Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Rules Committee 20240712

Are streaming the number across the stream. And each speaker is allowed two minutes to speak. And the opportunity to speak during the Public Comment period are available by calling 1 408 4189388. And, again, that is 1 408 4189388. And the meeting i. D. Is 146 661 0524. Again, that is 146 661 0524. And then press pound and 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, hit star, 3, to be added to the speaker line. Speak clearly and slowly and turn down your television or radio. Alternatively you may submit the Public Comment in either of the following ways. Email to myself, the rules Committee Clerk at bic. Org sfgov. Org. If you submit by email its forwarded to the supervisors and its included as part of the file. And finally items are expected to be on the board of supervisor agenda of july 7th, unless otherwise stated. Chair ronen can you call item one. Clerk item one is the Charter Amendment to amend the charter of the city and county of San Francisco to create the Sheriff Department Oversight Board to revise and report findings and recommendations to the sheriff and the board of supervisors regarding Sheriff Department operations, the Sheriff Department office of Inspector General, under the direction of the Inspector General appointed by the Oversight Board to investigate complaints of noncriminal misconduct by employees and contractors of the Sheriffs Department. And the incustody deaths and the policy recommendations for the Sheriffs Department and the finds and results and recommendations to the sheriff and the Oversight Board at elections to be held on november 3, 2020. Chair ronen thank you so much. And i wanted to welcome a bunch of guests to the committee, including supervisor walton and our District Attorney, and the public defender and the sheriff. And im going to ask supervisor walton, the author of this measure, to speak first and then well hear from the b. L. A. Report and then i know that the sheriff needs to leave at 10 20 so well ask to hear from him first. Supervisor walton. Supervisor walton thank you so much, chair ronen and i thank you all for attending this important hearing this morning. Im going to try to be as brief as possible and efficient in my comments. I do want to just start off by saying that we are at a pivotal time in terms of Justice Reform, not only here in San Francisco, but across the country. And prior to being elected in 2018, i met several times with public defender, and we had several conversations about the type of Justice Reforms that we would want to see if i were to be elected. And one of the most major and significant was how our people were being treated that were in custody. And all of the allegations of misconduct, abuse, that was running rampant to some degree in our jails. So thats something that we worked on right away, as soon as i assumed office. In fact, the public defender, his office and i began to immediately work on the appropriate sheriffs oversight. And one of the things that we focused after seeing all of the information about gladiator fights in the jails, lawsuits and allegations that were being heavily reported, we knew that it was a time for us to have independent oversight, particularly around investigations of certain assaults and misconduct in our jails. So i want to take the time first to thank the many callers and the ma many individuals who are incarcerated and advocate for the need for sheriffs oversight. And the stories they shared and the time they took to be sure that my office was continuing to work on this important issue is appreciated. And in particular i want to thank particular individuals who were in custody who called my Office Weekly to continue to push for their justice and share their story. Along with the stories of others who felt that they did not have a voice. Shortly after our initial work, unfortunately, our beloved public defender passed away. But today we remember him and his tireless commitment to Justice Reform. With the recent uprisings and calls for Justice Reform, due to the many instances of Law Enforcement attacks on black people and people of color, this Charter Amendment comes at the right time. Cities across the nation are rising up in protest and speaking up about the many injustices that have plagued us for decades. As a black man, i represent the African American community. My community has been hurt with the overcriminallization of our members, the lack of resources, and the institutional and Structural Racism that exists in our country today. And it is finally being acknowledged and it is time that we begin to take the steps to repair the harm. The moment is now to take a closer look at how we fund Law Enforcement and how we hold Law Enforcement accountable for all of the members of the community. This ordinance is a first step in rebuilding Community Trust and giving Community Members an opportunity to share and be heard. The cost of this Justice Reform and accountability is projected to cost close to 3 million. This is at a time when we are redirecting resources to invest in improving outcomes for people of color. This is the type of investment that we need to make. I believe that it is important to Work Together to build systems in which trust, transparency and accountability are ensured. During this process i have been able to work closely with the sheriff fro. From the beginning hes been open to Justice Reform and to proposed changes that many advocate for. Hes done amazing work and already committed to update the useofforce policy and reaffirm the departments 30year prohibition of the use of restraint and or chokeholds. I have also worked closely with the Sheriffs Union to share why we feel this is important. It needs to be implemented, especially now. It is my hope that it will serve as a tool that outlasts all of us here today and will give the community the assurance they need and that they can trust that we will always be able to be accountable and they will be heard. During our work on this topic, we reached out to experts in the field and was honored to work with robert atark, the founder of accountability associates, an oversight and Police Practices consultant whose career spans over 30 years in oversight and Law Enforcement. She is the author of Police Misconduct complaint investigations manual. And she worked endless hours helping my office to submit what you have before you today. I would like to also thank kathleen belts who has been instrumental in bringing her experience as assistant Inspector General at the Los Angeles County office of Inspector General. Whom i met with in Los Angeles County during my research. Miss belts helped to answer many of the questions that we had and helped us to put together what you see before you by using best practices to improve the oversight of corrections facilities. We had a great team of volunteers who worked endless hours on this policy. In particular, i want to thank former public defender and the current District Attorney chase bodine. Mr. Bodine helped to think this through and he continued his commitment to the work with our office on this. And i want to thank the public defender and his staff for the hours they have contributed to make sure that this oversight will continue long after all of us. And i have to thank mistracy browniarldo, an aide in my office who worked tirelessly with the entire community to work on this Charter Amendment to give us what i believe is the independent oversight that we need to make sure that we can protect individuals who are incarcerated. Last, heres a brief overview of what is being proposed in the charter. The proposed legislation will place an initiative on the november 3rd ballot in 2020 to amend the citys charter to create a civilian sheriffs Department Oversight board and office of the Inspector General to support the Sheriff Department Oversight Board. The Sheriff Department Oversight Board and the office of the Inspector General will be responsible for investigating complaints against the Sheriffs Department and other City Employees or contractors who interact with individuals in sheriffs custody. As well as making recommendations for disciplinary action and policy changes that are related to use of force. The sheriffs Department Oversight board and the office of Inspector General would have the power to have subpoenas or testimony, but the sheriff would have the discretion to impose discipline on the Sheriff Department employees with thorough thought out recommendations from the Sheriff Department Oversight Board. The board consists of seven minutes appointed by the board of supervisors and take a majority vote in november to pass. In the end i want to thank everyone for all of the work they have done to getting us here today. I think that this is great policy and a positive step forward to getting to the accountability for Law Enforcement that we all wish to achieve. Supervisor ronen, i know that you already called o on the sheriff, and if its all right with you id love to bring him up at this time. Chair ronen perfect. Yes, sheriff, good morning. Good morning. Sorry, i have hit the mute as we all know on these things, its part of what we have to do now. Good morning, everyone. And thank you very much for the opportunity to speak. I apologize for the accommodation that has to be considered for my time. Were swearing in a new assistant sheriff today and thats part of our process of change and looking forward to moving in a direction of making sure that we are responsive to the needs of the community. And this legislation represents exactly what supervisor walton mentioned. And as he also mentioned, we are a part of the collaboration in making this happen. I do want to make sure that everyone is clear though that my position as the sheriff in regards to the legislation itself and the work that we are doing to try to make sure that it is responsive but also responsible. And as i have mentioned earlier, i do support overall the concepts in regards to the creation of a Community Advisory board of an Oversight Board which would look to being a part of the transparency and the accountability that we hope to achieve in making sure that people are very clear on what our office does and how we do it. I want to though to make sure that were also responsible as elected and as an elected official myself included, that there are concerns about this legislation with regards to the cost as supervisor walton pointed out. I believe that we have an opportunity to merge both those plans which i had in place prior to covid happening and all of the Different Things that have occurred which have changed our perspective on how to get things dondone, and also put delays on some of the hopes and the goals that we have as newly elected official coming in. One of which was the creation of an advisory board. I shared that with supervisor walton and im happy to see that theres a board consideration here in the legislation. I want to say that im supportive of that. I am supportive of the creation of a board so long as it includes members of areas of concern for us with Mental Health, rehabilitation and reentry, and victims rights, equity and diversity, Restorative Justice and pretrial release, all things that we are very familiar with in the Sheriffs Office and want to ensure that would be part of the discussions. Not just a focus in terms of the behaviors of our staff, but also how we get things done. I also wanted to offer up that part of this process would include what we already have in place which is an office of the ombudsperson. And this office is actually responsible for the review of the grievance process, the review of what we would call a grievance process but would also be known as concerns or issues that are brought up by our incustody population in order for us to make sure that were responsive to any concerns they have about the process. I would want that to be a part of the language here. And we are continuing to work on the amendments to the language. So i want to say as we move forward that my comments, while were not looking to say completely no to this whole thing we want to make sure that its as responsible as possible in terms of the language. So were absolutely in support of that. The construct that is listed in terms of the participation of the board of supervisors and the mayor in determining who is on that board is something this we are also open to and look to, working towards the construct that we will use moving forward. The concern that we have in terms of the budgetary issues have to do more with the duplication of some of the things that we already have in place. As most of you know, we have an m. O. U. And a memorandum of understanding with the department of Police Accountability right now and both my attorneys and the people from d. P. A. Have been working on expanding on our current m. O. U. To cover some investigations and some constructs of things that we would anticipate falling under the purview. Which will expand more on what we have already have in place and also be a huge component of what were talking about here in this legislation regarding the creation of an office of Inspector General in regards to investigative body. Its my belief that in regards to review and investigating of complaints, both against our staff, complaints of misconduct and against all other people who interact with those in our custody and care, both out in the community and in an incarcerated setting, i think that we are duplicating a process that is already being addressed in terms of those investigations by independent investigative body represented by the d. P. A. And i would speak to this as we discuss moving forward making changes to this legislation or this proposed Charter Amendment so that we focus more on the Community Advisory board as opposed to the creation of a new investigative body. In regards to the office of Inspector General, i do know that these investigative components are part of that office that is proposed to be created under this amendment. I would say that we should look further into such an office being created without the Administrative Burden of the investigations, but with full access to and reports back on any investigations being conducted by d. P. A. So other than having the problem of being pressed for time now, i hope that i have been able to show this by the Sheriffs Office. Were looking forward to moving forward and making sure that we address the areas of concern by creating an advisory board, by creating a construct of a process, which includes the current processes, so that we can be more transparent and accountable as an office. And, you know, you mentioned trust, supervisor walton, trust and transparency and accountability. I want to just say that were working towards the transparency and accountability with these processes, but the most important thing to remember is that as an elected official my trust come from the fact that i was elected. And that i would still be making the decisions regardless of whatever final product that we have. Those decisions will lie with me in terms of discipline, in terms of followup on the recommendations and the advice of any of the bodies that we end up with as part of this Charter Amendment. So thank you for your time. I appreciate that youve been ive been given the opportunity to speak. I am going to have to go right now and thank you very much. Supervisor ronen. Chair ronen thank you, chair. So however you would like to run the hearing, should we hear from the d. A. And p. D. . Thank you, supervisor ronen, its find to hear from the b. L. A. And then i would say the District Attorney bodine. Chair ronen okay, thank you. Good morning. Good morning, chair, ronen and supervisor stefani and supervisor walton. We were asked specifically to provide a memo on the potential costs of the proposed office of the Oversight Board. We did submit a memo this morning. Our estimated costs are approximately 2. 8 million for the office of Inspector General per year. And another 240,000 for the oversight body. Totaling about 3 million per year. I do want to point out though that these are just estimates. We base our cost estimates on the composed staffing level in the Charter Amendment and discussions with the department of Police Accountability to understand their costs and workload. The Charter Amendment does specifically state that budget and staffing would be subject to the fiscal budgetary components of the charter so that the actual costs would be subject to the board of supervisors approval in the end in the annual budget. And im available for any questions that you may have. Chair ronen thank you. Any questions for the b. L. A. . No . Okay. Seeing none, good morning, District Attorney bodine, great to see you. You are on mute. Good morning, thank you for that. Like the sheriff i was on mute and were dealing with some technical challenges. But i appreciate you recognizing me, chair ronen and i want to thank supervisor walton for his leadership in this effort to develop a comprehensive oversight plan for San Francisco Sheriffs Department and really more broadly his efforts around San Francisco sworn peace officers. But particularly today were here to talk about the proposed Charter Amendment. I also want to acknowledge and thank supervisor ronen and haney and preston for joining as cosponsors and all of the other folks who supervisor walton already recognized for their hard work on this important initiative. The city and county of San Francisco is one of the few dual jurisdictions in the country. One of the few places where the county lines are continuous with the sole municipality contained therein. We have in part as a result of that just two primary Law Enforcement agencies. The San Francisco police department, and the San Francisco Sheriffs Department. Over time, we have seen the transparency and the accountability over the Sheriff Department compared to the police department. We know that theres plenty of room for improvement with regard to oversight and accountability of both departments. But in the wake of scandals over the past several years, including the gladiatorstyle filing ifile fighting in the jat resulted in a filing of criminal charges by my predecessor, and misconduct with incustody deaths and allegations of widespread physical abuse of inmates in the county jail, we have been discussing as a city and the former sheriff hennessey welcomed the oversight. And this is the next natural step towards fully realizing the priority to provide independent civilian oversight for all San Franciscos Law Enforcement agents agencies. Excuse me. The proposed Charter Amendment clearly acknowledges the relationship between noncriminal misconduct and criminal misconduct. To be clear, my office has and will continue to have the responsibility to investigate, and where appropriate to prosecute criminal misconduct that occurs within the city and county of San Francisco. My independent Investigation Bureau under the leadership of our newly appointed managing attorney and bayview native latif gray has two key responsibilities related to the proposed Charter Amendment. The first is to investigate and review all officer involved shootings and any incustody deaths within the Sheriffs Department. The second is to investigate and review all other types of Excessive Force cases. Now i want to reiterate that independent oversight is essential for both the criminal aspect, which i just described my offices role in, and the noncriminal misconduct that happens, unfortunately, from time to time. The proposed Charter Amendment on my reading of it honors the role of my office and handling the criminal side as well as creating a mechanism for noncriminal misconduct to be independently investigated and evaluated by a civilianled team. And the Inspector General can carry out those responsibilities. I support the resolution and i urge the board excuse the Charter Amendment and i urge the board to support placing the Charter Amendment on the ballot so that San Francisco voters may decide whether or not the city should move forward and make this procedure and this process part of our citys charter. Independent oversight of the kind envisioned in supervisor waltons proposed Charter Amendment will help to make our community feel safer. It will help to build trust at a time when its never been more necessary that we build trust between communities and Law Enforcement thats here to serve and to protect us, including all of those confined in our county jails. The vast majority of whom are presumed innocent and still ooh waiting prosecution. And the transparency are essential ingredients to Building Public safety. We must lead a deep structural change towards a criminal legal system that devotes resources towards the tools that we know that are essential to public safety. I want to thank you again for your time, for recognizing me, and i want to thank specifically supervisor walton for his leadership. Im happy to answer any questions that the committee may have. Thank you. Chair ronen thank you so much. Supervisor walton, i mean, any other member of the committee have questions for the d. A. . I have one question. I know that the d. A. Bodine but for my colleagues and anyone else who may have any questions. The charter for criminal Activity Still remains the District Attorneys responsibility . Thats correct. My bureau will continue to be the lead investigating agency and prosecuting agency for any criminal conduct that we believe that may have been committed by sheriffs, deputies, in San Francisco county. Thank you. Thank you. Chair ronen thank you so much. And any other questions for the District Attorney . Not seeing any. Thank you so much. Thank you. Chair ronen and now were going to hear from our public defender. Good morning, good to see you. Good morning, and good to see you. Thank you for recognizing me, chair ronen. At this moment people across the country are demanding justice and reform from Law Enforcement, including county sheriffs. But so much of what sheriffs do, including how and when they hold their deputies accountable, unfortunately, occurs away from the public eye. Which perpetuates the culture of secrecy and insulates them from scrutiny. And im speaking today as the public defender today but also on behalf of my clients. So many times when we did see someone in county jail we find out that theyre in administrative seggation and sed only allowed to leave their cell for half an hour a day. And we dont know why thats happened and we dont know when thats going to end and, frankly, that will often leave some people because they feel that theyre being not treated well and cant deal with being in sheriff custody anymore, to plead guilty to something they shouldnt. Over the last few years violence against those held in custody and serious misconduct by deputies is taking place by Sheriff Deputies inside of the jail. The Sheriff Department, which oversees the county jail, is responsible for the health and the safety of those held in county jail, many of whom as a reminder are awaiting their day in court and are innocent before the law. And the Sheriffs Department generally has dealt with those transgressions internally. And is it the Sheriffs Department sole to do this . And it is one of the many steps that are pursued to make sure that our Community Treat people in our jail and their loved ones to address any abuse and injustice they may witness, experience or hear about. And so the sheriff can now refer some internal investigations for the department of accountability, no mechanism exists for members of the public or a person outside of the sheriff to file a complaint with the independent agency against a deputy. Supervisor walton and i agreed that the public has a right to know and should have a window into how the San Francisco Sheriff Department operates. The public is needing that access. So thank you, supervisor walton, for understanding the importance of public transparency by bringing this Charter Amendment before the committee. And thank you for the supporting members of the board. We do want to make sure, however, that if the voters choose to create these bodies that they will be effective. To that end we implore this and future boards to hold such a body such bodies accountability and to not allow for the delays that may defeat their purpose. We as public defenders and indeed the public and those that we represent need meaningful and effective oversight which produces quick and timely transparency. And the Oversight Board is only effective as the members, the members who have shown a commitment and a record to holding Law Enforcement accountable. So thank you so much for this effort and thank you so much for your time. Chair ronen thank you so much. Are there any questions for the public defender . No. Supervisor walton . Supervisor walton thank you so much. No questions for the public defender. But i just really want to thank him and his entire office, and the other members of the Public Defenders Office who work tirelessly with us on this legislation so that it would be responsive, so we would have a place to hold Law Enforcement accountable, the Sheriffs Department accountable, and also allow for the transparency that we have been looking for. So thank you. Thank you. Chair ronen thank you. Supervisor walton, is there any other comments or presenters before we open this up for Public Comment . Supervisor walton so no other presenters. I did just want to add a few things. One, i want to thank all of my cosponsors on the board of supervisors. You, supervisor ronen and supervisor haney and supervisor preston, for stepping up with us to introduce this charter and to make sure that we do everything that we can in our power as policymakers to hold the Law Enforcement accountable and to make sure that our folks in custody are safe and treated with the respect and dignity that they deserve as members of our communities. I also want to say that i appreciate the sheriffs comments, and definitely understand that we are facing budgetary constraints at this time. But i also want to be clear that everyone is aware that people are dying unjustly at the hands of Law Enforcement across this country. We have made our own mistakes here in San Francisco that have been highlighted in the media, that have been highlighted in other hearings that we have held as members of this body. The lawsuits that we continue to pay out because of the Law Enforcement mishaps, particularly of people in custody. And we are at a pivotal time when were currently redirecting resources to achieve justice. Saving lives does not come at a cost and should not come at a cost. What is a life worth . Its a question that i want us to ask ourselves as we look at the cost benefit analysis of this policy. Now is the time for an investment like this. Our job is to use the resources for the appropriate form. And that is what we need to be focused on as policymakers. M. O. U. S in place are stronger, but as you heard from our District Attorneys office, as you heard from our public defender, there are several constraints of obtaining timely information under the constructs of even those m. O. U. S that exist. Now is the time for independent oversight and the department of Police Accountability, their job is to really investigate the allegations within the police department. I dont want us to further stretch their already thin capacity as they are responsible for sfpd, and theyre indiscernible with how they work with the Police Commission as well as the police department. And so i just want to say that its great that we allow this opportunity for the voters to make a decision on what they want to see for justice and accountability. We are fighting for Law Enforcement accountability at all levels, and this is just a start of many reforms. Our office likes to talk about the fact that were going to put forth many reforms in justice and equity packages over these next few months and the next couple years. This is one of them and, again, i just want to thank my cosponsors and the public defender and the District Attorney as well as the sheriff, for working through this together so that we can really fight for the true account thability we need and all of our bodies, this starts with the sheriff. Thank you, supervisor. Chair ronen thank you, supervisor walton. I just wanted to add my two cents. First of all, i want to thank you and thank your aide tracy brown as well as kevin gosen from the Public Defenders Office and our public defender and the sheriff and the District Attorney for all of your work on this. I know that this is has been a long time coming. And i just want to appreciate the fact that you have been working on these issues from the moment even before you were elected, supervisor. You have been thinking about and working on these type of changes. Your leadership on these issues, especially during this time, has been extraordinary. And it is just such an honor to support this measure, which is long overdue. I couldnt agree more. Especially when you look at whats going on around the country. Of course, were doing better here in San Francisco in our jails, but if you look at whats happening in san quentin just across a bridge from us, its shocking. And take away peoples liberty. And we put their life and their wellbeing in the hands of a department where they have so little power and say over how they protect themselves and how they keep themselves safe and alive. We have to have the tightest oversight bodies making sure that people are being treated with dignity and with respect. And i believe that you have done just a tremendous job putting this mother together and putting all of the checks and balances in place to do just that. Its somewhat shocking to me that this is a first time that Something Like this has been implemented in San Francisco. This seems like it should have been in place decades ago. But its never too late to do right by the people of San Francisco. And i just commend you so much for finally putting us pointing us and putting the structures in place to have us to be on the frontlines of protecting the most vulnerable, including those whose liberty is no longer their own, who are in our jails. So thank you so much for this, supervisor walton. And with that i will open this up for Public Comment. Mr. Clerk, are there any members of the public who wish to speak . Clerk the operations is checking and id just to say that the members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment on this item should call 1 408 4189388. And then the i. D. Is 146 661 0524. And then press pound and pound again. If you havent already done so, press star, 3, to line up to speak. And please wait until the assistant indicates that you have been unmuted and you may begin your comment. Operations, do we have any speakers on the line . I have one caller in the queue. Caller good morning, members of the board of supervisors. Can you hear me . Chair ronen yes, we can hear you. Caller good. My name is good morning. My name is barbara atard, im a Second Generation San Francisco native and i have been involved in oversight with the office of citizens complaints opened in 1983. I work for the San Francisco office of privacy complaints for 15 years and was the independent Police Auditor in san jose. Im a past president of the National Association for civilian oversight of Law Enforcement. And work with those who want to establish oversight nationally. I want to say as you have said, supervisor ronen, that we are long overdue for oversight of the Sheriffs Department. And as we all know that there have been very serious incidents in the Sheriffs Department. The time is now for independent oversight. Im very concerned that the San Francisco Sheriffs Department signed an m. O. U. With the department of Police Accountability. This m. O. U. Stands to dilute the oversight of the police department, the d. A. Has not fulfilled all of its mandate to have audits of the San Francisco police department. It really needs to focus on the police department. I think that the legislation that you have before you for oversight of the Sheriffs Department, the i. G. , as well as the commission, i think that is a really good model. Its based on models in los angeles and denver, which are Great National models. And i urge you to go forward and put this on the ballot for november and im available if any of you have questions. Thank you. Chair ronen thank you so much. And thank you for all of your work on this, barbara. Are there anymore speakers . Madam chair, that completes the queue. Chair ronen okay, then Public Comment is closed. So i would be happy to make a motion to incorporate the amendments. May you read out the amendments, supervisor walton . Supervisor walton give me one second, supervisor. Chair ronen sure. Supervisor walton yes, supervisor ronen, i dont believe that theyre substantive and maybe we could hear from our City Attorney. Chair ronen sure. Are there any amendments that were introducing today on this measure . Good morning. Deputy City Attorney ann pearson. My understanding is that amendments were prepared for today. Every amendment that is made to a ballot measure will trigger continuance to another hearing. Regardless of whether its substantive. So if amendments are made today it would need to be continued to the next meeting of the rules committee. Supervisor walton thank you so much. We dont have any proposed amendments. We actually worked out everything through legislation and so im not clear as to what amendments were talking about. Okay, i had had i had my understanding is that there were amendments. So just we want to make sure because of the timing that we get this right. City attorney ann pearson, you said that there were amendments prepared for today . Do you know what those amendments were . I can also just call another item and leave this one open while we figure this out. If i am mistaken and there are no amendments, then the committee can act on this. But you might want to do that, chair ronen, just to give us the time to confirm whether there are or not because of the timing issues. I think that is a good idea. Chair ronen okay, perfect, thanks. So youll be in touch and were going to just keep this item open while we call item 2. Mr. Clerk, call item number 2. Clerk yes. Item 2 is the Charter Amendment to amend the charter of the city and county of San Francisco to create a Public Works Commission to oversee the department of public works, create the sanitation and Streets Department to specific duties performed currently by the department of public works to create a sanitation and streets commission to oversee the sanitation and Streets Department, and affirming the planning departments determination under the California Environmental quality act, at an election to be held on november 3, 2020. Chair ronen thank you so much. And this is supervisor matt haneys measure and im wondering if hes joined us yet . Are you here, supervisor haney . He is not here yet. I will wait for a minute. Here he is. Good morning, supervisor haney. Youre quicker than they told me. Sorry about that. Chair ronen no problem, feel free to introduce this Charter Amendment. Great. Give me one second. All right. Well, first of all, thank you, Committee Members and chair ronen and supervisors mar and stefani for giving me the opportunity to present this Charter Amendment today. I also want to thank the cosponsors of the Charter Amendment, supervisors ronen, walton, preston and mar. So i want to start by stating some facts which i think that are incontrovertible at this point. One, our streets, especially downtown, are still covered with trash and feces and needles. They were that way before this pandemic, and in many way things have worsened in past few months. Several of our high density and high traffic sidewalks they are covered in waste and soaked with urine. And despite more money into street cleaning in the past few years, things have not improved and in many ways things have gotten much worse. We have Illegal Dumping that continues to happen throughout our city. Especially on the eastside of the city. And its also worsened in recent years. On top of that our city lacks Clear Service baselines and there are broken trash cans when you can find one and not nearly enough when you need one. Theres little sidewalk deep cleaning that happens in our city. We talked about this many times. The public bathrooms are insufficient and inadequate. And despite all of this theres no regular accountability or transparency as it relates to the state of our streets or the progress that needs to be made. Nationally San Francisco has become literally the butt of jokes because of the state of our streets. And little has been done to change this. This weighs most heavily on the people who live and work in the most impacted neighborhoods, it affects their quality of life, their connection to their community, their dignity and their health. But this is something that impacts everyone in our city. And when i took office a year and a half ago, like many of you i promised my constituents that i would get to the bottom of why the state of our streets have been allowed to deteriorate and what are the solutions. The real solutions, not just more money into a failing approach, but what can be done to actually to solve this problem. As a part of that for last year my staff and i have been meeting withs d dozens can dozens of people, and weve held hearings that many of you have been part of. We have met with all of the c. B. D. S and we have thought about trash cans and bathrooms and Pressure Washing and every piece of what d. P. W. Itself does. As many of you know that d. P. W. Is a department that really is a Massive Department in terms of its scope of work. And its something that has grown. It often tends to be used as a kind of a catchall for the different work that the executive branch has wanted to be done. So here are a few things that we found that has led to us bringing forward what is in front of you today as a solution. One, as i said, d. P. W. Is a massive Sprawling Department. Most of its work actually is not street cleaning or even street facing. The Department Director is not required to have expertise or demonstrated experience or knowledge in the area of street cleaning or maintenance, in part because most of the work that the department does is actually in the area of Public Infrastructure. Theres a disconnect between what the residents of our city think that d. P. W. Does and what they actually do. So for that reason it can be hard for us to even hold d. P. W. Or the d. P. W. Director accountable for the cleanliness on our streets because his or her job is largely related to Public Infrastructure and building, which is obviously very important. Second, the laws of our city are out of date and they dont actually require the city to do a lot of the cleaning and maintenance that needs to be done. Nowhere in our charter does it actually outline that the city has a responsibility or d. P. W. Has a responsibility as it relates to public bathrooms, street and sidewalk sorry, sidewalk cleaning. And this creates a lot of confusion as to who is actually responsible and accountable for these things. Third, theres no real oversight, citizen oversight, or accountability of the department of public works. Unlike other large departments, they dont have an Oversight Commission. They are the only chapter 6, which is a sort of the larger construction department, that lack a commission. And ill talk about that as it relates to contracting and corruption, but also that means that there isnt a public process for setting strategy, for requiring innovation for solutions and holding the department accountable and giving input for the public to get answers. I think that the results on our city streets demonstrate the consequences of that. Fourth, there are no baseline standard systems or metrics in place for keeping the city clean. And the head of the department as we have seen before can decide on their own what to do and where and when for trash to be picked up and street cleaning to happen. And this approach has failed us entirely. We need a clear set of baseline and a body to hold our city accountable to make sure that they are provided for. And i think that during covid19 this need for addressing these issues has only been highlighted further. Coronavirus we know can be present in human feces, and the virus can be spread by coming into contaminated surfaces. The need for these type of effective cleaning are only heightened during a time of a pandemic. So the conclusion that we have come to is that we need to undertake a broader restructuring of the citys role in streets and sidewalk maintenance and sanitation to ensure that our city has a clear focused and an organized approach to keeping our streets safe and sanitary. I am 100 sure that we are not going to address this problem that is so well known to so many now by utilizing the same structure that we have, and just pouring more money into it. We are not going to address what has become one of the most endemic challenges that our city faces. I want to underscore that all of this was true even before this Corruption Scandal that has rocked our city. Another set of facts that are now incontrovertible. The former director of d. P. W. Is under charge by the f. B. I. , which now is extending and the u. S. Attorney is extending across within d. P. W. And across our city department. Literally the problem within d. P. W. Having set the larger City Government. And there are structural reasons for that. The controller today is going to issue his first report on city corruption. And one of the key findings in there is that d. P. W. Is uniquely lacking in oversight as compared to other city departments. This massive Sprawling Department took on more and more and put more concentrated and more and more power within the director. And it continues to be one of the only large departments without citizen Oversight Commission. Or the clear lack of process and standards that are expected as it relates to the prevention of corruption. As a part of our process to determine the actual reform that was needed, we met with dozens and dozens of employees from street cleaners to Truck Drivers to architects, to engineers. And what i can report back to you is that the frontline employees in d. P. W. Will tell you unanimously that this structure is broken, and that there needs to be massive structural reform. The people who are doing the work are the ones who have been saying for years and years and years that there needs to be change, there needs to be oversight, and they overwhelmingly agreed with the Charter Amendment that we put in front of you today. I recognize that there are concerns from the people at the top, but the people on the streets believe that this is right approach and it will put them in a position to to solve this challenge both as it relates to accountability and transparency and as it relates to actual clean streets. Which theyre the ones who are doing the amazing work trying to deliver that every day. So heres what our legislation will do. And then i want to put to address the amendments which are significant, which i think that address some of the questions and concerns that have come up. So our legislation will address the structural problems in three ways. One is that we are going to update our laws to actually require that the city clean what needs to be cleaned and provide the services that need to be provided. We do believe that people who own property need to do their part. But a modern city has a role in cleaning its sidewalks and its transparent and accountable about that. And maintains its trash cans and bathrooms in a way that is clear, that the public can give input to, that has enforceable baselines. And those responsibilities should be a part of the charter responsibility of the department and our city. Second, our Charter Amendment provides a real look at the state of our streets. Currently, d. P. W. Really has two large functions. They act as the citys engineers, architects and project managers which make up the bulk of their work. And on the other hand theyre also responsible for the boots on the groundwork of maintaining our sewer system and urban forestry and street cleaning and maintenance. Our legislation will split the department into two distinct bodies by removing the bureau of operations from d. P. W. And creating the department of sanitation and streets. Most other cities in the country have a department of sanitation and streets. This is not a new concept. We have done this before with the creation of the department of homesness and d. P. I. , to put a specific intentional focus on Something Like street cleaning that has become such a huge challenge and is not being addressed by the structure as we have it. This will allow somebody to actually to have the expertise in street cleaning, to be held accountable for the state of our streets, to have management and direction from a commission, and for us to be able to go to as if its their singular job to get that done. Right now respecting to our new director, its not the majority of the directors job. And for that reason it lacks the level of focus and expertise and intentionality that is needed to do it effectively. Third, our Charter Amendment will create the commissions over d. P. W. And the new department of sanitation and streets. They will set legally enforceable baselines of street cleanliness and make sure that its under a system under which one person can use their power, sometimes inappropriately, and instead, will actually have a level of input, setting baselines, with due processes and with contracts and making sure that the departments and their work are accountable to the public. I hope that well see real innovation, that well see new ideas. And that theyll be able to hold the department respectively accountable to the results. The i want to address im going to share the amendments, but i want to address a couple things that i know that will come up and i want to address them directly. Some folks may say that this is not really an issue for their neighborhood or that things are working fine where they are. I want to be clear that things on the eastside of the city are not acceptable and this affects everyone in our city. Our citys communities, the bayview and the mission and the tenderloin and the soma are largely people of color and these are communities where people have to walk out every day and step on trash and feces. Theyve been underserved by the Public Infrastructures. They have been blatantly failed. And this is an equity issue. And it is shameful i believe to expect them to continue to live in the conditions that they are and to have a structure that has clearly and obviously failed them when it comes to results. And also now has failed them when it comes to allowing for selfdealing and actual bribery and corruption rather than delivering and doing their jobs. We are also a city that relies in large part on tourism. You know, on people visiting our city. And if youre worried about how much this is going to cost, think about the loss of revenue. If we attempt to open our city back up to the rest of the world at a time when we still have trash and feces and broken trash cans, no accountability of the department that is supposed to get this done, this affects every Single Person in our city. It affects our city coffers. It affects business in our city. And we cannot accept business as usual when it comes to this department or the street the state of our streets. I also want to address the costs directly. For those who would push back because of the cost, you know, the estimate that the controller has now, which i believe that will actually change, you know, puts this somewhere between 4 million and 10 million. 4 million to provide increased oversight and cost efficiencies to a department that has been rightfully abused, and with corruption and waste. 4 million to create a structure that can actually deliver what has been one of the most embarrassing failures of our city. I think that it is a cost that is fully worth it. We cannot keep spending more and more money into this. And 4 million is. 0003 of our overall 12 billion budget. I also understand though that this is a tough fiscal moment and money is a concern. So we are introducing amendments today that would not only make this measure cost neutral for the next two fiscal years, but to also make it possible to cut administrative costs almost entirely. We have worked these out with the controller and we, you know, we hope to see there will be a revised fiscal analysis over the next week once this comes back to the committee hopefully after the amendments. Again, we, you know, i have a lot of respect for the new director of d. P. W. This is not about one person. Whether the person before or the person now. This is about an entirely flawed structure that is not going to protect the public dollars effectively and it is not going to get the job done. And we cannot go back to or to keep a situation where the state of the streets are what they are. And this measure would put us in a position to be able to finally create a structure that can get the job done. So with that, there are a set of amendments that i know that i think that most of you have seen. I just want to go through them real quickly because this is what im going to ask you to take action on today. And then this will come back. The amendments are the following one, we are going to ensure that the public works projects are reviewed by the appropriate city departments and submitted to the commission for review. This is also something that was very important to our labor partners. Two, increase the cost efficiencies by requiring the annual cost and waste analysis of both departments. For people who are worried about costs, 4 million is a lot less than what was lost to our city through corruption and its a lot less than what was what i believe that has been unnecessarily wasted. Third, adding job qualifications to the directors of both departments to reflect the experience necessary to run the department. The reality is that if you are responsible for ensuring our streets are clean, thats something that you should have expertise in and i should have to demonstrate getting that job done somewhere else or within our own city to be able to run this department of clean streets or sanitation and streets. Fourth, to make sure that the commissioners overseeing the public works include those who are licensed architects and engineers in the state of california, and also adding Civil Engineers to the list of eligible qualifications. Fifth, we will add commission feeds for environmental and Forestry Services to the department of clean streets. Sixth and i mentioned this, to allow for economic recovery and the costs for the next two fiscal years by pushing the start date the official required start date to july 22, 2022. So for the next two fiscal years, this would have no impact on our city budget. Seventh, an amendment adding pest control with the duties of the department of sanitation and streetth. And eighth, allowing the board of supervisors to a super majority to remove or reassign the duties of the department of streets and sanitation. This allows in case theres some sort of changes of the responsibilities or tweaks that need to be made, that the board would be able to do that. And ninth, an amendment requiring that the department of sanitation and streets must act first to complete the work within its jurisdiction before it can be contracted out or assigned to another department. I want to be clear about this one as well, because the reality is that our departments across the city Work Together all the time. And these two departments will continue to need to Work Together. This is not an unusual idea. We dont need everyone to be within one department to continue to allow some facilitation of work. But we do want to be clear here that there will have to be work from public works to the department of streets and sanitation and we want to reduce all and any of the barriers that are there in order to be able to ensure that there are no bureaucratic hurdles to that. So the work has to either be done by the department of public works or it has to be given to the department of streets before its bidded out or anything like that. That makes sure and this was something that came up from the director that because it can no longer be done in public works for some reason they now have to go through a whole complicated process and get it out. We have conferred with the City Attorney and others that by adding this amendment that is not the case. And lastly, an amendment to allow the board of supervisors by ordinance to allow the department of public works or any other department to have administrative support to the new department, significantly reducing the cost of a new department. This, again, is something that we hope that will bring the costs down even further. And it will help to clarify that there will continue to be administrative support from the city administrator. We are very very, you know, grateful for the support of many of the frontline workers and the labor unions and my colleagues who are the cosponsors for where we are on this. We think that these amendments address some of the issues that have been brought up. We understand that change is hard. It is complicated. But we can be absolutely clear that keeping this structure the way that it is is utterly unacceptable and it will lead to the results that we have on our streets continuing. This amendment, if approved by you all and approved by the voters, i and many others believe, including the frontline workers will give us a real, real shot, a real hope, to making sure that our city is healthy, clean, safe for everyone who lives here, works here or visits here. So with that i will turn it back over to you, supervisor chair ronen. Chair ronen thank you so much, supervisor haney. As the supervisor of district 9, i just have to say amen. Amen. Our streets in the Mission District particularly, but also in the portala and somewhat in bernal are filthy, they are filthy constantly. Its the number one complaint along with the huge homeless tent encampments in the district that i hear from my constituents on a daily basis. That, supervisor haney, is not exaggerating. When he said that his district because i can attest that the streets of my district are filled with feces, urine, trash, needles, dirt, everywhere, during the worst Health Crisis that we have known as a country, to have this level of filth in our streets is absolutely unacceptable. And it was that way prior to this crisis and its continued to be that way during this crisis. I have to say that in San Francisco we are famous and we are known for the first of its kind things that we do. You know, mandatory sick leave. Healthy San Francisco, the first universal health care program. You know, the first office of Racial Equity and Sexual Assault and harassment prevention. I mean, all of these innovative ideas that we create are amazing and were known for it. But, guess what . We have to do the breadandbutter issues well before we earn the right to innovate on things that dont affect the daily life of our constituents when they walk outside of their door. When we havent been doing that. We have been failing when it comes to the basic breadandbutter cleanliness of our streets. I hear it daily. I hear from travelers who come to San Francisco and are shocked, literally shocked by the state of our streets. And something has got to give. Supervisor haney, thank you. Thank you to you and your staff for taking on this issue seriously, for studying intricately the systems that we have, for working with all of your creativity to come up with a design and with a frontline workers to make the type of change that we must see in San Francisco. We must hold ourselves to a higher standard when it comes to the basics. Like, i can walk out in the morning and there wont be feces and trash and needles on my front door. That is the fact and the situation for so many of my constituents in district 9 daily. And the fact that this has been ignored for so long is just outrageous. So i could not be prouder to be a cosponsor of this measure. I cannot wait to see this on the ballot. My constituents will be cheering from their windows to finally see the type of change that they have been begging for from this city for years and years and years. And i just implore all of my colleagues, whether you have to face the filth that we face in district 9 or not, i think that supervisor haney has made the case that this is a citywide issue and that this is an issue that we should all care about deeply because its about the health of the constituency and our wellbeing and every neighborhood of San Francisco. So, supervisor haney, thank you so, so much from the bottom of my heart and from every single constituent of district 9. We cant thank you enough for caring about not the sexy issues but the issues that make a massive difference in our lives every single day. I salute you, i really do. And with that i wanted to see if any of my other colleagues have any questions before i turn it over to the current director of d. P. W. , im sorry if i am butchering your name mr. Director, but i wanted to see if any of my other colleagues have comments first. Supervisor stefani, did you . Supervisor stefani no. Chair ronen supervisor mar, any comments . Looks like youre frozen. And i am assuming well, we can get to you after we hear from the director if you have any comments. Mr. Director, welcome. And thank you, chair ronen. I am the acting director here at public works. We have not had a chance to see the amendments yet so i dont have a prepared presentation but id be happy to address any questions that will come up. I will address some of the points that were raised. In many of the issues that were that as you will see that will be addressed in the proposed measure before us, and we have put processes in place that have addressed some of the deficiencies that were here at public works. In large part they seem to be isolated to the issues regarding and the homelessness issue with the response to the homelessness and in the Navigation Centers and things like that in place. In large part those issues have been addressed. I think that is not necessarily stated in the proposed report. And the one thing that i would like to also point out is the one thing that, you know, that needs to be addressed is, you know, certainly in our job to keep the streets clean and things like that, however, we also need to recognize that the street behavior also needs to be addressed. Thats one of the things that id be happy to work with the supervisor and the supervisors and the community to make sure that happens. I mean, i think over the last week or so specifically in the tenderloin, and going about executing the tenderloin plan, i think we have seen a difference there as we have been able to reduce the number of tents in the tenderloin. And its made a big difference. Its not one thing that one department can do, its going to take the whole of the city and the City Government, and the residents and the supervisors and everyone involved. So, again, i completely hear and understand the frustration that the supervisors have. I get the same emails and phone calls daily from the residents and the Business Owners not being happy and im trying to solve those problems. But the one thing that i have learned in my relative short time of being in this role, is that its not something that the public works can solve by itself. There are some structural things that we have been addressing. But, again, its not something that is just a singular public works issue. As i said, we have not had a chance to indiscernible and we will be happy to comment more. Chair ronen thank you so much. I appreciate that. Supervisor mar, did you have any comments before i open up to Public Comment . Supervisor mar yeah, i just im sorry, im having connection problems so ill keep my camera off for now. But i wanted to just thank supervisor haney and his staff for their work on this really important Charter Amendment measure. Yeah, im really pleased to cosponsor it. And i think that its very much needed. Not just, again, not just as you said for the district that are seeing a crisis in sanitation and health, but for the entire city. Including my district where this measure will go a long way towards ensuring that our city and our departments provide much better sense on important issues, basic issues, like filling potholes and maintaining and planting more trees. And even the important Infrastructure Projects that are under d. P. W. So i think that the reform and the increased reform and the increased oversight that will be provided by this measure will be beneficial for our entire city. So thanks again, supervisor haney, for all of your work on this. Chair ronen thank you. And i will now open this up for Public Comment. Mr. Clerk, are there any speakers on the line . Mr. Clerk, are you there . Clerk sorry. My turn to have to turn on my mic. The members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment on this should call 1 408 4189388. The meeting i. D. Is 146 661 0524. And press pound and pound again. If you havent already done so, please dial star, 3, to line up to speak. A system prompt will indicate that you have raised your hand. Wait until the system indicates that you have been unmuted and you pay begin your comment. Chair ronen, i wanted to confirm that yourself and supervisor mar would like to be add as cosponsors on this item . Chair ronen oh, yes, i have been a cosponsor the whole time so i dont know why i wasnt on. But, thank you. And, yes, add me. Supervisor mar me as well. All of the correct cosponsors should have been on the new amendment. Clerk any speakers on the line at this time . There are currently four callers wishing to speak. Ill unmute the first caller. Chair ronen thank you so much. Each speaker has two minutes to speak. Thank you so much. Caller hello. Can you hear me . Chair ronen yes, good morning. Hi. Caller hello. Good morning. I was calling in because, you know, i used to work at d. P. W. And i no longer working there no more, but im a homeowner in the city of San Francisco. I have seen so much dirt and so many Homeless People all around my area too. And i am very, very happy that they are willing to fix that department up and to make it an individual department, an individual department inside of the department. Because we have this really needed to be done. And i applaud the supervisors that are willing to do that. Thank you very much. And i applaud you for that. Thats all i am going to say and im all in for that. And i will when the votes come in. Chair ronen thank you so much. Next speaker. Thank you. Are you done with your comment . Caller yes, i am. I just wanted to say that. He said basically the things they wanted to say. So thats all i wish to say. Thank you very much. Chair ronen thank you so much. Next caller, please. Caller hi, my name is gabby, and im a policy and planning manager at pnpc and were here to provide support for supervisor haneys for the acoincidentability of our department of public works. We experience firsthand the impacts of the Current Conditions of our streets and sidewalks has on our residents and neighbors, both housed and unhoused. We all struggle to safely navigate our streets and sidewalks. For those of us who live and work in the tenderloin, soma and mission and bayview, it seems as though the city has accepted that our neighborhoods will be held to different standards than other parts of the city when it comes to basic necessities like cleaning the streets. Especially during a time of covid19 and heightened fears about the spread of this Infectious Diseases we need Bold Solutions to keep our cities clean with real accountability and oversight. We need to be dedicated to making sure that our streets and sidewalks are clean, and we have trash cans for litter and public bathrooms available for people to use. Solving the crisis of street sanitation and bringing real oversight to the issue will make a huge impact on our streets and the quality of life for all citizens of San Francisco. Thank you. Chair ronen thank you so much. Next speaker, please. Caller good morning, supervisors. I am a business agent and a city representative for labor 261, representing over 5,500 workers and 1,200 city and county employees. We thank you for your leadership and we strongly support these measures and urge you to do the same. In fact, this morning we issued a letter calling for an investigation into the public works and the p. U. C. Corruption because its gotten that bad. And we need your support on the legislation before you for both the division of public works and the Commission Oversight as well as the public advocate legislation. We have seen firsthand the lack of transparency and corruption has done to our city. The workers have filed many complaints over the decades that were never addressed and seen seemed to vanish in the wind. Our system is broken. Some city leaders would like you to believe that the cost of these pieces of legislation is too much with our present fiscal reality. But we believe that its the exact opposite. We cant afford to not pass these fixes. And the biggest cost is that of public trust. And we have a responsibility to the taxpayers to lower corruption by providing transparency and accountability and oversight. Please pass these pieces of legislation so that the citizens have a voice. Thank you for your time. Clerk thank you. Next speaker, please. Caller hi, good morning. My name is mary wilke and i live in the south market. And i have been working at the equity center. And im calling in support of supervisor haneys Charter Amendment, because having a department of sanitation and streets will have a great impact for the clients that we serve. And i have two statements from two longtime San Francisco residents. And so one is a 92yearold filipino world war ii veteran who uses a motorized wheelchair. And he would ask how he feels about being downtown, or around downtown, he says that it is too dirty and its hard to navigate with a wheelchair. It is hopeless. And an 85yearold resident says that i feel discouraged to go outside due to the dirty streets. Especially now that there is a pandemic. I am afraid that the dirty streets will cause more health concerns, especially for seniors like me. I am a senior with eyesight problems and i visually cannot see what i am stepping into and i worry that i might step into human waste. Thats why i am always careful whenever i walk the streets. And the statements that our clients have provided at the equity center. And we support supervisor haneys Charter Amendment because we believe that clean streets mean accessibility and safety for seniors that we serve. Thank you very much. Chair ronen thank you. Anymore speakers . Caller yes, this is David Elliott lewis. Im a 36year resident of the city. And i have been sad to see the state of the decline of our streets actually over those 36 years. With realworld consequences. Ive had friends who ride bicycles and bicyclists who have been severely injured because of unsafe potholes. Ive had friends who have had broken axels because of unfixed potholes. I live in the tenderloin for the last 14 of the 36 years and i have suffered a decline with the streets in terms of dirtiness and cracked sidewalks. Its been gross mismanagement of this department. And its been kind of a National Embarrassment for our news. Matt haneys Charter Amendment actually promises to fix this in so many ways and i think that the Oversight Commission over both new resulting departments and streets and sanitation, i really think that it will help to solve some of the the embarrassment for our city recently. And that embarrassment is not new. Its been going on for decades. So i hope that you will support this. And i will vote for it. I think that it will pass unanimously. I think that most voters anyone who has lived in the city for a few years will vote yes on this. So im really grateful for matt haney for introducing it. And ill be a supporter. And i thank you for your time. David elliott lewis, community resident. Thank you. Chair ronen thank you so much. Next speaker. Caller hello, im the executive director for the Tenderloin Merchants Association and i help to operate two different restaurants. The measure that is being proposed, you know, i took the day yesterday to speak to different Business Owners about this and were all pretty much in agreement. Its hard to make the argument that these departments wouldnt benefit from an Oversight Commission. The streets have been slightly improving but that really is not going to take care of the problem that we have seen as a whole. I wanted to speak about the state of the tenderloin and the streets. Even before the pandemic. So the pandemic is really not an excuse to use here. Theyve been in a state of disarray for many years. And with the resources that our city has, i dont think that is appropriate. I dont think that its appropriate to send that message out to the rest of the country since were, you know, one of the best cities in the country. So i think that the businesses are fully supportive of this with matt haney. And we thank him for helping to bring a lot of the this automated trash cans to the tenderloin are really helping. We need to clean our streets. I realize that due to the budget, the budget problems that the city is facing, we have to have to priorities. And its involving the death health of the people in the city and the tenderloin. And we have the most kids in the tenderloin so they cant walk through dangerous needles and whatnot. Thank you so much. Thithis is rene colorado. Chair ronen thank you so much. Next speaker. Caller Linda Chapman speaking as a Property Owner, 50 years as a Property Owner. And indiscernible on larkin street in the neighborhood commercial district. Which is at least a bit better than it used to be. I just wanted to thank you, supervisor haney, and that concludes my remarks. Thank you. Next speaker, please. please stand by i dont know how this city could expect people children, families, seniors, disabled to live like this. Especially in the tenderloin, its unacceptable that the city has held us to different standards than other parts of the city, so thank you, supervisors, for introducing this. Honestly, we need an Oversight Committee. The idea of separating the two is fantastic because that way, we actually can really have all the departments can be dedicated to their work. Itll improve the conditions of our street and just restore the trust in our system, and its just i mean, we need we need it because itll make such a huge impact on the streets and the quality of life for our residents. I say conditions are bad in the tenderloin right now, but thats an understatement. I had never seen it this bad precovid. Thank you for this visionary solution, and thank you, and i support it. Clerk thank you. Next speaker . Operato operator just like to say, before we get to the next speaker, we have three callers left in the queue at this time. Next speaker, please. Hi. Im a member of the healthy gardens student trees initiative. Im calling to speak on behalf of matt haneys movement to revive d. P. W. S scope of work. Clearly, the Department Needs more scrutiny to put resources where they belong. We need clean streets and oversight if money is nnt bei used the way it should. The tenderloin cant lose trees. The whole city is in great need of more urban canopy, and this is an area where changing the structure of d. P. W. Could really help the city, so sanitation, and i also just want to thank matt for all of his great advocacy on behalf of the neighborhood. Thank you. Can we have the next speaker, please . Hi, everyone. Thank you thank you so much for having this call. My name is john mccormick. I am an activist at tndc, and i have lived in the tenderloin for five years. I am calling to support this legislation from matt haney. Like other callers, i definitely do find it unacceptable that were one of the richest cities in the world, and we cant figure out how to deal with trash, feces, and urine. How do we expect our most vulnerable populations to live like this . Something i wanted to bring up i havent heard so much in the Public Comment is how do clean streets affect our economy . You know, our our our politicians, our legislators are so gung ho about getting things started back up, but when our streets are dirty, our streets arent clean, were seeing our business conferences cancelled, were seeing our tourists decline. Theres so much beyond keeping people healthy, and i believe that should be the reason for creating this legislation, but theres other factors to consider, as well. Tourism San Francisco has a lot of schools. People are seeing a lot of news about our streets not being clean, and they want to go to school somewhere else. I think this is one of the few cities in the World Without public sanitation, and i think we can pull this through. Thank you very much for everything, and i hope this goes through. Thank you. Can we have the next caller, please . Do we have any other callers . Good morning, supervisors. My name is raquel. As you know, soma filipinas is an organization of children, youth, families and seniors. Remember, one source of discomfort and shame is the state of our streets. Its not only for our visitors, as the previous caller, you know, mentioned that, you know, its a concern for people were trying to draw into the neighborhood, but its also quality of life issue when our kids 18 years have to watch every step they take. And then also, in this time, its a Public Health issue, and we have to worry about bringing disease into our home. Having a separate Sanitation Department would help this problem, and i appreciate supervisor haneys initiative. Having a separate department focused on keeping our streets clean could make a huge difference. Its also important to make sure that theres no selfdealing, to have more transparency over issues and contracts, but i think its also an issue of equity when not all neighborhoods get the same level of street cleaning as we deserve. And as we know in San Francisco, the more affluent neighborhoods have better conditions on the streets. So thank you very much for hearing this item, and we hope you pass it out of committee today. Thank you. Are there anymore speakers . Hi. My name is gem. I live in the tenderloin. Ive been here since 2009. I work as a mentor with ihss, the public authority. And i feel that if this goes through, and this oversight can help cleanup the tenderloin, it can make a huge difference in the Mental Health of our community, and our elderly and disabled will be able to walk outside with their walkers. I walk on a walker, and it is so hard to be able to walk on our streets with my walker and not track it on my floors. Many people are afraid to go out on our streets. Not only that, we have children that walk the streets every single day when theyre here. This should be unacceptable to all, and this Neighborhood Committee to possibly bridge a communication gap between the department and this community, if they are really willing to listen to us and what we need. If this Oversight Committee would be really willing to listen to our needs and help us cleanup this neighborhood, it could increase the Mental Health and just overall improve the whole city because of the mental ability. Thank you, matt haney, for this. I hope this gets out of committee, and i hope this neighborhood gets the help it really needs. Thank you. Thank you. Can we have the next speaker, please. Can we have the next speaker. Hello, good morning. Hello . Hello. My name is lorenzo hello . Yes, hello. My names lorenzo my name is lorne, aenzo, and ive live the tenderloin for 15 years. In my 15 years, ive never seen the streets so dirty. And were one of the richest cities in the world, and we cannot figure out how to get trash out of our streets with this situation. It is very frustrating, how can a city which has the most number of millionaires and billionaires cannot provide the basic necessity of cleaning the streets. Weve been a leading story on the newspapers and news for so long, and if i remember, this story was even featured in the United Nations newspaper. If we create this, it will help improve the life of all san franciscans. I urge you to support matt haneys sharper initiative. Thank y because this is the right thing to do. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi. Thank you so much for all your support in this, matt haney. I think its an incredible move for accountability and oversight. I dont feel that this is a budget issue, its a health epidemic. Our filth is at an unprecedented amount. We are seen, and San Francisco is seen as being one of the dirtiest cities in the country. We are one of the major cities without a department of sanitation, so i believe that a department of sanitation makes common sense. It shows that it will prove to have accountability and oversight with a data driven decision, so i urge everyone to vote and help cleanup our city, and thank you so much for your time and your progressive movements on this. Thank you. Thank you. Can we have the next speaker, please . Operator madam clerk, thha completes the queue. Chair ronen so thank you so much. So Public Comment is closed, and i will or supervisor haney, did you have any last comments before i make a moment to incorporate the amendments . Supervisor haney well, i wanted to definitely thank everybody who called in, and as you can hear, there was a huge amount of support from the people that i represent, but i and i really want to thank everyone who called in. They see the failures every day. They know whats happening now isnt working, but i think theres a lot of support for this across the whole city. This is a huge concern of residents, and again, i respect the new director of public works, but really, this is a structural issue, and it needs to be fixed, and we need someone whos really taking responsibility for clean streets and for the state of our streets and is accountable for that and has the support and oversight and direction and standards and services that in order to do it. And we dont have it that right now, and i think this is a solution that will put us in a position to be able to solve this this challenge with innovation, with data, with accountability, and i just think its it would be really awful if we told the residents of district 6, of district 9, of 10, of our whole city, that were going to keep doing things the same way that weve been doing it, and theyre going to have to accept these conditions. I cant imagine a bigger failure of our imagination to actually try to do Something Better and new, to give the type of attentionality and concern that not only are we seeing dirty streets, but corruption in departments at a level that weve never seen. This will help restore the public trust as well as the public rightofway. So i hope youll take the amendments, and well be back at least once next week. Theres for the further amendments, and if there are further amendments next week, and then, for a final vote. Chair ronen thank you so much. Any other colleagues from my colleagues before i make a motion . No . Okay. Then i will make a motion to incorporate the amendments as supervisor haney laid out. Supervisor walton, did you have any comments on this . Supervisor walton no, i dont. I just would say i am in support of this. Chair ronen mr. Clerk, can we have a vote on the motion . Clerk on the motion to accept the amendments [roll call] clerk the motion passes without objection. Chair ronen thank you so much. Thanks, supervisor haney. Take care. Mr. Clerk, can we clerk do you want to continue this to the call of the chair . Chair ronen thank you. I would like to make a motion to continue this to the call of the chair. Can we please take a roll call vote, and thats on item 2. Clerk yes. On the motion to continue to the call of the chair item 2 as amended [roll call] clerk the motion passes without objection. Chair ronen thank you so much, mr. Clerk, for keeping us on track here. And if we can go back to item number 1, supervisor walton, do we have any amendments to the legislation . Supervisor walton we do. Thank you so much, chair ronen, and to the entire committee for your patience. We do, and we actually just sent you all the entire committee diversions with all the amendments that are proposed. I would just go over a couple of things and just spell out where the amendments are and some of what they outline, but i wont read exactly what the amendments call for. On page 2, lines 2, it talks about labor representation and how we would include that in the charter. Page 2, lines 17 through 23, talks about the District Attorney and talks about the training and clarifies where we got the training from. Page 3, lines 8 through 9, about Holding Public meetings and soliciting input and make sure we include individuals that are incarcerated. Page 3, lines 12 through 13, talks about by through the first of march each year, talks about presenting to the supervisors or a Committee Designated by the board, a prepared report that outlines a summary. Page 8, we outlined investigations and the fact that the District Attorney will deal with the criminal investigations and clarify that page 4, lines 11 through 15, we added editions to provide notice of and a copy of recommendations, and the reason for recommendations and supporting records to the extent permitted by state or federal law to be employee and make available to public any record information regarding the office of Inspector Generals disciplinary recommendations to the extent permitted by state or federal law, so this is about transparency. Page 5, lines 1 through 3, we added monitor sfsd operations including the providing of services for incarcerated individuals. Page 6, lines 1 through 6, the sheriff or anyone testifying may require the testimony of anyone in the Sheriffs Department. Promptly produce all information requested by the sheriffs deputy Oversight Office or office of the Inspector General, and it includes all of the types of records that should be available for the Sheriffs Office Oversight Board and office of the Inspector General. Page 20, in carrying out their duties, sheriffs deputy and Oversight Board shall cooperate with the department that provides service to incarcerated individuals. And we added adding the ability to investigate complaints against the Sheriffs Department and the jails. Chair ronen thank you very much. Im happy to add those amendments. If theres no comments from my colleagues, ill ask you to take a motion, mr. Clerk. Clerk on the motion on the amendments [roll call] clerk the motion passes without objection. Chair ronen thank you so much. And then, i will make a motion to continue this item to the call of the chair. Clerk on the motion to continue the matter to the call of the chair as amended [roll call] clerk the motion passes without objection. Chair ronen thank you so much. Thank you, supervisor walton. Supervisor walton thank you. Chair ronen mr. Clerk, can you please read item number 3. Clerk this is an item to create the office of public advocate, authorize the office of the public advocate to review city programs and services, including services transmating information to the public and to receive, investigate, and attempt to resolve complaints regarding City Services and programs, authorize public advocate to receive and investigate specific complaints and to provide for the Public Advocates election, removal, and salary at an election to be heard november 3, 2020. Chair ronen thank you. Supervisor mar, would you like to start us off . Supervisor mar yes. Thank you for allowing us to hear this today. Colleagues, this is before us for a simple reason. We need to make our City Government more accountable, effective, and transparent. We are reminded by the breadth of investigation into our department of public works, building inspection, three city contractors, and a billionaire developer. It shouldnt take an investigation by the Trump Administration to root out corruption. We must address this locally and structurally. In light of the covid19 Public Health and economic crisis, its important its more important than ever that our City Services are effective, accountable, transparent, and trustworthy. We need to be proactive, not reactive. If we had a public advocate, it wouldnt have taken decades for mr. Nurus wrongdoings to be addressed. This Charter Amendment will create the San Francisco public advocate, a system addressed at eliminating public corruption abuse of taxpayer money, and abuse of the taxpayer trust. The public advocate would review the administration of city programs, including the distribution of programs and services throughout the city, the effectiveness of the Public Information and Service Complaint programs of city agencies, and the responsiveness of city agencies to request for data or information. In this way, its focused on citywide oversight and structural reform. The public advocate would investigate and attempt to resolve complaints from members of the public concerning City Services and programs. They would have Investigative Authority to resolve these complaints, and its specified that the purpose of this office is to root out corruption, fraud, and abuse. It would authorize the public advocate to receive and investigate confidential whistleblower complaint concerning ineffective, unreasonable, or unfair treatment of City Employees. The public advocate could also introduce legislation at the board of supervisors to propose Structural Solutions to the problems they find. Its important to note that the city currently does not have a particular official or Central Office responsible for overseeing how city advocates address and deal with the public. Id also like to speak to fiscal impact and emphasize that this is very much a cost savings measure. Corruption costs taxpayer money. Fraud and wasteful spending costs us money. By directly addressing those issues, the public advocate can help save us money over time. Lets look at new yorks advocate, for example. In just three years, they saved taxpayers more than three times what it cost to operate her office by uncovering bloated spending and corrupt city contracts. This measure will cost less than 1 million a year, with the Controllers Office estimating a cost between 725,000 and 925,000. That modest investment pales to the cost of public corruption. Between 2007 and 2017, the city lost 11 million in americas cup because of bad contracts negotiated behind closed doors, by some city officials who then went to work with the contract beneficiaries. And the city lost 60 million to intentional overbidding and undercharging by a contractor for instructiconstruction on t francisco airport. In consultation with stakeholders, weve prepared amendments to this measure that are available to you today. I just want to briefly summarize the amendments. In terms of the policy changes, an amendment states that the public advocate will defer to the District Attorney or City Attorney investigations where theres overlap, rather than allowing concurrent investigations. An amendment adds process for referring complaints related to Sworn Police Officers to the department of Police Accountability and sfpd. Another amendment requires referral to d. H. R. And for the agency for which an employee works for employee misconduct complaints that may require disciplinary action. And an amendment changes the qualification requirement for candidates. They must be licensed attorneys, but they must no longer be licensed attorneys for ten years. In terms of clarifying language, a clarifying amendment rephrases part of the office from investigating, uncovering, and eliminating the waste of taxpayer money to the fraudulent use of taxpayer money to better reflect the policy intentions. An amendment to clarify restrictions on the Public Advocates jurisdiction removed reference to collective bargaining agreements, and rephrases the restriction for legislation the public advocate can introduce. And finally, an amendment clarifies that the public advocate has no authority to impose discipline on City Employees or offices. Finally, i just want to thank, first of all, chair ronen and also supervisor haney for cosponsoring this. I want to thank City Attorney jon givner for drafting this matter, attorney david campos. I want to thank the harvey milk lgbtq local Democratic Club and local 261 for their endorsement, and all the Public Sector who provided input so far. The result is a stronger and more focused measure. Colleagues, this is not only a worthwhile investment for our city, its a necessary one. San francisco is ready for change to address our culture of casual corruption. San francisco deserves a watchdog with teeth, and San Francisco needs a public advocate. I urge you to support this measure today. Thank you. Chair ronen thank you so much, supervisor mar. Is there any other colleagues who want to make any comments . Supervisor stefani . It doesnt seem like it. So i would like to. First of all oh, sorry. Supervisor stefani sorry, im sorry, chair ronen. My camera wouldnt turn on for some reason, but i understand theres amendments made today, so ill just wait for Public Comment and make comments next week. Chair ronen okay. Sounds great. Thank you. I just wanted to thank you, supervisor mar, for taking the lead on this important measure. I am having one of those days where im so proud of my colleagues on the board of supervisors from everything these are the issues of our day Law Enforcement reform, cleanliness of our streets, corruption in San Francisco, and theres these three incredible ballot measures that are so thoughtful, taking on these issues that have plagued this city for decades, and i just want to take my hat off to you, supervisor mar, as well as supervisor haney and walton for really working in such a thoughtful way on addressing these really entrenched problems. Reading the news this past week, where the the u. S. Attorney is saying that they are following lines of corruption in the city that has been going on since 2004, i mean, you cant make this stuff up. The stories that are coming out left and right from not one, not two, but three Different Department heads, and it looks like many more to come are, quite frankly, shocking, and clearly, the accountability mechanisms that we have in place now are not working to root out this corruption and to ensure that we are making the most of taxpayer money and handling it in an ethical and responsible way. Supervisor mar, you have been a leader on government ethics, and i just cannot thank you enough for that, and working hard and working out in a detailed and thoughtful way to make sure that every time we use a dollar of our taxpayers money that it is going to support the Public Benefit and the public good, and that were doing a good job of it. We need this this this work and this oversight now more than ever, and i am so proud to be a cosponsor of this measure. I did have one question for you, supervisor mar. When reading it over last night with the amendments, i wanted to know when its very confusing language, and i wanted to know when the first election for the public advocate will happen, and i was wondering if that will be in the same year that all the citywide elected officials are on the ballot . Supervisor mar well, thank you so much, chair ronen, for those words. So proud to have you as a cosponsor. Regarding your question on when the first election for the public advocate would happen, it would happen in the next citywide or general election in San Francisco, and right now, that would happen in november 2022, or perhaps if theres a special election before then. But the charter also specifies then the next regular election of the public advocate would happen in november 2024, so that would be when, you know, theres other other citywide offices are being elected, as well as aaa, you know, other major elections. So the first election that happens before then would be for an interim period, and thats just because of the urgency in creating this office to root out corruption. And waiting until november 2024 would be a long time to wait to start that important work. Chair ronen got it. So i have a suggestion well, before i make my suggestion, i have a question. Ive heard fr ive heard, from some of my colleagues, a concern about the cost; the same concern about supervisor waltons and haneys measures. You look at new york, and how its saved so much more than its spent, but of course thats after its been up and running. And i so want this measure to get on the ballot because it is so the right thing to do at the right time, but im wondering if youd considered starting it a little later, similar to what supervisor haney had done for the d. P. W. So it doesnt cost money right away for the city budget where were not facing an unprecedented deficit. I just want to assuage some of my colleagues concerns so that it will get on the ballot. At least thats my hope. Supervisor mar just like all my colleagues, i share a concern over our huge budget deficit unprecedented budget deficit, as well as the important other proposed measures that we heard today. Again, i you know, the actual cost, based on the Controllers Office fiscal analyst is very modest [inaudible] supervisor mar so i think that given that its a modest cost and its going to save us money, even in the shortterm, by finding out wastes of money. Thats why i would still strongly prefer to create the office, to have the election as stated in the measure right now, at the next citywide general election. But then, looking ahead up the line, the regular election of the public advocate, when were electing other citywide offices, that would be november 2024. Chair ronen i thought the election where that would i thought the next genercitywide election for all offices is 2023. Could we ask ann pearson for that . I dont have that information, but ill get back to you for that. Chair ronen okay. Could we open this up for Public Comment . Does that make sense . Okay. Mr. Clerk, could we please open this item up for Public Comment . Clerk yes. Members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment on this item should call 40841893 8. Meeting i. D. Is 1466610524, then press pound, and pound again. If you havent already done so, please press starthree to wait to speak. Wait until the system prompts that you have been unmuted to begin your prompt. Mr. Ho, do we have any comments at this time . Operator yes. We have three callers in the queue. I will unmute the first caller. Hi. This is debra garfinkel. My hand was raised from the prior discussion, but im happy to speak. I was just finishing an email to matt. Im a resident of the eastcott and district 6, and i just want to thank matt and the other supervisors who are working to end the endemic corruption that i am seeing and getting the justice that we as taxpayers are do. I work with the rincon hills dog park, and in that respect, ive had to deal with d. P. W. And just organizations, and ive just seen how difficult it is to get anything done despite the fact that we wait, and we were willing to work in conjunction. I tried to get a stopping point because people are relieving themselves in the dog park, which in a city like ours, is shameful. But im concerned about Building Inspections and other types of possible corruption, that this type of an organization, an entity, would prevent. What ive seen as a Property Owner in the eastcott is that a lot of building a lot of construction is signed off on thats shoddy, and h. O. A. S have to bring the developers and the contractors to court after ten years, the statute of limitations, for work that should never have been signed off on, and im really hoping that this kind of an agency will stop this. It doesnt look good that were doing business this way. Its dangerous for tenants, its dangerous for owners, and it makes it difficult for owners to sell or finance. Ive never bought or owned anything before, and when we bought our place in eastcott, it was something that really surprised me because we were in litigation for four years over my father was a civil engineer. I couldnt believe the construction that was signed off on in our building. And i just really think its the way of doing business because of the fact that these agencies are corrupt. And i just want to thank the supervisors who have acted on this. I want to thank matt for the other issue that youve discussed prior to that, and i just hope that were going to move to a city where we can be proud of ourselves, so thank you again. Chair ronen thank you so much. Next speaker. Hi. Thank you to the cosponsors of this Charter Amendment, supervisor mar, supervisor ronen, and supervisor haney. My name is hope williams, and i am a board member of the harvey milk lgbtq Democratic Club. We believe government can and must be a force for public justice, for righting wrong, but the ability to do that is irrepairablely damaged when government officials are lining their pockets instead of fixing them. The milk club voted unanimously to support placing this Charter Amendment on this ballot. The choice here is between upholding the broken and corrupt status quo or supporting structural reform. Complaining about costs is a red herring, and public corruption costs us hundreds of millions of dollars. The red herring, when we spend more on overtime pay for a couple of Police Officers than this entire measure would cost. We urge you today to support the public advocate and be a part of the solution instead of the problem. Thank you. Thank you. Can we have the next speaker, please . Linda chapman. This is absolutely a critical measure, and i did contact the offices of the two sponsors and ask to talk to the aides who are involved in this, because in my profession and working for the army and the navy, i worked for the Inspector General, and i conducted investigations. When i looked at the measure originally, obviously, people dont understand that these restrictions that are being placed on what information is being released and federal investigators and [inaudible] and that also, you know, there are many provisions where they would be sending somebody packing often, the person comes to them from some other agency prematurely. Those are matters that are handled very differently [inaudible] i think that the sponsors know this. For example, the i. G. Will investigate, it may turn out [inaudible] and turned away because its a crime. Now, i would like to if i can access to email, id still go, but i have wifi and no computer. When i asked it of the two aides, one of them hung up in my ear, and the other one didnt get back to me. I did work for the commanding general, and did work with the i. G. And then, i worked with the consolidated Personnel Office which deals with almost all of the Armed Services in the area. Madam chair, that concludes Public Comment. Chair ronen okay. Then Public Comment was closed. I was wondering if we got any clarity on when this citywide consolidated election, the next one take place. Yes, deputy City Attorney ann pearson. My understanding is that the next general election will be in 2022. The next election where citywide offices will be elected will be 2023. Those citywide offices would include the mayor, the District Attorney, the sheriff, the City Attorney, and the treasurer. Some citywide offices will be on the 2024 ballot. That would include the assessor and the public defender. Theyre not all on the same ballot. Chair ronen oh, i thought we consolidated them all. Interesting. So that is my understanding, is that 2023 will feature an election for the mayor, District Attorney, sheriff, City Attorney, and treasurer. 2024 will feature reelection of the odd seats for the board of supervisors, the assessor, and the public defender. Chair ronen all right. I had mistakenly thought that they were on the same all the citywides were on the same year, and we had been working on that for a while. Supervisor mar, did you have any response to that . Supervisor mar yeah. Well, i appreciate the interpretation by deputy City Attorney pearson because yeah, i was a little confused about that, too. I think the other consideration of why we wanted to have the regular election of the public advocate in 2024 is because its a president ial election four years from now. We would expect the highest turnout and engagement in this decision. But i understand the budget deficit that were facing, so im up to considering amendments on this question, yes. Chair ronen okay. This is deferential on this. What would you propose . Again, this is so urgent, and im so excited youre bringing this forward. Im just worried were not going to have the vote this work, put it on the ballot. So one suggestion i had, was, you know, pushing it off making sure its on, but pushing it off for two years and starting on 2023, but im really deferential to you on this. Supervisor mar mmhmm, yeah. Well, again, with the current [inaudible] the modest cost of the public advocate wouldnt happen until 2023, after that election. I guess my suggestion would be to keep it as proposed, but we can consider possibly one final amendment. Chair ronen okay. We wont consider any amendments other than what supervisor mar originally considered. Would you like to do the motion . Supervisor mar thank you. So i would move that we accept the amendment. Clerk on that motion to accept the proposed amendments [roll call] clerk the motion passes. Chair ronen and then, i can make a motion to continue this item to the call of the chair . Clerk yes. On the motion to continue the item to the call of the chair as amended, on that motion [roll call] clerk the motion as amended is continued to the call of the chair without objection. Chair ronen thank you. Is there any further items on the agenda . Clerk there are no further items on the agenda today. Chair ronen thank you very much. The meeting is adjourned. We have private and Public Gardens throughout the garden tour. All of the gardens are volunteers. The only requirement is youre willing to show your garden for a day. So we have gardens that vary from all stages of development and all gardens, family gardens, private gardens, some of them as small as postage stamps and others pretty expansive. Its a variety all of the world is represented in our gardens here in the portola. I have been coming to the portola garden tour for the past seven or eight years ever since i learned about it because it is the most important event of the neighborhood, and the reason it is so important is because it links this neighborhood back to its history. In the early 1800s the portola was farmland. The regions flowers were grown in this neighborhood. If you wanted flowers anywhere future bay area, you would come to this area to get them. In the past decade, the area has tried to reclaim its roots as the garden district. One of the ways it has done that is through the portola garden tour, where neighbors open their gardens open their gardens to people of San Francisco so they can share that history. When i started meeting with the neighbors and seeing their gardens, i came up with this idea that it would be a great idea to fundraise. We started doing this as a fundraiser. Since we established it, we awarded 23 scholarships and six work projects for the students. The Scholarship Programs that we have developed in association with the portola is just a winwinwin situation all around. The Scholarship Program is important because it helps people to be able to tin in their situation and afford to take classes. I was not sure how i would stay in San Francisco. It is so expensive here. I prayed so i would receive enough so i could stay in San Francisco and finish my school, which is fantastic, because i dont know where else i would have gone to finish. The scholarships make the difference between students being able to stay here in the city and take classes and having to go somewhere else. [ ] [ ] you come into someones home and its theyre private and personal space. Its all about them and really their garden and in the city and urban environment, the garden is the extension of their indoor environment, their Outdoor Living room. Why are you here at this garden core . Its amazing and i volunteer here every year. This is fantastic. Its a beautiful day. You walk around and look at gardens. You meet people that love gardens. Its fantastic. The portola garden tour is the last saturday in september every year. Mark your calendars every year. You can see us on the website [ ] i am the supervisor of district one. I am sandra lee fewer. [ ] i moved to the Richmond District in 1950 mine. I was two years old. I moved from chinatown and we were one of the first asian families to move out here. [ ] when my mother decided to buy that house, nobody knew where it was. It seems so far away. For a long time, we were the only chinese family there but we started to see the areas of growth to serve a larger chinese population. The stress was storage of the birthplace of that. My father would have to go to chinatown for dim sum and i remember one day he came home and said, there is one here now. It just started to grow very organically. It is the same thing with the russian population, which is another very large ethnic group in the Richmond District. As russia started to move in, we saw more russian stores. So parts of the richmond is very concentrated with the Russian Community and immigrant Russian Community, and also a chinese immigrant community. [ ] i think as living here in the richmond, we really appreciate the fact that we are surrounded three natural barriers. They are beautiful barriers. The presidio which gives us so many trails to walk through, ocean beach, for families to just go to the beach and be in the Pacific Ocean. We also also have a National Park service. We boarded the Golden Gate National Recreation Area so there is a lot of activity to do in the summer time you see people with bonfires. But really families enjoying the beach and the Pacific Ocean during the rest of the time of year. [ ] and Golden Gate Park where we have so many of our treasures here. We have the tea garden, the museum and the academy of sciences. Not to mention the wonderful playgrounds that we have here in richmond. This is why i say the richmond is a great place for families. The theatre is a treasure in our neighborhood. It has been around for a very long time. Is one of our two neighborhood theatres that we have here. I moved here when i was 1959 when i was two years old. We would always go here. I love these neighborhood theatres. It is one of the places that has not only a landmark in the Richmond District, but also in San Francisco. Small theatres showing one or two films. A unique they are unique also to the neighborhood and San Francisco. Where we are today is the heart of the Richmond District. With what is unique is that it is also Small Businesses. There is a different retail here it is mom and pop opening up businesses. And providing for the neighborhood. This is what we love about the streets. The cora door starts on clement street and goes all the way down to the end of clement where you will see Small Businesses even towards 32nd. At the core of it is right here between here and 20 tenth avenue. When we see this variety of stores offered here, it is very unique then of the any other part of San Francisco. There is traditional irish music which you dont get hardly anywhere in San Francisco. Some places have this long legacy of serving ice cream and being a hangout for families to have a sunday afternoon ice cream. And then also, we see Grocery Stores. And also these restaurants that are just new here, but also thriving. [ ] we are seeing restaurants being switched over by hand, new owners, but what we are seeing is a vibrancy of clement street still being recaptured within new businesses that are coming in. That is a really great thing to see. I dont know when i started to shop here, but it was probably a very, very long time ago. I like to cook a lot but i like to cook chinese food. The market is the place i like to come to once a year. Once i like about the market as it is very affordable. It has Fresh Produce and fresh meat. Also, seafood. But they also offer a large selection of condiments and sauces and noodles. A variety of rice that they have is tremendous. I dont thank you can find a variety like that anywhere else. Hi. I am kevin wong. I am the manager. In 1989 we move from chinatown to Richmond District. We have opened for a bit, over 29 years. We carry products from thailand, japan, indonesia, vietnam, singapore and india. We try to keep Everything Fresh daily. So a customer can get the best out a bit. Normally during crab season in november, this is the first place i hit. Because they have really just really fresh crab. This is something my family really likes for me to make. Also, from my traditional chinese food, i love to make a kale soup. They cut it to the size they really want. I am probably here once a week. Im very familiar with the aisles and they know everyone who is a cashier cashier here i know when people come into a market such as this, it looks like an asian supermarkets, which it is and sometimes it can be intimidating. We dont speak the language and many of the labels are in chinese, you may not know what to buy or if it is the proper ingredients for the recipe are trying to make. I do see a lot of people here with a recipe card or sometimes with a magazine and they are looking for specific items. The staff here is very helpful. I speak very little chinese here myself. Thinks that im not sure about, i asked the clerk his and i say is this what i need . Is this what i should be making . And they actually really helped me. They will bring me to the aisle and say this is battery. They are very knowledgeable. Very friendly. I think they are here to serve not only the Asian Community but to serve all communities in the Richmond District and in San Francisco. [ ] what is wonderful about living here is that even though our july is a very foggy and overcast, best neighborhood, the sleepy part outside on the west side is so rich with history, but also with all the amenities that are offered. [ ]now in terms of essential workers and whats available. What we plan to have this summer and what people can do to either sign up or what other programs to do to prepare under the new guideline for the programs that they want to make available to people. So, lets get started. Phil, you we hit the ball running, both you and maria su got together because we knew the schools were going to close. But we also knew that there was an essential workforce out there. People who were driving muni, people who were working at hospitals. They had children. They needed child care. They were concerned about taking their children to their elderly parents. They couldnt leave them at home. Tell us a little bit about the program that you established that is available currently and will potentially be extended once programming starts for june 15 during the summer. Thank you, mayor. Yeah. You asked us as soon as the schools closed to start thinking about our kids and working families, particularly our Health Care Workers and First Responders and people who were needed to help in the citys response. And so the department of children, youth and family and Recreation Park Department are working closely together under the guidance of department of Public Health, set up an emergency child care system that is now in its 12th week. We, over time, served over 475 kids, 19,000 hours of child care offered during that time and we served over 4,000 meals at over 25 different sites. The program runs between 6 30 in the morning and 7 30 p. M. And kids have been involved in Distance Learning and a little bit of recreation and its really been, you know, wasnt what we were used to doing and we had to stand it up pretty quickly, but it has been an amazing experience and im really grateful for my partner in runing this thing, maria, and the department of youth and family who have been terrific. And i want to just add because i know that, you know, sadly, you had these kids and these pods with limited number of social distancing. These are kids coming together on a regular basis. Something similar to what were going to be doing this summer. And, unfortunately, there have been people who have made nasty comments or complained or even yelled at, you know, the kids. And so what i want to say to people is to back off and mind your own business and to leave kids alone. Because at the end of the day, these are kids whose family members are putting their lives on the line to help support this city. So, i cant reiterate enough that its important that folks really just stay in their lane, mind your own business. Were providing essential service. And we want to extend this and make this available to more kids. So, lets talk a little bit about phil, can you just talk a little bit about june 15 . Sure. Were going start programming and were going to extend the number of kids that were able to serve. Not just in our park system, but our overall Summer Program so i want you, phil, to touch on what will be available for our park system, both for our young people and our teenagers and then were going to jump into maria su to talk about programming in general. Sure. So, our child care operation its summer, and child care was intended to operate while during the school year while the School System when the School System was closed and what families and kids are used to during the summer is camp. Youre right. The truth of the matter, it will look somewhat similar in that were going to have pods of 12, but beginning june 15, rec and park between rec and park t private sector camp providers and our nonprofit providers we expect that there will be over 200 different camps available to kids can. We are going to prioritize. Kids of parents who are working in essential businesses, who are part of the citys response, who are, you know, in allowable businesses and, frankly t kids who need us the most right now. Many of our kids in the city have been without their coaches and mentors for going on 10 weeks and we want to reengage and make sure that these kids, above all else, have something to do this summer. So, starting june 15, camp providers will be allowed to operate. Theyre going to need to certify that theyre going to comply with the health order and guidance coming out of Public Health, which means kids still need to be in pods of 12 for older kids. The minimum session for camp providers will be three weeks and the boll rationale behind that is to keep kids from normally during a normal summer kids go to one week of this camp and one week of another camp and the health and our Public Health officials have asked us to keep kids together in a consistent pod. So well have three threeweek sessions beginning june 15. At rec and park, were planning over 25 different camps. We expect there to be another 40 to 50 private camp providers operating in our park system. I believe that maria is estimating nearly 100 nonprofit camp providers will operate around the city and then there are some other muscle private providers that will be operating on, you know, nonpark property in different spaces. Were going to start working with camp providers as quickly as possible, right after were done speaking with you. And for our camps, for rec and park camps, well begin priority registration on may 26 for all of the participants that are currently in our Emergency Child Care Program and our kids in our Scholarship Program who are a little bit more vulnerable and who really, really need us. Were going reach out to those populations first and then citywide, registration for rec and park camps will begin on june 6. All of this information will be laid out on the department of children, youth and familys website, dcyf cares. Org. And ill turn it over to maria to talk about the other providers and program staffing. Thank you, phil. Thank you, mayor, for this opportunity to share with our residents of the work that were doing right now. So, like the mayor shared, we are in the process of expanding the opportunities for families, particularly for summer. Were really excited about this because, as a parent myself who has two children, this is going to be great opportunity for our young our young people to go out there and engage with others and just really address the social isolation issues that we know is happening in our families right now. So dcyf is really excited to be partnering with rec and parks and the rest of our summer providers in the city to stand up all of these programs for the dcyfspecific agencies, which are the nonprofit agencies, that our department provides supports to, we are going to be working with them to open up camps and programs that they will then be made available for all of our families. We are looking at around 100 programs that will be available for families starting june 15. We are asking all of our nonprofit agencies to follow Health Guidelines, which still has shared, restrictive groups of young people in consistent threeweek programming at a minimum. We will also put on our website, dcyf. Org care. More information around the health order, around the drexives and the guidelines, with how private camps are also fulfill all of those requirements and then document that they are going to open up. So look for that website to go live actually the website is live now. But look for the forms to go live soon. Great. And over time, mayor, i think were going to try to inventory try to provide parents with as much information as we can about all of the camp opportunities because we have to think about it as a network this summer because of the Health Guidelines. So, we hope to be able to have a list and some reference materials for not just rec and park camps, but all of the private camps happening around the city, too. Yeah. And i want to touch a little bit because, you know, child care has been important because we have allowed that to continue for essential workers. Can you talk a little bit, maria, what we can expect as it relates to the 0 to 5 age group and what might be available during the summer . Yes. So, were really excited that this new health order that you have authorized with our Health Department to allow the expansion of Child Care Services for more families. So, there are child care programs for children 0 to 5 right now that are providing services for our essential workers and other allowable businesses. Under this new health order, we are now opening that opportunity for more families. We have hear that there are families out there who are working, who need care, who really, really need care for their children. And for children to need to need opportunities to be with their friends. So, this health order will allow more families to have access to these slots, these child care slots. I do want to caution folks that we are still following Health Guidelines and so the slots are going to be limited. We are restricted to a Smaller Group of children per site. So i just want to set expectations for everyone that its not just usual child care as we remember how it was a year ago. Yeah. And i do think its great that, you know, this is providing an opportunity for kids to come together. So were talking about pods of 12 within the course of a summer camp or preschool or in other arenas so that not only can kids can parents get to work, but also it gives these children an tounlts interact with one another because im sure, especially if it is a child who doesnt have any siblings, to be able to play with another kid was like i know everything for me as a kid and i just feel so awful that these kids cant go out there and enjoy one another. This is an opportunity and a great opportunity. But i also, sadly, know it is a very limited opportunity. But do want to touch on, you know, teenagers because i know one of things that happens often times they are always left out. So i am commited to making sure that opportunities for all is available so that we have paid internships for kids during the summer. And that we make that available, especially for our teenagers. Because, you know, already theyre missing their graduations and activities and events. And we want to make sure that they have a productive summer as well and theyre not left out. So, maria, make you can touch on what might be happening with opportunities for all and i know that with rec and park, we have a number of teens that are going to be working and helping with these camps during summer. Lets talk a little bit about, you know, how kids who are teenagers can sign up for some of the programs. Thank you, mayor. So actually a lot of our programs are doing a lot of connections to young people now but theyre doing it remotely. Theyre doing a lot of wellness checks and followup on what academic support these young people need. So, once again with this health order, were now allowed to have facetoface and inperson connections with these young people. So, were going to work closely with our nonprofit agencies to help young people connect to internship opportunities or actual Job Opportunities at some of these Summer Programs or at offices that are slowly opening up. So, theres great opportunities for private sector folks who are now interested who are opening up and would be interested in being a mentor for a young person this summer. That would be amazing. However, if that is not available, our young people are actually engaging in projectbased learning right now. So a lot of our young people in our Workforce Program will be doing Small Projects that are that is remote for the agencis that theyre assigned to. There will be engagement but it is so much better if the engagement is in person and not remote. I do how do they sign up . Like a teenager that wants to participate and have access to a paid internship . For now, were directing everyone to go to dcyf. Org care so they can find out whats available in the community and make sections there. I also do want to say that, for young people and for families who are struggling right now because there are young people and familis who are struggling right now we do have a website that is available and under the mayors leadership, she wanted to prioritize Mental Health services for families and for our essential workers and other service providers. For those who are struggling and who need support, please go to fieldSan Francisco. Org to learn more about different resources for parents, for young people and for adults and service providers. And also can we call 311 and be referred if we dont have access to the internet . Yes. Well definitely make sure that thats possible. Great. Great. We want to make it as easy for people as possible because i know sometimes you jump on a website and trying to figure it out or if you dont have Internet Access but want to ma you are that your friend knows that this might be available for their family. Talk about what some of the teens are going to be doing in your program this summer. Sure. For the last 607 years, San Francisco has had a program called workreation, where we actually fund teenagers, kids between the ages of 14 and 17 to work in our camps. And because of your leadership and focus on getting these camps opened safely and getting kids an experience, were hiring approximately 200 kid this is summer that will be counselors in the camps that we just talked about. I also think there is an amazing opportunity, mayor, for those private camp providers that want to operate this summer to hire teenagers. Heres why. The health order and the Health Guidance requires a minimum of two staff for every pod of 12 kids. And for private camp providers used to operating with a ton of kids and a few staff, you wont able to do that this year and staff wont be able to move around between pods during the camp session. For private camps to operate, they need to be very wellstaffed and we highly, highly recommend that private camp providers hire teenagers to help and provide some support in making sure that your camps operate safely and smoothly and gives these kids a great experience and opportunity to make some money. I want to provide an example because, for example, we have been providing a camp at well, i guess it is called a camp, i dont know what it is called, but we have been providing support for young people whose families are essential workers at Hamilton Rec Center. So Hamilton Rec Center has several rooms that could be used. So, i know that the plan is there is going to be probably two or three pods of 12. And each of those pods have their own rooms and their own activities around their rooms and they are also able to go outside and enjoy the field but not in the same pod, although they have their workers that are assigned to their pods. So, it provides for more opportunity to support more young people. So, the good news is even when theyre in these situations, theyre social distancing, but you know how it is when youre a kid and youre out playing, most likely youre going to somehow have some interaction where you might touch or be next to each other. So that is really why the importance of keeping these pods to what they are is significant in preventing the spread of the virus and giving these kids a chance to have their community of people to hang out with. Yeah. I think that is what were going for. It is super important for kids to first of all get outside and reengage and, yes, there will be indoor spaces. But a lot more emphasis on being outside this summer for children. And as you know, mayor, for them to be together and hang out and a under the Health Guidance to your very early point for those who are concerned about the health of our children, under the Health Guidance, kids within the same pod can play sports. They can do certain activities. So, k they play basketball together . Can they together, within the same pod. They can do those activities. And that is why this whole pod concept is very important. Our Public Health officials have been focused on minimizing risk. It is impossible to eliminate it 100 . But minimizing it. And that is the whole premise of these long threeweek sessions and these pods of 12. Depending upon which spaces a camp uses a camp may be able to have only one pod of 12 kids but may be able to have two pods or even three pods. As you know in hamilton or season seth rec center where the richmond or jolie, some of our buildings have multiple spaces, some schools where camps might operate have have multiple spaces. And then weve got the best park system in the country. So, we have plenty of outdoor spaces as well. For each pod, each pod requires a minimum of two staff people and staff cannot circulate between pods. So, again, for all you private camp providers out there, hire kids to help you this summer. All right. Well thank you all so much for the insight. Im sure a lot of parents are excited about this. I am hopeful that, you know, some of the in addition to the private the public camps that well provide with rec and park and a number of rec centers and nonprofit partners will be able to provide a sufficient number of locations within the Public Sector and hopefully in combination with the private sector, many of our kids can have an enjoyable, effective, fun summer. So, we appreciate that and for more information, make sure that we reach out to department of children youth and families on the website or call 311 and before we wrap it up, i do want to talk a little bit about this weekend because its memorial day weekend and typically everyone first of all, the weather in San Francisco, even today, is gorgeous. And most of the time people want to go out and have barbecues and hang out with friends and family and i really like the idea of what you did in terms of circles in park to make it clear like you have to stay away from each other. We want to be next to each other so bad. But at the same time, were doing so well. We still see the numbers of infections going up. But we see the number of hospitalizations going down, the number of those who are in i. C. U. Going down. San francisco is doing well. And the last thing we want to do is get too comfortable and all of a sudden go backwards so we still need people to keep their distance. We still need people to wear masks. We still need people to wash their hands regularly wash your hands but phil, tell us a little bit about what we can expect with the parks this weekend because we are, as much as we know people would want to use the parks, well be out in force regulating during memorial day weekend. Again, we dont want to shut down any parks but if it comes down to that point where things are out of control and arent following the guidelines, we wont have a choice. We really need people to be on their absolute best behavior. So, tell us about what we can expect with our parks this weekend. Sure. I mean, mayor, you covered it perfectly, which is that, look, our parks are super important right now. They are the one place where people can get outside, get some exercise, connect with nature and you have been amazing at making sure that these spaces are open and accessible. But for them to stay open and accessible, people need to do the right thing and over the last 10, 11 weeks, most people have been. But we need to focus and not ease up so you can be outside but you have to socially distance. We still recommend that you wear a mask. No partying, you know, no big events, no big picnics. Just enjoy nature and enjoy a little time with your own immediate family or your own roommates. We will have park ranger, San Francisco police department, Police Officers. Well have sheriffs cadets, fire cadets, Police Cadets and the neighborhood Emergency Response team, all doing education and outreach. There are over 1500 signs in all of our parks indicating what you can and cant do. Just do the right thing so we dont put the mayor in a position where she needs to take more drastic action. It is amazing, mayor, in a lot of cities just threw their hands up and say, oh, parks closed because we dont want to deal with it. You havent done that. Youve kept parks open for people. So, you know, were all asking the public to do the right thing this weekend. The weather will be nice. You will want to get outside. If you have to get in a car, its too far. So go to your neighborhood park, enjoy it. But socially distance. If youre deloris or jackson or the marina green or washington square, weve offered a little bit of popup behavioral art to inspire you to claim your own space. That is the circles that are in some of the parks. And, you know, theyre intended to be joyous and inspirational, but intended to remind everyone that we need to be mindful as we continue to fight this virus. And i just want to say that please dont get offended if, you know, our park rangers or someone walks up to you and asks you, you know, are you guys in the same household just to, you know, make sure that people are following these orders. We have a responsibility. And the other thing is, if youre not the police, then please dont act like youre the police. We dont need you to walk and regulate and tell other people what to do because that creates more drama. It creates more tension. So we are doing the very best we can. We want to make this park and open Space Available to you because we know how challenging this has been. For the most part, san franciscans have followed the order and we are so fortunate that we have amazing residents in the city who are taking this seriously, even though not everyone is complying which has made life difficult in some respects. But please let us deal with that. Were doing our very best to try and reduce this curve to the point of it being nonexistence because i know how badly we want to get back to being out there, to going to work and allowing kids to play. But the fact is coronavirus is with us for some time. It is not about getting back completely to normal. Its about adjusting to our new normal in a responsible way. It is going to take time. Its going to take ai, patience. We appreciate everyone for what you continue to do to help San Francisco be a leader in this effort. Thank you, phil ginsburg, thank you, maria su for your insight. For more information call 311. I know there might be a lot of questions also about the schools and other things. Were happy to continue these conversations based on your feedback. Based on your questions. Because many of us are doing the very best we can. This is not like anything any of us have ever expected. So, were all in this together. Were going to get through this together and that requires us to continue to be patient, get information to you as soon as it is available and just really try to come together, lift one another up, enjoy the memorial day weekend. And thank you all so much for your cooperation. Have a great weekend and well see you next week. Announcer youre watching coping with covid19. Todays special guest is dr. Steven getnick. Hi, im chris man us and youre watching coping with covid19. Today my guest is the director of the Behavior Therapy Center of San Francisco and Professor Emeritus in counseling psychology at the university of San Francisco. Doctor, welcome to the show. Thank you. Lets talk about managing anxieties during this pandemic. What types of issues are people facing at the moment . There are a number of issues and i really want to point out that this is affecting everyone and has come on very quickly. So it is normal. If you are not experiencing some anxiety, something is a touch off because this affects us all. I think some of the main ones are our health and worried about getting the virus and our developing serious complications. I think for a lot of people who are single, living alone, in isolation, has been very difficult. I think being in close quarters with people who we normally have some space from now are together 24 7. Thats produced a lot of stress and anxiety. That loss of connection with others. We already addressed. And having kids home. For a lot of people. Yes, absolutely. What are the other problems that they might have . I think without that dynamic, the good things are not a problem. It is the difficulties we have. And when were together 24 7, again its like hooking everything up to an amplifier. So, what kind of problems could be created from working home from home, perhaps for the first time in your career . A lot of people are not used to working at home and a working at home just isnt the same. For one thing, there is a lack of social interaction. Some people find that that affects them greatly. Some people are actually finding theyre getting more work done at home without distractions from work. The lack of structure is probably the most common. We see it here with work at the office. People are kind of watching. We know that our schedule is, suddenly youre at home and you are on your own. Absolutely. If those are some of the issues people are facing, what are some of the techniques people can use to overcome their anxiety . Caller i think there are many. One of the first is how managing and keeping track of your thinking, we think and talk to ourselves a lot. Thats normal. We have a dialogue with ourselves often and we need to monitor that a bit. People tend to ruminate versus problemsolve. That is they tend to worry about all the things that might go wrong. And what i suggest is, look, there are things that can go wrong, but ruminating about the worstcase scenario is not going to be very productive. Sit down, figure out what the things are that you have to deal with and try to problemsolve. I think any of the selfcontrol techniques for anxiety can be helpful. And there are dozens of them. The common ones are meditation, relaxation techniques, yoga, for example and another is diaphragmattic breathing. If you google that, you can learn diaphragmattic breathing in about 10 minutes online. Its incredibly simple and it is a really nice way to reduce anxiety in the moment. Selfcontrol procedures, exercise. Whether if youre fortunate enough to have equipment at home, thats great. If youre not, get outside and go for a walk, keep your safe distance, of course. But you need to be active. Thats helpful. I think people marry be dealing with information overload at the moment. How do you suggest people manage that . I was just going to say that. I think it is really important to kind of limit the information you get. Not in terms of accuracy. I think in terms of accuracy, you want to identify a few sites where people are coming with evidencebased information and scientific information so you can form yourself well. Once youve informed yourself, you need to not be watching all day long. Ive talked to people who are mesmerized from the tv and a it keeps that anxiety going so you need to limit your viewing for sure. This can be stress for people who have economic concerns and worried about their family and friends and loved ones who are essential workers. What would you suggest they do to help manage anxiety and stress . There is a number of things. One of major ones for depression is behavioral activation. Simply, it really means that people will tend to not be depressed as a number of reinforcing activities to engage in. Whether it is hobbies, you read, you listen to music, you crochet, you whatever. These kinds of things are very important so you want to make sure that youre engaging in activities that literally make you feel better as opposed to sitting around ruminating, worrying about the worstcase scenarios that might happen. What about trying to do some selfdevelopment . Yeah. Its a very interesting time. Ive talked to a couple of my own clients who are finding, in a very positive way, that this isolation, while at first can generate a lot of anxiety, particularly if youre just not good at living alone. For a number of people, its giving them a chance to sit back and really think about what is important in their lives, what are the priorities. I think that maybe if there is any Silver Lining in this epidemic, its really forcing all of us to kind of rethink whats really important. Indeed. You know, though, at the same time, there are people who are feeling very lonely at home. How would you encourage them to overcome that . You get online. Facetime, skype, zoom, like what were doing right now. You can stay connected. Its very possible. Most connections are important. We are social critters and we need that connection. I think for people who dont have those options, pull up photos, take a look at pictures of family. You need to stay connected. And its very important. And finally, do you have any suggestions that are specifically for families . Yeah. Well, again, i think one of the interesting things thats come about from all of this, is i talked to families on video is theyre obviously spending more time together. While its a bit awkward, particularly for parents who are in the house working a lot. Its a chance to really deepen relationships and spend more good, quality time together. I think parents really need to step back and kind of plan their day a little bit. Not micro manage it, but have some ideas. Can the family play games together . A lot of people i talked to, theyre even together as a family for the first time. So i think there are a number of things that people can do. I think it is qulaouzful for the families to take five, 10 minutes and say how did the day go . I talked to someone in the phone book before we started who said they noticed what time of day all their anxiety kind of comes together and they start sniping at each other. Now theyre taking a few minutes at tend of the day to say, ok, how are we doing . I think they need modeling good behavior, something you can do within the family, too, to try to thats right. I think thats relevant. Very relevant to how children are going to do. Most of the research from crises, particularly things we cant control showed that children do as well as their parents do. So i think it is important for parents to think about how theyre react aing and they stay calm because whatever they do is modeling, coping for their children. So, that can be very useful. It can also be problematic. When we talked earlier, you mentioned that acknowledging that your kids are afraid is important. Yes. I think that ties to your last question. I think modeling you know, its not incompatible with saying, yeah, you know, mom or dad is a little nervous, too. It means a lot of stuff is going on, but were going to be ok. Were going to stay together. We have our time together. Were going to be safe. Well fill in the blank. So you can do both. You can reassure but in a realistic way that once the kids know its normal to be anxious in these times. Thank you for coming ton show, doctor. I really appreciate the time youve given us. Youre welcome. Thank you for having me. And that is it for this episode. Well be back with more covid19 related information shortly. You have been coping with covid19. As a woman of color who grew up in San Francisco i understand how institutions can have an impact on communities of color. I think having my voice was important. That is where my passion lies when the opportunity to lead an office in such a new space came up. I couldnt turn it down. I was with the District Attorneys office for a little over nine years, if you include the time as an intern as well as volunteer da, all most 13 years. During the time with the das office i had an opportunity to serve the community not only as the assistant District Attorney but as director of community relations. That afforded the opportunity to have impact on the community in an immediate way. It is one thing to work to serve the rights of those without rights, victims. It is really rewarding to work to to further the goals of our office and the commitment we have as City Employees and advocates for people who dont have a voice. I dont know of anyone surprised to see me in this role. Maybe people have an impression what the director of the office of cannabis should be like, what their beliefs should be. I smash all of that. You grew up in the inner city of San Francisco. My career path is not traditional. I dont think a person should limit themselves to reach full potential. I say that to young women and girls. That is important. You want to see leadership that looks diverse because your path is not predetermined. I didnt wake up thinking i was going to be a prosecutor in my life. The city administrator reached out and wanted to have a conversation and gave me interest in the new role. I thought you must not know what i do for a living. It was the opposite. She had foresight in realizing it would be helpful for somebody not only a former prosecutor but interested in shaping criminal Justice Reform for the city would be the right person for the space. I appreciate the foresight of the mayor to be open how we can be leaders in San Francisco. I was able to transition to the policy space. Here i was able to work on legislation, community relations, communication and start to shape the ways our office was going to reform the criminal Justice System. It is fulfilling for me. I could create programs and see those impact peoples lives. I am the change. It took truants youth to meet with Civil Rights Movement leaders who fought to have access to education. Being a young person to understand that helped the young people realize this was an important thing to give up. What we find is that young people who are truanted have a really high homicide rate in our city, which is a sad statistic. We want to change that. Coming from a community we are black and brown. I dont reach out to other people. I dont think they feel the same way. I had the great opportunity to work on Prison Reform issues and criminal Justice Reform issues. We created a program at san quentin where we brought district opportunities t to lifs and talk about how we are all impacted by the criminal Justice System. We brought over 40 elected das to san quentin for the situation. Now we are inviting the police department. Our formerly incarcerated group born out of this programming asked for the opportunity to work on a project where we could bring the men in blue on the outside to come speak to the men on blue inside to start the healing dialogue around how the criminal Justice System specifically in San Francisco impacts the community. I was attracted to the role. There was a component of equity that was part of this process. The Equity Community here in San Francisco is a community that i had already worked with. Before i took steps to visit cannabis businesses i thought it was important my team have a chance to go inside and speak to men who ha had been impacted. That conversation needed to happen so we know how we are making an impact with the work that we are doing. The das office as we were leading up to the legalization of marijuana in the state we started having conversations on the policy team what that could look like. The District Attorney was really focused on the right side of history for this. We realized it would be quite a heavy lift for individuals who have been negatively impacted by the war on drugs to expunge the record. It was important to figure out the framework to make it seamless and easy. They put their minds to it after some time and many conversations the data analysts and other policy walk throughs on the team came up with the idea to engage the Tech Community in this process. Code for america helped us developed the rhythm to be used for any jurisdiction across the state that was important to create a solution to be used to assist all jurisdictions dealing with this matter. The office of cannabis is the first office to have a completely digital application process. We worked with the digital team to develop the online application. There are going to be hiccups. We are first to do it. It is one of the most rewarding parts to offer a seamless to offer a seamless approach. That is how they can find solutions to solve many of the community challenges. The best way to respond to prop 64 was to retroactively expunge 9,000 cannabis related records for San Francisco. It feels like justice full circle for my personal experience. In the past i was furthering the war on drugs just as my directive. Really coming from a place of public safety. That was the mandate and understanding. It is nice to see that pass a society we are able to look at some of our laws and say, you know what . We got it wrong. Lets get this right. I had the privilege of being in the existing framework. My predecessor Nicole Elliott did an incredible job bringing together the individuals superpassionate about cannabis. The office was created in july of 2017. I came in early 2018. I have been able to see the Offices Development over time which is nice. It is exciting to be in the space, stickily in thinking about her leadership. Looking for the office it is always we might be before my time when i was working for the board oforboard of supervisors. I learn new things every day it is challenging and rewarding for me. We get the privilege to work in an office tha that is innova. We get to spearhead the robust exprogram. I am excited she came on board to leverage experience as a prosecutor 10 years as we contemplate enforcements but approaching it without replicating the war on drugs. I was hired by cam laharris. I havent seen a District Attorney that looked kind of like me. That could be a path in my life. I might not have considered it. It is important that women and certainly women of color and spaces of leadership really do their part to bring on and mentor as many young people as they can. It is superimportant to take advantage of as many opportunities a as they can when they can intern because the doors are wide open. Plans change and that is okay. The way this was shaped because i took a risk to try something new and explore something and show that i was capable. You are capable, right . It was about leaning in and being at the table to say my voice matters. You find your passion, the sky [ ] i actually knew when i was young, when i was in high school. It was the iconic dancer. [ ] the hula that he did was what im totally accustom to. The extensions that he did where he left hula flavor of the rest of his dance and performance was almost like stepping into a new sphere. Its not just the physical, the movements and the tempo and the lyrics, its that he keeps it, i think, philosophically connected. [ ] he was young. He was ready to be molded. He came with a combination of fear and respect and awe many of its a Perfect Place for a new student to be because it offers you that opportunity to mold them. With patrick, when he came to class, he was like a sponge. Like a sponge. And he kept true to it. You know what im saying. When it was starting to study, he was so intense. He had to be told to relax. Patrick is a sweetest, kindest, most loving man i met. He is charismatic. He is motivating. He is inspiring. He is brilliant when it comes to choreography. Youve got the whole package. I think patrick is a good example within the whole world of being able to have a firm grasp on past traditions while shooting forward. The First Time Ever i kissed your mouth with hula songs, theyre in hawaiian. Not Everybody Knows hawaiian. When you watch a hula, you dont understand the story being told. He can use ledge songs and put a hula do it and everybody understands what its about. [ ] when they came out in that black and that one simple hairpiece, less is more. You get to enjoy the dance. You get to enjoy the faith. Those are the things i look for. [ ] i think he is one of the best risk takers. And he makes me braver, to try things. I love thinking of an audience going, what the hell. What . [ ] i think its all about variety. He looks for Something Else that could relate to other cultures, other people other than just hawaiians, it allows him to explore other cultures. They are so loyal to him. Whatever he brings, they know that they will be surprised, entertained. A part of something that is inclusive rather than exclusive. [ ] he loves San Francisco. San francisco embraced him when he needed it most. And he is on a constant give back. He has built such a nice inga tral working relationship with the community. His passion for it is, i think what touched me most. Theres a drive there. Theres this energy that comes from him that motivates you to do better. It motivates you to do more. It gave me that encouragement to start my own group. To do what he is doing. I want to replicate that. I have some young hula students that are excited to be a part of that lynn age where it falls back and goes all the way back. It motivates them to want to keep doing it. Im very proud to be the fly on your wall. To know that you have made me proud and that you will carry the legacy with you. He is so deserving of this legacy and it will carry on. With everything that he has given. You do leave a legacy in passing. You go. You go catch your legacy. And you continue to teach hula. You come back and you learn more stuff and you keep teaching me about that kind of stuff. And then, with all of that, laugh. [ ] [ ] hi, youre watching coping with covid19. Today im going to the grocery store. Now, im not an authority about the virus. Im just showing you what im personally doing. To find out the most definitive and uptodate information about the pandemic, i highly recommend the f. A. Q. Available at sf. Gov. Im taking a list and before i leave i put a sanitizing wind and pair of gloves into a plastic bag. Im wearing a mask and taking the smallest number of items with me. Just my car key, credit card, i. D. And the batching im not taking my phone with me. Even if i use it to pay, i either have to touch the p. I. N. Pad or sign the screen anyway. Im concerned about crosscontamination. I dont want to transfer the virus from my gloves to the phone and then to my face. Whin i get out of the car, i put on my gloves and get a grocery cart. The essential workers at my store are doing a great job. Theyre sanitizing every cart and limiting the number of shoppers. Having a cart can help you protect your space. In this store, there are two new science on the floor. Ones directional to encourage everyone to take the same route around the store. The second is to remind shoppers to maintain a safe distance from each other. When im done shopping and ready to pay, i stand in line at least six feet from the shopper in front of me. After unloading my car at check out, i go past the cashier and pack my own bags. That is one less person touching my groceries and less of a burden on the stores employees. I thank the cashier and leave the store. On my drive home, im careful not to touch my face. I leave my outside shoes on the porch and as soon as i get through the door, i wash my hands for at least 20 seconds. Next, i wipe down my debit card, i. D. And car key. And then i wipe down the front doorknob, clean the sink taps and wash my hands again. I wash my vegetables in cold water and remove the package aing from my proteins and other items. I leave the nonperishables in my garage for a few days unless i need them immediately. My refrigerated items get a quick winddown to be on the safe side and, of course, i wacker my hands again. Heres a quick recap of my visit to the grocery store. That is it for this episode. I hope you found it helpful. Hi, everybody. Im San Francisco mayor london breed and im joined here today by our county Health Officer, dr. Thomas aragon. He is a native san franciscan and has been with the department for over 10 years, has been responsible for all of the decisions that are being made to keep us all safe and healthy. Just yesterday, we made an announcement about a safe reopening plan and i want to talk a little bit with him today about the kinds of decisions, the very hard decisions as a Public Health officer that he has to make to keep us safe. I want to touch a bit on how are we going to reopen safely. Why the decisions around masks and locations that are opening at the time they are opening. I know so many of you have so many questions and also there is a lot of uncertainty. So today we want you to meet your county Health Officer and we want to dig deep and talk about why the decisions that are made are important for us to follow and what we can do to remain safe and healthy in San Francisco. At this time, i just want to welcome you, doctor. Thank you so much for your work. We know that that we have been working hand in hand with other county Health Officers throughout the bay area. A lot of hard decisions that weve had to make in every step of the way, i know you focused on Public Health. Lets start from the beginning. I know that initially we were having discussions about the need to start to reduce the number of people at events and then finally begot to this shutdown and it was necessary. So tell us a little bit about how the decision was made to really get to this point. Thats a really good question. If you remember in march, everything was moving incredibly fast around the world. We saw what was happening in italy. We saw the number of cases, the number of deaths and understanding the information that was coming out of [inaudible] so i think that [echoing] i think that that information that was coming out and seeing how other countries were responding, the United States has not been there yet. We did not have a surveillance system. And so as we moved and started shutting things down, i think that really set the mindset. We were incorrodably supported by yourself, elected officials in the bay area were very supportive of everything as we moved forward. I think that is what really set up the ability for us to collectively make a decision because we really felt we have the support of elected officials and also of the population. That was on march 16 that we got together and decided collectively to do the shelter in place. Yeah. And i remember those days because i remember as i was given arbitrary numbers of, you know, closures of events, i got to a point i know i ran out of. A little patience when i felt like, well, why sit 100 versus 50 or why is it 1,000 versus 500 . We got to a point where we knew that, in order to protect as many people as we can, we were going to get to that point so why continue to kick the can down the road . So, we appreciate the support and the guidance you proud on helping us to make that decision. Tell me the role of a county Health Officer. I am making decisions and leading the city, but im getting advice from from my county Health Officer. Thats you. Tell us about your role for Public Health in San Francisco. The way it works in california so, authority really exists at the state level. And in california, were fortunate what they do is that every Health Jurisdiction has a physician Health Officer, by law, to implement Legal Authority around Health Issues throughout california. And so thats existed for many, many years and so its a big state to have policies that are customized to the issues that people are facing. San franciscos very unique because were a city and a county. Whereas the county Health Officer in los angeles has to deal with 88 cities. I only have to deal with one city. So, it makes it a little bit it makes it easier for San Francisco to be much more agile in responding to Public Health threats and i think that is one of reasons why San Francisco has been a leader in Public Health is because were very agile and so that is basically how it works. So, yesterday we made an announcement. Working with the Economic Recovery Task force, the department of Public Health, we focused on and our assessor recorder who has been leading this effort, we talked about ways to reopen safely. And we announced this plan and, of course, it was really challenging. Because vefn though, from your perspective, you see the numbers are changing and the testing is going up, the p. P. E. And were in a better place. People really are frustrated. They feel like this is moving too slow. And they dont understand why one business over another is able to open or why museums are able to open. Or why did we pick the things we did to open. Again, people are this is not just about me wanting to go to the hair salon. This is about the fact is those folks who have hair salons in places with direct contact with people, they have no income coming in and they are struggling. So, can you talk a little bit about the decisions that youre making . I mean, i believe theyre too conservative. You believe that they are a little bit faster than what you would like them to be. Help us understand what goes into making a decision as to who is reopening and why, based on our s. F. Safe reopening plan. So, one thing to appreciate that we have never experienced this before. So, while it was in some ways straight forward to shut down the economy, opening it up is much more complex because theres so many stakeholders that are involved. And the city cannot act by itself so we work with a region and we work with the state. So weve been working with the state and really making sure that we have smart alignment with the state. The state has some challenges because theyre going to come out with recommendations thats almost a one size fits all for california. So, while it may be too slow for humboldt county, it may be too fast for San Francisco. We face some very unique vulnerabilities that other cities dont face. Were the second densest city in the country. We have, when commuters come in, we have a lot of folks and so while we have made incredible progress, we want to lock in those gains. We want to lock in those gains. And we want to move forward in a way that is going to be safe for everybody. Were really committed to not moving backwards and i think as we learn more about this virus and how it acts, we want to move forward and not backwards and safely in alignment with our region and the state. So, doctor, heres my pushback on that because, for example, in Grocery Stores where the system exists or even target is open because it has a component of a grocery store, you wait in line, youre wearing your mask. Only a limited number of people are able to go in. Youre still there. Theres no rules about what you can and cant touch, even though people are, for the most part, socially distancing themselves within those stores and those locations. And theyre not probably touching as much. They may have gloves. So, why is it that, like, for example, book stores and other retail businesses, you know, why why cant they do the same thing sooner rather than later . So, what happened was that we realised is that to open up the economy, we had to phase things in. So, that is really critical. And the state provided an overall framework and Economic Recovery Task force applied criteria to identify the areas that had the highest risk and the lowest risk. And what you do is you start with the lowest risk areas and you just slowly move through those phases. And one of the challenges is that some people in the later phases say i can do that safely and that may very well be true. Its just that we cant do everything at once and that is really the challenge. Even though some people some industries in later phases could, in theory, do things safely. We have to phase it out so that we dont move too fast. The next thing we do is we give it about two to four weeks to really understand the implications of what we just did. Because we dont want to do too much and then have to move backward. Just to give you an idea, theres already two counties and one is sonoma and the other is lassen where they felt they moved a little too fast. Sonoma is slowing down and lassen pulled back from one of their reopenings. It is critical for us to be mindful and make sure we have enough time to make sure that we dont get ourselves into trouble. Check the numbers. And then continue to move forward. And i think what we do know from the 1918 influenza pandemic, those areas that moved at a good pace did better economically because they did not have a large second wave of infections. Lets talk about that. While were averting one public Health Crisis, were unfortunately creating another. And so i know that depression is seting in with some people. Folks who had no income and no ability to take care of themselves and their families. We know that domestic violence, suicide, child abuse, all these things are a result of what we see happen and it is even worse for people in lowincome and poverty. On the one hand, we are lowering the curve and really been a leader in that effort but there is another public Health Crisis that is brewing as a result of the decisions that were making. How are we expected to sustain this . How are we expected to continue to live like this while, you know, there still are a lot of people suffering from something thats a different public Health Crisis. I agree. I agree with you completely. And i think thats really one of the challenges and, you know, when the Health Officers talk about the issues, we recognize that when you look at health in its complete way, the way youre describing, we absolutely have to take into account those tradeoffs. And that is for me. My personal commitment, i feel like im now on a mission. I feel like im on a mission to get us to open up as safely and as quickly as possible because we know that we have to have get back to work, people have to get back to seeing their doctors and people have to pay the bills, pay the rent, pay for schoolsment all of those things that all of us need are absolutely critical and that is one of the reasons why some people say to us why are we being so strict . Its because i want to keep moving forward and i completely appreciate everything that you are bringing up and that is what makes these decisions very difficult. And what about the seniors living in isolation and need to see their family members in what about the kids who are maybe, you know, only children who havent played with another kid for this long . Like this is not sustainable. Like emotional, its having an impact on peoples lives so i think it is going to be important that we give guidance. Like what kind of guide . The fact is, people for the most part r going to see their parents or their relatives or scheduling playdates and i know that we have said that is not a good idea. But people are probably going to do it anyway because they have probably had it. And i honestly dont blame them. So tell us a little bit about how people can do these things safely. I think human behaviour, we cant help ourselves. We want to be around one another. And we want to interact one another. I guess that we want to stop the virus, but we also have a you know, if my grandmother were still alive, she were at laguna honda, if she were still alive it would literally kill me not to go up and see her. So i just need you to help us understand, how are we going to see our relatives and other friends and folks safely. What is the solution to . To this . You are bringing up a really important issue and actually the Health Officers right now and actually the Health Department is going to design new strategies to bring people together, to bring households together for just the very reason that youre saying. And so in some ways we feel like can we dodge this bullet . And now we have time to do this right and youll be seeing over hopefully over the next week, well be coming out with recommendations for the region on how families, just the way youre describing, can really come together. But we want them to really think through and make sure that they do it safely so we want them to be a aware of the physical distancing, wearing the Face Covering and washing their hands. Its really important for social connections to stay strong and so we will were moving in that directionful and youll hear more about it in the next few days. Because we also know that, for example, there is going to be limitations to our summer quafrp and limited capacity for child care so what about those families whose kids dont make it into child care or summer camp . What are they going to do with, you know, their children. How how how are we going to make sure that they have access to other kids . And they have access to the abilities to be around one another and be around one another. I think i noticed that i see a lot of teenagers Walking Around together with one another. Some of them are wearing masks, some of them arent, but its really tough. I do think it is going to be important that, as we continue to try and push forward more health directives, if we expect people to follow them, you know, we gotta also think about human nature to provide them with safe guidelines to do so. So that, as you said, we dont see a surge and we dont go backwards. So, i know folks are going to be looking forward to those guidelines because this is going to be critical to our ability to meet the goals of waiting for things to open and get back to work and the other things that we need to do. And im expressing the frustration of the people of San Francisco because we know it is a fluid situation and i know people are tired. And it is really hard to sustain it and now there is another Face Covering requirement. Can you tell us about that requirement and why is it now 30 feet, why are the requirements a lot they seem stricker. Can you talk about what the new requirements are around Face Coverings . Yeah. Let me just really quickly just give a very quick background and why were very concerned. When you think of covid19 disease, we know that its more infectious than the flu. Its 10 times more deadly than the flu. And so were very concerned as we begin to open things up, how do we do it in a way that we continue to move forward . That is the first thing. Because there is no vaccine and no real effective treatment, we only have a few tools available to us. One of them was the hammer, which was shelter in place. We dont want to go there. We want to move away from that. We have only a few things left, which is physical distancing, Face Coverings and hand washing. And so now we want to make sure, as we lift shelter in place, that were doing the best we can in those areas. To give you an idea about Face Coverings. So, we know from the science thats emerging and from the mathematical models that have been developed that, if 80 of people wear face masks or Face Coverings consistently, we can prevent outbreaks. That is humongous. And so its really important for us to appreciate that. The countries that are being successful in keeping their economies open are the countries that have universal Face Coverings so we have to have we have for the next year, until we get a vaccine, this is only temporary, it is not going to be forever. Until we get to the place where we have a vaccine and we can safely have everybody most people immune, this is the bridge that is going to get us there. It turns out that the risk is very low, but the benefit is very high and it is going to allow us to have more movement and families to getting to and, over time, as the infection goes down and the risk goes down, were going to more and more people will be able to come together. So, it is going to have a big impact. So, why 30 feet, i guess. Compared to initially six feet. So, heres the way that i want you to think about it is that if every time you walk outside whenever you go outside the home, and there down, were going to more and more people will be able to come together. So, it is going to have a big impact. So, why 30 feet, i guess. Compared to initially six feet. So, heres the way that i want you to think about it is that if every time you walk outside whenever you go outside the home, and there is a good chance that youre going to have contact with people who are not part of your household, we want you to have a Face Covering. That is the first thing. Easy to remember. When im outside my home and there is a good chance that im going to have contact with people that are not part of my household, then i should have a Face Covering. And theres two basis scenarios that that ha. That that happens. Theres moving around, walking down a crowded street and hiking down a path. So the 30 feet is being hindful that as you approach 10 yards is to put your Face Covering on. Its about using common sense l. You have enough time to go ahead and put on your Face Covering. 30 feet, some people like to think of 10 yards if you like football or soccer or think of two average cars. So, when youre walking down the street. The other one is when youre stationary and this is really the more common one that you are talking about and that is six feet. So, if youre in the park with your family and youre away from everybody else and eating lunch or having a picnic, go ahead and put that down. This morning, when i got when i was leaving my house to work, across the street was a father and a daughter. He was holding her hand and they were walking the dog. Theyre totally outside and they didnt have to wear a mask and that is exactly how it should be. We give people plenty of opportunities to go ahead and pull it down so they can get fresh air. As long as youre not close to anybody, go ahead and pull it down so you feel comfortable. So, one of challenges weve had are runners. I noticed it, too. For some reason there are people who are running and i would say, you know, 50 of the time theyll get out of your way and move away from you. But sometimes they just run right past you and are so tell us why that people are saying im a runnerment im not going to run with a mask on. That is ridiculous, right . And im not a runner, but i know that it is hard enough to breathe in a mask sometimes. So, how do you expect people who are outdoors who want to exercise to wear a . Afk a mask . What are the guidelines . Basically follow the same common sense guidelines. Ill give you the example that i do. I like to run up to twin peaks and so what i do is actually just have my mask right here and most runners actually, this is some of the runner magazines that they recommend to folks. Run around when theres no people. When theres nobody around you you dont have to have it on. But when youre running by a family, lets say, go ahead and put it on. That is the 30foot rule, the 10yard rule. And when you pass them and no one else around, go ahead and pull it down. Were trying to make sure its really common sense so that people do it in a way that is respectful of other people as they come close to each other and come near each other for a short period of time. The 10yard rule is to remind them to slip it on and then when youre past them and alone again, slip it down. Were not expecting people to wear it the whole time. If im at the park and having a little picnic in one of my circles, then most likely i can leave mask off. Correct. Exactly. Yes. Ok. All right. I get that there is a lot of confusion there and sounds like were telling people be on your best behaviour. Use common sense. Dont police other peopleful just do the best you can. Were all in this together and we want to make sure that we keep people safe and keep ourselves safe and keep other people safe. Exactly. And the way you described it is perfect. Ok. Heres the other question. Say, for example, woe see the numbers blow us away and surprise us and go down considerably. Is there any chance that, based on the timeline of the dates of reopening, is there any chance that we could see that timeline moved up or things moved out of the timeline and up into the forefront . So, you mean moving the intervals closer . So, for example, if we see all of a sudden over the next week, we see a sharp decline, right, in the number of hospitalizations and we already see testing has gone up considerably. Were doing a great job with testing. So, we see a sharp decline and whatever you need to see a decline in. All of a sudden, you know, theres a strong desire for people to see more happening faster. Do you think there is a possibility that this safe reopening plan could be moved up so that is some of these things are available sooner rather than later . Ill give you a perfect example. Museum, right . Its not because i want to go to a museum, but i think about the people who work at the museum, the security who works at the museum and the fact is you dont need to touch anything at the museum and there is ways in which we can guide people in the restrooms and so on and so forth. The academy of sciences, theyre furloughing employees. But these are locations where theres a real possibility to limit capacity and theyre in phase three. Im using them as an example. Youre asking a really good question. And i think for us the way that weve been thinking about this is because its because San Francisco just we know that were we know that were just higher risk. That is the baseline. And so thats why weve been really anchoring to the state road map and the state road map is moving very fast and is very likely for some of the things that youre mentioning, is very likely to allow more and more of these things to happen. And so if the state allows that to happen, we will look at we will if the state starts moving faster, well look at our number and if it looks like we can do it, then were going to go ahead and implement it safely in San Francisco. That is what were allowing the state to really be that [inaudible] that they [echoing [ yeah. And i want to express my appreciation again for your leadership and also for the timeline and giving the people of San Francisco a lot more certainty about what to expect. It is not what we want, of course. We want more. And i will continue to push for more. But, you know, i appreciate the opportunity to have this open discussion. You know, i just want to say to the people of San Francisco, again, thank you for all that you are doing to help us through this. The better that you follow the guidelines around masking, around social distancing and hand washing, the safer we will be faster which will give us an opportunity to do more. And i know were asking a lot of the people of San Francisco and we appreciate that for the majority of you, you follow these protocols and were also well aware that some people are really suffering. And that is at the forefront of our minds when trying to push for changes faster. But we also want to make sure that we are safe and we dont roll back the gains that we made so far. Its difficult. It requires a lot of sacrifice. Its easier for us to ask you to do it than i know it is for you to actually do i. But we appreciate everything that all of you have done to take part in helping to keep San Francisco safe and healthy. You know, i know it is one thing to be a leader and another thing to be the person stressed out and whether or not they will be able to hold on to their shop or hold on to their apartment after this is over. So, we are keep, those things in mind and i appreciate the work that you are doing, doctor. Thank you for joining us here today. Please feel free to continue to submit your questions. These conversations are really about trying to get to the heart of the questions and concerns that people have. Rather than to do just a regular press conference. This is an opportunity for us to have a discussion about everyday questions that people have. You can definitely call 311 for testing or other questions and concerns or feel free to email me, mayor london breed sfgov. Org and thank you for joining us here today. Thank you