Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Public Safety And Neighborhood Services Committeee 20240712

Good morning, everyone. The meet willing come to order. Welcome to the may 28, 2020 regular meeting of the Public Safety and neighborhood committee. Were joined by vice chair Catherine Stefani and supervisor shamann wallton. Our clerk is john carroll. I want to thank corwin cooley at sfgov tv for staffing this meeting as well as i. T. For lending their support to todays matter for all that you are doing to keep the board of supervisors running smoothly in these strange, virtual times. Mr. Clerk, do you have any announcements . Yes. Thank you, mr. Chair. In order to protect board members, City Employees and the public during the covid19 health emergency, the legislative chamber and Committee Room are closed. However, members will be participating in the meeting remotely. Public comment will be available for each item on this agenda. Both San Francisco cable channel 26 and sfgov. Org are streaming a Public Comment callin number across 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 4156550001. Once connected and prompted , enter the access code. Todays access code is 926116335. Then press the pound symbol and then press the pound symbol a second time to be connected to the meeting. You will hear a beepful after you hear the beep, stop and listen to the meeting, wait for Public Comment to be announced on your item of interest. When Public Comment is called for your item of interest, dial the star button followed by a 9 to be added to the speaker line. When you press star and then 9, you will hear, quote, you have raised your hand to ask a question. Please wait to speak until the host calls on you. End quote. Following this you should wait for your turn to speak. When it is your turn to address the committee, you will hear, quote, your line has been unmuted, end quote. This is your opportunity to provide your Public Comment. When your time ends, you will be muted again. Everyone must account for time delays and speaking discrepancies between live coverage and streaming. Best practices are to call from a quiet location, speak clearly and slowly, and turn down your television, your radio or your streaming device. Alternative, you may submit Public Comment in either of the following ways. You can email me, my name is john carroll, im the clerk of the Public Safety Neighborhood Services committee. My email is john. Carroll sfgov. Org. If you submit Public Comment via email, it will be included in the legislative file as part of the matter. Your written comments may also be sent by u. S. Postal service to our office in San Francisco city hall, the address there is 1 dr. Carlton b. Goodlettplace, San Francisco, california 94102. Finally, items acted on today will appear on the board of supervisors agenda of june 9, 2020 unless otherwise stated. Thank you, mr. Chair. Thank you, mr. Clerk. Can you please call our first item . Agenda item number one is a hearing to consider the premisetopremise transfer of a type 21 off sale to selma wines and spirits incorporated. Doing businesses east cut traders located at 301 howard and will serve the public convenience or necessity of the city and county. Members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment on this hearing should call the Public Comment number, 4156550001 and enter the access code 926116335 and press the pound symbol twice to connect to the meeting and then press the star key, followed by the number 9 to enter the queue to speak. Mr. Chair . Thank you. First up, well hear from our a. L. U. Good morning. I am here. Hello. Good morning. Good morning. Are we ready . We are ready. Give us our report. All right. You have before you a p. C. N. Report for east cut traders. They have applied for a type 21 license and, if approved, this would allow them told operate as an offsale general premise. There are zero letters of protest. Zero letters of support. They are located in plot 238, which is considered a highcrime area. Theyre in census track 615, which is considered a high saturation area. Southern station has no opposition. A. L. U. Recommends approve value with the following condition. Number one, they should actively monitor the area under their control in order to prevent the loitering of any persons on their property as depiktsed on the form and should be noticed that they had agreed to the above listed conditions. All right. Thank you, officer sammondson. I believe we have our applicant on the line as well. Yeah. This mr. Ammana . Yes, sir. You can make any remarks youd like to to the committee. Yes. Thank you so much. I dont want to take too much of your time. But im applying for a 21 under soma wines and spirits and weve been doing business in soma since 2006. This is our third location. Wed love to assist the market with [inaudible] and groceries. No protests. I would like to get this thing done so we can hopefully, by the time the city opens, we can start with a recovery. Any questions, ill be able to answer. I dont see any comments or questions from my colleagues, but thank you. Caller thank you. Mr. Clerk, you can open this up for Public Comment. My the instructions that i have around Public Comment are a little different i think from what i heard you say. At this point, do we have any folks in the queue . Mr. Chair, operations will check to see if there is there are any callers in the queue. Please let us know if there are any callers that are ready. For those who already connected to our meeting via phone, please press the star button followed by 9 to be added to the queue to speak for this item. For those already on hold in the queue, please continue to wait until youre prompted to begin at the beep. For those who are watching our meeting on cable channel 26 or via streaming link on sfgov tv, if you wish to speak on this item, please call in by following the instructions on your screen. Dial 4156550001 and enter the access code. Todays access code is 926116335. Press the pound symbol twice and then press star and then 9 to enter the queue to speak. Do we have any callers who are connected for this agenda item . Operator mr. Chair, there no callers wishing to speak. Great. Then Public Comment is closed. Colleagues, my understanding is that supervisor haney is supportive of this item moving forward with positive recommendation and given that, i will move that we do forward this to the full board or i will ask that our clerk prepare a resolution binding that this license will meet [inaudible] necessity and then i will move that we forward that to the board for rel daysing andic that without objection. We [inaudible] on everything. Well be taking roll call vote on everything, please. On the motion to forward resolution finding public convenience or necessity for this service premise, vice chair stefani . Aye. Member wallton . Aye. Walton, aye. Chairman mandelman . Aye. Mr. Chair, there are three ayes. Great. The motion passes. Mr. Clerk, when youre ready, please call the next item. I do have a lot of paper im shuffling. Agenda item number 2 is a hearing to consider that the transferer if of a type21 offsale general beer, wine and distilled Spirits Liquor licenses to safeway incorporated doing business in andronickos Community Market located at 375 32nd avenue with an alternative address on clements will serve the public convenience or necessity of the city and county. As before, members of public who wish to provide Public Comment, call 4156450001, enter the access code of 926116335. Press the pound symbol twice to connect to the meeting and then press the star key, followed by the number 9 to enter the queue to speak. Mr. Chair . Again, well hear from the a. L. U. Officer . Ok. Andronickos has applied for a type21 license and there is one letter of protest, zero in support. They are in a lowcrime area. Theyre in census track 427, which is considered a high saturation area. Richmond station has no opposition. A. L. U. Recommends approval with the following condition. Petitioner shall actively monitor the area under their control in an effort to prevent the loitering of persons on any property adjacent to the license premise as depicted on abc 235 form and should be noted on april 24, 2020, the approximately cants agreed to the above listed conditions. Great. Thank you, officer. And i believe we have the representative of the approximately applicant on the line as well. Mr. Zuckerman or ms. Hager . Good morning. Justin zucker. Ill keep it brief. Safeway andronicos reestablish add Grocery Store at a vacant building that was previously a fresh and easy. We want to add Liquor Stores to ensure the viability of the Grocery Store while also providing the neighborhood with a convenient onestop shop for food, household supplies and beverages. Were available for any questions that the committee may have. Great. Dont see any questions. And so we can open this up to Public Comment. Ms. Clerk . Mr. Clerk . Thank you, mr. Chair k. Operation will check to see if there are any callers in the queue. For those who have already connected to our meeting via phone, please press the star and then the 9 key to be added to the queue to speak to this item. For those already on hold, please continue to wait until you are prompted to begin at the beep. For those watching our meeting on cable channel 26 or via streaming link on sfgov tv, if you wish to speak on this item,members of public who wish to provide Public Comment, call 4156450001, enter the access code of 926116335. Press the pound symbol twice to connect to the meeting and then press the star key, followed by the number 9 to enter the queue to speak. Do we have any callers . Operator mr. Chair, there are no callers wishing to speak. All right. Well close Public Comment. And colleagues, i believe that supervisor fewer is supportive of this item moving forward. So i think we can direct our clerk to bear a resolution, determining that this license will serve public means and necessity and i will make a motion that we send that resolution forward to the board for positive recommendation. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. On the motion to forward a resolution finding public necessity for this proposed service premise [roll call] mr. Chair, there are three ayes. Thank you. Its great to see a good union Grocery Store going back into that space. Not that that had any bearing at all on the vote that we just cast. Mr. Clerk, can you please call the next item . Yes. Agenda item number 3 is a resolution supporting the nonviolent activists facing prosecution in Sonoma County over their attempt to expose the conditions of animals in factory farms. Members of public who wish to provide Public Comment on this resolution should call the Public Comment number. 4156550001 and enter the access code, 926116335. Press the pound symbol twice to connect to the meeting and then press the star key followed by the number 9 to enter the queue to speak. Ms. Mcdonald, youre from supervisor haneys office to present. Yes. Thank you, chair mandelman and good morning, committee members. On behalf of supervisor haney, thank you for hearing this resolution today. And id also like to thank the animal control and Welfare Commission for passing this resolution and requesting that the board adopt it. I believe you all have received an email from the commission expressing their support. A similar resolution was passed by the Berkeley City Council earlier this year and simply urges that Sonoma County d. A. To dismiss charges against nonviolent activists. Many of whom are San Francisco residents who were investigating the confinement and conditions of commercial animal operations. In order to share evidence with state regulatory agencies to enforce state law. San francisco has a very long history of protecting Animal Rights, including becoming the largest city to ban fur sales in 2018. We prohibited pet stores from selling dogs and cats not obtained from Animal Rescue organizations in 2017 and have supported numerous Animal Rights bills at the state level over the years. Aye also like to close by thanking the activists with direct action everywhere in compassionate bay for their advocacy and should you have any questions about this resolution, we also have a representative from the organization, john fronmeyer on the line to answer. Thank you and i hope we can count on your support. Great. Thank you, ms. Mcdonald. I dont see any comments or questions from colleagues. So we can open this up for Public Comment. Thank you, mr. Chair. Operations, well check to see if there are any callers in the queue. Please let us know if there are any callers that are ready. For those that already connected to our meeting via phone, please press star and then 9 to be added to the queue. For those already on hold in the queue, please continue to wait until youre prompted to begin at the beep. For those watching our meeting on cable channel 26 or via streaming link or through sfgov tv, if you wish to speak on this item, please call in by following the instructions on your screen. That would be by dialing again 4156550001 and enter the access code 926116335. Press the pound symbol twice and then press star and then 9 to enter the queue to speak. Do we have any speakers for this item . Operator yes, i do have one caller in the queue. Before you do that, i will just say a few things about Public Comment. Namely that speakers do have two minutes. We ask that you state your first and last name clearly and speak directly into the phone. If you prepare add written statement, youre encouraged to send a copy to our city clerk, mr. Carroll, for inclusion in the official file and in the interest of time, speakers are encouraged to avoid repetition of previous statements and we can hear from our first caller. Caller can you hear me . Yes, we can hear you. You have two minutes. Caller thank you. Thank you. Good morning. Jordan davis. Im speaking to you today as a san franciscan asking you to support the resolution pending before you. Im a proud Animal Rights activist and what my comrades were doing were not only morally right, but allow under state law [inaudible] for sick and dying animals and yet these brave individuals are being prosecuted by a District Attorney. Its really getting hot out there and i know that everyone listening would smash a window to get a dog out of a hot car. Why cant we extend that right to rescue pigs, sheep and cowsle. We must also consider this a covid19 crisis which has upended the world was caused by animal exploitation [inaudible] investigation exposes and rescues animals from. I urge you to pass this, but also take a step further and with collaboration [inaudible] push for policy initiatives that prevents animal abuse and cancel animal [inaudible] for the animals, for our health and for our environment. I would also encourage good modeling for city leaders and urge you to stop buying, wearing, using, needing animal products. Its not only cruel and inhumane but are the reason we cant be there in person. Thank you. Thank you. Do we have any further anymore callers . That completes the queue. Then Public Comment is now closed on this item. Colleagues, any comments . I dont see any. And if there are none, i will make a motion that we send this resolution forward to the full board with positive recommendation. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. On the motion to forward this resolution to the full board with a positive recommendation [roll call] mr. Mandelman, there are three ayes. Motion passes. Thank you. Mr. Clerk. Mr. Clerk, please call our next item. Agenda item number 4 is a hearing on suicide, Domestic Abuse and Family Violence during the covid19 pandemic. Members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment on this hearing should call 4156550001 and enter the access code of 926116335. Press the pound symbol twice to connect to the meeting and then press the star key followed by the number 9 to enter the queue to speak. Thank you, mr. Klo erk. Mr. Clerk. Vice chair stefani, this is your hearingful thank you for introducing it. The floor is yours. Thank you, chair mandelman and good morning, supervisor walton and to all those on this call. Im glad were having this hearing today. You know, from the onset of this pandemic, one of my foremost concerns was the impact this crisis would have on the Mental Health and wellbeing of all of our residents. Particularly of those who are in already stressful situations. At the onset, i also sent out an email to all of my constituents and everyone on my list about basically saying, you know, theres no shame in admitting that this is going to be very difficult. Especially for those who suffer from anxiety, depression, those who are in recovery. You know, anything about addiction. Those who need to deal with their addiction often go to 12step meetings and those meetings keep people sober. They keep people on track. They keep people out of isolation. And right now people arent able to meet like they once did. They can meet on zoom. But it is very difficult for people at this time and, you know, a lot of people that are trying to get sober at this time is really difficult. And i just want to recognize that its ok. It is ok to have anxiety. It is ok to be depressed and it is ok to suffer from addiction and want to get help. I called this hearing on suicide and Domestic Violence during this covid19 pandemic because i am extremely worried about the real human consequences of sheltering in place. And like i said, i just really want to recognize that these are extremely hard times and it is ok not to be ok and i feel like so often in society, we have this idea that, you know, you cant handle the heat, get out of the kitchen. Where really if you cant handle the heat and youre in the kitchen, ask for help. Thats ok. This toxic masculinity where men dont get to show their emotions and they dont get to ask for help like they should be able to. When you look at what is going on in our country right now, the fact that we lost 100,000 americans in just a short period of time, all those people are connected to so many families. And its hard, especially for people who are sensitive to see that news and see the reports of who we lost and not to feel that and not to have that tug at your heart. We know that one in nine san franciscans are, you know, fellow citizens and unemployed. We have an 11 unemployment rate. We are absolutely worried about peoples livelihoods. People who started their Small Businesses, their restaurants, were worried about the recovery. So many people are worried about how they will put food on the table for their children. We are also worry about the benevolence we cant see. Ive shared with people before that i have a dad who lived in merced who suffers from dementia. And i havent been able to see him since march 1 and that does take a toll on me and that is ok. Were in a Political Climate right now where we have leaders who think its ok to be cruel to one another. We have leaders who are not setting a good example of getting through this crisis with love and dignity and understanding that people come to issues with different experiences. We see how our president behaves. And i think the totality of all that and how it affects people and when youre isolated and cant be with your friends and family like you once could takes a toll. Again, it is ok not to be ok. When i look at what is happening with Domestic Violence, i was extremely alarmed to hear that the Domestic Violence report that cases of Domestic Violence, intimate Partner Violence and child abuse are increasing across the city. San francisco Suicide Prevention reported that they have seen a significant increase in the acuity of callers that require immediate emergency intervention. I have notifications from our chief of the Fire Department and notifications that we get about suicides that have happened in my district at a rate that i dont normally get those notifications. They also report seeing a 22 increase in the firsttime in firsttime callers in the first month of the shelter in place order. And overall they have serious concerns that a larger spike is in our future. Im really extremely concerned about this and San Franciscos [inaudible] rebuilding their lives after the orders are lifted. I believe we should do what we can to understand this issue afternoon to prevent the residents from harming themselves or others. Today we are fortunate to have with us Beverley Upton from the San Francisco Domestic Violence consortium and we also have Emberly Cross from the cooperative Restraining Order Clinic to answer questions about the course. Theyre here to report on what theyre seeing in the field and to give us insight into how we can better serve those who are in distress. I also want to thank my aide annie mullen who has been there every step of the way on this issue and who helped bring this together, im very fortunate to have the staff that i have and i want to recognize this hard work. And with that, id like to turn it over to lanai. Im sorry. I think i its ok. Lina. Hi, everyone. Thank you for having me join you this morning and share with you some issues that were starting to see at San Francisco Suicide Prevention Felton Institute. Im going to upload the figure out how to do this now. There we go. If it looks like youre getting it there. Did i get it . Closer. Hows that . Can you see it now . Can you bring that to full screen . Yep. Looks good. Ok. Thank you. Ok. So, im going to start here. So were going to talk a little bit about suicide and Mental Health in the covid19 era and were just at the beginning of this era, really. Im the interim director at the San Francisco Suicide Prevention and ive been there for the last year and a half. As we transitioned and merged, let me tell you a little bit about that. Were going talk a little bit about San Francisco Suicide Prevention Felton Institute and then do an overview of suicide trends in San Francisco over the last few years and then well talk a little bit about suicide and Mental Health in the covid era and then some considerations and recommendations to consider for the future. I just wanted to give this fun fact that, you know, bernard mays came from england and actually started the first hotline in San Francisco in the country and, you know, he was also one of the founders. So,San Francisco Suicide Prevention Felton Institute provides 24 7 emotional support to those affected by any kind of crisis, including individuals that experienced Suicidal Ideation. And last year, i think several of you know that we merged with Felton Institute to really try to bring the Community Response to suicide in a broader clinical continuum of Mental Health and social services. So, while Suicide Prevention is about 56 years old and felton is 130, feltons the provider of the largest outpatient Mental Health services here in the city. And we felt like it would be a really good bridge to not just work with people kind of at the sort of tail end of their Mental Health. But were at the beginning of their Mental Health crises but to try to figure out how do we create a better continuum of services. And felton has really been able to modernize operations staffing and infrastructure to enhance our Program Capabilities already with you know, we had to go remote almost immediately when covid hit and didnt have that infrastructure place so we were able to do that, also with a partnership with a couple other companies and then text and chat capacity. Weve been wanting to do that for many years and now were able to. So what do suicide trends look like in San Francisco . As you can see, this is coming out of the department of Community Health Needs Assessment last year that was released and this is sort of rate of suicide across different ages ethnicity groups as well as sort of suicide is the 12th leading cause of death in San Francisco and, you know, completion is much more common amongst men than women and the average age is 51 years old and we do see the highest rate in the [inaudible] neighborhood. So, most likely amongst the lgbt community. But it is widespread across the city. You know, looking atle usufc high school and middle school survey, you know social isolation is often a precipitating factor to suicide and some of these concerning trends already in the environment because young people actually are at highest risk of attempting is that 13 of sfusf High School Student and 20 of middle school have considered attempting and of course that goes up for lgbtqisfusg students up to 32 to 40 considering and we see lowincome s. F. Residents at three times more likely to experience serious psychological distress. So i think these are concerning trends because, within the and well talk a little bit about within the covid but i want you to hold those data points. What does San Francisco Suicide Prevention do . We have 24 7 hotline. We do some peerled Grief Support groups and we also do a lot of outreach in the schools because of this sort of concerning trend, particularly in sfusc schools and we also do some education in the community as well. And with the police. So this is what we saw last year. We answered over 82,000 calls last year and that was a real spike from the Previous Year of 56,000 and were not really sure what that was attributed to, other than what i think supervisor stefani kind of talks about just sort of this real negative environment that increases anxiety for many of the callers and increased depression. But you can see here we have four different lines that we work with and h. I. V. 24hour line actually, even though its called the night line. It is the only one in the country. A drug relapse prevention line and then our crisis line. The other is an access after hours line that we work with department of Public Health to answer their off hours. And this is kind of the primary reason why a lot of people call in and just see and on the Community Education side, you know, we serve about 6,000 units and we were in 40 sites. And a lot of those sites do we do see a lot of young people calling in into the hotline once we do a one or twohour presentation. And this is sort of a referral the referrals we offer, how many people are trained but you see that we also do a lot of work with the police and 911 to make sure that we have a partnership and that police are also trained in deescalation techniques when theyre out there. So, what have we been seeing once shelter in place got put in . I mean, whats interesting and this is sort of been a trend actually nationally. Were not unique around this. Definitely in the bay area is that we actually saw a significant decline in call volumes. And we dont understand this trend but the kind of the general bay area has really experienced this, theyre separate lines for each bay area county. So i think thats just kind of interesting for us to understand why there is a reduction. But, on the other hand, we do see this increase acuity. In other words, people that are planning to have solid plans to harm themselves have gone up from one to three per month to one to three per week. What we do is we coordinate with emergency services, either the police or 911 and have to go in and do an intervention with the caller. Like the caller sometimes are actively already engaged in harm, i. E. taking a bottle of pills or, you know, standing calling and standing like on a highway entrance or bridge or Something Like that. Two, within 24 hours they could actually act on their plans. So thats what that acuity means. The good news so that is kind of the hard news that weve seen. The good news is that of even though we have reduced call volumes, were seeing that 22 of new callers wasnter reports of Mental Health, anxiety and relationships are asking for some support and theyre new callers because we do get a lot of repeat callers on our line, you know, just to be able to kind of make it through the day. Or some of them call, you know, once a week or Something Like that. Weve seen an increase in Behavioral Health referrals so people are seeking based on maybe new anxiety, old anxiety that has been triggered or even substance kind of struggles that theyre really asking for support. And i think that is really good news. The other bullet when i speak spoke with a physician that works over at cpmc whos on our board used to be on our board, he was saying that some of the challenges they are facing in their with folks that are have Suicidal Ideation is the medical supply chains have really been disrupted with covid19 and so theyre having access without supply chains to keep patients stabilize who have suicide ideations. So, just to wrap up, you know, like what are some considerations that were seeing and sensing . I think in this Rapid Response period, while were in shelter in place and for the last eight weeks and obviously well continue to monitor like how many people do talk about covid and dont. We are kind of recording that. You know, i think it just requires this increased or sustained support that needs to stay in place, right . For san franciscan we merging Health Issues and who are the new vulnerable individuals, right . Supervisor stefani talked about 11 being unemployed now in San Francisco and really seeing even from the Fire Department recorded increased suicide attempts or success in district 2 and i think were starting to see some emergence of new vulnerability. We might not have seen before. And i think during the recovery phase, like i am glad that the mayor has included in the recovery bond, you know, some health and Mental Health resources. But i do think that expanded services at every level, not just at our hotline level. But obviously at difference stages, sort of entry to sustainability of people with chronic mental issues. You know, the systems already beyond capacity. So, and, you know, like i said in the slide, how are we going to be preparing for higher need and opportunity to intervene . And covid19, weve been really lucky with great Public Health and leadership, all of your leadership to sustain, you know, kind of a minimal impact compared to, say, other cities across the country. But i do worry about as covid19 does continue to have second and third waves, what is that impact going to be on peoples Mental Health and griefrelated. So i will stop there. Thank you. And heres our number. So, i think this is a very important number. You can call 24 7 if you feel like you need support of any level. Thank you. Hi. I just have a few questions if i could follow up, chair mandelman . Yeah. Absolutely. From the data that you presented, we can see that suicide doesnt impact all community equally and im wondering if youre aware of any risk factors that work well that identify potential suicide or suicide ideations in others and what are the most effective ways to reach those people before they goat their breaking point . Mmhmm. I mean, i think having a broad array i think to support Mental Health, you need that broad array, multiapproach to like between hotlines, between on the ground programs, you know, that the communitybased programs and then for acute, i think it is having making sure that there is enough hospital beds, you know, available. So its a spectrum of intervention. I dont think theres just one thing that is going to solve this. Housing is key. To support folks to organize around if theyre homeless to organize around wellness and structure seings. So, i think we cant just look at this has a sort of onestop solution that Mental Health over the years, you know, stress and anxiety builds and really if you look at it from an equity lens, a Racial Equity lens, a lot of these issues are longterm that really start throughout the [inaudible] level. So it is a whole system solution. I believe. In terms of sort of differences across different age groups and race ethnicities, i think there are solutions that communities are trying to really foster just that there is help out there. 50 years ago when this hotline was started, you know, dont forget how ncaaing tiezed Mental Health is. So i think in different communities, the stigma of Mental Health still is real and i think the stigma of suicide is still very real in our society. There is a lot of shame around it and i really appreciate how you opened up the session to say that there isnt any shame around asking for help and that someones always out there to help. Thank you. Thank you for that. And you also mentioned social isolation can increase the risk and we know were all doing a lot more isolating now and in the foreseeable future, we really dont know. Another thing with isolation for anybody who knows anything about the disease of alcoholism and addiction is like people say your disease wants to get you isolated. Your disease wants you to be alone, your does wants you to drink and take that drug. Weve seen reports of the drinking you know, theres jokes that people are drinking their way through this and it has me concerned that isolation tendency for addicts anyway and then being forced to isolate. The compounding of that is creating a whole new sense or threat for those who suffer from the disease of addiction and im wondering if you have any suggestions about new creative ways we as a city could reach out to those who are suffering during this period of increased isolation and especially those who are, you know, suffering around a disease that tells them to isolate anyway and in that isolation often does end up in relapse or in often times suicide. I think that is why these lines are so critical because part of our work is a drug relapse line to really kind of reduce that isolation and i think a lot of providers, like in the Mental Health and social services arena are really thinking creatively around how to sustain their touch points through telephone and video calls to really keep that isolation down of people that they are in touch with. But i think we as a society are really trying to figure out how do we sustain that social touch in a way we never have. Because i think social media can only go so far. Its the telephone or video calls seem to be more higher touch. And i know this is an issue really also for seniors, particularly as they really arent super isolated to stay safe and i do i have heard of a lot of senior programs really doing concerted efforts around as they do somehow shift into food delivery. They do personalized notes or phone calls to those seniors to try to really reduce the isolation. But i do believe this is a societal question that we all have to understand and figure out together. I appreciate you bringing up seniors, too. I created a Virtual Phone Bank where we recruited 60 to 70 volunteers just to call about 7,000 to 8,000 seniors in district 2 to say heres someone to talk to you. Do you need someone to help you with your medication and your groceries. But, you know they really appreciated just even having someone to talk to. I think that is something that we could explore in the future, too. And just one last question around the economic stress that so many are under and im just wondering what kind of interventions have you seen that help or that can help those experiencing that kind of economic distress and if you think there is anything that we can focus on in that category. I mean, i think the recovery pieces, the sustained support around any kind of economic intervention to offset the unemployment stress is going to be really important. Along with supporting folks safety. Right . Like i think there is i do know several people that have been unemployed and they are balancing sort of that need to be safe. They have young children, too. So theyre concerned about their own safety and how do they get back into employment. That wont put them at risk. I think those are some considerations but i think the city is going to have to really think about in the Recovery Plan how do we make sure that the already vulnerable dont fall into more vulnerability and i think the new vulnerable. How do they you know, how do we support their daytoday. The physician that sees the Psychiatric Service there, he was saying he was expecting when shelter in place and as covid does kind of cycle in second, third, fourth whatever waves that we are going to see more covidrelated kind of emergencies. Right now he doesnt really feel hes seen that flow of patience. And the rfrn i spoke on cpmc, partly because they get a lot of the folks that attempt jumping on the Golden Gate Bridge and they havent really actually seen any change in their wards yet. But he said generally when we have these crises, weve seen an uptick. Just like later. Not immediately. So i think it is going to be i think were going need this [inaudible] and never have been in this level of isolation before. Right. Thank you, colleagues. Do you have any questions . I believe supervisor walton does. Thank you so much, supervisor mandelman, supervisor stefani. I think supervisor stefani really touched on most of what i wanted to ask in terms of risk factors but also what do you think members of. Board of supervisors and policymakers can do to help with the prevention side, particularly during the crisis and even as we cold out of covid, knowing that theyre going to be larger impacts on people that are going to add to the stressors in their lives. Yeah. Good question. I believe that definitely really thinking about your own district and sort of some of the needs that youre seeing to really make sure that our number is widely available and accessible. And i think kind of in the thats sort of more of a short term kind of opportunity but i think longterm, you know, were going to need to have an expanded strategy because there is kind of new types of anxiety emerging. And i think there is also some resilience also emerging. I dont want to say its all negative. Right . Maybe for some theres less social isolation because everybody is at home. Thats what we kind of wonder about with the reduced call volume. Maybe with the reduced call volume also on the flipside, maybe people dont have the luxury of being able to call because there is not as much space to call. You know . I think what we need to worry about in the city, at the city level, i feel, is to make sure that we do not gut the Mental Health system as budget cuts come down the pike. And social services, right . I think its all related to housing, food, survival is what we kind of saw in this immediate social isolation phase and then how do we support and sustain, you know, the Mental Health wellness, like that physical wellness will be equally important. But figuring out how to expand the budgets. And really support, like i said, the existing vulnerable already and then the new vulnerable. Thank you. Because i know also just from information from homeless advocates, for example, we see increase of how deaths right now during this time period thats right. Versus last year. We dont know all of the reasons behind that. I just want to do what we can to try to decrease obviously any tragedy that we can so thank you so much. Thank you. Vice chair stefani . Great, thank you. And with that, id like to have Beverley Upton from the San Francisco Domestic Violence consortium present. Good morning, supervisors. Can you hear me ok . Yeah . Very good. Thank you. Im joined by my colleague, Emberly Cross from the kao i. Restraining order clinic that i thought could help me with some of the legal questions that might come up today and some of the questions that have come up in the past about Domestic Violence and the courts and how cases are moving forward. So i want to take this opportunity to thank em bherly cross for joining me. I also want to thank the Public Safety subcommittee for bringing this hearing and certainly supervisor stefani and the wonderful andy and sam for helping us get where we need to be with the new tools that we all have. Thank you so much. And andy, my heart is with you. Thank you so much. We also want to thank supervisor stefani and the unanimous vote of the board of supervisors on the resolution, reaffirming the board support of direct services, not only Domestic Violence but Sexual Assault and stalking and trafficking. That was a great way to help us move forward in the new reality of covid19. We want to thank you. Ill just do a quick overview, kind of precovid and how the community is set up, some grounds, some background. Well do a lick on the individual services. Well talk a little bit about the criminal Justice System and then well just touch on some work that the Family Violence council is doing. And, again, sam bennett is our representative for the board of supervisors at the Family Violence council and im honored to be a cochair there. So it was great to meet remotely for our first time last week and to have sam on that call. So, most of you know me. Ill try to be as brief as i can. My name is Beverley Upton. Im the executive director of a 17member Domestic Violence consortium. The San Francisco Domestic Violence consortium. Im so happy to be in my 19th year. The members of the Domestic Violence consortium have Domestic Violence programming at their core. In addition to the 17 agencies, we probably have another 30 or 40 brother and sister agencies that do Domestic Violence work, certainly worthy, but of the consortium, our members are primarily Domestic Violence agencies. When we look at whos doing Domestic Violence work in San Francisco, again this is who we see as the front line. Of course, as supervisor stefani has mentioned, just like suicide issues and other issues, they pop up everywhere. Right . So of course people in other areas see Domestic Violence as well, in youth programs, family shelters, homeless shelters. Lots and lots of social services. It affects every community, every Community Holds the seeds that hold Domestic Violence in place and they also hold the seeds of liberation. And we are honored to be a part of this. That said, i want to say that our community is really broad and deep. Emberly and i could never represent the 60 languages and the breadth and depth and diversity of the folks that are doing this work 24 7 in San Francisco. So lets start. I will share this is my first time doing this. So bear with me. If not, if it doesnt work, im walk you right through it. Our main home for this work is the department and the commission on the status of women. So the first thing i plan on sharing is the cofb report from last fiscal year oking . Here we go. Well i dont see it at all. [laughter] oh. Let me try it one more time. But i will not waste your time because i can walk you through this and you all have the doc. But im going try it one more time. John was so patient with me. Im sure we can do this. There we go. Lets try. Nope. How is that . We are seeing a tile that has b. U. For your initials at this time. It did work in our in our it did work. Wait a minute. Something did just pop up. It briefly worked. Ok. Well track it one more time and again i wont waste the committees time. Well just keep moving. This a Powerpoint Presentation . Try it one more time. What are you seing . Youll want to use the floating menu to select a share option. You got it. Very good. And just so you know, i cant see it anja see any of you. So im just going to move forward. Ok . Anja see you. But of course i have my copy. So, the community is made up of two crisis lines. Now other agencies do have crisis lines. But the city contract with women inc. For the Domestic Violence crisis line will be here with their initial post covid numbers in a few minutes and San Francisco women against rape for Sexual Assault crisis line. There are three Domestic Violence shelters in San Francisco. They are comfortial. They are confidential and they are Life Saving Services and well talk more about them. Ill just say that they have done a fantastic job in keeping the services up and running and keeping survivors and their families safe. They never stopped sheltering people. I also think this is a great time to say that much like my colleague at Suicide Prevention department of Public Health, dr. Lee kimberg is our liaison. She started meeting with the shelters, the transitional housing programs and the departments on the status of women and the Domestic Violence consortium every week to help make sure that they were trained and ready of whatever covid demanded of them and so far it has been successful. Thank you so much. I mentioned transitional housing. There are four transitional housing programs in the city and then there are about 25, 26 programs in the city that are advocacy, training and i call them the beloved community. Those may not be traditional violence agencies. They might be Community United against violence. Those may be cameron house. Those may be lyric. But they are the beloved community and the communitis that they serve and the neighborhoods that theyre in trust them literally with their lives and Domestic Violence is part of their overall work. And certainly worthy of our support always. Then we have five legal programs and ill count them off, although im so glad emberly is here. Ill start with hers. The consume k if Restraining Order Clinic, the justice adiversity center of the San Francisco bar association, bay area legal aid and Asian Pacific islander legal outreach and then Legal Services at work. And that kind of makes up the community. Those agencies, as you can see by this report, are all funded by the departments on the status of women. Im going to try to ok. Hop out of there. Yes . Ok. All right. So, if we look at you can see their numbers before. One of the things i will say is that San Francisco turns to its communitybased Service Providers first. For many reasons. You can imagine that the immigrant community may feel much safer where theyre not concerned about any immigration issues, that speaks their language and understands any of their cultural issues. The Lgbtq Community may feel more comfortable speaking with somebody who understands their issues as well. And then certainly San Francisco mostly through asian womens shelter but certainly other agencies as well speak over 50 languages and so really thats where the Community Turns for support. When we look at the Family Violence council numbers, youll see that theyre asking for support from the community before reaching out to 911 and law enforcement. If we look at the post covid numbers im going to do this again can you see these . Its like it is updating. We can see it, but it looks to have a very peculiar zoom. Its only letting us see a small quarter of the upper left hand corner. Why dont i let us out of that and ill just walk you through it. Ill be brief. For members of public who may be watching this meeting, i will have copies of all these presentations attached in a legislative Research Center so you can refer to them in the future. Thank you so much. So, these are some of the freshest numbers that we have. And when the media calls, when the chronicle calls, when atlantic magazine calls and wants to know how things are in the post covid Domestic Violence atmosphere, we really look first to our [inaudible] line calls. And so i think were seeing and my agencies have and my member agencies have been helping me think about this because the first couple of weeks, we saw women inc. s numbers alone go up. 130 . So that was, you know, quite alarming. But they were able to handle the demand and theyve just done a great job in counseling people, setting up support groups. They had support groups before, but nofk shelter in place, we had to figure out how to work remotely and then working with survive, you even have more of a challenge because you have confidentiality and safety as the corner stone of your work. And so that is, you know, even more challenging. So if we look a their crisis line numbers, for march, 885 calls. April it went down to 738. And in may, just a few first few week, down to 220. Earlier than usual. Am i ok here . Ok. Which kind of mirror what is our colleagues from Suicide Prevention said and my agency have been really helpful in helping me think about these. So the first two weeks it looks like people panicked. They did not feel safe, they werent used to being kind of locked down with somebody that may have abused them in the past or that they were afraid of. And so they reached out in record numbers. Those first few weeks were looking at for women inc. A 130 increase. Huge. Huge. The next few weeks, people realized that the services were going to be there for them. That they could reach the crisis line 24 hours a day. That those who had no other options other than shelter could still find some safety. Now the shelters and i dont mean to speak for them that is a service area worthy of its own hearings. But they really had to respond to covid by doing social distancing, more single rooms for single adults. Certainly keeping families together. And so they were still able to stay open in the covid era. But i think the Community Also benefited by the now apartments that became available through the d. A. s office and the Mayors Office in veritas. Later, in the last few weeks, the d. A. s office has helped find a few hotel rooms that additional survivors and their children mostly could be in to ensure their safety. So, right now were not totally at capacity. But the need is there and, of course, were all worried and want to be ready for post covid. I think this might be a good time for me to ask emberly if she had anything she wanted to share about any of the legal programs. I also want to thank emberly and her team over at Restraining Order Clinic two have never stopped meeting and serving clients since day one. Thoughts . I believe that your mic is muted. And it will be up to you to unmute your own mic. So if you bring your cursor near the center of your screen, youll have a floating menu that pops up and one of options you have besides turn camera off is unmute. There. Am i unmuted . Yes, you are. Thank heavens. Thank you. Good morning, everybody. Ill add really quickly what the Legal Services organizations and the court the courts have been doing during this time. The Legal Services organization in San Francisco have continued to assist Domestic Violence survivors, of course, throughout the shelter in place period. It is obviously more difficult to do this work when the survivor is sheltering in place or quarantining. Its even more difficult when they are sheltering in place with the person whos harming them, what that has meant is we, you know, scheduled 10, 15minute phone calls when the survivor is able to talk. We do a lot of it over text, when that is safe and when the person whos harming them does not have access to their phone. It means everything takes a little bit longer. Primarily weve been doing our work with survivors through zoom or over the phone. But there are archaic rules and it has to have either an original signature or a faxed signature on it. I think one of our clients during this time has had access to a printer and a fax machine which means we had to get original signatures. We cant used scanned and emailed signatures so we meet with clients either outside our building where my office is in the womens building and the mission or we meet with the survivor outside her home and do close to a social distanning as we can as we hand over pleadings and a pen that we have a survivor use to sign the forms and then we have the survivor keep the pen. The court each countys courts have responded to this emergency in their own way. San francisco courts, you know, have stayed open with reduced services but they have continued to handle restraining orders every single day. The court has been reviewing restraining order requests every day during this process. They have also continued to have hearings on restraining orders live in person hearings, prioritizing cases where the parties have Children Together to attorneys at court every wednesday throughout this period to staff the Domestic Violence restraining orders through wednesday morning and to be there with their clients. Certainly folks have the option to appear by phone. The court prefers that. But a lot of people just arent able to do that or are really nervous about doing thatful they want to be in the courtroom and see that they are being seen and see that they are heard by the judge. And they have physical evidence that they want the judge to look at. So weve been in charge of maintaining social distancing in the hallways outside the courtroom. We bring one case at a time into the courtroom to be heard by the judge. The attorneys have sanitized the tables and the chairs and the microphones after each case. We worked very closely with the court. I would really like to give a shoutout to the presiding judge of family court in San Francisco. Judge monaco wily. She has been in contact with us from the beginning expressing her concerns that Domestic Violence survivors need to know that the court is open and is having these hearings and is there during this period and they have been there for them. Unless folks have questions thats really all that i had prepared. But im happy to answer any questions, of course. Chair, i have a few followup questions, thank you, both to beverley and emer by already if the incredible work you are doing. You answered my question about being able to still get restraining orders so im glad that were geting this information out there and, like i said, thank you for going out there and doing that work. Well have to change those archaic rules somehow. So, well be looking into that. I know thats probably a state thing, but still [inaudible]. So beverley, i saw the materials that we reviewed be ever this, that only 14 of reported cases that were reported actually to the Police Department were presented to the District Attorney and im wondering if you can discuss why such a small percentage make it to the d. A. s office. Certainliful actually, this might be a good segue just to run through those numbers a little bit. Those are the Family Violence council numbers. I wont struggle with sharing them. You have them and theyre available to the public. I will also say that theyre a draft. Some joined us from your office, supervisor, last wednesday. And the Family Violence council wants to take one more month and look over our numbers. So, what you have is now a draft. I thought it was going to pass. But it didnt. And for good reason. So, one of things that we really want that we see again echoed is how many calls are coming in to the community. Last year, reported to the Family Violence council 8647. Only about 7,000 to 911. But supervisor, i think your point about how many calls actually get through the District Attorneys office is one of the issues that we want to meet with them further about. But it is always possible in a 911 call, especially that more than one person is calling about a call. And there is kind of a process, as you all know, from Public Safety for how Domestic Violence cases get ultimately to the d. A. s office and sometimes it can be quite a long journey. Right . So they may start by calling 911. 911 will probably send out a police car. But of those 7,000 calls, theyre not all 7,000 separate cases. Right . So then you have a responding officer in certain areas right now. Theres a Pilot Project where that officer even has an advocate on call to speak with a survivor when they roll up to the scene of the crime. So or the Domestic Violence perhaps incident. So then it goes from the responding officers and again this is worthy of its own hearing. This is not my area of expertise other than my experience. Then it goes to the special victims unit as do child abuse, elder abuse, stalking, trafficking, financial crimes and internet crimes against children. So, it is quite a busy unit, special victims unit. Those cases go there and then theyre investigated. That takes some time and then theyre presented to the d. A. s office and then the d. A. s office decide what is their course of action is going to be. And there are many factors and, again, not my area, but worthy of its own conversation, i think. But you are seeing what the Domestic Violence community nationally sees which is the pyramid. Im holding my hands like this, right, is it really starts in the community and then it builds and that can be the seriousness of the Domestic Violence. It can also be more thirdparty involvement. Schools, neighbors. Then you see the most serious cases being presented and then the decision in the District Attorneys office how to take them forward and ill just say, you know, the Domestic Violence consortium and i would say nationally the Domestic Violence community does not see mass incarceration as a solution to Domestic Violence. That said, certainly there are individual cases that present Public Safety risks so those are cases that you would want to know more about and how the community and the criminal Justice System is responding to those cases. I would also say one good criminal justice response that we have seen is really fast tracking the text program for 911. So for survivors that did not feel safe in calling and verbally talking about what their issue was, to be able to text, has been a big step forward. We have a couple of model cities, l. A. And here in the bay area, richmond that we know of and there could be more. Its just getting off the ground, it is not perfect. It only recognizes english right now and no character languages other than the roman or the alphabet. Theres clearly more work to be done. Were also honored to sit at the Language Access work group with the Police Department and the department of Police Accountability and move through the this pandemic. We certainly want to have equity for all of these services. But that said, it is still a huge step in the right direction. Thank you for that answer. I will definitely be following up with you on all of that. Especially we need to make sure that its not just in english, the text so i want to follow up on that for sure. And everything you said about s. V. U. , i think that there is some more digging we can do there. I also had in the materials you know how i am about gun violence and especially for being a woman in the United States given the fact that were awash in guns and seems like there was a 44 increase in armed assailants and which is very dangerous for women, not just women, but typically its usually women. And im wondering if you have any insight into what caused that increase. I know weve seen a lot of panic buying of weapons. If you can touch on that a little bit. I would be happy to. I have to say that ive really been relying on our colleagues at the Giffords Foundation for their breadth of knowledge around Domestic Violence and gun safety. We are seing is panicked gun buying, especially just like the crisis line, right . Up 130 . So, gun violence gun buying and panic ammunition buying from current gun owners just skyrocketed and this is anecdotetal, but i was on a webinar the other day and a gentleman, retired a. C. F. Agent said that the first few days after the shelter in place nationally were the highest gun buying days since 9 11. So, whatever that means, thats you can interpret that 100 different ways but i think it is significant. Another thing he brought up was how many people are firsttime gun owners. Buying guns for the first time. Some people certainly are using it to intimidate their partners and their families. Some people have a misguided idea that somebody will come for their toilet paper someday and want to be able to defend themselves. But it is very serious. Were in an unprecedented time of seeing untrained gun owners locked in their homes with their partners and their children. That is concerning and i know supervisor stefani shares our concern. Now certainly our colleagues at the Sheriffs Department and probation are going out and trying to retrieve guns from partis that have restraining orders against them. But, of course, its you know, it is quite concerning and we have lots of people who are brandnew gun owners who just went out in the first few weeks after covid and applied and if they didnt have any criminal background, they might be able to buy their gun fairly early and what we learned from this retired a. T. F. Officer is because shelter in place, most people have not received any training. You have people out there with brandnew guns, lots of ammunition, lots of stress, possible past abuse lots of tension in sheltering in place with their families. Very disturbing. Thank you. And before i turn it over to my colleagues, i just wanted to follow up. I know emberly we talked about the restraining orders, the Domestic Violence restraining orders. But there are several types and beverley brought up something that ive been working on. As we pass legislation on to create a restraining order program. For those people who have guns and may not have had a Domestic Violence incident yet, a gun violence restraining order is something that people can still get at this time. That is restraining order that if you believe that somebody is a danger to themselves or others and has guns has weapons that need to be taken out of home you can petition the court and reach out for whats called a gun violence restraining order. If you can touch on that really quick. Yeah. The judge who issues the gun violence restraining orders has continued reviewing those restraining orders. I dont have information on any petitions of those that have been filed during this time. That same judge is reviewing every day the petitions for what we call civil harassment restraining orders. That is a similar type of restraining order to the Domestic Violence in that it can order the restrained party to have no contact with the protected party and to stay away from the protected party. Civil harassment orders are used in situations where the party did not have a relationship that would make it a Domestic Violence restraining order. Croc, for example, assists survivors of Sexual Assault and stalking who are outside the context of a relationship. In getting those civil harassment orders. The judge has been issuing temporary restraining orders but there have not been hearings happening in those cases, temporary restraining orders have stayed in effect but the hearing dates keep getting what we call continued or postponed until its going to be safe for everyone in the courtroom. The court is planning to reopen services on monday. On june 1 with safety precautions in place for social distancing and limited number of people in the elevator. So it will take longer practically speaking to get into your courtroom for your hearings. Just because you go upstairs in the elevator and they have limited number. But the court is reopening and i expect well see those hearings happening soon. Thank you very much. If theres anybody that would like to ask any additional questions . I have a couple. Domestic violence and relationship to homeless and i know it is a big, huge giant topic and particularly [inaudible] with their partners because they are afraid of losing their housing and then what happens when they do go seek hem and then add on the overlay of the pandemic and the sort of challenge my understanding is the increased challenge of finding any kind of shelter anywhere that is letting people in. And there are people on the street and im thinking of a particular woman in my district who was actually i think she had even got and restraining order. But if you are on the street and live one block down from your Domestic Violence abuser, this is very complicated. And so and dangerous, actually. And so i with wondering if you could talk a little bit about the way these things are overlaying, Domestic Violence, housing insecurity and then covid on top of that and whats available for women who are currently housed but fear the loss of that housing if they separate from their abusive partner and what is available if you are ton streets attached to someone who is abusive. If anything. It is a complicated and complete response. Ill start by saying that studies show us that Domestic Violence is one of the leading causes of homelessness for women and children. That people will leave their homes to try to keep their children safe. And parents in general end up homeless due to Domestic Violence. Certainly we do work with the family shelters. Im thinking of Hamilton House and a few others to try to support families who may have been facing homelessness and may have Domestic Violence and may be trying to stay together. Right . And then i think we have a more complex and effective solution which is trying to work with folks that may already be unsheltered. [please stand by] providers right now are stretched. They were already stretched beyond the breaking point. Now there is even less available. I dont know if with the family shelter, i dont know if its the same kind of imperatives around thinning out, because family shelters have their own bathrooms. I have concerns. Of course, you do. [laughter]. As well you should. But i do think, you know, the community is broad, deep and diverse. So we are able to pull in communities, especially folks working with unsheltered women. As i mentioned like safe house and the glenda hope center over in the tenderloin. Certainly glide has been helpful. But i think your instincts are right, supervisor mandelman. This is going it be very, very difficult. Supervisor stefani can i add, from the legal side, if someone decides they want to request a restraining order, one of the forms of release is a resident exclusion or moveout order. So someone can go in and get them ordered out of the home. But that gets complex because were working with so many survivors, they dont want to become homeless themselves. And they also dont want their partner to become homeless. So they decide not to file for a restraining order. We see the same thing with police, because so many survivors dont want in general to have this person arrested or put in jail, but especially dont want it to because theyre afraid the person might either get exposeed to covid although im glad to hear were not having this in San Francisco or the person might not be held at all after arrested and might be much angrier the police were called at all. We have heard that the person just cut off the ankle monitor and left it on their mailbox or texted a photo to them. Supervisor mandelman that raises my second bucket of questions, which i know is not the primary topic of this hearing, but it kind of goes up to it. Which is also covidrelated and what is happening with the imperative around sending out to jail which is from a Public Health perspective correct. But i have also heard these stories. I dont have a sense of whether its anecdotal or systemic. You know, situations where abuser is taken in but is essential out immediately. You know and in part im understanding because of the imperatives of the change policy around covid and not holding people. And that the most likely place for that person to go after being released, you know, if the abused party is willing is willing to have them back is for them to go right back to that home. Which is challenging. Or they can just, as youre describing, if youre threatening and taking a picture of the broken ankle monitor and then eventually communicating, i could come for you any time i want to. It raises, again again, i dont want to say this is more than anecdote. But if its happening in a systemic way, we are going to have horrible stories. Were going to be, you know, vexed in thinking we could have done something differently for having created an untenable situation where were pushing abusers and abused back into each others worlds. I dont know if you have anything to say about what is happening with the jail protocols. And the way these crimes are getting left right now. But i was curious about your perspective . Ill jump in on this. That weve been really leaning on our Sheriffs Department. On our partners in the Sheriffs Department. Deputy sheriff kathy gorewood and Michele Fisher has been so sensitive to this issue. They started doing victim notification early on when it looked like early releases were going to start happening. So theyve been doing this for quite some time, but they really raised the bar. Theyre watching very closely. And then contacting the survivor, the victim in the case, if they can, to let he or she know their partner, their abusive partner has been released. So its certainly not perfect. Its certainly not bulletproof, but it is a step in the right direction. And we just find ourselves in this very unique and very complex time i think in the criminal Justice System. Especially married with the covid. That adds a whole additional layer to all of these problems. Which is why its a good thing that supervisor stefani called for this hearing. Yes. Yes. I forgot something. I just wanted while were all here, say Food Security from our agency to the folks that theyre working with, its not in the numbers i dont believe, but i remember speaking the first week or two, and they let us know their board had appropriated 2400 for them to give to clients. Those are survivors of Domestic Violence who were worried about how they were going to put food on their table for their kids mostly. And that were seeing in every aspect, every layer of the services. The beloved community that i talked about, cameron house, glide, theyre giving out groceries at record numbers. Families are afraid of not being able to take care of their kids and put food on the table. Also sometimes its also one of the factors in the abuse. If you leave, you cant come back. Or if you dont leave so but anyway, survivors of Domestic Violence are doing really a lot of extra work to try to, you know, secure food for their kids and their families. And so this is an area where the Domestic Violence community has really stepped up. And you know, ill also just share much as my colleague from Suicide Prevention did, we, too, are up for serious budget cuts for direct services. As you know, i dont do direct service but i work with those who do on a daily, daily, minute by minute basis. The commission on status of women met last night. They dont see any other way around an r. F. P. That would reallocate 500,000 and mayor is looking at another 500,000 cut. That is a Million Dollars out of direct services. So that is very, you know that is worrisome because were all worried about what happens when things start to loosen up. Are we going to be overrun . Are we going to be able to meet the need . So instead of hiring this staff, the agencies might be looking at reducing staff. We dont want to find ourselves there if we can help it. Very alarming. Well, unless vice chair stefani has more or supervisor walton has comments or questions i didnt even tell you guys. Im concerned you got something going on. No comments or questions on my end, sorry about that. Got it. Okay. Thank you, supervisor walton. So, mr. Clerk, any Public Comments . Thank you, mr. Chair. Operations will check to see if there are callers in the queue. Let us know if there are callers ready. For those already connected, press star and then 9 to be added to the queue. For those already on hold in the queue, continue to wait until youre prompted at the beep. For those watching our meeting on channel 26, sfgovtv, if you wish to speak in, please call in by following the instructions on your screen. 415 6650001. Enter the access code, 9261 926116335. Mr. Chair, there are no callers wishing to speak. Thank you. We will then close Public Comment. Vice chair stefani, any concluding remarks . Yes. Thank you. I just want to thank linea, beverly, for coming and presenting today. You are three incredible women that i admire greatly. Thank you for the work that you do. And thank you for the work that your organizations do. Its absolutely critical to keeping our residents safe. I want to thank our partners that beverly mentioned. Those running the shelters and the legal agencies. As you mentioned, beverly, our beloved community who helped guide all this work. And really saves lives. And also want to thank again my staff andy and sam. Sam is representing me on the family virus council. Andy for helping put this hearing together. Im very lucky to have those two working with me on this. The final thing i want to say. For whoever is watching or might be scrolling later on when this is replaying on sfgovtv. And who is struggling. Again, i cannot emphasize enough. The strongest thing you can do is ask for help. There is no shame in needing it. The stigma around anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts and recovery and addiction and all of that, has to go. There are so many people that are in your same circumstances that you might not think are. And youre not alone. So, please, have that courage to pick up the phone and call someone. And in doing so, you really create a pathway forward for so many other people who are struggling as well. So, i just want to say, please, there is no shame, reach out, we are here for you, we will make sure the resources are always there. And finally, given what were seeing going on. We all alluded to it in terms of what were going through with covid19 and this time year under and the angst and the anxiety and how people are treating one another. We see it from the top down, how ugly it can really be. I was thinking about the one quote that people say. Be kind. Because you dont know what other people might be going through. And i used to tell my staff when i was county clerk that they might think theyre just helping someone with a marriage license. Or they might think they might be helping someone get a birth certificate. But in that interaction with another human being, you smile at them, ask them how theyre doing, compliment them. You have the power, really, to turn someones day around. So just be kind. And i know were all going through difficult times. Again, thats okay. But i want to thank my colleagues and thank everybody that presented today. I think this is a topic that is so incredibly important to me for many different reasons. And again i cant thank you all enough for this. With that, supervisor mandelman, i would like to make a motion to file the hearing. Supervisor mandelman all right. We will vote on that motion. Mr. Clerk . On the motion offered by vice chair stefani that the matter be heard in file. Stefani aye. Walton. Walton aye. Mandelman aye. Mr. Chair, there are three ayes. Supervisor mandelman motion passes. Mr. Clerk . Thank you. Vice chair, stefani. Thank you to all of our speakers. It was an honor to be here. Thank you so much. Thank you. Supervisor mandelman mr. Clerk, any other items today . There is no further business. Supervisor mandelman then we are adjourned. Thank you, thanks, everybody. Have a good rest of your day. Thank you, you, too. Thank you. Announcer youre watching coping with covid19. Todays special guest is lindsey holmes. Hi, im chris manus and youre watching coping with covid19. Today my guest is founder and c. E. O. Of dispatch goods and former clinical profusionist at ucsf. She start add new initiative called project clean to provide alcoholbased cleaning products and Hand Sanitizers to atrisk bay area communities. Lindsey, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. Its lovely to see you. Tell us a little about your background and how dispatched goods of San Franciscos restaurant community. Sure. We launched, in october, weve been working on this for a little over a year. And we partnered with restaurants to provide them with a free reusable container system that could replace singleuse products. We partnered with yelp headquarters in downtown San Francisco and 10 Restaurant Partners as of february before covid19 hit and employees at our Corporate Partners could request the reusable containers when they were getting their lunch for takeout or if they were getting it delivered to their office. We then handled the pickup and dish washing. So, obviously the virus pandemic has hit and now youve had to pivot your company and i understand you lunched a new initiative called project clean. Can you let us know what the program is all about . Sure. So we basically when this hit, we asked ok, what we do we have and how can we help . We also noticed there was a gap in the supply for Hand Sanitizers to Certain Community members and individuals and we talked to a distillery about making Hand Sanitizer and, in true form to our mission, we decided i bet we could collect enough containers from the community that we wouldnt have to supply more singleuse plastic containers and we launched project clean and with that, we collected over 200 containers. Theyre spray squeeze bottles and working on supplying the cleaning products. What has the response been from the community atlarge and how have peopled help . Were donationbased and selffunded right now. We are buying basically the products at cost and is not charging us much for that. Theyre also just trying to cover our expenses and we had a little bit of donations coming in. But if you go to our website, you can either donate containers that you have, well come do pickup. Were doing it twice a week now. Or if you yourself need any of the cleaning products, you can fill out the form and request those as well. And then there is also a place to make a donation. So, where are you handing out the Hand Sanitizer right now . Were doing it in the same route as the dropoff route. So, the Hand Sanitizer will be finished today. So, tomorrow well be doing our first round of dropoffs and weve been contacted by Health Care Professionals who after they come home have nothing on their hands there. We have been contacted by retirement communities and contacted by physicians in their offices that they dont have anything and a individuals that just werent able to get the supplies because they were sold out so quickly. Basically during our normal pickup routes now, we will be doing the dropoff as well. That is fantastic. You know, i think that is a Wonderful Service you are providing, lindsey. Thank you so much for coming on the show and keep up the good work. Thank you so much, chris i really appreciate it. And that is it for this episode. Well be back with more stories shortly. Youve been watching coping with covid19. Im chris manus, thank you for watching. We are going to start on time. I am london breed, mayor of San Francisco. Today i am joined by the carmen chu, director of department of Public Health, doctor grant colfax and director of emergency management, director of housing and homelessness and the director of the office of economic and work force development. Today we are going to do things a little different because we actually have good news, and we actually have a guide for what San Francisco will look like as we begin to envision a new normal, and a future where we can get our city going, get back to work and get back to our lives as we know it, although we will be making a number of adjustments in this process. Four months ago we operated the Emergency Operations center, and we called attention to what we knew potentially was coming to San Francisco. About three months ago we declared a local state of emergency. At that time we had not one case in San Francisco. 10 weeks ago, we ordered shelterinplace. The fact is we acted fast and San Francisco is being praised as a model for not only stopping an acceleration of the curve. We are at the stage where we are seeing the curve lowered finally. There is hope, but we still have a long way to go. The fact is at that time there is no vaccine, although we have made progress, at any given moment, any wrong move, even moving too fast to reopen our city could put us in a situation far worse than what we have seen in other places like it tally and even new york city. What we want to do is avoid going there. That is really why the reopening has been slow, and it has been safe because the purpose is to keep the Public Healthy and to make sure that we stop the spread, but also we understand the need for people to get back to work. We understand that not only is Public Health challenged at this time, but we also realize that the Financial Health of so many residents of San Francisco is in jeopardy. We want to balance those things, and that has been a tough balance. Today as people all over the city continue to ask, what is happening . What are we doing . Is this extended . Good news is that we are going to talk about specifically today some dates and a number of businesses and things that can resume as long as the five indicators we talked about before continue to improve, the Testing Capacity has gone up, the ppe capacity, the number of deaths and hospitalizations and other things we are seeing stabilize, and in some cases the hospitalizations have been lowered. That is good news. We want to keep it that way. The only reason why we are in this situation in the first place is because most san franciscans took the order seriously and have done an amazing job at complying with this order. We wouldnt be here if most people wouldnt cooperate. We know there are people out there not following the rules and who are sometimes the bad actors, but we all know there is no way we will get 100 compliant. The fact we have a significant number of people in the city complying with the order is the only reason why we are at this place right now where we can really start having a conversation and what San Francisco will look like when we begin to open, all of the questions, concerns, uncertainty. I understand because i feel the anxiety from not knowing myself as the leader of this city, but i want you to n know every day i am fighting to make sure that we implement the policies not so restrictive we are not able to get back to our lives. I want to take this opportunity to express appreciation to so many san franciscans for not only complying but supporting neighbors, delivering food to seniors, people who have gone out of their way to support Small Business community, those suffering. People i know are still paying their hairdressers and barbers and other people, people who are going above and beyond to do a little bit more for someone else because so many people are struggling. The people who have contributed to give to sf the small and large donations, that money has gone to help provide food, rental assistance, support for Small Businesses. Everything has made a difference. We know that there are so many people still struggling, over 100,000 people have applied for unemployment in the city. We still see resilience of the city and people continuing to fight harder more than ever to make sure that their business is able to reopen, they are able to continue to cover themselves, take care of bills, but also to take care of the people that they are here to serve. This has been challenging, but we are getting through it, and we are getting through this together. The path forward, i want to talk a little bit about that. I want to really, really appreciate not just the department of Public Health for working with us on finally giving us an opportunity to have some sort of date or timeframe for what we think is reasonable to communicate to the public on a reopening plan, but i really want to acknowledge and appreciate the Economic Recovery Task force and carmen chu will go into more detail about the work they are doing as well as other leaders of that committee, rodney fong with the chamber, rudy with the Labor Council and our treasure jose and my partner in this effort, president of the board of supervisors norman yee, amazing people and talented people working hand in hand to not only provide the guidance for reopening San Francisco for our business community, but economic recovery and what that might look like, what the new normal with guidelines in providing that to our businesses who are wondering, when i open what am i required to do . We want to continue to make sure we are getting you prepared for what we know is to come. Just to talk a little bit about the next phase. I want to go over the fact that the state, and there is also some confusion as to the state guidelines that are different from the city guidelines. I want to clarify. The fact is the state has issued guidance for the entire state. Now the numbers in San Francisco are not the same numbers in napa county. Everyone has a different scenario and different guide because they are facing different. Every county has different challenges. The state has provided us a guide, and we are following that guide based on the data in San Francisco to make in formed decisions as to when we believe we will be able to open safely. The last thing we want to do is begin the process every reope reopening and see a surge of cases and then have to go back to closing the city completely. We are in a good place because you follow the guidelines. I want to talk about what is going to happen over the next couple months so that people can begin to prepare for reopening and to work harder on masking, hand washing and social distancing. Starting june 1st what are available the child cares that are not open now are able to open, the Botanical Gardens and outdoor museums and historical sites, places outdoors. That is going to happen on june 1st. In phase 2b on june 15th most indoor retail. As you know we announced on may 18th retail will be able to open for pickup and drop off. Now the opportunity to allow people to come inside of your stores are available. Outdoor dining, summer champs, professional sporting events and Entertainment Venues with no spectators with approved health plans. Private household indoor services, that is if you have, for example, housekeeper or nanny, that can resume. Religious services answer the ceremonies. If you need to go to the dentist our other appointments, that is what you can look forward to. In phase 2c, july 13th we anticipate Indoor Dining with modifications, hair salons and barbershops. I know everybody is excited about that one. Real estate open houses by appointment only. To be clear, even though this is a guide, this guide and these dates are subject to change if the data determines a needed change. This is to provide everyone with a guide as to what we are looking at and if the numbers continue the way they are we will get to the point where these businesses can open. Now in phase 3, the one i am looking forward to the most, schools with modifications, bars, other personal Services Like nail salons, massage parlors, tattoo parlors, gyms, Fitness Centers swimming pools and indoor museums. In phase 4 we have not yet determined a date. All of this is contingent upon what happens as we open phases 2 and 3 and the data in determining what is a more reasonable timeframe. We hope that Live Audience sports and performances, nightclubs, festivals and all hotels and lodging for leisure and tourism. I want to be clear again that this is just a guide. This is a goal that i have, of course, to get there. The only way to get there is through your cooperation. As a result of having more people moving around and contacting around one another in this capacity, it requires that we get a little bit more strict with the Face Coverings. We know that social distancing, Face Covering and hand washing are really key to helping to prevent the spread. What we are asking people to do in our new Face Covering requirements is when you are outside and say, for example, you are enjoying the park. We ask if you are within 30 feet of someone else to wear a Face Covering. We want you to just think about it in a way it is not necessarily just about protecting yourself, it is about protecting other people. We want more people who are outdoors to wear Face Coverings in addition to some of the requirements that we had before and again i want to go back to a comment i have made time and time again. If you are not the police, please dont act like the police because part of the last thing we want to see are people who are confronting other people and creating what could escalate to a violent situation. Just let us do our job. Do your part because as long as you do your part, your part is having an impact on everything that we see happening in this city. These numbers are going down because you are doing your part. For those who are bad actors, unfortunately, we are not going to be able to control all of those folks at any given time. The last thing i want to see is a confrontation because someone decided that they were going to go out and try to regulate the need for people to wear masks. We are doing the very best we can. In fact, the numbers are good. What i would like to open faster, yes. Would i want it to happen faster . Yes. They will only happen with our shared experience. I am really excited. This is a great step forward, and what this means for our city is just getting adjusted to our new normal. I know that more than anything we all want to go back to the life that we once knew before covid, and now for the next anywhere between 12 and 18 months, we are going back to the life we knew before, however, with some adjustments to our new normal as a result of covid. You all seem to be getting used to it. I see folks in line wearing a mask and keeping a distance and making the add adjustment. I appreciate all that each and every one of you are doing to comply. It is the only reason we are in this place where we are to start to talk about a safe opening plan for the city and county of San Francisco. Just two things to clarify before i bring up our assessor, carmen chu, the health order for stay at home is extended indefinitely. This plan is being implemented, but we are still asking people to stay at home if at all possible. Also, there has been some confusion around office space. I think that the goal is to provide guidelines for working environments. There are some people who need as essential workers or as business open need to work in offices. What we ask people to do if possible. If you have the ability to tele commute. We are asking you to tele commute. We ask that you make sure you are keeping your staff safe. We are adjusting to the new normal, and we have all of this information at sfgov. Org. Please reach out. We are not where we want to be but we are in a better place today than we were last week. Finally, i just want to mention that tomorrow we will have a conversation at 1 00 with our county health officer. I know that a lot has been said about county Health Officers all over the bay area and the decisions they are making. It is time to meet your county health officer. He and i will have a conversation to talk about the decisions that are being made and why and how we can follow these protocols in an effective way to help delivery opening sooner rather than later. I am looking forward to that conversation. With that i would like to turn it over to our assessor recorder, carmen chu. As soon as i finish wiping the microphone. Thank you very much, mayor breed. I do want to at this moment take a moment to acknowledge her leadership not only in helping us to weather the initial Health Response but to guide us as we begin to think about reopening the economy. I want to thank my cochairs on the Economic Recovery Task force, jose and rodney and they are doing incredible work to move San Francisco forward. I am pleased to be here with you. This is an important step as we begin thinking about recovery in San Francisco and in the wider bay area. As i mentioned before San Francisco and the bay area led the way in the nation in terms of Public Health response. That effort helped to save lives here, and there is no reason to think that San Francisco and the bay area cant also lead again with responsible and thoughtful approach to reopening our economy. Through the task force we heard from hundreds and hundreds of san franciscans on the task force, businesses, residents in all neighborhoods from different sectors and industries about the challenges they have gone through. So many people are out of work, so many people are afraid of losing their homes, businesses and so we really needed to provide away for people to begin to plan and think about what that future may look like. I think one of the things we heard so much from people was not only the economic challenges were difficult but this idea and concept of uncertainty was also incredibly hard not knowing exactly how the disease works and learning every day how that is changing with science and experiences around the world and uncertainty when things might be able to change and when restrictions might be different was a huge burden and huge worry for individuals. When we think about todays message and the importance of creating this road map, it truly is creating an opportunity for people to be able to plan and to prepare for what that future looks like. When we think about businesses reopening, we all know that closing was difficult, but restarting is harder. It is not easy to flip the switch and start a business all over again. The goal is to provide to San Francisco an idea what is coming next so we can plan to prepare to all be part of the solution together. A few things we want you to know. I know the may or spoke about details about elements coming forward in terms of different sectors online. We want to share about the thought process how the plan was developed. The plan balances a number of different components that are important to the San Francisco Public Health response and our economy. First and foremost, we want to make sure we are balancing the best knowledge we have about covid19. We are constantly learning how it spreads, the way it reproduces, the mitigations successful. We want to build a plan that considers these factors. That is part of this road map here. Second, we want to make sure we are considering the limitations and directions provided by the state of california. As the may or spoke about earlier the state provides information for the entire state to follow. We might be able to move in different phases, slower steps, it has to be taken into account what the state is allowing us to do and what is specifically advisable here in the local jurisdiction. In the plan we also paid special attention to the most hardhit sectors and those communities who were most economically vulnerable. This is an incredibly important concept to make sure we continue to look at recovery with an equity lens. This is a value of San Francisco and something that is important to us here. This is why we have moved things like restaurants, retail forward. Those were the hardest hit sectors in San Francisco. Not only they represent a large number of individuals who have amongst the lowest wage earning as well. We want to look at all phases every opening with equity in mind. Finally, the plan understands that there are several Core Functions that are really underpinings to the economy opening. Those are things like making sure we have a viable Public Transportation system, considering child care. We cant have a fully open economy if kids are at home with us. These are all practical things we have heard from san franciscans to move forward. The final thing i will say is that i think as mayor mentioned in multiple ways, this plan, this road map is truly a guidance. It helps us understand what is coming forward, it helps us to prioritize our work, helps san franciscans to plan and prepare for what is to come. That doesnt mean it is set in stone. It means the plan will be flexible, adapt based on any changes to state guidance and adapt if we learn about experiences about the disease Going Forward. Again, i couldnt be more happy to be here to provide a road map, to be able to reflect the concerns that we have heard from hundreds of san franciscans in this plan. A plan that is helpful, thoughtful, again, it balances all of the needs from our Public Health side but as well as importance of providing a way to make ends meet. We are thankful to be here and looking forward to continuing to work with san franciscans and businesses to make sure we have a thoughtful responsible approach to reopening. Thank you so much. First questions are for mayor london breed. Thank you, we have similar questions from the Associated Press and the San Francisco chronicle. Can you articulate how frisco will interact with bay area counties not affected by these changes . What was the Decision Making that led San Francisco to chart its course with this reopening plan. I think dr. Colfax can speak to it. The county Health Officers worked together to try and make decisions that were in the best interests of Public Health, understanding that as a region we are closely tied to one another because in San Francisco, for example, you dont just have to live here to be impacted. People come from all over the bay area who actually work in this city. It was definitely important to Work Together to develop guidelines that led to where we are now. We also realize San Francisco is more dense. We want to make sure we are doing when it all makes sense that we are able to open and provide the opportunity for folks to move forward safely and we will continue to work with and, like i said, dr. Colfax can talk about that, we will work with other counties. We need to do what is in the best interest of san franciscans. Thank you. The next question is from hood line. There are nearly 450 tents on tenderloin sidewalks. How can businesses in the neighborhood participate in the reopening options when the sidewalks are already occupied . Mayor breed it definitely is very challenging there are so many tents in the city, and a lot of people who, unfortunately, are unhoused. As we deal with this pandemic what we have done is not only provide access to hotel rooms for many people who are homeless but also safe sleeping sites. Basically places where people parking lots and streets and trailers and other things to try to move people off the sidewalk. It continues to be a real challenge, and we will do everything we can to continue to move in that direction to provide safe sleeping sites through this pandemic. Thank you. The next question from stefani abc 7. In new york state there is an order allowing businesses to deny entry to anyone not wearing a mask. Do those in San Francisco have that power. Mayor breed yes. Do you think the state is moving too fast towards full reopening . Mayor breed i am not the Health Expert here. I would like to move faster, but i also understand that we have to balance the data with reopening. I think that it is different from different counties. San francisco, the numbers are different, as i said earlier, different than napa county or other places where you see lower numbers. I do think the state is providing an overview for all of us, and it is appropriate because some people are ready to open and ready to move forward whereas other cities are not. I do think the guidance is appropriate and it could change based on what we see happen throughout the state as it relates to the numbers. Last question is from trisha, San Francisco chronicle. The amount of Homeless People who have died on the streets between the end of march and may spiked dramatically compared to the same time last year. What do you make of those numbers. Do you plan to reconsider how the city is providing services to the homeless . I think a crisis like this only makes things worse for the most vulnerable, for people who are disenfranchised. We have a Homeless Outreach team and paramedics and Police Officers and others who have done an incredible job of really putting their lives on the line to go out in the streets and try to help people and others who have provided meals, support, and the fact is, you know, we are doing the very best we can. If we were able to help every Single Person that we know needs help on the streets, we would. It has been very tough especially with social distancing and with the lack of capacity and the fact thi this a fluid situation. When you look at San Francisco compared to any other city in the country serving homeless whether it is ensuring thousands of meals each day, whether it is making sure that we have people who are Getting Services and support and housing and hotels, and spinning out the shelters, safe tent sites and going out there and to try to help support people who in some cases have real challenges with Substance Abuse disorder and mental illness. When you look at San Francisco compared the any other city, we are doing the very best we can. Thank you, madam mayor. Next set of questions for doctor grant colfax, San Francisco department of Public Health. Thank you. This is following up on the questions from the Associated Press and the San Francisco chronicle. Can you articulate how San Francisco will interact with bay area counties not affected by cheese changes . What was the Decision Making that led San Francisco to charts its own course with this reopening plan . We are in constant communication with other neighboring counties. We know that this virus knows no borders. To follow the data and science and facts we need to taylor to our specific locals. San francisco is a very dense community. It is a community that also has many people coming in to work from outside San Francisco. I think the key points are that the Health Officers across the region have agreed to a key set of indicators to help us move forward. We will monitor the same outcomes to ensure that our region as a whole is doing as well as possible. The shelterinplace orders are largely consistent. Again, i think based on local needs, local capacities, some of the responses may be tailo r. E. D. To the gradual reopening. Last questions from channel 4 news. Is the city concerned not enough people are getting tested . What do you plan to do about that . We have made remarkable progress. One of the may ors priorities has been increasing Testing Capacity in San Francisco. We have made remarkable progress on that. To look at our rates compared to other regions, we are doing very well. I am pleased where we are with regard to Testing Capacity. We will continue to expand that. Right now we are in the right place and we will continue to expand Going Forward as our reopening expands. Certainly more testing to come as we move forward together. Lastly, how often should essential workers get tested . Are you loo looking at mandatory testing of essential workers . We are looking at the evidence and data to establish testing guidelines for workers in San Francisco. Right now with city test sf we have made Testing Available for essential workers. They can go to city test sf to get tested. Specific guidelines will be developed as these phases move forward. We are collaborating closely with the Economic Recovery Task force to ensure that the Public Health components every opening are very much represented in these next phases. Thank you, doctor colfax. That concludes todays press conference. The full conference will be on youtube at the sfgovtv page. Thank you very much. This is one place you can always count on to give you what you had before and remind you of what your San Francisco history used to be. We hear that all the time, people bring their kids here and their grandparents brought them here and down the line. Even though people move away, whenever they come back to the city, they make it here. And they tell us that. Youre going to get something made fresh, made by hand and made with quality products and something thats very, very good. The legacy bars and restaurants was something that was begun by San Francisco simply to recognize and draw attention to the establishments. It really provides for San Franciscos unique character. And that morphed into a request that we work with the city to develop a legacy business registration. Im Michael Cirocco and the owner of an area bakery. The bakery started in 191. My grandfather came over from italy and opened it up then. It is a small operation. Its not big. So everything is kind of quality that way. So i see every piece and cut every piece that comes in and out of that oven. Im leslie ciroccomitchell, a fourth generation baker here with my family. So we get up pretty early in the morning. I usually start baking around 5 00. And then you just start doing rounds of dough. Loaves. My mom and sister basically handle the front and then i have my nephew james helps and then my two daughters and my wife come in and we actually do the baking. After that, my mom and my sister stay and sell the product, retail it. You know, i dont really think about it. But then when i sometimes when i go places and i look and see places put up, oh this is our 50th anniversary and everything and weve been over 100 and that is when it kind of hits me. You know, that geez, weve been here a long time. [applause] a lot of people might ask why our legacy business is important. We all have our own stories to tell about our ancestry. Our lineage and ill use one example of tommys joint. Tommys joint is a place that my husband went to as a child and hes a fourth generation san franciscan. Its a place we can still go to today with our children or grandchildren and share the stories of what was San Francisco like back in the 1950s. Im the general manager at tommys joint. People mostly recognize tommys joint for its murals on the outside of the building. Very bright blue. You drive down and see what it is. They know the building. Tommys is a San Francisco hoffa, which is a germanstyle presenting food. We have five different carved meats and we carve it by hand at the station. You prefer it to be carved whether you like your brisket fatty or want it lean. You want your pastrami to be very lean. You can say i want that piece of corn beef and want it cut, you know, very thick and i want it with some sauerkraut. Tell the guys how you want to prepare it and they will do it right in front of you. San franciscos a place thats changing restaurants, except for tommys joint. Tommys joint has been the same since it opened and that is important. San francisco in general that we dont lose a grip of what San Franciscos came from. Tommys is a place that youll always recognize whenever you lock in the door. Youll see the same staff, the same bartender and have the same meal and that is great. Thats important. The service that San Francisco heritage offers to the legacy businesses is to help them with that application process, to make sure that they really recognize about them what it is that makes them so special here in San Francisco. So well help them with that application process if, in fact, the board of supervisors does recognize them as a legacy business, then that does entitle them to certain financial benefits from the city of San Francisco. But i say really, more importantly, it really brings them public recognition that this is a business in San Francisco that has history and that is unique to San Francisco. It started in june of 1953. And we make everything from scratch. Everything. We started a you we started a off with 12 flavors and mango fruits from the philippines and then started trying them one by one and the family had a whole new clientele. The business really boomed after that. I think that the flavors we make reflect the diversity of San Francisco. We were really surprised about the legacy project but we were thrilled to be a part of it. Businesses come and go in the city. Pretty tough for businesss to stay here because it is so expensive and theres so much competition. So for us who have been here all these years and still be popular and to be recognized by the city has been really a huge honor. We got a phone call from a woman who was 91 and she wanted to know if the mitchells still owned it and she was so happy that we were still involved, still the owners. She was our customer in 1953. And she still comes in. But she was just making sure that we were still around and it just makes us feel, you know, very proud that were carrying on our fathers legacy. And that we mean so much to so many people. It provides a perspective. And i think if you only looked at it in the here and now, youre missing the context. For me, legacy businesses, legacy bars and restaurants are really about setting the context for how we come to be where we are today. I just think its part of San Francisco. People like to see familiar stuff. At least i know i do. In the 1950s, you could see a picture of tommys joint and looks exactly the same. We havent change add thing. I remember one lady saying, you know, ive been eating this ice cream since before i was born. And i thought, wow we have, too. There has been an acknowledgement of the special places around San Francisco bay. Well, there is something sort of innate in human beings, i think, that tend to recognize a good spot when you see it, a spot that takes your breath away. This is one of them. An icon of the new deal. We stood here a week ago and we heard all of these dignitaries talk about the symbol that coit tower is for San Francisco. Its interesting for those of us in the pioneer park project is trying to make the point that not only the tower, not only this manbuilt edifice here is a symbol of the city but also the green space on which it sits and the hill to which is rests. To understand them, you have to understand the topography of San Francisco. Early days of the city, the city grows up in what is the financial district on the edge of chinatown. Everything they rely on for existence is the golden gate. Its of massive importance to the people what comes in and out of San Francisco bay. They cant see it where they are. They get the idea to build a giant wooden structure. The years that it was up here, it gave the name telegraph hill. It survived although the structure is long gone. Come to the 1870s and the city has growed up remarkably. Its fueled with money from the nevada silver mines and the gold rush. Its trying to be the paris of the west. Now the beach is the suburbs, the we will their people lived on the bottom and the poorest people lived on the top because it was very hard getting to the top of telegraph hill. It was mostly leanto sharks and bits of pieces of houses up here in the beginning. And a group of 20 businessmen decided that it would be better if the top of the hill remained for the public. So they put their money down and they bought four lots at the top of the hill and they gave them to the city. Lily Hitchcock Coit died without leaving a specific use for her bequest. She left a third of her estate for the beautify indication of the city. Arthur brown, noted architect in the city, wanted for a while to build a tower. He had become very interested in persian towers. It was the 1930s. It was all about machinery and sort of this amazing architecture, very powerful architecture. He convinced the Rec Park Commission that building a tower in her memory would be the thing to do with her money. It was going to be a wonderful observation place because it was one of the highest hills in the city anywhere and that that was the whole reason why it was built that high and had the elevator access immediately from the beginning as part of its features. My fears studio was just down the street steps. We were in a very small apartment and that was our backyard. When they were preparing the site for the coit tower, there was always a lot of harping and griping about how awful progress was and why they would choose this beautiful pristine area to do them in was a big question. As soon as the coit tower was getting finished and someone put in the idea that it should be used for art, then, all of a sudden, he was excited about the coit tower. It became almost like a daily destination for him to enjoy the atmosphere no matter what the politics, that wasnt the point. As long as they fit in and did their work and did their own creative expression, that was all that was required. They turned in their drawings. The drawings were accepted. If they snuck something in, well, there werent going to be any stoolies around. They made such careful little diagrams of every possible little thing about it as though that was just so important and that they were just the big frog. And, actually, no one ever felt that way about them and they werent considered Something Like that. In later life when people would approach me and say, well, what did you know about it . We were with him almost every day and his children, we grew up together and we didnt think of him as a commie and also the same with the other. He was just a family man doing normal things. No one thought anything of what he was doing. Some of them were much more highly trained. It shows, in my estimation, in the murals. This was one of the masterpieces. Families at home was a lot more close to the life that i can remember that we lived. Murals on the upper floors like the children playing on the swings and i think the little deer in the forest where you could come and see them in the woods and the sports that were always available, i think it did express the best part of our lives. Things that werent costing money to do, you would go to a picnic on the beach or you would do something in the woods. My favorite of all is in the staircase. Its almost a miracle masterpiece how he could manage to not only fit everyone, of course, a lot of them i recognized from my childhood its how he juxtaposed and managed to kind of climb up that stairway on either side very much like you are walking down a street. It was incredible to do that and to me, that is what depicted the life of the times in San Francisco. I even like the ones that show the industrial areas, the once with the workers showing them in the cannery and i can remember going in there and seeing these women with the caps, with the nets shuffling these cans through. My parents had a ranch in santa rosa and we went there all summer. I could see these people leaning over and checking. It looked exactly like the beautiful things about the ranch. I think he was pretty much in the never look back philosophy about the coit. I dont think he ever went to visit again after we moved from telegraph hill, which was only five or six years later. I dont think he ever had to see it when the initials are scratched into everything and people had literally destroyed the lower half of everything. Well, in my view, the tower had been pretty much neglected from the 1930s up until the 1980s. It wasnt until then that really enough people began to be alarmed about the condition of the murals, the tower was leaking. Some of the murals suffered wear damage. We really began to organize getting funding through the Arts Commission and various other sources to restore the murals. They dont have that connection or thread or maintain that connection to your history and your past, what do you have . Thats one of the major elements of what makes quality of life in San Francisco so incredible. When people ask me, and they ask me all the time, how do you get to coit tower, i say you walk. Thats the best way to experience the gradual elevation coming up above the hustle and bustle of the city and finding this sort of oasis, if you will, at the top of the hill. When i walk through this park, i look at these brick walls and this lawn, i look at the railings around the murals. I look at the restoration and i think, yeah, i had something to do with that. Learning the lessons, thank you, landmarks meet landmarks. The Current Situation at pioneer park and coit tower is really based in public and private partnership. It was the citizens who came together to buy the land to keep it from being developed. It was Lily Hitchcock coit to give money to the city to beautify the city she loved of the park project worked to develop this south side and still thats the basis of our future project to address the north side. Today we are going to talk about fire safety. We are here at the urban center on Mission Street in San Francisco. Its a wonderful display. A little house in the urban Center Exhibition center that shows what its like in a home in San Francisco after an earthquake. One of the major issues that we are going to face after earthquakes are fire hazard. We are happy to have the fire marshall join us today. Thank you. My pleasure. We talk about the San Francisco earthquake that was a fire that mostly devastated the city. How do we avoid that kind of problem. How can we reduce fire hazard . The construction was a lot different. We dont expect what we had then. We want to make sure with the gas heaters that the gas is shut off. If you shut it off you are going to have no hot water or heat. Be careful not to shut it off unless you smell gas. Absolutely because once you do shut it off you should have the Utility Company come in and turn it back on. Here is a mock up of a gas hear the on a house. Where would we find the gas meter . It should be in your garage. Everyone should be familiar with where the gas meter is. One of the tools is a wrench, a crescent wrench. Yes. The crescent wrench is good and this is a perfect example of how to have it so you can loosen it up and use it when you need it. Okay. Lets go inside to talk about fire safety. Many of the issues here relate to fire, for example, we have a little Smoke Detector and i see you brought one here, a Carbon Monoxide Smoke Detector. This is a combination of smoke and Carbon Monoxide detector. They are required in single homes now and in apartment buildings. If Gas Appliance is not burning properly this will alert you before the fumes buildup and will affect you negatively. This is a Battery Powered . This is a Battery Powered and it has a 10 year battery life. A lot of times you may have one or the other. If you put in just a Carbon Monoxide detector, its important to have one of these too. Every house should have a fire extinguisher, yes. One thing people expect to do when the power goes out after an earthquake about using candles. What would you recommend . If you have a battery operated candle would be better to use. This kind of a candle, you wouldnt want it in an area where it can cause a fire or aftershock that it doesnt rollover. You definitely want to have this in a noncombustible surface. Now, here we have our stove. After a significant earthquake we expect that we may have gas disrupted and so without gas in your home, how are you going to cook . Well, i wouldnt recommend cooking inside of the house. You have to go outside and use a portable stove or something else. So it wouldnt be safe to use your fireplace to cook . Not at first. You should check it by a professional first. Outside should be a safe place to cook as long as you stay away from buildings and doors and windows. Yes. That will be fine. Here we have some alternative cooking areas. You can barbecue and if you have a regular propane bark could barbecue. Thank you for joining us. And thanks for this terrific space that you have in this exhibition space and thanks for helping San Francisco stay safe. All right, president breslin were good to go as long as youre ready. President breslin the San Francisco Health Services board will come to order. Commissioner secretary, will you give a presentation on the structure of this meeting. Clerk yes, very briefly. We would like to remind everyone who is livestreaming at home that this is a special meeting and it has limited agenda items so were not presenting the following items on our agenda. The general Public Comment. The approval of the may 14, 2020 meeting minutes. The directors report. The president s report. The fina