Transcripts For SFGTV Public Works Commission 20221021

Segal. Present. Paul woolford. Present. Lauren post. Here. And commissioner and vice chair fady zoubi has an excused absence. With low members present we are quorum for public works commission. Due to the on going covid19 Health Emergency and given the Health Recommendations issued by the department of public health, the emergency orders of the govern and the mayor concerning social distancing and lifting restrictions on teleconference this meeting is held Via Teleconference and strolled by sfgovtv. For those watching the live stream there is a brief time lag with the live meeting and what is shown on line. I would like to extend thanks to sfgovtv Media Services will, Building Management staff for their assistance putting on this meeting. And for members of public wishing to make comment on an item from how does the hearing room. Your instructions are to dial 4156550001. Access code 2494 209 1629 if you dont stay on the topic the chair may interrupt you and ask you to limit your comment to the item. Ask this Public Comment made in a respectful manner and you refingerprint from the use of profanity. Address remarks to the commission as a whole not to individual commissioners or staff. Thank you. Before calling the next item i would like to amend the agenda to move agenda item 7 the director hiring update, an informational item, to be considered right after item 5 the consent of routine matters. At the request of staff for scheduling conflict. Does that need anything. I was going to endorse it. Any requests to further amend the agenda . Okay. Thank you very much. We will move on to item number 2. Mr. Full are call that item. Item 2 is the announcement by the commission chair. Of which i have none. Move on to item 3, please secretary fuller. Item 3 is general Public Comment. Members of the opinion address the commission on topics within the subject matter of the commission but not part of this agenda. Comments specific to an item on the agenda may be heard when that item is considered. Members may address the commission for up to 3 minutes and Public Comment may be continued to the end of the agenda if total time speeds 15 minutes of general Public Comment. Members of the public who wish to make 3 machines of general Public Comment. Here in the hearing room line up against the wall. If you will are calling in, that number is 4156550001 then access code 2494 209 1629 we dont have members of the public who have lined up to speak. In the hearing room. Sfgovtv, do we have any members of the public who raised their hand to speak. And they are telling me we dont have callers. We have no further Public Comment. That concludes that item on the agendaful we move on to item number 4, please. Secretary if you meaner. Item 4 is the directors report. Deputy director for Financial Management and administration Bruce Robertson is here to present the report on behalf of director short. This is an informational item. Mr. Robertson. Good morning, commissioners. Im Bruce Robertson Department Director of Financial Management for public works im here on behalf director short on a deserved vacation. I would like to update you on a couple of projects and staff programs we have going on. I want to take the first opportunity to update on the Southeast Community center. You mirecall that project was under construction a few months ago. Im happy to announce that project we worked with our partner the Public Utility Commission is complete. Mayor breed and several members of the public and the community will hold a ribbon ceremony tomorrow at 11 a. M. To 2 p. M. Of ron almeida our city architect will represent public works. The new center at 1550 evans street is amazing and we are fortunate to have been a part of it. Our Engineering Team and Architecture Team and Landscape Team and Construction Managers all played a role in delivering this project and it it is on a new facility and Community Center on 2 acres of land with public art and indoor and out door cafes. Childcare centerful out door child activities. Rec your and theatre and other new amenities we are proud to have been played a part in it. Moving on to an item we updated on many am times and i know director short did last time of ventzing permit enforce am. Director short talked about how well and positive the program is going. Im happy to report the good news continues. We see noticeable improvements 24th and mission bart station the top priority during the roll out. There are people selling goodz there without a permit but near the numbers when we started the program. And so we are able to now keep a path way and the republic sidewalks and rightofway open so people walk up and down the sidewalk and access to the bart station. We are working closely i object to acknowledge the san front Police Department who are helping us in the Enforcement Efforts. When vendors see our team coming, they scatter when than i see us. Before we can take action. On october 6 we did impound goods and services that a peddler was selling when than i could in the provide prove they purchased the what they were selling. And when they were selling were items on a drug store sold. Shampoo, lotion. In the past few weeks we had more where we took goodz and materials from the person selling on the sidewalk. What well do is catalog the items we have taken and the individual selling the products has 3 months to come with proof of payment. If noted we donate it. We have expanded the project. We seen improve ams in all areas but expands to 15th and mission and on Mission Street between 8 and ninth. And we had big success improving un plaza, china town and 24th and bart but immediately at 15th and mission and mission between 8 and ninth. I want to take a moment i will do this throughout my report and acknowledge staff. The w they have been doing is amazing. Mike lennon. Greg. Jessica, and john del brats have been at the forefront of this Enforcement Effort and deserve the credit i want to acknowledge them public low. I want to let them know because well is funding in the budget for this program and in the process of hiring new staff theyll be happy. The Enforcement Efforts are more throughout the city. Moving on another item we talked about several times with you before exit spoke last time was the impact of the 12x legislation to the city administrative code. The 12x legislation was pass in the upon 2016, and this is the legislation and the admin code provision this restrict the city from traveling to or doing business with states that have voting restrictions reproductive or abortion restrictions or antilgbt q legislation that totals 30 states in the country that is significant. A few things have happened. One, tuesdays board of supervisor hearing, five members of the board lead by supervisor mandelman, introduced a memo and asked the City Administrators Office to look at the impacts of the 12x legislation and possible low come back with recommendations to amend it or remove it all together. I think this was done because San Francisco is the only jurisdiction that has such man datd restrictive language on the book. It restricts what the city and countryy can do. The state of california bans travel for states that have some of the restrictive piece of legislation but still allows the state to do business. In addition, the boards budget and legislative analyst completed analysis. There was discussion about what is impact of that. Have we quantified that. The boards budget and analyst did that. They determined the impact was 10 to 20 increase for the cost doing service the bidding press is in the complete we made available to the potential suppliers whether construction, tomorrows and supplies or professional services. That for public works and the city equals millions. I think with that legislation done bid boards budget and analyst, combined with the efforts that will help by the Administrators Office we will see move am and changes potential low of policy in that area. The board has asked the city administrator to report back by spring. As the analysis goes forward we will keep you in the loop and, wear of that situation. I will focus on staff. Im very excited the staff here in the room and listen to announce we hired karen hill as our new Human Resource director. So karen over see Human Resource for public works and sanitation and streets department. We are very excited have her. Show hen on board for a month and made significant improve ams and hiring times and improving our processes. Karen is with us 25 years of experience and literally all areas of Human Resources from acquisition, labor relations, payroll, workers compensation. Workforce development. She served at the director of staffing for the d. Public healing. And previously worked for the public utilities, Child Support services and the Municipal Transportation Agency see has a wide variety of understanding and experience. Brings a commitment to addressing inequalities. Advancing equity initiatives and creating a culture of transparency, which is something public works and sanitation streets need. We welcome karen the most important time think you know we are creating our own H R Department for the first time. And i want to im in a thankful mood thank the City Administrators Office for the Tremendous Service they provide over the year in Human Resource. Speaking of staff highlight you and make you aware of the transition in the Administrators Office with prop b team. Rachael alonzo, Elizabeth Ramos and douglas leg instrumental in the effort in setting up this commission. So theyll be transitioning out of full time roles nought commissions on board and both are in the solid state. And they are on the back end providing technical guidance. Support on as needed basis. So i want to thank them on behalf of the d. Director short and the executive team and irrelevant thank them for their incredible w than i have done the past yearch to say that they handled the complexity and the details and the over all challenges creating 2 new commissions their work was phenomenonal. 2 items quick is last week or earlier this month we had our annual employee healing fair this is manage we do annually effort with public work staff and the sanitation and streets department. We hold the fair on 2323 Caesar Chavez and run a shelths back and fourth from 49 south van ness so staff can go. We had kaiser staff join us and gave 130 flu shots for staff and had 17 vendoros board from Health Services to employee assistant programs to deferred compensation to help staff with their health. Mental health. It was a big success we also organized workshops and had staff lead events taichi. Self defense and cardio. An afternoon to think about your health. Get medical screens. Learn the opportunity and tools at the for employees. Over all we had 200 uponpates. And i really again want to thank the Health Service system and have a core group the connect team there are a dozen staff they take the lead in organizing the events. Bringing in the vend and i way to improve moral and help our employees remain Health Competence productive. Finally i wanted to highlight one more that we have done with employees. That was irrelevant to celebrate the latin x heritage month. A group of employees with Natalie Vargas and erika ruiz and patti solice. They had an among series of events to talk about art. Music. Dance, food, language to celebrate the latin x heritage month with one of the most amazing pot luck events i have been to the food was amazing and the turn out was phenomenonal. Staff from operations and from 49th south van ness came. And iment to say im highlighting the event its is important that i think we do i want to let the commissioners know. We take pride in having the types of events black history or asian america ve american, Pacific Islander events lgbtq events to learn about diversity and build and foster a community and improve collaboration in the department. Thank you for the opportunity to talk on director shorts behalf. Im here for questions. Thank you. Thank you very much. I would like to go on the record and express the commissions also our excitement and appreciation to mr. Almeida and his team for delivering Southeast Community center. Some of us did tour it it was an impress of building. It was stunning. I cant imagine the community will not embrace it and use it heavy low temperature is a love low facility. Thank you very much to all of you for that city asset. I like to thank the dpw team for continuing the vendor permitting program. And i know it is in the easy guheartning to hear we have staff this are out successful low. Further, im pleaseed see our commission was on cutting edge of the 12x effort and hard to see other diameters and city leadership is ticking a look at that legislation and will look forward to hearing what the results are in spring. That was great. Thank you very much the i feel this ask responsive to when we asked for. And like the commission to be on the record as well karen hill head of hr at dpw and look forward to meeting her and wish her the best and pleased show is here. Again, we said it before but will say again the cao office teams that lead the transification that you mentioned, we have been benefited directly from their work for months. And you have the inside vow we had a bit but it was very impressive i cant imagine how much work went in i saw the results. Months of work for and see it for a day but thank you to that cao staff. Sorry to see them go. I like working with them. Im sure they will be back. Those are my comment and does the commission have comments or questions on his report. Okay. Secretary fuller will you open Public Comment on this item . Members of the public had wish to make 3 minutes of ment on item 4, the directors report, may lineup against the wall. If you are cull nothing use the call in number of 4156550001 then access code 2494 209 1629. Press star 3 to raise your hand. Looking in the chamber does in the appear we have public who are interested in speaking on the directors report. Sfgovtv, do we have members of the public when expressed interest in speaking on this item . We have no members of public interested in speaking on this. There are no further Public Comments on this item. If there are no questions or comments we move on to the next item secretary full are call this item. Per the change to the agenda order we will now hear the directors the director hiring report or director hiring update. Which was item 7 and now heard as item 5. The director hiring update is presented by kate howard, Deputy Director of Human Resource. This is an informational item. Can good morning, commissioners. Kate howard, Deputy Director from Human Resource. Happy to be here with you fwaen and mr. Vied a brief update to you on the process that you are about to emb on to recrew a new director of public workings. When we met last time you asked hr to reach out to prequalified recruitment firms to identify firms that may be interested in working with the commission. We have done this. We did extend the sponse period in order to try to solicit additional firms to convey interests. We will close that opportunity to respond on monday. And we will be back in front of you i believe on the fourth. Your next meeting with at least one and hopeful low more than one firms for to you consider. Who might best support nut recruitment. I mentioned our goal now is to retin that executive recruiter for you. And i think you know this, but the there are 2 scenario that are were managing now. First is if prop b passes and we are cubing you are conduct one recruitment for a public works director responsible for both the public works responsibilities as well as sas responsibilities. And in that case, the recruiter would work with you and my recommendation would be they out reach to the sas commission. And get their input about critical kwults that they think are needed. And they would work with you to post that announcement. Should prop b fail, recruitment for director and the sas commission would conduct for the sas director. We do have a recruiter that is on holds for that recruitment. And so we are continuing the update until we know happy to answer questions. May have and look forward to providing a more actionable update at your next meeting thank you temperature does in the surprise me that this will have to wait until after the election so we know. Thank you for that update. Questions or comments from commissioners on this item . Secretary fuller, open Public Comment on this item. Members of the public had wish to make 3 minutes of comment on this item the director hiring update, miline up against the wall in the chamber. If you are calling in dial 4156550001 then access code 2494 209 1629 press story 3 to enter the queue. Looks like there are no members here in the chamber looking to speak on this. Sfgovtv, do we have members of the public in the queue wishing to speak on this item . We do not. We have no further Public Comment on this item. Any other further comments or questions from the commission . If not i will close by thanking you ms. Howard and saying we are relaxed and friend low and warm up and fuzzy today we will ramp up our concern after the election because we want to new director hired as much as the staff wants a new director and we want to return mrs. Short. We are nice today but may get grouchy in the weeks ahead [laughter]. Thank you we look forward to bringing back recruiters for your consideration so the commission can get moving on this. Im sure you will. Thank you very much. All right. We will move on to item what was 5 on the agenda the consent calendar routine matters. Director fuller call this item. Item 5 is the consentical dar of routine matters. And this is the first on the commission using the consent calendar the minutes and finings for hybrid meetings. Future agendas include contracts boost threshold for approval this are below the threshold to be considered individual low on the regular calendar. Items may be pulled from the consent up until the consent calendar passage and if you commissioners, if you know this you want an item pulled from consent for individual consideration, and know ahead, please contact mow so the department has time to prepare a presentation and it is meant to expedite business to concentrate on larger item require individual consideration. The consent is an action item. I do hear a motion and second to adopt the consent calendar of routine matters . So moved. Ir will second. We will turn to Public Comment. Member hos wish to make 3 minutes of comment on item 5 the adoption of consent may lineup against the with you in the which i am ber. If you are call nothing dial 4156550001 then access code 2494 209 1629 then star 3 to enter the queue. Looking out in the audience it does in the, pore we have members in the chamber who are interested in speaking on the passage of the consent calendar. Sfgovtv, do we have members in the queue who want to speak . And appear we dont have members wishing to speak on this item that concludes Public Comment. Why is there debit on this motion . All in favor of adopting consent say, aye. Aye. Anyone opposed say, neigh. Motion passes. Secretary fuller will publish the adopted minute to the commission website. We move on now to item 6a. Mr. Fuller call that item. Item 6 is the regular calendar to be considered the irrelevant if item is 6a, the western edition area traffic signal upgrade phase one construction contract award. Per prop b2020, this mission authorizeed, prove all contracts entered into by the department t. Is heard as a regular item in accordance with the contract approval delegation policy adopted by this commission on september second of 22. And according to the delegation policy contracts below certain thresholds are approved by the director. 6a a conrecollect for public works improve am the Contract Value of 6 Million Dollars is above the 1 Million Dollars threshold to be considered boy this commission. And the Contract Value is also above the 5 Million Dollars threshold to be considered individually. It is on a regular agenda. And to be heard individually. And Deputy Director Financial Management and administration Bruce Robertson will introduce it and the project manager. This is our first contract were bring before the commission we have a strong [inaudible] in electric Engineering Section handle thanksgiving contract and an example of public works delivering for another Client Agency delivering this project for the Municipal Transportation Agency. You will see how the interaction work and how critical it is we work with our agency. I wanted introduce that and take advantage of the excitement we have for this first contract. Thank you. Good morning im [inaudible] project manager for [inaudible] of Engineering Section. Im excited be here today. I have a brief presentation to provide more about the western edition area traffic signal project. Agenda item in front of you today is our request to approve the award San Francisco public work contract western edition traffic significant until upgrade. 6. 1 Million Dollars to bay area live work to Traffic Safety improvements at 16 location in thes western edition area. My [inaudible] exempt money it does not have any potential impacts on the environment. There would be phase twoft western edition contract. Anticipate the [inaudible] next year. We will start with prosecute voiding the project over view. Background of the project and project location and move to the scope of work. Project schedule. And analysis and Commission Action request. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is in the process of upgrading all of these 1, 200 traffic significant untils including installation of new pole, [inaudible] pedestrian signal. Larger signal. [inaudible] and upgrade electric infrastructure. The aim is 3 fold. Traffic significant until safety. Especially for but not Pedestrian Safety to improve transit infectious by timing signal to prioritize municipal and he keep the infrastructure in good repair. In this contract mta identify existing significant until and nonsignal intersection where upgrade of the currently traffic signal equipment install new equipment. This location chosen by mta for reasons. Including muni, combination of other factors such as heavy Traffic Volume and pedestrian activity. Work is located at intersection in the western edition neighborhoods including the golden gate avenue and fulton street corridors. Laguna and sutter. Laguna and turk and buchanan and turk. The scope of work consists of installing new signals. Beacon, and speed [inaudible] signal accessible pedestrian signal [inaudible] larger signal heads and updated the complying curb ramp. [inaudible] traffic signal help reduce the number of pedestrians in the crosswalk and how pedestrian determine whether or not that there is time left to cross at intersection safely. The oddable signal will help those who may be visual impaired pedestrian indication. Ad a compliant curb ramps that people with disability can use to same transition to a curb and vice verse a. Infrastructure project in the public right of way. There would be some disruption but traffic signal installation themselves do not cause inconveniences. The project will include new curb ramps but we will be able to maintain access during the construction. We prefer the curb ramp installation in a caddy corner fashion. 2 corner at a time with a typical construction duration of 1 and a half weeks 2 corner done at the same time 3 weeks total for the curb respect at all 4 corners. The project also typically necessitate cond wit transit industry that does in the have major traffic impact. It is possible that parking may be temporary removed but that is little parking right at the significant until light intersection. Because sfmta Daylight Program this remove parking to give pedestrian and driver better visibility of each other. Traffic will be reroutes as needed with the plan determined by sfmta. Mounted addresses in one block of the project site and [inaudible] send notice to the board of supervisor office. [inaudible] posted site and project information post on the website. Posting include Contact Information if people they have concern or question about the project. And we have week low construction meeting during that time we will see if there is issue help in the during construction. We will adjust it as soon as possible it is how we mitigate the impact during construction. The contract schedule is from november 2022may 2024. Contract is 548 calendar days. When we determine the contract duration there are a lot of factors. The number of intersections and especially you in we have the current supply chain issue equipment takes languager than before. So. And also the electric contractor shortage. And [inaudible] the plan as we try to minimize the negative impact to resident and business in this area so this we dont want to open up all the street and then the construction in multiple intersections we kneel feel that would less negative impact to the people there. The opening on july 6 this year. We received 4 bids on the contractor. The lowest birder is bay area work the 6. 1 million. Our original engineering cost estimate is 6. 9. When you compare the our engineer estimate and the average bid we received it is close to 100 comper seed the lowest bidder it is roughly 88 . So the bid came in 800 thousand dollars below our engineering estimate. So that mean that there is no need for additional funding of this project. Our public work finance work close low with mta to determine the Funding Source for project but ultimate low the mt adetermined the Funding Source. For this project, it is consist of 3 Funding Source. First is San Francisco transportation. And road improvement general Obligation Bond approved by the voters in 2014. It is 5. 2 million. And the other 2 is a combination of prop circumstance funding from county Transportation Agency. Which is a half cent subtax for upon funding street and Traffic Safety project. The left is llpe a state Grant Funding from the road repair act of 2017. Which is dedicated to transportation improvement. In conclusion we recommend commission, ward San Francisco public work contract western edition traffic signal upgrade 6. 1 million for 548 consecutive days to perform safety improvements at 16 location in the western edition neighborhood. With that, im happy to answer questions you may have. Thank you. And i want to thank you for addressing a number of the questions i sent ahead. I appreciate that attention. But one of them still unclear on is why we are being asked to approve 6. 1 if it costs 6 opinion 9 that is our mate not the project cost. When we advertise for project we put our engineer estimate to the contract. Actually the contractor bid on the project for 6. 1 million. That is how much they will pay for the contractor. Does the engineering experts feel the job can get done for 6. Within if than i thought it would be sick opinion 9. Job will be done 6. 1 million thats the contractor they bid. The 6. 9 is when our engine estimate. So it is our estimate we estimate how much haneedses to complete the construction 6. 1 is the actual bid came in. 800,000 from other sources. Commissioner post, so when a press like this happens a cost estimate is put forward the city said this is the scope of w and our estimate of what we think it could take. You can see how sir put up the multiple bids and put out for tinder the patriot sector had bids put forward each is had they thought they could do the work for. Some were in excess of 7 million the lowest 6. 1 they believe than i can do the work that estimate they were begin than i think they do it for less and the stele is prosecute pose to award them bazod this. We help they are correct. [laughter]. That is a difference from the estimate. So. Next for explaining that is clear y. We will see that every time the public works come before us with proposals. See when this estimate was. And will see what the proposals came in for. Makes sense. Thank you. Lets see, i think that you i had a question. About the work. On speed radar signs does anybody have a thought or know if they are effective versus just posting a speed limit j. Im sure they cost more than putting up a sign that says 25 miles per hour. Do we need them. Mta they have the expert in designing the traffic significant until system for this project. They determine the most effective method and the traffic signal safety. Yes. It is their decision. They determine this. Gi,000 is in the your area i did not know. Thank you. Again, prebl not a portion of the cost of the project but every dollar count in saving taxpayer machiney why not plus they are annoying. I was curious. Thank you very much i appreciate you arounding them in advanced. Questions or comments from my fellow commissioner sns not a question. Thank you it was a thorough presentation. Thank you. All right is there a motion and second. Joy will move. Second. Great. Given the motion we turn to Public Comment. Members of the public had wish to comment on 6 athe award of construction for western edition traffic significant until upgrade phase one may lineup. If you are call nothing dial 4156550001 then access code 2494 209 1629 and press story 3 to enter the queue. To raise your hand please press story 3 to speak. Looking around there are no members wish to speak on this item in person. Sfgovtv, do we have any folk who is have raised their hand in the queue . We have one member. Please unmute them. You will have 3 minutes to speak and i will provide you with a 30 sect warning. Im on the computer not the phone now. You are still very faint. If could speak directly in your microphone as possible. Go ahead with your 3 machines. It is david pillpel on this item several thoughts i believe this is the first contract to come before the commission. And i think this is a good effort but i think we are not quite there. On in particular my concern relito ceqa under chapter 31 of the administrative code. I dont believe all of the requirements have been conployed with. Although they [inaudible] stage 4 of the agenda, this item does in the say this is approval action under chapter 31. On item 6a, which is required and consistent with other boards and commissions. In particular sections 31. 08. Specific reporter s. The staff report is thin the be property agsz was comprehensive butt one page staff report with details without verbiage is not as complete as it could be. It does not complain which intersections and locations is signals which are upgrades and beacons and different work. All of that. The math is helpful but stories with the staff report limp is a reference to the environmental determination but only on page 2 and the summary. Staff reportful it is not referenced in the resolution that where as clause that says city planning determinations. The case number and the date that is not present and i think is the problem. My suggestion and dialogue with staff as to urgency and he options how to proceed to consider putting the next meeting im happy to communicate off line. The staff report and the resolution. I assume the work is meaningful and important and not interested in getting in the way of the work. I think it is important moving forward to have the contract Staff Reports consistent and comply with the law. Thank you very much. Thank you for sharing your comments there are no other members of the public when wish to speak that concludes Public Comment on this item. Thank you. Is there debate on this motion. No. Mr. Toms may we use voice votes or must we have a roll call vote on action items. You can do either. Thank you. Hearing no debit all in favor of awarding the western edition traffic signal upgrade contract 6. 1 million duration of 548 days to perform traffic significant until improvements say, aye. Aye. Anyone opposed say, neigh. Motion passes. Thank you, commissioner employs item 6b. Mr. Fuller. 6b it is over view of the public Ws Department infrastructure design and construction be project Management Bureau. Patrick riveral present this is an informational item. Im Patrick Riverat acting Bureau Manager for project management in the infrastructure design and Construction Division. I have been in this role for 3 combroers with San Francisco public works for 33 years. Our job today and in the infrastructure design and Construction Division is project delivery through collaboration and coordination with our burroughs of engineering, Construction Management, streets and mapping and office of Financial Management and administration and sister agencies. Today i will provide an over view of the bureau of project management and the variety of Infrastructure Projects we manage. The bureau has a staff of 16 project managers plus administrative staff. 7 sections focusing on programs and projects in the street rightofway. D the 7 are Market Street, bridges, curb ramp program, Infrastructure Task force, muni forward, the paving program and street scapes. The better Market Street program is managed pie kristina olaa3 goals for the better Market Street place, motional and economic development. Place, the goal is to make Market Street the secretary sustainable street in San Francisco and the bay area. Creating a active identity with gathering spaces, healthy urban forest and i have brandt public life. Mobility, the goal to optimize reliability, safety and efficiency and comfort for transit users. Those who walk and those who chos to bike. And last leave economic development. The goal to ensure all improvements and plans are coordinated with redevelopment efforts to foster economic productive, healthy and resilient corridor with sustainable under ground infrastructure. The better Market Street project limits from stewart to octavia. The improvements broken in phases of work and segments. The first phase started construction in august and focuses on traffic signal upgrades new curb ramps, repaving and street improve am ams this is between fifth and eighth the contractor is performing pot hoeing and active construction work. January. The next step in the better Market Street to identify as well as the funding. The next section is bridges. By the 3 main bridges we manage the third street Fourth Street bridge and islace creek bridge rerabbed in 2006 and the third street bridge at Mission Creek was rehappen in the 2020. The creek bridge is planed be replaced with an if i canned bridge. We are in the environmental approval phase and construction is planned for 2025. We also work in the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. Removal of the geary benefitted pedestrian bridge at steiner. The picture in the middle there. The next section is curb r. Program. Curb ramp program managed by lee. The goal is to provide paths of travel at public sidewalks through the construction of curb ramps at street corners. There are roughly 41,000 curb r. Locations within the city. 3,000 of the corners have curb ramps in good condition, 4 thousand are in fair to Poor Condition and 7,000 have no ramps. The programs curb ramp goal this year is to construct 150 curb ramps with funding. The projected goal is to have 940 curb r. S construct third degree fiscal year. Since fiscal 2019 there have been sick,000 curb r. S in the city. Am the next section is Infrastructure Task force. Managed boy john thomas. The Infrastructure Task force is the central hub for coordination of horizontal Design Review. Permit and acceptance of Public Infrastructure for awful learning scale housing proktss the task force guides Housing Delivery agency and Development Partners throughout complex Design Review with the goal of completing it in the firefighterest time possible. Current Development Projects on the slide that the Infrastructure Task force are working on treasure island. Mission rock phase one, and Hunters Point and candlestick phase 2. A few more projects they are wing on not pictured are Plumbers Union on market between 12 and goth. Mission bay. Parkmerced and balboa reservoir employed the next is muni forward section. This is managed by [inaudible]. The san front Municipal Transportation Agency Muni Forward Program includes engineering improvements designed to address transit delay, improve reliable and increase the safety and comfort of use eshs along the heavy low used routes. These engineering improve ams include transit bulbs. Relocating and removing bus stops. Traffic signal upgrades to improve traffic flow and make green lights likely for buss. Pedestrian significant until up grids to give peopling walking a head start, and corn are bulb out to shorten crossing distances and people walking visible to motorists. The San Francisco Transportation Agency is our cline and provide the project management, design and Construction Management services for them. Upon the section managed by are money. Public works maintains 9 streets 12,000 blocks the program mix sure our streets are safe and min tained the condition is electroniced by the Metro Transportation commission which rates each on a scale or pavement index score within to 100. With 100 being a new paved street. Made tremendous progress over the past decade improving streets over all pave am score is 74. Categoried as good compare to the bay area average. Challenge improving the condition index related to funding. Our budget for this year is 73 Million Dollars and our goal is to pave 500 block this is maintain our score at 74. The first is 55ment index score we follow the Transportation Commission strategy of just in time. This strategy, lus us topate most streets to prevent streets from drop to a Poor Condition. Will load to cost low repairs. The next is multimodal routes identify those use thosed by muni or support bikes. The third is project redness and coordination with Utility Companies and agencies. The goal avoid dig up a new paved street. Under ground work to proceed any paving work. All the Agency Opportunity where than i form work or choose to join our repaving project. Many paving projects are joint pave and sewer cord naft with the puc and include their sue are work in our paving contracts. The next factor inkwoirys. We receive from the public and investigate, evaluate and if the street is in need of resuris programmed to resurfisting. And equal distribution of streets to make sure we are not just focusing on one specific your. The next is the street scape program lead by michelle w u. Street scape section manages projects that involve street make overs and corridor beautifications the project managers engage the community and neighbors during planning and design phases collecting ideas and w with our client departments to bring vision in reality. Examples of completed projects from left to right include 21 to 22nd. Fern alley from larkin to polk. Masonic it geary. Street Plaza Harrison and 16th. Jefferson from powell to hyde and broad from powell to columbus. Current projects from octavia, harrison from first. Potrero gate way a block frequent on 17th vermont to san bruno the Community Driven project and joyce alley way lighting from clay to sacramento. Public mechanic am project with scope, schedule and budget for all 5 face from start to finish. The gospel each project manager is to complete the project on time, within budget, quality project and build trust with departments and the team. Leftier we advertised 23 Construction Projects totalling 160 Million Dollars. We have a hard working and dedicated staff of managers and support staff and im prud to be a part of the team. This concludes my presentation on the project management and can answer questions you may have. Thank you mr. Rivera. What would be helpful from the future is mr. [inaudible] your team when we have informingal presentations like this if we can start out with an charter we had an organize chart that showed the direct reports and the divisions and so this way we can place you in context. Im having trouble picturing in the org charter who you are and who you report to. Men in the future when we have dpw presentations where we get a close look at a division or a subdepartment we can start with the org chart to say, now i see where this puzzle piece fit in and it will help us in the presentations and ask questions. Okay. Great. If you could do this. I did not have questions do other commissioners have comment or question . Yes, nicely didnt mr. Rivera you said the upper Market Street work was upper market from octavia to howard. I many castro that way. Commissioner newhouse segal. Thank you, chair for asking about the how the organization charts. Similar to this, i want to thank you for describing the paving program. And how we interact with other agencies and because that is manage that our citizens are asking about and being at large member on the commission that is i feel that is something i should know about. Good to know you are working on this. I like to know in terms of the street scape. How does this relate to the Parklet Program this it is going on in terms of restaurants and Small Businesses building out so naduring the pandemic than i have more out door activities and who how are we i dont expect you to teach us this at this point it is very complicated and a work in progress and involves other agencies. I would like for somebody at some point to either doesnt have to be present the at our meetings but for us to see where we in terms of horizontal design approximate where we fit in that. The street scape program is separate from parklet. The parklet has itself own measure for this one. Upon i dont know if mr. Robertson wants to clarify. Commissioner, we can provide a presentation on the street scape program in the shared Spaces Program there are nuances the shared space is just street scape program. Verification of street segment and communities and that is tree plaza. And examples and the design and construction bowero of street use and mapping handles parklets and street spaces. Great thing they are under albert ko there is coordination and inneraction there. We have a demonstration and show you where Planning Department is involve said as well. We can provide that. Thank you. Commissioner post mentioned that would be helpful we want to do our job and be able to explain to the people we representative had we are doing. Thank you very much. We appreciate all your work. Hearing no comments or questions sect fuller open Public Comment. Members of the public who wish to make 3 minutes of comment on item 6 b the infrastructure design and construction project Management Bureau over vow may lineup for if you are in the hearing room or if you are call nothing dial 4156550001, access code 2494 209 1629 then star 3 to enter the queue. Looks like we dont have mixture of public had lined up to make ment on this in person. Sfgovtv, do we have members of public in the queue . There are no members called in to peek on this item. We have no further Public Comment. Fourth discussion or comments from commission . We will move on to item 6 c. Secretary full are cull this item. Item 6c is a presentation on public works employee and Department Development presented by a Team Includes deputy correct of policy and communication Beth Rubenstein to provide Environmental Services Guillermo Perez. Trin and learning manager nancy chin approximate performance manager Alexander Bido this is an informational item. Good morning, commissioners. Im Beth Rubenstein Deputy Director of policy and communication and the lead of the Racial Equity initiative. This section of of your agenda which is employee and Organizational Development. Includes 4 piece. Well hear about rishl equity initiative. Hear about public works dwrfrt. Strategic plan and the 2022 Employee Experience survey. All under this Employee Organization development piece. These 4 initiatives they all address the following questions. How do we invest in improvement and strife to be a better deputy. Credit a work accomplice of inclusion and belonging the values and skills in each employees. And ensure as steward of the right of way we serve every nishgd in an effective and equal manner. The of first part are of this presentation is the Racial Equity initiative. Im excited be here with my clothes there is a Multiracial Group across the department thap lead this is Initiative Im the lead. And Patrick Rivera is per of our working group and Guillermo Perez could not be here at the last minute but will hear from alexander who is on our upon group of Bruce Robertson was a Founding Member but no long are a part it. Mr. Robertson talked about the tw events in the last couple weeks the health fair and lettin x pot luck they were happy events we were together in person as a department. Has not happen in the 21 2 years and hundreds at each event in from both cites that was huge. And at the health fair on last wednesday the Racial Equity team had a table talking to hundreds of folks we were focused on mental helling for black, indigenous and people of color. And the latin x pot luck and month long celebration the first time we did it. There were 30 people who stepped up and the Racial Equity team helping leading from behind. We helped this group step up to organize and i want to mention it come out of a black History Month committee started 6 years special Building Design and Construction Team was employee driven and the idea is to credit a culture of inclusion and belong. So, i am here with my colleagues [inaudible] tailor we do a tag team about Racial Equity. Why is the Department Addressing Racial Equity competence when do we 19 . We are it is the right thing to do. There is data demonstrating people of color in our community have not had equal access to jobs, education, health care, housing and Family Wealth because of institutional racism affects our work lips and the way we deliver service. In addition, legislation was passed by the board and signed by the mayor in august 2019. 3 years ago. That required all departments to create an action plan to implement those and report on progress to the board of supervisors. To do this our work route in the the understood definition of Racial Equity. About full access to opportunity, power and resource all people may tloif and prosper regardless of their racial identity. There has been a history of arlington way of saying it is Racial Equity about applying justice and a bit of common sense to a system that is out of balance. When the system is out of balance people color feel impacts. But to be clear, imbalanced system makes all of us pay. So an person distinction is understandings the difference with equity and equality. Equality assumes zee the same need addressed by the same solution here we get the same crate to look over the wall that is not the situation in the communities. In have privileges others dont. Privileges that are based on race, gender lgbt and ableness. We have different needs. Equity sebase on each us have different advantages and disadvantages and different needs to attain access and opportunity. One person needs 2 crates one a ramp check out the 5 minute video it is powerful and quick. And funny. So i want to introduce my colleagues to do the next piece. Upon good morning commissioners im [inaudible] i [inaudible] project manager. Beth mentioned we are a Diverse Group and the Racial Equity working group of launched september 2019 that is 3 years ago. And we are from the different sections in the public works. We cut cross the burroughs positions. We have the managers among us. We have expertise in project management p. Of upon training. Professional development, communication, Design Performance and data. Street operations finance and organizational change. And except for dedicated time for rishl equity. This w is done outside of our daily work. Our work is woven in our Strategic Plan. Employee engagement survey, training offerings and the departments process improve am work. 5 us. We are all part of the racial working equity group. We are noftd subject experts in the racialing equity and [inaudible] organization but with our resources to hire subject matter started this project committed and emotionally invested and irrelevant dedicated to the process. Individuals and collectively after 3 years still going strong. And we committed to educating ourselves and colleagues lending best practices in the field and leaning on city wide Racial Equity clothes we lone on the city wide office of Racial Equity and he Government Alliance on race and equity. A National Network of municipal governments working toward rishl equity. In spite of covid pandemic and the awareness of the inequity in our country. Working group has been in the conversation about race and racism and during deep research to work accomplice and department. The peer to peer leadership has been very powerful. Formula for success groosz root organizing. Working part of our working group and this equals organizational change. It canting to which down or bottom up. Work to change hats in the hope was changing policies and procedures. In the past couple of years we focus on phase one of the Racial Equity action left lane that addresses creating a racial low equal work place. What that mean system a work place where one or each employee can tloif and reach potential. Racially equitable work place where everyone has access to information and presses and assignments are implemented. In fall 20 between the working group did out reach to gather experiences and ideas on how racism affects individual and as an organization. About 400 public Work Employee or quarter of the workforce participated. Took time and courage to step in this difficult but necessary conversation. In addition, we did the deep i do in our workforce demographic dastasm priorityos action items laid out in the Racial Equity action plan. Are rooted in the the data the fourth phase focus on work place culture, programs and policies. Phase 2 develop in the 2023, is out ward facing and will address how the department deliver its services. The graphic that you see before you the 5 Priority Areas to achief 18 racist organization and the values and foundation of our work and this was from the voices we had and the surveys we conducted. Empower front line workers broaden diversity of staff at all levels. Support and train managers, we think disciplinary processes and action. And create career path ways. [inaudible] spot light Racial Justice. Our Research Peer lead programming including this 2 model projects. Inspection foundation an i do in the history of public works through a Racial Equity 11 and spot light Racial Justice and in house series of interview with multirishl group of our staff. I was one of those that did a pod cast sharing my experience. In the last 3 years we have been guided by 3 steps to organizational change. One, conversation about racism and rishl equity. 2, organizationing and building staff organizational capacity around Racial Equity. Prescriptional quality practices tool in our decisionmaking. This slide highlights the work of the last 3 years the workforce focused on normalizing and organizing. Thank you. And i will bring this become up to speak on behalf of guillermo. Hi. I know mr. Fuller has given you the rishl equity action plan 180 page document that obviously proud of and it is high borrow for us to address. It was collaborative we researchs and written by the by the Racial Equity working group and executive team. And part of the plan there is a lot of data. We loneod workforce did thea and did thea from Employee Survey i will highlight but encourage to you look at the data. To electric at workforce through a Racial Equity lens one of the 3 terms mean. Diversity, are there rishl low diverse staff at all levels in the organization. Andent relevel positions. In terms of equity do all staff whether or not they w in a desk or the field have access to information to commercial opportunity and training . And in terms of inclusion each feel valued and sense of belanguaging is the culture welcoming. Genetics first graph of Workforce Data included in the Racial Equity action plan. The data can be difficult to look at as it pin points the work place and tells a complex story. We are a racial low diverse department. You see on the left column is the Department Wide includes public works and sanitation and streets and the demographic the racial diversity. When you look close low you see the truth of job segregation. So on the left column the department and 4 other comcolumns is division. Sanitation and streets the 3 to the right. Infrastructure, dine and belling dine and finance and administration. The difference of racial diversity is noticeable among divisions. In all the cases in the 3 divisionless we are focusing on we see a lower prosecute portion of black and latin x staff inform the 3 divisions, the acronyms i use those, we have 9 , 6 and 10 of black staff the department as a whole has 21 black staff. Less then and there half of average. Likewise we have 13 , 12 and 13 of latin x staff the department as a hole has 18 . About 30 less inform all cases, these 3 divisions are majority white and asian. What dot numbers tell us it is a nuanced story we need time but to begin, they actuals the divisions are in thes diverse as the department of the missing out on the voices experiences and skills of blk and latin x staff am hiring practice need to be examined to understand the root causes. Special we need to look at our organizational culture. Are we successful in retaining black and latin x staff. We look at racial diversity. We are looking at the whole department including prescriptions and street and sanitation. The data put together. And we are looking at in rep to all of public works. The first thing we notice the racial diversity of nonmanagement position alines with the departments. Like the nonmccp is about the same as all public works. But management does not. The lone does not. It is 24 white. 52 of management is white and 2021 there are no alaska, native, pacific i landser managers. Asian, black and lettin x staff were less in management positions. Managers make the top level decision. Set policies and procedures and their role model and mentors for staff and managers as a class managers need to be diverse to represent a diverse set of opinions and experiences. Managers have the highest saul reese. This chart speak to the job segregation the saul row disparity among racial groups. These numbers and in the job segregation and here the tables and graphs and action plans. We look at the average hourly rate by race in our department. The disparity is shocking. The average hour low rate for white employee for all 4 divisions and 55 an hour. The average hour low rate for Asian American is 51. Average for latin x is 45 and the average hour low rate for black employee is 39 dollars. We have a range from 39 to 55 dollars. This is data that gut punch and challenges us. The kausz of the inequity are men. Historic job segregation and education and racist systems excluded people of color. We did not create the systems but they are the waters we swim in and another way to look the house we inherited and need to do renovations. So. With there in minds look forward in 2223 inform this year our goals to build capacity to make change in policy, procedures and culture at public works. To do this we will hire we have on the road to hiring 2 Racial Equity Staff Members subject Matter Experts. We are excited. We will be hiring Racial Equity consultants. And we are excite body this. They will do more trinning and offer more rishl equity programming. And broadening our leadership we have 60 people across the 3 divisions this are leading programming and leading committees on action items and with our new hr director karen hill we are excited work on action items related hr, which is huge. The last 2 slides are about the commissions. And so part of the office of Racial Equity w than i made recommendations for commissions in terms of Racial Equity and he you know the prop b committee has those as well. In the plan, the action items addressed the commission and they are ensure the commissioners representative the communities that public works serves. Ensurety commissioners are updated with Racial Equity knowledge, trinning and tools. Support commissioners and evaluating policies, projects and budget through Racial Equity lens and ensure meetings are accessible and all people. And then the last of slide is so the plan as well as the prop b over site and Accountability Committee recommendless the commission enact the following. Quarter low monitor the Racial Equity work of the department and i know mr. Full are calendared the updates for you. We are on electronic for you this. Collect commission Demographic Data and included in our annual report. Open meetings with i land acknowledgment currently the board of supervisors and over 10 other commissions are doing this. A lands acknowledgment im sure know but the statement acknowledges the Ramaytush Ohlone were the first people of San Francisco and the lands was taken from them. And i think the acknowledgment is important it is a moment to grounds ourselves in the history of the land. Which is of interest to our department we are stewards of public rightofway it has a resonance. And then lastly, that as part of your on boarding and trin thering is rishl equity trainings as well. And this is sure have the knowledge. In closing we want to be an organization of inclusion and belonging. We are all staff can tloif and San Francisco communities with be resources and served equally. We look forward to working with you and furthering the conversation. I dont know if you. Questions now or move it on to nancy and the university. The next 3 are like each are separate but all in employee and Organizational Development. Why dont we take questions or comments on this presentation first before we go to the other 3. I will start. Thank you very much. Very interest and look forward to the hard copy plan. Can you give me specific examples of goals . Im talking concrete goals. Sure. A lot of this is talk. Backed by statistics, i want to know no talk action. Real goals and thatful can be achieved because we will spend money hiring staff and consultants and a lot of staff time as explained goes in the effort not on work hours we are asking people to do jobs and put in volunteer time on this important subject. I like to hear where the rubber hits the road and move past the talk. We know the issues. On real goals that can be accomplished in the next year, for example. Understand. You see in the okay plan there are 100 plus action items. And a couple examples of the specific action items one is this we each us have a personal racial goal in the Performance Plan that was enacted about i year ago. So and thats a huge thing. That means that we have to educate our staff about what are racial goal could be and how to intgrit that in their core work the key is around the core work of the department. Thats a specific example. There are many within hiring. So things that there are men things i say are best practices for Organizational Development that will be best practices for equity. You probably read in the chronicle the 255 day its takes to hire someone this is a huge issue in terms of equity. Who can wit for 255 dis . It is someone had has a job with the city or is personal low wealth e. Things like supplemental question bunkham you we do introduce. What are the barriers toent reand one thing we have been working on and excited about karen working with the new director of hr is our hiring managers and this is truthful across the city. Often they dont always know the extent which than i impact the press. Than i have been told thats not something i can do this is hrs decision and like before we had our own department in karen hill when we talk to city add administrators and admin hr, we ask them about things and say, we dont make the decision dhr does. One thing we worked on and excited work with karen is, where do we who is the decider of each of the pieces like Interview Questions and panels and how it is created there are pieces in the hiring process who is the decider the hiring manager or hr. I think it will unfold as the has continue to unfold and electric forward to hearing updates. I just get caught up on words and not action. San franciscos quest to be up front on social issues and nothing it show. I rather have less rhetoric approximate more action and pleased you begin it thought. This is not a check the box exercise. We are to change policies have you to change heart and minds, too. Commissioner post your question was great and answer. We how do we do it. That is the question. I was very moved by page 10 and 11 of the charts about the diversity management i would love to see how that related city ouied and if our department stands out in a bad way. Iveed like to seat city wide statistics. Yea. Thank you. Yea. I would like the say we are similar to other departments. And yea. I will get you that information an example is this it is easy to look and say well, you know again like we did not create this. There is a reason why we have most low white and asian engineers there are few black and lettin x engineer in schools now. People use that argument but the reality is there are a lot of black and lettin x student in engineering schools and they are in the attracted to working with us. Those art barriers we are looking at. There is historic reasons. We did not create this problem. It is majority white managers in our department but we can change it. Our public works university. You you will hear from them in i second. When i see that mentioned i want to know more about it. Does this trin people for all of these for all of these positions. Or primarily across the board or what are they trained for. Why everything you will hear from them. We asuit manager positions when you gave us the hour low pay rate, another not everybodimented to do a managerial job if the pay of nonmanager jobs was equal would this be a goal . Upon the hour low rateos page 72 in the action plan is complicated the reason yet pay is higher because there is more white people in higher payingions and i part is we have a lot of entry level a robust Entry Level Program at operations that bring in black and latin x staff but lower wage. There are issues around like unpeculiaring that information. It is in the a simple answer. Thank you. Commissioner woolford. Yes. Thank you, beth for the presentation it was thoughtful and your clothe. I appreciated your share. A couple of questions one is it would be helpful to upon understand the rep 7ational percentages of identification against the city of sudden front and the bay area. We are looking at it in a vacuum when we live and w in a place there are percentages of population. Hastruck middle east in your share was the pay inequity. That is something this would be wonderful to hear per commissioner posts comment, what the items i look forward to understanding more. And another area i would encourage you the city which has departments if you feel architects and engineer system not a vehicle um. National society of engineers and American Institute of architects are looking at the same problem because the profession [inaudible] how and where to start we are beginning an elementary, middle and high school to encourage more diverse class of folk in schools. My firm created a diversity scholarship and internship. It is beginning to diversify our practice. Thank you. And i look forward it learning more. Yea. Thank you for those comments. I will put together the demographics this makes sense. And i in terms of pay i want it make clear that range of 39 dollars to 55 is in the within the same job, right. There is piand equity by race but not like 2 people are project managers. And then also like i like your point about compare architects here versus the private sector in terms of diversity this is a great example of the time to hire getting in the way. You know. So. And the left pos is internship this is is the action items something, we are historically had a strong Summer Internship Program run by nosea and we had a strong ash prenticeship program and looking how we bring in high school inturns. Thank you very much. We will go to the next portion. Why good morning, commissioners. Im nancy chen i represent the university today. Bfrment great. Thank you. Kelly is unable to join us this morning i will spoke in her place. Im a transition from the city add administrator training and develop and our train are maria mc kay and we provided, lot of trin and learning opportunity to public works. We started with public works many years ago we are excite body coming back. Id like to offer you an over view of the university who we are and when we offer. Our goal for the university to improvech ployee engage. Learn and Development Opportunities for public works employees. Who are a great asset. We are a mall and mighty team of 5. Myself, shiv an maria our trainer and administrative analyst mar 11a cohen and our management, cystant ali. ve what do we do . All employees at every ref are given the opportunity and mandateed participate in 10 hours of learning. Thats a variety of options a formal training course. Learning a new application it is tieed Performance Plan. The university our charge is to provide the resources for 10 hours plus inform doing this, we do develop trainings internal low and clan rit with other resource. Oftentimes we work with our subject Matter Experts who are passionate about sharing their information with their colleagues. We cord naft with other city passports to have i broader depth of training the d. Human resource the 3 of Racial Equity training for managers. Work with Emergency Management to stop the trinning and sf data problem solving for supervisors and managers. E. We work with external vendors as well. And all of that is electronic exclude reported on so employees are aware of where they are with their 10 hours. Part is with Performance Management to focus and work with our employees on the Performance Plans. We guide them along the cycle. And work with employees to take advantage of the training funds. Why do we have the university 2012 public work mandated employees have the 10 hours of learning. This train and learning was provided by the city add Administrators Office. In 2014 the university of develop today provide training and learning opportunity to public works employees. You will see on the right slides examples the technical to communication skilless. Hazzard us material identification. Peer coaching. Deescalation training is person for. Os who are working out in the field. The next slights you may be upon familiar with provided a hand out a very extensive list of trainings majority are provided through department of Human Resources and the Controller Office using sf learning. I believe as commissioners you participated in some types of this train and familiar with them. Im happy to answer questions about this training should you have any. New employees a list of training. This list is going to continue to grow as the citys policies change. In january there will be i training by department of Human Resources to support respect in the work accomplice and it is in the going to be online but will be integrating hands on discussions with each d. Other resources for computer training tap in the d. Technology as well as data academy. We are working with a vendor to provide core computer skills to prescriptions staff a long determined goal. Slaberate, city university. These are resources with external educational institutions such as the uc beshg low extension, sf state and city college. This organization and group provide subsidized or free train to all City Employees. Lastly leadership training for supervisors and managers in a rused cost am the training and workshops facilitated by known leadership experts. What is next . We are in the middle of completing the Needs Assessment with managers to determine where their focus is over the next fiscal year approximate beyond. That way we will determine where we focus our efforts. The direction brought us to building and more communication skills training for supervisors and managers. As a result of this we launched swigzal leadership a program under blanchard and it offers skills in coaching as well as communication and flex at for each offer managers and supervisors to provide the different needs of employees. Another large project is new Skills Program this will launch we hope in the next quarter. With that, im happy to answer questions and im concluding my presentation. Thank you, mrs. Chin. You hit i nerve with some of us when felt asville tear commissioners our on boarding requirements were excessive and still feel that way. And looking at the list it, laterals mow to hear you say more training will be added what staff is required. I strategy low advocate that a fresh look taken with all the training and either one gets added one 10, way or may be the staff gone through enough training 23 trainings collapsed in one. Familiar they cover similar topics. It seems staff is being asked to do a lot of trinning that takes them, way from jobs, families and personal life. And i hope you will look that is required forville tears and commissioners and dpw staff should go in the opposite direction. Thats my opinion. Thank you. Commissioner post i dont think you are aapproximate lone in this opinion there has been Training Provided by different departments are relooking at how this is being rolled out as far as the frequency and as far as credit for other trainings taken in as a add and d. Technology taken a fresh look at their training and collapsed it. So there is the opportunity if you took it a year ago you can go in and answer a quick series of 3 question and guff get to skip this module. We are thankful for their ability to look at that. And i think that will be the future moving forward. Great to hear. Thank you very much. Never hurts to have a refresher but men 3 years is sufficient for some things. Thank you for giving this more thought. Commissioner newhouse segal. So i think this is fascinating thank you. I see that you work with city college. Uhhuh. Is there you mentioned im assist with union reimburse ams is this what programs as well not everything is in college, you know. No. The aprenticeship programs are separate. I was with the First Program and it changed that training is conducted separate low and worrien hill is the manager over that division. We get involved from time to time as far as special requests. There is crossover. I dont know if im answering your question. Are there actual reporter s or a curriculum for the university i would love to observe or see what what would be required or recommended for one of our staff people in a position in some position how it fitters through to what our staff in different roles are learning and i love to see them work with unions and not in a College Level but everybody work is valuable. Absolutely. May be the university the term is lofty but with the aprentice we look at readiness for work. Everyone come in with a different level of education. There are different trainings offered through the program. Collaborating with dhr lead it succeed to the supervisors. It is all in person at this point. Tell be in person the university is shifting to in person our employee orientation is in person starting next among. I would love to visit it. Joy would be happy to have you invited. Let me know if others would like to attends and i will erickson range it. If i could add a few points a lot of the apprenticeships run out of sanitation and streets more of our programs are there. And the memorandum of understands city and labor organizations. That is when she is speaking about in reimbursements for course some have thousand to 2 thousand they take courses or development accysts and men related to the trade in the just managerial course. Of upon one other is highlighted the Needs Assessment with the Division Managers and00 autotrain and part of the university was split with public works as part of Human Resources coming to public w its is come buoyant in the an arm of the Human Resource department and part of this they do a Department Wide with sanitation and streets and public works to get evaluation and over vow of what is needed. They are looking at training and some emphasized and frequently or some deemphasized. That includes sas and yes. We will serve both departments. Commissioner woolford. Would 10 hours elected y. They issue required. And is this for all employees in public works. Thank you. One thing im curious about is many, many roles in the city require a license and license requires conditioning ejsz credits am are the university required hours allowed be courses this are professional. Like low not. For example i know our engineer and architects have hours and dont know if it is annual than i look to professional organizations for this training. Would the city step some of this training as one of the 10 hours . To maintain ability to work, then that is not considered per of the learning. As far as the 10 hours we like people to go on beyond maintaining their license and to build on the skills. Are the 10 hours part of the w day hour. They are. Of all right. Is there further discussion on this part before we move on to the next part . Thank you very much. Thank you. Good afternoon commissioner members. Im alexander and im the planning and performance manager for sudden front public works. Under the Financial Management and administration division. Have been with public ws for 47 years prior the Controller Office. Im excited present 2 other important and related topic this is they employee and Organizational Development. The first is Strategic Planning and the second one is 2022 Employee Experience survey. First i like to remind people what is a Strategic Plan and combr we need it. Strategic plan is a required document for organization and include key elements like organization vision, mission, have yous and goals. We are mandated by the stele to have i Strategic Plan our Strategic Plan is more than document. It is a road map that communicates the direction and priorities of organization. To its internal and external stake holders. Our Strategic Plan serves as a compass to guide and resource allocation processes current and future needs of our customers the members of the general public or sister agencies and the needs of our workforce. Our Strategic Plan is developed monstored and improved through a Strategic Planning process the process is important as the plan and the planning process is part of the agencys tool box to improve. Public work used the plan as a living document. Since 2009 developd and monitored 4 plans. In december of 21 we paused development of i new plan to focus on prospect b of 2020. Since 2020 do you to the pandemic and many organizational changes we experienced and continue to experience the department taken the opportunity to reevaluate and modify the planning process. We hope to restory the development and implementation of the plan once changes solidify. The plans include the departments vision, values and goals and objective. Short and longterm initiatives and measures to assess the progress. January kr general low our plans cover 35 year period since we paused here are some of the key compoens of 2018, 22 Strategic Plan. Our concern vision is a forwards the organization of public trust. Care for and builted city for the people of San Francisco. Values respect, integrity and he responsibility and genomes the best accomplice it work. Provide Exceptional Service and improve and inspire stewardship of public spaces. The Strategic Plan is often balanced and support improve am in Core Services and challenges and meet the needs of our cloints and customers it also nourishes our culture. Some of our Lessons Learned from our experience include the director and leadership of the agency are champion the Strategic Plan and our workforce and stake holder ren gage instead develop and want execution of the plan. The plan reduced scyllos in the agency and offers opportunity for learn and growth at all levels. Also the plan influences with other initiatives or processes like the plan and review press and Employee Survey. Racial equity competence projects. The Strategic Plan process has also provide a way to identify opportunity for imfroufment and some of them include prioritize and focusing on efforts in similar scale on fewer items and improving how we measure success. I mention the the Strategic Plan and press is important as the plan and key to advance implementation. Here is a 5 steps of the plan in process. There will be opportunity for the commission to be engage exclude prosecute void input during the environmental phase and update on the element of the plan. Through the support or [inaudible]. Result was Charter Amendment and new director or directors will help set conscience for a new Strategic Planning cycle. We are waiting for a new director or directors we continue to improve our Planning Press and support the work of known priorities such as hiring and Racial Equity. What is next . Well, we will improve the approach development, learning and integration of the Planning Press and the use of measures. Plan to use the excellence framework best practices and lessons from experience to inform improve am in our process. Reviewing 2022 and survey results to inform and aline future Strategic Planning Racial Equity and he other Department Efforts we look forward to providing more update and working with you in make the agency the best it can be. And with that i will transition to the last project. The Employee Experience suri have of 2022. Lets start with the why. The survey xr offers an objective independent and systemic press for hearing feedback of our employees about their work accomplice. Through this process. The department learns ways to improve employs engagement. The results from the suri have inform the planning, Racial Equity training and other efforts it was begin in march of 2022. And had a toll of 20 items or questions around 6 themes. Employees prosecute voided with way its tick the suri have it give flexibility to staff to participate in the survey within their work schedule. We offered online, e mail and we offered a scheduled in person session where on site support was prosecute voided and the staff could take the suri have on line or on paper. English, spanish and chinese. The 2022 Response Rate for the Public Works Department only was higher. 87 . Comper seed 2019. The upon Response Rate of 81 . On this occasion we did not offer incentive to complete the suri have. Results of the 2022 were lower than 2019. This slide shows results grouped by [inaudible]. Employee engage am theme shows the highest with 72 . This theme is related the extent which employees feel passionate and committed to the organization, putting discretionary effort in w and willing to [inaudible]. The same growth the themes with the lowest favorability results. Both with 57 . Extent to which employees foal they are in the rightion and have the necessary skills. Knowledge and abilities to perform in their role and the growth speaks to the extent employees feel to advance their career or develop skill set in their organization. The 2 inform work and training and professionalal development for staff. The top 5 highest items. Based on response the employees rated 4 or 5. Meaning agree or strong low agree. On the one to 5 scale. The green bar. Equal sign in this slide reflects items in the typeset 5 highest item in both 2019 and 2022 survase. Positive signs reflect items now in 22 in the top 5 list. This shows 6 items there were a couple of items that were a tie. The 4 in both years are my director supervisor trusts me to do my job. I care about the results that the department achieves. My director supervisor treats mow with respect and i have when i need to be safe on the job. 2 new items in the top favorable list are my director supervisor support my professional development and growth and i understand the most important goals for my work group. The bottom upon 5 favor okay. 4 item this is show in the bottom 5 in 2019 and 2022 include, the department can recruit the right people using our existing hiring process. The department is effective in getting new employees up to speed quickly. People are prosecute moted in the department based on performance and work processes at San Francisco public works are effective. The new item of the bottom 5 this time is i feel the department is moving in the right direction with implementation of prop b. Which will explain the department suddentation and streets and public works. 2 comments. Know the language in 2018 for this question was slight low different it said i have confidence in the dreshgz of this San Francisco public w system taking. And also, this time the interpretation of the question hen challengings people may have the option of thinking about the actual split versus the opinion about the implementation of prop b. So thats a bit challenging here. Were some key bngzs about telecommuting and alternate Work Schedules include this 90 of the participates will be interested in telecommuting wing away from the work site if this option is offered for their position. 2 thirds of the participates will be interested in alternate work scheduled and 60 feel that they are much more likely more productive working from home. This slide now shows items that had the greatest improvement in favorability between 2019 and 2022. Sorted by the column favorable, percent, trends, prior year. For example, the item 35 say, employees are encouraged to share ideas improved 8 points. It went from 57 to 65 in 2022. These decreases from 2019. Are related the department providing employees tool to advance career. Of getting new employees up to speed quickly ape cullure of recognition for good performance. And another item include employees provide to work in the department and likes lihood to refer to the department as a frind as a good accomplice to work. Will strength to leverage include our sense of prid and purpose. Work place safety. Trust and respect from supervisors. Opportunity for improve. Exist in the following yours hiring and promotion, communication, better use of resources and presses to boost work efficiency. On boarding. And opportunity for continued career and skill development. Belling from our strengths and addressing the opportunity. When is next . We are be distributing and discussing results at Different Levels and brain tormenting defining priorities hope to implement from this Action Planning soon. Thank you for the opportunity to share it with you our brief updates on Strategic Plan and Employee Experience suri have the 2 topics and Racial Equity and he Training Development of employees and the agency. This condition clouds my presentation. Thank you. Thank you. I have i couple of questions regarding the Strategic Plan can you tell us when you anticipate the new one being completed . We dont have a date yet we wait for a now director to be on board. In is the main requirement. However, soon after we hope to initiate and continue woth Planning Press that will support that Strategic Planning we hope to have. That process is happening and we will know after november if we talk about one or 2 departments. Specific plans. Lets assume one. Sense you have been wing hard to re90 process this sounds like you will hit the grounds running once it is director is attained can you give us know idea does this mean a strategic splan prohibitd and red to go 60s mocks later or a year later. Ive cannot witness you had a new director how quickly do you think the departments Strategic Plan could be completed ballpark. Getting an idea if not until 2024 or may be by ends of next year. Commissioner i will tick that. Good question. Rather than speck lit on timing and we dont have all the information why dent we get become to you and we gallon through and we will sit down and come up with a road map and estimated time lines that are thorough than throwing out a date i would much rather under promise and over commit. If we can have time we will get become to you in are short order. Gi appreciate that. As soon as we have the new one that will be helpful for staff than i know when they are working under. I hope that will get happen quickly with the new director we will see and i did have a request about Employee Survey results. You shared the results with the department or supervisors and managers. Does this money you can break them out by departments as to responses and do you just so people have insoys the Department Heads have an insight how their people filled out the survey versus dpw staff. I realize it is confidential but how grant lawyer can you get it could be useful . The main ref was important thats why we retain the consulting firm. Of the main level we are sharing is that zero level we have the department. The approximate vision level and bonjour over level. Thank you very much. Comments or questions from other commissioners . Commissioner woolford. Thank you i appreciate the presentation. Thank you. Thank you very much. No further comments open Public Comment on entirety of item 6 c y. Members when wish it make 3 minutes of comments of 6c the employee and Department Development milineup against the wall. If you are calling in dial 4156550001 then access code 2494 209 1629 and press story 3 to enter the queue. Does not awore we have Public Comment in the chambers. Sfgovtv do we have 2 callers. Unmute the first caller. And call are you have 3 minutes to speak and provide you with a 30 second notice. Commissioners, we have about 35,000 City Employees and your left 2 years 21 2 years we are in the pandemic. And given the presentation of the university and other type of training. Most employees want to stay at home. And reason very reasonable when survey was taken again most employees want to stay home. The training, the skills we working as a city to keep employees working for the city is all good. As a taxpayer, i want to know how are we doing when it come to questions of law of life issues . We know this the department of public works plays an Important Role and the employees are hard pressed to deal with the city officials that our city is dealing. Everdrugs, roads not asphalted. Crosswalks not taken care of. Our traffic lights. All of these issues quality of life issues not to be incorporated in the training. Department of public works workers are treated like stake holders. Good to hear this and new commissioners learned some but for those of us who are into vertical construction quality of life issues it is another thing. Thank you very much. Thank you caller. Sfgovtv unmute our second caller you have 3 minute and i will provide you with a 30 second warning. Daved pillpel now im on the phone. So on training and the Employee Survey. As to training awhile back in religion at this time budget there was stratification of the city budget in 3 levels the items mandated, those entrenzic and discretionary. It is necessary to the function of the department and also has to be included and discretionary if you can, and you have the resources do you it and if you dont or there are other priorities then you may put those off. I think this goes to i believe chair posts question about do we need to do all of this training right now and can we push off some and how much and which things. That is my suggestion for a way to look at it. In terms of types of training i see functional training including necessary certifications and updates. Supervisory and management skills training. Customer service. Deescalation. Diversity. Understanding city processes. How commissions, departments, Civil Service board of supervisors huthis work and i could give a class on that. Career development, general low what other opportunity there are in the city. And elsewhere and im sure there are other types of training. That was just my initial types of training. Moving to employee suri have. I appreciate the percentage of surveys responded to. Tell be helpful it have the actual number of employees responded to a suri have so you know knowing what that little n number is. To improve department and improve their satisfaction as employees. Those are my thoughts on item 6c. Thank you for listening. Why thank you, caller. That concludes Public Comment. Hearing no further discussion or questions from the commission we will move on to the next item. Secretary full are cull the next item. The next item since we took item 7 already the next item is 8, new business and initiated by commissioners and this is an informational item. Do commissioners have new business they would loishg to raise before the commission or propose for i future agenda i wanted alert you all i will be missing our november Fourth Meeting invited to lecture in los angeles at facade designs lecturing about my Science Building at usc congratulations that sounds interesting. Thank you for letting us know. Okay. Since we dont have other requests for future agenda items we will move on to the next item secretary fuller call that item. Because we did in the exceed 15 minutes for the first rounds of general Public Comment we can go ahead to item 10, adjournment. Thank you very much. I neglected to compliment Rachael Gordon who sat through this meeting on another Excellent Department news letter i encourage you to look at it. It was fascinating the deep dive below the city streets and energy for city all. Thank you very much for an informative news letter. I enjoy learning about the diversity of when goes on in this Large Department and important department. So since we have no further business on the agenda i adjourn this meeting we will meet on friday november 4. Thank you. In 201,755. 7 million passengers traveled through San Francisco international airport. We have on average 150,000 people traveling through the airport every day. Flying can be stressful so we have introduced therapy dogs to make flying more enjoyable. The wag brigade is a partnership between the airport and the San Francisco therapy Animal Assistant Program to bring therapy animals into the airport, into the terminals to make passenger travel more enjoyable. I amgen fer casarian and i work here at San Francisco international airport. The idea for therapy dogs got started the day after 9 11. An employee brought his therapy dog to work after 9 11 and he was able to see how his dog was able to relieve passengers jitter. When we first launched the program back in 2013, our main goal was to destress our passengers however what we quickly found is that our animals were helping us find a way to connect with our pang. Passengers. We find there are a lot of people traveling through the airport who are missing their pets and who are on their road a lot and cant have pets and we have come in contact with a lot of people recently who have lost pet. I love the wag brigade. One of my favorite parts is walking into the terminals and seeing everybody look up from their device, today everybody is interacting on their cell phone or laptop and we can walk into the terminal with a dog or a pig and people start to interact with each other again and its on a different level. More of an emotional level. I just got off an 11. 5 hour flight and nice to have this distraction in the middle of it. We look for wag brigade handlers who are comfortable in stressful situations. I like coming to airport its a lot of fun and the people you talk to are generally people who are missing their dogs. They are required to compete a certification process. And they are also required to complete a k9 good citizen test and we look for animals who have experienced working with other organizations such as hospitals and pediatric units and we want to be sure that the animals we are bringing into the airport are good with children and also good with some of our senior travelers. I think toby really likes meeting kids. That is his favorite thing. He likes to have them pet him and come up to him and he really loves the kids. Our wag brigade animals can be spotted wearing custom vets and they have custom patches. There is never a day that repeats itself and there is never and encounter that repeats itself. We get to do maximum good in a small stretch of time and i have met amazing people who have been thrilled to have the interaction. The dogs are here seven days a week, we have 20 dogs and they each come for a two hour shift. There is a lot of stress when people have traveling so to from these animals around to ease the stress and help people relax a little bit. I think its great. One of our dogs has special need and that is tristine. He wears a wheel around. He has special shoes and a harness and we get it together in the parking lot and then we get on the air train. He loves it. Little kids love him because he is a little lower to the ground so easy to reach and he has this big furry head they get to pet and he loves that. He doesnt seem to mind at all. Probably one of the happiest dogs in the world. Many people are nervous when they travel but seeing the dogs is just a wonderful relief. What i absolutely love most about it is the look on peoples faces, so whenever they are stressed and flying is stressful these days you get these wonderful smile. I am the mom of lilo the pig and she is San Franciscos first therapy pig. Lilo joined the wag brigade as our first pig. Wag brigade invited us to join the program here and we have done it about a yearandahalf ago. Our visits last 1. 5 to 2 hours and it does take a little bit longer to get out of the terminal because we still get a lot of attention and a lot of people that want to interact with lilo. I feel honored to be part of the wag brigade. Its very special to meet so many people and make so many feel happy and people that work here. Its been a great experience for me and a great experience for to toby. Its been an extremely successful program, so the next time you are here, stop by and say hi. He is a real leader that listens and knows how to bring people together. Brought this department together like never before. I am so excited to be swearing in the next chief of the San Francisco Fire Department, ladies and gentlemen, lets welcome, Jeanine Nicholson. applause . I grew up total tomboy, athlete. I loved a good crisis, a good challenge. I grew up across the street from the fire station. My dad used to take me there to vote. I never saw any female firefighters because there werent any in the 1970s. I didnt know i could be a fire fighter. When i moved to San Francisco in 1990, some things opened up. I saw women doing things they hadnt been doing when i was growing up. One thing was firefighting. A woman recruited me at the gaypride parade in 1991. It was a perfect fit. I liked using my brain, body, working as a team, figuring things out, troubleshooting and coming up with different ways to solve a problem. In terms of coming in after another female chief, i dont think anybody says that about men. You are coming in after another man, chief, what is that like. I understand why it is asked. It is unusual to have a woman in this position. I think San Francisco is a trailblazer in that way in terms of showing the world what can happen and what other people who may not look like what you think the fire chief should look like how they can be successful. Be asked me about being the first lbgq i have an understands because there are little queer kids that see me. I worked my way up. I came in january of 1994. I built relationships over the years, and i spent 24 years in the field, as we call it. Working out of firehouses. The Fire Department is a family. We live together, eat together, sleep in the same dorm together, go to crazy calls together, dangerous calls and we have to look out for one another. When i was burned in a fire years ago and i felt responsible, i felt awful. I didnt want to talk to any of my civilian friends. They couldnt understand what i was going through. The firefighters knew, they understood. They had been there. It is a different relationship. We have to rely on one another. In terms of me being the chief of the department, i am really trying to maintain an open relationship with all of our members in the field so myself and my deputy chiefs, one of the priorities i had was for each of us to go around to different fire stations to make sure we hit all within the first three or four months to start a conversation. That hasnt been there for a while. Part of the reason that i am getting along well with the field now is because i was there. I worked there. People know me and because i know what we need. I know what they need to be successful. I have known Jeanine Nicholson since we worked together at station 15. I have always held her in the highest regard. Since she is the chief she has infused the department with optimism. She is easy to approach and is concerned with the firefighters and paramedics. I appreciate that she is concerned with the issues relevant to the Fire Department today. There is a retired captain who started the Cancer Prevention foundation 10 years ago because he had cancer and he noticed fellow firefighters were getting cancer. He started looking into it. In 2012 i was diagnosed with breast canner, and some of my fellow firefighters noticed there are a lot of women in the San Francisco Fire Department, premenopausal in their 40s getting breast cancer. It was a higher rate than the general population. We were working with workers comp to make it flow more easily for our members so they didnt have to worry about the paper work when they go through chemo. The turnout gear was covered with suit. It was a badge to have that all over your coat and face and helmet. The dirtier you were the harder you worked. That is a cancer causeser. It casser. It is not cancer causer. There islassic everywhere. We had to reduce our exposure. We washed our gear more often, we didnt take gear where we were eating or sleeping. We started decontaminating ourselves at the fire scene after the fire was out. Going back to the fire station and then taking a shower. I have taught, worked on the decontamination policy to be sure that gets through. It is not if or when. It is who is the next person. It is like a cancer sniper out there. Who is going to get it next. One of the things i love about the Fire Department. It is always a team effort. You are my family. I love the city and department and i love being of service. I vow to work hard to work hard to carry out the vision of the San Francisco Fire Department and to move us forward in a positive way. If i were to give a little advice to women and queer kids, find people to support you. Keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep trying. You never know what door is going to open next. You really dont. [cheers and in the bay area as a whole, thinking about environmental sustainability. We have been a leader in the country across industries in terms of what you can do and we have a learn approach. That is what allows us to be successful. Whats wonderful is you have so many people who come here and they are what i call policy innovators and whether its banning plastic bags, recycling, composting, all the Different Things that we can do to improve the environment. We really champion. We are at recycle central, a large recycle fail on San Francisco pier 96. Every day the neighborhood trucks that pick up recycling from the blue bins bring 50 o tons of bottles, cans and paper here to this facility and unload it. And inside recology, San Franciscos recycling company, they sort that into aluminum cans, glass cans, and different type of plastic. San francisco is making efforts to send Less Materials to the landfill and give more materials for recycling. Other cities are observing this and are envious of San Franciscos robust recycling program. It is good for the environment. But there is a lot of low Quality Plastics and junk plastics and candy wrappers and is difficult to recycle that. It is low quality material. In most cities that goes to landfill. Looking at the plastics industry, the oil industry is the main producer of blastics. And as we have been trying to phase out fossil fuels and the transfer stream, this is the fossil fuels and that plastic isnt recycled and goes into the waste stream and the landfill and unfortunately in the ocean. With the stairry step there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. We can recycle again and again and again. But plastic, maybe you can recycle it once, maybe. And that, even that process it downgrades into a lower quality material. It is cheaper for the oil industry to create new plastics and so they have been producing more and more plastics so with our ab793, we have a bill that really has a goal of getting our beverage bottles to be made of more Recycled Content so by the time 2030 rolls around t recycle content in a coke bottle, pepsi bottle, water bottle, will be up to 50 which is higher thatten the percentage in the European Union and the highest percentage in the world. And that way you can actually feel confident that what youre drinking will actually become recycled. Now, our recommendation is dont use to plastic bottle to begin w but if you do, they are committing to 50 Recycled Content. The test thing we can do is vote with our consumer dollars when were shopping. If you can die something with no packaging and find loose fruits and vegetables, that is the best. Find in packaging and glass, metal and pap rer all easily recycled. We dont want plastic. We want less plastic. Awe what you we do locally is we have the program to think disposable and work one on one to provide Technical Assistance to swap out the disposable food service to reusables and we have funding available to support businesses to do that so that is a way to get them off there. And i believe now is the time we will see a lot of the Solutions Come on the market and come on the scene. And is really Logistics Company and what we offer to restaurants is reasonable containers that they can order just like they would so we came from about a pain point that a lot of customers feel which wills a lot of waste with takeout and deliver, even transitioning from styrofoam to plastic, it is still wasteful. And to dream about reusing this one to be reimplemented and cost delivery and food takeout. We didnt have throwaway culture always. Most people used to get delivered to peoples homes and then the empty milk containers were put back out when fresh milk came. Customers are so excited that we have this available in our restaurant and came back and asked and were so excited about it and rolled it out as customers gain awareness understanding what it is and how it works and how they can integrate it into their life. And they have always done it and usually that is a way of being sustainable and longterm change to what makes good Financial Sense especially as there are shipping issues and material issues and we see that will potentially be a way that we can save money as well. And so i think making that case to other restaurateurs will really help people adopt this. One restaurant we converted 2,000 packages and the impact and impact they have in the community with one switch. And we have been really encouraged to see more and more restaurants cooperate this. We are big fans of what reecology does in terms of adopting new systems and understanding why the Current System is broken. When people come to the facility, they are shocked by how much waste they see and the volume of the operations and how Much Technology we have dedicated to sort correctly and we led 25 tours and for students to reach about 1100 students. And they wanted to make change and this is sorting in the waste stream they do every single day and they can take ownership of and make a difference with. An i feel very, very fortunate that i get to represent San Francisco in the legislature and allows me to push the envelope and it is because of the people the city attracts and is because of the eco system of policy thinking that goes on in San Francisco that we are constantly seeing San Francisco leading the way. Kids know theres a lot of Environmental Issues that they are facing. And that they will be impacted by the impact of Climate Change. They will have the opportunity to be in charge and make change and make the decisions in the future. We are reinventing the way the planet does garbage founded in the environmental ethic and hunger to send less to landfills. This is so many wonderful things happening in San Francisco. I feel very fortunate and very humble to live here and to be part of this wonderful place. Launch upon clean air snernt bay view Hunters Point. I want to start with the chair of the board of directors of the air Quality Management district. John bauder. I want to welcome him up he is also the mayor of emrealville. He has been supportive of this event and of this launch and so chair, i will hand it to you. [applause]. Good morning. Thanks for joining us today for this event to celebrate the launch the first Clean Air Center in california in San Francisco. Yes. Clean air center providing public accessible buildings to resident as a refuge from wildfire smoke. Climate change caused increase in frequency of wild fires which resulted in significant impacts to the air quality. Many residents lack access to clean air in their homes during the smoke events which is a hazzard to health. They will be in historically under served communities the most vulnerable to impacts so that everyone has access it clean air. We are froud have worked with buffy wiks. Experience the 836 to promote for wild fires and impacts they cause. Governor newsome fined and approved 5 Million Dollars toward the program, 3 million allocated to serve the 9 county region of the bay. In partnership the 3 Million Dollars in funding provided by the California Air Resource Board will upgrade the event lagz system. Purs that charge airfillmenters like this guy here. Replacement fitters in smoke events and replace h vac filters with helpa or higher for public buildings. 9 counties asked to coordinate with the cities and Community Based organizations to help identify the cites for Clean Air Centers deployed. The air district asked for input on the potential locations for the cites. We looked to the San Francisco neighborhood efforts to establish cooling centers as a model to work with community on the citing of Clean Air Center in San Francisco. Children are the met vulnerable to the Health Impacts of wildfire smoke. We encourage schools to help protect students and children. Lean air centers in schools issue libraries, community, senior and rec centers. Veteran facilities. Community colleges and wildfire evacuation centers. We hope to have more than 300 Clean Air Centers across the 9 area bay area alone. With increasing impacts of Climate Change on air quality, these Clean Air Centers will be a vietsdz tool to protect health from wildfire smoke. I would like to introduce davina the vice chair of our board and also a board member of the California Air Resource Board and from bellmont, join mow in welcoming her. Good morning. The California Air Resource Board. And it is the capacity i will speak to you today i really thrilled be here with all of you celebrating the opening we cant say enough of not only the very first Clean Air Center in the bay area. For vulnerable population program. We are proud to lead the Program Partner with air districts including bay area qmd. Now in addition to announcing the opening of the facility we are also unwill veiling the new Clean Air Center logo you see here. It was developed by staff to help the public easily identify Clean Air Centers. Just imagine this Pilot Program will fund a network of clean arab centers and vulnerable communities across the state. And this loco is ment to provide a visual identity. That will make it easier for people to find a safe place during wildfire smoke events. This is an Exciting Program we are taking action to help people breathe easier. And might i add these are communities that bear disproportional and unfair burdens with air pollution impact. We remember in 20202 years ago this month. When a thick layer of wildfire smoke blankets the bay area upon turning the sky orange. Know thanksgiving can occur again we are fortifying our public spaces to protect public health. Now this pilot will be expanded in the years ahead. And california is committed to continuing to fight Climate Change. And address increaseingly intense wildfires for years to come. We are working hard along side state, federal and local partners to future proof california. And in addition to investing enforced management and wildfire resilience it is vital we prepare in any way for smoke events. This is not a future problem this it is todays reality. And response our staff is again working hard to provide tools to help people protect themselves from wildfire smoke. Cars, smoke ready California Campaign is publicly available social media and web campaign. Includes sharable graphics in different language that have actionable steps people can take to protect themselves during a smoke episode in an easy visual format. Now anyone in california can get wildfire alerts and smoke forecasts right on their phone. Thanks to an upgrade to carbs california smoke spotter mobile app. New features personalized alert. Wildfire incident information and air quality information from purple air sense ors. To provide users with near real time smoke conscience. These tools are all part of efforts by carband the governary office to memory and protect california from the impacts of wildfire smoke. We are proud to stand along side the bay area, air Quality Management district. San francisco and the bay view Hunters Point community to allowance the lodge of the Vital Program and the addition of another tool to help protect those who need it most. During the wildfire season. We like to thank member buffy wiks for her leadership and all those who med this a reality today. Congratulations j. Let us continue to do rable things together. Our environment and future generations require this of us. I would like to invite my colleague and friend tyrone of the San Francisco department of the environment. Am im delighted be here todays upon event is grounded on 3 principles. One Climate Change is real. 2. The affects of Climate Change are happening right now within our communities especially within communities that are most vulnerable. And 3 we must take action on Climate Change both in mitigating or affect to dampen the affects and to prepare our communities to make sure we are resilient in the face of Climate Change when it come to air quality and extreme heat. High role here is to represent mayor breed. And many city diameters involved in this effort in San Francisco. Starts at the top with our mayor. And starts with our board of supervisors you will hear from next with the district 10 supervisor. Board member and president of the board walton. It started with the many city diameters involve friday d. Emergency management. Libraries as well as our Many Community partners. This is many years in the making involved many people at the table. Upon we are joined by our deputy direct from the libraries we are joined by the city librarian. Both will present us on a tour later o. I will Say Something with the librarian. Libraries are a center of knowledge for our community. A place of res spit where teem people learn and grow. Through the nobodying us on making them a beacon of libraries throughout the nation, these accomplices are a center of safety for our communityip want to thank the city librarian for his role in doing that this does not happen without communities. This has to be Community Driven and lead. In the bay view the department is leading this effort with the Supervisors Office through the bay view program. We have a lot of partners there involved at the table. Parker from the y and many others who you will hear from later on. But this center is not vehicleful unless you have community support. You have Community Buy in because these centers are center this is become not utilized without them at the table. With that, i want to thank everyone for gather here and everyone that put in the hard work in todays announcement. I will pass it on to fellow board member. You will supervisor district 10 as well as president of the board of supervisors walton. [applause]. Du want to Say Something. Good morning issue everybody. Good morning. Welcome to bay view Hunters Point where the sun is always shining and amazing for community to come together. I want to start off one by not upon only thanking the California Air Resource Board and the bay area Quality Management and the Community Representatives here we do work to make sure that we have clean air in our community. So i want to thank bay view advocates and the Marie Harrison foundation and danielle with the Neighborhood Empowerment Network and the communities members that are present. Like the director said earlier. If you remembered twenty 18 i remember like it was yesterday we had that orange haze in our skies. We had to shut down schools. People could not go to work the air quality was that horrible and most vulnerable suffered more than others. Having a place where people can go to breathe clean air in community is extremely vital and important. We are excited have the first Clean Air Center in california here in our community in bay view Hunters Point. It is important that we demonstrate the commitment to our communities that have been isolated disenfranchised and most vulnerable to the negative impacts of air quality this. Is a demonstration of folks coming and care to make sure we take that step to get this done. On National Voter registration day i appreciate everyone. I want to thank our director, director lam berg and working with the communities and with leadership to allow for spaces like this to happen in our libraries. Thank you all so much i hope you have a Beautiful Day it is National Voter registration day. Do everything you can to give people to register and exercise their rights. Thank you very much. [applause]. I want to thank all of our speakers so far especially the air District Board of directors who shown out in numbers. You see the support this we get at the air district and im grateful for it. I want to especially thank supervisor walton, as you know he is on our board of directors. And president of board of supervisors. And represent from sdrakt 10 and he always ensures his constituents are at the table watch that i want to introduce his conscientist wentful arian harrison born and raise in the bay rowel Hunters Point. A Community Organizer the utd reach coordinator at United Council and also in the last couple of years established a foundation in her mothers name. She was on the environmental just move inspect bay view Hunters Point, San Francisco and a National Leader temperature is a delight to know there is a foundation in her name and so let he introduce arian the found and executive director. Im arian harrison im the founder of the Community Foundation for social and environmental justice. Can we live. Org. [inaudible] im not polished but i do say hai mean and mean what i say. Im very glad to see this program getting started. I would like to see it dub indicated in district 10 because it is the biggest districts in San Francisco. We have pollution and Chemical Waste and things that are creating body burdens for residents. To have the the places put in place, it is good. We will get it together. Yall with me. Yea. I would like myself to see this program duplicateed go in not just into the space but place like United Council and our schools. Because those are where the vulnerable citizens the kids and the senior center. Those are places that are null nearable that hold the most people and people are not guaranteed to make it here to the safe space we want to make sure our community is protected. I wanted to sends this message. We gotta do everything we possibly can guard the health of our residents im the founder of Marie Foundation inc. A shout out to walton, really, really you know listening to the community. And putting forth the efforts to make sure well have solutions to some of the issues we have been in San Francisco. And San Francisco because it is in the just bay view residence denials having the issue. This is in the a bay view Hunters Point issue. I think we have been able to dismiss the problems happening to too easily it is the people over there. The problems we are having here in our district are things that will affect all of San Francisco. So it is in the just the bay view resident issue it is a San Francisco issue. We are do it first city and profess to be the leaders in the u. S. So we have to move forward and push forward in that effort to actually be when we say we are. Andir hope you were joining mow on this mission to have clean air, water and land. I will leave you this message im trying to do is live. Thank you. So, naconcludes this speaking part. Of the press conference. My name is holly doudiet. H2 firefighter with the San Franciscowired. What inspired me to be a firefighter was in 2008 i graduated college. The recession had happened so there werent any jobs. I was having troublefinding a job. And i was kind of looking around. My dad was a firefighter and i thought what a great career he had. So i asked my dad, never thinking about it at first before. I said dad, what you think about me being afirefighter and he goes yeah, thatwould be a good idea. I took some classes, i ended up loving it. I grew up and actually and i think it was a good fit for me because its a physical job and its enjoyable. You never know whatyoure going to get and its a team effort. I first realized i was part of the Lgbt Community in sixth grade. I looked on the other side of the classroom and i sawthis girl i thought was really attractive and i thought i want to be her boyfriend. Though my experiences in the city growing up in the city and countyof San Francisco were always verypositive. I came out in high school. I actually ended up being prom king my senior year in high school and a lot of peoplewere very supportive. Myparents were very supportive. They just let me do my thing and my dad knew of a lot of lesbian women in the Fire Departmentthe time because he was a San Francisco firefighter. For me its very important to be part of a community and organization and an agency that supports my lgbtq status because if youre not yourself, how can you perform to the best of your abilities . Youre always holding back in some way whether its your personality or your abilities or your overall skills and with agency that supports me being a lesbian i can truly be myself. I can be happy. I can be social with other people. It makes me want to work as a team and we all work Better Together when we are happier and we can be ourselves. [music] i dont want to be involved in the process after it happens. I want to be there at the front end to help people with something in my mind from a very early age. Our community is the important way to look at things, even now. George floyd was huge. It opened up wounds and a discussion on something festering for a long time. Before rodney king. You can look at all the instances where there are calls for change. I think we are involved in change right now in this moment that is going to be long lasting. It is very challenging. I was the victim of a crime when i was in middle school. Some kids at recess came around at pe class and came to the locker room and tried to steal my watch and physically assaulted me. The officer that helped afterwards went out of his way to check the time to see how i was. That is the kind of work, the kind of perspective i like to have in our Sheriffs Office regardless of circumstance. That influenced me a lot. Some of the storefronts have changed. What is mys is that i still see some things that trigger memories. The barbershop and the shoe store is another one that i remember buying shoestrings and getting my dads old army boots fixed. We would see movies after the first run. My brother and i would go there. It is nice. If you keep walking down sacramento. The nice think about the city it takes you to japan town. That is where my grandparents were brought up. That is the traditional foods or movies. They were able to celebrate the culture in that community. My family also had a drycleaning business. Very hard work. The family grew up with apartments above the business. We have a builtin work force. 19 had 1 as 1941 as soon as that happened the entire community was fixed. Determined to do the job as democracy should with real consideration for the people involved. The decision to take every one of japan niece american o japanese from their homes. My family went to the mountains and experienced winter and summer and springs. They tried to make their home a home. The Community Came together to share. They tried to infuse each home are Little Things. They created things. I remember my grand mother saying they were very scared. They were worried. They also felt the great sense of pride. Japanese americans. My granduncle joined the 442nd. When the opportunity came when the time that was not right. They were in the campaign in italy. They were there every step of the way. President truman pays tribute. That was the most decorated unit in the history of the United States army. Commitment and loyal to to the country despite that their families were in the camp at that time. They chose to come back to San Francisco even after all of that. My father was a Civil Servant as well and served the state of California Workers compensation attorney and judge and appellate board. My parents influenced me to look at Civil Service s. I applied to police, and Sheriffs Department at the same time. The Sheriffs Department grabbed me first. It was unique. It was not just me in that moment it was everyone. It wasnt me looking at the crowd. It was all of us being together. I was standing there alone. I felt everyone standing next to me. The only way to describe it. It is not about me. It is from my father. My father couldnt be there. He was sick. The first person i saw was him. I still sometimes am surprised by the fact i see my name as the sheriff. I am happy to be in the position i am in to honor their memory doing what i am doing now to help the larger comment. When i say that we want to be especially focused on marginalized communities that have been wronged. Coming from my background and my family experienced what they did. That didnt happen in a vacuum. It was a decision made by the government. Nobody raised their voice. Now, i think we are in a better place as country and community. When we see something wrong we have change agents step up to help the community affected. That is a important thing to continue to do. You talk about change and being a leader in change and not knowing whether you have successes or results. The fact of the matter is by choosing to push for change you have already changed things. Through inspiration for others, take up the matter or whether it is through actual functional change as a result of your voice being heard. I think you have already started on a path to change by choosing that path. In doing that in april of itself creates change. I continue in that type of service for my family. Something i hope to see in my children. I have a pretty good chance with five children one will go into some sort of Civil Service. I hope that happens to continue that legacy. I am paul, sheriff of San Francisco. [ music ] goodness, let me tell you i have been swearing ins for individuals before this is the largest crowd. She does not have free passes to the movies by the way. Ir wonder why all the people are here. First of all, vehicle im San Francisco mayor london breed it is really great to join you all to swear monty in to this new role as the director of sf phil and the San Francisco film commission. I know we have a number of film commissioners in the house. Can you stand. Carolyn tile and matt striker. They are her bosses and im her boss i guess you got boss she is the real boss and is the one had does the work and i will tell you a bit about mont competence when she has been able to do we are glad to have her in this new role. Started off in 2015 and sf film and working on a lot of the nuts and bolts of how we make film happen in the city. Most of the stuff that most of us dont want to do. We want to be in the film like mow in the matrix. [laughter]. We want to watch the film. Get on the red or green or blue carpel. There is a lot of work guess in making films work especially in a place like San Francisco where everybody has an opinion about where someone should film and had street and what have you. All of those Little Things require a soft touch. Someone when will go in and have that conversation. Someone will go in and coordinate and deal with the permits and deal with the cables from muni bus and all of these tien emthings and some of the best accomplishments i think that manny brought to San Francisco have had a lot to do with her work on the policy during covid the policy she put together that allowed films to continue to film. Small and large in San Francisco during covid. We are not just talking about the films on the dig big and little screens. We are talking about the job it creates. Talking about the support for restaurants and hotels and economy. Having film until San Francisco big or small is so important to the success of our economy. We are grateful for your work on the protocols. And we are also grateful that you know this department under montys leadership has taken a hold of opportunity for all the program i establish where High School Students and young people age of 24 can get a paid internship. Fact we were able to get the young people. I visited the sets and i was in the matrix, i was on set. We had young people in this program. This is the first time any of the productions have work the with intern in this capacity. Not going to get nile coffee and stacking up the food. It was like set building and lighting and real production work, working with local 16. Working with these various filming companies and creating an opportunity for young people to work on the matrix. To work on mass bridges and the great things. It was like seeing the kids on set and know thanksgiving is a part of their career. It is really something im most proved of what you did and the department has done in San Francisco and how tell make a difference in their lives and the next generation and really diverse foiling the behind the scenes work. The set crews and lighting courthouse all the stuff we need to make sure that women and people of color are a part of the equation when doing film in san front as well. We know there is a lot of great work you will continue to do. And luckily you have all the wonderful people here to celebrate with you and support you. People from the industry. From city hall. Friends family. Because you know this pandemic has challenged our city. And the important part of our economic recovery has everything to do with making sure as beautiful as we know this city is, we want to make sure it is easier to spotlight our city on film. To make sure that it is featured to make sure that we create more than just my San Francisco favorite movies the rock and matrix. It is how do we bring other films and make it easy for the independent film make and opportunity to show case San Francisco with the new things we opened up the tunnel top park. That beautiful Francisco Park you had a cable car coming down. This is like you cant you cant find a better vow in the world. This is an iconic place and beautiful place. First place that people should want to film. We have to make it easier. And i know that there is someone that will lead this department and work william commissioners that am work with the city agencies. That will work with all the neighbors and the folks saying, no to focus what we will do. Which is our new notes. How do we get. How do we get to yes. How do we make it happen the person im about to square in now will be the one to help us get to, yes, for film nothing San Francisco. [applause]. Come on up monty. All right. Wow this is a big crowd. Coming out to buy people. Please, raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, state your name. Do swear. That i will support and defend. That will will support and defend. Constitution of the United States. And the constitution of the state of california. Against all enemies, foreign and domestic. That i bear true faith and allegiance to the same. That i take this obligation freely. Without any mental reservation. For purpose of evasion. And that i will well and faithful low discharge. The duties upon which im about to enter. And during such time. As i serve as executive director [applause] for sf film and is it film sf. [laughter] come see come sigh. Film sf. And the film commission. For the city of San Francisco. Congratulations. [applause] my god i love you guys. This is amazing. Um my heart is full now. I wanted to wroit down words because the people who be me know i get emotional and i can go after track or forget hay want to say. I wanted to make sure i captured everything i wanted to share with you all. And i want to say this is better than getting an oscar. And it is funny because i dont like a lot of attention on me but i will not pass up a celebration. Thank you for being here. And i mean truly this is each and everyone of you i look around and you have all been part of this journey with our office. With me. To the Film Committee and San Francisco. So, i have just gratitude for each of and you cant wait to give each you a hug after this if i have not already done so. But i wanted to say importantly, mayor, thank you for this appointment. You really see the incredible value of the industry. And not just the importance of our stories being told. But you know it is the Economic Impact that productions have on San Francisco. You know from want specialing the Small Businesses to the local jobs and the local Important Union jobs that are a result when big are productions come to town. You are the biggest champions. And you have demonstrated that [applause]. Mayor lee was a big film lover as well. And so it is incredible to see you come in this role and see how much that you echoed all of his leadership and more. I want to thank my family for being here. And they are here. This means a lot to them and also, yes, i want this to be a participation. If this is had i share speaks to you shout hayou node to do. Stand up. Im the daughter of immigrant parents. My father is from iran and my mother from mexico in 1964, they met in golden gate park. My mom was living with the nuns, not to be a nun but living with them i forgot why. My dad was a student taking computer classes with intent of going back to iran. My mom saw him at a picnic with the musnts and said, see that man there,il marry him. And 50 years later you know right. 55 or 56. I forget. 58 we are here. And the sack foiss that they had for their children im the youngest of 4. And what they did to support all of us to be college bound, to have our careers. The sacrifice my generation is the first that went to college. And this is the story im telling you is more about me it is about our stories are important and node to be told. Right. And all of our stories. And how my story started in the city thats yet City Health Care important top me. Because without the city i would not be here. [applause] i want to acknowledge the commissioners so, you have to stand up but here, and stand up. You want to sit because you are filming . No. The commissioners, i have this Incredible Group of 11 advisors, mentors, collaborateors. I see it as a true gift to work with all of you. Because you are what will help guide our work. And ensure we are accountable to the city and to this industry and make sure we thrive. You know we already had a run way together. And i am excited for what is to come with our work together. Thank you. [applause] i do have more to say. I will try to speed it up. The mayor has an agenda. I want to thank our team and mall and mighty team usa. We had a lot of transnigz this office in the beginning of last year and we have a new team who have really stepped up with all this difficult work and we are really node to build our capacity and i look forward to dog that. To ensure we are serving the Production Community better than we are. Because we need to. And so they stepped up under a tight because we should be a larger team and a small, motivey team and doing it. Thank you for everything. Our oewd and our city departments this we worked close w. I see you all there. And where is my other, kate and your leadership in getting this position filled and being the other big champion of San Francisco. I thank you for your partnership when i started 7 years ago we had strong reps with the city but strengthened them and getting the city to see the value of productions and how for we have come and you get it when we ask you we will shut down financial district for 4 weekends to shoot the matrix. That really happened you made it all happen. And oewd is like so proud to sit under this department. It makes sense why our film would be a part of such a huge economic engine and sitting with you. The Production Community. I node you to stand you are here. And the Production Community and that includes the film makers. So. Some of you are all standing this is the organization you are tireless work and our labor partners, right. I asked local 16 and teamsters. And you are from the organization that support and cultivate film making to those that dream up stories of San Francisco. To the location managers for showing the best of San Francisco. Right . To directors so you enties them to shoot here. Sometimes i feel the location managers dont get the recognition they need and those other ones from the departments we work the closest with. We help make your filming help here. And i have so much more respect for you all. In my time here and seen just all the intense work you do behind the scenes. [applause] i have a vision for this city where we embrace and invest in our Story Tellers and our san fran Story Tellers and ensure productions staying longer. And i know we need to work on a state wide level to get productions to come to california, right. And we node to get them out of the l. A. Zone so they shoot more here. There is a lot of work we have to do and i really need all and we are all responsible for that. It cant loyal on our department and the city. We all have to be advocating for San Francisco. And the bay area. We know that San Francisco leads the bay area. And we need that leadership. And it is important this we commit to the film makers here to stay. You foal like have you a community here. And that it is community to supported by myself and the city. And that we can commit to resources and think about what the resources are like together and see what does missing. I will embark on listening sessions which i have already done with film make and ares production companies. Well is more to come this we have to do so we understand and assess the needs. And really make that happen to support the industry here. Last 2 points i want to quickly touch on is the notion of we are such a large modia production hub here. We are home to lucas film. Dolby, pixar and you tube. We need to hire sf. I want to see we create path ways which we have done incredible work with the mayors opportunity for all program and production will say here longer the organizations based here to get them to continue to hire people in San Francisco. I would like to see people of color and young people to provide a path way in this industry. A not in the door. And that is when we will embark on and push those companies and others and other organizations modia organizations to do that. We can hire people in San Francisco. [applause]. And something that is important is getting out of the house and getting back and reconnected with San Francisco. Right. We need to go to theatres we are comfortable on our couches with netflix and hulu we have to see and support our theatre venn use go to rox and he balboa and castro. So im inviting you all to challenge yourself. Choose a film. There are a ton out there and support your local theatre. And that is including the local festivals they were conversations happening last week and we have to do that otherwise if we dont support the festivals well lose a piece of our community here. Right. We are home to incredible film festivals. Frame line and San Francisco International Film festival. Urban film fest the list goes on and i forget i will miss folks we have to do that. We have to go to theatres and support that those space. So i invite you and closing to i ini have to you fall in love with San Francisco again if you are in the already in love. Im in love daily. That is true. Whatever is story is being told that i think it is important that we tell the story this we want a San Francisco that is the positive story. Right . This we know it is beyond the beauty we have and we are in the most sin mattick city in the world it is world class. Around the fabric and people here the support and soul of the city. Right. That is the story we are resilient and strong. We have to tell. I will request you what story you are telling about San Francisco . Right . We need to uplift that and do that together. So that we can continue to grow strong and support the industry more. [applause] here is your official city pin for the city and county of San Francisco. Lets sign you in so you can make it official. Thank you. My name is sofy constantineo and a documentary film maker and cinema togfer, producer and director. It is inevable you want your movie to get out and realize yoi need to be a commune tee organizer to get people together to see the story you will tell [inaudible] pretty rich and interesting. In what we do as film makers is try to tell the best story possible so i think that is where i [inaudible] learn everything. Lighting and cinematography. I got jobs of stage manger at some place and projectionist. I kind of mixed and matched as i went and kept refining i feel like it isnt just about making things that are beautiful and appealing and rich and [inaudible] the way that the films [inaudible] it has to tell a story. My name is sumell [inaudible] free lance multimedia produce. My project is [inaudible] mostly oof street photographry with a few portraits. Im going arounds San Francisco and capturing the [inaudible] as we started to do this project i was reading about the decline of African American population in San Francisco and i wondered where the remaining population was and what they were doing and how life was for them. I wasnt very inspired by school, i wasnt very inspired by continuing to read and write and go to class. I watched a lot of movies and saw a lot of [inaudible] i said that is what i want to do. I had this very feminist [inaudible] and i felt like there was not enough of a womans vision on the stuff that we see, the movies that we make and the beginning of the [inaudible] the way we look at women and the roles women take in the stories being tolds. They felt [inaudible] they did want feel complex. I was like, i have a different frame i like to see the world shaped by. My grandsmother was a teacher and taught special education for 40 years in los angeles and when i was growing up she inspired me to record everything. We recorded our conversations, we recorded the [inaudible] we recorded everything to cassette players. Learning multimedia skills, from the other crossover Employment Opportunities for young people. Someone who grew up in la rks San Francisco feels like a small town. I lived in Western Addition and i was looking for someone to cut my hair, i found [inaudible] he seemed like a very interesting guy and grew up in the neighborhood and had a lot to say about something that was foreign to me. That local perspective and so important to me because i think as someone who isnt from here, knowing that history allows me to be more engaging in the community i live in and want the same for others. I want people to move into a new neighborhood to know who was there before and businesses and what cultural and [inaudible] shape what we see today. My Guiding Principles have been, if you stick to something long enough and know what it is and go for it you will get there. [inaudible] where i want to go, what i want to do and it is totally possible so, the impossible is you know, is not something to listen to. Tonights forum will give you an opportunity to learn and to be better informed before you vote. The questions for forum were submitted by San Francisco residents. Many of you are in this room as well as community