Transcripts For SFGTV Special Govt Audits And Oversight Committee 92916 20161003

Upon today anybody r will be on the eakt 18 board of supervisors agenda unless otherwise stated. Thank you. Could you read the first and only item for todays meeting . Yes. Item 1 is ordinance amending the administrative code to create the neighborhood crime unit in the mrs. And activated with the controller certifies that the department is at full staffing level mandated in the charter. Thank you supervisor yee is the sponsor of this ordinance. The floor is yours supervisor. Thank you chair peskin. This ordinance is a way for more common data driven approach to combating neighborhood crimes more specifically property crimes. And youre aware that home break in and burglaries and auto break ins are a problem for every district and its frustrating for every person to say what are we going to do about it . There are many theories, many approaches but what i did is of able to meet with a variety of stakeholders including rank and file in the Police Department. I spoke to former chiefs such as tony rivero and chief fred lau. I have speaken to Police Commissioners about these issues and what approach will make sense and at the end of the day what almost everybody said was why are what we really need is good leadership within administration to say this is what is needed that we dont necessarily want to centralize everything, and thats why there was an approach that was pretty much argued that it was not the best approach about 20 years ago, and it was beginning to decentralized and giving a lot more ability for each of the Police Stations to have a little more flexibility in how they would approach their own neighborhoods, so after many discussions this is the ordinance that i am moving forward is really a combination of what i heard and whats logical, and what people would support, and an approach that i would like to outline is really to have a combination, and also i spoke to the people from the grand jury after they gave their report and i said this is really interesting theyre thinking pretty similarly. Whats important is that we continue to support the decentralized approach letting each of the Police Stations really approach the neighborhoods. What people were asking for the Police Department was asking for was please help us with the resources. What we need is more people assigned to these units that can actually confront what is facing them today, and each district is a little bit different, Police Station is a little different as to what they see as the most important issue. Today it is about property crime in my district and other districts and tomorrow it may be Something Else so you want that flex but what they also said is important that much of this has to be well coordinated meaning theres room for a centralized place, and one of the things that were seeing is that this already theres already a centralized unit that is tackling this and the grand jury was basically saying what they need is also more resources, and rather than creating a brandnew unit, so this is what i am putting forward basically to support, provide more resources for those decentralized approach, plus giving more resources so it could be well coordinated with the current centralized unit in the San Francisco Police Department, so i am hoping we could move this forward to the full board. Thank you very much. Thank you supervisor. Supervisor campos. Thank you very much mr. Chairman and thank you to my colleagues of the government audit and oversight committee. I want to thank supervisor yee and his staff, jenn l low for the work on this important legislation. We of proud to work with him on this and i just want to give a little bit of background for what we have seen in my district, in district 9. Earlier this year i actually held a hearing on march of this year specifically focusing on car break ins in my district, and the reason for that is that we were hearing repeatedly from people in our community, not only in the mission but in Bernal Heights and other parts of the district about an increase in car break ins primarily in bernal and the mission, and we wanted to have a better sense what was actually happening in terms of the citys strategy and response to this proliferation of car break ins and what happened at the hearing i think was very startling to me and kind of raised even more red flags,. In that hearing we had a presentation from our District Attorneys Office that pointed out that if you look at 2015 there were more than 25,000 car break ins in the city and county of San Francisco but only arrests were made in only 2 of those car break ins, so that means that in 98 of car break ins in the city people essentially got away with it, and that number of arrests, the 2 , is by the way a fraction of what the National Average is, so something is happening in San Francisco that when people break into cars the arrests are not being made at the same rate they are in other jurisdictions, and so in thinking about this you know what we have been trying to come up with is any ideas, any outside the box thinking that essentially gives the Police Department more tools to do more, and as a former Police Commissioner i think that my experience is that the most effective way of dealing with any kind of crime especially property crimes is to have a district specific strategy because every neighborhood, every district is different, and as we look at the issue of property crime and car break ins as part of it the bottom line we need a comprehensive plan to tackle these kinds of crimes, property crimes, car break ins. We need to send a message that in San Francisco were not going to tolerate that. That making arrests and prosecutions in those types of crimes is a priority, and by the way i would include bicycle tests in this too thefts too because its another issue that that keeps come up every time we talk about property crime. Burglaries are also part of it. What this legislation does and the reason i upon very proud to support it that it focuses the attention and the resources at each district station because what could work in the Mission Bernal heights you know might be different, and in fact even in my district i have three different district stations, and different strategies might be needed in every neighborhood so i upon very proud to be a supporter of this. This legislation ensures that the police prioritize neighborhood crime issues and then the other thing is that this also makes it clear that we need to act now. We dont have to wait for anything. There is no reason why we have to wait for whatever the event. We need to act now and thats what this does so i am proud to be supportive and i want to thank carolyn and my staff for the work she has done. Thank you. Supervisor breed. Thank you. And thank you to my colleagues for your comments about this particular issue. As we know we have a lot of challenges with crime throughout our city, and more specifically i want to add to supervisor campos list graffiti. Graffiti is definitely one of the issues that we continue to have in San Francisco spending over 20 million a year to address those issues and thats with just city property. It doesnt even include the numbers for private property owners. I want just to add a couple of points with regards to the car break ins. We in many of our areas especially where we have a large tourist population are experiencing really high levels of car break ins, specifically in mos square, in twin peaks where the palace of fine arts is loated as well, and recently we added signage to alamos square park which has been helpful but not has addressed the issue. Next week or the week after i will be proposing legislation around requiring rental companies to notify those who rent cars in San Francisco and at San Francisco airport some of the challenges we have in those particular areas specifically because it happens in broad daylight and just imagine if you visited another country and your bloojings were stolen which also includes your passport, your ability to return home i cant even one imagine and one of the challenges going after the perp traders of the crimes they dont live in San Francisco and they return home and wont come back to court to testify so we have a problem and we need solutions. We not only need support around you know a strategy for the Police Department to deal with these particular crimes in the neighborhoods and specifically targeted areas, we also need to look at a Community Ambassador program, a program that will make sure in those areas that we have a friendly face, like a docent similar to the volunteer Docent Program we have at city hall and so those are the kinds of things they want it to also mention because we need a comprehensive approach to addressing many of the crimes that we see all over our neighborhoods, and i want to thank supervisor yee for his leadership on this particular issue, and thank you. Thank you for the opportunity. If i may. Supervisor campos. Just a quick note. What we heard at the hearing on car break ins its really hard to make arrests, right, because of the lack of evidence and the know the public defender folks may not like this but one of the things that came up in many jurisdictions they use a bait car that it essentially has all of the technology so that you actually get the evidence you need, and i know i mean i think using whatever tools to actually get evidence is important, but i think that unless you actually do something to prioritize this the message will remain that you can go and break into cars in San Francisco because chances are youre not going to get caught and we dont want that message. Thank you. Thank you supervisor and let me add my words too. Thanks to supervisor yee and his staff ms. Low for working on this. Supervisor yee. Real quickly thank you supervisor campos. The other thing that people, the precincts were asking in terms of the Police Precincts was these cars that youre talking about that we also benefit from having that type of resource within their own units. So if there is no objection can we have a motion to send this to the full board with recommendation . So moved. Moved by supervisor breed without objection that is the order. Public comment. Oh im sorry. Excuse me. Are there any members of the public here for Public Comment . My apologies. Are there any members here for Public Comment . Seeing none Public Comment is closed. [gavel] and without objection we will send this item [inaudible] [off mic] any amendments . Actually its so long i keep thinking this is the original language. [inaudible] [off mic] yeah, i will make a motion to rescind the vote. [gavel] moved by supervisor breed without objection. Supervisor yee. So this host of amendments and i dont know if City Attorney gibner would like to read it out for the record. Deputy City Attorney john gibner. Its a bunch of words so i wont read the whole thing but essentially the amendments correspond to the discussion that the committee had today about units throughout the city instead of a centralized unit, and i think thats the basicgist and also some clarification about what the units will focus on with emphasize on community policing. Okay. Thats correct so theres a bunch of words that were outcome. So is there a motion to accept these amendments . Made by supervisor breed. Without objection the amendments are adopted. [gavel] and as amended we will send this item to the full board with recommendation. Motion made by supervisor breed. Without objection that is the order and i believe that concludes our agenda. We are adjourned. [gavel] thank you. Working for the city and county of San Francisco will immerse you in a vibrate and dynamic city on sfroert of the art and social change weve been on the edge after all were at the meeting of land and sea worldclass style it is the burn of blew jeans where the rock holds court over the harbor the citys Information Technology xoflz work on the rulers project for free wifi and developing projects and insuring patient state of at San Francisco General Hospital our it professionals make guilty or innocent available and support the house Senate Regional wearout system your our employees joy excessive salaries but working for the city and county of San Francisco give us employees the unities to contribute their ideas and energy and commitment to shape the citys future but for considering a career with the city and county of San Francisco this is regular meeting of Small Business commission of september 26. This is called to order at 206. This is televised live thank tooz sf gov tv staff. The meeting is viewed ochb sf gov tchb tv 2. Silence phone squz oretd electronic devices. Public comment is limited it too 3 minutes per speaker. Speaker requested but not require today state naiments, completion of a speaker cards will help inshurure proper spelling in the written records mptd deliver speaker cards to commission secretary. There is a sign in sheet at the front table for those that would like to be added. Please show our slide. It is our custom to begin each somewhat Business Commission Meeting Office of Small Business is the only place to start you new business in San Francisco and best place to get answers about doing business. Firfs stop with a question about what to do next. Lets get going. Who all do we have today . Lets do roll call. Item 1, call to order and roll call. Adams, here. Dooley,. Dwight, herement ortizcartagena, here. Toursarkissian,