Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Full Board Of Supervisors 20240712

Managing entity. And the c. E. O. And the c. F. O. Of caltrain under this agreement must be the same individual as the c. E. O. And the c. F. O. Of samtrans. And samtrans has financial rights and interests stemming from its ownership and management of certain caltrain operating and nonoperating assets, referring to things like parking lot and resource and land parcels along the rightofway. Next slide, please, michelle. So thats the background. And so turning now to the San Francisco and Santa Clara County proposals for the governance provisions as written in todays resolution, there are i believe six provisions, a through f. And here are the first four. A, revenues will be held in a special account, an esco account, to be disbursed by the joint powers board only. For eligible expenditures at any time with a twothirds majority. Again, these would be the tax measures, should the voters pass the measure, in november. And up to the first 40 million collected of the tax shall be offset shall be used to offset the member operating contributions provided by samtrans, uni and replace the covid related costs if relief funds are made available before the effective date, january 1 of the if a governance solution is found, the special escrow account would be closed and funds would be transferred to the joint powers board regular use the regular account and administration. If no government solution is found by september 30th, the first date that is mentioned in the special provisions of 2021, then another 40 million would be made available. Again, for operations. And to ensure that there would be no disruption to service for riders. E, if no governance solution is found, all parties would then commit to working with the state delegates from all three counties on a legislative solution for the 2023 legislative session. Finally, the joint powers board shall appoint an independent special counsel and auditor, which are separate from the ones that are used by samtrans within 90 days of placement of this measure on the november 2020 ballot so that those those consultants could be available to advise the board immediately. So with that im happy to take any questions. Finally, okay, one last slide. I should note that our Citizens Advisory Committee heard this item at their 722 meeting, july 22nd meeting last week. And did vote 91 in support urging the San Francisco board of supervisors and sfmta to support this caltrain resolution as sponsored by supervisors walton, peskin and haney. And theres a joint statement from santa clara counties calling for this comprehensive approach to funding and reform. Thank you so much. President yee okay, thank you for your presentation. Any questions from anybody . No questions. All righty. Now we have Public Comments on this item. Madam clerk. Clerk thank you, mr. President. To operations, do we have callers in the queue . I understand that a moment ago we had about 9 callers in the queue. Yes, there are currently 11 callers to speak. Clerk thank you. Unmute the first caller. We welcome you, caller. Thank you for your comments. President yee madam clerk, remind the callers they only have two minutes. Clerk to all of the callers who are going to be speaking on the sales tax for the caltrain operations, the costs associated with it, youll have up to two minutes to provide your testimony. Welcome, caller. Caller hi, yes, steven miller. I wanted to call in support of the tax. Kind of disappointing that we have to play politics, especially supervisor walton, who actually sits on the board claiming unfair representation. Where in the slide presentation that you just looked at, its not onethird, onethird, onethird that goes into caltrain. We all pay our fair share in by that logic, we dont have a third of the ridership. Its ridiculous. You guys are playing politics. It is a power grab. You can say whatever statements, youre on damage control mode right now and you know it. The only reason this is here is because the public go got mad. You know why the reason that people got mad . Because the way that it runs is good. And you dont see the photos of the bart stations and the muni station and the metro train. No, people love caltrain and thats why there was so Much Community outrage when you guys tried to play politics and pursue your own agenda. Remember you work for us. Were the voters, we pay the salary. Clerk thank you for your comments. To future speakers, please address the board as a whole and not individual members. Operations, please unmute the next caller. Caller hello. My name is christopher peterson. I am a San Francisco resident and prepandemic, a muni rider and occasional caltrain rider. Thank you for holding a hearing on this measure. I urge you to place the measure on the ballot but to remove the conditions that require most of the residents in the measure to go into an escrow account. It would have samtrans and b. T. A. That we would spend on caltrain and instead to direct that money to bus service. It will also allow caltrain to rely less heavily on regressive fares and to establish discounted fares for lowincome riders. The escrow provisions, however, by preventing caltrain from establishing equitable fares, would harm riders simply to create the negotiating leverage regarding caltrain governance. Please reject that risky strategy. Its clear caltrains governance needs to change, but not at the expense of transit riders. And i pray that the negotiations dont create another transit bureaucracy. We have far too many of those in the bay area already. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your testimony. Next caller, please. Welcome, caller, you have up to two minutes. Caller hello. Im andrew sullivan. I am, members of the board, im andrew sullivan, a 20year plus caltrain rider and along with supervisor peskin a coauthor of the 2003 prop k which as everyone knows is a sale tax for transportation. I am calling to urge the supervisors to pass the sales tax with no incompan restrictio. Caltrain needs a dedicated Revenue Source and i look forward to supporting it. Caltrain is a critical part of our system and needed to reduce auto traffic and greenhouse emissions. I would like to express outrage that this board has chosen to hold riders, its constituents, San Francisco voters like me, hostage to a bureaucratic dispute that has nothing to do with riders, service or the climate. It is completely unacceptable that they have chosen this moment to put Caltrain Service in jeopardy because of land. Its not also conforming to bill 797, caltrain gets nothing. This discussion proves beyond a shadow of the doubt that we need to do away with bart and caltrain and create a unified agency under the principles of the bay area. I strongly urge the supervisors to move beyond parochial power gains and to support this approach. For now stop playing game with transit riders. Pass a clean sales tax measure that withstands scrutiny and conforms to senate bill 797. That means no escrow. And dont stop with the joint powers board. Lets get seamless bay area do done. And for the record, mr. Sullivan was never a board of supervisors and did not cosponsor prop k but much of the rest that he said, relative to having bart take over the entire system, i agree with. Clerk thank you to the caller and thank you, supervisor peskin. There are 25 listeners and 19 members of the public in the queue. Lets have the next caller, please. You have up to two minutes. Welcome. Caller hi. My name is Bethany Beacham and im a transit only community and im concerned about the future of Caltrain Service. Im calling to pass a clean caltrain measure with no restrictions that will retain the Service Without putting caltrain through uncertainty year after year. While i agree with many Board Members that caltrain governance does need to be reformed, i dont think that this measure is the appropriate avenue for those changes. So those are conversations that could happen at the regional level. So i urge the board to support the Reform Efforts currently underway as part of the Blue Ribbon Transit Recovery Task force. And the task force is working across the entire region to figure out how to build a seamless Transit System that serves all riders, including caltrain riders, both now and in the long term. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next caller, please. Caller good afternoon, supervisors. My name is sarah bars. Im a board member of seamless bay area. And im also a San Francisco resident. And a transit commuter. And a prepandemic times i would run muni and bart and caltrain regularly. I applaud supervisors on the governance, however, unfortunately, i respectfully disagree that this proposal will resolve the governance issues that supervisors peskin and walton so eloquently described. This has the indiscernible and that will in the future make the Caltrain Service funding unreliable. Caltrain governance should be resolved via the regional blue ribbon Transit Task Force as the previous commenter mentioned. I urge the board of supervisors to support a clean tax bill to put those measures before the voters. And to not take any risks that could potentially harm Transit Service or transit riders in the region. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your testimony. Next caller, please. Caller hi, everyone. This is janice lee. I am speaking on behalf of myself. I thank you, supervisors, for holding this hearing. I am on the bart board of directors. Ill have a bit of topics beyond this. I dont think that you are playing games. I thank them for support and thank supervisor walton for really putting this issue of governance for quite some time now, maybe through different kinds of channels, but you have not been silent on this issue throughout. And i want to thank them for having a hearing on this and supporting this measure. Where i personally stand is that i support any path forward, including this one, to have the sales tax measure on the ballot. I dont need to tell you the importance of transit. Transit is part of the Pandemic Recovery and so is caltrain. With that said, i know this is a complicated measure and theres a lot, a lot of nuances and a lot of history here that cannot and will not be solved by one measure or in the next 20minute discussion. I recognize that transit is funded by regressive taxes and that caltrain has no dedicated revenue and muni and bart and m. T. A. Get to enjoy their dedicated sales tax revenues. Caltrains collapse and or lack of revenue has direct impact on muni, bart and beyond. And those systems were far more lowincome transit dependent demographics. And at the last bart meeting i asked the general meeting about the bart sales tax and he said that it was imperative that we keep that system moving. Its an important link for San Francisco and important to find a path forward. So i am committed to doing outreach with the state legislators, including senator wiener and i acknowledge they signed a letter that mayor breed signed on to. And will work with them to bring San Mateo County on board. I recognize that the governance provisions in this way are not ideal, but clerk thank you for your time. Caller thank you for hear ago clerk thank you for your comments. Next caller, please. Caller hi. This is adam, district 6. I wanted to speak on caltrain. One of the key things to remember is that caltrain brings more riders into San Francisco than out of it. San francisco benefits from this, especially here in d6, combined with the workers earning and spending money in the city. What is also important to remember, and contrary to the many Public Comments made over the past two weeks, mr. Peskin and mr. Walton, based on the last study, 40 of caltrain riders make less than the areas median income. There are many lowincome riders who rely on caltrain to get to work and school. And its also important to remember that caltrain when you look at the numbers, that those are household income. So a household falls into 100,000 bracket is not comprised of riders making big tech money or rich folks. Its likely that its two partners averaging 50,000 each. I dont think that anyone here would claim that 25 an hour is rich, especially com in the bay area. Especially last week when we were talking about bart drivers making 93,000 and being a middleclass salary. Were all on board there. Caltrain as it is, we need to pass a clean tax bill. Caltrain is consistently more reliable than bart or sfsta is. Im a former caltrain rider and i dont ride it right now but i dont trust San Francisco to have control of caltrain. We need a regional system that is above local politics, not one beholden to local whims. Samtrans runs the daytoday operations for exchange for giving up that 40 million demand. And the regional Blue Ribbon Task force is underway. Pass a clean measure for the voters to vote on and not one with this poison pill that puts caltrain funding in jeopardy. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next caller, please. Welcome caller. You will have up to two minutes. Caller hello. My name is alan. And im calling in to express my support for the tax measure as a whole. But to express my i guess disappointment and disagreement would be added governance reforms have been added to this legislation. Caltrain needs to be treated as a transportation service. Right now where it is transporting people in this pandemic and not as a developmental opportunity where San Francisco can go and stick its nose in, in all of the other counties. We have not paid samtrans back and we accuse them of stealing our money. We cannot run our own Transportation System yet we try to extort a different one from a different county that has been doing it quite well for just shy of 30 years. It is wholly irresponsible to tie this muchneeded funding for Transit Agency that needs it in a time like this where funding is s so unreliable. Its unconscionable to tie it to governance reform down its throatthroats that may not be ie best of the agency. I need you as a board to pass a clean and the original resolution that was offered by caltrain staff and not to pass this one including the governance reforms now. Clerk thank you, caller. Thank you for your testimony. Before operations sends in the next caller, we have 26 listeners and 14 members of the caller in the queue. Okay, operations, unmute the next speaker, please. Welcome, caller. Caller hi. My name is indiscernible im a district 6 resident and before shelter in place i relied on caltrain for my daily commute. I ask you to pass this free of any escrow mechanisms. And im very grateful to supervisors haney for this measure, im disappointed that things got to this point. Playing games with the funding of a political link is not the climatefriendly Transit Service that we should have. And if you dont care about the governance, why are you engaging in a hostagetaking scheme that is proposed by a majority of the cacaltrain board . If you care about the governance of our system, why havent you ensured that our own system is having the nomination of the sfmta board . If you care about the governance, why do caltrain riders not only i ignored indiscernible and all of these funds are not about the governance. Theyre a power grab by supervisors walton and peskin. I urge you again to pass a clean tax. That escrow system will not pass muster, and a measure that would be a fair legal challenge is something that distribute help our Transit System. And for supervisors peskin and walton, turn on the news and try to look at what is really going on and decide that the republicans that are moderate indiscernible that we are emulating here in San Francisco. Thank you very much. Have a wonderful night. Clerk thank you for your comments. Operations, please unmute the next caller. Caller good afternoon, supervisors. My name is magi dogg and im speaking in support of the Caltrain Service. Obviously, without caltrain, traveling through San Francisco down to indiscernible would be difficult for those who do not have access to it, but at the same time im concerned that all of the restrictions that are placed that are proposed will be detrimental to transit riders. So i am urging for a the sales tax but without all of the restrictions in place. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your testimony. Next speaker, please. Caller thank you, board chair, president yee and members. My pronouns are she and her. This is very, very important. And i travel the bay area in a very regional way which includes caltrain. Im a modest person of means, i dont have a car and so caltrain is very, very important to me and i support this sales tax and i have always supported this sales tax. And theres different conversations for different times. Governance is important as well. But its a separate conversation for a separate time because we dont have a lot of time for all of these public bodies to pass identical resolutions in order to get this measure to the ballot. So if one of these boards was not passed then the public would not have a chance to vote on this very important and historic measure. I do not want the future of caltrain to be in question. Because i remember the 1970s in new york city and the crisis in 1975 when the historic new york subways future was in question. They had the broken lights and all kinds of other problems and plans were made to demolish Grand Central terminal. So much was this in the aftermath of six other eastern railroads including the pennsylvania and new york central. So as the railroad goes, so does the city. And almost a Million People moved out of new york city in the 1970s, most likely in part because of the decline of the subway. So this measure is extremely important. Lets say the lowest common denominator and focus on the matter of getting the tax passed and continue at another time the conversation about governance. Thank you very much. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next caller, please. Caller hi, my name is jordan davis and my pronouns are she and her and i live in district 6. I actually do not not support this sales tax. Because the sales tax isnt very regressive. I like revenue measures and i vote for every tax that has been on the ballot in the past but when it comes to sales taxes, im a tax revolter. Second, is caltrain, which is mostly the people mostly take it are wealthier people in the peninsula trying to get the tech jobs. And. Clerk caller, are you still there . Caller can you hear me . Clerk yes, we can. Caller so, anyway, they doubled the they claiming they wanted to doubt it but the court, they said they needed to continue to function which shows that the caltrain board is being duplessis. I dont want to pay anymore of my lowincome to a bunch of wealthy tech indiscernible who just want it so please oppose the sales tax. Clerk thank you for your testimony. Operations, next caller, please. Caller hello. Good evening, members of the board of supervisors and the staff. Thank you very much to president yee for allowing this member to come forward with a special process to bring this measure forward after the issue in the previous week. Friends of caltrain is an organization that is focusing on Stable Funding for caltrain in the context of their public Transportation System that is accessible to all. And in the interest of making it accessible to all, we have for over five years worked on supporting research and how to make caltrain more equitable and to have access to the greater diversity of people. We are pleased to see as part of its Business Plan that caltrain is about to approve policies to improve the access and affordability so that a greater share of people at a variety of income levels can use caltrain, which would be funded by the fact that this tax is not moving forward. To put the ability to diversify the caltrain ridership in jeopardy. We, like many of the speakers today, are not supportive of linking the conditions to the tax, which would make it legally problematic and more difficult for tax people support the possibility for increased ridership, better connections, better affordability. And in complicated measures that would spend 35 of the money for caltrain for two years and then the remaining to be in limbo pending state legislation that may or may not pass in a begin year. This is putting a lot of risk on the back of riders for these changes that should happen, but not be tied to this ballot measure. We do support the governance change and upgrade, including the ability at a regional level to have fare integration and regional schedules and regional management of megaprojects. This needs to be done at a regional level, not only at the caltrain level. So in summary, we urge to you put this measure on the ballot. Its a clean ballot resolution. And ongoing clerk thank you. Thank you for your comments. Great, thank you. We have 11 members who are interested in speaking and we have 24 listeners in the queue. So, operations, next caller, please. Caller good evening, supervisors, i am live near the caltrain station. Which currently gets four trains a day. Two in the morning and two in the evening. I would like to echo bart director and thank supervisors walton, peskin, and haney as well as the executive director for rescuing caltrain from the great samtrans robbery. Thespass these resolutions unanimously. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Caller hi, i am Nancy Arbuckle and im a San Francisco resident. My family is transit only and were carfree and devoted caltrain riders. I want to make sure that you are thinking about the riders, the caltrain riders themselves. Those of us who have friends, relatives and jobs that we rely on caltrain to get us to. And with that in mind, i would like to ask that you set aside the governance battle and imagine a World Without caltrain. Those without cars couldnt access the peninsula, people couldnt get to their jobs. Giants and warriors fans would have a hard time getting to the game. Students couldnt get to school. Next, picture the traffic that would return in the absence of caltrain. The four freeway lanes worth of cars that the system has carried and now back on the streets and freeways. Picture the congestion, the delays, the increased crash rates, the long commute times. Count the tailpipes in your minds eye and breathe the polluted air. Now think about the Carbon Emissions that would be generated. Think of the Climate Emergency upon us, the droughts, the wildfires. Think about all of the things that we would face in a future without caltrain. And then reflect on the amendments, the ideas and the conditions and quibbles about governance. Lets make sure that were clear on the priorities here. Lets save caltrain for real. Lets place a clean sales tax measure on the ballot and remove all of the amendments and restrictions and conditions. Thank you very much. Clerk thank you for your testimony. Next caller, please. Caller good afternoon, supervisors. My name is kyle barlo and i live in the mission and i speak in support of the measure with improved governance reforms. Prior to the pandemic i was a daily caltrain rider and with personnel interactions that i had with the staff, i also believe that the Current Organization is not sufficiently accountable to the public or to the joint powers board. In particular, i have the caltrain staff that take sides on issues that are coming before the joint powers board. So we have heard differences of Public Opinion with the staff as the san mateo c. E. O. And to let the board decide the best path forward. This is not currently happening is one reason that we need governance reform. I agree that now is the time to address the issues that fiscal train before the dedicated funding stream is passed. And particularly the j. P. P. Member walton and peskin and haney, and with the crisis facing caltrain. I urge the board to pass the measure as is with the limitations that were added in consultation with San Mateo County. I believe that we can walk and chew gum at the same time and pass most with the current measure. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your testimony. Okay, please, operations, send in the next caller. Caller good evening, board. This is peter strauss, on the board of the San Francisco transit riders and a member of b. T. X. I want to thank you first of all for your recognition of the importance of caltrain as a regional transportation resource. That said, im not enthusiastic, i think that i have shared this with many of you, im not enthusiastic about the sales tax, but thats the hand that the legislature has dealt with us. So ill live with that and urge support. With respect to governments, i recognize the importance of governments reform of the of caltrain and its establishment in the bay area. However, im not going to present a specific recommendation on the form that it takes and the linkage that youre discussing today, except to recognize that its critically important that what you pass to be something that can be supported by all four counties. I hope that what you pass will have something that will have the support of San Francisco, santa clara and san mateo because thats essential to move forward. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your testimony. Next caller, please. Caller hi there, board. I just want to say that caltrain is a necessary for transit up and down the peninsula. Give the voters a chance to have a sustainable Funding Source for caltrain. Between caltrain and the california highspeed rail the peninsula will be more connected than ever. Please approve the submission on the ballot of the sales tax with no additional amendments or the government provisions or requirements to support the sustained Caltrain Service. Thank you, board, for your time. Clerk thank you for your testimony. We have 2 22 listeners and Seven Members in the queue. Please unmute the next caller. Caller hello. Hello, supervisors. This is jayward cristobal. I oppose this tax. I cant believe that you people are putting this on the ballot. Not a penny for muni and not a penny for caltrain. I cant believe that you think that you can manage caltrain when you cant even get buses running here in the city. When theres no Subway Service in this city. You are going to manage caltrain . What a joke. Muni is corrupt and caltrain is corrupt. You want to dump more money into a black hole that is caltrain . Make it go bankrupt. I cant wait for the voters to vote on this. When theres so much unemployment in the city. When the people that are going to pay the tax are seniors, disabled and poor folks. We cant afford this tax. Vote no. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next caller, please. Caller hello. My name is cliff barger and i live in patrero hill. And i have been a daily caltrain commuter for 5. 5 years and i strongly support placing this measure on the ballot. And i strongly support the governance reform. I would like to echo the comments of supervisor peskin earlier, but i also agree that maybe even something as bold as merging the existing j. P. B. Into the bart district is something to aspire to. But i would encourage you to reconsider placing this tax measure on the ballot with the current restrictions because its not clear that its legal. And im worried that it will not pass all three counties and that even if it does, that it will get sued and we may not end up seeing the tax revenue. So i want to reiterate that i really appreciate the work of all of the members of the board of supervisors who brought this forward, both to ensure that caltrain has Stable Funding and to ensure that the governance reform moves forward. But its not clear to me that this is an appropriate vehicle for showing they have it in tandem. Thank you. Clerk thank you. We have 21 listeners and six members of the public in the queue. Next caller, please. Welcome, caller. You have up to two minutes. Hello, caller, are you there . Caller hi there, this is vela selby from the San Francisco transit riders, first of all. Im a cochair of this 10yearold organization which you supervisors have supported, and i thank you for that. Im also one of the founding members of voices for Public Transportation. And i tell you that to emphasize the fact that we have worked for two years to get politicians to understand that there are actions to regressive tax measures. And that we can give you the papers to show it. We if covid hadnt happened on s. B. 278, we would have a solution that would be larger than what were talking about today, but with a progressive and not a regressive tax source. Im also the other thing that i am and everybody has spoken very eloquently on why this may not be a bad idea what were doing here, and such a good idea of what were doing here in San Francisco. Im a mother with a son in san mateo. My son does not have a car. I do not have a car. And so what youre contemplating today is potentially the risk of taking away my ability and my sons ability to get up and down the peninsula. Of course this is larger than us. Its called Climate Change. And the thought of not having an ability to get up and down the peninsula in a way that does not create tremendous congestion and pollution is terrifying to me. And i sincerely hope that we can figure out a way to get the the sales tax, which i dont support as a sales tax, but i support in the sense that we need something to keep caltrain going, without potentially the other parts of it like the governance that i completely agree that governance changes are necessary. I do not see the need to link the two. And i think that this can be done without the link. I want to thank in particular supervisor haney. One of my issues with San Francisco is the attempt to get things done without allowing the public to weigh in on them. If not for supervisor haney clerk thank you for your comments. Caller hello. My name is sam. And i live in oakland. And im calling in because caltrain is an integral and essential part of our regional Transportation System. The decisions that youre making on it will have consequences far beyond San Francisco. Our cal train people across the region will be cut off from large sections of the bay area. So its been very frustrating in that light to watch this process play out because it has felt like transit riders have been an afterthought in the process. But the priority has been who is in charge of caltrain. The more we serve is going to depend on caltrain in the future. Transit riders seem to be an afterthought. Youre putting forward a ballot measure with dubious language putting money into an escrow. Its not just me saying that its legally dubious. The people who wrote the bill, authorizing this ballot measure, have also said that this is legally dubious. They do not think that what you are proposing is legally sound. This puts a giant target on the back of this ballot measure, and revenue that we depend on to keep caltrain operating, to implement fairer programs that will make it more accessible to lower income riders. While putting a target on the back of that necessary revenues by structuring this in a legally dubious way. Have you asked the City Attorney to weigh in on whether that provision is legal . I know that weve been asking the council in san mateo count tow weigh in on that. I havent seen a verdict on that. I urge you to put this measure on the ballot in a way that is clean and that it can pass and it will not put a legal target on its back for the average taxpayers, to deny us the revenue that we desperately need. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your comments. Operations, please unmute the next caller. Welcome, you have up to two minutes. Caller hello. My name is simon. And i live in San Francisco. Im a frequent bart and muni and caltrain rider and i live in district 8 and i have relatives in mountainview. I ask to support this measure. Sales taxes are the worst way to fund transit. And we shouldnt charge poor people to fund transit that does benefit higher income riders. I dont have an opinion on the governance, but they should make sure that the funds are not in jeopardy if theres a legal challenge. I ask for support because if caltrain were to go away that would be disastrous. Caltrain does serve people and if caltrain went away so much traffic would be added to our space when theyre already choked as it is. It would create pollution when the problem with Climate Change has not gone away and its getting worse. I wanted to address a really kind of misleading Public Comments. People dont get mad at caltrain because theres far more riders on bart and muni. Therefore, caltrain would have fewer complaints. And caltrain has terrorized lowincome riders with their own Police Department because theres not as many lowincome riders on caltrain. Its laughable for anyone to say that the San Francisco governance is corrupt because caltrain is more reliable than muni and bart. Caltrain is one line. Bart manages six. Muni manages 60. So its misleading to say that the government is problematic. One idea about funding, how about Tax Companies to run the shuttles and fund caltrain . If tech people are the ones riding caltrain, then, you know, have the companies that make them commute down to the valley from San Francisco, charge them to fund caltrain. Thank you so much. Clerk thank you for your testimony. Operations, next caller, please. Welcome, youll have two minut minutes. Caller hi, i am pete brown and i live in San Francisco. Im calling to support the measure to put the sales tax on the ballot. Like so many speakers, i understand that theres problems with sales taxes but i think that it is important to support caltrain. And i would like to say that i think that the communication on the issues around caltrain has been terrible. Specifically coming from supervisors walton and peskin. There has been very poor communication to those of us in San Francisco about what is going on with caltrain. And the fact that supervisor peskin has just today introduced this issue at the caltrain land is an example of how poor the communication has been around these issues. And i think that the governance issues have been explained adequately to people in San Francisco. And with better communication i feel that the sales tax would be defeated because san franciscans are going to be frustrated and confused by all of the issues with caltrain and theyre going to throw up their hands indiscernible . So i urge the board to try and to improve the communication around these issues before the voters go to the polls in november. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your testimony. Operations, next caller, please. Youll have up to two minutes. Welcome, caller. Okay, operations, perhaps the next caller. Well circle back to that individual. Operations, can you give us a report, please . Caller good afternoon, am i audible . Clerk yes, sir, we can hear you. Welcome. You will have up to two minutes. Caller thank you. Yeah, new name is adrian grant, a lifelong caltrain user and i started riding when it was southern pacific in the 1970s. I just wanted to touch on a point that an earlier caller made. Theres nothing duplessis about the fact that caltrain was in the middle of a 2 billion system and electricification and the sb797 was going to be the first and only as many have said sources of revenue, recurring dedicated revenue. And prior to covid, it was going to allow the doubling of service and transition to a real regional bartlike rail service. Now what were doing now is were in a covid unforeseen covid pandemic crisis. And were literally on life support at caltrain. And i say we because im on the Advisory Committee but im not speaking for that committee. But we are in we are literally on life support with the cares act funding and like any other Transit Agency and that is going to run out. That will run out in the fall if there isnt more. And if there is more, it wont be much more. So what we have is a fiscal cliff. And the potential shutdown or decimation of service around that timeframe. So if this measure, you know, the governance question is a good one to have, its a good discussion to have. Not opposed to that. But bilinging i but by linking e ballot measure at the 11th hour, sb797 is simple. Im not a lawyer but its very easy to understand. These conditions will very likely open it up to a lawsuit. And it will also undermine the support among many supporters. The polling shows that were right on the bubble with a twothirds majority. Anything like these measures or anything that imperils in the courts later such as we had the bridge hung up in the courts clerk thank you. Thank you for your call. Thank you for your comments, sir. Is there another caller in the queue . Caller can you hear me . Clerk yes, we can. Welcome. Caller thank you. Regina, district 3, i am a person who has family and friends all along the peninsula. I have been riding caltrain for approximately 30 years. And i dont own a car, that is an affirmative choice. And this is an extremely important measure. We know that. We need a clean ballot measure. I have to agree with some previous callers that it shouldnt be linked to the governance issue. I would like to see it separated. But it is important to have a clean ballot measure in plain simple language put in front of the voters. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your testimony. We have 21 listeners and six members of the public in the queue. If youre interested in getting in the queue, please press star 3. Otherwise well take this group to the end. Okay, operations, please unmute the caller. Welcome. Caller hi. My name is jonathan new. And i think that it is critical indiscernible and tens of thousands of indiscernible please put a clean measure on the ballot and this should not be linked to the governance issue. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your testimony, sir. Next caller, please. Caller good afternoon. My name is ian griffith. Im the policy director of the seamless bay area, an Advocacy Group that supports an equitable Transit System and a district 8 resident of over 10 years. And i want to thank all of the supervisors for coming together to try to revive this measure and to try to Work Together to find a solution to put this on the ballot. I strongly support the conversation about governance and we as an organization think that the governance fixing governance is essential to creating a better, more equitable system that works for riders. However, the governance issues that have brow brought up and attached to this ballot measure dont have anything to do with riders. And for that reason, i urge you to pass a clean, winnable ballot measure. I am really nervous about the prospect of this not getting approved, not actually making it to voters, either because its seen to not be legal or because voters find it too confusing. And i worry about the fact that it wont be able to fund the important equity provisions that so many prior callers have spoken to by creating all of these restrictions around how the funds get used. Im a transit professional. And i have been in this industry for over 10 years and i can barely understand all of these complicated amendments. Hard for me to follow and i read 797 its very clear and i think that voters view it as clear as well. Poor governance has held our Transit System back for too long. But these conversations are finally happening at a regional level where theres a real momentum. Theres local, regional and state leaders like never before that are saying its time for these reforms. So we dont need to connect it to this ballot measure. Its going to happen and we welcome working with you to make sure that it happens and supporting the existing champions that we have for that. So lets not connect it unnecessarily to this ballot measure and risk losing caltrain. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next caller, please. Welcome, caller. You will have up to two minutes. Caller hello, my name is simon sam and im a San Francisco resident for over 20 years, district 4. I dont need to rehash on the pros and cons of the governance reform more generally. I would like to emphasize that we need caltrain to survive. We know how important transit is in the area and how bad the congestion would get. And also if you look at the public outrage is loud right now, imagine how loud it would get if caltrain collapses, because we couldnt get past the quibbles between the local jurisdictions. Create a resolution that has the best chance of passing because this is a time for the room to do this. And, you know, without any nonessential things that could be put in later. So, thank you. Clerk thank you for your testimony. Operations, next caller, please. Caller wow, thank you for having me on tonight. This is jill conslar and im a big fan of public transit, and indiscernible and its great to be on the call. Its great to see supervisor haney and its great to be back here to ask you to please pass a clean measure to pass the voters in november. And indiscernible and this is something that indiscernible im also for the indiscernible and i support everything that was said. The reason that i support is because indiscernible to have caltrain with bart, because it is really, really i want you to consider this i am grateful for the leadership on this and i indiscernible matt haneys leadership indiscernible to ride caltrain. So i want to thank you for your awesome leadership and president yee as well for putting this measure forth. Thank you for your leadership and i wish you all the very be best. Clerk thank you for your testimony. Thank you for your testimony. Operations, please unmute the next caller. Caller ing any of, supervisors good evening, supervisors and board clerk. My name is mike chen and im a San Francisco resident of district 2. Im speaking in favor of the sales tax measure. If possible, a measure without preconditions. As many callers said before, i think that there were questions of legality that have not been fully resolved. And the best bill that has the best chance to survive the legal scrutiny is a bill without conditions. Barring that, a bill with some clauses that such if the preconditions are struck down, that the measure can still move forward in some way, shape or form, would be prudent. And, you know, what i would like to say is that i think theyre frustrated of dealing with cities and towns who are attracting a lot of jobs and not building the housing to house a lot of these people. And, therefore, a lot of that housing demand, you know, is to the east bay and San Francisco and san jose. And one remedy from the city is to try to encourage, force, cities to do transit or into development. We need caltrain to be running. We cannot, you know, have any partial shutdowns, that would reduce the service. In order for places like cities like them to do development. I hope that you take that into consideration when you do this. Thank you very much. Clerk thank you for your testimony. Operations, next caller, please. Caller good evening, supervisors. Thank you for your time tonight. My name is jordan grimes. Im a san mateo resident and a life long rider of caltrains and growing up my family didnt have a lot of money so caltrain was a lifeline for us. While it was more expensive than it should be, it was still less expensive than owning a car. Im never a supporter of sales taxes but, unfortunately, were in a place that this is the only way to save caltrain so i support this. And i urge you to as well. And im a strong supporter of governance reform and i think that what youll find is that theres a great number of people in San Mateo County who are residents who support the governance reform. Particularly around the credible housing policy. Additionally, i just say that i and many others want samtrans that we love to have its own dedicated staff and resources. San mateo county bus drivers and riders deserve to have that system. However, the issue here is sb797. Its deeply concerning to me that the board is pursuing a resolution with language here that is not legal under 797. Surprising that theres no discussion thus far tonight whether the motion would be legally compliant. And im curious as to why that is. And in summation i urge to you pass a clean resolution and move to pursue comprehensive government reform at the bill level. I and many others will be there to join you in strong support should you choose to do so. Thank you so much for your time tonight. Clerk thank you for your testimony. Theres 20 listeners and five members of the public in the queue. Next caller, please. Welcome, caller. You will have up to two minutes. Caller hi. My name is dell hines and im from the east bay transit riders. Im i wani. To say that you should put up with the sales tax. please stand by if caltrain does get shut down, otherwise we should get the measure on the ballot as soon as possible. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your testimony. Next speaker, please. Hello, caller . Hi, there. I live in bell mirr. Im a commuter. Im not going to rehash it, but a perfect example, the agency is becoming the politicians lost the forest through the trees. Instructing the sales tax to change the dynamic reasonable control over caltrain holds them hostage. It makes pawns out of the riders to travel. But not orphaned by plague. Caltrain works. Its a Commuter Service on which millions of riders rely. Being impacted by a caltrain shutdown. Amnesty environment further clog our freeways which are shared by the county. Thats to the platform which many of the politicians were elected and i cant call it anything other than progressive. There is surely a conversation had about governance. Its not perfect and had problems for a long time, but now is not the time to have that conversation. More than anything, it distinguishes as leaders, matter of course from those who support them as matters of principle. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your testimony. Next. Hi there, good evening, board of supervisors. I live in district 2. Im calling as a Community Advocate for chinatown and north beach as well as the richmond and sunset districts. Im a member of the Asian Pacific islander council. I encourage you and hope youll work out all the prementioned bugs and get this on the ballot. Members of the residents depend on caltrain to get to work and school precovid. Please pass it cleanly. They depend on the peninsula in south bay. There is no other means for them to get there. It will be a hardship and the riders really depend on the route. No one owns a car that im talking about. Many are lowincome. So they do not have a car. So as complicated as this measure would be, the result of not having caltrain operate would make their lives even more complicated for many thousands. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. There are 17 listeners and two members of the public in the queue. This is the last call. If youre interested in speaking, press star 3. Were taking this group to the end. Next caller, please. Hello . Welcome. Hi. So my name im the chair for couper tino. Were the only prohousing and protransit organization that exists in our city. Weve definitely gotten a bit of a reputation over the years, thats for sure. I just wanted to stay being from Santa Clara County, i share a lot of the governance concern, but my biggest worry is that if we focus on governance right now during a global catastrophe, then there might not be a caltrain left to govern. And at that point the forums arent useful. Its about priorities and making sure caltrain stays alive. I know personally in areas like my own, transit is not heavily valued or housing. So im going to try 0 my best to take sure it does well at the ballot box. I ask that you get it on the ballot, too, in the cleanest way possible. I want to express my gratefulness im grateful for supervisor haney for bringing this item up as well. Thats all i have to say, thank you. Thank you for your testimony. Operations, next caller, please. Good evening, supervisors. Calvin quick, insurance officer with the San Francisco youth commission, i represent district 5. I have im not going to be [inaudible] like many other people have concerns, share concerns with members of the board expressed about this being a sales tax, about the governance issues with caltrain. These are all valid concerns, but shaping the deadlines for getting a measure onto the ballot, facing the deadlines, we need to do the cleanest way possible of just making sure that caltrain stays operational while we continue to hash out the issues around funding and governance. And it seems now that san matteo is saying theyre not going to accept San Franciscos plan and yes, that may be a problematic stance to take, but to be honest, thats what we did a few weeks ago. So at some point, someone has to rise above the fray. We have to we are going to, you know, continue these discussions along the road and opportunities to resolve some of these issues at the state level. That there are openings for the discussion there. So i, you know, echo what everyone else is saying about please pass this as a clean funding measure and then we continue to have all these discussions now and Going Forward to resolve these issues. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. Operations, is there another caller, please . Hi, my name is kevin burke. I live in the mission. I would like to urge you put a clean measure on the ballot. The city would turn into a punching bag for the taxpayer association. I would not like the city to turn into a punching bag for the taxpayer association. So i urge you to put a clean bill on the november ballot. Thanks very much. Thats all i have to say. Thank you for your testimony. Operations, next caller, please . Yes. Good afternoon good evening now. I have spent many, many hours sitting in the taxi line waiting for passengers to come off the train. Id have to say that an 8 sales tax i could afford when i buy my food or my gas in the city doing my business. I urge you to allow this to happen. I notice that the m. T. A. Board actually took this agenda item off its calendar the last meeting. But i tell you, though, they talk about this and i think we need to have more representation at the table. And i think that you need to figure out how San Francisco can, because to say that the peninsula provides more riders than San Francisco, i dont think so. There are a lot of people that live in San Francisco, go down the peninsula to work. Especially you see it during commute times. So i think that it does need more seats at the table, but i urge you to put this on the november ballot. Thank you very much. Thank you for your testimony. Operations . Next caller, please. That completes the queue. Thank you, mr. President. President yee thank you. I want to thank the public for their comments. I will say Public Comment is now closed. Supervisor fewer, after we got started with Public Comments, im sorry if you wanted to say thing before that, would you like to go ahead and take the floor . Supervisor fewer yes. So, president yee, thank you very much. I had a couple of questions. I had asked i met with caltrain and asked them about their rider demographic and they didnt share it with me, but i was looking at a 2019 study, a survey done. Its extensive about the ridership of caltrain. I just have to say this is a regressive tax. When we look at by their own survey who the ridership is, it does seem this is much more affluent, 85 of them are speak english very well. Most are fulltime employed. I just am wondering i mean i know governance is a big issue, but this is a regressive tax. This is a time where i think that people are really struggling. And so i just wanted to ask, first, also, i want to thank supervisor walton supervisors walton and peskin for standing up for the people of San Francisco around this governance issue. When i first came on the board, it was an issue then. People talked about it. We had a representative that we put there who thought it was tough and she couldnt do it. And i just think governance is really important, especially because this is a recesssive tax. Because i look at who the ridership is and because, we in San Francisco, should have more of a voice in the governance of what is happening. And i do think that if you attempted which ive heard our representatives have attempted to breach this conversation repeatedly before the caltrain board and not getting responses or actually any action, you know, i just want to say that i get that people depend on it. And i get that caltrain says its important to the regional economy of San Francisco. But to more of the fact that San Francisco has had limited governance over this is completely ridiculous. Especially now when there is going to be a tax that is placed on the ballot that is a recesssive tax, that it is regressive tax, i mean. That it is taxing amongst the poorest people, not the riders of caltrain. I just wanted to know, what are some of these equity measures that you think should be actually promoted . And why hasnt caltrain done it . And why are they so dependent on the weekday commuter when i look at who is really commuting on the weekend, or not during rush hour. Or looking at the demographic. Why isnt there more of emphasis if people are saying this service is so important to riders, why is the rider demographic like this . When we see that over 26 of 250,000 or more annually . Through the chair. Thank you so much, supervisor fewer. One of my Major Concerns upon serving on the j. P. B. , obviously was the lack of diversity of ridership, not just because of ethnicity or race, but also because of economics and how much people make that ride caltrain. We did fight for making sure that in the language for the ballot measure that we also were going to address making sure that fares are more equitable, more opportunity for folks with lower income to be able to ride on the rail system. There is lots of conversation about what we need to do to make the rail system more equitable. And we are participating in those conversations, but by no means can i say that the ridership of caltrain looks like it should represent the diversity of the bay area. I believe with us having a hand in governance and leadership in the rail system, those changes that we want to happen, because we have dedicated folks who are willing to serve to make that happen and push the envelope, i think they will happen. But they wont happen without us being able to have a bigger say in how things happen with the railroad. Supervisor fewer thank you. Supervisor peskin thank you, president yee. I really want to thank supervisor fewer for really asking the questions of our time on a day where this board of supervisors has advanced to the San Francisco ballot a c. E. O. Tax, a gross receipts tax that is making the tech industry, the richest corporations in our society, pay their fair share. And look, caltrain as i said earlier, takes thousands of cars off the road, benefits the environment, but as you just said, supervisor fewer, serves a very affluent clientele, which is absolutely fine, but what senate bill 797 actually set forth, the false truth that it set forth, which is the one that were grappling with, the one that santa clara will grapple with, was in essence a false choice. It is going to be an affluent railroad, then perhaps they should pay for it. If it is going to be what Public Transportation usually is, which is the great equalizer, then perhaps a regressive tax makes sense because everybody can use it. But the reality is, that it is only on the eve of this discussion that supervisor walton in his incarnation as commissioner walton on the joint powers board, has finally gotten caltrain to do the kind of equity measures that are commonplace in cities like San Francisco with muni, relative to youth, seniors, lowincome individuals. That has never been part of caltrains thinking. In large part because of the Structural Dynamics relative to the three counties. So i hear this argument that we heard during Public Comment about the quote, unquote, clean, conditioned. You want to know what . I have to say this for the record. Their notion of clean is my notion of dirty. Supervisor fewer thank you. Mr. President , if i may continue . I just also wanted to say that i think that it is the voice of the these large cities, these large urban cities like San Francisco and also san jose that actually will bring the voice of equity. I think i get that riders are saying its really important, we need it to pass. I get that their livelihood depends on this Transportation System, which i think is super important regionally also. Were right, were taking cars off the road. You know, i think that there is more connectivity and i get that people use it, but then i also get that its not for everyone and its not open and its not inclusive of all of our communities. And it is a public Transportation System, it is imperative on us as 11 legislators in San Francisco to stand up for everyone. Not just the people who can afford to ride caltrain and that is working very well for them. It has to work for a larger population. So i understand it, you know, minimally compared, i think to you are all so entrenched in it, but i just want to say thank you. I think i didnt fully understand it. And i had a conversation with caltrain. I had a conversation with other people and i think i understand it a little more. I understand your hesitancy in the beginning. And i understand how important that voice is. And San Francisco sometimes stands alone with that voice n that voice, but we have to remember we represent everyone here. We represent the 4 of africanamerican the ridership which is 4 africanamerican compared to the 40 almost 50 that are white riders. We represent all of them. So i just wanted to say, thank you for standing up for san franciscans. And i, you know, i think it will be probably in the hands of the voters. And its going to be a tough measure to pass. And i think that everyone is going to have get on board if they want to get it passed. So youre right, we have a lot of revenue measures on the ballot because were in a recession. Out of the tax measures are the livelihood for San Francisco. I know the Transportation System is important, but where you live in San Francisco is also super important. We lay off people and people are losing their jobs and we cant deliver City Services because were going to have a 1. 7 billion deficit. So anyway, i just want to thank you for having this conversation and bringing it to the public, but also bringing it to the board for us to discuss. Thanks. President yee so there is a lot of tough issues that you brought up, supervisor fewer and im pretty sure all of us are thinking about how to balance this off. But one i wanted to see the m. T. A. , jonathan regehrs, if hes still available, because what we did need to talk about is this particular tax measure, if it passes, how does it benefit m. T. A. . Can you just briefly, you know, let us know so we can better understand this. Sure, president yee, supervisors, i will give just a very brief presentation. Im sharing the screen. Hopefully you can all see. Just covering that question. The member contribution that we of San Francisco make to the caltrain budget and kind of its impact with regard to the m. T. A. Specifically and muni service. Just as brought up throughout todays hearing, through the joint powers agreement, San Francisco does provide a capital cost and capital contribution to caltrain through the proposition k sales tax as director chang brought up. The operating costs, though, or the operating budget of caltrain, that contribution comes directly from the sfmta budget. It comes from the same source of funds we use here in San Francisco to cover muni service, parking and Traffic Services here in San Francisco. Heres just quickly to the right, youll see what the contribution has been over the past few years. Back to fiscal year 18, 6 million, 7 million, 8 million. The contribution is proportional based on, one, the total operating budget of caltrain, so essentially their proposal for service. And the percentage, which is 27 that San Francisco provides for the total. The numbers im going to give you now are based on caltrain preliminary proposal for a 70Train Service. We had budgeted at the m. T. A. For fiscal year 21, you see in purple, about 9. 1 million for the contributions to caltrain. However, their deficit after the cares act required the contribution if this budget is maintained and finally approved, a contribution of 14 million. So that would be an additional 5 million from the m. T. A. Budget that we had not accounted for and in that situation, we have to make choices about what services we can provide and make reductions elsewhere within the agency to cover our contributions. President yee i dont want to go through the whole thing. If the sales tax were put on the ballot and were to pass, do we still continue making this contribution, 9 million or 14 million . This is the last slide. So the last slide covers the impact of the legislation as proposed. So if the legislation were to pass, the bill were to proceed as proposed today, it would essentially remove that additional requirement for us to provide an extra 5 million, that means that reduction we would have to make at the m. T. A. Goes away. It would also reduce our contribution overall, again, if caltrains budget stays the same to 3 million next year, which would add 3 million to the m. T. A. And muni budget which we could use for additional Transit Services here in San Francisco. This is all based on the fact that if there were no additional federal funds, this would be the result. President yee thank you. This is really helpful for me, anyway, to understand that its not only about helping bail out caltrain, but also there is a benefit to our residents in San Francisco who actually take m. T. A. Or muni. Okay. So, supervisor peskin, again . Supervisor peskin so let me just ask you a few numbers. Precovid, how many human beings use muni every day approximately . We have about 700,000 boardings per day. Supervisor peskin and during covid, like today, or approximately today, how many human beings use muni now . Director tumlin is here with me, but i believe were in the 160s of of right now. As of right now. Supervisor peskin and how many bus and other lines, light rail, cable cars total did muni have precovid . Oh, in total, i know were i dont know. Jeff, im going to need help with this, but i know as of right now, the Current Service plan shows us holding back on those. Supervisor peskin you have 57 bus lines. Yes, thank you. Supervisor peskin and weve gotten rid of cable cars. Weve gotten rid of our fixed rail systems, right . And you cited a number for caltrain of 70 trains per day, is that what you said . Their Current Service plan calls for a 70train per day operation. Supervisor peskin and what was their precovid trains per day . I must review my notes. Supervisor peskin i think the answer is 92. You could be correct. It might be a little more than that, but yes. Supervisor peskin ill let you review your notes. Mr. Tumlin, if you would like to jump in . The point im trying to make. Id like to do it based on facts, is that muni delivers a population that is a largely working class lowincome population. Caltrain works undeniably does incredible work relative to reducing Greenhouse Gas emission, relative to delivering approximately precovid 63, 65,000 people in a northbound and southbound direction in almost equal amounts, albeit 15,000 of them originate in San Francisco county, went from, i believe, 63 to 65,000 to about 3500 to 4300 a day. Reduce their daily runs from 92 to 70 whereas in San Francisco, we made the very difficult decision, the imperative decision that were all suffering from, because all our constituents cant get to their essential jobs. We chose amongst our children. We went from more than 57 because the number is 57 bus lines, were not including light rail, or cable cars, that by the way my constituents use to get to work. We all have to share the pain here, brothers and sisters. And how ive said enough. Mr. Tumlin . Yes, sir . Was president yee was there a question . I was asking him about the comparative numbers of the sfmta versus the comparative number of caltrain before and during covid19. I can confirm your 92 Train Service number. You are correct. Which is the equivalent number of runs per day as many of the sfmta muni lines that we have been forced to eliminate during the covid period. Supervisor peskin thank you for that summation, mr. Tumlin. President yee any other questions, comments before we get a second on the motion to amend . Okay. On just the motion to amend supervisor walton president yee, if i may. Pushing a of course, is something i see as a last resort. I just want all of my colleagues to realize the reason why i am supporting this is because president yee supervisor walton, your volume is not very loud. Supervisor walton is this better . President yee little bit. Supervisor walton hmm. What about this . President yee yeah, yeah. Supervisor walton sorry about that. I was just saying that its not ideal and one of the reasons why i am supportive of this is because of the possibility and what we can envision for the region if we, one, get a dedicated revenue stream, but, of course, we would have to have a voice that provides opportunity to ensure that ridership is diverse, that are opportunities for us to make the rail system equitable. I want to dispel a couple of myths. One, this measure is not something that happened as a result of covid19. I think there is a narrative out there saying this measure came about to save the rail system through covid19. So weve been talking about this for well over a year about a dedicated Funding Source for caltrain. We talked about it through a mega measure through online counties and something bigger. We talked about it through 797. But this measure is not a brand new measure in order to bail out caltrain because of covid19. Secondly, the scare tactics that are citing that caltrain will go dark if this measure was not put on the ballot. That is not 100 true as well. There are conversations with state leadership. There is other dedicated Revenue Sources. Particularly if ridership increases during this pandemic. So that scare tactic that san matteo county is using to get people to support something, that would not be good for San Francisco, i just have to make sure we respond to that because that is also not something that is the case. And i just want to say, lastly, caltrain needs to be its own independent rail system, separated from samtrans. It should have its own c. E. O. , own employees and certainly its own legal counsel. That is not the case right now. If were going to be responsible for 80 of tax revenue with Santa Clara County, this is how we achieve equitable voice, by removing caltrain from under samtrans fund. We have attempted to provide a dedicated Revenue Source through this resolution pushing for a tax measure for the november ballot. The best way to keep caltrain running is for san matteo county to join San Francisco county and Santa Clara County and support this measure on the ballot. When samtrans states and when san matteo county states they want to see a clean measure, what theyre saying is, they want us to allow them to continue to use caltrain resources to subsidize samtrans and even though San Francisco and san [inaudible] president yee you just got cut off. I think hes frozen he was on a roll, though. Supervisor walton what about now . Im back . So i just got off when i said samtrans and san matteo county says they want to see a clean measure, what theyre basically saying is allow us, san matteo county, and samtrans to continue to use caltrain resources to subsidize samtrans and even though theyll be responsible for 80 of the revenue generated from this tax, we should let good ole boy policies and practice continue. That is not good policy for San Francisco. And this resolution will give caltrain what it needs and protect San Franciscos interests, which is our job. President yee thank you, supervisor walton. And thank you all three of you for moving this forward. And if there is no other comments, is there a second for the amendments that supervisor walton had highlighted . Second by supervisor haney. Madame clerk, could you take the roll on the motion to amend . Clerk on the amendment to item 37, supervisor walton aye. Yee aye. Fewer aye. Haney aye. Mandelman aye. Mar aye. Peskin aye. Preston aye. Ronen aye. Safai aye. Stefani aye. There are 11 ayes. President yee so without objection then the motion to amend passes. On the resolution as amended, roll call, please. Clerk on item 37 as amended, supervisor walton . Walton aye. Yee aye. Fewer aye. Haney aye. Mandelman aye. Mar aye. Peskin aye. Preston aye. Ronen aye. Safai aye. Stefani aye. There are 11 ayes. President yee okay. Without objection then the resolution as amended is adopted. Thank you. President yee all right. Madame clerk, please read the inmemorial yams. Today, meeting will be adjourned in the memory of the beloved individual, on behalf of president yee, the late honorable judge michael kwan. President yee madame clerk, any further business before us today . That concludes our business for today. President yee thank you, madame clerk. As there is no further business, we are all adjourned. Thank you. Good night, everybody. Shop and dine in the 49 promotes local businesses, and challenges residents to do their shopping within the 49 square miles of San Francisco. By supporting local services in our neighborhood, we help San Francisco remain unique, successful, and vibrant. So where will you shop and dine in the 49 . I am the owner of this restaurant. We have been here in north beach over 100 years. [speaking foreign language] [ ] [speaking foreign language] [ ] [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] [ ] [ ] the goal is simple. Its to raise womens voices. Learn a little bit about what you should be thinking about in the future. We had own over 300 over 300 people who signed up for the oneonone counseling today. I think in the world of leading, people sometimes discount the ability to lead quietly and effectively. The Assessors Office is a big one. There are 58 counties in the state of california and every single county has one elected assessor in the county. Our job is to look at property taxes and make sure that we are fairly taxing every single property in San Francisco. One of the big things that we do is as a result of our work, we bring in a lot of revenue, about 2. 6 billion worth of revenue to the city. Often, people will say, what do you do with that money, and i like to share what we do with property taxes. For every dollar we collect in property taxes, about 68 cents of it goes to support public sstss, our police officers, our fire departments, our streets, our cleaning that happens in the city. But i think what most people dont know is 34 cents of the dollar goes to public education. So it goes to the state of california and in turn gets allocated back to our local school districts. So this is an incredibly important part of what we do in this office. Its an interesting place to be, i have to say. My colleagues across the state have been wonderful and have been very welcoming and share their knowledge with me. In my daytoday life, i dont think about that role, being the only Asian American assessor in the state, i just focus on being the best i can be, representing my city very well, representing the county of San Francisco well. By being the only Asian American assessor, i think you have a job to try to lift up and bring as many people on board, as well. I hope by doing the best that you can as an individual, people will start to see that your assessor is your elected leaders, the people that are making important decisions can look like you, can be like you, can be from your background. I grew up with a family where most of my relatives, my aunties, my uncles, my parents, were immigrants to the united states. When my parents first came here, they came without any relatives or friends in the united states. They had very little money, and they didnt know how to speak english very well. They came to a place that was completely foreign, a place where they had absolutely nobody here to help them, and i cant imagine what that must have been like, how brave it was for them to take that step because they were doing this in order to create an opportunity for their family. So my parents had odd jobs, my dad worked in the kitchens, my mom worked as a seamstress sewing. As we grew up, we eventually had a small business. I very much grew up in a family of immigrants, where we helped to translate. We went to the restaurant every weekend helping out, rolling egg rolls, eating egg rolls, and doing whatever we need to do to help the family out. It really was an experience growing up that helped me be the person that i am and viewing Public Service the way that i do. One of the events that really stuck with me when i was growing up was actually the rodney king riots. We lived in Southern California at the time, and my parents had a restaurant in inglewood, california. I can remember smelling smoke, seeing ashes where we lived. It was incredibly scary because we didnt know if we were going to lose that restaurant, if it was going to be burned down, if it was going to be damaged, and it was our entire livelihood. And i remember there were a lot of conversations at that time around what it was that government to do to create more opportunities or help people be more successful, and that stuck with me. It stuck with me because i remain believe government has a role, government has a responsibility to change the outcomes for communities, to create opportunities, to help people go to school, to help people open businesses and be successful. Make sure to be safe, and of course to have fun. And then, i think as you continue to serve in government, you realize that those convictions and the persons that you are really help to inform you, and so long as you go back to your core, and you remember why youre doing what youre doing, you know, i think you cant go wrong. Its funny, because, you know, i never had thought i would do this. I became a supervisor first for the city under very unusual circumstances, and i can remember one day, im shopping with friends and really not having a care in the world about politics or running for office or being in a public position, and the next day, im sworn in and serving on the board of supervisors. For many of us who are going through our Public Service, its very interesting, i think, what people view as a leader. Sometimes people say, well, maybe the person who is most outspoken, the person who yells the loudest or who speaks the loudest is going to be the best leader. And i think how i was raised, i like to listen first, and i like to try to figure outweighs to work with out ways to work with people to get things done. I hope that time goes on, you can see that you can have all sorts of different leaders whether at the top of City Government or leading organizations or leading teams, that there are really different kinds of leadership styles that we should really foster because it makes us stronger as organizations. Take advantage of all the wonderful information that you have here, at the vendor booth, at our seminars and also the oneonone counseling. I wouldnt be where i was if i didnt have very strong people who believed in me. And even at times when i didnt believe in my own abilities or my own skills, i had a lot of people who trusted and believed i either had the passion or skills to accomplish and do what i did. If there was one thing that i can tell young women, girls, who are thinking about and dreaming about the things they want to be, whether its being a doctor or being in politics, running an organization, being in business, whatever it is, i think its really to just trust yourself and believe that who you are is enough, that you are enough to make it work and to make things successful. What were trying to approach is bringing more diversity to our food. Its not just the old european style food. We are seeing a lot of influences, and all of this is because of our students. All we ask is make it flavorful. [ ] we are the first twoyear Culinary Hospitality School in the united states. The first year was 1936, and it was started by two graduates from cornell. Im a graduate of this program, and very proud of that. So students can expect to learn under the three degrees. Culinary Arts Management degree, Food Service Management degree, and Hotel Management degree. Were not a cooking school. Even though were not teaching you how to cook, were teaching you how to manage, how to supervise employees, how to manage a hotel, and plus youre getting an associate of science degree. My name is vince, and im a faculty member of the hospitality arts and Culinary School here in San Francisco. This is my 11th year. The policemrogram is very, ver in what this industry demands. Cooking, health, safety, and sanitation issues are included in it. Its quite a complete program to prepare them for whats happening out in the real world. The first time i heard about this program, i was working in a restaurant, and the sous chef had graduated from this program. He was very young to be a sous chef, and i want to be like him, basically, in the future. This program, its awesome. Its another world when youre here. Its another world. You get to be who you are, a person get to be who they are. You get to explore different things, and then, you get to explore and they encourage you to bring your background to the kitchen, too. Ive been in the program for about a year. Twoyear program, and im about halfway through. Before, i was studying behavioral genetics and dance. I had few injuries, and i couldnt pursue the things that i needed to to dance, so i pursued my other passion, cooking. When i stopped dance, i was deprived of my creative outlet, and cooking has been that for me, specifically pastry. The good thing is we have students everywhere from places like the ritz to we have kids from every area. Facebook and google. Kids from everywhere. They are all over the bay area, and theyre thriving. My name is jeff, and im a coowner of nopa restaurant, nopalito restaurant in San Francisco. I attended city college of San Francisco, the culinary arts program, where it was called hotel and restaurant back then in the early 90s. Nopalito on broderick street, its based on no specific region in mexico. All our masa is hand made. We cook our own corn in house. Everything is pretty much hand made on a daily basis, so day and night, were making hand made tortillas, carnitas, salsas. A lot of love put into this. [ ] used to be very easy to define casual dining, fine dining, quick service. Now, its shades of gray, and were trying to define that experience through that spectrum of service. Fine dining calls into white table cloths. The cafeteria is Large Production kitchen, understanding vast production kitchens, the googles and the facebooks of the world that have those kitypes of kitchens. And the ideas that change every year, again, its the notion and the venue. One of the things i love about vince is one of our outlets is a concept restaurant, and he changes the concept every year to show students how to do a startup restaurant. Its been a pizzeria, a taco bar. Its been a mediterranean bar, its been a noodle bar. People choose ccsf over other hospitality programs because the industry recognizes that we instill the work ethic. We, again, serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Other culinary hospitality programs may open two days a week for breakfast service. Were open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner five days a week. The menus always interesting. They change it every semester, maybe more. Theres always a good variety of foods. The preparation is always beautiful. The students are really sincere, and they work so hard here, and theyre so proud of their work. Ive had people coming in to town, and i, like, bring them here for a special treat, so its more, like, not so much every day, but as often as i can for a special treat. When i have my interns in their final semester of the program go out in the industry, 80 to 90 of the students get hired in the industry, well above the industry average in the culinary program. We do have internals continually coming into our restaurants from city college of San Francisco, and most of the time that people doing internships with us realize this is what they want to do for a living. We hired many interns into employees from our restaurants. My partner is also a graduate of city college. So my goal is actually to travel and try to do some pastry in maybe italy or france, along those lines. I actually have developed a few connections through this program in italy, which i am excited to support. Im thinking about going to go work on a cruise ship for about two, three year so i can save some money and then hopefully venture out on my own. Yeah, i want to go back to china. I want to bring something that i learned here, the french cooking, the western system, back to china. So we want them to have a full toolkit. Were trying to make them ready thank you all for joiningu. As of today we have four thousand sixty nine confirmed cases in San Francisco and sadly people have lost their lives. We averaged testing three thousand two hundred twelve people each and everyday in San Francisco. This exceeds our goal of conducting eighteen hundred tests per day. We also know we need to do more. Now especially with people facing longer wait times to get their results and also to get tested in the first place. Covid 19 in the bay viewpoints and in the valley and mission demonstrate that we clearly have a real disparity. Early on in our responses to covid 19 we created a field care clinic at the Community Health crepter to bring testing to people. Recently we announced the opening of a testing site of a latino testing hub. Im excited to announce an expansion that will bring test to go areas of the city that have been especially hit hard. To do this, were going to make three major expansions. First, we will expand our city tests site by adding four hundred new slots a day where we can continue to on focusing on essential workers who need testing the most. Our fire fighters, police officers, Health Care Workers and people who are taking care of San Francisco. We will launch two mobile pop up sites that can test up to two hundred fifty people per day. One will start this week, the other next week. They will rotate to different neighborhoods in the city that are seeing high rates of covid 19 and need more testing options. Third, were creating a third city test sf site at the south east of the city. The location is still being developed with community input. It should launch in august with the ability to begin tests five hundred people per day. In total well have an a additional fourteen hundred testing slots per day. Thats nearly a 45 increase over what weve been averaging over the last week. This new testing along with the requirement for private partner it do their part will help us make testing more easily available especially for symptomatic or high risk individuals. Resources for people to test positive, right to recover, hotel room it isolate. Those are all the things we need to go hand in hand with our testing capacity. To find out more information on how to get tested please go to the website or call 311. Im really proud of the work were doing to expand testing in San Francisco. We know that we cant test our way out of this pandemic. We need people to be responsible. To keep their distance from others to avoid gathers, and to wash their hands. Getting testing is not a passport to do whatever you want. You can still get infected at any moment. When i see people acting irresponsibly or on some of our busiest commercial corridors, im really disappointed. What youre doing when you gather with friend friends and t waring a mask. Youre making our recovery longer, youre making it more difficult for kid it go back to school. Youre making it more difficult for folks to visit senior homes. More difficult for people to get back to work. Our nail salons and barbershops. Massage and tattoo parlors and things like that. You are making things more difficult for others not just yourself. I know its hard. Im tired of living in this covid 19 world just like you are. The sooner we can act responsibly, the sooner we can get back together in a more real way. At this time id like to introduce dr. Grant c olfax. good afternoon, thank you, mayor. Im dr. Grant director of health for the city of San Francisco. As the current surge continues our reopening plans must remain on pause. Last week, we told you that it took us 38 days to go from 2000 to 3000 cases. Its taken thirteen days to go from three thousand to four thousand. We are averaging seventy nine new cases everyday diagnosed. We know there are more cases out there as the virus continues to spread. These numbers put us in the red zone of one of our key health indicators. As of tomorrow well have been in that red zone for a month. Since monday San Francisco has been on the state watch list that restricts reopening. The reason for the watch list is our rapid increase in hospitalization. We remain on high alert. Our goal is to keep the rate of hospitalizations of covid 19 patients to less than 10 . In San Francisco we can slow the spread of covid 19. We have flattened the curve before. We must do it again. Lives are at stake. You know what to do. Wear face coverings out side of your hous household. Stay six feet apart from others and avoid gatherings. While you do your part, the city is doing its part too. The testing expansion is one of our strategies. Its an important one and especially paired with contact tracing, it can help us contain covid 19. But testing alone will not bring us out of the red zone. Id like to talk today about the role of testing in our citys pandemic response. Five months ago San Francisco had never conducted a single test for covid 19. On an average day this month, we conducted more than three thousand. Building our testing infrastructure has been a tremendous effort that involves hiring staff, ordering supplies, deploying testing sites across the city. A severe lack of federal leadership has made testing a significant challenge across the challenge. Faced with limited resources San Francisco prioritized testing for the people with greatest needs. Its important to understand that the testing universe is much larger than the tests that people are seeking out for themselves. We test all residents and staff in San Franciscos Skilled Nursing facilities. We test as part of out break response in many studies across the cities. We test all people with symptoms and hospitals and clinics. Because of the strategy we have been able to slow down the spread of the virus. And we are doing well compared to other places. San francisco has the lowest rate of covid 19 cases and deaths and the highest rate of testing. I will say that again. San francisco has the lowest rate of covid 19 cases and death and highest rate of testing when compared to other jurisdictions including los angeles, seattle, denver, boston, new york, and other big cities. Therefore we have a foundation to build upon and we are doing exactly that. Today demand for testing is growing because were experiencing a surge for demand for testing and surge in cases. Its getting harder for individuals to book an appointment and taking longer to get test results. As we expand capacity, we must target our effort. We are not going to test our way out of the pandemic. This is an important point, test sg a limited resource and we must use it wisely by focusing on people who are most likely to be exposed, we increase our ability to find cases. Through contact tracing, we can further reduce exposure and spread. Testing is not prevention. A positive test means that the virus has already spread. And a negative test is not a passport to take risks or it to do whatever you want. We have a vision of realizing universal access to testing in San Francisco. But we cannot get there alone. A surge is making our circumstances more challenging all around. Private providers need to do their share. The city is conducting nearly two thirds of all covid 19 test tg right now. We know that many of the people seeking testing from the city have private insurance. That is why we have issued a health order requiring businesses to test people with symptoms and those with contacts and those residents at highest risk of exposure. This order aligns with the state which is requiring that insurance plans cover testing. Represent only 15 of the citys population. In addition workers must leave their homes to take on more risk are getting sicker in greater numbers. And the neighborhoods in the eastern and southeastern side of the city continue to have a higher rate of cases. The surge is making all of these disparities worse. In the past two weeks, we have expanded testing in the mission, bay view, tender loin and sunny veil neighborhood. We administered twenty two hundred tests to date. In the weeks to come we will continue to expand test inning the south east and deploy mobile testing in neighborhoods that need it most. And well continue to prioritize people with symptoms, people referred to testing by contact tracers and workers that are greatest risk of exposure. Such as first responders, disaster workers, and Health Care Workers. While the city is doing all of this, here is what san franciscans can do. If a Contact Person reaches out to you to say you might have been exposed to covid 19. Please take that call. Contract tracers can help you track your symptoms and get tests and get you resources like food and cleaning supplies if you need to isolate. If you have a Health Care Provider, please try to book your testing with them. That will help the people with out insurance, Health Care Workers and people most effected by the pandemic. And of course, if you are feeling sick, please stay at home. If youre not feeling sick and going out, you must cover your face. Stay six feet away from people out side your household and please, please avoid gathering. Gatherings are part of whats driving our current surge. If you are gathering with people who dont think they are sick or dont look sick, that doesnt matter. You can still transmit covid 19 without symptoms. Even if people have gotten a negative test recently, that doesnt mean they are negative that day. We have seen increases in covid 19 precisely because people are gathering more. This is a critical time for all of us to come together as one community. Take the precautions as we have asked for many weeks now. We can all do our part. Ask your Health Care Provider for a test. If you have symptoms, have been instructed by a contact tracer or at higher risk for exposure because of your living or working continues. Lets show the world that San Francisco can flatten the curve again and resume our ohmings ops together. Thank you. thank you madam mayor, and thank you doctor for your time. Today we have a few health care and testing related questions for director c olfax. Thank you director the first set of questions are from michelle king. Is San Francisco going to start fining people for not wearing masks. Will they set up a test line. were looking for ways to increase enforcement across the city. We know from Public Health work that the best way to get people to comply with doing whats right in this situation including wearing the face coverings, its really chaifnged the social norm, the messengers are trusted Community Members who provide the support and information needed and in cases, the actual facial coverings so people can cover their faces and take the right steps. At the same time we are looking at enforcement options not so much at the individual level but looking and ensuring that were working to increase enforcement across the city of various institutions that may not be complying with health orders. We really need to protect each other so that we protect others. thank you where does the city stand on hair salons similar to people meeting outdoors such as restaurants. certain outdoor personal services. Were taking a look at that. Were reviewing the criteria and will make a derptio determinatid when those personal services can be opened outdoors and with the state guidelines. thank you. The la times. What lessons are we learning from new yorks experience with the pandemic. i think there are two things. Certainly we have learned from the new york situation how bad it can get and how rapidly it can get bad. When we look at the mortality rates when the Health Care Systems got overwhelmed. We can see sophisticated and Health Care Systems, when they get overwhelmed, more people get sick and more people die. Its impossible to take care of people in those situations. When we talk about the surge, im very concerned as cases increase, its plausible we can get in a new york type of situation in the late summer or early fall. Thats why everyone need it do their part to flatten the curve. The second part that weve learned from new york is that its possible to flatten the curve with the facial coverings and social distancing and high general staying at home that we encourage. I hope we can do that before a massive surge. New york has unfortunately had to do that after a surge. with regards to our private partners doing their part, what are we talking about . What are we asking of them . How are we holding them accountable . when talks about private partners. From the beginning of the pandemic weve been working with Health Care System as cross the city to ensure a unify response. Its really strengthened our ability for instance, to ensure people with covid 19 are getting the best care possible in the Health Care Facilities across the city. What we need to do with regard to testing is ensure that low barrier testing is provided to people per the health order from the many Health Care Systems across the si city. We know San Francisco is fortunate and most people have insurance and a provider that is covered by a health care entity. Per the health order the requirements are there so low barrier testing is provided particularly for people with symptoms, people with a known close exposure, close contact with a covid 19 positive person. For people what have been asked to get a test per the health department. There are a lots of opportunities that we hope will be opened up through this health order. City has done 60 of the covid 19 testing to date. In order to realize this vision of expanded testing, we need all providers to do more. thank you dreghtor. Director. Do you believe that private testing labs are keeping up with the ever growing need for city wide testing . part of our goal is to encourage providers an providerh care systems to expand their testing just as the mayor announced today. Were investing in more testing so do other Health Care Systems across the city. Theres the meeting demand for testing and prioritizing the neighborhoods for demand for testing. We need to do our part there. Theres the situation where labs are getting behind in terms of processing tests. To a large extent thats a national and state issue because the large lab entities that are processing these specimens are getting further and further hand. We all need to Work Together to ensure that labs are turning tests around as quickly as possible so we can flatten the curve by dpettin getting tests e quickly. thank you. What are the turn around time for test results in san fran francisco. testing turn around time varies demanding on where people get tested and the capacity of wherethe capacity of the lab of where those specimens are going. In some cases the specimens can be turned around within 72 hours but were seeing back ups especially with our provider labs and some of our own labs within the city. We are backing up seven days, ten days at this point. Thats something were seeing across the state and across the country. thank you director. Thank you madam mayor and dr. C olfax for your time. Any followup questions or questions after this meeting can be directed to dem press at sf dot org. Thank you for your time and that concludes todays press conference. Conference. As a woman of color who grew up in San Francisco i understand how institutions can have an impact on communities of color. I think having my voice was important. That is where my passion lies when the opportunity to lead an office in such a new space came up. I couldnt turn it down. I was with the District Attorneys Office for a little over nine years, if you include the time as an intern as well as volunteer da, all most 13 years. During the time with the das office i had an opportunity to serve the community not only as the assistant District Attorney but as director of community relations. That afforded the opportunity to have impact on the community in an immediate way. It is one thing to work to serve the rights of those without rights, victims. It is really rewarding to work to to further the goals of our office and the commitment we have as City Employees and advocates for people who dont have a voice. I dont know of anyone surprised to see me in this role. Maybe people have an impression what the director of the office of cannabis should be like, what their beliefs should be. I smash all of that. You grew up in the inner city of San Francisco. My career path is not traditional. I dont think a person should limit themselves to reach full potential. I say that to young women and girls. That is important. You want to see leadership that looks diverse because your path is not predetermined. I didnt wake up thinking i was going to be a prosecutor in my life. The city administrator reached out and wanted to have a conversation and gave me interest in the new role. I thought you must not know what i do for a living. It was the opposite. She had foresight in realizing it would be helpful for somebody not only a former prosecutor but interested in shaping criminal Justice Reform for the city would be the right person for the space. I appreciate the foresight of the mayor to be open how we can be leaders in San Francisco. I was able to transition to the policy space. Here i was able to work on legislation, community relations, communication and start to shape the ways our office was going to reform the criminal Justice System. It is fulfilling for me. I could create programs and see those impact peoples lives. I am the change. It took truants youth to meet with Civil Rights Movement leaders who fought to have access to education. Being a young person to understand that helped the young people realize this was an important thing to give up. What we find is that young people who are truanted have a really high homicide rate in our city, which is a sad statistic. We want to change that. Coming from a community we are black and brown. I dont reach out to other people. I dont think they feel the same way. I had the great opportunity to work on Prison Reform issues and criminal Justice Reform issues. We created a program at san quentin where we brought district opportunities t to lifs and talk about how we are all impacted by the criminal Justice System. We brought over 40 elected das to san quentin for the situation. Now we are inviting the Police Department. Our formerly incarcerated group born out of this programming asked for the opportunity to work on a project where we could bring the men in blue on the outside to come speak to the men on blue inside to start the healing dialogue around how the criminal Justice System specifically in San Francisco impacts the community. I was attracted to the role. There was a component of equity that was part of this process. The Equity Community here in San Francisco is a community that i had already worked with. Before i took steps to visit cannabis businesses i thought it was important my team have a chance to go inside and speak to men who ha had been impacted. That conversation needed to happen so we know how we are making an impact with the work that we are doing. The das office as we were leading up to the legalization of marijuana in the state we started having conversations on the policy team what that could look like. The District Attorney was really focused on the right side of history for this. We realized it would be quite a heavy lift for individuals who have been negatively impacted by the war on drugs to expunge the record. It was important to figure out the framework to make it seamless and easy. They put their minds to it after some time and many conversations the data analysts and other policy walk throughs on the team came up with the idea to engage the Tech Community in this process. Code for america helped us developed the rhythm to be used for any jurisdiction across the state that was important to create a solution to be used to assist all jurisdictions dealing with this matter. The office of cannabis is the first office to have a completely digital application process. We worked with the digital team to develop the online application. There are going to be hiccups. We are first to do it. It is one of the most rewarding parts to offer a seamless to offer a seamless approach. That is how they can find solutions to solve many of the community challenges. The best way to respond to prop 64 was to retroactively expunge 9,000 cannabis related records for San Francisco. It feels like justice full circle for my personal experience. In the past i was furthering the war on drugs just as my directive. Really coming from a place of public safety. That was the mandate and understanding. It is nice to see that pass a society we are able to look at some of our laws and say, you know what . We got it wrong. Lets get this right. I had the privilege of being in the existing framework. My predecessor Nicole Elliott did an incredible job bringing together the individuals superpassionate about cannabis. The office was created in july of 2017. I came in early 2018. I have been able to see the Offices Development over time which is nice. It is exciting to be in the space, stickily in thinking about her leadership. Looking for the office it is always we might be before my time when i was working for the board oforboard of supervisors. I learn new things every day it is challenging and rewarding for me. We get the privilege to work in an office tha that is innova. We get to spearhead the robust exprogram. I am excited she came on board to leverage experience as a prosecutor 10 years as we contemplate enforcements but approaching it without replicating the war on drugs. I was hired by cam laharris. I havent seen a District Attorney that looked kind of like me. That could be a path in my life. I might not have considered it. It is important that women and certainly women of color and spaces of leadership really do their part to bring on and mentor as many young people as they can. It is superimportant to take advantage of as many opportunities a as they can when they can intern because the doors are wide open. Plans change and that is okay. The way this was shaped because i took a risk to try something new and explore something and show that i was capable. You are capable, right . It was about leaning in and being at the table to say my voice matters. You find your passion, the sky [ ] i just dont know that you can find a neighborhood in the city where you can hear music stands and take a ride on the low rider down the street. It is an experience that you cant have anywhere else in San Francisco. [ ] [ ] district nine is a in the southeast portion of the city. We have four neighborhoods that i represent. St. Marys park has a completely unique architecture. Very distinct feel, and it is a very close to holly park which is another beautiful park in San Francisco. The Bernal Heights district is unique in that we have the hell which has one of the best views in all of San Francisco. There is a swinging hanging from a tree at the top. It is as if you are swinging over the entire city. There are two unique aspects. It is considered the fourth chinatown in San Francisco. Sixty of the residents are of chinese ancestry. The second unique, and fun aspect about this area is it is the garden district. There is a lot of urban agriculture and it was where the city grew the majority of the flowers. Not only for San Francisco but for the region. And of course, it is the location in mclaren park which is the citys second biggest park after golden gate. Many people dont know the neighborhood in the first place if they havent been there. We call it the best neighborhood nobody has ever heard our. Every neighborhood in district nine has a very special aspect. Where we are right now is the Mission District. The Mission District is a very special part of our city. You smell the tacos at the [speaking spanish] and they have the best latin pastries. They have these shortbread cookies with caramel in the middle. And then you walk further down and you have sunrise cafe. It is a place that you come for the incredible food, but also to learn about what is happening in the neighborhood and how you can help and support your community. Twentyfourth street is the birthplace of the movement. We have over 620 murals. It is the largest outdoor Public Gallery in the country and possibly the world. You can find so much Political Engagement park next to so much incredible art. Its another reason why we think this is a cultural district that we must preserve. [ ] it was formed in 2014. We had been an organization that had been around for over 20 years. We worked a lot in the neighborhood around life issues. Most recently, in 2012, there were issues around gentrification in the neighborhood. So the idea of forming the cultural district was to help preserve the history and the culture that is in this neighborhood for the future of families and generations. In the past decade, 8,000 latino residents in the Mission District have been displaced from their community. We all know that the rising cost of living in San Francisco has led to many people being displaced. Lower and middle income all over the city. Because it there is richness in this neighborhood that i also mentioned the fact it is flat and so accessible by trip Public Transportation, has, has made it very popular. Its a struggle for us right now, you know, when you get a lot of development coming to an area, a lot of new people coming to the area with different sets of values and different culture. There is a lot of struggle between the existing community and the newness coming in. There are some things that we do to try to slow it down so it doesnt completely erase the communities. We try to have developments that is more in tune with the community and more Equitable Development in the area. You need to meet with and gain the support and find out the needs of the neighborhoods. The people on the businesses that came before you. You need to dialogue and show respect. And then figure out how to bring in the new, without displacing the old. [ ] i hope we can reset a lot of the mission that we have lost in the last 20 years. So we will be bringing in a lot of folks into the neighborhoods pick when we do that, there is a demand or, you know, certain types of services that pertain more to the local community and workingclass. Back in the day, we looked at mission street, and now it does not look and feel anything like mission street. This is the last stand of the latino concentrated arts, culture and cuisine and people. We created a cultural district to do our best to conserve that feeling. That is what makes our city so cosmopolitan and diverse and makes us the envy of the world. We have these unique neighborhoods with so much cultural presence and learnings, that we want to preserve. [ ] watching. Youre watching coping with covid19 with chris manners. Todays special guest is julie kirschbaum. Hi. Im chris manners. Youre watching coping with covid19. Today, im speaking with the executive director of the sfmta. Thank you and welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. Can we begin by talking about the services that have been suspended and there have been changes to the services that are still running . Absolutely. Weve had to make really significant changes to our services in response to covid19. Initially going down to as few as 17 routes. These are routes that people use to get to work or the hospital, Grocery Stores, really to make the most essential trips that are needed throughout this process. Weve been fortunate over the last, say, five or six weeks, that our Staffing Levels have gotten better, and as weve increased our cleaning capacity, that weve been able to add some Community Services back. Weve added a shuttle on pacific avenue, which is helping seniors get to Grocery Stores in chinatown. Weve added a community inline bus in ingleside, and weve been adding more service to our core network. Our corridors like mission street, potrero near s. F. General, and really needing increasingly more and more service in order to prevent spacing and keep spacing and prevent crowding on the bus. Thank you. What measures have you been taking to prevent passengers on the bus . Your safety has been our top priority and is guiding everything that we do. The most critical thing that were doing is the mask requirement, where were requiring people, if youre going to ride muni, to do it safely, protecting yourself and others from germs. Weve also implemented back door boarding, so except for our customers with disabilities that will need the support of the front door, the ramp, or the leader, were asking customers to enter from the back to give extra spacing to our operators. Weve provided operators with all of the protective equipment that they need to do the job safely, including gloves and masks, and were really fortunately that our bus fortunate that our buses are equipped with a plexi glass door that creates an operating space for our operators. And some of Services Like the cable car historic trolleys we dont have that same protection, we suspended early on in this process. We want our operators to have the physical separation that they need to stay safe on the road. Absolutely. So how have you been managing physical distancing on Public Transportation . What happens if a bus gets full . Great question. We have reduced the number of people that we consider a bus to be crowded, so heading into this, we might have had 70 or 80 people on the bus. Now, its closer to 20. We also are monitoring our passenger loads. Both our operators are monitoring them as well as were monitoring them remotely from our Transportation Management center. If the bus does get too crowded, the operators have a dropoff only sign, and they stop picking passengers up until enough exit the vehicle. It might be a little bit inconvenient if youre waiting for a bus and it doesnt stop to pick you up, but theres another one coming behind it so we can make sure that you have social distancing throughout this process. What other ways have you been letting passengers and residents know about these changes and new policies . Weve been using all methods to keep customers informed about all of these changes. Weve put up almost 2,000 signs and posters at our bus stops in multiple languages, letting people know when routes have been eliminated, when hours have changed, when service has changed. Weve also been putting it up through social media and neighborhood groups, and also really relying on the media and press to notify customers about changing. We want the public to know what to expect in this really unique and unusual time to make things as convenient as possible. Quite right, yes. Other than the operators themselves, i know you have a very large support staff. Have you made changes at your muni facilities, as well. Sfmta has 29 facilities, and enhancing safety at those facilities has really been a team effort. We have an amazing custodial crew thats been doing deep cleanings. We were able to take staff that had been cleaning the subway stations and dedicate them to our facilities. We have also seen staff at every level jump in and help with daily cleanings in places like common areas, desks, tools. Everyone is pitching in to wipe stuff down, which makes a big difference. We are proud of the fact that we havent had any clusters of staff who have had the virus or really any examples of staff catching it from each other, and we feel its because of the steps that were taking to keep people safe at work. Were also taking ideas from everywhere in the organization. That includes safety briefings, rather than doing them in a small room, doing them outside, in a parking lot. In order to get to job sites, staff had previously taken three or four people in a city truck. Now, were taking them in a bus so they can actually space out during the trip to the site. Oh, thats great stuff. When we look at the Transportation System as a whole, what additional steps have been taken to encourage people to consider alternative forms of transit. We have been looking at it as a system in part because the bus system is doing less than it has in the past because we have fewer routes and because we have fewer people riding. One example is our e. T. C. Program, which is a taxibased program that seniors and people with disabilities can sign up for and use a taxi for essential trips at a highly discounted rate. Were also looking at a Transit System that people can get out walking or biking. How are we planning on next steps as restrictions ease and we move into phase two and eventually phases three and four . I think probably our biggest thing that were getting ready for right now is the start of school in august, and make sure that were ready, not only to accommodate all of the general activities, like going to restaurants and recreation, but also getting kids to school safely. Were also looking at what are other cities doing around the world that we can learn from, and thats where we are forming our work, as well. We are really fortunate that we had an opportunity to skype with taipei, a city thats had a lot of success addressing the virus. The mayor actually joined the skype call, and one of the things that they shared with us, their biggest success has come with 100 compliance masks on mass transit. In other cases, monitoring for temperatures and really making sure that people were riding, that they were riding healthy, so were trying to model and apply those best practices to our system and learn as much as we can through this process. Well, thats fantastic information. I really appreciate you coming on the show, miss kirschbaum. Thank you for the time youve given us today. Thank you. Thanks again. Well, thats it for this episode. Well be back with more covid19 relates information shortly. Youve been watching coping with covid19. Im chris manners. Thanks for watching. My name is alan schumer. I am a fourth generation san franciscan. In december, this building will be 103 years of age. It is an incredibly rich, rich history. [ ] my core responsibility as city hall historian is to keep the history of this building alive. I am also the tour program manager, and i chair the city advisory commission. I have two ways of looking at my life. I want it to be i wanted to be a Fashion Designer for the movies, and the other one, a political figure because i had some force from family members, so it was a constant battle between both. I ended up, for many years, doing the fashion, not for the movies, but for for san franciscan his and then in turn, big changes, and now i am here. The work that i do at city hall makes my life a broader, a richer, more fulfilling than if i was doing something in the Garment Industry. I had the opportunity to develop relationships with my docents. It is almost like an extended family. I have formed incredible relationships with them, and also some of the people that come to take a tour. She was a dressmaker of the first order. I would go visit her, and it was a special treat. I was a tiny little girl. I would go with my wool coat on and my special little dress because at that period in time, girls did not wear pants. The Garment Industry had the at the time that i was in it and i was a retailer, as well as the designer, was not particularly favourable to women. You will see the predominant designers, owners of huge complexes are huge stores were all male. Women were sort of relegated to a lesser position, so that, you reached a point where it was a difficult to survive and survive financially. There was a woman by the name of diana. She was editor of the bazaar, and evoke, and went on and she was a miraculous individual, but she had something that was a very unique. She classified it as a third i. Will lewis brown junior, who was mayor of San Francisco, and was the champion of reopening this building on january 5th of 1999. I believe he has not a third eye , but some kind of antenna attached to his head because he had the ability to go through this building almost on a daily basis during the restoration and corrects everything so that it would appear as it was when it opened in december of 1915. The board of supervisors approved that, i signed it into law. Jeffrey heller, the city and county of San Francisco oh, and and your band of architects a great thing, just a great thing. To impart to the history of this building is remarkable. To see a person who comes in with a gloomy look on their face , and all of a sudden you Start Talking about this building, the gloomy look disappears and a smile registers across their face. With children, and i do mainly all of the childrens tours, that is a totally different feeling because you are imparting knowledge that they have no idea where it came from, how it was developed, and you can Start Talking about how things were before we had computer screens, cell phones, lake in 1915, the mayor of San Francisco used to answer the telephone and he would say, good morning, this is the mayor. At times, my clothes make me feel powerful. Powerful in a different sense. I am not the biggest person in the world, so therefore, i have to have something that would draw your eye to me. Usually i do that through color, or just the simplicity of the look, or sometimes the complication of the look. I have had people say, do those shoes really match that outfit . Retirement to me is a very strange words. I dont really ever want to retire because i would like to be able to impart the knowledge that i have, the knowledge that i have learned and the ongoing honor of working in the peoples palace. You want a longterm career, and you truly want to give something to do whatever you do, so long as you know that you are giving to someone or something youre then yourself. Follow your passion and learn how to enrich the feelings along this is a huge catalyst for change. It will be over 530,000 gross square feet plus two levels of basement. Now the departments are across so many locations it is hard for them to Work Together and collaborate and hard for the customers to figure out the different locations and hours of operation. One of the main drivers is a one stopper mitt center for permit center. Special events. We are a one stop shop for those three things. This has many different uses throughout if years. In 1940s it was cocacola and the flagship as part of the construction project we are retaining the clock tower. The permit center is little working closely with the Digital Services team on how can we modernize and move away from the paper we use right now to move to a more digital world. The Digital Services team was created in 2017. It is 2. 5 years. Our job is to make it possible to get things done with the city online. One of the reasons permitting is so difficult in this city and county is really about the scale. We have 58 Different Department in the city and 18 of them involve permitting. We are expecting the residents to understand how the departments are structured to navigate through the permitting processes. It is difficult and we have heard that from many people we interviewed. Our goal is you dont have to know the department. You are dealing with the city. Now if you are trying to get construction or special events permit you might go to 13 locations to get the permit. Here we are taking 13 locations into one floor of one location which is a huge improvement for the customer and staff trying to Work Together to make it easy to comply with the rules. There are more than 300 permitting processes in the city. There is a huge to do list that we are possessing digital. The first project is allowing people to apply online for the a. D. U. It is an accessory dwelling unit, away for people to add extra living space to their home, to convert a garage or add something to the back of the house. It is a very complicated permit. You have to speak to Different Departments to get it approved. We are trying to consolidate to one easy to due process. Some of the next ones are windows and roofing. Those are high volume permits. They are simple to issue. Another one is restaurant permitting. While the overall volume is lower it is long and complicated business process. People struggle to open restaurants because the permitting process is hard to navigate. The city is going to roll out a digital curing system one that is being tested. When people arrive they canshay what they are here to. It helps them workout which cue they neat to be in. If they rant to run anker rapid she can do that. We say you are next in line make sure you are back ready for your appointment. We want it allinone location across the many departments involved. It is clear where customers go to play. On june 5, 2019 the ceremony was held to celebrate the placement of the last beam on top of the structures. Six months later construction is complete. We will be moving next summer. The flu building the new building will be building. It was designed with light in mind. Employees will appreciate these amenities. Solar panels on the roof, electric vehicle chargers in the basement levels, benefiting from gray watery use and secured bicycle parking for 300 bicycles. When you are on the higher floors of thing yo of the buildt catch the tip of the Golden Gate Bridge on a clear day and good view of soma. It is so exciting for the team. It is a fiscal manifestation what we are trying to do. It is allowing the Different Departments to come together to issue permits to the residents. We hope people can digitally come to one website for permits. We are trying to make it digital so when they come into the center they have a highquality interaction with experts to guide then rather than filling iin forms. They will have good conversations with our staff. Rsations with our staff. 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 air are we look fofofofofofofof were here to raise awareness and money and fork for a good accuse. We have this incredible gift probably the widest range of restaurant and count ii destines in any district in the city right here in the mission intricate why dont we capture that to support the mission youths going to college thats for the food for thought. We didnt have a signature font for our orientation thats a 40yearold organization. Mission graduates have helped me to develop special as an individual theyve helped me figure out and provide the tools for me that i need i feel successful in life their core above emission and goal is in line with our values. The ferraris yes, we made 48 thousand they were on top of that its a nobrainer for us. Were in and fifth year and be able to expand out and tonight is your ungrammatical truck food for thought. Food truck for thought is an opportunity to eat from a variety of different vendor that are supporting the mission graduates by coming and representing at the parks were giving a prude of our to give people the opportunity to get an education. People come back and can you tell me and enjoy our food. All the vendor are xooment a portion of their precedes the money is going back in whats the best thing to do in terms of moving the needle for the folks we thought Higher Education is the tool to move young people. Im also a College Student i go to berkley and 90 percent of our folks are staying in college thats 40 percent hire than the afternoon. Im politically to clemdz and ucla. Just knowing were giving back to the community. Especially the Spanish Speaking population it hits home. People get hungry why not eat and give