Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Budget And Finance Committee 20240712

If you would be willing, i would love to have your involvement in collating that document and as Vice President , i think she should have the ability to weigh in on whether she wants to participate in that document and if she chooses not to, then i would we cant restaff, ask if one of the other commissioners would like to participate and make a decision from there on the best way to move forward. Im happy to do that. Ok. Well, then, is that a workable plan for generating a collated draft for us to review in the next meeting . This is regina, yes. Good. And we have a good plan, then. I confirm with my commissionecommissioners that tf the essence and no time to waste. Everybody has made great points that we need to get on ground now. Yeah, yeah. Look, i think its also important to highlight the work of the commission, which i think has been extraordinary. We have been moving as quickly as we can and i think quite effectively and maybe punching quite above our weight and so, i agree with you that we need to move quickly and i wanted to let the public know that we have not been moving slowly up until now. And that the public should know that we are moving very aggressively and not being shy about advocating for Small Business on all levels that we can as much as the charter allows us to. Hi, commissioner. Im going to interrupt and remind everyone that we still have commissioners reports. Also, remaining on the call are commissioner ortiz and huey. If we lose one more commissioner, then there wont be a quorum. Next item, please. Item 4, commissioner reports, allowing president , Vice President and commissioners to report on recent Small Business activities and to make announcements that are of interestininterest to the smalls community. Commissioner ortiz. I wanted to report back to the latino recovery to address all of the issues impacting Small Businesses and the latter resources. inaudible . I wanted to comment on the virus hitting the commission the hardest because that is a vulnerable community. And i do think that its appropriate that we make sure that Community Gets enough attention to that we can establish some level of equity. So i appreciate your advocacy there. This goes into the employees they furloughed and how much longer to last to get some hard data from all of the merchants on valencia so that we can provide that information where its necessary, to get a good snapshot of how Small Businesses are going and were calling it the merchants reality check. And one thing to note is that valencia corridor is one of the busiest in the city with some of the highest rents, commercial rents in San Francisco. And a huge number of consumerfacing Small Businesses and so, it is a good snapshot on whats going on and so, i hope to be able to report on some of that data for the next one. Obviously, were still pushing people to th to complete that s. To you think that will be completed by the time of the next meeting . I do. I am wondering if the results will be available somewhere on line they can be digested by Commission Members prior to the meeting . Absolutely. Wile get it all done by next week. Ok. That sounds good. Any other commissioner reports . This is steve and i just want to say what everybody has been doing is great and these have been hard times and the one thing im very optimistic about is well be able to open up so soon. Were going to do new items, arent we, on the agenda here . I dont see that on the agenda. We didnt get it on the agenda. I just want to manny, i want to put out there, because i would love to be working with some of that, because the one thing that we really all have to talk about now is the opening up and that will be a big thing and i think some of the speakers today gave me some ideas and my head is just rolling right now with all sorts of crazy stuff with this, but i do think that theyll start slowly opening up and we need to be ready for that. We need to be sooner than later, but i think week by week, youll slowly see stuff and we really need to be on top of this. Two thoughts about that and one is, as we start to open up, ive spoken with several Business Owners and theres a lot of even within specific segments, theres a lot of variance and i observatio spokeo different gym owners and theyre both Small Businesses. You know, one, everybody can go to the gym whenever they want and the other is a very small gym that you can only go work out with the private trainer and theres only two people in at a time. And what i think, something we need to think about if we start to reopen up and whether the commission is advocating for i is one concern i have is painting with a broad brush or doing one size fits all criteria. For example, looking at gyms, saying it would be upsettable founderstandable for policy maks to open up gyms last for health concerns. We have to remember that its not one size fits all and that concludes my report from what ive been hearing from the community. And youre absolutely correct. Its definitely not a onesizefits all and thats what worries me, because theyre going to do it as a onesizefits all and we have to look at individuals. And i think that is what the commissioner was speaking to, which is that weve got to start with our ask and let them come back to with whats reasonable. With we havbut we have to be ase chartered advocate this city deposit, we havgovernment, we hs aggressive as we can reasonably stand to be. By the way, we need to be loud about this, too, as commission, and as a whole. Thats right. And we have to be loud and we have to be out there and make those phone calls and just be in their face on this one. Commissioner becames, your leadership oveadams, yourleaders given us a perspective and any guidance you have on that front would be well received. Thats why im here. You know, im working for a landlord now and i will tell you, its different than a bank and a lot of stuff that was even said earlier, you have to treat everybody different and its just were in a new world, folks. And it came quick. So thank you for talking about the survey and i think that that data will be extremely valuable. Not only valuable for the commission, but it would also encourage that i know that the valencia emergence encourages many and i think we need this data moving forward. And then i also want to express my appreciation to the commissioners for really talking about the nuance in terms of dealing with the opening and not one size fits all. So it will be very helpful to know that for us as offices were communicating and working with Small Businesses to know that we have that support and so right now, its an unofficial support, because theres no specific action on it, but that may be something to propose at a future date. So thank you. Great. Well, certainly its a challenging time to be on the Small Business commission for many of us that recently joined, my goodness. And what a crazy time. So, are there any more commissioner comments before we move on to the next item . Any members of the public wanting to make a comment on item number 4 . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. And next item, please. Sf gov tv, show the business slide. We will end with a reminder that the Small Business commission is the official public forum to voice your opinions and concerns about policies that affect the Economic Vitality of Small Businesses in San Francisco. And that the office of Small Business is the best place to get answers about doing business in San Francisco during the local emergency. If you need assistance with Small Business matters, continue to reach out to the office of Small Business. Next item. Item 5, adjournment, action item. Is there a motion . Motion. I take my hat off to the generation before mine and you can ajourn the meeting, steve. Motion to ajourn. [ laughter ] motion by Commission Adams to ajourn the meeting and seconded by commissioner utiele. role call . This motion passes 40 and meeting is adjourned at 1 39 p. M. [ ] thank you, earn. Everyone. Pho this is one place you can always count on to give you what you had before and remind you of what your San Francisco history used to be. We hear that all the time, people bring their kids here and their grandparents brought them here and down the line. Even though people move away, whenever they come back to the city, they make it here. And they tell us that. Youre going to get something made fresh, made by hand and made with quality products and something thats very, very good. The legacy bars and restaurants was something that was begun by San Francisco simply to recognize and draw attention to the establishments. It really provides for San Franciscos unique character. And that morphed into a request that we work with the city to develop a legacy business registration. Im Michael Cirocco and the owner of an area bakery. The bakery started in 191. My grandfather came over from italy and opened it up then. It is a small operation. Its not big. So everything is kind of quality that way. So i see every piece and cut every piece that comes in and out of that oven. Im leslie ciroccomitchell, a fourth generation baker here with my family. So we get up pretty early in the morning. I usually start baking around 5 00. And then you just start doing rounds of dough. Loaves. My mom and sister basically handle the front and then i have my nephew james helps and then my two daughters and my wife come in and we actually do the baking. After that, my mom and my sister stay and sell the product, retail it. You know, i dont really think about it. But then when i sometimes when i go places and i look and see places put up, oh this is our 50th anniversary and everything and weve been over 100 and that is when it kind of hits me. You know, that geez, weve been here a long time. [applause] a lot of people might ask why our legacy business is important. We all have our own stories to tell about our ancestry. Our lineage and ill use one example of tommys joint. Tommys joint is a place that my husband went to as a child and hes a fourth generation san franciscan. Its a place we can still go to today with our children or grandchildren and share the stories of what was San Francisco like back in the 1950s. Im the general manager at tommys joint. People mostly recognize tommys joint for its murals on the outside of the building. Very bright blue. You drive down and see what it is. They know the building. Tommys is a San Francisco hoffa, which is a germanstyle presenting food. We have five different carved meats and we carve it by hand at the station. You prefer it to be carved whether you like your brisket fatty or want it lean. You want your pastrami to be very lean. You can say i want that piece of corn beef and want it cut, you know, very thick and i want it with some sauerkraut. Tell the guys how you want to prepare it and they will do it right in front of you. San franciscos a place thats changing restaurants, except for tommys joint. Tommys joint has been the same since it opened and that is important. San francisco in general that we dont lose a grip of what San Franciscos came from. Tommys is a place that youll always recognize whenever you lock in the door. Youll see the same staff, the same bartender and have the same meal and that is great. Thats important. The service that San Francisco heritage offers to the legacy businesses is to help them with that application process, to make sure that they really recognize about them what it is that makes them so special here in San Francisco. So well help them with that application process if, in fact, the board of supervisors does recognize them as a legacy business, then that does entitle them to certain financial benefits from the city of San Francisco. But i say really, more importantly, it really brings them public recognition that this is a business in San Francisco that has history and that is unique to San Francisco. It started in june of 1953. And we make everything from scratch. Everything. We started a you we started a off with 12 flavors and mango fruits from the philippines and then started trying them one by one and the family had a whole new clientele. The business really boomed after that. I think that the flavors we make reflect the diversity of San Francisco. We were really surprised about the legacy project but we were thrilled to be a part of it. Businesses come and go in the city. Pretty tough for businesss to stay here because it is so expensive and theres so much competition. So for us who have been here all these years and still be popular and to be recognized by the city has been really a huge honor. We got a phone call from a woman who was 91 and she wanted to know if the mitchells still owned it and she was so happy that we were still involved, still the owners. She was our customer in 1953. And she still comes in. But she was just making sure that we were still around and it just makes us feel, you know, very proud that were carrying on our fathers legacy. And that we mean so much to so many people. It provides a perspective. And i think if you only looked at it in the here and now, youre missing the context. For me, legacy businesses, legacy bars and restaurants are really about setting the context for how we come to be where we are today. I just think its part of San Francisco. People like to see familiar stuff. At least i know i do. In the 1950s, you could see a picture of tommys joint and looks exactly the same. We havent change add thing. I remember one lady saying, you know, ive been eating this ice cream since before i was born. And i thought, wow we have, too. Meeting will come to order. June 10, 2020, regular Budget Finance Committee meeting. I am sandra fewer, chair, joined by supervisor walton and mandelman. I would like to thank sfgovtv for broadcasting the tv. Due to the covid19 Health Emergency and protect board members, City Employees and the public, the board of supervisors legislative chamber and Committee Room are closed. However, members will be participating in the meeting remotely. Pursuant to the local, state and federal orders, declarations and directives. Committee members will attend through Video Conference and participate to the same extent as if they were physically present. Public comments available on each item on this agenda, and streaming the number across the screen. Each speaker will be allowed two minutes to speak. Opportunity to speak are available via phone call, 4156150001. Access code 1457369773, again, 1457369773, then press pound and then press pound again. When connected, you will hear the meeting discussion but you will be muted and in listening mode only. When your item of interest comes up, dial star three to be added to the speaker line. Best practices are to call from a quiet location, speak clearly and slowly, and turn down your television or radio. Public comment in either of the following ways, either email to myself, budget and finance Committee Clerk at linta. Wong and forwarded to supervisors and included as part of the official file. Finally, items acted upon today are expected to appear on the board of supervisor agenda of june 16th unless otherwise stated. Thank you very much. Can you please call item number 1. Yes. Resolution authorizing office of the treasurer and Tax Collector to amend the software as a Service Agreement and support the contract with citybase, inc. , to an extended fiveyear term, two options to renew for a period of two years each, april 27, 2018, through april 16, 2023, not to exceed 37 million. Members who wish to provide Public Comment, call the number, access code, 1457369773, and pound and pound again. If you have not already done so, star three to speak, a system prompt will indicate you have raised your hand. Wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted and you may begin your comments. Thank you very much, madam clerk. Colleagues, you may remember, we continued this item from last week. We have already heard the daily report and we have miss shaw here with us from the treasurer and Tax Collectors office. Upon my request, they have come back with a comparison of rates in neighboring counties and cities. Miss shaw. Thank you very much, thanks for inviting us back how we can answer critical questions how the contract shares. Im going to share the graph with you and not have technical difficulties this time. All right. Can you see that . Yes, we can. All right. Thanks. Im not going to do the presentation in totality, since you have heard that yesterday. Or last week, excuse me. Just a quick reminder, this is a contract for our credit card charges that are online. We do have the no fee for the safest way to pay and the fastest, and these funds that are part of this contract are either part of the very item that the person is saying they are added for taxes and fees so that the taxes and fees are not completed. Graph that was requested was really to make sure that our contract was competitive with our neighboring counties, from, you will see on the consumer or individual base charges, San Francisco is at the range along with two other counties, los angeles and santa clara, at 2. 25. And this is for nonbusiness fees. On the business side, range is much more vast, it ranges from 2. 25 all the way to 4. 25. Where it is at 2. 25, santa clara, as well as in youll see that, and los angeles, excuse me. Youll see they do not accept echecks in santa clara, or they charge the 2. 25 on the echecks as well. In addition, San Francisco is the only county that has a small ticket component of the contracts, which enables any charge of less than 10 to essentially have no fee on consumer items. This would be for copayments, clinic, zuckerberg parking fees, any really small ticket items, which we are very fortunate to have been able to negotiate where the other counties were not able to. How this materializes in our practical way is if you are paying for a dog license in alameda, 2. 5, with your credit card, 2. 5 of that would be going to cover the merchant fees. If you were paying for a dog license in san mateo, 2. 35, and San Francisco, 2. 25. On the flip, if you are paying for another tax in san mateo, upwards of 3 going towards the merchant fees. The range was variable in alameda, 2. 5 to 4. 25. San francisco is 2. 5, majority of entities do use echeck as an option for that. I am available for any questions that you may have regarding the rates and or the contract in terms and total. Thank you, miss shaw. Any comments or questions from my colleagues . I wanted to say thank you very much for the chart, its pretty interesting on our neighboring counties and i think that you know, i still want to say i think, i have to say for the record, that even though we are looking at these fees, that they are comparable to the neighboring counties, that Credit Card Companies are charging a fee for people to even have a card and also they are charging huge Interest Rates on people that have cards and not bpaying the balances, and i think we are a gift to them that we are actually giving them so much business by the nature of having to do government business. And so i think they are benefitting and again i just have to say for the record that i feel as though consumers are the ones actually gets the short end of the stick around what happens with the credit cards. So, having said that, lets open this up for Public Comment if you dont mind, madam clerk. Madam chair, operations is checking to see if there are any calls in the queue. Let us know if there are callers that are ready. If you have not already done so, please press star three to be added to the queue for those already on hold. The system will indicate you have unmuted. Any callers who wish to comment on item number one. Madam chair, there are no callers who wish to speak. Thank you. Public comment is closed on number 1. Thank you for coming back. No comments or questions from my colleagues, seeing none, like to make a motion to move this to the board with a positive recommendation, madam clerk, please have a roll call vote. [roll call vote taken] clerk three aye. Thank you very much. Item number 2, ordinance extending for additional two years, through july 1, 2022, authority under the charter to the general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities commission to enter into Grant Agreements under the sfpuc Green Infrastructure Grant Program with terms of up to 20 years and without Commission Approval. Members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment on this item should call 4156550001, 1457369773, then press pound and then press pound again. If you have not already done so, please press star three to line up to speak. It will indicate you have raised your hand. Wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted and may begin your comments. Thank you very much. So today we have with us sarah bloom from sfpuc, and also megan . Hi, supervisor fewer, im also here. You are, ok. Great. So, colleagues, two people from sfpuc, megan and sarah. So, i just want to say before we start that im proud to sponsor this legislation for the Green Infrastructure program to revise the bill to turn the asphalt playgrounds for the places for kids to grow and learn in. Its in the interest of the children and School Communities and environment, as also reduces the storm water runoff and combine forces to improve performance. This legislation originally came to the Budget Committee when the program was new, and at that time the committee requested the delegate authority in the name of a transparent process. Now that we have seen a pilot, Successful Pilot year of implementation, i have confidence in the process and under the process of going through the commission can add months to the critical timeline and know the recipients of the Grant Program are not largely engineering of construction funds. These are Small Projects designed to support provements to the institution and its a Good Governance approach, not just for the city to ensure the return on investment but to lasting improvements to their property. With that, the floor is yours. Thank you, supervisor fewer. Thank you for the opportunity to present today. All right, here we go. My name is sarah bloom, Grant Program administrator for the Green Infrastructure Grant Program at the sfpuc, and walk you through how the first pilot year went and the approach for the current timeline for our applicants. Before we get started, i wanted to quickly review what Green Infrastructure is. Its a set of sustainable engineered storm Water Management tools designed to slow down and route storm water away from the sewer system, a variety of different Green Infrastructure, some like rain gardens or bioretention planters or green roof, or things like permeable pavement or rain barrels you may have in your home. And the puc has a longterm vision of managing a billion gallons of storm water, using Green Infrastructure by the year 2050. So using techniques to reach the goal, management ordinance, Capital Projects as part of the agency approach and supporting incentive and Grant Programs, thats the program im here to talk to you about today. So the program, we came to you in february of 2019 for the first round of delegated authority. We launched our Program Shortly after that. It encourages San Francisco Property Owners, both public and private, to design, build and maintain these Green Infrastructure installations on their properties. We have a maximum grant amount of 765,000 per acre managed, so the amount of funding is eligible on the storm water up to 2 million per project. And our Property Owners are responsible for 20 years of maintenance through a deed restriction on their property, and our ability to enter into that 20 years of maintenance is the reason why we are here with you today to request that delegated authority. So, we have been in, the program has been open for almost a year and a half now, and we have seen a wide variety of interest across the city, from a big variety of Property Owners, which is really great. We have used a combination of outreach tools in order to reach different properties. We have started with targeted property outreach, we did a g. I. F. Analysis of all the properties in the city with the most impervious surface, and let them know this was available. And worked with the city agency partners, rec part, and others, to look at the projects in the pipeline for their capital programs and to see which ones would be a good fit for this program. And we have also utilized our agency wide communication platform. Put information out on social media, emailed the listserv, Community Events and all of that helped get the word out to a wide variety of property types. We have also had a robust Technical Assistance program we launched as part of the Grant Program in 2019. Realizing that this is a pretty significant list, technical list for our Property Owners to be able to get into the application process, they have to do a lot of calculations on how much storm water they can manage, understand the drainage of their site, so working with our Property Owners going onsite visits, creating what we call opportunity analysis to help them understand what opportunities they have on their site. We have also been meeting with them to understand how to use the application template and all the calculations that are required. And to date we have had five awarded projects with one project in reserve, and so im going to go quickly through them so you can see who the grantee to date. First, Lafayette Elementary School in the richmond district. Utilize a dry creek bed and rain gardens to manage runoff from their schoolyard and project is in construction. We are excited to report should be complete by the end of the summer. So, we are excited to see the momentum starting even this quickly. Our second grantee was Betsy Carmichael middle school. Also using a combination of rain gardens to manage runoff from the School Building and the play yard created as part of their bond program. This project is also in construction and should be complete by the end of the summer. Our third award is st. Thomas moore school. A School Brotherhood way nelake merced, and a wide range of technology. Try to educate the students what Green Infrastructure is. And they have rain gardens and more. And this is in design. Our next is Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox church a couple blocks away on brotherhood wait from st. Thomas moore, and a series of rain gardens to manage runoff from the Recreation Center and parking lot. And this project is in the initiation phase. Our fifth project is another school, in the sunset, and this school needed, their Basketball Court had reached the end of its useful life, so they were interested in upgrading that facility along with other areas of the school, so they will actually be installing a permeable pavement Basketball Court, the first one in San Francisco. So we are excited to see that installation go in and also doing a combination of rain gardens and rainwise landscaping on the outside of the school. And the last project, which is currently pending commission award, is Crocker Amazon parking lot. Parking lot next to the heavily used Crocker Amazon soccer fields, and rec park is going to be building a rain garden at the front of the parking lot to help improve the front area and manage storm water from the adjacent parking lot. And so with all those projects combined, once they are built, theyll be actually removing over 3 million gallons of storm water from the sewer system each year, we are excited about that performance, and total almost seven acres of surface removed out of the system. And to date, the Program Budget is at 12 million, so we originally had 8 million when we came to you in february of 2019, and through a reappropriation, our commission added additional 4 million to our budget, and so from that 12 million, we have set aside just over 500, almost 600,000 for administration, and that includes what we have spent so far today, and the cost we think it will take us to get to the end of fiscal year 2022. We have the amount of funds that have been reserved for the six project, almost 5 million, and a Program Contingency that we are holding to help support the projects through construction in case we have any unforeseen conditions that may need additional funding to complete the project. And so with those taken out, we currently today have about 6 million left in awards for future projects over the next two years. And so i want to review with you all a couple of lessons we have learned from our pilot year. We have learned a lot of technical lessons, but excited to report the Property Owners who have come into the program so far we are reaching o ut with Technical Assistance, positive feedback from them and through the application surveys that they are excited to participate and to be a part of this program. We have also heard our Technical Assistance is really appreciated during the project phase and critical in helping the grantees and Property Owners get through the application process. We will continue to provide those services as well. One of the other things we learned and the reason we are here today with the request to remove that Commission Work flow is that our Grant Administration is taking longer than we expected. Realize the delegated authority to the commission that was put into the legislation in 2019 actually is triggering two Commission Approvals because of Environmental Review requirements. So the commission is unable to award the grant in its entirety without having completed environment review, and that cannot be completed until the design is completed. So a bit of the chicken and egg scenario. We are going to the commission to initially award the grant and disperse funding only for planning and design and then we go back to the commission when the design is complete and Environmental Review completed in order to release funding for construction. So, we are currently doing two Commission Approvals for each grant project. And we have also found that our grantees have limited resources, unable to move quickly through the administrative process, its causing the projects to stall and lose momentum, and some cases leaving the grantees in uncomfortable situations, maybe contracted with an engineer who they need in order to complete the design and maybe they have some outstanding invoices and we are unable to help them move quickly through the first process. And seen the administrative challenges are having acute impact on the school project, and thats because they have a tight timeline for implication and construction, so they need to do construction in the summer months when the students are not in school so very narrow windows the projects need to be set up for. First two school projects, you can see here, the timeline of application diverse payment, like the project setup timeline. Those were 10 and 7 months because the School District knew they had to be going into construction this summer. It took us so long to set the projects up the School District was actually completely done with design by the time we were able to initiate the first payment. And we were fortunate, since they are an institutional partner, they could find other costs to cover in the enter recommend but not all of the grantees will have that luxury. And then we have also realized st. Thomas moore school, the third grant awardee, that took nine months from application to first payment and because they didnt have money to get started on design without our payment, that project actually ended up having to be pushed from summer 2020 to summer 2021, so a full year delay and that not only, you know, loses momentum for the project and is challenging for the community, but also has cost implications for the p. U. C. So any time we push out construction, costs and bid pricing, so its challenging to have the projects be pushed out. And so i wanted to share this graphic with you. Timeline of what we call application diverse payment. You can see we are at about nine months on average for each project, so we spend a lot of time with them in the beginning before this timeline even starts in this project visioning phase, helping them move through site visits and Technical Assistance and figuring out what they can do. The moment they are submitting the applications, these are the steps that its taking us to get to first payment so we have to review the applications, a lot of times we have edits as the puc since they are going in the Grant Agreement, so some back and forth there taking time. The grantee and the City Attorney need to negotiate the Grant Agreement so they go back and forth on edits, and we are not able to submit the Grant Agreement into the Commission Work flow until that negotiation is complete. So, we spend time doing that and then we submit it into the Commission Work flow, takes a month, month and a half in order to go through our internal process at the puc and bring us to the Commission Meeting. And once the Commission Meeting is complete, we go for signatures, and a lot of accounting that needs to happen. Once the Grant Agreement is signed, we have a month, month and a half to set up the grant in the Accounting System and issue the first payment. So our technical team, the team working on the program has spent a lot of time over the last couple months thinking about how we could improve this timeline and bring that time down to a more reasonable time frame, and we think we can get to five months using a combination of strategies, you know, removing the Commission Work flow and approval is only one of those, and so we are committed as a Program Administration to look at combining our application steps in the beginning, so getting rid of some of the earlier steps we are already doing through the project visioning. Also going to commit to expedited application review, so we are getting the applicants through the review process quicker, knowing they are going to have some changes to work through, so we are reducing that timeline as a team. With the removal of the Commission Work flow, that will save us one and a half months in the timeline, allowing us to work on other things instead of being in the Commission Work flow process. And then we are also working with our accounting teams to understand how we can collapse some of the accounting and city vendor processes in parallel with other grant requirements. So, we are going to work to get our grantees set up in the Accounting Systems and the vendor process, and in this revised timeline, once we get through the end, the final agreement would be sent to the general manager for review, if you would choose to award it, he would sign it and initiate the first payment. They think using these four strategies we are able to reduce the timeline from nine months on average down to five months, so almost by half. And then i wanted to assure you that even with the removal of this Commission Work flow in the application process, puc commission will have oversight, continue to improve the budget on a twoyear cycle, with the regular puc budget. Continue to have jurisdiction over the program rules, so ever to change the Eligibility Criteria or the way we wanted to award grants, would have to be approved by the commission. And commit to doing quarterly updates as we are with the board of supervisors, so quarterly updates who we are granting money to and the interested projects are and continue to request the delegated authority from you all, only for fixed period of time so that we can continue to come back to you and let you know how the program is going and the lessons we learned and how we are continuing to improve. So, with that ill say thank you and open up for any questions. Ok. Miss thomas seeing none, we have could we have the b. L. A. Thank you. Good morning, members of the committee. As has been discussed, ordinance would extend the delegation of authority for the Green Infrastructure project. Theres been discussion in this committee about removing the delegation of authority, not just from the board, but also from the commission itself and assigning it to the general manager. And when we reported on this in 2018 we did point out that without Commission Approval there was no public process. Now, i do want to say that if this committee, and if the board actually, for the reasons that the puc presented wish to delegate to the general manager rather than the commission, the legislation, ordinance before you does call for Quarterly Reports. We did receive one copy for the First Quarter of this year. Prior legislation from 2018 also had quarterly, a reporting requirement, Quarterly Reporting requirement. I dont know, miss bloom, and you may be able to say whether that happened or not. But alternative, if the committee does not want the commission to be required to approve these grants, alternative would be not only that the puc comply with the reporting requirement, but these reports be posted in the legislative file and so the public has access to them. Currently the only way we could get access is ask for it from the puc. And so that would be an alternative recommendation. Approval of this ordinance is a policy matter because it does delegate board authority, and im available for any questions you may have. Thank you very much. So, miss campbell, then what we could do is request and add into the legislation the Quarterly Report be published. Thats what im saying. So miss bloom, was that already written into the legislation or something we would have to amend . Im not sure the requirement for being posted is in the legislation. We would likely have to amend that. But the Quarterly Report is in there. Okay. And are we abiding by the Quarterly Report . We did submit one Quarterly Report for this year. I think we may have been delayed in submitting the earlier Quarterly Reports, and so we will commit to making sure that that gets done, ill be working with megan in the legislative Analyst Office to ensure we are not delayed in issuing those Quarterly Reports. Ok. Thats great. And looks as though perhaps an amend is, to the legislation, about posting the report publicly should be added to the legislation, but before we do that, lets open this up for Public Comment. Any members of the public that would like to comment on item number two . Madam chair, operation is checking to see if there are any callers in the queue. Let us know if there are any callers that are ready. If you have not already done so, please press star three to be added to the queue. For those on hold, continue to wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted. Let us know if there are callers who wish to comment on item number two. Madam chair, there are no callers in the queue. Thank you very much. Public comment is now closed for item number 2. Before any comments or questions from my colleagues . Seeing none, i would like to just say to the puc that i would love to see more Public Schools on this list. The reason is that you know, our emphasis the majority of students are below the federal poverty line. These students also i feel like should be targeted in an equitable way the schools, because these items are used also as part of Environmental Science projects and also learning. And so many of our students actually dont have that opportunity in the household in which they live to have this access to hands on gardening but also the experience of learning firsthand about our environment in this way. And so i would love to see more Public Schools on this list. Having said that, i would like to ask our City Attorney if we need to add the amendment, assuming that it is not that we would have the amendment be posted for the public. Thats correct. That type of amendment would not but substantive. Thats great. I would like to add an amendment to the legislation that states that the Quarterly Reports will be posted publicly for public review. And i think i can take that amendment on the floor or do i need to have formal language for that . Are you would you like for the reports possible posted on the puc website . Miss campbell, you suggested on what vehicle to post it on, the Quarterly Report . Well, we were thinking it could be posted in legistar, but may be more accessible on the puc website. I think the puc website is the place where people would naturally go to. I think you could we could, you could consider a very simple amendment today. If you look at page five of the legislation, which is where the reporting requirement is, subsection b, it now says starting with the quart beginning july 1, 2019, shall submit Quarterly Reports, all Grant Agreements sfpuc has entered into in the prior quarter, and shall post such reports on its website. Yes. Thats perfect. Yes. So, i think we would like to adopt that amendment and i would like to propose that before this committee to formally adopt before we actually pass this out of committee, so i would like to do it as amended. So, if you would not mind, madam City Attorney, we could add that in, so i would like to make a motion to add that amendment into the legislation. Could i have a roll call vote, please. On the amendment. [roll call vote taken] clerk three aye. I would like to move to the full board as amended and roll call vote, please. [roll call vote taken] clerk three aye. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for your presentation. Read item number 3. Resolution between the Grant Agreement amendment low Income Investment Fund Child Care facilities and Technical Assistance for early care and education, up to two years for an total term of july 1, 2017, to june 30, 2022, by 37 million resulting in revised total grant of 66 million to commerce following the board approval. Call, and the access code, then press pound and press pound again. If you have not already done so, please dial star three to line up to speak. Prompts will indicate you have raised your hand. Please wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted and you may begin your comments. Thank you very much. Today we have Graham Dobson from the office of early care and education and kim from the low Income Investment fund. The floor is yours. Thank, supervisors. Graham dobson from the office of early care and education, we are asking for the approval of a modification of our existing contract with the low Income Investment fund for extended grant fund for two additional years, for total of five years. July 2017 to june 30, 2022. And additional amount of 37,926,045, plus contingency to administer the child care, the San Francisco child care facilities fund. Predevelopment, startup and repair grants for child Care Facility Development and provides facility Technical Assistance and support, project management and training. This contract includes funding from citywide Child Care Development impact fees, and these fees are charged to residential, hotel, and Office Development citywide. The contract also includes the administration of additional interagency planning, capital new development grants. And these grants are funded through Child Care Development impact fees that are restricted to expand child Care Capacity in certain neighborhood area plans, such as market octavia, visitation valley, eastern neighborhoods and balboa park. This adds administration of additional Revenue Source of 6 million to the augmentation fund, allocated to support child care projects. Investing for many, many years, current contract expires at the end of this month, so we are watching for this extension, and this budget modification to support the additional money we are getting through the funding, and kim is here as you know, and we would be happy to answer any questions about this contract. And the work. Thank very much. Seeing no comments from my colleagues or no comments or questions of my colleagues, please have the bla report. Members of the committee, proposed resolution extends the existing agreement between hsa and low Income Investment fund for child care facilities by two years to 2022 and the amount not to exceed amount of 63 million. Summarized and uses the funds in the table on page 17 of our report. Reduced not to exceed from 63 million to 61 million, this is really technical and accounts for contingency for prior years. We recommend approval of increased amount of 27. 7 million, which are Development Fees and other Nongeneral Fund sources. We consider 8 million in increased general funds sources to be a policy matter for the board of supervisors, and available for any questions you may have. Thank you very much. Seeing no comments or questions from my colleagues, open this up for Public Comment, please. Madam chair, operation is checking to see if there are any callers in the queue. Operations, please let us know if the callers are ready. If you have not already done so, press star three to be added. Let us know if there are any callers who wish to comment on this item. Madam chair, no callers in the queue. Motion to move it to the board with a positive recommendation. Please have a roll call vote. I believe the bla recommends it to be amended. Would you like to consider those amendments . Oh, ok. Any comments or questions, seeing none. Let us vote on the amendments then suggested by the bla. On the motion to accept the amendment suggested by the bla. [roll call vote taken] make a motion to move to the board as amended. Could we have a roll call vote, please. [roll call vote taken] thank you very much. Please call item number 4. Resolution retroactively authorizes the office of the city administrator to accept expense funds in the amount of 150,000 from the federal Emergency Management agency for the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program to support San Francisco 2019 update to the 2014 local hazard litigation plan for the project period from september 16, 2019, through april 16, 2022. Members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment on this item should call 4154550001, access code, and press pound and pound, and you may begin your comments. Thank you very much. Today from the office of resilience and capital planning. Welcome, melissa. Good morning. We are asking for approval of retroactive exception expend of Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, grant from fema, for 150,000. This grant funds our work to update the 2014 Hazard Mitigation plan. We are calling it the hazards and Climate Resilience plan. It has been led historically by the department of Emergency Management and this time around the office of resilience and capital planning. We updated the plan in partnership with dem, planning, department of the environment and public health. And grant to reimburse staff time spent on developing the plan. It includes staff time for hazards analysis of natural hazards, including analysis of Climate Change, and how Climate Change impacts a variety of our hazards in San Francisco, including flooding, extreme heat and drought. It includes time for our Strategy Development process, recreated a comprehensive set of 95 strategies across infrastructure, buildings and communities. We also developed an interactive strategy dashboard on our website, one San Francisco. Org, so members of the public and staff can sort through the strategies. It also supports time for our report writing and Stakeholder Engagement we did in the winter and fall, including presentations at several public meetings. It also supports our time that was spent addressing comments that came in from fema and others, and does require 25 match for the match we are using our contract with lower case productions. They helped us with material for community engagement, including a handout, a shorter and more accessible version of the report and our website update. The plan was tentatively approved by fema in april pending our local adoption, and the plan was recommended for approval at the land use and Transportation Committee monday, june 8th. So that, open up to any questions. Sure. There is no bla on this, i see no questions from my colleagues, or comments in the queue. Open up for Public Comments. Operation is checking to see if there are any callers in the queue. Operations, please let us know if there are callers that are ready. If you have not already done so, please press star three to be added to the queue. For those on hold, continue to wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted. Let us know if there are any callers who wish to comment on item number four. Madam chair, there are no callers in the queue. Thank you very much. Public comment for item 4 is closed. A visit to move it to the board with a positive recommendation. Please have a roll call vote. [roll call vote taken] thank you very much. Madam clerk, any further business before us today . There is no further business. Great, we are adjourned. Thank you, bye. The goal is simple. Its to raise womens voices. Learn a little bit about what you should be thinking about in the future. We had own over 300 over 300 people who signed up for the oneonone counseling today. I think in the world of leading, people sometimes discount the ability to lead quietly and effectively. The Assessors Office is a big one. There are 58 counties in the state of california and every single county has one elected assessor in the county. Our job is to look at property taxes and make sure that we are fairly taxing every single property in San Francisco. One of the big things that we do is as a result of our work, we bring in a lot of revenue, about 2. 6 billion worth of revenue to the city. Often, people will say, what do you do with that money, and i like to share what we do with property taxes. For every dollar we collect in property taxes, about 68 cents of it goes to support public sstss, our police officers, our fire departments, our streets, our cleaning that happens in the city. But i think what most people dont know is 34 cents of the dollar goes to public education. So it goes to the state of california and in turn gets allocated back to our local School Districts. So this is an incredibly important part of what we do in this office. Its an interesting place to be, i have to say. My colleagues across the state have been wonderful and have been very welcoming and share their knowledge with me. In my daytoday life, i dont think about that role, being the only Asian American assessor in the state, i just focus on being the best i can be, representing my city very well, representing the county of San Francisco well. By being the only Asian American assessor, i think you have a job to try to lift up and bring as many people on board, as well. I hope by doing the best that you can as an individual, people will start to see that your assessor is your elected leaders, the people that are making important decisions can look like you, can be like you, can be from your background. I grew up with a family where most of my relatives, my aunties, my uncles, my parents, were immigrants to the United States. When my parents first came here, they came without any relatives or friends in the United States. They had very little money, and they didnt know how to speak english very well. They came to a place that was completely foreign, a place where they had absolutely nobody here to help them, and i cant imagine what that must have been like, how brave it was for them to take that step because they were doing this in order to create an opportunity for their family. So my parents had odd jobs, my dad worked in the kitchens, my mom worked as a seamstress sewing. As we grew up, we eventually had a Small Business. I very much grew up in a family of immigrants, where we helped to translate. We went to the restaurant every weekend helping out, rolling egg rolls, eating egg rolls, and doing whatever we need to do to help the family out. It really was an experience growing up that helped me be the person that i am and viewing Public Service the way that i do. One of the events that really stuck with me when i was growing up was actually the rodney king riots. We lived in Southern California at the time, and my parents had a restaurant in inglewood, california. I can remember smelling smoke, seeing ashes where we lived. It was incredibly scary because we didnt know if we were going to lose that restaurant, if it was going to be burned down, if it was going to be damaged, and it was our entire livelihood. And i remember there were a lot of conversations at that time around what it was that government to do to create more opportunities or help people be more successful, and that stuck with me. It stuck with me because i remain believe government has a role, government has a responsibility to change the outcomes for communities, to create opportunities, to help people go to school, to help people open businesses and be successful. Make sure to be safe, and of course to have fun. And then, i think as you continue to serve in government, you realize that those convictions and the persons that you are really help to inform you, and so long as you go back to your core, and you remember why youre doing what youre doing, you know, i think you cant go wrong. Its funny, because, you know, i never had thought i would do this. I became a supervisor first for the city under very unusual circumstances, and i can remember one day, im shopping with friends and really not having a care in the world about politics or running for office or being in a public position, and the next day, im sworn in and serving on the board of supervisors. For many of us who are going through our Public Service, its very interesting, i think, what people view as a leader. Sometimes people say, well, maybe the person who is most outspoken, the person who yells the loudest or who speaks the loudest is going to be the best leader. And i think how i was raised, i like to listen first, and i like to try to figure outweighs to work with out ways to work with people to get things done. I hope that time goes on, you can see that you can have all sorts of different leaders whether at the top of City Government or leading organizations or leading teams, that there are really different kinds of leadership styles that we should really foster because it makes us stronger as organizations. Take advantage of all the wonderful information that you have here, at the vendor booth, at our seminars and also the oneonone counseling. I wouldnt be where i was if i didnt have very strong people who believed in me. And even at times when i didnt believe in my own abilities or my own skills, i had a lot of people who trusted and believed i either had the passion or skills to accomplish and do what i did. If there was one thing that i can tell young women, girls, who are thinking about and dreaming about the things they want to be, whether its being a doctor or being in politics, running an organization, being in business, whatever it is, i think its really to just trust yourself and believe that who you are is enough, that you are enough to make it work and to the Bicycle Coalition was giving away 33 bicycles so i applied. I was happy to receive one of them. The Community Bike build program is the San Francisco coalitions way of spreading the joy of biking and freedom of biking to residents who may not have access to affordable transportation. The city has an ordinance that we worked with them on back in 2014 that requires city agency goes to give organizations like the San Francisco bicycle organization a chance to take bicycles abandoned and put them to good use or find new homes for them. The partnerships with organizations generally with organizations that are working with low income individuals or families or people who are transportation dependent. We ask them to identify individuals who would greatly benefit from a bicycle. We make a list of people and their heights to match them to a bicycle that would suit their lifestyle and age and height. Bicycle i received has impacted my life so greatly. It is not only a form of recreation. It is also a means of getting connected with the community through bike rides and it is also just a feeling of freedom. I really appreciate it. I am very thankful. We teach a class. They have to attend a one hour class. Things like how to change lanes, how to make a left turn, right turn, how to ride around cars. After that class, then we would give everyone a test chance chance to test ride. We are giving them as a way to get around the city. Just the joy of like seeing people test drive the bicycles in the small area, there is no real word. I guess enjoyable is a word i could use. That doesnt describe the kind of warm feelings you feel in your heart giving someone that sense of freedom and maybe they havent ridden a bike in years. These folks are older than the normal crowd of people we give bicycles away to. Take my picture on my bike. That was a great experience. There were smiles all around. The recipients, myself, supervisor, everyone was happy to be a part of this joyous occasion. At the end we normally do a group ride to see people ride off with these huge smiles on their faces is a great experience. If someone is interested in volunteering, we have a special section on the website sf bike. Org volunteer you can sign up for both events. We have given away 855 bicycles, 376 last year. We are growing each and every year. I hope to top that 376 this year. We frequently do events in bayview. The spaces are for people to come and work on their own bikes or learn skills and give them access to something that they may not have had access to. For me this is a fun way to get outside and be active. Most of the time the kids will be in the house. This is a fun way to do something. You get fresh air and you dont just stay in the house all day. Iit is a good way to exercise. The Bicycle Coalition has a Bicycle Program for every community in San Francisco. It is connecting the young, older community. It is a wonderful outlet for the community to come together to have some good clean fun. It has opened to many doors to the young people that will usually might not have a bicycle. I have seen them and they are thankful and i am thankful for this program. After my fire in my apartment and losing everything, the red cross gave us a list of agencies in the city to reach out to and i signed up for the belowmarket rate program. I got my certificate and started applying and won the housing lottery. [ ] the current Lottery Program began in 2016. But there have been lot rows that have happened for Affordable Housing in the city for much longer than that. It was there was no standard practice. For nonprofit organizations that were providing Affordable Housing with low in the city, they all did their lotteries on their own. Private developers that include in their buildings affordable units, those are the city weve been monitoring for some time since 1992. We did it with Something Like this. Where people were given circus tickets. We game into 291st century in 2016 and started doing electronic lotteries. At the same time, we started electronic applications systems. Called dalia. The lottery is completely free. You can apply two ways. You can submit a paper application, which you can download from the listing itself. If you a plo apply online, it wl take five minutes. You can make it easier creating an account. To get to dalia, you log on to housing. Sfgov. Org. I have lived in San Francisco for almost 42 years. I was born here in the hayes valley. I applied for the San Francisco Affordable Housing lottery three times. Since 2016, weve had about 265 electronic lotteries and almost 2,000 people have got their home through the lottery system. If you go into the listing, you can actually just press lottery results and you put in your lottery number and it will tell you exactly how you ranked. For some people, signing up for it was going to be a challenge. There is a Digital Divide here and especially when you are trying to help low and very low income people. So we began providing digital assistance for folks to go in and get help. Along with the income and the residency requirements, we also required someone who is trying to buy the home to be a first time home buyer and theres also an educational component that consists of an orientation that they need to attend, a firsttime home buyer workshop and a oneonone counseling session with the housing councilor. Sometimes we have to go through 10 applicants before they shouldnt be discouraged if they have a low lottery number. They still might get a value for an available, Affordable Housing unit. We have a variety of Lottery Programs. The four that you will most often see are what we call c. O. P. , the certificate of Preference Program, the dthp which is the displaced penance Housing Preference program. The neighborhood resident Housing Program and the live worth preference. I moved in my new home february 25th and 2019. The neighborhood Preference Program really helped me achieve that goal and that dream was with eventually wind up staying in San Francisco. The next steps, after finding out how well you did in the lottery and especially if you ranked really well you will be contacted by the leasing agent. You have to submit those document and income and asset qualify and you have to pass the credit and rental screening and the background and when you qualify for the unit, you can chose the unit and hopefully sign that lease. All city sponsored Affordable Housing comes through the system and has an electronic lottery. Every week theres a listing on dalia. Something that people can apply for. Its a bit hard to predict how long it will take for someone to be able to move into a unit. Lets say the lottery has happened. Several factors go into that and mainly how many units are in the project, right. And how well you ranked and what preference bucket you were in. This particular building was brand new and really this is the one that i wanted out of everything i applied for. In my mind, i was like how am i going to win this . I did and when you get that notice that you won, its like at first, its surreal and you dont believe it and it sinks in, yeah, it happened. Some of our buildings are pretty spectacular. They have key less entry now. They have a court yard where they play movies during the weekends, they have another master kitchen and space where people can throw parties. Mayor breed has a plan for over 10,000 new units between now and 2025. We will Start Construction on about 2,000 new units just in 2020. We also have a very big portfolio like over 25,000 units across the city. And life happens to people. People move. So we have a very large number of rerentals and resales of units every year. Best thing about working for the Affordable Housing program is that we know that were making a difference and we actually see that difference on a daytoday basis. Being back in the neighborhood i grew up in, its a wonderful experience. Its a long process to get through. Well worth it when you get to the other side. I could not be happier. [ ] announcer youre watching coping with covid19. Hi. Im chris manus and youre watching coping with covid19. Today my guest is anastasia klaste and were going talk about how the pandemic has affected our school community. Welcome to the show. Hi thank you. I understand that our students and teachers have adopted Video Conference as Distance Learning tools to be able to continue studying remotely and this is clearly new for everyone. Do you have some suggestions to students and perhaps their parents that could help them manage this new approach . I think the best advice i can give students and parents is to really be gentle on yourselves during this time. The thing we dont really want to do is increase stress and anxiety amongst our students because they know it is a scary, uncertain time aside from the work. So, we are engaging in Distance Learning and providing work for students to engage in. The Mental Health of students and their wellbeing and safety is really at the forefront of our minds and so were asking parents to keep an eye on their kids and also asking kids to speak up and let us know if theyre having trouble f they need to talk to someone, if they need to take a break or they need more time to do work. Because that is really whats most important for us. Right. And what would you say to teachers having a hard time adjusting as well . I think our faculty is really lucky in that we were already utilizing google classroom in all of our classes. So the switch from inperson to online is not as extreme as it may have been to some other faculties in other schools. That said, most of us had never engaged in Video Conferencing or done any sort of daily online lesson planning. So, i think the same thing i say to parents and students i say to teachers is to just be gentle and give yourself space and know its ok to make mistakes and its ok if youre not perfect and were all sort of learning and doing at the same time. So, that can also be anxiety provoking and that can be hard for taoefers that are used to being really good at what they do and knowing what exactly to say and how to do it every day are grappling with new technology and theyre finding that students [inaudible] what they do in person. Are there concerns about College Admissions for High School Seniors and juniors . I think at first there was a lot of sort of confusion and anxiety for juniors and seniors about colleges. And now that the system has come out with some guidance and we understand that, you know, the s. A. T. And a. C. T. Tests wont be required for the next year, we know that universities have only agreed to accept credit or no credit or passno pass grades and looking at students across the country knowing that were in unprecedented situation now that weve got guidance of clarity around that. Students are feeling a lot more comfort. Comfortable. For our current seniors, most of them got their College Acceptances in february and march so those things shouldnt be changing that much. For juniors, you know, now that they know that they have to step it up for the next year because the grades that theyre getting this semester may not be letter grades, it might be a passno pass, creditno credit. But it seems from everything that i read or hear, theyre working really closely with School Districts to make sure that no student is, you know, adversely affected by the pandemic because of this sort of universal experience for all students. Indeed. I heard that some kids are worried that they may have to make up the work or retake the whole year . How likely are those scenarios and how will grades be assigned for this semester . Well, San Francisco unified has made a decision through the board of ed that there will be a signing. Creditno credit for 6 through 12th graders and that means that basically they will either full credit for the glass or wont receive credit for class, based on the work that they do and that goes into a gaap of neutral so it shouldnt raise or lower any specific students g. P. A. , but just give them credit toward graduation. From what i can tell, california has been pretty clear that no student will have to retake this year. As educators, we do acknowledge that thereby a little bit of catchup happening in the fall. Right. Have your students had a variety of different experiences during this pandemic . Yes. I would say definitely. Our school serves a big atrisk group of kids. We have students from every zip code and city, basically. And students from all sorts of backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses so on one hand they have their high speed wifi and its no problem for them to hop on a zoom call or get their google docs turned in and then we have a lot of situations where they may not have wifi so theyre delivering hotspots or they have a device but it is shared among several siblings or the parents are using it during the day and the kids have only a certain amount of time that they can engage. So, you know, something that the teachers have talked about being mindful of and im definitely being mindful, as a principal, is that our students are in various situations and we cant assume anything about their access in their ability to [inaudible] right now. For some of them, theyre caring for siblings or grandma, living at home. Many of them have family members affected by covid and so theyre in a space where theyre really just trying to take care of those around them. And academics are sort of on the backburner and for right now thats ok. You know, we sort of support them in whatever way they need. I understand. Have you been able to provide any Technical Assistance to your students or faculty . Yes. The School District had hotspots so i personally delivered about 50 chrome books to students and now were getting hotspots, which are wifi devices that utilize cell phone coverage in an area so homes that dont have wifi or homes that have spotty wifi can use these hotspots and the kids are saying that they work really well and now the district just got a bunch of them so were able to list them. So any family that needs them right now, which is really great. Now all of our faculties have access to high speed wifi and technology at home. We are providing them with the technology that they need to be engaged in this. I see. And finally s there any news about Summer School . There is. Sort of. Its happening. In some way, shape or form. But we dont really know how or where. Im assuming it will be online and, as usual, seniors or kids about to graduate will be prioritized so therell definitely be some Summer School, im just not sure where or what at this point. But theyre going to share information about that pretty soon. Unfortunately all the fun summer programs and jobs, the arts programs and language programs, the acceleration programs are probably not happening. But there will be some sort of Credit Recovery option for kids who need it. Right. Well, thank you for coming ton show. I really appreciate the time youve given us today. Yeah. Great talking with you. Thank you so much for having me. That is it for this episode. Well be back with more covid19 related information shortly. Youve been watching coping with covid19. Im chris manus. Thank you for watching. Meeting. Welcome to the june 8th, 2021 meeting of the rules committee. Im so sorry that we started late this morning. We were having difficulty with Public Comment. And i just want to advise any member of the public who is listening in, if you want to be included in the queue to be a speaker in Public Comment please press star three. Its a little different than other meetings. This time you press star three. Ill remind you when we get to Public Comment each time. Im supervisor hillary ronen, chair of the committee. With me on the Video Conference is supervisor catherine. Supervisor stefani and were joined this morning by supervisor Shamann Walton perform our clerk today is victor young and i would like to thank sfgov tv for staffing this meeting. Mr. Clerk, do you have any announcements . Clerk yes. Before we get started, id like to ask that anybody thats not a member of the committee to temporarily turn off your camera, so your picture is not displayed while were speaking on other items. Todays announcements. Due to the covid19 Health Emergency and to protect board members, City Employees and the public, the board of supervisors Committee Room and legislate i have to turn my camera on. My apologies. [laughter] the board of supervisors Committee Room are closed. However, members will be participating in the meeting remotely. This precaution is taking pursuant to statewide stayathome order and all local, state and federal orders, declaration and directives. Committee members will attend the meeting through Video Conference, and participate in the meeting through the same extent as if they were physically present. Public comment will be available on each item on this agenda, both channel 26 and sfgovtv. Org are streaming the number across the screen. Each speaker will be allowed two minutes to speak. Comments are opportunities to speak during Public Comment period, they are available via phone calling 415 6550001. Again thats 415 6550001. Access code is 145 7006200. Again that access code is 45 45700 6200 and press and again. You will be muted and in listening mode only. When the item of interest comes up, please press star three to be added to the speaker line. Best practices are to call from a quiet location, speak clearly and slowly and turn down your television or radio. Alternatively, you may submit Public Comment in either of the following ways. Email to myself, the rules Committee Clerk at victor. Young sfjgov. Org. If you submit via email, it will be forwarded to the supervisors and will be included as part of the file. Finally, items acted upon today are expected to appear on the board of supervisors agenda june stated. Thank you so much. Mr. Clerk, can please read item number one. Clerk yes. Item number 1. Is a Charter Amendment to amend chart to require that members of the board, commissions and advisory bodies be residents of the city and of legal voting age, replacing the requirement that members of boards, commissions and advisory antibodies be United States citizens and registered voters, at an election to be held on november 3rd, 2020. I would like to note that we have made arrangements for Interpretation Services, if they would like to make a quick comment. It would be appreciated at this time. Hi. Good morning. Im sarah sousa. And ill be providing spanish translation. Thank you. Can you say that in spanish, sarah . [speaking spanish] supervisor ronen thank you so much. I am so excited about this item. And i want to turn over the first comments to the lead sponsor supervisor Shamann Walton. Thank you very much, chair ronen. Thank you very much to m colleagues on the rules committee. Im excited that were hearing this overdue Charter Amendment for making sure that our undocumented immigrants have opportunities to serve on special committees and on commissions. And i am also even more proud to announce that we have unanimous cosponsorship from the entire board of supervisors. I want to start off by thanking all of my colleagues, president norman yee, gordon mar, sandra fewer, hillary ronen, aaron peskin, matt haney, rafael mandelman, dean preston and catherine stefani. This is imperative that we announce that we are all unanimously in support of this, because this is something that is going to push San Francisco to be more equitable, which has always been a part of our core values in the city. Currently advisory bodies, that were created by the charter, can carve out exceptions to age, residency and citizenship requirements. This Charter Amendment will remove the citizen requirement, allowing qualified individuals to apply and serve on committees and commissions. In San Francisco, we often worked hard to ensure that no community is left behind. And this is why this ordinary is so historical is should have been in place a long time. All voices should be allowed at the table. And this is just one step forward towards achieving that equitable voice. And im very confident that san franciscans will vote this Charter Amendment into law. I want to thank all of those who have worked to make this ordinance a reality, particularly supervisor president norman yee who worked closely with our efforts on this. One of his aides in his office, as well as tracy garza in our office. Their collective work, working closely with sarah sousa and members of the immigrant community, has led to this point where we actually have a Charter Amendment in writing and going to the ballot in november. Thank you all so much for your continued, tireless support of our immigrant community. And just the last thing, i want to say as we look at all of the unrest, all of the inequitablable thats been happening in our country for years, particularly at this time where were continuing to see Law Enforcement killed, unarmed it black people, unarmed people of color, it is very imperative that our equity fight continues to spread across all areas and populations of people who have been unjustly and inequitably isolated. So this Charter Amendment is in the spirit of that. And in line with that. I just want to thank everyone for being supportive of allowing this equitable immigrant voice at the table, for communities who continue to pay taxes, contribute to our economy, work closely with our families. It is very important that they have a voice on policy bodies, on bodies that govern the celebration and laws that we pass here in San Francisco. And with that said, i just want to the appreciate everyone. Thank you so much, chair ronen, for the time. Lets get this Charter Amendment approved through the rules committee today, so that we can get it approved at the full board and get the voters onboard. Thank you. Supervisor ronen thank you so much. Do any of my other colleagues have any comments before we turn it over to presenters . Chair ronen, yeah. I just want well, thank you, chair ronen. I just wanted to thank supervisor walton for bringing this item forward. And also thanks to sarah sousa, gabriel and the many from the Community Leaders who proposed and have advocated for it. Along with all of my colleagues. Very proud to cosponsor this crucial and long overdue. It is not only needless and cruel, it actually harms the entire city. Some of our most qualified, potential Commission Nominees are not United States citizens. And the entire city is harmed by this arbitrary barrier to their Public Service. I know that firsthand i tried to nominate a person who was highly qualified to serve as our district 4 sfmta citizens advisory representative, but unable to move the nomination forward, simply because of the restriction to appointment of u. S. Citizens, which cant be waived, no matter how qualified the individual is. This is an affront to our values, our immigrant communities and its pastime we affirm the right of all san franciscans to lead. They already are in so many ways. Thank you. Ronen thank you. Supervisor stefani, did you want to say anything . I want to echo supervisor mars comments and thank supervisor walton for bringing this forward and bringing this forward today. Thank you to community advocates, too, who also worked so hard on this, especially sarah sousa, who reached out to our office. So impressed with this and be happy to be of support. I really want to add my voice to this measure, for obviously reasons, for the reasons that supervisor walton stated in the reasons supervisor mar stated as well. I think its a voice thats missing. A voice that needs to be heard. And im happy that all of us could be in unanimous support for this. I look forward to working together to make sure this passes at the ballot. Thank you again, supervisor walton, for your leadership on this. Im happy to be a part of it. Supervisor ronen thank you so much. And i dont want to be super repetitive. I couldnt agree more with my colleagues. Thank you, supervisor walton, gabriel, sarah sousa for bringing this way overdue item to the voters, so that we can make this essential change. Supervisor walton, did you want to run the hearing on this . Im assuming you have several presenters . Thank you so much, supervisor ronen. What i will do, id like to just kind of run the hearing for this point of time. Theres a time im going to have to split off to a district 10 conference. Then come back. While also taking with my car with a flat tire to wheel works. Thats a story we dont need it hear about. First off, id like to introduce someone who has really just been a true fighter. Shes reflective and representative of why this Charter Amendment is so important and really demonstrating and proving that one person can really fight for change and get everyone motivated to make the right decision and right changes. I do at this time want to introduce sarah sousa, who has been a main leader, making sure that we do everything we can to provide this opportunity for our immigrant community. Thank you. Sarah. Thank you, supervisor Shamann Walton. Im beyond honored to have this opportunity to share, you know, my story and the story of so many immigrant families and san franciscans. Im a proud san franciscan myself. Went to mission high school. And im so excited to be here. First, i want to thank the chair. Chair hillary ronen, for your kindness and support. And again honor to be here with all of you. Thank you, supervisor stefani. You have been so supportive and it has been an honor to work with you, along with also supervisor gordon mar. I think together were going to win in november. And i just cant wait to have the Biggest Party in town. [laughter] so gabriel and i will be presenting a power point. So gabriel, can you share your screen . I can. Gabriel medina is the campaign cochair. Gabriel, do you want to share a few words . Sure. Well, just logistics. Thank you all, of course. Thank you chair ronen and sponsor walton and unanimous supervisors for this measure. Were going to start this off. Im going to jump in the middle. And then sarah sousa is going to finish it. With that, sarah, would you like to start off . Yes. Are you sharing the screen . Im sharing. Can you see . Yes. Im sorry. Real quick before you start, sarah, i do also want to take the time to acknowledge Gabriel Medina for his hard work on this initiative and Charter Amendment as well. Hes been a leader for a long time in our community. I just believe and take the time to acknowledge him as well. And make sure that everyone knows that during this Charter Amendment. Thank you. Thank you. Im happy to speak second all the time for sarah. [laughter] can everyone see the power point . Not yet. No. So i am sharing. Let me see. If i share okay. Here it is. Here we go. All right. All right. Now were on . Yes. All right. Sarah, take it away. All right. So today im her here to presene Charter Amendment. The goal of this presentation is to inform you on the specifics of the Charter Amendment and its impact and how were moving forward for justice and liberation of our community in San Francisco. So as we know, were all san franciscans. And we all deserve a seat at the table. Currently so next slide, gabriel. So currently the existing law prohibits aspiring citizens from serving on appointed boards and commissions. This is an equity issue. When you have immigrant Rights Commission and you dont allow immigrants to serve on those commissions, youre not able to formulate equitable policy outcomes. This is one component of the bill of the charter, which again is allowing all san franciscans to serve on commissioners, advisory bodies and boards, regardless of immigration status. And the second component of the Charter Amendment, which im really excited about, is actually expanding the language on metrics to on diversity of commissions. Basically gender, Sexual Orientation and other demographic components, variables to ensure that we have a more inclusive evaluation. This report is conducted by the status of women, a commission of status of women. And so this is a great second component that we would like to highlight. And so, next, can you go to the next slide, gabriel. Im on yes. Can you take on this next slide, gabriel. Yes. I sure can, sarah. Thank you so much. So, you know, big benefit of this is how many additional folks can enter Public Service and contribute. You know, we see the data on the screen. 7 of the population, but 3 of appointees. Latin men are 7 of the population, but 5 of appointos. Asian women did we lose gabriel . I cant hear him. Supervisor ronen it looks like we might have lost him. Let me ask. Clerk it looks like his computer may have stopped responding. Supervisor ronen yes. While we figure this out, do we want to open this item up for Public Comment and well continue the presentation after Public Comment . I can continue the presentation. Supervisor ronen okay. Sorry. Im not going to be able to share my screen at the moment. Clerk supervisor ronen, would you like the clerk to share the slide on his end . Victor, you can take over and share your slide, please. Thank you so much. I apologize for the technical issues. Supervisor ronen no problem. Weve been having them all morning. Okay. So we were on slide number 3, right, is that correct . Slide 4. Supervisor ronen oh, slide 4. Okay. If the clerk could put up slide 4. What gabriel was alluding to, is the representation component and who is left out. As people of color are underrepresented, and there is definitely a disparity issue among immigrants, meaning aspiring citizens, documented and undocumented. And then so this is about not only a place to hear immigrant voices. Next slide. Not only uplifting the voices, but also engaging young people. San francisco residents that are 660 16 and 17 years old would also be eligible to serve on boards and commissions, if we pass 16 in november. So this is a dual action to ensure that, you know, f16 passes, young people are, regardless of immigration status, are able to serve on commissions. And we also had a huge history in 2016 when we passed proposition n and f. So allowing parents to serve on school board im, to actually vote on school board elections, which was a big victory for us. And then second, you know, this is a widespread empowerment. Were saying that, you know, as we take cue, belong that immigrants belong, that all communities belong. When we remove systemic barriers that prohibits them from serving, from having a seat at the table. Next slide, please. Is gabriel back . Okay. So moving backward not forward, right. When we think about the percentage of appointees, we look at the demographic and we cdbg a disparity we see a disparity. People of color are less likely to have seats on commissions that make key decisions. With the shorter amendment, were sending a message that we prioritize the voices of women, immigrants, people of color, people that have been left out of the seats for a long time. Both women of color and immigrants are underrepresented. And so again this Charter Amendment will ensure that we are amending that inequity in the system. So were moving to slide 8. So in order to improve service delivery, we must ensure that we have people that represents the community, to fight and advocate for resources for covid19. As we know, the Latinx Community and people of color have been disproportionately impacted by covid19, due to systemic barriers. So its crucial for them to have a seat at the table, to ensure that they share their perspective on what resources should be allocated to the community, what are the needs, and whats the most impactful what are the most Impactful Solutions that will help the crisis in their community, along with addressing the violence, with the death of, you know, george floyd and amill car and luis. We saw the lack of accountability. We need members of the community representing those commissions, to ensure that we hold accountable. That we are addressing this issue of violence to people of color. It goes back to representation, and the importance of s. F. Commissions for all. And moving to slide 9, a person, regardless of immigration stat status, should be eligible to hold civil office. And we are the largest and most diverse. We come from different countries. We are beautiful and bring our cultural and lives and traditions. And also resources to the communities. So again its important that San Francisco leads by example. Next year the governor is sig signing into law sb225 with allows citizens shall actually serve on state commissions. So now its time for San Francisco to follow the governors action on uplifting all californians and ensuring that they have a seat at the table. Were also fighting for sb288, which would amend the election code, to allow actually noncitizens to run for local seats. So this is not only part of the Charter Amendment, this is for liberation and justice. So i want to move to the slide 10. I just want to say for all of the endorsements, thank you supervisor hillary ronen, to your staff, supervisor Shamann Walton, president norman yee, assembly phip king and i want to thank harvey, San Francisco latino democratic club. Educators of San Francisco. The Community Resource center, african advocacy network, violent connect. And other organizations that have supported, as well as chinese for informative action, who also have shown leadership. And along with all of the Domestic Workers that have fought for a long time for immigrant justice and for all of the Community Members that are supporting, thank you. Thank you. Were not able to do this without you. So i would like to close by saying thank you. Gracias. I will say in other languages. S. F. Commission for all. Its crucial. Im so grateful and honored. And thanks again to the rules Committee Chair supervisor and chair and supervisor hillary ronen, supervisor stefani and supervisor gordon mar. And again i apologize for any technical issues. And thank you for your time. And im honored to work with you and make history in San Francisco. Thank you so much no your liquor, sarah and thank you so much thank you so much for your leadership, sarah and thank you so much, gabriel. Well make sure this Charter Amendment is heard at this committee. Supervisor ronen, if you dont mind, id like to pass this back to you. I believe were moving forward to Public Comment at this time . Supervisor ronen sure. Sounds great. Sarah, thank you so much. What a beautiful presentation. So professional and compelling that you had me tearing up, because this is historically important in our city. This is well past the time that we right this wrong. This is great to be together with supervisor walton. This historic ballot measure. So thank you so much. And unless my colleagues have any questions, i will go ahead and open this up to Public Comment. And if you would like to be added to the queue to speak on this item, please press star 3 now. Clerk all right. A quick announcement. Members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment on this item, should call 415 6550001. Access code 145 700 6200. Then press pound and pound again. If you havent already done so, please press star 3 for line up to speak. A system prompt will indicate that you have raised your hand. Please wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted and you may begin your comments. Just as another reminder, we do have Interpretation Services for Public Comment in spanish on this item. Thank you. Supervisor ronen thank you. [speaking spanish] if we can hear from the first speaker. Mr. Clerk. Clerk yes. We are working on bringing that forward at the moment. Caller, go ahead. Hi. My name is kate fry. I teach citizenship at city college of San Francisco. I also teach english as a second language. I work with immigrants every day. And i see all of the people in San Francisco. We have over a third of our population comes from other countries. I see an amazing diversity of knowledge, of life experience. I see a lot of passion among my students and desire to get involved. And i know that everyone should have a voice, especially in decisions that are going to impact them. And i dont know how many of you participated in the marches or actions in this past week, but i was at the one from mission high school, as many other. It was led by youth of color. This is the future. This is the leadership that we need. And as a citizenship teacher, i know that the citizenship test is challenging. A lot of people who were born in this country could not pass that test. So it should not be a barrier from people participate. I think we know that now more than ever. Everyone needs to have a voice, especially in things that impact them. Thank you so much. Next speaker, please. Caller good morning, madam chair, and everyone. I represent affirmative action. I wanted to thank the elected leaders and also the cochairs of the campaign for your work and your leadership in sponsoring pushing forward the Charter Amendment. We continue to endorse and support this Charter Amendment, because it allows for our political systems to open the door to marginalized voices. And so that communities that have been excluded from the political process, can have an equal stake in the physic process. It will facilitate fair representation in our governmental processes, that reflect the needs of our diverse constituency. And Civil Rights Organization that is, you know, committed to multiracial democracy. We stand in solidarity with the black community. Responsive spoils to divest incarceration and detention, we have to make sure our political processes are able to create and reflect the needs from our communities and that our government is for the people, by the people. Now is the time for San Francisco to lead boldly and we believe that this Charter Amendment is one step in the right direction. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Caller hi. Can you hear me . Yes, we can. Please proceed. Caller okay. Okay. My name is maria. Im the organizer of voices in San Francisco. And in 1998 i was appointed to the advisory committee. Then later as cochair of the committee. I became a San Francisco Health Authority commissioner, representing health plan consumers. I was reappointed and still currently an active San Francisco authority commissioner. My service to the commission was much needed, even before i became a citizen. And i know many parents are very well qualified to serve on this commission, regardless of their immigration status or age. The factors should not be barriers. The city has a Health Care Safety net that covers everyone regardless of their immigration status. It is important to hear the voices of everyone, so that their Health Care Access and needs are better met. I also serve on the childcare planning advisory council, a body that creates a childcare needs assessments and priorities for the city and the state. I started sit on that committee when supervisor yee was chairing it. And before i became a citizen. I was considered undocumented at the time, because i was my political asylum was still pending. We need parents on the planning council. They struggle with childcare needs, they need to have a seat at the table also. They need to qualify for childcare, and may have parents who are not citizens. And concerning the childcare in california is under the department of education, the Supreme Court has declared that all children have the right to public education, regardless of their status. But often their voices are not heard. So their parents must be allowed to represent them. And even the children themselves, when theyre 18, i mean, 16. We are proud of our diversity in San Francisco, of being progressive and being a sanctuary city and being a trailblazer in the country. We have to put our money where our mouth is. Thank you. Supervisor ronen thank you. Thank you. Can we have the next speaker, please. Caller hi. Im an immigrant Rights Commissioner here in the city and county of San Francisco. I have worked with sarah to drop the resolution in support of the aspiring citizens Charter Amendment, that the commission will vote on today at 5 30. And heres my personal statement. A fundamental tenet of our democracy is representation in government. Today in San Francisco we have neighbors, friends, Community Leaders who call the city home. But who do not have a voice on our San Francisco commissions, boards and advisory committees. These government bodies have tremendous influence on our lives, whether its police, accountability on the police commission, building Affordable Housing or advocating for immigrant and human rights on the immigrant rights and human Rights Commissions, among the many others. The Charter Amendment to allow San Francisco residents to serve on San Francisco commissions, boards and advisory committees regardless of immigration status, is long overdue. And critically important during a time of pandemic, economic volatility, and violence that disproportionately affects our Brown Brothers and sisters. Thank you for supporting this. And i will do everything in my power to get this across the finish line in november. Thank you. Thank you. Can we have the next speaker, please. Caller hi. My name is ezra. I am i had the to get to work and know sarah sousa. I work at u. C. F. And a volunteer at a clinic, sole purpose to help the undocumented community provide free fair to the uninsured. As you know, covid19 has disproportionately affected among our communities. It is imperative and long overdue for Political Representation to be on the table. So i implore and everyone to vote on this Charter Amendment. And communities that have long been oppressed and silenced need to be heard. And also to stand in solidarity with our Black Brothers and sisters. Thank you. Thank you. Can we hear from the next speaker, please. Hi, everyone. My name is the the Vice President of sound connect. I want to thank you for your leadership on this issue and excited to continue to work with her and push this Charter Amendment forward. This is a personal issue to me. As a gay immigrant, who immigranted from malaysia, a country that threatens gay men, i came to San Francisco in search of safety and community. San francisco has been a safe sanctuary that embraces immigrants of different backgrounds and identities. We pay taxes like everyone else, many of us as essential workers but do not enjoy the same level of access to basic resources, that would help our immigrant families who are disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, put food understand table and keep our families safe. We have been under attack by the administration, yet we do not have a platform to advocate for our needs, or have the power of policy changes that directly impact our everyday lives. Representation matters. And this is why im supporting the Charter Amendment as an immigrant, who wants to publicly help my did city. I look forward to seeing the day when all immigrants have a seat at the table. Thank you. Thank you. Just a reminder, members of the public who are already on the phone lines, and wish to speak, should now dial star 3 if you have not already done so to be added to the speaker line. Thank you. Can we have the next speaker, please. Hi. Good afternoon. Good morning. My name is maria. I am an advocate in the community. And i work closely with a lot of immigrants, im an immigrant myself. And i am here because i think its important that we immigrants be part of the issues that are being on the table. Because i really consider that we need to change the narrative about immigrants. And we need to value so we can bring what we bring to the economy and how we can be also help to be making decisions that affect us. I also would like to address that me as an immigrant, i notice how much representation is lacking. So i would like to all of you supervisors to consider this proposal. And also continue fighting for the city and for all of us to continue changing that narrative about immigrants. And what we do in the economy. Thank you so much. Thank you. Can we have next speaker, please. Hello. Hi. Please proceed with your comment. Oh, hi. My name is and im with the african advocacy network. So im joining you here speaking about thanking all of the leaders, local leaders and all city leaders. And also, you know, our comrades and friends from the community on this initiative. And ive been thinking to myself, what a missed opportunity for so long. Its been quite a while immigrants are in the city. And even those would be qualified to serve on commissions, they did not do so. Maybe sometimes because of lack of education, because of lack of maybe maybe because of lack of information or just because of language weakness. And now, you know, today were talking about the amendment. And what im saying everybody, ill not just talking about undocumented immigrants. Even those who are documented. But also feel out of knowledge. They sit on the side. And everybody is invited to join in. And again, you know, its a time to remind all in the community that were not alone. We have Election Officials who are there and thinking about us and caring for us. So its time for us to take the opportunity and at the same time im asking everybody this is an opportunity for education. How to exercise democracy and getting the kids to learn and be a voice for the communities that they represent. Thank you. Thank you for this effort. And then the African Network is looking forward to working with everybody for the success of this. Thank you. Thank you. Can he we have the next speaker, please. Hello. Can you hear me . Yes. We can. Please proceed. Good morning, madam chair and supervisors. My name is rachel. I am the arts and culture administrator. And im calling in today to show our support for the aspiring citizens Charter Amendment. We commend the board of supervisors on the unanimous support for this item. And the individuals and organizations involved in pushing this forward. The diversity of our city is whats made San Francisco a unique place to home and visitors to experience an array of cultures. This Charter Amendment will be a step forwards equitablable Decision Making for the city breaking the cycle of allowing those with privilege to represent communities they may not have direct ties to. Furthermore, the added language, including more diversity on appointed seats, including gender, Sexual Orientation and youth, for example, will further ensure that those who are at the table will reflect the demographics of the population, that will be impacted by this by the decisions that are made. In these challenging times, where systemic racism is no longer an option, having the voices of individuals that can put these systems in check will be a pathway towards abolishing racist practices. We stand in solidarity with the black community and indigenous and people of color communities that are heavily impacted by the Current Public Health crisis and the continued police brutality, that has gone unchecked by the federal government. Thank you for your support in making sure undocumented voices and diverse is represented on San Francisco boards, commissions and advisory bodies. Thank you. Can we have next speaker, please. Hello. Yes. My name is okay. Thank you. My name is lou. Im a mother of two children. Im bilingual, multicultural teacher. Im trying to raise the students to understand all of the multiethnicity of our city. So im very happy that youre opening this space for young people to participate. This is so important for them to feel empowered and also experience leadership. Now is the time to open that door. And give them the opportunity to exercise their rights. So we are living through these turbulent times. I really want to thank you, because this space is going to empower children so much and i see that gap. Im also volunteering in spaces to connect families that speak other languages or have other cultural backgrounds. Translating from the spanish to english, also empowering youth to participate in board rooms for the latino community, we can see a lot of connection. An the systemic barriers we have to beg through the system. They have an opportunity to connect. Thank you very much again. You have our 100 support in this issue. And im also part of the voices. So we are so backing up this issue to give a space to the youth and empower them. Thank you again. Thank you. Can we have the next caller, please. [speaking spanish] im cochair, secretary of progressive democrats of america. An officer in San Franciscos democrats, a member of the rose park democratic club. And the democratic socialists of america. I live in district 8. I want to thank sarah sosa, Gabriel Medina for organizing and leading this important issue for immigrant communities. As a former undocumented korean, economic refugee from a postwar country, where 5 million koreans died, i support the aspiring citizens Charter Amendment. Indigenous, black, brown, and Pacific Islanders has consistently been denied civil rights, safety, justice and equality. This is never been more apparent than now in the shadow of the george floyd killing. The aspiring citizens Charter Amendment will allow people regardless of citizenship status to be able to participate in local governance. This is the time when people like george floyd are dying by the hands of police, and in i. C. E. Detention facilities. Please remember the name of jung moon, a 74yearold soldieren i. C. E. Detainees, who took his life in despair. Thank you. Thank you. Can we have the next speaker, please. Hello. Good morning. My name is elia fernandez. Im with voices in San Francisco. And im a mother of three daughters and a grandmother of six grandkids, which are bilingual. Thats a great thing that they have. And their parents are undocumented. And i believe they should participate in the Community Charter program, because theyre hardworking and they do stuff other people dont do. Especially right now the people are not working, they helped during the pandemic time and theyre helping others. And theyre very essential workers. And they do great stuff for the community. So they should be included and participate in all of the programs that you guys offer. And thats it for today for me. Thank you. Thank you. Just to make one more announcement. Members of the public who are already on the line and wish to speak, should now press star 3 if you have not done so already to be added to the queue to speak. We have one more caller on the line. Next speaker, please. Hi. Good morning, everyone. My name is lily marquez. Im a member of parent voices in San Francisco. Im a fulltime mom. And im extremely grateful for this participation and opportunity to speak. My dad and my mom were immigrants. And they crossed the border illegally to provide us for a better future. Once they got here, they worked endlessly, despite their language and citizenship barriers that they encountered while they were here. My mom thankfully was able to obtain her citizenship. And my dad unfortunately passed away before he could do that. But they always reminded me of working hard and trying to be a good no matter what. San francisco is sanctuary city and immigrants come to the United States always for a better life, to contribute to the economy and to get involved. So they deserve the opportunity to participate in any kind of civic engagement, if they are willing to participate in one and want to do so. California has always been the largest and most diverse state in the nation, representing different countries. And since times now are changing, we need to change, too. We need to be diverse, equal, just, inclusive, transparent and endorse accountability, regardless of peoples income, race, age, ethnicity, immigration status or religion. Which is why i support the inspiring Citizens Commission and Charter Amendment. I thank you for your time. And for your opportunity. Thank you. Clerk that completes the queue. Supervisor ronen thank you. That completes the queue. Supervisor ronen okay. Thank you so much. Unless there is any closing comments from the offer or my colleagues, i am do we need a motion on this or just holding the hearing and closing the file . Sorry. Clerk we do need a motion to recommend this to the full board. Supervisor ronen got it. I am happy to make a motion to recommend this item to the full board, with positive recommendation. Can we take a roll call. Clerk yes. On that motion, supervisor stefani . Supervisor stefani aye. Clerk supervisor mar . Supervisor mar aye. Clerk chair ronen . Supervisor ronen aye. Clerk the matter is recommended to the full board. Supervisor ronen yay, congratulations. Thanks again, sarah for your incredible presentation and gabriel. Thank you so much. Supervisor ronen take care. Mr. Clerk, can you please read item number 2. Clerk yes. Item number 2 is a hearing to consider appointing one member, term ending february 1st, 2023 to the eighth commission id like to state members of the public, who wish to provide Public Comment on this item, should call 415 6550001. Access code is 145 700 6200. Then press and again. If you have not done so, please dial star 3 to line up to speak, a system prompt will indicate you have raised your happened. Please wait until the systems a unmuted you. Mr. Bush, i see that youre on the line. Please unmute your line. Im unmuted. Clerk thank you. Supervisor ronen good morning, mr. Bush. How are you doing . Hello, chair ronen. Supervisor ronen absolutely. Do you have any opening comments before we ask you questions . I just wanted to know that the synchronousty of the topic we just had on charter allowing noncitizens to participate. Its very much in line with the same issue of expanding inclusivity in our government and public participation. This particular seat on ethics is designed to public outrage and public participation. Other seats are designed for audits and law and so forth. And so im very pleased that this seat that im being considered for. Thank you. Supervisor ronen thank you so much. And i know that you have tremendous history and experience with the Ethics Commission, as well as City Government in general. And although january feels like a lifetime ago, its been a little more than four months since the initial bust by the fbi, whats been revealed to them an extensive web of corruption, bribery and in City Government. Im thankful the illegal maneuvers are being uncovered. Obviously we should not rely on the fbi to keep San Francisco clean and honest. And so, you know, just an overall question for you, how will you approach getting in place the changes we need, so badly in the city and concentrate on sort of a larger issues of corruption in San Francisco, as opposed to sometimes what the commission focuses on these little technical violations that are obviously unintentional. If you could talk a little bit that, mr. Bush. Surely. A large part of the commissions record has been on the regulated community. Rewriting the rules for lobbyists, rewriting the rules on Campaign Finance and rewriting disclosures. Its not been very much open to what its doing for the public. So, for example, on the question of mr. Larue and the money that was going, some of that was going through the detainments. They would ask someone to give money to a nonprofit group. And our system, the way it is right now, is that that information is filed, but as a p. D. F. So its not searchable. So you couldnt go through and say, i want to search contributions that are coming from city contractors. Well people who have permit requests or something of that nature. And i think that thats a fairly easy fix to be done right away. The second thing is if you have a whistleblower complaint that comes in or any other kind of complaint, its suppose to go to the board to the City Attorney and to the district attorney. But when that does when they are sent over there, theres no record that they were sent there. And theres no record that they came back. So its really a question of if you want to do something thats going to happen within a month, those are dots that could be connected to make people feel like theyre being listened to and empowered. Larger than that, i mean, there are other issues about how the commission is established. I was involved in the to begin with. There are issues in how its funded. [audio cutting out] the mayor approves and board approves. But when that budget is presented to you, it doesnt tell you whats not being done. It will say, well be able to hire so many people on the do so much. Well not tell you that we cannot do the annual report of what the Ethics Commission has been doing, which they havent done for five years. They will not tell you that we cannot do the audit thats required, with at least one lobbyist every year. And havent done that in five years. So i would suggest that when they present a budget, this coming year, they tell you whats not going to be done that was part of their mandate, so that you have a decision whether or not thats what you think the priorities ought to be. Supervisor ronen thats a great idea. Thats an absolutely great idea. Sorry, i didnt mean to interrupt you. I just really liked that idea. Were you finished . I am. I could run on all day. Supervisor ronen okay. Okay. Supervisor mar, did you have any questions . Supervisor mar chair ronen, not really questions. I just wanted to thank mr. Bush for his willingness to step in to this really, really Important Role right now. On the Ethics Commission so much attention has been focused on the need to really address and root out casual corruption in our City Government. And then, you know, mr. Bush, thank you also for your decades of just civic leadership here in San Francisco and so many issues. But especially relating to the Ethics Commission. I know you played a key role in the creation, advocating for and the creation of the Ethics Commission years ago. And also a leader in terms of ethics, one of the most important of them is civic organizations, thats been focused on these issues. So i think youre immensely qualified and i just thank you for your willingness to step in to the Ethics Commission at this really important moment in our city. Thank you. Supervisor ronen thank you so much, supervisor mar. Supervisor stefani. Supervisor stefani i dont have any questions. Thank you for your willingness to serve, mr. Bush. Thank you. Supervisor ronen thank you. Well, with that then ill turn it over to Public Comment. If any member of the public wishes to speak, youll have two minutes each. Mr. Clerk. Clerk chair, there are no speakers no callers wishing to speak. Supervisor ronen okay. Thank you. Then Public Comment is closed. And i just wanted to echo my colleagues, mr. Bush, so grateful for your willingness to step forward and serve during this time. I do want to remark that you had put an application last time around to fulfill this role and when mr. Gray stepped forward, you decided to step aside to allow people that had not had as much experience in this realm, a chance to have the leadership opportunity. And i was just so impressed by that. And your willingness to bring new people with different experiences from your own into this realm and get involved in ethics. Of course, now hes stepped down to take a position with the district attorneys office. So i am so glad that youre now stepping forward again. But i just have to remark, its so rare that people step aside for others to gain leadership and your willingness to do that last time around, just really, really impressed me, as you always have in my career. Thats very nice of you to say. Supervisor ronen yeah. I gist had to for those who didnt know. Let them know that, yes, there are peopling to step aside for others. I just wanted to express my gratitude. And with that, any of my colleagues like to do the honors of making a motion . Supervisor mar id be happy to. So id like to move that we recommend appointment of larry bush to seat 1 on the Ethics Commission, to the full board, with recommendation. Supervisor ronen thank you so much. Can we have a roll call vote. Clerk yes. On that motion. Supervisor stefani . Supervisor stefani aye. Clerk supervisor mar . Supervisor mar aye. Clerk chair ronen . Supervisor ronen aye. Clerk the motion passes. Supervisor ronen congratulations, mr. Bush. And again thank you for your willingness to serve. Thank you very much. I look forward to working with you all. Supervisor ronen likewise. Take care. Mr. Clerk, can you please read item number 3. Clerk yes. Item number 3 is an emergency ordinary to temporarily require private employers with 500 or more employees to provide public Health Emergency leave during the public Health Emergency related to covid19. Supervisor ronen thank you very much. And supervisor mar, this is your item. Would you like to make any comments . Supervisor mar thank you so much, chair ronen. Thank you for us to hear this item today. Thank you to the clerk of the board angela for helping us to move this through the administrative process. This is an emergency ordinary to reenact emergency public leave. The crucial new benefit allows an estimated 200,000 san franciscans, employed by large companies, to access two additional weeks of a new type of paid leave, in response to the public Health Emergency. Workers can use it if theyre sick, taking care of a loved one, if they cant work due to shelterinplace, or if theyre a member of a vulnerable population. And Health Care Workers can use it to help limit their risk of spreading covid19, if they show symptoms. Public Health Emergency leave only applies to large employers with 500 or more employees, who have the ability to provide this crucial Additional Support to their employees. And it closes a loophole in the federal Families First relief act, that requires small to midsized employers to provide expanded sick and family leave to their employees. Public Health Emergency leave was unanimously passed by the board on april 14th. And signed by mayor breed on april 17. So this item before us today makes no changes to the policy, but simply reenacts it for an additional 60 days. To avoid gaps in coverage for the leave, the reenactment needs to move out of the committee today and pass the full board tomorrow. So i urge area support. Thank you. Supervisor ronen thank you so much. And any comments from supervisor stefani . Okay, great. Can we please open up this item for Public Comment. Clerk oh, yes. I just wanted to make a statement before we move forward. Members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment on this item, should call 415 6550001. Access code is 145 700 6200. Then press and again. If you havent done so, please dial star 3 to line up to speak. A system prompt will indicate you have raised your hand. Please wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted and may begin your comment. Any members of the public online . There are no callers wishing to speak. Clerk yes. We do have six listeners. I just want to give them an opportunity to press star 3. If they wish to speak at this time. Madam chair, there are no callers in the queue. Supervisor ronen thank you so much. Then Public Comment is closed. And again thank you, supervisor mar, for bringing this forward. Did you want to make the motion . Supervisor mar sure. So id like to move that we send this item to the full board, with positive recommendation, as a committee report. Supervisor ronen can you take a roll call vote. Clerk yes. On that motion, supervisor stefani . Supervisor stefani aye. Clerk supervisor mar . Supervisor mar aye. Clerk chair ronen . Supervisor ronen aye. Clerk the motion passes. Supervisor ronen thank you so much. Mr. Clerk, are there any other items today . Clerk that completes the agenda for today. Supervisor ronen the meeting is adjourned. Thanks so much, everyone. Have a great day