Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Budget And Appropriations Committee 20240712

Public transit is plentiful. We have conquered the steps, we have watched the dogs, and we have enjoyed a beautiful view. This is a place to take someone special on a romantic stroll and enjoyed a beautiful look out. Welcome to Corona Heights located in the heart of this district. It offers a view of the downtown skyline, the bay bridge, and the east bay. It is one of the best kept secrets in the city. It is hardly ever crowded. On any given day, you will run into a few locals. , bought a 37 bus to get there without any parking worries. For legged friends can run freely. There is also a patch of grass for the small box. It is a great place. It is a wonderful place to have these kinds of parks. That dog owners appreciate it. Take time to notice of the wildfires that are on the grassland and keep your head out on the lookout for hawks and other bird life. Be sure to take your camera and be prepared to take a view of the city will not forget. It has a beautiful red rock formations. You could watch the sunrise over the bay. This is another one of our great lookouts. We are at mount davidson. 928 feet. This is the place for you to bring someone special. To not forget that dogs and enjoy all of the pathways and greenery that surrounds you. It provides a peaceful oasis of open space and great hiking trails. The spectacular view offers a Perfect Place to watch the sunrise or sunset with someone you love. It is a good place to get away from the hectic life of the city. Come up here and listen to nature, i get some fresh air. That view is fantastic. Where sturdy shoes. Hikers get the feeling of being in a rain forest. Mount davidson is also a great place to escape the noise and the bustle of the city. Take the 36 bus and it will drop you at the entrance. It is quite a hike to the top but the view is worth every step. This is the place to bring that someone special. Golden gate parks largest body of water is an enchanting place. Is a popular spot for paddling around in boats, which can be rented. Created in 1893, it was designed for these your boating for leisure boating. It is named for the wild strawberries that once flourished. There is also a waterfall, two bridges, and trails the climb to the summit, the highest point at more than four hundred feet. You can catch glimpses of the western side of the city that make this hilltop a romantic look out. For public transit, i take the n train. The lad the ad lake is ada accessible. Watch many ducks, swans, and siegels. Seagulls. It is a great place to stroll and sail away. Many couples come here to take a ride around a lake, going under the bridges, passing the chinese pavilion and the waterfall. For a quiet getaway, making for a memorable and magical experience. Located on 19th avenue, this growth is the place to where youre hiking boots, bring the family and the dog because it has so much to offer you and your loved ones. It is a truly hidden gem in the city. The park is rich with eucalyptus trees. Long paths allow you to meander, perfect for a dog walking in a wooded environment. I enjoy the history. The diversity of nature that exists in such an urban city, concrete streets, cars, we have this oasis of the natural environment. It reminds us of what the history was. There is a section for dogs and plenty of parking. Transit is available on the 28 bus to get you very easily. The part is ada park is ada accessible. It is also a natural lake. This is your chance to stroll around the lake and let the kids run free. It also has many birds to watch. It is a place to find and appreciate what you a wonderful breath of fresh air. Come and experience in this park and enjoy the people, picnics, and sunshine. This is a lovely place to take a stroll with your loved ones. In the middle of pacific heights, on top of these hills, it offers a great square, a peaceful beauty, large trees and grass and greenery. It features tables and benches, a playground, restaurants, and tennis courts. There are plenty of areas for football and picnics. It is very much a couples park. There are many activities you can experience together. Stroll on the pathways, bring your dog, or just picnic at one of the many tables and enjoy all that it has to offer together. Many couples find this is a perfect park to throw down a blanket and soak up the sun. It is a majestic place that you can share with someone you chairs. Lafayette park is also easily accessed from the 47, 49, and 90 buses. It is ada accessible. We are here at the historic palace of fine art in the marina district. Originally built for the 1950s exposition, the palace is situated on San Franciscos number waterfront. It is ada accessible and is reached by the 28, 30, and 91 bus lines. Set against the reflecting waters of the lagoon and eucalyptus trees, the palace is one of San Francisco post most San Franciscos most romantic spots to relax with that special someone while listening to the water and gazing at the swans. A beautiful to view from many locations along the mattoon, an ideal place to all lagoon, an ideal place to walk with a loved one. Reservations for weddings are available at sfrecpark. Org. Discarding contains plants referred to by William Shakespeares plays and poems. Welcome to the Shakespeare Garden here in the famous Golden Gate Park. Located near the museum and the California Academy of sciences, the garden was designed by the California Spring blossom and wildfilower association. Here is a truly enchanting and tranquil garden along a path behind a charming gate. This garden is the spot to woo your date. Stroll around and appreciate its unique setting. The gorgeous brick walkway and a brick wall, the stone benches, the rustic sundial. Chaired the part share the bards word hundred famous verses from a shakespearean plays. This is a gem to share with someone special. Pack a picnic, find a bench, and enjoy the sunshine, and let the whimsical words of William Shakespeare and floats you and your loved one away. This is one of the most popular wedding locations and is available for reservations. Take a bus and have no parking worries. Shakespeares garden is ada accessible. Located at the bottom of this hill, it is a secret garden with an infinite in captivating appeal. Carefully tucked away, it makes the top of our list for most intimate pyknic setting. Avoid all taurus cars and hassles by taking a cable car. Or the 30, 45, or 91 bus. The garden was designed by Thomas Church in 1957. Grow old with me, the best is yet to be is inscribed on a sundial. It is anchored by twin white gazebos and flowers that bloom yearround. This is the place to tell someone special or the place to declare the commitment you two share. Weddings and the event reservations are available for this adorable hidden gem. We know there are many other romantic parks in San Francisco. We hope you have enjoyed this torre of lookouts, picnics, and strolls that are available every day. Until next time, do not forget to get out and play. For more information about reserving one of these romantic locations or any other location, call 8315500. This number is best for special events, weddings, picnics, and the county fair buildings. Or for any athletic field, call 8315510. You can write us at or walk in and say hello. And of course you can find more information moresfrecpark. Org. Were in the midst of covin San Francisco and in the country. Right now were dealing with balancing our budget. We have over two hundred thousand people unemployed in San Francisco. Were trying to produce housing faster and kids going to school. We know what were up against. The good news is we have really strong leaders who are in addition to battling covid doing the work necessary to moving the city forward. Today theres an announcement that we have around a project that many of us have worked so hard on. Thats the final closure of the county jail. The fact is, it was a long journey. Last year in october we announced the plan closure. We expected to do it in 2021. The good news is through the administrator and former sheriff and our new sheriff who picked up the mantle and moved this project forward, were in a position to close that particular facility sooner rather than later. Today is an announcement that we will do exactly that. When i talk about my lived experiences of growing up in public housing. I talk about it because of the challenges that i and other people through those experiences face. The sad reality is, it wasnt uncommon for so many of us so visit 85 850bryant street. That hallway, the concrete, pay phone, the benches we had to sit onto waitthat experience still haunts me. Im sure many people know what im talking about because of their experiences of visiting. The thing that has always stuck with me the most. When you grow up in these communities, you know a lot of people dont deserve to be there. Yes, we have people that have committed crime where they need to be held accountable. When i had been visiting and on objection for the most part you know everybody who is sitting there waiting. You know a lot of the folks you see behind those windows. And sadly, there are people in there who had nothing to do with the crimes they are in there for in the first place. Our criminal Justice System is broken. We have real problems with how sadly disproportionately, you talk about San Francisco one of the most progressive cities in the country with a less than six percent African American population. We know disproportionately that we still have challenges. We still have issues with this criminal Justice System. Now, here in this city, were doing something about it. Were closing the seventh floor and were closing it because no human being should have to be there. I remember visiting that facility years ago and growing up i only visited the visitors room. I had never been behind the scene. As a supervisor going behind the scene and seeing the work conditions that the deputies had to endure. Seeing people that i know, that i care about, from my community and their children in these jail cells that are small and tiny, two to three people in a cell. We want them to have a better life. We want them to not lose it in a facility like this. We have to think differently about what it meep means to noty people who are incarcerated but what it it means to reepter reer society. How do we have the facility to change the hearts and minds of people that we want to support. 850 is not that facility. Its nasty and dirty. I wouldnt want to see my worst enemy in that place. Its time to close it it. Thats exactly what were doing. Were closing the door on the past and mass incarceration at its absolute worst. Were opening the door to a real change. To a new way of reforming criminal justice in San Francisco. Were doing it because there are people who work in this building who actually care. Who actually care about changing it for the better. Todays announcement is a significant step towards real reform in our criminal Justice System. Im truly grateful to our city administrator, when we worked on this together. A community activist, our current sheriff who moved up the time line in getting this done. The supervisor from district one who cares deeply about this issue. Also, the work around the fees and a number of other things ive worked on with the board of supervisorrorsupervisors. Her work has been absolutely incredible around criminal justice reform. Our public defender and our district attorney. Working collaboratively. Because i want to be clear, you know, its very personal, its other Family Members, its other friends and people that i love and care about. Just imagine knowing someone had the potential who is now incarcerated to be mayor, to be president , to be a rock star, to be a musician. To be anything he wanted to be. But because he was accused of something he never did, he is behind bars at a place like 850. That happened to more black people in my community than i can count. Thats why this is so important today. Its about reforming the system and making a chaifng. Change. The future of how we adjust criminal justice and remove the disparities depends on the actions we take through policy, through investments, through complete reform of the system. I am excited about this announcement today and grateful to the leadership of this city to make it happen sooner rather than later. At this time i would like to introduce our sheriff who has been absolutely an incredible particle ner to worpartner to w. He moved it forward to get the job done. Thank you, madam mayor. In your remarks you painted a very vivid picture of your experience. Through San Franciscos history there have been 19 jails. Since 1962 the San Francisco fall of justice has been the center of the criminal Justice Center for our community. Built in the hall of justice for two of these jails. Located on the seventh floor of the hall of justice the maximum facility for the sheriffs department. The facility consists of single multiple occupancy cells dormitories all with large concrete wall fronts. Its a linear facility. The rated capacity for the jail is 406 people, to give you some context, the jail used al c atraz functioning. The San Francisco Sheriffs Office has grown and moved away from management of these types of i facilities with more humane infrastructure without the use of bars. County jail four represents the last vestages of a buy gone era. It represents the old way of doing things. An old way of doing things that our Sheriffs Office and city have moved away from. It stands as a simple of that which we move away from. Our other linear jails in our system have been closed over the years respectively in 2006 and 2013. This remains the last linear jail facility for us to close. I personally was assigned to county jail four. My nephews one of the last times i saw him was on the seventh floor. When i became sheriff i committed to closing the facility. It out lived its usefulness. It puts not only the incarcerated in danger, but the staff and all the community that came to visit. Plumbing and sewage issues. For years weve been working collectively to safely relocate our population and close the jail. Original plans to remove justice involved out of the building have been challenged with funding issues. Thanks to the leadership of everyone mentioned weve been able to finally move out of the building. Were in a position to close early due t to the efforts of or staff and the department of Public Health. Theyve been able to work with us even meeting the cha challens of covid 19. Focusing on a reduced living and working space while responding to advocate concerns and the concerns of our partners. Our deaftie deafim happy to mt well be moving ahead. When we say early, well be closing the facility the up coming labor day weekend. Two months ahead of schedule. San francisco county jails have not been immune from the virus. Weve been a rare Success Story to limit exposure and out break nz ousin our system. Intercept, control the virus and keep everybody safe. Finally, i wish to dedicate my staff and commend all of our City Partners im thrilled to be joining you and mayor with this announcement. Last spring my Office Brought forth legislation to close county jail number four with legislation. At times we thought we couldnt do it. It it was very controversial. They thought you couldnt close the jail, its too soon. Here we are to say that county jail number four will be closed by labor day. We thought we could do it, we knew we would have to win people over to have some belief that is deemed dangerous, hazardous and deemed unfit for people to live. That we could close it so quickly. I want to mention that it was never considered to be impossible by our mayor. It is rare and unusual that we have a city leader like our mayorshe thoroughly understood it had to be closed and as soon as possible. This legislation that we passed was passed by the board ten to one vote. It was hard to get some supervisors on board. Because of the belief we could do it so soon. Closing it two months before we mandated it in our legislation. It is absolutely outstanding, incredible. Its great to see what can happen working what we can do. Today, i want to say thank you to mayor, sheriff sif city, administrator who said this place is dangerous and hazardous and no one should be living there. Thank you to all the advocates who work so closely with us to ensure that we never lost faith in this legislation. Today were thrilled. Again, i have to say were over the moon were able to close this jail which nobody should live in. No one should have to stay there. No one should have to work there. Its hars adde hars adder hazars health. Thank you. The covid 19 crisis and black lives Matter Movement ignited in this moment shined a light on how important it is for us in this moment to be looking at all of our system systems includingr Public Safety systems through a Public Health lens as well as a Racial Justice lens. Closing this jail is not just about shutting down a delap dated jail. Were not opening a new jail to replace this one. Rather were looking to reinvest in communities that have been harmed bile by this system. Particularly black and brown communities. When you look at the people who sit inside San Francisco county jails. We are jailing the most vulnerable among us sm th. The fact is jails are only one way to deal with Public Safety. There are other options to protect the community in the moment but take a much broader and effective and long term view of what safety is and what is needed to achieve it. We have such a big opportunity today in San Francisco to lead the way on reimagining Public Health and Community Safety by reinvesting in Community Based programs and Mental Health services and supports. Weve made Great Strides in the right direction with the board of supervisors ab supervisors ao are aligned with us in this moment. As we close county jail four lets also make a statement about our values as san franciscans. Moving towards a model of human potential, redemption, and heal willing. Thanhealing. Thank you. Thank you. It thank you all for your remarks. We will now begin the q and a portion. Sheriff. Your question comes from the San Francisco chronicle. What are the citys plans to keep San Franciscos jail population low. How to change and reform our system better. We have a plan in place right now which allows for under covid conditions separating out individuals in our system to be healthy and safe. Were at fifty eight percent capacity in one facility and fifty seven capacity downtown. We have a lot of room for growth is there is a spike in any of our populations. What is good and reassuring is that we are on a path of reform to begin with. The das office and Public Defenders Office to address the koafcovid 19 issue. There are no further questions and that concludes todays press conference. Thank you for everyones time. You are watching coping with covid19. Todays special guest. Hi. You are watching coping with covid19. In this first portion of the twopart inter vii am talking to the general manager of the San Francisco recreation and Parks Department and state park commissioner talking about social we were surprised how popular they became. It was totive. We expanded to include lafayette athathath alamo square. That is great. Quare. That is fantastic. Now, as restrictions are lifted i understand summer camps are now allowed. How is the structure changed to make sure everybody remains safe from the virus . We are thrilled to be able to provide camps at all given the virus. We worked really hard to be able to provide a fun and safe environment. Camps look different but they still offer kids the same opportunities for friendships, creative, learn new skills and in order to prevent the spread of covid19 we are following the Health Orders, temperature screening and enhance screening. Pods of no more than 12 kids. Kids and staff Stay Together in the same cohort for leach of the three week camp sessions. This is different than the past where kids and counselors can jump from week to week. We are doing things differently. Honestly, for kids to get out of the house, to see each other, to see their friends and run around, play some sports, which they are allowed to do in their own pods. It couldnt be more important. We are grateful for the health department. No bigger champion than our mayor. Tennis and golf are allowed. What about soccer and basketball . I am laughing. There is tennis and government and soccer and basketball and baseball and volleyball and flyfishing and bike riding. You know, San Francisco we are blessed to have an amazing parks system to do about anything. We had to respond. They have now reopened with modifications to slow the spread or protect against the spread of the virus. In both cases people need to get social distancing. They should have masks on them if they are in a crowd on the court or at the golf course. They are to refrain from sharing equipment. People playing tennis should play with their own balls. No spectators unless it is a parent or guardian of a minor that is playing. Tennis really right now all that is permitted is singles. You can play doubles if you are from the same household. Golf the modification includes reservations online, six feet apart. Bringing your own golf bag and some modifications to the pin and cup to make it easier to retrieve your own ball. Basketball and soccer are not open to the public. For kids in camp this summer they can play outside within their own pods. For recreational sports, these are high touch activities with a lot of physical contact. We talked to our Public Health colleagues almost every day. We are certainly advocating to the extent it can be done safely to allow people to fully enjoy our park system and participate in all sports and activities they are accustomed to doing. We have a way to go and we need to be patient. There is so much to do in the park system. We are hopeful that people will be able to get back to team sports. I hope so, too. How have you been keeping residents informed how the restrictions have been updated and changed . I never. When i took this job we were going to be in the sign production business. We probably printed and distributed over 2000 signs throughout our park system. They keep changing as the Health Guidance changes. We use social media, electronic newsletters, stories in the press, outreach workers to make people aware of various Health Orders and how they affect park usage. Rangers and volunteers are made up of police and fire and neighborhood Emergency Response volunteers. They have done a wonderful job of trying to encourage and remind people that we are in the middle of an outbreak and we need to be safe. San francisco, i think, overall has done a great job in managing the crisis. Unlike many cities, the parks are mostly open. We had to close a few park features like small playgrounds and basketball courts. Glen canyon is open. Many cities they throw up hands and close down parks. It is our responsibility to use parkings safely and wisely. It is our job to make sure people have information they need. Thank you, mr. Ginsburg. That is it for our first interview. The second portion we will talk about the 150th anniversary and how parks are essential. You have been watching coping with covid19. Thanks for watching. You are watching coping with covid 19. Todays special guest is phil ginsburg. Hi. You are watching coping with covid19. Welcome to the second portion of interview with phil ginsburg, general manager of San Francisco recreation and parks and california state park commissioner. In the final portion we will talk about Golden Gate Parks 150th anniversary celebrations and how parks have been really important during in pandemic. Welcome back. Thank you. It is a pleasure to be here. Talk about Golden Gate Park there is a newell come center as part of the 150th celebrations. Can you talk about the new center and how th the pandemic changed the plans. Let me start with 150th and dive into the Welcome Center and i will talk about the bison. April 4th was to the day Golden Gate Parks 150th birthday, april 4, 1870, the state legislature created the park. It took decades for it to look what it looks like now. The park will nerv never be fin. I am biased but perhaps the greatest park in america for the last century and a half. It is the centennial of the park and around the San Francisco modern history for the last 150 years the keeper of San Francisco collective stories. It is here and i it is not the only pandemic. It was around for 1918, the aids crisis and throughout the history. It is supporting us. We had big plans. On april 4th we intended to welcome 150,000 people to the park for 150 different programmed activities in every corner of the park including the big observation wheel that is 150 feet tall. Then covid hit and we had to change plans. I remember when we had to grapple with the Decision Just before the shelterinplace. We had to cancel the celebration on april 4th that we have been planning for a couple years. What we have done. It was a nobrainer, in hindsight. What we have done is take the celebration online. Golden gate park 150. Com, we have all kinds of information about the park. Concerts that happened in the park online, we have materials for kids. We have Virtual Tours of the park. A little surprise depending when this quits. We will have a bison cam to allow you to see the bison live as they roam in the paddock. There are all kinds of wonderful materials. Two books have been written about the park. A Childrens Book and a book about the history. It is a great website. We are doing what we can. The park has played a Important Role in the pandemic. We opened the Welcome Center where the Tennis Center will open later this summer. It is amazing. There are gifts and there is information. There will be tours from the Welcome Center. You can buy this app from the Golden Gate Park Welcome Center. It is a way to create some socially Distance Community and honoring the sessqua centennial. One thing was the bison house. We were down to five and we can handle 10. Before april 4th, a couple weeks before we had five baby bison from a ranch in northern california. One of them you can see on the cam has a tag in her ear with the number 150. In fact, she had had in both ears while the other four only have one tag. She has tags in both ears and the number 150. Her name is sesqui. She is the official bison of Golden Gate Park 150th birthday. Lets talk about how important outside spaces have been. Has the pandemic changed how we think about the parks . What are the plans moving forward . It is a great moment for parks and open space nationally and in San Francisco. It is really clear during this Health Emergency that parks are not just knives to have. They are must haves. They are part of the most critical infrastructure. So important as places of refuge in difficult times. Parks have the one place we have been allowed to be in during the strictest portions of our shelterinplace order. They are critical to the physical and mental wellbeing. Neighborhood parks are where people can, you know, escape to find time in nature. They are places where people can exercise and strengthen immune system by boosting mental and physical health. Parks are resilient, as i mentioned earlier. This is not only a parks only disaster. Moving from covid into some of the period of civil unrest that we are experiencing, our parks have been there for people to express themselves and to express sadness and anger and frustration and challenge the status quo. Parks are individual and collective memories. As we move forward and, hopefully, we continue along a healthy trajectory, we are going to continue to open up more park features and we are going to continue natural areas to be here for all in San Francisco. In fact, the one bit of good news that we have had during this crazy time. It looks like in november San Francisco will be able to vote for the 2020 health and recovery bond which if passed would devote additional 240 million to parks projects all over the city to serve our most vulnerable communities. I think we all realize just how important parks are and, you know, that is for people like me that is it. I want to thank you and your team for taking care of our parks. They are such a valuable resource. Thank you for coming on the show, mr. Ginsburg. I appreciate the time you have given us. Chris, thank you. Big shout out to the rec and park staff who are heroes. They have provided emergency child care, kept our parks open, restrooms open, facilitated use of parks for Food Distribution and testing, they have kept people safe. The staff have been heroes and they deserve our collective respect and admiration. I totally agree. That is it for this episode. We wil will be back shortly. You are watching coping with covid19. Thanks for watching. We are reconvening the budget and Appropriations Committee meeting. We are recessing until 7 00 p. M. Thank you very much. From. At the beginning of this year, we were living in a different world. Our Unemployment Rate was at a historic low. Tourism was at alltime high. Hotels were full, we had all plans to shape the future of this city we all love. I know i have plans to address homelessness and housing, to reimagine our Mental Health system, to improve transportation and make our streets safer and build a more equitable city. To lift up those who too often are left behind. Like i said, we had lot of plans. What we didnt have plans for was the coronavirus. It certainly had plans for us. Here we are today in a very different San Francisco with Small Businesses closing and schools struggling to bring kids back to the classrooms. With over 180 thousands san francisc100 180,000 sanfrancr unemployment. We have seen San Francisco come together in a way that makes me proud. Proud to be mayor, yes, but also proud to be a san franciscan. We Work Together to make sure thousands of people had access to medical support, to testing, food and housing. We move forward emergency policies to protect tenant and businesses from eviction. Give people emergency sick leave and keep workers safe. We raised millions of dollars in donations through give to sf to support Small Businesses, workers and vulnerable residents. We think people organized to check on elderly neighbors and deliver groceries for those who cant leave the house. While Nursing Homes across the country have been devastated by this virus, we havent had a single death among the over 700 residents at laguana hospital. Weve seen Community Groups rise up to support our most vulnerable residents in the bayview and mission and other hard hit areas. Weve seen the spirit of San Francisco rise to meet this challenge to flatten the curve and then rise once again when the virus came back the second time. Today, we are proposing a balanced budget that closes that 1. 5 billion deficit. While still meeting the needs of our city. Through all of this, we continue to protect our public workforce. Let be clear, when we talk about 180,000 san franciscans applying for unemployment, not one of those people is doing so because of city cut their job. Not one. As our economy plummeted, we wanted our city workers to focus on their health and the health of their families and on serving our residents during this crises. Not on whether or not they would have a paycheck. With the budget im proposing today, i i want to continue to prevent all layoffs. But to do that, we need our labor partners to work with us. We need them to agree to delay any planned wage increases for two years. So far, we are having good conversations with the firefighters and the Police Officers on delaying their raises im hopeful other unions will agree to do the same. I dont think this is too much to ask. Our entire city is suffering now. We all need to do our part to hair in that sacrifice. I want to be very clear, if the union dont agree to delay their raises, then we will be forced to lay people off. We will be forced to cut city services. We dont want to see those unemployment numbers go up because we are forced into layoffs. Thats not what i want. Its not what anyone wants. Im hopeful that our labor partners will step up and work with us in the coming weeks. Because there is a lot we have to do with this budget. Including continuing to fund our ongoing Covid Response. We all know we are living with covid for the next year. Likely longer than that. San francisco has been a National Leader in responding to this pandemic, thanks to our efforts to follow the data, build a testing system from scratch, create a robust Contact Tracing team and provide food, support and shelter for our most vulnerable residents. We will keep doing everything we can to get this city through this pandemic. Hopefully the federal government will continue to provide the necessary support. We know the federal government wont cover everything. Thats why we are putting 93 million from our general fund towards supporting our continued Covid Response. This is a significant investment but honestly, its not really a choice. Without a strong and sustained Covid Response our students wont return to school, people wont go back to work and our economy wont recover. Even as we continue to wrestle with covid, we cant lose sight of other key priorities. Our homelessness crises didnt go with covid. Covid has made it even more challenging. I know people are frustrated with what they see on our streets. We have had to reduce capacity in our existing shelters by 70 leaving more people out on the streets. Our outreach workers continue to do very difficult work all while practicing social distancing. We met this challenge by moving thousands of people into hotel rooms, trailers, safe sleeping site and new emergency shelters. This work took an amazing effort from city staff and nonprofit partners, work that normally take months and years in planning and implementation done in a matter of weeks. The tenderloin alone we moved over 500 people. We are expanding those efforts oeffort neighborhoods like selma and the mission. While we are seeing some progress, frankly its clearly not enough. We need more than shortterm hotel rooms. We more than parking lots for safe sleeping sites. We need housing. Lots of housing. Thats why this budget funds 1500 new units supportive housing. Which is part of our homeless Recovery Plan to move 4500 people from hotels, shelters and the streets into housing in the next two years. It will help us as a city meet the needs of the unsheltered and our residents who are frustrated by the conditions they see everyday in our neighborhoods. We also cant lose the progress weve made on improving our Mental Health system. Including funding Mental Health sf. That means adding more Mental Health beds, expanding our Behavioral Health Access Center so people can get Immediate Care when they need it and improving the system of care so that people struggling with Mental Illness and addiction. Were also creating a new Crises Response Team so that when you call 911 or 311, because someone on the street is clearly having a mental breakdown, we can send a team which includes a paramedics, clinician and Behavioral Health peer. We need to shift the burden Mental Health response call away from the police its not fair to ask our officers to do the work of Mental Health professionals. Its not effective for those in crises. This is a key piece of our Police Reform efforts. In addition to doing the work to call for service, i laid out three other major areas for Police Reform. Addressing accountability and bias, getting rid of military grade weapon and equipment and redirecting Law Enforcement funding towards the Africanamerican Community. While all are important, its the last one i want to talk about today. As a black woman who grew up in poverty in this city, Police Brutality was all too common. It was something we expected and complaints were usually ignored. Two months ago, the murder of george floyd shook this country to its core. In a way that i have never seen before. People responded like i have never seen before. Seeing people not just africanamericans, rise up against Police Brutality gave me hope that real change in this country is possible. But for those who support this movement, for those who truly believe that black lives matter, its important that we listen to black voices. Its important that we allow black people to lead this movement. Im not just talking about me or any of our black elected leaders who have been fighting this fight for generations. I mean we have to listen to the people in the community. We have to listen to the people who have seen and lived the devastation resulting from decades of disinvestment. We have to listen to the people who dont come to city hall because theyve known too many broken promises, made by those in this building who believe they know what is best for black people in this city. Thats why the first thing supervisor Shamann Walton and i said, when we announced we wanted to reprioritize funding to support the black community, was that this had to be a communityled process. Earlier this week, the Human Rights Commission released an initial report that highlighted what the Community Wants us to focus on. This report is the first step in guiding not just the investments we make with this budget but the change we need to make in the years to come. Changing the inequities in our country wont happen overnight. We wont change the fact that africanamericans have the lowest Median Household Income in San Francisco overnight. We wont change the fact that black people have the highest mortality rate for nine of the top ten causes of death in San Francisco overnight. We wont change the fact that Graduation Rates for africanamerican students in our Public School system is just 53 . We wont change that overnight. We wont change the fact that nearly half of San Francisco Police Department used to force cases involve black people overnight. We will change these facts with this budget. We are listening to the community and prioritizing investments in the Africanamerican Community around housing, Mental Health and wellness, workforce development, economic justice, education, advocacy and accountability. As a first step in this effort, we will redirect 120 million from Law Enforcement to support these priorities over the next two years. Let me repeat that, this is 120 million. Its a first step. If we are going to make real change, we need to do the hard work. Its going to take all of us coming together, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. I often talk about how i overcame poverty, despair and vince to become violence to become mayor. My goal with these investments and this change in how we prioritize the black community is simple. I want my story, my experience to be the norm and not the exception. I want black girls growing up today to rise not in spite of their upbringing here in the city but because of it. I want black boys growing up today to thrive because we chose how to change the city and how this country treats our young black men. Not as a statistic or an tragedy but as an important part of our citys future. If we accomplished nothing more than that during my time as mayor, i will leave this office proud. I want to end by acknowledging the leadership of a few of the people who are central to this budget process. First, i want to thank board president norman yee and budget chair supervisor sandy fewer to continuing to be strong and collaborative leaders. Over the coming weeks, we will work with both of them and the board of supervisors to finalize this budget so that we can continue to deliver for the people of San Francisco. I want to thank controller ben rosen field for the work he and his team has put in as well as all the city departments who worked to find ways for us to close this deficit. Finally, i want to thank my budget team. Led by ashley golfenburgering. San francisco is lucky to have these two strong smart women leading this challenging process. Now at this time, i want to introduce ashley whos going to give us a short presentation on our budget. Good afternoon, thank you mayor breed. Im the mayors acting budget director. I like to thank the rest of the mayors Budget Office team who worked so hard to put this budget together under mayor breeds leadership. Today im happy to walk you through the details of the mayors fiscal year 2021 and 2 2122 budget. The total size of the proposed budget is 13. 7 billion in fiscal year 2021 and 12. 6 billion in fiscal year 202122. The fiscal year 2021 proposely budget represents a 1. 4 billion increase over the fiscal year 1920 budget primarily driven by one expenditure related to the covid19 pandemic which go away in the second year of the budget. The total proposed budget is made up of 7. 5 billion or 54 Nongeneral Fund expenditures which include enterprise and selfsupporting activities. 6. 2 or 46 of general Fund Expenditures. It is important to note that selfsupporting and Enterprise Funding are restricted and not eligible to be used to balance the citys General Fund Budget. These includes things like operations that are airport, the Public Utilities commission, port and the mta. It is also important to note that the 3. 9 billion of the 6. 2 billion in general Fund Expenditures are restricted by state and federal reimbursements and voter mandated services for children, transit and seniors. The remaining 2. 3 billion represents Discretionary Fund budget available to pay for the Public Services san franciscans rely on. The mayors proposed budget achieved four key objectives. It balances the budget responsibly, avoiding layoffs for City Employees and Major Service cuts, it makes progress on shared priorities of homelessness and Behavioral Health. It reinvest significant resources toward initiatives that support Racial Equity and identifying alternatives to policing and it maintains a robust importance to the covid19 pandemic. The mayors required by the charter to submit a balance twoyear budget. The proposed budget utilizes variety of one time and ongoing revenue and expenditures solutions to balance this projected shortfall while also investing in shared priority areas. The may 2020 joint report projected a 1. 5 billion twoyear General Fund Budget shortfall. Driven by stark revenue losses resulting from the Economic Impact of the covid19 emergency. In july, worsening Economic Conditions resulted in a further downgrade of revenue projections for the upcoming budget period. To overcome the shortfall, the mayors proposed budget utilizes reserves, new revenue and other savings. The mayors proposed budget utilizes 340 million from the citys main economic reserves during the budget period ensuring reserve balances remain in tact to hedge against future risk. The budget assumes ongoing excess reserve from the Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund or eraf to balance the shortfall. The proposed budget assumes 300 million that will become available with the passage of Business Tax Reform measure. In order to avoid layoffs and maintain critical city services, the mayor has asked the citys labor unions to defer scheduled wage increases over the period of the twoyear budget. The savings associated with that are reflected this proposed budget. Lastly, the mayors proposed budget assumed many citywide and departmental saving. It includes underfunding the citys Capital Equipment and i. T. Programs, only funding critical projects while deferring other new costs. This also includes savings offered by city departments that keep positions vacant and achieve other efficiencies all while avoiding layoffs and Major Service impacts. Taken together, these solutions equal 1. 9 billion over the two years. Despite the economic challenges we face, the mayors propose the budget is able to make over 300 million in targeted investments in priority areas. The mayors proposed budget invest general fund dollars in Behavioral Health and homelessness, maintaining the investments weve made in shelter, Navigation Centers and Behavioral Health beds while also feeding new general fund support such as the homeless rory plan and Mental Health sf which will be implemented through the passage of the november business tax measure. The proposed budget also reinvest 120 million in Law Enforcement funding over the next two years to support programs and services that benefit the Africanamerican Community and advance Racial Equity in our city. The proposed budget also seeks to prioritize youth investing 15 million in onetime support to the San Francisco Unified School District to provide needed Financial Relief and support for vulnerable students. Lastly, the mayors proposed budget maintains robust response to the ongoing covid19 pandemic. Allocated 100 million in new general fund support. The mayors proposed budget is able to close the projected shortfall without layoffs and Minimal Service impacts. However, we are just beginning to see the effects of this recession and must remain vigilant of the risks that uncertainties that lie ahead. Before the pandemic, San Francisco had approximately 1 billion in reserves. The proposed budget will utilize about half of those reserves over the coming three years, leaving the remainder to hedge against significant risk that far exceed the remaining reserves. These risks include the failure of the november 2020 Business Tax Reform measure, which should not prevail could create 300 million shortfall. The proposed budget assumes that the city continues to receive fema reimbursements for eligible covid expenditures through the end of the fiscal year. Should the federal government declare the emergency over, the city would face a significant financial burden to continue to respond to covid. A prolonged worsening of the pandemic would negatively impact the citys finances both in the form of ongoing expenditures not planned for in this budget and in worsening conditions that can further slow economic recovery. While we believe the assumptions around access eraf and other state revenues are sounds, theres risk that worsening conditions that the state level can result in further losses of state revenue. Lastly, while this budget proposed ongoing solutions, the city still faces a structural deficit and must maintain reserves. To conclude, while the proposed budget balanced it is balance end on a number of asunshines that could fail to materialize which under underscores the importance maintain reserves to guard against these future risks. Thank you. Thank you ashley. Thank you again. Nothing about this pandemic is easy. Nothing is certain. I believe that the more transparent we are with the facts and the more honest we are with the challenges we face, the better off we will all be. I know we will get this budget passed. We will continue to keep people healthy and safe and we will get through this challenging time amount of money we arespendic 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. I am vivian coe. Carman chu cofounded the challenge along in 2018, along with the department on the status of women, as well as the league of women voters in San Francisco. Our mission is to raise womens voices and their voting power. You can learn more about our initiative on our website wchallenge. Org. Before we start, i would like to thank our w challenge partners and supports and occur cohosts and our cohosts listed in the shared screen before. For organizing todays event, as well as kicking off a social Media Campaign as this years challenge. We want to encourage more women to vote, especially for this upcoming election. Well share more details later on in the program. You can learn more about the initiative on wchallenge. Org 100 women. Todays event will stream live on sfgovtv. Org youtube channel, as well as the citys facebook and twitter accounts. I want to thank our colleagues here from sfgov tv for working in the backgrounds and making this event as successful as possible for everyone. You can feel free to share the links and host a watch party if you want on your preferred social media platforms, because we will be having them on facebook and twitter. This session will be recorded for future references. So lets get started. Happy womens equality day. May i kindly ask the president of the commission on the status of women to join us, bree anna swat, to officially kickstart the celebration of todays event. Thank you. Thank you so much, vivian, for the kind introduction. And really thank you to all staff for making this happen. I know we would normally be on the steps of stahl. But i appreciate everyones creativity and flexibility of making this a Virtual Event as well. My name is brianna and im privileged to serve as the president of the nations strongest commission and department on the status of women, right here in San Francisco. It was on this day 100 years ago that the 19th amendment was added to the constitution of the united states. In the process of extending the right to vote to women across the country. And on november 2nd, 1920, more than 8 million women voted for the first time in the president ial election. The moment was a culmination of a Movement Made with tears, pain, sweat, a long strug that will included activism and leadership of black, indigenous, and women of color, too many who who were later written out of history books. These women, who fought, marched, organized and protested for decades to gain the right to vote. We are right to celebrate this day as a milestone and recognize that equal votes rights were not achieved for all women through the 19th amendment. The Voting Rights act, passed 55 years ago, brought us closer to equal Voting Rights. However, the struggle continues. And the need for vigilance goes on. As we were reminded in 21, when the Supreme Court gutted, these attacks on the democracy continue through this very hour, the tactics evolve. But honestly the intent remains the same. It was once literacy test, and outright violent intimidation. Today we see the closing of polling places in communities of color be and attacks on voting by mail. In short, the fight continues on for the right to vote. Today is more than a day of celebration, but to continue in the struggle and the moment to look ahead to the next 100 yea years. And 9 moment to ensure our democracy is truly representative. Over the last century, women have also fought to gain access in classrooms, board room, and elected it office, elected office. We have seen the power of womens leadership with each advance. We see that Diverse Voices and perspectives, equity and inclusion bring new ideas, new insights to the halls of power. Weve seen that right here from our Vantage Point in San Francisco, with our own representative nancy pelosi, the first and only woman to serve as speaker of the house, our two female senators and now Vice President ial candidate kamala harris. As i said earlier, i wish we could all be gathered in person together. This is not how anyone could have imagined 2020 would look. But it also reminds us how important it is to have strong and capable leaders. And how connected we are together. In honor of our ancestors, our foremothers, our sisters and the struggle, i am so proud to kick off this event and to bring together our two city female elected officials, women who not only forged the path, but always bring others along with them. Carmen chu as served as the elected assessor since 2013. Her efforts in the in performing the office and successfully reversing decades of old backlog, earned her office the prestigious 2020 Good Government award, an hon father recognizing the excellence in Public Sector management and stewardship. Assessor chu has also recently taken on a new leadership role to cochair the Economic Recovery Task force, using her fiscal expertise to help San Francisco through an unprecedented Economic Impact from covid19 pandemic. On top of all of this, she is Vice President of the california assessors association, served on the employees retirement system board, overseeing the investments of 26 billion in public Pension System and a little provides direction on the executive board of spur, a nonprofit focused on developing Regional Solutions to crosscounty challenges like Housing Affordability and climate resilience. In addition to all of these wonderful things, and all of these new roles, she has a new role as a mother. And is forever a Public Servant with her values rooted in her experience growing up as a daughter of immigrants. Thank you for your leadership, assessor chu, thank you for being here. And finally its my honor to welcome our mayor, london breed. In 2018, mayor breed was elected to be the first africanamerican woman and the second woman in San Franciscos history to serve as mayor. She was reelected for her first full term in november 2019. She led San Franciscos Emergency Response to covid19 with grit and grace. And is currently guiding the citys phased reopening and economic recovery. Recently mayor breed announced since becoming mayor, her priorities have included helping the citys Homeless Population and to care and shelter and adding more housing for residents of all income levels. Helping those suffering from Mental Health and substanceuse disorders, and ensuring that all san franciscans have access to a thriving economy. Furthering San Franciscos leadership and combating Climate Change and honestly the list goes on and on. So thank you all again for being here. Im excited to get this conversation started. Thank you, breanna, for such a nice introduction. We will now ask our assessor carmen chu, the cofounder of the w challenge, to give some introduction remarks, as we are awaiting for the mayor to join us shortly. Thank you. First off, i want to just thank everybody, all of our partner organizations, breanna, for your wonderful and warm introduction. Thank you all for joining us in this virtual way. I think that this is a special day, a day that i think as breanna mentioned, women were able to win the right to vote. It did take decades, though, for Indigenous Women and women of color to also be able to participate. So i think as we take the moment to celebrate this milestone in our history, its also important to recognize that the struggles for participation, the struggle for representation still continues even as we speak. It is highlighted not only from what were seeing from the federal attacks, in terms of womens rights and the place of women, but also when were thinking about even how we are all seeing the response to covid19. I think its not lost on so many of us that covid19, though it is a disease that impacts everyone, it has not been impacting our communities in an equal way. Weve seen a disproportionate impact on our Lateef Hasani grat latinx communities. Women bear the brown in the industries most impacted negatively by covid19, health care sectors, education, childcare. And not only that, but we are also seeing that women also are playing a role of double duty, even triple duty when it comes to not only balancing their jobs, employment, careers and also childcare and elder care. This is something that is intimately experienced by so many of us. For myself, as a young mother, with a 15monthold daughter and having my elderly parents now sheltering in place with us, i feel that impact. And yet i find myself really understanding how fortunate i am, even to be in a place that i am now and to be able to still have a child. So many of the people that were talking about have lost their jobs, are on the verge of losing their businesses and their homes. It really does highlight the importance of recognizing the impacts of covid and the opportunity to really step up. And so today we have a unique opportunity to be able to talk about Women Leadership, especially at this time. I think as breanna had mentioned earlier, theres a Cross Section of home things happening, in addition to the challenges that we have with covid19, were seeing wildland fires across the state of california, thats brought about by Climate Change. Were not only seeing that, but continued challenges at the federal level when it comes to our immigrant communities and people of color. And so again were really, really excited to have the mayor today to be able to speak more about womens leadership and the importance of that going forward. And so i see that our mayor has joined us. And so i want to welcome london to the program. I think todays going to be a very its going to be a unique opportunity. We rarely have the chance to be able to interview each other and have a candid conversation. So it will be a lot of fun to be able to do that today. But just a moment right before you came on, mayor breed, breanna was able to share some really great information about your bio. Today people are really looking forward to get to know more about you and your leadership style as we go forward. I think as you know we started the w challenge a few years ago and youve been a strong supporter from the beginning. I think one of participated every single year that we have come together to talk about the sponsor of voting and womens participation. This year our challenge is to really make sure were highlighting the 100year history of at least 100 great, amazing Women Leaders. So we really want to tell the story of womens leadership through the years. And how we all build upon those histories, in order to be where we are today. So again im super excited to bring mayor breed on to the show today. Im going to ask you the first question. But actually before we do that, why dont i ask you to introduce or say a few words if youd like to, to commemorate the 100 yearanniversary. Well, thank you so much, carmen. Its, of course, always great being with you and talking about important issues in our city, pour importantly celebrating 100 years of women receiving the right to vote. We all know sadly, with the history of this country, that did not include women of color. And we know that, you know, when i think about from a perspective of where we are now in this country, and how there is finally a reckoning that is occurring around race and around inequality and whats happening to people, as a result of that spark that sadly involves the death of george floyd, i think this is the perfect time to start to have these honest conversations about this. Because from my perspective, you know, our differences are what makes us a better city. Its what makes us a better country. I hope my phone is not too loud. I dont know how to turn it off. But it makes us a better it makes us a better city. It makes us a better country. And i think that it starts with the next generation and it also needs to be embedded in our young people at an early age, that in a way that could effectively allow for change. Because the sad reality is we know a lot of this is taught in the home. Its taught, you know, early on. And it develops into who you are as a person naturally. We have to get to the point of all of that. We have to be prepared to have the honest conversations about our differences, you know, how we all fit into this world. And how working together we can make things better. And ive got to be honest. No one does that better than women. [laughter] but we are, you know, multitaskers and its naturally who we are. So as we celebrate, you know, the right to vote for him, we have to also keep in mind there was a time that women couldnt vote in this country. There was a time that black people couldnt vote in this country. There was a time that folks were discriminated against and hung just because they wanted to exercise their right. We dishonor their memory and sacrifice when we dont show up to make our voices heard. Thats the celebration should remind us about those people and what they sacrificed and how we have appear obligation to not only exercise our right to vote ourselves, but to make sure that we are lifting up others to do the same. And that we are also making it clear to the next generation how significant it is for them to do so as well. Yes. Glad to be here. Absolutely. I think the points you make really do resonate, because i think that the fight continues, right. Even now i mean were continuing to see the inequities continue to be part of our daily lives. We need to really speak honestly about it. It is really hard. It is hard to talk about race, because its uncomfortable. Unless we start to get to a place where we can do that, i dont know how we start to dismantle whats there, right. And even within the last Covid Response, weve been seeing a lot of rise in antiasian sentiments, people blaming the Asian Community for whats happening. I think even then we need allies, we need people to say thats not right, thats not okay, thats not the reason why we are in the place that we are. And so i think theres a lot of there is a lot of hurt and theres a lot of healing that we need to be responsible for. Yep. And also, carmen, you know, think about i dont believe theres one person on this earth who hasnt been disrespected in some way. Absolutely. And they now that hurts. And it doesnt feel good. Im sure youve been called racial names. Ive been called names. And when you think about that, why would you want somebody else to feel that way. Thats right. And i think that we have to start to get to, you know, the root causes of how those things developed. And we have to have honest conversations. And just, you know, for example, i still have people in my family who make certain comments and use certain, you know, racial slurs that i have to correct. And theyre basically like, well, we always said that. And i dont do it because im mayor. I want to be clear. But i do it because its offensive to the people that claim we respect, right. Its like when you use those terms and you dont understand its not appropriate. Why would you continue to do that. So dont tell me you have a friend who is gay or you have a friend who is chinese and you have a friend who is this and they dont have a problem with it. I dont care. I have a problem with it. Yeah. Because i would be offended if someone used certain comments and words against me. But we have to also educate our Family Members, especially our older Family Members about terminologies that are just not appropriate to say about other people. Yeah. And i think that its absolutely true. I think the more that we can personalize and share with our family what our expectations are and what it means for people, i think the better i think we all grow up with certain experiences and we all have preconceived notions about people and we all have ways to shortcut what we think. But ting what is important that we recognize that they exist, right, that we might have biases that exist. And make sure that they dont drive how we make decisions or they dont drive how it is that we interact with people. I think thats whats really important. Its not to say that any of us are perfect or we dont have biases. But its to recognize that we do. Yeah. To make sure we dont let that motivate us, right. I think as you mentioned, when we have an opportunity to give a different perspective when a Family Member or anyone is making a generalization about a particular community, its to say why do you say that. I dont think thats true. That generalization actually is wrong. What would you think if they said this about our community, right. Its to make sure we kind of do that we continue to grow and evolve. Were in the middle of a global pandemic. No one thought we would be having to deal with Something Like this. Not only that. Were say its where we have conversations and were having a reckoning when it comes to institutional racism, Police Brutality. So i want to know what does it feel like to be mayor of a city like San Francisco during this time. Do you thinking about a woman mayor makes a difference . Oh, my god. Carmen its a big question. I mean, no one can prepare for this kind of thing, you know. Well, ill just say that, you know, im very spiritual. And when i became mayor, even to this very day, based on my circumstances, i still cant believe that someone like me could actually be mayor of San Francisco. It still its almost unreal. I wake up in the morning, its like, yep, youre still mayor. And its still blowing me away. And then when i think about what i have come into and my personal background and my experiences. Talking about creative in times such as this. And that was kind of the message. And because i will say i was in my head wondering whats going on here. You know, is this the end of the world. Like global pandemic. The fires, the unrest, all of the protests, all of this stuff. I was just like, wow. And then our president , right like this is like almost as if im watching a movie. And its not real. But its real. And its our life. And what i realizeif i were not mayor, how would i want to feel. And how would i want my leaders to waive in a way that help to behave in a way that helps reassure me that things will be okay. Yeah. And so thats how ive made the decisions that i have made. And by being completely honest with the public every step of the way. And also letting the public know we dont know what the future holds, which you typically as a politician should not maybe say or people think you should not say. But i think that, you know, we as women, were kind of realists. And we feel strongly about like, for example, your mother, you know, you know how it is where you want to do everything for your kids, but you also have to say, no. We cant. Oh, my gosh. I told you. I dont say no. Im going to get you, ca car. You have to man up. [laughter] but youve got it like but part of saying to our children is to protect them. Yeah. Its part of what is important in our natural this is naturally how we are. Were nurturing people as women in most cases. And we care about doing whats right for folks. And i think that has been a guiding principle for me, because its not easy, of course. And, you know, like, for example, you think that it doesnt hurt my heart to see people sleeping on the ground or its not that i dont like seeing it, it just hurts. Its a human being thats sleeping on the ground. And in my mind i cant help but when we go past and, you know, honestly i pray for them and i also ask god to help give me the strength to be able to do this job and to make things better for people. Its not about the complaints. Its about the need to try and get people to help and the support that they need. So i think, you know, in terms of governing, its just i am doing the best that i can. I am listening to various advisers, but also members of the public with their emails and their comments and their suggestions and trying to make good decisions. Because a lot of people are counting on me. Theyre counting on me. Its not london, its the mayor as a symbol of, you know, the leader of the city. And theyre counting on me to make good decisions, to keep them safe. And so thats how i see my job. And its important to make sure that were doing what were doing. And thats really why when i mean, we cant just do one thing, we have to do a lot of things. And thats why i was like, carmen is one of those people that i respect, as it relates to money management. [laughter] and fiscal responsibility. Shes like bringing in the bread. But also the accountability and everything. Shes the perfect person to help with the economic recovery and what that entails. Plus, on top of that youre very thoughtful in how you think about things. Youre not just thinking about a business, youre thinking about the people because of your family, right. And your experiences growing up and your mom and dad. Youre thinking about those experiences and how they had to struggle. Yeah. And you know what people are going through. And so i guess ill go into my next question my question, my first question to you is, its like as a daughter of immigrants, and a Small Business owners, how did your personal experience shape you as a person and as a leader for a time such as this . Yeah. I mean, i think just going to a point thaw made earlier, when you were talking about, you know, what is it like being kind of a woman leader, too. I dont know i think that when ive seen with you has just been this real collaborate approach. Im not sure that any other elected mayor would have asked another elected person to help do the work that you asked me to do on the Economic Recovery Task force. And i think that says a lot about how you approach things, which is lets bring in people to help be problem solving together. And i really appreciate that, because im not sure that anybody would just do that, right. I think that says volumes. You know, in terms of being, you know, how it is that we approach leadership, especially as you grow up, i think especially for me i saw my parents really struggle, right. I was a young girl, i never saw my parents. I was a latchkey kid. My mom and dad were working every single day. They would go to work, id be at school already, they wouldnt come home until after i went to sleep. I really rarely saw my parents. And i think seeing how hard they worked, its its a symbol of sort of how hard it is for a lot of Small Businesses to make it and to survive. And i think seeing how they struggled, seeing how they were discriminated against because they had an accent or how people didnt street them the right way when they went in to ask for help, because they couldnt say it right or had an accent, that really hurt me. When i think about Public Service and the things i hope to do, its to really try to create opportunities for people and make sure that Everybody Knows that theyre worthy. It doesnt matter where they come from or how much they have or how they can speak. Theyre worthy as individuals. And then i think now especially as a young mother, too, i love my daughter so much. Shes really changed i think my perspective and, you know, my patience. And i realize that, you know, when i see the love that i have for her, hurts me to think that there are other kids who dont have the same support, who potentially are going hungry, who dont have the same opportunities to succeed. And that hurts me. Because i just turn that around and say, what would i feel if that was for my daughter. What would i feel if she didnt have the chance to be loved, to be fed, to feel safe, to feel like she could be whatever she wanted to be. That kind of feeling helps me today. Keep on making sure that you create opportunities, that you help people have a job, that you can support families the best that you can. You know, were not going to be perfect. And i like when she said earlier about being honest with people about where our problems are. We should tell folks, lets be honest, heres where we have problems. Heres what i need help with doing. Heres what the city needs to do to pull things together. And were not perfect. But this is what im going to do about it, right. I think its important to tell people that, because, you know, in terms of leadership, its really important to be transparent with people, because you lose the integrity, you lose the only thing that you have going for you, which is, you know, what you represent and what you say. Are you going to say the things you say youre going to do. Are you going to do the things that you say, right. If you lose that, you lose integrity, you lose peoples trust. I think thats really embedded from the lessons that my parents have taught me. But i think also again i think just being someone who, you know, feels, who is a mother, who kind of sees the struggle that my parents went through, i dont want to see that for other people. I want to do everything i can to change that. So i think being on the Economic Recovery Task force, i think about that every single day. I think what can we do as a city to help to save that one more business, save that job, so that people have the chance to be stable, you know. And have opportunities. What do we need to do to make sure that actually kids are not going to fall behind. Like you know the Distance Learning is what were doing right now, its a travesty to not provide education to our young kids, who will fall further behind if we dont get it right, if we just dont figure out a way. I think those are the things that really just drive me as a leader, to say what are those struggles that people feel, that i know from my own background that can really help to change things. I think you and i have the same experience. It really drives us. Yeah. I think it kind of goes back to i think about the conversations you and i have had, where, you know, we are kind of commiserating over something really terrible happening, like something that was just like ridiculous that was happening in politics. You know, politics is tough because despite the best intentions sometimes, things get said a different way, its represented in a way thats different. Sometimes things are just really hard. So im curious to hear from you about what is, you know, what is it about your life or your experiences that helped to motivate you, when things are hard . You know, because being mayor you get a lot of criticism for things that you can control and things that you cant control, right. And, you know, how do you deal with that . And what kind of keeps you centered . Well, just think about it, carmen, can you imagine the fact that you and i both came up under some of the most challenging of circumstances that wed ever be in positions like this. Yeah. It starts with that, number one. Number two, as hard as things are now, things were worse when i was a kid in terms of my life experience. So when i tell people like i grew up in public housing, i didnt just grow up there, i had every single experience directly in my household family situation, where when you talk about domestic violence, when you talk about drugs, prostitution, grandma raising me, criminal Justice System, mentally ill. All of these things welfare, food stamps, you know, clothing with holes in them and Everything Else and criticism and fights and drama and lack of access to things. Anything that anyone probably talks about, that they care about in terms of helping people in, you know, the most challenging of circumstances, i probably experienced it directly in my household. And the reason why in some circumstances i dont into depth about some of those really tragic stories is because out of respect too my Family Members. Respect for my Family Members. Out of respect for not putting all of their business out there, because im the one in the limelight. And i dont want to expose them to, you know, challenges. Im able to talk about my sister, who died from a drug overdose, because of how it impacted me personally, you know. I talk about my brother, because my brother was okay that i talk about his unfortunate situations. You know, but, you know, like just experiences that i had, when i think about, you know, like being a kid in the midst of those challenges and not being able to escape that world, you know, i just you know, that is really what drives me. Because i know that my experience is not unique. What is unique that im in a position like this, coming out of those circumstances. And this is why this work is so important to me, because i know that there are other young, talented people out there that just need a chance. They need a chance. They need a support system. So as challenging as a time that were having right now, and as much criticism and i may receive it pales in comparison to what i experienced growing up. Thats why i feel confident about my strength and my ability to take on a role like this. Because i feel like i was prepared to be in a situation like this. Its so interesting because yes, its hard, yes, sometimes its frustrating. And there are setbacks and disappointments and struggles associated with this work, but i feel optimistic about our ability to really make a difference. A mayor would ask another elected official to, you know, its not just that i asked you, its just i also have to listen to what youre advice is, even if i disagree with it. Part of that is really how i work, because its not just about me. I feel like its important, as a leader, that you bring other people along and youre prepared to listen, it doesnt just have to be your way or the highway. And so i think my experience of growing up and seeing how infective that kind of approach has been and how it had a negative impact on people that grew up like me is why i do this. Because i want to change things genuinely. The only way youre able to do that is by making sure youre making good decisions and youre always keeping in mind the people that were here to serve. So i want to go back i know, you know, were talking about our various experiences. But i just want to jump in, because when you first became a member of the board of supervisors, you were the only asian woman to serve at that time. Yeah. And i just want to know how did it feel to be on the board . Because the board of supervisors right now is a hot mess. And theres always a lot of drama, you know, i served on the board, too. But there were other women. You left me. [laughter] i was like, no, carmen, dont leave me. I went downstairs. But tell me when you first started, because you werent trying to run for office. You werent trying to be in politics. You were just dealing with the money and the finances and trying to do your job. Tell me what that was like for you. Yeah, i think for me, you know, im by nature im probably more of an introvert than anything, you know. I think people kind of like you are . How can you be a politician. By nature thats what i was. My parents were always like, youre so shy, are you ever going to make it in this world. Are you going to hide behind me all the time, right, when i was younger. We all kind of learn and we grow. You know, i had been in the mayors Budget Office for gavin newsom at this time. I enjoyed the policy work behind the scenes and getting down to the nuts and bolts of things. At the end of the day, when we talk about policy, ultimately when you want to look attack priorities of a city and the values of the city, you see where the money is spent. Because that matters, right. Where you put your resources matters and it speaks about the values that we have as a city. And so that was really kind of where i started. And then i think overnight mayor newsom, at the time, appointed me to be a member of the board. And it was it was under a cloud of challenges in the asian communities, right it was. It was then when the supervisor of district 4 was under investigation. I remembering about the only asian supervisor at that time. Its a heavy kind of burden in a way, because you feel like you have to represent all of the chinese community, all of the Asian Community, right. And what does that mean . Because our community is so diverse, right. I cant possibly represent the perspective of every single person. But it felt very heavy. And i asked myself why am i the only asianamerican in the city, where we have such a large population, right. The other thing weighing heavy on me at the time, and played out during the election, a lot of people were basically saying that i didnt have sort of the right to be the representative, because i wasnt born in San Francisco, right. And there was nothing that more kind of offended me than that, to think that if i wasnt born here, so if i was an immigrant or if i was someone who had moved here, but cared a lot about the city, that i didnt have an equal right or i shouldnt have a voice, offended me to the soul. Because it kind of just said, what does that mean about my parents who emigrated here and worked so hard. Are you saying they dont have a right to participate or have a voice also, right. I remember when i was running, it was under this cloud of, well, are all asian politicians corrupt, you know, because it wasnt just there were a few other issues that had happened. I think it was just this feeling of needing to make sure that i comported myself that was above and beyond, to make sure i left no doubt that thats not the all asianmachineries behaved, all asianamericans behaved. Make sure that you are representing in a way that you leave room for people to come behind you, right. I didnt want to be an example of yet another asianamerican politician who was disappointing the community, right. And so i think it was just it was a big challenge because theres so much kind of going on at the same time. But im happy that we have since that time have had many more folks rise and be elected. And i think we need to continue to support that. So i think the work that we can do to continue to mentor young people and especially young women i think is really, really important. Because i think sometimes people just need to see that its possible. You know, i said that to you before, right, too. You know when someone sees that as someone who went through all of the hardship that you went through, who grew up facing all of the challenges that you did, were able to was able to become the mayor, thats inspiring, right. Just that example and just seeing that is inspiring. For someone to say im looking at carmen and im that shy kid who no one really paid maybe that much attention to. But she can become an elected person and do good things, too. Thats inspiring, too. Those are the examples we need to show is that not all leadership styles are the same. But we can all succeed as leaders, right. And so i think thats something that has been imprinted in me, ive kind of realizing this. Yes. Im sorry. Go ahead. A really good point about where, you know, different styles of leaders, right. And i like that. But we both have very, you know, unique backgrounds that have, you know, involved struggle in some capacity. I think it also developed it also helps us to develop a appreciation and respect for one another as well, which i think is also important in the world of politics. How we treat each other, even in the midst of our disagreementses, its so important, because thats one of thing Biggest Challenges that we face. And when we have disagreements and we start to do the personal attacks and some of the other lies and other things, it just doesnt set a good example i think for young generations. Were just as bad what we see happening in the white house with we go that route. Thats right. I want to ask you a personal question, but a fun one, which is what is something that no one knows about you . A fun fact. Okay. A fun fact. One of my absolute favorite shows that i watch all the time, people would not believe it, its fraser. [laughter] i love fraser because, listen, this is a tough job. You know how like at night, i try not to watch the news or nothing too serious before i go to bed. And most of the time and i just kind of to laugh and smile or do something more happy, i watch fraser. So i have to admit, my guilty pleasure is watching korean dramas. Those romantic dramas. Love them. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. I just and i love out loud a lot of times when im watching fraser. All my by myself normally. [laughter] that would probably surprise a lot of people. So kind of getting back to a bunch of encouraging, this idea about encouraging women to participate. You know, i want to know what do you think about what would you say to someone on the fence about participating . And if someone is thinking about running for office or wanting to do something where they get on a commission or Something Like that, how what do you think people need to do to prepare for that experience. What would you say to those women . Well, what i would say is when you feel something, when you want to do something, then you should go for it. Part of what you want to make sure is you do your homework to prepare. That you know exactly what whatr roles and responsibilities are and the position that youre going for, whether its a request to me to be a member of a board or a commission, that i have the ability to make appointments for. Or if you decide to run for Public Office. You know, when i decided to run for supervisor, i wanted to be a good supervisor for the people of the district i represent, where i grew up in. And so that entailed making sure i knew how to do policy and legislation and i understand how the process worked and the city worked. And the good news id been on commissions and other places. So i understood it. But i actually went back to school late in life, before i ran, to get my masters in public administration. And i ended up graduating from u. S. F. With honors, because i was committed to making sure that i was the best policymaker for the people that i represented. And im not suggesting that you do that. Its just that whatever role you want to play, you set your sights on that role and you make sure that youre prepared to take it on and all that it entails. And unfortunately in the world of politics, and in the world of Public Service, it also comes with its fair share of criticism. And i think its going to its really important that you have thick skin. And its important that you have ill tell you i made some mistakes along the way. Because, you know, i want to be honest. Im a girl from the projects. Dont come for me unless you want me to come for you. So i have made some mistakes early on where i have cursed some people out and did some things. And what i had to realize is if i want to represent people, it cant be about me any more. So i cant do what i typically would do if its just me, when im entering the world of politics. So i had to grow a lot in the position. Part of it is just really making sure that you make yourself into the best person you can be. You just the best job you can be and you remember youre there representing other people. Dont let yourself get in the way of that. I agree. And i think, you know, i second that point that you make about sort of making sure that youre prepared and know what is required of you. And i think its also about being prepared to make hard choices. Yes. Because its easy to kind of just fall with the rhetoric, where the wind is blowing. Its really hart not to go hard not to go in that direction. People ask us to be leaders to say based on what you know and where you want to do for community, is this the right choice or is it not. Sometimes may not be convenient, right. It may just be the thing that is not the most popular thing that people want you to do. But you think its the right call. I think its important. I think two other things that you mentioned earlier, i think is really important. Optimism. If youre not somewhat optimistic about being able to make change, politics and Public Office isnt for you. Because youve got to be tenacious, you have to believe that you can do something. Its easy to get discouraged if you dont. A story of tenacity. I dont know if you remember, london, you and i were on a trip to israel, right before the mayor made an appointment to the district 5 seat. Do you remember this . Yes, yes. And i remember so, you know, ultimately the mayor ended up appointing someone else, right. And london still ran, right. Shes like well, im still going to run. I still want to do this. She ended up winning, right. I remember on that trip i remember seeing you. You were like whats going to happen. She was thinking about it the whole time. Even though we were looking at different things, learn being, you know, the diaspora. She was tenacious and wanted to do the job. Because it came across, right. Those a few other things. You have to be optimistic that you can make change and be reallying to work hard. The changes that are really worthwhile, are hard to get to. Yeah. It just want to add. I know we have to wrap it up, i see your communications person. I just want to add that you also i think it is important that you are really prepared to make the hard decisions. And at the end of the day, when you make that, is the right decision, not for your political career, is it the right decision for the people you represented. Never lose sight of that. Yeah. There were a lot of things that i supported that no other candidates supported when i ran for mayor. And people were trying to tell me to change my position. I said but thats not fair to the public. They need to know who i am as a person and the kinds of decisions that im going to make. And thats whats so critical. Dont change who you are to fit into it. Thats where sometimes people go wrong because of what they see in the political climate. Yeah. Totally agree. Because ultimately something has to ground you, right. The things that we talked about, about the things that motivate us to do good, if you keep on changing what that is, im not sure you industrial a direction any more, right. Totally. I really enjoyed our conversation. Thank you. Its been a lot of fun chatting with you. And really just kind of i think it offered people a really unique look into how you think about things and, you know, i think its a great opportunity to just highlight, you know, an amazing job youre doing. Thank you for all of your leadership, especially during a hard time and for joining us. And with that im going to turn it over to vivian so that she can help us wrap up. Thank you, madam mayor. Thank you, madam assessor, for such a great conversation. I really hate to interrupt and come in and end it. It was such a great conversation for all of your stories and sharing your thoughts and the passion behind running for offices. Those are really great lessons for us to learn. So at this point i also want to just quickly go into our tour w challenge 2020. As you may all know, that ever since the w challenge has launched, we have been creating a new challenge every year to uplift women. Also trying to encourage more women to vote, especially for this upcoming election, its so important for all of us. Were going to be running a tenweek social Media Campaign starting from today and all the way up to the election day. We have 100 women from the past century that we have selected. They are local, they are great. Theyve been part of all of the Suffrage Movement, as well as other social Justice Movements as well. So we encourage everyone to go on our website. Im going to be quickly going into it, sharing it on our screen right here. If you go to that home page, all you need to do is to click on the 100 years of Women Leaders here. Then you can read about the details of our campaign. But basically you just need to select two to three women each week and feature on your preferred social media platforms, wchallenge and encourage more women to do that. So were hoping that by uplifting these stories, we are able to encourage more women to vote and take leadership. Just in honor of all of these women that were before us and all that they have done to grant the right that we have today. So thank you so much for everyone who is joining us. We are inviting our partners as well, alison go, president of the league of women voters San Francisco here to give us the final remarks to end todays celebration. Thank you. Alison, the stage is yours. Thanks. Thank you for having me today. I am so touched and really energized to hear the stories and experiences of madam assessor and mayor breed. You know, both as a young woman and an immigrant, really thank you for really your leadership in sharing these moments with us. Thank you for everybody who helped plan this amazing event today. I know normally we would be on the steps of city hall. This is pretty great to hear everyones stories. I can feel the energy throughout San Francisco and a huge thank you to our volunteers kathy bar, who really helped to put this together, on behalf of the league as well. My name is alison go. Im the president of the league of women voters of San Francisco. Were a nonpartisan, volunteerrun organization focused on nonpartisan Voter Education and advocacy efforts here in San Francisco. You know, this election is unlike any election before and unprecedented challenges. Every single time we hear this is the most important election yet. Actually its true this time. And with covid19, the state of california has naile mailed y single voter a battle. This is really, really great. Many of our fellow san franciscans may not be used to the voting process and theres a lot of misinformation out there on how to get the ballot, how to transmit the ballot and election security. First step, making sure youre registered to vote. If youre already registered, youll automatically receive your ballot during the first two weeks of october. And if youre not registered or if youve moved recently or maybe changed your name, you need to reregister. Remember that the Voter Registration deadline is octobe. You can register to vote or reregister on our website at. Wehavelinkstoallofthesethings. And then again if if youre not sure of the voter status and you want to double check sometimes, you can double check the Voter Registration online, same site. You can check what address they have on file to make sure you get your ballot on time. If all of this seems like a lot to remember, go to lwvsf. Org and help make your plan to vote, whether its mailing your ballot in, dropping it off downtown at the auditorium or even dropping it off at your local polling location, just make sure that your vote is counted this november. The league also puts out a lot of nonpartisan voting material. For example, our proand cons guide offers an eas easy to read ballot measure. The guide is budge put togetn many languages to reflect the community in San Francisco. Next month were hosting candidate forums for several of the board of supervisors races. Specifically district 1, 7, and 11. These are free, theyre going to be open for the public. We will broadcast these over zoom and well post them afterwards on our youtube page and theyll be broadcast over at sfgovtv. Org. Thanks to our partnership with them. And guess what, these with always be found on our website on the vote page. The page will be updated throughout the fall, as more of our materials come out. There will be a really great onestop portal for all of this information. So thank you for having me. These next nine weeks, lets get our friends, family, neighbors, colleagues to commit to vote. And make sure that they have a plan to vote, whether its inperson or with the mailin ballot. Please go to wchallenge. Org, especially the women here today. Thank you for having me and please stay up to date on everything the league is doing. You can follow us on facebook or on twitter. Or whic by visiting us on the website. I just saw in chat we have a series of events coming up also. 5 00 today i believe the league is having a partnership with the Mechanics Library and also talking about the Suffrage Movement and tomorrow in partnership with the public library, the neighborhood history project is also having a presentation about the first suffrage march that is happening and was led by a san franciscan from glen park. So stay tuned. You can also visit wchallenge. Org under events to check out those activities that are ongoing. So thank you again for everyone. This concludes our virtual celebration of womens equality day 2020 today. Thank you very much. Hi everyone, thank you for joining us today for the Panel Discussion on the covid recovery. I am your moderator today, megan, the policy share for the San Francisco womens political committee. I would like to welcome our panelists carmen chu, joey jackson morgan, and veronica shepherd. Thank you for being here today. I would like to open up the discussion with a question. Please introduce yourself and tell our audience what you are currently working on the covid issues in your field. We can start with carmen. So good afternoon everybody, so glad to join all of you today for this great panel. I want to thank you megan for helping to host this and making sure this important conversation comes forward. I serve as San Francisco elected assessor. Like many of you, we had to quickly change to a remote work scenario with our office when we had the shelter place be put in place in march. We were able to do that relatively quickly and 98 of our operations is happening off site and not in person. Weve been working hard to make sure we try to continue to do our work, primarily because we know that the revenue impact of our work has been very, very large and disperse impact to the city, from the types of programs were able to support people with us specially during covid19. Were continuing to do that. I think on another note, i think i also serve as the Economic Recovery Task forces cochair, so very much excited to speak to you about the work of the task force coming up in our additional conversations and the last thing ill say in terms of introduction is that im a brand new mother of a 14yearold i mean 14monthold, not year old, but she is growing very quickly and i think more than anything i really am truly seeing and appreciating what it means to be part of a working family, especially during covid19 because there are so many different challenges associated with worklife balance among other things. I want to recognize that i consider myself in a very fortunate place because i have my health, i have a job, and i think that is so much more than a lot of people are facing at this moment. I think we always have to count our blessings in terms of things we do have and recognize that there are many people who need much more in terms of help than where we are. Im happy to be part of this conversation and i look forward to hearing from the co speakers today as well. Thank you. Thank you ca