Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Budget And Finance Appropriations Committees 20240712

Im not the smartest commissioner or the most knowledgeable person. This is a constant fight, but you know, this looking at the country, looking at what happened to all of the individuals who have died recently from from White Supremacy and Police Violence, weve got to do better, ive got to do better, and, you know, i didnt really i guess i just as you can see, i got out of i had surge in the last week, and ive spent a lot of time on my back thinking, and i dont have any answers tonight. Some people think that were you know, as i said before, and ive read it online and on social media, were putting a gloss over operator your conference is now in questionandanswer mode. To answer each question, press one and then zero. Commissioner hamasaki do i need to stop for something . Clerk no, you can go. Commissioner hamasaki i dont have anything deep or profound to say, other than i really hope, i really hope that this is a moment that we rise to, and i i just we cant just keep going and reading out names of people that have been killed and honoring them and keep going back and doing it the same way that weve done it before. You know, we have such an opportunity, and the community is behind us, and the community and the country is demanding that we act, so thats all i want to say, and i hope that we do have to have our battles and our fights, but i hope that this moment i hope that people dont forget what were here for because theres not you know, to me, honestly, if thats then im not going to be on this commission because we have to ensure that our communities and our homes are safe. I could be home with my family right now, so thats all i have to say. Vice president taylor okay. Can you call the next line item, please . Clerk 3d, commission announcements and scheduling of items identified for consideration of future Commission Meetings, action item. Vice president taylor okay. Commissioner dejesus. Commissioner dejesus okay. I do have a couple of items. I would ask that a budget presentation be prepared for next week so were up to date, and im assuming that it will include im sorry, yeah. Im assuming it will include how the departments proposing to do the budget cut, and i cant remember if it was 15 or 18 or whatever percentage the mayor is asking, so its under a deadline. They have to go in on june 12, so im asking that it be on the june 10 agenda. Vice president taylor it will definitely. Just so you know, i talked to the chief about it this week, and everything exploded in the world. I made that request of him several days ago, and i was hoping that wed have at least some interim presentation on it, but situations beyond our control, but it will definitely be on next week. Commissioner dejesus okay. Im glad you did that. Since we didnt talk last week, i didnt know where everything was going. Okay. On the d. G. O. , i know its not on for action tonight, but this matter has been on since 2017. What i understand is the d. P. A. And the working group agree with the d. O. J. , the california d. O. J. , and well talk about that in more detail, but i really think its got to go on as soon as possible for a vote so we can get this dpg goingoi. Its really disheartening for people to work so hard for so many years and dont see any effort. Any way, its just minor changes, so thats what i have to that. And lets see. What else do i have . I dont know how to keep track of this. I know the agenda has been packed, but i do want to get date certains for some of the this information that i asked for to the [inaudible] commissioner dejesus i think looking at the looking at the minutes, he asked back in february how the Gang Task Force is being maintained. He asked about an update on that, and commissioner elias asked for an update on that, and i think i asked for the d. O. J. Criticism of us and the potrero staffing audit. Id like someone to be asking about that because i dont want them to call by the wayside. Vice president taylor we dont need to make a list. I have a list, and the problem with the you know, notwithstanding the situation over the last several days, i thought the chief was going to be reporting tonight. The staffing is coming up. All of the mug shots are coming up, but youll just have to bear with us because we have a lot in every meeting. Were going to get to it. Commissioner elias can you give us a preview of the agenda, too, because i dont think people realize when we the agenda is the exact same time that the public sees the jend. We get agenda. We see it on friday when the public sees the agenda. I think if we can get a month view of whats going to come up on the meetings, well just bullet point it, i think it would be great. Commissioner dejesus if we have a running list, we can see whats on and whats off. Vice president taylor i dont know that theyre prepared too much in advance, but i think we can get it earlier than 4 00 on friday. Stacey can tell me no, it shouldnt be a problem. Vice president taylor okay. Commissioner dejesus okay. Thats it. What else do i have . Thank you. Vice president taylor all right. Thanks. Commissioner elias, is that you . Commissioner elias yeah. So i wanted to add some items to the agenda. Like commissioner dejesus said, i think the dante thomas issue needs to come before the commission so we can talk about it, where we are, and what d. P. A. S role is in this audit and what the status is. So i think we need to take a good look at that. The other item is id like d. P. A. To report on their base training and investigation. Ive been noticing in a lot of this report that there arent very many bias complaints, and im wondering why when people in the community have told me otherwise, so id really like to know the training and investigative practices regarding how d. P. A. Receives bias complaints, how they handle them, how their staff is trained to recognize bias complaints when they come in, how theyre tracked, how theyre investigated, so i think those that information is really important for the public to know because, you know, again, a lot of the Community Members come up to me and say that they they dont understand how the bias numbers are so low, especially when they have themselves given me examples of some of these complaints, so id like that to be agendized, as well. And then, im going to ask that the d. G. O. 5. 03 be, as well, and i think those were the five things that i was requesting. Vice president taylor okay. All right. Commissioner hamasaki oh, sorry. Vice president taylor are you sorry . Oh, commissioner hamasaki. Commissioner hamasaki oh, i understand theres a lot going on. On the agendizing items, i apologize, im going to run through a number of them, and i might repeat one of them. We had asked last week i mean, it wasnt last week. We werent in session. The week before that to agendize a session of the thin blue line masks, the p. A. O. Mask i ma mask. The d. G. O. , we talked about having that on next week. I havent heard from the chief about that, but ill email that and like to have that on next week. Yeah, in reading my notes and reminding myself that the gang database, what id like to see there is a presentation because when i raised it back in february, i believe that lapd or Sheriffs Department had been caught basically fabricating to add black and brown people, minorities, to the data basis. I certainly hope nothing like that is happening here, but what we do need to know is how that database is maintained, how somebody gets on it, what the criteria is, you know, just being having somebody whos a Family Member whos a gang member can be a criteria in some of the counties if youre just walking to the store can them. I have zero knowledge of what the sfpds knowledge is, so the criteria to be put on the gang base, and also for individuals to be removed because this is one of the reasons that i brought up because ive dealt with that through a client who was applying to medical school and found out he was on the gang database, and hes not somebody who needs to be on a gang database, and it was crazy. But id like a presentation from the department about all of those those questions, and the the other issue that came up, and supervisor walton, and i believe one other supervise, and i forgot who it was, but brought forth a measure preventing hiring officers with misconduct, which is a problem that weve all discussed, and because of the Police Officers bill of rights and the way that may or may not be shared between agencies, agencies can either end up with bad officers from our department or we concerns that we may end up with bad officers from other departments. As commissioners, any time anyone gets in real trouble with discipline, they leave, they resign, and we dont and this is something ive brought up for at least a year now. We close the investigation, and i i dont think thats what we should do, and up until two months ago or three months ago, we were advised by the City Attorney we cant get legal advice, remember . Commissioner hamasaki i think thats okay. We were advised that it is possible to continue investigating officers who have committed misconduct, and so the point there is for us as a department to have accountability and transparency because when were talking about these 1421 records, if somebody resigns, theres no accounting so theres no transparency. Nobody knows about the bad conduct that took place, so what i would like to agendize is that an open discussion occur. We actually have to have this discussion in open session about the procedures and policies we need to do as a commission to ensure that we are cleaning our own house and we are keeping our house clean and we are not sending and those of us who have been on the commission i know petras been on the commission for a pretty long time, but even though were a young commission, weve seen some pretty bad stuff, and thats all for tonight. I could add a couple more, but thats it. Vice president taylor commissioner hamasaki, you know i agree with you on that. I think it was commissioner elias and i. We have a problem with people who resign who otherwise should be disciplined, and so weve all been very frustrated by that and had a conversation with the City Attorney, so thats something thats far from just you. Weve been very vocal about that as a commission. [please stand by] good evening, commissions, chief scott. Im brian cox from the Public Office and many people are protesting. It cuts against the anger and frustration of decades of policing. I would caution this commission because sftv and it is deserves applause and within the anger and the voices of though protesting. This is those who have had the courage to speak up and Say Something when daunte king remarked the black sediment. His observation is an anti bias trainer is this report the data sfp presented shows 13 of the drivers are black and make up 26 of those stopped thats 100 higher and something is wrong here. The people protesting the streets see it, the Public Defender Office seize it and this report doesnt recognize it. As long as black and brown people make up of those stopped, searched, arrested, prosecuted in San Francisco it will feel the system doesnt and cannot treat them fairly. But theres room to moves forward. Thank you. Next caller, please. You have four questions remaining. Hello, this is magic open and the first thing i want to say is there is an emergency and appealing to all the chief especially to not use this arbitrary curfew to perpetrate violence against peaceful demonstrators and theyre overwhelmingly a majority are children who can now feel they have a future when the curfew will be dropped tomorrow anyway and and so she some i is off ths and she nominated two people to the Police Station commission and that are working on Police Brutality in San Francisco and 100 people waited six hours to test fie so the mayor soft rails and we cannot have a commission with those people on it. Nancy received money from the p. O. A. , ok. And the death penality so to have her thrown out on fair again when she has no interest in helping to transition a police force out of a despicable past into a decent future, its appalling, also, where is the report about the thin blueline and i saw two cops throw a woman of colour holding a teddy bear on the ground wearing these face masks. We cannot reform and be sweet by the way i was kicked off the line when we call in, we are not to be told your question. Were not here to ask questions but make statements and i dont want that to be the props next time i call. Im concerned about the young people on the streets right now, please do anything you can to get in touch with the cheech and lechief sohe is not treated to r people off the streets for her lunch and takes care of our people. Thank you. You have four questions remaining. Hi, my name is anne wily. Can you hear me . Yes, go ahead. Thank you. My name is anne wily and im a nurse and ive been working and living in San Francisco for the past three years now and this is the first time ive called in and i want to say ive learned so much tonight and and i want to respect the work being done. Im really thankful for that. I do want to saw im calling in and i was mobilized tonight im nervous. By the sf united in crisis protestors should not and Police Contact with nonviolent protestors or anybody doing anything non violent should be nonexistent right now due to the. Adrienne and i can sutter and in the icu intensify importance of that and so we should be the least from jails and juvenile detention centres. I was listening to the discussion of the use of force with the neo knee on the neck ai heard the police chief say its difficult when someone is moving around on the ground and those could can easily it seems like that one can convert into the other. That to me seems like if anything could be fast tracked it would be that. Right now, i was disappointed to hear it might take months to even make that reportable. Where as, this curfew that as was mentioned is curtailing of our human rights and im at home tonight and ive been home all night and im not arguing against that. What im arguing about right now is that such a violent act to be neon thknee on the neck not to e reportable i would like it to be a priority. Its clear the police chief can do it and it was clear he did it with the curfew and it needs to be done here in this moment with someone died from it. What else would it take and we need to fast track that. Good evening, you have two minutes. Hi. Can we talk about the deaf and hard of hearing . Thats the next line item. Ok. Ill wait. Ill wait for the next line item. Thank you. You have two questions remaining. Good evening. You have two minutes. Thank you. Im a dissident of dictionary six. I have two questions and its dem on respond and the requests for the commission. The two questions for sfpd, i heard earlier that the department implemented 61 reforms of 272 recommendations from the doj. I did find the list of recommendations online but i was wondering if a list of those implemented reforms is reforms is probably available and if so why is it so difficult to find . Second, i also heard earlier that the sfpd conducts bias testing and looking to increase prior to hiring the officers and i was wonder what is does your testing consist of and in addition of that, Electronic Communications devices do you conduct background checks ex review their social media accounts to ensure theyre not members of white supremacist or other hate groups. I have a request for the commission as well. I was reading the chronicle this week and i was gobsmacked by toni tobac montoya which he defended to the statements and the concern about the january and i believe he wrote this in an email and im quoting here. Nano naked publicity craft to defect the San Francisco Police Officer in an unflattering light is not only wrong but a sick attempt to take some sort of political advantage of the horrible death of george floyd, end quote. Naked public unflattering light. When it comes to Police Brutality and racism, culture is just as important. Actually, even more important than policy and this type of thank you. Next caller. You have one question remaining. Good evening, caller. You have two minutes. Caller hi, there. Brad edwards district 11. I want to i appreciate commissioner hamasaki asking to agenized the mask matter. I was very disappointed and sad to see that and this is the agenda to we can discuss how racist symbol that we saw in charlottesville and it is so many awful associations and i look forward to and its glossed over. And lastly, commission hamaski i thought his heart melt message to the core it was sincere and moving. You have zero questions remaining. Next line item. Status update on interactions with deaf and hard of hearing individuals discussion. Theres a dpa presentation and we do have an asl interpreter who will be on the screen during this presentation. Will it be d. P. A. Or sfpd first . I will defer to my own. Yeah, we can hear you. Oh. Ill defer to sam, my director of policy. Do you guys want to go . Thank you. Good evening, Vice President taylor, commissioners, director henderson, members of the public, and especially a warm welcome to the deaf advocates who have been waiting so patiently for this agenda item tonight, for hours, and without the benefit of a signing interpreter, were thrilled theres one now and theyve also waited for months and months and months. So tonight, sam from the department of police accountability, i thank you so much to the commission to take the opportunity to address you about this deaf and hard of hearing djo and i want to focus on two things. I want to describe the incredible work that Community Members, over 15, came together throughout 2018 and 2019 to work on research further expertise, give their heartfelt daytoday experience, the clients that they represent, the personal pain that theyve experienced and when they cannot abstain Police Services and that this work has all accumulated into this department general so i want to talk some about those individuals but more importantly i want them to have the opportunity to directly speak to you and id like to highlight a few aspects of this cto. So i first want to do a shout out and rod clarke. Theyve been online waiting for hours. Susan gonzales and orchid who sits on the Disability Council for the Mayors Office of disabilities and she also is a part of the deaf centre at our incredible Public Library and steven mayer who is just been constant at being an educator and is a member of the Deaf Community and erika pappas from safe and sound and beverly and da victim witness, wendy lau, who we used to be the gender based Violence Institute and nicole bond from the mayor office of disability and Sandra Atkins who used to work there and was part of this group from the beginning and rod clarke and Jessica Flores from toni tobac flores and she her self is an amazing key participant. I just wanted to shout out all those individuals and if i left anyone out i apologize, because its a long journey and we started back in 2017 because at the Language Access members there talked about two deaf survivors who did not get appropriate Police Services and we were we wanted do something to address this problem and so, a sub group of us got together back in 2017 and talked about how we can put together a department general order. We began looked at the Police Department because they have a incredible department general order and the advocates they brought in their own training materials, provided an educated many of us who had a long role to learn and from that we invited the inspector to the working group and we met with the chief to explain what we were doing to get his support and request authorization for funding and for video conferen conferencing and we talked about putting together an officer training video to accompany the role out of this dgo and he requested we continue to have a captain from professional standards to attend our meeting. In the middle of may of 2018, more advocates came to the meetings as well as Police Officers as well and that year we put together and again, collectively, an amazing project that we put together a department general order and we created an officer communication guide and this is really the incredible work of Jessica Flores and this was a guide so when officers are interacting with someone with deaf and hard of hearing, they can first figure out the individual that can use this card to figure out the best method for communication. During that year, we also identified different types of technologies. The entire time we were meeting, we had asl interpreters, Mayors Office of disability largely hosting our meetings and it was a really productive year. At the end of that year, and we had provided the dgo to the professional standards of division so there was an opportunity for the Police Department to review and identify areas of concern. Also, in the middle of that, we presented an update to the commission as well in july about the progress on the deaf and hard of hearing dgo in the hope that in september, the following september, we would be able to present it to the commission because it was deaf awareness month. That was the time when the commissioners and hats off to you, commissioner removing the ball forward. We started attending our working group. By the end of december, we met with the chief. There were four areas of concern around front handcuffing, how quickly could we roll out the training, there was a few other minor things and the ed from Mayors Office of disability, nicole bond, myself, the commissioner and the chief, we had really productive discussions and we resolved those issues by february of 2019. In february of 2019, things moved forward more rapidly. The dgo was reviewed by the department of justice and they did an excellent job revising the dgo so it was reform ated so its easier to read and they had some suggestions or questions. We welcomed their review and unfortunately, the working group didnt get those revisions for a few months but when we did, as soon as we got those revisions, i reconvened the working group in january of 2020 and we overwhelmingly agreed with those recommendations. And provided the department written feedback and the recommendations doj formatting so there was no reorganizing issues that anyone need today do because they did such an excellent job. The doj recommendations are version two and again, the working group we fully support that version and theres a few minor things that could be tweaked but we believe it would take a very great amount of tie and it was since october from 2019 to now and its really another nine months those problems have not been resolved. With that, i want to go to a few key parts of the its based on the metropolitan departments dgl and because of complaints involving deaf and hard of hearing individuals. So we had really looked at and identified the best parts and so, this dgo, it most certainly begins with a strong policy statement that emphasizes the Police Departments dedication and providing the highest level of service including those who are deaf and hard of hearing. It explains the federal state law it requires Effective Communication and cannot discriminate or deny services to those who are deaf and hard of hearing and the deaf and hard of hearing individuals, theyre entitled to the same level of service as any hearing individual. So this identifying provides details procedures for officers to fall and it uses a communication card which you can see part of the dgo similar to communication across the country so its a way in which officers have tools in the field to identify the best communication interacting with someone who is deaf or hard of hearing and restricts unqualified interpreter and defines emergency circumstances that allow alternative communication methods and i dont know if you are able to forward thank you. If you could go even further than that. Thank you so much. If you can go to the next one, that would be great. Is that the one right there . Can you go beyond that one, thank you. And, myself, i am breaking every rule. I apologize to the interpreter. I know im speaking far too fast. In part, its such a great relief to be able to present this to you. It also, besides outlining what officers should do in emergency situations, it explains the different ways in which officers, if theyre interacting with the reporting of victims, a witness or complainant it provides guidance to officers at what the required to do and how to appropriately provide Effective Communication and it also addresses the procedures for detentions, arrests, interrogations, police warrants and consent to search. It has a level of detail because each of the circumstances raises kinds of problems an problems ae and based on looking at best practises we believe that level of detail would provide officers the tools that they need and exclusive with best practise. It also, it designates services, training, data collection, reporting and outreach. Those are essential points of any department general orders, someone needs to be responsible for problem solving and really implementing the dgo and it puts that responsibility on the Police Department language abilities ofly say o who has y lifting on the department of the dgo concerning spoken or foreign language, this would incorporate that Language Access Liaison Officer to now expand that purview so that that individual is also dealing with deaf and hard of hearing, reportedly requirements, training and problem solving within the Police Department and to the public as well. It requires scenariobased training and using approved Communications Tools every two years and that training is to commence within four months. That was when we met with the chief back in december of 2018, the chief, his suggestion was four months to believe it was a doable amount of time to rule out training. The dgo includes a guideline for communicating effectively with people who are deaf and hard of hearing so its really, how do you work with interpreters to guide officers, most certainlily for staff as well. So, in closing, i guess part of what i would like to say, when i reached out to the California Department of justice, about this dgo recently to make sure that we really address the California Department of justices concerns and ask them, do they have an opinion of how the dgo and of course they said, as i know many of you heard them say, they will not endorse any one department general order of a particular agency. Thats not what they do. It asks, could you describe their opinion of this dgo and they said it is solid and it is consistent with best practise. So, with that, i just urge this commission to move this department general order so the next step so that officers have the tools they need and the deaf and hard of hearing Community Members can feel assured that they will be able to have Effective Communication when interacting with the Police Department. Thank you so much for your time in this situation. Thank you, i have a question for you and the next presenter. Im just confused about the status of this dgo. I was told that there were questions that doj had that the Department Still has to answer and that this is still in concurrence. Im just confused where we are in the process. And i also i just have a question about why its a 12page dgo and as you know, i mean, officers have 124 department general orders to memorize and be accountable for and responsible for so they have to be digest able and they have to be in a format so that officers can commit them to memory and action and impact and so a 12page dgo strikes me as really long. So just wanted to get your thoughts on that as well. What is happening in terms of the out dating question that i was told was one that weve been on for status and not for a vote. Im happy to take your first question about a 12page dgo and i can also say of course, your second question, about the status and i think probably the Police Department is in a better position with that. Its concerning it being a 12page dgo, when we looked at across the country and the type of problems that officers had challenges in with complying with the ada and that the metropolitan dgo was in detail and it is a variety of circumstances that would lead to usdoj intervention so based on that, we believed and had further discussions that there was a need to have that level of detail so when an officer, lets say interrogating a suspect, there are time limitations, there are instructions about when you need to move from what is appropriate perhaps through written discussion on note taking versus the need for an actual inperson interpreter. So we vetted this and spoke at length about all of those aspect and i would like to underscore that when the california doj looked at this dgo as well, they were not concerned about the length, they again said it was consistent with best practise and this level of guidance is actually helpful so that there arent violations or questions and officers dont know how to problem solve. I also think because of the doj revisions, it will be actually a bit shorter because they did an excellent job in making it more condensed so its hard to see that in version two. Your question question about the status. What i can say is that, the doj recommendations in october of 2019 they asked particular questions that the working group responded to in writing, in january, when we had that opportunity. And so, those questions are theyre fairly simple questions. A question is, one question was, whats the supervisors responsibility when the supervisors informed that an officer in the field needs an asl interpreter . Theres one line that could be includeddeincluded and the workg group [please stand by] okay. I do have a presentation, and sergeant youngblood, i dont know if you are going to run that. Clerk yes. Okay. Thank you, sergeant, so i will just respond. So first, i want to thank the working group because i know you all have put in a lot of time and effort, and we want to be respectful of that for sure as we move forward, and thank you, thank you, thank you, for all the hard work. The and first of all, just to remind you all, you all know this, the department is committed to providing the highest level of service to all communities, including individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing. Legal and federal regulations under state law require standards who are individual for deaf and hard of hearing and are not subjected to discrimination or unreasonable policies. We establish Effective Communication free of charge by providing the tools or resources to communicate. And finally, by the dedicated efforts of the d. P. A. Working group, this policy sets the standard for an equivalent level of service to be provided for this population. So the next slide shows the timeline, and sam did a good job of outlining this timeline and demonstrating the efforts of the working group, where we landed in january with sort of all of the input coming into the department and, of course, all of the input from the working group, and the working group, cal d. O. J. , and we are here in january, february, really starting concurrence, and trying to you know, the usdoj and cal d. O. J. Have said repeatedly that hilliard, our reform contractor, has said we need to take any policy and make them our own, and this concurrency policy is doing that. So a series of unfortunate events have occurred since january that we all know have made things more difficult. I believe we had a concurrent meeting before covid19. We had about 1. 5 hours which we spent on the first paragraph, so this process can be very tedious. I think anyone whos been involved in the bias working groups or other working groups that have worked on policies understands how detail oriented we have to be as we go through these policies. So the second concurrent meeting was scheduled for the week that the covid19 shelter in place was ordered, and we had more meetings scheduled this week, in fact, and that has been made more impacted by additional emergencies. So again, no real excuse for how long its taken, but we are we are well aware of the fact that it has taken a long time, and we are not going to delay any further. Vice president taylor what does that mean, not going to delay any further . When can i schedule this for a vote . When can i get this on the calendar. If you not you, but if sfpd is the holdup here, i want to move that logjam. Okay. Vice president taylor i get that were in the middle of an emergency, and i know we need a little bit of flexibility, but i dont want a lot of flexibility. When can we have the d. G. O. To hold a vote on . I want to give you a timeline because if i dont, im afraid that well be here in three months. Im inclined to put it on in july, so if you dont want that, speak now, but if not, im going to put it on july. I think that since july is only a month away, that august would be best, but i do understand you know, we would not be able to finish a concurrence process in the next ten days because you need a month to see the finished product, and that would be if you did july 8, for instance, i would have to have a d. G. O. To you by june 26, which is two weeks from now. So you understand that schedules with the chiefs and the assistant chiefs and everything, that those schedules get very hard to coordinate, so but we are we are making progress. If we could schedule it for august, that would be a more likely timeline. Vice president taylor ill give you the first meeting in august, august 5, but itll be on for a vote that meeting. So whatever you need to do, itll be on vote for august 5. Copy that. Vice president taylor commissioner hamasaki. Are you not asking a question, commissioner hamasaki . Is that just commissioner dejesus i petra. I asked a question. Commissioner hamasaki im sorry, petra. I was muted. Commissioner dejesus oh. Commissioner hamasaki director mcguire, thank you for appearing tonight. I think that thats important, that you appear tonight for everything thats gone on with this d. G. O. I think you know that i am not happiest in the least and ive expressed that to you multiple times over the last year. The deaf and hard of you know, im going to go back. This came up probably a few months into my term on the commission, and it seemed like such an exciting opportunity to be part of something really just neat and Ground Breaking and indcredible, and i did all this research, and you look around the country, and you see about deaf and hard of hearing individuals having really bad and up until death, Police Killings because they did not have the training policies and procedures in place at the time to ensure that their officers did not go nknow how or knew to deal with deaf and hard of hearing individuals to have a safe outcome for the community. This is what i was speaking about earlier how it is to be so disheartening on this commission sometimes. I hold you, director mcguire, responsible for this. You have your knee on the neck of the deaf and hard of Hearing Community. Dont do that. Commissioner hamasaki dont interrupt me. This gets delayed and delayed again. When we talk about the problems with this commission, now that this is finally on the agenda, i have numerous emails that i pulled today of my request to get it on the agenda. We can go back to other meetings where ive requested it live to get it on the agenda, and the department keeps making excuses, and its been a year. If somebody died during this time because you couldnt get it together, that would be on your hands, and that would be on mine, too, you know, because when i was talking about me not doing enough, i didnt do enough to push this forward because i this is its appalling, its outrageous, its unjust, and your delays i dont even i cant even imagine whats going on behind it because theres no excuses. Ive read your powerpoint, ive gone back to all of our emails, and so let me tell the public how things happen on this Police Commission. The Police Commission has four mayor appointees and three supervisorial appointees. Because the mayor has four votes, they generally maintain leadership. Last year, it was bob hirsch and our current acting president , didamali taylor, ani repeatedly asked to get this on the calendar at that time for a status so we could check in and have that conversation. I had i wrote a long email to president hirsch along with director mcguire. Im going to read it to you, just so its clear about the record. Friday, january 31, 2020. Dear president hirsch, i am requesting to add the following to the Police Commission agenda on february 12, two weeks and mind you, this had been done for six months the department shall appear at the february 12 Commission Meeting to address the status of the deaf and hard of hearing d. G. O. Director mcguire should be present and prepared to address the status of the d. G. O. Any further changes the department wishes to make, and the cause for the delay. Second, on february 19, 2020, we add the deaf and hard of hearing d. G. O. To calendar for adoption. This has been nearly a twoyear effort with no substantial changes in the past six months. I am confident that we can resolve all issues prior to that date, save perhaps some minor ones which we can resolve at the hearing. The deaf and hard of Hearing Community and our officers are put at risk with each delay. I will remind everyone this is exactly what happened with the working group on the Domestic Violence reporting form, and the delay and inaction resulted in a lawsuit by Domestic Violence advocates, not to mention the media coverage, which was a tremendous embarrassment for the city and the department. You responded and oh, well, you know, its im im its theres too much going on, the same exact thing you were saying tonight, and so heres what happens to the people out there. The mayoral appointees will not put things that the board of supervisors appointees want on calendar until they want to put it on. And so while were here, fighting for the safety and security of our community, we get gamesmanship, and its you know, how can you look at the last week and see what happens when the department doesnt get their act together and not feel disgust and shame . Im glad you appeared tonight because ive been asking for it since at least january and then orally before that. And then tonight, i asked, back in may, after having to vigorously, vigorously, vigorously fight to have Commission Meetings and im not going to go back through that again, but they were the same people that did not want to have Commission Meetings and did not want to have these things out in public. And so i emailed commissioner taylor to add it on for action. Commissioner taylor responds, i cant do that. Its on for status. I get an email that thats whats going to happen, but theres no reason its not on for action. This should be adopted tonight. This august 5 . This should have been passed last august. This is disgraceful, embarrassing, disgusting conduct, and i Vice President taylor all right. Dont be so hard. Commissioner hamasaki now, dont interrupt me commissioner dejesus yeah, its showing. Youre being rude right now. First of all, parents are here. Youre being rude, first of all, and second of all, i dont normally do this, but there are a whole bunch of lies happening tonight, so you want to have this conversation . Let me finish. Were going to have this conversation now. First of all, were not going to do is compare every situation to the slaughter of black people. Not everything is a knee to the neck, and were not going to do that. Second of all, i was not on any emails or former president hirsch or kathrin mcguire because i have never set any agendas before i was acting president of this commission, and when i did become acting president , one of the first thing i did was reach out about the deaf and hard of hearing d. G. O. I asked you, i asked commissioner dejesus. I wanted to put it on the january 20 agenda. I wanted to know about the d. G. O. Commissioner dejesus informed me that there were still issues pending. I am familiar with the rules, just as everyone else should be. When its in concurrence, we cannot vote on it. Furthermore, commissioner dejesus informed me we should have it on for status. This whole idea of mayoral appointees and supervisorial appointees is a lie. There are issues that we have aligned on, this commission, and commissions before that. And the idea of meeting but the idea that you have been fighting for meeting for sometime, i get it that you have put that out to the public, but the truth is the first time you ever made a request for a meeting ever to anyone was to the examiner on may 2. You never asked me for a meeting, you never asked the Commission Staff for a meeting. If you had, you would have learned what we had been doing. I read it in the newspaper when i woke up, whenever that saturday was, and you decided to email the chief, i think, on may 1. That is the first time you requested a meeting, and it was not to me or to the Commission Staff. And beyond that, there were plenty, sir, of board appointees who were asking not to have meetings, if you want to put that out there because they wanted to make sure let me finish [inaudible] Vice President taylor commissioner hamasaki, i respect you. We can get along. Youre being rude, and i think we should act with the decorum that this commission calls for and requires. Thank you. Thats all i have to say. Commissioner hamasaki thank you, and commissioner taylor, you know, i let it go at our first meeting, but if you want to go there, we had a 14minute call on the sunday Vice President taylor what date was that, sir . Commissioner hamasaki ive got a phone record. Vice president taylor i called you, and you called me back on sunday. Commissioner hamasaki can you please not interrupt me . It is fine for you to lie but dont lie about me, okay . You and i had a long discussion where i requested a meeting. That is why petra and i had to go to the Mayors Office because you said to me repeatedly the Mayors Office is not allowing us to meet, the mayors ive asked the mayor, ive asked the mayor, ive asked the mayor. She wont let us meet. Why do you think i spent six hours getting together all of the research, writing a long letter Vice President taylor sir, i think you guys like having your name in the press. Commissioner hamasaki please dont interrupt me. Okay. We need to commissioner hamasaki yeah, this is a disserve. Commissioner elias listen, you have said your piece, she has said her piece. It is what the facts show. Let it go. We need to move on and get going on this because theres a lot more we still have on the agenda. We have people that have been on the line for hours. Commissioner hamasaki let me finish without be interrupted. The first deaf and hard of hearing i attended back in, i think it was august of 2018, we had a group of around 20 people very eager, putting in a lot of hard hours and work to get this done. By the last meeting, there was four people because the community was so disheartened by our actions, okay . And that is the source of the frustration that just keeps going on, and i am going to request that this is added for next week for action because there is nothing else to discuss. Id like to give director mcguire a chance to respond because i just this is this is and you know what . This did not have to go down that other route that was just went down, and i apologize for my part in that. I handled that very briefly when it first came up, but i dont know why it came up again. Regardless, at this point, you know, i weve got to serve the community. Weve got to come together. We need to fix this. If i said some harsh words tonight, its about a year of frustration of not being able to get this on the agenda, and then, when i got it on the agenda, its put on for status. And to hear complaints that its 12 pages instead of 10, its not real objections at this point. So ill let anybody else talk now, but we deserve we deserve we need to do better. Okay. Can i speak briefly just on this issue . I want to focus on getting this moved as expeditiously as possible, and thats my only request, as well. I think thats part of the solution for all of this. I will say that, you know, at d. P. A. We are very frustrated with this, as well. We just want it on as soon as possible. I would rerequest that it go on again in july because we have a conflict in august that i cant move around, so id ask that it go on sometime in july, as well, and i think that speaks to some of the concerns that commissioner hamasaki has raised and some of the frustration that i think were hearing tonight on how this on how this d. G. O. In particular was handled and the community was handled. You know, i dont know that were going to resolve that now, but i think that one of the answers, and the most the best outcome for the decision is to schedule this sooner rather than later, and it seems clear, even from the admissions from the department itself, that this is ready to be resolved and there is not much work left to be done. To the extent of work that was to be done, i think the gap of nine months would have shown the light on any big hurdles that would prevent us from scheduling this for a decision sooner rather than later. I just think that that would help, and august just doesnt work for d. P. A. Vice president taylor thats fine. I wanted to put it on may 20. I am new to this d. G. O. I am learning as to what the situation is. I have been told lots of things, and so im fine with putting it on in july. Director mcguire . Commissioner dejesus you know, im sorry, ive been waiting. Vice president taylor oh, im sorry. Commissioner dejesus . Commissioner dejesus well, i wanted it on may 20, but you said the department had there was another one, and i told you they could be resolved because they were minor, and someone told you that they were not minor, but they were minor. I want to point out some of the things that the d. O. J. Says. It says you should crossreference the policies under 911, you should check with local Community Leaders with how to capital deck or uncapital deck. If youre going to add a. S. L. , you should define sign english. Theyre really minor theyre minor things. If you use r. I. T. , use r. I. T. If you give an example, this is exhaustive is it exhaustive or is it just a list of examples . Theyre really minor. Theres only two or three that you might have to give some thought to, but these were all reorganized by the d. O. J. What are the supervisors duties for learning communicative assistance . These are yes, no, yes, no, add it, subtract it, define it. If somebody sat down and went through this for an hour, this would be done. Thats what im trying to tell you, theyre minor changes that were made. Theyre nothing Ground Breaking, and the d. P. A. Went through it with the stakeholders, and they agreed with it, so its just the department lagging and not going through all the 25 changes and signing off on it. So i agree with the frustration that im hearing tonight. This thing is ready to go. We dont need months and months and months to answer questions that were put forth by the d. O. J. Commissioner hamasaki let me say one thing real quick. One, i shouldnt have responded to the other comments. I do want to apologize for that. Thats a and cindy and petra and you were right to interrupt. Ive just been ive been living with this d. G. O. For a while, and i really am frustrated, but to the degree that we went into other matters, and i expressed some things there, i do want to apologize. I dont want to lose focus on the d. G. O. Thats what i care about, and im sorry for any distraction, any the side fighting created in my role in that. Vice president taylor thank you. I appreciate that. I apologize, as well. Frustrations are clearly high, and this is an you know, an incredible, and not in a good way time. I learned about this d. G. O. I was not involved in the process, and all im trying to do is figure out the quickest way to get this on calendar and for a vote, and all i can do the only way i can do that is talk to the people who are involved who have told me different things. And so im sure, through no fault of your own director mcguire, can you, once again commissioner elias ive had my little icon up. Vice president taylor im sorry. Back to the department. Commissioner elias no, i have two issues. I understand commissioner hamasakis frustration of more than a year, and i think if any other commissioner were in his shoes, they would also be frustrated and upset, but i think what hes trying to highlight is the miscommunication from the department to the commission because i dont think oftentimes we are told exactly whats going on or theyre competing sort of things that are happening, and so we dont necessarily get all the information. What i will say about this, and i do agree with commissioner dejesus, this has been going on for more than a year, so concurrence should have happened already. The fact that theyre getting months is just unacceptable. We were just chastised by the d. O. J. About how we take things off calendar and how long things take, and we keep getting hit by the public who thinks that we arent doing things fast enough, and this is just an example of why it is everything is taking us so long. And so while i respectfully understand why you keep deferring or why youre deferring to miss mcguire in terms of when she can get it back on, i think that time is passed. Theyve had enough time to deal with this, and they should have had it done by now, so waiting till august is just not good enough. Vice president taylor okay. Executive director mcguire. Thank you, commissioners. I am i believe i was the first one interrupted, so i do have some additional thoughts on the comments that have come up. First and foremost, there are eight members of the command staff. Only two of those members of the command staff have seen any real well, theyve all seen it now, but before we started concurrence, there were only two members who had seen any version of it. So there are training considerations and negotiation considerations and a number of other considerations that have to go into the concurrence process, and thats why the concurrence process exists. I also understand that the you know, from our perspective, the draft d. G. O. Was not to us until january, and so that is that the eight months, nine months, those different perspectives are certainly understandable, but but, you know, we got the feedback back from d. O. J. In late october. The working group took a look at it again and gave us their feedback by january, so i totally understand that the january to now time frame, considering everything else, is still a long time, but just a reminder that concurrence involves eight people nine people. The and i also wanted to skip ahead in the presentation to the Vice President taylor before you skip ahead, i do want to get the scheduling thing down. So what is the earliest in july that you can get us that we can have this on for a vote . Were not meeting july 29. Commissioner hamasaki were the commission. We can decide that. We dont have to ask the department, commissioner taylor. Commissioner dejesus lets just hear the answer. Vice president taylor thank you. Yeah,iti commissioners, il just reiterate, without having those eight peoples calendars in front of me. Im fine with saying the 22nd, im fine with saying whatever director henderson commissioner elias can i make a motion that we set it for the 22nd, because again, they can figure out their calendars. Vice president taylor im going to set it in july, so what im going to direct you to do is to meet with those stakeholders. That gives you a month almost two months to do it. Were at june 3. July 22 gives you commissioner hamasaki whats july 22 . Its the third thursday Vice President taylor its the last thursday of the month. [inaudible] commissioner elias hes saying july 15, because thats the third wednesday clerk we wont be meeting july 22, it would have to be the 15. Vice president taylor oh, are we not meeting july 22 . Clerk no. Vice president taylor so the 15. Commissioner hamasaki fine with me. Vice president taylor so that gives you 1. 5 months. Clerk thank you. Okay. I dont need to go back to my presentation, thank you. Vice president taylor okay. Next line item. Commissioner dejesus no, i have a question. Vice president taylor commissioner dejesus. Commissioner dejesus director mcguire, im sorry youre at the end of this, but if the chief was interested in getting it done, and if command staff was interesting in getting it done, it would have been done. I realize youre sitting on the sidelines, and i appreciate all the hard work thats gone into it and the fact that everybody has helped, but we have to have a dedicated point person who is a subject Matter Expert on this and pushes it through and gets everybody who they need to get to the table because i look at these changes and theyre so theyre so simplistic. A lot of them are so simplistic. They dont need a lot of changes. Im telling you, if you get the people in the room, even if you have to go through them one by one, this can be done. I wanted to say that, and i wanted to jech oecho, if the c wanted it done, it would get done, and if the assistant chief wanted it done, it would get done. Clerk and t im talking to you from city hall. Im deployed, so if you hear some noise in the background, im sorry. I want to talk to you about the d. G. O. That samrin and the working groups did. To hear the comments takes me back a little bit because if you heard, some of those issues that were worked on talking about this d. G. O. , if you know me know ive been in the Police Department for 37. 5 years. Still think its the best job in the world. I live in San Francisco, born and raised here, and i still live here. The reason this g. O. Is important not only to the department but a little closer to me because my daughter is deaf, and her contact that she had with Law Enforcement really kind of changed and put perspective in this whole thing. Now why am i that person . Because i worked on the language on it. I worked on Language Access. I have my hands in all this. I have my hands on the d. G. O. S, on the elder abuse, but i agree. I would like to see this thing go through, and i give little props no, big props to my daughter who said dad, i want to make sure you make the community safe, but also make it safe for the officers. Thank you. Commissioner dejesus thank you. Commissioner elias thank you so much for sharing, for calling in because its really important. Its important to know that all of these d. G. O. S and policies and procedures, they matter. Theres a face behind all of them, and it trickles down to them. And thats why i think emotions and frustrations are high. Vice president taylor commissioner hamasaki. Commissioner hamasaki thank you. I think your daughter was one of the ones that i met in the working group. Ill admit, i didnt know much about the deaf and hard of Hearing Community before, and when you sit down with them and understand the daily struggles that they go through just to live and just to exist in this world, and how they came together and worked on this i dont want my earlier comments and frustration to take away from the work that everybody did because everybody put so much time and heart into this, and ive carried that with me since then, and i think, you know, i was so excited to see this on the agenda and work on this with them and see their inspired faces. Its a very Small Community in the city right now. They, like a lot of other communities, have been pushed out, and im glad were doing this, and i really am grateful to everybody for bringing this back around, and lets Work Together and get this done. We appreciate your comment. Vice president taylor next line item. Clerk sorry. We have Public Comment for line item 4. Vice president taylor oh, thats right. I apologize. Public comment . Operator you have two questions remaining. Good morning. Or good evening, callers. Once again, one of your commissioners, John Hamasaki is using this commission to presumably inflate his ego. To think that he would use the murder of a black man by the hand of the police as a rhetorical tool while folks are still openly mourning in the streets is just disgusting. It is clear from the way commissioner hamasaki speaks to commissioner taylor and to other women as opposed to the way he spoke in public to commissioner hirsch and other men is a blatantly sexist, and i think he should follow his heart, as he said earlier, and resign from the commission. There is very important work to are done to prevent more Police Violence and state sponsored murder, and commissioner hamasaki is a clear road block to progress. The board of supervisors needs to find someone else to fill that position without commissioner hamasakis preening and grand standing. Operator good evening. You have two questions remaining. Clerk good evening. You have two minutes remaining. Hi. This is jessica lehman. I appreciate that youre looking at issues facing deaf and hard of hearing communities. Of course, we well, i certainly have heard Horror Stories from best friends, particularly those who are black men, about dealing with police, and so i urge you to to move this along, as youve been talking about, but i also want to ask you, in this moment, to think about how you are treating people who are protesting because i know for a fact that does include people who are deaf and hard of hearing. I support the demands made by s. F. United in places, including not arresting people for nonViolent Crimes, making sure people are not housed unnecessarily where they are much more likely to get sick from covid19 and potentially die, that you should not ever be issuing citations for whats called quality of life for issues related to homelessness. San francisco has a sizeable homeless disabled community, and you should not be using tear gas and rubber bullets. I cant believe i am talking about this. I hope youll take to heart the safety of all San Francisco residents, including the disability community, the deaf and hard of Hearing Community, seniors, and everyone. I hope youll look into having an a. S. L. Interpreter for this part. Deaf and hard of hearing people are not only interested in parts specifically related to deaf and hard of hearing communications, but the interpreter should be present at the entire meeting to hear the statements of the commissioners, as well. Thank you. Operator you have one question remaining. Opera good evening, caller. You have two minutes remaining yeah. So my name is orchid susune, and im one of the people involved with d. G. O. With the deaf and the office of Disability Council. This those people who have been working so hard for two years, i want to thank them for the work that theyve done with deaf people. You know, theres a little bit of absence of involvement. Thats essential for deaf people. We need to change the policies, you know, what happened with george floyd, i mean, its just you know, hes a member hes a deaf guy. It was a deaf guy, carl. He was 41 years old, and he was a father himself, and it was the same exact situation that happened with him. There was a misunderstanding, and the situation and his neck was broken by the police. I mean, can you imagine . And the policies havent change, and that was since 1961. We cant walk safely. We dont feel safe. We dont feel safe, were afraid. Theres not enough training, theres misunderstandings that happened, and id like to make the policies be enacted so we can walk around and feel safe. So deaf hope theres a lot of organizations, people who have worked tirelessly for these changes to happen, you know, to fit the current times. You know, we dont want to go back to old times. We have to catch up with the current times and whats going on, you know . Also, were not aware of the surroundings, so the policy there really needs to be a change. Operator you have zero questions remaining. Clerk commissioner taylor, there are three Public Comments that came in through the email that i would like to read into the record. Vice president taylor okay. Clerk the first one is from nicolle bonn. I am nicolle bonn, director of the San Francisco Mayors Office for disability and hard of hearing. I regret not being able to participant live this evening, but thank you in advance for allowing me to participate in this way. The Mayors Office on disability has had the pleasure of supporting the deaf and hard of hearing d. G. O. Work group since 2017. Members of the Deaf Community, along with Domestic Violence advocates and fantastic members of the San Francisco Police Department have been involved in this work group since its inception, and fortunately, we had an exceptional example on the San Francisco d. G. O. On which to base the work. Implementing San Franciscos d. G. O. Now is of critical importance. July marks the 30th anniversary of the americans with disability act. The a. D. A. Is intended to help people with disabilities and second as a tool to help all persons live and understand together in a community. This d. G. O. Highlighted how to implement successful communication with other communities that has been mandatory for 30 years. This agrees with the second round of comments by the department of justice. I highly encourage the commission to adopt this d. G. O. As soon as possible. The Mayors Office is waiting to collaborate with our Police Department colleagues on any officer Training Plan or assist in any way that would be helpful to the department. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions or concerns, and thank you for putting this item on your agenda. And the second one, this is from melissa mcnair, comment from Victim Advocate for the district attorneys office. On may 20, 2017, a young woman who was deaf happened to be arrested. The young womans child had been abducted by the father, and she was highly upset. She was not able to communicate effectively with the police, she was scared and upset, and this led to her arrest by the police. The child was brought back to San Francisco and was reunited with the mother successfully. Shortly after, i was asked to join the deaf and hard of hearing working group so we could start a conversation on how we could support the police and how we could provide them with communication access for citizens who are deaf. And the last one, this is from student gonzalez. I submit this comment for the record. I joined the committee in july 2018. It has taken two years to get here tonight, two years for the committee to take a look at the d. G. O. Two years of explaining, educating, outlining, correcting, suggesting. Oftentimes, the Deaf Committee members had to justify the suggestions offered or corrections made, miss assumptions debunked with education and advocated for basic human respect. I would be remiss if i did not point out that there is little reference for this deaf plus abled community. There are many communities not mentioned in this d. G. O. And are just in need of the Language Access and consideration. [inaudible] best practices use knowledge and resources to ensure success or a successful outcome, especially in moments of high stress, high trauma, or both. The d. G. O. Stresses the best communication and Language Access needs for deaf abled individuals. Basic human respect needs to be fundamental in all interaction sfpd may be having with the deaf and hard of hearing communities. Thank you, and that concludes the Public Comment. Vice president taylor thank you. Can you please call the next line item oh, director henderson . Yeah, i just want to say that there were a lot of advocates on the line that intended to speak, and they couldnt wait at long because it took too long for us to get to, but they have sent emails and have been calling our office to say that they support the work, and again, thank you for scheduling it for this july because this has been going on since 2017, and i know at the as scheduling and all that know its scheduling and all that stuff, but im just happy to get all this moved forward and put it behind us and improve the department and improve the service for the community, so thats it. Clerk commissioner, it looks like there are two more public speakers on. Vice president taylor all right. Clerk moderator, if you could please patch the next two through. Operator you have two questions remaining. Clerk good evening. You have two minutes. Oh, yes, good evening. Good evening, commissioners and friends i am from the San Francisco Domestic Violence consortium. Ive been a member of the work group since the beginning . I want to thank samra from the d. P. A. , i want to thank all my colleagues, the Mayors Office on disability, youth leaders, commissioner hamasaki. Inspector tony florez, and his wonderful daughter, jessica florez. This work could not have gone forward without the work of every one of them. Melissa mcnair described the case that brought us to the table, a young deaf mom mistakenly arrested for Domestic Violence, handcuffed in back where she couldnt use her hands, and just you know what . Community brought this, as well as a couple of other cases to the Language Access work group, and this case began from that, and its just been something i think we can all really be proud of. Now, were learning from what could have been a terrible incident in San Francisco. Luckily, it didnt end up that way, but every day that we dont have this policy in place, deaf residents and visitors are at risk in San Francisco. This is really work we can be proud of, and we should be doing everything we can to implement the d. G. O. As soon as possible, and i cannot thank you enough for this work. This will save lives. Thank you so much. Clerk thank you. Operator you have one question remaining. Hi. My name is david jiminez, and i have two deaf adults that i am concerned about their safety and security in the city, and i do urge the commission to pass this d. G. O. It does it represents the city awareness. It squashes ignorance. It also represents accessibility. I worry about my kids when they go out, and we are latino, and i dont want thats already a strike against them, for them to be stopped. And to the fact if they have to move their hands to point to their ear to let the officer know theyre deaf, i dont know whats going to happen. Im already afraid just talking about it, you know . Im afraid for my kids lives, so we need to pass this through. This is long overdue, so i urge the commission to pass this. And im just appalled, and shame on you guys how you guys interact with one another in public. You all need some Team Building activities or something to bring you guys in together. Thank you. Operator you have zero questions remaining. Commissioner dejesus im on the comment board. Vice president taylor oh, commissioner dejesus. Commissioner dejesus im sorry, but when this comes up again, i know we missed a lot of people that wanted to speak, and i know were going to have a lot of people who want to speak, and we have people with special assistance and devices. I wonder when this comes up, we can move this up to the first item on the calendar so we dont have them waiting so late like we did tonight . Vice president taylor yes, we can. Commissioner dejesus thanks. Thats all i have. Vice president taylor okay. Next line item. Youre on mute. I just said i would like to thank mr. Hamlin for his interpreting skills, and he is now going to leave us. Vice president taylor thank you very much. Clerk all right. So our next line item is going to be general Public Comment. At this time, the public is now welcome to address the commission for up to two minut minutes on items that do not appear on the agenda but are within the commissions jurisdiction. Und speakers shall address their remarks to the commission as a whole and not to individual commissioners or department or d. P. A. Personnel. Under Police Commission rules of order, during Public Comment, Neither Police or d. P. A. Personnel, no, sir commissioners are required to respond to questions presented by the public but may provide a brief response. Individual commissioners and police and d. P. A. Personnel should refrain, however, from entering into any debates or discussion with speakers during Public Comment. Moderator, are there any people on the line . Operator you have three questions remaining. Clerk good evening, caller. You have two minutes. Hello. My name is luis, and i am a public schoolteacher in San Francisco. Im calling today for the fear of safety of my black and brown students at the hands of the police. Sfpd should not use force on protesters. Tear gas, rubber bullets and other crowd control devices may cause serious harm to members of the community and should not be used. Secondly, due to covid19 rapid spread details, sfpd should have a rescue book for nonViolent Crimes, including resisting arrest. I urge you to act now to protect citizens by enacting the recommendations made by sf in crisis. Thank you. Operator you have two questions remaining. Clerk good evening, caller. You have two minutes. Hello, commissioners, director henderson. I am from the public defenders office. [inaudible] this week, the San Francisco public defender released a statement called for six reforms this department and commission can make. We know the whole office is eager to facilitate these changes any way we can. So first, thanks to chief scott for moving on his own initiative for explicitly removing the type of pressures from the neck hold seen in the video earlier last week. [inaudible] if you only walk around with a hammer, everything is going to be a nail, but the p. D. Budget has over 1 million. We need to change. [inaudible] operator you have one question remaining. Hello. Im a resident of San Francisco. I am also calling to support the demands made by s. F. United in crisis to ensure the safety of residents during the covid19 pandemic and ask that the commission adopt these demands. Due to the rapid spread through jails, sfpd should not arrest people for nonViolent Crimes, including resisting arrest. It should reduce taking people into custody where there is reasonable imminent concern for Public Safety. Mere citations should be issued for regular issues and sfpd should not use force on protesters as they regularly cause harm to members of the community and should not be used. Weve seen 17 instances of force being used by the sfpd as mentioned by the police chief earlier, and i urge you to act now to ensure the safety of San Francisco residents by implementing the recommendations made by s. F. In crisis. Thank you. Operator you have zero questions remaining. Clerk commissioner taylor, we have a number of Public Comments for general public that have been emailed to the Police Commission that i would like to read into the record. Vice president taylor okay. Clerk all right. Im going to three of these here are from different people, but they are the same thing. Im going to time them, so bear with me. First one is from izzy, idea, and idya. I urge you to act now to ensure the safety of San Francisco residents by implementing the recommendations made by San Francisco united in crisis. Law enforcement should decline to arrest people for nonViolent Crimes, including resisting arrest where no violent precipitated the arrest and limit contacts, stops, warrant enforcement and instances of taking people into custody to situations where this is reasonable imminent concern for Public Safety and where a Violent Crime is involved. Law enforcement should maximize use of cite and release for as many instances as possible within the jurisdictions policies, including Violent Crimes. No citations should be issued for issues of life. Medical conditions like asthma, heart conditions, diabetes, lung disease, and hiv. These populations have been shown to have higher rates of medical conditions listed. People cwith disabilities, people over the age of 50 and under the age of 25. Anyone who does not pose a serious safety risk to the Community Upon release, such as anyone who is not involved in serious personal injury or death to another person. Please release previously incarcerated people should be provided with health care and housing if needed and should not be subject to further indignities. Thank you. And the next Public Comment is from hunter mcfarland. Please stop using weapons of war against peaceful and nonpeaceful demonstrations in public that attacks your nervous system. Please provide housing, rental assistance, and lowincome housing to Homeless People instead. Okay. I have the next one is from lakeisha williams. I have watched the Police Commission meetings on sfgovtv for years. Several of the commissioners are clearly driven by personal biases, clear desire to further their own political aspirations, showmanship, back door leaders with other back door deals with leader in other agencies. Instead of helping sfpd become better, as of late, commissioners are leaning on false narratives, news headlines, and political gains. They commissioners need to be reminded that they do not act as individuals, they act as a body. The poor actions of one or two reflect on all of you. We need sfpd to be our partners in carving out longterm relationships. I hope for the sake of sfpd realizes that their own relationshi relationships outside of San Francisco cannot substitute for residents of San Francisco. If you dont respect the work of the rankandfile, they wont respect the commission or any other changes you attempt to enact. Take a class in collaboration or leadership before sending another tweet about your fake efforts to lead sfpd through reform. Our lives depend on it. Next one is from kristin lecke. My name is christine lecke, and i work in San Francisco. I am emailing to ensure the safety of San Francisco residents in light of the covid19 and ask that the commission adopt these demands. One due to covid19s rapid spread through the jails, police should not arrest people for nonViolent Crimes, including resisti arrest, and o citations should be issued for quality of life enforcing a persons homelessness. I urge you to act now to ensure the safety of San Francisco residents by implementing the recommendations made by San Francisco united in crisis. And this this one is from maria harmon. Police commissioners, one member on the Police Commission should be ashamed of himself. He made a statement during the may 25 Police Commission meeting saying he seemed to have ended up in the middle of the controversy. Really . He cant understand how he ended up somehow in the middle of it. He should stop it with his feigned cluelessness. Hes an arrogant, egotistical politician who is constantly posting on social media. His collaboration with some members of the board of supervisors and his antipolice comments to the examiner. Im sure he feels a sense of selfrighteous victory now that San Francisco police are no longer able to wear the mask, but instead, he chose to put his bias on full display when he called for the banning of the wearing of the masks. Hed rather perpetuate the myth that all Police Officers are racist. The thin blue line is a tribute to all the Police Officers lost in the line of duty. Why doesnt he try harder at representing all parties in San Francisco, not just his left wing activist friends . There are some people who respect the San Francisco p. D. Officers and he has never respected their point of view. Shame on you, John Hamasaki, sincerely, maria h. Next one is from deaf pope. Without a high level of access, the integrity of policing becom becomes irrevocably compromised. We see this in snacenarios in which Law Enforcement officers use forceful aggression for not complying with their commands. Were also advocating for the complete overhaul of the system that has historically failed people of marginalized communities, including but not limited to deaf, deaf people of color, deaf people with additional disabilities, deaf immigrants, deaf people with Mental Health issues, deaf People Living without secure housing, and deaf people who are substance users. O our question is for the commission to provide having input by deaf stakeholders to ensure that policies are just and officers are accountable for upholding the policies. Warm regards. And the final one is from kaitlyn moss. Good afternoon. I am unable to call into the Commission Meeting today and request my comment be add today the public record. I support the demand made by s. F. In crisis and ask that the commission adopt those commands. Due to covid19s rapid spread through jails, sfpd should not arrest people for nonviolence crime crimes, nonViolent Crimes, including resisting arrest. [inaudible] clerk and i apologize. These are the same as the other three. That ends the writtenin comment. M moderator, are there any further Public Comments on the line . Operator no, there are not. Clerk thank you. Commissioner taylor, would you like me to read the next line item . Vice president taylor yes, please. Clerk Public Comment on all matters pertaining to item 8 below, closed session, including Public Comment on item 7, vote whether to hold item 8 in closed session. Item 7, vote on whether or not to hold item 7 in closed session, San Francisco administrative code section 67. 10. On that motion [roll call] clerk Vice President , you have five yeses. Vice president taylor okay. The motion passes. Clerk all right. So now, we are moving into closed session. Alternate commissioners and other members, you are going into closed session. Please leave this meeting and join the closed session at this time. Vice president taylor should we leave this meeting open though . Clerk yes. This meeting will remain open and we will come back to closed session in order to adjourn. Vice president taylor great. Clerk thank you. Now in te of essential workers and whats available. What we plan to have this summer and what people can do to either sign up or what other programs to do to prepare under the new guideline for the programs that they want to make available to people. So, lets get started. Phil, you we hit the ball running, both you and maria su got together because we knew the schools were going to close. But we also knew that there was an essential workforce out there. People who were driving muni, people who were working at hospitals. They had children. They needed child care. They were concerned about taking their children to their elderly parents. They couldnt leave them at home. Tell us a little bit about the program that you established that is available currently and will potentially be extended once programming starts for june 15 during the summer. Thank you, mayor. Yeah. You asked us as soon as the schools closed to start thinking about our kids and working families, particularly our Health Care Workers and First Responders and people who were needed to help in the citys response. And so the department of children, youth and family and Recreation Park Department are working closely together under the guidance of department of Public Health, set up an emergency child care system that is now in its 12th week. We, over time, served over 475 kids, 19,000 hours of child care offered during that time and we served over 4,000 meals at over 25 different sites. The program runs between 6 30 in the morning and 7 30 p. M. And kids have been involved in Distance Learning and a little bit of recreation and its really been, you know, wasnt what we were used to doing and we had to stand it up pretty quickly, but it has been an amazing experience and im really grateful for my partner in runing this thing, maria, and the department of youth and family who have been terrific. And i want to just add because i know that, you know, sadly, you had these kids and these pods with limited number of social distancing. These are kids coming together on a regular basis. Something similar to what were going to be doing this summer. And, unfortunately, there have been people who have made nasty comments or complained or even yelled at, you know, the kids. And so what i want to say to people is to back off and mind your own business and to leave kids alone. Because at the end of the day, these are kids whose Family Members are putting their lives on the line to help support this city. So, i cant reiterate enough that its important that folks really just stay in their lane, mind your own business. Were providing essential service. And we want to extend this and make this available to more kids. So, lets talk a little bit about phil, can you just talk a little bit about june 15 . Sure. Were going start programming and were going to extend the number of kids that were able to serve. Not just in our park system, but our overall Summer Program so i want you, phil, to touch on what will be available for our park system, both for our young people and our teenagers and then were going to jump into maria su to talk about programming in general. Sure. So, our child care operation its summer, and child care was intended to operate while during the school year while the School System when the School System was closed and what families and kids are used to during the summer is camp. Youre right. The truth of the matter, it will look somewhat similar in that were going to have pods of 12, but beginning june 15, rec and park between rec and park t private sector camp providers and our nonprofit providers we expect that there will be over 200 different camps available to kids can. We are going to prioritize. Kids of parents who are working in essential businesses, who are part of the citys response, who are, you know, in allowable businesses and, frankly t kids who need us the most right now. Many of our kids in the city have been without their coaches and mentors for going on 10 weeks and we want to reengage and make sure that these kids, above all else, have something to do this summer. So, starting june 15, camp providers will be allowed to operate. Theyre going to need to certify that theyre going to comply with the health order and guidance coming out of Public Health, which means kids still need to be in pods of 12 for older kids. The minimum session for camp providers will be three weeks and the boll rationale behind that is to keep kids from normally during a normal summer kids go to one week of this camp and one week of another camp and the health and our Public Health officials have asked us to keep kids together in a consistent pod. So well have three threeweek sessions beginning june 15. At rec and park, were planning over 25 different camps. We expect there to be another 40 to 50 private camp providers operating in our park system. I believe that maria is estimating nearly 100 nonprofit camp providers will operate around the city and then there are some other muscle private providers that will be operating on, you know, nonpark property in different spaces. Were going to start working with camp providers as quickly as possible, right after were done speaking with you. And for our camps, for rec and park camps, well begin priority registration on may 26 for all of the participants that are currently in our Emergency Child Care Program and our kids in our Scholarship Program who are a little bit more vulnerable and who really, really need us. Were going reach out to those populations first and then citywide, registration for rec and park camps will begin on june 6. All of this information will be laid out on the department of children, youth and familys website, dcyf cares. Org. And ill turn it over to maria to talk about the other providers and program staffing. Thank you, phil. Thank you, mayor, for this opportunity to share with our residents of the work that were doing right now. So, like the mayor shared, we are in the process of expanding the opportunities for families, particularly for summer. Were really excited about this because, as a parent myself who has two children, this is going to be great opportunity for our young our young people to go out there and engage with others and just really address the social isolation issues that we know is happening in our families right now. So dcyf is really excited to be partnering with rec and parks and the rest of our summer providers in the city to stand up all of these programs for the dcyfspecific agencies, which are the nonprofit agencies, that our department provides supports to, we are going to be working with them to open up camps and programs that they will then be made available for all of our families. We are looking at around 100 programs that will be available for families starting june 15. We are asking all of our nonprofit agencies to follow Health Guidelines, which still has shared, restrictive groups of young people in consistent threeweek programming at a minimum. We will also put on our website, dcyf. Org care. More information around the health order, around the drexives and the guidelines, with how private camps are also fulfill all of those requirements and then document that they are going to open up. So look for that website to go live actually the website is live now. But look for the forms to go live soon. Great. And over time, mayor, i think were going to try to inventory try to provide parents with as much information as we can about all of the camp opportunities because we have to think about it as a network this summer because of the Health Guidelines. So, we hope to be able to have a list and some reference materials for not just rec and park camps, but all of the private camps happening around the city, too. Yeah. And i want to touch a little bit because, you know, child care has been important because we have allowed that to continue for essential workers. Can you talk a little bit, maria, what we can expect as it relates to the 0 to 5 age group and what might be available during the summer . Yes. So, were really excited that this new health order that you have authorized with our Health Department to allow the expansion of Child Care Services for more families. So, there are child care programs for children 0 to 5 right now that are providing services for our essential workers and other allowable businesses. Under this new health order, we are now opening that opportunity for more families. We have hear that there are families out there who are working, who need care, who really, really need care for their children. And for children to need to need opportunities to be with their friends. So, this health order will allow more families to have access to these slots, these child care slots. I do want to caution folks that we are still following Health Guidelines and so the slots are going to be limited. We are restricted to a Smaller Group of children per site. So i just want to set expectations for everyone that its not just usual child care as we remember how it was a year ago. Yeah. And i do think its great that, you know, this is providing an opportunity for kids to come together. So were talking about pods of 12 within the course of a summer camp or preschool or in other arenas so that not only can kids can parents get to work, but also it gives these children an tounlts interact with one another because im sure, especially if it is a child who doesnt have any siblings, to be able to play with another kid was like i know everything for me as a kid and i just feel so awful that these kids cant go out there and enjoy one another. This is an opportunity and a great opportunity. But i also, sadly, know it is a very limited opportunity. But do want to touch on, you know, teenagers because i know one of things that happens often times they are always left out. So i am commited to making sure that opportunities for all is available so that we have paid internships for kids during the summer. And that we make that available, especially for our teenagers. Because, you know, already theyre missing their graduations and activities and events. And we want to make sure that they have a productive summer as well and theyre not left out. So, maria, make you can touch on what might be happening with opportunities for all and i know that with rec and park, we have a number of teens that are going to be working and helping with these camps during summer. Lets talk a little bit about, you know, how kids who are teenagers can sign up for some of the programs. Thank you, mayor. So actually a lot of our programs are doing a lot of connections to young people now but theyre doing it remotely. Theyre doing a lot of wellness checks and followup on what academic support these young people need. So, once again with this health order, were now allowed to have facetoface and inperson connections with these young people. So, were going to work closely with our nonprofit agencies to help young people connect to internship opportunities or actual Job Opportunities at some of these Summer Programs or at offices that are slowly opening up. So, theres great opportunities for private sector folks who are now interested who are opening up and would be interested in being a mentor for a young person this summer. That would be amazing. However, if that is not available, our young people are actually engaging in projectbased learning right now. So a lot of our young people in our Workforce Program will be doing Small Projects that are that is remote for the agencis that theyre assigned to. There will be engagement but it is so much better if the engagement is in person and not remote. I do how do they sign up . Like a teenager that wants to participate and have access to a paid internship . For now, were directing everyone to go to dcyf. Org care so they can find out whats available in the community and make sections there. I also do want to say that, for young people and for families who are struggling right now because there are young people and familis who are struggling right now we do have a website that is available and under the mayors leadership, she wanted to prioritize Mental Health services for families and for our essential workers and other service providers. For those who are struggling and who need support, please go to fieldSan Francisco. Org to learn more about different resources for parents, for young people and for adults and service providers. And also can we call 311 and be referred if we dont have access to the internet . Yes. Well definitely make sure that thats possible. Great. Great. We want to make it as easy for people as possible because i know sometimes you jump on a website and trying to figure it out or if you dont have Internet Access but want to ma you are that your friend knows that this might be available for their family. Talk about what some of the teens are going to be doing in your program this summer. Sure. For the last 607 years, San Francisco has had a program called workreation, where we actually fund teenagers, kids between the ages of 14 and 17 to work in our camps. And because of your leadership and focus on getting these camps opened safely and getting kids an experience, were hiring approximately 200 kid this is summer that will be counselors in the camps that we just talked about. I also think there is an amazing opportunity, mayor, for those private camp providers that want to operate this summer to hire teenagers. Heres why. The health order and the Health Guidance requires a minimum of two staff for every pod of 12 kids. And for private camp providers used to operating with a ton of kids and a few staff, you wont able to do that this year and staff wont be able to move around between pods during the camp session. For private camps to operate, they need to be very wellstaffed and we highly, highly recommend that private camp providers hire teenagers to help and provide some support in making sure that your camps operate safely and smoothly and gives these kids a great experience and opportunity to make some money. I want to provide an example because, for example, we have been providing a camp at well, i guess it is called a camp, i dont know what it is called, but we have been providing support for young people whose families are essential workers at Hamilton Rec Center. So Hamilton Rec Center has several rooms that could be used. So, i know that the plan is there is going to be probably two or three pods of 12. And each of those pods have their own rooms and their own activities around their rooms and they are also able to go outside and enjoy the field but not in the same pod, although they have their workers that are assigned to their pods. So, it provides for more opportunity to support more young people. So, the good news is even when theyre in these situations, theyre social distancing, but you know how it is when youre a kid and youre out playing, most likely youre going to somehow have some interaction where you might touch or be next to each other. So that is really why the importance of keeping these pods to what they are is significant in preventing the spread of the virus and giving these kids a chance to have their community of people to hang out with. Yeah. I think that is what were going for. It is super important for kids to first of all get outside and reengage and, yes, there will be indoor spaces. But a lot more emphasis on being outside this summer for children. And as you know, mayor, for them to be together and hang out and a under the Health Guidance to your very early point for those who are concerned about the health of our children, under the Health Guidance, kids within the same pod can play sports. They can do certain activities. So, k they play basketball together . Can they together, within the same pod. They can do those activities. And that is why this whole pod concept is very important. Our Public Health officials have been focused on minimizing risk. It is impossible to eliminate it 100 . But minimizing it. And that is the whole premise of these long threeweek sessions and these pods of 12. Depending upon which spaces a camp uses a camp may be able to have only one pod of 12 kids but may be able to have two pods or even three pods. As you know in hamilton or season seth rec center where the richmond or jolie, some of our buildings have multiple spaces, some schools where camps might operate have have multiple spaces. And then weve got the best park system in the country. So, we have plenty of outdoor spaces as well. For each pod, each pod requires a minimum of two staff people and staff cannot circulate between pods. So, again, for all you private camp providers out there, hire kids to help you this summer. All right. Well thank you all so much for the insight. Im sure a lot of parents are excited about this. I am hopeful that, you know, some of the in addition to the private the public camps that well provide with rec and park and a number of rec centers and nonprofit partners will be able to provide a sufficient number of locations within the Public Sector and hopefully in combination with the private sector, many of our kids can have an enjoyable, effective, fun summer. So, we appreciate that and for more information, make sure that we reach out to department of children youth and families on the website or call 311 and before we wrap it up, i do want to talk a little bit about this weekend because its memorial day weekend and typically everyone first of all, the weather in San Francisco, even today, is gorgeous. And most of the time people want to go out and have barbecues and hang out with friends and family and i really like the idea of what you did in terms of circles in park to make it clear like you have to stay away from each other. We want to be next to each other so bad. But at the same time, were doing so well. We still see the numbers of infections going up. But we see the number of hospitalizations going down, the number of those who are in i. C. U. Going down. San francisco is doing well. And the last thing we want to do is get too comfortable and all of a sudden go backwards so we still need people to keep their distance. We still need people to wear masks. We still need people to wash their hands regularly wash your hands but phil, tell us a little bit about what we can expect with the parks this weekend because we are, as much as we know people would want to use the parks, well be out in force regulating during memorial day weekend. Again, we dont want to shut down any parks but if it comes down to that point where things are out of control and arent following the guidelines, we wont have a choice. We really need people to be on their absolute best behavior. So, tell us about what we can expect with our parks this weekend. Sure. I mean, mayor, you covered it perfectly, which is that, look, our parks are super important right now. They are the one place where people can get outside, get some exercise, connect with nature and you have been amazing at making sure that these spaces are open and accessible. But for them to stay open and accessible, people need to do the right thing and over the last 10, 11 weeks, most people have been. But we need to focus and not ease up so you can be outside but you have to socially distance. We still recommend that you wear a mask. No partying, you know, no big events, no big picnics. Just enjoy nature and enjoy a little time with your own immediate family or your own roommates. We will have park ranger, San Francisco Police Department, Police Officers. Well have sheriffs cadets, fire cadets, Police Cadets and the neighborhood Emergency Response team, all doing education and outreach. There are over 1500 signs in all of our parks indicating what you can and cant do. Just do the right thing so we dont put the mayor in a position where she needs to take more drastic action. It is amazing, mayor, in a lot of cities just threw their hands up and say, oh, parks closed because we dont want to deal with it. You havent done that. Youve kept parks open for people. So, you know, were all asking the public to do the right thing this weekend. The weather will be nice. You will want to get outside. If you have to get in a car, its too far. So go to your neighborhood park, enjoy it. But socially distance. If youre deloris or jackson or the marina green or washington square, weve offered a little bit of popup behavioral art to inspire you to claim your own space. That is the circles that are in some of the parks. And, you know, theyre intended to be joyous and inspirational, but intended to remind everyone that we need to be mindful as we continue to fight this virus. And i just want to say that please dont get offended if, you know, our park rangers or someone walks up to you and asks you, you know, are you guys in the same household just to, you know, make sure that people are following these orders. We have a responsibility. And the other thing is, if youre not the police, then please dont act like youre the police. We dont need you to walk and regulate and tell other people what to do because that creates more drama. It creates more tension. So we are doing the very best we can. We want to make this park and open Space Available to you because we know how challenging this has been. For the most part, san franciscans have followed the order and we are so fortunate that we have amazing residents in the city who are taking this seriously, even though not everyone is complying which has made life difficult in some respects. But please let us deal with that. Were doing our very best to try and reduce this curve to the point of it being nonexistence because i know how badly we want to get back to being out there, to going to work and allowing kids to play. But the fact is coronavirus is with us for some time. It is not about getting back completely to normal. Its about adjusting to our new normal in a responsible way. It is going to take time. Its going to take ai, patience. We appreciate everyone for what you continue to do to help San Francisco be a leader in this effort. Thank you, phil ginsburg, thank you, maria su for your insight. For more information call 311. I know there might be a lot of questions also about the schools and other things. Were happy to continue these conversations based on your feedback. Based on your questions. Because many of us are doing the very best we can. This is not like anything any of us have ever expected. So, were all in this together. Were going to get through this together and that requires us to continue to be patient, get information to you as soon as it is available and just really try to come together, lift one another up, enjoy the memorial day weekend. And thank you all so much for your cooperation. Have a great weekend and well mayor london breed good morning, everyone. I know that many of you have been tuning in to our press conferences for updates on how we have been responding to the coronavirus pandemic. But often those updates really dont give us a chance to talk indepth about some of the really complex issues that our city is facing. While everything continues to shift and change, we will continue to hold these press conferences. And update you all on the latest programs, services and resources as well as what were doing to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. But we also will hold talks like this and this is a first in a series of talks that we think that are important to make sure that the public is aware of what is going on and the decisions that were making and what to expect. Theres so much uncertainty. This has been a very fluid situation and at any given time information can change. So we believe that it is critical