Transcripts For SFGTV APA Heritage Month Town Hall 20240713

Social media and so thomas. Thank you, cla claudine. Thank you. We are bringing this celebration online virtually, like many organizations, were finding new ways to celebrate and were doing it all online. At this time, i would like to welcome our distinguished panel presenters, the mayor of San Francisco, mayor london breed, and all of the viewers on facebook live. So i hope youre watching. Tell a friend and we are on facebook live, at facebook. Com sf. You can text that to a friend. For this afternoons program, we have Six Community leaders representing civil righters, children and youth services, as well as arts. Each presenter will have two minutes to share their perspectives and have the opportunity to ask mayor breed a question. We have a lot of ground to cover and lets get right to it. Our first presenter is vincent penn, for affirmative action. For over 50 years, he has been at the forefront of events introducing civil rights and justice and providing equal opportunities for chinese and Asian Americans, caa colaunched a program to collect data of antiasian incidents in the country encouraging Asian Pacific americans to report these incidents. Please welcome vincent penn who will provide us an update on asian violence incidents. Thank you. At the outset of the pandemic, San Francisco state universities and the Asian Pacific studys gunpoint anplanning in los anget Community Members could report incidents that were happening against Asian Americans and pacific islanders. In the past month and a half, we have received 1700 reports for both harassment, bullying, physical assaults and racerelated property vandalism from across the country, including 117 incidents here in San Francisco. The data shows that women have been proportionately harassed and all asian communities are being harmed. Most is happening under shelterinplace orders, so we expect the situation to get worse as orders are lifted. In some ways, this is not a new problem, just an escalated problem, made worse by the covid19, as well as the Trump Administration to blame everything on china. We all appreciate, mayor breed, the strong, strong stance you have made towards hate towards Asian Americans and all communities, but given the difficult economic and budget situation facing the city and the community, are you able to have resources to build in the capacity to address these antiasian situations . Well, i will say that as many of you all know, its going to be a real challenge for our city financially. But, from the very beginning, before people were really paying attention to this pandemic, to the coronavirus, our Asian Community in San Francisco was already being impacted. The level was zenophobia, the attacks and other violence against ederly seniors and we were experiencing that before the pandemic hit hard and so, this is something weve paid close attention to, working with Law Enforcement, working with our Small Business community and trying to provide resources, but its knot goin not going to be h the situation were in. Ill start with, specifically, with whats happening around a lot of the attacks and the violence and the robberies. I want to just express how important it is that people report these things to the police, because this is going to help inform a lot of the decisions that we make. And we heard about a lot of incidents that have not been reported and we know there might be fear or people who are uncomfortable with that. Ill be looking to so many of your organizations to be that vehicle. Weve provided access to a bilingual act thats available, so some of our officers can call and get a translators on the phone to communicate and report crime. We need to do this now more than ever, because thats going to be important so that we can make sure people understand that not only this is happening but the work we have to do has to be started on supporting where we know the challenges are. Recently, i a nancy tong has reported on the board of supervisors and theres rumblings of not supporting her. As much as i believe in criminal Justice Reform and as much as i dont want to put people in jail, if you commit an act of crime, you should be held accountable, and there should not be a negotiation there. Having someone who believes that on the police commission, on the Law Enforcement community is important to making sure that people dont feel comfortable coming to San Francisco, committing crimes or attacking other people. So thats part of one of the challenges we will continue to face and im definitely planning to do everything i can to make sure that the investments are there to support this community. The businesses, its really been tough. Its been tough because, again, it hit our asian businesses before it even touched anyone else and already, with the millions of dollars that we allocated to support our Small Businesses, whether its a 10,000 grant or up to 50 50,00 nointerest loan, we know we need to do more. So im raising money, as well as redirecting resources to support our businesses. And again, your help and your support to get people to apply for the funding is really necessary. We have an equity team thats embedded in our Emergency Operations centre, where their sole goal is to work with communities that are usually disenfranchise. So, for example, from day one, there were a number of businesses who were supposed to shut down but they didnt shut down because they didnt understand, they didnt speak english and there had to be another level of communication to make sure that they understood and they were connected to resources. And so were going to have to continue that. Because this is going to be really hard for us because some of these businesses are not going to be able to reopen. So the question is, how do we make sure that we outreach to the community . How do we make sure that we provide them with the records and the support that they need to maybe even transition into doing something other than what they were already doing . Its going to be a partnership with all of you because we cannot do this alone. We need trusted Community Representatives who people support and respect and who will help to identify where there are holes, what we may not be doing right and how we can make that connection to support our communities. Weve made a lot of gains over the years because weve had really good budget times, but we are really in trouble. And it will require all of us to Work Together and its going to require a big sacrifice. We want to make sure were not leaving anyone behind, especially our Asian Community, which has been impacted over this virus more than any other community. Thank you, mayor breed. And you have a great bunch of allies on this call in addition to people on facebook who are tuning in right now. So are next presenter is sarah wong, the executive director of the Community Center of San Francisco. She started as an organization that focuses on addressing issues for atrisk in chinatown. And over the years, she gets involved in the citywide agency serves over 8,000 multi cultural youths, and please welcome sarah wong. Thank you, thomas, thank you, mayor. Thomas is doing the best job so ill jump right into the topic. To the pandemic has really become another reason to target asian communities a communitiese country. Its our hope to turn the table around in education. Ethnic studys courses have been instituted in all of San Francisco School District high schools to give students an introduction to the experience of the ethnic communities that are rarely represented in textbooks. We need to work with projectbased learning on Racial Justice in crosscultural relationship buildings, such as by educational documentaries, and also chinese exclusion acts. What most of our youth programming have moved to virtual settings, most of our youth are still dealing with fear, isolation and this triggers depression and other Mental Health symptoms. And many of our youth couldnt even talk on the phone with our staff to share their feelings due to the lack of privacy and space. It is crucial to prioritize the offering of cultural competent Mental Health services to students at the schools and Community Settings in this current crisis. And as the incidents of violence will continue to increase, especially after the school reopens, i would like to ask mayor breed to not only send a strong message to our young people in response to the alarming escalation in xenophobia, but to create a task force where our Community Members track incidents of antihate violence in communities and schools that target our young people. Kind of similar to the current hate campaign at the national level, and also the policy in action plans to ensure all of our young people will be able to be in a violencefree community. Some thank you, sarah, and thank you for providing that perspective. I think thats an incredible idea. I think that im happy to do whatever i can and i love the idea of as i was hearing you speak, i was thinking we needed to launch some sort of Campaign Around this, to really highlight how this is not the way. And i will touch bases with the superintendent to figure out whether or not this can be incorporated into their distancelearning strategy. In fact, as you know, as a recipient of some of the resources where youre able to help support your youth through opportunities for all and other programs, i love the idea making sure that the opportunities for all kids who are participating in paid internships, working with them to come up with strategies and ideas and outreach in order to be the ambassadors. When i was in Elementary School here in the city, my teacher, because i talked a lot and drove my teacher crazy, if someone was sitting in the corner by themselves, i would try to solve their issue and i think thats the level that we got to get back to. We have to get back to caring about whats happening with each other and we want to make sure that, especially kids who, unfortunately, may not even know better because of their upbringing or what have you, we have to make sure that they are educated about how harmful, what they do is when they attack anyone with a racial slur or anything else for that matter. I think the time is now for bridge building and for a campaign and something that could be inspired through our young people. And i know you, along with john osaki, jcyc would be two incredible resources for all programs to look at a way to incorporate that into the work we do and well touch bases with our superintendent, dr. Vincent matthews and then the director of the human rights commission, cheryl davis, who oversees the opportunities for all programs and maybe theres something we can get started with now to really turn the tide on this. A lot of discussion about opportunities for all. In facebook, weve been operatinparticipating for oppors for all and this year, were looking at new ways toengage with cheryl. I dont know all of the answers and so im looking to many of you for strategies or even these kids, because kids can come up with some of the best ideas. Absolutely. And i know there are young people. Just given the opportunity, they can kind of push these campaigns over. Theyre the ones who know how to use this technology and social media and stuff like that to do stuff, right . So lets tap into that in a way that could spread like wildflowers and bring our city closer together. Speaking of opportunities for all, let me bring on our next speaker to discuss the impacts on youth and children, its john osaki, the Japanese Community Youth Council and this year jcyc is celebrating 50 years focusing on japan youth and a broad range of programs from preschool to college prep to opportunities for all and jcyc is leading many youth initiatives is please welcome john osaki. Thank you, mayor breed and thank you for being a part of this town hall. Ill focus on some of the things you were just talking about regarding building bridges. They talked about safety and education and i think that the area that i really want to emphasize is that i think its so important that we find ways to build and promote understanding between communities here in San Francisco. As im sure you know, San Francisco is the birthplace of antiasian sentiment in this country. And so i think its so important that San Francisco be a leader in this area and really think about how it can promote strategies that really build understanding. I think the thing thats been so alarming to me is to see how quickly and easily asians could become a target again in this country. And so, i think one of the things that we would be very interested this is a systemic approach to putting together a planning effort thats going to address this at many Different Levels because, unfortunately, this virus is not going away any time soon. It could easily pop back up. And i think many of us are very interested in figuring out how do we come up with recommendations and ideas, such as some of the work that sarah has been pioneering in the bayview, where shes really been promoting understanding between the Chinese Community and the africanamerican community. And i think efforts like that are so critical to promote making sure we understand each others experience and can appreciate all of oppression the communities have experienced so that we can ban together push back against the tide of hate and the type of targeting thats going on right now. So i would like to know if you would support an effort to bring together a systemic approach and recommendation for house San Francisco can be a leader in pushing back against some of hate were seeing today. Thank you, john, for putting that in perspective and i think its overdue and we need to get started on something of that nature now which incorporates all of the different layers. Because again, when kids were in school, we know there were kids who were picked on about this virus before it hit. Businesses were suffering and being discriminated against and people were attacked and robbed and a number of other very violent incidents have occurred. And we know that its important to develop solutions and to start to really change the tone of folks who are a part of our city who represent the Asian Community, how they are treated. And i think that we can put this together in a way that proposes solutions that we can work towards. And i do think its important and i go back to the schools, because that Learned Behaviour that starts when youre a kid continues to develop into adulthood. So its so important that we really work with and use our kids in a way as an opportunity to bridge that gap because that is going to help to fill out, i think, the rest of the city. So im definitely open to the idea of developing a campaign, developing a system, putting together a committee, a diverse committee of folks who care about this issue. I know that folks from the nacp of San Francisco and other organizations would be happy to participate and we can work as partners in developing solutions. But i also want to say that its going to take a level of consistency unlike evacuee seen in the past. Weve seen tensions, in particular, and im using this as an example because i know that our Asian Community is being discriminated against by all races. But in particular, in this city, weve had tensions in the past, you know, sometimes between the africanamericans and our Asian Community and to our Chinese Community, in particular. And when those things happen, what we would do, woe come we we together, have these forums, try to Work Together and they would die down. So i think the difference here is that we have to maintain this effort of a coalition of people who are really consistently active in making sure that we spread a different message, that we combat this and that we not allow xenophobia to be tolerated against people in our Asian Community or any community, for that matter. And soy think there so i thinkn opportunity to Work Together to be consistent and to try to make sure that we get over this hump and that even after this pandemic is over, we have to hold steady on the work we need to do to address these challenge. Challenges. Thank you, mayor breed and thank you, john. Well shift gears a minute and well talk about the arts and culture sector and how that pandemic has impacted it. So next, i would like to bring on jay xi, the director of the asian art museum, which is home to one of the worlds finest and collection of asian art over the 50 plus years. The museum has been successful in achieving the mission of inspiring new ways of connecting Diverse Communities to both traditional and contrary art. Please welcome jay xi. Thank you, thomas, for the introduction and hello, mayor breed. I would like to thank you for your leadership and thank you for making the video statement, the owner of the ap heritage month in speaking strongly against the antiasian racism that is going on right now. We at the museum have turned our museum into a virtual museum. And we are featuring a wide range of artists, not only visual artists but performing artists and particularly Asian American artists and our programs are diverse, too. Not only offering the thoughtful meditation. At this time in the crisis, Everybody Needs time to meditate and take stock of what happened and what the future lies for all of us, but also programs speak strongly in action and in Group Discussions about the common efforts, fighting against antiasian racism. In addition to very widerange of programs which i encourage all of you and the audiences to check out our website. Follow us on our social media. And asian museums is itself a diverse workforce, having strong representation for Asian American community. And in addition to giving back artistically, our staff has been also donating hundreds of masks and spending of hundreds of hours to helping service work. So we are there as an element, a very Strong Community to navigate together through this crisis. Today is poignant because today, may 8th, was supposed to be the day we would open the transform expanded asian museum for our public. Mayor, you were supposed to do the Ribbon Cutting for all of us and sorry for me getting a little caught up here, because this is ver a very emotional dar us. We will stay on course and transform the museum to the public, hopefully in the fall. Just behind me, theres a new rorendering of our facade, turng the Museum Inside and out. You can also enjoy the museum from outside. Were also turning the asian museum into a National Leading platform promoting Asian American artists. The artists that you see are my backdrop are all featuring Asian American artists. I think the more artists amplified, the more theyre empowered. I want to echo the theme about community and how were playing an important role. I think the more artists can speak up, the better chance we will have in winning the war against the entire asian race. Racism. My question to you is that you have implemented measures to support local artists. What are the further measures that you can develop, plans you can develop in supporting Asian American artists and measures to enhance or efforts in the fight against antiasian race . Thank you for that question. First of all, one of the things that we did was to provide grants for artists, because we know, for example, those filmmakers, those musicians, performers, people who paint and do other artsrelated things, this is their livelihood and especially now during this pandemic, i think people are realizing the importance of art, because every time you hear about something, you hear about someone singing. You hear about someone showcasing some level of art and how that is what is getting people through this. And i do think its important that we pull together resources, financial resources. I think it was around 2 million or so dollars for immediate grants to artists with the goal to increase that even more, but the arts are going to take a big hit and as we lose revenue for hotel tax and other things, its going to be very challenging. And my commitment is to really focus on making sure that we are supporting San Francisco Arts Organization, that we are supporting San Francisco artists, as much as we possibly can. My goal is to make sure that and lets be honest, there will be cuts and then usually, arts is first on the chopping block and that wont be the case with me. Ill be looking for waste and places where money things that are not necessarily as valuable as making sure our kids are participating in paid summer internships or arts related functions. I mean, all of those things are important, but its going to be difficult or well continue to do what we can. I think when were talking about what john and sarah brought up in terms of coming together and developing the plan and possibly even developing a campaign of sorts, and maybe using the arts as a vehicle to support and promote that, you know, that is something that i think is important and its something that should be prioritized and so, because it does matter. It does matter in terms of whats happening in our city and if thats a vehicle by which we can supportive, we will. So it doesnt give you, maybe, reassurance that things will be great. Theyre not. And so, fortunately, as a museum, you have the ability to encourage many of your Board Members to possibly even contribute more. But there are shawler smaller institutions and other organizations that will have a much more difficult time. And so we want to be mindful of that and we also want to live within our means and i remember when i was the director of the africanamerican art and culture complex and we had a number of challenges in the western edition with violence, we could have fought for funding for our organization, but all of the organizations got together and because the Community Center and john, you remember this they were on the verge of closing. So we basically put aside what we needed to make sure that organization had its support and i think thats where we are as a city now. Because we have to remember that it cant just be us pushing for more funding for our organizations. Lets be realistic. Were going to suffer. There will be budget cuts and lets try to be mindful of the fact there will be other organizations that will need something more than others. And so, i see thomas giving me the signal. Madam mayor, i just got pinged by your staff that we are running late on time and we wanted to get through two more speakers about the arts before you have to go. Iwell make sure you get in and out on time. So next we have irene almario, the studio that was founded in 1969, dedicated to showcasing emerging philippino artists and providing access to a broad range of performing arts programs. Please welcome irene. Thank you for having me. First of all, thank you, mayor breed, for your action and early shelterinplace order. Were grateful for the people in the cities who adjusted to this crisis, the bcyf, which allowed us to utilize our arts grants for direct covid relief services. Now and so primarily, this is a expect organization and space that is dedicated to philippino american arts. We have a thriving Artist Community providing cedar workshops to seniors and youth in our local neighborhoods. All of our. Eventevents have come to ahalt. Artists who rely on contract work are finding it difficult to meet basic needs, dealing with isolation and digital accessibility. We have had to completely pivot our operations to directly address the covid crisis in our community. We are now aiding Service Organizations like up, west bay, Equity Center and comcan. However, we want to continue to create and put on productions. We are trying to shift into alternative means to engage with our community, but we actually need more support. So madam mayor, my question is, small performing arts benefits will find it nearly impossible to implement social distancing measures in a viable way. Will the city able to offer any support to small venues searching for alternative ways to present work, such as Technical Resources to move to the virtual platform . Or when we can gather once again, creating a program that allows venues to stage performances in large Public Places like parks, gymnasiums, et cetera, while still making it affordable for a Small Organization . Thank you. Well, thank you for your question. First of all, i am anxious for the day when our artists can get back to performing and playing and that is really what we so desperately need even now. And i think that im not familiar with all of the resources that will be specifically available for Arts Organizations. , bubut i do know that our plans to try to make sure that were supporting Arts Organization and make sure i mean, you have your space, but there are also expenses associated with that. We want to make sure that youre still getting your grant support and able to provide some Additional Resources to your office. And we have not im not familiar with the technical aspect of online and whats going on there, but i will check with our equity team. The director of the human rights commission, she is managing the equity team out of the Emergency Operations center and i think that if you if there is something youre specifically in need of, i think that there is a way to connect you to access to the technology or resources that are necessary to get you online. I will say that, unfortunately, artists can perform on their own. But they cant necessarily come together and perform at this time because of the six feet of requirement. So i know whatever it is that you choose to do, i want to make sure that you do it within the help order and i will make sure that we follow up to figure out ways to help support you and the artists that you help. Represent. On the topic of artists, lets turn to our friends at cam. Our last presenter is steven gong, the executive director for center of the Asian American immediatmedia. Theyre celebrating 40 years this year and the leein leading present of american asian television. The camfest is right here and around the world. So welcome steven gong. Thank you thomas and claudine and mayor breed. It was a year ago when you joined us at the castro theater for opening night. And like so many others, we were ready to present a fabulous festival again and had to cancel. But we have pivoted and next week, as you can see from the information behind me on may 13th, we will kick off our camfest online and, again, thank you for doing a welcome for us and so, youve answered one of my questions already and youve shown your leadership here in support of the arts and cultural community. And i would also just want to mention that we have a National Broadcast of a fivehour series of the on history of Asian Americans broadcasts from kdtv on monday and tuesday nights. The bay figure area, so prominently in the asian area. This is a time when the asian america is coming together in a way that we have waited generations for and at a time, we know were facing such hardship. I wanted to make my turn, because i know i can count on your leadership for us. My question now from after what i have heard from all of my fellow speakers is to ask you to task us and that is to say what role can we play to help support the kind of vision that you want and that we share your vision for a more unified community and Diverse Community . And even though it is a time of tremendous risk and challenges and hardship, we also know in this is time to shift and make new things happen. Because you might as well start over and bill it th bill build. So please elaborate and give us a task. Thank you for your leadership and the work you continue to do and thank you for your work on the series. I put it out on social media and ive announced it and asked people to tune in with a message, exactly of what were talking about here. Sadly, in liberal San Francisco, we have seen xenophobia play out from our hurrican children to os in a message and to learn more about the rich history of our Asian Community in San Francisco, you know, tune into this series. I like the idea of really starting to shine a light only things that give people a perspective and part of that and what you do and as jay mentioned, the arts is a vehicle for that. Filmmaking is a vehicle for that. Performance on stage, all of those things can be used as messages and i know i remember there was a play because in the western community, we grew up and it was predominantly african and japanese and there was this relationship that existed with our communities of just respect and trust and that relationship has carried over the years and someone did a performance, a play about i think you might remember this one, john. When the japanese americans were placed in internment camp and how there were africanamericans who occupied their housing. When they were released, they turned their Housing Units back over. There was this very informal relationship. And i think a lot of it had everything to do with the fact that there were two communities living next to each other that were both treated poorly and were discriminated against and they, in some ways, we talk together. And we supported and respected each other. I mean, john osaki and his organization has helped more africanamerican kids than any other organization in the city. And i think part of what will be important is how our we using the vehicle we have to bridge that gap . Whether its in the cam Film Festival and providing, of course, films featuredpy Asian Americans, but how do we begin to broaden that and make sure that they are maybe an africanamerican filmmaker who has asian people playing various roles in those films and featuring those films . I think the charge is, how do we begin to be together more in what we do . How do we start to Work Together to really make sure and again, it starts with the schools. It starts with the kids because i learned about the various asian cultures because of my school, because of the different festivals that highlighted the different times of year that were significant to all of us. Thats how i learn. And so part of this is really going to be a learning experience. How are we going do a better job around our communication strategy of promoting and supporting and helping people to understand and learn about the asian experience, not just in this city, but in this country and in this world and the value that is not only placed on your community because what makes us an incredible place is because we all have values. We all have values because of our own cultures but also our shared experiences. And so i think the call is really to remind people of that, how much alike we are and now more than ever, with this pandemic, what we see, it does not matter what color you are or matter about your socioeconomic status. It doesnt matter. This virus does not discriminate against anyone. Anyone could be affected at any given time and it shows that we are all on the same playing field. So how do we emerge out of this crisis stronger and better than ever . I think is really how we communicate, a consistent, positive message around the Asian Community and how we come together, whether its a task force or a group. Weve put together people who care about these issues with various races and we put out the right messaging and an implementation strategy to support our communities and our kids. And either consistent iand wer. I would like to continue working with you all on just that because its so important, especially now, because it just makes me crazy that people are targeted because of their race. And as you know, as an africanamerican woman, as someone who gets targeted myself, like the last thing i want to see is this happen to anybody. It is the worst feeling in the world to be treated a certain way because of your race, to be discriminated against or attacked. It is the worst. Lets turn the tide with our positive energy, our positive reinforcement, our positive solutions of coming together and really focusing on the things that we know our organizations can do and collectively what we can do to really turn the tide. Thats what i would like to see us do. This is the beginning, i think, of it, because i know this is apa heritage month in San Francisco and im glad that we are celebrating in this way, but it gives us also an opportunity to have this very important conversation and shine a light on this. And i think the next step is, lets put a Team Together and lets start to move forward on some real solutions, especially with our young people. Thank you, mayor breed. Thumbs up. On that note of togetherness, lets turn it over to claudine for closing remarks, the person who brought us together in the first place. Thank you. I feel very uplifted from your message, sharing your thoughts from us and i feel there is hope seeing all of us together and i think that many more out there that we need to expand this circle of discussion and im very happy to hear about the campaign. This is a positive energy. In fact, i know that many of educators are listening to us and hearing us, this program online. And i think we can view that alliance and network and have a multicultural solution to all of this and bringing people together and thank you so much, mayor, and we are here to roll our sleeves up and Work Together. I think this conversation is started in this month, but i hope we will regularly have our other conversations and keep doing on and engage all together. Thank you so much. Thank you, claudine. Thank you to everyone. To everyone in the public, go to apa sf. Org. Thank you. The Health Service Board Meeting will now come to order. I would like to turn this over to our director now for some opening remarks regarding the present situation. Good afternoon and thank you for joining the Health Service board Virtual Meeting with us this afternoon. During the declared covid19 Health Emergency and authorized by state and local authorities, the Health Service board Public Meeting is being held using teleconference technology which provides access for Member Participation online, thus producing a virtual Public Meeting in lieu of an inperson meeting. This virtual Board Meeting ensures safe distancing and safeguards the Health Service board commissioners, the Health Service system staff and members of the public. I wish to thank all the people who have worked many hours to make this meeting possible. Please note that our board secretary Natalie Ekberg and many of the Commission Secretaries across the city have collaborated to learn about these meetings. I also wish to note that our internal team has worked behind the scenes to provide the technical support, including marina coridge, Brian Rodriguez and others have stepped in to help manage our Public Comments today. I want to share my gratitude and thanks to all of you, as well as the Health Service staff who have helped make this meeting a reality. And finally id also like to acknowledge the Citys Department and Technology Staff of government tv for their time and energy into preparing our team. The staff and board commissioners appreciate all of your dedicated work, and i would like the board secretary to share her remarks regarding how to conduct ourselves in this Public Meeting in a virtual setting. Thank you. Thank you very much, executive director yent. Today the Health Service Board Meeting is being televised by sf gov tv. For those of you watching the live stream, please be aware that there is a time lag between the actual meeting and what the members of the public are seeing through the sf gov tv platform. If you are watching this via the sf gov tv platform and you wish to comment, please call into our conference line when that item is called. Again, please call into the conference line when the item is called on the agenda. And press 1, 0 to be added to the conference queue. For members who would like to make Public Comment, the phone number to use is 8888086929, and the access code is 5540616. This information will be provided to you throughout the presentation, after every agenda item there will be a Public Comment slide produced and shown so you can see these exact instructions to dial in and to get yourself in the queue. Please make sure when you do dial in that youre in a quiet location. Please turn off any tvs or radios, and if youre livestreaming the meeting via sf gov tv, that you mute the sound on that particular device, if its a phone, laptop or ipad. This will reduce any reverberations and noise so the Board Members and myself can hear you. You will have three minutes to make Public Comment. At the end of that Public Comment and the threeminute timer goes off, you will be muted and the next caller will be called. At the appropriate time during Public Comment, the chair will ask for the phone lines to be opened and there will be a 30second pause to allow for catchup from the members watching this at home from what was presented. If you wish to participate and comment on a particular item, again, please dial into the phone line and promptly press 1, 0. This will add you to the line and keep you in the order that you pressed 1, 0. The auto prompt will say to you on the phone lines that callers are entering question and answer mode. This is actually during going to happen during Public Comment. You will be queued up in the order in which you pressed 1, 0. Just another reminder. And there will be an automated voice which tells you when its your turn to speak. When your microphone has been unmuted, you will hear us ask you to state your name and to make your comments. I want to make a note that you do not have to state your name. You can remain anonymous if you wish. I will start your threeminute timer as soon as you begin talking. I will also say 30 seconds when you have 30 seconds remaining. When your time is up, you will hear a chime in the background and i will say thank you to the moderator and ask for the next caller. At that point, the moderator will put you back on mute and we will move to the next person. Thank you so much for participating with us today, and president breslin, this concludes my presentation on Public Comment. We can move to the next geagend item. Roll call. President karen breslin