Transcripts For SFGTV SFCTA Full Authority TIMMA Board 20240712

Supervisor ronen present. Supervisor safai present. Supervisor stefani present. Supervisor walton present. Yee absent, we have quorum. I would like to make an announcement about Public Comment. Public comment is available for each item on the agenda, via telephone by calling 14156550001 and when prompted entering access code, 146 226 7339. Once you join, you will be able to listen to the meeting as a participant. To make Public Comment on the item when the item is called, dial star 3 to be added to the queue to speak. The operator will advise that you will be allowed two minutes to speak. When the two minutes are up, well move on to the next caller. Calls are taken in the order which they are received. Best practices is to speak slowly, clearly and turn down audio around you. That concludes my announcement. Supervisor peskin thank you. Could you read the next item. Item 2, chairs report. This is information item. Supervisor peskin ill be brief. By congratulating our Regional Transit partners at bart on winning an extraordinary federal grant in the amount of 1. 2 billion, thats with a b, billion dollars for their core capacity program. And this grant is the largest that bart has ever received and will fund the purchase of over 250 additional rail cars, a new communicationsbased train control system, a new railcar storage yard and enhanced power substations in San Francisco as well as the east bay. Together, these investments will grow train frequency and capacity by 50 . Improving the service for millions of riders for many decades to come. Weve seen firsthand how impactful direct lobbying for critical federal funds is with projects like the central subway and the caltrain electrification. I want to thank two of our bart representatives for going to our Nations Capital to advocate for these funds alongside bart staff. And that would be i want to appreciate chair simon and my former colleague director duffy and bob powers and his team. And thank you so much to our federal delegation, as well as barbara east from the east bay for their support of this multiyear effort. Just yesterday, we saw the next phase of opening our economy with the resumption of lowrisk indoor and outdoor activities. And we hope everyone continues to travel with care and follow Public Health orders and sfmta protocols to maintain distancing and, of course, wear facial coverings. Many are enjoying walking and buying on the slow streets. A final funding approval is on our agenda today and supporting our local Small Businesses through the citys shared Spaces Program that was pioneered in north beach and with that, colleagues, i conclude my remarks. Are there any Public Comments on the chairs report . Clerk there is no. Supervisor peskin seeing none, Public Comment is closed. Well go on to the executive director report. Ms. Chang . Good morning. Can everyone hear me all right . We can hear you. Thank you, chair, for again congratulating our partners at bart that is a tremendous effort. Congratulations again to the whole organization. And also in the federal front, i wanted to update the board that this coming september 30th does mark the expiration of the federal fiscal year and the federal transportation bill known as the fast act which is the multiyear bill weve been working under. And while the house did pass its proposal to renew the act, the senate has not yet responded. So we dont expect that to be taken up until the next congress, but, however, on monday, the house did announcement a continuing resolution that would continue the funding for another year to september 2021 at current funding levels. This is critical, but by no means is this adequate for many of our transportation systems, including public transportation. We need congress and the administration to Work Together to continue covid relief for transportation, particularly transit across the country. As well, i wanted to note another piece of good news, turning back to the bart topic, that is a new grant that we received notice that San Francisco received for the 5th street Improvement Project. Its been awarded a 420,000 grant in the first round of the bart program. This is a subprogram of measure r. R. As youll recall we approved a few years ago. This is barts bond program and is spend intended to fund projects. This would be for the portion between townsend market to townsend and would include vehicle lane reductions, protected bikeways and our prop k and double a funds will continue to leverage the bart grants, transit boarding islands an restriping. Sfmtas request for funds will be presented in the october Board Meeting. Thats another piece of great news. Thank you to bart for that grant. As i turn over to the regional picture, mtc, wanted to mention that tomorrow the commission will be acting on the final blueprint, which is the federalregional strategy, investments and policies designed to help our region achieve our equity, housing and climate goals. And we want to thank our mtc and abag commissioners for their engagement in the process, as well as our city agencies and representatives on the bodies. Particularly, supervisor ronen, thank you for advocating for more equitable policies, including discounts for the toll programs on the Regional Express lanes network and for the first time on the freeway in addition to the transit. We have these meansbased toll pilots in the region. I want to recognize our team, the chief deputy director. Together theyve worked hard over the past year and a half really to support all of our agencies and San Francisco reps and partner agencies. I want to thank you all for your support as we track this project to its final approval, environmental clearance stage next year, and move into the implementation planning phase this winter. Staying on the regional theme, we wanted to report out some data that our data team is tracking on regional budget volumes. You might have seen this reported on the local news. As you know, in march, as covid shelterinplace was instituted, Traffic Congestion virtually disappeared over night, but in the summer months we see that bridge volumes returned to 75 to 80 of precovid levels. This increase has been uneven with the northern bridges and bay bridge seeing returns of 7580 , really in that range, however some of the south bay and peninsula bridges remaining in the 50 level. 5060 level. And were surmising with the regional partners, the area toll authority, these differences could be the different employment basis in different parts of the region. With the Technology Industry workers more easily able to work from home than other industry workers. And so you in my report, which you can see online, youll find a graphic that demonstrates these trends, the Traffic Volume as a percentage of precovid across the seven bay area bridges overlaid on top of the share of workers who we estimate are able to work from home in the north bay, the central bay and the south bay. So, please, let us know if you have questions on that. Its just a note for your information we continue to track these trends to establish a covid baseline for traffic modelling and our transportation studies. On the local level, in addition to the announcement that chair mentioned about thursday and s. F. Transit week, the 59 of october. I want to mention a few studies and provide updates. Our ocean beech Steering Committee met last week. I was joined by commissioner mar and several directors and staff with the National Park service and all the folks along the ocean beach lower segment to discuss the critical and related improvements for the ocean beach Climate Adaptation project. Safety improvements at a great highway boulevard connection. And, of course, our Transportation Authority District Board mobility study at the request of supervisor mar. All of these are interrelated and theyre advancing. Its complicated. We have some federal funds we must make sure to retain and apply as that picture continues to evolve. Now we have the Planning Department just release notice of preparation for the Environmental Impact report for its ocean beach Climate Change adaptation project. Just want to let the public know there is an updated proposal and its been released in terms of the n. O. P. , the environmental notice for that study. And includes several pieces of traffic and transportation circulation. Were happy to bring it and update to you at one of your future meetings. At the local level, the octavia Improvement Study is under way at the request of commissioner preston. Its focusing on survey, seeking interim transportation, uses and challenges, by not just the local study area or the extended study, but really citywide. Everyone really uses that whole system. Its a regional connection. Its a local, of course, network as well. And through the b5 study well identify in the survey, recommend eventually a list of projects to address safety and accessibility in the neighborhood as well as regional access. And this week will released a webbased and textbased survey, check out the website for more information. Its the octavia Improvement Study. Well also be reaching out to neighborhood and Community Groups, businesses and residents in the hayes valley and citywide upon request. Our downtown congestion pricing is in outreach mode. You may have seen our online and textbased messages. Thank you for those of you who included them in your news letter. Take the game we have called unfog the city. Weve presented to 40 Community Groups who are working very hard, some cases, two or three meetings a week, to reach neighborhoods and groups, community roundtable, which we were grateful to appear before, the Vision Zero Task force, and many, many more. The project team has also hosted Community Presentations with the mission, sf Interface Council and walk sf, which has conducted its own study and will be presenting results in the bayview, tenderloin and client at our Vision Zero Committee on september 29. Please stay tuned for that. Finally turning to project delivery. Lots to report. Caltrain has nominated a Bicycle Safety project on 13th street to receive funds under a new complete streets program. This is 100 million statewide program that ctc has approved and is ultimately selected the section between valencia and fulsome, right there it is hairy and the entrance areas will be improved. We look forward to getting confirmation of this, but its very good news. If so, we have longterm improvements, lane reductions, protected bikeways and upgrades. With that, im happy to take any questions to conclude my report. Supervisor peskin thank you, ms. Chang. Any questions for our executive director . Seeing none, thank you for that thorough update. Are there any members of the public who would like to testify on the executive directors report . Yes, there is Public Comment. First, speaker, please. Good morning, caller, your two minutes begins now. Good morning, can you hear me . Supervisor peskin yes, we can. Good morning, its david pilpel. Very extensive report, very comprehensive. Just wanted to mention i didnt actually hear it on the better Market Street project. I understand that a finding of Significant Impact was issued in the last couple of weeks on that which i think is significant. Also the better Market Street project. I also noted since last weeks Board Meeting ran long and you werent able to hear the federal and state legislation update, im wondering in is any important federal or state legislation that the board or the public should be aware of, particularly sacramento, given that the governor has until the end of the month to sign the bills from this session . Thats all for now. Supervisor peskin thank you for Public Comment. Any other speakers . Yes, there is, hold on, please. Good morning, supervisors. Roland. Through the chair, a very quick question. Given that this report was so extensive, i was wondering if it would be possible in the future for the director to post the report at the start of the meeting so that the members of the public can review it. Supervisor peskin thank you. Any other speakers for Public Comment on the executive directors report . There is no more Public Comment. Supervisor peskin Public Comment is closed. And director chang will post her comments, so mr. Lebrun it should be posted every month. If folks can check the website. Supervisor peskin there you go. Thank you, madame executive director. To the previous speaker, as mr. Pilpel is quite aware, pursuant to the law this is not a dialogue, but his comments have been noted w. That, can you read the Consent Agenda . Friendly reminder to keep the camera off, because it causes technical glitches if there is more than nine on. Item 4 is the concept agenda. 5 through 11 were approved and now are before the board for final approval. Staff is not planning to present, but is available for questions. Supervisor peskin is there any Public Comment on the approval of the minutes from september 15. There is Public Comment. Supervisor peskin first speaker, please. Hello, colleagues. Can you hear me now . We can hear you, mr. Pilpel. This is with regard to the approval of the minutes. Thats correct. Its actually on the minutes. Page 11 on Public Comment from last week, the third line should read be discussed in addition not in additional. About four lines down, the first day of the restart of rail service, looks like there is an extra space in there. The next line after that, all of the overhead lights should be singular, not plural. On page 11, there are references to jamie parks, the director with sfmta, which are fine. I see at the bottom of page 11 it refers to mr. Parks as jamie and perhaps that should be consistently read as mr. Parks and not jamie. Those are my suggested changes to the draft minutes from last week. Thanks very much. Supervisor peskin thank you. Any additional Public Comments on the approval of the minutes from september 15. There are no more callers. Supervisor peskin okay, Public Comment is closed. Colleagues, i would like to and thank you to the speaker make the correction to change additional to in addition and remove said space. We will remain with the colloquial jamie instead of mr. Parks. On that motion, is there a second . Second, mandelman. Supervisor peskin seconded by vice chair mandelman and on that, a roll call, please. On the Consent Agenda, commissioner fewer . Aye. Commissioner haney . Aye. Commissioner mandelman . Aye. Commissioner mar . Aye. Commissioner peskin . Reluctantly, aye. Preston aye. Ronen aye. Safai aye. Stefani aye. Walton aye. Yee aye. There are 11 ayes. Consent agenda has final approval. Supervisor peskin no, no, the item number 4 is amended and now we will take item 4 as amended and the balance of the Consent Agenda. I making that motion. Is there a second on that motion . Second, mandelman. Supervisor peskin seconded by voice chair mandelman. On item 4 as amended and the balance of the Consent Agenda, a roll call, please. Yes. Item as amended. Supervisor fewer aye. Supervisor haney aye. Supervisor mandelman aye. Supervisor mar aye. Supervisor peskin aye. Supervisor ronen aye. Supervisor safai aye. Supervisor preston aye. Supervisor stefani aye. Supervisor walton aye. President yee aye. The Consent Agenda as amended has approval. Supervisor peskin those items are approved. Could you read item number 12 . Item 12, van ness bus Rapid Transit update. This is an information item. Supervisor peskin thank you, madame clerk. I believe that all of us, because so many districts come together along van ness from supervisor haneys district to supervisor stefanis district to supervisor prestons district to the district that i represent, and i think many of us traverse that corridor whether on Public Transit or other means of transportation and have seen the evolution, albeit a little behind schedule, of the bus Rapid Transit project that was fishes initially first initiated by then executive director of sfcta moscovitch some 20 years ago and now together with a lot of work that nobody can see, because it is below ground, has been moving forward with massive lane changes in recent days. And with that, i will turn it over to sfmta who has a present for us. Good morning and thank you for joining us. And thank you for slogging through what i know is a very, very difficult project and i promise to keep my expressions of frustration to a minimum. Good morning, chair peskin and commissioners, thank you for the opportunity to present. Let me pull up the presentation. Can everybody see that . Yes. Okay, ill move forward. Okay. The van ness Improvement Project is working along one of the citys premiere boulevards. Its a critical street for Civic Affairs and for regional transportation. Its part of highway 101. We are building the first bus Rapid Transit system within the city of San Francisco as well as doing complete infrastructure upgrade from Property Line to Property Line along van ness avenue. At the completion of this project, we expect to have significant improvements in travel time and reliability. We have dealt with the covid crisis. We expect our ridership to increase by up to 35 , all of this with these improvements, will lead to actual cost savings on a perpassenger basis. So well be carrying more people for less costs. More quickly and efficiently along van ness avenue. For those who are not entirely familiar with bus Rapid Transit, the most obvious feature is the red lanes, but in addition to the red lanes, less obvious feature is distinguish it from exclusive transit lanes are transit signal priority and dedicated boarding islands which will increase the efficiency of the buses moving up and down the corridor. These lanes will be exclusively used for the form of transportation in the form of muni buses and transit buses connecting downtown San Francisco with the north. There will also be available emergency vehicles, which will actually have the ability to use traffic signal preemptoion to gt a clear run through van ness avenue for their work. In addition to that, we are putting in new bus shelters, new pedestrian crossings, signals, signage and striping to generally improve Pedestrian Safety along the corridor and brand new streetlighting which will improve the visibility and Pedestrian Safety at night. This Cross Section shows what weve been focusing on. The areas in blue are primarily the underground work that chair peskin referred to. We have found that 15, 20 feet underground and with the installation of the new streetlights going up 25 feet in the air, were putting in new sidewalks and new roadways, so were going from Property Line to Property Line along the length of the corridor. Im happy to say were wrapping up the utility work and moving into the actual transit portion of the project. The portion in the middle of the road, which is the running ways and new boarding islands and shelters, new overhead lines and planted median. To date, the project is approximately 57 complete. Weve laid just over 25,000 linear feet. We are just short of 25,000 linear feet of the water work. We upgraded the emergency auxiliary supply system for use in firefighting along the length of the corridor. And have installed just short of 12,000 linear feet of power, communications, lines for the sfmta and other city departments as well. All of this has been going on along a very busy corridor, right in front of city hall, which every effort to coordinate with. And not only city hall, but the opera house and the symphony and the other major civic venues along van ness avenue. Currently, as i said, were moving into the center lanes. Were starting to build the red transit only lanes. Were bringing in the new planted medians. The boarding islands and new transit shelters. Weve taken advantage of some of the drops in traffic caused by the covid19 crisis and moved as much work as possible to daytime hours. Right now i believe the only night work that we have on the schedule is the last of the water work, which should be wrapping up. That is done because we dont want to interrupt Peoples Water Service in the middle of the day. The largest challenge and weve been working closely with our contractor to maintain social distancing and make sure everyone has proper safety equipment, but to date with covid, the challenge has been a shortage of type 2 cement used for roadway work. This is a problem in the supply chain that affects california as a whole. Were working with a contractor to prevent this from having Significant Impact on the schedule, but its affecting all Major Projects in the state right now. Ill go through this first slide relatively quickly. This is a history where we were working alongside the outside of the roadway. The areas in orange and red show places where we have active construction going on. That work is finishing now and moving into what were calling phase 2, where were transitioning from the outside of the roadway to the middle. You can see well be taking up large sections of the median. We have to take parking lanes on the outside of those median construction zones so that we can continue to move traffic down the corridor. But as soon as the work is wrapped up, were putting those lanes back, including the traffic, and it will be its final configuration after the construction of the project. Again, sewer and water work and the duct bank work is finished. There is a fair amount of sidewalk work that is left to be done along the corridor. But that work can go on in conjunction with the median travel lane work that is going on. And will be wrapped up in the near future. To keep everybody abreast of some of the challenges of the project. We had a total of seven claims from the contractor totalling just under 10 million in value. Weve negotiated for the first three supervisor peskin peter, wasnt there an early claim about 20 million in size relative to sewer work . So those are claims 1 and 2. The original claim was around 20 million in hey, guys. How you doing . All right, what is going on. Sasha. Yes, put yourself on mute. Sorry about that, sir. The first claim the first two claims are 20 million in total value. The final settlement was 4. 8 and change. And so that claim has been settled and the contract has been written and signed. Supervisor peskin so about 25 cents on the dollar. Yes. Thats correct. There was initial third claim for additional potholing work because of the conflicts we were encountering. I forget what the original claim was, but the settled amount was 1. 7 million. Claim number 4 is for additional pedestrian monitoring to help control the volume of pedestrians around the construction site and keep people from wandering into our construction site. Supervisor peskin the 2. 6 is the face value of the claim . That is ive got it listed as pending because we havent written and signed the final contract mod, but that is the settled amount. Supervisor peskin got it. Okay. Weve agreed between and, yeah, this was a discussion what value we should put down, but i went with 2. 6 because between walsh and city, we greed on 2. 6 million, that is all the pedestrian monitoring for about 1. 5 and then 1. 1 million that is moving forward to get us to the end of construction. Supervisor peskin peter, was that not in the original budget . We did not have a line item for pedestrian monitoring after our experiences on third street and other places, central subway, where weve had pedestrian monitoring, that was not in the original scope . So, a peek behind the occur taken. When walsh was first brought on board and we were negotiating because this was a cmgc construction manager general contractor contract negotiated the construction amount with walsh. Pedestrian monitors were discussed in negotiations. However, the various parties involved felt that we could do the work with just the flaggers that were required. In the end, we were mistaken on that and it was determined that we needed to put in Additional Support for those flaggers. So, yes, it should have been accounted for. Supervisor peskin you would have think we would have learned that off third street, off central subway, unconscionable, but whatever, it would have been a larger number in the beginning, but, okay. Next item. The next three items are still in negotiation. Were not close to it. Third Party Utility coordination is kind of compromised of the conflicts we had. There was some question as to sewer cleaning and whether that was required in the contract or not required. And finally, 9,000 claim for having to adjust man holes. So those are supervisor peskin those are the face values of the claims . Those are the face values of the claims. Supervisor peskin got it. So the 2. 6 is real. The other half Million Dollars well be no more than that, but potentially less than that depending on the settlements. And are there any potential future claims that you are aware of . There are no we have a change order request in our hands from a contractor that covers the balance of days in delay that we have. You can see from the time extension days, weve already agreed on extending the contract by 279 days. Supervisor peskin without no lds . With no lds. The city has agreed to the overhead, thats part of the 4. 8 million and 149 yeah, 149, the contractor has agreed to extended time with no extended overhead. And weve waived the right to ld on those days. The contractor has put in a changeorder request for the balance of the days. Supervisor peskin the 149 . Correct. No, not the 149. Those are settled. The balance because right now with the supervisor peskin 135 . With the 279day extension we should have finished the construction in july of this year. So this is for from july of this year to when we have substantial completion on the project. So they put in part of the reason that isnt up here and we havent i dont have a value to give you on that right now is since we havent actually reached substantial completion, we dont know what that total number of days is. Walsh has requested change order has put in a change record request asking us to extend the contract to substantial completion. We said lets get the substantial completion and see what the days are and figure out responsibility. Im hoping it does not become a claim. They have submitted scheduling information. We requested additional scheduling information as well as information on the extended overhead. The two parties are now negotiating what they think a fair settlement for that is. Supervisor peskin thank you, peter. So, on business support. We have first of all, i want to thank the members of our Advisory Committee. Van ness set up a Business Advisory committee in addition to a citizens Advisory Committee that is made up of various businesses on the corridor, those businesses with concerns about the project to come in and talk directly to Business Owners and representatives as well as project staff to see if we can address their concerns. So weve been meeting regularly with them. Weve also been working closely with the office of economic and Workforce Development to provide support services to our local businesses. And have hosted some meetings where businesses can come in and find out about the services, early w. D. Offers. And the direct Business Support Program that was started with central subway has been extended to include van ness Improvement Project. My information is that Small Businesses request compensation of 5,000 or 10,000, have their applications in by october 31st. Supervisor peskin i apologize. As you know, in the case of the central subway when then mayor lee and i agreed that for the first time in the citys history we would do relatively small amounts of Cash Compensation in addition to the Technical Assistance with businesses. My understanding is that in the case of van ness brt project, not a single one of these grants has been distributed by oewd. And we have a lot of very frustrated people hanging on by a thread. So id really like to drill down into the status of that. This project has been going on now for years. And my understanding is that not a single amount of relief or dollars of relief have actually been forth coming from oewd. Do you have any Additional Information on that . Im sorry to say i dont. Ill be happy to go back and talk to the people at oewd and talk to the outreach people about what businesses have contacted us to participate in this. Supervisor peskin i know several businesses that applied many, many months ago and have not seen any response from oewd, sfmta or the city and county of San Francisco and it is very frustrating. And i will suggest at the end of this hearing that we continue this hearing to get a presentation on exactly this issue at our october meeting. But the money is there. We appropriated the money. But not a penny of it has been distributed to the van ness brteligible businesses. Yes. The person heading the outreach effort is telling me she has Additional Information on this, if she could step in. Supervisor peskin that would be great. Fantastic. Hi, everyone. Hello, commissioners. Thanks for pulling me in, peter. I wanted to share that we only just opened the application process for the van ness directive Business Support Program. Supervisor peskin are you new with oewd . I am with sfmta. I work closely with oewd on the program and im the lead outreach person for the bsp. We have the application process open now. Were doing serious outreach to businesses now to let them now they can apply, but the project needed to be delayed enough and we needed to set up the application process in order for them to be able to apply. And we were still wrapping things up with central subway and with covid19 it took additional time to make it happen. But businesses now have until the end of october to apply and we made it a relatively short application period based on what we learned from central subway that it needs to be enough time for folks to sort of like make it happen if we extend it too long applications drop off because people forget about it. Supervisor peskin and can you, for all 11 of us and members of the public who are watching, tell us how a business on the van ness b. R. T. Impacted corridor can apply between now and the end of october. We have information on the oewd website and today well have information on the sfmta website to direct folks to the oewd website. I believe it is oewd. Org constructionmitigation and i believe that owed. Org vannecessary. There is supporting business documentation that should not be hard for folks to pull together. Supervisor peskin thank you very much. That was super helpful and important. Back to you, sir. Thank you. So she has been helping got a lot of things on her plate, including the ongoing outreach process. Were publishing a forecast to help people know what construction will be close to them and what work is going on. Supervisor peskin if i can say, peter, on that, i read those every friday afternoon religiously. But the one thing it doesnt have in that email is what youre actually presenting here which is the final substantial completion is estimated to be the fall of 2021 and that its good insofar as it tells people along the corridor what to expect next week and the week after, but it would be helpful i think i said this in other hearings if that email could also say, by the way, you know, if you can slog through for one more year, we will be donedone and youll have a beautiful new b. R. T. , so just a friendly suggestion on that. Okay, well take that into account in the upcoming announcements. The 72hour notice for night work. Supervisor peskin night work is just about over . Im not going to say its finishedfinished because there is intersection paving work that needs to be done. Im hoping that can be done during the day, but it all depends on when traffic levels go back up. Well make every effort to minimize it. We have a citizens Advisory Committee as well as a Business Advisory committee. People have concerns and they want to talk to private staff, those are great opportunities to attend and let us know what is going on. Regular briefings such as. This and our quarterly newsletter. And thats the end of my presentation. If you have any other questions, id be happy to answer them. Supervisor peskin thank you. And just relative to site cleanliness, which i had heard a number of complaints about and is also mentioned in the staff document, can you tell us how were doing on site cleanliness during construction . Yes. It has been a challenge. Its a long corridor. Its been getting better. Our Construction Management staff specifically our new construction manager Lance Jackson and engineer hubert wong are walking the corridor regularly and have been working closely with the contractor. I think its gotten better. Its not perfect. We have to keep working at it. But were making improvements. And, again, people working on the corridor have specific concerns about areas, i encourage them to reach out to our public information. Supervisor peskin kate mccarthy. Its now kate is away handling covidrelated information, Service Change information. So she is temporarily reassigned and she has taken over the work. Got it. That is helpful. Look, today is the equinox and were a year out, so anything and everything you can do to keep that entire corridor clean, as clean as possible during construction would be greatly appreciated by me and my fellow commissioners and their constituents along the corridor. With that, colleagues or staff, any questions or comments . Seeing none, is there any Public Comment on this information item number 12 . Yes, chair, there are two callers. Ill move to caller number one. Supervisor peskin before we do that actually, lets hear from the public and then ill go to commissioners fewer and haney. Thank you, caller, your two minutes begins now. Can you hear me now . Yes, mr. Pilpel we can hear you. Excellent. Five points starting on slide 6. The reference to awss i believe is the auxiliary water supply system. Not the alternate Water Service system. On slide 11, claim 7, i believe that is man hole adjustments. I think there is a letter missing. Based on the discussion with chair peskin, it would be great if this slide in the future could include the initial claim amounts that you were discussing. That would be a great addition or additional column. Item 3 on slide 12 and 13, business support. If those represent models that other large mta or City Projects could use, then it would be great to document those efforts on this project so that those other City Projects currently or more so in the future could use the models or adapt them as appropriate because i think we developed and honed some ideas good ideas there in business support and outreach for large and complicated projects. Item 4, i still note the unfortunate choice to not replace the historic concrete overhead support poles. I think that was a bad choice, but perhaps that can be rectified in the future. Maybe there will be leftover project funds we could do that with. And finally, peter and nahama are doing great work on this project and thank you for their great work on that extremely complicated and delayed project. Thank you very much. Supervisor peskin next speaker, please. Caller, your two minutes begins now. One important fact about a senior citizen. In the past was weve had this project be the third street, the central subway, other projects. We have not made it a point to include our seniors and what their needs are so that they have input. Also on van ness. So if you are a senior and you have obstacles, it makes it very difficult. If youre a senior, and you have to carry something with you three or four blocks, it makes it very difficult for them. So lets not bypass our seniors. When it comes to contractors and ongoing issue of change orders, we see it in a very nonchalant manner. And then youre having a talk here as if youre having a fireside chat. Where is the accountability and where is the transparency . And do we really need the f. B. I. To be involved with van ness Rapid Transit process . It hasnt been a good one. And, you know, was part of it. Ed was part of it, no more part of it. Soon Harland Kelly thank you, caller, your two minutes are over. Thank you. Supervisor peskin two minutes up. Any other members of the public on item number 12 . No, chair, there are no more callers. Supervisor peskin Public Comment is closed. Commissioner fewer. Supervisor fewer thank you, chair peskin. I just wanted to also express my disappointment and frustration about the funds not getting out to the stores and Small Businesses along the corridor. Weve had the discussion at t. A. Over a year ago. Yeah, and i just want to say it is very frustrating considering the economic crisis that theyre facing also and theyve been, you know, double and triple whammied, i think not only by covid, but then this project that has extended far beyond what they actually, i think, thought was going to happen. So just very disappointed. I think this is something that the commission has really taken to heart and i think that it was unanimous that we allocate these funds to these Small Businesses. I just wanted to say how disappointing it is that we havent been able to offer relief to the Small Businesses along this very impacted corridor. Thank you. Supervisor peskin thank you, commissioner fewer for the comments and backing me up on my similar frustration. Indeed, this conversation has been going on for a long time. What i would like to drill down to, our october meeting, is how quickly after the october 31st date these funds will actually be distributed . And if these businesses are out of business, there is not going to be anybody to give it to. And this really, as you just said, should have happened a long time ago. Its unconscionable. With that, commissioner haney . Supervisor haney thank you, chair peskin. I was just going to back you up on that, too. I hope that we can learn from this experience, because when we do these larger projects, which obviously are needed and required, we want to be able to say confidently were going to be able to support the Small Businesses and residents impacted. And if weve failed to do that here, even when money has been allocated, its incredibly concerning and it puts into question whether we can honestly tell folks in the future that were going to be able to, you know, ensure their protection and their support as required considering the impact. I would like to know, not just kind of who is getting the grants when they come back hopefully theyll have start to have been issued but also if there have been surveys done of businesses and residents in terms of their needs, what the impacts are. I believe it has been supervisor peskin that has been done and maybe we can hear from staff as to the results of that on the ground yacht outreach. There have been businesses and some of them highprofile in the media that have gone under very early on in the van ness b. R. T. , but can you respond to commissioner haneys question . Hey, everyone. We have been trying to figure out how to best do outreach considering covid19 restrictions and not really being able to engage in person with businesses in the way that we have before. We have conducted a lot of outreach to businesses online, the phone and weve done a couple of things doing social distancing and wearing masks. We are canvassing businesses over the next two weeks to get them information about the grant and to find out how theyre doing. Supervisor peskin right, but i think what commissioner haney is saying, and i believe this to be true, we have a lot of precovid premarch 16 data. So i think when he hear this at our first meeting in october, it would be very helpful if the sfmta and oewd can present what the precovid data is, as well as the results that youve been getting on the phone through electronic sources and in your ontheground social distanced survey youre doing over the next couple of weeks. We look forward to seeing that at our first meeting in october. Commissioner haney, back to you . Supervisor haney that was all. I appreciate that. And i think a lot of the questions have to do with the business focus and residents and how to improve this in the future. So i was done, thank you. Supervisor peskin thank you. Are there any other members of the commission who have any comments. Seeing none, i would i wont make a motion to continue this. Im just going to ask staff to agendize the hearing that we all want for our next meeting. That is an information item. Any introduction of new items . Seeing none, is there any general Public Comment . Yes, commissioner, there is. There are two callers. First speaker, please. So, again, commissioners, this pandemic, as you can see, very few people want to participate in any of these Major Projects. So we leave it to you, our representatives, to do Due Diligence based on third street, which is a mess, the central subway, we are waiting for the opening, the van ness bus Rapid Transit, the businesses that needed to be helped have gone. And we havent learned anything what happened on Market Street before. We always dont seem to learn something from the past projects and we dont seem to have a checklist. We just live it to become project managers, who are not really project managers, because they cant do a needs assessment. And then we love to have our fire chats, the Public Comment period, where we allow them a couple of minutes and you dont seem to be paying attention to us. Its going to come to bite you all in the back. Supervisor peskin next speaker, please. Thank you, caller. Your two minutes begins now. Thank you. Supervisors. I apologize, what im going to say. The first thing i would like to do is thank you about some of the downtown [inaudible] from the meeting and the new improved [inaudible] classification is appreciated. The thing i do want to bring to your attention. On the one hand, we have the c. A. C. Moving along and potentially a general Engineering Services contractor meeting for the proposed. You have a parallel track between caltrain and high speed rail on this alignment. I would like to bring to your attention, there is a high probability that this analysis will essentially make it impossible for caltrain to rail yard potentially however. So i would suggest moving forward, you do something to delay the award of the contract, because [inaudible] problems and capacity, thats we can have on the line fort person have to take it from there. Thank you very much. Thank you, caller. Supervisor peskin any other members of the public for general Public Comment for todays meeting . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed and were adjourned. Thank you, chair. Please remember to remain on team. Sfgovtv and producers, getting ready for timm Treasure Island Mobility Agency board. Britney milton is our clerk. Please call the role. Supervisor fewer here. Present. Supervisor haney present. Supervisor mandelman present. Mar absent. Supervisor peskin present. Supervisor preston present. Supervisor ronen present. Supervisor safa supervisor safai supervisor stefani present. Supervisor walton present. President yee present. We have quorum. Thank you, madame clerk. Please read the next item. Public comment. Public comment will be available for each item on this agenda via telephone by calling 14156550001, and when prompted, entering access code, 146 226 7339. Once you join, youll be able to listen to the meeting as a participant. To make Public Comment on an item, dial star 3 to be added to the queue to speak. When it is your turn, you will hear a message saying your line is unmuted. The operator will advise you have two minutes to speak. When the two minutes are up, we will move on to the next caller. Best practices are to speak, slowly, clear and turn down radios and televisions around you. Please allow for a 30second lag time. Thank you. Next item. Item 2, chairs report. This is an information item. Thank you, madame clerk. I first want to recognize the effort that the timma staff with our board support have made to secure federal, state and city funding for yerba buena. We received five Funding Proposals for the various on the island. The water Transportation Agency granted a inner city rail Capital Program funds to planned new service to mission bay. We supported the original Grant Application which requested two allelectric vessels, one each to serve the Treasure Island and mission bay routes and were hopeful this grant will benefit both services. In june, the California Department of housing and Community Development announced awar awards infill for the 30,000 grant to the Treasure Island authority for road and bicycle and pedestrian path improvements. This funding will support the final design and implementation of the Treasure Island toll and transit affordability and equity programs. And finally, this past month we submitted two separate applications for funding to support the yerba buena pathway project. We still have over a quart over the year left to quarter of the year left to go. I want to appreciate staff diligence in collaborating to security outside funding to secure outside funding to support the islands. With that, i conclude my remarks. Is there any Public Comment on the chairs report . There are no Public Comments. Great. Madame clerk, please read the next item. Yes, item 3, executive directors report, this is information item. Good morning, thank you, chair haney, commissioners, short update in addition to the chairs remark and appreciating staff for those funding efforts. I wanted to report out on the good news on ta federally funde meeting. And were about a third of the way through the planning for the on island shuttle demonstration of Autonomous Vehicle technology. Yesterday, we received good news that the federal Highway Administration which administers our federal grant did approve the concept of operations and System Engineering management plan. These are documents weve been working on closely with caltrain and our partners at tida and sfmta. So just a progress note to say that were making good use of the funds so far. Weve taken direction, again, from the committee as well Going Forward to ensure that were looking at safety as well as involving the community in the whole project. And we are preparing now for procurement next year with potential deployment in the fall of 2021. Given high interest in this topic, our team also presented at last weeks kickoff session for the International Intelligent transportation world congress. In addition, the session included updates from columbus, ohio, which is the furthest along of the u. S. Pilots and tampa, florida. So we were pleased to participate and you can see that online at the its america website. Thank you so much. Thank you. Any Public Comment on the chairs report . There is one caller. Your two minutes begins now. Caller . Supervisors, what i want to state, the director has said, ive been involved with Treasure Island since 1989. In 1991 we surveyed the entire island, including yerba buena. What i see is that this project should be helping our citizens. We started by putting a lot of indigent people on Treasure Island and now weve treated them with disdain. And we stopped talking about transportation and stop talking about housing in a general way. What supervisors are doing is they are taking added responsibility with Treasure Island by compromising quality of life issues within the city of San Francisco. Not everything that is happening on Treasure Island is transparent. I repeat. Not everything that is happening on Treasure Island, which is manmade, is transparent. You have serious quality of life issues. If you all dont want to dive into it, then tell me i should dive into it and i will be held responsible. So while we talk about transportation and housing and whatever, the most important thing is the environment. Thank you very much. Thank you, caller. Any additional Public Comment . There are no other Public Comments. All right. Public comment is closed. Thank you. This is an informational item. Madame clerk, please read the next item. Item 4, approve the minutes of the july 28, 2020 meeting. This is an action item. Is there any Public Comment on the minutes . There are no Public Comments. Can we have a motion and second on the minutes . So moved. Second. All right. Moved by commissioner peskin, second by commissioner walton. Roll call vote, please. On item 4. Supervisor haney aye. Supervisor mandelman aye. Supervisor peskin aye. Supervisor preston aye. Supervisor ronen aye. Supervisor stefani aye. Supervisor walton aye. President yee aye. Supervisor fewer aye. There are nine ayes. Minutes are approved. Thank you, madame clerk. Please call the next item. Yes. Item im so sorry. Unless changes were presented at committee, or not required since items presented to committee already substantive changes have been made. This is an action item. So moved. Great. We have a motion, a second . Moved by commissioner peskin, seconded by commissioner walton. Roll call vote, please. Supervisor fewer aye. Supervisor haney aye. Supervisor mandelman aye. Supervisor peskin aye. Supervisor preston aye. Supervisor ronen aye. Supervisor stefani aye. Supervisor walton aye. President yee aye. There are nine ayes. Item has final approval. Thank you, madame clerk. Please call the next item. Introduction of new items, this is an information item. Any new items . Not seeing anybody on the roster, are there any members of the public who would like to speak on this item . There is no Public Comment. Great. Public comment is closed. Madame clerk, the next item. Item 7, Public Comment. Operator, are there any members of the public who would like to speak . There is. Hello, caller. Your two minutes begins now. Thank you, supervisors. What i want to introduce to you for your consideration. The first one is delay the foundation somewhere down the road having some kind of to the island directly. You know to Treasure Island. A good example in london which is known as the wolf station. Its a station that is entirely submerged, run entirely by the private sector and they are below water and have been open for businesses for three or four years and trains getting there. Its a good example to go with. The other thing i wanted to tell you about, the [inaudible] is essentially looking at the island somewhere between a meter and in the arena of 16th street. But thats never going to work without the high speed rail and capital. The only viable alignment is the bay bridge. And yerba buena island. [inaudible] San Francisco and the other two having [inaudible] on the other side. The reason im bringing these to your attention, if you do this, all the materials are going to suddenly magically materialize on the yerba buena island. The question then is what we do. I would suggest to Treasure Island. [inaudible] but also to be with pollution and everything else. Thank you. There are no more callers. Thank you. Public comment is now closed. Please call the next item. Item 8, adjournment. Thank you. Meeting is adjourned. See you in a bit. He is a real leader that listens and knows how to bring people together. Brought this department together like never before. I am so excited to be swearing in the next chief of the San Francisco Fire Department, ladies and gentlemen, lets welcome, Jeanine Nicholson. applause . I grew up total tomboy, athlete. I loved a good crisis, a good challenge. I grew up across the street from the fire station. My dad used to take me there to vote. I never saw any female firefighters because there werent any in the 1970s. I didnt know i could be a fire fighter. When i moved to San Francisco in 1990, some things opened up. I saw women doing things they hadnt been doing when i was growing up. One thing was firefighting. A woman recruited me at the gaypride parade in 1991. It was a perfect fit. I liked using my brain, body, working as a team, figuring things out, troubleshooting and coming up with different ways to solve a problem. In terms of coming in after another female chief, i dont think anybody says that about men. You are coming in after another man, chief, what is that like. I understand why it is asked. It is unusual to have a woman in this position. I think San Francisco is a trailblazer in that way in terms of showing the world what can happen and what other people who may not look like what you think the fire chief should look like how they can be successful. Be asked me about being the first lbgq i have an understands because there are little queer kids that see me. I worked my way up. I came in january of 1994. I built relationships over the years, and i spent 24 years in the field, as we call it. Working out of firehouses. The Fire Department is a family. We live together, eat together, sleep in the same dorm together, go to crazy calls together, dangerous calls and we have to look out for one another. When i was burned in a fire years ago and i felt responsible, i felt awful. I didnt want to talk to any of my civilian friends. They couldnt understand what i was going through. The firefighters knew, they understood. They had been there. It is a different relationship. We have to rely on one another. In terms of me being the chief of the department, i am really trying to maintain an open relationship with all of our members in the field so myself and my deputy chiefs, one of the priorities i had was for each of us to go around to different fire stations to make sure we hit all within the first three or four months to start a conversation. That hasnt been there for a while. Part of the reason that i am getting along well with the field now is because i was there. I worked there. People know me and because i know what we need. I know what they need to be successful. I have known Jeanine Nicholson since we worked together at station 15. I have always held her in the highest regard. Since she is the chief she has infused the department with optimism. She is easy to approach and is concerned with the firefighters and paramedics. I appreciate that she is concerned with the issues relevant to the Fire Department today. There is a retired captain who started the Cancer Prevention foundation 10 years ago because he had cancer and he noticed fellow firefighters were getting cancer. He started looking into it. In 2012 i was diagnosed with breast canner, and some of my fellow firefighters noticed there are a lot of women in the San Francisco Fire Department, premenopausal in their 40s getting breast cancer. It was a higher rate than the general population. We were working with workers comp to make it flow more easily for our members so they didnt have to worry about the paper work when they go through chemo. The turnout gear was covered with suit. It was a badge to have that all over your coat and face and helmet. The dirtier you were the harder you worked. That is a cancer causeser. It casser. It is not cancer causer. There islassic everywhere. We had to reduce our exposure. We washed our gear more often, we didnt take gear where we were eating or sleeping. We started decontaminating ourselves at the fire scene after the fire was out. Going back to the fire station and then taking a shower. I have taught, worked on the decontamination policy to be sure that gets through. It is not if or when. It is who is the next person. It is like a cancer sniper out there. Who is going to get it next. One of the things i love about the Fire Department. It is always a team effort. You are my family. I love the city and department and i love being of service. I vow to work hard to work hard to carry out the vision of the San Francisco Fire Department and to move us forward in a positive way. If i were to give a little advice to women and queer kids, find people to support you. Keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep trying. You never know what door is going to open next. You really dont. You really dont. We are here today to discuss a very, very important issue that has been plaguing our community, even more so under covid. Some call it sideshows. Its something that, under covid , is happening all over San Francisco. Two weeks ago, we have one of the worst incidents that we saw in the city. It went on for an hour and a half, almost two hours. At the end, three individuals were shot and one individual died. I want to be clear, this is still under investigation. It is not necessarily associated with the activities that were happening that night, but its something that certainly shows and underscores that these are dangerous events. These are events that cannot be tolerated in San Francisco. These are not professionals, these are not individuals that have professional training to do these types of stunts and tricks with their cars. I want to say clearly that we have zero tolerance for these in San Francisco. At the end of the day, i also want to extend my condolences to the family in sacramento that lost their life. This individual was about to have a child. I dont want that to be lost. I think we need to pay respect to that. Yesterday, chief scott and i, after working on this for a couple of months, along with the mirrors office, introduced a piece of legislation that would increase the ability in San Francisco to impound vehicles. I want to be very clear. If you do involve yourself in these activities and we are able to videotape and document your car and your activity, you have the penalty of being arrested and put in prison for up to six months. We have the ability to impound your vehicle and first defence is no less than two weeks. Second offences longer than that and third event, just shy of 30 days. If you get involved in these, the police chief well talk about the unit and the task force that they have assembled to put together on this. We will take your vehicle. We will impound your vehicle and there will be consequences to your actions. I want to thank all the neighbours and all the individuals that have been involved with this. I want to recognize our captain who is around here. Thank you for working with us on this. And especially thank you to chief scott and the mayor for all of her support and hard work on this. Now i would like to introduce our mayor. Thank you. Thank you, supervisor. Thank you for being here today. I really want to take this opportunity to recognize the leadership of our supervisors. Since i have been mayor and since he has been supervisor, we have been doing a lot of work for the community. We have heard from a lot of the residents and merchants on the need for this community. And what i appreciate about his work is that he is bringing the resources, he is bringing the attention, he is bringing the support to what is a neglected part of the city. And even for the first time in over 20 years, one of the first Affordable Housing developments in the city, just on the streets , he helped to save units that were almost lost to market right with low income families. The reason why i go back to that is because its so important, it is so critical to make sure that we have someone who represents the district and answers to community and answers to the needs of the residents here. In in this particular case and the slot sideshows, the supervisor answered the call. He reached out to me and reached out to the team. It was not just because of the complaint of the people who live here and work here. It was the cause and currently a dangerous situation. It is dangerous for the participants, dangerous for the spectators, dangerous from all the folks who are in range of this particular event. Let me just say, i grew up in San Francisco. I have seen sideshows. I know people want to participate in them. I know people think they are fun and they are exciting and especially during covid. People feel like theres nothing to do. They want to go out and participate and see these things , but sadly, we are putting lives at risk. We are participating in these events. Sadly they could result in someones death and that is why were here today. We dont always want to use this heavy hand of Law Enforcement to address issues, but in this particular case, because of the danger, you have left us with no choice. In San Francisco, they will not be tolerated. We will do everything we can to address them in a manner in which it is fitting of what is happening. Do not come to our city with the sideshow crap that creates the problem that we dont want to see in our neighbourhood. Do not use this as a play to congregate for that purpose. We will do everything we can to make sure it doesnt happen and this is just the first step. We hope that you comply. We hope that you will also be considerate of what happens at these particular events. We understand that people want to do this, but they are dangerous and this is no fun if someone is killed. With that, i want to take this opportunity to introduce our police chief, bill scott. Thank you. First i want to thank the mayor and supervisor for their leadership. I want to reiterate a couple of things that have been said. First and foremost, these exhibitions of the stench driving, under the law are illegal. It is reckless driving. I cant tell you how many times people put their lives at risk for these exhibits. I want to point out a couple of things and highlight some of what the legislation offers and how it can be helpful for us. Number one, this legislation sets expectations of accountability. If you participate in one of these events, if you do trick driving, if we see it online, we see it in person, it is outright dangerous. If your car is impounded, the first offences it will be impounded for two weeks. Second offence, if the car is impounded, it will be impounded for 29 days. Your car will be impounded no more than 30 days, but definitely no less then what the law allows. We want to be consistent, we want to set expectations of accountability and consequences in the city, and if we can prove that you are behind the wheel, you will be arrested. What we are doing in the Police Department Police Department, a couple months ago, as a supervisor mentioned, we trained a spot of officers to deal with this event. We cannot do this alone. Our Law Enforcement partners in the bay area, this is a regional problem. We see all across the state. We are working with partners and other jurisdictions who had similar issues and we are communicating. When he the publics help in that because when you see these things occurring, we dont want people to put themselves in harms harms way. If you have any Video Surveillance at your residence or your business or videotaping with your cell phone or video camera, please share that information with us. A lot of people will posted online and that is okay too. If you are going to posted online, give it to us as well. Part of what needs to happen for this work effectively is we need to be able to put the driver behind the wheel. Then we can do something with that case. I want to say to the incident that brought us here today, we know and i know and we have heard from the public. There is a lot of frustration when these things occur. We have to have a thoughtful plan to respond to these events because of the danger. The one that the supervisor was referring to, there were hundreds of spectators. There were 50 cars and more participating. When two officers arrive at that scene, they cant just rush in. What our experience has told us is that often times we are compensated. We see officers surrounded, cars vandalized, we see, not in this city fortunately, but we see officers run over. We have to bring the appropriate resources to deal with this situation. It takes a little time to rally the resources. The units that we train up, we want them to specialize in being able to deal with these situations. It is a resource driven need here. We understand the frustration, but we want the public to know that we are working to make the situation better. We have trained our officers and we are working with supervisors. We have the mayors support and the legislation. It will bring consistency and consequences. Lastly before i close, i want to give examples of what we are talking about. This event a couple of weeks ago , as i said, there were 300 spectators, 300 vehicles and unfortunately a man was shot to death in the immediate vicinity. We had over 100 calls. People are concerned for their safety. You cant blame them. People are tired, yelling and screaming, if anything, you are bad news. When the officers arrive and shots were fired. Now they are dealing with a life or death situation where three people were shot. They needed to get medical aid and save their lives. It complicates the matter. Often times what we have found is these events, often times turn into conflict with shots fired. A good example, august 24th of this year, there was a motor vehicle, a daytime event. They were stunned driving. They were burning rubber and approximately 100 spectators cheering them on. At one point, one of them lost control of the car and almost hit several spectators. We did not have anyone killed in that situation. I could repeat it over and over again. We have we had other incidences in the recent past were events of culminated with shots being fired and people being hurt. Here is the message. If you participate in these illegal and reckless events, your car, if we catch you will be impounded and it will be no less than two weeks on the first incident. No less than 29 days on the second incident thereafter. If we put you behind the wheel, if we can prove that you aided or abetted in the participation and the facilitation of these events, you will be arrested. Even if you want arrested that night, if we have the evidence and video through the evidence that we need to prove then we are coming after you. That is the message that us, the mayor, the board of supervisors and the people of the city want you to hear if you are participating in these events. Thank you for your time and thank you for your leadership. Thank you, chief. I want to underscore one last point. Lets make this clear. People that also set the perimeter, people that use their vehicles a set of these events in criminal terms called aiding and abetting, those two will have their vehicles seized. We will have the ability to go after them. Its not just the individuals that are driving the vehicles. Is the individuals that are participating in and major participants of setting up the events. That is something that chiefs got in i have spent a lot of time talking about. The mayor feels really strongly about this. We have to have accountability. It will not just be the individuals who were driving the vehicles and doing the stunts, it will be the people who are aiding and abetting and setting up these events. We also, as a result, and i want to thank the mayor as part of the budget process, will be getting over 15 cameras on this camera and Video Evidence is one of the most important factors in these crimes. This corner that has been plagued a few times, in the next few weeks we will have 15 video cameras put up. We have been working with a captain in his office to increase foot patrol. It is not just about the activity itself. It is about setting the environment to make sure people understand that we take the safety of this neighbourhood as a top priority. [ ] [ ] you are watching coping with covid19. Todays special guest is you are watching coping with covid19. My guest today is the acting director of San Francisco public works. He is here with us today to talk about how his department has pivoted to help the city during the pandemic and talking about some of the ongoing projects. Welcome to the show. Thank you. I know there are some unique challenges for our unhoused population during this crisis. Namely handwashing handwashing and social distancing. How has public works been addressing these problems . You know, ever since public works got involved with the response to covid, it really began from day one. We have been working with the unhoused community and the city more broadly doing things like something to identify and design and construct a safe sleeping sights. We have been helping other areas like helping to do some of the prep for the testing centres that are all over the city now. We have also been helping to retrofit and design some of the medical facilities. We are prepared to address the surge if and when that does happen. We have also been working on the aberration side where we have been able to double the program. [indiscernible] its just some of the things that we are regarding specifically to covid, but then on top of that, we have been doing our daytoday work that we always do in helping to resolve some of the and the encampments across the city, working with the city to make sure we are doing extra cleaning at the food stations in areas where they are trying to distribute food. And its something that we have been doing more recently which is imparting with our colleagues at the m. T. A. , planning, and other departments to set up the shared Spaces Program. So you can bring that to San Francisco. [indiscernible] you are seeing businesses being able to operate in the white right of way. There are some areas in the city where they are occupying the entire street. We are hoping that all of these efforts are going a long way to make the city bounce back. Absolutely. Its great to see the city is coming up with ideas that will keep people safe and let some of our businesses partially reopen. Absolutely. I understand that most workers are also categorized as essential workers, but at the moment, a lot of our buildings are still closed. How has your staff been redeployed to help out during the pandemic . There are 100 people assigned as Emergency Operations centres. They have worked on everything ranging from finance and logistics to accounting, to a communications. We have also had some of our staff been reassigned where we had people who were working within the bureau and we had them redeployed within the street cleaning groups. We are trying to solve problems as best we can. Some city interior painters would normally be working inside city buildings and have been repurposed to work outside and remove graffiti. Yeah, and that really and that is also a good example of trying to find ways that we can use those same individuals, those same skill sets but use them in a way that is safe. The one thing we have learned throughout this process with covid and shelter in place is that, you know, if you are inside, it is more at risk. So you could be an individual resident, or you as an employee or worker for the city and county of San Francisco, getting you outside is important and for everyone, if you are at home, you may have to go on a walk around your neighbourhood, you know, you dont want to see graffiti and things like that. We are trying to make a conscious effort to clean those things up. That is great. Im glad to hear that the pandemic hasnt halted ongoing construction. Can you tell me how the new animal care and control centre is progressing and how about the ambulance deployment facility . They are moving along very, very well. And the care and control facility, it addresses a lot of the facilities that they have. And being able to separate the animals in a safe way and that project, along with the ambulance and deployment facility, those are all on track to be wrapping up towards the end of this year and at the latest of the beginning of next year. We had we just want to understand what the rules are in operating and construction. We worked closely with a Health Officer and other departments across the city along with the contractors to come up with rules and the way it would work and the way we have had to implement things. We are trying to limit the number of people that are going up in lifts and things like that one of the things i am proud to say is procedures are not just used here locally or regionally. They were adopted across the state. It is one thing im very proud of. The speed at which the city and county of San Francisco are working with our partners to keep our projects going. These are a handful of examples that are now on schedule to be built on time. People are pretty fascinated by the floating fire workstation 35 project. How is that going . Is that. 22. 5. It is a two story building. It will be 15,000 square feet. This is a floating station. It was built in shanghai and it is currently over at pier one in Treasure Island. It will be there for the rest of this year. The plan is to flow it over across the bay and it will find a permanent home at the embarcadero at the beginning of next year. Finally, i understand we are doing street improvements. How has the jefferson street scapegoat in. Can you tell us about the upper transit and pedestrian improvements . Those projects are going well it is one more example of the thought and the collaboration of the project team at public works along with the merchants that will be impacted by those projects. Once we go to a soldier shelter in place, we could pivot and realize realize, okay. It could be time for us to speed up the schedule. Because as the number of the storefronts were open. What we are able to do is speed up the schedules on the upper haight street and we were able to be able to speed up the schedule and finish early on that project and likewise for the project on the jefferson Street Project where we were able to make up some ground that we had lost, allowing us to do things some sidewalks and school streets. That is something we would not have been able to do without the partnership and the collaboration between the contractor, Public Public works, and emergency. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you coming on the show. Thank you for the time you have given us today b thank you. That is it for our episode. We will be back with more information shortly. You have been watching coping with covid19. Thanks for watching. [ ] we have private and Public Gardens throughout the garden tour. All of the gardens are volunteers. The only requirement is youre willing to show your garden for a day. So we have gardens that vary from all stages of development and all gardens, family gardens, private gardens, some of them as small as postage stamps and others pretty expansive. Its a variety all of the world is represented in our gardens here in the portola. I have been coming to the portola garden tour for the past seven or eight years ever since i learned about it because it is the most important event of the neighborhood, and the reason it is so important is because it links this neighborhood back to its history. In the early 1800s the portola was farmland. The regions flowers were grown in this neighborhood. If you wanted flowers anywhere future bay area, you would come to this area to get them. In the past decade, the area has tried to reclaim its roots as the garden district. One of the ways it has done that is through the portola garden tour, where neighbors open their gardens open their gardens to people of San Francisco so they can share that history. When i started meeting with the neighbors and seeing their gardens, i came up with this idea that it would be a great idea to fundraise. We started doing this as a fundraiser. Since we established it, we awarded 23 scholarships and six work projects for the students. The Scholarship Programs that we have developed in association with the portola is just a winwinwin situation all around. The Scholarship Program is important because it helps people to be able to tin in their situation and afford to take classes. I was not sure how i would stay in San Francisco. It is so expensive here. I prayed so i would receive enough so i could stay in San Francisco and finish my school, which is fantastic, because i dont know where else i would have gone to finish. The scholarships make the difference between students being able to stay here in the city and take classes and having to go somewhere else. [ ] [ ] you come into someones home and its theyre private and personal space. Its all about them and really their garden and in the city and urban environment, the garden is the extension of their indoor environment, their Outdoor Living room. Why are you here at this garden core . Its amazing and i volunteer here every year. This is fantastic. Its a beautiful day. You walk around and look at gardens. You meet people that love gardens. Its fantastic. The portola garden tour is the last saturday in september every year. Mark your calendars every year. You can see us on the website my name is london breed and i am the mayor of San Francisco. Im joined by the supervisor of this district. [cheers and applause] we are joined by dr. Grant colfax with the department of Public Health and your Amazing Community member who helped spearhead and put this thing together. E. J. Jones. [cheers and applause] and let me start by saying that, you know, i really want to express my appreciation to all of the people with the resources that are here, to all of the folks in this community for your patients, for your understanding as we deal with one of the most challenging world pandemics that we have ever experienced ever. It has been an adjustment for all of us. We have not been able to come together with our family and friends. We have not been able to visit or open. So many of our Small Businesses are still closed. It has been over six month and it has taken our toll in our city and our community and all of you continue to be patient and continue to do your part. I see so many people, they are wearing their masks. People are socially distancing and doing their part because that is how we will get to a better place. More importantly, we are living with covid for some time. We all know that. And how do we get our city reopened . We do it by making sure that we provide access to testing and it has to be consistent because you can get tested today and then contract the virus tomorrow and then say, wait a minute, i am feeling a certain kind of way, but i have symptoms, but i just got tested and i was negative. And the fact is, we have to make it easier. We have to make it easier in the communities on the Southeast Side of San Francisco because we know the disparities are right here in communities like the o. M. I. We know that our latino population in particular has experienced higher amounts of covid19, over 50 of the over 10,000 cases diagnosed in this city have been people of latino descent. So we have to make sure that we bring the testing and the Contact Tracing directly to the community. Sites like this are so critical. The consistency of having pop up sites and permanent sights in the o. M. I. , in the bayview Hunters Point and in the mission are critical to our ability to get this virus under control and make sure that we meet people where they are in our communities so they can get tested whenever they want, no questions asked, nothing regarding your immigration status. We are here to protect Public Health and that is what this is about. [applause] so i am really excited. This is not just a testing sight this is also a site with resources. This is a site where we are going to provide access to various resources because this is really about the community. I want to thank e. J. Jones for his leadership. [applause] i want to also just say, just to put this into perspective, you all know the task on monday. We just opened an indoor salon. And you know what . I was so happy to get a manicure and pedicure last night. I didnt know what to do with myself. [laughter] i really didnt. Yes, it was the best experience ever. I want to make sure that places that we all go to, the people who have been suffering a collecting no income whatsoever, we want them to stay open. We want them to continue to be open. The fact is, we are doing okay with our numbers. We want to keep it that way. We want to improve the numbers. That involves all of us playing our role. In fact, we are doing okay and we anticipate, by the end of this month that we will be an orange. We are currently in red. We are not out of the woods, but we expect, based on if the numbers continue to go the way they are going, we will be at level orange. As a result, we will be able to open restaurants indoors at 25 capacity if that occurs and if we continue the way that we are. Because we know that restaurants are suffering. We know hair and nail salons are suffering. We know gyms are suffering. We know our Mental Health because of our inability to access our churches and our spirituality in the way that we have before, we are suffering. If we continue down this path, we will have an opportunity to reopen safely. Covid hasnt gone anywhere so far. We have to get used to living like this. We have to get use to the socially distancing and mask wearing. We want to have a party, and over time were hanging out with their families in the backyard or at the park, but we get too comfortable and we start drinking a bit and start kicking things up. We cant let up. We cant see another surge. We cant go backwards. We have gotten come too far. San francisco has been a leader in this whole coronavirus world pandemic. We were the first city in the country to say, you know what . We will shut it down. Our numbers have been decent, our death rates, sadly we have lost a lot of people, but not in comparison to other places. We are doing okay, but we can do better because i want to keep these businesses open. I want to make sure we dont lose the fabric of San Francisco and what makes San Francisco so great and so special. And that means we have to do our part. I want to thank each and every one of you for being there today we can have a good time socially distancing and wearing a mask. I have been saving a lot of money on lipstick, by the way. The fact is, we are all in this together. I appreciate everyone that each and everyone of you have done and at this time, i want to take the opportunity to introduce your supervisor of this district to has been an amazing, amazing advocate for the people of this community. [cheers and applause] good morning, everyone. Thank you to our mayor. Isnt she doing a wonderful job leading our city and taking the heat . We are all sacrificing. I know she actually put out a message this morning for our schools talking about families. There is a lot of people struggling right now. There is a lot of children, a lot of families who are waiting for their opportunity to go back to school. The work that we all do together as a community, coming together as a Community Benefits everyone it benefits those that are suffering the most. Theres a lot of children right now that are waiting for their opportunity to get back into the classroom and so much of that is already being underscored by what we have done in this community. We opened up one of our Community Learning hubs. I want to thank london breed and dr. Colfax and for the work that they have done and the Covid Command Centre for joining us here today. At this site is Community Driven this site is a perfect example of how a community that comes together shows its resiliency and strength. After months of fighting to open a testing sight, the Community Came together. These folks are volunteering their time. These folks are going above and beyond what they have been asked to do. They are a model of strength for the rest of our community. This is how it should be done. This resource hub, as you see here, it is more than testing. They can get access to Food Services and access to housing services. Soon they will be able to access the flu vaccination. All of this has come and shown how the community can come together and really serve those in need. I also want to give a special shout out lets give it up for invest black. For their leadership and owning this site. They have come together as a community and shown how you can lead and how community can turn a National Music movement into a neighbourhood driven movement. I want to give a special shout out to e. J. Jones for the wonderful work he has done here leading this site, being on zoom calls, juggling his day job and continuing to do what he needs to do to lead us through this effort. I also want to give a shout out to Patty Clement and catholic charities. This is their sight and their location. Patty was not about to say no. She just said, let me tell you how we can make this happen. I am ready to say yes. This pop up has been driven also , i want to give a special recognition to a lot of the people that have been here every day. I always recognized bernard munro, mary and al harris, felicia thibodeau, glenn brown, maurice rivers, delia fitzpatrick, brandon wiley, monique guidry, mary thomas, jeffrey morris, all the folks that have been here on the Ground Fighting every day, volunteering every day to make sure this community is safe. If i didnt mention you, im sorry. I try to remember everyone thats involved. Thank you again for all of your work. I am proud to be here and proud to be part of someone who has been supporting this all this time. Im really proud to be the supervisor of this district. Thank you, everyone. We will bring up dr. Colfax. Good morning, everyone. I am the director of health. Thank you, mayor breed for your ongoing leadership and supervisor. It is an unprecedented time in San Francisco. Because of your leadership, we are in a better place. There are so many places across the United States with regards to covid19. I want to thank e. J. Jones. Thank you so much for spearheading this effort to get to work on the ground. Also, the southwest community corporation. Catholic charities, thank you for making this available, and to all Community Partners for their collaboration and support to the True Community assets. This is so much more than just a testing sight. This is that collective and Wraparound Service centre that we need and that we know we need to have our approach to covid19 take root and our prevention work. We are supporting people when they test positive in helping people in their recovery. Not only individuals, with families, friends and the community. Like the mayor just noted, more than 50 of our cases are in the latino community. When we saw this trend, we responded by implementing Community Mobile testing strategies to bring testing to neighbourhoods most impacted by covid19. Our Community Mobile testing site have visited and are regularly testing people in the mission, the excelsior, visitation valley, sunnydale, the o. M. I. , the tenderloin, the bayview, among others. And while this virus does not discriminate by race or ethnicity, it does exploit our existing economic and social disparities. We know that this pandemic affects communities more than others and we must continue to focus on an equity approach as we continue to expand our testing and prevention and care efforts. This is why Community Mobile testing like we are having today is so vital to our response. To date, we have tested more than 5,000 people in the Community Mobile testing sites and have tested more than 23,000 people at our Community Testing clinic. Our Community Mobile testing strategy allows us to respond quickly to where the response the virus is spreading fastest and help people get what they need. This includes isolation and Quarantine Services providing the hotel rooms for people who need to isolate and quarantine safely, food assistance, healthcare services. We are here on the ground helping people in the communities in which they live. Im happy to say, with regard to isolation and quarantine rooms that are available to people who test positive. Fortyfive of currently occupied as people who identify as latino. We have expanded our Case Investigation and Contact Tracing efforts with Community Members and we are now expanding our Contact Tracing teams so 50 of our investigators are collaborating and our spanish speaking. 90 of latino cases have been contacted by case investigators. And of those who have been tested, 15 have tested positive seventy 2 of covid positive patients have been hospitalized are latino, reinforcing the need to care and test and reach out to communities most affected. Testing is one part, but prevention is so important. Its so key because we do not need the virus to spread quickly , slowing the spread of the virus is so important. They testing hundreds of people every day. To date, thanks to the dedicated staff and 30 people who run the site, we have tested over 700 people in the community at this testing site alone. 700 people. This is the only thing that has happened in the last few months. We hoping that we will add 250 more people to get tested here today. Because of these efforts, we are on our path to reopening. A path that gets people back to work. Let the Small Businesses open the doors and get the economy back on track. As the mayor mentioned, we saw some vital reopenings happening this past week and we are excited about potentially opening indoor restaurants at 25 capacity soon. We need to continue this Work Together. Im proud of what were doing, but we must take these prevention efforts. You know what i am going to say. Continue to wear the facial coverings. It is so important. Continue to social distance and be safe, dig deeper and together we will come through this. Thank you. [applause] thank you dr. Colfax. He has just been at city hall so he had to come in and give all the technical details. They are very important. I also want to give a shout out to some performers who are here today. He and his amazing wife and talented children are incredible and awesome and we are so glad to have them in this community. They are always performing for the singers and other groups of people all over the city. Thank you. [applause] at this time, we will wrap it up with e. J. Jones who is just going to thank all of the community and talk about the work that he did to help make this happen. E. J. . [applause] good morning, everybody. First of all, my name is e. J. Jones. Im a thirdgeneration member of this like you community. This Community Means everything to me. I also want to first off thank by say i want to thank the mayor. I want to thank you for allowing us the opportunity to have testing in the community. My story, with covid19 and testing began in early july when i thought i had an exposure and needed to get tested and could not find a place that would test me sooner then two weeks out. At that time, i gave the call to the supervisor and asked what was available in the district. There wasnt many options. I was able to get tested at the mission hub thanks to Community Members. And right after the supervisor and i had a conversation about how we can bring testing to the o. M. I. With that said, as you look around this testing site is not about me. Its about the entire community that is out here. There are numerous organizations that come together on a weekly basis to make sure that our community is safe in our community is taken care of. Really, when you are looking at the success today, youre looking at the power of community. We are only going to beat this in community. I just want to thank the entire community for coming out. We would not be able to do this without each and every one of the organizations and members that are here today. I appreciate everyone so much. Thank you. [applause] the office of controllers Whistle Blower Program is how City Employees and recipient sound the alarm an fraud address wait in City Government charitable complaints results in investigation that improves the efficiency of City Government that. You can below the what if anything, by assess though the club Program Website arrest call 4147 or 311 and stating you wishing to file and complaint point Controllers Office the Charitable Program also accepts complaints by email or 0 folk you can file a complaint or provide Contact Information seen by whistle blower investigates some examples of issues to be recorded to the Whistle Blower Program face of misuse of City Government money equipment supplies or materials exposure activities by city clez deficiencies the quality and delivery of City Government Services Waste and inefficient government practices when you submit a complaint to the charitable online complaint form youll receive a unique tracking number that inturgz to detector or determine in investigators need Additional Information by law the City Employee that provide information to the Whistle Blower Program are protected and an employer may not retaliate against an employee that is a whistle blower any employee that retaliates against another that employee is subjected up to including submittal employees that retaliate will personal be liable please visit the sf ethics. Org and information on reporting retaliation that when fraud is loudly to continue it jeopardizes the level of service that City Government can provide in you hear or see any dishelicopter behavior boy an employee please report it to say Whistle Blower Program more information and the whistle blower protections please seek www. W. W. W. W. W. W. W. W. W. W. W. W. W. W clapping. ive been working in restaurants forever as a blood alcohol Small Business you have a lot of requests for donations if someone calls you and say we want to documents for our school or nonprofit ive been in a position with my previous employment i had to say no all the time. My name is art the owner and chief at straw combinations of street food and festival food and carnival food i realize that people try to find this you dont want to wait 365 day if you make that brickandmortar it is really about making you feel special and feel like a kid again everything weve done to celebrate that. So nonprofit monday is a program that straw runs to make sure that no matter is going on with our business giving back is treated just the is that you as paying any other bill in addition to the money we impose their cause to the greater bayview it is a great way for straw to sort of build communicated and to introduce people who might not normally get to be exposed to one nonprofit or another and i know that they do a different nonprofit every most of the year. People are mroent surprised the restaurant it giving back i see some people from the nonprofit why been part of nonprofit monday sort of give back to the program as well answer. Inform people that be regular aprons at straw they get imposed to 10 or 12 nonprofits. I love nonprofits great for a local restaurant to give back to community thats so wonderful i wish more restrictive places did that that is really cool. It is a 6 of nonprofit that is supporting adults with autism and down syndrome we i do not involved one the wonderful members reached out to straw and saw a headline about, about their nonprofit mondays and she applied for a grant back in january of 2016 and we were notified late in the spring we would be the recipient of straw if you have any questions, well be happy to answer thems in the month of genuine we were able to organize with straw for the monday and at the end of the month we were the recipient of 10 percent of precedes on mondays the contribution from nonprofit monday from stray went into our post group if you have any questions, well be happy to answer theming fund with our arts coaching for chinese and classes and we have a really great vibrate arts program. We we say thank you to the customers like always but say 0 one more thing just so you know youve made a donation to x nonprofit which does why i think that is a very special thing. It is good to know the owner takes responsibility to know your money is going to good cause also. It is really nice to have a restaurant that is very Community Focused they do it all month long for nonprofits not just one day all four mondays. We have a wall of thank you letters in the office it seems like you know we were able to gas up the 10 passenger minivan we were innovate expected to do. When those people working at the nonprofits their predictive and thank what straw is giving that in and of itself it making an impact with the nonprofit through the consumers that are coming here is just as important it is important for the grill cheese kitchen the more restrictive i learn about what is going on in the community more restrictive people are doing this stuff with 4 thousand restaurant in San Francisco were doing an average of 6,000 a year in donations and multiply that by one thousand thats a lot to