streaming the numbers across the screen. comments or opportunities to speak during the public comment period are available by calling 415-655-0001. again, that's 415-655-0001. the meeting i.d. is 146-670-2563. again, that is 146-670-2563. then press pound, and pound again. when connected, you will hear the meeting discussions, but you will be muted and in listening mode only. when your item comes up, press star, three to be entered into the comment line. best practices is to speak slowly and clearly and turn down your television or radio. alternatively, you may submit comments the following ways. e-mail myself, the clerk, victor.young@sfgov.org. that concludes my public comments. >> supervisor ronen: thank you. can you please read item 1? >> clerk: madam chair, i just wanted to let you know that i made an error on item 1. this is a direct appointment by the board of supervisors, and i it does not need to be heard by the rules committee. i'd ask that you table this matter. >> supervisor ronen: yes, i'm planning to do that item item item one is appointing a motion to the mental health commission to june 30, 2023. >> supervisor ronen: i will make a motion to table this item. >> clerk: just as a precaution, i think we should take public comment. >> supervisor ronen: very good. >> clerk: mr. qu, are there any members of the public that wish to speak on item number 1? >> operator: there are no members of the public wishing to speak. >> supervisor ronen: public comment is closed. please take the role. [roll call] >> clerk: the motion passes without objection. >> supervisor ronen: thank you so much. can you please call item number 2. >> clerk: item number 2 is a hearing considering appointing one member, term ending october 31, 2022, to the advisory council. one member, one applicant. >> supervisor ronen: and i believe mr. cooper is here on the line? >> yes. >> supervisor ronen: hi, mr. cooper. would you like to make any comments? >> well, it's been a pleasure to serve a relatively short-term, and i've learned a lot, and i hope to continue to serve the next two years. >> supervisor ronen: thank you very much. i happen to be a big fan of your work, so i'm sure that you're learning and contributing quite a bit, so thank you for your willingness to serve in this capacity. i appreciate it. >> you're welcome. >> supervisor ronen: do any of my colleagues have any questions or comments? no? and i don't know if anyone from supervisor haney's office is here, but if she wanted to make any comments, she's more than welcome to, and if not, then we can open this item up for public comment. >> clerk: yes. members of the public who wish to provide public comment on this item should call 415-655-0001. the meeting i.d. is 146-670-2563, then press pound, and pound again. if you haven't already done so, please press star, three to lineup to speak. a system prompt will indicate that you have raised your hand. please wait until the system indicates that you have been unmutes and then begin your comment. mr. qu, do we have any public commenters on this item? >> operator: madam chair, there are no callers in the queue. >> supervisor ronen: okay. thank you. then public comment is closed, and i would like to make a motion to send this appointment forward with a positive recommendation. can we please have a roll call vote? >> clerk: i believe the motion is to recommend the appointment of mr. cooper to seat two of the commission and advisory -- the commission on aging advisory council. on that motion -- [roll call] >> clerk: the motion passes. >> supervisor ronen: thank you so much. thank you, mr. cooper. have a good day. >> thank you. >> supervisor ronen: mr. clerk, can you please read item number 3? >> clerk: item number 3 is a hearing considering appointing one member, term ending october 19, 2022 to the bicycle advisory committee. we have one seat, one applicant. >> supervisor ronen: supervisor stefani, would you like to make any comments? >> supervisor stefani: yes. thank you. today, i'm delighted to nominate sarah gaudreau to the basic advisory community. sayer is a licensed civil engineer with a masters in geotechnical engineering from u.c. berkeley. she also has considerable experience in advocating for safer streets for all and especially women bicyclists and the lgbtq community. as we know, san francisco is faced with an incredibly challenging environment when it comes to making decision about the future of our transportation network, but between slow streets, shared spaces, and more, they've also seen opportunities to reimagine how we enjoy our public spaces and move throughout the city. during this difficult time, i am confident that test test te. >> thanks for the introduction. good morning. >> i wanted to say a few quick things. why i love bicycles. bicycles represent many things to many people. it is inexpensive, freedom to travel on your own schedule, great way to get exercise outside. especially today it provides transportation with social distancing allowing people who are not comfortable on public transit to good where they need to go and opening up space for those that rely on it for their needs. i am excited for the opportunity to provide safe enjoyable way to ride bicycles. i look to support more shared spaces, more open streets and safe enforcement for bicycle advocacy in the city. thanks. >> thank you so much. if there is no questions from colleagues, i will open this up for public comment. >> yes. members of the public. >> do we have any public comments for this item. >> there are no callers in the queue. >> public comment is closed. supervisor stefani. >> thank you, sarah for willsness to serve. i with like to move with a positive recommendation so sarah may it is on the advisory committee in seat two. >> on that motion. supervisor stefani. >> aye. >> supervisor mar. >> aye. >> chair ronen. >> aye. >> the motion passes without objection. >> congratulations. thank you for your willingness to serve. >> item 4. resolution authorization san francisco care and roll to enter into use with big fish to develop and produce documentary series about sfatc animal rescue calls and animal control officers and grantingness trademark rights and exclusive rights for one year to digital networks. >> thank you so much. i will just say i am very excited about this item and this documentary. i rescued my again m -- guiney . it is great to have you with us today to share any information. >> thank you. this is our first time for the shared screen. if it doesn't look right, please let us know. i am the executive director of san francisco animal care and control. today i am asking for positive recommendation on the resolution authorizing animal care and control to enter into a film agreement with big fish entertainment. to be featured they do live rescue. animal care and control is the city's taxpayer funded shelter. we enforce state and local animal control and welfare laws. in existence since 1989. provide housing, care and medical treatment to wild, exotic, domestic, stray, lost and injured animals. from addition to enforcing state laws we are first responders for animals in natural disasters and other emergencies. big fish entertainment are a production company. they have the live rescue show which we would participate in with your approval, animal er live, top dog. it is run on major cable networks like discovery, a and e, national geographic. the live rescue series follows firefighters and paramedics. some of the work our animal control officers were doing they saw and asked if we could participate in the series. health and safety are a top priority during row individual. we are working closely to make sure that the proper rules are in place regarding that. is there any questions? >> this is captain corso. they were the two officers had captured the mountain lion in june. >> sorry to interrupt. we are not seeing your presentation at this time. it is a bacit is a black screen. >> we got the first half. the last minute we had a black screen for your presentation. >> okay. let me see if i can fix that. >> this is an interesting resolution and exciting to think about our animal care and control being featured or on a documentary series, animal rescue. or live rescue. i was wondering if you could speak a little bit to how you think this furthers the mission and the work of animal care and control to be able to have this visibility. >> frankly, this is always a position difficult to recruit for, so if i can get any kids on tv or high school students watching animal control and say, hey, that's what i want to do when i grow up, that would be phenomenal. but i think, also, it just encourages the public to understand wildlife issues. people are informed about dogs and cats, but in terms of wildlife, that's an important message for us. >> the officers are so jazzed. in the mountain lion rescue, i think one of the best moments was after they had scooped up the mountain lion and had him in a container. all the police officers rushed up and said, oh, my gosh, that was the greatest thing we've ever seen in our life. really, how often do you see two women wrestle an 80-pound mountain lion? [ laughter ] >> thank you, thank you so much for all of your work and we will now open this item up for public comment. >> yes, members who wish to provide public comment should call (415)655-0001 and the meeting i.d. is (146)670-2563 and then press pound and pound again. if you haven't done so, please dial star three to line up to speak. a system prompt will indicate you have raised your hand. wait until you're un-muted and you may begin public comment. are there any speakers on the line? >> no callers in the queue. >> chair: i am very excited and very happy to make a motion to submit this resolution forward with positive recommendations. can we have a role call vote on that. >> on the motion -- (role call). >> the motion passes without objection. >> chair: thank you and we'll see you soon. mr. clerk, can you please read item number five. >> item number five is a hearing on the department of elections reports submitted to the board of supervisors on june 30th, 2020, pursuant to ordinance 88-20 on plans for implementation of municipal election code 1102, expansion of vote-by-mail by san francisco's november 3rd, 2020, consol consolidated election and elections to report. >> thank you so much and i am appreciative of the director of elections for being here today. in early june, the board passed legislation requiring to submit by june 30th. it's required to vote by mail to all registered voters and safe-in person voting, ballot drops and robust plan for education and outreach, including coordination to engage in historically low turn-out communities. director arntz, i believe the plan you and your team have prepared is both impressive and ambitious and a lot of work to be sure people are educated and informed and supported to adjust to the new way of voting. i wanted to hold this hearing to be sure that the public has a chance to learn about the plan and to weigh in. the november election may be the most important of our lifetimes. during the state of m.p. and during this state of emergency and more important that we keep us safe and secure. welcome, director arntz and thank you for being here. i just wanted to mention to my colleagues and the public that shikars miley, the director of the office of racial equity and director gerald davis from the human right's commission with her chief of staff are also here and available for questions. and with that, director arntz, i don't know if you have a presentation or just want to describe what your plans are. >> thank you, supervisor ronen. good morning. i do have a presentation, but even though i joined the meeting, i can't open it up to present to the meeting right now. there we go, ok. >> can you see the presentation? >> yes. >> today i'll give a pregnant, an overview and this isn't everything we're doing for this election. this is an overview of our efforts in relation to the ordinance the board passed earlier this year regarding election planning for the november election in relation to covid-19 responses. and so the topics that i'll cover in the presentation also relate back to the ordinance and the topics are voter outreach and education, universal vote-by-mail, in-person voting services at the outdoor voting centre outside of the bill graham auditorium, polling places and compliance with health guidelines, health and safety protocols and service to voters in hospitals or homebound and so on the voter outreach piece. so the department's objective for the november 3rd election to inform city residents about expanded vote-by-mail voting, safe in-person services and key dates and to provide focused outreach for vulnerable and hard-to-reach populations. and to reach these two objectives, they applied no contact strategies, increased use of official election's mail and direct and indirect digital and print and election materials. the department also intends to engage in-person outreach for in election as long the groups are small in number and meet all of the health and safety protocols that the dph has put forward. and then regarding election mail, this summer, the department began sending city residents a series of outreach print and email notices, highlighting information about the november 3rd election. first in june, we sent 7,000 email notices regarding language preference. they registered to vote or are registered to vote and nod indicated a language preference and were born in chinese, spanish, fill pe philippino and japanese-speaking countries. we told them how to request these details. with new people registered to vote in san francisco, we noticed that they're born in these countries and speak these languages listed, they will reach out and indicate that there are materials available in those languages regarding the election. and the vote options noticed in august, the department mail the qadralibera alinual and people e to become voters three ways to access voting in the upcoming election and to check the registration. we reminded voters they have an opportunity to return ballots back to us by email or fax. now, the return of ballots by email and fax is only available to people who are living overseas or are in the military. so i want to put this don't wanl emaiit's for all. during the stay-at-home period, it continued to update and monitor the voter registration information that we have and many people now register to vote online and so we're able to process that and do our work, our maintenance offsite but then on a regular basis, we had people coming into the office to scan the hard copy registration forms and also any notices or information that voters sent to us. and so we've never stopped the processing of information regarding the voter registration database. and then for future outreach notices, going forward, we'll distribute additionadistribute l college students whose residents might be impacted by covid-19 and so, people whose addresses are on college campuses, we're assuming they're college students and if we have email addresses for these voters, then we're sending them information about updating the mail address so they can get their ballot, mail it in and receive it and cast it in time to be counted for this election. we're also sending emails to voters experiencing homelessness, informing them that they could benefit from providing us with a mailing address where we can actually mail a ballot to them for the election and some people provide cross streets as their residential addresses and so we cannot mail so just a cross street and if we have a mail-drop address, we can send these folks ballots. if we don't receive a mail-in, they are assigned to polling places, just like any voter in the city. they can go to the assigned polling place or to the voting centre outside of the bill graham auditorium. and about half of our voters, 250,000 voters provided us with the email addresses and we'll be sending them notices going forward in an email regarding online self-help tools on our website. the voter information pamphlet, really, the book, it's rather large and one of our main ways of providing outreach and information to the voters before the reelection, the november 3 edition will discuss voting of courses and draw voter's attention to key dates and resources. we create four versions of the voter information pamphlet, and if people indicate a language preference, then we also produce and send the information pamphlets out in those languages and then we have an accessible version of our voter information pamphlet on our website in hthl, xml and we work to provide formats that people can use so listen to the pamphlet, as well. other outreach media, if addition to direct mail and email, the department produced digital is print voter materials and so for this election and all elections, we distribute the print and email materials to city residents with those in low income or vulnerable communities. the department is collaborating including community-based communications, local businesses, local government agencies and departments such as the office of civic engagement and immigrant affairs and how the office of racial equity. and educational videos, the department created two education equal videos for this election, both of which are available in chinese, pil philippino and spa. the second video covers ranked-choice voting and how to mark ranked-choice contest. both have been place on the other hand our website for a few weeks now and we've provided this to our community partners and we'll push this out more as we go forward in the election cycle. so the department is currently developing a public service announcement, 15 and 30-second spots, the psa will be translated to spanish and chinese and the chinese spots will be translated to both mandarin and cantonese and we'll air these starting in september and then, through election day, essentially. and the print materials, we included fliers, posters and door hangers highlighting key dates regarding the election. and just distributing the material, for the last few months, we've been working with the covid command center, distributing materials to residents in several neighborhoods that have tended to have a turn-out lower than the city-wide average and one of the items are the door hangers. so that's been ongoing for the past few months. one thing that's new for this election -- i'm ahead of myself. we also have a lot of information about the election and one key tool that we have is the voter portal. the voter portal allows voters to access information that's specific to their record. and we also have an election, my election navigator which can take someone from the point of regular straightening to develop to sidin deciding how the persos to vote, how to get the ballot back to the department so it's counted in time. and so, the budget that the board just approved allowed us to expand $250,000 on grants to community organizations, to get information out to vulnerable and hard-to-reach populations. the department has issued the rfp, completed the contracts with these organizations and we've conducted the training with the groups and supplied them with multi-lingual, multi-format materials. they are using our materials and they will continue through election day. and also, one component that was in the ordinance and also later in the governor's executive order and legislation passed in august is universal vote-by-mail and for this election, every voter in san francisco, every registered voter in san francisco will receive a ballot in the mail about one month before election day, which is around the first week of october. so voters should see the vote-by-mail arrive on october 5th. if people have not received their ballot by october 9th, we ask they contact the department. if people need a replacement ballot sent, that's through october 30th. anyone receiving a ballot early in the cycle, misplace the ballot or need a replacement plot, whatever the reason, they have until october 30th to contact us and request we send them that second ballot. to prepare for universal vote-by-mail, we've been a part of our budget was that we got additional equipment to procure, the extraction machines and we have relocated much of our ballot processing activities over bill graham specific auditorium. and we've been in contact with the usps through the summer. the information has come out about potential problems with ballots being made to voters and mailed back to the departments of election. and also just with the impact of covid-19 on mail stream, not just in this country but world-wide, we've been in contact with the usps. we've provided the usps with the artwork for our voter guides and they know what will be coming their way and to approve the artwork so there's no confusion with emailing it out to users. we've provided the usps for the envelopes, with the vote-by-mail ballots. both envelopes go to the voters and return envelopes back to the department and we provided that over to the post office so that they have a chance to review and verify and also to indicate now that the artwork is fine and there won't be any issues within the mail stream. and we've provided samples to the post office. so we provided packets of vote-by-mail for the outto the voters for testing by the post office and we've provided packets of the return ballots that voters will send back to the department. so the post office has been able to run these samples through their equipment, to determine that the ballot packets will run through the equipment without issues so there's no delay with the mail getting to the voters or back to the department. we're trying to reduce a lot of in-voting person and one person has been the i voted sticker. they go to the polling place and cast their ballot and people can wear it proudly throughout the day on election day. and so now, for this election, we've included an i voted sticker in the inserts and everyone who cast the plot, they can save it until election day or put it on even earlier to encourage early voting because that's something we want everyone to actually think about is getting to us earlier so we're not having a lot of ballots to process right around election day. and then, also, the insert describes the three steps regarding mail-in ballots and signing the return envelope and getting the ballot back to us on time. there's also faq's regarding how to place a ballot and ranked choice voting or people who are sick or ill or hospitalized. once you register, you'll get a test email that it's been registered. also on our website, our voter portal, we have a ballot tracking mechanism that we've had more many elections and in our ballot tracking, it's more robust than what the state provides. our tool doesn't provide the text alerts and the email messages regarding ballots being mailed to voters or received by the department. but our tool indicates the entire ballot cycle that voter's ballot will undergo from the time it's printed, put into an envelope and it's mailed, we receive it and then, just as important when we start to process the ballot for counting. if there's an issue with a ballot we cannot process, the voter portal will indicate the issue and the remedy to cure that issue. so, one example when people forget to sign the envelope when they send it back to us and the information on the portal will indicate there's a signature missing and the site will provide the form that people need to fill out and get back to us as a pdf to resolve in the instance of no signature, resolve the issue. but also, when it comes to issues with ballots, if we can't process them, we do contact all voters via hard copy mail. if we have known numbers and emails, we'll also contact them using their email addresses and phone numbers to alert voters that they need to take action with any potential issues with their ballot. as i mentioned, the budget for this year, allowed us to purchase extractors to pull the cards from the envelopes when they come back to us. this is important because now we can spread our process out in greater space and we don't have pinch points in the processing of ballots. this allows us to spread out the processing and our personnel can practise safe distancing -- safe social distancing throughout the timeline. once a signature verification is complete, then we can transport the ballots over to bill graham auditorium. the way we transport the ballots will be safe and secure and, also, it will be monitored by sheriff's deputies and we'll note which ballots are leaving the hall and put the ballots on a box truck, we'll drive them and they won't be over to bill graham and we won't have the ballots exposed in open containers going across the street to the bill graham auditorium and once we get over to bill graham, we'll account for the ballots we'l. every electiowe're allowed to cs later in the election cycle and we could not process ballots until ten business days before election day but with the volume coming back, the state has passed legislation and allowing us to start processing ballots as receiving ballots in the mail, 29 days before election day which is the sandra hart ofe voting ballot. again, we can move the ballots of our processes without having people gathering in small businesses or having people together for longer periods of time than is necessary so that we can operate with being mindful of covid-19. and then we also have more time to count ballots to come back to us in the election cycle. and so, past elections, we had until the friday after that arrived to us that had ballot postmarks on or before election day and now we have until 17 days after to process vote vote-by-mail. this is a message we'll be putting forward a lot in this election forward, what's key is the envelopes -- the return vote-by-mail must be on or before election day. even though we have more time to count for this election cycle, if they're not postmarked on or before election day, we won't be able to count those ballots. and if people have concerns about the post office, moving ballots through its system on time, they should be very aware of what the pick-up times are on the blue boxes that we have throughout the city. but it's also not just a blue box. it's apartment buildings. a lot of apartment buildings have mail services and so residents need to be aware of how fast, how quickly the apartment building's service will have that mail picked up and postmarked by the post office. or if they use a mail-drop location. it's postmarked on or before election day and if we get it by the 17th day after the election. the outdoor voting center and to protect the department of health, they're relocate the voting center to the outdoor area in the bill graham's auditorium on grouff street. to back up, so the idea behind the voting center which has been in city hall before decades, long before i showed up, there was a voting hall for every election. we don't want people to be exposed to covid, an. the mayor's office and city administrate's office has been driving this with us to set up the tents and voting stations at bill graham and we'll have 60 stations and 200 voting booths and proper lighting and security services and organize three closures so that we have safe areas for people to go vote and to cast their ballots and, also, logistic. even though we'll have 60 stations at bill graham, it's less than what we had at city hall for the march election. we had 85 stations for the march election, and so, even though we'll have a safer set-up outside in front of ib bill gra, there will be voters with ballots. we're putting in plans to have people line up in ways to maintain social distancing and how we can move people through lines and they maintain social distancing and also, all of the personal protection equipment available the voters. so the bill graham voting center will have the same days of operation and same hours if we would have had the voting center in city hall. so the bill graham voting center will open on october 5th at 8:00 a.m. and be open daily except for the weekends, the first two weekends -- first three weekends, from 8:00 to 5:00 and opening from 10:00 to four before the election. now, the entire time the center is open, it will have ballot drop-off service and so, if people have voted their ballot and just want to drop it off and get it to us, we'll set us stations at bill graham so people don't have to get in line or congregate in number to drop off their ballot. and so, in compliance with public health guidance, they will adopt protocols at the voting center. the department will set up ballot issuing stations and voting boths to facilitate social distancing and sanitize voting supplies, equipment and high-touch surfaces. voters will be offered face coverings, hand sanitizer and gloves and are offering this service provided in multi-lingual notices at the voting center. and as i noted, to minimize congestion, there will, two ballot controversy-of drop-off . starting october 31st, the department willing open additionadepartments will open l sites. one site in hand for november is chase center. and so we will have a ballot drop off location at the chase center working with the lawyers to get that organized and so that will be in place and then we'll also have ballot drop-off in district ten and another in district 11. the reason for placing these ballot drop-off locations in districts ten and 11, there's neighborhoods that tend to turn out lower than the city-wide average for an election and we're not trying to draw people to one location. that's what we don't want to do with this election due to covid, having the drop-off locations in those areas. it will draw more attention to the election and make people think about casting a ballot in this election. and polling places, so, to settlemensupplement the voting , there will be 500 polling places from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. for all and having 58 588 polling places, w. this way people won't be putting themselves at risk to get sick with covid while trying to exercise their right to vote. so by having 588 locations throughout the city, we're reducing the need for people to move through the city and take public transportation and gather in large numbers and also, with our polling places, we try to have out sites around six, eight blocks away from any resident within a precinct. and so, every polling place we have is assigned to a specific precincts and every precinct is one thousand registered voters, except for the 1,000 voters, we try to have the polling place located within six to eight blocks. we identified about a hundred sites to replace and in addition, another 30 sites that canceled on us. and that work has been ongoing for a couple of months. we have about 23 more sites to locate, but i will say, too, that we are still looking for sites and so, if people think they have a site that might be eligible to be a polling place to let us know and don't ask us if we have a site for a precinct and don't make a decision that your site is not sufficient for a polling place. just contact us and we can ask questions. we can make an assessment on the phone regarding this election as a polling place. but also, we need standby polling places in case we can cancellations. for example, if there's a surge of covid infections closer to election day, there's a possibility we could lose polling places as they cancel on us. if we have standby sites that we can put into use, it won' it woe helpful. noand then regarding polling places, there's no one area of the city we need polling places more than other. there are a few more sites around the tenderloin, the part of district three and the eastern part of district five and there's a few more there than in other districts. every district has a few precincts for which we need sites. so in keeping with current health public guidelines, the department introduced significant changes to both the format of the poll worker training and made changes to polling place procedures to have protocols in place at all polling places. the training will be online and so all past elections, probably since the beginning, with the first election was in-person. for the past many elections, we've had training in city hall and all workers would come to city hall, receive their training and some materials and they would go back home and wait for election day. now, the training is online and for anyone that doesn't have access to online access or the equipment, to do online training, we've set up kind of quasi, in-person training seconds inside the bill graham auditorium and we're adhering to health and safety guidelines. so for people who want to be poll workers who don't have access, internet access tor equipment to watch an online training session, they could come to the bill graham auditorium and set them up and have training session but do so in-person but under safe conditions adhering to safety protocols. the department will adopt protocols at all polling places and will post multilingual signage and maintain social distance. poll workers will complete and post a polling place health and safety checklist and placed outside of every polling site and serve notice to voters at the polling places in compliance with current public health guidance. every site has a protection plan on the characteristics and available space at each site and so, what this means that every polling place in the city, by taking measurements and creating diagrams, thinking how we can have the election process occur within that specific space. so we're considering ho consideo place the table, the accessible voting equipment at the polling place and how to locate the voting booths that voters can vote their ballots using safe social distancing. also, the ingress and egress from polling places and all of this thinking about the health and safety practises in the diagrams, they're specific to each polling place. poll workers will be accessible to ppe's, including face shields, gloves and hand sanitizer and also, the poll worker training and all of the materials will remind them to remain six feet apart while performing their tasks and we've revised poll worker duties for this election specific to covid so that the poll workers can perform duties while maintaining social distancing. all poll workers will share responsibility to clean and sanitize their polling places, including common voting supplies and equipment and high-touch surfaces. poll workers will have specific cleaning tasks to perform throughout the day and they'll be responsible for recording these tasks have occurred. one, just to provide notice to the voters that the polling places are safe for in-person voting and remind them to keep cleaning throughout the day. also, the department is organizing poll workers to be greeters at these polling places and they will be stationed at the entrance of each polling place. and so greeters will assist voters dropping off vote-by-mail ballots. the greeters will offer face masks, hand sanitizer and the greeters will answer voter questions and, also, the greeters will be mindful of my lines that occur at the polling places and mindful that the voters maintain social distancing from one another. then, also, the ordinance reference are providing health and safety protocols and have them practise by our vendors and other city agencies. so the vendors that are working with the department for this elections, like our voting system vendor, they also have following a self-certification process with all of their employees and before any vendor personnel come to city hall or to the warehouse, they are self-certifying that they are able to work on site and, also, the vendor that will do the delivery of polling equipment, voting equipment and voting place supplies, their personnel will be self-screening and they'll be practicing good habits, like facial coverings, handsanitizing and wearing gloves. and so every impact of getting materials and equipment information to polling places, everyone involved in the department, the vendors and other city agencies will be practicing these health and safety protocols throughout the election cycle. and then, everything that we're doing on the health and safety protocol front is moving along with the program of public health review and input and so there's nothing that we're doing for this election regarding health and safety that we're not putting forward to the department of public health and, also, we're getting information from dhr, from the notices they're putting out and following the center for disease control, as well. and so, for the 588 polling places, we need about poll workers and we need 3,000 and right now we have 1800 people signed up to be poll workers. this sounds like we're close, but we'll have a lot of cancellations as we move towards the election cycle and we're still involved in recruiting for election day. what we're seeing are a lot of people who served as poll workers in march and many have decided not to serve for the november election and a lot of the workers we have are new to the process. and people were hearing the call to serve the community and to be involved in the election's process for november and so, we have a lot of new people who are saying, count me in, i want to be a part of this process and join this election and i want to be a poll worker. so far, that's really saving us and we're hoping that continues. my concern for having a sufficient number of pope poll workers, i intend to seek a waiver in the city charter that this allows city workers to support the department in conducting elections in san francisco. those who don't know, the city past, voters adopted a charter in 2002 that this allows city employees to support the department in conducting elections, unless they obtain a waiver and that waiver is approved next by the board of supervisors. i'll be allowing for employees to serve as poll workers for this election. the ordinance requires considering service to voters who are in hospitals or homebound. and so, the department will offer additional voting oxe for those experiences quarantine and generally due to covid-19, who would otherwise be able to participate in the election either by mail or in-person voting. this is allowing voters to mark a screen readable ballot from the internet connected device and the vote-by-mail ballot is compatible with shift devices. in previous elections, only voters with disabilities and in the military or overseas by state law were allowed to use this system. and now state law permits all to use this system, but this would be potentially a greater service to people who can vote if vote by mail is sent to them or participate in-person voting. and also curbside. we're enhancing procedures for curbside service to voters who choose to go to a polling place, but not actually summe enter. if you want to participate with in-perin-person but not go in, e establishing procedures for this to occur. with the covid and health and safety protocols in mind. every election, there's been curbside but what's new is trying to provide this service to voters so both voters and poll workers can interact in a way that's within health and safety protocols. and so we created new training materials for poll workers and, again, this is done with the guidance of the department of public health. and so the poll workers will make sure they sanitize any materials they bring out to curbside voting and make sure they maintain a distance, you know, offer any ppes to the voters who are doing curbside voting and this will all go into new procedures and materials. this can require a lot of resources at the busiest time, but for this election, due to covid, we'll increase our resources, and we'll also increase the knowledge that people have of this program. if they need the department to organize a pick-up during the last week of the voting period, then we'll make that happen. we're just preparing for this to happen in greater numbers and previous election and one, because of covid and two, also we're going to put out the notice thoroughly throughout the city that this is a possibility. we prefer voters send ballots back to us or do in-person voting since this is a rather resource intennive service we have. so this is the emergency ballot delivery program, we have not finalized this with the department of public health. this is trickier because you're going to places that are healthcare facilities or people who have symptoms of covid or have tested positive and so we want to make sure our personnel involved are safe and there's protocols in place to maintain their health. in summary, there's a few slides. the department's plan for the november 3rd election demonstrate the ongoing commitment to providing a full array of oa outreach allowing te department to maintain election services to members of vulnerable and hard-to-reach and seniors with disabilities and members with the groups and residents of neighborhoods to turn out below the city average. now, that said, we're still recruiting poll workers and i want to put that information in this presentation. inspectors can receive a stipend of about $240 and then clerks, who provide assistance and several tasks at the polling places can receive a stipend of $180. people who are interested in serving as poll workers for this election can contact the department, sfelections.org/pwa. and, also, as i mentioned, we're still looking for polling places and we're not looking just to get a polling place for each precinct but also looking for standby polling places if that's a possibility and, again, we're not asking for people to decide for us if their site can't be a polling place. if people think they have a location to contact us and we can do a survey, even over the phone, to determine if we need to go forward using that as a polling place. even though we're changing the locations of where we do activities, and identifying how we get ballots to people and we're modifying how we count those ballots and even though the department is making a lot of change, voters for the most part are going to experience very few and miner changes when i comewhenit comes to voting. most are vote-by-mail, about 71% receiving ballots before each election and now there will be an additional 29% of voters receiving ballots in the election. but even with the extra 29%, we'll provide noticing, a phone bank to respond to voters' calls. but for the most part, voters won't experience much change at all. when they go to the polling place, they won't be able to potentially put their bot in thn the tabulators. if they get a ballot from the polling place, they'll actually place that in another envelope which comes back to us for review, but still, the polls places are available and voters can still receive ballots and go to the local place to do in-person voting. and that's what really they've been driving at the city, when the board was discussing the ordinance back in april. the board was very cognizant that we didn't want a lot of change for the voters. the board did want to support the idea of getting the vote-by-mail out to the voters so they could vote without going to polling places or without coming to city hall but in the ordinance and in our conversation regarding the ordinance, the board wanted to have in-person voting and they wanted in-person voting so people didn't have to gather together in large numbers, like having voting centers in various parts of the city to maintain and retain the poling places we had so that voters can still go do in-person voting but in smaller numbers in a safer manner. so all of the thinking that has gone into this election on the board's part, the mayor's part, the city administrator's part, it's to provide election to voters for the november election. every voter in san francisco will have an opportunity to vote in a safe deny using a safe voting option. and so, that's the end of slide show. >> there were a couple who had to leave and if we could open this up to public comment and then we will have a chance to ask questions, that would be great. >> yes, members of the public who wish to provide public comment on this item call (415)655-0001 and the meeting i.d. is (146)670-2564 and press pound and pound again. if you have not done so, dial star three to line up to speak. please wait until the system indicates you have been un-muted and you can begin your comments. are there any speakers at this time? >> there are currently two callers in the queue and i will un-mute the first caller. >> speaker: i'i want to congratulate the director on this very detailed and thought-out plan. it's one of the strongest plans for the administration. >> thank you, next caller, please. >> speaker: i would like to raise some concerns regarding how coworkers fit into this. so a number of the people who have traditionally worked as coworkers are older and more subject to -- more likely to be compromised and more prone to covid-19 infections. and the hours that the department of elections asked of poll workers is quite long because you're expected to get there, i don't know, 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning and stay until, basically, whenever the sheriff comes and picks up -- basically sometime until late at night until 9:00 or 10:00. i know $240 sounds like quite a bit of money, but when you factor in there's training and a full day, it's a lot less than minimum wage. and the department of elections is requiring on bilingual coworkers who are exposing themselves to a wide variety of people who you don't know what their infection stats are and there's more duties involved, they don't have to sanitize things and so, yeah, i'm just concerned, like, are poll workers, is if safe for poll workers? are they adequately compensated? and yeah, i just have concerns about whether or not enough is being done. >> thank you, speaker time has elapsed. can we have the next speaker, please. >> speaker: i would like to comment on thcompliment for thef directors being proactive. because so many voters might be voting absentee when they hadn't previously, the important of having clear instructions what's necessary for an an absentee bat tballot. so just lots of clear and thorough instructions and this is crucial to making sure that everyone's vote is counted. >> thank you, next caller, please. >> madam chair, that completes the queue. i believe your muted at this time. >> sorry about that. i wanted to give my colleagues an opportunity to ask questions to mr. arntz unless director smiley has any comments that she would like to make prior. >> thank you, chair ronen. i do have several comments, if it's ok for me to talk about them. so good morning. i'm the director for the office of racial equity through the san francisco human right's commission and i am excited that we're talking about this and thank you, supervisor ronen, for your proactive nature on this very important issue. i want to commend director arntz for your consistency and hard work in making sure that this year's election is inclusive, adaptive anadaptive. we need to do as much to promote an excessive ballot. i've been a san francisco voter over 12 years and we've been consistent in having one of the best systems in the country. in the words of obama, we would have to vote early and often and racial equity is not an after-thought. it must act as an artery for this work and the office of racial equity is ready and willing to be a partner. we foe that our electoral is increasingly brown and young and bili to ngu arc l and folks ari. we'll be happy to put forth strategies and i want to say with equity considerations that goes beyond community outreach, there are so many considerations on every piece. so i want to make sure that conversation actually happens. and so again, again, want to be available and we need to make sure we do a little bit of extra, right, and we can't assume everyone has equal access to information and to voting. and a couple of key areas, if it's ok, chair ronen, just to bring up, and number one, making sure we're thinking ge thinking, thinking about shuttles in which we can be connecting folks to polling places and making sure we're leveraging all city resources. you mentioned needing additional facilities. that would be great to talk about the geographical diversity. there are places where people are continually marginalized. and how can we target those to facilities that are equitable and accessible. we want to make sure -- one college did bring up to the diversity of poll workers, i do support the idea of the waiver for city workers. because of the racial diversity of city workers, also the ability diversity of city workers and the language ability of city workers and i think that can be an important intervention when it comes to supporting our elections this november. and i did have a question about the health and safety protocols of our sites and will they have equal access to ppe to do that work for polling sites that are community-based. i did also want to bring up the fact that -- i'm going very fast, excuse me, but this is fascinating and i love the topic and care about this and i want to make sure as many folks as possible have access to do this. i th wanted to bring up the fact there's some key populations and i did read the outreach plan and i am appreciative of your presentation. but there are key populations that we need to pay extra attention to and i wanted to hear from you, director, arntz, through the chair, what are we doing for formally justice-involved individuals so they can exercise their right to vote. we know the criminal justice system impacts our black and brown communities and as their voting rights are restored, how do they know they, too, can participate in our democracy? it's important to have trusted messengers. how do we have sensitive community conversations, particularly for noncitizens who are allowed to vote in school elections? we need an update and also, what kind of voter education can we tdo with mixed status? that's an important intervention, as well. i did look at your contract that went to your community partners and thank you for sharing that information and i did have a concern that most of the contracts that went to api-lead community-based organizations, which is fantastic for those specific communities and neighborhoods and when we're -- we're not talking about equality but equity and we're reaching out to our black, our latino, american indian, specifi specifc islander and reach the sunnydale, tenderloin, treasure island and, also, thinking about some of the key populations, like our queer tlgb, young people. and then lastly, you know, i'm happy to talk more about strategies. i want to make sure we go where community is. there's a lot of fantastic learning from the outreach programs that director davis has lead that we can learn due to covid on how we can pair this important voter education with, you know, outreach or reaching out to pantries or talking to our school district in distance learning or talking to parents or how do we learn to help us connect to individuals and families. and there's a lot of learning and things that are happening that are robust that i feel like can be tapped into to strengthen the outreach efforts. it just takes connecting with us, like i said, early and often to make sure we're doing it just a little bit more for our marginalized communities. and so those are my comments and i'm happy to take comments, as well. thank you for the opportunity to present today. >> thank you so much. those were useful comments and i had some similar questions. i am excited that your office will do based on equity analysis and i'm happy to bring that back to committee when it's complete so that we can have the opportunity for the public to weigh in and hear it, so i appreciate that offer and i'm glad to hear the two of you will be working together off-line to make that happen. so please, just let us know when and if you would like us to hold a hearing on that equity plan and i'm certainly very, very interested in it. so thank you with that. and colleagues, did you have ano respond? >> no, thank you. but thank you, chair. >> chair: supervisor stephanie, any questions for either director arntzosimli. >> yes. i just want to say one of the reasons i love being in public service is because i get to work with incredible people like this. thank you for calling this work on the topic. it's so important and thank you, again, dr. arntz for joining us and thank you everywhere at the department oi want to thank you. i'm been cochairing the opening group and we've been making sure we can provide our government services to the public and, of course, this is the one that was on everyone's mind and so, i am really grateful we have a robust vote-by-mail program. thank you for your presentation, director and so many other factors to consider this year. between the pandemic's impacts on our capacity to really facilitate in-person voting and, of course, the trump administration's attacks on the postal service and voting by mail and the fact that this could very well turn out to be probably one of the highest turn-out elections in our lifetime. and i know that the anxiety we feel is that we can't afford any missteps, oversteps or errors so the questions raised by director simle around access is reassuring. i do have just a few questions in terms of the presentation and how we can help to facilitate everything. there's a lot of neighborhood organizes in my district, in district two and i know there are throughout the city and so i'm wondering if you plan to do any outreach to the neighborhood associations in terms of everything you mentioned. i know the planning department has a list of associations and i don't know if that was on your radar in terms of who to give the information to. >> supervisor stephanie, before reelection, we create outreach packets that we send to organizations and so all of the fliers and hand-outs and information on our website, contact information for the department, we send that out to all of the organizations. we also send it to the supervisor's offices. so every supervisor should receive a packet, as well. and the only reason why we wouldn't send a packet of outreach to a group is because we don't know about that. and so, if we have contact information for a group that we're sending out information, trying to get a continuing identified contact. and then, we really tried to also recommend to organizations that they use our digital content when they create an issue with their newsletters or notices. we're happy to work with anyone, providing a content for digital information which is probably eager to get out than the hard copy at the moment. >> thank you so much. and on page ten, in the report, you discuss how the department has been collaborating with the united states' postal service to plan and organize a timely delivery of an increased volume of packets, as well. given the alarming changes from the postmaster dejoy, i'm wondering whether this has changed or whether there's anything the supervisors can do to facilitate. wvery alarming we asked questios whether or not he's going to reverse any of the changes and he just out and out said no. i'm woman dering i wondering ifr relationship wi with the post office has change and if you can give us an update. >> the relationship with the local usps and the department has been on good standing for many years and everything going into this election, our relationship remains in good standing. the post office representatives are very aware of the environment in which they're working and very aware of the concerns that people have, especially around election mail-in ballots. and they also take it personally that they achieve the responsibility to fulfill the obligation to give ballots to and from voters to this election can happen. the postal representatives in san francisco for the last many years and showing itself again to the cycle, they're very responsive to any requests this department makes and any question that we have. if we ask for potentially some work outside of the normal practises, they're willing to do so within reason, of course. the post office, at least in san francisco is very much focused on getting the ballots into the mail stream. so no, i have not seen a difference in the viewpoints or action and i really think with all of the attention on this, there's always attention on the post office and election. every election, this is not new. but being presidential and extra factors, they are feeling more of a squeeze. but they want to succeed, do well, they don't want to be in the news. they want the election to do well. they communicated that and acting that way. if there are issues that come to the department, i have direct contacts with the people, higher up in the administration with the post office that i call to get information, to have them look into issues and activate people and response to any issues. i think that will continue for this election. i'm sure the post office isn't perfect and there will be issues, but i don't think it will be large, programmatic hazards to and from the voters. if there's any language you can give us to include in our newsletters to constituents, that would be good, making sure we get the right language and we can email our constituents. so i had a question around that, but handled it and i wanted to add that little bit. >> absolutely. >> in terms of the polling locations, again, too, have you -- when do you start notifying voters that the polling location might have changed and is that something we can help with in our districts? >> well, voters will know when the polling changes when the letters land in their mailboxes and the letter o address on ther will be different than the one they received in march. just around the start of early voting or so regarding a change in polling places from march to november and then, also, election day, outside of the polling places and if someone goes to the polling location, they know to go to the new location. i would love to send information to the supervisors to communicate with their constituents that a polling place has changed in a district. that would be wonderful. and a couple of other things i've thought of, i'm looking for additional polling places and, you know, where we're at in terms of the pandemic and there's so many empty spaces, whether it's the school district, gyms or parking lots, i don't know if those have been considered. i heard something about the giant's parking lot, maybe that will be a place where people will do voting. i don't know if that was offered up. but i have this idea of drive-through voting -- wasn't my idea, i saw senator harris talking about it. but after i did the covid testing at pier 30 twice, it was so easy. i was so impressed. the drive-through and everything i had to do to check that out. wouldn't it be great to have a location where we could drive-through vote. not just drop off ballots but get the ballots and i don't know if that's considered at all. i think that's something in the future we have to look to and it seems like we were able to pull it off for the pandemic and hopefully we can pull that off for voting. anyway, i want to thank you so much for everything you're doing. i feel like we're in good hands. yesterday i was calling voters in north carolina for -- i know there's no electioneering. but i was calling voters in north carolina and telling them that they had to be very careful when they registered to vote because they have to have a witness, 18 years or older, sign it for them. and it made me so grateful that we don't have to do that here in san francisco and that we hold our elections is dear. and we'll do everything we can to turn out the vote. we have people like director simli at the office of equity to make sure we hit every neighborhood and person and that we really do everything we can. and so however we can help as soup storesupervisors, thank yor calling this hearing. it is so important. with that, i think i'll turn it over to my colleagues for their question. thank you to you both for those presentations. >> thank you. >> supervisor mar, any questions? >> yes, thank you, chair. actually, thank you just for your leadership on these issues, for calling for this hearing and sponsoring the resolution ensuring that we're as pro active as possible in planning for the election and, also, thank you to supervisor stephanie for all of your comments and questions. i appreciate all of that. i touched on a number of my points and questions i was thinking about raising. and thanks, director arntz for your presentation and the great work that you and the department staff have been doing to prepare for this incredibly important election, unprecedented election. i appreciate all of the thought you put into the targeted outreach, hard-to-reach and vulnerable and vulnerable, particularly nonlimited english-speaking voters and also glad to hear that director simle and the office of racial equity will be following up and really working with you to ensure that we have a strong equity frame and strategy in our elections. and you know, just thank you for all of the thought planning that you have done, you know, to prepare for the election. i just had a question around the voters who have still continued to vote in-person. in recent elections, we'v most e by mai.there are about 145,000 s and probably more in this election since it will be such a high turn-out. and so do we have sort of an analysis of who those voters are that have still preferred to vote in-person, like the old-school way and in terms of the demographic group, characteristics and the geographically, the voters that voted in person, geographically and demographically, where they are, is that reflected in our planning? those are the ones that would have to make the biggest change in this election. >> so, the answer is yes and regarding demographics and when people register to vote, dem demographic information is optional. but when it comes to knowing where the high turn-out parts of the city are, we know that each election because we provide by default, extra support for those locations every year, every election cycle. and so, we still expect people to go to polling places and we still expect them to want to capacity a ballot, but i think covid is going to also reduce the number of people that go to polling places. and i think the ballot lanking g in people's mailboxes are reducing the people in polling places. but having i voted sicker on the insert will reduce the number of people going to polling places. that's one of the largest statements is that they want their i voted sticker. that's why they go and drop off ballots. now they can get the sticker and mail it back to us. >> i know a lot of voters, my family included, tend to drop off or ballot on election day and there's a growing number of voters that do that because maybe they waited until the last minute. >> so every election we get at least a 25% of the vote is cast by people dropping off their ballot at polling places and for this election, we expect that number to potentially double. it will be between 20% and 50% of the vote and depending on the location of the polling place. and i forgot this and i wanted to focus on this and i didn't do it. there's been a lot of discussion in the media, especially, social media, about drop-off locates, . i know the warriors want one at their site and other people are contacting us. but the drop-off site draw people in larger numbers and so, the idea going into this election cycle is also thinking with us having the same number of polling places for november we had for march. every polling place is a ballot drop-off location. in san francisco, on election day, we'll have 588 ballot location sites. if there's any message that we can put out there, that there's 588 ballot voting locations on election day and then there will be another program on our website, an app, we include for this election, so that if people want to know the closest polling place they are -- i work in the civic center and this app for the november election will inform voters we're at one -- (indiscernible). >> what's the closest polling place. so, yes, we expect a higher turn-off with people dropping off ballots and every polling place is a ballot drop-off location. >> thank you again, dr. arntz is simle for your work and presentation today. >> thank you. yes, i just wanted to echo my colleagues and just say that, you know, the anxiety that we're all feeling, i think, as we watch this president dismantle our most cherished institutions and traditions, it's so anxiety producing. and i feel the same feeling of relief just listening to your presentation about how well prepared we are in san francisco to make sure that every individual who wants to exercise their right to vote, has that ability without any hindrance. so thank you, thank you for that. of course, being san francisco and having the office of racial equity, we go even further in that we proactively target communities that have for for fs of different complicated reasons, that we proactively engage with those communities to try to get over those historic barriers and do right by those communities so that they exercise their voice and their vote. so director, gosh, i've always been excited about your office and your role, but putting it in this context, it makes so much sense. and so, just really glad that you're going that, just a couple questions, because i know this has been a long hearing. since everyone will get a -- who is registered to vote will receive a mailed ballot, regardless whether they've registered or vote by mail, what is the deadline to register to vote in order to receive that ballot? >> october 19th. >> october 19th, ok. because if you're voting in-person, you can register the same day didn't vote in-person, but if you want to receive that mailed ballot, you have to register by the 19th. >> correct. >> and then, i'm just wondering if -- you talked to us about the education strategy and i very much appreciate it. but there's still continues to be a lot of misunderstanding of what the vote-by-mail deadline is. many people think the office of elections needs to receive the ballot by election day as opposed to it being postmarked by election day. i'm just wondering if there's any additional outreach that is being done to correct that misunderstanding by vote-by mail, above and beyond what you're planning, especially for the communities that have been shown in studies to have that belief. >> yeah, that is one of the basis of our outreach going forward, especially as we move through the election cycle. and a lot of our messages will be around postmarks. and we're glad to give any information that the supervisor's offices content regarding to get that message out to communities and get it out to san francisco, but it's going to be a mainstay of our messagings going forward an. there's a lot of mentioned messages, but as long it's post marked on or before election day, we can count it and that's the main message to hear. i don't want them to know 17 days after election day. just get it post marked and get that ballot back to us. >> and then, my last question and it was eluded to, first of all, can you explain the scope of work done by the community-based organization that has been selected to do sort of voter engagement and outreach? and then, i too, was disappointed to see there was only one organization focused on serving the african-american community and i did not see any organization specifically providing outreach and service to the l latino community? can you response to that? >> the groups that responded are the ones that we were able to select and we sent out notices to all of our contact list informing everyone that we had the grant funds and outreach programs in place and so, essentially, those who applied or the ones that applied received the grants. and so a lot of the work now for the outreach will be digital because of the covid but they'll be doing in-person, as much as possible because one of the important aspects of reaching people who don't -- were infrequent voters is the in-person outreach. these aren't the voters usually motivated by the mailings or seoul. isocial media. it seems like the direct one-on-one to make them think they need to get out and vote. as much as these groups can with the covid safety and health protocols in place, we want them to be out doing their personal outreach in the communities. and if they can't do interpersonal, making phone calls to people trying to contact people that way. and so, yeah, really, the idea going into selection, the same we had for march, was that these groups would augment and be the next step into the community that we can't reach because we don't have the resources, we don't have the contacts, they have more of the interpersonal >> is there any additional money left to add additional organizations? >> not under that grant situation. if more money can be put in, i'm not against it, but i don't know the process. certainly, whoever is the contact for that, we can talk to. >> how many organizations received the contract? >> it was eight. >> and am i correct there's to organization that has a history of working in that next community? >> i can't remember the groups off my head. i thought there was. and we'll have someone check right now, actually, too. >> i don't know, director simle, if you had any response or comments to those questions? qu? >> i didn't. i do not recalling seeing an organization that directly supports the latino community. and you're correct, only one organization that particularly serves the african-american community and parts of the southeast of the city, which we >> i want to uplift working together early and often. they are some so dedicated like community care hav caravans. pair operato(indiscernible). >> i'm not sure what the funding will look like but that was something a concern beginner the eight contracts that were provided. hoping we can close the equity gaps in regard to the black and to the latino community. >> so coleman advocates will be doing outreach under this grant and one of the organizations that received funding through this grant process. >> coleman advocates is fantastic and serve a multiracial base. but in terms of an organization that really focuses on the latin community and the dozens and dozens, it is worrisome to me that none of those have been chosen. i see, director davis, did you have anything to add on this point, director davis? >> i did, thank you so much, supervisor ronen. i just think, too, director simle's point, we have been engaging with quite a few partners and folks on the ground and one of the challenges we've seen just with outreach and engagement, especially in the latino community is a disconnect and we have to be intentional about outreach and engagement, where those trusted messengers are and where folks feel like they can trust the information they're getting is not a set-up for something. we have to be really intentional and we have some of those relationships. we have the ability to leverage that, and so, i wanted to drop that point in there, because we have seen so many challenges where some folks are skeptical and cynical about why someone is sharing information with them and so they need to be connected with folks that they trust and believe and understand that the process is not going to be used against them. >> so i'm wondering if we can do some follow-up. i know that director arntz and simle will do follow-up. but i would be happy to be involved in the conversation and see how we can maybe get a few more organizations that have the trust and the relationships with the latin x and african-american communities in san francisco because for different reasons, those are the two communities that are underrepresented in their voting and to not have at least a number of organizations focused on those hardest-to-reach communities, i think, is a problem. and so, maybe we can figure this out and this can be some of our follow-up. that would be great. well, thank you so much and if there's no other questions, or comments, thank you again for the excellent work and presentations. i look forward to this one point of follow-up and the more extensive follow-up that director simle will do to do race is equity analysis of the plan and looking forward to voting in the extremely important election of our lifetime. with that, i am happy to make a motion to file this hearing. i think if we have a new hearing on this issue, it will be focused on that, race and equity. i make a motion to file this hearing and we can have a role call vote. >> on that motion to file the matter -- (role call). >> the motion passes without objection. >> thanks again, everyone. >> any other item? >> that completes the agenda for today. >> the meeting is adjourned and have a good day, everyone. employee good afternoon. and welcome to the land use and transportation committee of the san francisco board of supervisors for today, august 31st, 2020. i am the chair of the committee aaron peskin, joined by committee member supervisor dean preston and i think to be joined momentarily by vice chair supervisor ahsha safai. our clerk is miss erica major. ms. major, do you have any announcements? >> clerk: yes. due to the covid-19 health emergency, and to protect board members and employees in the public. the committee room are closed. however, members will be participating in the meeting remotely. all local, state and federal orders, declarations and directives. committee members will attend the meeting through video conference, participating as if physically present. public comment will be available on each item on this agenda both channel 26, 78 or 99 depending on your provider. and sfgovtv.org are streaming the number across the screen. each speaker will be allowed two minutes to speak. comments are opportunities to speak. during the public comment period, are available by phone by calling (415)665-0001. again the number is (415)665-0001. the meeting i.d. is 146 466 4627. again that's 146 466 4627. press pound and pound again. when connected you'll hearing the meeting discussion and be muted and in listening mode only. when your item of interest comes up, please press star 3 to be added to the speaker line. best practices are to call from a quiet location, speak clearly and slowly and turn down your television or radio. alternatively you may submit public comment in either of the ways, to myself at erica.ma erica.major@sfgov.org. you submit public comment via email, it will be forwarded to the supervisors and it will be included as part of the official file. finally items acted upon today will appear on the agenda on september 15th, unless otherwise stated. >> supervisor peskin: thank you, madam clerk. can you please read the first item. >> clerk: yes. item number 1, is the re-enactment of emergency for protections of occupants of residential hotels or s.r.o. residence during the covid-19 pandemic. >> supervisor peskin: thank you, madam clerk. colleagues, i want to thank my co-sponsors for the original ordinance. supervisors mainy , ronen, safai, fewer, preston, walton and yee. that emergency ordinance, that as the clerk said, established protections for occupants of s.r.o. hotels in san francisco that include some 18,000 to 19,000 individuals in congregate settings, passed by the board of supervisors as an emergency matter and lasts for 80 days. that required the department of public health to offer a number of provisions, including testing and i.n.q. provisions, isolation and quarantine for individuals that had tested positive, as well as implicit notice for residents of those s.r.o.s. these are individuals who live in congregate settings, where they share bathrooms and they share kitchens, a highly transmissive environment. and i want to thank the department of public health for not only taking that ordinance seriously, but already having done that job before we massed the emergency ordinance. and during the interim for starting to establish a dialogue with the residents of those communities that span the mission, into the tenderloin into chinatown into north beach, were the best of the rest of once were 40,000 or more s.r.o. hotels once existed. so i want to thank and acknowledge d.p.h. for that. this has been really an admonition to d.p.h. and the community to step up the game. i want to thank and acknowledge the department of public health that on friday at approximately 518 in the afternoon, actually put up a web tool that shows the number of cases in s.r.o.s and the numbers of deaths, which thankfully -- tragically four deaths over 500 cases. so those buildings have been handed superbly, some less so. and i really want to thank d.p.h., but more importantly the community for holding our feet to the fire as decision manned legislators and d.p.h.'s feet to the fire, as the front-line implementers under the pandemic. and with that i believe that we have dr. stephanie cohen. colleagues, if you have no comments, i would like to hand this over to the department of public health and dr. cohen. thank you, supervisor safai, for joining to really present what's happened and fundamental, as i said in the newspaper the other way, i want to create the space for the department of public health to build trust amongst the s.r.o. population in those communities that are very, very different communities. some of them latinx communities, some of them chinese communities and predominantly cantonese amongo linguaamong -- mono lingl individuals. and those who reside in the arc that has s.r.o.s. with that i'll turn it over to dr. cohen. >> thank you very much. i'm going to share my screen and give a short update to what we discussed a couple of weeks ago. are you able to see the presentation? >> supervisor peskin: yes, we are. >> okay. supervisor peskin, preston and safai, thank you for the opportunity to come back and speak to you again and update the committee on our ongoing work to prevent covid-19 in s.r.o.s and to protect the residents who reside in these buildings. we met a couple of weeks. my name is stephanie cohen. i'm an infectious disease physician and serving as the lead for the sscta covid-19 s.r.o. seeing none team since -- response team since april. as we discussed at the committee meeting on august 17th, we are committed to this population and we have a robust and proactive approach to prevention in these congregate settings. our robust approach has produced results preponderates of covid-19 testing among s.r.o. residents are actually higher than the rate of testing in san franciscans overall. the proportion of s.r.o. residents who test positive for covid-19 is similar to that of non-s.r.o. residents who live in the same neighborhood. so a lot of what we're seeing in s.r.o.s reflects the community prevalence in the communities where the s.r.o.s are. and lastly the case fatality rate among s.r.o. residents is comparable to the overall case fatality rate at approximately .8%. and this is one of the lowest covid case fatality rates nationwide. as supervisor peskin mentioned, one of the provisions in the ordinance was to launch a publicly available data tracker. and after much hard and diligent work on the part of our advanced planning, data s.f. and surveillance groups, that dashboard went live on august 28th. it's available -- it's a u.r.l. that you see on the slide. this is just a snapshot from the data tracker to show you what it looks like, as required by the ordinance. it shows the number of residents who tested positive, the number of buildings that have had a case, numbers of deaths and number of residents who have gone to an isolation and quarantine hotel. it also shows these figures here which show over time the total number of cases and the total number of deaths, as well as the daily new cases and the sffd rolling average, which gives us a sense of where we are on some of our important surge metrics. we also, since our last meeting, are working on community engagement. since the last meeting, we met with chinatown community leaders. we also have met with chinese hospital leadership and are excited to really move forward in a collaborative response with chinese hospitals to covid-19 cases in s.r.o.s in chinatown. and we're working on setting up recurring meetings with the s.r.o. collaboratives. and we want to hear their concerns. we also want to provide them information and updates and we want to strategize together how we can optimize covid-19 prevention for s.r.o.s residents and other disproportionately impacted by covid-19. we have an amazing team in our group of social workers, nurse practitioners, nurses, health workers who have been in the field in s.r.o.s every day since really the pandemic started, talking to residents. and we want to share the stories that we have heard, bus we know there are a lot of up stream factors and social determinants of health that are affecting these communities and we can only figure out how to address them if we work together. we do want to continue to request that the committee reevaluate the provision in the legislation,

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