Transcripts For SFGTV Full Board Of Supervisors 20240707

>> supervisor ronen: present. >> supervisor safai: present. >> supervisor stefani: present. >> supervisor walton: present. >> mr. president, you have a quorum. >> president walton: thank you so much. and i will entertain a motion to excuse supervisor chan made by supervisor preston, seconded by supervisor mandelman. madame clerk, on the motion. >> on the motion to excuse supervisor chan from this meeting today, supervisor preston? >> supervisor preston: aye. >> supervisor ronen: aye. >> supervisor safai: aye. >> supervisor stefani: aye. >> supervisor walton: aye. >> supervisor dorsey: aye. >> supervisor mandelman: aye. >> supervisor mar: aye. >> supervisor melgar: aye. >> supervisor peskin: aye. >> there are 10 ayes. >> president walton: thank you, motion carries. supervisor chan is excused from today's board meeting. the san francisco board of supervisors acknowledges 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, elders and relatives of the ramaytush ohlone community and by affirming their sovereign rights as first peoples. colleagues, please stand with me and 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. >> president walton: and on behalf of the board of supervisors, i would like to acknowledge the staff at sfgovtv. today we have kaleena mendoza who records each of our meetings and make the transcripts available to the public online. madame clerk, are there any communications? >> yes, the board of supervisors welcomes the general public to the board's legislative chamber here in city hall, room 250, to both listen to the proceeding or to advise the board in person during general public comment. this meeting is airing live on sfgovtv's award winning channel 26 or you may view live stream at www.sfgovtv.org. alternatively, you may also participate remotely by utilizing the remote call-in system. the best practices are to call in early from a quiet location and make sure your television or computer is concerned down. the board will prioritize hearing testimony from those who attend in person. thereafter, the board will hear from those who called into the remote system. please note the remote system will be open one time. once the board has heard from all callers in the queue, the president will close the remote system and it will not be reopened. throughout the meeting, the telephone number is streaming on your screen. it is 1-415-655-0001. when you hear the system prompt, that's when you should enter the meeting i.d. 2499 088 6363 # #. you'll know you have joined the meeting once you hear the discussion, however your line will be muted and once you're ready to line up in the speaker's queue to provide comment, press star 3, listen for the prompt you've been unmuted and begin speaking. there are no special orders at 3:00, so the only item with public comment associated with it is general public comment when item 42 is called. you may then speak to the approval of the may 17 and may 24 meeting, the recommendations of commendation, items 43 and 44, those are for consideration, or you may speak to general matters that are not on today's agenda, but are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board. all other content will have been reported out to the board by an appropriate committee where public comment -- the public comment requirement has been fulfilled. you may still communicate with the board by sending your written correspondence by u.s. mail, the san francisco board of supervisors, 1 dr. carlton b. goodlett place, city hall, san francisco, california, 94102 or send an e-mail to the board by using the e-mail address. in partnership with the office of civic engagement and immigrant affairs, we do have interpreters today during general public comment. at that time i will invite the interpreters to introduce themselves and to provide access information to this remote meeting in language. finally, if you are experiencing any trouble accessing this meeting, we do have a clerk in person and live answering our telephones. if you call, that concludes my communications. >> president walton: thank you so much, madame clerk. and colleagues, just a friendly reminder, please mute your microphones when you're not speaking. we'll go to the approval of minutes. today we're approving the meeting minutes from may 17 and may 24 board meeting. any changes? i don't see anyone on the roster. can i get a motion to approve the minutes for those dates. made by supervisor preston, seconded by supervisor mandelman. madame clerk? >> clerk: on the minutes, supervisor preston? >> supervisor preston: aye. >> supervisor ronen: aye. >> supervisor safai: aye. >> supervisor stefani: aye. >> supervisor walton: aye. >> supervisor dorsey: aye. >> supervisor mandelman: aye. >> supervisor mar: aye. >> supervisor melgar: aye. >> supervisor peskin: aye. >> there are 10 ayes. >> president walton: thank you. and without objection, the minutes will be approved after public comment as presented. madame clerk, let's go to our regular agenda, consent agenda times 1 through 5. >> these items are considered to be routine. if a member objects, an item may be removed and considered separately. >> president walton: thank you so much. i don't see anyone on the roster, so we'll take these same house, same call. without objection, these ordinances are passed on first reading. and resolutions are adopted unanimously. madame clerk, please call item number 6 and 7 together. >> items 6 and 7 are ordinances that authorize the department of public health to award two one-time limited term grants with engaging -- without engaging in the competitive solicitation process otherwise required by the administrative code for grants for the purpose of maintaining the financial solvency of both. for item 6 this appropriates approximately $2 million for the positive resource center and item 7, 1.2 million is appropriated as a grant to baker places inc. and for both items a one-year term of july 1, 2022 through june 30, 2023. >> president walton: thank you so much, madame clerk. can we have a roll call vote on these items? >> clerk: on item 6 and 7, supervisor preston? >> supervisor preston: aye. >> supervisor ronen: aye. >> supervisor safai: aye. >> supervisor stefani: aye. >> supervisor walton: aye. >> supervisor dorsey: aye. >> supervisor mandelman: aye. >> supervisor mar: aye. >> supervisor melgar: aye. >> supervisor peskin: aye. >> clerk: there are 10 ayes. >> president walton: thank you. without objection these ordinances are finally passed unanimously. madame clerk, would you call items 8 and 9 together. >> clerk: items 8 and 9 comprise the city's proposed interim budget. item 8 is the interim budget and appropriation ordinance to appropriate all estimated receipts and expenditures for city departments as of june 1, 2022 and for item 9 this is the interim salary ordinance enumerating all positions in the budget for both ordinances for fiscal year ending june 30, 2023 and june 30, 2024. >> president walton: thank you, madame clerk. would you please call a roll on these items? on items 8 and 9. >> supervisor preston: no. >> supervisor ronen: aye. >> supervisor safai: aye. >> supervisor stefani: aye. >> supervisor walton: aye. >> supervisor dorsey: aye. >> supervisor mandelman: aye. >> supervisor mar: aye. >> supervisor melgar: aye. >> supervisor peskin: aye. >> there are 9 ayes and one no with supervisor preston in the dissent. >> president walton: thank you. these ordinances are finally passed with a 10-1 vote. madame clerk, would you call item 10? >> item 10 -- mr. president, just for the record, items 8 and 9, that was a 9 ayes and one no -- >> my apologies, 9-1. >> item 10 is ordinance to amend the planning code to create the group housing special use district. >> president walton: thank you, madame clerk. i don't see anyone on the roster. can you please call the roll on item 10? >> supervisor preston: aye. >> supervisor ronen: aye. >> supervisor safai: aye. >> supervisor stefani: aye. >> supervisor walton: aye. >> supervisor dorsey: aye. >> supervisor mandelman: aye. >> supervisor mar: aye. >> supervisor melgar: aye. >> supervisor peskin: aye. >> clerk: there are 10 ayes. >> president walton: without objection, this ordinance is passed on first reading. madame clerk, please call item 11. >> item 11, this is ordinance to amend the planning code to rezone all r.h.1 residential one family zoning districts with exceptions to rh-2 two family zoning districts. to rezone the rh-1d districts to a new class called rh-2 capital d. to provide a density limit exemption to permit up to four dwelling units per lot and six dwelling units per corner lots in all rh zoning districts certain to subject requirements. and to amend the administrative code to require new dwelling units constructed pursuant to be subject to the rent ordinance and additionally to amend the subdivision code to authorize a subdivider pursuant to the density exception, to map that includes the existing and new dwelling units that constitute the project and affirm the ceqa determination and appropriate findings for both ordinances. >> president walton: thank you, madame clerk -- supervisor melgar, my apologies. >> supervisor melgar: supervisor mandelman, should i go first? okay. this is supervisor mandelman's legislation which was debated, amended, discussed for several months at the land, use and transportation committee. we had a very robust engaged process that included many members of this board outside of the land use and transportation committee. i want to thank supervisors peskin and preston for their work in very engaged discussion and their staff worked on this legislation as well. and, you know, i think at the end of the day, we crafted legislation that is a halfway point between, you know, different opinions and perspectives on land use. it will be a change for our city, but one that i feel we must embrace. and i think -- i do think that making small steps in progress is better than making no progress at all. i have a minor amendment that i need to present today. at the committee we supported language that ensured that any new units that were waived into for this legislation were subject to rent control, but, you know, after we passed it, the city attorney flagged that there was a lack of clarity on some of the language. so we are adding this just to make it clear as to what the intent was. on page 9, line 7 -- i'm sorry, page 9 lines 5 through 7 under section, applicability of rent ordinance regulatory agreement, i would like to add the language to read as follows. f, applicability of rent ordinance regulatory agreements. project sponsors of projects utilizing the density exception of this subsection c8 shall enter into a regulatory agreement with the city subjecting the new units created pursuant to the exception to the san francisco residential rent arbitration ordinance, chapter 37 of the administrative code as a condition of approval of the density exception. i believe this to be a non-substantive amendment as can be confirmed by our city attorney. and, mr. president, i would like to make a motion to adopt this amendment into the record before we vote on the ordinance itself. >> president walton: thank you so much. motion to amend. do we have a second seconded by supervisor mandelman. supervisor safai? >> supervisor safai: thank you, mr. president. first, let me say i really appreciate all the hard work that i think many of us put into this. supervisor mandelman, supervisor melgar, supervisor mar and all of the other supervisors that attempted to steer this in the right direction, but i will not be supporting this legislation today, because i think it's an attempt to thwart our state bill that really was kind of a decor of what i felt was important to preserve. which would allow for the ability of people to streamline and build two units of housing and requires local communities really to step up and begin to build housing in an aggressive manner. i think we have a housing crisis in this city. some people may agree, some people may disagree, but our housing element that we will have to account for and attest to and submit is going to require us to build thousands of units of housing. and particularly in the areas that this legislation is attempting to zero in on. we've had a lot of conversations about increasing density and the ability to build multiunit housing and i support that goal overall, but i think this legislation actually at the end will end up making it more difficult than it will be to making it easier to achieve the goal of building more housing in your city. so -- our city. for many of those reasons i intend to vote no today. i don't agree with the five-year hold. i understand that theory behind it, but again i think that will slow down the development of housing. i think that what will happen in practice it will be small builders in the city that will use the opportunity to build on scale and create more housing and increase the supply. and this housing will be targeted toward that missing middle. we've seen that happen in other cities in the united states and i think we can do that and we should be able to shoot for that. i think more time would allow us, as much as we've attempted more time, would allow us to get a better piece of legislation. i think that at the end of the day the legislation that i had going forward which was parallel, preserved sb9, it attempted to exchange some level of affordability for an expedited process, it gave people still the option to build lesser than four units, but at least two with preserving sb9 which i think is important. it created in-lieu fees and protected historic properties and renters. for all those reasons, i can't support this legislation today. i believe it's too small of a step in a crisis that we need to be taking a much larger step to be building housing in a much more aggressive manner. thank you. >> president walton: thank you, supervisor safai. supervisor mandelman. >> supervisor mandelman: president walton, thank you, chair melgar, for your work on this in land use along with colleagues supervisors peskin and preston. this little piece of legislation has had a very long journey. it's been, i think, more than a full year since i introduced the first version -- well, yeah, it was last may, so more than a year. and, you know, we had many conversations with folks before then. and, you know, the legislative process is beautiful and frustrating at the same time. no individual on this board gets to get the thing done that they absolutely want without any feedback from others. the product that comes forward are the result of group work. i believe that it is important for us to find ways to allow the production of more housing in san francisco in our laws. i believe it is important for us to allow the production and to fund the production of more affordable housing -- and congratulations, supervisor preston, on a significant win yesterday and to all the members of the budget committee. but i also think and i know that there are -- we have different views about this on this board, that part of the solution -- part of san francisco's contribution to solving these statewide housing crisis is for us to find ways to build more market rate housing as well. i believe that this legislation, although it is not what i introduced, in some ways it has expanded, in some ways it has contracted, but it has moved us closer, i think, to allowing for neighborhoods that have not been producing significant amounts of housing to produce a little bit more housing. to try out this idea of increased density in what were rh-1, 2 and 3 districts. if this moves forward and becomes the law of san francisco, this is not the final statement on density in low-density neighborhoods. this is one piece of legislation. we may come back and revisit pieces of it that have got -- that have been able to get us a consensus around it. but i do believe this is a positive step. and with regard to whether we want to turn over the rezoning of rh-1 to the state for a one-size-fits-all sb9 approach to creating density, my answer is no and the planning department's answer was no. that was baked into this legislation, but that's, you know, a piece of this. we introduced this -- i introduced this long before sb9 came along. and i support the elimination of rh-1 zoning. i think it's the right thing to do, but allowing up to four units and allowing six units on corner lots and trying this out which is something for property owners rather than developers, if that's what it takes to get confidence on this board, then that's, you know, a deal i've been willing to make. i think we need to go further. i think we need to go faster. i think we need to do things like this and many more of them. but i don't think this is a step backward and the opposition it has inspired is intriguing to me. there is no four plex ballot measure out there. there is no other way to pursue four plex. this up-zoning of low density neighborhoods, so i don't get the point of trying to kill a piece of legislation, that although modest and incremental would be in my view a step towards a denser city with more market rate housing which i think is a goal. perfect? no. better than what we got? yes. that's my test for legislation. i'm staying on it. and i want to thank all the folks on the board and in the community who have been willing to engage around this and i want to thank supervisor melgar in particular for working with the city attorney on this final amendment. >> president walton: thank you, supervisor mandelman. supervisor peskin. >> supervisor peskin: thank you, president walton. colleagues, let me share the accolades to the chair of the land use committee for, as i said in committee, a good and difficult process. and we haven't spoken to this yet. there were three competing pieces of legislation from three different members of this board and we had to sort through that. and ultimately, the land use committee actually went with the least restrictive proposal. i'm actually kind of shocked that there is opposition to this. and i want to drill down into that opposition, because the land use committee rejected pieces of legislation that actually required more affordability as presented by supervisors mar and supervisor safai. but, supervisor mandelman chose to -- i did not make this amendment -- supervisor melgar did not make this amendment, supervisor preston did not make this amendment -- chose to go down the path consistent with public policy that this and previous boards have adopted that would subject these additional units as further amended today or about to be amended by supervisor melgar, to the rent stabilization ordinance. now mind you, these are units that would rent at market. but today's market rents are tomorrow's affordable rents and indeed that is what this board and previous boards have done in the case of adus and multiplexes. what they hate is rent control. they hate rent control and that is why they're posing a bill that increases density in san francisco. so, let's be real about it. it is a positive step in the right direction. i'd say that is a supervisor who represents the densest district in san francisco. but it has remained stable and those communities have been viable because of rent control. i rest my case. >> president walton: thank you, supervisor peskin. supervisor dorsey. >> supervisor dorsey: thank you, colleagues. i will be voting against this legislation, but not before commending supervisor mandelman and supervisor melgar for their leadership on the original proposal. as someone who is coming into this process late, i think in good conscience i should give credit to others who worked on this, including those who offered amendments which i disagree. but i think this legislation could have made important progress for our city to meet its housing obligations over the course of the next decade. philosophically, i'm not adverse to taking incremental steps provided those steps are in the right direction, but after doing homework on this, which included conversations with advocates and others whose expertise i trust on housing policy, i'm convinced that this legislation actually does take us in the wrong direction. first as amended, this legislation would result in little if any new housing production given added requirements that limit the feasibility of most small-scale development city-wide. second by amending the planning code to rezone rh-1 zoning districts to rh-2, i'm convinced this measure would place san francisco beyond the reach of state law, specifically sb9, the california home act. sb9 was enacted last year and made important changes to law to homeowners to divide their lots into two lots and allow homes on each of those. limiting discretionary review processes that i have seen too much and for too many years during my 14 years working here in city hall frustrate rather than facilitate needed progress on housing. i think sb9 will facilitate small scale development here in san francisco and i think it should be unencumbered by local laws like that. so i want to make sure that sb9 has an opportunity to work. we have an obligation over the next eight years to build 82,000 units of housing. failing to do that, i think risks the loss of state funding for affordable housing, for transit and possibly the loss of local control all together as the supervisor for district 6, i think my district would be disproportionately affected by punitive measures the state could take if we fail to build the housing we need to build. and for that reason, although i applaud the work that was done, i will be voting no on this. thank you. >> president walton: thank you, supervisor dorsey. supervisor mar. >> supervisor mar: thank you, president walton. i also wanted to thank supervisor mandelman and the business staff for all their work on this policy over a year plus i think. and supervisor -- thanks to land use committee chair melgar also for leading the months of discussion about this along with my alternative proposal and supervisor safai's as well. you know, i do want to say that i think this is a really important small and first step that we're taking to really support small-scale development in our low density neighborhoods, which, you know, includes most of my district. and this is a very important way to add new housing to meet the needs of our communities in our low density neighborhoods. but it's also important, because this is a new type of small scale development that really hasn't been done in our city before, it's important we get the details right on this -- on the density. and make sure it's the right incentives, that it's really creating the housing that is needed. and the missing housing that we all talk is the goal of the small-scale development. so i am disappointed that it doesn't include the -- my additional provision that would really incentivize affordability -- or affordable units or ensure that the units created are affordable. but my proposal also included a separate incentive program for homeowners, separate from the density bonus, that would incentivize affordability on these units. so we're going to move ahead with the housing development incentive program that they're working on with the legislation we passed to create it earlier this year, that will create financial incentives for homeowners to create affordable housing, or ensure affordability in these units. so i will be supporting this. i also -- one last point -- the last time the board considered, you know, a big -- a similar and new type of density bonus was a home sf program maybe four or five years ago and that was also a long process. i wasn't on the board at that time -- yeah, two years. thanks, supervisor safai. and then to get the details right on home sf. and that also required further amendments, so i know we'll continue to look at this legislation and possible amendments in the future. thank you. >> president walton: thank you, supervisor mar. supervisor preston? >> supervisor preston: thank you, president walton. and want to thank a bunch of folks and echo the thanks for -- for supervisor melgar. i didn't know if we'd get there -- i don't think i've seen a situation where we have three parallel pieces of legislation, none of which were simple and trying to manage those with various amendments. so, thank you for your work to bring everyone together around this one and thank you, supervisor mandelman, for your really working i think constructively with the committee. i think it was important, even though it made it complicated to have multiple pieces, i thought it was important to discuss the proposals from supervisor mar and supervisor safai really exploring to what extent affordability as part of this kind of up-zoning is or is not feasible. i think it was a very important discussion for us to have. i will say that, frankly, i don't understand the opposition to this. i understand a frustration if folks want fewer protections in place or want to err on the side of having fewer limitations on this, but i do think at the heart of this, as supervisor peskin i think has eloquently stated, we're talking about whether the units created here should or should not be subject to rent control. i do not think it is consistent with a position in support of rent control to vote against this measure because it restricts a landlord in the future on these units from gouging their tenant with unlimited rent increases. and fundamentally, that's what we're talking about. so i fully understand why a developer would prefer to create units that are not subject to any controls, and i fully understand why many landlords will want to have units where they can raise people's rents 10, 20, 30, 50 or 100% and this is someone who did tenant rights across the state. there are lots of landlords not subject to represent control who are raising rents. that's not san francisco. at least i hope not. and it's not anything this board has ever really supported or should support. so, i think that these are reasonable amendments and i think if we as a body are supportive of rent control, we should be using every opportunity to make sure units are subject to rent control. now our options on that are limited, right? we deal all the time with situations of certain types of new construction, certain types of properties like single-family homes where the state has restricted us from applying rent control. and that's a frustration that we all hear from our constituents and have to break the news to them that they're not covered by rent control. but as supervisor peskin stated for the vast majority of rental units, they are subject to rent control. it's extremely important. it's what has allowed a working-class to remain in san francisco. i will be supporting this. i want to thank supervisor mandelman for all your work on this and really recommend that colleagues who are supportive of rent control support this with these amendments. thank you. >> president walton: thank you, supervisor preston. and i do just want to start out by saying that i love rent control and can't wait until the day we can repeal costa hawkins. in fact, this will get me excited if every unit in this legislation was going to be under rent control. and i do want to appreciate supervisor mandelman, supervisor melgar and everyone who worked on this, because i know a lot of time has gone into this legislation, but for me, there is just some very fundamental things that i have issue with. i don't believe that all of a sudden because of this legislation, we'll start to see certain communities across san francisco building a lot of four plexes. i just don't believe that's going to happen. i know the intent behind the legislation, thinking that it will push certain communities to build more, but that's not going to be the case. and what i do know is going to happen it's going to accelerate gentrification, particularly in communities like where i live, like where i represent. it's going to obliterate preserving housing for families and kill the fabric of certain communities. i think it encourages people to speculate and buy homes they don't have to live in and put people in them and kill the fabric of the communities that exist. and really take the unity out of community. and so for me, it just has too many obvious negative consequences for communities where we've seen gentrification, for communities where we've seen people pushed out. i think this legislation is something that, quite frankly, is problematic in that way. as a supervisor who lives in a district that builds housing, i know that there are ways to build responsible, affordable housing, get people involved and get people excited about building housing. i don't think this is it. and even though i appreciate the intent, i do think it will do a number on certain communities, particularly communities where we see families, where we see vibrant families living together. i think this is going to really encourage speculation and, therefore, i can't support it. we do have a motion to amend made by supervisor melgar and seconded by supervisor mandelman. can we get a vote on the amendments, madame clerk. >> clerk: on the amendment to item 11, supervisor preston. >> supervisor preston: aye. >> supervisor ronen: aye. >> supervisor safai: aye. >> supervisor stefani: aye. >> supervisor walton: aye. >> supervisor dorsey: aye. >> supervisor mandelman: aye. >> supervisor mar: aye. >> supervisor melgar: aye. >> supervisor peskin: aye. >> there are 10 ayes. >> president walton: motion to amend carries unanimously. and, madame clerk, can you call the roll on the amended item number 11? >> on item 11 as amended, supervisor preston? >> supervisor preston: aye. >> supervisor ronen: aye. >> supervisor safai: no. >> supervisor stefani: no. >> supervisor walton: no. >> supervisor dorsey: no. >> supervisor mandelman: aye. >> supervisor mar: aye. >> supervisor melgar: aye. >> supervisor peskin: aye. >> there are six ayes and four nos with supervisors safai, stefani, walton and dorsey in the dissent. >> thank you by a vote of 6-4, this ordinance is passed on first reading. madame clerk, can we go to our 2:30 p.m. special order. >> clerk: yes, mr. president. for the 2:30 special order, it is time to honor and recognize those individuals in the lesbian gay bisexual queer and questioning community for their civic work and contribution to the city and county of san francisco. >> president walton: thank you so much, madame clerk. and it is good to see everyone in the chamber this afternoon. today as you know, we are celebrating pride formally as a board of supervisors. and i would like to invite supervisor mandelman to give some opening words, but before we do that, then we will bring up supervisor dorsey and then supervisor melgar will be presenting for supervisor chan as supervisors chan's honorees are young people who need to get back to their program. and then finally, we will proceed with roll call order to present special commendations. with that said, supervisor mandelman, you have the floor. >> supervisor mandelman: thank you, president walton. colleagues, today we are closing out pride month by honoring exemplary members of the lgbtq plus community. i want to thank president walton for again creating space for this celebration of queer excellence on today's agenda and, of course, special thanks to the ever amazing natalie g in supervisor walton's office and jackie in my own. pride 2022 has been bittersweet. this was the first time since 2019 that we were able to celebrate pride in person with friends and family. after more than two years of covid, queer people and our friends are more than ready for a party. and san francisco came through on that front. deep gratitude to sf pride, to all those who came through with so many amazing queer events throughout june and to all the city workers, especially our first responders, who got us through a wonderful, wonderful and mostly peaceful weekend and month. but there is a larger context that is not so fun for fabulous. even before friday, so-called proud boys planning riots in idaho, here in the bay proud boys drag queens and a drag queens story hour in the library. against this backdrop of racist and misogynistic rhetoric, there were 200 pieces of anti-lgbtq legislation pending throughout the united states. and then friday. six extremists denied reproductive rights. am i worried about what comes next? which is sort of a weird question. i mean it's enough. there are no queer rights without women's rights. we're all worried about what comes next, but where we are now is pretty damn terrible. full stop. so, this pride -- this year's pride was simultaneously joyful and rageful and maybe that's fitting. the struggle was far from won before friday and perhaps we'll look back at friday as the day they finally went too far. the day they finally pushed the majority too far. pride started as a protest and it's still a protest and the work is far from done. today we will honor heroes and she-ros who have maked our city a little queerer, a little less patriarchal, a little more fierce and yes, a little more fabulous. do we have laura online? great. lara is the executive director for the lyric center of lgbtq youth. she grew a up on the tijuana border. they lived in mexico and commuted to school in san diego. she made her way to san francisco and earned a bachelors in recreation and masters in school and counseling both in the san francisco -- both from san francisco state university. like many san franciscans, they were drawn to our city by promises of diversity and inclusion and they have spent much of the last quarter century helping san francisco make good on those promises. lara's commitment to serving those in need is exceptional. they have fought for justice and demanded equity in our broken systems. they have worked at ymca, san francisco unified and other organizations that work to support communities and individuals in need. san francisco is fortunate that last october lara was chosen as lyric's new executive director. for 33 years, lyric has made its home in the castro with a mission to build community and inspire positive change through education enhancement, career training, health promotion and leadership development with lgbtq youth, their families and all races. lyric was founded in 1988 and is one of the largest youth centers specifically for queer youth in in the last year alone, they have served over 4,000 queer youth. 81% of whom are low-income and 17% of whom are homeless or marginally housed. lyric is a jill of all trades. non-profit providing access to services, from job training to community groups to free prep. on april 29 of this year, lyric received a bomb threat resulting in the full evacuation of their staff and youth clients. 24 days later, less than a month, they received a second bomb threat, again leading to evacuation. the caller left a message where she quoted leviticus. and followed up with another threat and called 15 to 20 times. when state senators have to clear out home and office for investigation by bomb squads, it's terrible that lyric had to deal with this. -- demonstrating incredible strength and resilience. following these threats, she wrote a note for their staff. thank you for your bravery, your dedication, and for working every day in the face of those who would spread hate. this will not deter us. it only motivates us to do more to build a diverse and just society. thank you, lara, for your bravery and your dedication. you've made san francisco a safer and more loving place for lgbtq plus youth and it is my and our honor to honor you. [applause] >> thank you so much, supervisor mandelman, for this recognition. i'm humbled. i share this honor with all the leaders and trailblazers that came before me. i will have the lyric team who work on a daily basis to ensure the safety and care for every lgbtq youth. as you know, and you mentioned, lyric has been an anchor institution for the past 35 years in the city. as the second oldest and second largest lgbtq youth institution in the country, lyric is playing a pivotal role nationally. we're fortunate to be in san francisco, the city that historically is a beacon for lgbtq plus people. this is the reason lyric exist. a beacon of hope for youth. not only living here, but coming to this city for hope and refuge. we have been founded by several individuals who have similar stories about getting off buses and coming to san francisco. individuals like roma guy. we take lessons from people with lived experience and incorporate those 35 years later. i came to san francisco in 2003 also looking for refuge. escaping family rejection as many other youth do. i grew up in a single parent household, immigrant family with a mono lingual catholic speaking mom who had no idea what to do with a nonbinary child. i felt lost, isolated and incredibly lonely. i came to san francisco for refuge and to find my community. that is what lyric provides every youth that comes to seek our services and quite honestly that is many of the reason our staff and board choose to be part of the lyric family. the opportunity to build community, to have a safe haven, a place for us to be authentically ourselves with no judgment, to celebrate our lives, our stories and to build strength in our community. and, yet, as supervisor mandelman mentioned, our work is not done. our challenges are intense. since april 29, lyric has been experiencing bomb threats, death threats and as far as i'm aware, we're the only institution in the city that has received these threats in the last few months. in each situation our community has been affected from street and road closures to evacuation, not only our building, but surrounding buildings in our neighborhood. this is a threat to all of us in the castro district. we go from devastation from friday and the supreme court decision to overturn roe v. wade with clear implications that same-sex partnership and marriage could be next. currently 38 states across the country have anti-translegislation. i have called daily and weekly from organizations and parents and individuals asking about our services. asking for refuge, because san francisco is that beacon of hope. and lyric is not turning anyone away. we'll be laser focused on creating wraparound services for every young person who walks through our doors. the staff and i continue to serve the city of san francisco despite the hate that we receive. our story -- one story that sticks with me is from a youth that i met just after starting at lyric in october. they had taken four different buss to get from san francisco from their small town in the midwest and ended up sleeping their first four nights in the city on the beach in a tent, because they didn't know where else to go to feel safe. when living on the beach, they met a gay man who mentioned lyric. they didn't fully understand the city, but they ended up on our doorstep. we helped them with food, food vouchers and got them help right away. they worked with one of our youth advocates and were able to get the youth to understand and support them with basic needs. i'm happy to report that this young person is going to be starting city college here in san francisco, working part-time to save money for their housing. it really is these stories that help me wake up every morning and help me go to work. this person ended up on the first step and now is being supported and is part of a fabric of san francisco. we are hurting, but we're also resilient. thank you, supervisor mandelman, for this recognition. i am in deep gratitude for your support of lyric. as a 19-year-old resident of san francisco, parent, community member, i'm grateful to the city for its commitment to protecting lgbtq youth. [applause] >> president walton: supervisor melgar. >> supervisor melgar: thank you. i hope you're still on. i want to thank you, supervisor mandelman, for recognizing lara who i have known for a long time. before they were executive director of lyric, they were deputy director at the mission ymca which is where we started our relationship. and i just wanted to add, besides the amazing work that lara has done at lyric, she also led the way for being a positive leader and role model among immigrants and young people. for many of us who come from immigrant backgrounds, being yourself in a very traditional religious culture that is oppressive and doesn't give room for people to blossom -- and i say this as an immigrant mother of a gay daughter -- having someone like lara who is supremely competent as a youth development professional lead the way and pave the way for the blossoming of leadership of so many people in the excelsior, in the mission. it took my breath away. they're one of the most competent hard-working people that i've ever known and i'm so grateful we're honoring them and thank you, supervisor mandelman, for doing that. thanks. [applause] >> president walton: thank you, supervisor mandelman. and congratulations again, lara. and now we have supervisor dorsey. >> supervisor dorsey: thank you, president walton. colleagues, earlier this year my partner who is from bill was over the -- brazil was over the moon from excitement when he learned that his greatest drag performer was coming to a venue in our neighborhood. and going to that show with him in april was an amazing reminder of two things. first how great it is to be going to any live performance after two years of a global pandemic and lockdown. and second what a fabulously entertaining art form drag performance can be. i don't think there is a better venue for drag performance in san francisco, than oasis. it is located in the south of market neighborhood on 11th street. its diverse roster of programming includes local and visiting drag stars, cabaret and performing artists, live musical acts and d.j.s. joining us in the chamber today are fabulous individuals from oaces. snxt raed >> oace opened on new year's day and has been a safe space for the lgbtq plus community ever since. it is a space for joy, inclusion and celebration and queer identity. oace was voted best of the bay in multiple category, including best nightclub, best drag show and cabaret. in 2020 when the world was turned upside down in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic, oasis faced challenges and almost shut its door for good. however, darcy found a way. meals on heels. it provided an opportunity for in-person performance when most everyone was living on zoom and their phones during the on set of the shelter-in-place order. meals on heels garnered international coverage and earned headlines in the "new york times", the guardian and other news outlets. it uplifted the spirit of so many people during the time of uncertainty and far too many tragedies. through proceeds and donations from supporters and community members, oasis was able to reopen their doors to the community. they are back and better than ever. earlier this month, a mural entitled showtime was unveiled. it honors the history of drag culture and showcases san francisco's talented queer art scene. the mural depicts late drag artists including bambi lake, tippy, felicia flames, it's a tribute to queer representation and significant moment of the soma night life community. so i want to thank darcy, lori, sophia,ic russ, for all they do to provide a safe space for our community. i want to give a shoutout to their amazing talent and fierce looks. it's my honor to present a commendation to them and their entire staff at oasis. thank you. [applause] [applause] >> thank you, thank you, so, so much. it really does mean a lot to myself and my colleagues. oasis was created as a clubhouse and a clubhouse for the community. there were so many shows happening in venues that weren't owned by lgbtq plus people and to be able to create a space by the actual performers that were on the stage and were also running the show behind the scene was really important and ground breaking. there was also no mid-size cabarets where people could come that didn't have a lot of money and could see touring cabaret acts. it has been an amazing opportunity to be able to be that space for the community and it was true. we almost lost it. and we did everything we could to keep going during the pandemic. and we finally had to have a telethon and the community rallied and we raised $270,000 in 12 hours. and it was -- it took our breath away. [applause] yes. [laughter]. and while i was out of necessity and i always say necessity is the mother of invention, but it is those times, hard times when things are born and so much was born during that time. and because of that, oasis really is the people's nightclub now, the people's cabaret, because, you know, this city owns it. we can open the doors and we can put the wigs on -- yes, i'm wearing a wig -- [laughter] -- but people that show up make the magic and that is what oasis is, the magic of the people, both local and from out of town. and i couldn't do it without these amazing people including icarus who couldn't be here today. a lot of times think drag performance is fluff and it's easy to do, but it's hard and it's painful and it's expensive and it's really amazing to be honored like this. so thank you, so, so much for this honor. [applause] >> thank you, supervisor dorsey, and congratulations again, supervisor melgar. >> supervisor melgar: thank you, president. i feel so privileged to be able to present this commendation today on behalf of supervisor chan, who i know would have loved to be here with us today. i'd like to welcome gender and sexuality diversity alum and connie liu to the podium, please. as we celebrate pride, in and with our communities, i'm honored to be able to recognize the community building an intentional space being created to uplift and support api youth. in 2013, the chinese progressive situation started at gender and sexuality diversity because queer youth leader in the space demanded that there be a place to explore their gender in the context of their identity chinese americans. gsd has been a place of meaningful and deep connection and it has provided a safe space for youth to explore their identities and lean into their curity. this program has created space for intergenerational dialogue and for young people to forge relationships with adults allies and be part of the lineage of lgbtq plus communities. i am so inspired by these young movement builders. it has changed the community that it is a part of. and for that, we have honor and uplift the young people who paved this way and the young people who will lead us to a more inclusive and liberated future. thank you for being here. and i commend you. [applause] [cheers and applause] >> hello, everyone. my name is connie liu. my pronouns are she, hers and i was founding youth member the chinese progressive association. [applause] honestly, growing up in san francisco, it was really tough going to like school and hearing so many like homophobic and transphobicic comments. i knew from a very young age that i didn't matter, that i was not cared for and that people would judge me because of how i identified. and i felt like i didn't deserve to exist in this world. and a space like gsc and gpa changed my life. it was the space where i talked about liking girls for the first time. it was the first time trying different clothes and expressing myself. i felt i could truly be myself. i think being in a space where i felt like i really mattered, that my voice mattered and that i had a stake in creating the world that i wanted to see and other queer and transyoung people deserve to live in, just empowered me to be the leader that i am today. so, you know, we need more spaces and more resources for queer and trans-young folks, especially culturally relevant spaces. i think navigating my sexuality with really conservative homophobic chinese parents, to talk about language barriers, to talk about access was super important. i honestly wouldn't be here today without g.s.c., without having such a supportive space with other young people and other adults and seeing -- seeing chinese elders living their life and existing was -- i did not know that was possible. once i got to connect in these intergenerational spaces, it made me realize, oh, i can actually grow old and be myself and i hope that, you know, we keep fighting for these types of spaces, so that all queer, trans, nonbinary young people, especially working class community like young people of color, can thrive and be themselves. thank you. [applause] >> president walton: congratulations again. [applause] and we will continue with supervisor melgar's awarding. >> supervisor melgar: thank you, colleagues. so today i am very proud to honor eddie coffeyman, edward kaufmann at the district 7 honouree, who is resident of sunnyside in district 7. eddie is such a humble, outstanding leader who has dedicated his professional career to supporting youth, families and the lgbtq plus community. moreover, eddie is a strong role model and an adult ally who builds up young people. i have to take a moment to say these past few months have been intense in the way that supervisor mandelman talked about, in the attacks on the queer community from disgusted leaders across our countries has been such an affront to human rights and liberty. and one of the disgusting talking points of the right has been about how young people are not safe with gay and queer people. and eddie exemplifies what it is to be -- devote his entire life and career to uplifting and building up young people who are low-income, who have not had a chance in the world, and create that path towards success and leadership. eddie has been the executive director for a renowned organization, mission graduates, that seeks to advance young immigrant people into achieve academic success and get them into college. for the past 10 years, eddie has helped folks through mission graduates to reach their full potential as first-generation college students. under his guidance he grew this organization eight times to over 100 staff, serving 5500 youth and families in the mission district, supervisor ronen's district. as the son of first generation college student, he knows personally the importance of building college, growing aspirations within families. eddie demonstrated passion for education and the lgbtq plus community is transformative through his work as a mentor and as a faculty member at city college's lgbtq studies. and he has taught there for over 20 years. one of his great joys has been to teach in the male intimacy and relationship course. before joining mission graduates, eddie spent eight years leading big brothers big sisters of the north bay. in 2010, he was recognized with the heart of marine excellence and leadership award, demonstrating exceptional leadership and vision within his non-profit organization into the general community. eddie has also been involved with the youth leadership institute, the ywca of oakland, san francisco counsel on homeless and the san francisco human rights commission. he is a recognized trainer in the area of youth development, youth adult partnerships and environmental protection. in his free time, eddie is also an avid snowboarder, scuba diver and knitter. i know that eddie always has his yarn and his knitting, while also contributing to changing the world. i'm so grateful that we have community leaders like eddie that have faithfully been building up our community and our young people. i am so grateful for you eddie and i'm very proud to give you this commendation from district 7. [applause] >> supervisor melgar, i am flattered. i am thrilled to see you in a seat where you can do some of the best good you can. i am very pleased and i'm humbled to have been nominated, because i don't work in the lgbtq community all that much. i do teach my class, but i think i represent what a lot of us in san francisco represent. when i moved here straight out of college 30 years ago, it's because of the welcoming, accepting, diverse community that san francisco is. and i was able to be myself. i was able to feel connected, feel appreciated, feel safe, which at a time right now is more important than ever. and it really allowed me to have the opportunity to do what i'm passionate about, which is working with youth and working in education. and i also recognized over the years i've seen the importance that allies can play in social struggles. i remember being, you know, not in this room, but in this building when gavin newsome first allowed same sex couples to marry in the city and i remember how powerful that was. i also know that the work that allies have done in terms of creating same-sex marriage across the country was really critical in changing people's public perception of the issue. and so i feel very fortunate to get to be an ally. and so i -- i am very honored to be a white ally of a latinx and immigrant organization that is doing incredible work. and i just want to use this time to encourage all of my brothers and sisters and everyone in between to support additional -- the -- the work that needs to be done. just recognizing, we talked about covid and the learning loss that students have been experiencing these past couple of years is incredibly difficult. the socio emotional learning that students haven't been getting because they've been learning on zoom. they haven't been learning how to connect with each other, how to deal with conflict, deal with bullying, all the things that young people have to experience. they didn't have those experiences, so this past year we've seen a lot of that in our schools. so i just want to encourage all of the supervisors to continue to champion the issues of young people and of education, i know there is an exciting charter amendment that is coming up very soon. i believe it will be talked about tomorrow in committee that will support schools directly to really build what school communities need to build community schools. so thank you. and i just, yeah, happy to be here. [applause] >> president walton: congratulations, eddie, and thank you, again, supervisor melgar. supervisor preston? >> supervisor preston: thank you, president walton, and i hope everyone had a wonderful weekend of festivities this week. this is an amazing collection of honorees today and i am honored to recognize district 5 resident tab buckner. tab is a longtime -- oh, go ahead -- [cheers and applause] yeah! >> most of you know tab. if you don't, you haven't been working and organizing in politics in this town very long and you should get to know tab. tab is a longtime civil rights activist in san francisco and advocate for lgbtq rights for international solidarity and the working class. i've worked on so many things with tab i can't even count them, but i think that i probably got to know tab best when we shared a bus. my daughter's bus to school was the same one tab took to get to ucsf and discovered a whole different side of this amazing guy bright and early in the morning. i'm going to tell you a little bit about him. i'm going to tell you i think i had five pages of notes about tab's experience, so it was very difficult to whittle this down, this man's life experience is unbelievable. but i will try. tab was born and raised in new york city like myself. and his youth coincided with the civil rights movement, the vietnam war and stonewall riots. all this left a profound effect on how he saw the world as a gay person. shortly after coming out, tab attended the first ever national march for gay rights in washington d.c. inspiring a lifetime of advocacy. in the late 1970s, tab demonstrated against fundamentalists anita bryant's referendum reversing miami's gay rights ordinance and fought for a proposed ordinance at new york city hall. he also worked in new york to challenge the power anda bewses of -- abuses of big oil and fought a progressive income tax and no law regarding workplace chemical exposure in new jersey. luckily for all of us, tab came out west in 1983 as a canvas director for the campaign for economic democracy to advocate for environmental issues as well as women's, gay and tenant rights and all of this work eventually led him to san francisco. on his first day in san francisco, tab joined dozens of others here at city hall to support gay supervisor harry brit's enactment of landmark rent control legislation. soon after tab joined the harvey milk lgbtq democratic club where he's remained active by participating in or leading over 50 electoral campaigns. in addition to supporting candidates like harry brit, he has worked to pass ballot initiatives advocating for the rights of immigrants, people with h.i.v., the homeless, tenants, working people and for environmental protection and public power. during the worst years of the aids crisis, tab also served on the milk club's h.i.v. action committee, helped distribute the club's can we talk and take control safe sex pamphlets and worked against prop 64 which would have quarantined people with h.i.v. tab has also participated in various direct action and solidarity campaign. he joined many lgbtq activists and central american solidarity work, including the san francisco chapter of the committee in solidarity with the people of el salvador. he has never been afraid to put himself out there, whether it's for a human billboard in the pan handle or getting arrested while protesting in mayor frank jordan's office while fighting for an equitable budget. tab has spent countless hours mentoring upcoming activists and movement folks as well as students. for most of the past decade he worked as student services advisor directly helping students there. most recently, in very local district 5, tab has served on the steering committee for the coalition for complete community which successfully promoted affordable housing which is before the board at 730 stanyan, as well as on site services at this location. he's on the board of the haight ashbury council. i could go on, but i will not. what makes tab special is not this tremendous lifetime of service and incredible resume, but it is that tab is one of the most kind, positive and empathetic people that you will ever meet. his love of organizing, of people and of politics is infectious. he takes tremendous joy in connecting people and connecting with people around the issues that matter in our lives. so i'm thrilled to honor tab today and thank him for his entire -- for his tireless advocacy his entire life for the people who need support and for the people of our city. our city is so much better because of all your work. thank you, tab. [applause] >> thank you, supervisor preston, for those very generous words and i'm extremely honored to get this from you and extremely proud you're my supervisor. even before you set foot in your office here, the work you did on rent control statewide as well as make sure tenants had a right to counsel for evictions here in the city, i am so grateful for that. and to you and your fantastic staff who through this horrible epidemic, when up entered office -- when you entered office, in such a sensitive manner handled your constituents. you reached out to make sure they were okay. going as far as actually having that safe sleeping space in the haight which was so successful. people were placed into permanent housing afterwards. so thank you to you and your staff for the incredible due diligence in the city. yes, coming out during that decade after stonewall, our community has seen quite a bit over the years. you know, an event like this would have been a pipe dream a couple of generations ago. i came of age in the backroom bars of greenwich village just a few blocks from where supervisor preston was growing up. and it was still years away from before even new york city could pass a gay rights ordinance. it didn't pass until 1985, if you can believe that. so our strides have been extraordinary. however, as we had last week the harsh realities of what happened in the supreme court, the liberties that we take for granted can be so easily snatched away at a much faster rate than the way we attained -- the way we attain them. our country right now should be really with the global community working in the crisis mode on the climate catastrophe before us. and instead, we're told that a war across the world is not only slowing down our environmental goals, but actually accelerating our need for fossil fuel and at the same time we have to ward off all of these fanatical factions that try to continue to chip away at our rights and the rights of other communities that are a part of ours, because it's no more universal community than the lgbtq. so, freedom isn't free. we have to remain vigilant and engaged. we cannot afford to be otherwise, particularly at this time. but being this is a time of celebration, let's have the confidence and celebrate not only what we've achieved, but what we can do, because our potential is extraordinary. we are a very brilliant species that can do very stupid things, but hopefully in the hour that we're in, we'll finally come around and move forward, first here in city hall with a budget that is truly fair for its constituents, and nationally and globally as well with new generations of people who continue to remain engage and follow the footsteps of those that came before us. i want to congratulate my other fellow recipients. thank you for all that you've done. it's an honor to share this with you. in closing, i want to remember my late parents, my mother, who as a teenager worked in the french resistance of world war ii, first in england and then france and my father tom buckner who was impassioned about the civil rights movement. i was fortunate to have fantastic role models to grow up with. lastly, i want to extend my appreciation who is watching right now, my dear friend alan baird, the incredible union organizer who helped get coors out of the bars connected to the arab american grocers. he teamed up with harvey milk. he never stops campaigning. he wanted to thank everybody here for continuing to boycott coors. thank you, all. [applause] >> president walton: congratulations again. thank you, supervisor preston. supervisor ronen? >> supervisor ronen: thank you, president walton and happy pride to everyone. this weekend's festivities were exactly what we needed to lift our spirits and feel happy for a few moments and be with people who are like us and love like us. and accept like us. so thank you for everything. it is my excitement and honor to be recognizing nicole santa maria as our district 9 honouree for pride month. give her a hand, everyone. nicole became the executive director of ella in 2019 and she led the agency through the entire pandemic. always ensuring that our transimmigrant and translatino members had a place. nicole came to ella after years of working with and advocating for the lgbtq community in her home country of el salvador. as a professor of design and art therapy, nicole created and conducted art therapy workshops in el salvador with the canadian embassy for survivors of anti-lgbtq violence. she then went on to cofound her own organization. where she collaborated with ngos, human rights organizations and government entities in central america the caribbean and the u.s. to create awareness for the human rights abuse communities face. especially low-income transgender women. like other international activists and trans-people, nicole was forced to flee el salvador. when she arrived to the united states, she earned a master's degree here and landed in the bay area. where she counselled lgbtq survivors of violence and developed curriculum for support groups. nicole has served on the city's transadvisory committee for three years where she has been in instrumental. [please stand by] [please stand by] >> -- how is it possible that a human being can do the atrocities that i have to survived? how is that possible? and now in this context that we are living now, i must confess that after seven years of my survival, i have been witnessing violence, hatred, hate crimes and all forms of violence against trans people, intersex people and people of all orientations, here in this country that gave me the great opportunity to survive. so how these things can still happen in our here? we are more than numbers. we are more than the statistics that we are seeing, and that's at the end that we are trying to achieve this, human rights, human rights for everybody. and i think that -- and i'm going to be super -- i'd like to receive this award because it is a commitment not only for me, not only for ella, not only for the rest of the activists and organizations present today, and for the ones that are not here, but for the community to create a better san francisco, a better bay area, where everybody can feel safe, and what that's in me. so what that means, it's a commitment to walk the talk and continue working, continuing doing the great job. so i'm going to receive this great job and receive this great award that i'm having here, but that our immigrants, that our people in our own languages, we bled the same blood, we cry the same tears, and we feel the same as everyone else. everyone has to be represented, and i want to be the voice of everyone. so ella para trans latina is doing this work. my pronouns are she and we because the we, is it what made possible the i. because in this context, i want to thank this community, the immigrant latinx. at the end, we have to speak the same language of love and commitment to our city here, and that's a great honor for here. in our future, the safe space for our communities is in jeopardy, so i'm taking this opportunity to ask, and i will continue asking and coming to you, supervisor ronen, and coming to each one of you, to create and build a better san francisco, a better bay area to know how we can feel and feel safe. thank you so much. [applause] >> president walton: congratulations again, and thank you so much, supervisor ronen. [applause] >> president walton: supervisor safai? >> supervisor safai: thank you, mr. chair. i'd like to take a moment to recognize san francisco state university center for iranian studies. this center was found found in 2016, and it's the first of its kind that focused on the diaspora community specifically in connection to iran. the center hosted artwork exhibits, speakers, funds to expand the field and research in the community. as an immigrant in this community, i can tell you what being in america and san francisco means: an opportunity to be accepted for who you are, who you love, and live in a pluralistic society. that's not always available in countries around the world, and so much of that has been talked about today. today, folks are literally putting their lives on the line, so the act of the iranian pride event is uplifting, and i want to recognize them today. let me call up the doctor and the team to talk more about their important work and recognize them today. thank you. [applause] >> hi. thank you, supervisor safai, and thank you to all the supervisors today for this wonderful occasion. i was so moved to hear all the other speakers, and i don't even feel like we have the same level of bravery, but i still want to recognize the important work that we're doing in the context in which we find ourselves today, and that is, as a community, as an iranian american community, we have an important role to play in creating connections and other communities. the center, we're really proud of our roots at san francisco state because as you might know, the ethos of san francisco state is deeply embedded in the recognition of social justice, equality, and recognition of all of our communities. one of the things that we've been trying to do since the founding of the center is to recognize all the members of our diaspora community, and as supervisor safai said, there's a great deal of homophobia, anti-trans activities going on in this country, but it also exists inside of iran, and we've been trying to do a lot of work to raise the existence of our queer, gay, and gender fluid folks in our community because all of us as san francisco recognizes the iranian diaspora. i want to recognize the people standing around me because it's their vision, their work, and their love to continuously put forth this idea that there's a pride for all of us. no other universities in the country that have centers for iranian studies are doing this, and people feel so loved and respective, and i think it's because we live in a place like san francisco. it's not just fighting for our rights, it's fighting for our stories. as you know, iranians have a tough battle because we get portrayed in the media all the time through the lens of u.s. foreign policy, through the tension of the u.s.-iran relationship, so for us to create something else that's love and kindness and respect for many people is something that we pride ourselves on, so it's a great honor for us today, all of us, to receive this commendation, and thank you, supervisor safai, for your work in this community, as well. if you want to learn about all the work that we're doing, i hope you'll come to our website. thank you very much. [applause] >> president walton: congratulations again. [applause] >> president walton: thank you, supervisor safai. supervisor stefani? >> supervisor stefani: thank you, president walton. first of all, happy pride to everyone, and thank you to supervisor mandelman for your very inspiring opening comments, and congrats to all of the honorees today. it's nice to see such positive stories given the time that we're in right now because when you watch the news, everything feels so awful, and to see such incredible people before us gives us such hope. right now, i would like to recognize the chair of the brady united activist campaign. she's a graduate of harvard law school, and served as the editor in chief of the harvard women's law journal. ruth's legal talents and personal passion have helped lead to ground breaking challenges in the law. for over 30 years, ruth dedicated her life to countless appeals, dedication, and work as morris forester. over the years, ruth filed amicus briefs in the united states supreme court and several federal courts to support marriage equality. ruth was part of a team of lawyers from morrison forrester who fought for same sex marriage couples in montana. that team succeeded in 2014. ruth's advocacy for a better and freer country does not stop there. how i came to know ruth is through her gun violence prevention work. ruth has worked on numerous pro bono amicus briefs in support of gun violence restriction laws. unfortunately, we have seen each other at way too many vigils at the mass shootings over the last few years. in 2018, san francisco joined the san francisco brady chapter and immediately hit the ground running with a movement to end gun shows at the cow palace in daly city, and thanks to ruth's persistent advocacy, in 2016, the cow palace saw its last gun show, and we all owe you a debt of gratitude for that. [applause] >> supervisor stefani: after that, she became brady california's legislation and policy chair in august of 2021. ruth has been a fierce leader in the restriction of ghost guns on our streets, and because of ruth, we were able to pass a piece of legislation here in san francisco, becoming the first city in california to ban ghost guns, the possession and sale of ghost guns in the city and county of san francisco. because we were able to do that, many other counties, as they do, have followed suit, and again, we have you to thank for that. your brilliant legal mind figured that out, worked with the city attorney's office, and we were able to get that passed unanimously. we know that guns are wreaking havoc in our cities, and the number of ghost guns that have been seized by san francisco police have increased by 300%, and they are the weapon of choice for those who should not be in the possession of guns. i want to thank ruth for everything that she's done in her advocacy, not just for guns but for gun violence prevention, your ad vocation for lgbtq rights, and your passion for safety on our streets is just to be commended. we are all just reeling from last week, watching the supreme court strike down new york's concealed carry law. you just think it can't get worse, but they overturn roe v. wade. my daughter, who's 13, has let rights -- less rights on pride than i do. you will not give up, and with a tenacity that i know is unstoppable, i take comfort from that. it's an honor to be able to honor you today, so thank you, ruth. [applause] >> thank you so much for that. you really did a lot of homework. it's really an honor to get this recognition. i feel so lucky in really having chosen to move to san francisco. one of them is, in my opinion, we have a local government that is as open to ideas about preventing gun violence as anywhere in the country, and when i was marching with my brady colleagues, we once again this year had a banner saying disarm heat, and also remember the survivors of the pulse night club in florida. people in the lgbtq + community live in fear of violence, especially in black and brown communities. i personally believe that legislation is a very important thing, and i am thrilled that i can come to supervisor stefani with an idea, and she and her excellent staff are excited about it, and then, a majority of the board cosponsors the ordinance and votes for it unanimously. i thank you so much for that. it sends a message, as supervisor stefani said, throughout california and multiple cities and counties enacted similar legislation. yesterday, the state senate voted to ban ghost guns and kits in part. you all starts -- started that, and i thank you so much. [applause] >> president walton: thank you, supervisor stefani. congratulations again. [applause] >> president walton: and now, i have the honor and pleasure to bring up barbara grata. [applause] and before i make my statements about barbara, i just want to acknowledge and congratulate all of today's honorees. this is definitely a special moment for us to be able to do these commendations again, as we are coming out of the pandemic, and so it's great to have everyone back in the chamber and, really, to be able to honor everyone appropriately. and today, i have the privilege of honoring our local district 10 small business of the year. barbara began her business in 2006, peddling her wine and wares in farmers markets in and around district 6. merchants of butchertown is a collaboration of business owners and other community partners in the bayview-hunters point neighborhood. by working together, the group's intention is to grow, support, strengthen, and maintain the integrity of small business models, and their flagship event, the butchertown jazz festival, held in october, brings people together from all over san francisco. barbara has also organized district pride floats dating back to 2017 and the third street pride ride during the pandemic. her participation and bayview activities support all local businesses and the lgbtq + communities. barbara sits on the edot board since 2016 which serves the third street corridor and bayview. i just want to say, if you're ever in district 10, and you're ever in bayview, and you want to have a chance to taste some delicious wine made right in community, grata wine is the place to go. not only is the wine great, but there's complementary meals to go with it, and it really is, like, a home away from home for folks who go to barbara and go to catherine and grata wines. i want you to know that we appreciate you and we want to honor you, and we say thank you and appreciate everything that you do. [applause] >> thank you, president walton. i'm very flattered and honored to be recognized today, so thank you for bringing d-10 pride to the forefront. when kathy, my partner, and i, moved to bayview back in 09, we didn't know what to expect, and we were soon warmly welcomed down the block and from the girls down the block. it's just been an on going positive experience and adventure since we moved there in this community. as you mentioned, we did start our business out of our garage, and it since has become a community hub down on third street, and we're very grateful for the support that we get from our community, and as is typical of the gay community, the queers find each other, so it has become a safe space for people to come and feel safe out in the bayview. from that, we created the district 10 pride committee, which is several of our customers which have become friends in the community as well as my partner, kathy, who's in the back here, and typically is in the sidelines, but she does so much work for bayview, as well. and district 10 pride, our goal is to have activities and events for lgbtq in the bayview. i feel in some ways, listening to everybody and all of the groups and organizations that were there. our goal is to move forward and creating more events and activities for youth and seniors, as well, in the neighborhood, and i probably will get with some of the groups here today for consultation because i feel we have a lot to learn as far as the organization of what we're doing out in the bayview. but i'm encouraged, and i'm -- it's a pleasure to work with the group that we've created thus far, and thank you for participating in our float and our pride rides fellow motorcycles, sir, so thank you, and thank you very much for the honor. >> president walton: thank you. [applause] >> president walton: supervisor mar? >> supervisor mar: thank you, president walton, and congratulations to all of the amazing honorees at this tremendously moving and hopeful celebration of pride month here at the board of supervisors. i'm really excited and honored to be able to recognize a district 4 leader, amos lin is my honoree. he's a really unique and humble activist that has impacted the lives of so many people across so many issues, and it really has reflected his lived experiences and the intersectional of so many issues as an immigrant, an asian, a gay man, and as a parent and somebody with a deep commitment to social equity and justice. amos emigrated to the united states from singapore in may 1999 to be with his american partner, mickey. since then, amos has been actively [indiscernible] he cofounded out for immigration, created to empower others in the same situation, educate the public about issues in immigration inequality. in addition, amos organized his time for the first immigrants right summit in 2007, and he's served on the ccof bond committee, the city of san francisco human right's commission lgbtq advisory committee as well as on the board of l.y.r.i.c., and he's also played a leadership role at the elementary school that his daughter attends. amos and his husband, mickey, and their daughter, alicia, are currently on a well deserved family vacation, and fortunately for them, they're on their vacation, but unfortunately, they're unavailable and they're offline, which is good for them, so i will present this really -- this certificate of -- this special commendation to amos and his family when they return from their vacation, but really thank amos for all of his dedication and work to our city. thank you. [applause] >> president walton: thank you, supervisor mar. supervisor peskin? >> supervisor peskin: thank you, president walton, colleagues. my honoree i think is known to many, if not all of us. jeremy lee is a third generation san franciscan who i think we all now because of his organizing and advocacy work, as a chinatown advocacy organizer and work at the rose pak democratic club, and we know him to be an engaged member of the 2022 redistricting task force. he was born in the city's children's hospital and grew up in south city, graduating from el camino high and received his bachelor of science from u.c. san diego. how did he do everything he does? like many bay area kids growing up in a multigenerational chinese american family, san francisco's chinatown was the center of jeremy's universe, even though he did not live there, but his grandparents emigrated from china to chinatown and demanded that his family return to chinatown at least once a week. his advocacy began in 2016 working for jane kim's campaign, and his love for the community has been brewing since before then. jeremy aspired to bring everything to his leadership role at the rose pak democratic club, something i know that rose pak herself would be very proud to see. his work took him out to the tenderloin and 6 street. bridge building serves him well as a member of the san francisco redistricting task force where he listened with an open heart and a desire to help as many communities as possible. at a time when nearly everyone, including many nonprofit organizations watched with serious concern, the 2022 redistricting debacle, jeremy furiously took a stand for an open and democratic process. he historically fought to keep neighbors of concern together that were often excluded, including low-income, bipoc, and immigrant communities. we voted unanimously to pass legislation protecting both neighborhoods, can survive political attacks, and build a stronger bond and alliance. jeremy represents a unique voice, merging beliefs and voice all while elevating values of the communities that he loves. jeremy and jupiter, thank you for modelling and teaching us what pride can and should be about. it's bigger than a parade and a party. thank you for your work. [applause] >> i've lived in several cities across the globe, and i have to say there is no better place to be both queer and asian than right here in san francisco, and it's because no other city values both queer and asian voices like san francisco does. we find value in our immigrant communities. we -- we find value in the richness of the queer experience. our city has established not one, not two, but three cultural districts centered around lgbt communities. seeing our own identities recognized, that matters. representation matters. this became clear to me as a member of san francisco's redistricting task force. as a chinatown activist, i was able to elevate the unique needs of monolingual families and seniors. as a queer person, i could speak to the importance of place making and maintaining queer spaces because our faces depend on these communities to gather, to feel free from violence and to build our chosen family. now i'm personally not a big fan of the spotlight, so i feel this moment should not be about me. when you can, you share it. i would like to dedicate this award to jupiter peraza. jupiter is an incredible trailblazer in so many ways, but i became most familiar with her work through her fierce ad -- advocacy. jupiter made sure we never forget the importance of keeping the transgender district whole, that cutting it apart would destroy the minimal power they had managed to build; that splitting up the transgender district would be a clear attack on the values our city holds dear. thank you, jupiter, for your leadership and for the transgender community's unwavering commitment to lgbtq people across our city. >> good afternoon, and thank you, jeremy, so much, for that very touching and kind introduction. i would like to thank jeremy, as well, for his bold representation on the redistricting task force, and this honor is extremely and absolutely commendable on behalf of supervisor peskin. i would also like to say that in regards to redistricting, i made a promise to myself never to speak up unless it was genuine and it was honest, and it came from a very vulnerable place in regards to my trans experience and the collective experience of the transgender community, and it really recess nates, and it's really touching that that vulnerability resonated with jeremy. and in regards to redistricting, the transgender district is the smallest legally recognized cultural district in san francisco, and i felt a responsibility to defend and protect physical boundaries that are very symbolic of the home and refuge and safety, so my advocacy was exactly that, and it was very important for me to defend that, so thank you, jeremy, for this, for allowing me to take some of your time for this. it's a sign that our city is indeed heading in the right direction. [applause] >> president walton: thank you, supervisor peskin, and again, congratulations, and i want to say congratulations one more time to all of today's awardees. thank you for all of your service and great work to our communities here in san francisco. we appreciate you, and today, we celebrate you. and that concludes our 2:30 p.m. special commendations. madam clerk, let's go to items 12 and 12. >> clerk: item 12 and 13 are two items that include a memorandum of understanding. item 13 adopts and implements the m.o.u. between the city and county of san francisco and the service employees international union, local 1021, the staff and per diem nurses, to be effective july 1, 2022 through june 30, 2024. >> president walton: thank you so much, madam clerk. supervisor safai? >> supervisor safai: thank you. i just want to make a note about this particular special contract in front of us today, those nurses that are in laguna honda and s.f. general and other parts of the city. over the last few years, i have been meeting consistently with these nurses. they have shared horrific stories with me and have been really fighting for better conditions and respect. we had a hearing. it happened on the first day that we reported a case of covid 20 years ago, and those conditions have not gotten better but in some cases have gotten worse. we've centered around so many of the different things that would allow these nurses to excel and do better and hired those nurses in a much more appropriate manner to ensure we have the appropriate staffing levels, so i want to thank them for their dedication to the frontlines, their service to our city, and ensuring that our residents had the services that they needed to thrive throughout the last couple of years. i think this contract in front of us reflects their hard work. i know it was almost a 90% approval by their membership. they had almost a 50% turnout, so i know that this is something that they're deeply committed to, and i want to thank the department of human resources for their work and ensuring seiu 1021 and their leadership for getting a just contract that is an example for other bay cities around the area. thank you. >> president walton: thank you, supervisor safai. madam clerk, would you please call the role on items 12 and 13? >> clerk: on items 12 and 13 -- [roll call] >> clerk: there are ten ayes. >> president walton: thank you. without objection, these ordinances are finally passed unanimously. madam clerk, please call item 14. >> clerk: item 14 is a resolution to approve the fiscal year 2022 through 23 interim budget of the office of community investment and infrastructure, operating as the successor agency to the san francisco redevelopment agency. >> president walton: thank you. i don't see anyone else on the roster, so we will take this item same house, same call, and without objection, this resolution is adopted unanimously. madam clerk, would you please call item 15. >> clerk: item 15 is an ordinance extending the delegation of authorized under charter for an additional two years to july 1, 2024, to enter the sfpucs green infrastructure grant program with terms of up to 20 years after the project completion date. >> president walton: thank you. supervisor mar? >> supervisor mar: i would like to be added as a cosponsor. >> president walton: thank you, supervisor mar. i don't see anyone else on the roster, so we will take this same house, same call, and without objection, this ordinance is passed on first reading unanimously. madam clerk, please call item 16. >> clerk: item 16, resolution authorizing the director of transportation to execute an sfmta contract for parking meter coin and parking data collection services with l.a.z. parking california, llc, for approximately 24.6 million, a base term of five years, with the option to extend the term for an additional five years, resulting in a total contract amount of 50.8 million, and further, to delegate charter granted board authority to the municipal transportation agency to amend or modify the agreement. >> president walton: thank you, madam clerk. seeing no one on the roster, we will take this same house, same call. without objection, this resolution is adopted unanimously. madam clerk, please call item 17. >> clerk: item 17, this is a resolution proofing and authorizing the director of property, on behalf of the police department, to amend the lease of real property located at 750 and 752 vallejo street with evans investment partners, llc, at a base rent of 120,000 per year with 3% annual increases, with tenant improvements, the cost of which shall not exceed 267,000, and extending the laze for five years, plus two five-year options, and authorizing the director of property to make amendments. >> president walton: thank yo. seeing no names on the roster, we will take this item same house same call. madam clerk, call items 18 through 22. >> clerk: items 18 through 22 involved the office of contract administration and the following companies: for item 18, this item authorizes the o.c.a. to enter into an agreement between the city and p.c.s., professional contractor supply, to purchase supplies for the city, to increase the contract amount by 4 million, with a total amount of 11.5 million, with no change to the contract term through july 14, 2025. for item 19, this authorizes a contract with peoplesoft contract between the city and kemira water luxes for the purchase of ferric ferrous chloride, with an initial contract not to compete amount of 11.2 million for three years and 14.8 million for an option to extend for four additional years for a total not to exceed amount of 26 million and a total contract duration of seven years. item 20 is also a contract with peoplesoft and t.r. international trading company. item 21 authorizes the o.c.a. to end into a peoplesoft contract between the city and univar conclusions, inc. for the purchase of sodium hypo-chlorite with an initial contract not to exceed amount of 32 million for three years and 42 million for an option to extend for four additional years for a total not to exceed amount of 74 million and item 22 authorizes the o.c.a. to enter into peoplesoft contract to purchase sodium bisulfite with an initial contract not to exceed amount of 8 million for three years and 11 million for an option to extend for four additional years. >> president walton: thank you. seeing no names on the roster, we will take this same house, same call, and without objection, the items are passed on first reading unanimously. madam clerk, item 23. >> clerk: item 23 is a resolution declaring the intent of the city and county to reimburse certain expenditures from proceeds of future bonded indebtedness in an aggregate principal amount not to exceed 130 million in one or moreeries of bonds on a tax-exempt or taxable basis, for 700 to 730 stanyan street. >> president walton: thank you, madam clerk. i don't see any names on the roster, so we will take this item same house, same call. without objection, the resolution is adopted unanimously. madam clerk, item 24. >> clerk: item 24 is a resolution retroactively authorizing the juvenile probation department to accept and expend a grant from the youth programs and facilities grant in thement of 152,000 from the california board of state and community corrections for a term through june 1, 2024. >> president walton: thank you. we will take this item same house, same call. without objection, this resolution is adopted unanimously. madam clerk, please call the next -- items 26 and 27 together. >> clerk: items 26 and 27 cries two resolutions pertaining to two multihousing revenue bonds. item 26 authorizes a not-to-exceed 74 million multifamily housing revenue bonds for the sunnydale hope s.f. block 3-a project, and for item 27, this is declaring the city to reimburse certain expenditures from proceeds of future bonded debt in an aggregate principal amount not to exceed $102 million at 11 frida kahlo way. >> president walton: thank you. seeing no names on the roster, we will take these items same house same call. madam clerk, please call item 289. >> clerk: item 28 is a resolution declaring the intention of the board to renew and expand a business-based business improvement district to be known as the tourism improvement district and levy a multiyear assessment on identified hotel and short-term residential rental businesses in the district, approving the management district plan for the district, ordering and setting a time and place a public hearing of the board of supervisors on september 13, 2022, as 3:00 p.m., and approving the correct findings as directed by law. >> president walton: thank you. seeing no names on the roster, we will take this same house, same call. madam clerk, please call item 29. >> clerk: thank you. item 29 is an ordinance amending the planning code to permit mohcd and to affirm the ceqa determinations and to make the appropriate findings. >> president walton: thank you, madam clerk. seeing no one on the roster, we will take this item same house, same call. without objection, this ordinance is passed on first reading unanimously. madam clerk, please call items 30 to 32 together. >> clerk: items 30 through 32 are two resolutions that determine the status of two liquor licenses. item 30 is a premise to premise transfer of a type 21 off sale general liquor license to bitter badger, doing business as soda popinskis, located at 1548 california street, and item 31 is a residence loose determining that the issuance of a type 64 special on sale general theater liquor license to thelostchurch.org,, inc. , located at 665 chestnut street, and to impose conditions on the license. 32 is a resolution determining that the premise to premise person to person transfer of a type 21 off sale general beer, wine, and distilled spirits liquor license to zeid samir batshoun, doing business as north beach food mart, located at 900 columbus satisfy, will serve the public event or necessity of the city and county in accordance with the code. >> president walton: thank you. seeing no names on the roster, we will take these items same house, same call. without objection, these resolutions are approved unanimously. madam clerk, please call items 35 to 37 together. item item clerk 35 is appointments to the treasury oversight committee. item 35 appoints ben reechb field, item 36 appoint -- rosenfield, item 36 appoints meghan wallace, and item 37 appoints nancy hom, all to a term ending june 17, 2026. >> president walton: seeing no names on the roster, we will take these items same house, same call, and without objection, these motions are passed unanimously. madam clerk, please call item 39. >> clerk: item 39 is a motion -- this motion was recommended as amended with a new title. this motion approved the mayor's nomination for the appointment of paul woolford to the public works commission for a term ending july 2, 2026. >> president walton: thank you, madam clerk. seeing no one on the roster, we will take this item same house, same call, and without objection, this motion is approved unanimously. madam clerk, please call item number 40. >> clerk: item 40, this motion was amended with a new title. this is a motion approving the president of the board of supervisors shamann walton's nomination for the appointment of alec lemberg to the board of appeals for a four-year term ending july 1, 2024. >> president walton: thank you, madam clerk. i'd like to move to continue this item to july 12, 2022, seconded by supervisor peskin. roll call vote. >> clerk: on the motion to continue -- [roll call] >> clerk: there are ten ayes. >> president walton: thank you. without objection, motion to continue carries unanimously. madam clerk, we are now at roll call for introductions. >> clerk: thank you, mr. president. first up to introduce new business is supervisor preston. >> supervisor preston: thank you, madam clerk, and to start, thank you, president walton, for giving us the opportunity to talk about the external commissions, boards we're on and give some updates. i will do that both for the state licensing committee that i'm on as well as for lafco today. so for the state leg committee, we've had three meetings since last update. april 18, may 20, june 15. this is the committee that consists of not just of members from board but city controller, treasurer, mayor, myself, and supervisor chan, and want to recognize preston kilgore of my staff and kelley [indiscernible] who represent us in proxy. we take action of state legislation. i will just name a view. a.b. 1909, the committee voted to support that. it's a bill to protect cyclists. s.b. 975, deals with protections against course debt, and also, s.b. 872, which facilitates mobile pharmacy units. we take positions on a really broad range of state legislation and just want to tell you all as well as members of the public to please reach out to my office or supervisor chan's office if there's legislation that you would like the state legislative committee to take a position on. and then, i will also give an update on lafco. i am an alternate commissioner on lafco, and given that the chair is not with us today, chair chan, she asked me to present some updates on her behalf, which i'm happy to do. so we -- lafco approved our budget and work plan for the year. that includes continuing lafco's work on clean power s.f., on public bank through the reinvest in san francisco working group, and also the lafco partnership with public department of environment to pilot e-bikes for delivery workers, so we are excited about those efforts. the reinvest in san francisco public bank group has begun its initial meetings now and want to thank executive officer jeremy pollock as well as [indiscernible] for their amazing work to move this forward. the working group also voted to appoint a chair. kristin evans is the chair of that working group and also fernando [indiscernible] is the vice chair, and these meetings are accessible in multiple languages, including chinese, spanish, and tagalog. so that is the lafco update. and i just have one item to announce today. i am calling for a hearing on an update on the city's overdose plan. last year, we sat here in the chamber and pledged a response to the city's overdose crisis in our city. the mayor pledged to open a linkage center in the tenderloin, a center that has served hundreds of people every day and reversed over 100 overdoses as of data of a couple of weeks ago. to date, the center has served 60,000 guests in the community. recently announced budget announcements stated that the center will close at the end of december, which impacts people that access the center's services and poses challenges to the trust built by the department of public health and service providers every day. there has not been an announcement about any replacement or alternative services to meet the needs of those served by the tenderloin center. i am very concerned, as are many public health professionals with whom i've consulted that the business of the tenderloin center is being carried out with no plan to ensure that its closure doesn't harm the folks that rely on it. more broadly, i've also learned during my short time representing the tenderloin based on redistricting a couple of months ago that the city does not have a comprehensive plan to address overdose is. despite the tragic loss of so many lives, advocates in the city had really hoped that the launch of the tenderloin center would be the start of a more holistic plan to prevent overdose deaths, but that has not been the plan with the recent announcement of closure. recently, you may have seen an opinion in the chronicle. portugal recently announced passing an ordinance allowing a small amount of drugs as well as accessing safe supplies, and they saw a significant drop by over 80%. i am here to suggest that we need a comprehensive plan, and we need it now, so fortunately, we are blessed in san francisco with some of the sharpest minds in public health and public advocates, so today, i'm requesting a hearing to chart a path forward to address this crisis in a proactive data driven and transformative way. i think it's essential that we come together and rally around a real plan, not just to replace the services offered at the tenderloin center, but to end the crisis, save lives, and prevent further suffering. looking forward to continuing to meet with d.p.h., with advocates, and neighborhood leaders toward a real comprehensive plan to prevent overdoses. the rest i submit. >> clerk: thank you, supervisor preston. supervisor ronen. >> supervisor ronen: thank you. i'll start with my update on our work at m.t.c. there's four updates. a primary subject of a multiday m.t.c. workshop in may was about the megaproject advancement policy development. it's called m.a.p. for short. m.t.c. staff is currently evaluating high cost projects and will bring back a plan for which projects to prioritize for discretionary funding in july. in april, m.t.c. approved the transportation authority's expenditure plan as required by state law, and then finally, one of my major priorities at m.t.c. has been to advocate for an accessible low barrier to entry payment plan for toll fines regardless of income. although the toll authority reduced violation, toll penalties accrued during the pandemic, in june, a payment plan was approved that only serves the lowest income residents, 200% of the median income, i am continuing to advocate and what i'm hearing is it's better to have no barriers to entry, but unfortunately, m.t.c. ignored that research, and it was cindy chavez and i trying to talk some sense into the committee and were unsuccessful, so the fight continues. secondly, colleagues, this last month, pride month, i am introducing a resolution for governor newsom to grant a pardon to [indiscernible] who served 27 years in prison since the age of 22. at age 22, he took a person's life during an altercation. he served 27 years in prison, and in august 2021, state authorities granted him parole due to his rehabilitation, remorse, and determination that he was not a public safety risk. in prison, he said -- started support groups for other prisoners and is a skilled artist and trades man. rather than being released to his elderly mother, he was transferred to ice custody. this would not have happened if he was a u.s. citizen. this is a double punishment that so many immigrants in our country continue to face today. he completed his criminal sentence and is now in indefinite ice custody, facing deportation to fiji, a country he hasn't been to as a child. governor newsom is one of the only ways to avoid deportation back to fiji. nine faith organizations in the bay area support his release. colleagues, this resolution is an opportunity for us to uphold our values of rehabilitation and restorative justice and demonstrate what this city means for queer immigrants like him. thank you, supervisor preston, for your early support and cosponsorship, and i hope to gain all of your support for this resolution. the rest i submit. >> clerk: thank you, supervisor ronen. supervisor safai? >> supervisor safai: thank you. i'll start with the updates from the san francisco retirement board. we successfully swore in our new c.e.o., allison romano. the transition has gone really smoothly. i'm excited about the leadership opportunities and what that means. we went from executive director to chief financial officer to chief executive officer, and she is continuing the great leadership and returns from this department. yes, supervisor peskin, before you ask, my number one priority i put on the plan was divestment from fossil fuels. i know it's not just a priority of yours but it's a priority from the entire board. also in that charter amendment, we are going to make the executive -- excuse me, the executive director, which is now the c.a.o.-c.i.o., an executive position similar to the p.u.c. again, that was part of negotiations. it came into consideration as we were trying to recruit and be competitive in this environment. there's things like relocation, there's things like severance, all of these things that you negotiate into a contract that inhibits our ability to attract qualified candidates. i want to thank d.h.r., our city attorney's office, and other commissions for collaboratively coming up with solutions for that, but that is in the charter amendment. that is the update for the retirement board. my roll call for introduction today, colleagues, is an ordinance that i'm introducing today to help homeowners stay in their homes when they face a default on their taxes. earlier this year, you will recall the board received and considered a list of defaulted properties as required by state law, the treasurer and tax collector proceeded to sell these as public auction. during this proceeding, we learned of a home auction that we were told that the mayor's office of housing and community development had programs to assist owner occupied income qualifying homeowners, and so that assistance only came at the end of the process, when the homeowners had already racked up significant tax debt, so we worked collaboratively with the treasurer's office, and i want to thank amanda fried and the treasurer's office and their work with us to figure out what was possible. so if someone hasn't paid their property tax bills timely, the property becomes defaulted every three years, and in april, the list comes out from the treasurer-tax collector's office. the treasurer can't sell the property until five years, so that leaves two years to make a difference in the lives of these homeowners and get the property back on track. this requires a report from the mayor's office of housing and community development on how to avoid such an outcome, so our intent is to allow people that have gone into default to get the result that they need and avoid their home to be sold at auction. with that, colleagues, the rest i submit. >> clerk: thank you, supervisor safai. supervisor stefani? submit? thank you. supervisor walton? >> president walton: thank you. colleagues, today, i'll be giving a brief update on workforce investment board, and our bay area workforce management district. in terms of wisf, we had a meeting on june 8 and learned that our city unemployment is down to 1.9% as of may, but our san francisco living wage is $30 for a single individual. this is someone without a family, someone without children, $30 for a single individual, and it is also taking time for our hospitality industry to rebound as quickly as other industries, and i know we are -- obviously have some things in the budget and some things that we are working onto change that dynamic, but certainly, our hospitality industry is taking some time to recover. at our next meeting, we will have a first source hiring program's overview, which is actually scheduled for our september meeting. in terms of bay area water quality management district, we are working on setting up a team to make bayview the next ab 617 community. a.b. 617 is a bill that was signed by governor brown in 2017 to effectively reduce exposure to air pollution and to preserve public health, especially in communities disproportionately impacted by air pollution, so we are working with folks in community in the district to set up a team that will work to ensure that we implement that policy. and last, i am introducing a resolution, and this pertains to caltrain, to approve a memorandum of understanding between the santa clara valley transportation valley, the san mateo transit district, and the city and county of san francisco relating to the governance of the joint powers board and affirming the planning department's determination under the california environmental quality act. last week at the j.p.b., we approved an m.o.u. relating to governance between the joint powers board, santa clara valley transportation, san mateo transit district, and the city and county of san francisco. i've been working with caltrains for the past 3.5 years, along with supervisor peskin, along with our colleagues in other counties to address the government's concerns that we have with caltrain and as a body over the past year plus, we've actually considered various service models. again, we passed the m.o.u. past week. sam trans passed on june 22. the sfmta is set to meet on the m.o.u. july 19, and b.t.a. is set to meet on august 4, so i am introducing similar memorandum of understanding at today's meeting and the passage of this m.o.u. also commits us to paying back some of the resources that san mateo county expended for the right-of-way and for other uses for the railroad. this would allow the j.p.b. to have increased oversight for caltrain and ensure that caltrain and the caltrain executive director has independence and the team needed to operate the railroad as we embark on electrification and ambitious goals. i want to thank everyone for our work and brain trust in getting to this solution as well as our colleagues in santa clara and san mateo counties. the rest i submit. >> clerk: thank you, mr. president. supervisor dorsey? >> supervisor dorsey: i'd like to call for a hearing on the status of recommendations. my hope is not to fault anyone for slow progress but to make sure that we don't lose the great work done by my predecessor and the leaders with whom he worked. to the extent this is similar to the hearing that supervisor preston has called for, i welcome the opportunity to work with him and others collaboratively. it was the convergence of our drug overdose deaths in san francisco and my own personal history in alcoholism and drug addiction that led me to ask mayor breed to consider me as her appointment to this board. there is never a day that i will not be an addict, but hopefully i will always be an addict in recovery. we did it on covid-19, we did a generation ago on aids. we can do it on drug dealing and the open air drug scene. i know we can do it. the rest i submit. >> clerk: thank you, supervisor dorsey. supervisor mandelman? >> supervisor mandelman: thank you. on the updates, a little bit on abag. the abag executive committee heard efforts to place a regional housing bond on the 2024 ballot. it's encouraging to see this effort beginning to take shape, and i look forward to sharing more updates as things develop. on tjpa, where i serve as vice chair, the salesforce transit center and rooftop park remain open for business. we're continuing to lease that facility, which is an important part of supporting economic recovery in our downtown. its meeting earlier this month, the board heard an on going study for the downtown rail extension project that will determine how tjpa, the city, and the county transportation authority will all work to deliver this investment in our downtown core and i continue to appreciate the strong guiding role of our t.a. staff in making sure these governance arrangements will set us up for success in delivering this project. and lastly, a note on csac. they are urging their members to urge the legislature to pass the governor's care [indiscernible] legislation. we have a resolution that will be coming before psns in july, where we will have an opportunity as a board, should we so choose, to sign on in support of care courts. i am also today calling for a hearing on san francisco's response to the monkeypox virus. we have a total number of cases reported in san francisco of ten. as of yesterday, 61 probable and confirmed cases have been reported statewide. nationwide, 243 cases are confirmed to date. in san francisco, as in other places, the cases have been concentrated in transsexual, gay, and bisexual men who have sex with men. on june 23, new york was the first u.s. city to proactively offer monkeypox vaccinations to at-risk groups. so far, demand for the vaccine has far outpaced supply. over that same time, new york saw 60% increase in the number of cases in just four days. while the number of reported cases in san francisco remained lower than new york, as one would expect, many expect that we would be at the beginning of a potentially steep curve. we're all acutely aware of how communicable diseases can spread without adequate community precautions and most importantly, vaccinations. the number of vaccinations from the california department of health has been completely inadequate. we have received 60 doses and have been assured that we will receive another 100 doses. 160 doses is not going to cut it with our population of today. some fear the window is closing to be able to eliminate monkeypox in the united states, and so my intentions for this hearing are three-fold. one, to educate the public and especially those most at risk how to avoid contracting and spreading the virus. two, to better understand the vaccination of people to better fight against the virus, and to understand our local and state officials are doing everything they can to address this latest health challenge with the urgency it deserves. san francisco's vaccination rate results in one of the lowest death rates in the country. our experience with hiv, aids, and covid-19 should leave us well positioned to take on any curve that monkeypox may throw our way. i am submitting other legislation, but that's all i got. >> clerk: thank you, supervisor mandelman. supervisor mar? >> supervisor mar: i want to share a quick update on the city college financial oversight committee that i sit on, which is overseeing the ten-year m.o.u. with city -- between the city and city college to support free city and ensure that city college remains tuition free for san francisco residents. in recent meetings of the oversight committee, we've been looking at the -- the -- the increase in the free city reserve fund, and this is due to the decline in enrollment at city college during the pandemic, like, like, most colleges and especially community colleges have seen, and also budget -- structural budget challenges at city college, so that's led to a lower enrollment than had been projected, so there's a decline in the growth reserve fund, so the city has been discussing idea how those funds could be used to help grow enrollment and support the goals of free city. one of the key ideas that has come up in the discussion is creating more of a pathway for san francisco unified high school students to attend city college as a way to support their high school and college readiness, and also boost enrollment at city college and also create a pathway or a pipeline for san francisco high school students to -- to transition to city college. the board adopted, with our amendment last night, there includes $3 million from the reserve funds for the san francisco unified school district and then our city college students, and there's an additional $1 million for the free city reserve fund that are being used to expand dual enrollment classes, so i just wanted to share that update. and we're going to be having a hearing on city college and the impact of the budget deficit and the class and program cuts that i called in the upcoming in july in the youth, young adult, and families committee where we could further look at these issues and how we could better support city college and our students. colleagues, i have one item today. i'm submitting a resolution urging the san francisco department of public health and other agencies to provide a comprehensive coordinated response to p.c.e. contamination in the area of the 2500 irving street block to ensure protections of neighboring homes and establishments. the tremendously important and really historic for the sunset district affordable housing at 2550 irving has led to the confirmation of toxic contamination of the soil not only on this site but around the entire block at 2550 irving, including under six single-family homes at 2550 irving and including two mixed-use sites across the street from the site. under the state department of toxic substance control, environmental testing has been conducted at multiple places and times, confirming that contamination is present in this area, possibly coming from multiple sources. further testing is needed to address gaps, and the state voluntarily work has been a patch work of voluntarily agreements. the regulatory framework for these properties is fragmented, with varying levels of responsibility for cleanup by the parties, associated with the legacy contaminants in the dune sands and known to be expanding into the structures. additionally, the san francisco maher ordinance is designed to ensure that hazardous substances impacting soils and grounding in specified areas of the city are assessed and mitigated prior to assessing building permits, and 2550 irving is under the maher program, however, sfdph has deferred to the sfdtc to the community products and orders. colleagues, the community and i have been frustrated by the lack of strong oversight to ensure that the levels of toxic contamination on this block is remediated to the fullest extent and the protection of the health of the residents, so this resolution that i'm introducing today will be urging dtsc in coordination with sfdph to have a comprehensive and coordinated remedy. >> clerk: thank you, supervisor mar. supervisor melgar? >> supervisor melgar: thank you. i want to advise my colleagues that i have had to sadly step back from two of my time-consuming boards due to my on going and hopefully temporary challenges in my family, so i have stepped back from the bay area air quality management board and the golden gate highway transportation authority, so i will only report on the first five commission, which i'm still on. i have been involved, as you know, with the merger discussions and the tratic planning process that has led to the merger plan of -- strategic planning process that has led to the merger plan of the early childhood and first five commission. there has been a strategic planning process by the first five staff that has set up the plan for the merger. i also sit on the ad hoc strategic plan advisory committee at the board of supervisors representative. we have been meeting for several months, and there is still more work to be done. there was a decision to continue receiving feedback until the end of the year. i do feel that we must seize this moment. it is brilliant that we are creating a new department focusing on supporting and providing resources for children zero to five and their families. we have the opportunity here to be methodical, intentional, and visionary. in june of 2018, the voters of san francisco passed baby prop c to bring in historic investments, to build a universal early care and education system for low-income [please stand by] . >> supervisor melgar: -- we must rectify that. i cannot stress the critical importance of this work, especially given the shameful underinvestments in child care and support services on a national level, and this is not just a childrens' issue, it is a workforce issue, an economic mobility issue, and a gender equity issue. i have been working closely with the department staff and the mayor's office. i am very grateful that our mayor has taken this issue very seriously and is working diligently towards creating this new department. we are planning on merging the two departments hopefully next week, but i am very grateful that we have gotten this far. for introductions, i am thrilled to be introducing, along with supervisors mar, chan, and peskin, an ordinance to officially landmark the historic mother's building at the san francisco zoo. you may remember this board initiated this project earlier this month, and because of the completed by the city and the most ardent supporters efforts, we are able to get the project supported in record time. the mother's building was built in 1925 and dedicated to the city by herbert and mortimer fleischacker. we have so few opportunities to honor and celebrate the artwork of women and especially during this era. this landmarking will preserve the remarkable stories that honor women and the feminine divide. we also are undergoing a restoration to open its doors to the public. i am very grateful that supervisor mar and i were both able to include add-back funds in our budgets to advance this effort this year. i want to again thank the biggest champions of the effort, including former supervisor katy tang for her support, the recreation and park staff, and the zoo staff. the last thing i want to tell you is that i'm calling [indiscernible] the ocean avenue association community business district is coming up for renewal. i've been advocating for it for several years. it's a great thing to have funding to take care of the business corridors and to take care of the community, so i am looking forward to working with supervisor safai and oewd in making sure that this audit supports the health of the organization and that we also provide the resources necessary to ensure that as we go into a renewal process and potential expansion of the c.b.d. that the public and the members can be assured that the work is being done efficiently and to the best quality possible, and the rest i submit. thank you. >> clerk: supervisor melgar. supervisor peskin? >> supervisor peskin: thank you, madam clerk. we heard a case in supervisor stefani's district at 224 seacliff relative to long-standing unauthorized structures that were not permitted by the city and county of san francisco and violated the macateer-petris act, and the bay area development commission unanimously voted for an enforcement action on a cease and desist and civil penalty order on that property. next meeting, i will be out of town, but my colleague, supervisor stefani, will be there to represent the city and county of san francisco to vote on an all-day meeting application to remove the port priority designation from howard terminal in the port of oakland as it relates to san francisco restoration authority, we last met last friday, june 24, and dealt with budget issues and authorized the disbursement of prop aa funds to a number of projects around the bay, including on the peninsula in east palo alto. we voted to increasing funds to advancing shoreline projects which actually has some funding for san francisco county on it and worked on the travel policy. as to my policy, i will submit it all and speak to none of it. >> clerk: thank you, supervisor peskin. mr. president, seeing no additional names on the roster, that concludes introductions and new business. >> president walton: thank you, and we are now at public comment. >> clerk: thank you. those of you in the chamber, please lineup to my left, by the window. once everyone in person has spoken, the clerk will go to the remote comment system. a quick primer on the remote. hopefully you dialed in earlier. if not, dial the number streaming on your computer or television screen. it is 415-655-0001. when you hear the prompt, enter the meeting i.d. 2499-0 # -- 088-6363. press pound and pound again, and then press star, three to lineup to speak. today's general public comment, you may speak to the minutes as presented, the recognition of commendations, the items for adoption without committee reference on the latter section of the agenda, items 43 and 44, the matters also that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board that are not on the agenda, and all other agenda content will have had its public comment requirement fulfilled. you will be able to send public comment via mail. san francisco board of supervisors, 1 dr. carlton b. goodlett place, room 204, san francisco, california, 94102 or you may send it to our e-mail address. use the address sfbos@sfgov.org. we are being assisted by interpreters in spanish, chinese, and filipino. thank you for being here. [speaking spanish language] [speaking cantonese language] >> clerk: thank you, three, for your service this afternoon. we appreciate you being with us. i'll just state that there are 14 listeners in the queue. if you'd like to provide comment, you should press star, three now, otherwise, we'll take the one person who's in the queue after these individuals who we're going to hear from now in the chamber. all right. will the first speaker come forward now, please. if you'll notice the timer we have on the lectern, we will be setting it for two minutes. >> good afternoon. my name is hope stallings, and i'm with beatrice steward. i have a letter written by beatrice, but it represents most of the people in our community. i have a letter written to raphael mandel. i'm contacting you due to the concerns that i have regarding the managing of our property, we are an association project based section 8 and market rate mixed complex which is governed by h.u.d., not the housing authority. our property is managed by mr. -- excuse me, f.k. gibbs, llc, based in kansas city, missouri. some of our concerns are our management did not complete some residents' certifications on time, and no one gave us an explanation why. management suggested we apply for covid relief before the deadline and told us they'd start reinforcing rent collection. management told residents back rent was owed but residents have said that's not accurate. i'm concerned that residents are being held responsible for mistakes that f.k. gibbs are liable for. our files were taken to kansas city, missouri when the housing rights commissioner committee told me our files were not supposed to leave our property. >> clerk: thank you, hope stallings, for your comment. we will take a copy of that letter or if you wanted to hand it to the next individual to continue to read, that would be fine, as well. you each can have two minutes, up to two minutes. >> my name is beatrice, as you know. english is my second language. that's why i asked miss hope to help me. i'm working with this [indiscernible] for a dozen years. i'm living in my community for 33 years. this is my oldest son. my youngest son, i taking care of. management told me that we owe back rent. we have been [indiscernible] certification last year, 2021, august 2021, when they took this company, fred gibbs, over from the management. we have the board members represent our community. it's seven people, which the person who is the president, she is really good friends of this guy, this company who coming from kansas city, missouri, and now, i notice that they've been making discrimination outrageous comments about me. then having barriers, low speaking. i not supposed to be -- to do my job [indiscernible] to do it, so please, i just asking for all the persons in our neighborhood to stick with me. this is a really bad situation with me, and my son knows that. >> clerk: thank you for your comments this afternoon. >> hi. i'm cheryl, a resident of district 10. beatrice is a colleague of mine. this is her son, kenneth. he was in the san francisco naacp. he's had to deal with some of these struggles with his mom. i was really appalled that they have security at the board meetings, and if the people speak up about their rights, not cussing or screaming or anything, they are carried out of the meeting by the police -- or secure. this seems like this is a reoccurring theme in san francisco. for beatrice, it's even harder because she is an immigrant that came to this country for something better, and she's just been fighting the whole time. i mean i just get worried about her. her son is a great student at mission high school, and so if you can do anything, please help the residents of diamond heights view. >> clerk: thank you, cheryl, for your comments this afternoon. >> umm, yeah, as you guys know, you know, i'm beatrice's son, and we had seen some comments about my mom's language and how they correlated it with her intelligence, and not in a good way. seeing that as a son, seeing my mom cry, that's not good. as a president of a board, she should be using more professional language. frankly, i think they should reconsider her language because making those types of comments, this -- that's not something a president should do. the person who owns the company or gibbs, they shouldn't be doing that now. that's all i wanted to say. >> clerk: thank you, kenneth, for your comments to the board. all right. can we hear from another member of the public here in the chamber? welcome. >> the reaction to the tenants just politely asking for some restitution for their problems is -- is ridiculous, over the top. i've seen people called dogs, all types of ridiculous things, and we've got 85% of the residences to sign -- about 80% of the residents to sign a petition, and all we're asking for today is the halt to the redevelopment so we can get answers and we can get a plan that's actually focused on the residents that have been there, not just try to displace them, and add the marketplace tenants that m.b.s. wants to be there. >> clerk: thank you for your comments. welcome. >> i would only ask for a few moments to address this board of supervisors to open up the conversation about investing in the black community with the -- all the redevelopment going on in the fillmore, talk about investing in plaza east, i would like to see residents lead development planning that centers our needs, keeps us housed, improves our living conditions, and offers more homes that members of our community can afford. i believe serious change is in order that should stop the displacement of people in the inner city. i also believe there should be a significant plan put forth that fully encompasses the needs of displaced tenants. thank you. >> clerk: all right. thank you. miss aquia chandler. >> the reason myself am here today is that i've been getting phone calls from some of the mothers concerning the fires that march 30, april 12, and april 19 in bayview-hunters point, and one of the representatives of the housing committee who came to the protest that myself was doing came and dropped this whole stack of materials here, and i was meditating in the woods for what direction to go. i was ready to walk away. i was ready to leave the work that i was doing, and as i was laying down in meditation, the spirit told me to pick up this work that was sent to me. this woman [indiscernible] and no help from management, and the most -- the appalling thing that i read was she was cooking, a car had ran and tore up her kitchen, and she had been asking for help from the management and still had not receiving it for months. she was eating on a doll crate, a doll crate. here is the document. african american woman in her 70s eating on a doll crate, and i cried. it occurred to me that i must return to fight for my people, my country, my culture, and those who don't have the strength to fight for themselves, sounding like they're coming and begging you, begging you to be able to have some dignity and some integrity. >> clerk: thank you for your comments to the board. [indiscernible]. >> clerk: everyone is getting the timer for two minutes. i'm sorry your timer has ended. speaker's time has concluded. >> president walton: thank you, salah. [indiscernible]. >> president walton: thank you, salah. do we have any callers on the line? >> clerk: are there any other members in the chamber who would like to address the board this afternoon? all right. seeing no one getting up quickly, we're going to head to the remote system. mr. atkins, i see we have 14 people listening and ten callers in the queue. welcome. >> so supervisors, today, right now, you've heard from the constituents of san francisco. some need the most, and what do they get? no empathy. the measly two minutes is not enough time to express themselves. y'all supervisors talk and talk and talk, and that's because the tongue that you have has no bone. shame on you. our residents are suffering. in the bayview, many of them are put in shelters on sand that flies in their food, home, everywhere. you say that you represent, but they have no spirituality, no leadership. all the articles in the journals, san francisco is one of the worst cities in the nation. dirty, stinking, full of addicts, and the politicians, the most corrupt. thank you very much. >> clerk: thank you very much, mr. dacosta, for your comments to the board. let's hear from the next caller, please. [please stand by] >> good afternoon everyone and thank you so much for the warm welcome for the next district attorney for san francisco brooke jenkins. [applause] you know, going through this process really reminded me of just how resilient we are as a city. when i think about what we've been through over the years, whether it's earthquakes, a global pandemic, i put the challenges of what we experienced during those times as we went through changes and challenges to what was happening in our city and how despite those issues, we persevered. and i want to also be clear that there is a lot of reddick out there about criminal justice reform, and how we're going to be setback. but let me tell you, that is not going to happen. [applause] i talked to so many people all over the city. i talked to folks who have never been politically engaged. i talked to people who cared deeply about what they've seen happen in san francisco. and you know what i appreciate so much about the spirit of the people who are part of this amazing city? is time and time again, despite even being victims of crime and experiencing challenges with our criminal justice system, they have said, time and time again yes, we want accountability but we also don't want to abandon our valleys to reform our criminal justice system so that it is fairer and it provides the safety that we need in a city like san francisco. so i want to thank all of you because i see many of you in the audience here today. the people who took time to talk to me and to engage with my office in this process. of the people who spent countless hours doing their homework and trying to figure out what is the best path for san francisco. this was not just my decision alone, this came about because of the input of people who were supporters and opposition of everything that was going on because it's important. that despite who supported or who opposed, at the end of the day this district attorney represents all san franciscoians. [cheers and applause] so you're going to meet her in a moment. but let me just say, to also those candidates who put themselves out there. i want to really acknowledge and recognize and thank supervisor catherine stephanie for being here today. [cheers and applause] this was a very hard decision and supervisor stephanie thank you so much for your courage, your work and your love for this city and we appreciate you so much. and i also want to thank another candidate who is joining us today here today who is an extra san franciscoians, nancy tung. [cheers and applause] nancy has worked tirelessly for years to help give a voice to victims in san francisco. and we are so grateful for her work and her commitment to the city so thank you so much for being here. we have term limits, we're not guaranteed these positions, it's up to the voters to decide in any event and so when we're the gate keepers in the roles, we have an obligation, an obligation to be there for the people of the city. and what i said what i heard time and time again, we want a prosecutor. we want somebody who has compassion. we want somebody who understand the challenges what it feels like to not only be a victim but being on the receiving end of being wrongfully committed of a crime. growing up in the city, i know both sides. i know both sides too well and i've seen the dysfunction and the disparities that exist in the criminal justice system even today. so i didn't take this decision lightly and the fact is, when meeting and talking to brooke and hearing her understanding of the issues and the balance that she brings to the table, i am so proud that she stepped up, she put her career on the line because not only did she care about safety and the future of this city for her own family, she cared about it for all san franciscoians. [applause] as somebody who has had to prosecutor for sexual assault, for issues around domestic violence, somebody who has had to deal with hate crimes and homicides, the stories i've heard of victims, the issues that exist i know firsthand that she has the ability to look at these cases, to work with a strong team and to come up with a decision where it makes sense for the case making sure that the victim is a part of the decision every step of the way. making sure, making sure that when we have people who arrested multiple times, eventually there has to be consequences. when we know somebody has mental health issues, the fact is, there are things that need to be done within our criminal justice system when they cross that line to help get them the support and services that they need. there is not an easy solution to each of these individual case. there is not a one size fits all. and let me tell you, i'm confident and i am trusting and trust brooke jenkins to make the right decisions in the cases with the right team of prosecutors and community members by her side.

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