Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Rules Committee 20240712

Racial equity, that im sure we can all proud to see the Planning Commission pass the resolution. And when we talked about the groundfloor retail space and what were going to do in terms of this pandemic and how its hurting our Small Businesses. I appreciated our conversation around that. I dont want to prolong this, because i dont have any questions because im supporting you. I just think youre a great addition to the Planning Commission and i want to emphasize, too, that often, ive been around for awhile and i know chair ronen can attest to this, as well, is that the Planning Commission getting along so well like this. There are differences of opinions, but i think the respect all of you have for one another and how youre working together is something good for all of us to see and i just, fen, your leadership has been great on the Planning Commission and thank you so much and i am thrilled to support your reappointment today. Thank you, supervisor. Thank you so much, supervisor stephanie. Supervisor mar. Thank you, chair ronen. I would echo supervisor stephanies thanks to commissioner koppel, to all of your tremendous leadership and commitment to the Planning Commission over the past four years and really what you bring to the unique perspectives to the important decisions at the Planning Commission is very much appreciated and, yeah, i had a question, again, as i told commissioner diamond. I would be interested in your perspective on the housing balance, expect housing balance report released by the Planning Department shows that were still, you know, have a pretty great imbalance between producing market rate housing versus Affordable Housing. The figure was 21. 5 in the latest housing report and the fact that on ou our arena goals, were meeting or exceeding arena goals for market rate and thats been particularly its more specifispecifically producing co buildings at the higher end of the price bracket. In local six were leaving the city and its alarming. Every year were losing 20 of our membership in the city. And so over ten years, if you go 20 , thats almost zero. And so, more often than not, i will be the one guy speaking about the middleclass because its often forgotten because there arent the same structure belowmarketrate Affordable Housing. Im sorry, were having a hard time hearing you. Could you please repeat the last five sentences. We have done a good job approving lots of units. Look at pier 70, the trail power plant, the giants power plant and that alone is a huge amount of units and, you know, how are we going to equ ec equitably do. I want to look at Worker Protections which are equally as important. And so what ive noticed over the years is that instead of, you know, forcing everyone to go eight stories and up where they dont want to, and thats an extreme case, but certain people are looking at extreme cases and what ive seen and kind of figured out, i think th richmond did it a little better, less of a singlefamily home model and a ground floor lobby where there are three full flats and a lot of the houses are zoned up to 4e family homes and so without raising any height limits or getting into anything too drastic, if we just looked at slightly expanding the density controls in a house of rh2, maybe if they were allowed to go to their height limit and have flee fulthreefull flats and thee large enough that you can have a small family. I wont say you can have a large family in a 1400 flat. Its doable and will hit the price point need to stay here. A lot of us are from here, we live here and our kids are going to school here and we spend our money in the restaurants and we want to keep it that way. Thats just an idea instead of jacking up the zoning heights. Were talking commute and more Carbon Emissions and im always a big fan of staying local and using local contractors and a local workforce and keeping our money her here in the city. Great, thank you so much, commissioner kop particulapel as for your leadership on the Planning Commission. Chair ronen, i dont have any other questions. I want to echo both of my colleagues in thanking you for all of your work over the years and i will ask the same question i asked miss diamond about your race and social equity resolution that i was really excited about and im hoping you can also explain what that means to you and how you intend to apply the commitments and the resolution to change the real life impacts of communities of color, lowwage workers, as well as Small Businesses. Absolutely, this has been a point of passion for me throughout my years in the trades and i dont know of a more maledominated field than construction and i will tell you that i know a lot of women electricians who are amazing workers and i honestly, i dont know how they do it. Just in a regular workplace, theres a lot of unfair situations and i have to tell you, on job sites, its multiplied and so, its been a huge deal to me, very selfishly looking at my own members, my friends, my coworkers that show up to these jobs and they have to put up with a lot and so im proud to be a part of a union thats been paying women the same since 1895 and thats a huge deal a lot of people dont remember. And weve been exhibiting Wage Equality as long as we have. And also, ive been very involved we have an electrical workers minority caucus within our trade and also a renewed group to stimulate a younger generation, new workers and another point of pride is that weve had our own float in the gay pride parade for three years in a row now and no other trade has pulled that together and im even more proud of our group to showcase weve been accepting a lot more women and theyre amazing workers and a lot of the apprenticeship classes, i still go down every semester and speak to the classrooms filled with San Francisco residents for the city classes and i tell them the same thing, look at me. I was just a city kid like you trying to get into a trade and dont give up, keep after it. It took me three years, actually tub tactually, to get in. I had to apply and interview three times and i tell those kids and see them in their 49ers hats and giants hats and warrior hats and its a big deal because i used to not have this opportunity and i want the kids in all of the neighborhoods all over this city to have the opportunity to become electrician or a plumber or any other trade that will give them a wellpaying career for the rest of their lives and theyll be able to have the help and welfare to take care of their families and put a good meal on the table and hopefully stay here in the city. And thats just what ive been doing through my position working in the electrical industry, but also, ive just got to give some more kudos to our department, Claudia Florez and mariam, seeing us with both hearings weve had to date and im proud to say we only have four women of color but we had five and im confident that with the new commissioners and the existing staff and director that well do a good job. And well pretty much let people know way ahead of time thaw wont bthat youwont be able tod and well want to be wowed to see how theyll handle it. Its happening all over the city. Some people are a paychec paychr two away from being homeless and a lot of people dont realize that. Market rate buildings go up in the districts that are undersieged where over 10,000 latino residents have been displaced and so, the impact of these developments, you know, on communities of color in neighborhoods is nuanced in different and so the onesizefitsall laws that are coming out of the state in sacramento, they really dont allow for nuance, of impacts on communities of concern and communities that have been displaced. I couldnt agree more. And ill take it one step further, sometimes the citys block is a block because within certain neighborhoods, you turn a corner and that whole block is different and every single item ive ever heard, ive gone to that address and did as much of a walkaround as i could because you have to know. You have to know how much space and what you may or may not be getting blocked. You have to see what youre dealing with and be there, literally in front of that address to know what youre really talking about, to see whos walking by you on the sidewalk and what the Current Situation is. Thank you so much and lastly, were hearing from teresa imperial and i wanted to ask you before you make comments because i have an emergency to attend to in my district real quick and i was going to ask Vice President stephanie to i wanted to ask how you would make the resolution real. Yes, thank you. First, what it means to me, as well. You know, i was thrilled when we passed the resolution. I could never thought it would pass in the Planning Commission coming from a community and also being a part of the philippino community with the passage as well to open a heritage district, which our community advocated on that was really its just very historical, i would say. As to how it would be implemented and this is going to be a lot of discussion. Its going to be a lot of work and as i said in my letter, passing the resolution is one step, but having to implement this, its a lot of steps more and, first of all, when were looking into as were looking into the access to housing, i think we also need to look into, as well, access to parks, access to Health System and into the quality of life. We need to highlight were rebuilding for. Those are the things weve been talking about from the group, as to how do we make sure that we really highlight the voices and, you know, the really paying attention to racial and social equity. One point of what supervisor mar is looking into, as well as the housing balance. And we know in the arena, San Francisco is behind when it comes to building lowincome housing and the question is that, as well, is the revenue. As of now, the way we see revenues is through the partnership with private developments, as well, but i believe theres a hearing before into the housing by the Land Use Community and that was the main comments about that. And so this will be, as we are going through a discussion of strategies, as to what are the revenues coming from. I mean, im thrilled there is a property transfer tax into the ballot, but there needs to be more than that and i think there needs to be a discussion about ththe vacancy tax. There are things where rent control housing are also theres a lack of protection in that and sometimes, theres a disconnect with the Planning Commission and the board and i believe commissioner melgar proposed a budget for a liaison to the rent board and i think thats one thing, as well, that how do we also protect the rentcontrolled Housing Units as we are talking about density and when were talking about density, i think we should look into the design equity and when we mean by design equity, the ability of people, as well, not just the number of units that were passing. As of now, housing is like a lot of projects that comes in into the Planning Commission, where we also base its on our decision. Theres a lot of things that need talked about and when were looking to the racial and social equity, its really going down to the strategies. And how were looking into that strategy and, again, the main question is who are we building for . Appreciate that, thank you so much. And im so sorry. Ill be back really soon. If vice chair captain stephanie can share the meeting and feel free to share your opening statements, but thank you for answering my question. I appreciate it. Ill be right back. Thank you, chair r portion r. You wan good morning, superviso supe, and thank you for having me. Last february, i was appointed as a Planning Commissioner and you also all supported me. Now that im seeking for your support for my reappointment for the next four years. The work of the Planning Commission has continued and land use and planning will be ever increasing as the composition and population of cities are showing signs of the significant change in the horizon. Voices of the most vulnerable will be more important than ever. While my time as a commissioner has been short, ive been a conduit for voices and i have talked with Community Members and Community Organizations throughout my service. Ive taken consideration comments from the public and as the executive director of the housing program, access to Affordable Housing has always continued to keep me in touch with the most vulnerable population. And i believe ive shown myself to be thoroughly prepared under the materials for each meeting. I paid close to the project sponsor. Im very proud that my fellow commissioners and i have passed the resolution that will submit our Planning Department to racial and social equity framework. And the impetus of my service with racial and Service Equity emphasis. While this is one great step ensuring that resolutions will be implemented, it promises several steps more. I would like to continue to serve so that i may ensure that the mandate we envision will slowly materialize and i hope that you and other commissioners, commissioner diamond and koppel will be reappointed an. Supervisor mar, would you like to start in with your comments. Thank you. Im really impressed by your thoughtful engagement and the important decisions youve been making and bringing such important depth of understanding and commitment to lowincome communities and communities of color to the Planning Decisions and i think its been appreciated that i really appreciated your a side resident, as well, and bringing those perspectives and my question that i posed to your colleagues was around wanting to hear your thoughts on housing balance or housing imbalance in terms of production of market rate versus Affordable Housing in our city. You already touched on that in your comments and i just wanted to see if you had anything else to add to that important topic. Yeah. The planbay area 2050, as well, the west side, along the Marina District is being for planned Development Area under the plan bay area 2050 and that will definitely be Planning Department. please stand by . When we talk about, you know building housing for low income and especially for middle income, what are strategy thats we need to implement or highlight on that. Theres a lot of talks in having more rez knews for the acquisition preservation. For the city of San Francisco to rethink how we he look into housing. We need to rethink how we look into the trans oriented development. I believe the city was only prepared for earthquakes and fires but not this type of virus crisis. That also includes designs and transportation and raising transportation during these times as well. We had a discussion about thewhen the hub was being put before us. That was a big discussion. That was something that i brought up during that passing of the hub. When we talk about the city, we need to rethink how we talk in terms of design and quality of life and in terms of transportation to look into. Thank you, commissioner. I really appreciate and thank you to all of your commitment to the Planning Commission. Thank you. Yes, thank you. I really appreciate your contributions as well. Thank you for your perspective and contribution. The time youve been appointed has been remarkable. Heard such good things. Although you and i did not get a chance to meet in person. I did get the letter you sent. You mentioned that the voices that are the most vulnerable in San Francisco will be important especially during this Public Health crisis and resulting economic crisis. I know were all in agreement on that. Youve answered a lot in terms ofi dont have anymore questions. I was going to ask a question around this. Just to keep in mind as we look at that priority and with the understanding that the citys budgeted issue thats were looking at even private developers and ever tightening budget and how to deliver on that goal. Those are issues that come to mind for me but again thank you for your service, im happy to support your reappointment today. With that i think we have no further questions from committee members. I believe we can go to Public Comment. Were going to take Public Comment on all three appointees at the time time. Each person will have two minutes. Whether clerk, if you can let us know how much are in the queue, we can then proceed. Yes. Members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment on this item should call the number. The meeting i. D press pound and pound again. If you havent already done so, please press star three to line up to speak. The system will indicate you have raised your hand. Last count we had five callers waiting and four callers wait to speak with five in the queue. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. We know that the China Town Community center is here today speaking in support for imperi imperial. It represents everything we need on the Planning Commission. Her background, intelligence, thoughtfulness. You know, her fight for a long history of fighting for communities. Im very excited to see the conversation today centered around Racial Equity and how we make that real. As you can see were very excited. Today i wanted to strongly encourage you to support the appointment to the Planning Commission. Thank you, very much. Can we have the next speaker, please. Supervisors, let me bring to your attention that thisthe questions you ask should be very permanent and relevant. Now i hope you know the difference between a resolution and ordinance. Anyone can write a resolution. It cannot be enforced, its useful at three candidates. It cannot be enforced. Having said that, if you walk over San Francisco you see too many camps and homelessness. None of you have mentioned that. Nor have you mentioned that there are over 35 homes in San Francisco that are vacant. Thirty five thousand homes and sixty thousand condos. Im known all the directors. All of them have tried their best but as one of you supervisorsyou had more market rate housing. These three candidates should really fight for Affordable Housing which should be under 80,000. Afford to whom . It shouldnt compromise loans and are on the street dying. The Planning Commission is not aware of that. The Planning Commission never once mentioned about our infants, children, youth. Our elders. You dont look at it that way. Thank you, very much. Can we have the next speaker, please. This resolution is only the first step and leadership will be critical in ensuring goals of the resolution are actually implemented with the leadership with the most impacted communities. Immigrants and people of color are bearing the brunt of this pandemic and economic crisis. Leading voices and push for recovery centered around the most vulnerable communities. It brings on the ground experience that traditionally lack in the planning process. We fully support for reappointment and hope you will do the same. Thank you. Thank you. Can we have the next caller, please. Hi. Im Vice President for the San Francisco la latino club. Weve voted several times in support for teresa. She has been a great con duit cr the community. To be able to have a voice, analyst, advocate and somebody that has stood side by side with us in our struggle struggles one and planning. Very much encourage her reappointment. She is very prepared for every meeting. She asks a lot of critical questions that has drivenits a very important time with the social resolution coming through. Also as a nonprofit leader to work directly with clients. He urge you to please reappoint commissioner teresa, she has the full support. Thank you so much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Be proactive in future thinking. [indiscernible]. Real change comes from the same structural change in collaboration with community views, the Mayors Office nor to build a better and more equitable. I see her not only talk the talk but roll up her sleeves and including being on the racial and equity subcommittee and have ad voakating foandadvocating fol change that we put forward in the resolution. For those reasons, i support her. Thank you. Thank you. Can we have the next caller, please. Good morning commissioners. Im the executive director of the united player. An organization thats been pushed for twenty five years. Im hear for suppor support[indiscernible]. I know in San Francisco we have a crisis. They are working towards that crisis. Joe has always been a man of his word coming out checking out anytime we have a question, come out into district six. Teresa who is a great leader for bishop. Thank you, mr. Clerk. With that, Public Comment is closed. Any additional comments . No, i dont. Mr. Clerk, i think well go ahead and ill make a motion with regard to the three items and should chair ronan want to rescind the vote to participate in it. Im sorry. Thank you so much. No problem. Were done with Public Comment. You probably know. We have to move this meeting forward. Great. Do you want to make a motion. Sure. I would like to move the mayors reappointment to the diamond commission. Move this forward to the full board with positive recommendation. The motion offered by chair stephanie agenda item number to be amended and approving. roll call pr par. Madam chair, three ayes. Ill make a motion to reappointment joe to the Planning Commission. Remove the word rejecting and send forward with positive recommendations. The motion approving and recommending the motion to the board of supervisors. roll call . Thank you. Supervisor imaginer do you wanto the honors on the last motion. Recommended to the board of supervisors. roll call . Madam chair, there are three ayes. Thank you very much. Thank you for all your hard work. Would you please read the next item. Members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment on this item should call in to 415 6550001 enter the meeting id. 146 9714708 press pound twice. Press star three if you wish to speak. Thank you so much. Welcomewe cant hear you. Thank you. Youd think i would have this down by the number of zoom calls. Im gradeful you scheduled this meeting. I wanted to acknowledge the mayor for her confidence to appointment to the Police Commission. Im really excited. Pretty much i think everyone knows that my background in the workfirst and foremost for the Oversight Agency paramount and should be consistent. I have been on the record to call for Even National oversight. I think theres value and when it comes to Law Enforcement agencies. You all know a little about my background. I created the prop g back in 2016 which created the accountability. Most importantly in the investigations whenever theres an officer involved shooting, i think that is the most important in underlining reason whywhat motivated me to work to create the department with a team effort. I dont want to take all the credit like most things, they are a heavy left. Work with the commission to end the restraint. Other legislation ive worked onsorry. My mom is here now. Also worked on banning flavored tobacco, took to the ballot and voters supported the befe bevere and sugary tax. There was the battle back in 2015 to make sure we had neighborhood preference of members of the community to be able to benefit from this new construction. Finding the displacement. Fair chance ordinance which was banning the box. Eliminating theon the application process for housing and jobs asking the question have you been convicted of a felony. And in 2 2011, i worked on the pregnancy disclosure a agreemen. I look forward to your questions and happy to talk about anything that is related to the Police Commission. Thank you for your time. Good morning. Thank you so much. I want to give my colleagues the opportunity to ask questions first. Do either of you have any questions . Good morning. I do not have any questions, i would like to make some opening remarks. I just wanted to say to our former supervisor, president of the board of supervisors, member of the board of equalization. Im really am excited for the opportunity to catch up. I dont have any further questions today but i would like to make a few remarks. I went to the emerge program. I got a call and she said im going to be your mentor throughout this process. I can only say that i hope to return that as you become a mother and a working mother and i will be here to answer all your questions on how to make that work. In addition to her current role on the state board of equalization she has shared in the budget and finance committee. She took on the Tobacco Companies and been a leader on criminal Justice Reform. We didnt always disagree or have some along the way when i first started as supervisor when issues came up. Youve always been so kind a gracious. I wanted to learn from you. We had something from the market bar. We were able to have a really good discussion. I think its so important. I say this time in a lot of vit rolvitriol in politics. This budget share, you never shied away from holding our Police Department or our District Attorneys Office accountable to ensure were seeing the changes i know we need to see. Youll bring thispolicing and criminal Justice Reform in San Francisco. We had a number of qualified candidates that put their names forward to be filled. Activists that received community ties. Accomplished attorneys and Public Servants and more. Stacks of information and stacks ofeverything she has done, i definitely was going to listen to her perspective. There were other candidates that i felt could have done just as good a job. I really knew in that moment it was on me to respect the work. I had no trouble doing that whatsoever given her history. Its the same way i feel about mayor breed on these issues. Youve done so much in this regard. I can learn so much from you sm i hav. I will and will continue o so. Im so confident that you are going to be able it lead on the Police Commission and lead with the grace that you always do. That formidable personality that you have. When i heard that mayor bree was appointing you, i said, thats it. Its going to be a good addition to the Police Commission. Im looking forward to working with you during this time of rec oning in our city and moving forward in the best way possible. I know i went on long. You know how i feel about you. Im so excited to see you here and excited to be able to approve your appointment today. Thank you. Thank you, chair ronan for accommodating my remarks. Its a historic moment around these issues. I want to thank mayor breed for nominating you and putting you forward. As you touched on briefly in your remarks. You really bring a depth of experiencePolice Accountable and criminal Justice Reform. I thinkyoure very much appreciated and needed. What you bring to the table. My question is more about the current moment. As you know despite, its really a historic moment right now as a city and kun ri in reall countrt these issues to systemic racism and Law Enforcement and criminal justice. Its quite different in 2016 when you led Police Accountability which was a huge importance in our city. The current moment right now and how the opportunity and the need to be boulder on these issues is going to inform your work as a leader on the Police Commission in our city. Thats an incredibly thoughtful question. I appreciate it. When i was first approached with the opportunity to serve, i was hesitant quite honestly. Im a state wide elected. I thought my focus should be more on the state. We have been sheltering in place for months. I am about to deliver a baby in two weeks. Im home, watching news, experiencing the protests, march, unrest. Were in a pri pivotal time, wed to be bold in our movement to bring more criminal Justice Reform to the entire system. It was the shooting of my Community Member mario woods that spurred my actions. Ive been involved in many officer involved shootings. The Police Officer i was in 2011 was different than in 2015 in my second term. It was dealing with uncomfortable experiences that i really began to feel the strong sense of urgency of now. That placating, pacifying, passing resolutions was just pacifying. We needed really bold action. I agree, how do you harness this time. I have a long list of ideas that we can begin to implement. I have had fan efi fantastic conversations for this justice movement. Working with the Racial Justice committee, i had a phenomenal meeting with them. I had a list of nine items of things that we can collectively work on. There are also pieces of work that i started when i was a member on the board of supervisors. I want to be able to continue. I think about the 96a collecting racial data. Theres a lag from the department of justice. A very small percentage has been implemented. I think im unique for this particular time because i have the San Francisco experience. I understand the budget. I have a connection to the state. My goal is to be a seamless transition s. The reforms that are happening, the Assembly Woman what she is bringing on is much of the work im bringing here to San Francisco. Being able to connect these dots here in the state of california. San francisco is not the only meun is palonlymeun is palt mov. This is time that i intend to not squander. Looking at violations of civil rights. A lot of department general orders that the commission has in the works and has been working diligently to get in place. The police chief has been very good and very supportive on creating and changing some policies like no longer making mug shots available to stiemy the racial profiling. Thank you. I dont have any other questions. I know we have hard questions. There would not be karma for the tough questions youve asked over the years. First of all, as your role as a member of the San Francisco Democratic Party Central Committee which both supervisor mar and i sit on as well. You voted to oppose endorsing the sheriffs oversight ballot measures. Since we are considering your appointment to the oversight body of the sfpd. Im curious why you would be against having a similar body. I appreciate that question and giving me the opportunity to talk about it. I dont normally have that platform. My feelings about the legislation at this point is inconsequential. I support oversight. It is consistent with my overall vision when it comes to the Law Enforcement. I have been public about calls for independent committees and oversight nationwide. I want to put that out there. My reserves are in the co contet strictly on the budget. The short fall were going to be feeling in San Francisco over the next two years is a reality. I had a chance to think about this. I think we need to seize this moment. Im hopeful that the board of supervisors and the Mayors Office will figure out these budgeting priorities. We really do need to be bold and not fearful. When i think about other bold initiatives like the San Francisco bank for example. It will benefitjustice is on the ballot. I would be willing to publicly support this proposition d on ballot. At the time of the vote it was limited information and out reach that was given to me. Sense consequent information, i looked at the bla reports as well as some ledg legislation. If we work collectively on this oversight measure, we can get this job done. Great. Thank you. Speaking budget, as you know, were thick in the middle of it right now. There are hearings almost everyday. God bless you all for that. Its not easy, as you know. Were looking at very closely at the Police Department budget. I know you have been the strongest leaders on the prd supervisors in and ow. Out. There is probably agreementfor example, when we think about Mental Health calls. One of the things i certainly recall in dealing with my captains. How uncomfortable and ilequiped in terms of Training Officer rzs are in dealing with Mental Health. Substance abusei dont necessarily know if those are police calls. I dont know if we need police there. Foot pat roll, working with the community would appreciate more foot patrol. Make sure our officers are able to speak and engage culturally. I think we need to revamp the Early Warning system which is a visit em in place taif we havey should be put on desk duty until we can get them retrained. I would like to think about reexamining the discipline process of rogue cop se cops. Weve known about rogue cops well before 2015. Im talking about homo phobic text messages. Theres a lot of room to continue to create some good policies that is the best interest of all of San Francisco. Thank you. A question im wrestling with, for me, confusing power we have to do this is the extent were reducing the Police Budget would cause layoffs. Im wondering your thoughts on that. Would you be supportive in the reduction of the budget that would cause police layoffs. I dont know that much about that. Because the vast majority of the Police Budget is on salary ses aniesand benefits. Theres a nationwide movement to defund the police and cut these budgets. The budget that mayor breed presented the board of supervisors has approximately under three percent budget cut to sfpd whereas most other departments have taken a 10 cut. If were going to get to the 10 or more given the call of the nation at the moment. Its impossible to cut the budget at that level without there being layoffs. Theres already reduced vacancies and accounted for attrition. Im wondering your thoughts on that. Thats an interesting question. When i think about the budget and budget costs. There was a news story that 25 officers are leaving. Theres good and bad. We need to purge the system of our bad apples. Perhaps those that are leaving are leaving because the climate has become uncomfortable. I dont know. When it comes to the budget theres opportunities for cuts that are far more than personnel. When you think abouti would not be interested in seeing cuts in training. I would not be interested in seeing cuts on equipment. Do officers need the best brand new squad cars . I dont know. I tend to say no. That is not something that i can have a lot of knowledge about. To answer your question shortly and su susshortly. It concerns me officers getting a raise. You think about social workers and nurses and people on the front lines who are also putting their lives on the line and taking the life of service and they arent getting raises. I think we need to be consistent about our service. What i remember, the state of employees have gotten a raise. I think there needs to be an overall freeze on this. Im a little concerned about how hushed the process has been. It was a shock about the number of Police Officers who were una ware of this negotiation going on. They are try to go pull a fast one on us. I dont like that. I dont appreciate that. I want to be aggressive and ask these types of questions. You asked me a question about my independence to the Mayors Office. Being able to talk to the Mayors Office and work with the more productive voices in the city. Really being a bridge and connen conduit. I dont know about the salary increases. But it left a bad taste in my month and made me uncomfortable. I also want to make sure were inkreetion and maintaining increasing and maintaining a level of transparency. There are things id like to structurally change. I dont want people to lose faith in our criminal justice. I want them to feel emboldened and excited. Here is an example of a group of people working in our best interest. And being able to have the difficult questions and answer. Stand up for the decisions that we make. Also being humble and saying, i made a mistake. It takes a big person to be able to did that. All over, ive been able to recognize my mistakes and atone to them. And rectify them and correct them. Take that hard line stance and ive been bulliedi understand the pressures. I would not succumb to that level of pressure sm when i think p budget, i think about serving with sandy. Thz a tougthats a tough job. When you think about state funding and supervisor mar, i worked really closely with your brother when it came to state dollars. Theres a lot of oversight and interwoven relationships when it comes to this entire body of work. Ill stop. Do you have another question . My last question isi think youll appreciate this. There are four mair mayoral appointees. The president of the commission ee iis almost always a mayoral appointee. Would you be willing to support a mayoral appointee for Vice President so there is a balance in the leadership for who is appointed. What often happen sz that is ise boards appointments never get into leadership positions. I find that problematic. As a former member of this body, i know youre acutely aware that happens every time. Im wondering if you find the shared would that be a Charter Amendment change . The Police Commissioner, themselves, end up voting for who they want their president and Vice President. The way it works out is its one of the four of them. Because they have the majority. One of them, you for example, i think if shared leadership is what you want to do thats really interesting. Im been thinking about that in the context of the Democratic Party. It really has to do with the distribution of power. In this particular context when i think about the commission, i probably have more of a neutral position. My fil philosophy is were all leaders just fyi thats not what ive heard about board appointed commissioners. They get pushed out. Its only president , Vice President. I did not know that. Ive been hearing from board of supervisors its extremely important it to them. They have brought this up many times and been silenced. They are not asking for the presidency. They are saying look, were all colleagues on this body. There hasnt been a board appointed president or Vice President on this body for a long time. Were asking for shared leadership here. I think thats something thats very important to me. Its very important to johni would ask that you make a commitment to supporting that chair leadership structure. I cant commit to you online right here. In my recollection, he was a board appointee and served diligently as president and really was instrumental in issuing in change. He was amazing. This dynamic has not allowed that. Theres been a lot of controversy within the Police Commission about that. You are open to this and willing to consider it and work with them for the shared leadership. I cant give you a hard commitment. This is is the first ive heard of this. Ive had some tight relationships. Ive voted and fought john. I would appreciate if he had the tun to get on brd and bring that opportunity i would ask you to be open to that. I would definitely tell you im open to it. Absolutely. Thank you for answering my questions. With that ill open this item up for Public Comment. Every member of the public will have two minutes to speak. Yeah. Members of the public who would like to speak should call the number. The meeting i. D. Press pound and pound again. If you havent done so press star three to line up to speak. The system will prompt you to raise your hand. You may begin your comments. We have ten listeners and four people queued up to speak. Can we have the first caller, please. Hi. Congratulations on having a baby. Im fully about safety. When it comes to safety. I believe malia is about safety. She is not scared to make decisions that are tough. With that said, i hope you appoint her on this Police Commission. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Thank you. Can we have the next caller, please. Thank you. Can we have the next caller please. Supervisors. Ive been attending the Police Commissions meetings for a long time. I really feel that you need somebody on this commission that not connected to the machine. Speaker im Angela Jenkins and today, miss cohen has brought the facts i recall a meeting directly following the poa storming one of the Community Meetings and miss cohen took the board of supervisors through illustrious information on policing that just blew my mind. I barely had any comment because she did so well this getting her research. And the way the poa stormed the Police Commission meeting in 2016 following mario woods killing was so intimidating. I have to say on friday night, during the budget meeting, when many of our black voices are trying to get in there, i was taken aback and felt intimidated again when many ardent allies attempted to speak by proxy for black people and i trust melia cohen to raise true black voices. True black voices come from black people and even though people are sympathetic to this new era of george floyd killing, only our voices who are impacted speak for us and i trust melia cohen when she is appointed to the Police Commission. Thank you. Thank you. The next caller, please. Speaker this is critical condition, im a district nine resident and im calling to strongly urge you to support sherwin cohen for the Police Commission appointment. The Police Commission has proven itself incapable of pushing through the doj reforms with a sense of urgency demands, despite their constant lip service to reform. Miss cohen has been a leader and consistent voice for change on holding the Police Accountable in this city. From her work in creating the dta, to requiring 96a reports on race and traffic stops, miss cohen has been paying attention to race, racial equi equity, police oversight, before it became the hot political issue. Miss cohen knows the issues and is outspoken on the issues and she gets the work done. So we need miss cohen to hold the police not just accountable but the commission itself accountable and she will bring the energy and expertise to push through the remaining doj reforms. Thank you. The next caller, please. Good morning, everyone. I live in district eight and i am a parent here in San Francisco and an immigrant and i am also black. And im not calling into speak for or against the appointment of supervisor cohen specifically, but i did want to Say Something to, you know, address and frame one of the former supervisor and the candidate mentioned this morning, which is the possibility of things like, if there are, you know, quote, unquote, bad cops, rogue cops, that they can be on desk duty until their retrained. That doesnt go far enough in my opinion and in the opinions of a lot of people in the community, i think. I think that if you are a cop who sends racist texts or have had complaints against you for x, y and z reasons, the quote, unquote consequence shouldnt be youre on desk duty for a month or until you complete this Online Training or all of this, whatever the process is. It should be you dont get to carry a gun around any more. Im here to support miss cohen. If a cop has had negative spikes against him or her, they do not we do not hire them in San Francisco. We absolutely need someone and that was i know leah cohen would help the people, especially out for american citizens in San Francisco and especially africanamerican young men who find themselves on the wrong side of the law. We need someone to speak up for the people and i whole heartedly believe that a she be appointedo this position. Thank you. Next caller, please. Speaker good morning or good afternoon, im britney and im calling in as a member of the San Francisco community, born and raised here in San Francisco, where the majority of my family still leaves and as a former staff member from when she served as president and member of the board of supervisors and im very enthusiastic to support her candidacy for the San Francisco Police Commission because i have worked incidentally with chair cohen for over five years, including criminal justice and ive come to know her professionally as a skillful and magnificent leader. She refuses to be labeled, despite the imposition of her other politicos and her record speaks for herself, not only her many policies regarding Law Enforcement but more broadly across racial and social justice. Her record represents, i think, the most exciting aspect of this opportunity to approve this appointment. Melia is the added benefit, really, the added spark that the Police Commission needs, shes an unapologetic and unsung champion of marginalized communities, not just in her words but actions and shes a bold leader and i think most importantly, shes a student of the work. Melia never wanted to shoot from the hip. She wanted to learn more from her and even if on paper, it seems they may be on different sides of the proverbial aisle. Whashes unafraid to directly engage people that disagree with her. Chair cohen has a humble quality when it comes to learning from a diversity of stakeholders and grows and develops her own positions before taking them publically. So please support chair cohens appointment to the Police Commission. Thank you. Thank you. Next caller, please. Weve always had a great working relationship when melia cohen was supervisor and she as a unique perspective that had to deal with a lot of Community Violence and all of the different constituencies that are impacted in and affected by that violence, including sfpd and the mothers of murder victims. I think that unique perspective can serve this in making sure that fantastics ar folks are wor with creating safety communities and feeling the harm and has occurred in neighborhoods. We are really excited for change and we know that so much is kind of on the precedence of that and i think thats important we have leaders that are strong and dedicated and have experience in these areas to get to the San Francisco that we can all love and be proud of. Thank you so much. Are there any additional callers . Madam chair, that completes the queue. I will make a motion to remove the word reject and send this item forward with positive recommendation. Supervisor cohen, i wish you so much luck in the birth of your first child. Thank you. I know youll be an amazing mother and were all routing for you and i dont know how you feel about the public thing, but i hope youll share pictures with us because were all excited. Thank you. And with that, can we take a role call vote . role call . Enjoy your last few days of rest. [ laughter ] thank you to the members of the public that have voiced their vote of confidence. I appreciate that. Mr. Clerk, can you read item number six. A reenactment to temporary require private employers with 500 or mo employees to provide Public Health emergency leave during the Public Health emergency related to covid19. Supervisor mar, any comments. Yes, thank you, chair ronen. This emergency ordinance is a second reenactment to help keep this in place for an additional 260 days. The original ordinance was adopted bit board and signed on april 19th with mayor breed and this second reason actment will ensure this remains in place. We prepared an amendment and this amendment would not require a continuance and simply clarified that this reenactment ordinance would apply retroactively to the date the prior reenactment expired and this amendment avoids any potential gaps in coverage for this crucial benefit for essential workers. Unless supervisor stephanie has any comments or questions, we can open this item up for Public Comment. Members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment should call 415 6550001 and the meeting i. D. Is 146 9714708 and press pound and pound again. If you have not done so, press star three and a system prompt will indicate you have raised your hand and please wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted and you may begin your comments. Any members online to speak. No callers in the queue. Then Public Comment is closed. I do have one caller that just popped in. Ok, if we can hear if the caller. Yes, i think its a little bit silly to just have a law specific for covid19. You know, if youre just going to keep on having to renew this, why not extend it to any pandemic affecting a certain number of people . That completes the queue. Public comment is closed. On the motion to amend, can we have a role call . role call . The motion passes. And then, supervisor mar, would you like to make the motion . Yes, thank you, chair ronen. I would like to move we recommend this as a Committee Report to the august 8th to the board of supervisors. And can we have a role call vote . Yes, on the motion to recommend it as a Committee Report as amended, supervisor stephanie. role call . The motion passes without objection anobjection and the me referred. Any other items on the agenda . That completes the agenda for today. The meeting is adjourned and have a good day, everyone. Coping with covid19. Todays special guest. I am chris manners, you are watching coping with covid19. My guest is the director of economic and Work Force Development here to talk about the programs the city has in place during this crisis to help Small Businesses and vulnerable and disconnected residents. Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. It is a pleasure to be here, chris. Start by talking about gift to sf. It provides many of the resources we are talking about. Could you tell us a little bit about the focus of gift to us. Then we will talk about specific programs. I very much appreciate the question. For anyone who is watching right now, so much of the work that has been accomplished to serve most vulnerable is because of very generous donations to the give to sf covid19 response and recovery fund. Over 28 million has been fund raised to support areas as important as Housing Stabilization for vulnerable communities, Food Security programs which has been a big issue not only in San Francisco but up and down california and of course across the nation. Very much thinking about workers and family members who may not have been access to state and federal programs the same way that others who are impacted have and do. That was to make sure families and workers were supported with woulrelief. Small Business Community to make sure they have access to loan was and grants. We are excited how diverse we have been able to do this. We have been able to roll these out to ensure that our communities are supported by our city together with all of us with city funds and philanthropic dollars to help realize them on behalf of the communitys needs. That is great. Now, many of our Small Businesses dont have large payrolls. They are unable to qualify for the federal ppp loans. Does the city have active programs available for Small Businesses to help with ongoing expenses such as rent while they are still closed . Certainly. One of the programs we launched in partnership and because of the ability of the give to sf loan fund presented us with was for loans and grants to do that. We knew in the beginning that it was not easy for smaller businesses not connected or those who were to get an answer around relief provided through ppp. We have seen success of the program. We knew it was important at the time to also have the San Francisco hardship mcwas Emergency Loan Program be launched and designed to support businesses who needed resources the most. We have committed 15. 5 million in ongoing covid19 Small Business Financial Relief. We have awarded grants and loans to over 400 Small Businesses thus far. We wanted to make sure that we were equitable about that approach always guidings work through Racial Equity lens. One of the most important pieces is ensuring every district would be represented and also more equitable work and places where we were doing that work would be supported through these efforts. In the first phase 1 million to 128 Small Businesses and 29 different neighborhoods with up to 10,000 in funds to support those who were experiencing loss. We set aside a minimum of 2 million for low and moderate income owners to ensure they were supported with relief efforts. Neighborhood goes like lower filmore, bayview, castro and excelsior. Longterm businesses have given to the city and we want to give bamto them as well. Then because we were looking for additional funding sources, we took dollars that we had with existing partners already with our partners to do Small Business work and help convert to support Women Entrepreneurs around San Francisco and very specific neighborhoods for mini grants to serve immediate needs. Every little dollar helped. One of the programs that just become available. Right to recover. I am glad you are asking about right to recover. We know that it is extremely valuable right now as we look to incentivize Community Members disproportionately impacted by covid19 by economic hardship, spaces to work in because they need to provide for families, having access to the Economic Relief or wages that you count on to protect yourself, stabilize your families, support your families and children or parents or extended family. That is a huge disincentive if you believe you may not have access to quarantine to do what we want you to do. If you are sick to get tested. If you test positive to quarantine and stay home. So that you can get better and not infect anyone else. That comes at a cost. You are not going to work, not making wages. For so many low income workers that is not acceptable. This is to provide relief based on the individual to give minimum wage for that period of time. When they walked into the testing site they knew if i test positive is there a program to help me, we could say yes . That was important to mayor breed, extremely important to supervisor ronen and they worked together to make 2 million available to support these individuals. Together with the department of Public Health we have a holistic system to fill the gaps that may exist to encourage people to get tested to do the right thing. Wear a mask, social distancing, not going places when they are sick and doing our part to make sure they were incentivized. Not having sick pay with the virus would be really stressful. Iit is important for undocumented. We know the lat inx is more than 50 of the positive cases and may not have access to sick leave or Financial Hardship to do the right thing and to quarantine with financial reli relief. As we start another new releaf program. Africanamerican Small Business Revolving Loan fund. How will that fund work . Well, i am very, very proud. This fund. I do have to give a shout out to our invest in Neighborhoods Team who worked day and night with the africanamerican chamber of commerce and main street launch to support the zero percent interest loan up to 50 thousand dollars. We have been striving to be specific and target communities of color and africanamerican Small Business Entrepreneur Community. It is so much more difficult for this community to access resources and it was important to do something in this moment that is reflective of a movement we know has been emotion for such a long time. For us to do something real, provide Financial Relief for the community in this ka this way ar them specifically. We are very proud to get this up and running. We look forward to applications being live so people from the africanamerican and black business communities to get relief. Flexible terms. Forgiveness up to 50,000 for those loans which can make a huge difference fought only for relief when you think about rent for a Small Business but also in terms of longterm recovery and being smart about the moment. There are businesses with the ability to be open, even a little bit. It is a stress on them. There are others that dont have the ability to do this at all. Where is their relief . They wait for us to do our collective part to ensure we can reopen. These dollars, very specifically for the black Entrepreneur Community are important for longterm viability success. That is good for them, the diversity of the city we hold dear and we need to be proud of. Do we have active programs for disconnected or underserved communities . Absolutely. As i was mentioning just simply about the right to recover program. When people go to the mission hub at 701 alabama within the Mission District to serve the community, they are providing Food Security, access to resources. What they have done is extraordinary in terms of partnering with the city with relief efforts to help pay and maintain Food Distribution for families. Thing are important like the latin x to do so many dishes with one item masa. Access to rise, cereals, milk, butter, fresh foods and vegetables. That is across the city in the entirety in those areas of need. To ensure those programs are made available for our most vulnerable communities. Seniors or families who desperately need that help. Finally, is there a website specifically designed to provide access and information about these resources . One of the easiest things to do, people have a general question and to want dont have access to the internet call 311. Reach out. We have been working closely to ensure the members and staff have the information they need to get what you need. As you call in. Most specifically for workers, employers, nonprofits to go to our website oewd. Org and click on covid19 which is a large button on the site. You will find a full list of information specifically designed for you as employer, as worker and nonprofit so that you know where to go for resources. Also, our phone number 5546134 for the small acciden small bus. The incredible staff are administering those lines. If they dont answer they will get back to you so you can talk to a real person in multiple languages. Also email sfosbasfgov. Org. Again, visit the website oewd. Org and you can find that. In terms of workforce 415 7014817. Someone will get back to you if they dont pick up immediately to answer your questions if you are a worker. Then to donate. Give to sf. Org. All of that information is to find to the website if you need resources or you need an understanding how we are phasing reopening or updated information, please visit us. We will get back to you. We look forward to serving you and the community to get through this very, very challenging time. That is great information. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I really appreciate the time you have given us today. It is a pleasure, chris. Thank you for helping get information out to our communities. People are aware your government is hard at work on your behalf to get you what you need during a dynamic and challenging time. That is it for this episode. We will be back with more information shortly. This is coping with covid19. I am chris manners, thanks for watching on sfgovtv. Amount oc Health Crisis and where do we go from here. Today im joined by our department of Public Health director. Today we have six thousand ninety two cases and sadly sixty seven people have died from covid. Until we have a vaccine and until we are in a better place, we know that we need to continue to socially distance ourself from one another. Wear our mask as much as possible and follow our Public Health guidelines. We know that for months to come, this is something that we are unfortunately going to be living with and the fact is, there is still a lot of work to be done. I just want to say a few things before we get into the details of the budget. The fact is, weve come a very very very long way. Many of you remember even in january where we declared a state of emergency and we Start Talking about the crisis and whats to come, and when we shut down the city, that was back in march and here we are. Its august. We thought that in august wed be in a different place. I think whats happening with san franciscans as hard as weve worked to contain the virus, its gone up and down, and up again. We still have a long way to go. As tired as we are of doing what we need in order to keep one another safe, we have to start getting comfortable with it. We have to start changing our behavior. It really is whats going to make the difference because we notice that recently we had to basically put a pause on our oopenning. Reopening. We saw the numbers spike. Once we saw the numbers spike, behaviors started to change again. Now we see the numbers declining. That doesnt mean we dont have several people every single day testing positive for the virus. That doesnt mean that some of those people, sadly, have lost their lives. We anticipate seeing more. Only we can be the solution to this big challenge. Just think about it. When we first started off, the big conversations were around ppe and testing and other things, weve definitely come a long way. Although, its clear that due to, what i believe a lack of federal response and coordination with our state and cities, its been very difficult for so many of us. We didnt let that stop us. We prepared, we worked hard, we redirected resources, we redirected staff from all over the city. We adjusted to our situation and because of that San Francisco has been a model for the rest of the country. I want us to be even better than that. Its up to us. Its up to us to change our behavior. Its up to us especially because when you think about it, sadly, what we see in terms of businesses not being able to open. Some of our favorite restaurants and retail shops and places where we get our hair and nails done, they may never return. People who need to send their kids to school because we, regardless of the achievement gaps and equipment were providing for low income students were still seeing problems and increase in the achievement gaps. We have work to do. Im asking people in San Francisco to just really change their behavior. I know its not easy. I know we want to enjoy ourselves. But its up to us to make a difference. Today, i want to really talk about our budget and the proposed budget thats working its way through the legislative process as we speak. Part of why we are investing 446 million in response to covid has everything to do with the understanding that were going to be living with this for some time. Thats money that i wish we could divert to other things. But unfortunately this is the reality of today. I hope thats not the reality of our next budget cycle. Were committing about 93 million directly from the general fund. Again, thats money that i wish we could be diverting to other places and the fact is, its going to be important that were prepared and doing whats necessary to keep the public safe. Today, i want to get into our slides and talk a little about our investments so you have a clear understanding of why and whats being invested based on our response based on our budg budget. So lets look at exactly what it is that our response is this year in the budget. It includes 16 point five million for operations. Health response. 62 million for Food Distributions and housing and shelter programs. Its important to remember that this funding really assumes that we dont see any major surges. If that happens, we will need to divert even more resources. Thats why it is so critical that everybody does their part to stop the spread. It assumes that well continue to be reimbursed by fema. We all know how the federal government has been. This is only through june of 2021 for the next year. If this stretches beyond june theres even more of a drain on our budget next year. The funding for communications and operations is critical to not only staffing our Covid Command Center but also providing communication in the many different languages and cultures in San Francisco in different ways. 50 of our cases in San Francisco have been in our latino community. Visitation valley have the highest rates of cases in the city. Communication is key in a Public Health response. Thankfully we have an Incredible Team of people doing this work every single day. One hundred eighty five million for Health Operations is a lot of money. Its important to understand in the context of all the things that were doing as a city. Were talking about testing, ppe, surge capacity, preparations, Contact Tracing, community out reach, out break mitigations and Everything Else required to fight this virus and keep our re residents safe. We have massively expanded our Food Distribution to people in the si city and will continue to this for as long as needed. Keep people fed and increase sanitation conditions on the streets. Pit stops we chose to expand city wide for an additional 16 million. As you can see from the slide, this is a significant investment. In short term options to keep people off the street. Continuing to fund hotel rooms and shelter in place. We also know we need more housing for people which is why this all feeds into our homeless Recovery Plan to create six thousand replacements for our homeless residents. These are absolutely critical for our plan to work. Building on some of our existing programs as well including our waste replacement, meantle healtMental Health programs. Educational efforts to support our schools. Mobile testing for neighborhoods that are disproportionately hit. These investments in our budget this year as we know, are absolutely critical in order to get us through the very challenging time and i cant reiterate enough the need to make changes to our behavior. I dont know about you, but as i said before in some of these press conferences, i was a very challenging kid to deal with for my grandmother who raised me. I can remember time and time again, when you tell someone to do something over and over and over again. Dont touch that fire, dont touch that fire. Youre like, i wonder what the fire feels like. You touch it the fire and youre like, ill never do that again. Thats the kind of kid i was. It feels like im a parent telling people in San Francisco over and over again wear your mask, socially distance, do this, do this that. Really, this is about protecting Public Health. This is about getting us back on track. This is not just a problem in San Francisco, its a problem all over world. When you think about it theres some countries in the world that have reduced the virus and gone back to normal. Thats where we want to be. The only way were going to get there. The only way were going to be able to open the gyms and nail salons and visit our parents and grandparents in senior homes and places they are housed, is if we change our behavior. We listen to our Public Health expert. Especially in places like dolores park. Especially in places where people continue to gather and not socially distance. From our contact tracers, we know that many people who are contracting the virus are contracting the virus because they are having gatherings. They are having family gatherings and birthday parties and other events. You know what . Today is my birthday. Im going to socially distance myself and talk to people op opn zoom. If we all did our part rkts wher, where wewould be today. I know youre tired of hearing it from me. I say it time and time again. I cant reiterate enough that we need to do our part. We can be a leader and crush this virus if we all do our part. With that, i want to ask the director of the department of Public Health dr. Grant kol fa x fax to please come forward now. Good morning. Im dr. Grant colfax director of Public Health. Happy birthday and thank you for your commitment when it comes to covid response. When it comes to shelter in place, a surge of covid 19 cases. Our investments in testing, Contact Tracing and Food Security among other items have helped San Francisco manage to slow the spread of the virus. Thank you again for your ladership anleadership and dire. Here is an update of where we are with the virus. As of this morning. Six thousand forty two have been diagnosed and sadly sixty seven of them have died. Were currently caring for 88 in our local hospitals. Thats a slight drop from last week. Its a 20 reduction from our peak in july. Because of our efforts. Because of your efforts such as face coverings and social distancing, we have lowered the effective reproductive rate to just below one. The effective reproductive rate or re is a key measure of how fast the virus is spreading. Its the average number of people who become infected by an infectious before. If its above one, the virus will spread and it will spread quickly. When the re factor is below one, its slowing. Our best estimate is that re has been just below one, between point nine eight and point nine five. We continue to exceed our daily testing goals and lead the state and nation it testing. In this next phase of our testing strategy, well be more targeted in our testing even as we expand Testing Capacity in the city. Last week, we brought mobile testing to communities with highest infection rates of covid 19. Including in the bay view, sunny dale, mission and omi. We are indeed following the day awe to identify the communities where testing can have the greatest impact to identify and slow the spread of covid 19. As you saw in the budget presentation, the mayor is proposing a nearly 56 milliondollar budget in testing next year. That number has started to drop from the high point a few weeks ago. Its a cause for great concern and could easily go up again. This is one of our key health indicators. Anything above 15 new cases per day puts us in the red zone on our highest alert level. Were been there for the past few weeks. Weve seen our numbers improving. Lets stay vigilant. Weve seen issues with the state reporting system that may have caused issues with cases. We see many many san franciscans covering their faces. Recent Research Indicates if 80 of a population is regularly using face coverings we can prevent out breaks of covid 19. Please, be one of those 80 . Thank you to everyone who is doing their part to reach that critical mat. Why dont we make it ninety. Why dont we make it 100 of people wearing face coverings in our city. We know unfortunately some people are not covering their faces complicitily. I see some people trying but maybe they dont know both their nose and mouth need to be covering. Maybe they dont know that face could havings are required in San Francisco for everyone age ten years and up. If you have any questions or doubts, wear a facial covering. Its right thing. Its the safe thimg t ting to t. Its like remembering your wallet or keys. Its a habit were going to need to develop and have with us for some time. My mask protects you. Your mask protects me. This is something we can all do and indeed we must do for each other. We must keep up our momentum and stand our ground and sustain our gains and continue to make progress. Were seeing some hopeful signs. As weve seen before this virus is persistent. We cannot let our guard down. Please, again, continue to do your part. Continue to take caution and care. Take care of yourself. Call your friends and family. We are all in this together. We will get through this together. Together we have the power to save lives and again, crush that curve. Thank you. Thank you dr. Colfax and madam mayor for your time. Well begin our q and a portion. First we have Health Care Related questions for dr. Colfax. What specifically is the city doing to shorten the time it takes to get test results and boboaster Contact Tracing. The turn around times have averaged general 48 to 72 hours. We did fall behind because of the great surge in testing. We have caught up on that. Were increasing looking to expand our city test sf capacity. Those times will hopefully continue to be shorter than a few weeks ago. Weve trained three hundred people in Contact Tracing. Were try to go catcing to catcm the flood of cases. Making great progress on that. We continue to expand our capacity and Contact Tracing. As you see in the budget theres investments to strengthen that work going forward. Thank you doctor. Have any out breaks been traced to a gathering in dolores park. Where are the out breaks happening. We know that out breaks occur when people gather. Indoor gatherings are more at risk than outdoor gatherin gatheringpeople doing essential work and need to work in close proximity, we need to have that happen. Lets not gather for things that could otherwise be delayed or be done on zoom or in other virtual ways. With regard to specific out breaks, i cant comment on drawing conclusions from the gathering at dolores park except to say thats behavior that were very concerned about it. Our message continue continues o not gather unless absolutely essential. Do not gather out side your immediate household. If you do, wear those face masks and use good hygiene and socially distance when possible. Look, when i walk or drive around the city, we know this is still not happening to the degree it needs to be. We need to hit that 80 mark. Lets go for 90 or one hundred. We need to crush this curve. Thank you. The next set of questions are from the associated press. How have the states problems with cal ready effected San Francisco effective reproductive rate. Its based on the number of hospitalizations. Our data is not part of that calculation. Were confident in our ability to estimate based on the hospitalization rates in the city. How can we be sure cases are going down if there is under reporting by the states system. The number of hospitalled cases are going down in our city. Thats what we base the reproductive rate on. Its on those numbers sm the nu. The number of cases diagnosed with covid 19, that number could change based on the correction from the state. We hope to have tha that tha th. Thank you, doctor. What are the major factors contributing to the numbers leveling off . What wewe cant draw any one action with regard to cause and effect with regard to the decline in the number of cases. I do think a few weeks ago our recognition that we were in the midst of another surge and the reproductive rate was going up rapidly. We worked with comeupit communiy members, key stake holders and people in neighborhoods most effected to work to really get the message out that everyone needed to be aware of this. Access testing. If you were in an area experiencing out breaks to wear those facial coverings and not gather. I hope people heard this and people are doing their part to flatten and hopefully crush the curve. I will say that the reproductive number is just about at one now. We need to see that trend continue so we get much much lower. Im hopeful that we continue to go in the right direction. Thank you, doctor. Have you considered further restrictions or enforcement measuremeasures foreplaysesmea. We need to give people thank you, doctor. The next question comes from sf examiner. Business owners from the small industry and other personal services have been frustrated that they cannot fully reopen even after sanitation guidelines. What is your level of concerns. Right now we are on the state watch list and have been since late july. No further reopenings can happen until were off that watch list and receive updated guidance from the state. And what might be plausible going forward. Thank you. Our next question. If the reproductive rate is not below is only based on hospitalization and not positive tests it does not include asymptomatic people. How is that viable. Its an estimate. Its an estimate that we have been working with u c berkeley and u c sf and cal San Francisco researchers with regard to developing a model that takes exactly that into account. Uses the hospitalization number and extrapolates that to the broader population at large to come up with an estimate of the reproductive rate. Its publicly available with regard to what the reproductive rate estimate is. You can dig deeper into that on the website which we can certainly provide to you. Thank you, dr. Colfax. There no further questions at this time. This concludes todays press conference. Thank you madam mayor and dr. Colfax for your time. Growing up in San Francisco has been way safer than growing up other places we we have that bubble, and its still that bubble that its okay to be whatever you want to. You can let your free flag fry he fly here. As an adult with autism, im here to challenge peoples idea of what autism is. My journey is not everyones journey because every autistic child is different, but theres hope. My background has heavy roots in the bay area. I was born in san diego and adopted out to San Francisco when i was about 17 years old. I bounced around a little bit here in high school, but ive always been here in the bay. We are an inclusive preschool, which means that we cater to emp. We dont turn anyone away. We take every child regardless of race, creed, religious or ability. The most common thing i hear in my adult life is oh, you dont seem like you have autism. You seem so normal. Yeah. Thats 26 years of really, really, really hard work and i think thises that i still do. I was one of the first open adoptions for an lgbt couple. They split up when i was about four. One of them is partnered, and one of them is not, and then my biological mother, who is also a lesbian. Very queer family. Growing up in the 90s with a queer family was odd, i had the bubble to protect me, and here, i felt safe. I was bullied relatively infrequently. But i never really felt isolated or alone. I have known for virtually my entire life i was not suspended, but kindly asked to not ever bring it up again in first grade, my desire to have a sex change. The school that i went to really had no idea how to handle one. One of my parents is a little bit gender nonconforming, so they know what its about, but my parents wanted my life to be safe. When i have all the neurological issues to manage, that was just one more to add to it. I was a weird kid. I had my core group of, like, very tight, like, three friends. When we look at autism, we characterize it by, like, lack of eye contact, what i do now is when im looking away from the camera, its for my own comfort. Faces are confusing. Its a lack of mirror neurons in your brain working properly to allow you to experience empathy, to realize where somebody is coming from, or to realize that body language means that. At its core, autism is a social disorder, its a neurological disorder that people are born with, and its a big, big spectrum. It wasnt until i was a teenager that i heard autism in relation to myself, and i rejected it. I was very loud, i took up a lot of space, and it was because mostly taking up space let everybody else know where i existed in the world. I didnt like to talk to people really, and then, when i did, i overshared. I was very difficult to be around. But the friends that i have are very close. I click with our atypical kiddos than other people do. In experience, i remember when i was five years old and not wanting people to touch me because it hurt. I remember throwing chairs because i could not regulate my own emotions, and it did not mean that i was a bad kid, it meant that i couldnt cope. I grew up in a family of behavioral psychologists, and i got development cal developmental psychology from all sides. I recognize that my experience is just a very small picture of that, and not everybodys in a position to have a family thats as supportive, but theres also a community thats incredible helpful and wonderful and open and there for you in your moments of need. It was like two or three years of conversations before i was like you know what . Im just going to do this, and i went out and got my prescription for hormones and started transitioning medically, even though i had already been living as a male. I have a twoyearold. The person who im now married to is my husband for about two years, and then started gaining weight and wasnt sure, so i we went and talked with the doctor at my clinic, and he said well, testosterone is basically birth control, so theres no way you can be pregnant. I found out i was pregnant at 6. 5 months. My whole mission is to kind of normalize adults like me. I think ive finally found my calling in early intervention, which is here, kind of what we do. I think the access to irrelevant care for parents is intentionally confusing. When i did the procespective search for autism for my own child, it was confusing. We have a place where children can be children, but its very confusing. I always out myself as an adult with autism. I think its helpful when you know where can your child go. How im choosing to help is to give children that would normally not be allowed to have children in the same respect, kids that have three times as much work to do as their peers or kids who do odd things, like, beach therapy. How do speech therapy. How do you explain that to the rest of their class . I want that to be a normal experience. I was working on a certificate and kind of getting think Early Childhood credits brefore i started working here, and we did a section on transgender inclusion, inclusion, which is a big issue here in San Francisco because we attract lots of queer families, and the teacher approached me and said i dont really feel comfortable or qualified to talk about this from, like, a cisgendered straight persons perspective, would you mind talking a little bit with your own experience, and im like absolutely. So im now one of the guest speakers in that particular class at city college. I love growing up here. I love what San Francisco represents. The idea of leaving has never occurred to me. But its a place that i need to fight for to bring it back to what it used to be, to allow all of those little kids that come from really unsafe environments to move somewhere safe. What ive done with my life is work to make all of those situations better, to bring a little bit of light to all those kind of issues that were still having, hoping to expand into a little bit more of a Resource Center, and this Resource Center would be more those new parents who have gotten that diagnosis, and we want to be this one centralized place that allows parents to breathe for a second. I would love to empower from the bottom up, from the kid level, and from the top down, from the teacher level. So many things that i would love to do that are all about changing peoples minds about certain chunts, like the Transgender Community or the autistic community. I would like my daughter to know theres no wrong way to go through life. Everybody experiences pain and grief and sadness, and that all of those things are temporary