Good afternoon and welcome back colleagues and members of the public to our first meeting in september. Today september 5 as we return from our summer legislative recess. I hope everybody had a safe and relaxing time away and are ready to get back to work. Madam clerk, would you please call the roll . Yes, mr. President. I apologize for the echo. We are going to take care of that right away. Supervisor chan, present. Supervisor dorsey, present. Supervisor engardio, present. Supervisor mandelman, present. Supervisor melgar, present. Supervisor peskin, present. Supervisor preston, present. Supervisor ronen, present. Supervisor safai, present. Supervisor stefani, present. Supervisor walton, present. Mr. President , all members are present. Thank you madam clerk. The San Francisco board of supervisors we acknowledge that we are on the unceded ancestral homeland of the Ramaytush Ohlone who are the original inhabitants of the San Francisco peninsula. As the indigenous stewards of this land and in accordance with their traditions, the Ramaytush Ohlone have never ceded, lost nor forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place, as well as for all peoples who reside in their traditional territory. As guests, we recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. We wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the ancestors and relatives of the ramaytush community and by affirming their sovereign rights as first peoples. Colleagues, will you please join me in the pledge of allegiance . I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america, and to the republic, for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Madam clerk, are there any communications . Yes, mr. President. The public is welcome to attend the meeting in person here in city hall second floor of city hall in room 250. To participate remotely the telephone number and meeting id are published on the agenda and streaming on it television or computer screen. We have a clerk standing by in room 244 or call 4155545184 if you like to send written comments to the members. Send a stamped letter via u. S. Post office addressed to the San Francisco board of supervisors, number 1, dr. Carlton b goodlett place, room 244, San Francisco california 94102 or email to bos sfgov. Org. Lastly, we continue to offer interpretation assistance in chinese, filipino and spanish beginning at 3 p. M. Thank you. Thank you madam clerk. Why dont we go to approval of the minutes from june 7 and july 11 and the june 26 and june 28 special Meeting Minutes at the budget and appropriations committee. Roll call, mr. President . Roll call, please. On the minutes as presentedyes, mr. President , we need a first and second. Motion made by supervisor mandelman, seconded by supervisor preston. On that motion, a roll call, please. [roll call] there are 11 ayes. The minutes will be adopted as presented after Public Comment. Madam clerk, please call the adoptionconsent calendar. Items 16 are on consent and considered to be routine. Seeing no names on the roster for consent agenda, roll call, please. On items 16 [roll call] there are 11 ayes. Those resolutions are adopted and ordinances finally passed. Madam clerk, please read item 7 and 8 together. Item 7, is ordinance to amend the planning Building Code to modify Development Impact fees, indexing deferral and wavers and adopt the San Francisco city wide nexus analysis to affirm the ceqa determination and to make the appropriate findings. Item 8 is the ordinance that amends the planning and administrative codes for Development Impact fee reductions and also affirms the ceqa determination making the appropriate findings. On those two items, a roll call, please. On item 7 and 8 [roll call] there are 10 ayes and 1 no with supervisor preston voting no. Those ordinances are finally passed. Madam clerk, please read items 911 together. Items 911 are ordinances that authorize the settlement of lawsuits filed by the followingby the city and the people of the state of california against walgreens for item 9 in the amount of 229 million. Item 10, authorize settlement of the laut filed by the city and people of the state of california against cephalon inc. Teva farm pharmaceuticals for 28. 8 million. Authorize settlement of the lawsuit against allergen finance llc for approximately 12. 9 million. These lawsuits pertain to allegations pertaining to a public nuisance and violation under the unfair competition law by falsely marketing opioids. Supervisor preston. Thank you president peskin and veryjust want to braefly addressed these. We had these in gao and i wanted to take a moment to thank our City Attorney david chui and his team for their work to secure these crucial settlements on behalf of our city. Just last week the entire nation observed Overdose Awareness Day and i was proud to participate in a rally on the steps of city hall in observance of Overdose Awareness Day and while this certainly isnt a crisis that exists only in San Francisco, i think we all know that one does not have to travel far from this building to see some of its devastating effects. Securing these funds for our city will help insure we have the resources to address the issue in the short and longterm and i would just urge the administration and department of Public Health to make sure there is transparency in the use of these funds and to insure that the funds are spent on things that help us save lives, including Overdose Prevention efforts, wellness hubs, treatment on demand and programs that help people remain in recovery and i know we will talk about a lot of these issues later this month on the hearings called by supervisor ronen. And not to put you on the spot, but through the president , deputy City Attorney pearson, i just wantedif there are particular members of the City Attorney office. I know we had a number of folks through the committees we have been talking about these settlements long ago and following up and hearing them, just want to give you a opportunity if okay with the president to recognize some of the folks who put so much work into the major settlements. Absolutely. Deputy City Attorney ann pearson. Thank you for the opportunity and terrified i will forget many many people. I are want to highlight the work of many people on the work of litigation[indiscerni ble] done a of heavy lifting and supported by other attorneys and our legal staff. It has been a very heavy lift along with outside counsel who have been a great help to us. Thank you and congratulations. Appreciate all the work. Thank you supervisor preston. Supervisor ronen. Yes, thank you. Likewise, appreciate all the work and just had a couple of questions for the Controllers Office about logistics after the fact. The first question is, are there any city procedures that are different from our normal appropriation procedures that exist or could exist or will exist . Maybe i should start with currently exist for the allocation of this money. Good afternoon supervisors rchlts ben roseen field. Through the president , and the City Attorney office here can help me if i miss specific provisions covered in the Settlement Agreement but in general each Settlement Agreement mandates a special which the proceeds are deposited. We maintain segregated accounts for each of the settlements each have slightly different reporting and eligible use requirements. Our office will be tracking and keeping these accounts in place. It does create a complicated set of eligible uses which will have to be grappled with every year as part of the budget process, and we be doing as the settlement call for regular reporting to the board and some cases back to the courts how proceeds are used and whether they insure they are in line with the specific Settlement Agreements. So, there is no specific procedures that exist internally within the city for allocation or use of this money, outside of the norm . There are a lot of procedures that govern insuring the funds are spnt in line with the settlement. They are not outside of the norm in terms we have hundreds of special restricted funds in the city that require kind of work by our team and the Controllers Office and Department Teams and our external auditors and host of other things. Im not aware of anything outside that complicated normal. Thank you. My second question, at different parts of this settlement process with various Different Companies that contributed to the opioid crisis, you or the City Attorney office, not sure, these charts where youeach settlement ishas a different time period and different amount of money and it sort said when money will be available at different times through each settlement and i did talk to City Attorney ann pierson before and my understanding that chart has not been updated since january. If it is possible to update that chart. It was so helpful. And, i doubt you have these numbers at your fingertips now, no problem, but if you could get to us the information about what part of these settlements has been allocated in this yearsin our current budget and whats left in what year to allocate. I would be happy to follow up on the multiyear schedule. I think our office and City Attorney office worked on it together. It is a complicated set of flows, because in some cases these payments are flowing in over a nearly 20 year horizon. In general, those payments are frontloaded, meaning that the early years have much larger payments coming to the city under these. I know the budget recently adopted by the mayor and board appropriated approximately a hundred Million Dollars in settlement proceeds over the next 2 years. The year we are now in and next fiscal year. I can as part of the update to this chart summarize the last part of your question, which is of the amount that we have scheduled to receive, how much has been appropriated and allocated, versus unappropriated. I dont have that information with me, but it would be easy enough for us to update. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Of course. Supervisor dorsey. Thank you president peskin. I wanted to add my appreciation to the City Attorneys office and my colleague dean preston foric a knowledgeing the great work by the City Attorney office. My my career was spent in that office and think some of the work done there , sometimes we can take it for granted and appreciate deputy City Attorney pierson concern about missing somebody. If there is one thing i did learn in that office, there are from paralegals and others who just do so much great work in that office and it was something that is the highlight of my career. Congratulation to the City Attorney office on this great result. Madam clerk, on the items, roll call, please. On items 911 [roll call] there are 11 ayes. Those ordinances are passed First Reading. Madam clerk, lets go to roll call for introductions. Yes, mr. President. Recognition of service mr. President ordid you say roll call . Roll call. Recognition of commendation is 2 30. Yes, supervisor dorsey you are first up to introduce new benefit. Submit. Thank you. Supervisor engardio. Submit, thank you. Supervisor mandelman. Thank you madam clerk. Today i am introducing resolution to proclaim september transit month in the city county of San Francisco. Since 2015 San Francisco transit riders organized a transit celebration to encourage more people to use Public Transit and celebrate transit riders and operators towards the itvooal role creating a more sustainable and livable San Francisco. In 2021 transit week expanded to transit month and last year sf transit riders added a ride challenge to encourage to proudly log trips on Public Transit. Congrats to supervisor preston for winning last years challenge among our local elected officials and it was great to see so many at this morning ride along and rally as we kick off the fesivities. I want to thank [indiscernible] staff and volunteers for organizing these events. There is much more to come and encourage you to check out all the events at sftransitriders. Org. The rest i submit. Supervisor peskin, submit. Supervisor preston. Thank you madam clerk. Welcome back everyone from the recess. Two items that i have first today. Introducing a resolution urging the department of homelessness and Supportive Housing to immediately fill at least half of the vacant permanent Supportive Housing units in their portfolio within 90 days and maintain vacancy rate that does not exceed 5 percent going forward. Permanent Supportive Housing as you all know is a proven model to provide stable housing for people experiencing homelessness where Vulnerable People can tend to physical and Mental Health in a stable vide. This benefits the entire community. According to the 2022 point in time count, there were 7754 people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco consisting of 3357 people in temporary shelters and 4397 people unsheltered. Accord ing to the latest data from hsh over 1 thousand units in the city portfolio is sitting empty which is 10 percent of the permanent Supportive Housing units. Over 700 of the units are ready for referral now. Supportive Housing Providers are ready and eager to move people in and to be clear colleagues, these rooms are fully funded and specifically for unhoused people. This is not a new problem with vacancies, vacancies in Supportive Housing rose sharply in 2021 and have remained unacceptbly high since then. Averaging about 10 percent monthly over the last two years. We just cannot tolerate any further delays moving people who need a place to live into these vacant units. I want to thank my early cosponsors, president peskin, supervisors walton and chan. Look forward to others sponsoring and also look forward to supporting hsh as they move hopefully with renewed urgency to meet this goal and provide immediate housing for at least 500 people who are currently unhoused in these currently vacant permanent Supportive Housing units. And the second item is another resolution for introduction. This is a resolution submitted with president peskin expressing our concern over the development of the pilot un plaza activation plan and specifically the displacement of the heart of the city, Farmers Market and the resolution urges rec park to provide clarity around this pilot and also to adopt mitigations requested by the Farmers Market. The heart of the city Farmers Market is a incredible market. It brought so much to the neighborhood for decades and really has been a bright spot in what are otherwise very challenging conditions that we are all familiar with on un plaza. Through severe challenges over the years, including the conditions on the plaza including droughts and impact on farmers, recessions and so forth, the heart of the city Farmers Market managed to survive 42 years, 42 years on un plaza. Farmer market serves more then 20thousand people on wednesdays and sundays where folks shop for seasonal fresh fruits, vegetables and other staples. These things are sold by more then 50 california farmers, man y travel for hours to sell their produce here on un plaza. The heart of the city Farmers Market also manages distribution and redemption for the largest Farmer Market ebt program in the nation and makes over 1 million per year in grant funded incentives to help low income families purchase fruits and vegetables from local farms. In july the Rec Park Department filed plans for activation of un plaza described as a pilot, which included installing a skate park and other Recreational Activities on the plaza in november 2023 and moving the Farmers Market off un plaza to fulton plaza in december, which in fact happened this past weekday. These developments happen without input from the community, without a Community Meeting and with no clear commitments from the Farmers Market on th e length of the pilot or the measures the city would undertake to mitigate the impact of this move on the Farmers Market. The failure to involve Community Members and development of plans for un plaza simply does not comport with city goals around equity, conflicts lead by the Planning Department in the neighborhood and raises serious questions regarding differential treatment how projects are planned and implemented in more affluent neighborhood. We had concerns how this will impact the Farmers Market and patrons including the discrepancy between what the director of the Farmer Market and Community Leaders understood to be a 6 month pilot with the opportunity for the Farmer Market to return on to un plaza should the transition not be successful. That 6 month pilot was later described a couple weeks ago by rec park as a 2 year pilot. This resolution urges rec park to provide necessary information to the public, including the duration of the pilot, the itemized cost and source of funds, detailed plans, the metric for evaluating the pilot, the commitments to the Farmer Market, the metric for evaluating the success of the Farmer Market in the new location of fulton plaza and plan for returning the Farmer Market to un plaza if the temporary relocation isnt successful. I want to be clear, my office is 100 committed to making sure that the Farmers Market survived and thrives. I want to thank board president peskin as i mentioned, not just for cosponsoring this, but for his active engagement and leadership on this issue. Also want to recognize the tenderloin people congress, which took the lead in organizing a huge rally on the steps of city hall to register their concerns and are steve [indiscernible] the head of the Farmers Market for all his work over the years and his advocacy for the Farmer Market. Also want to thank the many patrons of the Farmers Market who reached out and so many people have reached out. This is a beloved market and important part of our community. Also want to recognize my legislative aid Jennifer Bolen for all her work on this issue. At the end of the day, we all want un plaza and Farmers Market to thrive and i hope this resolution helps move us towards a better situation for everyone involved. The rest i submit. Thank you. Supervisor ronen. Thank you so much. Colleagues i will stand which i never usually do because the remarks i want to make are to you all. I know that we often all including me tune out when we are doing roll call because it is the one moment we are allowed to do, that, but i want to catch you up as my colleagues on what has been going on during the legislative break and in general around Wellness Centers in the city. If you can indulge me with your attention for just a few minutes, i would deeply deeply appreciate it. I wrote it all down because it is this important for me for you to all hear it. As you know, i have been working really hard to open Wellness Centers, three of them in San Francisco, one in the mission, tenderloin and soma neighborhoods. The hope is when we successfully get the three Wellness Centers open we can open three more next year because if we had 6 Wellness Centers in the city to save peoples lives dying from overdose 80 can move the needle on the iscroos, at least somewhat. Wellness centers are the main component of the city Overdose Prevention plan that is meant to save lives. The mayor promised that we would have Wellness Centers in the neighborhood who she closed the tenderloin center. I organized a range and raged money to visit onpoint, new yorks version of a Wellness Center and meet leaders planning to open Wellness Centers in their city to learn about best practices when we immolateed them and open them here in San Francisco. The Wellness Centers in new york had a number of services. Everyone liked to get hung up on the opc, the one room people use drugs under supervision of people able to reverse overdoses. That is one small part of a Wellness Center. The Wellness Centers in new york, they can vary had counseling, group counseling, individual counseling, acupuncture, foot baths, wound care, machines to test the components in a drug so you know what you are taking. Harm reduction supplies. [indiscernible] ton of different services. The centers also had a Overdose Prevention room, the opc, the thing everyone talks about and that is the room, one part of a center separated from the rest of the services where people take drug under supervision of medical professional who can reverse a overdose normally using oxygen and are chest activation because it is better way to reverse a overdose. On the streets people can only use narcon. In opc they can use less invasive and detrimental tactics to revive someone and prevent their death. What struck me the most about the visit is not the opc, it was the number one goal of onpoint and that was to keep the people that were suffering from drug use disorder inside in the center as long as possible. Thats what they do with all the services. The fluff and fold laundry, acupuncture, the foot bath, the meals the sleeping places is to keep them inside. Why . Because the longer they keep them inside, the longer they engage in healthier activities and not dying oen the streets from drug overdose, and more importantly the longer they keep them inside, the staff is building meaningful healthy relationships with these people and are these are people that have been thrown out by society. These are people homeless that are so severely addicted to drugs that their entire life revolves around their next fix to prevent withdraw, which are debilitating. It isntthese people are not getting a high in the street and partying, they are trying to stop withdraw which are the most painful those who never had to go through them can imagine. It is often the first place they have been loved and respected because many of the people come from traumatic life. They started the drug use to stop physical pain in their body or mental pain in their minds. These are the one places where they are not looked at as the dregs of society, they are looked as real human beings that deserve to be loved and cared for so that leads to the person having enough hope and enough maybe beginnings of selflove to enter a treatment program, which is ultimately the goal of everyone. Opioids and fentanyl are not a recreational drug, they are a drug you either get off and abstain from or you are pretty sick for the most part if you are really addicted. The ultimate goal for everyone is abstinence, but to keep them alive long enough so they can get into a recovery program. Now, because opc, and we talked about it a lot and thank you for indulgeing me with the closed session for the City Attorney, are stuck in this legal quagmyer. We cant say immediately when these opc will open in San Francisco. What our City Attorney told us is under the new york model when they are privately funded, he is ready to sign up, but you need infrastructure to make that happen. You need a physical space, you need staff, you need all the other services that i mentioned that happen in Wellness Centers and then you need the organization that will run the program to raise money for the opc and to get approval from their board to operate it because they are taking on some risk, right . It is like a chicken and egg situation. If you dont open the Wellness Center how do you get the board of that organization to prove and raise money for the opc . Because it is too far from realty. The first step in opening opc and Wellness Centers are to get the Wellness Center opened in the first place. There is one non profit that can open the opc immediately on the day they open the Wellness Center. That non profit raised the money and has permission from their board. The other non profits the staff would do it tomorrow if they could. We did a action on the streets and saved two lives in three hours. Two people that probably would have died had we not been in the area and three hours watch two people be resuscitate. This is quhie why i wrote it down, this means so much to me i go off. So, we need this infrastructure to make this real you guys. We cant open a opc tomorrow unless we have the Wellness Center open. After we improve 19 million in the budget to open three Wellness Centers this fiscal year and before the legislative break, i was meeting biweekly with dph, supervisor dorsey and Preston Office and three non profits who wish to operate the opc. We were on our way to opening the centers and figure the logistics and infrastructure we needed to figure out in order to open. It isnt easy, we need to secure buildings in some cases, we need to hire staff, we need security arrangements and decide the service mix, the annual budget. We know what it takes to open one, we have to open three and it is the first time we are doing this in a sanctioned way. We were figuring that out and meeting weekly with dph and finguring it out and while on legislative break supervisor dorsey put out a press release asking the mayor to transfer the 19 million just approved from the Wellness Center instead to fund jail Health Service and i want to make a few brief points about that. I have spoken to the leadership of jail Health Service and they are clear they do not need more money. The biggest problem they face is they have plenty money to hire 27 vacant positions, but that they cannot get the applicants to interview to staff those services. Thats their problem, not money. Number two, this is what i was saying, this position puts us in a really weird place. You are never going to open the opc without the Wellness Center but according to supervisor dorsey you cant open the Wellness Center without the opc so we are stuck and dont move forward. It doesnt make sense. It will never happen. You are saying we will not offer these Services People dying three a day because we are set to break record. Finally, i are want to mention there is one area of agreement and really excited to say that not met with the mayor last friday and she agrees as well, we have to open all three centers at the same time. If you just open one, it isnt fair to that neighborhood. There is just too many people that would overwhelm it. You got to open three at the same time so no one neighborhood is overwhelmed by the need for these centers. We are in agreement we need to open all at the same time, the mayor is on board with that. Mean while as we collective get our act together to open these Wellness Centers which is harder and harder every time the issue is politicized. We were on our way and just taken a hundred steps back. The goal gets pushed further out, and we lose more lives then any other way in San Franciscos history. Last week i told you Overdose Prevention week, we set up a rogue civil disobedience tents to show this isnt nefarious, opc. All we are doing is trying to make sure nobody dies, thats all. If you die in front of us, we will resuscitate you and that is so important because fentanyl is so much more fast acting then heroin. Heroin you can call 911 and the paramedics can get there in time to revive, fentanyl often you go blue within 10 minutes and cant wait for the paramedics to save your life. You know, i just want to end by saying that no drug user is alike. Drug users often become addicts because of the need to mask pain. So much pain. We settled these lawsuitsthese lawsuits were about physical pain. The Sackler Family and those horrible people tried to get people with physical pain addicted to make money and were successful and it went haywire. Many people have mental trauma that never had parents and abused, raped, molested. Epipooal trying to escape a horrible past and while some drug users respond to tough love, some wont. All they know is consequence unfair and harsh and mean and punitive. They have never known love or acceptance or kindness so that wont work with some people. Everyone is different. What might work for someone housed and employed might not work for someone in the streets. Someone white and privileged might not work for [indiscernible] we need Harm Reduction, abstinence and we need it all. We need to meet the needs where people are at. We closed down this entire city over a year because of covid. We dont seem to have the urgency over overdose despite the fact the amount of people dying from overdose every year is greater then everybody we lost during covid and guess what . The number that are black and brown are so out of proportion with their numbers. This is a Racial Justice issue and this is just like, are you a human being that cares about the lives of other human beings . We have this proven way of saving their life, operating 200 countries all around the world. What happened to can do San Francisco . Dont let the perfect be the enomy of the good when we know we can save lives. If you care about saving lives you would open these yesterday. If it is about other things for you, then you will make all sorts of excuses. Watch it. There is a lot of work and coordination that must happen to open these three Wellness Centers. Im working closely with the Mayors Office on this so she can give a clear mandate to dph to get this done because every time you talk to dph they dont know their mandate. We are told to open this and supervisor dorsey press release, we dont know what is going on so they are paralyzed. The first thing that needs to happen is clear mandate from the mayor, open these, and ill work crazily 24 hours a day to get them open because it will be a ton of work and we have to do this because these are lives. Three lives a day we are losing. I want to say it is true the majority of public drug use happens in my district and preston and dorsey district but this deserves everybody attention. When three people die a day in the city from a preventive cause, it requires all of our attention, and i will continue to lead and fight like crazy to get these centers open and hopefully as soon as possible each will have a opc in them, but the Wellness Center alone is useful and will save lives even if the opc doesnt start with the center day one. It is important none the less and essential to getting the opc open is have a Wellness Center open. And so, im asking each and every one of you to join me in this fight. We got to do something. This is the worst crisis of a preventive deaths and i have seen in the city and cant do it anymore. This is our job to be leaders and stop the deaths. I dont care where the political tides are turning. I dont care if neighbors dont want it in one place or another. These are people lives. These are people livels and we are losing three people a day. I just want to thank you so much for listening to me. I really felt like i needed to put a context to the fight being had on paper and in social media. I needed to explain to you what was happening on the ground when you try to open these things, like what is happening, what does dph think, the mayor. I needed you to know what is happening so you wont be confused by politically motivated press releases or newspaper articles that dont get it right. I wanted you to listen and will continue to give updates every week. The firm ask to the mayor kwr find out after the meeting if it is a yes, hoping it is, is that i meet with the Mayors Office weekly, dph, City Attorney, police and thatand non profits that might be interested in operating this and every week we have a weekly plan, a monthly plan, 6 month plan and we make progress and get those things open in short time. Ill give updates along the way but hoping i have your support because we got to do more. Thank you. And i am introducing a resolution which will do nothing because it is the action that matters. Resolution recognizing overdose Awareness Month and in that resolution it does say on the last line that we commit to opening these Wellness Centers so i hope you will join me in voting next week in favor of that resolution. The rest i submit. Thank you supervisor ronen. Madam clerk, why dont we go to our 2 30 special order commendation. Yes, mr. President. This is recognition of Meritorious Service to the city county of San Francisco and residents and supervisor peskin, you have thank you madam clerk, today it is my honor to recognition the asian Firefighter Association and its members who took personal time off to assist in relief efforts following the tragic fire in maui, which we know devastated the city of lahina august 8 about a month ago on august 22, the faa organized a team of active and retired firefighters and First Responders for one week humanitarian mission at the Gateway Center distribution providing aid to the recovery effort and insure firem haves receive food water and necessities and they even assisted in putting out a fire alongside the Maui Fire Department during their service there. Prior to deparchture was able to quickly raise 6 thousand which was distributed to families in need, hotel staff who were displaced and the maui fire store and organization dedicated to supporting firefighters who lost their homes. I just wanted to say that we very very much appreciate you and wanted to publicly acknowledge you, the team returned home last week and many have gone back to their respective fire stations. These individuals are standing before you at the podium. The president of the asian Firefighter Association, stan lee, eric tanoca, andrew lim [indiscernible] daniel murphy, james hanly, chris [indiscernible] tyler kelly, paul chin who many know in civilian garb retired, ronert losa, civilian volunteer and afa accept a Second Mission trip in the near future and if you wish to support their cause visit their website at asianfirefighterscharit able. Com. Speaking on of these team of volunteers, we have president stan lee himself who was one of the original organizers of the mission. The chief would be here but she is at the dentist but sends regards. Thank you president lee and your team to insure the Hawaii Community recovers and the floor is yours. Thank you president peskin and board for this invite. Firstly, i like to thank my team. They are dedicated firefighters. They went beyond the call of duty to travel to maui with me where we rendered aid. Also like to thank my pr executive. Very essential person and instrumental. [indiscernible] he could not get us with the individual able to help us organize this trip. Kirk and daniel young found this lodging and worked to do when we got there. Of course, there was another individual, the site leader at the relief center, chris lull. He was the husband of a aid to the mayor of [indiscernible] southwest air lines for flying us out there for free. Finding lodging for us. Enterprise rentacar and Maui Fire Department and fire store welcoming us like family. We appreciate them. Of course our hearts go out to the people of [indiscernible] and maui. Special thank you to the San FranciscoFire Department jenny nicholson, command staff for allowing us to use our Vacation Time to go there. When we got there we didnt know what to expect. We knew we had lodging and flight and contact person, we didnt know what to expect. Once we got there we went straight to work. By the time we got there, it was thend of the day so we helped secure many supplies there for the next day of service. Next day service came, 7 a. M. , we were there handing water, some of our members were in the kitchen preparing hot meals for the residents there, so the board knows, we on average handed outwe served 2500 residents and 450 cars on a daily basis. I believe the kitchen staff served 2200 meals a day so that shows the magnitude what is occurring oen a daily basis there. Being there, it is like what the news shows you on tv screen. The devastation, destruction is for real. Where we were working at, traveling to and from the lodging you could see the devastation. Lahina is gone. All that is standing is a few masonry walls. Every once in a while you see a building that somehow survived the wild fire that stormed through there. Being there, volunteering there, you actuallywe were talking to people. We had to use our people skills. Be able to be the shoulder for them to cry on, because fl example, i brought this up before, there was one individual i was talking to, she was there getting supplies for basically 5 separate families sheltering in her home. Something like that happens our memberswe gave these individuals little more then they needed because we wanted to make sure all the families were taken care of. It is really hard because as you know, im the president of asian Firefighter Association, and many members are aapi and we have strong ties to the islands. Some of our members[indiscernible ] hes not here, but he was born and raised in lahina. His grandparents and parents were from there, so it is very personal for him. Firefighter dan murphy, he worked in the Maui Fire Department 6 years so he has very strong ties to maui. He also was one of the liaison to Maui Fire Department, which basically got us the foot in the door, especially when there was a fire day 5 and we responded. We had our gear. We were not expecting to be firefighters, but when the call came we couldnt help ourselves. That is what we do, we just wanted to help. Moving forward, i are like the board to know that we are planning a Second Mission. Planning on hopefully first or second week october. We started our fundraising drive and trying to get as much money as possible so when we arrive we are able to give out more money to people in need. With that, i like to thank the board for inviting us today. Thank you president lee. I want to thank and acknowledge the president of the San Francisco fire commission. Since long before i was elected steve nakajo for your support and joining today. With that, thank you one and all. [applause] there is a lot of you guys. [applause] madam clerk, lets continue roll call for introductions and at some point i like to be rereferred. Thank you mr. President. Supervisor safai, new business. Thank you colleagues. Thank you president peskin for honoring them. Eel i really appreciate the words of supervisor ronen had. One of the themes i will hit some things im introducing today and what i think i heard from her in the areas we have tremendous crisis in the city now, we need leadership and leadership from the mayor and a lot of departments in the city are missing the voice. Whether un plaza, overdose crisis or what we are talking about today. I have introduced and sent a letter of inquiry to the mayor in particular and hur budget director about the response for Law Enforcement on retail theft. Not trying to trivialize it, there is a lot of debate. Im talking specifically about the incidents where there is severe violence and been incidents where all is extreme injury. We are submitting the letter today to the mayor, the District Attorney, the police chief and her budget director. Many know over the last several years i repeatedly requested more resources allocated to suppressing this. It has not been taken seriously. We convened the working group very similar to what i heard supervisor ronen talking about getting people together and inserting on a issue that is super important. Police chief, sheriff, District Attorney, but also the naacp and united food and commercial union, organized labor, Community Benefit district and others because people saw this as something that was starting to tear our city apart and i believe thats where we are today. In a meeting earlier this year in the retail working group, the District Attorney said she would ask for an assistant District Attorney assigned to these issues particularly where fl are issue of violence and there needs to be followup. We heard during the budget process on june 16 that that request was denied by the mayor. That request was notfunded so the purpose to my letter today is collect data from the sfpd, police chief and his team, district Attorney Office and number of reported retail theft cases and those that particularly involve violence and threats of violence. In addition, im asking the mayor and her budget director to provide a explanation of why that position was denied and also urging the mayor to reconsider this position. As i said, people are dying in the city right now and in the worst case in these instances supervisor chan and i were out last week in the richmond, it might seem trivial, but someone was trying to take a couple cans of beer. A person tried to stop them and they lost their life. Thats the worst case, but thats years of building where people believe it is okay to walk out of stores without paying for items, and there is no guidance or leadership on the issue. Im asking for the mayor direct response on this and why that position wasnt funded. Secondarily im introducing legislation request, drafting request to the City Attorney with regard to special use districts in the downtown as it relates to what we call, student village sud. The City Attorney will work with them to create and encourage this sud to encourage universities and colleges to come together and create a downtown campus and hubs of learning. The legislation modeled after uc law a student village conspt which will break ground soon, but essentially that houses students from universities and colleges together to create a campus feel and urban environment and design based on city boston approach for colleges and universities and business and retail and entertainment and other uses. Students like to study, they like to live and thrive, they like to respond money and they also are supporting our businesses and creating a more vibrant downtown. All world class cities around the world whether london, boston chicago, new york and parts of europe have universities like this downtown and it another way to insure that we are not just reliant on one sector of the economy and able to diverse our economy. I look forward to allowing more university and colleges to contribute to the revitalization of the downtown and south of market area. It would allow for change of use and adaptive reuse on existing buildings as well as facilitate the creation of these campus villages, whether it be office buildings, Tourist Hotels for student housing, Research Centers or educational spaces. I want to thank those who participated in discussion with our office already and the university of pacific, university San Francisco, San Francisco state, university ofucsf, San Francisco college of law and other stakeholders that have given great ideas. We will be looking at the concept as part of this sud to look at a city owned property or one that might be donated to the city to create a rfp process to invite universities to come in and be part of the process to revitalize downtown in one location. This was a model utilized in phoenix and other parts of the county to attract universities to downtown and a way to jumpstart [coughing in the background] reimagining [indiscernible] i look forward to working with president peskin on this as well as supervisor dorsey who [coughing in the background] in their district. Feel free to go outside to clear your chest and then return you are clear. Lastly colleagues, i look forward i look forward dont interrupt. You will have your chance to talk. [talking in the background] [indiscernible] maam, Public Comment is coming up. [indiscernible] maam, maam. Maam there is a time for Public Comment,ish but this is not that time. [indiscernible] lastly colleagues, resolution recognizing september as Childhood CancerAwareness Month. The American Cancer Fund for children and kids cancer connection report, cancer is leading cause of death by disease among children between the age of infancy and age 15. Sadly 1 in 5 of our nations children lose their battle with cancer and many children and teens will suffer longterm effects of comprehensive treatment including secondary cancers. I want to thank mr. Steven firesteen and dr. Amy firesteen with the kids cancer connection inc. For reaching out to us and their incredsable volunteerism on behalf of families and children impacted by pediatric cancer. Also want to appreciate the juneva lions club for making this request for procliimation. I want to thank supervisor walton, stefani, mandelman and [indiscernible] raising awareness about Children Cancer is important to children and families. The rest i submit. Thank you supervisor safai. Supervisor stefani. Thank you madam clerk. I do want to acknowledge supervisor ronens comments around the fentanyl crisis effecting our city. I admire the passion in terms of wanting to save lives. I know that is coming from a incredible place and knowing many addicts including my brother, we have to do everything we can to save people from overdose and for me, knowing the continuum beyond that which is so important is people who are fortunate enough to in one way or another admit they dont want to use the drug anymore or whatever happens in terms of someone coming to a point where they have to detox from a drug, we have to be there for them as well. Then again, this is something that i have gone through watching my mom who was a nurse and psychiatric nurse helping my bruthser detox from heroin, but after how many rehabs knowing how hard it is. Knowing what a human body goes through when detoxing from a horrible drug like heroin, methand alcohol is the worst. The worst drug to detox and result in death many times when not done appropriately and we need the services. One thing that is also happening as this idea of Wellness Centers is playing out is for me a look at our Detox Centers and what we have in the services and we have im worried about them. I said this before, our last breakbefore we went on break, the last meeting in terms of what im hearing in the street of services not provided or people turned away and i mentioned that in roll call and did a letter of inquiry to department of Public Health which i have not heard back from. For me looking at the contract we have with health right 360 in terms what they agreed to perform when it comes to Detox Services and what we went through with baker place and prc is asking the controller to take a look at that contract and understand whether or not they have what is in place to provide the services we are asking them to provide because they are critical as well. It is all critical. It is all necessary. My worry comes down to the fact that when we initiate a contract for services over 10 year contract, 360 million over this 10 years, 36. 7 million a year to provide these Critical Services that we are actually providing them. Like i said before, with the letter of inquiry i did lays out examples what i heard and why i think the services are not being provided in a way we asked them to be provided. And then on august 31 when i Learned Health right 360 had to shut down entirely for a covid outbreak made me concerned whether or not they have backup or whether or not they are able to provide again, the services i know to be so critical to this problem. Our fentanyl crisis. It starts from people keeping people alive if they are about to overdose and able to put them in a place to recover and start to detox from a drug because you cant keep people alive forever. It is a disease that kills, especially fentanyl. It is a dangerous drug and more dangerous by the day and we have to have exits from that or the drug will kill them. What i want the Controllers Office to do is to look at the contract with health right 360 and intervene early and this isnt to cast dispersians but im concerned we are paying for a service that they are not able to provide and again, we know there is a shortage in healthcare workers. We know there are reasons why they might not be able to do it but we want to catch it early. I have seen these Services Work for others and i know they are the start to get people on a better path and i want to make sure that the contract we entered into with health right 360, which is a contract they had to take over from baker place, because they were not able to perform the service. I am asking the controller today to perform a audit immediately of health right 360 and this detox center to make sure that we have everything in place and catch anything early to continue to provide the withdraw management that is so desperately needed in the city. The rest i submit. Thank you. Thank you supervisor stefani. Supervisor walton. Submit. Thank you. Supervisor chan. Thank you madam clerk. I want to thank president peskin for honoring our asian firefighters today and that through their testimony that again first hand testimony we learn about the maui fire and how devastating it is. With that, today im introducing a package of legislation to aim to improve fire safety and Disaster Preparedness in San Francisco. We can learn from the devastating fire in maui and failure of preparation in emergency Warning System. The west side including the richmond is particularly vulnerable to Natural Disaster like tsunami and we must do better to insure we are prepared and that adequately respond. I have already requested the City Attorneyjust want to share with you that about our request to draft a set of ordinances that first amend the San Francisco fire code to improve inspection process for Sprinkler Systems and it is specifically for the 5 year inspection by requiring a permit process. We are also amending the code to strengthen fire safety and toby requiring that additional training and license for these inspection for the Sprinkler System. Then we also are mandating Sprinkler System in the new developments of accessory dwelling units. Last but not least, but also require minimum of 5 feet of fire safety access from public way to the divided lot. These changes will improve fire safety and make sure our city and buildings are more resilient in the face of our next disaster. We know it is not a question of if, but when. Im also introducing a letter of inquiry to department of Emergency Management for detailed plan for timeline of restoration of the San Francisco emergency siren system. We want to know not just the upgraded plan but emergency evacuation plan, not just for the west side, but city wide. The emergency sirens were taken off line in 2019 for security up grade with plan restoration of 2021 so when i took office i asked about the restoration up grading process of the sirens but 4 years later still waiting for that answer. I really hope now with mayor having her experience in maui with president peskin urging we have the funding for it so look forward seeing it done. With that, i also already before recess submitted request to understand the emergency Fire Fighting water system upgrade on the west side. It is in the recent Government Audit Oversight Committee that i learned that the bond the voters voted to support in 2021 no longer include the west side for the richmond to have the system to be implemented because it isnt saying it is no longer funded. That is a huge concern of mine. I demand answers to those questions and i will be having that public hearing this fall to get to the bottom of this. The rest i submit. Thank you supervisor chan president peskin. Thank you madam clerk. Colleagues, a few relatively related thingsfirst of all, as we are all aware and we talked about during our special order commendation, august 8 was the massive fire with a huge amount of death in lahina and as supervisor chan said, the city has a need to invest in Capital Infrastructure particularly on the west side. We have a rich history dating back to the 1906 earthquake and the years that ensued where the city San Francisco committed to redundant Fire Fighting system known as the auxiliary water supply on large swaths of the east side around to the bayview, but largely missing on the west side. In the days that ensued thereafter, there was a lot of discussion what had become of the city outdoor Warning System which i knew it was time to go to the Board Meeting because two hours on a tuesday you had to report to the chambers and that stopped december 2019 and for the next number of years did not make it to the top of the Capital Planning list and i understood that. We were in the midst of covid, it was a crisis, we were all hands on deck rel itive to that, but this year as a member of the Capital Planning committing i descented 10 to 1 vote and voted gaechbs the capital plan not because the things in it were not worthy, but because this government and our chief executive officer made a decision to cut our Capital Investment in half to 59 million a year and so my vote was a protest vote that we were not investing enough in capital with acknowledgment that every years delay has a expotential price increase so a dollar spent today saves multiple dollars in the outyears. Even though it is a easy thing to cut with you have mouths to feed and dont want to make tougher decisions. The outdoor public Warning System fell victim to that, but i felt in the days after the lahina quake that there was a teachable moment and we could fund it and threatened to do a supplemental appropriation but delighted when the mayor chose to convene the Disaster Council, which had not been convened in many years and i want to thank supervisors chan and stefani members of the Disaster Council for attending. It was announced that funding had been found and so no supplemental appropriation was needed. Supervisor chan pointed out, the source of the funds have not been publicly or that matter privately disclosed to the president of the board or public or members of the board of supervisors so today im asking mr. Poleno to know where those funds are coming from and if there is no plan then i intend to move forward with a supplemental appropriation from the general Fund Reserves to fund that item in the amount of approximately 5 million as discussed at the october 24 Disaster Council. I say this because when you go to all these Capital Planning committee meetings, each and every department comes forward with their capital plans and they show slides and show how much is funded and what is not being funded and we see pretty pictures of the parks that will be refurbished and fire facilities that are going to be enhanced and i sat through rec and park presentation and there was no discussion of putting all most 2 million into a skate park at United Nation plaza, which by the way, isnt a rec and park property. I have no idea what isnt being funded in rec and park budget but this is all fuzzy money and we go through this process where i spend my time and head of airport spends his time and the head of public works spends her time and none of these things are discussed when it turns out that dating back to january there was a quite hush hush deal to spend 1. 8 million on a skate park so im not talking about what is breath taking about a city that talks volumes about equity and low income communities but what is visited upon the tenderloin would never happen in my district or supervisor stefanis district and lack of respect is breathtaking and outrageous and i want to know what didnt get funded with the 1. 8 million. Finally colleagues, submitting hearing request on the unfortunate tragic revelation about city corruption and look forward to not pointing fingers, but figuring out what steps this government can take to do everything in our power to prevent things like this happening yet again in the future and i believe in this instance the notion of the umbrella fiduciary, which was the problem in the Parks Alliance case and is now the problem in this case needs further examination. I started this conversation with the controller and sure we will see another Public Integrity report but asking for a hearing on that and the rest i submit. Thank you mr. President. Seeing no other names on the roster, that concludes introduction of new business. Lets go to Public Comment. The public please come to the podium if you are in the chamber and like to provide Public Comment. You may speak to the minutes as presented. Items 1417. The items under the adoption without Committee Reference calendar and other general matters not on todays agenda but within the board subject matter jurisdiction. All other agenda content will have been reported out to the board by a appropriate committee where the Public Comment requirement occurred. We do have interpreters standing by to assist speakers with their comment. We thank the interpreters we thank your service for the community. After those here in the chamber, well go to remote comment speaker line. Lets hear from the first speaker, please. So, sent to all the children of israel and gathered the profits together in mount carmel and came on to all the people and said how [indiscernible] between two opinions. Then he prayed and the fire came down and he ran away to mount sinai 40 days later he heard in his ears he was to anoint three people. There is a parallelism between the exact day god told elija this and sounding of the trumpets. When the 7 finishes sounding that is judgment day and you go to hell or heaven depending whether you are saved or not, but the 6 is dated to the day and i tried to [indiscernible] people dont believe me, but i would swear on a bible i am telling you the truth. Because it takes a hour to explain it doesnt mean it isnt true. But, it was a sad sad thing when he anointed the king of syria and started crying and wheeping and he said why are you crying and he said because i know the evil you will do. You will burn the cities with fire and kill young men with sword and dash the little against the stones and rip up the women with children. There was no anointing oil just the word spoken and he did anoint elija and [indiscernible] to israel and so is elija. Ladies and gentlemen, in one week from now we will remember what happened a few years ago at the trade center and i tell you, if you are smart enough to count to 7 and get 28 you are smart enough to understand what i am talking about. Thank you for your comments. Lets hear from the next speaker, please. I like to give each of you this small unfortunate letter. The clerk is coming to pick that up. Please speak into the microphone, that way those on channel 26 can hear you and ill start your timer when you begin to speak. Please proceed. My letter says, founders working people, farmers, this is a farmer perspective. My name is grace rasmussen. In the photograph you will see diane feinstein, [indiscernible] and late husband don. In the early 80s during a major recession, the heart of the city Farmers Market was conceived by political will of diane feinstein, the support of Market StreetDevelopment Association bernie aberbush, non profits such as American Friendship committee and farmers represented by don [indiscernible] now we are kicked to the curb after surviving the pandemic. Have you considered how much it will cost to remove all the bricks and where will you store them . Are you going to remove the columns when each country signed the un treaty . Concreted asphalt is at least 5 million and it isnt good for the environment. At the surface it is hot. Did the board of supervisors actually ask the constituents for the funds . Why did the park and Rec Department want to ramrod the deal without any consideration of the farmers . Wouldnt it be cheaper to have other venues on the day the market is not recycling demonstration, craft fairs, music events . It is evidence not much consideration was given. On wednesday after the market closed removal of the bricks ensued. The deal was done farmers are environmentally conscious and we aim to please our customers. We harvest the crops that capture the sun and give you energy and [indiscernible] thank you for your comment. Thank you. [indiscernible] thank you for your comment. Lets go to the next speaker. Thank you, next speaker. We are reading everything we are getting. I heard you at theyeah. Appreciate you. Go ahead, next speaker, please. You can, just start speaking and well come get it. Go ahead. My name is [indiscernible] i live in d6. This month there will be a transphobic conference called [indiscernible] International Conference at the hilton financial district from september 1715. The event organize oppose gender affirming care and drag shows both of which the board affirmed. Will you as a board condemn this conference . Is that too big a ask for most transgender people while translives are under attack. Other trans and queer people are fleeing there are parts of the country they hope is safe haven. There should be no place for this in San Francisco. I exist, my wife exists, my friends exist. The end. There is no further debate or ideology about it. As a result of the conference i will be escorting my life to and from work for protection because it goes to that area. Tourists and fascist and neo nazi often follow. They came during the right to life antiabortion march. Myself and others fought off on the Library Steps as police watched. Please dont invite back with your silence. I learned how people can be when they call themselves allies and when i point out transphobic things about their words or actions. Only imagine how disheartening when i want to believe in the goodness of people so much. You need to pair words with actions to let people know where San Francisco stands, where you our elected officials stand. Silence is insidious growing calls and acts of genocide and [indiscernible] we have time to be on the e offense and best defense is good offense. Please protect trans kids so they can grow up to be adults. Thank you for your comments. Good afternoon. My name is jordan. Pronouns are she, her, they them. I support the resolution brought forth by supervisor ronen. Im a cocaine user and important to treat drug use as [indiscernible] if you dont like the fact sometimes a frund provides [indiscernible] you if you walk a mile in my shoes you understand why i indulge. We should fill vacancies but some of the units arehole rooms not fit for residents and we need supportival housing instead. Also displacement of farchler market goes to a lot of issues along the [indiscernible] and how the mayor can act like she is god. Also the fact some members of the board joined a protest with racist signs against a Asian American female judge who blocked the city sweeping the homeless. [indiscernible] i feared the homeless lead by the mayor mandelman engardio and dorsey [indiscernible] also a antitrans hate group booked for 1517 for conference and have a protest in front of city hall. I am urging the board to condemn this. Especially the female supervisors because these specific transfolks dress up their transphobia in women rights and claim transpeople are in women space we will rape women which is defam tore. I know three women on the board, ronen chan and melgar believe transwomen are women but [indiscernible] i yield my time. Next speaker. Next speaker, please. John anderson speaking for 360 San Francisco. Speaking to agenda item 14 on the Municipal Finance Corporation report. I hope the board will accept the report and act very quickly to implement it. Very Interesting Times and know we are facing climate catastrophe and see them starting. The city declared a emergency, it has been declared all over the world and the city and the world the resources dedicated have been hilariously out of proportion to what is needed to save lives. Clearly the systems of taxes, bonds and private ownership of banks isnt working, and the municipal finance corpication offers a way around it. It isnt going to get easier to implement as we go forward. We will face increasing academics, loss of Food Production and find out what else. So, i hope the board will implement it quickly and it is very important it be done in a way that is transparent and accountable. We have to get this right the first time because we will not get a chance to do it again. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker, please. Hello. My name is susan fong wong. I live in district 2. My three children attended and graduated from San FranciscoPublic Schools. Im here to ask you to help us to vote for a 8th grade algebra ballot issue for march 2024 election and i know the city doesnt have control over the district. At least not directly. But the city does give the School District about a hundred Million Dollars of money every year under propositionforget the name of the proposition. You do give that amount of money. And probably also heard that there is a budget crisis. In fact, the state might take over the School District. The superintendent last week unveiled what he hopes to be a discussion about how to address the budget crisis so the state wont come in to take over the School District. Im here to ask you to vote in a ballot measure for 8 grade algebra, because the School District discontinued offering 8th grade algebra in 2014. I have been fighting the last 9 years to restore 8th grade algebra and all the things we said in 2014 has come to pass. It didnt make any difference to bring up the marginalized performers of math, so if the district wouldand also, if 8th grade algebra is offered it might also alleviate the teacher shortage. Now the classes are taught by substitutes many dont have teaching credentials. I get this from the parent friends. Please consider voting for a 8th grade algebra ballot for the march 24 election. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello. My name is rex ridgeway to ask the board consider putting 8th grade algebra as a ballot measure for march 2024. A decade of damage happened the last 10 years by them moving 8th grade algebra 1 out of the 8th grade. Now kids have to double up to reach calculus and this city which is the hub of ai you cant get the calculus by being a citizen in the district. Coopertino [indiscernible] our kids cannot. My glanddaughter had to double in the 9th grade to take calculus in high school. The problem is now they have a compression course. Algebra 1, 2 and precalculus together they call a compression course. A teacher wont name the high school told his class this compression course should be banned. The heads of harvard stanford, ucla and uc berkeley jointly signed a letter june 2022, sent to the district that said this course does not prepare our kids for stem. The district has been sued march 20, the first opening argument was last thursday. It is amazing the district will fight something to have proven not to work. Human beings can do 5 things, speak [indiscernible] and they can lie. We have quit drinking the coolaid. The families of San Francisco unified and those who have taken kids to private school have quit drinking the coolaid of the Math Department over at 555 franklin. Help us put algebra 1 back in the 8th grade. Thank you. Next speaker. Hi, there. My name is sarah benten. Im homeless. F i have been homeless on purpose. I cant get on the internet. I cant get on zoom and this phone is actually no good. I have everything wrong with me. Im ask ing for someone that can help me get off the streets and get some type of housing. Im paying 400 every three weeks, 400 at the weston hotel for one week with other people running in and out all night on dope. Im not on drugs. I never had a positive drug test in the last 23 years. I want to know where my daughter is located. Her name is ashanta [indiscernible] kept her away from me 23 years. I bought a home next door to a double murderer by the name of Calvin Williams that caused me to have a dui driving a muni bus. This information, the same murderer had me arrested and told he murdered someone at the same time he had me arrested. Im blackballed from everything and everybody. Being cyanide poison every day. On my driver license it says im 5 11. Im 5 5 from being cyanide poison. I are need help. I dont care what i look like. I want help. Begging you, can you help me, please im tired walking in the middle of the street because of false information putim bisexual, i like pretty women. How can i be home phobic . Tired being abused. Im a human being. Help me please. Can somebody please get in contact with my daughter. Thank you for your comments today. Please. Ashanti i love you. I want to talk to my daughter thank you maam. Any other members of the public in the chambers . Go ahead, sir. I hope you had a nice recess. For me there is no intermission. The accident is unavoidable because of the high speed pressure we are victim of, so we are in danger. Im here to limit the damage. [indiscernible] because there is a danger. [indiscernible] let me speak there. You are involved, otherwise you wouldnt be here. The reason why you cant control the world because if you want to control the world you have to work against the internal rules of existence, which means you cant be [indiscernible] for you and everybody [indiscernible] be happy. [indiscernible] with when you want to control the world you have to lie to create damage, to kill, right . Basically to create ugliness so you die unhappy ugly. The rules of existence dont want you back. You can say fine, i dont care. The problem is your [indiscernible] thats that. That is the way it is. Ai. You dont need a, you just need i. You dont need the artificial [indiscernible] you know you cant use critical thinking, it doesnt work. Basically ai is for [indiscernible] you dont control the world with ai because it means you are in a idiot which makes ai more dangerous because it is lead by idiots. Unintelligent persons. [indiscernible] bye. Are there any remote members of the public for Public Comment . Welcome our first caller. Hello caller, are you with us . Yes. Okay, thank you. My name is donitia carlos a district 5 resident, and i hope this is the forum, if not please let me know. I have had several negative encounters with city officers in the city and county of San Francisco. Negative both being no one is available to answer the phone, or if someone is available a level of professionalism is below zero. I dont know what department i need to be talking to or who heads hr with regard to the training, with regard to the professionalism in the city and county of San Francisco. This has happened both with several officers, the mayor office and the human rights commission. And am really troubled there are people who are on payroll making substantial income by working in the city and county of San Francisco. They were not sought out to take these jobs, yet they continue to receive benefits, healthcare, salary, 401k et cetera with the way the city is running with the number of homeless or unhoused with people looking for jobs to have people in place who thumb their nose at employment is both disrespectful and despicable and so i am looking for someone to connect with that can provide feedback to the heads of the departments, to provide whatever training is necessary to understand that when you take a job in a human facing position that it is just that. You dont get to choose who shows up to your face, but you do have the responsibility maam, that concludes your time, but before you go i want to give you the Clerks Office telephone number. That number is 4155545184. Staff there will take your message and well forward it to the office you are trying to reach. Okay. Thank you. Thank you kindly. Mr. Lam, lets hear from our next caller, please. Welcome caller. Good afternoon. My name is Kimerbly Johnson and this is in regard to the [indiscernible] supervisorpressin pres preston and board, can you take a look at this. [difficulty understanding speaker due to audio quality] San Francisco landmark [indiscernible] the board of supervisors [indiscernible] fillmore street to the Capital Budget the structure may be used for the benefit of the community for reuse. The building [indiscernible] set aside in 2001 [indiscernible] thank you for your comments. Mr. Lam, do we have another caller in the queue . Hello. I live in district 8 and been a happy customer of the Farmer Market un plaza more then 20 years and shocked to hear a plan to relocate the Farmer Market. It is a beloved community that served thousands of San Francisco voters over a 42 years, including 20thousand ebt users annually. Twice a week the Farmers Market brings us all together. It is the best of San Francisco. As any urban planner knows, community is Site Specific and transportation is risky. We know the name of the game is foot traffic. Everyone acknowledges the Farmer Market did this well. Foot traffic drives away crime. Will the proposed skate park idea bring the foot traffic needed to discourage drug activity . It is technically district 5, this is our city civic center, how does a skate park serve everybody in San Francisco . Other then the San FranciscoPlanning Department application filed july 10, there are no publicly available briefs or plan documents, no studies supporting the new plan, no recorded meetings with city agencies and no budget. No studies estimating foot traffic or demographics for the proposed plaza features. How many skaters are in San Francisco . What about everybody else . What would be the usage patterns . According to the skate board industry in 2022, 80 percent are miners and 40 percent under the age of 9 and 40 percent are under the age of 17. Wouldnt these kids be in school most of the day leaving the plaza empty . Do we expect them to be skating in the civic center at night . Discussion of this plan does not appear in any sf rec and park board agenda for 2023, and i found this electioni found something in the minutes of the boards july 20meeting and going to read thank you maam. Thank you kindly. We apologize when we have to interrupt. We are setting the timer across the board for 2 minutes for all calls. Lets hear from our next caller, please. Good afternoon. This is regina [indiscernible] in district 2 calling to thank the board, particularly supervisors peskin and chan for raising the issue for disaster planning and need to up grade the siren and communication systems. I joined the Neighborhood Emergency Response Team after the earthquake and became a Radio Operator and joined the auxiliary Communication Service which serves the city as a volunteer[indiscernibl e] and staffed ham shack at the Emergency Services office. We on tuesday used to monitor the sirens and report the ones not performing or were not heard. These sirens are necessary as part of the Public Safety for people during disasters and we need funding for them now. Encourage you to put in the supplemental request. I have no [indiscernible] money has been found to fix these. That was the excuse in the past and never seemed to work. Go ahead and put in a supplemental appropriation for it now. If it isnt needed and the funding is there, thats fine. Ill make two other comments. Being retired from the Civil Rights Office u. S. Department of education i strongly support 8th grade or 7th and 8th grade algebra. It is a equity issue and we need people with appropriate training. We do not have enough young people going into the fields with strong math and science backgrounds. And i also wnder why the skating park in the civic center isnt part of the Civic Center Plan which i looked up during covid it just stopped, the planning implementation of that plan stopped. It needs tothe process deciding whether there is a skate park in the civic center needs to go back through appropriate planning in my opinion. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Lam, lets hear from our next caller, please. Hello. This is Michael Petrelis calling and i like to observe a few moments of silence because of the death of the castro theater. Let us be silent for a few moments and remember what was the beautiful movie palace of the castro theater. The silence that was just heard represents the many dark nights at the castro theater since another planet took over this movie palace. There have been 250 dark nights since january of 2022 when another planet was given control of the theater by the nasser family and we are looking at at least 160 dark nights between now and the end of january 2024. This information comes from the website of all events at there castro theater for the past 18 months. It is really a shame we have lost the castro theater as both a movie palace and a Entertainment Center where there is nothing happening. In the month of august there were only two events at the castro theater. The lack of music events, movie events at the castro theater is harming the castro neighborhood and the Small Business owners. There is reduced foot traffic. Indeed there is minimal foot traffic on the weekdays when there should be matinee shows of barbie. It is time to morn the loss of the castro theater. Thank you for listening. Thank you for your comments. Lets hear from our next caller, please. Hello, hello. Yayaya. So, accommodation to be called out. This is San Francisco here. Commendation to all the veterans. Mr. Decosta, mrs. Glora [indiscernible] thank you so much for your Service Every day. Now to business. I made it clear that we need to make changes in the city and think we made it very very clear some people need to leave immediately. Over 3100 deaths it seems priority to address the medical Health Crisis on our streets and being the fentanyl crisis. We should have done this 5 years ago. Called doctors and clinicians and Wellness Centers and now grandstanding on 3100 dead. 911 is coming up. 2977 lives were lost. Well, the board and mayor eclipsed that record, that grim record. Speaking of grim records, to date 38 homicide, 149 rapes, 1600 robberies, 1800 burglaries and just chaos. Every citizen, every abiding citizen needs to apply for ccw, and no hesitation because the court ruraled we need to get people protected, especially women. With regards to grandstanding on people and for public needs, we cannot have this big 2024 election coming up. We need to address the community. If you cant address them leave. [indiscernible] well do Live Streaming and make it live and [indiscernible] squatting there like a squatter she is. Get out of our city. Give the keys towith regard to ai thank you for your comment. Lets hear from our next caller, please. Madam clerk, that was the last call. Thank you mr. Lam. Public comment is closed. Madam clerk can you read adoption without committee ref erence . 1417. Unanimous vote is required for resolution First Reading today. A member may require resolution to go to committee. Would any member like an item or items severed . Supervirez dorsey. I like to serve item 15. Supervisor stefani. 17, please. On the balance of the calendar, madam clerk, 14 and 16sorry, supervisor preston. Item 14. Supervisor chan. Alright. On item 16, our last item was unanimous and everybody is in the house. Same house same call, that resolution is adopted. Madam clerk, please read item 14. Item 14 is resolution to accept receipt of the San FranciscoReinvestment Working Group final governance plan, Business Plan and viability study for San Francisco municipal Financial Corporation and final governance plan, Business Plan and viability study for San Francisco public bank. Supervisor preston. Thank you president peskin. We talked about the report at length in committee so will not do that again here today, but i did want to thank folks who have been just tremendous amount of work to bring before us this Reinvestment Working Group governance plan and Business Plan for a public bank in San Francisco. I want to thank Reinvestment Working Group members, all of them and in particular thank chair Kristen Evans and vice chair Fernando Marte and all the members of the incredible body who mest consistently the last 18 months to create these plans that are before us. I also want to recognize and thank other folks who were key to moving this forward and that is jeremy pollack, executive officer of lafco, [indiscernible] samurai, policy analyst to Reinvestment Working Group. The San FranciscoPublic Bank Coalition for their ongoing support and advocacy and really all the advocates who continue to push on this longterm project but we are nearing making realty for a public bank in San Francisco. Also want to acknowledge the exalismary work of arna advisors, the consultants working with the working group to develop this draft plan and gary finly of the finly group and susanna roso [indiscernible] the clerk office, particularly our clerk angela, alyssa somera and stephanie cabrera. Former supervisors who played a role starting with supervisor avalos handed off later to supervisor furer who passed the baton to me and City Attorney and former supervisor david chui for their work on public banking. Our controller ben roseen field [indiscernible] and a number of colleagues thank you for interest in public banking and are conversations along the way and special thanks to supervisor walton and supervisor chan for their ongoing strong support. City Attorney Office, particularly [indiscernible] victoria wong and ann pierson working on the ongoing work putish this in a ordinance that will come before us. That isnt what is before us today. And then last but definitely least my legislative aid, preston killgore a leading export not just this town about anywhere in public banking. We remain committed working to create the first Municipal Bank in the nation and yes, there is a little of competition with other cities becoming interested in this, but we are further along. We are going to be the first and the plans offer a Game Changing tool to navigate concerns with post pandemic economic recovery and i want to say im encouraged. There are many things that divide us at a policy level. I have been encouraged to see our efforts to create a public bank met with what can be characterized as growing consensus among city leaders and experts and support from the public. So, we will create and need to create a public bank in San Francisco first through Municipal Finance Corporation, later through a full public bank. This will be a powerful tool to regenerate the economy based on shared values investing in key areas identified in these plans and that is deeply affordable housing, Small Businesses, under served communities, and Green Infrastructure. Housing, business and Green Infrastructure are three subject matter areas that we expect the public bank to make huge difference in. I think this is a really essential step toward a more just and sustainable economy and i want to highlight, look forward working with all of you or inviting all of you to the various hearings that will happen to sit in as we move forward. We are engaged with the treasurer, City Attorney and others to take this plan and move it into an ordinance and obviously there will be a policy decisions along the way how to do this consistent with San Francisco charter. Excited this is before us and just thank you for your indulgence with the long list of thank yous but this has been it takes a village project and appreciate everyones hard work on this. Thank you. Seeing no other names on the roster, same house same call. The resolution is adopted. 15 resolution that recognize august 31 as internuncial Overdose Awareness Day in city county of San Francisco. Supervisor dorsey. Thank you president peskin. Colleagues, item 15 i want to express gratitude to supervisor ronen and her cosponsors for bringing this forward. I am 100 percent in support of recognizing Overdose Awareness Day a priority important and personal to me and i no doubt important and personal to all of us in some way. I want to bring attention to the final resolve clause which reads, the board of supervisors urges the Mayors Office to open new Wellness Centers funded in the approved budget to provide life saving support to drug users as soon as possible, especially as there is no increase in Service Since the mayor and District Attorney began efforts to arrest drug users. This other wise lotable resolution ends in a policy discussion about the centers or hubs which are a point of contention. This is a issue that does not enjoy unanimous agreement on the board and as i recall the issue has never been enjoyed unanimous agreement on the board and say that as a supporter of supervised consumption rights. Board rule 2. 1. 2 on items for adoption without Committee Reference are reserved for routine resolutions which are adopted by unanimous vote of the board. Before this meeting i respectfully requested from the sponsor if she was open to amending the resolution to remove the third resolve clause to focus squarely and unanimously recognizing Overdose Awareness Day. She declined to do that. I like to make a motion to continue the item to next week where it is eligible for passage without unanimous vote. If i may, i like to address the issue of wellness hubs or Wellness Centers as described here. I are want to first reiterate i remain a supporter of supervised consumption sites. I have supported this approach more then a decade going back to the 2011 mayor race when i advocated for them and wrote a position paper for candidates then called safe injection sites. The reason i support them is because they fulfill the original founding principals of Harm Reduction, which aims to address intrenzic and extrenzic harms of drug use. Reduce harm to the individual putting drug users in a environment to make a life saving medical intervention if someone goes into overdose. Also reduce harm to the community because we can tell residents who may object to these sites this is doing something to get public drug use off the streets and sidewalks. This reflects the Harm Reduction policy that was enacted i believe in september 2020, 23 years ago by the Health Commission which explicitly said this is about reducing harms to individual as well as to the communities. While i remain a supporter of supervised consumption sites, the inability of the city and non Profit Partners to assume the legal risks at this time to offer supervised Consumption Services in my view diminish the value of moving forward with what is a half loaf approach that is now contemplated for what we redefine as a different form of wellness hubs. I cannot in good conscious say to residents i represent a so called wellness hub without supervisor consumption would do anything to reduce harms of the community by getting drug use off the streets. It isnt clear wellness hubs as redefined comply with the terms of the opioid Litigation Settlement approved today. Im unconvinced acpuncture and laundry and related service meets those requirements. It makes no sense to fund and staff limited service for voluntary drop ins by drug users at a time when we have a involuntary time of drug users ibcustody who illegal conduct suggest a far more acute need for life saving care and Overdose Prevention services we could offer. We should expand the availability of care coordination offered to individuals released from San Francisco jail. That is direct quote from dph Overdose Prevention plan where it applies to area 2 aiming to strengthen Community Engagement and social support for peepm at high risk for overdose. Given the dormancy of supervised Consumption Service i believe it is imperative treatment and Recovery Service replace wellness hubs as the primary cornerstone of the Overdose Prevention strategy. I want to clarify my request to the mayor wasnt to reallocate funding exclusively to jail Health Service, but i described a more general approach that is jail based service or dph phrased it, Care Coordination Services offered to individuals released from the San Francisco jail. That may include non profit provider, may include jail Health Services, but sheriff miamota [indiscernible] know are vulnerable risk of overdose. Much of this dispute feels to me a little like a bate and switch and this was perhaps the danger of using euphisms like wellness hubs which can mean Different Things to different people different times. When we are ready to implement supervisor consumption sites, lets do it. Until then i cant support a half loafed approach. That is why i urging the reallocation [indiscernible] i move to continue the item to next week where. Motion to continue one week to september 12 made by supervisor dorsey. Is there a segd for that . Second for that. Take without objection. Supervisor chan. Thank you president peskin. Thank you supervisor ronen for your leadership on this issue and thank you so much for your passionate remark today. I think i first want to express my disappointment learning about the letter proposed by our colleague supervisor dorsey during recess. Specifically referencing the agreement we already have for budget. I wish if only we had this discussion before we voted and signed the budget because that would have been critical conversation for us to have then how we want to spend the money and dedicate the money and think the fact we all voted on it, particularly not speaking about it, it is disappointing to me as your budget chair. I wish i had known about the concerns. With that said, i think that i for one amcannot claim expertise on the fentanyl crisis we face. I cannot claim expertise in terms of understanding what is really truly the best approach. What i do though believe is that time and time again, the way we dealt with pandemic and just like any other Public Health crisis, which i see this as one is that we should look to the science, we should look to the people who are experts in this field, and guide us through what is the best approach. As im learning and i can understand, we have different conversation about be it Overdose Prevention strategy that continue allowing people to use and then find their way to stop using or manage the use to people that should have a abstinence approach to stop using all together at once. I am open to all options because i think we are very different people. The way we approach this issue require multifacet options and solutions and i am with that i want to say is the reason i like to be a cosponsor of this resolution and to say that i think with this resolution it reference many things that i think we can all agree on. It does reference to about the approach including abstinence and also approach how we make sure this is a Public Health crisis, not a Law Enforcement issue and what we can do to make it work and that again, this is also referencing the fact with the Wellness Centers we have closed session discussion and continue conversation what is the best model and best approach. I think those conversation can continue, but to somehow divert the funding from it it stops the conversation and dont thirng that is what we want and reason ill support the resolution today as cosponsor and vote in support next week. Thank you supervisor chan. Supervisor melgar. Thank you president peskin. I would also like to be added as a cosponsor. Im desperate to find solutions and new approaches because what we are doing is clearly not working. We are losing people every day. We are not all on the same page but have consensus we are supporting and putting our money where there is data and evidence that things work. Do we have everything figured out legally . No, but i do trust that we are going to be making progress and i want to keep moving forward on the things we have consensus on. I want to thank the sponsors, supervisor ronen for your determination and support and i want to thank you both supervisor ronen and supervisor dorsey for having taken the time to go to new york and look at the onpoint supervised Wellness Centers and sites and model of what worked and doesnt work and what is applicable and lessens we can learn so thank you both for your commitment. I want us all to take this seriously and to support the efforts to keep moving the ball forward. I think there are very few things in our city that are more important then this and i want to make sure that we dont stop the conversation, we dont go back on the things that we already discussed, put money towards in the budget, voted on and that we make sure that we at least try the things we know will work to make sure that things are better for all our constituents. Thank you. Thank you supervisor melgar. Supervisor mandelman. Thank you president peskin. I want to thank supervisor ronen for her passion and desire to stop the deaths, which is heartfelt and deep and i cannot question in any way. I dont think it is that those who have concerns about Wellness Centers are less concerned about the deaths or belief that the city does not need to act aggressively to stop overdose deaths. I think there are some on this board who are not convinced that the experts and department of Public Health actually have this completely right and there are experts like [indiscernible] at stanford who was obamas drug czar who believed it is possible we are creating a environment in San Francisco more people are overdoseing because we are creating the conditions in which more people are using and more people are using amounts of drugs that they would not use other places under other circumstances. I dont know what the right answer is. I believe i supported safe consumption facilities. I dont think they are a horrible thing. I think they might be able to save lives. I also dont believe they are going to in any way come close to solving the drug crisis we have in San Francisco and my concern about dph response to our drug crisis is that we are not moving towards being a city that actually moves people to recovery successfully, quickly and supports in their sobriety. We have folks and supervisor stefani highlighted this, First Responders trying to get people into detox and unable to do that. People saying yes, im willing to go into treatment and waiting for periods of time no one should have to wait in the city. People completing 90 day treatment programs and release today the street. I know there is no disagreement that supervisor ronen is as horrified by the statistics as i am. As i think about the areas in which i think we are failing as a city and where i want to push the administration to do more, particularly after the experience of the Linkage Center which i believed was a failure for the neighborhood, i would be concerned about calling out wellness hubs as the piece that i think dph needs to push on. I think there is a littleim glad supervisor ronen is on the roster because all is a question whether there are 8 votes next week or whether this has to go to committee if we have a policy conversation about it. Supervisor preston. Thank you president peskin and thank you supervisor ronen for your leadership on this issue and on this resolution. This is i think a perfect example of a situation where i think that people in our city and the residents of our city need to look at what we and i mean everyone in elect ed leadership or any leadership in the city, what we do not what we say. I justim not going to talk about individual comments here made, but i justat a certain point you cant say im in favor of supervised consumption sites and wellness hubs but then obstruct those things from happening. I appreciate supervisor mandelmans comments. I think at least being up front if you have doubts and we can agree and disagree at a policy level, but be honest what we are doing and i think the frustration that often i feel and my constituents feel is the complete mixed message and inconsistency what we are saying on the issue and what we are doing. We are all most at a year since the city released the Overdose Prevention plan. First Overdose Prevention plan in San Francisco. Very proud to have worked closely with Department Public health to put that together. I dont think department of Public Health plan was perfect, but i do say when it comes to dealing with the Public Health crisis, i rather be lead by experts in Public Health then a bunch of paul politicians. It has been all most a year and this is the frustration at the question time in which i asked the mayor whether we were going to issue the rfp. It is every conversation with Department Public health when they issue the rfp. You can cite legal issues and as supervisor ronen pointed out, new york figured how to do this, we can figure how to do this. You can cite whether the chicken or egg comes first but we know how to make progress. We have providers saying we are ready and willing to go. Get the green right from the mayor and issue rfp out and if the City Attorney says you cant do it because of a legal issue then it wont happen. If a non profit isnt willing to do the work to set these up, they are not going to respond to the rfp so it is time to like stop talking and start doing on thisism we have a Overdose Prevention plan the mayor and department of Public Health signed off on. We have i think if not every member of boardi think every member of the board who said we are in favor of these sites. Whats going on and what is going i respectfully submit has nothing to do with health policy. It is the same reason our governor knows safe consumption sites saves lives. Chose to veto what his next steps are in the political future. People are not stupid. They know what is going on and on this front i want to reiterate and really urge while we consider this resolution, i look forward voting for it, proud to cosponsor it, but i just want to urgethere are moments when departments that have expertise need to stand up and this is one of them and to the director of department of Public Health, you know the intervention will save lives, it is in your departments Overdose Prevention plan signed off by everyone, you have a entire team of Behavioral Health experts who know that this will save lives, so if you need help drafting the rfp, i am here for you. Happy to write it for you and send over a draft that you can send out. If the City Attorney has a issue, they will weigh in before a contract is signed. If non profits donlt want to do work, they wont respond to the rfp, so lets stop talking and start doing and open wellness hubs immediately. Thank you. Supervisor ronen. Yes, thank you colleagues. I dont want to belabor points i already made but will just say this, this board of supervisors, i have been here for over a decade, been watching this conversation for over a decade, everyone has said they agree that Overdose Prevention sites are a good Public Health intervention that saves lives. 200 cities around the world have them, proven with numerous studies, too numerous to mention. Right now, the city of new york has two of them, rhode island is the verge of opening, minnesota is on the first opening the first one. The City Attorney came to this board and said, we can do it under the new york model. I had disagreements because i think we can make it easier to open but gave up the fight. Lets just do it under the new york model. Pick your battles, right. And yet, despite the fact through the chair supervisor dorsey you say are you all for opc, then what are you doing to open the opc because im doing the work every week. Without saying anything you went backwards. What are you doing to open the opc because leadership isnt just saying we are for something and then just sitting back when we know it isnt going to happen. Leadership is taking the power of our pings position and we are supervisors and we have power and making things happen using that power. So, it is really nice you theoretically agree just like all the supervisors for the past decade have that opc are a good thing, what are you doing to open them . What are you doing to open them because your legislative aid was in those meetings with me when i was working to open them. Alright. Without objection, item 15 is continued one week. That date is september 12. That is true. That is september 12. Madam clerk, please read item 16. This is resolution to commemorate the 50th anniversary of bruce lee passing. Supervisor stefani. Sorry, item 17. My apology. We voted for item 16. That was the only item we voted for. Item 17 is resolution to recognize september 29, 2023 as korean chuseok day. Colleagues asking for support for this resolution that designates september 29, 2023 as chuseok day. My former chief of staff [indiscernible] also known as korean thanksgiving. One of the most important and wildly celebrated holidaysi need my glasses in [indiscernible] contributed so much to the history and culture of San Francisco. I want to thank and acknowledge the Korean Center in district 2 to keep the traditions thriving in San Francisco. They also provide so much educational, cultural and social service for the past 45 years. I want to thank the Korean Community and Korean American Center for all your support. Best wishing. I amcourage everyone to come to district 2 to the festivity september 30 at 11 a. M. Thank you. Same house same call, the resolution is asupervisor ronen, what do youit is noted supervisor safai peskin and ronen are cosponsors of item 17. Same house same call, item 17 is adopted. Madam clerk, please read the in memoria. Yes todays meeting will be adjourned in memory of the following beloved individuals. On behalf of supervisor peskin joan joaquin wood, r sherman layman and mrs. Nancy warfol. We are adjourned. [meeting adjourned] San Francisco is a positive impact on my chinese business. Im the founder of joejoe. Im a San Francisco based chinese artist. I grew up in the bayview district. I am from china i started at an early age i started at age of 10 my grandfather my biggest inspiration. And i have followed with my traditional art teacher in china i host educational workshops at the museum and local library. And i also provide chinese writing in Public Middle School and that way i hold more people fall in love with the beautiful of our chinese calligraphy. It is a part of our heritage. And so we need to keep this culture alive. Hand writing is necessary field that needs to be preserved generation toieneration. This art form is fading away. But since covid i have been very dedicated to this art and i hope that my passions and serving this art form. There are many stores and Shopping Centers and companies that are interested in chinese cal iing ravi. I feel motivated to my passion for chinese calligraphy in todays world. So people can always enjoy the beauty of chinese calligraphy, from time to time i have a choice to traditional chinese calligraphy to make it more interesting. We do calligraphy on paper. I can do calligraphy different low. My inspiration is from nature and provide calligraphy that was popular style of persons time. I will invite to you check out my website or instagram. And there is some events and updated Upcoming Events that you can participate. Hello everyone. Thank you so much for being here today. Welcome to the 20222023 San Francisco youth celebration. Give yourselves a round of applause. My name is emily nguyen the chair district chair on the San FranciscoYouth Commission. I feel grateful to be here today to celebrate this Incredible Group of Youth Commissioners. There is no way that i can incapsulate everything we accomplished together in a 5 minute speech, but ill try do my best. When i first stepped into city hall for the first Youth Commission meeting, i knew nothing about government but now it is one of my greatest passions. Little did i know how much we would accomplish as a team and how much the Youth Commission would mean to me. Seriously though, it has got ten to the point where family and friends are concerned how much time i spend in isthe building. Coming back from the pandemic a main goal is bring back the Youth Commissionism we interacted with youth from all over the city through office hours, our budget town halls and our community events. From passing out candy to youth at the greatto teaching third graders about local government and district lines to tabling sunday streetss, we have been able to center youth input and engagement in our work. Another main goal was to have all our work and all our legislation be rooted in empathy and personal experiences. Growing up next to freways my whole life, im so grateful to have gotten there opportunity to explore the central freeway on the Youth Commission and to speak on a panel with senator scott wiener about the freeway harmful impacts on youth and are marginalized communities. We priortaz issues thatd mat to us. We advocated for more transit stops and frnd lestreets. Mew free muni for all funding and embarking to make bart more youth frndly and youth accessb. Additionally, we are working to advance 16 to the 2024 ballot to champion youth civic engagement. Lastly, we are exploring how to make Juvenile Hall more rejuvinated. We held a hearing meeting with several departments and district offices and hearing from constituents to advance the issue. All this work and much more culminated in a 75 page budget policy report with 16 recommendations to the board of supervisors. Making this report in under three months was probably one of the hardest things we ever had to do together, but we did it and we did it together. This Youth Commission achieved so much this year, but most importantly, we made lifelong memories and lifelong friendships. Commissioners dedicated them sevl jz gave their all to the Youth Commission. I cant count all the hours we spnt in city hall arguing about legislation until ten p. M. On a school night or working on Youth Commission legislation instead of homework. Grateful to say i made lifelong friends and lifelong partners through the Youth Commission. I firstly want to appreciate vice chair barker plumber for all the support this term. Thank you for all the 10 p. M. Phone calls to plan town Hall Meetings and presentations and thank you for being the best partner i could ever have on the Youth Commission. Can we give commissioner plumber a round of applause . [applause] i also want to appreciate our staff for all their hard work and endless dedication to this Youth Commission. We cannot have done everything we did this year without their hard work and their expertise on organizing and government. Can we please give them all a round of applause . [applause] all and are all im so proud of everyone and everything we accomplished this term and grateful for all the memories. You all make the Youth Commission what it is. Can we please give every commissioner here today a round of applause . [applause] thank you everyone so much and now ill be passing it off to commissioner barker plumber for his speech. [applause] thank you chair nguyen and thank you all for joining us today as we celebrate the work and accomplishments of the 20222023 San FranciscoYouth Commission. It has been a busy year to say the least. It is kind of surprising to think it was les then a year ago we were on this very balcony with our mayor getting sworn in to serve and during that time we focused on service the young people of San Franciscoism i want to say one statistic that i was really surprised by at the end. One of our Staff Members added up all the hours Youth Commissioners have put into Public Meetings here in San Francisco, whether thats the commission or our subcommittees, and a totaled to over 138 hours of work Youth Commissioners did here in city hall representing young people in the city and county of San Francisco and that is really important work we all partake in and something im really proud i was able to do alongside all you, so thank you for that opportunity. I want to say one thing of what im most proud of us doing this yoor, which is really the yurk we did investing our time, our energy and connecting with our communities. Covid has been a difficult time and people got disconnected in this city because of isolation and because of peoples individual struggles and the work that not only the Youth Commissioner is doing, but our mayor is doing and many of the elected leaders and appointed leaders in the city are doing to reconnect with our San Francisco community is so important and something that im very proud we were a part of. So, i want to really introduce and welcome someone who i think really understands that. Who understands the importance of connecting to these communities, listening every day and that is our mayor london breed who is a personal inspiration and someone the Youth Commission learned from over the past year in terms how we can connect with our communities and how we can create a Good Coalition to fight for the best San Francisco we can, so thank you so much. [applause] thank you. Thank you for your work and your advocacy and thank you for the great remarks to emily put those into perspective. All the great work that you all did throughout the time that you served as Youth Commissioners, i bet you didnt think you would be working so hard. But, you were able to accomplish great things in the process. What is interesting about being here today, it takes me back, because just recently i was redoing my retirement forms, and one of the persons who i was meeting with to help understand what was going on said, you have some time that you could actually buy back in 1991, and i said, 1991 wait a minute, i was in high school in 1991 because i graduated 1992. I remember i was a part of one of the first organizations to bring youth into city hall to learn about policy in government. I completely forgot about this, but it was called the mayors youth forum. The mayors youth forum was put together by former mayor art agnus and i like to remind mayor agnus i got to meet him in his office in high school and he laughs about that. The mayors youth forum was filled with a lot of Department Heads at that time. People who helped us learn about government and how to make a impact. What is interesting to hear emily talk about the amazing work you all did over the course of the past year, what we did back then pailed in comparison to how advanced you are in your thought process and how you have taken the positions that you are in and have gone above and beyond to really try and shape policies and to shape resources for young people in San Francisco. Now, we collected a small pay check and we learned more about government and learned from those who represented government, but never were we given or even asked for a platform to do the kinds of things that you all are doing, because the youth forum i think had a lot to do with why we have the mayors youth forum that existed then has a lot to do why the Youth Commission was created. It was created to provide a real platform, because it has been a long time since i have been a young person, even though i consider myself young at heart, and the experiences that you have are a lot different then what we experienced growing up. How do we evolve . How do we change as a government to meet the needs of young people today . The internet want around when i was in high school. It was just forming somewhat when i was in college. The access to computers were very limited and cell phones, forget about it. Those things remember expensive and i dont know if you have seen an original cell phone but it was heavy and had to carry it around in a case and unless you had money you could ntd afford it. When i think what i experienced growing up and what you have access to and the kinds of experiences you have now, it is so important as policy makers that we are not shaping policy for young people based on what we experience. We need to hear the voices of young people based on what you are experiencing today so that our policies reflects the needs of the next generation in a way that is effective. Is more effective in delivering for you at a faster pace then we have in the past. So, i want to express my appreciation to all of you, because it take as lot of time. There are so many other things that you could choose to do. You couldim sure you all in looking at your various applications and your resumes and what you submitted, many of you are involved in other extracurricular activities. You have responsibilities at home. You have responsibilities in community and the fact you are dedicating so much of your time to not just make your lives better, but to make the lives better for other young people in this city is stored. Extraordinary. It was important we not just swear you in and talk about what you are going to do, but we take a moment to reflect on what you have done, so that you can put it into perspective and to really appreciate all that you accomplished, because sometimes we do things and then we are on to it next thing and we do something and on to the next thing and we dont take a moment to pause to real ly appreciate the heart and soul watt we put into making something extraordinary happen so today is about that. A day to honor all of you on your accomplishments, especially those who are moving on to universities, including places like howard and washington dc, across the water to uc berkeley and even harvard. It is really a accomplishment to move in this direction and to be able to go on and to take what you learned here in your further studies and my hope is that Public Service is calling you to a certain capacity. Public service is what was my calling. I realized that after we were seeing changes in the community and i was being exposed to so many extraordinary things, i wanted to be a part of the Decision Making body that has a impact on community. Now, it may be Public Service for you, it may be making policies, it may be creating the next new cell phone that you dont have to hold, but it is just in you [laughter] with technology the way it is moving today you never know what it could be. I used to watch the jetsons cartoon and had flying vehicles and now we have vehicless in the city driven without drivers so anything is possible and you are the nest generation that will lead the city and create. San francisco has a history of resiliency and invention. The First Television was invented here. The first indiscernible no one was talking about Climate Change and what we needed to do to protect our city and our planet. So, that is the kind of invasion that we have in the people who are part of the fabric of our city, and you all as leaders in San Francisco represent that. I want to say thank you for your work. Thank you for your service, and thank you for all that you have done, and will continue to do for San Francisco, but also i know without a doubt that you will go on to whatever university or whatever job opportunity and a lot of the same things you did here youll carry that with you in those various positions, and youll do great things, so just be proud of that, take a moment to reflect, and also continue to maintain your very important relationships with one another. I still have friends that i had since i was in kindergarten, and those relationships are special. You will look back on those relationships and think, wow, we have known each other this long and those are going to be the people that carry you through and sustain. Thank you again for being here and all your hard work and commitment to San Francisco and congratulations on a successful year for those who are going away to college, good luck and make sure you come back and you work for opportunities for all so you can earn some money during the summer and you can develop some additional skills and for those who are moving on to the next level, whether high school, continuing high school or moving from junior high to high school, continue to do great things and much success and please know this city will always be there for you. Thank you and congratulations. [applause] can all the commissioners come up front . [music] San Francisco is known as yerba buena, good herb after a mint that used to grow here. At this time there were 3 settlements one was mission delores. One the presidio and one was yerba buena which was urban center. There were 800 people in 1848 it was small. A lot of Historic Buildings were here including pony express headquarters. Wells fargo. Hudson Bay Trading Company and famous early settlers one of whom william leaderdorph who lived blocks from here a successful business person. Africanamerican decent and the first million airin california. Wilwoman was the founders of San Francisco. Here during the gold rush came in the early 1840s. He spent time stake himself as a merchant seaman and a business person. His father and brother in new orleans. We know him for San Franciscos history. Establishing himself here arnold 18 twoochl he did one of many things the first to do in yerba buena. Was not california yet and was not fully San Francisco yet. Because he was an american citizen but spoke spanish he was able to during the time when america was taking over california from mexico, there was annexations that happened and conflict emerging and war, of course. He was part of the peek deliberations and am bas doorship to create the state of california a vice council to mexico. Mexico granted him citizenship. He loaned the government of San Francisco money. To funds some of the war efforts to establish the city itself and the state, of course. He established the first hotel here the person people turned to often to receive dignitaries or hold large gatherings established the First Public School here and helped start the Public School system. He piloted the first steam ship on the bay. A big event for San Francisco and depict instead state seal the ship was the sitk a. There is a small 4 block long length of street, owned much of that runs essentially where the transamerica building is to it ends at california. I walk today before am a cute side street. At this point t is the center what was all his property. He was the person entrusted to be the citys first treasurer. That is i big deal of itself to have that legacy part of an africanamerican the citys first banker. He was not only a forefather of the establishment of San Francisco and california as a state but a leader in industry. He had a direct hahn in so many things that we look at in San Francisco. Part of our dna. You know you dont hear his anymore in the context of those. Representation matters. You need to uplift this so people know him but people like him like me. Like you. Like anyone who looks like him to be, i can do this, too. To have the citys first banker and a street in the middle of financial district. That alone is powerful. [music] when Oshaughnessy Dam opened 1923, there was a grand celebration that was an achievement of ensuring San Franciscos new water supply but it was the beginning of a unique collaboration between the city of San Francisco and Yosemite National park. Lands around the dam are critically important. We, along with the park service have a very common goal thereof protection of that watershed, both for National Park values and water supply values in yosemite is the cub trees premiere National Park visited by millions of visitors but the protection of our watershed and the city provides significant outside funding for the National Park, over 8 million a year is for trail maintenance and wilderness education and park operations and Security Keeping the water safe and the park a haven. One hundred years ago when the dam was first built, there was a different view of the environment back then, than there is today. And the dam was part of changing that view across the nation. That brings an importance to our work here at Oshaughnessy Dam, how we manage this dam and manage our releases and the environment downstream, its very important to San Francisco that we need that challenge. For 100 years, Oshaughnessy Dam and the park service ensured the bay area has clean water, along with ongoing stewardship much our precious natural resources. This oshaughnessy [ ] i just dont know that you can find a neighborhood in the city where you can hear music stands and take a ride on the low rider down the street. It is an experience that you cant have anywhere else in San Francisco. [ ] [ ] district nine is a in the southeast portion of the city. We have four neighborhoods that i represent. St. Marys park has a completely unique architecture. Very distinct feel, and it is a very close to holly park which is another beautiful park in San Francisco. The Bernal Heights district is unique in that we have the hell which has one of the best views in all of San Francisco. There is a swinging hanging from a tree at the top. It is as if you are swinging over the entire city. There are two unique aspects. It is considered the fourth chinatown in San Francisco. Sixty of the residents are of chinese ancestry. The second unique, and fun aspect about this area is it is the garden district. There is a lot of urban agriculture and it was where the city grew the majority of the flowers. Not only for San Francisco but for the region. And of course, it is the location in mclaren park which is the citys second biggest park after golden gate. Many people dont know the neighborhood in the first place if they havent been there. We call it the best neighborhood nobody has ever heard our. Every neighborhood in district nine has a very special aspect. Where we are right now is the Mission District. The Mission District is a very special part of our city. You smell the tacos at the [speaking spanish] and they have the best latin pastries. They have these shortbread cookies with caramel in the middle. And then you walk further down and you have sunrise cafe. It is a place that you come for the incredible food, but also to learn about what is happening in the neighborhood and how you can help and support your community. Twentyfourth street is the birthplace of the movement. We have over 620 murals. It is the largest outdoor Public Gallery in the country and possibly the world. You can find so much Political Engagement park next to so much incredible art. Its another reason why we think this is a cultural district that we must preserve. [ ] it was formed in 2014. We had been an organization that had been around for over 20 years. We worked a lot in the neighborhood around life issues. Most recently, in 2012, there were issues around gentrification in the neighborhood. So the idea of forming the cultural district was to help preserve the history and the culture that is in this neighborhood for the future of families and generations. In the past decade, 8,000 latino residents in the Mission District have been displaced from their community. We all know that the rising cost of living in San Francisco has led to many people being displaced. Lower and middle income all over the city. Because it there is richness in this neighborhood that i also mentioned the fact it is flat and so accessible by trip public transportation, has, has made it very popular. Its a struggle for us right now, you know, when you get a lot of development coming to an area, a lot of new people coming to the area with different sets of values and different culture. There is a lot of struggle between the existing community and the newness coming in. There are some things that we do to try to slow it down so it doesnt completely erase the communities. We try to have developments that is more in tune with the community and more Equitable Development in the area. You need to meet with and gain the support and find out the needs of the neighborhoods. The people on the businesses that came before you. You need to dialogue and show respect. And then figure out how to bring in the new, without displacing the old. [ ] i hope we can reset a lot of the mission that we have lost in the last 20 years. So we will be bringing in a lot of folks into the neighborhoods pick when we do that, there is a demand or, you know, certain types of services that pertain more to the local community and workingclass. Back in the day, we looked at mission street, and now it does not look and feel anything like mission street. This is the last stand of the latino concentrated arts, culture and cuisine and people. We created a cultural district to do our best to conserve that feeling. That is what makes our city so cosmopolitan and diverse and makes us the envy of the world. We have these unique neighborhoods with so much cultural presence and learnings, that we want to preserve. [ ]