Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Govt Audits And Oversight Committee 20240713

Meeting. Public comment will be available for each item on this agenda. Both channel 26 and sfg tv. Org are streaming the number across the 2013. Each speaker will be allowed two minutes to speak. Comments are available via phone by dialling 882045984, and once you are connected to that phone number, use access code which is 3501008. After entering the access code, you will be prompted to press the pound symbol. Then press it a second time. If you wish to add yourself to the queue to speak on a particular agenda item, dial 1 and 0 in order to be added to the queue to speak. You will be lined up in the system in the orreder in which you dial 1 and 0. While you are waiting, the system will be silent. The callin system will notify you when you are in line and waiting. All callers will remain on mute until the line is open for comment. Everyone must account for the time delays and speaking discrepancies we may encounter between live coverage and streaming. Best practices for callers are to call from a quiet location. Speak clearly and slowly. And turn down your television, your radio, or your streaming device. Alternatively, you may submit Public Comment in either of the following ways. You can email me, john carroll, the clerk of the government audit and oversight committee. My email address is john. Carroll sfgov. Org. Again, that is john. Carroll sfgov. Org. If you submit Public Comment via email, it will be included in the legislative file z a part of the matter and i will ensure that members of the committee receive the commune case. Written comment cans be sent to the Committee Via u. S. Post. You would address your letters to city hall, 1 dr. Carlton b. Goodlet place, room 244, San Francisco, california, 94102. Finally, items acted upon today will appear on the board of supervisors agenda on may 12, 2020, unless other wise stated. Mr. Chair . Thank you so much, mr. Clerk. Can you please call item number one . An ordinance amending the administrative code to close jail number 4 on the 7th floor of the hall of justice by november 2, 2020. To require the Sentencing Commission to establish the safety and justice subcommittee, to plan for the reduction of the citys daily jail population, and the closure of county jail number 4, and affirming the planning departments determination under the California Environmental quality act. Also, mr. Chair, i am in receipt of a memo from yours reing this ordinance be requesting this ordinance be heard as a Committee Report to be heard next week on may 5, 2020. Members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment on this ordinance should call the 8882045984 and enter the access code 3501008, press the pound symbol twice and 1 followed by 0 to enter the queue to speak. Mr. Chair . Thank you, mr. Clerk. Supervisor fewer, thank you so much for sponsoring this ordinance and bringing it forward. The floor is yours. Supervisor thank you very much, chair mar. And first of all, i want to thank president yee for waiving the 30day hold and to accommodate this meeting today. I want to recognize that each of the members of this committee is a cosponsor of the legislation. And i am appreciative of your support and collaboration. In particular, i want to acknowledge supervisor haney who called for the closure of county jail number 4. We have been tag teaming this issue for some time now. I than began exploring this issue as chair of the budget and finance committee. I was seeing lease after lease to move city departments and their staff out of the hall of justice. I asked about the plans for county jail no. 4 and then asked the city administrator and many others, and the answer i received, again and again, was that incarcerated people would have to be transferred out of county in alameda county. At this point in time, santa rita was in the move for the unprecedented death rate. 45 deaths in five years, and it was inconceivable to me that this would be our only option. I was presented as it was presented as an intractable problem and i refused to believe it. I met with the sheriff in september of last year as my office began to explore this and as we continued to meet with every Justice Agency multiple times over the course of several months. We watched the Violent Crime rate consistently decrease and watched the jail count consistently dip. In fact, it is at 696 today. This is truly a result of the work being done in the safety and justice challenge working group and each of its partners with the District Attorney office and Sheriffs Department and the Public Defenders Office and adult probation, superior court and the department of Public Health and pretrial diversion. To shows departments, thank you for your hard work. Today i held a Virtual Press conference with the District Attorney, public defender, Public Health professionals and formerly incarcerated people on the dangerous conditions at cj4 and why it needs to be closed as soon as possible. The legislation before you does three things. First, it requires the closure of county jail no. 4 in six months by november 1 of 2020. Second, it states in order to close the jail, we must reduce the population to no more than 90 capacity of the remaining jail facilities a goal that is stated by the safety and justice challenge working group. And interagency collaboration that was formed when the city received a grant along with more than 50 other localities to work towards a fairer and more effective Justice System. And third, a formerly recognizes this is an already existing working group and the existing structure and requires that the subcommittee consider multiple strategist and measures to meet the objective of reducing the population so we can safely close county jail no. 4. The subcommittee will be required to submit who reports to the board of supervisors. In august and in october with progress made and data points and policy recommendations. I realize there have been questions about the reduction of the jail population but i want to acknowledge a few things here. The month before covid19, we were at under 92 of the jail capacity for the remaining facilities. Literally only 20 beds away from meeting our goal of 9 0 or under. And for months the number has consistently been dropping. The numbers are dropping because of the hard work of our justice partners and also because Violent Crime rates are going down. Down 6 from last year precovid19. The people who are being held in cj4 include people like terry who is recently featured on a american podcast who is a 64yearold veteran who has been in jail for over a year with burglary charges. Member that 60 is there pretrial meaning they havent been convicted of a crime. Too many of the jail population are people awaiting treatment or transitional housing who really should be in other programs and facilities rather than being incarcerated. And finally, covid19 has forced us to expedite releases in ways and we should be evaluating and learning from as we plan for the closure of county jail no. 4. As of last friday, the jail population was 699, and as i mentioned today, it is 696. Almost 345 or more under the threshold needed to close the jail. Now with covid19t jails are implementing Public Safety measures to create physical distancing to the extent possible in this kind of congregate setting, but this is all incredibly hopeful for the ultimate and inevitable goal of closing this facility safely. All of that said, this legislation is going to be creating a mandate to close the facility that everyone agrees needs to be closed. Only on a more aggressive timeline, but it has been 24 years since the jail was deemed to be site unsafe and slated for demolition. And the conditions have only gotten worse. This mandate is long overdue. Administrator kelly wanted the jail closed by the end of 2019 and informed the sheriff to call the facility depressing, decrepit and an embarrassment. Every city leader agrees this Facility Needs to close, so lets do what needs to be done, permanently close county jail number four. Since january my office has been working closely with the sheriff to address issues with the legislation as well as reaching out to labor unions, my colleagues on the board, and i have worked hard on the amendments to address concerns that have arisen, and i am confident that we have been able to make this a thoughtful and responsible piece of legislation while still bold. Colleagues, i present to you a summary of the amendments i am sharing with you today that i hope you will accept. Changes inmate and offender to person first language and in alignment with prior board resolutions. Remove the deadline for meet and confer based on advice from the City Attorney. And upon request from the sheriff, adjust key language to acknowledge the legal authority. Upon the request of the sheriff, add language that expressly says the renovation of county jail number two is not prohibited. Upon request of the sheriff, direct the Sub Committee to develop plans in the event of the jail population spike above the 90 capacity once county jail no. 4 is closed. Upon request from the sheriff, direct the subcommittee to take measures to protect Public Health and prevent the spread of covid19 in the jails including building into the two required reports and an assessment of the impact of covid19 and related policy recommendations for physical distancing and temporary housing. This also includes a clause that speaks to the intent of the board of supervisors to prevent layoffs and job loss as it relates to the jail closure. I want to take a moment to acknowledge the hardworking staff at county jail number four. I realize legislation like this will trigger a meet and confer process, but i want to say on the record that i will do Everything Possible for those workers to retain that their jobs and i hope my cosponsors had the same commitment. Further more, the sheriff has told us he believes existing staff can be incorporated into existing organizational structure. With that, id like to acknowledge that we have some speakers that we have invited today. Sheriff niamoto, the District Attorney, and public defender to represent the meeting and share comments as they have been each engaged deeply with my office as we try to craft this legislation. We have dr. Lisa pratt from the jail health, and ken from the Deputy Service association and also in attendance to answer any questions. With that i have speaker sheriff paul niamoto, and the District Attorney and the public defender. Thank you, colleagues. Perhaps we can hear from the commissioner first. Sheriff . Hi. Good morning. I dont know if i have appeared on the video here yet. Can you see me . You are live. Awe thank you. We can certainly hear you. Okay. Thank you. Good morning to everyone, members of the committee. Members of the board who are present and also everybody here this morning. I appreciate the time and consideration given to some comments on my part regarding this legislation. I want to make it very clear for everybody that i support the closure of county jail 4 for housing of justice involved persons. I am very grateful to supervisor fewer and her staff for working with us on the changes and the edits that she referenced that will ensure we have flexible to accommodate the capacity needs we have should the population count change in elected months and as elected is our responsibility to remain thoughtful and measured plans and i truly appreciate the opportunity to make sure that this will be crafted as responsible legislation. As a sheriff, i have the duty to provide housing for justice involved to make sure that ensures a meeting the needs of the constitutional standards that are required. And to provide those constitutional standards, i am appreciative of the effort to alter the legislation language. I cant ignore the needs of the people who are just as involved that are incarcerated. Parameters are always changing including providing a safe Living Environment, not limited to the reduction of risk factors such as the potential for physical harm to otherses, not limited to some of the limitations we have in regard to medical risks, not just related to Infectious Disease but also some things that we have experienced historically at county jail 4 such as sewage spills. There is also litigation involving access to sunlight and other needs for those who are incarcerated. Needs that were not met by county jail 4, its structure, or content. I am very happy having worked with the department my entire career to have the opportunity to be a part of this change in closing county jail 4 as a facility we use z a referenced by supervisor fewer earlier. We all feel that it is not a humane it is an out of date structure which we have for years now worked on moving out of. Moving us forward in with respect with this legislation is something that we support and we continue to support. I reference the risk of Infectious Diseases in our congregate setting and i want to point out that weve always had that concern z. Now in light of a new concern with covid19, one of which our entire community has experienced the effects of, we require some changes in the way we do things. Such requirements such as physical distancing personing from each other. I do want to point out right no that as of time thanks to the efforts collectively of all the people referenced by supervisor fewer, our partners in the Justice System, we havent had a single outbreak of any justiceinvolved persons in our congregate Living Environment with a positive case of covid19. Weve had two instances where those coming into the testimony were tested positive and both were isolated and released under the protocols to prevent such an outbreak in our jails. Although we have had five Staff Members tested positive, they successfully quarantined and were kept separate from the population and did not result in any outbreaks. Its only possible for us to achieve this success with the reduction in the count as referenced by supervisor fewer as well as the flexibility in where we have people if their living housing arrangements in our system. Even at the historically low count that we have, cj4 has been utilized as a potential resource, and i appreciate the changes to the language where we have included the ability to be flexible in where and when we house people in the event there are changes in the population count, although we share the goal of keeping our count at the 90 capacity for two and five, we do recognize that such is the emergency created by covid19, there may be the need to house in a different type of medical setting. I want to thank supervisor fewer and her staff for helping to alter the language which is more minimal to meeting our needs there. I do want to point out at this time that there is some ongoing work that i believe and my staff believes still needs to be done in relation to the utilization of space to address the need for the construction of or the renovation of the kitchen at county jail two. Currently county jail four has the kitchen which is used to make sure that we have meals for not just county jail four but also county jail two and county jail one located at 850 brian and the hall of justice and 425 7th street. And that need while we are moving forward with construction plans on the cj2 renovation, we are concerned and want to make sure there are assurances that the language could not prohibit us from being able to keep the kitchen open at county jail four if the need arises and we were working on this a language and i know that we continue to work on these things, and i appreciate that. I do want to mention that our one advantage in regards to covid19 crisis and space and effectively distance people who are incarcerated and we are concerned because the november 1 date that we are trying to reach with the plans to move out of the jail are contingent on the belief we are going to move out in june of next year, but as i stated earlier, we are working with everyone to move out by november 1 and i think with the slight adjustment for the kitchen use and assurances that language will be in there that allow for us to take that into consideration if there is a problem or change in the conditions at cj2s construction project is not going to finish by november 1, i just want to make sure that we have language in there that is flexible for us to maintain the operation of the kitchen past the november 1 date. I actually feel, too, and this is not something that weve talked about with the supervisor, but i feel confident because weve already worked towards changing cj4 population and incorporating it into the rest of the population, i feel confident that we can move people out prior to november 1 date if there are no external factors that affect us in terms of the surge in a covid19 outbreak or pandemic in terms of an outbreak in the jail. While i am very proud of and very happy for the successes we have experienced in keeping it out of the jail, i am also to be prudent and have to plan for the worse Case Scenarios and in the event we have an outbreak, we need adequate spacing needs addressed for the population. In closing again, i want to mention that we are here to work and continue to work with everyone to ensure that we have the language necessary for that flexibility. I do know that there are some additional meetings coming up that we discussed this and i apologize right now for my lack of experience in the legislative process, but i do feel that i no ethat this is going to i do know that this is going before the committee for a vote today, and i know there is an interest in accelerating the timeline as evidenced by the waiver of some of the threeday things that supervisor fewer referenced for president yees assistance. I wanted to at this time just state that if we have an additional two weeks to work on the language or that additional time, i dont think it will affect our ability to pass this legislation and move forward with meeting that november 1 date just as long we iron out the one thing left regarding kitchen use. Thank you for your time, supervisors, and thank you for the opportunity to present this. Thank you so much, sheriff. And we can just move to the other presenters and then we will have an opportunity to comment and engage and discuss the overall presentation. District attorney chase boudin. Im sorry i am not able to get the video link work. We are having technical difficulties, but i hope everyone can hear me via telephone. I want to thank supervisor fewer for introducing the proposed legislation to close county jail no. 4. I want to thank supervisors haney, walton, peskin and mar for joining as cosponsors and the justice sponsors who have committed to the work to close this inhumane and seismically unfit facility. Research experience has shown us that careful, deliberative can support Public Health and with jail mental status and the reentry partners and staff who work to safely and quickly reduce the jail population is down by over 40 since january of 2020 when i took office. These efforts included early releases for 42 people in response to covid19. Of those 42 individuals released, 93 stayed arrest free through their originally scheduled release date and 86 have no been arrested at all. These numbers are far louer than typical recidivism rates and across the country. Crime rates are down. That validates the careful and deliberative approach all of us have taken in determines which people to release from condition and under which conditions. Now, to safely close county jail 4 we need to not just reduce the population but maintain the jail reduction, the population reduction that weve seen in the last several months. To do that, we need solutions that address who is sitting in the jail and we need to invest resources to get them out and keep them out. That means upstream interventions. It means reentry planning. San francisco has done a great job to slow the jail population to the hardest to treat population. We see in we look closely at the drive in the current jail population. According to the Controllers Office and associates, the key drivers of the jail population fall into three main categories. First, those booked and released within a few hours or under three days. Second, those released more than once in a year with multiple short clinton lengths of stay in the jail. And third, those who spend many months or many years in some cases in custody before their cases are resolved or their sentences completed. Solutions to address the first category include providing First Responders with the resources to direct individuals to access treatment, care, and support 24 hours a day, seven days a week as an alternative to jail. The citys made steps in this direction, but there is much room for improvement in expanding treatment on demand and resources and tools available to our First Responders as alternatives to jail. Solutions to address the second point and multiple bookings in the year and with the support that alternative and collaborative courts and into the options available to the traditional with the nuanced understanding and to do a better job of providing the services, supports and supervision from that report over and over again. And with the superior efforts and Defense Council and my office that expedite case resolutions and with the backlog of cases and with the next opportunity and several years and more sufficiently in the past. And no single collusion will maintain a safe jail population with the multifaceted approach from the justice partners and with the relaxing the jail population. The safety with the restorative under the leaderships and to with the strategies and releasing the least restrictive form and while reserving the Public Safety and to do with the california constitutions and work with the concepts to focus on myths and the headlines and to have the efforts of rehabilitation to provide support for the auspices of the sentences communication and in the criminal Justice System and the people necessary and in a way that is consistent with those whose lives are caught up and with the the Public Defenders Office, adult probation and the reentry council, the Family Violence council and many communities and with the impact and this broad group is prepared to the mantle forward and take on the responsibility of developing the plans and reports outlined in supervisor fewers bold legislation that is being considered today. And county jail number four as outlined in the legislation and are complimentary to those funded by that areas and with the safer and more effective system and prearrest and predivergent strategies to emphasize with the reduction and that are involved in the Justice System and rooting out disparities, particularly Racial Disparities. Each of the strategies is designed to emphasize fairness and income protection. We know that we can do a better job at keeping the opportunities safe than simply having the jail serve as a revolving door and simply using each arrest to put someone in jail again for an ash rare length of time. We can do better by focussing on root causes of crime and investing in prevention and healing and do better by giving victims a voice and with the root causes of crime to the not warehouse human beings and rather than rush to up end or delay Justice Reform furing this pandemic with a deep structural change to a Justice System that values healing over retribution and devotes resources that are data tested, empirical and healing the most vulnerable members of our society. Thank you for your time and leadership on this issue. I am joined by tom anderson from my office and to respond to any questions. Now i wanted to share some perspectives if interested and our public defender such as supervisor fewer and public defender. Go ahead. To share your perspectives. We also have other we also have a member from the Public Defenders Office as well. And the Public Defenders Office before we move into questions from colleagues and Public Comment. I think he was planning to be here so let me try to find out. I apologize for that. And i will be available for any questions if anyone has questions from our office. For our office, i should say. We can go to my colleagues for questions or comments. I will start. I want to thank supervisor fewer and the staff for working on this really important legislation. And thank District Attorney boudin and public defender and the sheriff to make sure that we get the ordinance right. So this is very clearly needed. [inaudible] and to close county jail 4 and the inmate population there. And with the perspective puff mr. Chair, i am very sorry to interrupt. Are you able to hear me . Yes. Were having some connecttivety issues. Am i having audio problems . We are having some problems hearing all of what you are saying. I. T. Staff from the Clerks Office is coming down to your office because we see you are in city hall and they able to troubleshoot the audio, but i want to let you know we are having a few connectivity issues cutting in and out of the call. Okay. Chair supervisor fewer. Thank you, chair mar. Thank you for recognizing me. I am wondering if we should start to start Public Comment while they are working on your computer and also as we wait for the public defender. I think there are many people in the queue waiting to speak. Thank you. That sounds good. Lets move to comment and to join to speak and mr. Clerk, can you is a facilitate the Public Comment . Yes, mr. Chair. Thank you very much. And operations will check to see if we have any callers in the queue. Press 1 and o to be ahhed to queue. For those already on hold in the queue, wait until you are prompted to begin at the beep. For those watching the meeting on San Francisco cable channel 26 or via a streaming link or sfgov tv, if you wish to speak, call in by following the instructions on the screen. And ak ses code 3501008 for the access code and press pound twice to be connected to the call. And once you are connected to the call, press 1 and 0 to enter the cue to speak. There are a number of callers in the cue. You have 27 questions remaining. First caller, your two minutes begin now. I am calling on behalf of president of the Deputy Sheriffs Association and will read the following statements and with regard to county jail four to close and particularly in this time of economic crisis this is of concern. To reassess the current lauchlt needs and whether its economic savings or increasing Law Enforcement for the department. And i want to thank the supervisors for the careful approach to making sure this does not lead to any reduction in our work force of 85 deputies or reduction in the 94 fulltime positions. Thank you. Thank you. Connect us to the next speaker please. You have 26 questions remaining. Thank you. Next caller, your two minutes begins now. Caller, please begin. Hello. I am director of communications and social media manager with the transgender and intersex justice project. On behalf of the name to provide supervisor fewers to close county jail 4 and with the electronic mon the organize and jail construction. And a group of transgender and intersex people inside and outside of prison and jails and with the United Family and advocate for the criminal and vulnerable community. Transagenda arenaed who are currently or having previously in prison. And with the jailing and 8 50 and to have the marginalized and to allow the community to drive. And for that to happen and lack of access to quality jobs. And health care, housing and programming. And the way we build strong and safe communities and by building the building of resources that make them thrive. I urge you to pass the ordinance and electronic monitoring for more jail construction. Thank you. Thank you, speaker. Connect us to the next speaker please. You have 26 questions remaining. Good morning, speaker. I am brian cam, a Deputy Sheriff and also on the board of directors with the Deputy Sheriff association. My current assignment is at the department of Emergency Management on turk street. The other day an officer came by and mentioned that he had seen us on the street and that we had been handling police calls. The officer said that he appreciated our help. I thanked him and said it was glad that it was working out. If county jail 4 closes soon, we are at risk of losing jobs. Please consider the positions for us to fill outside of the jail thank you. Thank you for the comment. Connect us to the next speaker please. For the record, that was supervisor aaron peskin and thank you for your service. You have 25 questions remaining. Thank you p. Next speaker, your two minutes begins now. Caller hi, my name is maria and i am a resident of San Francisco, lifetime resident of San Francisco, and wanted to first say thank you for making the changes t amendments to the proposed legislation. I know many of us were highly concerned at the original proposed language, so i appreciate the changes. I do want to ask, though, a couple of questions and would like some things to be kept in mind as you proceed to revise this bill. First of all, how is this bold . And we all agree it needs to be close and moving up the timeline isnt really bold. It is, however, concerning because when you work on a much, much reduced timeline to handle a complex matter such as this, especially in the middle of a pandemic when everyone is looking other directions and trying to manage other emergencies at the at the same time, and i think that this is fraught with the risk of massive mistakes and i am just concerned. What i would like is for the public to be appraised prior to the closing of the jail of exactly what has been done and where every Single Person currently house there had is going to go housed there is going to go. I think we have the right to know, that and i think especially the victims of the crimes have the right to know that. And so i hope that that can be included in this legislation and as it proceeds that you will make public exactly what youre doing and how you are handling the removal of all of these people from this particular space. And i also do have you have 23 questions remaining. Thank you for your comments. Next caller hi, i am sell chi, the Outreach Coordinator with the coalition on homelessness. I think it is ridiculous that 850 bryant is closed and needs to be closed. Not only has it been structurally dangerous for decades and now with covid19 and mixed with the unsanitary conditions is a constitutional violation subjecting those in prison to cruel and unusual punishment. 850 hurts our community and our most vulnerable residents. I see that 40 of those incarcerated are homeless upon imprisonment, and that we annually spend 20 million on policing quality of life, resulting in unsheltered people being subjected to harassment and disruption and confiscation of their tents and personal belongings, it is difficult to not feel San Francisco criminalizes homelessness and poverty. We need to close 850 and stop the Revolving Doors that perpetuates criminalization, homelessness and poverty. I grew up in poverty witnessing this revolving door ant not only my community but my family, especially my mother whose biggest crime was being chronically homeless, mentally ill, and an addict. We need a Community Approach to healing and reconciliation, and closing 850 bryant will free up the muchneeded revenue for those programs. Housing being at the top of that list. The Research Shows that Housing First works, and unlike incarceration, drastically improves not only individuals, fizz Mental Health, but our communitys as well. If covid19 has taught us anything, it has taught us that the health of one of us is dependent on the health of all of us. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Connect us to the next speaker. You have 22 questions remaining. Good morning, caller. Your two minutes begins now. Caller good morning, and thank you, supervisors. I am ron stickel, direct of Justice Services at sunset youth services. I do want to thank you for your time, first of all, and the invitation to talk about such a difficult issue. I do believe it is so crucial to the health of some of the most vulnerable members of the community as well as the city. In the past 29 years of working with incarcerated transitional age teens i was become more and more convinced that the Current System of incarceration our Justice System is an unacceptable amount of harm on this population. Many of those that become involved in this system do so because the trauma they have suffered through the course of their lives brings them to the point where this is survival. It is unacceptable to inflict more trauma on them so that the most likely path will simply be more of the same. The same philosophy that is corning the restructure of the juvenile probation system applies to this conversation. It is essential that instead of piling on, we get to the point where we are disrupting the damage done and providing a therapeutic environment that serves rather than, quote, handles people. An environment that is necessary for health and group. This, coupled with the atrocious conditions of cj4 that we all know about, we need to ask for your support for supervisor fewers ordinance. Or many different locations youth that i have been working with complained about the conditions of cj4. Now, i am not talking just about simple uncomfortable situations like bad lights and bad food, but multiple instances of things like backed up sewer systems that go uncheck and unhealthy, dangerous broeting conditions. And it is also well known to those that are incarcerated that it is not an earthquake safe building. This alone adds to the stress and trauma of many. I am more than happy to hear specific stories and of individuals who have allowed me to to anyone who is interested in talking about that in the future. And for now, i do thank you for your time and for your attention and for listening. [please stand by. Shift resources where needed. The alternative to jail before and after trial and programs and infra strucinfrastructure. We thank the supervisors on this committee. We ask you to continue to support this ordinance and ask any supervisors to rise to the occasion to close that jail after 24 years of inaction. Bypassing the ordinance, San Francisco has the power to close it and will take a step to close the chapter in San Francisco. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. You have 22 questions remaining. Good morning. Your two minutes begins now. Thank you. I am emily lee, director of San Francisco rising, multi Racial Alliance in San Francisco. We support the closure of cj4. Grateful to supervisor fewer and the cosponsors of the legislation. The reason why all of us are supporting this is because we know that communities of color disproportionally impacted by policing and racial profiling. That is true in county jail 4 where 50 of the population is black. Black residents make up less than 3 of our population in San Francisco. I think other speakers have said the same thing, but i want to highlight that during this crisis, you know, with covid where is it important to close the jail now during this pandemic. We are only as healthy as our neighbor who shops at the same Grocery Store or the homeless who rely on the hospitals for care or seniors in nursing homes. It is our responsibilities to prioritize the most vulnerable during covid19. 40 of the jail population is unhoused. Jails are not appropriate. There are shelters, living on the street is not appropriate during this crisis. I want be to emphasize for those released there must be access to hotel rooms to shelterinplace. I am thankful about the legislation moving forward and making a historic act today for all of San Francisco and for all of us to be proud of. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. You have 21 questions remaining. Good morning, speaker. Your two minutes begins now. I am vanessa. I am a resident of district 1 and educator with the San Francisco unified school district. Thank you supervisors for your support on the ordinance to require the city to close county jail four by november 1, 2020. My work centers with the feeling of students and families that are impacted by centuries of racist anti poverty city policies. The students are overwhelming affected by the prison industrial complex. The Detention Centers only exacerbate the Emotional Health in name of control and punishment instead of care. The system of criminalization c. The entire city flourishes. Stopping the outofcounty transfers and end the expenses through electronic monitoring are essential for caring for all San Francisco residents, especially when over 43 are house less, 50 of the jail population is africanamerican with a city of 5 population and 25 are transitional age youth. The health and dig neof each of us have bound to the dignity of all of us. As long as it is open it will be dangerous to creating Healthy Communities for all sf residents. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Next speaker, please. You have 20 questions remaining. Good morning, speaker. Your two minutes begins now. Thank you. I am kevin gallagher, case manager with compass family services. Thank you for holding this session. I work in my Organization Subsidy program where the job is to help families transition from homeless necessary to housing. This is difficult and requires high level support. Jails are valuable resources and marginal Public Safety issues and take those away. I work with families with parents of a history of improvements. We know lack of housing is target of Law Enforcement. I have seen this in my own work. No mention of the hardships we know the jails and prisons inflict on parents and children. Closing this will not only free up resources but take an active step towards reducing harm towards the back and brown families in the city. I am supporting the families and individuals in San Francisco. I hope you continue this support. Thank you. Thank you very much for your comment. Can you connect us to the next speaker please. You have 19 questions remaining. Good morning, your two minutes begins now. I am julie and i speak on behalf of showing up for racial justice. Thank you for your leadership. We want to echo the calls to close 850 bryant without transfers to other jails. It is heartbreaking to talk with friends and families whose loved ones died. The Racial Disparities of black folks are immoral. Search sf knows the white siblings participate in the same activities and families are diverted from incarceration. Before the covid the monetary costs of keeping this open were too high. This has made it more urgent. We shouldnt have people in the hot zone for covid19 because they cant afford to pay bail. I appreciate that 80 of the folk havent been convicted. Closing this will save over 25 million per year, and we know we have much more important priorities to watch housing, healthcare, mental and Substance Abuse treatment. I come from a small lumber town. The prison opened Domestic Violence spiked among those who worked in the prison. There is important work in San Francisco that doesnt involve Holding People in gauges. We are asking the board of supervisors to protect the lives of those incarcerated and working in the jail to close 850 bryant. We dont have time to wait. Thank you. Thank you very much for your comments. Next speaker, please. You have 18 questions remaining. Good morning, speaker. Your two minutes begins now. I am marcus. I am an organizer of the union at the college of San Francisco. I am representing them. 21 is happy to support this ordinance to close the jail at 850 bryant to make San Francisco safer. We will support those most vulnerable. 850 bryant is known for poverty and drug addiction with many of these held in pretrial proceedings. Jails do not make it better. Mental health, counseling and education do. We have worked hard to provide education for San Francisco regulationresidents. We believe education and Public Safety go hand in hand. We hope the city continues to shape the resources where they need it most to city college and Community Organizations that support homelessness and Mental Illness and addiction. We appreciate the work of the supervisors in closing the jail as well and thank you for listening to the community. On a personal note i have seen a lot of the people at 850 through different interactions in the community, and i definitely think that it is important that this jail be closed as soon as possible without moving people to other detention facilities and without expanding the jail through electronic monitoring or other sources of community punishment. Thank you, supervisor fewer. Thank you very much for your comments. Can you connect us to the next speaker, please. You have 18 questions remaining. Good morning, your two minutes begins now. Good morning, supervisors. I am margaret sullivan, a lifelong resident of San Francisco. I am opposing the legislation as it is currently written. I do agree that jail number 4 is delapdated and needs removed. I am against legislation to prevent the sheriff from doing his job to protect the public. The current legislation takes away the sheriffs right to add other jails after jail 4 is closed. This doesnt make sense and is irresponsible. The sheriff released nonviolent prisoners due to covid19 virus. We dont want dangerous prisoners reoffending. There are dangerous people that need to be in jail. Let the sheriff and Health Officials keep inmates and the general public safe. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Can you connect us to the next speaker, please. You have 17 questions remaining. Good morning, speaker. Your two minutes begins now. I am dillon anderson. I am born and raised in San Francisco and with the Justice Committee of the socialists of america. I want to express my appreciation for closing the jail. My fellow organizers in the Justice Committee concern for incarcerated people is at the forefront of minds and hearts. We recently worked to provide everyone jailed by San Francisco with Hand Sanitizer and letter of support. One letter describes the jail as physical and emotional abuse. No one should be in a cage. Jails and incarceration bring more harm to the communities not less. It shatters lives of those in jail and causes ripples to families for generations destabilizing the entire community. Closing this will improve live. There is no better time than right now to close the jail. We have the opportunity to show this will make our Community Healthier and stronger. Preventing the expansion of electronic monitoring is essential part of the ordinance to what will become a more just and safe San Francisco. I give my possible urgence to pass the ordinance and close the jail at 850 bryant once and for all. Thank you very much for your comments. Can you please connect us to the next speaker. You have 16 questions remaining. Good morning. Your two minutes begins now. Good morning, supervisors. I am a resident of district 8 and could chair of homeless Emergency Service providers and policy director at compass services. Our purpose is to achieve housing stability and wellbeing. We definitely do not need the facility at 850 bryant as an asset. It is important now more than ever that we safe our most Vulnerable People in the impacted communities by housing security and covid19. We support the supervisors efforts to elevate the issues and close the facility. We advocate the supervisors move this for consideration without the use of electronic monitoring, outofcounty transfers and new jail construction. It is important to note incarcerations impacts Family Finances and homelessness and income. When pair events experience homelessness parents experience joblessness it is not just the basics but all of the things to help them grow and succeed in school. Children suffer emotionally when parents who are supposed to come home for dinner dont come home. They have uncertainty about what will happen to the family. The big picture these burdens show up as behavioral problems later and huge gaps in opportunities that impact poor communities of color. I think we need to break the cycles now. Thank you for your support of this important matter. Can you connect us to the next speaker, please. You have 16 questions remaining. Good morning, speaker. Your two minutes begins now. I am christine mitchell, researcher at human impact partners, National Nonprofit in oakland to support the closure of 8 850 bryant. I am on the wave ways the criminal system impacts health. They are worst outcomes including higher rates of h. I. V. , chronic disease and lower life expectancies. Jails are a place of spread of disease. Physical distances is impossibility. Now in light of covid19 keeping people locked up in jails and cages is a death sentence. Prisons and jails are becoming sites of the worst outbreaks in the u. S. Extending to the surrounding communities. Public Health Experts at american Public Health, neweninw england schools of medicine and director of jailhouse services called for d de d de canceratioe only way to address it. At 850 bryant they have been concerned with covid19 we must take urgent action and close the jail immediately without use of electronic monitoring or transferring to other and sanitary jails to prevent illness and death. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Next speaker, please. You have 16 questions remaining. Good morning. Your two minutes begins now. Good morning. I am brandy. I am an organizer with coleman advocates. I am here calling for the community t to pass the ordinane to close 850. The black and brown income families and our youth this is close to our heart. A quarter is the age where there are a large number of people that are parents. There is a Good Opportunity to break drowned on the future for ground for the future of our children. We want to make sure we are not perpetuating toxic cycles of incarceration putting it to a solution the entire community can benefit from. I think passing this ordinance will also change how we handle harm in the city because we wont be sleeping in the jails but implementing strategies to prevent harm and bring about accountability in ways that are productive to healing. It is important to note throughout the schools in San Francisco we are calling for youth to incest in just to invest in justice. We can facilitate when they leave school to the community. I think keeping the jail means we tell the youth the most support in the city if you make a mistake or struggle with Mental Health issues or black or brown is the jail system. I want to thank supervisor fewer and the other supporting supervisors for being bold enough to step up to change that and put the community first. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Can you please connect us to the next speaker. You have 15 questions remaining. Good morning, speaker. Your two minutes begins now. I am frank nato. I am happy to hear the amends today but i urge amendments to complete the renovations and allow continued use of the jail whenness. We have heard from plenty of groups supporting the jail speaking from their viewpoint today. There are no representatives of victims. I am here for stop crime San Francisco, 1,000 members in San Francisco including many victims. Of course, jail four is delapdated and must close eventually. Before that happened the sheriff must renovate the remaining jails. Other wise this means criminals will be released in the streets. Prohibits moving inmates to outofcounty facilities and engages electronic devices. Many of you mentioned the need for better Mental Health improvements. We do not know the future of crime in San Francisco. Past history says reduction in emergencies like covid19 may be called by a surge in serious and property crimes. There is a chance of riots, disturbances or violence from those opposed to shelterinplace orders, not to mention the San Francisco high level of property crimes. The risk of coronavirus in jail is real. We must allow the sheriff and Health Officials to do their job to keep inmates safe an. The sheriff must have the ability to renovate remaining jails if demanded. I support the amendments today. You have 14 questions remaining. Thank you for your comments. Please connect us to the next speaker. I am a Family Doctor in San Francisco and member of the do not harm coalition. Thank you for your hard work. I am up at night worrying what is going to happen to my patients, their family members and those incarcerated. I see what is happening in prisons and jails in ohio and new jersey. 100 people incancervated died from covid19. In some facilities 80 of the people are infected. Prison is not a place where the transmission can be prevented. It is scarier when i think about the terrible conditions at cj4. It is filthy and falling apart. How can people protect themselves from the virus when sewage starts leaking again. This has been a Public Health nightmare before the pandemic hit. Incarceration is a Public Health crisis longer. The threats of increase the urgency of getting people out of jail as quickly as possible. I am glad the District Attorney has shown leadership and progress on this. It is irresponsible to leave anybody inside cj4. We have known that is building is not safe. In the time of crisis, i it is critical the city shut down 850 bryant once and for all. Thank you. Next speaker, please. You have 13 questions remaining. Good morning your two minutes begins now. I am freddie. I am a member of sky watchers, and i am also a native of San Francisco. I do organizing specifically with senior and disabled communities. Thank you for your support on this ordinance, and i agree that it should be closed. County jail number 4 should be closed without outofcounty transfers, electronic monitoring and jail bed construction. I am speaking on the most Vulnerable People in the population. It is so unhealthy and unsafe in so many ways. I cant imagine the fear and deadly things that incarcerated folks must feel now with the covid19 pandemic. Imagine if one of your loved ones were there . How would you want them taken care of . As one of the deputies said earlier, it is inhumane. I just feel like we need to accept and close down 850 bryant, jail number 4, for good. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. You have 12 questions remaining. Welcome. Your two minutes begins now. I am kelly. I am with the family who has been incarcerated. 30 year resident of San Francisco and former worker of the jail of San Francisco. The speakers are opposed to incarceration in general. Violent crime is increasing in San Francisco. They dont enforce crimes committed. I agree with the letter that was written to supervisor fewer. The sheriff asked to propose any action until this has ended. The sheriff needs flexibility to keep inmates safe during the coronavirus epidemic. Make it clear that the creation of subcommittee is advisory in nature. We cannot have legislation to restrict the sheriff from doing his job. Jail 4 is rundown and must close. The sheriff says this is irresponsible and threat to Public Safety to take away the ability to add beds to current jails. This law will not allow extra beds. Why does it say the sheriff cant add beds to other beds . The sheriff has released prisoners. The sheriff cant release every prisoner and needs flexibility. This law ties his hands. He must let the Health Official deuce their job to keep the general public safe. We should listen to experts in the field. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Can you connect us to the next speaker, please. You have 11 questions remai remaining. Good morning. I am with the resource and organizing center representing arab communities in the San Francisco bay area. We urge the Jail Committee to pass the proposed ordinance to not only close jail 4 and provide d de canceration and Community Safety for not only california but the entire cut be tree. Arabs in the San Francisco bay area are no strangers to incarceration. Jails and prisons make streets less safe for everybody. Tearing families apart apdraining resources and encouraging violence. They punish the poor, immigrants and people of color. These are starkker in the economic crisis. They are subjected to cruel punishment and nobody should belong in a cage. This provides a solution and path forward to a new vision of Community Safety. We oppose attempting jail four or displacing the violence through transfers and new jails. Policing in prisons are not the answer. De canceration and healthcare and nutrition food and Mental Health and Substance Abuse treatment are the answers. This is he strong vision of de canceration in the city and model for legislation for the state and the country. Thank you for your time on this ordinance today. Can you connect us to the next speaker, please. You have 10 questions remains. Good afternoon, you have two minutes. I am olivia parks. I am a medical student as member of the do not harm coalition. I was born and raised in San Francisco with loved ones incarcerated. As i enter the world with a masters in Public Health. The work deals that is insurmountable. This would reduce the jail census to transfer to sandra reda. Closing the stark humiliating past giveses San Francisco a opportunity to right the wrongs of history by investing in the histories burdened by inequities rather than subjecting to inhumane conditions. It is the no surprise incarcerations worsens underlying illness. It is impossible for those in custody to not experience trauma. As we know, stress and trauma have long lasting impacts. The soul experience of incarceration is a risk factor for chronic decisions. They are 10 times as likely to be homeless. We need to invest in the healing of the community not making them sick. We need to start attending to wounds of slavery. We can model what is possible for the rest of the nation by closing cj4 and reducing jail sentencing. Thank you supervisors supporting this legislation for the opportunity to right our wrongs and for imagining a place safe for everyone not just privileged, white and wealthy. Thank you so much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon. I am meredith sarah, a long time resident of San Francisco. We have heard from a lot of impassioned people in favor of the incancer rated. We can agree county jail 4 must be closed. I am glad the supervisors were able to work with sheriff and reach the amendments to the legislation. I would ask that you keep the safety of San Francisco residents in mind as well as th incancer rated. Thank you. Thank you very much for your comments. You have eight questions remaining. You have two minutes. I am angela jenkins. Thank you, supervisor fewer for the resolution to close 850 bryant. I support this resolution. I little thank all of the organizations that have worked to make this thing come together. Thank you for allowing me to address this item. Thank you. Thank you, speaker. Can you connect us to the next speaker, please. You have seven questions remaining. Good afternoon, speaker. Two minutes. I am a director with a National Organization that challenges the idea of imprisonment of surveillance and control and the complex to keep it safe. Part of the coalition have been a working on this for a while. I really want to start by thanking supervisor fewer for the leadership and action to finally close 850 and to thank each of the supervisors for cosponsoring the legislation. It has long needed to close. No better time than now. Keeping 850 open despite what some will argue is not going to help litigate covid19. Public Health Experts have warned that jails are petri dishes. It is impossible to social distance in jail. The way they are built are to confine people in close spaces. The solution is incarceration. Three things in the movement that should be important lessons to us. One, if there is anything this pandemic taught us, there was nothing stopping us before from lowering the jail population. Covid19 has compelled us to stop caging as many people we could have not camed as many people before. Second, it has shown that i am prisonment does not create more safety. Our jail population today is at the level of the 1950s. The city is not less safe, contrary to what some of the people have said. Lastly what it taught us we should prioritize healthcare and housing all along. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Two minutes. Good morning. This is debly from the San Francisco Human Services network. We support the ordinance to close county jail four. It will address the disparities in criminal justice, develop nonjail alternatives to vulnerable individuals and ensure safety of those incarcerated or working there. It will save millions of dollars we need for Vital Services as we recover from the coronavirus pandemic. Thank you supervisor fewer and all of you who expressed support and worked towards this goal. Thank you. Next speaker, these. You have six questions remaining. Good afternoon. Two minutes. Hello i am alice. I am a lifetime resident of San Francisco. I want to thank the board for their changes to the legislation, and i will ask you to allow the sheriff to make the renovations to the jails as needed. Today speaks on behalf of victims of crime. They are lost in the shuffle here. I am not opposed to closing the jail, but i am concerned about rushing the process of closing the jails. We cannot solve the Public Health crisis at the expense of victims and Public Safety. Another concern is that rushing the closure ever 85 850 will not allow time for reentry of inmates into the communities. Already the nonviolent are released waiting court hearing, some with gps and many without. We must not release dangerous inmates to the communities. We trust the board of supervisors will honor the obligation to protect the lives of those in our communities from becoming victims of time. We depend upon you to fulfill this obligation. Thank you. Next speaker, please. You have five questions remaining. Good afternoon, speaker. Two minutes. Good afternoon. I am tony, secretary with the San Francisco Deputy Sheriff association. I appreciate the opportunity to speak and share that the president of the dsa is available to check in today. There is there is organized lab. The Committee Supports that concern. It has been expressed to you. Understanding the closure of county jail 4 potentially in the future does provide some really bright potential for the city and our members that would be displaced if the closure were to happen in other areas of service to the city. Enterprise apartments. Those directors may have a need for services that have been provided by the Deputy Sheriffs Association absheriff department under the sheriffs leadership. Really to know we are available to meet and speak with this committee around the process has always been the case. Wanting to thank on behalf of our president to the supervisors and all those supportive of the Deputy Sheriff association and labor in San Francisco that we look forward to working with you in this area and anything else dealing with betterment protection of san franciscans. Thank you for this opportunity to speak to you today. Thank you. Next speaker, please. You have five questions remaining. Good afternoon, speaker. Two minutes. I am cassidy. I am a lifelong resident of San Francisco. Human trafficking crusader. I understand closing on this condensed timeline will hurt the general public and we are not thinking about the victims enough. Opposing incarceration is not the issue here. The issue today is that this is not a safe way to close this jail. The sheriff said this jail has no cases so it is much, much safer to keep them in the state while there are no covid19 cases. Of course, yes, this jail will close, but all of the awful people inside these prisons who committed horrible crimes will stay in prison, just not this one that could pose a huge threat to their health. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. You have four questions remaining. Good afternoon, speaker. Two minutes. I am elainena, 38 year resident of San Francisco and mother of four and concerned citizen of the city. San francisco is bustling under the growing lack of keeping crime under control. The crime has made our city a joke and tragedy. People incounty jail 4 are not there inappropriately or accidentally. It is undown there is a growing intolerance toir reverence to Public Safety. This is frightening and confusing for those concerned for our childrens safety. If the Alternatives Solutions made by the active organizations were effective we would have scenery deduction in crime rather than increase. Safety must be the priority. As a citizen i would like to know where the people should be placed should the facility close. I agree we postpone the action until the state of emergency in california ends. The sheriff fields to house inmates. I agree that the language make it clear the creation of subcommittee to reduce the jail population is advisory. We cannot have legislation to restrict the sheriff from keeping the inmates and the general public were safe thank you very much. Can you please connect us to the next speaker. You have three questions remaining. Two minutes, speaker. I am lydia. I live in district 10 and work in district 9. I am a survivor of Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence. In the past i have been involved in the criminal Justice System. I am here not to just talk about myself but i am representing an organization. I am the coexecutive director at the Community United against violence serving h. I. V. Affected survivors with Domestic Violence be and hate violence and violence through the police. We explore healthy relationships and healthy communication skills. Aas the organization i support closing 850 bryant. Outofcounty transfers or electronic monitoring on the basis it will harm many more in the community. Thethey are more likely to have encounters with the legal system. Many of the folks who are formerly incancervated which adds trauma. Tageinwe cannot incarcerate oury out of safety. It comes from the transformin transformingtive justice practices. People having what they need to survive and thrive. Thank you for supporting this legislation to close 850 bryant. You have two questions remaining. You have two minutes. I am tony lee educator and i have a family in district one. I am counci confused. I care about getting rid of crimes and jails. Criminals are real. They roam our streets. Victims include women, children and families, many of us live here and just trying to get by. It is difficult. When you release criminals on the streets. I dont know if they are given masks or to know what to do about sheltering in place. Do they know what it means. We rely on the police. We have not found a substitute for jails. This could have been replaced with a modern facility five years ago when the city was offered 80 million for funding. I understand the justice seem needs reform. That cannot be done piecemeal getting rid of important prison facility that we have. We see very little being done to reassure safety. We feel more and more every year. Look at the quality of the data. Meet with the citizens like ourselves. There is fine details. Quantitative stats cannot describe. Go to next door, posts have to do withins stances where citizens have crime incidents in their lives. They fear leaving home is real. They dont know what to do about this. I do not support the release policies. I am concerned why nothing was done before now. This is short sited. I do not support it. I support an idea policy to build on or Institute Current levelses safety. You have one questions remaining. Two minutes. I am kim. I support the closing 850 bryant. It will save not only money but lives. A solid argument can be made it would be cheaper to teardown and rebuild than to restructure old and weak. Jails are dangerous. I can speak on a personal level. I had the experience of a Police Officer deciding to laugh while prisoners took turns assaulting me because i had a bad experience in my ptsd and disturbed them in the night so they taught me a lesson. It was authorized by the prison officers. If it hadnt have been they would have experienced the discipline. I have been unable to share the story. I knew it would never be believed. I experienced many others that should not. When the child enters the system their lives are destroyed. The s society is prejudiced. We have to help youth. It is enacting that we fail. There needs to be a place for youth to come to go to be safe. Places in hotel rather than jail. Bullying in a disease not a crime to the victims. They can knot defend themselves. It is for all traumatized to be taken care of so they are not killed because of misunderstanding. The hospitals are abusive. We have to help them and not lock them up. Programs of healing not incarceration are needed. It is proven the possibility of abuse is continual. This needs to be a safe plays with out bars. We need to change thinking and system to follow principal of healing instead of punishing. You have zero questions remaining. Thank you. Are there any further speakers . That completes the queue. Mr. Chair. Thank you, operations. Thank you, mr. Clerk. Public comment is now closed. Supervisor fewer, do you have any remarks to make . Or colleagues . Yes. I am very glad this ordinance is moving forward. My office is part of a Community Coalition that helped draft this ordinance from the very beginning, particularly Daniel Harris and caroline from my staff. I want to sincerely thank supervisor fewer and chief of staff for hard work in this legislation. This is truly an historic moment. The former reincarcerated members of the Community Advocates and activists really should take pride in what we have done. The work, will, effort and skilled thinking that has gone into getting us to this point. The covid19 crisis has shined a light on how important it is for us to look at all of our systems, everyone ever them including public safe through Public Health lens. This symbolizes a way to reimagine Public Health and safety. On behalf of our office, all clients and families, we are grateful for this. County jail number 4 has not been safed for a long time. The city settled a lawsuit filed by over 200 people subjected to raw sewage at cg4. Amid the coronavirus emergency several deputies and it shows that the virus knows no barriers. How this works most resent person there less than 48 hours tested positive was there approximately close do 30 deputies quarantined as a result of one person in the jail. That says something about the number of deputies physically in comment with one. 8 or 9 people, there were 40 that were quarantined because of one person who they didnt file a case on because the proof wasnt there and not serious where the person should be charged. That is why we have to be crucial at this point about who we decide to put in this. Jails are only one way to deal with Public Safety. There are other options to protect our community and take a much broader and longterm view of what safety is and what is needed to achieve it. We have a big opportunity to lead the way in reimagining what Public Health can look like. We have made Great Strides in the right direction. I am glad i heard the Public Comments before making my comments. The reality is the crime rates are down now. When you look at the people who it is in San Francisco county jail, 30 receive Behavioral Health services. 30 are house less. Over 50 are africanamerican, despite our population is in Single Digits in the city. As public offenders we are aware to inequities that lead to people being incars rated or not this. Is a wonderful opportunity to contemplate more investment on the front and inform in areas of housing, employment, environmental justice, and he had you case. It costs 2. 50 a day to lock them up. What value does that reflect . Could we use Community Support systems to keep our communities safer. People wonder about where people will be going. I encourage them to do Something Like attend a young adult graduation where you see transitional youth and families and how much progress can be made in several months of a focus program with social workers really committed. I encourage you to go to Treasure Island where people are learning financiallisterra turand developing stills and securing jobs in construction. Check out sunset youth service. [please stand by]. Mr. Chair, i believe your mic is muted. Thank you so much, public defender roger. I am so glad you were able to join. Supervisor fewer, did you have reflecting remarks . I believe there are two supervisors in the queue to speak. Supervisor haney. Thank you, chair mar. I think most everything has been said, but i do think that i want to take a moment to thank supervisor fewer for her leadership and her chief of staff chelsea boyard for the extraordinary work on this ard the partnership. We have been working on this together for several months and our public offender, District Attorney, the sheriff and the m many dozen of organizations that have come forward to provide comment and input into this. This jail has been slated for closure since 1996. Couple months ago i spoke with the city administrator who told me that the department of inspection could go in and red tag this building at any point. This is a building that has not just been unacceptable, but literally dangerous for the people who are confined there and work there. An earth could bring that entire subject down and is the subject of a lawsuit and the building is literally falling apart and the safely of confined there and to to provide with training and education and reintegrate them effectively into the community and that doesnt keep anybody safe. We should have Public Safety as the goal. It has to be the central focus and we can do better. And without the building that is not safe to be confined in or work in and definitely not a writes were able to effectively ensure that when people come out of there [inaudible] so i want to thank you, supervisor fewer, for your leadership and the incredible of the work of the folks at cj4 and that their voices continue to be included and central to this as well as well as our sheriff as we think about how to do this and make sure we do this right. I know that we want to make sure their roles and their jobs are p protected as well and you have been fully committed to that as part of the process. I want to echo that and thank everyone for their work on this. This has to be done right and is over 20 years we have known we had to close this jail, so lets bring all of the experts to the available. And lets make sure we do this effectively, smartly, and in a way that protects Public Safety. Thank you, supervisor haney. Supervisor peskin. Thank you, chairman mar. And many of the things have been reflected that i also wanted to say, but let me start by commending supervisor fewer and her staff. When supervisor fewer asked me to cosponsor this, i did so with the understanding she would collaborate from the sheriffs in good faith. She has done that every step of the way, and the amendments that are before us today are a reflection of that. To sheriff niamoto, i know this is not easy, but let me say that one of the things that we are committed to and many of us are going to be on the board during the period of the economic downturn and i want to express this publicly that we are making a commitment to sheriffs 85 or so to reemploy them and there are plenty of places to redeploy those individuals, so i want to put that on the record. And thank you for having the fartude to engage in the fortitude to engage in the discussions that have not been easy. When i first became a member of the board of supervisors, the daily consensus in our jails was over 3,000 individuals each and every day. After governor browns realignment that cans dropped by 1 3 that dropped by 1 3 and with the coronavirus pandemic, it is now 1 3 of that 1 3. In other words, we have dropped from 3,000 to 2,000 to 700 a day. And the numbers are the numbers. The amount of crime both Violent Crime and property crime have dropped markedly. It is our collective responsibility whether we are the d. A. , the public defender, the entire criminal Justice System to do that in a smart way and invest our dollars that we will be saving to do that. So i welcome that discussion and going forward. I am honored to be a cosponsor. It is kind of amazing to me that when i first became a supervisor exactly 20 years ago we had an imperative, a seismic safety imperative to close the entire facility at 8 50 bryant and thank you, supervisor fewer, for making that come true a generation later. Thank you, supervisor peskin. I would just add and echo the comments of both of my colleagues. Actually, first i wanted to thank the folks from the community who spoke on during Public Comment and sent communications and there are different perspectives in the community and with working on this to be a cosponsor and this and we urgently need to close the county jail number four and accelerate the timeline for that to health and safety reasons to expand Economic Opportunity for everyone and that is the more strategic area to acknowledge the staff for the 94 Deputy Sheriffs that are there to thank them for the review and the Health Pandemic to put them at risk and to insure we find other positions for them on the roles ahead to thank sheriff niamoto for working with the supervisor and set of amendments that have been presented today in a way that is responsible and doesnt undermine from the remarks. I want to agree with the legislation that said this is not this is necessary and a Public Health mandate and is the morally right thing to do to the Police Records out of a dangerous and sick building and one described as a ticking time bomb, it is the right thing to do and the open lack of light and air are a public crisis and the questions about covid19 and distancing is being addressed in the legislation and the group will come up with solutions to serve the sheriff and the jail system after jail no. 4 is no longer available to deal with the covid19 virus to meet this crisis and in relating to county jail two and i hope that the people who have called in have heard about the amendment that we have added and that the sheriff himself has requested and we accommodated and adds the language to have the renovation is not prohibited. This legislation is silent on the renovation of the rebuilding of another jail that is not the concern here to have the review that the mayor, stake holders and the board of supervisors. With the callers that asked about building the new jail, this is silent about it and to hear concerns about county jail number two with the extensive conversations about remodelling the kitchen and i know it is necessary and to be in conversation to hound them to start this construction and the money is there and i was just told by the chief of staff that construction will start immediately. Happy to have advocated for that on behalf of the jail system and the sheriff. I have already direct my staff and the jail being renovated and the kitchen to work on that immediately. I want to thank the Deputy Sheriff. I have worked at the hall of justice br and i know that most of you know my husband is real estate tired Police Officer and worked 35 years and knows and the hardworking Deputy Sheriffs as Law Enforcement officers in another part of our City Government and to thank the speakers and the partners for holding this special meeting and to thank my fellow supervisors and to say to everyone who has thanked me for this legislation and to transfer everything to you and to my legislative worker who has been working so hard on this legislation and to shelter in place with the young child a many of the conversations have been over the voice of her daughter wanting attention. And this has been complicated legislation in an absolutely labor of love driven by commitment to inclusiveness and responsible legislation and accommodating the concerns of our sheriff. And to be sure, the legislation also sets with these amendments that it acknowledges the sheriffs legal authority. I understand that a democracy is hard and that to listen to different voices and work collaboratively is sometimes seen as threatening. But this is a democracy. And a democracy demands that we have other peoples approval that after they give input and advice pvr and so we close in closing i want to thank the committee again and encourage all of the board of supervisors to task this you nonmousily because we know that county jail number four can be closed safely and we know for the safety of all all the people who are incarcerated that it is important we close this sons possible. Thank you very much. Mr. Chair, i think you are muted. Thank you again, supervisor fewer, for your tremendous leadership and work on this along with chelsea. Colleagues, before we go to action on this item, i did cant to ask deputy City Attorney pearson to present her assessment on whether the amendments that supervisor fewer are substitutes and would require a continuance of the vote. Thank you, chair mar. I have had a chance to review them and they are not substitutes so they do not require continuance. Great. Thank you so much. Colleague, i would like to move that we accept the amendment as presented by supervisor fewer. Mr. Clerk, please call role. [role call vote] mr. Chair, there are three ayes. Thank you, mr. Clerk. I would like to move that we send this item as amended as a Committee Report with positive recommendation to the may 5 meeting of the may 5 supervisors. Mr. Clerk, please call role. To be amended as to the may 5, 2020 board of supervisors agenda, vice chair peskin. Aye. Peskin, aye. Member haney. Aye. Haney, aye. Chair mar . Mar, aye. There are three ayes. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. So we have a special order item scheduled for 1 30, so we will be calling for a recess and reconvening at the time. Colleagues, are there any comments before we move to recess . Okay. We will see you a thank you. Chair mar . Good afternoon, everyone. The meeting will come to order. Welcome back to the thursday, april 30, government oversight and audit committee. I am chairman gordon mar joined by vice chair aaron peskin and Committee Member matt haney joined by supervisor Hillary Ronen for this portion of the meeting. I want to thank clerk john carroll and sfgov tv for this meeting. Do you have announcements, mr. Clerk . City employees and the public and the board of supervisors legislative chamber and Committee Room are closed. However, members will be participating in the meeting remotely. At the same extent as if they were physically present. Public comment will be available for each item on this agenda both San Francisco cable channel 26 and sfgov. Org are screening the number on the screen. Each speaker will be allowed two minutes to speak. Comments or opportunities to speak during the Public Comment period are available via phone by calling us at 8882045984. And entering the access code 3501008. 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And in the legislative file as part of the matter and make sure that members of the General Committee are in receipt of your letter. Written comments may be sent by u. S. Postal service to city hall. The address is 1 dr. Carlton b. Goodlett place office room 244, San Francisco, california, 94102. Finally, items acted upon today are expected to appear on the board of supervisors agenda of may 12, 2020 unless otherwise stated. Of course, there are no further action item on todays agenda. Mr. Chair . Thank you for that, mr. Clerk. Please call item number two. Agenda item two is a hearing to receive an update on the status of hotel contracting, referral, census, staffing, operations, and compliance with emergency ordinance, limiting covid19 impacts through safe shelter options. Thank you, mr. Clerk. And one more thing. Just as a further reminder to the members of the public who wish to provide, press 1 and 0 if they have already called and that will put them into the queue to provide comment for this item. Thank you. Great. Thank you, supervisor haney for sponsoring this hearing request. Supervisor haney, the floor is yours. Thank you, chair mar, and thank you for scheduling this hearing. I will give some brief opening remarks so that we can quickly get to questions. As we all know since mid march, the procurement of hotels to ensure that everyone in our city can shelter in place and thereby reduce transmission of covid19 has been a huge and overwhelming priority for the city. Over three weeks ago this board unanimously passed an ordinance requiring the procurement of 8,250 hotel rooms. 750 for First Responders and 7,000 for Vulnerable People including those experiencing homelessness, living in sros which are bathrooms and exiting the jail system. To be absolutely clear this, ordinance is now the law. All of this, of course, is a huge undertaking, and we understand the challenge logistics of procuring this many rooms and moving this many people, but we also know that our city is capable of moving mountains, especially in the name of Public Health and protecting our most vulnerable during the crisis. And it was no easy task to create additional Hospital Capacity to test thousands of people for the virus, convince many and in fact, our entire city to stay home. And to close countless businesses, bars, restaurants and parks. We can do this, too, and we have to. The alternative where thousands are left vulnerable to t. Ing the virus and spreading it to others is unacceptable and unthinkable. The goal of todays hearing in addition to receiving a detailed update on the progress that is been made to procure and get people into hotel rooms and abide by the new law, we also want to hear what is being done to overcome the barriers that we have heard from the departments who have been implementing this. How are we improving the way we are staffing . What is the changing Funding Landscape . How are we speeding up rather than slowing down . What is the anticipated date that 8,250 rooms will be procured as required by the law . And how are we making sure that the Hotel Environments are safe for both guests and staff . I wont go into much detail on why getting those who are experiencing homelessness exiting the jail system and living in sros into hotel rooms so they can shelter in place like the rest of us is the right thing to do for our collective Public Health. This is now something that this board of supervisors has unanimously made clear as a mandate, but i do want to underscore the urgency of protecting the Homeless Population specifically as something that has become more clear in recent days and weeks. Earl yer this week a tenant in the tenderloin sro died from covid. Msc south and Division Circle center and compass family sherlt, over 20 sros have seen cases that should have been prevented. Not to mention we have yet to know the truex tent of the virus in the shelters, on the street, and sros because we are not testing everyone. In fact, we are only testing a small fraction of the vulnerable population. At a time when most of San Francisco is able to shelter in place and stay separate from other people, thereby preventing them from contracting the virus or spreading to others, there are very large populations in our city who are still unable to do that. This puts them at risk and it puts all of us at risk. The data is not completely clear as to us to despite repeated asks for more detail, but it appears that at least 25 of the cases confirmed cases in San Francisco of covid19 are people from shelters, srs of y, or unsheltered on the streets. The result is that people in those categories are in much greater danger, but we are putting our entire city at risk and putting the sacrifices that folks are making right now at risk of being a reversed as well in terms of the progress that we have made. I want to thank all of the Department Representatives who are here today and i look forward to the discussion and i certainly have many questions myself. I am looking forward to hearing from everyone and getting answers. And i just underscore one thing as well. The board of supervisors has been very adamant about the need for this, but weve also from the beginning wanted to and continue to want to be part of the solution. We want to help overcome the staffing challenges and we want to make sure the funding is available and we want to make sure this gets done and gets done quickly and effectively. And so i also want toing a knowledge and thank all of the volunteers but especially the staff, the Disaster Service worker, who have already been deployed to the hotels. Thank you so much. We know this is a challenging thing. Its a thing that i think obviously comes with some degree of risk. And we want to thank you for your service and your selflessness during this time. I want to also recognize the unions who have been a part of this process, local two who are the staff from our hotels and hospitality industry, local 21, local 1021, and opiu local 29 in particular for their partnership, for their feedback, and for everything they have done to make sure that their staff are protected. Thats critical and essential for making sure that this works for the people who are guests there as well. It has to be safe and effective for both the people who are being employed there as staff and the people who are there as guests who need to be protected. I want to thank the San Francisco Labor Council as well who have been incredibly integral as a partner in making sure that we do this right. Thank you, supervisor haney. Since you are sponsoring this hearing and arranged for the i know we have a number of different presenters from the city departments. Do you want to go ahead and introduce them . Supervisor sure. I believe that we have i dont know if they have planned to go in a certain order. I didnt have an order planned. I will defer to them on who wants to start and may make sense for h. S. A. To start first. Yes, we can start. This is dan kaplan from the Human Services agency. I am going to describe where we are in many elements of the excuse me. Can we go up to the second slide . Thank you. Okay. Going to talk about where we are in the Hotel Program and other elements of the program. Just to start off to focus on three broad types of isolation and the First Responder hotel. The isolation and Quarantine Hotel is for people who are either under investigation and known to be infected by covid19 and this is meant to be a safe place for individuals who cant quarantine at home to be able to quarantine in a hotel. And these could be people who are people who are experiencing homelessness, people from the shelter system or from sros or from other congregate systems and in a few cases may even be people who are living in a crowded family situation and who want to shelter alone and not expose their families. And this second element of this system is what we call the shelter in place system. This is primarily for people who are experiencing homelessness and its for people who are coming off the street directly or potentially coming off the street but going through the Hospital System or from the isolation and quarantine system, and it could be people out of shelters who are covid19 negative. This is really the largest part of the system or will be the largest part of the system when we are finished building the system out. And then the third component part is the First Responder element of the system and this is for people who are working in the response or who are other First Responders who are at high risk of exposure and to really basically dont want to bring covid19 home to their families. So those are the major pieces. As were moving through the development of this system, we are trying to work our way into figuring out what is the right amount of bed in the isolation and quarantine system. This is a fairly complicated modelling process, and really we are looking on a daytoday basis at people who are coming forward and coming into the containment branch of the dph doc. They could be people coming in from the street, as i said, therefore, from shelters, from sros. They could be people who are detected as covid positives through testing, as i am sure you all know that we have a big testing project going in the mission now. The state is funding some additional testing sites which should be open next week or possibly the week after. And of course, the city is testing as well. To all are sources for people who will come into the isolationquarantine system. By and large, people dont say in the isolation and quarantine system for longer than 14 days. In general, thats how long it either takes to run the course of the illness or to be determined to be asymptomatic and not infected. And when people come out of the isolation and quarantine system, depending on what their Housing Status is, they may go home and they may go to shelter in place hotels or they may go to postcovid positive con dpre congregate sites, and we are beginning to set up those sites as well. If you go to the next slide, you can see we are beginning to work on hotels. Hotels are people who are able to isolate for up to a 14day period. We are opening a trailer site at pier 94 in the bayview in portland. And this is a site comprised of 30 r. V. S that the city has rented for this incident. And 91 trailers that the state has funded and the site is being set up and will be able to open the week of may 4. As i said before, we are working on some congregate sites. We will need to continue to build out what we call postcovid positive sites. As i said before for people who are experiencing homelessness and to have gone through the imq system and we will need to final a longer term spot for them so that they are not in the imq system any longer than they need to be but certainly do not want them to go back to the street. And post covid individuals at the present time and one site open and it can serve about 100 people. And then another site open at msg south to serve about 110. Again, i am sure you all remember, mse south was the site of the large outbreak and several weeks ago. We moved quickly to get the clients autoof that site and test them and into imq sites or shelter in place sites, and then we reopened the site after it was sanitized. The site is up and running as a positive site and another kind of congregate site is what we call a covid positive site. Many or most people can isolate or come close enough to isolating during the course of their illness in a hotel room. For some folks because of health needs and possibly Substance Use needs, other complicating medical needs, they are less able to do that and we had an outbreak in the Division Circle, nav center last week, i believe, and we have again disinfected that site and cleaned that site and we are ready for the site to be used as a covid positive host for folk who is will do better going through the course of the illness in a congregate setting than in an isolation setting. Can you go to the next slide please . So we are working our way through the growth of this system. As i said before, we are working on our estimates of what amount of capacity is needed in each area with the initial focus very heavily on imq. We have 11 hotel sites active. I should say the way we handle this is we have entered into purchase of Service Agreements for the rooms in the hotel and in all cases weve purchased the use of all the rooms in the hotel weve worked in. So that we effectively have control of the whole building. We have 11 buildings up and running, and as i mentioned before, two congregate sites up and running. Of the 11 buildings, we have 1329 rooms, 890 of which were occupied as of yesterday when i provided the numbers for this slide. Today were up to 906. So new people come in every day. Obviously from the inq sites we discharge people every day. Discharging either to the postcovid or to the sip sites for the most part. We have an additional four hotels under contract with 476 rooms among them. Those hotels are being readied for opening, and they will all be opening over the next several days. And then we have about 700 rooms spread over eight hotels in what we call the active negotiations stage. This is where basically we have strung enough interest from the part of the hotel here and strung enough understanding of the program so that we are basically negotiating about price and the services to be provided by the hotel. Our Site Acquisition Team indicates that they think that these deals will be made over the next several work days. Typically when we get close to the end of the negotiation process, our site planners start working on the site plan so that once we get control of the building, we can open up in three or four days beyond that. And then were always kind of look at the next step in the process to start working with hoteliers or talking to the program, start getting to the place where were convinced on our part that the hotels are willing to work with us, and that the hotels actually meet our needs and from the side of the hotels, understanding our program and being comfortable with the use of the hotels. So in that stage, we have in either six hotels at the moment with 1453 rooms among them. So, certainly it to have a number of hotels that are between 100 and 150 rooms and we have one larger hotel which has presented Management Issues to us that we continue to work through. So, certainly between the hsa dock and its partners in the we make sure they have hvac systems that work for us and we move into the negotiations stage. And the negotiations stage is a process where we sort of move closer and closer to having a deal. You know, it can take a week or two, it depends on the hotels. The ownership of the hotels is different from hotel to hotel, some are local and some are part of National Organizations. Some have an easier time making a deal quickly. Some have to bring in larger organizations, corporate offices, lawyers from out of state and so, all of that have can speak to the amount of time it takes to actually make an agreement. As i said before, we go into a Site Planning process. We make a decision with our partners as to whether a particular building will be in isolation or quarantine site or shelter in place site. And our site planners work on developing a sitespecific plan per staffing and for feeding and for security and for equipment that needs to be brought into the hotel. As soon as we have a deal they implement that site plan. You go to the next slide. So, this slide is really, i think at this point, i was going to turn this over to dhr. Micky, are you able to come in on this. Yes, i am. I hope people can hear me. This cuts off, please let me know ex ill tur and ill turn e video. Did we ask questions of each speaker or do you want us to hold them until the end . I think it seems like it would be good to allow for questions and discussions after each sort of section of the presentation so supervisor peskin, did you have some questions for mr. Caplan . When i was working with trent moore and mike martin, my understanding of the Business Structure as it relates to what we put out in the march 19th request for qualifications, was a structure that was actually predicated on a minimum guarantee of the number of rooms that was available or that was akin to the vacancy rate at that time which was about 5 . So you are telling me that ultimately what the city did was enter into purchase agreements as to every room in a single property. Is that correct . I thought some of these deals were structured differently. For the inksip sites we have entered into purchase agreements for all the rooms in the building. So relative to the full portfolio, are there any hotels where we made, were the city made a minimum guarantee and then agreed to scale up and pay by blocks of rooms . No. On these rooms, we have taken the hotels. And you know, we have basically filled the hotels. I think if you were to look at daily census, rooms are either filled or are being used for staff uses associated with the programme or in the cleaning process. I would say in each of these hotels, we try to leave a few rooms vacant because with fairly great regular tee, we need to move clients from roof to roof and that involves us emptying out and readying it for the next client. In all the situations so far, for inq and sip we are using the whole buildings. I will have to check on the deals. One of the deals is for the whole building, the other i will have to check on. So the 11 hotels that you are speaking to, do not include the 936 rooms for First Responders. The 11 hotels that we are talking about were the active ones for sip and inq. You indicated all 11 of those transactions were purchases of services. Its my understanding that actually the first transaction that i was involved in was actually a lease. There was yes. There was a building right at the beginning, excuse me, supervisor. There was a building right at the beginning for a building that was essentially an s. R. O. Type building. That we did take over as a whole building. I think that was at least. I stand corrected on that. Im not trying to be argumentative. This is a subject of something that we spoke about yesterday at Budget Committee as it relates to money and i want to drill down a little bit no dollars and cents in the Business Model is that relative and they havent talked about and im not even sure they are part of any presentations and weve leased close to a thousand of them and the average vacancy rate, as we scaled up from 880 to 936, has been a 90 vacancy rate that is based on the budget and legislative annalist report is about 40,000 a day that we are paying for unused rooms. Can you, and im not trying to catch you off guard, theres just too much stuff going on, can you address that or can someone from hsa address that . I did talk to trent about it and i know he wants to get out of those two deals or three deals. Can you talk about that . Only to say that i think that you are truly describing the directors position on that and we have a meeting scheduled this afternoon, quite frankly, to discuss our next. Zahra steps osteps on first. We entered into two agreements very early in this process. On a believe that there would be much greater interest and need by First Responders in hotel rooms and that has not proved to be the case, as you correctly state, supervisor peskin. And so, we do need to regroup on that and that is something that were scheduled to start working on this afternoon. Through the chair and im sorry supervisor peskin, this is supervisor ronen. Can i return the back to the chair. Theres a important point i dont want to get lost. Is that ok. Dont let me forget my next question. Ill hang on to my next question and try not to forget it. Im sorry. I just found out yesterday that nobody at msc south or the Division Circle and the Navigation Centre staff knows these hotel rooms exist and available to them. They are being asked to run these shelters. Theyve been through the outbreaks and those shelters now and in many cases theyre being asked to come back and work in a covid19 positive shelter and they do know these hotels are available to them. Before we break those contracts, can we actually let people know that theyre available for people doing this frontline work. I turn it back to you, supervisor peskin, thank you for letting me chime in. Ill defer to answer that question with regard to informing other First Responders. Certainly we can do that. I believe we have actually housed at least one person from mse south but that came from my office directly filling out the application. We did it at the time of the. Can i speak to the notification process about that that has been going on for several weeks. That would be great. Sorry to interrupt, everyone. Hsh, good afternoon, supervisors, chair mar. So, thank you for flagging that, we want to hear about that and you know how to reach us. Everyone one of our providers has received written notification and verbal notification about their access to their hotels. Our staff and providers have created lists of people who are city who are eligible for those rooms, a front line worker in our homeless response system. If theres a breakdown in that communication, were grateful for your identification of that and we will followup with that provider. Although i know that for Division Circle, all of those individuals have been offered it specifically and i heard that directly from the leadership of that organization so there may be a little bit of disconnect within organizations, these are gussy times and so again thank you for notifying us of that. We have 15 nonprofit organizers that have access to childcare, to hotel rooms and other things acting as First Responders, essential workers and were grateful for the citys support on that. That is not the case. Its not happening. The workers did not know its available to them. One worker in the hotel room, i filled out the application and informed him of his rights and made it happen. So, we need to do a lot better job of maybe not just giving it to the c. E. O. S of the offeringization but the frontline workers. Theres a call where everyone was asking questions about this new plan for the Division Circle Navigation Centre which after supervisor peskin has done i have a lot of questions about and on the call, no one, they were saying well how are we supposed to go home to our families after that and there was no mention that these hotels were available to them. And no one knew about them. And one worker at the hotel has been afraid to talk about the fact that he has had the hotel. So theres some really severe problems. I would i found this out yesterday otherwise you would have heard from me a lot sooner but maybe were at a 90 vacancy rate and before we give up those leases i want to make sure weve done a good job making sure everyone who is doing this work is available and knows this is available to them free of charge and in they dont have a place at home they feel safe to come back to. Thank you, supervisor, i will followup and reiterate those offers. Thank you. Thank you chair supervisor ronen and i think everybody should jump in and i wanted to circle bark on the fundamental issue about the Business Structure and whether we break these agreements or terminate them and im still struggling with the notion at the beginning of this every do you ever, about five weeks ago, the Business Structure that hsa and this structure talked about was predicated on a minimum guarantee based on the occupancy rate that was then extend in the market which was about 5 and predicated on the city, whether they were First Responders, hotel rooms, or whether they were lack of a better word covid19 vulnerable population would be scaled up by blocks of 100 rooms. And im trying to understand particularly given this frankly startling vacancy rate in the First Responder rooms, why that Business Model concept was abandoned and how that came to pass. I dont know mr. Caplan, if you know the answers to that but im quite troubled because were spending by my calculation besides 40,000 a day for about 800 vacant hotel rooms and while maybe supervisor ronen is right that we could occupy them with other city contract and First Responders, can you tell me how we got here . Supervisor peskin was it the department of real estate . Who flu that . I want to go back and look at the appeal for the inter continental hotel. That was originally structured as one where we could go up and down in blocks of rooms and i node to go back and refresh my memory about the structure of that deal. The other hotel which is running a similar about 90 vacancy rate and i cant believe that were renting the entire hotel the entire Business Model that i, not that i get to grow to this as 111th of the board but my support was that we would pay a minimal guarantee and then could scale up. As not as though anybody else would rent their hotel rooms, this seems like an outrageous give away respectfully. I want to go back and relock at the deals and as i also said, we are scheduled to meet this afternoon to evaluate the First Responder hotels and to talk about restructuring. Certainly weve heard supervisor ronen and her concern that we also would be able to provide First Responder rooms to the people working in this response. So well take that into account as we develop it and we will get back to you with information about the structure of those deals and the thinks and recommendation about moving forward with the First Responder. Finally, this way be something that you cant respond to im not exactly clear as to why transition have to be negotiated and and Public Information and chief Health Officer and chief executive of our city have the unfettered power to common deer these hotels and were do you have any in sight into that . Weve not explored this as a process where we would commondeer the buildings. So theres been no discussion within the higher ranks of the Human Services agency about recommending that and were all aware of of that. It was a privileged, confidential piece of advice from the City Attorney to the board of supervisors and the mayor that i requested. Eventually, it became the subject in part of a Public Opinion that is available on the City Attorneys website and theres you are representing no discussion about that at hsa nor any recommendations to the Health Officer or the mayor that that provision be used. That is true. We have not considered using it. We have approached these as deals between hotels that would be willing to work with us and the city. Thank you, mr. Caplan. Thank you supervisor peskin. Supervisor ronen, do you have any questions when were on the hsa presentation . Yes, i do, thank you. Has there been any consideration of using the empty First Responder hotels for the unhoused population and if not why not . So, i think the answer to that is its premature in our discussions. Certainly, repurchasing the use of the hotels is one of the things we will have on the table when were discussing what to do here. That discussion hasnt really got started yet as. As i said before, it will get started this afternoon. Repurchasing is a absolute possibility. It may or may not be the best possibility given the structure of the deal. We will have to look at that. What about the structure of the deal would make it not a good possibility . We need to go back and review the deal that we made with the hotel. Its un i am not sure that we didnt specifically indicate that we would be using it as a First Responder hotel. I know it was our intention with this hotel and im sure that we told the hotels ownership that. We would have to figure out what it would mean to repurpose the hotel. As i said, its one of the things that we intend to consider. Its frustrating. You have your whole team here and were asking questions that are absolutely related to the subject of this meeting and theres been a lot of, ill have to check on this and get back to you. You dont know whether or not those hotel rooms have been empty as supervisor peskin talked about for quite a long time and theres not been a discussion yet about repurpose repurchasing those rooms for quarantine. That is really disappointing. Im asking the whole team, here. Supervisor, you know, as i said, we have been moving very quickly to get inq buildings and sip buildings up and running. We have also not been sure what the up take of First Responders would be for the use of these rooms. Weve been watching their use on a regular basis, and weve seen it not grow as quickly as we initially expected. Our response is growing day by day and we wanted to give First Responders some time to make sure of these rooms. It hasnt happened at the level that we thought it would and as i said, we acknowledge that at this point and we are talking, start being today, about. Its one of the things on the table we just need to figure out the best way to handle this situation. Im just respond back and we can move on. Its been six weeks. 900 plus rooms being empty and part of what were upset and frustrated by, on the board of supervisors is how snails pace this is all going during a serious pandemic and here is the yet another example of that. Converting that into a covid19 positive con gra grant living site. My understand is there is a proposal going back and fourth and i did email abigail about this yesterday. I want to understand this. I was told that for any covid19 positive individual who is unable to care for him or herself and highly Trained Medical professionals and that are extremely educated, knowledge and have practise in dealing with people with Mental Health or serious drug disorders and it would be a medical facility and now the city is considering having it staffed by the same staff that ran Division Circle beforehand yet its a new population of people many of its a population of people that dont want to be in the sight and it is guarded by sheriffs and people wont be able to leave 24 hours a day and this staff is supposed to watch, take care of and perhaps entertain people who dont want to be there who you have determined cant take care of themselves and thats why theyre not in the hotel rooms yet have no training to do this. To say im concerned is an understatement. Can you speak in detail about that . Let me ask if my hsa partner would like to come in because hsa has been heavily involved in discussions. Im still waiting for the written report. If i understand the question correctly because there are several. Let me make sure i am answering them. One is about the staffing plan for that satya nadella. Was there Something Else in there . If you could start out at explaining what are thinking of and what your design is and why are we not staffing with highwayly trained individuals that know how to work with individuals serious addiction and Mental Health and who are compounded by being positive for this dangerous disease. You said in many meetings that weve had prior, that this concept of a covid19 site for individuals that cant care for themselves, would be considered medical sites staffed by doctors and nurses. And now were contracting with Saint Vincent depaul and regular case managers who, prior to this, helped people find housing and now expect them to be guards to individuals that are very ill in many, many different ways and dont want to be there. It sounds like a recipe for disaster. I want abigail to answer that question. We have multiple additional presenters from d. P. H. And hsa and others who will present. In much more detail on staffing so just as we think about our questions, just that ie