers, our fire departments, our streets, our cleaning that happens in the city. But i think what most people dont know is 34 cents of the dollar goes to public education. So it goes to the state of california and in turn gets allocated back to our local school districts. So this is an incredibly important part of what we do in this office. Its an interesting place to be, i have to say. My colleagues across the state have been wonderful and have been very welcoming and share their knowledge with me. In my daytoday life, i dont think about that role, being the only Asian American assessor in the state, i just focus on being the best i can be, representing my city very well, representing the county of San Francisco well. By being the only Asian American assessor, i think you have a job to try to lift up and bring as many people on board, as well. I hope by doing the best that you can as an individual, people will start to see that your assessor is your elected leaders, the people that are making important decisions can look like you, can be like you, can be from your background. I grew up with a family where most of my relatives, my aunties, my uncles, my parents, were immigrants to the united states. When my parents first came here, they came without any relatives or friends in the united states. They had very little money, and they didnt know how to speak english very well. They came to a place that was completely foreign, a place where they had absolutely nobody here to help them, and i cant imagine what that must have been like, how brave it was for them to take that step because they were doing this in order to create an opportunity for their family. So my parents had odd jobs, my dad worked in the kitchens, my mom worked as a seamstress sewing. As we grew up, we eventually had a Small Business. I very much grew up in a family of immigrants, where we helped to translate. We went to the restaurant every weekend helping out, rolling egg rolls, eating egg rolls, and doing whatever we need to do to help the family out. It really was an experience growing up that helped me be the person that i am and viewing Public Service the way that i do. One of the events that really stuck with me when i was growing up was actually the rodney king riots. We lived in Southern California at the time, and my parents had a restaurant in inglewood, california. I can remember smelling smoke, seeing ashes where we lived. It was incredibly scary because we didnt know if we were going to lose that restaurant, if it was going to be burned down, if it was going to be damaged, and it was our entire livelihood. And i remember there were a lot of conversations at that time around what it was that government to do to create more opportunities or help people be more successful, and that stuck with me. It stuck with me because i remain believe government has a role, government has a responsibility to change the outcomes for communities, to create opportunities, to help people go to school, to help people open businesses and be successful. Make sure to be safe, and of course to have fun. And then, i think as you continue to serve in government, you realize that those convictions and the persons that you are really help to inform you, and so long as you go back to your core, and you remember why youre doing what youre doing, you know, i think you cant go wrong. Its funny, because, you know, i never had thought i would do this. I became a supervisor first for the city under very unusual circumstances, and i can remember one day, im shopping with friends and really not having a care in the world about politics or running for office or being in a public position, and the next day, im sworn in and serving on the board of supervisors. For many of us who are going through our Public Service, its very interesting, i think, what people view as a leader. Sometimes people say, well, maybe the person who is most outspoken, the person who yells the loudest or who speaks the loudest is going to be the best leader. And i think how i was raised, i like to listen first, and i like to try to figure outweighs to work with out ways to work with people to get things done. I hope that time goes on, you can see that you can have all sorts of different leaders whether at the top of City Government or leading organizations or leading teams, that there are really different kinds of leadership styles that we should really foster because it makes us stronger as organizations. Take advantage of all the wonderful information that you have here, at the vendor booth, at our seminars and also the oneonone counseling. I wouldnt be where i was if i didnt have very strong people who believed in me. And even at times when i didnt believe in my own abilities or my own skills, i had a lot of people who trusted and believed i either had the passion or skills to accomplish and do what i did. If there was one thing that i can tell young women, girls, who are thinking about and dreaming about the things they want to be, whether its being a doctor or being in politics, running an organization, being in business, whatever it is, i think its really to just trust yourself and believe that who you are is enough, that you are enough to make it work and to make things successful