Transcripts For SFGTV Board Of Education 20240712

Of the public may observe this meeting via sfgovtv. They may offer Public Comment by calling the Public Comment phone number. I want to welcome members of the public and staff. We ask for your patience during these unprecedented times. We respectfully ask the public to have patience in delays and gaps during the meeting particularly during Public Comment. Madam secretary, would you please call the roll . thank you commissioner. Please say present when i call your name. roll call and please note that executive director is present. We have a quorum. thank you. Commissioners the next item is item three, communications that wed like to provide further instructions for the Public Comment process. Callers can dial into the toll free number and wait for members to be announced. Three minutes to provide comment on each item. During each Public Comment period callers will be instructed to call 18774153612. You will hear a notification when your line is unmuted. It is best to call from a quawet location and turn your television or radio down. Are there any communications from the Commission Members . okay. Hearing none. Next agenda item four approving minutes from wednesday june 3 Commission Meeting. Any comment regarding the june 3 meeting . Hearing none, is there a motion to approve the wednesday june 3dos Commission Meeting minutes . so moved. moved and seconded. Madam, second, please take a roll call vote to approve the Commission Meeting minutes. roll call the vote is unanimous. thank you. Commissioners item five is executive directors report. good morning, commissioners. Great to see everybodys face. I just wanted to start with the federal level actions that are taking place. Following months of delay due to the pandemic, congressional appropriators kicked off the funding debates. House lawmakers are moving through the funding bills for next fiscal bills. However, regular appropriations discussions are occur inning the background of this unprecedented legislative year. Since covid 19 began congress has passed trillions of dollars in emergency funding including discretionary programs normally funded through the discretionary cycle. More than one billion for the Older Americans act programs to respond to increased need ses. S. Additional measures and changes to address the growing economic changes and disasters. We have benefited from the money coming out of the federal government so far and are very much advocating for more dollars. Advocating through c 4a the california area of aging and the National Association of aging. I know that members of our Advisory Council and some of you have advocated for those dollars as well. Thats something that were really going to need in the next year. Despite the continued need for emergency funding, lawmakers are advancing the annual Fund Proposals for all discretionary programs. This has just been a really complicated process. The debates were ultimately insufficient and the restricted budget caps that were established before the pandemic really caused a lot of confusion and problems with getting money out the door. Now congressional appropriators have little legal room to conduct adjustments in the spending bill. This is an on going budget. A lot of the money that is coming down is through emergency processes that they are working on. Hopefully we will find out in the very near future if were getting an infusion of cash for nutritious and Supportive Services for caregivers but we dont know yet. Theres just a lot of influx at the federal level. As we get information about with a we can advocate for well get that information out to you so that either you can decide as a commission or as individuals that you want to help advocate for these dollars to come out. At the state level, the state department of aging is coming out of with guidelines on reopening for organizations that serve over people with disabilities, they are saying that they think they shouldnt fully open up until stage four which is when arenas will open up and concerts and things like that and sports events. The reason they are saying that is the California Department of Public Health is maintaining that older adults are really at risk for covid 19 and given the surge that were in right now they are concerned about saying anything more than that. That said, they did build in some flexibility so that local triple as can figure out how to handle some of these issue with their providers. When talking with the state i like to give the example of Career Center which is open right now and is open right now because they feel they are serving such an at risk population, that population is more at risk if they are not open for them to come in and charge phones and get food and things like that. Im glad for the flexibility and well continue to work with our providers in the community to figure out what works best. Also at the state level there is a focus now on equity and aging. At the state level they have that echoed. The director of department of aging realized there was a lot happening with covid 19 and older adults are most likely to die from it. There were some strange decisions made around crisis care and things like that. The voices of older adults have gotten lost in a lot of the conversations. They are kicking off a series of anti age conversations and the state director of aging asked me and commissioner spears and kelly and katekelly with the ihss authority and kate with the community campaign. We had planned to present at the American Society on aging on the very same issues. They asked us to present to them and a wider audience on some of the work weve done. How agism is particularly prevalent during covid 19. Like weve talked a lot about in San Francisco. Its great were going to be part of that kick off but its a year long process, well have different ways to engage with that process. In addition to that, they are really looking at Digital Divide issues and social engagement. Were engaged with google to obtain a number of devices that i think there are echos that can go into the homes of older adults and help people engage with technology and other Community Using those devices. Now the California Association areas on aging is workingwhat the best way to get those out into communities. Having a pilot to really learn how we can bridge the Digital Divide. Maybe showing that into something bigger which is a partnership with more corporations and, you know, really addressing the Digital Divide knowing people are going to be at home at least for the near future. The other thing thats happening at the state level is the California Departmentsorry. I have all the acronym ns in my head. The state is thinking of proposing a new benefit, a new medical benefit called Long Term Care at home which will help people who need home care, Skilled Nursing care remain in community. A lot of people working on what this will look like. It will be an actual benefit. It will keep people from going into Nursing Homes and get the same services are home. Make a way for people to come out of Nursing Homes and do it safely. Theres been a number of people come out of Nursing Homes because their family is worried about them. The death rates in Nursing Homes and close to 50 of people who died in california as a result of covid 19 have died in Nursing Homes. This is a way of having people come out and live in community with whatever supports they have and added supports from this program so that its safe. Whats been happening is people have brought their Family Members out and they dont have alllet services and infrastructure at home. Its pretty exciting on one hand. There are a lot of other programs that the state already has that they can build upon. There are a lot of questions from the community about what it all means and who will qualify for it and all of that. Im involved in some of those conversations. Cindy has been really helpful with that. She has a lot of knowledge around programs at home like this. We will continue to have San Franciscos voice heard as that unfolds. Locally, the Emergency Operations center, i think most of you know i was working there for a number of months with the feeding unit. The Emergency Operations center for San Francisco has gone to a unified command for a covid 19 response. They haveessentially whats functioning is a new department called the covid 19 command center. Everything covid 19 related is run out of that center. Its still right now, at the center. A number of staff has been offered up from various departments to staff that department and were expecting that those staff deployments will be six months to a year while in the process to continuing to respond and moving into full recovery. Thats been really interesting to see that develop and build. Some of the major things were involved with still are continuing to ensure that people who are continuing to care due to covid 19 continue to get food and on the human side also includes our in home sup rtive e services program. People who are continuing to shelter in place in hotels until theres a Recovery Plan for them and move back out into the community. Thats what that looks like. Were very fortunate and grateful that we have some staff that stepped up to continue that work and who would be deployed at the covid 19 command center for the next six months or so. The next thing is the great plates program. Youve heard me talk about and hopefully heard about in the community. The governors plan to invest in restaurants but also to get meals out to older adults was extended to august 9th. That program is serving over two thousand people at this point and thats really impressive if we look at the other counties in california including la county, were doing really well. I think were the most aggressive in terms of getting people on that program in the county and state. Based on the size of our population. Thats exciting. We are working with the Mayors Office on disability and providing in place. Its with the ihss Public Authority to distribute personal protective equipment to the community starting next week. Thats been a really big effort. Its been a really Great Partnership with the Mayors Office and department of disability. One of the things through the covid 19 response ive noticed the departments have worked closely together to provide the best access and were thinking about how to breakdown silos and this is one way weve done that. Moving on were pleased that we added our new county Veterans Service Office Manager to the dos management team. He has a great history. He came out of the army. Has done a lot of work with hud and other programs, he is knowledgeable about Community Needs and veterans and specifically he has really great leadership skills. We were hoping that the board of supervisors would appoint him as a county veteran Service Officer. That process is a little bit kn fusing becausconfusing because t under the City Administrators Office back in the day, in the year 2000. A number of other offices came under, we never changed the local legislation around how appointment gets made. What happens is still the city administrator makes a recommendation to the board of supers. Were going through that process right now working closely with the City Administrators Office and the board. Were hoping very much that he will be the appointee from the board. That the county Veterans Service Office Manager and the kowpty cy Veterans Service officer will be one in the same person. From a policy point of view, the board of supervisors will agree to that sm wer. Were working to comply with the governors executive order which requires ihss to start conducting initial home visits starting august. We do this virtually when we can. Its very clear from the Governors Office that he would like us to begin going out and seeing people in person. Were working to make sure people are tested for all the equipment they need and they are ready to go in august. Were also working to bring our field based social workers into compliance with the new protective equipment guidance from the department of Human Resources and work with testing approximately one hundred field based social workerred within the next three to four weeks. Theres a lot going on. Its been really interesting to come out of the eo c and begin working remotely and try to make sure that were continuing to have some sort of continuity with our staff and that were having somewhere that were communing in the ways that we did before. It definitely feels different. For meits probably hard on all of us. Got very used to seeing staff in the elevators and lunch room and office, i do a lot of my work that way and engage with people that way. Its difficult getting used to this very different way as the department head. Im proud of our management team, all of our staff because people are just continuing to find new way it Work Together and communicate and to coordinate. I assume that we will continue to do that at the highest level possible as we move through this process over the next year or so. That is it for my report, im happy to answery questions that you may have. no. Thank you so much for that extensive and exhaustive report. I think that the commissioners are begin so grateful for the work that you are doing and the staff. I want to make sure that were expressing that. Especially doing that right now. My response to your report, i just know that you are all working triple what you usually have been. You are all essential. Making a huge difference in our population of San Francisco. Thank you very much. I think when you mentioned our helping in any way, we do get information from staff on how to advocate and what to sa advocate for. Please continue sending us that. The net works that we have, well definitely deploy and provide as much assistance as we can. Any other comments or questions from the other commissioners . Commissioner wong. thank you. Good morning. We appreciate the work that you are doing under such difficult circumstances. You mentioned that the county Service Officer appointment or recommendation has been sent to the board of supervisors. Is the appointment process under the purview of das or are we just a partner of . its interesting because the office thats with usthe responsibility for running the office. The county Veterans Service office itself. The appointment of the county veterans officer actually sits with the board of supervisors. For a number of yearsi have been with the department for 17 years next week. When i got here the officer actually wasnt part of the office, he actually was an employee of the City Attorneys office. When he retired one of the things we talked to the city administrator and the board about was how nice it would be is if the office and officer were actually together. Thats what weve been working to do. It also is a fact that the money for the manager position sits with das. If they wanted somebody else to be appointed they would have to figure out a way to pay for that person. Its a little confusing. One of the things we need to do is fix the legislation. The City Administrators Office would like to be out of this because they dont really work with this office anymore. The office no longer sits under the City Administrators Office. We just never clean up that legislation. We cant do it immediately. Well be doing it hopefully in the next year, next few months. Its a little confusing commissioner. Its one of those city things that just hasnt gotten fixed yet and its not very clear. i appreciate the answer. I just wanted to let you know within the veteran community for veteran Affairs Commission here in San Francisco has registered a complien complaint that no Ven Organization has been considered for this process. And again, i just wanted to get clarification as to how thishow the hiring process actually works. Im being asked questions within the American Legion as to why is it they were never consulted. Not to say that the gentlemen being recommended is not qualified or anything like that. There was no consultation whatsoever. what has happened so far is that our hiring process is a process where we have to go through same Civil Service guideline thats we would normally go through for any hire. We are certainly kog distan cogf that to have somebody on the hiring panel. I think whats confusing is that the appointment process is separate. That hasnt happened yet. There actually is room for people to register any sort of feelings they have for the appointee who come frs from the City Administrators Office to the board. The board is where the appointee process happens. The way the legislation is written is that the city administrator comes up with somebody, they dont necessarilythe process isnt negatively that they go to the community first. They put the recommended person out to the board. Theres time for Public Comment and engagement for the board. Thats where that happens. Not that it couldnt be changed but thats the way its always been for this particular appointment and any board appointment. So when the board puts it forth at the rules committee, thats the time that the veterans organizations can come and say we like this person for this position or we think there should be somebody else. Thats the time when the community can do that. That will be counted very soon, i believe. Thats what i hear. thank you. does that make sense . Its confusing. He hasnt been appointed yet. Theres still room for public engagement. commissioner spears. i just wanted to add my thanks to the Department Chair and the Department Staff for all of the work thats been done for the community over in this very complicated and depressing times that we live in right now. Especially around the food service, i know how important that is for so many people in the community and to hear that great plates have been extended, thats great news. Hopefully it will be extended again. I just wanted to it thank you all for your diligent work in serving the most vulnerable here in San Francisco. okay. Thank you. Commissionerdid you have any comments or questions for the director . yeah. Again, huge compliments. Im curious as to staffing . Are you able to keep up and keep everybody at work . How is that working out . yes. We are. We definitely need all the staff we have. One of the things we know is that older adults and people with disabilities have been disproportionately affected by this. Its a very different working world for sure. One of the things they didnt go into detail about, we met last month. We know were facing a very big budget deficit at the local level. Were being asked to come up with some target reductions and at the same time we know were going to need all the dollars we have. Were working through what that looks like. The mayor said last week that shes going to need departments to give up a little bit more. We dont have any idea what those numbers are or even what it will look like for our particular agency because we have so many federal and state dollars flowing through hsa that were effected differently from some of the other departments. Were in a better position to retain our staff and to reallyand to continue to serve growing numbers of people who need things like food and home care and things like that. Its a little bit moreits actually hard for me to get my head around what the budget looks like this year because theres so many moving parts and state and federal revenues. Theres such a big receive sit at the federal level. Next time we meet well have a clearer picture going into the next fiscal year. That will impact, of course, our staffing potentialit will impact our staffing mostly in the way that it will be hard for us to hire people when we have vacancies. We need everyone we have. We have figured out how to work remotely to the extent we can. We have to prioritize some of the work were doing. Those will be tough questions. Weve been riding a high for a number of years. Community funds coming in. The dignity Fund Legislation and growth and dignity fund. The growth fund for other programs has been pretty amazing. Its been doing some exciting new things. We have to goin go back to our e values that we crafted pretty carefully. How will we measure up with everything were thinking about doing. What do we prioritize . How do we keep staff in the smartest way possible . its been amazing. Youve done a fabulous job. If any of us need to advocate for you in terms of jobs and the budget, please keep us informed. And thank you. thanks, commissioner. thank you commissioners. Having heard from all of the commissioners im going to move along to item number six which is the Advisory Council report. good morning, commissioners. Its nice to see all of you and speak you with you again. We met on june 19th. We hadnt met since february so we were excited to get back together. We had a very thorough engaged update much like she did this morning. The department has been doing and Council Members were able to ask questions and the advantage of the presentation. Our plans as many others have been thrownwhere to go from here sm th. The critical issue on the agenda this month is the area plan. It was the final presentation. In february of the last meeting we had, they presented the initial draft. Advisory council had a couple of recommendations. Incorporated those along with some changes, the Advisory Council unanimously approved the area plan. Were just waiting to sign off on it it. We also had some dignity funds updates, well followup on that at our next meeting next week. We also got caught up on our site visits. We had site visits on five locations. Were really pleased about three of the five veteran sites. There had been some concerns about thesome of the veteran services. We had a lively conversation about that. Council member rock land who had done these site visits put together a summary. Thats going to be given to michael to take back with his team to take a look at it. At our meeting next week well take a look at how do we do site visits going forward. Obviously there arent sites specifically to visits. We may be looking at getting the virtual programming thats being offered into some of the meal programs, were going to have a lively discussion im sure about that. Were still looking to have an update on the commission on aging as she is a member. On the California Master plan of which she is one of the advisors on the alzheimers group. Everything is focused on the budget. The budget is in the air. She did the Historic Supreme Court decision that prohibited discrimination against the lgbtq community. Theres a lot of concern locally and at the state level. No one is collecting gender and orientation data unless it relates to covid 19 pandemic. The membership communitythe appointment of i think three or four of us are up for reappointment and the advisory appointment. We have things moving and obviously due to the pandemic and shelter in place some of those were put on the back burner but were continuing to work there. The council has discussed further next week supporting the black lives matter and the n4a is looking to get support amongst u. S. Senators to focus on relations. Ive heard from the board out side of the aging and Disability Community but from the medical community about social isolation and concerns there. The Advisory Committee meetin meetingseptember provide an update on legislation. Are there any questions . thank you so much, diane. We appreciate all the work into making sure we have that initial meeting and how important it was to pass that area plan. I thank you for making sure that happened. Any other comenlts o other comms for commissioners . I. i really want to thank michael and rose. We met last fall and planned how we were going to handle this. When we came to february, we were ready to go. Their team was ready to go with the report and that really put us ahead of the game when things were shut down. I just want to compliment that team. We hope that we can continue that collaboration moving forward. It made the approval process so much easier. Job well done. great to hear that. Great to know that we got all of that input that is so important to having a good report. Please extend our thanks to the Advisory Committee for all the work they did. Any other comments or questions from the commissioners . I think we will good to item gom seven. item seven is Public Comment for items that are not on todays calendar. Please open the phone lines for the public. You may be dialed into to. In order to provide Public Comment. Please press pound two. If you have not yet dialed in, please call 17663695200. Once in the conference please press pound two to enter the question two. You will hear the notification when your line is unmuted. Well unmute you from the question queut. Its besqueue. Please turn up thn your phone. Please turn off the volume on your television or radio. We will wait thirty seconds for callers. hello. This is jessica from senior disability action. Im sure none of you are surprised to hear my voice. Its nice to see you online. Thank you for all your work that everyone is doing during this hard time. I wanted to comment on a couple things. There has been a lot of concern about care rationing. If hospitals get full and dont have enough beds or ventilators who gets treated. Sidgesince the beginning of the pandemic seniors would be the last. With this new surge it sounds like the area hospitals are starting to fill up. Theres some concern about that. Were trying to organize towe have a California Care rationing coalition and connect with different Hospital Systems about making sure that our lives are valued and protected. If youd like to get involved you can email me if you are interested. On the nursing home issue that director mentioned about the concern about so many people that are getting sick and dying in Nursing Homes and assisted living facilities, were doing a gathering for residents of care facilities who are isolated right now to join by video. Just a chance for people to talk to each other and share their experiences. Thats this thursday july 16th from three to four. I sent the information to you. Hopefully you can share that with people you know who may be interest. Lastly, one of the things were trying to do during the pandemic to reduce isolation and honori dont know if it was mentioned. Were celebrating the 30th anniversary of the americans with disabilities ability. Its harder to do during pandemic times. Book theories. Its an on going thing. We have four different book readings coming up in the next couple months. The book the pretty one. You dont have to have read the book. I hope we can connect in that way and i know that the office of disabilities is going to put other events on their website. I hope to seech oach other on you have no callers remaining. the next item is item eight. Old business. Please raise your hand if there is any old business that you would like to discuss. Seeing none ill call the next item. Item number nine, at this time the commission will elect the president and Vice President. I willis there a motion to discuss . so moved. second. i will now call a roll call vote. roll call . so moved. second. I will now call a roll call vote. roll call the vote is unanimous. The next agenda item are action items that require a vote by the commission. if i could just take a moment before we start our real work here. Thank you so much for everyones support and its an absolute honor for me to be with this commission. A little odd doing this from my dining room table. Im very very happy and pleased and know that i am very active from my dining room table. Whatever i can do to help the staff and other commissioners, i do. I am very very happy to be serving along with Vice President janet spears. So welcoming and look forward to working with you even if its through phone and zoom calls. I think well be good partners together. Im very very happy to work with all of you commissioners very qualified commissioners and very pleased to work with you as we gain more commissioners which im looking forward to. I think were going to be a great team. Again, in these unprecedented times committed to these communities that we serve especially now knowing how important it is. I look forward to all of that. Well work very hard from my apartment for all of that until im final able to Work Together with you physically. I dont know if Vice President spears wanted to say anything at this time or go ahead with the agenda. Between the allocation of last year and this year. Programs with area plan money include the court of services, home delivered nutrition, disease prevention, Family Caregiver support programs, elder abuse prevention as well as administration for these programs. The Supportive Service budget includes Meal Services, transportation, information and referral and emergency shortterm home care. Please note that local funds supporting these programs are not included in this table. As mentioned in the commission memo, increased funding for 2021 is largely attributable to state funding in congregate nutrition, home delivered meals and the ombudsman program. The contract, 202160 details the various requirements tied to funding. The approval of this item, staff may make contract modifications as needed. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you. Thank you. I do not have any questions at this time because we have gone through this before and i think we asked questions at that point, but now that weve seen it again, and its time for the final decision, of course, are there any comments of questions from the other commissioners . Anything additional . Hearing none, commissioner any questions. Commissioner sklar no. Great. Madame secretary, anybody from the public who wishes to comment . Secretary moderator, please open the phone line for Public Comment. Those who wish to provide Public Comment under this item press pound 2 to enter the question queue. Do we have any callers in the queue . Announcer there are currently no callers in the queue. Commissioner knutzen hearing none, no request to speak on the item, well close Public Comment. Is there a motion . To pass the area plan 20212024 . You mean the budget . Commissioner knutzen yes, im sorry, the budget. I saw a motion from commissioner spears Vice President spears, yes . Commissioner spears yes. Commissioner knutzen and a second from commissioner lum. Thank you. Can you please take a roll call vote on agenda a. President knutzen, how do you vote . Yes. Spears, yes. Commissioner lum yes. Commissioner sklar yes. Secretary the vote is unanimous. Commissioner knutzen okay, great, thank you. Commissioners, the next item is item b, review and approval of the fiscal year 20212024 area plan for the California Department of aging. And i think well have from our staff, rose johns and our director Shireen Mcspadden speak to this along with a slide, so please carry on. Thank you. Good morning, commissioners. Can you hear me . Commissioner knutzen yes. My name is rose johns, im planning analyst with the Human Services agency. Im here before you today to present the area plan 20212024 for approval with director mcspadden. And we have a simple agenda for this presentation. Were going to highlight updates weve made to the area plan. You may recall that we came and presented more extensively to you a review of the plan before covid came to us. And then well open it up for any discussion that you have. One of the most notable and interesting updates to the plan is a letter that weve added from director mcspadden that acknowledges the current context that were in. And i believe that director mcspadden is going to take a moment to read this letter to you now. Yeah, thanks, rose. It was roses idea to add this letter talking about the current context that were in. And so ill just quickly read it. Dear friends and colleagues, this area plan was completed in the early months of 2020. With the on set of coronavirus, our National State landscapes have been upended. Government and community sprang into action in response to this crisis. Together were working to reimagine and restructure our services and meet new and existing needs of older people and people with disabilities and to do so safely in compliance with Public Health and social distancing guidelines. Our department is charged with coordinated Responsive Network of aging Disability Services is all the more important. At this time conditions continue to evolve and the state budget is not finalized. This plan represents our aspirations for a Cohesive Network but meets the need of the population. In this current state of flux we recognize these plans may need be to adjusted as we transition from a new state of emergency to the new normal. Im thankful for the flexibility of the staff and partners. Im proud of the work weve done together and im looking forward to supporting our Older Community members. Thank you. Thank you. So what this letter is communicating, well, everything that you just heard. One thing i want to highlight for you is that while the California Department of aging extended a deadline for this plan, it typically is due may 1st. That extension, i believe, was really just to reflect that most of our realities were completely overturned and that staff working on the area plan and advisory bodies and governing bodies such as yourself were likely unable to meet as scheduled. And so the California Department of aging did not add new requests or ask us to restructure the plan at this time. And so im going to now highlight the key updates that weve made to the plan and youll see we havent deviateded or made too many revisions to what we did previously. Section 7 is where we summarize public hearings. That includes our presentation at the Advisory Council and before the commission. We noted in section 7, there were four topics brought up and discussed. The definition of disability was an item at the Advisory Council. Discussion of who is eligible for d. A. S. Services under the umbrella of disability. And we also discussed senior homelessness and how d. A. S. Works to support older adults who are unhoused. We also spent time talking about assistedliving facilities and residents and their eligibility to participate in d. A. S. Services. Essentially, as long as its not a duplication of support that a resident is receiving those riding in assistedliving facilities are able to participate in d. A. S. Services. And then there was discussion about Racial Equity and how d. A. S. Approaches this and how d. A. S. s efforts align with the mayors directives. We also updated two of our narrative objectives in section 9 which is the golden objection section. We updated the existing item, 1c, about nutrition because we wanted to acknowledge in the coming years over the time period covered by this plan, that d. A. S. Will be working with the providers to ensure the continuity of existing services. And to support providers to adapt their Service Models to safely provide them within this covid19 context. We also added a new objective which is our covid19 response objective and in this, the department outlines that it will be supporting consumers to meet their needs safely during the coronavirus emergency and recovery. So in coordination with the citys emergency response, d. A. S. Will provide adapted, enhanced and new resources to support older and disabled adults in meeting their needs safely during the immediate Pandemic Response and longterm recovery, well ensure services are accessible and tailored to meet the needs of the community members. And all new refers to that, this is an entire new objective, because we couldnt conceptize this while working on the goals and objectives earlier this year. Then we also updated section 12, the d. A. S. Preparedness to add some content about the departments role and response in responding to covid19. Where we note that d. A. S. Has driven the development of new resources and systems in key areas, including food security, home care, social engagement and other critical needs that older adults and adults with disabilities have. That is maintaining these efforts and remain vigilant and responsive as our experience with this virus and Public Health crisis will likely fluctuate. And with that, happy to open it up to discussion and answer any questions that you have. Commissioner knutzen thank you so much for all the additional work and incorporating all the feedback you got. So thank you to both of you. Are there any comments or questions from the commission . All right. Vice president spears . Commissioner spears i just wanted to say that i really appreciated the thoroughness of the report. I had an opportunity to read the entire thing and it really sets the course for what were up to over the next several years and i found it quite easy to follow. And kudos to the team who put it together because i thought it was a fabulous report. Commissioner knutzen all right. Any other commissioner comments . Sklar . Commissioner sklar no. Commissioner knutzen can you open the phone line for Public Comment, or do we have anybody who wishes the comment . Secretary members of the public that wish to provide comment [inaudible] to the question do we have any callers in the queue . Im not showing any callers at this time. Secretary thank you. Commissioner knutzen okay, great. Hearing no request to speak on the item, we close Public Comment. Is there a motion to approve the area plan 2021, commissioners . All right, i see moved by commissioner lum and second by Vice President spears. Madame secretary, will you please take the roll on agenda item b . Commissioner knutzen yes. Commissioner spears yes. Commissioner lum yes. Commissioner sklar yes. Secretary the vote is unanimous. Commissioner knutzen okay, thank you. Commissioners, your next item is agenda c. That is requesting authorization to modify the economisting Grant Agreement with the self help for the elderly for the provision of elder nutrition program, e. N. P. , congregate meals during the period of july 1, 2019 through june 30, 2020 in the additional amount of 1,333,669, plus a 10 contingency for revised total modification amount not to exceed 1,945,121. Staff Tiffany Kearny will present the item. Thank you, can you hear me . Commissioner knutzen yes. My name is Tiffany Kearny, i am the Program Analyst and lead nutritionist for d. A. S. And im here today to present the modification for selfhelp congregate meal grant. Providers have experienced a significant demand in Meal Services and had to modify how they provide meals. They have been steadfast in meeting the increased demand and in changing their Food Service Operations to ensure the health and safety of clients and staff. All have transitioned their programs to meals to go, Meal Delivery or both. Early on, selfhelp for the elderly recognized the need to deliver meals to their clients who relied on them as a primary source for daily nutrition and shifted their program to Meal Delivery shortly after the citys shelterinplace order. Staff and volunteers delivered average of 100,000 meals per month, serving around 3500 clients a week starting in april through june, which is five times their Monthly Average before covid. Selfhelp served about 453,000 congregate meals in 1920 and the requested funding help covered the cost of 176,000 of those meals. Thank you and im happy to answer any questions you may have at this time. Commissioner knutzen yes, i just cant fail to notice, begin the comments, this is such a huge increase in what they anticipated doing which was in the tens of thousands of meals to over 100,000 meals. If i have that correctly . Reading this document. And i think nothing nothing shows more [laughter] whats happened to us other than reading this request. I didnt have a question, but i think i needed to note that. It was quite a thing to even read. Is there any other comments or questions from commissioners before we vote . Yes, commissioner lum . Commissioner lum thank you. My question, really, is to get a clarification for myself. Normally, a budget its requested and we approve the budget for whatever the request was. In this case, needless to say, there is this tremendous increase. Is it understood that these organizations can always increase the budget . And then come back and ask us to fund it later . Or, you know what i really want to know is if there is this implied approval ahead of time . Are you going to answer that . Yeah, so ill answer it. Thanks, tiffany. So this is an unprecedented time and one of the things that we did know was that we would have increased need for Nutrition Services and increased need for people to get homedelivered meals. One of the things that ive been doing is working closely with the c. E. O. S of the organizations that we work with to try to understand what their increased needs are. And to try to help our staff be prepared to respond to those needs. Fortunately, we did get dollars from the federal government in the two stimulus packages that we got to help offset the general fund cost of these, but the city, i think, is just aware that we have increased Food Insecurity due to covid19 and the city is prepared to make sure that were figuring out how to answer those answer that need. Its complicated because, you know, we dont always have new monies coming in. We were able to shift some dollars over from dignity fund to help cover this. We were able to get the federal dollars, et cetera, but its just an ongoing conversation. I dont think we can ultimately say up front were going to be able to meet all the needs and yet we know that we need to try to the extent that we can because Food Insecurity is such an awful thing for the population that we serve. Does that answer your question, commissioner . Commissioner lum yes, it does. You know, just being new, it seems very difficult for us to approve a budget not knowing whether or not that budget is going to be sufficient and then obviously, where are we going to get the additional money . Right. Its an ongoing concern. Fortunately, budgets are a planning tool and when we try to adhere to them as much as we can, but we really are we have to work within that budget and then were also very hopeful there will be other dollars come in and help us increase to continue the increased Service Level that we have right now. Commissioner lum thank you. Thanks. Commissioner knutzen thank you. Commissioner sklar, any questions . Commissioner sklar no. Commissioner knutzen anyone from the public who wishes to comment on the item . Secretary moderator, please open the phone lines for Public Comment. Members who wish to provide Public Comment press pound 2 to enter the question queue. Do we have callers in the queue . Yes, we do. Yes, commissioners. Hello . Hello, caller, can you give us a name . Annie chung. And im the c. E. O. Of selfhelp for the elderly and i would like to comment. Great, your three minutes begin now. Thank you, bridgett. Commissioners, good morning. This is annie with selfhelp for the elderly. Thank you very, very much for questions, commissioner lum, as well as for director mcspadden and tiffany for recommended this very huge amount to kind of fill the gap that selfhelp for the elderly has provided as the commissioner said, almost 300,000 meals during the covid months from march to end of june. It is really unexpected, but as we close all of our nine and ten congregate sites, we realize that those are 1500 elderly that normally come to our Senior Centers who immediately have the need to go on to Home Delivery. So we worked with our cater and our staff to make it possible so that no senior go hungry. I want to thank shireen and her staff. We worked actually very closely together since the shelterinplace. So as the number increased, we cannot really stop because the elderly were calling us in panic mode. They couldnt go out of the building. Many lived in s. R. O. S and senior buildings and we dont really want them to go out and get sick. So in hindsight, we really have to continue feeding our seniors as much as we can so that we keep them safe at home. Its kind of like a leap of faith. And at the end of june, when we have to close down the covid19 Meal Delivery, we open six of our congregate sites for togo meals and we also refer about 500 of the assisting seniors to the greater plates program. Were continuing monitoring our Seniors Health and for those very, very frail and disabled seniors who are still going to bring a hot meal Home Delivery style to them, but not to the extent of closure, about 4,000 meals during the day during the peak. We were happy to have a lot of volunteers help us. We had over 350 volunteer drivers that came from the neighborhood. We were delivering all over San Francisco. And many of them, really, live in Senior Housing and s. R. O. S and in the western part of the city. And we give a big thank you to all our volunteers, director mcspadden was present to help us honor a number of these neighborhood groups. Sfpd offices have helped us, the lyft drivers and the Community Initiatives have consistently sent volunteers to help us. So i would like the commission to support this budget modification so that our budget is kept whole and we will continue to try our best to meet the needs of our seniors during this pandemic. Winston churchill said it is no use saying were trying to our best, we just need to succeed doing what is necessary. During the covid months we did what was necessary to keep our seniors safe and we couldnt have done it without all of your support. And particularly yours, shireen. Youve kept me kind of sane during our conversations, working out options and really the best support for our seniors. Tiffany, shireen, cindy, michael, thank you very much on behalf of all the seniors. Secretary thank you. There are no other callers at this time. Secretary thank you. Commissioner knutzen can i just compliment selfhelp for the elderly for years of being at the front line and helping when help is needed. Annie does a great job and totally in support of all theyre doing. Thank you. Great, thank you. Hearing no other requests to speak from the public, we will close Public Comment and id like to ask the commissioners for a motion . Commissioner knutzen so moved. Looks like one from commissioner sklar and then a second from commissioner lum. Yes, thank you. Commissioner knutzen yes. Commissioner spears yes. Commissioner lum yes. Commissioner sklar yes. The vote is unanimous. Commissioner knutzen thank you very much. Commissioner, your next item is agenda d, requesting authorization to enter into a new grant are agreement with swords to plow shares for provision of Legal Assistance for veterans with Mental Health claims. During the period of july 1, 2020 through june 30, 2020 in the amount of 236,060, plus a 10 contingency not to exceed 259666. Staff well present the item. Good morning, president knutzen, fellow commissioners and executive director mcspadden. Im the benefits and director of d. A. S. The item before you is to provide Legal Assistance for veterans with Mental Health claims. The San Francisco office was awarded this funding in partnership with swords to Employee Shares by the department of Veterans Affairs. Weve partnered to streamline Service Coordination and expand the ability of Legal Assistance for veterans across San Francisco. Swords to Employee Shares provides legal counseling up to full representation by an attorney to underserved veterans of complex v. A. Mental Health Disability claims. These veterans are often not receiving the benefits which they are entitled due to barriers. In this grant, the department of Veterans Affairs requires that the Program Target underserved veterans. Theyre considered those that are other than honorably discharged, lgbtq, women, students. San francisco county veteran service will collaborate with swords to Employee Shares to provide formal and informal outreach to veterans. Outreach will focus on lowincome and Homeless Veterans with Mental Health disabilities who reside in San Francisco. Compared nationally, San Francisco has the eighth highest number of Homeless Veterans and third highest rate of unsheltered veterans. During the inkind count of homeless individuals, we discovered there were 608 Homeless Veterans and 81 of them are unsheltered. This provides outreach to the vet center and other locations where underserved veterans seek support. Theyll pilot legal clinics at the college of San Francisco to reach out to the transitioning student veterans and the San Francisco veterans county office will reach out to veterans sheltering in place. Its anticipated that this grant will have a dramatic impact by ensuring that more underserved veterans with Mental Health abilities will increase their access to v. A. Mental health and health care. They will seek out and qualify for Housing Assistance to support their reintegration to civilian life. I also request your approval for this contract. Im happy to answer any questions the commission may have. Thank you. Any questions or comments from the commissioners . On this request . Then hearing commissioner sklar no, i dont. Commissioner knutzen i wanted to show i know from my advocacy in the lgbtq community, how complicated it is when you are dishonorably discharged to get benefits. So this is the trickiest legal work that can be done to try to get people who are challenged assistance to prove that they do deserve these benefits. So i just wanted to acknowledge that and i know how complicated that kind of case is. And so, anyway, hearing no other requests for the commission to speak, so do we have any Public Comment . Secretary moderator, please open the phone lines for Public Comment. Members of the public that have dialled in and wish to provide Public Comment under this item, please press pound 2 to enter the question queue. Any callers in the queue . I am not showing any callers at this time. Commissioner knutzen hearing no request to speak on the item, we will close Public Comment. Motion to approve . Commissioner lum. Second from Vice President spears. Madame secretary, please take a roll call vote for agenda item d. How do you vote . Commissioner knutzen yes. Commissioner spears yes. Commissioner lum yes. Commissioner sklar yes. Secretary president , the vote is unanimous. Commissioner knutzen great. Thank you so much. Commissioners, your next item is e, reway and approval of California Department of aging Health Insurance counseling and advocacy program, hicap, contract hi202106, the associated budget and all subsequent amendments. I think were going to hear from staff member Michael Zaugg who is ready to present. Good morning, commissioners. Executive director mcfadden. Again, yes, this items seeks your approval as part of the completion of the certification process. Approval of this contract allows us to receive funding that we use for the operation of our Health Insurance counseling and advocacy program, or as its commonly known, the hicap. The hicap is a medicare focused Program Providing community, education, one to one tt counseling and Advocacy Services for folks who are Medicare Beneficiaries or eligible for medicare. We actually take the funds in through a separate contracting process and contract out with selfhelp for the elderly, who administer the program in the community. While its not central to this item, i would be remiss not to do a quick report on how the hicap has fared through all these changes. Theyve done quite well, actually. You know when the shelterinplace went into effect, hicap halted operations and then kind of watched to see how things were evolving. Their program does not do a lot of walkup services, a lot of the services are driven through a 1800 number or online avenues in order to schedule appointments, which usually do take place in the community, one to one. So many of these appointments were primarily moved to phone appointments with some web one to one counseling sessions as well. When i look at the statistics, theyre pretty impressive. In 1819, two years ago, this program the noncovid year i guess, this program served over 2000 provided counseling to 2000 clients. When i look at the stats for this year, theyre on pace to get close to that again. As of this moment theyve provided services to about 1887 clients with i know that they have a couple more files to go to finalize. So i think theyre going to get another 100 added onto that number for the fiscal year 1920, the fiscal year we just completed. The last thing i would note on this item providing a little bit of context. The dollar amount here in this contract, essentially keeps the Hicap Program funded at its previous years funding level for the year ahead of us. So with that, im happy to answer any questions that the commissioners may have. Commissioner knutzen thank you very much, mr. Zaugg. And that was precisely my question, how are they adapting to the current times, but it sounds like theyve adapted quickly. Yeah. Commissioner knutzen and successfully. Thats good. I know that everybody has a question as they go on medicare. Sure. Commissioner knutzen the program has been accessed by many, many of my friends and ive heard about it a lot, so i know its very useful. Are there any other comments or questions from the other commissioners . Okay. Then could we please do we have anyone from the public who wishes to comment on this item . Secretary moderator, please open the line for Public Comment. Members of the public that have dialled in to provide Public Comment under this item, please press pound 2 to enter the question queue. Do we have any callers in the queue . Im not showing any callers at this time. Commissioner knutzen okay, hearing no requests to speak on the item, we close Public Comment. Is there a motion to pass this item . Commissioners . Do we have a motion from commissioners . So moved. Thank you, from Vice President spears. A second . Commissioner knutzen second from commissioner sklar. Madame secretary, please take the roll call. Secretary how do you vote . Commissioner knutzen yes. Commissioner spears yes. Commissioner lum yes. Commissioner sklar yes. The vote is unanimous. Commissioner knutzen great, thank you very much. Commissioners, your next agenda item is f, it is review and approval of California Department of aging, dignity at home Fall Prevention contract fp192006 associated budget and all subsequent amendments. Again, staff person, Michael Zaugg, will present. Mr. Zaugg . Hello again, commissioners. This item similar to the one before is another approval of a contract between the California Department of aging and the department of disability and aging services. This is to access new funding for a new program type. The state has allocated funding in last years budget for Fall Prevention programs. It got off to a rocky start as it was launched just as covid hit, so it has been a little bit bringing this to commission for execution. With your approval, we are hoping to actually use these funds to partner with an existing program in the Citys Department of Public Health. That is their community and Home Injury Prevention Program for seniors. The acronym is chip. What were trying to accomplish there is to link in our network of providers and our network of clients with the department of Public Health and look at where theyre able to serve and where they might not already be reaching and see if we can bring more clients into the program for for services. Were going to work with the Current Program to explore the inhome assessment process and seek evolving and innovative ways to continue that Program Function in the new shelters in place and Public Health order world. Then i think the big thing that is going to happen here is there is a great demand within their program for home modifications and purchase of equipment in order to approve the safety of people at home. The funding there runs out usually by the Third Quarter of each fiscal year, so we think bringing this additional funding would help serve more clients as well as be able to Fund Additional home modifications and purchases of home modification equipment. With that then, im happy to answer any questions the commission may have. Commissioner knutzen Vice President spears . Commissioner spears thank you, michael. I just have one question. I love the fact that there is a partnership with the department of Public Health and the existing program. With this particular contract, the responsibility for reporting back to the state will be the responsibility of d. A. S. , although were partnering with the department of Public Health, is that how this will work . Yeah, that is correct. So that is something were going to were going to have to work through as we develop this partnership with Public Health as to how that data is going to come back to us not only for reporting up to the California Department of aging, but for our own purposes of understanding its effectiveness and impact. Commissioner spears and just a followup question. So the existing program, is that in the department of Public Health is that funded by the state also or is it funded by the city . I actually do not know. I can check on that and get back to you. It does not i mean i can rule out it does not come from the California Department of aging, if that helps. But ill get a more complete answer for you. Commissioner spears im curious where the information will be held, is it in two different databases . That is my whole reporting question. You know, in all likelihood that is probably a scenario were going to have to navigate. Commissioner spears okay. Commissioner knutzen any other questions from the commissioners on this item . Great. Okay, thats fine. Then i think that the difficulties we have with this is because we had a Model Program already that im sure, you know, served as a model for the state to expand that program and now we need to make it more efficient, but its a great question for people to understand how that happened. Lets see, can we open the madame secretary, anyone from the public who wishes to comment on this item . Secretary moderator, please open the line for Public Comment. Members of the public that have dialed in and wish to provide Public Comment under this item please press pound 2 to answer the question queue. Do we have any callers in the queue. Announcer im not showing any callers at this time. Commissioner knutzen thank you. All right. Hearing no further requests to speak on the item, we will close Public Comment. Is there a motion to pass this item . So moved. Commissioner knutzen moved by commissioner sklar and i saw a second there from commissioner lum. Yes, i did. Madame secretary, please take roll call for agenda f. Secretary how do you vote . Commissioner knutzen yes. Commissioner spears yes. Commissioner lum yes. Commissioner sklar yes. Secretary president , the vote is unanimous. Commissioner knutzen thank you. Commissioner, your next item is g, requesting authorization to enter into a new contract with cotchett, Pitre Mccarthy, llp for the provision of Legal Services for the San Francisco guardian and the San Francisco public conservator through june 1, 2020 through may 31, 2021 not to exceed 60,000. Carrie wong will present the item, is that correct . Or do we have someone else . There you go. Janet. Your audio. Yeah. I cant hear her audio. Please dial pound 2. Your line is live. Check to see if your phone is muted. How we doing now . Yep. All good . Okay. Good morning, commissioners and director mcfadden. Were presenting in carrie wongs absence. Im the head attorney for the Public Guardian. Apologies for the technical difficulties getting started. The Public Guardian and the public conservator seek approval to enter into a contract with cotchett, Pitre Mccarthy to provide Legal Services for the Public Guardian and the public conservator regarding individuals under conservatorship by these two programs. These are two separate and distinct offices operated by the department. So the Public Guardian serves a Court Appointed conservator of vulnerable San Francisco residents who are unable to take care of their health, medical care, unable to manage their finances or they may be subject to undue influence and unable to resist fraud. Most of the individuals that San Francisco has in their program are persons with deteriorating forms of dementia. On the other hand, the San Francisco public conservator serves as Mental Health conservator for San Francisco residents. So also vulnerable, but theyre gravely disabled. Most of the individuals in the public conservator, so they have Mental Illness and have been found by a court unable or unwilling to accept voluntary treatment. The Public Guardian and public conservator are to act in the best interest of their conserveties. At time, our office encounters where specialized the need for specialized Legal Services arise. This may be due to complex legal issues or serious issues that their assigned counsel are not experts at. That is the case here. That is why were before you. So, we need to obtain the Public Guardian and the public conservator need to pay them for legal advice and if appropriate litigation services. So im not able to speak to confidential matters impacting the conserveties, happy to address questions you might have. Commissioner spears im curious, where are most of the conservatees located . What kind of facilities are they located in . Nursing homes . I have no idea. Right. There is a variety of facilities primarily we do have conservatees who live in their own residences, they may be assistedliving, they may be in Skilled Nursing and theyre pretty much spread out among the nine bay area counties given the housing crisis we have. Commissioner spears okay. Thank you. Commissioner knutzen any other questions from the other commissioners . Okay. I just wanted to clarify just a little. This is a contract for 60,000 and if we get into litigation, it looked like they were going to take that on contingency and then they would be charging per hour and does that go only up to 60,000 . Its not an openended contract, right . It isnt. If it goes into litigation, the idea is that a decision will be made and a contingency fee contract would be arranged. So the 60,000 is a cap. Commissioner knutzen okay. Thank you very much for clarifying that. Okay. Thank you for that. All right, then shall we is there any Public Comment on this item . Secretary moderator, please open the phone lines to Public Comment . Members of the public that have dialed in and wish to provide Public Comment under this item, please press pound 2 to enter the question queue. Do we have any callers in the queue . Not showing any at this time. Secretary thank you. Commissioner knutzen hearing no request to speak on this item, we will close Public Comment. Is there a motion for the commissioners to approve this item . So moved. Commissioner knutzen okay. I saw commissioner lum, he is the person who moved and there was a second, Vice President spears, thank you. Madame secretary, can you take the roll call for agenda item g. Secretary how do you vote . Commissioner knutzen yes. Commissioner spears yes. Commissioner lum yes. Commissioner sklar yes. Secretary president , the vote is unanimous. Commissioner knutzen great, thank you very much. And that concludes our agenda for today. Are there any announcements . Hearing none, ill move along. Is there a motion to adjourn our meeting today . Commissioner lum and a second from Vice President spears. Then on behalf of the commission, i want to adjourn the meeting. Thank you so much for everyones work. Again, well see you next month probably from the same time and place. Everyone please take care. Stay safe. Thank you. Thank you for being patient with me. Thank you. I still cant figure it out. [ ] meeting will come to order. This is the july 16, 2020, special budget and finance committee. Im sandra lee fewer joined by the Committee Members walton and mandelman. Our clerk is linda wong who is assisted by brent. I would like to thank sfgov for broadcasting this meeting. Madam clerk, do we have any announcements. Yes, this the board of supervisors and Committee Room is closed however members will be participating in the meeting remotely. This precaution is due to the state, federal, and local orders. Committee members will attend the meeting through Video Conference and participate in the extent as if theyre physically present. Public comment will be available on each item on this agenda. Channel 26 and sfgov. Org are streaming the number across the screen. Committee members have an opportunity to speak during Public Comment meeting, you can call 4156550001, meeting i. D. 1463207645. Press pound twice. When connected you will hear the meeting discussion and you will be muted and listening mode only. When your item of interest comes up, dial star 3 to be added to the speaker line. Best practices is to call from a quiet location and turn down your television or radio. Alternatively you can submit Public Comment in the following ways. Email myself at linda. Wong sfgov. Org. The email will be forwarded to the supervisors and will be part of the official file. Madam chair, this concludes my announcement. Thank you very much madam clerk. Can you call item 1. Yes, chart amendment, adjustment of baseline funding. It will not take in account certain changes in city revenue, resulting from voterapproved business taxes on the november 3, 2020, ballot. The municipal transportation fund, the park, recreation and open space fund, the children and youth fund, the Library Preservation fund, the Housing Trust fund, the Public Education enrichment fund, and dignity fund and street Tree Maintenance Fund at an election to be held on november 3, 2020. Increase the Small Business exemption for the gross receipt test to 1. 5 million and increase the annual Business Registration fee on businesses benefit from this increase, modify the gross receipt tax rate, repeal the payroll expense tax, increase the tax receipt tax for certain taxpayers for 15 years, and impose a general test on the gross receipts, and the commercial rent ordinance and make other changes to the citys business taxes. Item number 3. Ordinance to business and tax regulation code, motion ordering submitted to the voters in an ordinan ordinance amending the business and tax regulation code to modify the gross receipt tax rate, repeal the payroll expense tax, increase the gross receipt tax on certain taxpayers for ten years if a Court Strikes down the homelessness gross receipts tax ordinance, impose a new general tax on the gross receipts from the lease and certain commercial space for 10 years if a Court Strikes down the early care and education commercial rents tax ordinance. Identify number four, business and tax regulations code, business tax changes and item number five, Initiative Ordinance, business and tax regulation code, business tax changes. Meeting i. D. Is 1463207645 and press pound twice. Press star 3 to line up to speak. Please wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted and you may begin your comments. Thank you very much madam clerk. Colleagues, i want to provide a brief overview of how this meeting will go today. I will first be calling items 1 through 5 together as they are all related. Item 1 is the Charter Amendment that would exempt charter mandated set aside funds to taking into account certain changes in city revenue, resulting from voter approved backstop taxes that will be discussed in items 2 through 5. I will move to include this amendment in the business tax measure, rather than leaving it as a separate ballot measure. Items 2 through 5 are different versions of a proposal to change the business tax structure and accomplish a number of goals including providing relief to Small Businesses and industries impacted by covid19 by reducing their tax burden and helping them recover. Unlocking the hundreds of millions of dollars that the city has already collected from business taxes for child care and Homelessness Services but is unable to spend because of the ongoi ongoing litigation that was approved by voters in 2018. Completing San Francisco transition from a payroll tax that incentivizes local hirings to more progressive gross receipt tax where more higher earning businesses pay more. Items 2 and 4 were introduced by the mayor and items 3 and 5 was introduced by president yee, supervisor peskin, supervisor haney and myself . In a few minutes, ben rosen field will be presenting on the similarities and differences on this version. He will include an explanation of the amendment that i will be introducing for item 3 at president yees request. I will introduce these amendments once we had a chance to hear from the controller and members of the public, but first i would like to give president yee a chance to speak about this proposal in todays amendment. I also want to thank president yee and his staff for your leadership and your hard work to make this proposal as strong as it could possibly be. I want to extend a huge thank you to my colleagues, supervisor peskin and supervisor haney for making this happen and Ben Rosenfield for all his experience along the way. President yee, the floor is yours. Thank you chair fewer. Im going to thank you for your ongoing leadership as the chair of the Budget Committee. So, as chair fewer mentioned, i joined not only chair fewer but supervisor peskin and haney to bring forward a long overdue reform to our tax system by repealing the payroll tax and replacing it with the gross receipts system. This is the process that started in 2012 when our city leadership made a decision to move our citys business tax from a payroll system to this gross receipts system. The system was seen as a more equitab equitable, as more municipalities have adopted it. The voters saw the logic in this and passed the Reform Ballot Initiative then. However, the 2012 reform did not completely remove the city out of the payroll system and all parties at the time knew that we needed to address this at a future date. I will have to say that the future is now. We believe that this measure also needs to respond to the unprecedented economic crisis we are in with a fair equitable recovery program, especially for our Small Business community and our most vulnerable residents. This is why were calling this is the Small Business and economic recovery act. You must recognize that this Health Emergency only made existing inequities worse and the economic burden is not carried evenly. Who is hurting the most right now are families, small entrepreneurs and familyowned businesses. When we talk about recovery, it cannot be just for a field. You must start from the bottom up. We need to provide immediate relief to the hardest hit industries and businesses and also provide a responsible sustainable Funding Source for San Franciscos economic vitality. Our initial proposal we introduced weeks ago was a starting point. Today we are making a good proposal to a better proposal. Were offering amendments to strengthen the measure that reflects the numerous feedback that we heard throughout this process, particularly from labor, labor leaders, Small Businesses and community advocates. I want to provide a brief overview of what were proposing in amendments today and then allow our city controller to present further details. One major element to the measure is the ability to unlock funds already collected to the city, our city, our own initiative and also our early care and education for all. As you recall these two were passed by voters in 2018, but these voter backed initiatives are currently tied up in litigation. This measure will free up 300 million for the general funds by placing a stop tax that only goes into effect if we lose the court cases. We are extending this backstop tax to 20 years and well also incorporate the Charter Amendments to ensure that the revenue generates for this is not subject to baseline reductions. This will allow the refund of claims and support the general fund and freeing up the dollars intended for Housing Support and also for early care and education support. We are proposing to exempt more businesses from the tax by excluding Small Businesses making 2 million or less, not 200,000, but 2 million or less. This will benefit approximately 3,100 Small Businesses, many of which are barely getting by right now. Small businesses making less than 1 million. We will also see a reduction in the registration fees. We are proposing to provide significant tax reduction to more industries that are hardest hit by covid19 like hotel accommodations, Food Services, restaurants, and manufacturing. Over the course of the next few years. Lastly, it is clear that the economic the economy recovery is going to be prorated, protracted i mean. Therefore we are proposing that no tax increases are considered until january 2022. There will be a small phased incremental increase to the tax rate for Large Industries. Future step increases in 2023 and 2024 will be tied to economic recovery triggers. If the economy were not recovered yet. The tax Rate Modification will then be deferred to the following year. Our economy is entering what i call unchartered waters. We want to remain nimble and have the flexibility as a city to pause any increases by a reporting requirement so the controlling can provide recommendations to the board if taxes need to be further deferred or reduced due to Economic Conditions. Those are the amendments we are reviewing today and i want to emphasize that the board of supervisors maintain the power to defer or reduce taxes. We did this because recently we did this most recently with the vacancy tax. If Economic Conditions do not improve over the course of the next few years, the board can adjust the tax rates accordingly. You can also take a closer look at industry specific situations to provide a more tailored approach to rate changes. I truly believe that the updated measure is balanced, but brings immediate relief to those who need it the most, while offsetting the cost to many Large Industries that are less cost sensitive. I want to be clear that we will be making difficult budget decisions this year. There is no way to avoid that. With this measure, we can minimize the impact. We can prevent massive cuts to critical public services. Reinvest in jobs and Community Revitalization that is so desperately needed and to lift us all out of this devastating pantoja and pandemic and economic crisis. I dont want anyone to get the impression that this will solve all of our budget problems, but without it were going to be in a much worse place. That is something that none of us can afford. Colleague, i hope i can count on your support on this measure and before i hand it back to chair fewer, i want to appreciate the work of controller ben, ted, our chief economist, and our City Attorney team scott for their work and their creative collaboration. I again want to thank the other sponsors in this, for this measure. The supervisor peskin, fewer, and haney who worked with me on this Small Business recovery economic recovery act since the end of last year. I also want to thank their staff from peskins office, fewers office, haneys office, and my own staff. Are there any comments from the other sponsors before i turn it over to our city controller Ben Rosenfield . Supervisor peskin. Thank you president yee. You have taken all of the words of thanks out of my mouth, but i want to give you actually some words of thanks. This was a very, very complicated endeavor long before covid19 hit. We knew that it was going to be the project for 2020s ballot and we had to take some time off after the pandemic hit. You have really steered this across some really stormy unlikely seas and you done it with elegance. You kept your cool, which i have not. I just cannot thank you enough for the way you managed this and let me concur in my thanks and i will shout out my colleagues, and my staff. Thank you to the incredible staff that double checked everything and kept us on course and to budget chair fewer and supervisor haney, thank you. It was an Unlikely Group of four people, our measured president , our budget chair, and supervisors haney and myself. We brought this all together from different perspectives. To our controller and to ted eagan and the controls team. Thank you so much. To the tax team, way to move it incredibly fast as it changed and morphed in many ways. To people in labor, small busine business, as well as the chamber of commerce. I dont want to put words in the chamber of commerces mouths, but i think theyre coming around to the fact that president yee said, we have a fair and balanced package thats a long time in the coming. Thank you president yee for your extraordinary leadership. Thank you, i echo all of those accolades for you and your leadership. A few months ago, i understandably thought this was going to end and we didnt have the capacity to come together and make this happen, but because of your work and your leadership and your staff and chair fewer and supervisor peskin and the controller and the City Attorney staff, who have been working so hard on this, here we are. This is a really important measure generally for the future of San Francisco and its an essential measure for this moment, for right now. We need this to make investments in our critical and essential services to provide tax relief to Small Businesses and to create a structure that will ensure a strong economic recovery, which has to include investments and services and workers and you know, makes me hopeful for what well be able to do in the near future, not just with this revenue and structure, but as a team and as a board, working collaboratively. This is how it gets done. So thank you again and i know that the prop c, big c, little c, labor, on so days the chamber, were all also a part of providing input into this. I would just say as one of the four supervisors who was most closely connected to it and i shared this with the other supervisors, i really hope this is something we can support unanimously. This is a reflection of the best work that we all did on behalf of the rest of the board. It really should get the unanimous support of this board. Hopefully, ultimately of the mayor as well and of the voters of San Francisco. Thank you again for all your work on it. Its really extraordinary and lets get it done. Thank you chair fewer for your leadership and i know you know firsthand from these Budget Committee hearings that we really need this. You can imagine what it will look like in terms of investments and so many critical things without this measure passing. Thank you Budget Committee for your leadership. Chair fewer, did you want to add anything before we turn it over to ben . No president yee, but i like to give the opportunity for sophia to add questions or comments if she would like. Thank you chair fewer and president yee. I wanted to convey the mayors heart felt appreciation to the four of you for a collaborative process and im appreciative of these amendments today and in particular, as we can work our way through this economic recovery. She is reviewing those now and we do hope that we will be able to support this measure and we will be in touch. Thank you. Thank you very much. So president yee, absolutely. I think it is time to call the controller up. Do you agree . I agree. Great. So if we could have the controller, mr. Ben rosenfield. Good afternoon. [indiscernible low volume] i cant hear you. Thank you for having me here today, im Ben Rosenfield, the controller could you speak a little louder or closer . Is that better . Yes. Okay, thank you for having me here today president yee and chair fewer asked me to walk through the two measures that are here before you today by looking at places where theyre different and where theyre similar. Ill run through the different components of the tax. Its a complicated package that defines our second largest revenue in the city. [inaudible] to start with, the two taxes share a number of the same features, ill briefly highlight those and then run through each in more detail. Both measures fundamentally unlock the revenue that the city has been collecting for big and baby c. Since those taxes were adopted by the voters in 2018. It makes that revenue available despite litigation thats ongoing by creating a backstop tax that would go into effect, should the city lose that litigation and from which refunds could be paid. Secondly, both measures complete the retirement of the citys payroll tax and replace it with a revenue neutral increase to gross receipt rates, getting to a single tax system to the city, opposed to our current hybrid of both. Third, both measures provide permanent tax relief for Small Businesses and they provide temporary tax relief over the next several years for targeted industries. Both measures equalize rates for the information sector, effective in 2021, by moving them to the same rate schedule, the Financial Services, professional services, white collar industries. Both measures increase rates on certain sectors overtime. The timing and the level, and the breath of those increases vary. Ill talk through those. So to briefly describe and i think president yee already hit these major points. The measure that will be moved today, increase the Small Business exemption to 2 million. Secondly, the amendments today expand the interest industries that are subject to temporary tax relief in the boards measure, to include hospitality, food, services, arts, and recreation. With that expansion, the temporary tax relief closely proximates that which was originally proposed in the mayors measure. Third, reduce the level of the ultimate tax rate increase which was what was proposed two months ago. It phases those increases in over time. So rate increases in the initial version where a 30 level for Many Industries and would have gone into effect immediately in 2021. The changes here today reduce that ultimate increase to 15 to 20 percent, depending on the industry, and it phases those increases in not immediately, but beginning in 2024 and then taking steps forward in 2023 and 2024 as well. As president yee mentioned, there are measures added to the increases that delays the increases for a year if gross receipts in the city have not recovered. The amendment also extends the duration of the backstop from 10 to 20 years and as chair fewer mentioned, merges the charter baseline chain where the backstop tax into the measure. We have talked about the big and baby c backstop measure, but to recap it as you are all aware, many businesses in the city are paying big and baby c taxes. These are taxes on gross receipts for a larger company, commercial rent in the city, adopted by the voters of 2018. Were in the midst of litigation, challenging those taxes and as you know, my office has impounded funds were currently collecting should we have to pay refunds, should we lose. The measure before you create as backstop tax that solves that issue. The backstop tax which is informed very similar to the taxes established in baby c, but as a general tax would only go into effect if the Court Strikes down big and baby c. It would be replaced by a new tax. The information sector measures would be increased the rates paid by the information sector would be increased to match those paid by schedule 6. As both the president and chair fewer noted, the measure does provide additional tax relief for smaller businesses in the city. Registrations paid would be reduced. Additionally, the Small Business exemption, which is currently approximately 1 million with the increase. Under the mayors current proposal in front of you, the Small Business exemption is set at 5 billion, which would exempt other businesses from the tax. There is an exemption of an additional 3,100. Thats 20 of current taxpayers would be exempted. Both measures presented tax reli relief. The amendments to the boards version expand the universe sector to which the tax relief would be provided, and that would include manufacturing, retail, other services, hospitality, Food Services and restaurants, arts, entertainment, recreation centers. For those sectors, there would be a 50 reduction for adjusted rates on the first tax years of 2021 and 2022 and then a 25 reduction in 2023. With this change, the temporary tax reduction between you is largely similar, with the only exemption is the mayors version had economic triggers. The mayors initial proposal proposed Financial Services and Administrative Offices, those at the heart of the white collar businesses. There are significant amendments to the boards proposal today, the increase and the timing of it. In the amendments, a broader set of sectors would see increases of between 15 and 20 depending on the sector, down from a 30 increase in the initial proposal and rather than occurring in 2021, a month after the passage of the measures, these increases could now be delayed and then steppedup. So an initial step in 2022, 2023, and 2024. The last two step increases in 2023 and 2024 would be deferred by one year if the tax conditions are not met. I included the uplift and schedule by sector and appended to this report. Just to highlight some of the key revenue and spending impacts that result from the measure. The backstop tax feature in the short term would permit the city to spend 1. 5 billion over the next two years. This is comprised of 1. 2 billion that would be dedicated for Child Care Services and also the repayment of 300 million in funds to the general fund that had been advanced to those programs in the last several years. In the longer term beyond the budget period, the rate restructuring would generate ongoing revenue. There would be 20 million on full phasein, while the direct general fund would approximate 100 million. That 100 million ultimate increase does not capture the full value to the city, though, financially of the change, which would also include limiting losses in revenues from the tax base. We believe the shift will avoid the losses and obviously the spending benefits [indiscernible]. With that, i will stop and see if i can answer any questions. Colleagues, any comments or questions for the controller or for your colleagues, authors of this legislation . No comments or questions . Wow. Okay. Thats great. Supervisors, authors of this ordinance, do you have any other comments that you would like to add that perhaps mr. Rosenfield covered or you would like to go more in depth. I think mr. Rosenfield did a good job in explaining and i dont think we need to go into more details at least i dont think i do. I see supervisor walton in the queue. I want to thank you and all of my colleagues for all your hard work on this. The way everything was presented today, i know it seems like this was a simple process. I do want to thank you all for doing the hard work and being able to bring it to us in a package where everything is already set up and we have all the information that we need and appreciate your hard work. Thats great. I see supervisor mandelin in the queue. Thank you to everyone who got here. Its an important measure on our ballot and definitely needed. Thanks for your hard work. Wow, this is great. Were all in agreement. Madam clerk, lets open this up for Public Comment, items 1 to 5. Clerk yes, madam chair, i wanted to note there are six supervisors participating in this meeting. We are a special meeting of the board of supervisors. Operation, please let us know if there are any callers. Please press star three to go to the queue. Please let us know if there are any callers wanting to comment on items 1 through 5. Operator there are 10 callers in the queue. I will unmute the first caller. Im the organizer of [indiscernible] and i have children and am speaking to the proposal. We worked hard to collect signatures on the ballot [indiscernible] big businesses have captured most of the gains of the recent Economic Growth and it is time for them to pay their fair share. I was a stayathome mom before i started working and that was because of lack of child care. I you brought my daughter to work with me because my agency allowed me to do it. When i wasnt able to do that, the first payment was a shocker. It required all of my money so i had to find another option. A lot of families like mine need to work. With covid19 this is not possible. People are being asked to do more for less. We are being asked to keep doors open. The city invested in [indiscernible]. You can help us write now [indiscernible] i also anticipate that the mayor will support this because safety and the wellbeing of our children cannot wait. Thank you for your time. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. I am a member of [indiscernible] i live in San Francisco and i have two toddlers. Im here to talk about my experiences with child care. I appreciate all the support i heard with the fall. I struggled finding affordable, goodquality child care with my first child. The wait lists were long and i never got a call back. Then i got the surprise that i was pregnant again with my second child. So i started crunching numbers, but there was nowhere i could afford child care with two babies. To make things worse, i quit my job. My husband and i sold our home and we went to live with family to afford living. I found work to allow flexibility to work with my two kids, but when covid hit i wasnt able to do my job. I was no longer contributing to the economy or helping my family. Without child care, i couldnt go back to work. [indiscernible] its important that i keep the wellbeing of my children and my family. The first five years clerk thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. We thank you for your expansion of the Small Business exception and an inclusion of industry sectors. These amendments are welcome and they help to reduce the negative fiscal impacts on already struggling businesses, but we are concerned about having major tax increases on the November Ballot and the making of a multiyear recession. There are more san franciscans out of work than the Great Recession of 2008. As we try to navigate the global pandemic, covid19, and the hundreds of thousands of global employees that continue to face layoffs, we must be sure we are building a stable economy. It is also imperative to note that San Franciscos economy is a big ecosystem. There will be shockwaves through our industries. We thank you for these amendments and thank you all for your time. Thank you so much. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. I am the director of Public Policy of the golden gait restaurant association. Were calling in to say we are very much appreciative of the work done to todays proposal. We remain concerned about the overall state of San Francisco and caution that now may not be the time to raise taxes on any business sectors. We are concerned to address the homelessness issues in San Francisco. Thank you for your time and we look forward to measures to support Small Business. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. I am considering child care an important need. I am chairing work for a friend of mine. In this time we need a lot of care for our children and i hope you will support us in approving these things. It sounds like the supervisors are really truly thinking about the community. I would like to thank you for your work. This is the manager of the Small Business commerce. I would like to thank you for the expansion of this for Small Businesses who have been impacted by covid19 as well as the expansion of the threshold to 2 million which includes a lot of highly vulnerable Small Businesses. While tax policy is rarely directed to injure Small Businesses, we all know that different policies can have both predictable and unforeseen circumstances for Small Businesses. Thats why its important to take care when weighing decisions even for Small Businesses. As everything is connected as an ecosystem in San Francisco, when the government has to tighten its belt and expenses rise, they have to tighten their spending, which we do need to remember can impact our Small Business community. Overall, i thank you for your consideration and narratives which are very encouraging for the support of Small Businesses in San Francisco. Im calling to say thank you for supervisors addressing this issue and taking this seriously. Child care is essential to the functioning of our society to allow our people to work and for the children to be in care with quality and education. As one speaker said before, those first five years are imperative to their future success. Thats what we do is offer that support for families and children and theyre desperate for that care and support right now. Im asking that you unlock the impounded gross receipts tax. We appreciate your support and we know you care what happens with this community with the characteristic and the community. We run a Business Incubator program to help more people become child care providers. [indiscernible] these women make minimum wage. Most of those dependant on the economy need child care. [indiscernible] expanding access to child care. There are 3,500 children on the San Francisco wait list. Ive heard that the funds will harm the Business Community and this is simply not true. Child care providers are the Business Owner owners. So support Small Businesses, we must release these funds. We thank the supervisors for bringing these items forward. I just wanted to voice my appreciation for the amendment made and in particular for those helps the retail and the arts and restaurant community. As a member of the local board, we continue to be concerned about the greater implications. The overall implications are very complex and we need to be super thoughtful before implementing any new taxes on San Francisco right now. Thank you for hearing my opinion. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Hello. Thank you very much for having me [indiscernible] i want to be sure we are mindful. We are living in a time when bisss are being vilified for doing businessusinesses are bei for doing business here. My mother has been here for the last 32 years and shes someone who contributed for all these years. There is a feeling overwhelmingly that no matter what you do, youre punished for doing it, if you employ people, you feel a level of punishment. The same goes for if you have an ambition of buying an apartment or a home, you still feel that. Were in a time now of people fleeing the city and leaving the city. Im talking about people that are creating in a lot of ways the fabric of our city, the city block that we walk, the things that make San Francisco this amazing place to live. Im born and raised here, so i understand a lot of the needs of the people in my community. I do think a lot of these things are important. I would like the supervisors to think how businesses are treated in San Francisco. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon, supervisors. The Hotel Council has been devastated by covid19 pandemic and the orders that have surrounded that. We have come to a halt and our employees are not working. We appreciated the amendments in the meeting that would provide short and longterm relief for accommodations and hotels. However, many of the initiatives would hurt us at a time when were at our lowest being able to provide for our cities. Anything that would cause more taxes would be concerning. We appreciate the adjustments you made for our industry. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Hello [indiscernible] im an essential worker. Ive been on the waiting list since my child was born four years ago. Im doing the best i can to support my family. Some days i have to take my daughter to work and other days i have to leave her with a family or friend. This is not the way parents should have child care. This is why i will continue to fight for all those currently and continuing to be on the waiting list. We need this funding and our lives depend on it [indiscernible] i was calling in and asking for support. After telling me story and explaining the high number of children on the waiting list and how crucial child care is, the city and we agree that child care is essential for the economic recovery. Our children are growing and they deserve access to child care that will provide a safe environment. We are asking you, please support this and help us now because child care is always essential. Thank you for taking the time to hear from the public. My name [indiscernible] all the hard work youve done to help streamline Small Business with regard to the payroll and clarifying that and making it more streamlined [indiscernible] we are cautious of raising taxes on other businesses. We need the businesses to stay in our city and we need the funding that these businesses and their employees provide. Make sure youre taking a nuanced look and we continue not to drive businesses, home owners, and businesses out of San Francisco. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. I am calling in support of the executive tax because we need to support our frontline workers during the pandemic. I am the cousin of a Healthcare Worker and they have not been supported during this pandemic. We are afraid if we dont flatten the curve there will be a second wave. As a Family Member of a Healthcare Worker, i support the tax because greedy corporations because they greedy corporations need to pay their people more the overpaid executive tax can up to 140 million. We need to support our frontline workers during this pandemic. San francisco needs to be ready when the next wave hits. This is a vote in support of frontline workers. This shows that you value the working class san franciscans over corporate greed. Please support this tax. Thank you. I have been a resident of the bay area for 20 years. I work with Healthcare Workers every day and im asking you to prioritize the needs of when is during this pandemic. Big corporations are profiting while momandpop stores are shuttering. These companies will not leave San Francisco because they are being taxed a small percentage. We shouldnt stop this because were afraid they will leave. If they can pay executives Million Dollar salaries, they can pay their fair share. Cities around the country are preparing for a spike in the curve by stocking up on medical equipment and hiring First Responders and other Healthcare Workers. This is a vote in favor of Healthcare Workers. A vote in support of this tax shows that you support the hard work of everyday san franciscans over the corporate profits and their bottom line. Please support this overpaid executive tax. Thank you. I would like to remind people in the queue that we are hearing Public Comment on items 1 through 5. When you are speaking about the overpaid executive tax, that is items 6 and 7 and we are not taking Public Comment on that now. If you would like to comment on items 1 to 5, please stay in the queue, otherwise, please wait until we have introduced the item and Public Comment for items 6 and 7. We are now hearing Public Comment for items 1 through 5 only. Thank you. Im calling in because im a resident of San Francisco and a working mom. We are experiencing quite an upending of our lives during this pandemic. I wanted to say that i have been working and provided child care for a number of years and i have supported a number of organizations in the child care industry. I do wonder, however, if it is possible for the city of San Francisco to get its budget under control without increasing taxes. In the face of covid, many are fearful of a future economic downturn. Child care and Early Childhood education are absolutely important. It is important that during a downturn the city would like to squeeze us. Perhaps the supervisors could cut their salaries to cover these costs. Your proposal to tax your way out of this are essentially kicking all San Francisco working families while down. The most recent review of this demonstrates that San Francisco has a larger budget than larger cities. There is no reason for you to raise taxes, especially in an economic crisis instead of getting a handle on spending in San Francisco. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Are there any other speakers . [indiscernible] im an essential worker and i am struggling because i dont have child care for my 4yearold son and i am [indiscernible] and also i want to make sure that child care is essential for the economy recovered. Its important that we get the funding [indiscernible] to spend more for child care. I support the proposition. Clerk i wanted to note that there are five callers in the queue. Thank you very much, board of supervisors and this particular committee for allowing us a chance to voice our thoughts on the action that you are about to take. Ive been a resident of San Francisco for over 20 years. I have worked in a restaurant for two years. I want to give a sense of understanding of what it is like to operate a Small Business in San Francisco. I applaud the reason for the action items that we are discussing now and the need to support child care and the other items. The pandemic has exposed that the goose that laid the golden egg is a valid metaphor for this. My heart and my wallet, frankly, has always supported those in need. The reality is the pandemic has exposed that to operate a Business Needs more than just a good heart. When we see Large Businesses leave San Francisco to put a gross receipt tax on the level that exists on these particular action items will be the wrong way to go. The reality is these businesses will not survive just because their taxes are less. They need to survive because there are customers. Clerk thank you for your comment. Next speaker, please. Madam chair, that completes the queue. Public comment is now closed. I want to thank my colleagues for reiterating this. This measure doesnt include taxes for Small Businesses, but tax relief for Small Businesses. We are very concerned about the support needed for Small Businesses. We support our Small Businesses. They are the life blood of our economy and city and they are struggling right now. All the services we put together for child care are things that our residents benefit and rely on, including our Small Businesses, Small Business owners and workers. Taking a huge hit in those things is only going to hurt our economy more broadly. I just wanted to reiterate that as im sure other supervisors would as well. Colleagues, would you like to add comments . Just a short comment. Thank you, supervisor, you hit the nail on the head there. We have used this initiative to help these businesses. If you look at it carefully, if you see the current tax that theyre paying, they would pay less in the future. There was acknowledgement of the fact by quite a few people that are worried about other issues. They understood that what we were trying to do was help the Small Businesses. Thank you. I hope the committee will make those amendments. After the amendments you have to come back to budget . Yes, it goes to a special budget and finance meeting of july 21. Thank you very much. Without further ado i also wanted to mention that our City Attorney is also that assisted us with this is available for comments. Colleagues, you should have a copy of the amendments. These amendments would expand tax relief to Small Businesses and impacted industries, specifically but exempting Small Businesses with gross receipts of 2 million or less and expanding tax relief to more entries affected by covid19 there would be a delay of tax increases to january 2022 with future increases in january 2023 and january 2024 based on economic recovery triggers. [indiscernible] finally establish reporting and look back analysis by including reporting from the controller and chief economist with treasurier to analyze the implementation of the measure called i have a rollcall vote, please. [ roll call ] [ roll call ]. Now i would like to make a motion to table items 1 and 2 and file items 4 and 5. Could i have a roll call vote, please. [ roll call ]. Can you please call items 6 and 7 together. [Initiative Ordinance business and tax regulations code tax on businesses with disproportionate executive pay] sponsors haney; ronen, walton, mar and preston motion ordering submitted to the voters an ordinance amending the business and tax regulations code to impose an additional gross receipts tax or an Administrative Office tax on businesses with a greater than 100 1 ratio of the compensation of the businesss highestpaid employee to the median compensation paid to the businesss employees based in the city; and increasing the citys appropriations limit by the amount collected under the additional tax for four years from november 3, 2020, at an election to be held on november 3, 2020. [hearing Initiative Ordinance business and tax regulations code tax on businesses with disproportionate executive pay] sponsors haney; ronen, walton, mar and preston hearing to consider the proposed Initiative Ordinance submitted by four or more supervisors to the voters for the november 3, 2020, election, entitled ordinance amending the business and tax regulations code to impose an additional gross receipts tax or an Administrative Office tax on businesses with a greater than 100 1 ratio of the compensation of the businesss highestpaid employee to the median compensation paid to the businesss employees based in the city; and increasing the citys appropriations limit by the amount collected under the additional tax for four years from november 3, 2020. We have supervisor matt haney as the speaker. Thank you so much, chair fewer, and to the Committee Members. Colleagues, today with my cosponsor cosponsors well have for your consideration the c. E. O. Tax. During this pandemic, americas billionaires saw their fortunes soar by 434 billion during the shelter in place. Jeff bezos and muck zuckerberg both had the biggest gains. Knees billionaire gains are billionaires becoming more billionaires. With this pandemic even as the economy and our Small Businesses grapple with the worst economic crisis in recent history, there is still tremendous wealth in our society and our city concentrated in the hands of the f few. Companies paying these out can see the cuts to essential services that we are facing as a city. Im looked at the department of Public Health and homelessness budget and the kind of cuts and what impact that would have on our city. Were just beginning that conversation of many hard choices. What we are proposing today is a simple and straightforward measure that can help us get through this crisis while also. If the measure passes any company that pays their toppaid employee 100 times more than their medium worker will have a 0. 1 surcharge added to their benefit. If the Top Executive makes 200 times more than the average employer, then its 0. 2 surcharge, 300 times, 0. 3 and so on capping at 0. 6. Our tax is modeled on a similar surcharge thats been implemented in portland, oregon, maine, washed, and nationally there are similar proposals to deal with rampant income inequality. This tax will raise up to 140 million every year which will allow the city to hire hundreds of nurses, doctors, Healthcare Workers. The Healthcare System is stretched and strained responding to emergencies, the already existing emergencies of Mental Health and addiction, but the very threatening and real pandemic that were facing as a city. This incentivizes companies to invest in their workers. Businesses can avoid paying the tax by paying their executives less or by raiding their employees wages. Companies that can afford tens of millions of dollars for salary sincere can afford to way their share in taxes. Executive daerls have risen by 900 . Big businesses all over San Francisco have the chance to be on the right side of history. This is a modest tax. Its going to go to the bestpossible use at time we need it more than ever. Its going to go to companies that are doing well and paying people a whole lot of money at a time we need a little bit more support. There are two amendments im proposing for the committee to adopt. The First Amendment adds the word managerial capturing the salary of the highestpaid executive in the company. The amendment appears on page 1, lines 6 and 17, page 2, line 25, and page 23, lines 15 through 16. Secondly, the Second Amendment caps the tax at 0. 6 instead of 1 , capping the tier at 0. 6 is a reasonable amendment adopting these amendments will not reduce the revenue range. The range will be 60 and 100 million. [indiscernible] these are the amendments im asking for the committee to adopt today. Im hoping you will support this measure. It is critical to help our economy address the needed investments. I want to thank our labor and Community Partners that have worked on this, our cosornss, and especially to the local Labor Council and all of the nurses, doctors, healthcare professionals, and front line workers for their support. I just want to clarify one thing because i know this comes up a lot. This is looking at total compensation which includes stocks and other types of compensation as it relates to the toppaid employee. That toppaid employee can be anywhere when looking at the medium salary, we are looking at that of those folks in. Thank you very much. Any comments or questions from my colleagues at all . Madam clerk, please open it up for comment. Clerk operator, can you check if there are any speakers. Can afford to pay executives millions a year can afford to pay their fair share in taxes to help us recover. The pandemic is over and cities are preparing for a spike and hiring nurses and First Responders and this measure not only raises much needed funds to fix the cracks in our health care it incentivizes companies to invest in their workers and not just executives. Business will not leave San Francisco because of this. Its not going happen. Its not true. San francisco is one of the most desirable cities in the United States for companies to be located in. A small surcharge can be avoided by investing in workers will have little to no impact on companies that can apay to pay their ceo millions of dollars. Businesses can avoid the tax by paying their executive less or simply raising employees wage. The executive tax only applies to companies who pays executives millions a year so please support supervisor haneys executive tax. Thank you for your comment. Caller hello. Im a resident of San Francisco. Im an active member of the Filipino Community Development Corporation and [indiscernible] program. I support the executive tax because i believe that big or Large Companies that can afford to pay executives billions of dollars can afford to pay their fair share to help us recover. The pandemic isnt over. Many are preparing for a spike in the curve and stocking up on medical equipment and hiring doctors and nurses and First Responders and other essential care workers. San francisco needs [indiscernible]. Executive salaries in the United States have skyrocketed by 40 but regular worker salaries have only grown by 11 . We [indiscernible] thank you and god bless. Thank you for your comment. Next speaker, please. Caller good afternoon supervisors im with the San Francisco chamber of commerce. On behalf of the chamber of commerce we appreciate the input and have seen the ceo tax and transfer tax did for the receive the same attention. We cannot have a oneoff tax we need to keep balancing the needs of where we are in the economy with the addition of new taxes. Taxes makes doing business in San Francisco difficulty. They have seen anchor businesses left and several businesses have allowed businesses to work remotely to leave to other cities and states. Further, while intended to affect Large Companies the pay doesnt exist for the larger companies. This tax will however, affect some of our more Medium Sized Companies in retail and hospitality. We have to be thoughtful of implementing more taxes during an employment crisis. Thank you for your comment. Next speaker, please. Caller hello. Im roxanna and im a registered nurse working in labor and delivery in San Francisco over 15 years and an active member of the california nurses association. I actually went to school in San Francisco all the way from prek to getting my b. S. N. And as a registered nurse i see how economic inequality impacts the health of our patients and our communities every day. San francisco is the most economically inequitable city in the country and that takes a toll on our collective health. I support taxing overpaid executives because we need this money to help support Front Line Health Care workers as we deal with the current pandemic and because San Francisco needs to be ready for the next wave. This measure raises muchneeded funds to help our health care and it also incentivizes companies to invest in their workers not just their executives. Although i can see where some companies would be hesitant, this measure would only make it so that the businesses start treating executives and employees fairly. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your comment. Next speaker, please. Caller hi, my name is deanna chan. A member of local 21 and resident of San Francisco many years and an occupational therapist for the city and county for the last nine years and have been deployed to the front line since april as an essential worker. I have been servicing the temporary housing shelter. I can tell you first hand the supplies are very low and reuse ppe as much as possible and we front line workers need help. As an essential front line worker i support the executive tax and we need the money as we deal with the pandemic head on. Its clear the pandemic is far from over and its time for all to help. As others have noted we believe Big Companies that can afford to pay executives billions every year can afford to pay their fair share in taxes to help the response. The tax only applies to companies who pay their executives millions a year. It will not affect Small Businesses. Please support supervisor haneys overpaid executive tax. Thank you from the front line. Thank you for your call. Next speaker, please. Caller im britly and ive been in district 6 all my life. Im calling to support the overpaid executive tax. I think its important we help our Health Care Workers especially due to the pandemic. They need our support in this small surcharge on massive businesses producing millions annually for a health care. I also like how it incentivizes money to raise employee wages if the businesses want to avoid the tax. Massive businesses like amazon and ceo jeff bezzos are benefiting and Health Care Workers are working to keep people alive. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon. My name is mr. William. Im an organizer for local 22 in San Francisco. We have Health Care Workers in california and 20,000 work in San Francisco. As a Health Care Worker representative we support the overpaid executive tax because we need to help the Health Care Workers with appropriate medical equipment during the pandemic and be able to hire more Health Care Workers. Its time those to help pay their fair share to help the San Francisco economy and to invest in San Francisco and the best way to do it is through this tax. We need the for instance board of supervisors take ownership and leadership and follow. The we are living in an a capitalist in crisis. They need do their part. We cant afford to cut 250 million to the department of Public Health in San Francisco. Please support the supervisors overpaid executive tax. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Caller hello, supervisors. Im [indiscernible] and im a member of San Franciscos [indiscernible]. I am calling today in support of the overpaid executive tax. Frankly we need the money. Were in a crisis and one thing is if a company can afford to pay millions to their executives and can certainly afford to pay their fair share to help us recover in this crisis. And from people who profit from this city and substantial resources they can help afford to pay their fair share to get us back on our feet. And we can see them avoid it by raising employee wages. Thats another option, right . Folks would be able to pay their own way. Right now cost of living so high in San Francisco and we know executives are overpaid. Maybe it will help incentivize them to behave in a new humane manner. Saying that, they can fair their fair share and make adjustments to help the rest of us and the city out. Their fair share and make adjustments to help the rest of us and the city out. Their fair share and make adjustments to help the rest of us and the city out. Their fair share and make adjustments to help the rest of us and the city out. Their fair share and make adjustments to help the rest of us and the city out. P their fair share and make adjustments to help the rest of us and the city out. A their fair share and make adjustments to help the rest of us and the city out. Y their fair share and make adjustments to help the rest of us and the city out. We have to do what we can to increase the revenue and id rather see revenue increases rather than budget cuts. We know it has a negative affect on improving the economy. It backfires. Bebest the best way to come out a crisis like this is increase spending not budget cuts to help the economy quicker. I encourage you to help support this machine measure and move it forward. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Before we take the next speaker i want to note that there are 20 callers listening and 10 in the queue. Next speaker, please. Caller im Sarah Larsson a member of local 21. I work for the department of Public Health and were facing budget cuts and weve been under staff for a long time. Were going to need money from some place. It seems like for a long time huge corporations have gotten a lot of special deals in order to be here. Its time for them to give back. These executives can afford to pay and they should pay because theres no other city like San Francisco and i dont think that because a bunch of overpaid executives getting dinged for a little bit of money all corporations will move out. In fact im sure thats not going happen but this pandemic isnt over. We need to take decisive action. We need it now. This isnt on Small Businesses. This is for huge corporations and theres a lot of them here. Its very overwhelming when you consider the disparity and the haves and havenots and front of line workers will be called upon. Youre going to need us. Everybodys going to need us. Please help and vote for this. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Caller this is michael soto with the National Union of Health Care Workers calling in favor of this ordnance. It address the dual crises of the economic downturn and pandemic and make sure the city has the support it needs for front workers and First Responders. Many Big Companies such as those mentioned before are saving money by having workers telecommute and having offices and other facilities go unused and similarly in the Health Care Industry hmo and ppos are Bank Windfall because people are afraid to go to the doctor but theyre still collecting premiums. This is something we know big business can afford and cant afford economic inequality to increase and those with the most need to step up and help the most in this time of need. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Next speaker, please. Caller hi, supervisors, thank you. Im John Mccormick i work in the tenderloin and wanted to call in support of this important legislation. Not cutting social services is unnecessary and thank you to the supervisors who are proposing taxes like this. Thank you so much. Thank you for your comment. Next speaker, please. Caller can you hear me . Yes, we can. Caller im Cynthia Gomes and im a research analyst. Im calling in support of the overpaid executive tax as some have commented and shared the need for resources is acute and will only continue to flow this measure raises funds and incentivizes companies to invest in workers and executive salaries in the United States over the last 30 years has skyrocketed by 940 and regular worker salaries have only grown 11 . Members of unions who work in the hotel and Hospitality Industry can tell you all too well whats that done to their standard of living. This something that say small surcharge. If Companies Choose to reinvest up their workers they can avoid the tax raising employees wages and its not a tax on Small Business businesses. We urge you to support it and thank you for your time. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Caller good afternoon im cheri chan. Im the union member for sba local 1316 and as we all know the provider essential worker for our county and community. So during the covid19 were trying our best to serve this community and take care of seniors. We love this city. We love San Francisco. However, the cost of living is extremely high. Today im asking supervisors and the mayor to stand on our side to help us to get more funding and our children and community. Downtown, i support the overpaid executive tax. Thank you, god bless you and stay safe. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Caller good afternoon. Im a San Francisco resident. Big companies can afford to pay executives millions of dollar salaries every year can afford to pay their fair share in taxes to help San Francisco recover. This measure not only helps raise funds and incentivizes companies to invest in their workers not just executives. San francisco is one of the most desirable cities for business and according to our record it has the highest density of billion airs of any city in the world thats why theres no truth businesses will leave San Francisco because of this small tax. This is not an attack on Small Businesses. It only applies to companies who pay their executives millions a year. Please support supervisor haneys overpaid executive tax. Its the right thing do. Our people need support from those who have more. Good afternoon supervisors. Thank you for taking time on this important matter today. I had conversations with some businesses and one of the businesses have recently said i wish my taxes we lower and i said to what level and he said maybe back to 198 6 then i pointed out he actually paid more taxes in 1986 than now in 2019. Its easy to avoid this tax. I think corporations have gotten too greedy. Theyve gotten so many breaks at the federal level and various state levels and not participating fully in everything they take out of the economy globally. We dont tend to look at the infrastructure when businesses come into town. They come into San Francisco with a full vetted infrastructure, water, electricity, all this stuff they dont invest in. They just take. And i think that its time for them to pay their fair share to get us through this pandemic. It is their moral responsibility and its getting a little old. I get it. Were doing things to help Small Businesses along. Theyre exempt from this tax. Large companies have a responsibility to help the communities theyre in and not just take out please, support this initiative. The Labor Council is 100 behind this initiative and thanks for your time, today. Thank you for your comment. Next speaker, please. Caller my name is teresa rutherfo rutherford. I with my coworkers and front line workers support supervisor haneys overpaid executive tax measure. This is a matter of equity and a matter of Corporate Responsibility because also its a matter that businesses use the resources of the communities they are existing in and built their resources off the backs of the community. Usually when they move into a community its already fully structured. Everything is there for them. The roads, the water, the Public Servants ready do their bidding. They come and enjoy and build off that. They dont bring anything in except to come and enjoy and benefit from the name and from the value of living in one of the most well known, well sought after cities like San Francisco. Business use resources of the responsibility have a responsibility to give back to the community otherwise all their doing is abufg abusing and taking advantage of the city and the people that do the work. They have a Corporate Responsibility. They have a social responsibility and it is equitable. Its shameful ceos make 940 on their salaries while front line workers who do the job, who deliver the services, front line workers in this pandemic who put their families on the line and their lives every day barely make 11 over 30 years. Right now in the city of San Francisco we are being asked as front line workers again to give up the little money we have, the little salaries we earn where the ceos are not being asked to do anything. So right now, the way to go and the way to do this and the way to bring equity and put your money where your mouth is is to hold the ceos accountable, is to have them give back to the communities they have lived off and benefitted off. I fully support the overpaid ceo tax measure and make it work and its not just about workers but about San Francisco and San Francisco thriving and it only thrives when some of the highest paid people benefiting in the world give their fair share and stop raping the community of its resources. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Caller hello. Im a member of c. N. A. Im a delivery nurse at Kaiser Hospital for the last 40 years. During that time ive been the attending nurse between 5,000 and 6,000 babies. Thats my best estimate. I am in favor of this proposed tax. Its very specific and i dont see it will harm a huge number of people because there are not a ton of executives making more than 100 times than what theyre median worker is. What id like to mention is the fact that some will use possibly used to fix some of the cracks in the. Cracks in the. One of the cracks in the i can see though i dont like to speak abo about it because its embarrassing and sad and humiliating is i have an adult son im paying 800 a month to pay an insurance policy for him with kaiser. Right now my income has dropped 30 of the usual amount per month but i continued carrying this insurance policy for him because my son sadly is a drug addict. So my great fear is that should he need attention or decides to come out of his denial and get treatment, hell have nowhere to turn. So i think there are plenty of cracks in the cracks in the we can look at and share this money in a way that would help everyone. When you help the least of your brethren youre helping everyone. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Next speaker, please. Caller i know a couple callers said this would not adversely affect Small Businesses but that is not the case. An impact on any part of our Business Community can shake our entire local economy. We have around 95,000 businesses here in San Francisco. A huge am of those are Small Businesses who rely deeply on our larger employers and the employees that come and patronize our vibrant and diverse Small Business community in San Francisco. Number one the impact i heard businesses talk about during covid19 might be the impact from losing the large employers and their employees in our city when theyve gone to work from home. You may think its your daily sandwich that supports the little shop down the way but theres a tight margin of payrolls and taxes and fee is the catering order from the company down the road. Ironically this is not going to be just the Top Companies who pay the tax. Theyre compensation ratios in San Francisco, as we all know, were the broad base of compensated tech employees which can leave and this will fact brick and Motor Companies who have already been drastically impacted by covid19. The number one Small Businesses need to provide are customers. We know who they are. Theyre the employees of large employers and the folks who have these good paying jobs to pay the high prices of San Francisco often created by the regulations we have here. We cannot continue to think San Francisco is so appealing that businesses will not leave. We already saw businesses start to recognize this negative cost benefit in San Francisco and begin to leave this last year. We are experiencing unprecedented unemployment in San Francisco and this is absolutely not the time to be implementing hasty oneoff and unprecedented taxes. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Caller hi. This is Rudy Gonzalez with San Francisco Labor Council. I want to thank the chair of the committee, supervisor fewer for her leadership and coauthors and cosponsors. I heard a fair amount of context. I think i would agree with the last person that commented from the chamber. I think a smart tax like the overpaid executive compensation tax actually will chip away at the inequality and the simple fact is minimum wage earner and company in San Francisco can have a ceo making upwards of 3 million and so they have a choice to make. They can help the taxes and attic inequality that draws on resources especially during a Public Health pandemic and raise the wages of workers and put money in the pockets of those workers that generate and stimulate the local company and help the same Small Businesses. The alternative is they could decide to keep their large executive compensation and contribute as an organization to the very services and City Infrastructure that they are going to need to successfully recover and that spans Public Health and infrastructure and all the various aspects of the city architecture. I think its a smart, progressive way to chip away at income inequality and smartly resourcing and focussing funds to desperately needed City Services to no surprise unfortunately with the city framework we have thousand of f. T. E. Vacancies that are plaguing short staffing and high degree of work for our current staff and we just take it as a given that these noble Public Workers will shift right into the service mode and [indiscernible] and all the critical needs we have as a community. If you support this tax thank you for your comment, sir. Next speaker, please. Caller madame chair, thats the queue. Thank you very much. Any more comments . Supervisor hanney. I want to thank all the callers who just expressed their opinions and mostly support. All the members of the community. I also want to shout out all of the essential workers and their representatives who called in. I think weve had a huge amount of support for this measure. Some essential workers, front line workers and Health Care Workers and Hotel Workers on the front line who are protecting us and saving lives and they know that even now we dont have enough services, enough staffing ratios, enough support for them. The idea that they would be asked to take a greater hit and they and their colleagues serve more people at longer hours as the same time we have dozens and dozens of billionaires in our city and have Companies Making tens of billions more even during this pandemic is unimaginable. This is not a hasty or onetime or oneoff, im not sure what that means. Its a permanent tax in that were going to pass it and the voters approve it it will be a permanent tax and a targeted tax only on companies who are able to pay their executives tens of millions of dollars. I guess everybody wants to hide behind Small Businesses. These are larger businesses doing very well and paying their executives over 100 times that of their need door median worker. Its a modest tax at a time when our city needs it more than of. When i talk to Small Businesses, what they say is they want to see us have effective and adequate City Services that address Mental Health, street cleaning, homelessness and it shunt shouldnt be on their backs. The services should be delivered and provided by those who can afford it and doing well and asking for a little bit more help from them to address the crises and the pandemic and not balance every budget and every cut on the backs of our heroes who are saving lives right now. We should have their back and should ask a little bit more from people doing very well. With that i hope you take the amendment and move this measure. Thank you very much. So Public Comment is closed on item 6 and 7. I think we have some amendments we should vote on so id like to vote to move those amendments. Can i have a roll call vote, please. Clerk yes. [roll call] id like to make a motion to move this as amended to be continued to the next regular budget meeting on wednesday july 22. Could i have a roll call vote, please. Clerk on that motion. [ro [roll call] you have three ayes. A motion to file item 7. Clerk on that motion. [roll call] you have three ayes. Thank you. Madame clerk please call item 8. Clerk the proposed initiative to the voters for the november 3, 2020 Salt Lake City entitled business and tax resolutions code stockbased compensation payroll expense paid at companies and publicly traded groups to increase the citys appropriations limit by the amount collected under the tax for four years from november 3, 2020. Members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment should call 1415665001. Metting id 146 320 7645. We have supervisor gordon mar or his legislative aide. The floor is yours. Thank you for hearing this. Im a legislative aide for supervisor mar. He not able to be here as is also serving [indiscernible] meeting today as well. The act has already been submitted to the ballot with the signatures of members of supervisors and is not subject to the vote in committee today and as a policy has been in discussion and consideration in various forms over a year now. Well try to keep this informational hearing brief today. We proposed the measure for a simple reason. We cannot balance our budget or close our multiyear deficit on the backs of city workers or on the backs of the vulnerable communities who rely on our programs and servic [technical difficulties] and the proposal was last year referred to as an i. P. O. Tax. To be clear its not a tax on i. P. O. S. Its a tax on compensation and most clearly understood and described as such. For the revenue estimate on the controllers file this would raise between 50 million and 150 million annually in new revenue for the city and county of San Francisco. It does this by restoring 2. 15 the tax rate public Companies Pay on stockbased compensation. This is similar to a Corporate Tax rate cuts in the sector. Stock base compensation is on the value of equity interest and stock, stock options, restricted stock, restricted stock units, stock as a result of Employee Stock purchase plans. Corporations that currently pay the tax and have stock based compensations as part of their expenses would face a tax increase on the stockbased compensation. Corporations paying the Administrative Office tax are also subject to this tax and the tax would only apply to Public Companies and i do want to note the measure has been written and could go into effect regardless of what else is on the ballot in november. Just to summit up, what we are taxing here is not new. Stock compensation is a form of payroll and already taxed and the rate were proposing is also not new. Its the same rate the companies paid a decade ago not only on stockbased compensation but all forms of payroll at that time. Were proposing to restore the rate for stockbased compensation and theres a federal tax break on stockbased compensation. Not only are the companies not paying a rate locally they use to it get a break federally. And with the proposal we believe and want to say that fiscal responsibility doesnt require us to be [indiscernible] it requires us to be creative in advancing Revenue Strategies to protect our budget in the long term and address the economic inequality and on fairness from homelessness to Housing Access to hunger. That means asking corporations most well off the most resilient to the current crises who too often have been given breaks in policy after policy to pay their fair share. Thats what the stock compensation tax does. Im happy to answer any questions but id like to thank supervisors roanin and peskin and [indiscernible] and others for their work in preparing this measure. Thank you. Thank you very much. Seeing no colleagues in the queue for questions or comments, lets open this up for Public Comment. Can we have Public Comment on item number 8. Operations is checking to see if theres any callers in the queue. Operations, kindly let us know if there are any callers that are ready. If youve not already done so press star 3 to be added to the queue. For those already on hold please continue the wait until the indicates you have been unmuted for your comments. Please let us know if theres callers wishing to comment. Madame chair, there are no callers in the queue. Public comment on item number 8 is now closed. If theres no comments and none in the queue, id like to make a motion to file this item. May i have a roll call, please. [roll call] there are three ayes. Is there any more business before us today . Clerk madame chair, we have no further business. We are adjourned. Thank you. Announcer youre watching coping with covid19. Todays special guest is dr. Steven getnick. Hi, im chris man us and youre watching coping with covid19. Today my guest is the director of the Behavior Therapy Center of San Francisco and Professor Emeritus in counseling psychology at the university of San Francisco. Doctor, welcome to the show. Thank you. Lets talk about managing anxieties during this pandemic. What types of issues are people facing at the moment . There are a number of issues and i really want to point out that this is affecting everyone and has come on very quickly. So it is normal. If you are not experiencing some anxiety, something is a touch off because this affects us all. I think some of the main ones are our health and worried about getting the virus and our developing serious complications. I think for a lot of people who are single, living alone, in isolation, has been very difficult. I think being in close quarters with people who we normally have some space from now are together 24 7. Thats produced a lot of stress and anxiety. That loss of connection with others. We already addressed. And having kids home. For a lot of people. Yes, absolutely. What are the other problems that they might have . I think without that dynamic, the good things are not a problem. It is the difficulties we have. And when were together 24 7, again its like hooking everything up to an amplifier. So, what kind of problems could be created from working home from home, perhaps for the first time in your career . A lot of people are not used to working at home and a working at home just isnt the same. For one thing, there is a lack of social interaction. Some people find that that affects them greatly. Some people are actually finding theyre getting more work done at home without distractions from work. The lack of structure is probably the most common. We see it here with work at the office. People are kind of watching. We know that our schedule is, suddenly youre at home and you are on your own. Absolutely. If those are some of the issues people are facing, what are some of the techniques people can use to overcome their anxiety . Caller i think there are many. One of the first is how managing and keeping track of your thinking, we think and talk to ourselves a lot. Thats normal. We have a dialogue with ourselves often and we need to monitor that a bit. People tend to ruminate versus problemsolve. That is they tend to worry about all the things that might go wrong. And what i suggest is, look, there are things that can go wrong, but ruminating about the worstcase scenario is not going to be very productive. Sit down, figure out what the things are that you have to deal with and try to problemsolve. I think any of the selfcontrol techniques for anxiety can be helpful. And there are dozens of them. The common ones are meditation, relaxation techniques, yoga, for example and another is diaphragmattic breathing. If you google that, you can learn diaphragmattic breathing in about 10 minutes online. Its incredibly simple and it is a really nice way to reduce anxiety in the moment. Selfcontrol procedures, exercise. Whether if youre fortunate enough to have equipment at home, thats great. If youre not, get outside and go for a walk, keep your safe distance, of course. But you need to be active. Thats helpful. I think people marry be dealing with information overload at the moment. How do you suggest people manage that . I was just going to say that. I think it is really important to kind of limit the information you get. Not in terms of accuracy. I think in terms of accuracy, you want to identify a few sites where people are coming with evidencebased information and scientific information so you can form yourself well. Once youve informed yourself, you need to not be watching all day long. Ive talked to people who are mesmerized from the tv and a it keeps that anxiety going so you need to limit your viewing for sure. This can be stress for people who have economic concerns and worried about their family and friends and loved ones who are essential workers. What would you suggest they do to help manage anxiety and stress . There is a number of things. One of major ones for depression is behavioral activation. Simply, it really means that people will tend to not be depressed as a number of reinforcing activities to engage in. Whether it is hobbies, you read, you listen to music, you crochet, you whatever. These kinds of things are very important so you want to make sure that youre engaging in activities that literally make you feel better as opposed to sitting around ruminating, worrying about the worstcase scenarios that might happen. What about trying to do some selfdevelopment . Yeah. Its a very interesting time. Ive talked to a couple of my own clients who are finding, in a very positive way, that this isolation, while at first can generate a lot of anxiety, particularly if youre just not good at living alone. For a number of people, its giving them a chance to sit back and really think about what is important in their lives, what are the priorities. I think that maybe if there is any Silver Lining in this epidemic, its really forcing all of us to kind of rethink whats really important. Indeed. You know, though, at the same time, there are people who are feeling very lonely at home. How would you encourage them to overcome that . You get online. Facetime, skype, zoom, like what were doing right now. You can stay connected. Its very possible. Most connections are important. We are social critters and we need that connection. I think for people who dont have those options, pull up photos, take a look at pictures of family. You need to stay connected. And its very important. And finally, do you have any suggestions that are specifically for families . Yeah. Well, again, i think one of the interesting things thats come about from all of this, is i talked to families on video is theyre obviously spending more time together. While its a bit awkward, particularly for parents who are in the house working a lot. Its a chance to really deepen relationships and spend more good, quality time together. I think parents really need to step back and kind of plan their day a little bit. Not micro manage it, but have some ideas. Can the family play games together . A lot of people i talked to, theyre even together as a family for the first time. So i think there are a number of things that people can do. I think it is qulaouzful for the families to take five, 10 minutes and say how did the day go . I talked to someone in the phone book before we started who said they noticed what time of day all their anxiety kind of comes together and they start sniping at each other. Now theyre taking a few minutes at tend of the day to say, ok, how are we doing . I think they need modeling good behavior, something you can do within the family, too, to try to thats right. I think thats relevant. Very relevant to how children are going to do. Most of the research from crises, particularly things we cant control showed that children do as well as their parents do. So i think it is important for parents to think about how theyre react aing and they stay calm because whatever they do is modeling, coping for their children. So, that can be very useful. It can also be problematic. When we talked earlier, you mentioned that acknowledging that your kids are afraid is important. Yes. I think that ties to your last question. I think modeling you know, its not incompatible with saying, yeah, you know, mom or dad is a little nervous, too. It means a lot of stuff is going on, but were going to be ok. Were going to stay together. We have our time together. Were going to be safe. Well fill in the blank. So you can do both. You can reassure but in a realistic way that once the kids know its normal to be anxious in these times. Thank you for coming ton show, doctor. I really appreciate the time youve given us. Youre welcome. Thank you for having me. And that is it for this episode. Well be back with more covid19 related information shortly. You have been coping with covid19. Thank you for watching. We are definitely pioneers in airport concession world a world of nationally if not entirely or internationally everybody is cop us right now. 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