Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Govt Audits And Oversight Committee 20240711

Clerk on a motion to not disclose the closed session deliberations [roll call] clerk mr. Chair, there are three ayes. Chair mar thank you, mr. Clerk. Is there any further business . Clerk that concludes our business for today. Chair mar great. We are adjourned. Take care. Good morning. The meeting will come to order. The december 3rd meeting. I am joined by Committee Member peskin. Committee member haney will be joining us. I would like to thank sfgovtv for staffing this. Do you have announcements. In order to protect the public and City Employees during the Health Emergency the board of supervisors legislative chamber and Committee Room are closed. This is taken pursuant to local state and federal orders and directives. Committee members will attend through video and participate to the same extent as if physically present. Public comment is available for each item on the agenda. Both cable channel 26 and sfgovtv are streaming the call in number on your screen. Your opportunity to speak and provide comments will be available by phone by dialing 4156550001. Once connected and prompted id for today is 146 2157375. Following entering the id you will press topped twice to be connected to the meeting. You will hear the discussions you will be in his senning mode only. When your item comes up dial star three to be added to the speaker line. It will indicate you raised your hands. Best practices call from a quiet location to speak clearly and slowly and turndown your television, radio or streaming device. Everyone must account for time delays that we may even counter between live coverage and streaming. If you have Public Comment you can email to me, john carroll, clerk of the Oversight Committee john. Carroll at sfgov. Org. If you submit as email i will include ate as the legislative file. The Clerks Office is room 2441, doctor carlton b. Goodlett place 94102. Mr. Chair, items today will appear on the board of supervisors agenda of december 15, 2020 unless otherwise stated. Thank you, mr. Clerk. I would like to start by congratulating the civil grand jury for the issuance of the three reports we will respond to today. I would like to thank everyone who served this year for the careful and thoughtful and valuable time, work and insight you provided. This process and these reports are a testament to the oversight. I am grateful for your willingness to serve the city and hold the government accountable. For each report we will call the resolution and hearings together while taking discussion, comment and motions on the reports one at a time. We will welcome the representative to speak on the reports and hear from representatives from city departments to summarize responses before turning to Commission Discussion and Public Comment and our responses on behalf of the board of supervisors. Mr. Clerk, please call items 1 and 2 together. Clerk agenda item 1 hearing on the 20192020 civil grand jury report strengthen our Behavioral Health services. Number 2. Findings and recommendations contained in the report. The report entitle strengthening Behavioral Health services. Members of the public who wish to comment on these matters call the Public Comment number. 4156550001. Enter todays id1462157375. Press pound twice and press star followed by 3 to enter the queue to speak. Wait until you are unmuted and that is your opportunity to begin your comments. Thank you, mr. Clerk. I would like to welcome our speakers from the civil grand jury. Thank you for all of your work on this report. The floor is yours. Thank you, chair and members of the committee. I want to make introductory comments. I am the foreperson of the 201 20192020 San Francisco grand jury. On behalf of the grand jury i extend gratitude and thanks forgiving us the opportunity to present our report in a public forum. The grand jury embraced our mandates seriously to investigate and report upon the affairs of local col local gove. We worked hard and have reports that are a consequence to the residents of the city. We had the assistance of many Public Servants and ordinary citizens of San Francisco. We have great faith that our reports are worthy of their time and dedication. The chairperson of the committee will shortly present our report, outline our findings and recommendations and carefully listen to all of the respondents. We are excited to move forward. Finally, i would like to recognize each and everyone of our grand jurors. They confronted the task with perseverance and resilience. We trust we have made san franciscans proud. We look forward to addressing all of your questions. Thank you very much. Thank you. Good morning, supervisor mar and members of the San Francisco board of supervisors and esteemed colleagues. I am patricia levenburg and i represent the five members of the civil grand jury who wrote the investigation entitle strengthening our Behavioral Health services. We will review the findings and recommendations. I will take this opportunity to thank all of the employees of the city and county of San Francisco for their experience, effort, knowledge antennasty to reduce the impact of covid19 on the residents of the city. This is atum you will di a diffr country. This is an endeavor where citizens like those who serve on the civil grand jury and legislators like you are working together to improve. [ inaudible ] doing what we believe will be right for the residents. Let me put my headphones on. Hold on. I dont think that wases coming from you. It may have been technical issues in the background. Hang on, please. While our investigation began in the late fall of 2019, we realized early in the spring of 2020 at the onset of covid19 pandemic that our investigation would necessitate modifications to realize our goals and outcomes. We feared there would be insufficient funding to do everything we were considering. At the same time earlier in the year, legislation for Mental Health sf was passed. The comprehensive plan by the mayor london breeds, supervisor ronen and matt haney to address the Mental Health and substance challenges in San Francisco which was music to our ears. They committed to working together to secure the approximately 100 million needed for Mental Health sf implementation. At the outset, we, too, were eager for reforming Mental Health Services Provided by the city. We wanted a Mental Health Services Center open 24 7. We wanted expansion of Behavioral Health and access. A Response Team as in eugene, oregon. A 311 number to call and focus to improve delivery of Mental Health and Substance Abuse services to those in meed of services. , we, too, were interested in the center. We were investigating the conservatorship law passed in 2019. To date we dont have information on the citys efforts to implement Mental Health sf. Our hopes are high for this initiative to be actualized. All of that said our investigation instead examined three areas with Behavioral Health services, which we believe deservetic attention. Number one, a hiring bottleneck and the hiring problem. Two, executive turnover. Three, Public Information challenges. Now for findings and responses. We issued three findings and two recommendations directed at reducing staffing shortfalls. The department of Public Health agreed with all three findings and would implement one of the two recommendations we made. Ththe authors of the study secd recommendation states by jun june 2001 they should fill 50 of the vacancies in 21 days or less intensive case managers. They admit that 21 days might be used as a stretch goal. Department of Public Health responds however highlights an ongoing hiring process which we believe unnecessarily hampers Service Delivery to Behavioral Health Service Clients needs. The department of Public Health response states fastest hiring time projections from the department of Human Services at the department of Public Health is 120 days. It goes on to respond that the current average for Behavioral Health services hire is about one year from when the position is identified as needed, then entered into the system to the start date of that position. In the private sector, filling a vacancy in 21 days might be a stretch, but it is accomplished. Every day while dph indicated that it is working to improve this timeline, we remain extremely concerned that this practice has gone on for too long. Know that it can be solved in other places such as the private sector. We wonder why does it continue to be a seemingly stubborn circumstance at the department of Public Health Human Services office. We wonder when you find a suitable candidate will they wait one year to be hired . Moving to the second area of concern. We commend the department of Public Health for the planned hiring of 40 new intensive case managers by january 2021. We continue to be concerned about the long standing attempt to streamline the process. Also, what can the department of Public Health do to subsidize salaries for the intensive care managers working for the communitybased organization . Reportedly there were 100 slots open for intensive case managers. We may fill only half of those vacancies. How does this change the ratio of providers to clients . The gold stale standard is 110. San francisco has a ratio of 117. There was one other respondent to be made this the recommendation, that is the department of Human Resources for the city. The San Francisco civil grand jury did not receive the response in sufficient time to address it for this presentation. I am sorry to say. We will talk about executive turnover. We issued two findings and two o recommendations at Behavioral Health Services Director level. The department of Public Health disagreed in part with one of the findings and would seek to implement one recommendation and stated they had already recommended the other. The authors of the study sought to clarify what led to this disparity. As of drafting, no change was announced that the jury could report. Beginning with june 2020 and plans filed in public view in october 2020 that the department of Public Health has reorganized and the position of director of Behavioral Health services will report directly to the director of the Health Department and the director of the San Francisco health network. Enhanced remuneration to the expanded responsibilities is also taking place. It has substantially all of these actions accomplished what we addressed. We are pleased with this outcome. However, we would like to know if there is a timeframe for hiring or a deadline fo for hirg the individual. In our last area, the concern for the area of Public Health information or challenges. We issued three findings and three recommendations in the area of report publications on the web and public directories and disability. While the department of Public Health partially agreed with one of the findings, it went on to state it would implement all three recommendations. However, we did not receive a plan to improve the signage, guidance and directory at Public Health Department Site and on the web, nor was there mention of phone assistance with the main phone number to the department of Public Health. We acknowledge the involvement of the San Francisco Health Commission to monitor implementation of these recommendations by asking for quarterly reports from the department of Public Health. Finally, we are honored to have been part of the tradition of the San Francisco civil grand jury. We are pleased to have been part of an ongoing pattern of civic involvement and hopefully improvement in our county and city services. Thank you very much. Thank you, doctor. Is there an additional presentation from Richard Bogan . No, there is no additional report from Richard Bogan. Thank you for all of your work on this very important report. I want to invite up marla simons from the department of Public Health to present responses from the city department. I want to note we have representatives from Human Resources department here as well for questions. Ms. Simons the floor is yours. Good morning. Thank you. That wases a terrific synopsis of the report. Can i share my screen . You should be good now. We appreciate the work of the civil grand jury and definitely saw a lot of alignment. I agree with the recommendations. I did want to clarify. There was one comment that doctor made about dhr not responding. The responses that were provided were done in collaboration with dhr and dphhr. I wanted to be sure that what we submitted was a joint response. I wont go into it. The key points here to the report. What we saw in the report was the recognition of the growing concerns around people experiencing homelessness not having Mental Health and Substance Abuse needs addressed as quickly as they should be, and a lot of work has gone into Mental Health reform and now we have prop c funding to help expand services. A lot of great opportunities, and the same exact three points were raised about the hiring Behavioral Health leadership and Public Information and the summary of the responses. I am repeating the things doctor levenburg said. It is the acknowledgment that hiring is a top priority and very, very clearly understood as a challenge. We did reclassify the position of the dhs director. I am bhs director. I am acting director now. There are a few people committed to the new director. We hope to announce this month and eta in the name of a new director. We are getting close to final selection. That is very exciting. There is a lot of opportunities that we have to improve access to information for dph as a whole and for Behavioral Health. We will be working on more concrete plans. There is a lot of information that we provide online. We acknowledge it is not easy to navigate and could be better maintained. The few points of clarification we want to provide and where there was technically disagreement is that the intensive Case Management position are one type of case manager. We have concerns about vacancies across the board for clinicians and case managers and intensive Case Management is a narrow group within that. Many of our intensive Case Management programs are managed by communitybased organizations for whom we dont have oversight over the hiring but definitely do acknowledge the salary disparities. It is something the city has acknowledged and hopes to address. Again, just acknowledging that 21 days to hire a position given the current hiring challenges and overall process is just not never would be feasible in our Current Civil Service system. We wanted to provide a couple of updates. Currently the Behavioral Health services has 113 vacancies. We prioritized 90 of them. These are not just clinical. We have leadership, analyst, care coordinators and clinicians that are involved and are part of the list. 90 positions are moving through the hiring process. As highlighted here, some of the clinical positions that are vacant, some of the work that we are doing to improve the process. We have improved communication between the Behavioral Health services and hr at the dph level. We are hiring a batch of the Behavioral Health clinicians that include some of those are icms that we expect to on board in january. This will help with a lot of our vacancies. Some of these are covid intended to be for the Covid Response and a couple other positions in dph. Behavioral Health Services we are working with hr to develop reporting tools. The hr team is expanding. Currently they are working on hiring december or january for new analysts to focus on Mental Health sf hiring. One of the other things that is important. Vacancies in hiring is one piece of a more complicated puzzle where we need to focus on retaining the staff we have. We have the Work Force Development plan focused on retention and staff wellness. We are working hard to be sure the polks we are hiring are as reflective of the communities as possible. Karen hill is also with me. We can both answer questions or provide more information, if needed. Thank you for that response. I am wondering about the one year that we keep seeing. Although it was not in the report, along the way we learned there could be up to 65 touch points for an application before it gets before the person is hired. People are lost because they cant wait for a year to be employed. Maybe you can respond to that. Thank you. Thanks very much. I would definitely invite karen if karen is on to talk a little bit about that. There are many opportunities in our system to streamline the hiring process. Unfortunately a lot of those conversations happen outside of Behavioral Health. They are things required in the dhr policy and Civil Service rules that have been in place for 100 years. There is opportunity to improve. I definitely agree that is not acceptable. We need to hire faster, but that conversation how we improve the hiring process really belongs at the city level. Karen, i dont know what else you want to add. Hi, yes, i am karen hill, director of staffing for department of Public Health. Based on what marla actually put the nail into the explanation. Great job, marlow. We have processes in place to create a barrier. I hate to say barrier. We are Civil Service employees but there are processes in place to improve and remove those barriers. We have improved our internal processes with the department of Public Health to increase well decrease the time it takes to hire and remove some of those delays to speed up some of our hiring. Specifically, a pandemic had yous look at our process and to allow us to move quickly to on board and hire front line staff to address the pandemic. [please stand by] to all of our hiring across the department. But, again, with partnership with the department of Human Resources. Civil Service Rules were lifted from the ma mayors dlerkationd we than is removed well fall back into the Civil Services processes. But were looking to see how we can maintain those processes ongoing so we can keep the momentum and implement those processes in standard work. While were in this state of emergency, you know, were going to take those processes and be able to utilize those in filling those vacancies that we have right now with behavior health. Thank you so much, miss hill and also miss simmons for the presentation and the further response to dr. Levinbergs question about the long hiring process. I did want to ask acting Human Resources director issan, if you could also respond to the question that or the point that dr. Levingberg raised about d. H. R. s lack of response to the civil grand jury report, findings and recommendations . Supervisor, members of the committee, thank you for giving me an opportunity to address you. I think that we just had a simple misunderstanding which we clarified late yesterday. As miss simmons stated, the department of Human Resources and the department of Public Health collaborated on the responses on the hiring issues. And the department of Public Health provided a mai matrix tht indicates that Human Resources response that we develop jointly. So we we wrote to the to judge wong yesterday afternoon when we realized the discrepancy to explain that and to let him know that these were giant responses. Im happy to comment on the concerns of the grand jury and let you know some of the efforts that we could undertake with the d. P. H. As they move towards creating more robust Behavioral Health response. Thank you, director eisen. Actually, i would like to hear your response to the particularly the issue at the long timeline for the hiring process for intensive case managers and other key staff in Behavioral Health systems. The the Human Resources director broadly has responsibility for hiring City Employees. We do conduct this hiring with some of our large agencies through delegated Human Resources departments. The department of Public Health is one of those agencies that has delegated authority to conduct its own hiring processes. But they still are constrained by the same rules that miss hill referred to. Our hiring is governed and overseen by a very robust system of rules that are maintained by the Civil Service commission. These rules are not all, but many are subject to needing confirmed if the rules are going to change. The hiring process and i would say generally speaking, the hiring process places great weight on making sure that protecting the rights of the candidates. We have multiple points along the way where protests can slow us down and we also have robust processes to guarantee fairness in the process itself. Both starting at the beginning that we actually have the authority and the funds to fill the position and then all the way through the process of advertisement, recruitment, examination, interviews, then we go through a vetting process once we established all of that, and then we have medicals and, finally, appointments theres been a number of looks at the process. Weve done work flow on it and we can do more. We certainly did have a heroic effort when it came to hiring nurses during the pandemic, but as miss hill explained we were able to accomplish that in part with relaxation of the rules under the local emergency. We could certainly engage in a similar effort around Behavioral Health as the policymakers make their decisions about the direction that you wish to go in terms of resourcing. And we stand at the ready to assist in any way that we can. And we absolutely appreciate the frustration expressed by the grand jury and the department of Public Health. In many instances our own staff shares it. We too feel that these it could be a great impediment to highly qualified candidates to enter into a process that takes as long as it does. Thank you, thank you so much, director eisen. You know, i dont have any other questions. Colleagues dr. Lea arevingberg, you have a question . I have one additional question. Im not sure who should respond to improving the signage at department of Public Health the phones. I think that it weighs heavily on us as facilitating communication with the Health Department. And if any of you have tried that, i would advise you to call that number of the Health Department and think that youre going to really speak to someone. Or walk into the building on 101 grove and think that youre going to find anyone, because there isnt a direct person there. So im hopeful that there can be more the access to the department can become easier for the public. And, thank you. As you talked about the emergency efforts, i would say go for it, if you can do it. Thank you, thank you for your comments. Thanks again. Miss simmons, if you have any response to the questions about clearer public navigation. Yeah, i would say that i will need to say for d. P. H. That we would want to get back. There are lots of people that would need to be involved in that conversation. For Behavioral Health services which is one director and im the acting director, i can say that we are absolutely focused on improving communication. Both internally amongst our staff and externally with stakeholders, with clients, and we have plans in place to upgrade our website and the idea of better signage and kind of support navigating our system is something that we definitely will will have on the todo list. There are a lot of competing priorities. Mental health s. F. Has very specific language calling on us to really improve how our communication is managed and so im pleased, really pleased, its been a Long Time Coming that you will see improvements from Behavioral Health. And i know that d. P. H. Is committed to that as well, but specific plans we would need to get back to you for 101 grove in particular. And, yep, so thank you very much. Thank you, miss simmons. Colleagues, do you have any questions or remarks before we go to Public Comment . I do not. Great. All right, well, why dont we go to Public Comment. Mr. Clerk, there are any callers on the line . Clerk thank you, mr. Chair. Operations is checking now to see if we have any callers in the queue. If you could, please let us know if we have any callers that are ready. For those already connected via phone, press star, followed by 3, to be added to the queue if you wish to speak for this item. This being the civil grand jury report on the Behavioral Health services. For those already on hold in the queue, please continue to wait until you are prompted to begin. You will hear a prompt that informs you that your line has been unmuted. For those watching our meeting on cable channel 26 or via streaming link or through fof sfgovtv. Org, follow the instructions on your screen at this time. By dialing 1 415 6550001. When prompted enter the meeting i. D. Of 146 215 7375. Followed by pressing the pound symbol twice and then by pressing star, followed by 3, and you will be added to the queue to speak. Mr. Coe, can you connect us to our first caller. Mr. Chair, we have no callers in the queue. Thank you, operations. Public comment is now closed. I do want to again to express my deep appreciation to dr. Levinberg and the members of the civil grand jury who worked on this particular report and, supervisor haney, i dont know would you like to make the motion on the boards responses . Supervisor haney sure. Well, first of all, thank you so much to the members of the civil grand jury for your work on these reports and especially on this particular report related to strengthening the Behavioral Health services in our city. Through our work on Mental Health s. F. In partnership with the entire board and d. P. H. And frontline staff and supervisor ronen, we came across many of these same issues in the report and the goal of Mental Health s. F. Is in many ways to address these same concerns. In particular, the lengthy and inefficient hiring protocols have been a longtime concern. The turnover, the lack of clarity around streamlining services and processes, and we hope that Mental Health s. F. , along with the recommendations brought forward by the civil grand jury can help us to address and fix many of these issues. I also want to recognize that this report was drafted in the last year and that there have been some changes in recent months related to Mental Health s. F. , including partial funding that has been identified from various sources, including the revenue and general Fund Appropriations and erap appropriations and implementation is underway as of november 2020, including the launch of street crisis teams and the hiring of a new director. And, number three, all of the members of the Mental Health s. F. Implementation working group were appointed in the fall of 2020, and the group is scheduled to begin meeting this month. So consistent with the responses from d. P. H. And the Health Commission and the civil grand jury as recognized in their comments i move to amend the board response resolution, a copy of which you should have in your email, so that the first two resolve clauses should read, resolve that the board of supervisors report that recommendation number r3 will not be implemented because of the permanent Public Health is already reclazzified, the department of behavioral hel position to reflect a new structure and salary. Thats the recommendation does not need to be implemented and be it further resolved that the board of supervisor reports that recommendation number r4 has been implemented as follows the department of Public Health has changed the reporting structure of the department of Behavioral Health to report directly to the department of the San Francisco health network, and, thus, the recommendation does not need to be implemented. I thank the members of the civil grand jury and we will be committed to these recommendations that still need to be implemented as part of a broader outreach structure and connected to Mental Health s. F. Supervisor mar thank you so much, supervisor haney. So, yeah, you have made the motion to amend the board resolution, and so i would also move that we recommend item 2 as amended to the full board and then also move that we file item 1 for the hearing on this. Clerk should we do a roll call vote on each of those motions . So for the motion offered by member hane tow amen haney to al call] mr. Chair, there are three ayes on the amendment. And then on the motion offered by chair mar that the resolution to be recommended as amended [roll call] mr. Chair, there are three ayes on that motion. And then on the motion offered by chair mar that the hearing be now heard and filed [roll call] mr. Chair, there are three ayes. Supervisor mar great, thank you, mr. Clerk. Can you call items 3 and 4 together. Clerk yes. Agenda item number 3 is a hearing on the 2012020 civil grand jury report entitled sustain our citys high performing Moscone Convention center, agenda item 4 is a resolution responding to the presiding judge of the im going too fast resolution responding to the presides judge of the superior court on the findings and recommendations condaned in the 20192020 civil grand jury report entitled sustain our citys High Performance Moscone Convention center, and urge other the mayor to cause the implementation of the accepted findings and the recommendations through her Department Heads and through the development of the annual budget. To provide Public Comment call 1 415 6550001. And enter the i. D. Of 146 215 7375. Press the pound symbol twice to connect to the meeting and then press the star key, followed by the number 3, to enter the queue to speak. A system prompt will indicate that you have raised your hand. Wait until the system indicates that you have been unmuted and you may then begin your comments. Mr. Chair . Supervisor mar thank you, mr. Clerk. I welcome back the guests from the civil grand jury and mr. Peter mills who led the effort on this report. Chair mar, mr. Peter mills is the chair of that investigation and report. And he will proceed with our presentation. Thank you. Supervisor mar thank you. Okay, hello. We will recover and the muscone Convention Center business will recover from the big hit that has been covid19 over approximately the next two to five years. As that Convention Business does recover, its important for us to continue to support, to invest in the muscone Convention Center to that end. Chairman mar, supervisor haney, supervisor peskin, good morning, and its wonderful to share this time with you. Thank you for your attention to this report. And i will work to be brief and i want to go over some important points. I also want to take a moment to recognize the mucone Convention Staff and all of the people in the city involved in repurposing the Convention Center for this time of covid19. What a dynamic and versatile operation it has been. But hopefully well get back to business as normal with the thriving Convention Business Going Forward. Prepandemic, muscones business was indeed robust. And we recently finished building out the muscone building expansion on the tail of a half a billion dollar investment. With our recent past with these investments, we fully expect that the future of the Convention Business in San Francisco can be, should be, bright, it should be vital. So weve made significant investments and we want to derive good returns on those investments. As we all know, past returns do not guarantee future success, future returns. And there are legitimate concerns with respect to that future. The postpandemic success of our Convention Business is not guaranteed. Coming out of the crash Going Forward in this next two to fiveyear period and beyond the Convention Business is indeed a longterm business for the city. There will be enhanced increased competition from other venues around the nation and international as well. Theres going to be slowly increasing demand for Convention Centers, for venues, corporate budgets are shrinking. Conventions may be reinvented into some hybrid forms with more remote activity, less onsite activity. And theres going to be increased competition from other venues who see the same benefits as we do from our Convention Business. They see those benefits from theirs and they have also been investing. So the competition is going to continue to be strong. I want to make some find sorry, i want to make some comments on specific findings and recommendations, not all of the findings, just some of them, in each of the four recommendations. But as a prelude to that, let me raise some of the key aspects alluded to in our discussion and analysis in the report. Its clear that covid and precovid, the munc, muscone cen play a significant role in creating in our economy jobs, local jobs from diverse communities. If we stand for if we stand up for the muscone Convention Center, were standing up for revenue for our city, sorely needed revenue, and were standing up for jobs for our citizens. That is San Franciscos Convention Business does indeed have a significant impact, positive impact, on our economy. That said, our visitors, Convention Planners and convention attendees, they have been articulate and vociferous in expressing concerns about the costs of hosting conventions in San Francisco and the situation in our streets whereby planners and attendees feel uncomfortable, frankly, uncomfortable and sometimes insecure. Yes, we have a strong brand. Our city has a strong brand. Our Convention Center is a highquality institution and has strong brand. Its recognized as a top tier Convention Center. Thats great. We have competitive advantages. We also have competitive disadvantages that our post postattendeeees have capitalizd on. We need to promote the favorable aspects of our valued proposition as a venue. We also need to Pay Attention to protect our investment over the long term of our Convention Events. Sales of new events with the retention of existing events as we go forward. Im not talking about today. Im talking about the long term. Two to five years out and beyond. So with that, we will now take our attention to findings, six, seven, eight, nine. For findings one through five, i think that theres general agreement from all respondents as to those first five findings. The final four findings in the report, i think that we can see that all respondents have said they agree but right, its a qualified agreement. So it generates the value of making some commentary. Number six compared to many cities competing venues, high costs make contracting future conventions a significant challenge. And one of the comments on that finding from respondents has been that while, yeah but talk to your convention cities, all have high costs. In the grand jurys view, not so, or maybe thats not so accurately stated. The fact of the matter is that in the range of costs for Convention Centers around the nation, our costs are at the top of the range. We can look at different examples. We can look at the rental cost for the facility itself. We can look at wholesale room rates beyond the control of the city, to be sure. Trends excuse me hotel taxes, and occupancy taxes. We are way at the top of the range. If i remember correctly, the report signaled that in san diego the hotel taxes 4. 25 lower than ours. So, yeah, other cities have high costs in hosting conventions, but its difficult to match our high costs. So that continues to be a concern. Finding number seven compared to some cities competing venues, Convention Planners and conventioneers, they have concerns about insecurity. Sometimes, unfortunately, there are incidents of Real Security issues. Sometimes its just a perception. But in terms of selling Convention Events and retaining Convention Events, perception matters. Respondents have said that, yeah, but the stakeholders in the Convention Business in San Francisco already closely collaborate to address security concerns. In our view, yeah, its true we were impressed by the quality of different stakeholders involved in building our Convention Business. And we are impressed by their close collaboration, but we need to achieve more because, frankly, the problem of perceived insecurity persists. Finding number eight, unwelcome street behaviors and street uncleanliness bother the convention attendees. And have been behind the reasons some medium and large events have chosen to abandon San Francisco as its venue and move to other cities. Respondents have said that all top tier cities for Convention Venues have the same problems. So one degree or another, yes, in our view San Francisco while we have been successful because of the strength of the positive attributes of our valued proposition, we have worse problems around street cleanliness and street behavior than some other cities, and, certainly, some other cities use our reputation to sell against us in selling conventions. So its a significant concern from that competitive aspect of long term realizing muscone Convention Centers potential despite the odds of addressing these particular areas. Finding number nine in the face of San Franciscos challenges in the area of event hosting costs, streets and behavior, we could partially offset those negatives by reducing our costs with some additional subsidies from San Francisco. One some of the responses have been that, well, we already constantly continually review the Convention Center rent rates. Okay, but they continue to be significantly above the competition. And we need some Additional Support to sell and to retain conventions by addressing that excess cost. Lets go to the recommendations. And i apologize, i think that i have been a bit wordier than intended so ill try to become a little bit more brief to ensure adequate time for others. Recommendation number one frankly, i think that this recommendation perhaps was misunderstood by some respondents in that the word renew did not imply that San Francisco can unilaterally renew the t. I. D. Yes, theres a number of parties that need to come to the table and agree on the agreement. What this recommendation was targeted to was to have the city promote and to advocate for renewal of a strong t. I. D. The t. I. D. Agreement is fundamental to the success of the muscone Convention Center and our Convention Business. Lets keep that good thing going. Recommendation number two. So recommendation number two is where we recommend adding additional subsidy to sell and to retain Convention Events. Theres respondents saying that, well, in current finances with the precarious Financial Condition that were in with an uncertain future, theres just not the money to do this. Im paraphrasing here, of course. But, number one, were looking long term. And, number two, the 2. 5 million outlined in our recommendation is not a giveaway. The money is not necessarily handed out as direct subsidies to any event, no. The idea is to be strategic about it and make a decision on a casebycase basis to subsidize or not with the additional 2. 5 million. So, for example, an attractive piece of business for the city could be an Association Convention event with a multiyear contract. The recommendation is not to hire additional policemen. The recommendation is to focus priority on themus coney Convention Center and its events. The San Francisco Police Department already does establish priorities and strategically decide where to assign officers in any given day or week or month, and the recommendation is to recognize the priority that our Convention Business is and to assign increased presence. Uniformed presence around the Convention Center is beneficial to the feeling of security of our convention attendees, visitors to the city. If it is not possible to do within 8 blocks or within 8 hours or 4 blocks from the center, maybe three blocks, four hours. The point is we need to address the concerns of our visitors of feeling insecure, walking from hotel to the center, from the Convention Center to the hotels, to the restaurant and increased uniformed presence would be a significant boost to improving that particular metric. Recommendation number 4. June 30, 2021 establish a task force to focus on real improvement in the conditions and streets around the Convention Center. The respondents are saying, well, there are working groups. As i said before we alluded to that and the report as well, great players. The city of San Francisco has strong players in the Convention Business. Not just the Convention Center itself but beyond. Yes, admirable collaboration across them. Still this is not delivering the needed results in terms of visitor feelings and reactions to attending an event in the Convention Center, and the brand that we are building in the Convention Business around the nation and around the world. We can do better, and if we have a focused, highly focused task force with accountability for significant improvement in the number and percentage of postevent surveys showing concern about the city blight and behaviors in the streets thanks is the objective of this particular recommended task force. There you have it. Perhaps not as brief as i was hoping to be. I apologize for that. Thank you for your attention and consideration of the Convention Center and the significance that it is for San Francisco. I repeat what i said earlier to stand up for the Convention Center is to stand up for tax revenue and for our City Residents jobs. It is a big job creator. Most of those jobs are for diversity residents. Thank you very much. Thank you, mr. Mills for all of your work as well as the other grand jury members on this important report. Now, i would like to welcome the City Administrators Office and lisa from the office of economic and Work Force Development for the responses to the report. Thank you, chair. Good morning, supervisors i and the director of convention facilities. I appreciate the effort put forth by this years civil grand jury and the report they issued recording sustaining the Convention Center. I would like to thank each of you for this report for the circumstances facing us today. In general, we agree with the report recommendations and fully recognize the importance of our convention and sister industry in San Francisco. There are many factors that are considered. The Convention Center is one. Proximity to hotels, restaurants, retail, attraction and other venues are very important in the competitive industry. Attendees safety and cleanliness are key factors. We work hard on forging partnerships of businesses that recognize and understand the value of bringing conventions to San Francisco. Together we have the ability to manage costs so we remain competitive with first year cities across the country. Visitor spending equates to future business to support the economy. We may support the recommendations, we recognize it will be challenging to implement due to the citys current budget crisis. I will open this moment up for lisa to comment further. Thank you, supervisors. Good afternoon. Chair mar and thank you Committee Members and civil grand jury for your thoughtful report and consideration of the recommendations which are extremely important. I am here to answer questions on recommendation number one related to the tourist Improvement District. I can speak to that now or wait until the board members, Committee Members have questions. Thank you. If you can, just speak to that right now it would be helpful. Absolutely. Recommendation number one, and i understand the comments from mr. Mills related to the intention of the recommendation number one was to ask the city to advocate for renewal of the tourism district. The way it was worded was problematic because as we stated in the response, the city cannot unilaterally impose assessment district on hotels who are currently paying for the assessments for tourism Improvement District. There is a process that the constituents have to agree on Management Plan, assessment rates, scope of services and they send out that plan. The city does review the plan. Our office provides the technical assistance. We are currently working with the San Francisco tourism Improvement District board to create the timeline for the renewal and as assist them with the legal review and technical review the city does of these plans. We are actively working with them currently on the renewal, to be honest. We cannot make the choice as city or board of supervisors to renew a district until the hotels who are assessed vote on the petition and if they receive 30 support they can move forward if the board passes a resolution of intent for a special election on a ballot for renewal of the district. It is not under the city control until those people weigh in on the election process. We praised the response. We are currently oewd working with the San Francisco tourism Improvement District to think through the timeline and process. Thanks for that explanation. Thank you for your brief summary of the city departments responses. Colleagues, do you have questions or remarks before Public Comment . Supervisor peskin . [indiscernable] i would like to actually concur with some of the recommendations and findings in whole or in part. As stated, part company with all due respect with the civil grand jurys recommendations and would concur with what the mayor set forth that is before us today. Let me be clear. The visitor and convention function in San Francisco is remarkably important to our economy. I am the author, original author of the tid. I was around and voted on all of the condemnations for mosconi west. Yes, we have challenges and we have to stay competitive. I think this is a report well received relative to the recommendations and Charter Authority vested in the mayor and board of supervisors. I will get to those. I certainly intend to be a member of this board of supervisors when the tid comes up for renewal. Having said that we cannot preagree to that. I do note mr. Mills said the word renew misconstrued. It is a democratic process that is weighted towards certain types of Property Owners in the way the organic documents give the votes or the voting power. We cant preagree to that. Nonetheless, i want to say that i fully intend to work with the tid and the community and the pay ors to renew that district at the same or higher level when it comes due in 2023. I will get to the other recommendations and why i concur with the mayor and part company with the grand jury, civil grand jury on those recommendations. Why dont we open up for Public Comment. Thank you, supervisor peskin. Supervisor haney, did you have questions or remarks . Yes, thank you to the civil grand jury for their work on this and the departments here. Thank you for taking your leadership on behalf of the board on the responses and next steps. I have two questions. It sounds like the San Francisco Police Department is here whether we can have a response to them related to recommendation number three about how the current approach works in terms of maintaining security and safety at the Mosconi Center and the general sense of if we are not able to do this particular dedicated Police Officers how we ensure Public Safety in and around the musc oni center. Good morning. Commander walsh from the San Francisco Police Department. Chairman mar, supervisors, grand jury, thank you for your time. Specifically to recommendation 3 as some of the supervisors, as i am sure you are aware. If you have an event within your Police District that district is responsible for those events. Musc oni center is in the San Francisco southern Police District. Those officers would be deployed from Southern Police station. We would allelui would allocate. If you had west portal we might have to shift over to that event. Southern Police District would be doing that in these events. With this just due to the recent budget cuts and with staffing now. Three of the upcoming classes are out. Sfpd will not have staffing to additional on duty officers. That is the purpose of the 10b program. A lot of conventioners and and mosconi knows that. They can pay for the Additional Service so we are not drawing the officers out from current duties. That would be officers not working at that time. That is the way that resource would have to be done. If you look at the recommendation, it is based on the numbers. If you look at three officers for 10,000 depending on the size and length of the convention. I know in the past oracle did provide that type of process where they hired the officers in those areas. It would be large to use beat officers on foot to make everybody feel safe and protect the area. The crowd sizes would be a huge drain on resources for southern station. Within the tourism improve meant district, and i am sure supervisor peskin knows the answer as well. Would hiring the officers be something the tourism Improvement District could do . Is that something they do currently or would that be something they could perhaps consider . Lisa with the office of workforce development. Yes, officers could be an eligible Funding Source for tourism Improvement District in the future. It is not part of the current Management Plan services, but they can consider including that in renewal plan. This is a question for the civil grand jury. On recommendation number 4, establishment of task force. Could you speak a bit more about why you feel that this sort of Task Force Model is needed as opposed to sort of the current mechanism for collaboration . Is there a particular type of similar governance structure that you are modeling this on . I dont no if we have any similar models you are trying to replicate here or you think we should replicate. Two comments. One, despite the good efforts, collaboration, as i remarked earlier, something more is needed. Hopefully, a focused task force could come up with what is the strategy that could be a better strategy than what is in place today. My second comment is let me air a little dirty laundry. This particular recommendation actually started out differently. It started out as something along the lines of, look, we have laws on the books today. Ordinances and so forth whereby we could take what someone calls a heavyhanded approach and cleanup the streets. The idea is not to criminalize homelessness or inappropriately jail people. Far from it. But there are laws on the books that could go at solving some of these problems. The civil garaged jury we had some helpful we had a strong discussion and there is political concerns, concerns for citizens at the same time but also concerns for visitors. We thought that would be an nonstarter for a conversation to take that more heavyhanded approach. Rather we thought there needs to be another approach. We thought that this goes beyond our expertise and does require bringing the parties together. If we dont do this approach and that first one heavyhanded approach, the current approach is not working. What is it. We put that hot potato in the hands of the city with the task force. A comment on the Police Departments response. I am the director of policy and Public Affairs for the San Francisco Police Department. I just want to address that we obviously reported that we would not be able t to implement thate have moved forward to looking at different approaches when it comes to nonviolent incidents. Really at the end of the Day Community gatherings in San Francisco. We felt with the spirit of what has gone on we as the San Francisco Police Department will continue with our Law Enforcement duties. We have been very clear the direction and climate we are in now not only politically but the outcry was felt it was important to underscore that. We have task forces. I knew a Behavioral Health model in San Francisco. We would like to recommend there are existing practices, groups, task forces, collaborations going on and it may be best to turn to those approaches. As commander walsh recommended, there are other ways to look at officers to be on duty. We want to be very careful to go against what our directives have be. It is sensitive for the Police Department at this time, as you can imagine. Thank you. I am looking forward to hearing from supervisor peskin about our responses as well. Thank you for your work and thank you, supervisor peskin, for taking the lead on behalf of the board on this one. I want to thank commander walsh and lisa for your responses. Any other remarks before Public Comment . I will reserve remarks for after Public Comment. Are there callers on the line for Public Comment . We are checking to see if there are callers for these agenda items 3 and 4. For those watching on channel 26 or through sfgovtv if you wish to speak on this item call in now by following instructions on your screen by dialing 4156550001. Meeting id for today is 146 2157375. Press pound twice and star followed by 3 to enter the queue to speak. Could you please connect us to the first caller. Good morning, supervisors. Thank you for your time today to address this important issue of the grand jury findings. I am joe and desmond business agent for the stage employees local 16. Our work force is approximately 2000 people. The wages earned at Mosconi Center account for 50 of wages and benefits earned by stagehands. The success is essential in providing a liveable wage for those in San Francisco. The center in San Francisco has experienced a long and successful ron in providing excellent convention experiences to attendees and tourists alike. However, we are in jeopardy of losing this revenue due to costs and conditions. As for conditions. Additional Police Protection is essential for not only the safety of conventioners but the stagehandses as well. The crews work late at night at odd hours. Their safety needs to be considered. As for discounting the rental of the facility. This is critical as well. The bottom line is if we dont make ourself competitive in the Convention Market this large and wonderful building will remain dark. I understand and respect the need to look at the city budget in total due to covid. We must not let our most important and lucrative facility go domant. Thank you. Next caller, please. Good morning, supervisors. I appreciate the opportunity to speak before you today. I am terry lewis. General manager for Hilton Union Square and park 55. These hotels served San Francisco for decades. I am here to express support for findings and recommendations in the report before you which illustrate concerns and related improvement opportunities based on visitor, employees, Meeting Planner and convention client and stakeholder sentiments. It was thorough and fair and provides vital recommendations to be implemented immediately for economic recovery. I would like to call your attention to a few of the critical recommendations. Supplementing the current mosconi assessments with an additional general Fund Allocation of at least 2. 5 million to provide rental discounts to Convention Center clients. After july 1, 2021 at least three additional uniformed beat Patrol Officers per 10,000 expected event attendees dedicated to patrolling the areas around the center during the busy convention hours. The industry supports establishing a Stakeholder Task force for Street Management and tid rhinology. Tourism is hit hard. These are the steps in a positive direction toward recovery. This would improve the San Francisco ability to keep existing Convention Business and attract new business in a competitive market during critical rebuilding times. It would benefit ancillary businesses. Please support San Franciscos number one economy to ensure we are competitive with other destinations. Thank you for sharing your comments. Next caller, please. Good morning, chair mar, vice chair peskin, member haney. I am the coo at the California Academy of signs and verying on tida. Thanks to the civil grand jury for their work in this matter. I will be brief. During undergraduate i was a banquet waitter. I was one of your servers. 12 plated dinners wearing the polyester tux. It helped put me through college. When i see the waiters i am reminded how important the jobs are to survive. Tourism is the number one industry in terms of revenue and hardest hit. Especially i appreciate the committee as it focuses on what will be a postcovid recovery area. I support the findings of the report as it pertains to supplement for the expansion distribute and tid renewal. Thank you, supervisor peskin for helping establish that. These jobs wait staff and convention employees are all key to economic recovery. The is sense of pursuit in some form San Francisco will struggle to attract new business in a competitive market. I will agree with the head of the grand jury that said that other cities are taking advantage of criticizing San Francisco and the things they think we are not doing well. It is throwing us under the bus to get the Convention Business we are losing. We ask for your support and help us to be competitive as we emerge from this. Thank you very much. Next caller, please. Good morning. I pam john sanderson, John Anderson of jw marriott. Tourism has adapted to challenges of the city. Along with my colleagues there are three main pillars that holed us up in San Francisco. First, the people who work in the buildings and welcome the visitors to San Francisco. This population are dedicated professionals. On the faces seen and unseen they guarantee a clean and safe stay. Sf travel has been wildly successful in recovering from past opportunities like the recent renovation of musc oni. 2. 5 million to provide rental discounts is needed to come pete with other conventions. They are pulling out all the stops. Last is the center. Without a highly functioning center supported by the findings of the grand jury the other two struggle to recover and leave many out of work. Yes, travel will return to San Francisco. How quickly tax revenues return depends on the support and recommendations in this report. Thank you to your dedication to clean and safe streets for travelers and associates. I am looking forward to the impacts on resent wins. The street Response Team and prop b which we supported. Thank you for your work. We appreciate it and appreciate your time. Next caller, please. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. I am catherine, executive director of the district. We support the recommendations in the report. Today i would like to speak about the importance of the musc oni center. It is located in the middle. It is a significant contributor to the health of the neighborhood. The importance is clearer during the pandemic. Most restaurants and hotels rely on visitors and those at the convention at San Francisco. To explain our role in making this the best neighborhood it can be. It is supplemental to the city. We have a cleaning removal of litter and steam cleaning the sidewalks. We have neighborhood ambassadors to help the street population connect to the services. We partner with the bike Patrol Officer for quality of life issues in the neighborhood. All of these services are provided 7 days each were 265 days each year. San francisco travel has specifics on each convention to address services. We analyze the walking routes from the hotel to the Convention Center and our team is as invisible as possible. We are committed to see if we can make adjustorment bees to improve efforts around musc oni center. We need help from the city to ensure the visitors have the best experience possible. We look forward to working together to tackle these important tasks. Thank you for your time. Thank you for sharing your comments. Next caller, please. Good morning. Thank you for giving us your time. I am stacy judd. I am coowner of the restaurant. [indiscernable] our business has served the Downtown Market and business travelers who have attended events at the center and surrounding hotels. Our Current Business is in hibernation. We are keeping a watchful eye on the neighborhood. We have concerns for safety for employees and future customers when we reopen due to increased crime anden campment activities. One of the findings included safety concerns from conventioners and planners. The time is now to maintain health and safety of streets by increasing foot and bike beats. The growing ofen campments and crime will erode this formerly vibrant part of the city and travel will return when it is safe to travel and gather. We are distressed we will be unable to reopen our business. The neighborhood will no longer be desirable or safe. We urge you to maintain a Higher Police presence now to ensure the safety of our streets. We are also troubled by the increase in petty crime. The lack every percussion for the crimes by individuals that do not live here and will return to commit the same crimes. What are we doing to mitigate this behavior . We urge you to support the residents we about and the investment we made to the neighborhood and city by increasing Police Presence and implementing stronger actions to prevent petty crime offenses. This needs to start now to ensure our city is a desirable destination to attract tourism again. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next caller, please. Good morning. Thanks for the opportunity to speak with you this morning. I am the president. [indiscernable] we are not for pro visit with 1300 business members in San Francisco and the bay area. Today we celebrated our 110th annual meeting. San francisco is a destination for business and Leisure Travel and the Convention Center is for group business. We know we cant take this for granted. We have had many groups leave San Francisco in recent years. I thank the grand jury for the report and work. They will choose other cities if we dont change the way we do things. We need to offset rental rates or reduce recommendation rates to remain competitive and provide extra safety and security around the center. This is never more important as we recover from the covid19 pandemic which decimated the tourism injury. A modest investment into reducing the rates in the city has a massive Economic Impact. We have a Nonprofit Association that met here for a number of years. They may not come back if we dont give a blake on the rent as other cities are doing. The rent is 6 72,000. To support the 11,000 jobs, total attendees 30,000. Generate 64,000 hotel room nights. Total Economic Impact is 66 million to San Francisco. Total local taxes to the city 3. 1 million. For an investment of 6 72,000 the city would get 3. 1 million in taxes back. We cant afford to lose this conference or many like it. It is a simple investment. You dont pay until you get the guarantee of the return. Thank you and we look forward to working for you. Next caller, please. Good morning. I am kevin care roll, president of Hotel Council of San Francisco. Nonprofit trade association representing hotel industry. The maswe support as an industr. The center is the lifeblood of bringing in business that will ultimately help our hotels and then help everyone in San Francisco. When musc oni is successful, San Francisco is successful. The recommendations before you today are important. By helping provide discount and be more competitive with other cities in the nation will help us as an industry. Safety concerns. Employees and visitors and those attending do not feel safe. That is something this report really recognizes. It is critical to find a way in the city to address this situation. Iit is real. We hear it every day. It will be critical to move forward. Going into covid we were already losing conventions due to what is happening in the streets. Now it is hard to recover. We need the support of everyone. We thank you, supervisor peskin, for your work in establishing the tid. That will be critical to bring back people to the city of San Francisco. I urge you to support the recommendations and work to support our number one industry and keep musc oni as rerobust as it can be because it will benefit every person in San Francisco. Thank you. Next caller, please. Good morning. Thanks for the opportunity to impress my concerns today. I am. [indiscernable] from washington, d. C. I support San Francisco be travel request for the funding to offset rental at the center. It is very critical for nonprofit organizations such as the society because they will be prohibited for all conventions to return to San Francisco. Without the rental offset, the society will be full to choose other cities that are offering incentives and free rent at their Convention Centers. Our meeting attendees have shared with me the need for the street to be cleaner and safer. They did not feel safe walking from the hotel to the Convention Center with aggressive homeless pan handlers. San Francisco Police presence is very important. Thank you. Next caller, please. Good morning. I am the general manager of the clancy hotel. I am the current chair of board of directors of the Hotel Council and sf travel and treasure of the East Community benefit district. I thank you for the opportunity to speak and special thanks to chair mar and peskin and member haney. I give my full support of the findings in the report before you. They illustrate the top concern of our clients. It is vital the recommendations in the report are implemented immediately to laid in the economic recovery of the city. My hotel is currently open, i have only about 30 employees working one or two days each week. I have 120 employees not working at all. These recommendations are not only critical to bring back my team but to bring back conventions to San Francisco. We are three blocks from the center. Our Community Desperately Needs the tax revenue from the conventions. I want to talk about the recommendations and concerns that i heard earlier. First, it is critical that we support the current assessments with additional allocations. As far as we can show you a clear ry. Not one dollar will be given unless we can do so. Our Competitive Cities are giving away free represent. We are losing business. We need more Police Presence. That has got to happen. I heard per ception ception is reality. I say that every day. We have to change be this reality. I know that you talked about increasing the tid to cover these funds needed. Something that i just want to say we would love to have you at the Hotel Council to talk to the board. There are pros and cons in saying these funds will come from increase in tid. Make no mistake. My colleagues are working with city leaders to have the safety resources. Thank you for sharing your comments. Reminder if you address the government audit and Oversight Committee address to the panel as a whole, not to any individual members of the panel or other speakers on the call. Next caller, please. I am a journeyman and Committee Member with the stagehandses union. Thank you for the opportunity to speak before you today, chairperson marand members peskin and haney. I support the findings and representations made in the report before you. These are very important to be able to make mosconi bookable when we get back to a normal situation. When you walk down town today you can see what it is like to go down there when there is nothing going on. Obviously, if there are conventions in town,. [indiscernable] the people that are working are going out to eat and spending money as well. It is very important that mosconi operates because it affects other cultures around it. It is important that we thatmuthatmusc oni gets help. Indeed offering free rent or very low price rent. One of the things that we say in entertainment is that safety is first. That is what we need first. That is how we need to approach conventions as well. That is why we need to make sure policence and doing whatever we do to think out of the box to make sure people feel safe and are actually safe. Reminder that for San Francisco the business meetings thank you for sharing your comments. Next caller, please. Thank you, speakers, i am on the report that was just presented. Today i would like to speak as a longtime resident of San Francisco. It is imperative to speak on musc oni. I dont know if you have been down there lately. Same problem. Unlike reading it or hearing about the problem. It is disgusting. The residents deserve better. It needs to be cleaned up and maintained. Why not implement a public works crew. That would be so easy. Second we have to find money to support a small Police Presence down there. [indiscernable] all of that other stuff down there. It is simple. The city deserves better. Thank you very much. Next caller, please. Thank you for the opportunity to speak before you today. As well as for the work of the grand jury. I am from the San Francisco chamber of commerce and we support the findings and recommendation in the report. These express important concerns of the travel and tourism industry. A pillar of our economy and related visitors and stakeholders of the Small Businesses which rely on conventions and visitors. These recommendations should be implemented immediately to support economic recovery of the city specifically the recommendations to supplement the currentmus coney assessments with additional general Fund Allocations to provide the rental discounts, addition of more Police Staffing related to expected attendees during busy attention hours, renewal of the tourism district and task for f. They have been impacted by the covid19 pandemic. The activity is a driver to employment and Economic Activity. There is an urgent need to recover and for businesses who rely on tourism to bring employees back as soon as it is safe to do so. Implementation will help San Francisco keep existing Convention Business and attract new business in a competitive market during an important rebuilding time and provide for clean, safe and welcoming city to all. Thank you for your consideration and your time. Next caller, please. Good morning. I am with local 16. I have been working at mosconi. I have seen the explosion. My car has. [indiscernable] the homeless situation is a disaster. It is a loss of revenue. For the safety of those walking by. I as a journey person for local 16 have gotten back to my car. I ducked out of the way. My point is that over the last few Years International attendees described the situation as quite simply shocking to see the amount of homelessness and the lack of ability to handle it. The idea to add three Police Officers to 10,000 would be a right direction to help secure the safety of those walking in and around mosconi for not only attendees but fellow coworkers. San francisco is a defund the police by day and call police by night. Short of real situation society will go back to simply funding police. This is what we have to do at this moment. Let the Economic Impact know 84 of the conventions are done within 250 miles of the actual. For example. Lancaster, pennsylvania opened up their Convention Center in 2009. 40 miles from harrisburg. They have seen almost 112 million to a small city of 60,000 people paying money for conventions. San francisco on the other hand has almost 900,000 people and we also rely on 21. 5 of tourism is based on conventions. The difference between pennsylvania and San Francisco is location. Your time is concluded. Next caller, please. Good morning. I am an executive board member of local 16, resident of San Francisco and parent of two children in Public Schools and partner of a person providing services to our most needed communities in San Francisco. I can tell you from my own experience that the recommendations that have been made by the grand jury in this matter are of vital importance. As ever every other speaker sta. We have to engage in actions that are constructive. I am not interested invillefying a person or discompassionate to Mental Health crisis. The simple facts are if we do not make changes in the way we are addressing policies and addressing specific issues we are going to continue to lose Convention Business. Prior to covid19, we already had a situation in which some of our largest shows left to go to nearby venues outside of the city and county of San Francisco because of the three year construction project on mosconi. Many of those are not coming back. Not because of conditions of the street. We need to attract business. Joe spoke towards the economic model and i really want to point out that our progressive values in the city and county of San Francisco where we represent the best qualities of human nature and government in america need tax revenue to pay for the programs that can help been fit those people who are in greatest crisis in this city and may be the people that caused some of the problems we heard discussed. In order to fund these things, we need business. Much as we saw in the 1990s with run away Film Production we see run away convention production. Thank you. Next caller, please. Thank you for hearing this item. I am the executive director of the golden gate restaurant association. I am calling on behalf of the struggling Restaurant Industry in the city. We hope you support the recommendations in this report which we find have been thoroughly considered. Needed to sustain our high performing musc oni Convention Center. Success is linked to tourism spending in San Francisco. The findings in the report are critical not only to the success of the area around musc oni but the restaurants that are sought out. The dollars result in jobs to the restaurant community. This is especialliness during this very difficult time as the pandemic and recovery next year. We urge you to promote return to San Francisco tourism and ensure we are competitive with other destinations and provide a clean and safe city for everybody. Thank you. Next caller, please. Thank you for taking this comment. I would like to ask a bigger question which is postpandemic which we dont know when Convention Business will be in full swing. We have no idea if it ever will be in full swing. Is this a visionary force of Investment Income the way it has been . Perhaps it is a pause moment in this pen dammic to reimagine tourism to support all of the folks representing thousands who comment on this who work but transforming the center to be like the model of a convention bringing people together in a good safe way connected to the earth to honor the people that live there, support the art, in a city that is at the cutting edge of what it is to transform Community Safety and reimagine Community Safety. Police surrounding a few blockings is not good mixing with the Community Living there and petty theft. Go to the root causes of poverty and petty theft. Look at petty theft. Take care of the Homeless Population there and create a vibrant. I am seeing live music and festival safe. Dont go to the same old pattern. Thank you so much. Do we have further callers . The that completes the queue. Thank you so much, operations. Public comment is now closed. I do want to thank all of those who spoke during Public Comment. The many leaders of our business associations, Hospitality Industry and labor organizations and also i want to express my thanks to peter mills and the civil grand jury for your work on this very important report that has sparked this discussion about how to continue to sustain Mosconi Center in the city. I also want be to thank the department for their responses. The mayors office, city administrator, sfpd. I really concur and appreciate with the responses from our departments which are impartial disagreement with a number of the findings. Then in terms of the recommendations, the response is that they will not be implemented for a number of very important reasons. I think that doesnt i want to highlight that we are in agreement with the overall focus of this civil grand jury report on the central importance of Mosconi Center and the conventions for the Economic Health of the city and i think we are all very committed to ensuring that does play a essential role as we move towards recovery in the next year. Thanks again for everyone. Thanks to supervisor peskin for taking the lead on the boards response to the findings and recommendations. Supervisor haney. Thank you, chair mar. I want to thank all of the workers and business owners, residents who called in. I definitely hear the feelings of how important it is that we support the return and the resurgence and success o of the center and how important it is to the revenue and wellbeing. I represent the center as well and i am down in the area all of the time. I definitely feel and see and hear how devastating this period has been for the people who rely on the Economic Activity connected to the center. I wanted to ask a question maybe of the city departments who are here because even though the recommendations didnt exactly speak directly to this, a lot of the comments and general sentiment as it related to the concerns about homelessness and Mental Illness and street cleanliness, i think there was a consistent theme around those issues. I know there is a Public Safety recommendation, but how as a city are we ensuring and the departments ensuring the overall wellbeing of the area . A lot of the things that were brought up related to people suffering from Mental Illness or drug addiction . I do think that area often lacks an adequate amount of street outreach and support, whether that is street cleaning or helping people who are in meed who are left abandoned in this part of the city and attendees of conferences then see that and obviously it is very concerning. It affects anyone who is in the area. Can somebody speak to those concerns, cleanliness, Mental Illness, all of the things that homeless. It came up again and again as to how the citys departments ensure the wellbeing and safety of people in the area, whether they are without homes or visiting beyond the police aspect of it . Thank you for your comment. I can comment on the conditions out here. They are closely monitors 24 7. Going back to one of the recommendations with regard to the collaboration our department has with the number of different organizations supporting the community in this sensitiveantic area. We do have our Security Team at mosconi on constant checks. We also have reaching out again to the Police Department and our local beat officers in the southern station command staff. We also work closely with the benefit district and they also know again as cathy mentioned they know our schedule when our attendees are in the neighborhood. They do staff up their officers and their Community Ambassadors to navigate the situation. Of course, we have a direct line of communication with the Public Health and hsh and all of the different important divisions so that when there are situations that come up that we need support with we can quickly reach out to them for meediate response. That is kind of in a nutshell how we manage the perimeter of the building during normal times. It is sort of general connected necessary to the broader city responses on these issues but not really anything specifically dedicated for the area as far as Community Ambassadors or outreach or hot team or anything like that . Thats correct. Nothing specific. But those are all organizations that we reach out to whenever necessary. One thing i will flag. We do have the new street crisis outreach teams that are deployed through Mental Health sf and a number of other changes and new level of commitments related to Mental Health sf which we talked about in the last item and new department of sanitation. All of this i hope can also bring to barosome of the concerns that were raised to ensure that the very real aspects of people who have been Left Without Services or treatment and are on the streets with unmet needs can be better addressed. As a last thing i definitely will work with the Hotel Council and sf travel and local 16 and everyone to help to move forward the concerns addressed and brought up even as some of the recommendations specifically may not move forward today. Thanks. Supervisor peskin. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I really appreciate the way you laid out your comments at the getgo and would like to associate myself with those comments. I want to marry together a few things. The first grand jury report today relating to the unprecedented investment that the city by and through the mayor and that the instigation of supervisors haney and ronen and embraced by the full board during this pandemic. With thanks to the voters we are investing unprecedented resources in addressing the Behavioral Health crisis that we have on our streets. I also want to bring into this conversation something that happened earlier this week at the board of supervisors related to hopefully a turning of the page with the Police Officers association. That vote on the poa contract also was accompanied by a side letter as to an acknowledgment that i think we all on the board embracedded this matter of Public Policy that we need to diversify our notion of what First Responders are. Mental Health Professionals should be coming to people in crisis when it is not a dangerous situation rather than Law Enforcement officers. The poa acknowledges that. Our Public Health officials acknowledge that. We are concentrating on all of these things. Yes, the convex and visitors function in San Francisco is profoundly economically important. Indeedmus connie center is a loss leader. We need to spend money to make money. That remains true. We also have some balancing as the m. T. A. Is getting ready to layoff hundreds of bus drivers. We are in one of the biggest fiscal municipal crisis in 100 years. We have got to be thoughtful and careful about that. To that end to cut to the chase, i would like to on page 4 of the resolution that is before us agree with findings 1 through 5 in whole. As i said earlier and consistent with the mayors response. Disagree partially with finding 6 for the following reasons. The musc oni center is one of the highest in demand centers among the first tier venues for conventions and visitors despite costs. Those at the convention consider a variety of factors in hosting event in the city. With regard to finding 7 i suggest we partially disagree for similar reasons. Namely, that the center is one of the highest in demand among the first tier venues before the pandemic because those at the convention consider a variety of factors to host the events in the city. As to finding 8, i would like to disagree in part with similar language. That is that it is one of the highest destinations among the first tier venues for convention and visitors before the pandemic despite cleanliness. They consider a variety of factors. Number 9, disagree in part for the following reason. There are many contributing factors to the decisions. San francisco should focus on competitive advantages by elevating overall value of conventions at mosconi. With regard to the four recommendations concurring with the mayor, recommendation 1. I would suggest colleagues and i spoke to this earlier will not be implemented because the renewal of tid is subject to democratic process. Input from holts and tourism leaders and the city and council of San Francisco. That is the language i suggest. This is as a matter of state law as well as the local law implementing lawing i passedded in 2003. This actually requires a vote of the pay ors and as we saw last week at the board of supervisors where there was a majority protest at the Fishermans Wharf Community Benefit district, we were not in position to approve because it did not receive 50 of the vote. We cant renew it or implement that recommendation. I stand by my earlier comment i have every intention of working with the tid and the team and i ask the local 16 to ensure this tid is renewed. I said that as the original author of the tid. As to recommendation number 2. That i suggest will not be implemented and consistent with the mayors response because the city is unable to commit additional general fund given the citys future fiscal uncertainty due to the covid 19 public Health Emergency. Having said that as i said earlier you have got to spend money to make money. That should be on the table when we have our upcoming budget discussions for the fiscal year that ends on june 30th and i will be on that board and supervisor haney and marwill be on the board and it will be part of the budget deliberations but not implemented per the grand jury recommendation. As to recommendation 3. That would not be implemented because the city is unable to commit resources to assign at least three uniform beat Patrol Officers per 10,000 attendees. Given the covid19 public Health Emergency. With regard to recommendation number four that it not be implemented. The city ha has an active relationship with organizations that oversee security and Street Management. Those would be my motions on pages 4 and 5, mr. Chairman. Thank you. I am in agreement with your proposed board responses to the findings and recommendations. Supervisor haney, do you have anything . No, i think i have said my piece around it. I agree with supervisor peskin, the responsibility around Public Safety, responsibility around the renewal, figuring out a better way to ensure collaboration anchored nation amongst departments is needed. A real action plan from the city and the departments, around the needs of mosconi moving forward is critical. I am committed to working with all of the stakeholders, including everyone who called in and the departments and supervisor peskin as well can make sure we are moving forward in this critical city institution. I will be supporting what supervisor peskin just put forward and the next steps that we have outlined here. I would move that we adopt the amendments to item 4 as presented by supervisor peskin. Then we also recommend item 4 as amended to the full board and that we file item 3, the hearing on this. Mr. Clerk. Please call roll. On the motions that the responding resolution be amended. The motion offered by chair mar. Supervisor peskin. Aye. Member haney. Aye. Chair mar. Aye. Mr. Chair, there are three ayes to the amendment. The motion offered by chair mar the amended resolution be recommended as amended. Vice chair peskin. Aye. Member haney. Aye. Chair mar. Aye. Mr. Chair, there are three ayes again. On the motion offered by chair mar that the hearing matter be heard and filed. Vice chair peskin. Aye. Member haney. Aye. Chair mar. Aye. Three ayes. Can you please call items 5 and 6. 5 is a hearing on the civil grand jury report a recycling reality check what happens to thinks we put in our blue recycling bins. 6 is the findings and recommendations contained in that civil grand jury report and urging the juror to accept the findings and recommendations through the Department Heads of annual budget. Members public to comment on this hearing matter call the Public Comment number now. That number is 4156550001. Enter the meeting id 146 2157375. Pound twice then star followed by 3 to answer the queue to speak. It will indicate you have raised your hand. When you are unmuted you may comment. Thank you, mr. Clerk. For the third and final hearing and consideration of report by the important work of the civil grand jury. I will welcome the civil grand jury. The floor is yours. Thank you, chair and Committee Members. Mr. Jonathan gostad was the chair of the report. He will proceed with the presentation. Thank you. I am long time San Francisco resident. Born at the keysser hospital on geary boulevard. Phyllis and i tried to take on something a little more constrained and less contentious than what we have heard this morning. Simply something we talked about which was about recycling. What happens to the stuff in the blue opinions . We started to talk to people and got responses from citizens. There is a lack of clarity. Skepticism it is going somewhere. China is not taking it, it is dumped. With the concerns about plastics in the environment. We thought it would be interesting to investigate this targeted question. Where is the stuff going . How do you find out where the stuff goes . To that end we got in touch with sf environment, which quickly took us to recology down at pier 96. They are the arms and legs that take care of the material. I would like to thank sf environment and recology. They were helpful in answering the questions and letting us visit the facility. They deserve kudos for their participation. In summary, what we found is that the city is doing a heck of a good job to resigningcle the material. It is around 82 . We get held up as the best city in the country for recycling. That is really the good news. It is important to point out one of the things you learn when you visit the facility. When you go to pier 96 and see hundreds of tons of this stuff coming in every day, you realize doing anything at scale is extremely difficult. You can deal with 50 pounds. If you deal with 500 tons of it is a different story. Beal realistic about it. The partnership has done a good job of finding the balance and where it is going. That is a positive part. One think we found was the problem of communications. What we found was that both organizations and actually other organizations do a good job trying to communicate what you as a citizen are to do with your material. Obviously there are websites and a nice app. You can type in pizza box and it tells you the green one. There was a lot of material where the material was being sent. What we found was that that information is not there. We felt and that is in the recommendations it would be useful to provide that. If people know it is recycled properly, they are more likely to participate in the process. When you hear an ad to donate to a charity. 99. 99 of the money is going to whatever the target is to get the money. They want you to buy into the area it is being used appropriately. That would help. Communication we have seen with covid. Communication is extremely important. Consistent communication is a problem. In recycling it is inconsistent communication. It is because every different municipality has a different approach. People have compared information. What they are doing in denver has nothing t to do with what ty are doing in San Francisco. You want to say here is what we are doing. Our recommendations were quite limited in scope, which was just start to communicate on a regular basis where the stuff is going. Keep that uptodate. Hopefully the word will get out and improve further not just rates every cycling but also the rates of quality of what goes into those bins. One big problem. If you put a lot of stuff that could be recycled in there. Cardboard is an obvious one with amazon boxes. You dont put motor oil in there. You dont care. It contaminates all of it and causes problems for the process. That is the part people dont think about. When you are trying to process the material you think about it. The last comment i will make is very heartened to see the responses from the city. Telling people what to do versus what not to do. This is a debate which is better. Better to be positive and focus on what you should do. There is room for both. I have just coincidentally happened to get a flyer from a city council in the u. K. On their recycling. They had a green what to do and red hat what not to do. It was easy to see both sides. If you tell him not to put his hand on the stove you dont tell him everything not to do in the house. You tell him not to put his hand on the stone. Stove. Dont put anything smaller than a golf ball in the blue. The facility cannot pick those things out they are too small. Simple things like that would help. I would look for a balance with that. That is really about all of my comments. Very straightforward. They get my thanks to team members for help with the report. Thank you. Is there another presenter . Thank you for the opportunity. John said everything there is to say. Thanks again for all of your work on this very interesting and very important topic. Why dont we go to the presentation on the response. The citys response. I think we have a representative from sf environment to present. I want to note we have represents from recology available for questions. Chair mar, this is charles here from the San Francisco department of environment. I want to give a quick introduction and ms. Gurney will have a power point to add context to the findings and recommendations on the civil grand jury report. As he noted, we do agree with the findings and recommendations in the civil grand jury report. We do want to commend them for their look at recycling and underscoring that San Francisco hahas been a leader in recyclin. Thank you for your recommendations on how we can improve on where we come this far. I will turn it over for context abfindings. Kara is leading the outreach time and we also have robert here, Program Manager for 08. He can assist with questions after the presentation. Hopefully everybody can see that. Thank you, chair mar and supervisors peskin and haney and to the civil grand jury who participate understand the report. What happened to the things in the blue bin . I thought i would provide a little context and background. San francisco is very much zero waste. We have a goal of zero waste. Our targets are to reduce generations 15 and disposal 50 by 2030. Recycling is key to reach our target. With the focus of this report. We thank you to the civil grand jury for commending us on our work thus far. The success of the recycling program is contributed to two things. The stateoftheart possessing system. The department collaborates to educate the public in multiple languages to ensure they understand why recycling is important and how to participate in the program. We also work with recology to improve our recycling possessing to remove contaminants and our system includes investments in the local work force and high tech equipment. [please stand by. ] we agree with this. And not only do we agree with this, but we often get this question from the public. So updating recologys app to share this information will just enhance our Public Education experience. Well post the information on our website by july 1, 2021. The final recommendation was to enhance the Public Education on what doesnt belong. And we agreed this will cut down contamination and improve the material that we recycling, so we can continue to be competitive in the Global Market and domestic market. We agree this is an issue and want to continue to clean up our recycling. Well post this on our website by july, 1, 2021. And well also do work around social media to make sure that the public truly understands the detrimental contaminants they should not be placing in the blue bin. Well continue communicating with the public about these issues as they arise. Thank you very much. Id love to open it up to questions. Thank you so much. And the responses to the civil grand jury findings and recommendations. I just wanted to say that as a life long environmentalist and as somebody that even got my bachelors degree in Conservation Resources back in the day, this issue is very interesting to me, but i think also important. I appreciate the grand jurys focus on it and all the washington that s. F. Environment and recology have done in having San Francisco an exemplary city in moving toward zero waste. I just have had questions or wondered about, yeah, the question of the civil grand jury report myself. I really appreciate this. I dont see in the report information about what the disposition of the various recyclable materials that we collect in blue bins. I was wondering if you could speak to that. I know there is a commitment following the recommendations to start making that public. I think thats great. Can you just share it. Let me make a comment and then maybe she has a comment. There is a small section in there about where the material goes. One of the there is a couple of challenges there. And thats why i didnt get into a lot of it. First thing, its very dynamic because the markets can come and go and change. So whatever you put in the report is probably not going to be true a year from now, so thats why i didnt put a heavy emphasis on it. There are some issues with respect to confidential information from a business perspective for recology. Like you cant put, okay, i sent it to this guy and i got this much money for it, so you have to obstruct things to some degr degree. What our information was as already mentioned, the cardboard paper material is largely going to Southeast Asia now and thats an important piece because by volume that is actually most of the material, right . And its gotten worse since covid because of all the boxes being moved around. The other thing that i think is very important to note is one thing we certainly learned, is that the code one and code two, the triangle codes on the plastic, code 1 and 2 is very recyclable. Its much more than the other ones. Code 5 is a maybe. And the rest are frankly bad. The markets arent there. You can bundle the stuff all you want and store it, but if the market is not there, there is no place to sell it to. I think having people focus on code 1 and 2 when theyre making a choice as a consumer i think will help. My understanding that is being recycled within the united states. And then on the last one, i learned, i have to honest with you, that glass is kind of a very difficult thing to recycle. The glass actually comes out the back end of the process and its this giant pile of little junk. And its the only place inside pier 96 where the seagulls just flock like crazy. Otherwise, it smells good. That pile, they go straight for it because its so contaminated. So i think glass poses a real challenge. I know we do give it a facility, but basically its a moneyloser for the city. Its very difficult to recycle. I dont know if anyone else has a comment on that. Thanks for that. I just and then i just have one other question for the sf environment. Has this the recommendation that were that youre agreeing with to make information about the disposition of the recyclable materials public, was that something that you had considered or had already been working on . Or is this a new its a new thing. I mean we do it on a casebycase basis. When we get that question, well update that information. It does change frequently. But i do believe that we get that question enough and frequently enough that you know making this information public will just enhance peoples understanding of the process. And their commitment to it. So i dont think anything was in the works officially, but i do believe this will be helpful. Great. Good to hear. So supervisor peskin . Supervisor peskin thank you, chair mar and to the civil grand jury for this report. Its not without a little bit of controversy, not of your making at all, and its good to know that the wade stream is working as intended and that were leaders in recycling in the country. But obviously there have been some revelations in the last number of days relative to the relationship between the city and county as regulator in part and participant in part with what we call recology that is the subject of a 1932 voter approved ordinance 88 years ago. And i think i read that thing about 20 years ago and reread it over the thanksgiving holiday. And it does and i dont want to get into the 62. 5 Million Contract that the board sent back to committee on tuesday or any of that. Thats not really pertinent to what the civil grand jury has focused on. I dont want to go down that rabbit hole. But there is Something Interesting in the 1932 ordinance and it relates to the investigations which is that there are actually when you look at the report, 75 of that waste stream is paper and cardboard. Didnt i see that . Yeah, thats roughly correct. Supervisor peskin and i would like to use this opportunity because the 1932 ordinance appears to me albeit i am not a lawyer to actually exempt paper and cardboard provided that the customer is not paying anybody to have it removed. And, indeed, i think all of us see these trucks. There is a name, the mosquito fleet i think they are called, that go around and collect cardboard primarily from restaurants and businesses, i dont know if they do it from residential customers, although there would be a source with amazon and the changing word. And they seem to be excluded from the 1932 voter approved monopoly ordinance. Do we track or the civil grand jury track how much of that doesnt go to pier 96 . And where it goes . And how that works . The civil grand jury thank you for the question. The civil grand jury did not directly look at that issue. What we did, we only looked at what happens to what is in the blue bin. So obviously by definition, youre talking about is not in the blue bin. So we didnt. I can tell you having been to pier 96 multiple times, i see those same trucks youre talking about rolling in the back of the place because you can drop off recycling material through the back rather than through the trucks if you want. So. Supervisor peskin interesting. Youre saying that some of that or all of that, or who knows how much of it, ends up at pier 96 and the mosquito fleet take it down and presumably sell it to recology, how does that work . From my understanding, basically they have in the back of pier 96, they have a retail place where you can come in with cans and bottles and drop your stuff off. It was closed for a while because of covid. Im not sure its open now. When i was there, it was open. You would see trucks come in, im not sure they have mosquito on the side, but they were trucks piled high with cardboard. Hello, this is phyllis dietz. The civil grand jury had no authority to delve into private businesses. Supervisor peskin got it. I dont know if anybody from recology just by virtue of these questions wants to address how the mosquito fleet works and how that is accounted for . Yeah, i believe we have maurice . I see maurice. I see noel, robert hailey. Everybody. So, yes, recology is represented. Hi, noel with Community Relations team. Im going to defer to maurice for that response. Youre still on mute. How about now . All right, the pier 96, my computer keeps defaulting back to mute. The facility is comprised of two components. We have the mixed to the west. On the east side of the building, we run a Market Facility where we purchase material from the general public. Some of the people who come in, vast majority of the people that use that service are what youre referring to as the mosquito fleet. What we do in those situations, we scale in the trucks and we pay them what we believe is market value for the material theyre bringing. In addition to cardboard and paper, we do operate a buyback center. Unfortunately, because of covid and the restrictions that need to be met, that portion of our building is shut down. And were not purchasing cans and bottles at this time. Supervisor peskin thank you. Supervisor mar seniuperviso peskin, are you done . Supervisor peskin yes, sir. Supervisor mar why dont we go to Public Comment. Mr. Clerk, are there callers on the line . Thank you, mr. Chair. Operation is checking to see if we have callers in the queue. Please let us know if we have callers ready. For those who already connected, press star and 3 to be added to the queue. For those on hold, continue to wait until youre prompted to begin. Youll hear a prompt saying youve been unmuted. If you want to speak on this item call in now. That would be calling 14156550001 and then he wanting 14621 57164 followed by pressing the pound symbol twice and then star. Could you connect us to our first caller . Can you hear me now . We can hear you. Its david pilpel. Several comments on these items. Despite whatever is in the news, City Residents, businesses and city staff work hard every day to make a complex recycling collection and Processing System that minimizes waste to landfill and commodity contamination, maximizes commodity values and supports our climate, environmental and zero waste goals. The rate setting and regulatory scheme set by the 1932 ordinan e ordinance, it simple, complicated and unique at the same time. The Residential Services are comprehensive but the cost is at or less than other local cities. I agree with the thoughtful findings and recommendations of the civil grand jury. Better education and targeted outreach by recology, the department of the environment and perhaps the department of Public Health who has a role in the 1932 ordinance, including mobile devices and using reallife examples should be pursued. Slight content improvements to the quarterly reports from recology posted publicly sooner than they are now would improve transparency. I continue to engage meaningfully on these issues. I thank the civil grand jury and the staff with the city and recology. And i hope for the future. And ill just add that supervisor peskins questions about recycling matters may warrant a separate hearing. Thanks very much. Thank you. Could we be connected to the next caller, please . Hello. I was somewhat concerned to hear somebody say, describe glass as a moneyloser for the city. Not because i necessarily think that, you know, glass is something that is something that is easier recycled or efficient. More, im concerned about the notion that recycling is something that we do because it it provides income. The reasons that we recycle is because were concerned about the environment. Not because its cheaper than just dumping trash. And so this idea of like, you know, pinching pennies, its kind of concerning. And so i would encourage decisionmakers to have in mind not just the fiscal impact, but the longterm environmental impact, because the longterm environmental impact, there is going to be financial consequences in the long term that will outweigh the shortterm financial impact. The issue of glass, i understand that glass is not necessarily the most efficient thing to recycle and just environmentally it may be environmentally better to dump it than to recycle it, but, yeah, i think that its important that decisions be made not on the basis of what is best in terms of financial sense, but in terms of longterm environmental impact. Thank you. Thank you for sharing your comment. Next caller, please. Mr. Chair, that completes the queue. Supervisor mar thank you. Public comment is now closed. I want to thank once again thank the civil grand jury for all of your work on this very interesting and important report. And also thank you to San Francisco environment and recology for all of your good work on our exemplary recycling program that we have here in the city. So, colleagues, my office has distributed my proposed amendments to the resolution and i just wanted to summarize them. The board first of all, the board of supervisors reports to the presiding judge at the superior court that they agree with findings f1, 2 and 3 and secondly that the board of supervisors reports that recommendatio recommendations r1, 2 and 3 will be implemented no later than july 1, 2021. I would add that we urge the San Francisco department of the environment to ensure that these communications are available in multiple languages so that this important new information about the disposition of Recycled Materials is available to nonenglish speakers as well. Are there any comments or questions, colleagues . So i would ask that we adopt the amendment for item 6 as presented and that we recommend item 6 as amended to the full board and that we continue item 5, the hearing to the call of the chair, because theyre well be able to confirm that theyll be implemented. On the motion offered by chair m chair mar. Supervisor peskin aye. Supervisor haney aye. Supervisor mar aye. Mr. Chair, there are three ayes. On the motion that the resolution be recommended as amended for consideration on december 15th, supervisor peskin . Supervisor peskin aye. Supervisor haney aye. Supervisor mar aye. Mr. Chair, there are three ayes. And then on the motion offered by chair mar that the the 5 be continued to the call of the clare. Supervisor peskin aye. Supervisor haney aye. Supervisor mar aye. There are three ayes. Supervisor mar thank you. Thanks again, everyone, for this item. All three items. Mr. Clerk, can you call item number 7. Item 7 is a resolution condemning the naming of the San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center after Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg and urging city departments to establish clear standards with regards to naming rights for Public Institutions and properties that reflect San Franciscos values and the commitment to affirming and upholding human rights, digny and social and racial justice. Members of the public who wish to comment on this should call now. Call 14156550001. Enter today the meeting i. D. , 1462157375. Press the pound symbol twice to connect to the meeting and then press the star key followed by 3 to enter the queue to wait. Mr. Chair . Supervisor mar thank you. Colleagues, i offer this resolution because San Franciscos only Public Hospital should not bear the name of a person responsible for endangering Public Health in our country and around the world and yet it does. Facebook, the company, the platform and the policies that guide it is also a threat to our democracy. Theyve emphasized please threats and violence. It promotes propaganda over journalism, lies over truth, fake news over fact. And in the midst of the pandemic misinformation. These are policy choices and they have a body count. Through this resolution im proposing with econdemn the we condemn the renaming of the hospital after the chairman and c. E. O. Of facebook, because the facts condemn facebook. And mr. Zuckerberg has refused to take responsibility. I wont recite all the evidence cited in this resolution because i think it speaks for itself and shares the breadth and depth of reason. From endangering the privacy rights of the public to the flourishing of racial resentment and White Supremacy on its platform to monetizing misinformation. The reason that facebook is not reflective of San Francisco values and why the founder and c. E. O. Should not hold the name of our Public Hospital. The integrity of the city and our Public Health institutions shouldnt be for sale. While zuckerberg gave a sizeable donation to s. F. General hospital, the fact is this is an institution by and for the people of the city and the people of the city have funded at least 90 of the 1. 244 billion in construction and furnishing costs of this hospital. This hospital belongs to the people whose health, wellness an privacy and in some cases lives are in peril after the man its named after. I think the board of supervisors made a mistake in approving this naming contract five years ago. Five years since that vote have only gone to show how wrong the decision is. I prepared amendments to the resolution which my office has distributed by email updating it to add the evidence of facebooks harm that has been revealed just since we introduced it. Including two studies showing how lifethreatening misinformation about covid19 proliferates on facebook. I want to thank my cosponsor supervisor haney and also thank you, supervisor peskin, for your prior leadership on this. And i want to thank andrea for the partnership and the nurses and staff at s. F. General for their leadership and advocacy on the issue. Colleagues, i urge your support of these amendments and ask you support the resolution. Supervisor haney . Supervisor haney i dont have a lot to add. I want to thank you, supervisor mar, for your leadership and partnership on this. San francisco General Hospital is the jewel of our city. It serves countless residents and safes lives, especially during this pandemic. And i want to acknowledge and recognize the hard work of the people who work at that institution. They deserve to be proud of the place that they go to work every day. They deserve to have a name that reflects the public nature of this most essential institution. And i also want to acknowledge that the nurses and leadership of people who work at General Hospital for bringing this forward for raising their voices for years now on this issue. And i think its important that our board send a clear message about where we stand on this. Particularly, in light of what happened in recent months and years at facebook and with mr. Zuckerberg. Theyve been the source of employee walkouts and boycott campaigns by large corporations because of the behavior. And i think we should all stand in solidarity with the employees of facebook who have been organizing as well as we do this. Were thankful for the gift and thankful for any gift to our most important institutions during this time, but that doesnt mean that we should forever essentially have given away advertising rights on this most essential Public Institution. So thank you, chair mar. I know supervisor peskin has been a leader on speaking out on this for some time as well. So, thank you, and i hope the full board will join us in this. Supervisor mar thank you, supervisor haney. Supervisor peskin, any remarks . We go to Public Comment. Mr. Clerk, are there callers on the line . Operation is checking now to see if we have callers in the queue. Let us know if we have callers. For those already connected to the meeting, press star followed by 3 to be added to the queue if you wish to speak. For those on hold in the queue, please continue to wait until youre prompted to begin. Youll hear a prompt that your line has been unmuted. For those those watching on tv, if you wish to speak, call now. That is by dialing 14156550001, following that you would enter the meeting i. D. 1462157375. And then you would press the pound symbol twice and then press star followed by 3 to enter the queue to speak. Can you connect us to our first caller, please . Hi, supervisors. Im glad to be here. Im andrea and a San Francisco resident and a long time peace and justice advocate and im activist at the group called the Facebook Coalition. And im here today because i really believe own backyard in the San Francisco bay area and actually [indiscernible] was in our backyard, not the other way around. But that we in the bay area have a responsibility to call out facebook. [please stand by] [please stand by] thank you for your work, and i hope that you will pass this resolution. Clerk thank you very much for sharing your comments. Mr. Qiu, could you bring us the next comments, please. Hello, supervisors. Good afternoon. This is tracey rosenberg, calling on behalf of the protest Facebook Coalition to ask for your support for this resolution today. A study was done by the tao center for journalism at Cornell University this year reporting the challenges in coverage the covid19 pandemic, and of the obstacles that reporters mentioned in this study, facebook was number one, and i want to repeat that. Facebook was the biggest obstacle to reporters trying to provide accurate Public Health information about this pandemic that we have been struggling with close to a year. When you have a corporation that is working at cross purposes with our Public Health department, with the hard work of people at San Francisco general, with really everything that the city is trying to do to protect the residents of the city, then thats something that we have to Pay Attention to. And in this particular case, we basically have sold off the name of our Public Institution to an entity that is working at cross purposes to the people of this city, and so were asking you to stay that was the wrong thing to do. Were not going to do it in the future, and we condemn that it happened. So again, thank you, and please support the 800plus advertisers speaking out with the protest Facebook Coalition, and all of the reporter whos struggling againsta state odds clerk thank you for your comments, tracey rosenberg. Mr. Qiu, could you bring us the next comment, please. Hello. My name is kim meredith. Can you hear me . Supervisor mar yes, we can hear you. Im the c. E. O. Thank you. Im the c. E. O. At San Francisco General Hospital foundation. Our mission is to support the s. F. G. With the central funding and access to quality care for all. Timing is everything. We are in the middle of a pandemic, and over 30 of all San Francisco covid19 patients have been cared for at the s. F. G. San francisco passed a bond with 80 of the voters supporting a new hospital. The funds supporting the building, but nothing inside. Philanthropic contributions from many individuals and corporations were vital. Can you imagine a hospital without hospital beds, lights, or emergency Room Equipment . In 2015, Priscilla Chan and her husband made a philanthropic gift of 75 million. Without a modern Public Hospital, San Francisco would not have had a health care unit, been a Health Care Leader and been a model during the pandemic. The deaths in San Francisco only recently reached 160 souls compared to other similar size cities. These gave you, our kricivic leaders the protocols to practice social distancing and sheltering in place. This resolution on the condemnation of the naming of s. F. G. Has the potential of unintended consequences and a Chilling Effect on past, present, and future gifts to the city on what are, in my perspective, Public Hospitals. San francisco has a remarkable history of integrated Public Health care system clerk thank you for sharing your comments, kim meredith. Could we get the next caller, please. Supervisors, we kept taking money from companies without discerning. This is discerning. I was listening to a similar type of conversation about our right of expression and also how you all try to go beating around the bush, cannot be forth right. So when this happened, we had a director that was since fired. So it happened again and again im not blaming all of you supervisors, but some of you are part of it. Some of you are not educated on issues. Who built that hospital . The old hospital was built by the people from the bayview, a great portion of the building during model cities. But learn your history. And then, you know, we allocate the money, the money is not spent right, and then, because of whatever reason, we need to go to entities like facebook or google, and we take their money. We are doing it right now. Were taking googles money, were taking salesforces money, and we dont consult or represent the constituents of San Francisco. You all are making a laughingstock of yourselves by first accepting the money, up and down pandering to priscilla clerk thank you for sharing yourme comments, mr. Decosta. Next caller. Im wondering why this decision is being made now, because people have been protesting the name change for years. This is really a resolution that is made too late. And the gift thats given, 75 million, thats really paltry. Mark zuckerbergs net worth is 100 billion, 100 billion. And not just that. If you consider the expenditures of San Francisco general, im looking at the 20102011 department of Public Health budget, it says their expenditures in 20102011 were 675 million, and that was a decade ago, so im sure there are even more now. 75 million, thats, like, i dont know, oneninth of that. Thats maybe 10 of the expenditures now, so Mark Zuckerberg paid 10 of expenditures for one year, and he gets to put his name on the hospital for all eternity, so yeah. I mean, honestly, its just, like, a really bad deal. If we were to bestow the name you could have just made a better deal. If they had built the hospital, then you could say okay, it makes sense to put his name on the hospital. But all he did was give enough to pay for 10 of the hospital for a year. So yeah, i mean, honestly, i dont think this has anything to do with whether or not Mark Zuckerberg is a good person or whether facebook is a good company, its just like he clerk thank you for sharing your comments. Could we get the next caller, please. Good afternoon. This is peter warfield, executive director of Library Users association. We can be reached at libraryusers2004 yahoo. Com. We need to consider some of the steps that need to be taken. We particularly encourage at the least an expansion of the standards that this legislation recommends being required of individual departments. Not just the departments develop naming opportunity procedures, but that such supervisors require naming approval, as well as the ongoing advocacy of specific businesses by city agencies. At San Francisco public library, for example, theres a long list of opportunities for naming rooms, contents of rooms, and bookcases. For a low monthly fee, the library touts facebook and other social media. Get social, it says multiple times in each issue. The online version even drunks direct links, and there have been large banners outside the branch recent, like us on facebook. All such touting of outside companies by city agencies should be subject to Decision Making at the board of supervisors. Id like to point out that the existing s. F. General agreement is to last for 50 years, and includes millions of dollars for the donors to tout future philanthropic support for sfgh. We support this, but stronger measures are needed. Thank you very much. Clerk thank you for your comments. Can we get the next caller, please. Hello, supervisors. Thank you very much for the opportunity to voice my opinion on this matter. I urge all of you to adopt this resolution, especially in light of the gross negligence and unethical monopolistic behavior of facebook. Every time that the name of San Francisco General Hospital is uttered, it is free publicity for this platform, so the brand of Mark Zuckerberg and the company that he owns is inextrickablely tied to the Public Health of the city, so i strongly condemn the coopting of our most Precious Resource our frontline workers, our facilities, especially now, in the time of the covid pandemic, by this reckless, amoral profiteer to furnish or sorry, to advertise his brand on our public buildings. So again, i urge you to adopt this resolution to strongly don dem this socalled publicprivate partnership, which is really a chance to profit off of our public resources, and do everything in your power to sever our crown jewel in our city of Public Health from this profiting monopolistic corporation that continues to show how awful it is. Thank you. Clerk thank you for sharing your comments. Could we get the next caller, please . Hi, hello. My name is laurie leaderman. Id like to thank supervisors mar and haney for this resolution, which i strongly support. San francisco general was built by the people of San Francisco long before zuckerberg was born. It was expanded and supported by bonds that we voted for far beyond his donation. General is the peoples hospital. It is the Health Care Providers who deliver skilled medical care, the administrative and support staff, the stationary engineers who keep the moving parts humming, the construction workers who built it, these are who we should honor, not one ultrarich egotist. It is an affront to the people of San Francisco who paid for, built, and maintain Vital Health Care at this historic institution to name it after a corrupt billion aire who continues to thrive on profits from hate speech and misinformation. This shows how vital it is to establish naming criteria to the future. Please move this to the full board with recommendation. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your comments, lori leaderman. Could we get the next caller, please. Thank you, supervisors. My name is sasha cutler, and i am a facebook addict. Thats your cue to say, hello, sasha. Can you hear me . If youre listening, Mark Zuckerberg, and dr. Priscilla chan, ive been a nurse at San Francisco General Hospital when you were children. Its said that you did not ask to have the hospital named after you after your donation of 75 million. I urge you to call in and offer to give the name back. I hope mo i dont think i should even have an air purefiifier named after it, no matter how much i deserve it. When i worked at the San Francisco aids foundation in the late 1980s, there were a handful of people that hiv did not cause aids, and there were a handful of people that state that condoms didnt work. Your contagion machine has put public misinformation on steroids. I began to organize against the hospital name change initially because facebook performed the largest Clinical Trial on people without their consent. Their goal was to spread emotions like a disease, and it worked. Our Health Care Workforce and the communities we serve are suffering. Instead of flattening the curve, we are getting flattened with about 400 California Health care workers every day being reported to be infected. At least 218 of us have died with covid19 in just ten months. A couple of months ago, steve bannon called for the beheading of Anthony Fauci on your platform. It took ten hours for the posting to be banned, but he was not banned from facebook. Clerk thank you very much for your comments, sasha cutler. Next comment, please. Hello. My name is mike dingle, and i worked with sasha cutler in the early days before the name change of San Francisco general. I worked there until 2018, and nowhere was anyone consulted, or it should have been a referendum, at the very least. My hope, as is sashas, that mr. Zuckerberg, will have a wonderful epiphany and call in and say, please relinquish my naming rights and let it be just San Francisco general again. I will echoing the othermen comments, and in the spirit of brevity, i will wrap it up. Lets take the zuckerberg name off of the San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center. Thank you very much. Clerk thank you, mike dingle. Could we get the next caller, please. Hello. My name is guy van denberg. Im a nurse at San Francisco General Hospital. Im honored to speak to you after my friend and colleague, sasha cutler and mike dingle did. Thank you, supervisors haney, gordon mar, and peskin, for moving this forward. I agree whats been set up to here is a matter of principle. We dont want to have chickfila golden gate bridge. We dont want a trump tower Water Purification plant in our city. I came to San Francisco in the 80s, worked my nursing rotations at the San Francisco general, worked on 5a, the aids ward, and many years as ward 86, the aids ward. Its personal to me, when im now in covid tracing and case investigation, when i hear people call this hospital zuckerberg. Its San Francisco General Hospital, and please restore that name. I thank you. Clerk thank you for sharing your comments. Could we get the next caller, please. Hello. My name is don blitz. Im a private citizen longterm San Francisco resident. Im a resident of matt haneys district. I want to say that i support 1,000 the comments of supervisor mar and haney and the proposition. Every day, i have to see something on facebook reflective of their improper standards in terms of what appears on their platform. I think its a little disingenuous to imply that rich people wont make donations unless they get their name on a building because they do it all the time, and i want to address a little bit the larger issue, because as a private citizen in general, i dont believe that anybody, any rich person should be able to buy free publicity like this or be given free publicity by a public entity. I think thats inappropriate, and i think that people should be honored for their contributions to society, and not because they happen to be rich and they happened to give a bunch of money. And i also think just in general, in support of the comments about naming standards, i dont believe that anything should be named after something thats still alive. We dont know what theyre going to do for the rest of their lives. We dont know what theyre going to do in the future. We have no idea, and i dont care whether thats president obama or president reagan or willie brown or Mark Zuckerberg. I dont think that any public edifice should be named after someone while theyre still alive. So just i support i just want to say i support clerk thank you very much for your comments. Mr. Qiu, do we have any other callers in the queue . Operator mr. Chair, that completes the queue. Chair mar thank you so much. I just want to thank everyone for Public Comments, and thank the staff as well as the Public Community that has been advocating for this resolution, and also the broader work that youre doing to hold facebook and Mark Zuckerberg accountable for the huge impact that theyre having on our democracy and our society. So colleagues, i guess i would just like to move this forward. I move that we accept the amendments that i presented today, and that we send this item to the full board with recommendation. Clerk on the motion by chair martha the resolution be amended [roll call] clerk mr. Chair, there are three ayes on the amendments. And then, on the motion from chair mar that the item be recommended as amended to the board of supervisors [roll call] clerk mr. Chair, there are three ayes. Supervisor mar thank you, mr. Clerk. Can you please call item number 8 for closed session. Clerk agenda item number 8 is an ordinance authorizing settlement of the lawsuit filed by Bay Area Motivate, l. L. C. , against the city and county for 330,000 and other mutually beneficial terms. Other material terms involve the Municipal Transportation Agency to recognize Bay Area Motivate l. L. C. s contractual sclussivity while retaining the ability to utilize a second bike share operator in certain circumstances, and other programatic and operationate terms regarding the Bay Area Bike Share Program in San Francisco. Members of the public who wish to call in, call 4156550001. Enter the meeting i. D. , which is 1462157375. Press pound, and pound again. Then press star, three to enter the queue, and listen for the system to indicate you have been unmuted before you make your comments. Clerk mr. Operator, do we have any callers in the queue . Operator mr. Chair, there are no comments. Supervisor mar okay. Public comment is closed. Mr. Clerk, will you please call the roll. Clerk on the motion to go into closed session [roll call] madam mayor. Thank you very much. This has been an incredibly tough year. I heard how hard this has been from countless residents. We each have our own struggles. You might be a parent trying to help your kid get through school or worried about a parent in a nursing home. You might be struggling with Mental Health issues everything you have been going through for the past several months. I was proud. We were doing well. Almost everyone in the city did what they asked you to do we are seeing how fast it could move the governor laid out a warning and we are seeing what is happening in San Francisco. Let me be clear, as clear as i can be, its not good. Cases are spiking. Hospitalizations are increasing quickly. Our infection rate is higher than the summer. This is not just about San Francisco but the entire region, state, and country the dangerous winter has arrived. We will have to take more action. We are still working out the details we are working out the details in Santa Santa Clara county. They have limited gatherings. Theres are things you have consider as well as other ideas to stop the spread. No one would like to be here. We spoke about worrying about doing well but having everyone relax and the cases spike like they did during the spanish flu. Im not saying thats what happened but there have been a lot of challenges including lack of national leadership. A lot of people have done well and put Public Health first. We are in the most dangerous periods of the pandemic and we need to do everything we can to keep hospitals from being over run. This is about saving lives. Everything we asked is about that, solution. Today is World Aids Day, this is a day where which remember all of those we lost to the hiv aids epidemic and recommit ourselves to get to zero new hiv infections. Its important where we stair down the difficult months ahead and remember what we can do when we ban together. A lot has been said ability San Francisco building on the efforts to fight the covid19 pandemic and reaching back to our history when we have to confront the aids crisis without support. The trust we build then between residents and Public Health officials and neighbors coming together as so many people got sick and died. Those are hard memories. The spirit of the city and resiliency of the people that live here. Today, on World Aids Day we remember the history fighting hiv aids remember what we can do. I flow people are trying. I know people are tired. I know it wont be easy. I believe in the city and all of you. Finally, today, its been my goal to not layoff any city workers. We were able to do that in the two year budget but we have a long road ahead of us and tough choses to make. The mta is facing a deficit of 230 million in the next two years. Without more emergency federal funding closing the deficit may require laying off between 18 and 22 of the work force. The possibility of losing nearly a quarter of our work force is hard to image. This is the reallity we have to confront. We are facing the gutting of a basic city service that our residents rely on and economy needs to recover. As importantly this means bus drivers, mechanics, and other workers losing their job and ability to provide for their family. San francisco is not alone here. Cities a cross the country are facing the same crisis due to covid19. Just yesterday, washington d. C. Announced their Metro Service would have to layoff workers and eliminate Weekend Service and close stations. Federal cares act funding helped keep us stable through the first year. If we push for more funding transportation must be the top priority along with support for the Small Businesses suffering. A decimated Transportation System will hobble our economic recovery. I hope the Biden Administration will work with Speaker Pelosi and congress to provide support. There are some steps we can take locally to increase mtas revenue and costs in strategickic ways and do what we can in the city. We have to consider every possible way. We are in deep trouble and need to do everything we can to save it. Now, id like to turnover the rest of my time to dr. Grant to provide you clarity around the numbers. Where we have come from, where we are going. And what we need to do to get the city to a another place. Good afternoon and thank you mayor for your ongoing leadership during this unprecedented time. Thank you for recognizing World Aids Day. This is a virus that claimed the lives of so many of san franciscan residents. With the speed that could individual is spreading throughout the city region, and state we have little time to spare. We are in the middle of a major surge threatening to overwhelm our Healthcare System as well as the systems in the sure round surrounding states. Let me be frank. The actions you take or dont take can impact you gledges your friends. Its a that simple we are all at risk and must take precautions. Its uncomfortable to think about and we hope it doesnt happen consider this, if you are a loved ones we becomes ill will there be a hospital bed to treat you or your loved ones we are seeing communities across the country grappling with the issue right now ascoindividual continues to cause havoc on communities big and small and urban and sure bub barn. This past weekend never the less we saw tens of thousands of people fly, drive, and gather with extended family as it virus ran ramped throughout the country. As a result of holiday related activities we know the worse is likely yet to come. Together we will have to take appropriate measures to keep all San Francisco sis ans. Lets review the data that has us so concerned. Slide one please. This slide shows the number of cases of covid19 per 100,000 in San Francisco from the beginning of the pandemic until now. This slide shows how quickly our cases have multiplied in the last three weeks. In the last three weeks San Franciscos positive cases have tripled. And we do not expect this to stabilize any time soon. We have more virus circulating than ever before think about what this mines and how to act accordingly San Francisco has 1 1,600 person 100 resident. We had an average of 34 new cases per day. 34 new cases per day. Now, San Francisco has an average of 140 new cases per day. Thats four times more new cases than a month ago. Yet, we are still in a highly volatile position more than any other point in the year. We have yet to account for travel and gatherings from thanksgiving. Next slide, please. Unfortunately, we know a spike in cases results in a increase in hospitalizations. We are feeling the pressure of the rapidly accelerating cases across San Francisco. In fact, covid19 positive hospitalizations have doubled in ten days. Consider this, we went from 40 hospitalizations on november 18h to 87 on november 28. In addition to the 87 covid19 patients in San Francisco there have been four covid19 patients transferred to covid19 hospitals from other jurisdictions totals 91 patients with covid19 in our hospitals as of november 29th if we continue on this participant, we, as well as other counties will start to see a hospital bed shortage. the trend continues we will see a hospital bed shortage around christmas. Thats a sobering thought. There is a real possibility of no available beds at our hospitals. Of course, i hope, we hope this doesnt happen. Its an increasing likelihood as we see this virus spread locally like never before we have beaten back two surges. Simply put, we need to slow the spread of virus. We have taken a number of actions to slow the spread. We have holted Indoor Dining and closed indoor museums we had limited capacity indoors. We have asked you to abide by the stay at home order. We required all nonessential activities by 10 . None of these have slowed the rate of the spread of covid19 virus. In fact, infections have continued to increase. Therefore wll well implement additional roll backs. We will farther reduce the number of people that can gather especially from multiple households. We will analyze capacity restrictions for indoor shops. We are reviewing the county health order requiring those that travel 150 miles to corn teen we must slow the spread or well continue to see hospitalization numbers that will overwhelm the healthcare center. Well be a city that struggled to deal with the virus in ways we thankfully have not yet had to. We can slow the sprayed. It wont be easy and everyone has a part to play. Im the broken record and continue to be if it saves lives and keeps people from getting sick morningized, and die. Do not gather with anyone outside your immediate yacht household. Wash your hands, wear that face covering. As a gay man and i trained here during the aids epidemic. Everyday i think about the lives we couldnt save. So many lost family friends, neighbors and colleagues. We didnt have the tool but we came together. With this pandemic with this pandemic we have the knowledge. We know what it is to fight the virus. The current surge. We know what to do, what we need to do to protect lives, please, lets Work Together and come together to protect lives and our communities and protect our city. Thank you. Thank you, doctor. At this time well begin the q and a portion with mayor london. Thank you madam mayor. Your first set of questions comes from megan. How would you consider the mention of the kellies. We are still reviewing the allegations. These are serious charges. People are innocent until Proven Guilty the actions are deeply troubling. I have said from the beginning of the investigation we need to do everything we can to restore public trust. Well continue to consult with the City Attorneys Office about our steps forward and everyone should cooperate with any investigation. Thank you, madam mayor. Lastly from scott nbc. Do you have comments about reports that more San Francisco restaurants will have to shutdown or quote hibernate . I think what we tried to do from the beginning of the pandemic is provide faggots about every situation. As soon as there is information from the public we notify the public. As soon as we think there is the possibility of a closure we tried to reach out to people and the industry. We have been in touch with the association and many of them are naturally concerned as we see a spike and places like l. A. County close out dining entirely. Id like to be clear, we cant rule it out. As soon as which think its absolutely necessary based on what we see with the spike. Based on hospitalizations and direction our city is headed in. It could be a possibility. We cant say right now what that would mean in a timeline. Well do everything we can as soon as we know when or if it happens we will provide as much notification as we can and understanding we are not just talking about the owners of the restaurants and places for people to go. We are talking about the food they are ordering. The work force. The people that were on unemployment. It will take forever. We understand the challenges that people are facing. Our goal is to make sure whatever possible, we do what we can to provide as much information. It pains me every time i have to do a press conference where we have to talk about roll backs. There will be roll backs. There will be announcements this week because we expect the state of california to improse other restrictions on San Francisco. There might be farther roll backs we but into place ourselves to curve this virus, so, we know thats to be expected which is why we have to do our part. We must distance ourselves and limit our activities because we have done it before we are seeing a spike unlike anything we have seen since the beginning of the pandemic. We are in trouble and sounding the alarm like i said before. That will mean really challenging months ahead. Thank you, madam mayor. We will transition over to dr. Colfax for some Health Related questions. Doctor, the first set of questions come from erin from the chronical. What will trigger the new orders . Is it possible we will see another stay stay at home order like from march . As we mentioned we are reviewing a number of options including limiting outdoor gatherings. Looking at the santa clara travel order, quarantine order. Some could come out as early as tomorrow. Thank you, from julian with mission local, study after study and your own data show the latino population is seeing higher infection rates than the rest of the city. As we enthe a surge will we offer more widespread testing and resources to those getting sick. Yes, since the beginning we focused on the issues and the infection rates are disproportion nate among the latino populations. We have engaged the Latino Community from the beginning, invested in testing and isolation and quarantine rooms. We have invested into Contact Tracing and Health Department care. We will straighten our strategy and our testing work is increasingly translating. The city will test that site the Farmer Market site monday through friday. This is the southeastern part of the city. We continue to partner and Community Partners to ensure testing we will focus on engaging and working with those effected by the virus. The next question is from david baker. How do you intend people from gathering in groups when people have ignored gathering. We are working to continue to exercise outside of your household. Its dangerous and increasing the likelihood. As much as possible and ensure people understand and understand its against Health Orders to gather in ways that could promote the transmission of the virus. I think what we really need to do is focus on the educational aspect so people understand the virus can and will effect them and their family members and we need to dig deeper and really do the things we know prevents the spread of the virus as much as possible. Well continue to enforce city guidelines and rules if necessary to prevent a major spreader event as much as possible. Thank you, dan with kron 4. What is the timeline for the changes . With regard to one of the prior questions we are looking at seeing capacity of indoor activities and institutions and businesses. This is Group Gatherings and looking at the potential travel quarantine orders and some of the orders could be finished as early as tomorrow. Thank you, doctor and madam mayor. If you have any questions following this meeting send us an email. Thank you. President yee of the 26 neighborhoods we have in west portal, its probably the most unique in terms of a small little town. You can walk around here, and it feels different from the rest of San Francisco. People know each other. They shop here, they drink wine here. What makes it different is not only the people that live here, but the businesses, and without all these establishments, you wouldnt know one neighborhood from the other. El toreador is a unique restaurant. Its my favorite restaurant in San Francisco, but when you look around, theres nowhere else that youll see decorations like this, and it makes you feel like youre in a different world, which is very symbolic of west portal itself. Well, the restaurant has been here since 1957, so were going on 63 years in the neighborhood. My family came into it in 1987, with me coming in in 1988. My husband was a designer, and he knew a lot about art, and he loved color, so thats what inspired him to do the decorati decorations. The few times we went to mexico, we tried to get as many things as we can, and wed bring it in. Even though we dont have no space, we try to make more space for everything else. President yee juan of the reasons we came up with the legacy business concept, man eel businesses were closing down for a variety of reasons. It was a reaction to trying to keep our older businesses continuing in the city, and i think weve had some success, and i think this restaurant itself is probably proof that it works. Having the legacy business experience has helped us a lot, too because it makes it good for us because we have been in business so long and stayed here so long. We get to know people by name, and they bring their children, so we get to know them, also. Its a great experience to get to know them. Supervisor yee comes to eat at the restaurant, so hes a wonderful customer, and hes very loyal to us. President yee my favorite dish is the chile rellenos. I almost never from the same things. My owners son comes out, you want the same thing again . Well, we are known for our mole, and we do three different types of mole. In the beginning, i wasnt too familiar with the whole legacy program, but San Francisco, being committed to preserve a lot of the oldtime businesses, its important to preserve a lot of the old time flavor of these neighborhoods, and in that capacity, it was great to be recognized by the city and county of San Francisco. Ive been here 40 years, and i hope it will be another 40 year this is a meeting of the recreation and park commission. Would the secretary please call the roll . [roll call]