Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Land Use Committee 20240712

State wide sta stay at home ordr and declarations of directives. Committee members will attend the meeting through Video Conference and participate in the meeting to the same ex at the present time if theyre present. Public comment will be available on each item on this agenda. On channel 26 and sftvgov. Org. Each speaker will allowed two minutes to specific. And call the none on the screen. 408 4189388. The meeting i. D. Is 146 9957258. Again, thats 146 9957294and you will hear the meeting discussion and you will be muted in is lening mode only. When your item of interest comes up dial star 3 to be added to the speaker line. Call from a quiet location, speak clearly and slowly and turn down your television or radio. You may submit Public Comment in either of the following ways. Email myself, the land use and transportation clerk, at erica. Major at sfgov. Org. If you submit Public Comment ve email it will be supervised to the supervisors included as part of the official file. Finally, items acted upon today are expected to appear on the board of supervisors agenda jule stated. Thank you please read the first and only item on todays calender. An emergency ordinance to establish cleaning and disease prevention standards in Tourist Hotel and Large Commercial Office buildings to help contain covid19. Members of the public, who wish to provide Public Comment on this item, call 408 4189388 and the meeting idea is 1469957258 and if you have not already done so, press star 3 to lineup to speak. You will be indicated that your hand will raise. Thank you, ms. Major. I want to start by thanking my co sponsors, the vicechair of this committee, supervisor safai as well as supervisor walton and i want to recognize my chiefofstaff, sunny angulo who has been working on this legislation over a number of months as the city gets closer to reopening. I represent the district that has long fueled the citys local economy with respect both to tourism asper wonderrance and Northeast Corner in San Francisco and downtown and knob hill and Fishermans Warf as well as office uses in the north of market area, the traditional downtown portion of San Francisco. Its without question that the covid19 pandemic has hit this city hard, not just because of the loss of visitors during this time but also to the impacts to workers and our essential workers. We all know from our daily brief beings with the department of publichealth that our essential workers, particularly are lowwage workers of color and in the Latin X Community are at the top of the list of the most vulnerable grapple to go the virus. Tens of thousands of jobs of San Franciscos ability to attract visitors and San Francisco has really set the standard tornado gating the spread of covid19 starting with the early shelter in place ordinance to an order that my office worked on with the department of publichealth, which created and the Mayors Office which created minimum cleaning standards for our singleresident occupancy hotels. We know that strong sanitization and cleaning protocols have been a key factor in reventing the spread of the virus and keeping our transmission numbers down in San Francisco where we have really been a leader around the country and around the world. So, as we move to reopen, we have to do so safely and to the recovery phase, today it was looking first at guidance set by the World Health Organization and as the culmination of months of discussion and collaboration with our department of publichealth as well as the real experts themselves. Including those Office Buildings. This morning, the secretary treasurer of unite here in local 2, had a piece in the chronicle where they eloquently stated housekeepers, know about cleaning rooms. Listen to us. And to that end, we have received over 1800 letters and emails into court of this emergency measure as well as a few dozen emails from the Hotel Industry and the representatives in opposition. And i want to be clear about what we are going to do during Public Comment. Theres a multi billion dollar industry that has been cutting corners when it comes to reopening. We have seen it in las vegas, we have seen it in other cities in as as were the health of guests and their workers has been con prom highed. Compromised. They want to cut housekeeping out even though international publichealth guidance recognizes the problems with letting grime and germs buildup on high touch surfaces. For the corporate c. E. O. S in this Hotel Industry, many of whom i have to note have gotten federal bailouts from the trump administration, actually President Trump himself owns a number of hotels, lets be real, this is all about money. But today, we have an opportunity to vote on the correct side of history and pass policy that puts publichealth and visitors and worker safety first and make San Francisco. I have a number of non substantive amendments that i will introduce and that have been circulated to the clerk and the members of this committee and with that, i will turn it over to my cosponsor, supervisor safai. Superivsor safai thank you, mr. Chair. I think you hit on a lot of the important points. One of the things that i wanted to say is that its really important that when were thinking about the perspective of this and you did, you did emphasize this, i just want to reemphasize this, were looking that the through the perspective of the workforce. This really important to think about how many of these conversations have played out over the last few decades. Whether were talking about daily cleaning, guest rooms. Whether were talking about the amount of men and women it takes to clean an office building. I have the Great Fortune of working on the frontlines with the janitors and as they cleaned Office Buildings, ive actually cleaned an office building. Ive walked a day in the shoes with these members Standing Shoulder to shoulder with them over an eightyear period. I think its very important to think about this through the perspective of workers. I think my cosponsor, mr. Chair, supervisor peskin, has dedicated his career to that. I know ive dedicated my career to that. I know supervisor preston cares about that. Were looking at this through the lens of the workforce and pulling on their experiences and what they have done in this industry. So when we talk about the Current Practice right now of leaving an option to guess whether they want their room cleaned, thats a Current Practice. To remove that and say to move to another step to say that rooms dont need to be cleaned, that is something that the Hotel Industry has wanted for many years. And thats not something that we would support in this legislation. In fact, we say that rooms should be cleaned daily whether a guest decides not to. Office buildings need a significant amount of disinfect ants and cleaning in all common years. There will be thoughtful amendments made today on the amount of times that should happen. Those are reasonable. But at the end of the day, we want to elevate and ensure that the workers and the workforce are protected. As weve seen this week, if we open up too soon, theres false starts that happen. And cases begin to rise and we put peoples lives in danger. Whose lives are being put in languager . These essential workers that are doing this work on a daily basis. We all want the hotel and tourist industry to open back up. We all want Office Buildings to open back up but we have to do it in a safe way and i believe we struck that balance with the amendments well make today. I also want to say that our county Health Officer, when he understood exactly what we were talking about, i think he engage dr. Tomb as aragon he engage very wonderfully in this process and helped guide the amendments that were talking about and some of the conversations listening to the workforce, listening to the industry and understanding the best way to proceed is. Ill save the rest of my comments for after Public Comment. Mr. Chair, but i think as you said, we have a a wonderful opportunity here to set a standard for an entire industry in this country as we have in other areas being the first, one of the first in the country to be cognizant of shutting down and sheltering in place. Many of the standards and lessons were learning to think about, whether its giving paid time off to get tested so theyll be free to believe that they wont have any retribution for going to get tested. And those cleaning standards and those standards will then make Office Workers feel comfortable to come back to the office and feel comfortable to come back and visit our hotels and our great cities. Thank you mr. Chair and im proud to be a lead cosponsor on this really thoughtful piece of legislation to help our hotel and Office Workers in San Francisco. Thank you, vicechair safai. Supervisor preston. Thank you. Id like to be add as a cosponsor and would like to thank you for the really excellent piece of legislation and just wanted to associate myself with your comments and supervisors safais comments and also add i think this strikes of balance of having specificity of making it meaningful while having the flexibility to make it workable and it just strikes me in reading it that these are more are just broad statements these are specific commitment and requirements and im particularly pleased to see the portions of the law that i think are absolutely essential that deal with protecting workers from retaliation if they believe theres an unsafe workplace and it either report that or refuse to work in an environment that is unsafe and unhealthy. I think its absolutely essential as well as the more enforcement provisions but the anti protections are essential for our essential workers who are putting themselves at risk no matter what precautions are taken in the midst of a pandemic, we know that our essential workers are putting themselves at some level of risk and this ordinance will significantly reduce that risk for workers as well as for folks who are working in these buildings or visiting these buildings. I wanted to to thank you for a thoughtful piece of legislation and thank you for those in your office who i know worked hard on this. Thank you supervisor preston. Madam clerk, lets open this up to Public Comment. Clerk operations is checking to see if there are any callers in queue. Looks like we have 37 listeners and 15 in queue. First speaker, please. Good afternoon, supervisors, my name is nick im with the Environmental Organization in california. Where a state wide Environmental Organization based in sacramento but we have members all over the state. We submitted a letter on friday with some concerns that we noticed for the ordinance. I apologize that we did not engage earlier. It was not on the radar of the Environment Community until the the end of last week and there was a letter submitted in the sur Rider Foundation and we have a couple concerns. One is the requirement to use singleuse bags which seem unnecessary and goes beyond the recommendations of cdc and then similarly, the requirements to clean the rooms everyday seems to be contrary to commonsense in terms of reducing contact and reducing exposure for workers. And we would encourage the board to consider any process at the department of publichealth or through another entity that could engage hello . Thank you. Next speaker, please. Thank you. President of the united local 2. Thank you for taking think. As you know our union started expressing concerns about the future of the Hotel Industry a couple months ago. Company executives were telling investors they saw opportunities it was a chance to make higher profits. Of course we were worried. Hotel workers are the hardest hit by covid layoffs and they face an uncertain future. Those fears arent theoretical anymore. If you want to see what happens when you leave it to the big hotel chains, to decide their own cleaning standards just look at some the place thats have reopened. Tourist destinations like las vegas, new orleans, and florida. Sheets are going uncleaned and corners are being cut. Workers are going unprotected. Hotel employees are dying as a result. Theres no better case for regulating Business Practices than what were seeing in those places. This just about covid. Its bringing tourists back in the coming years. As the situation and las vegas is known, its not just Hotel Workers who are scared. So too are guests. What happens . Las vegas doesnt really stay in las vegas and it will shape the opinions for years to come. San francisco needs to tell the world were not going there. Were charting a different course all together. All of our hotels should be held with the highest standards now and after covid is see limb is. The healthy building ordinance does that 6789 i hop. I hope it passes and i want to thank you for your leadership and your time today. Next speaker, please. Caller hi. The lodging association. We strongly oppose this pressure so that the health and safety of guests and employees can remain in the hands of publichealth experts. As the hotel communities tries to rebound from the collapse of the demand due to the covid pandemic, ensuring the safety of guests in hotels associates is paramount. Unfortunately, this ordinance before you today goes well beyond any publichealth guidance and will increase covid exposure risk for our associates and our guests and create an incredible strain on the bids Business Operations. It includes requiring regular cleaning at least every 30 minutes of literally dozens of locations, furniture, equipment and ex creasing exposure between guests and employees. Cleaning and dis inspectin disig contradicts cdc guidance. Opening non automatic doors for guests creates exposure and the daily cleaning of it not grounded and creates a exposure between guests and employees and guidance for mandated the daily guest room cleaning must be upon the request of a hotel guests and im importantly, consumers are telling us they dont want interaction with staff either at this time. A recent poll reveals a majority of frequent travel ters travell are uncomfortable with housekeeping entering without advance permission. Please vote no so we can remove politics from this publichealth decision and safely rebuild San Franciscos hotel jobs. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker, please. Caller good afternoon, supervisors. An behalf of our hotel and cities im calling in opposition to the Emergency Health ordinance before you today. The health and safety of our employees and our guests has been and always will be our industrys number one priority. We want to bring back our workers quickly and safety to help ensure our city can begin to recover and our employees can get back to work. Covid cleaning pro at the time and they are working with First Responders and vulnerable populations working effectively with the Citys Department of publichealth. This ordinance has been drafted by labor will play for employees at an increased time hell oh again, i was muted and unmuted. I dont know what happened there. But this ordinance was drafted by labor union we can hear you. And will place our employees at increased at a result of day loom room cleaning. Staff enter guest rooms increases a risk to staff and the guests. And limiting close contact is the best way to protect our employees and guests from covid transmission. You will hear from hotels today about how this overreaching ordinance will prevent them from actually opening and keeping them from bringing our workers back. The board of supervisors should not be legislating specific covid guidelines instead its targeted at specific industry. The department of health should be developing these guidelines like they have for other industries as well. This legislation is all cities, state and federal buildings and why are these being added for a specific industry and the public buildings where the legislation is. Thank you. Next speaker, please. My name is angi and i run the San Francisco merit union square and i started as a Room Attendant and a public space cleaning working as a former housekeeper myself, i know we put our employees first when it comes to safety. We have strict cleaning and protection protocols that have been established based on our brand, standards, industry, state and cdc guidelines. My employees will be safe to come back to work and they do not need your intervenance. This ordinance goes too far and puts them at risk and why its so important does it not apply to government building and only targets specific industries. If passes you are delaying the return of my 175 plus employees with their safe workplace and i owe piece thioppose this ordina. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker, please. Caller we oppose this ordinance. Pebble brooke owns 12 hotels and have invested 215 million into them. We paid 60 million in numerous taxes for San Franciscos benefit. Weve been big supporters of San Francisco and we support our employees in the community in many ways. Today 10 of our hotels are closed and the other two are operating at low occupancy. This means our 1400 employees have no jobs. Currently our monthly operating loss is total close to 3 million. With our hotels closed, the city is losing out on critical revenue and taxes everyday. And our employees are not receiving paychecks. These requirements put fourth by the supervisors would result in us losing more money reopening our motels and keeping them closed. We need 30 plus points of occupancy just to offer these new costs and a minimum of 45person occupancy just to break even and its depending on base holding that. The market is not expected to run an occupancy for quite a while and you should expect most of the hotels to remain closed. And we would have to close our two open hotels which weve receive open for workers even they have theyre running less than 10 occupancy. With ordinances not based on science, rather with our Largest National hotel union is putting in many cities across the country. Were wouldnt these rules apply to government buildings . What is the union doing for city and the citizens of San Francisco . The union is only interested in contribute to go supervisors reelection opportunity. Hopefully the supervisors are not pushing this ordinance because of political favors. We strongly urge the committee to post this legislation forcing us to keep our hotels closed. The only benefit is the union. San francisco has shown great leadership in this global pandemic. Please dont ruin it with this ordinance. Which is a jobkiller. Thank you. To the last speaker, i recent your comments. That are documentary untrue. You can go to the sf ethics. Org website and look at this supervisors contributions in the past and currently and then realize that your allegations are unfortunate and untrue. Next speaker, please. Caller good afternoon supervisors and my name is amy article and im the general manager of the San Francisco court yard and it pleases me you are listening to the workforce as i have worked in the Hospitality Industry for 24 years and directly in the city of San Francisco for 12. And im calling in with opposition to the american see Healthy Business ordinance. The health and safety of our guest and associates has always been our primary focus. Which is why from the onset of this pandemic, we immediately partnered with the public and private entities to develop strict calm in standards. Organizations have just a cdc, w. H. O. , the mayo clinic, johns hopkins, perdue and cornell universities helped shape our policy limiting contact which helps stop the spread of this deadly disease. Yet this ordinance mandates the opposite by increasing contact with daily housekeeping and putting the lives at great risk. Its not drafted by the Health Officer of San Francisco and it was drafted by a local labor union who is trying to utilize it to further their own agenda. If this was true about health, why is the city, state and federal buildings are exempt from following these policies. If the health and welfare of the city ofs satisfy fran less important that are our associates. They start to reopen plans has paused and should this ordinance pass with this burden inaudible i do not foresee well be able to reopen for many months. Thats 146 people, 85 of minority and 50 female and half live in San Francisco and they will try to live in this extremely expensive area without a paycheck. San francisco has been a leader to the rest of the country demonstrating theres no place for politics in this crisis. This legislation, however, if passed would negate that record. I ask you to rise above political pressure and oppose this legislation. Thank you for your time. Thank you, next speaker, please. Hello, my name is susan pen rose and i work at the marriott hotel. I would have been 13 years this month and im also a member of united here local 2. Today i asking you to vote yes on this healthy building ordinance. The ordinance will require our hotel to adopt standards for more frequent and detailed cleaning in the World Health Organization and inaudible . Thats important for the people were serving and the business itself. Nobody is going to want to come to a place they feel unsafe. Ive been furloughed, being out of work is taxing just emotionally and mentally. Its important guests feel safe to come back so business returns and we can all have our livelihood. It would be a shame to do things in haste and cut corners and not take every precaution within our means to be able to fight the effects of pandemic and get handle on it. Otherwise were shooting ourselves in the foot. We dont want to e exacerbate a crisis. Please, listen to Hotel Workers and vote yes on the healthy ordinance. Thank you all very much for your time. Thank you, next speaker, please. Thank you, we have 43 call and he is 243 43listeners ano speak. Next speaker. Good afternoon, supervisors. Dr. Paul and im speaking on behalf of the global virus Advisory Council so thank you to submit testimony on the emergency ordinance. Gpac helps organizations businesses recover from biological threats, bio hazard situations and real time crisis. Were a division of issa the Worldwide Cleaning Industry Association and weve been working with leading experts in prevention and control as well as professionals cleaning committee to develop comprehensive guidelines for cleaning and Infectious Disease prevention. Were pleased to see San Francisco enhance cleaning disinfecting to the forefront of discussions regarding hoping the economy. We have two concerns about the proposal ordinance. One is that we recommend inaudible in hotel rooms given the current outbreak and cleaning disinfection every 30 minutes requirement is unworkable and does not follow the best practices and could do more thundershower an good frome the spread of sars covid 2. It only increases the risk of both the staff entering the room and the guest in the event the staff member is infected. Living in that close ak is the best way to protect and mandating Daily Service is not supportive of that effort. Guidelines from the Health Ministry of baldwin count britid we recommend they take those source orecommendation, its nod on scientific assessment. Any decision on proper cleaning to take into account traffic and usage is a two main criteria. The cdc and World Health Organization and american hospitalizations cree that it should focus on the hightouch surfaces and not general areas that are not being touched. Thank you for your time. Thank you, next speaker, please. Caller good afternoon, supervisors. My name is cliff clark im the general manager at the a hotel in one of marriotts 30 brands and ill calling in opposition to this ordinance. It goes too far and its non state guidelines. It requires daily hotel room cleaning even if the guests dont require it. It would increase covid exposure for employees and guest as like and we have learned from the hotel thats have remained open throughout the pandemic that nearly all of the guests staying multiple nights do not want Daily Housekeeping Service as they wish to limit persontoperson contact in covid19 exposure risks. The health and say tee of my employees and guests is our number one priority at palace and for mo marriott. We have a program for all 30 brands and its developed in conjunction with the cdc guidelines, Health Guidelines and top medical research universities. It focuses on frequent cleaning and disinfecting, high touch areas and less contact through physical distancing and redesigning food and beverage and hygiene. This ordinance will likely force hotels to remain closed. The pandemic is the worse economic crisis on record, worse than the great depression, 9 11 and the Great Recession combined. Nearly 50 of my 600 workers at the palace live, work and vote in San Francisco and theyre your constituents that are among the ranks of the unelement employed. This ordinance will force many San Francisco hotels to dis panned Business Operations for the remainder of the year. Thats not helping with unemployment or with the tax problem that they have endured cancellations in business that equates to 6 and a half Million Dollars less in contributions to the city general fund than in 2019. This ordinance exempts city, state and federal Office Buildings and targeting specific industries are not fair. I ask for you to oppose this legislation so we can keep San Francisco hotels and tourism open in San Francisco. Thank you for your time. Thank you, sir. I will just correct one misunderstanding or misstatement which is that the legislation very clearly and repeatedly says that guests can opt not to have their rooms cleaned. Next speaker, please. Thank you. Members just a reminder. Members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment call 408 4189388 and the meeting i. D. Is 146 9975278 and press pound and pound again. If you have not done so already, press star 43 to lineup to speak and please continue to hold until you are prompted that your line is unmuted. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Caller good afternoon, thank you for hearing all the opinions laid out today. The opinion that you have laid out does really prove that you are very much out of touch with industry. My name is mark and im the general manager of hotels in supervisor haneys district and im here to oppose the ordinance. My hotel is one of the lucky hotels to remain open. And i do not take this lightly. Our policies and procedures are in line with cdc, chnla and delivered to our corporate guidelines. These are the highest standards and what happens in vegas does not necessarily mean it happens here. Please understand this, 100 of my focus everyday is to bring in a little bit more Business Today than we had yesterday. If i can do that we can accumulate more work and bring people back hour by hour. We have started to bring in room attendance and this week we have brought in a house man and this is meaningful. Getting them to agree to come back was not simple and for my Room Attendant a major concern was going into rooms. Based on the cdc recommendations and our brand directors we assured them they would not go into rooms until 48 hours after the gusts checked out and their relief was palpable. The regulations you are look to go put in place fly in the face of the cdc guidelines and imposed by no medical authority under no col rabbation yet you demand that my team put themselves in harms way. Lets put the cleaning of the rooms aside and turn to washing of the walls every 30 minutes. You have to know that this will stop hotels and opening up and close hotels down which are open. This is of course astounding that these rules will not apply to your office. So lets be real. This is not about money. The reason of this of course is for the labor unions to legislate out green party and crazy ideas out there and negotiate them away leaving this Green Program in the legislation and victory is theirs and its amazing you are willing to pry on people during their most difficult times. Our quest of coming to work everyday to create jobs is beginning to bear and you are on our teams in harm way or my livelihood. Thank you, sir. Next speaker, please. Caller good afternoon, supervisors. My name is Emily Gregson and im the general manager for the Buchanan Hotel in japan town under the ihg family of brands. It was a pleasure to meet you supervisor preston and thank you supervisors for hearing us today. Many points have been made. I couldnt agree more strongly with my colleagues from the hotel and i would caution that this supervisors look to the hotels that are operating in any capacity and ask them their experience of calling employees back to work. As we offer that work, few members of our furloughs they are scared to return to work and they fear and entering rooms and really being at work is look out for these employees and ensure the safety protocols are in place for them and the guests and i just want to urge the exercises to where there are other under represented employees and citizens groups across this great city. We have in San Francisco very strong Union Representation as we know and this is legislation that reflects that. So instead of getting involved in something that should be best handled by a investigation between the hotels and the unions themselves, i would urge the supervisors to look elsewhere to people who are more truly under represented and in need of an advocate. I will also like to say that brands and ownership groups are motivated to keep their hotels clean. Cleanliness is the number one concern, even above friendliness or the normal stands ar of service so we are motivated and do not need additional motivation to prioritize cleanliness. Lastly, i do urge us to think about what will happen in the media and unfortunately and political form so i will turn to President Trump and say that we know he has a field day talking about San Francisco and the conditions of our streets. So imagine if he can then in the future say, oh my goodness, San Francisco, theyre going to have you in their hotels going into their room. Your room will be invaded by housekeepers. Next speaker, please. Hi, your honor and thank you for giving these opportunities. My name is inaudible and im available at the San Francisco for eight years and the local 2. I am one of the people who welcome the guest to my hotel and my working years thank you, next speaker, please. Caller my name is and i Housekeeping Supervisor and please put yes on this ordinance so the hotel can be safe and strong. In my family working in the hotels. Right now, we have no work so its very hard for us to pay the bills. I dont want to go back to work until its safe for everyone. I know the hotel are saying we need to rise to reopen but i dont think so. We should not open the hotel until its safe for everyone. For me, my coworkers, for all my familiar will he members who work in Different Hotels and for the guests, its not the right way instead we make a plan so that the San Francisco hotels have the safest and cleanest in the world. That way the guests can feel comfortable to come back to our city and check in into our hotels. Thank you so much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello caller, you have two minutes. Caller hello. My name is nicolas and im a server at the oak room at marriott. And im a proud member of the united local 2. When i was laid off as a server in march i couldnt afford to keep paying rent. Its hard to put into words the level of fear and anxiety that comes from knowing that you might not have enough money for rent next month and so i have to give up my place. I was able to move in with my partner and manage with the extra 600 with the cares act but its going to expire soon and i feel like im living on borrowed time. I want to go back to work. Im worried that business wont return unless the guests are fully able to trust the hotels and restaurants are clean and safe and that the workers themselves are returning to a better, safer workplace. Trust and the business itself, from our guests will only be rebuilt by emphasize the highest Safety Standards and sufficient Staffing Levels to do the job. So believe me, as a tip employee, i need people to come back to the city soon for my income and we must do it the right way. Im asking you to vote yes because we need the strongest safety and cleaning standards to bring our guests back to our hotels. One of the companies wants to go the extra mile so while the guest with our service, we must also now wow the public with our commitment to health and safety first before profit. My livelihood depends on it. Thank you, very much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Are. My name is maria. Good afternoon. And i am a housekeeper at the Marriott W Hotel in San Francisco for eight years. Im proud to be a member of unite here local 2. Today, i ask you to vote yes on this law so we can have a strong standard for safety and cleaning in the hotel. Please listen to the Hotel Workers because we know the right way to reopen. For me, its very important because now we need to have a High Standard in the hotels. We need to sanitize the hotels because the covid19 is everywhere. We need to disinfect to the public areas, the elevators and cleaning as frequently as possible. This is important for our guests. The guests need to make sure that the material has a strong standard so they can feel safe to check in. If the guest dont feel safe, they wont come back. If if they want come back, they then have no work, we dont have no work. We need to adjust to pay the rent and we need to buy food, we need to help our children to go to school. As a housekeeping and cleaning, we know how to reopen the right way. Please, listen to the Hotel Workers and vote yes on this. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker, please. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is mandy leiu and im at Marriott Marque for more than 10 years inaudible . So we can have strong force. We need to show the guests and the cleaning and safety. If the guest come to the hotel and everything is clean, they will not worry too much and come back and the hotel and they have San Francisco state is a safe place to be. Its good for everyone. Its good for the guests, for us and the hotels. And its not only for us, its also good for the community. Thank you, thank you. Next speaker, please. Caller any name is laura and im a Hotel Housekeeper at Marriott Marque for more than eight years and im a proud member of united local 2. After the housekeeper like me on how to clean a hotel room. And its especially important to me. Its much harder to sanitize a room that no one has cleaned in days but now with covid19, we have to be more careful because the coronavirus can stay for two to seven days or the high touch surfaces like door knobs, facets, plastic light switches and the tv remote, the wood head boards, staff and chairs and tables and if they touch it. The coronavirus can even lead on the trash and we should follow the highest standard of cleaning and safety. It doesnt make sense to let any part of the hotel go days without being disinfected. As a housekeeper, we are the experts. We are the ones who enter the room to clean. We know that the right way to reopen our hotel is to clean more and not less. Please leave them to vote yes on this ordinance and thank you very much, supervisors. Thank you next speaker, please. Caller good afternoon, supervisors. My name is lisa lam i am a cook at a restaurant for 38 years. I am a member of united local 2. Please vote yes on this law so we can take care of the business and reopen with a strong safety standard. This law has strong standards to the open and the right way and this is standard is from the work of inaudible . We want this standard in the San Francisco to respect our jobs and our families. We want to have each other and put safety first. Please reset us and vote yes. Thank you, supervisors. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon, supervisors. I am a Room Service Server at the marriott for 15 years. Covid19 has hurt me and my coworkers very much. In the union local 2 they are close to 9,000 Hotel Workers and almost all of us have no work because of the pandemic. Im asking you to vote yes on this ordinance because i think hotels need to open a safety to bring the business back. I want to go back to work but its not my business and its not work for me to go back to. I am a single mom and the head of my household. My kids suffer from asthma so for me its really important to work and get my healthcare for myself and my daughter. Its important for me to earn a paycheck. It is helpful but its not enough to cover our rent and food. This ordinance is important for our city because it will set a standard that guests can trust. Thats how were going to bring back the bids. We need this strongest standards for cleaning and safety and question not take any short cuts. Please vote yes. Thank you, so much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi, supervisors, my name is joanne and im a housekeeper at marriott San Francisco for 13 years. I am a member of local 2. Lease vote yes on this law. In my family of four, we have no work because of covid19. My husbands job is also connected to the hotel. So if its very important to me that our hotel can reopen safe and strong. The hotels are should rush and reopen as soon as possible. But im worried that the guests wont come back unless they trust that our hotel is safe, clean, placest to sleep. If theres no business, i have no work and my husband has no work. Instead of rushing to reopen they should make sure that our hotels are safe for everyone. Its to all the guests that the hotel in San Francisco are the cleaningest in the world. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker, please. Good afternoon, supervisors. My name is todd and im the general manager of the Harvard Court hotel and im calling in strong opposition of this Emergency Healthy business ordinance. Cleanliness and safety of our guests and employees has always been a top priority in our industry. Were very few industries that are not as quite to the level of our guests and our own brand and standards. As hotel area it was the blow with covid19 route break. I saw a lot of our Industry Leaders combined together with brands, state and local association and even competitor hotel to create strict but clean, fair guidelines for cleaning protocols for every nook and cranny in departments of hotels. All in alignment with cbc and state guidelines. This is a genius and specifically targets totals by government buildings arent seen dealing with that and mower outrageously it contradicts the cdc guidelines having them enter rooms which increases the likelihood of airborn transmission which we know is the biggest cause. Ultimately if you feel we are endangering the lives of our staff and guests it will delay openings, guests cant come to open hotel and i ask you oppose this and help our industry get on the road to recovery faster. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker. Caller good afternoon, supervisors. My name is ashley and im the general manager of hotels at fourth and market. I live and work in San Francisco and im calling to oppose this legislation. 70 of our employees are San Francisco residents. We actively give back through volunteering to help marginalized groups within our community. It will increase exposure to our employees and guests so its from the mandated daily room cleaning which goes against Industry Experts recommendations as well as state and cdc guidelines and this ordinance would disproportionately effect minority groups who occupy the positions who would be at the highest risk of exposure. I would also like to call attention to the mandate of singleuse plastics which the cost divides sustainability efforts. In california we have been at forefront of green initiatives such as banning Plastic Straws and reducing water waste. This would mandate waste rather than giving the Hotel Community the opportunity to come up with creative alternatives. Passing this ordinance will make it cost prohibitive for hotels to reopen and not financially substantial. This ordinance exempts city, state and federal Office Buildings and targeting specific industries is inconsistent and suggests and i know i speak for many of nur industry. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon, supervisors. My name is terry louis and im the complex general manager for the Hilton Union Square and Hotel Properties leading employer and tourism embassador for our city for decades. Im here today on behalf of my team members and the to express strong opposition and healthy building ordinance and which regards personal safety of guest whos may not wish to be in such close proximity and its ant for me and to its always been our top priority. Protocols exists High Standards well before the pandemic and we acted quick three adapt our protocols and procedures based on the changing needs of both our team members and guests and the wake of covid19. This is exemplified by out newest collaboration with rb the maker of lie sol in consultation with the mayo clinic to develop elevated practices and teammember training. Upon our reopening this industryleading program will be the center piece of our operations and the owner is mandates this emergency ordinance presents not only complicate these product caleches and procedures under the guiding hand of these prom nant health experts, it would also inflect serious financial harm and a business working responsibly towards the goal of reopening our doors and to welcome back guests and our signature hilton and bringing as many of our 1400 currently furloughed team members back to work as soon as possible and the total industry has long partnered and organizations to establish brand and industry wide and employees and the covid19 pandemic is not different and well continue to Work Together in order to put our people first. Health guidelines and expertise in the field not by the thank you and i urge the we have 44 listeners and next speaker, please. Hello. My name is laura and i work as a housekeeper and two hotels in San Francisco for 12 years. I run my own cleaning business. I didnt have asthma before i began working as a housekeeper, i developed it due to the chemicals i was exposed to. Then i changed to work for a hotel in the San Francisco Green Business program which required all the products that we use to not have asthmacausing chemicals. My asthma became much less severe. This ordinance will expos Hotel Housekeeper, other employees and check in staff and and this a at a time when covid19 more and respiratory requirements. This ordinance should require all hotels to use safer cleaning and disinfecting products that do not contain asthmacausing ingredients. It amazes me that the union i used to belong to is not asking for safer products and practical opportunities for our hotel staff. I encourage you to amend this ordinance to ensure that workers are not exposed unnecessarily to these chemicals, thank you. Good afternoon, i am the Hotel Manager for hotel and advisory hotel group property. Where i take very serious and want to be able to call in opposition to the Emergency Healthy business ordinance. Our priority and dedicated commitment to our team members and guests have not changed since the initial stage of the global pandemic. Safety continues to be at forefront of our decision and we have taken there is nothing more Important Health and safety for our colleagues and future guests, San Francisco community, where i am a resident. Our Advisory Team has been working on property specific guidelines following updated standards and Strategic Planning including cdc and safe guidelines by building a task force for covid19 and creating cleaning rolling new trying to prepare and place things in motion yeting ready to reassure and provide a protected experience. We are eager and looking forward to opening our doors and to welcome to our city. However, our team members continue to express and share same concerns they had in march, how to be enterse interactive wr guests lately. Are we safe to clean the rooms with guests inside . We know all these questions and we are asking them to enter hotspot areas without knowing and this ordinance is not providing the guidelines to protect our team members this creates hurdles and targeted to our Hotel Industry only and while exposing our team members to greater risk and forcing them to enter smaller confined areas without knowing. Your time is concluded. Next speaker, please. Caller good afternoon. My name is john and my family owns and managing the union square hotel. Were not a big hotel company. Although we are californias oldest familyopened and manages hotel. In april of this year, i had the suspend all Hotel Operations and because outhis was the first e 112 yesterday and i am strongly against and i need towards the top and and to accept these new rules and and to help get the and women who are at and and the employees i work with will stand on the unemployment line. Thank you for your time. Thank you, mayor. Think should call the number 408 4189388. The meeting i. D. Is 1469957258 and press pound and pound again. If you have not already, press star 3 to lineup to speak. For those who are on hold ready to speak, you will be unmuted when we get to you in line. Next speaker, please. Caller good afternoon. My name is olga and i am the president of sciu local 87 and i represent the janitors in San Francisco. Id like to thank you supervisor peskin for caring our legislation and supervisor safai for being a response o this is crucial to protect all workers in San Francisco and the opening up stronger means that workers safety is essential. Rushing to reopen is not the answer if we do not have strong cleaning standards for our janitors and Hotel Workers. Today, you are hearing from janitors and Hotel Workers on the frontlines and they are both unemployed and have faced being able to test covid19 positive. Its making sure that our members coming back to work is that been owners, contractors and hotel owners right now have consisted on mentioning and citing Scientific Research as to why the legislation is not good and next speaker, please. Hello supervisors. My name is kirk and ive been a server and a bartender for local 2 for about 26 years. Today, i am asking you to vote yes on the ordinance so that we have strong Safety Standards when the time is right to reop reopen. This we need to protect jobs in the Hotel Industry. I have lived in San Francisco and worked for hotels for 26 years. Ive been fortunate to hang on because i have a good job and a hotel. Im worried my job wont come back, unless travelers, and i hear it from my regulars that used to come to my bars, they dont feel comfortable about coming to the bar unless we have strong Safety Standards. You know this crisis it wouldnt be so bad if donald trump were the National Leader on this whole thing. Wear a mask, dont wear a mask and the confusion so were asking for the strong Safety Standards and this ordinance will require Safety Standards recommended by the world organization, california los angeles publichealth department. So we have all have a dog in fight. We want to go back safe so that customers feel safe, we feel safe, so im asking you to vote yes on this measure. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker, please. Thank you, supervisors for your listening here as well as for being with us during this transformational time. Im a proud member of united here local 2 and a member of the Lgbtq Community and i consider myself an embassador to the countless tourists and convention attends that theyre over 15 years at the Marriott Marque. I am the frontlines as a service workers. I know that my trust is my guests worse concern and my First Priority is their safety. Usually pride month is when i get to serve a Global Community coming here to celebrate and experience just how safe our city is and im very proud to be an advocate for our safety and theirs. And in helping with our communities and our guests is not negotiable, we need to show them they can trust San Francisco hotels so please vote yes to rebuild that trust so i can get back to showing guests the best of who we are as a city. Legislate for our safety. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker, please. You have two minutes. Caller next speaker, please. Good afternoon, supervisors. My name is volume con and im regional manager for a hotel. I managed hotels in this great city. Im calling for opposition of Emergency Health and business ordinance. Because the health and safety of employees and guests and our lenders and visitors in our industry all are the number one priority. Thats why they chose our hotels. Thats why they keep coming back. Our hotels, as you heard, all other hotelier have have strict cleaning protocols by california, american, hotel association, state guidelines, and multiple guidelines with a job to try to make sure that the safety is priorities not just the work. This ordinance also exempt city, state and federal Office Buildings and arguing a specific industry doesnt sound fair. [please stand by] agenda. Show us the signs. If you do care, would you all industries in the city. If you care about local business and the economy, at all, you will start looking at how clean the streets instead of playing politics. Because that will decide the future of the success of the city of San Francisco. And i appreciate your time. Next speaker. Caller good afternoon, this is paul the regional Vice President for fairmont and the core hotel this is northern california. Everyone on this phone call knows that this ordinance socalled ordinance is really about to my local 2, loyal and loving colleagues, we have always been about you, we have always been about the colleague first, and you know that in your heart. We miss you, we want you back to work but most importantly we want you back to work as safely so you can provide for your family and your friends as you always have done. You know that this industry loves you and always wants you back and i am so, so sorry that you are being put in the middle of this political football. To the supervisors, one word, shame. You have a fulltime job to do, which is keeping the taxpaying residents of the city of San Francisco safe from cleanliness, crime, the disgrace that you have allowed to happen to this beautiful part of the planet by the level of homelessness and poverty in this city is one word, shamefulness. Thank you to my members of local 2, and all Hotel Workers, we look forward to get you being back to work as soon as as possible. Thank you, very much. Next speaker. Caller hello, supervisors, my name is tony and im the general manager of the kimton. In a multigenerational revenue in San Francisco. I dont necessarily think theres any reason to rehash all the pointed reasons my colleague made as to why this is bad legislation. One thing i would like to bring up, supervisor peskin, and your opening remarks, you said that you consulted with many Different Industries that this legislation is clearly unlaterally with only the union writing in mind mind. There was multiple letters saying that they were for this legislation but if you go to sf. Gov and see what letters were written, all i raid is opposition letters. I think Something Else very important to me is others have mentioned that city and government buildings are exempt. It really is up to me you would think that your employees are less important than ours. And lastly and the restaurants, theres no particular legislation for restaurants yet youve shoved it into this ordinance for a hotel relates please reconsider this and give us back to work because to make sure its longer. Next speaker and the 1850 letters that i referenced will be a part of this file, they were delivered to each member of this Committee Earlier today. Next speaker, please. Caller hello. Thank you for giving us this afternoon to speak. My name is michael bear and im the general manager of the Stanford Court hotel and the Huntington Hotel both located on knob hill. Supervisor peskin in your district. And ive also worked at other hotels in supervisor haneys district. And i had prepared remarks but im not going to read them because frankly everything has been said. I just like you to know a couple things burin does tree that you may not know. Were a very tightknit community. Most of the general managers here have worked in the city for decades or at least a decade if not longer. And you know, our workers are like family to us and so we would, you know, frankly never do anything to put them in harms way. We worked exhaustively with the hotel council, the brands and with Smaller Hotels to develop standards that meet every guideline imaginable and as was said prior, my focus through this pandemic has been centered around when we can bring our workers back to work as quickly as possible and safely as possible. And frankly this legislation will do nothing but delay that and all ive heard from the local two call inns was how people want to come back to work, granted safely, but thats already been covered to my knowledge and local 2 or the board of supervisors have not come to us to ask us what we have done about it and read our plans and what we have done to ensure safe working environment thank you very much for your time. Thank you, next speaker. Mr. Chair, ma completes the cue. Public comment is closed. And then if there are no let me just look here. Supervisor preston, that was you from earlier, right, in the queue . Correct. Colleagues, i have a number of amendments to offer. All of which are before you. That let me walk through those. This was done in collaboration with the dem of publichealth evepublichealth,even though sos located in the district that i represent would have you think otherwise. If you look at the legislative digest, this is a very straight forward piece of law. It mirrors something that we did for singleresident occupancy hotels and will be done for other industries as we move towards reopening and i would quote from that legislative digest the proposed ordinance will require Tourist Hotels and large commercial buildings to establish intimate and implement and maintain specific, written, regular cleaning, disinfecting and disease prevention standards consistent with those established by the California Department of publichealth and industrial relations issued covid19 industry guidance for lodging. In other words, it wont be guidance it will be a law that will be enforced by the department of publichealth and the sky is not falling. It will make hotels safer and generate confidence from tourists when the industry reopens but i understand that its the brands and so be it. With that, there are a number of amendments. Some of which the industry might even like. On page 5, line 23, you will see disinfectant as section 4 of the legislation insert the word cleaning and insert the word established so the sentence reads the cleaning standards established understand section 4 shall provide for disinfection of poris and non poris Services Using appropriate disinfectants and then we actually create more latitude, which the individual talked about environmentally sensitive disinfect apartments l appreciate the sentence that says bleach and Alcohol Solutions must meet standards approved by the department for effective use and next two sentences i proposed for lex i is same words under section 4 the word cleaning and established and in subsection d at line 16, the following high contact areas items and fixtures shall are cleaned and disinfected and we heard you about the 30 minutes to multiple times daily and the department of publichealth will by Regulation Establish that and on page 6 at line 20, we inserted the word employees so that the title of that subsection is public and employee areas and at the bottom of that page, theres a deleted sentence, use of shared beverage and food equipment microwaves and refrigerations shall be discontinued and that section is moved to another part of the legislation which ill get to further down. On the next page, page 7, at line 19 in subsection 6, that language is reinserted and references and doors that cannot be automatically or propped open and the operator shall assign a gloved employee to open them. On page 8 at line 10 the insertion of a new sentence that mirrors the sro hotel legislation that says all operators shall maintain a log of cleaning and sanitation in compliance with section 4 of this ordinance and shall make it available to the Department Upon request that of course is the department of publichealth and on page 9, subsection 5 is deleted. The rest of the subsections are renumbered at line 16. If there is insert a reasonable basis to believe that a specific guest room was occupied by an individual infected with a publichealth threat, insert operator must remove the guest room from use until the Department Confirms that it is safe for reuse. If the Department Confirms the room was exposed to a positive case of contagious public threat, publichealth threat, the guest must undergo sanitation. The guest room must undergo more stringent sanitation. On the next page, page 10, insertion of a paragraph. Thank you to the department of publichealth and our chief Health Officer for suggesting this. If the Department Recommends that employees undergo testing for a con stage us publichealth threat, operators shall ensure that such employees may receive testing as recommended by the department. Such testing will be at no cost to the employee and occur on pay time including time to travel to and from testing sites. And then, on page 11, at line 9, insert in the event that such guidance recommends providing employees with a notice related to any con stage us publichealth threat, for example, a general exposure advisory or recommendation of quarantine each operator shall ensure that all applicable employees and the bargaining representatives, if any, receives such notice as expeditiously as possible. On the bottom of page 12, insert a new subsection a under section 7. Which says violations of the standards set fourth in section 4 shall be a nuisance under Health Code Section 581 and row number the balance of those subsections. Finally, based on testimony that we heard today, at page 8, line 25, i would like to also move that the sentence with regards to singleuse public bags be removed so that sentence all dirty linen shall be removed and replaced in singleuse bags within the guest room before being transported. Delete that sentence. So, those are the where is that . Bottom of page 8, line 25. Top of page 9, line 1. It is the last sentence there supervisor safai that saturdays with alstartswith all dirty lin. My numbering is off. So delete that whole line . That whole sentence. All dirty linen shall be removed before being transported . Ok. That is the tote tal tee of my amendment and i look forward working with you colleagues as we move forward with similar pieces of legislation for other industries as they reopen. With that, madam clerk one point of clarification, and i think this is a friendly amendment to the amendment you put fourth. Just on page 7, it talks about use of shared beverages and food equipment, for example, coffee machines, microwave ovens and refrigerators in public areas and employee break rooms, we did also speak with one of the representatives from the industry representing the workforce, folks were concerned about lactating mothers and where lactating mothers would be able to put breast milk. So, i dont know how we would word that but i feel like there should be something there. For every other reason, should be discontinued but i dont know where lactating mothers would put their breast milk . Supervisor safai, i would suggest that in that case, the except for lactation purposes. We could certainly do that. Alternatively i would ask given the number of refrigerators that exist, they would not be shared in those instances. Right. So maybe they have a accept in the instances where theres a designated refrigerator for lactating. It seems to be friendly but there should be some recognition recognition. I have no objection. What you are describing does not sound like a substantive amendment but i would like to understand the language you are should proposing. Supervisor peskin made a good suggestion maybe theres a designated location and obviously it would be a refridge or and an employee break room or a refrigerator on the floor. It would be something that would be designated for lactating mothers and so, between now and tuesday we can work on language and we can have that for the board meeting. Absolutely. We can work on that and have it introduced when it goes to the full board. Ok. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chair. Thank you. So, madam clerk, on those amendments, a roll call, please. Clerk on the amendment that stated by supervisor peskin [roll call] clerk you have three ayes. On supervisor safais amendment, a roll call, please. [roll call] clerk on the motion stated by supervisor safai [roll call] you have three ayes. I like to make a motion to send this item as amended to the full board with positive recommendations. Mr. Chair, before you do that, i can just say a couple of words. Of course you may. So, i just, you know, i listened to the testimony today and i think there was a significant amount of misinformation. I also think there was a significant amount of misunderstanding. I think there was quite a bit of focus on the idea of multiple cleaning on a daily basis particularly every 30 minutes. I think we addressed that in a very straight forward way. I know that i had conversations with the county Health Officer as well as the industry representatives and workforce. I feel like that was a very fair amendment to change it from every 30 minutes to 30 times to multiple times a day. And the other thing i wanted to highlight, because it was said over and over again, i know currently, in hotel rooms, and in the Hotel Industry, it is a standard that the hotels would be cleaned on a daily basis. Except when the resident excuse me, the tourist does not chose to have ha. That is the Current Practice. All we have articulated in this legislation is the current industry standards and so, to diminish that standard in the name of publichealth crisis, i want to be very clear, we had multiple conversations with experts in the industry and so to restate very clearly that rooms should be cleaned ex otherwise reinforcement in the current industry practice and we went to and in our county Health Officer and i wanted to over emphasize that and there were other concerns at the end we and this and ultimately well put the quiet on the on the front lines of being that work and in the end protecting the tourists and the guests that are out there and ultimately the industry will see that weve made some very meaningful amendments today that will help everyone in the entire industry along with Office Workers as well. Thank you, mr. Chair. The language for breast milk storage, are we taking that now and or is the City Attorneys Office drafting that language for when it gets to board for committee . We approved it and deputy City Attorney pearson will finalize that language between now and when it a arrives at the board of supervisors a week from tomorrow. Understand. Ok. Thank you. Is that correct . I understood that the process would be that we come up with that language and the amendment would be produce introduced at l board but i have written some language so if you would like to consider it now, in the section where it sa shared of coffee machines, microwave offense ex refrigerators in public areas shall be discontinued and i would add, notwithstanding the for going designated refrigerators may be used for the purpose of storing breast milk. Sounds good to me. Ok. So why dont we take that vote again and that is a motion by supervisor safai and on that a roll call, please. Clerk on the motion stated by City Attorney anne pearson [roll call] clerk you have three ayes. Thank you. And i will remake my motion to send the item as amended by the chief sponsor, myself and by supervisor safai to the full board with a positive recommendation. I would like to thank supervisor preston as well as supervisor walton and of course my primary cosponsor supervisor safai and on that item a roll call, please. Clerk on the motion to recommend as amended twice over [roll call] clerk you have three ayes. So for clarity, i dont have supervisor walton noted here on ledgeistar shall i add him. You should because his name is at the bottom of that piece of legislation and has been for quite some time. Clerk let me update is in the system. Sounds good. All right, thank you colleagues, thank you madam clerk. Thank you deputy City Attorney pearson. The Land Use Committee is adjourned. Thank you. We are definitely pioneers in airport concession world a world of nationally if not entirely or internationally everybody is cop us right now. The people that were in charge of the retail this is where that began. I didnt think we would have a location at the airport. Weve set the bar higher with the customer commerce. Telling me about the operator and how you go about finding them and they get from being in the city to being in the airport. So first, we actually find a table and once we know what we want a sitdown we go to the neighborhoods in San Francisco and other people seminary of the retail let us know about the rain water and are excited to have the local operators in the airport. We have to go going through the conceive selective process and they award a lease to the restaurant. They are planning on extending. We that you could out the china and the length evens and the travel serve and fourth your minds and its all good. How long for a vendor to move through the process. I would say it could take 80 up to a year from the time we go out to bid until they actually open a restaurant. I dont know what we signed up for but the airport is happy to have us here. And, you know, even taking out the track simple things theres a learning curve with once were here they are helpful. Its an awardwinning program. Were prude of your awards we have won 11 awards the latest for the best overall food address Beverage Program and. Like the oscars laughter . The professional world. Tell me about the future food. All the sb national leases are xooirz and were hoping to bring newer concepts out in San Francisco and what your passengers want. Well, i look forward to the future laughter he is a real leader that listens and knows how to bring people together. Brought this department together like never before. I am so excited to be swearing in the next chief of the San Francisco Fire Department, ladies and gentlemen, lets welcome, Jeanine Nicholson. applause . I grew up total tomboy, athlete. I loved a good crisis, a good challenge. I grew up across the street from the fire station. My dad used to take me there to vote. I never saw any female firefighters because there werent any in the 1970s. I didnt know i could be a fire fighter. When i moved to San Francisco in 1990, some things opened up. I saw women doing things they hadnt been doing when i was growing up. One thing was firefighting. A woman recruited me at the gaypride parade in 1991. It was a perfect fit. I liked using my brain, body, working as a team, figuring things out, troubleshooting and coming up with different ways to solve a problem. In terms of coming in after another female chief, i dont think anybody says that about men. You are coming in after another man, chief, what is that like. I understand why it is asked. It is unusual to have a woman in this position. I think San Francisco is a trailblazer in that way in terms of showing the world what can happen and what other people who may not look like what you think the fire chief should look like how they can be successful. Be asked me about being the first lbgq i have an understands because there are little queer kids that see me. I worked my way up. I came in january of 1994. I built relationships over the years, and i spent 24 years in the field, as we call it. Working out of firehouses. The Fire Department is a family. We live together, eat together, sleep in the same dorm together, go to crazy calls together, dangerous calls and we have to look out for one another. When i was burned in a fire years ago and i felt responsible, i felt awful. I didnt want to talk to any of my civilian friends. They couldnt understand what i was going through. The firefighters knew, they understood. They had been there. It is a different relationship. We have to rely on one another. In terms of me being the chief of the department, i am really trying to maintain an open relationship with all of our members in the field so myself and my deputy chiefs, one of the priorities i had was for each of us to go around to different fire stations to make sure we hit all within the first three or four months to start a conversation. That hasnt been there for a while. Part of the reason that i am getting along well with the field now is because i was there. I worked there. People know me and because i know what we need. I know what they need to be successful. I have known Jeanine Nicholson since we worked together at station 15. I have always held her in the highest regard. Since she is the chief she has infused the department with optimism. She is easy to approach and is concerned with the firefighters and paramedics. I appreciate that she is concerned with the issues relevant to the Fire Department today. There is a retired captain who started the Cancer Prevention foundation 10 years ago because he had cancer and he noticed fellow firefighters were getting cancer. He started looking into it. In 2012 i was diagnosed with breast canner, and some of my fellow firefighters noticed there are a lot of women in the San Francisco Fire Department, premenopausal in their 40s getting breast cancer. It was a higher rate than the general population. We were working with workers comp to make it flow more easily for our members so they didnt have to worry about the paper work when they go through chemo. The turnout gear was covered with suit. It was a badge to have that all over your coat and face and helmet. The dirtier you were the harder you worked. That is a cancer causeser. It casser. It is not cancer causer. There islassic everywhere. We had to reduce our exposure. We washed our gear more often, we didnt take gear where we were eating or sleeping. We started decontaminating ourselves at the fire scene after the fire was out. Going back to the fire station and then taking a shower. I have taught, worked on the decontamination policy to be sure that gets through. It is not if or when. It is who is the next person. It is like a cancer sniper out there. Who is going to get it next. One of the things i love about the Fire Department. It is always a team effort. You are my family. I love the city and department and i love being of service. I vow to work hard to work hard to carry out the vision of the San Francisco Fire Department and to move us forward in a positive way. If i were to give a little advice to women and queer kids, find people to support you. Keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep trying. You never know what door is going to open next. You really dont. [cheers and 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. Thank you for watching. I love teaching. It is such an exhilarating experience when people began to feel their own creativity. This really is a place where all people can come and take a class and fill part of the community. This is very enriching as an artist. A lot of folks take these classes and take their digital imagery and turn it into negatives. There are not many black and white darkrooms available anymore. That is a really big draw. This is a signature piece. This is the bill largest darkroom in the u. S. There are a lot of people that want to get into that dark room. I think it is the heart of this place. You feel it when you come in. The people who just started taking pictures, so this is really an intersection for many generations of photographers and this is a great place to learn because if you need people from different areas and also everyone who works here is working in photography. We get to build the community here. This is different. First of all, this is a great location. It is in a lesspopulated area. Of lot of people come here just so that they can participate in this program. It is a great opportunity for people who have a little bit of photographic experience. The people have a lot, they can really come together and share a love and a passion. We offer everything from traditional black and white darkrooms to learning how to process your first roll of film. We offer classes and workshops in digital camera, digital printing. We offer classes basically in the shooting, ton the town at night, treasure island. There is a way for the programs exploring everyone who would like to spend the day on this program. Hello, my name is jennifer. My name is simone. We are going on a field trip to take pictures up the hill. Cmon, cmon, cmon. Actually, i have been here a lot. I have never looked closely enough to see everything. Now, i get to take pictures. We want to try to get them to be more creative with it. We let them to be free with them but at the same time, we give them a little bit of direction. You can focus in here. That was cool. If you see that . Behind the city, behind the houses, behind those hills. The see any more hills . These kids are wonderful. They get to explore, they get to see different things. We let them explore a little bit. They get their best. If their parents ever ask, we can learn they can say that they learned about the depth of field or the rule of thirds or that the shadows can give a good contrast. Some of the things they come up with are fantastic. That is what were trying to encourage. These kids can bring up the creativity and also the love for photography. A lot of people come into my classes and they dont feel like they really are creative and through the process of working and showing them and giving them some tips and ideas. This is kind of the best kept secret. You should come on and take a class. We have orientations on most saturdays. This is a really wonderful location and is the real jewel to the community. Ready to develop your photography skills . The Harvey Milk Photo Center focuses on adult classes. And saturday workshops expose youth and adults to photography classes. Growing up in San Francisco has been way safer than growing up other places we we have that bubble, and its still that bubble that its okay to be whatever you want to. You can let your free flag fry he fly here. As an adult with autism, im here to challenge peoples idea of what autism is. My journey is not everyones journey because every autistic child is different, but theres hope. My background has heavy roots in the bay area. I was born in san diego and adopted out to San Francisco when i was about 17 years old. I bounced around a little bit here in high school, but ive always been here in the bay. We are an inclusive preschool, which means that we cater to emp. We dont turn anyone away. We take every child regardless of race, creed, religious or ability. The most common thing i hear in my adult life is oh, you dont seem like you have autism. You seem so normal. Yeah. Thats 26 years of really, really, really hard work and i think thises that i still do. I was one of the first open adoptions for an lgbt couple. They split up when i was about four. One of them is partnered, and one of them is not, and then my biological mother, who is also a lesbian. Very queer family. Growing up in the 90s with a queer family was odd, i had the bubble to protect me, and here, i felt safe. I was bullied relatively infrequently. But i never really felt isolated or alone. I have known for virtually my entire life i was not suspended, but kindly asked to not ever bring it up again in first grade, my desire to have a sex change. The school that i went to really had no idea how to handle one. One of my parents is a little bit gender nonconforming, so they know what its about, but my parents wanted my life to be safe. When i have all the neurological issues to manage, that was just one more to add to it. I was a weird kid. I had my core group of, like, very tight, like, three friends. When we look at autism, we characterize it by, like, lack of eye contact, what i do now is when im looking away from the camera, its for my own comfort. Faces are confusing. Its a lack of mirror neurons in your brain working properly to allow you to experience empathy, to realize where somebody is coming from, or to realize that body language means that. At its core, autism is a social disorder, its a neurological disorder that people are born with, and its a big, big spectrum. It wasnt until i was a teenager that i heard autism in relation to myself, and i rejected it. I was very loud, i took up a lot of space, and it was because mostly taking up space let everybody else know where i existed in the world. I didnt like to talk to people really, and then, when i did, i overshared. I was very difficult to be around. But the friends that i have are very close. I click with our atypical kiddos than other people do. In experience, i remember when i was five years old and not wanting people to touch me because it hurt. I remember throwing chairs because i could not regulate my own emotions, and it did not mean that i was a bad kid, it meant that i couldnt cope. I grew up in a family of behavioral psychologists, and i got development cal developmental psychology from all sides. I recognize that my experience is just a very small picture of that, and not everybodys in a position to have a family thats as supportive, but theres also a community thats incredible helpful and wonderful and open and there for you in your moments of need. It was like two or three years of conversations before i was like you know what . Im just going to do this, and i went out and got my prescription for hormones and started transitioning medically, even though i had already been living as a male. I have a twoyearold. The person who im now married to is my husband for about two years, and then started gaining weight and wasnt sure, so i we went and talked with the doctor at my clinic, and he said well, testosterone is basically birth control, so theres no way you can be pregnant. I found out i was pregnant at 6. 5 months. My whole mission is to kind of normalize adults like me. I think ive finally found my calling in early intervention, which is here, kind of what we do. I think the access to irrelevant care for parents is intentionally confusing. When i did the procespective search for autism for my own child, it was confusing. We have a place where children can be children, but its very confusing. I always out myself as an adult with autism. I think its helpful when you know where can your child go. How im choosing to help is to give children that would normally not be allowed to have children in the same respect, kids that have three times as much work to do as their peers or kids who do odd things, like, beach therapy. How do speech therapy. How do you explain that to the rest of their class . I want that to be a normal experience. I was working on a certificate and kind of getting think Early Childhood credits brefore i started working here, and we did a section on transgender inclusion, inclusion, which is a big issue here in San Francisco because we attract lots of queer families, and the teacher approached me and said i dont really feel comfortable or qualified to talk about this from, like, a cisgendered straight persons perspective, would you mind talking a little bit with your own experience, and im like absolutely. So im now one of the guest speakers in that particular class at city college. I love growing up here. I love what San Francisco represents. The idea of leaving has never occurred to me. But its a place that i need to fight for to bring it back to what it used to be, to allow all of those little kids that come from really unsafe environments to move somewhere safe. What ive done with my life is work to make all of those situations better, to bring a little bit of light to all those kind of issues that were still having, hoping to expand into a little bit more of a Resource Center, and this Resource Center would be more those new parents who have gotten that diagnosis, and we want to be this one centralized place that allows parents to breathe for a second. I would love to empower from the bottom up, from the kid level, and from the top down, from the teacher level. So many things that i would love to do that are all about changing peoples minds about certain chunts, like the Transgender Community or the autistic community. I would like my daughter to know theres no wrong way to go through life. Everybody experiences pain and grief and sadness, and that all of those things are temporary. Working with kids, they keep you young. They keep you on your tones on your toes. Teaching them, at the same time, us learning from them, everything is fulfilling. Ready . Go. [ ] we really wanted to find a way to support Women Entrepreneurs in particular in San Francisco. It was very important for the mayor, as well as the Safety Support the dreams that people want to realize, and provide them with an opportunity to receive funding to support improvements for their business so they could grow and thrive in their neighborhoods and in their industry. Three, two, one because i am one of the consultants for two nonprofits here for entrepreneurship, i knew about the grand through the renaissance entrepreneur center, and through the Small Business development center. I thought they were going to be perfect candidate because of their strong values in the community. They really give back to the neighborhood. They are from this neighborhood, and they care about the kids in the community here. When molly molly first told us about the grant because she works with Small Businesses. She has been a tremendous help for us here. She brought us to the attention of the grand just because a lot of things here were outdated, and need to be uptodate and redone totally. Hands in front. Recite the creed. My oldest is jt, he is seven, and my youngest is ryan, he is almost six. It instills discipline and the boys, but they show a lot of care. We think it is great. The moves are fantastic. The women both are great teachers. What is the next one . My son goes to fd k. He has been attending for about two years now. They also have a summer program, and last summer was our first year participating in it. They took the kids everywhere around San Francisco. This year, owner talking about placing them in summer camps, all he wanted to do was spend the entire summer with them. He has strong women in his life, so he really appreciates it. I think that carries through and i appreciate the fact that there are more strong women in the world like that. I met dandrea 25 years ago, and we met through our interest in karate. Our professor started on cortland years ago, so we grew up here at this location, we out he outgrew the space and he moved ten years later. He decided to reopen this location after he moved. Initially, i came back to say, hey, because it might have been 15 years since i even put on a uniform. My Business Partner was here basically by herself, and the person she was supposed to run the studio with said great, you are here, i started new Nursing School so you can take over. And she said wait, that is not what i am here for i was by myself before for a month before she came through. She was technically here as a secretary, but we insisted, just put on the uniform, and help her teach. I was struggling a little bit. And she has been here. One thing led to another and now we are coowners. You think a lot more about safety after having children and i wanted to not live in fear so much, and so i just took advantage of the opportunity, and i found it very powerful to hit something, to get some relief, but also having the knowledge one you might be in a situation of how to take care of yourself. The selfdefence class is a new thing that we are doing. We started with a group of women last year as a trial run to see how it felt. Theres a difference between selfdefence and doing a karate class. We didnt want them to do an actual karate class. We wanted to learn the fundamentals of how to defend yourself versus, you know, going through all the forms and techniques that we teaching a karate class and how to break that down. Then i was approached by my old high school. One once a semester, the kids get to pick an extra curricular activity to take outside of the school walls. My old biology teacher is now the principle. She approached us into doing a selfdefence class. The girls have been really proactive and really sweet. They step out of of the comfort zone, but they have been willing to step out and that hasnt been any pushback. It is really great. It is respect. You have to learn it. When we first came in, they knew us as those girls. They didnt know who we were. Finally, we came enough for them to realize, okay, they are in the business now. It took a while for us to gain that respect from our peers, our male peers. Since receiving the grant, it has ignited us even more, and put a fire underneath our butts even more. We were doing our summer camp and we are in a movie theatre, and we just finished watching a film and she stepped out to receive a phone call. She came in and she screamed, hey, we got the grant. And i said what . Martial arts is a passion for us. It is passion driven. There are days where we are dead tired and the kids come and they have the biggest smiles on their faces and it is contagious. We have been operating this program for a little over a year all Women Entrepreneurs. It is an extraordinary benefit for us. We have had the Mayors Office investing in our program so we can continue doing this work. It has been so impactful across a diversity of communities throughout the city. We hope that we are making some type of impact in these kids lives outside of just learning karate. Having selfconfidence, having discipline, learning to know when its okay to stand up for yourself versus you just being a bully in school. These are the values we want the kids to take away from this. Not just, i learned how to kick and i learned how to punch. We want the kids to have more values when they walk outside of these doors. [ ]