being here. i know you have a lot going on, and this dialogue with us is very important and will help us understand what you're going to bring forward to us in the coming months, and i also appreciate everyone being here and also for you to be here, dr. colfax. we really do appreciate you being here in person, as well. i don't see any of my colleagues -- anything you want to say in closing, dr. colfax, or your team? i know you have a lot to go do. >> well, just to thank you for your support, and we will return with more specific answers to some of the questions that you asked, and looking forward to moving forward together both in the covid-19 pandemic, the behavioral health issues that came up, and automatic the work that the public does. thank you -- and all the work that the public does. thank you. madam clerk, is there any callers? >> clerk: operations is checking to see if there are any callers in the queue. mr. chair, there are no callers in the queue. >> chair haney: all right. public comment is now closed. i am going to motion to file this hearing. is there a second? >> supervisor safai: second, safai. >> supervisor safai: seconded by safai. roll call vote, please, madam clerk. >> clerk: yes. on that motion -- [roll call] >> clerk: there are five ayes. >> chair haney: great. thank you. this hearing is now filed, and thank you, dr. colfax and team. i want to thank all of you, but there are many of you here, so collectively thank you so much for being here with us. thank you for your work during this very challenging time, and we will see you soon again, i'm sure. >> thank you. >> chair haney: great. madam clerk, can you please call item 2? >> clerk: item, mr. chair. item number two, hearing on the overview of the office of economic and workforce development's but vet for fiscal years 2021-2022 and 2022-2023. members of the public who wish to provide public call should call 415-554-0001. meeting i.d. 187-775-3464. press pound, and pound again. press star, three to enter the queue, and a system prompt will indicate you have been unmuted. >> chair haney: all right. welcome to the office of workforce development, and i believe i'm going to hand it over to the director of office of economic and workforce development. >> thank you. i want to begin by thanking chair haney, president walton, and members of this committee for the opportunity to speak about this office's work to support and empower san francisco's most vulnerable and most impacted job seekers. while every single person in our city has been deeply impacted by covid-19, it is painfully clear that our low-income communities of color are facing severely disproportionate health and economic impacts. that has shaped oewds immediate response to the pandemic, and it continues to shape our view of a more equitable economy as we move into recovery. as we will discuss further in this hearing, the focus on serving the most vulnerable has informed each of the $17.7 million that has funded critical safety programs for impacted workers, including the immigrant worker fund, the family relief fund, workers and families first, and right to recover, which has enabled over 4,300 workers so far to safely quarantine without risk of significant financial harm. but still, our workers are facing historic levels of unemployment in the jab market. as we approach recovery, the urgency around the need to advance racial equity has never been clearer. for this department, that means working to ensure our african american, latinx, indigenous, and a.p.i. neighbors have access to the resources and the opportunities to succeed, build wealth, and provide for their families. in partnership with our leaders on the br ises, the office of economic and workforce development is in a position to drive real change in those areas. we also realize that work has to be rooted in a transparent, community accountable driven budget, and to inform their investments are formed and shaped by community, oewd held three town halls. their input reinforced the need to focus on our core services and ensure that we are taking a holistic approach to remaining barriers to employment facing our job seekers. that means strengthening our core job readiness services and ensuring that the city's multiworkforce system is available to everyone through on going interagency collaboration and cooperation. director arce will go into our building back stronger r.f.p. which has been built from the ground up to reflect community priorities at every level through an extensive outreach and engagement process. during the time of budget reductions and immeasurable need, we know that we must be very deliberate about serving our most impacted communities, we must be efficient and accountable to the communities we serve. to achieve those goals, oewd is working to best align our resources with other city departments. we saw the powerful impact that effective interdepartmental coordination can have from oewd's collaboration with the latino task force. oewd helped direct $28.5 million to specifically aid our latinx communities specifically hit hardest by the pandemic. >> for the $3419,000 for nonpersonnel services, that's related primarily to a reduction in our rebate refund program, which offers a reduction in fees paid to the city during production of film. for our city grant programs, the $7.9 million decrease is primarily attributed to the expiration of one-time add backs of 3.5 million. with respect to the programatic projects, the $1.7 million increase that you see there, it's primarily attributed to an increase for all initiative, which provides pathway and opportunities. the $83,000 decrease in material and supplies [inaudible] in the department of labor, and $555,000 increase in other departments otherwise known as work orders is related to an increase in our work order primarily associated with agreement, and lastly around [inaudible] through or revolving loan -- our revolving loan program. so with that, i'd like to turn it over to the director. >> thank you. at chair haney's direction, i will invite josh arce to go into greater depth on the programs affecting san francisco's workers and their families for the remainor of the presentation. >> thank you, director, and good afternoon, chair haney, vice chair safai, president walton, supervisors ronen and mar. thank you for the opportunity to present our budget, and as i walk-through, you'll find, chair haney, and colleagues, we've been very intention about responding to the list of questions to really drive into the equity goals and objectives, transparency, and how we're making these investments, so i'll speak to those points here at the presentation. really quickly, i just wanted to establish a quick baseline on this first slide with respect to how our program areas are structured, and that will latina us into the discussion of gaps and equities and efficiencies and how we've identified how we're using these resources to address those gaps and inequities. so our program history has generally been focused on these four areas. those are neighborhood job center, comprehensive job center, specialized services for san franciscans with particular paths to employment, and then job services stand-alone portfolio. and in addition, there's investments for youth and young adults. those are subsidized employment programs. increasingly, our work with the human rights commission around the opportunities for all initiative. the other bucket there on the bottom is goes to be on the bottom left, sector training, identified as areas for opportunity both because of work and career opportunities as well as the potential for training pathway and industry recognized potential or in the cases we look for most, apprenticeship particularly working with organized labor to have collectively bargained apprenticeship opportunities leads to great wages, benefits, and career pathways. so for these programs, citywide program health care program is, and technology strategy for i.t. opportunities it tech s.f. basis services -- opportunities is tech s.f. business services, we refer out to programs and job seekers to refer those candidates over to the employers that are hiring. obviously, prepandemic, things were different, but we're preparing to come back stronger as we prepare to open the economy and do so equitably. dylan, if we could go to the next slide. also, supervisors, any time that you'd like to make sure we're doing work in your district so we get as many proposals as possible. this is our city's racial equity objectives and what we've outlined through a community process year-long to get to what we call principles of employment equity identified by community members as those most persistent gaps based on race, socioeconomic factors outlined in the r.f.p. this is where you're going to see some of the changes in the big picture areas. these are based on a year of community meetings from community based organizations, community leaders, employers, educational institutions, prepandemic in the community, post pandemic on-line and in virtual webinars and through our workforce for economic recovery pilots looking for the opportunities to rebuild some enhancement to the woerk force system. there's some prompts from a question posed by the budget committee around audits. we've had -- been the beneficiary, i would say, of three budget and legislative analyst's audits to get more alignment, to get more accountability and transparency with respect to the workforce investments both to our office and the 21 other department that's have workforce development investments that we seek to coordinate and coordinate more effectively and efficiency and report out to the board and the public. lastly, the historic investment of the green keeper initiative that's funding to support the black community, led my mayor breed, president walton, colleagues at the board, those are the former law enforcement dollars that are invested instead to supporting the black community. we'll talk a little bit more at the community level. generally, these are services [inaudible] here today with the committee, and we prepare ourselves for the process as it might find additional resources or have conversations at this phase. we know that there's going to be changes as we go, but today, we've identified $22 million approximately in general funds. that includes $6 million of the $60 million annual green keeper initiative funding allocation, which is based on community recommendations, $4 million of opportunities for all. the additional general fund includes a $1 million add back as well as an add back to the employment needs and providing services to formerly homeless and formerly incarcerated job seekers. those are in that general fund bucket. $4.7 billion in funding work the workforce opportunity act and cdbg funding. that could increase based on changes in the federal administration. it's not guaranteed, but we're hopeful. we're taking proposals from now through march 31, and we're answering questions that anyone might have about the process and providing t.a. all the way through. questions will be answered all the way through march 17, and we'll continue to provide technical assistance for potential grantees as we go. next slide, dylan, please. all right. so the -- the budget in this framework includes, we mentioned, new areas based on community feedback and program evaluation, which was a question. the evaluation of our resources and the impacts and where we have our budget aligned is based on the community feedback and listening sessions. i'll give you an example of where we identified for us, which is really, i would say, the northstar of our workforce system, which is when you look at data, community voice will tell you about the disparities that face communities of color, low-income communities, disproportionately high unemployment rates, but there's one particular unemployment rate that stands out, and if you look at estimated unploit rate in the city and county of san francisco, this is the u.s. census data, their estimates. there is a margin of error, but there are trends, and the trends you see going back five years -- and once again, the 2019 data is the newest data available to us in december 2020. you get this sanl refrom the-- you get this from the u.s. census bureau. the unemployment has remained the highest for black san franciscans, and even last year, still remains 2.5 times the citywide average. so for that, that tells a story that drives us by community voice and this information, this data, to make the kind of investment particularly around that black unemployment gap because it's marked and accompanied by increment wealth gap, as well, and it's multigenerational, but it starts to tell a story because you can look at other information. you can see here a 10.7% estimated unemployed rate from the american indian and native community. the theory is that an employment strategy, a workforce development series of investments that are targeted to address with intentionality that disproportionately high unemployment rate for black san franciscans becomes a racial equity strategy that can lift all votes. so the principles of employment equity goes into race, gender, affordable housing, immigration status, language. the -- the impacts of homelessness and job seekers exiting homelessness and provides us data information that we use that helps us evaluate if we're getting there, if we're closing these gaps, and we look forward to getting proposals throughout this r.f.p. proposals to evaluate the intersectionality of these factors. this allows us a big system change. it also allows us to evaluate these program investments -- to evaluate the program outcomes and align our programs with our portfolio and the other city agencies that we work with to align our investments in workforce development so we can have the biggest impact to alleviate these disparities that we find and that community members present to us based on community voice and this type of employment data. if we can go to the next slide, please, dylan. so we spoke of the dream keeper initiative. it's this historic reinvestment of law enforcement dollars into the black community, a four-month recommendation led by community members. educational pathways, scholarship stipend supported services for black students going into post secondary education, health services identified as an area of opportunity for career pathways and the type of jobs and careers really necessary to make the jobs make the difference in terms of the goals and objectives of employment equity particularly with respect to black san franciscans. investments in the arts, community arts projects in the community, as well as practices to support careers in the arts. industries of opportunity was where we heard from community members around the believes to get vocational and industry-recognized certifications in the tech industry, in early child care education, in cannabis and other areas where we're expecting to award two to four grants from funds we receive to community-based organizations. and lastly, a community-based organization. this is to support employees and job seeks who work to address systemic racism. this is really critical for systemic change, and for these, these represent for us an opportunity with the workforce community to make sure we deliver on the hopes, goals, and expectations of the community. just a couple more slides, and of course, we'll turn it back to questions from the committee. covid-19 impacts, this is some information we present regularly at our workforce board. our covid relief investments guide us to those communities and residents hardest hit by the pandemic which is one of the prompts from the committee. we know we don't get the real-time race ethnicity gender gap, but as unemployment hit a peak of 12.6% in the early months when we took the very necessary public health safeguards to stop and slow the spread of coronavirus, the impact was 12.6% unemployment. it took a modest decline in december, and we know that because of the programs that the director outlined, we know where the impacts are most acute in our most disadvantaged communities. our workforce hotline staff has fielded more than 15,000 calls. everything from unemployment, getting access to sick leave, anything at all that community members bring. it's questions about housing food, we do everything we can to help connect. we even get businesses calling in to find out how they can accessory sources at the department and our partner agencies. the covid response resource hubs, $3.2 million. that's 1.35 out of our budget and 1.85 out of the department of public health of community led partnerships partnering with the task force in the mission, bayview-hunters point, excelsior, the right to recover program, which was established by supervisor ronen, one of the most effective in our mind interventions that we've seen. it's not just an economic intervention, it's a health incidentvection that she led in the -- intervention that she led in the early days of the pandemic, and we've helped 4,740 participants who would otherwise not have had the resources to safely quarantine. working with supervisor walton to get resources out to 4,923 vulnerable families through the end of december, as well as the immigrant worker program to reach 5500 workers there. we have a sense, and we know this the building right now, there was a question right now that was posed to talk about the long-term investment. most of those investments were one time. in the case of the covid time was add back dollars from the board of supervisors, which we were grateful to receive and took responsibility to implement. those resources don't exist in our budget today, but we know that the infrastructure must continue. we know that there's probably going to be conversations about how these types of investments are made because we are hopeful that we can go to orange later in the month, but we don't know, so we must be ready. last slide, i do believe, dylan. just want to make sure the community leaders out there and the organizations doing the work on the ground get recognition. over at the 7 alabama resource hub, the mission language school, and the members of the latino coalition task force, and so many organizations doing work in the mission. of course you've got self-help for the elderly and charity cultural center doing work in china down. c.y.c. is out in the sunset and doing work in the richmond around organizing, young community developers and partners. if you look closely, you may see the press of the board of supervisors there, even assisting with community members, in bayview-hunters point, potrero, working with city build and working with women who are escaping injustises, including domestic violence and incarceration in treasure island. this is a little bit of a highlight. again, there was questions around the big system changes. i spoke to the fact that it was definitely a lot of work for us to prepare the information requested by the b.l.a. and the board of supervisors for three different audits, but it is worth it to us because it provided opportunities for us to increase workforce alignment to really look at how we make our programatic investments and our evaluation tools, so that's one of the things that's big for us. we actually have a recommendation from the economic recovery task force report to reestablish, and this has been prompted by the board of supervisors, as well, to reestablish the city's workforce alignment committee that sunseted a couple of years ago. we continue to meet informally, and we're proud to say that ordinance has been crafted, it's been drafted, it's being reviewed. there's some work we need to do with making sure that we're responsive to community input and labor input about having increased involvement in that committee or the oversight committee, which is established in that ordinance, as well. i know that's something we're very much open to. we have to navigate, for those of you that don't know, to get together and talk about our funding investments and how we need to work through. certainly, the oversight committee is an opportunity to really have some more input and some more oversight the same way we have at our workforce development board. multiyear grants is something that's new for us. it's based on feedback around having the opportunity to work for a longer period of time of time with clients who might need more work and have more barriers to breakdown. when you look at the pandemic, it's also the pandemic rate that was two to three times higher than it was a year ago. we're going to need multiyear grants and get into a long-term cadence of billing and getting reimbursed, and i think this is something that's been received well in the community. job readiness was a portfolio, a stand-alone. they have long-term barrier removal work for clients who weren't quite ready to look for a job. we're now proposing to coordinate those to work with job centers through collaboratives and to make sure that when someone is ready to go, that they've got a job center connection to get connected to a training, or an apprenticeship program. we have a pilot program section to make sure we're still supporting the area of investment work. lastly [inaudible] the realities of covid mean the work that was in place a year ago isn't necessarily in place today, and that's especially true in the covid community, -- in the hospitality community. for hotels and restaurants, those are industries where we've made a major investment in training in the past, but based on feedback from labor unions, employers, and conversations with community, we're not investing in training for hospitality right now, we're investing in hospitality workers that have lost work and investments in tech. again, we're excited to see some pilots focus on emerging industries to see if we can make investments with our resources, as well. and lastly, the green keeper initiative, it's a major historic change, and this notion that strategy to invest to address the black unemployment gap with drive us to an employment equity strategy to lift all boats is really compelling for us. the city e.m.t. pilot program just launched. it's in its fourth or fifth week now. it's funded through our initiative and has really inspired the mayor, president walton, the fire chief, department of human resources, us, certainly, and city college, we're all proud to support this pilot program for 15 job seekers seeking to become paramedics with the city or with private fire companies. and with that, we're done. thank you, and look forward to answering your questions. >> chair haney: thank you so much for that, and appreciate you answering all of the various prompts and requests we put forward. that was impressive. supervisor mar? >> supervisor mar: thank you, chair haney, and thank you so much, acting director and director arce for your presentation and following the work of oewd. your work has been especially important, you know, during the pandemic in supporting our small businesses and workers, so thank you so much. i just had a question -- well, a few questions, but first starting with the small business support, and you were talking about the different programs that were sort of implemented over the past years. it looks like there was $24 million invested in those programs, and i wonder if you had support for those programs over the past year, and just sort of -- like, but i guess in summary, support on the different types of businesses, and yeah. i mean, that's something that i'd be interested in just taking a look at, if you had that. >> certainly -- i mean, i can certainly get back to you with a full summary, supervisor mar. i can tell you of the 24 million, approximately about 5.2 million of that were grant programs. about 90% of that money has been allocated or disbursed, and a great deal of it was -- the remaining 10% is in the balance for the grants in the san francisco shines reopening program. for programs such as outdoor barriers and furniture, including dividers, barricade planners, pictures for health and safety, interior configurations, physical distancing, including counters, furnitures, all those kinds of things, bum ae happy to get back to you with a comprehensive list from our -- from our grants and loans program to account for the $24 million, as well. >> supervisor mar: thank you. and then, did you say how much is still remaining to be sort of grants or loaned out through the various programs for this current fiscal year? >> so in the grants program, it's my understanding -- so in grants, it's -- i'm trying to -- 4.5 million of the grants program has been distributed, and i believe about 70% or 10.4 million of the loans have been distributed or -- yeah. so i can get more clarity for you on the actual distribution, but i do know on the grants program, 90% of that have been allocated, and what's remaining is based on reimbursement of receipts as they are received. >> supervisor mar: sure, and that makes sense. when these programs are created, we should get those resources out to the businesses as soon as possible. and then, i know the mayor has sort of proposed an additional $20 million, but there was a budget supplemental appropriation proposal for small businesses. is that going to go to new programs or is that going to sort of replenish some of these programs that are already existing and the funds have already been granted? >> i think we're looking at a combination of trying to replenish the existing programs, enhance the existing programs and propose some new -- you know, new small business programs. >> supervisor mar: mm-hmm. great. and is that proposal on the allocation of the $20 million, has that already been put forward? >> it's something i think that we need to now cultivate or populate with programs. i think a lot of it is looking toward recovery, including activations along corridors and how do we, you know, reactivate our neighborhood corridors and as our businesses start to reopen so that we're drawing people back in, so it's programs like that that we're looking to now reestablish. >> supervisor mar: mm-hmm. thank you. and then, looking ahead to the two-year budget, i can't remember if it showed up in the one -- i think there's one budget slide, but what is allocated in the budget looking ahead for these similar types of loans and grants to small businesses or how much, i guess, in the two-year budget? >> i'm sorry. can you repeat that, supervisor? i'm sorry. >> supervisor mar: yeah. so how much in the two-year budget proposal is allocated to these similar types of loans and grants to small businesses or, if any? >> i would ask our c.f.o., merrick, if he can refer to that line item? >> supervisor mar: and i just -- i would say i know that these different programs that were created over the past year were sort of responses to the great challenges that small businesses are facing, but oewd has sort of on going, you know, programs that provide small grants and loans for businesses, so i'm just curious how much is this type of support for small businesses? >> supervisor mar, [inaudible] for the office of workforce development. i can get you those exact numbers at a later date, but with respect to our resiliency grants, i think a lot of that was in response to a lot of our covid relief programs, so we'd kind of need to look more at what's baseline with respect to that particularly in our neighborhood division, and around our loan program, we do have kind of an on going revolving loan program, and that's not really budgeted. we get, i would say, investments. i would say every couple of years, we make a request to have an influx of capital to ultimately be lended out, and once those principle payments are made, we take that pot and lend it back out. so we do have that, but that's not currently in our budget for this year. i think the last request that we had made, which was for $1 million was probably two fiscal years ago. >> supervisor mar: got it. so just so i understand this, are you saying that there's really no programs -- similar programs providing grants and loans to small businesses currently in the two-year budget? >> i mean, there are extensions of that within that, but i think a large portion of what we're doing that through the covid response, a lot of that was highlighted in the pending slide, but also in the upcoming $20 million supplemental that will be brought forward to the board next week, but i'll have to confer with my invested neighborhoods team to see how much exactly is budgeted for those programs. it's been difficult to track that, but we'll certainly get back to you with more detail on that. i apologize for not having that with you right now. >> supervisor mar: no, no problem. thank you for the follow up. i just had one question or a few questions on sort of a unique fund that was also providing loans, and i think sometimes grants to small businesses, and that's the construction mitigation program that -- i know that was sort of a multidepartmental effort with m.t.a., oewd, and other departments that was created to support small businesses impacted by major construction projects in the city. it did include a business impact fund. i know there was a $5 million allocation to that fund. was that from oewd, the $5 million? and maybe just a related question, is oewd continuing to provide services and support to businesses impacted by the construction projects? for example, like the central subway and vanness being the high profile one, but out in my district, we have the el taraval project that -- and -- yeah. i know oewd staff has been providing some support, but i was just wondering if that's continuing, if that's in the two-year budget, the construction mitigation program and business impact fund? >> so the -- we have been working with m.t.a. on the construction mitigation funding program, and what i can do, supervisor mar, is i can certainly get back to you with answers to some of these questions. we focused this hearing on the workforce piece, but i'm happy to get back to you with exactly what the -- what's left in the mitigation or how that mitigation program will move forward in collaboration with m.t.a.? i do know that you have a request into our office specifically about taraval, and i do have that question -- i will have my staff also reach out to you directly on that particular request. it is based on m.t.a.s direct on the impact, the specific impact on those corridors, so i'm happy to follow up with you on that. >> supervisor mar: great. thank you. thank you so much. >> of course. >> chair haney: colleagues, any questions? colleagues, i had one. there was, in your budget, at least -- and i know there are a lot of different buckets and things from different places, but i know you had to do the reductions from the mayor and her instruction, and your main reduction came from the city, the grants portion. did you have -- and you may have mentioned this, but i just wanted to make sure that i was clear. what exactly from -- what is being reduced from this current budget year to next year? what are you -- what are you removing and, you know, in particular, when you come back with your sort of final proposal as part of the mayor's budget, i'm not sure if those cuts will still be in there, but i just want to understand what that exact reduction was. >> sure, chair haney. the reduction around the city grant programs totalled around $7.9 million. how that's compromised, as i stated in the initial -- at least on that slide was 3.5 million is related to one-time add backs that we received, and then, the remaining is happening in invested neighborhoods. about 300,000 is happening through our best development programs, and then about 2.2 is coming out of workforce. one thing i wanted to note with workforce is 1 million of that is general fund support. we did have, through this current year, $500,000 work order with the m.t.a. around the city drive program, and that's sng that we're currently in conversation trying to fine-tune what that program will look like, so we'll expect to see that addition during the mayor phase of the budget. the other piece of that was around a $430,000 federal workforce grant around the extension of our health care academy and programming related to that, so you'll see a lot of these -- i mean, a lot of the reductions, you know, have to be deviated in terms of workforce grants. the $3.2 million general fund support cut, approximately 2.8 of that is coming through this line. >> chair haney: got it. that makes sense. so the add backs and those kinds of things, i assume there's going to be a conversation if some folks want them to continue, or some of the cuts there will probably be up for continued conversation. supervisor safai? >> supervisor safai: thank you, chair haney. i just have a couple questions. first one is directed at director arce. i know you did a phenomenal job with your office. you did a great job setting up the job center, just wondered what you might have for plans for neighborhood job centers citywide. i know you have plans for a potential r.f.p. i'd like to have you talk about that, and then, i have a question for the acting director. >> thank you, supervisor vice chair safai. with respect to job centers, yes, the lakeview a.m.i. job center was our seventh and most recent neighborhood job center investment. it's been very successful, and i think really timely because there's a lot of resource coordination happening there in terms of getting covid resources out. so with respect to the budget and the r.f.p., we have laid out resources and prepared to invest resources in additional neighborhood job centers. again, it's through the competitive process of receiving proposals. but in terms of community feedback, we heard a lot about the importance of a neighborhood job center in the excelsior district. we heard about the importance of a neighborhood job center in the richmond or the sunset or both. when we think about the record unemployment last year and still an unemployment rate that, if you look at it today, it's triple what it was a year ago, but we actually think it's five times the unemployment rate a year ago because when you get that unemployment rate, it does not include those that are receiving unemployment or those that are not looking for work, so we they the current rate might be close to 10% rather than the 6%. real quick, we did establish the home free housing site on treasure island. the r.f.p., if you'll let me take a quick look, we're anticipating 7 to 12 grants a range of $300,000 to as much as $900,000. the point of the exercise is to really many unemployed san franciscans as possible with a connection to the workforce system. that could be a referral to a vocational training program. it can be a referral over to city college or san francisco state. it can be directed to an apprenticeship or a job, but if we don't have you in the workforce system, you're disconnected, and we want to have connection. subject to funding, and i know from conversations with constituents in your districts, when you take back feedback in summary, having as many job centers as possible would be something that's advantageous. but generally the -- the idea is to focus on areas of concentrated unemployment, which is a lot more folks -- a lot more places now than it has been in the past, but leveraging the resources we have, get everyone connected, and we're happy to make investments. >> supervisor safai: is sound -- it sounds like, subject to funding, that there'll be some proposal coming out for people to apply. okay. great. okay. for the acting director, we had some pretty robust services -- there was a previous staffer assigned -- i don't want to say 100% of the time, but was partially assigned to doing work on looking for potential opportunities on the development side or listening to, looking out for potential opportunities and how we could positively shape them in our district. we haven't had that service, though, in some time. i don't know if you were intending, though, to kind of beef up that type of work citywide. and then, my second question is, you know, you have your invest in neighborhoods program. our support has been sporadic. i think some of that has had to do with covid, i think some of it has to do with covid. but as a neighborhood that has one of the highest rates of vacancies and empty storefronts, it's been extremely frustrating for me not to have what it feels like a full court press. i know that that's much more of probably a citywide conversation because of covid, because of businesses shutting down, because of businesses not being able to hold on, because of rent disputes and fights with landlords and commercial property owners, all the different convenients that you know. so i just wanted to give you an opportunity to talk about the investment neighborhood strategy and how there's focus on business attraction, business retention, on a citywide level. >> thank you, supervisor safai. on the development side, i will say, you know, we have a much leaner joint development team than we've had in the past, and i'm happy to work with you on development opportunities in your neighborhood. i think you were -- i think what you're referring to was a survey that our team works on with planning to identify potential soft sites in the district for sort of smaller development opportunities, smaller housing opportunities, which we can certainly always partner with our planning department and strategize on what those types of soft site opportunities look like. it's really surveying what's available. >> supervisor safai: we had [inaudible]. i don't know. she wasn't 100% dedicated to our districts. >> right. >> supervisor safai: but it was a great model, and she was extremely important in the first 50% affordable housing development done in the city that was privately financed. she also was intimately involved in the first, you know, the largest home s.f. project that happened in the city. both of them happened to be in my district, and she was there to work with -- she provided a different level of oversight. i use that as an example because i think now that we're transitioning, we're in this -- projection is our economy is going to grow by 6.5%. i think the rebound will be stronger and quicker than people are anticipating, particularly with the bailout, particularly with the accelerated vaccinations, despite the headlines of facebook down sizing certain footprints and so on. i think our economy's going to come back stronger, and i think we would be missing an opportunity not to have someone -- you know, your development team focus on those kinds of things to help in the areas of the city where those gaps are missing, so that's one. and then, the second one, the invest in neighborhoods, the support that we have had with some staff turnover and covid, and myself, i just wanted to see, on a citywide level, what the plan was because there's a lot of businesses that are struggling to hold on, and they're important for the health and vibrancy of our commercial corridors. >> yes, and i'm happy to work with you on that first point, supervisor. and then, on the investing neighborhoods, it is very true. you know, a lot of the staff, particularly from our invest in neighborhoods team has been deployed through the pandemic to neighborhood command and d.s.w. deployment, and we are starting to get people back into their roles in office of economic and workforce development. investing in neighborhoods is absolutely key to our neighborhood businesses. i think we've just recently -- jorge rivas, who is great, has just moved to a different position outside of the city. deanna ponce deleon has come back to the city. the $20 million grant to business loans will be in front of you next week. i think there's an opportunity for you to continue to get an idea of what's in that program specifically for small business relief as we come out of the pandemic and into recovery? and again, you know, i think it's really critical to us. we all recognize that our neighborhood corridors are going to be critical to our recovery and to, you know, just who we are as a city, and i think investing in neighborhoods is going to be a part of that, and i know that deanna is committed to making sure that all of our neighborhood businesses and neighborhood corridors are included in that effort. so again, 20 -- you know, the $20 million for small business relief program will be in front of you next week. >> supervisor safai: thank you. i appreciate that. i just really and truly want to underscore on the record a number of my colleagues that have corridors in the same instance that, you know, we've spent a lot of time setting up community benefits districts. we don't have one of those in our -- but we have a strong nonprofit community partner. i understand your staff was redeployed. if we have the tools, but we don't have the staff to deploy those tools, and there's not a strategy on how invest in neighborhoods is going to lead in investment recovery, we've been working for the past two months with the mayor's office to come up with a final strategy for shared spaces, we have the loan program, but there are businesses out there that are just holding on by a thread. i walk my corridor every friday, if not more, but one dedicated day, and i have to tell you that there's still merchants out there that don't know about some of the existing programs or grants or the opportunities that they can take advantage of that are drowning, drowning in debt and drowning in lack of a customer base. so i just want to underscore and really, really overemphasize to you, please, this needs to be one of the highest priorities for your office. there needs to be a really well articulated strategy for investing in neighborhoods and how we're going to move aggressively because i can tell you, it has been hit or miss, and in my neighborhood, that was precovid. but we can talk more offline and try to push the envelope more for a citywide strategy. >> thank you. >> supervisor safai: thank you, mr. chair. >> chair haney: thank you, vice chair safai. colleagues, any other questions or comments? this was a very thorough presentation, and i know we'll be seeing you all in a few weeks or months. madam clerk, is there any public comment? >> clerk: yes, mr. chair. checking to see if there's any callers in the queue. members of the public who wish to enter press comment, please press star, three to enter the queue. for those already in the queue, please wait until the system has been unmuted. mr. chair, d.t. has confirmed that there are no callers in the queue. >> chair haney: great. thank you so much. appreciate it. public comment is now closed. colleagues, assuming there are not any other questions or comments, i am going to make a motion to file this hearing. madam clerk, can we have a roll call vote, please? >> clerk: is there a second on the motion? >> supervisor safai: second, safai. >> chair haney: seconded by safai. >> clerk: yes. on that motion -- [roll call] >> clerk: there are five ayes. >> chair haney: great. that hearing will be filed, and thank you so much, interim director and mr. arce. we appreciate you and your work, and mr. pascal. appreciate it, and we will see you again soon, i'm sure. madam clerk -- is there anything more you wanted to say? sorry. i should have given you the opportunity, interim director? >> no. thank you for giving us the opportunity and we look forward to coming back in a couple of weeks. >> chair haney: thank you. madam clerk, are there any other items? >> clerk: mr. chair, there are no other items. >> chair haney: all right. this meeting is adjourned. thank you all. >> supervisor peskin: we'll be joined by vice chair supervisor rafael mandelman. mr. clerk, do we have any announcements? >> clerk: yes. comments or opportunities to speak during public comment are available via phone by calling 415-655-0001. the meeting i.d. is 187-725-3857, then press pound and pound again. when connected, you will hear the meeting discussion but you will be muted and in listening mode only. when your item of interest comes up, dial star, three to be added to the speaker line. best practices are to call from a quiet location, speak slowly and clearly, and turn down your t.v. or radio. alternatively, you may submit public comment to me via e-mail at victor.young@sf.gov. that concludes my announcements. >> supervisor peskin: and please call item number one. >> clerk: item one is motion appointing supervisor rafael mandelman, for an indefinite term, to the transbay joint powers authority. >> chair peskin: and supervisor mandelman would be excused, but he isn't clear. we'll open this up for public comment. >> clerk: it appears we have three listeners but no one lined up to speak at this time. >> chair peskin: okay. seeing none, public comment is closed, and let me just say that i'm pleased that supervisor mandelman is willing to succeed supervisor haney as a role in that committee's history as the downtown rail makes progress on a modicum of transportation. with that, i'll make a motion to recommend this to the full board with a positive recommendation. mr. clerk, roll call, please. [roll call] >> clerk: the motion passes with supervisor mandelman being absent. >> chair peskin: all right. next item, please. >> clerk: next on the agenda is item number two, motion reappointing catherine stefani, term ending january 31, 2023, to the golden gate bridge, highway, and transportation district board of directors. >> chair peskin: is there any comment from members of the public? >> clerk: yes, members of the public, please press star, three to enter the queue or wait until your system line is unmuted. there are four listeners but no one lined up to speak. >> chair peskin: thank you. supervisor stefani is not here nor does she need to be. i would like to make a motion to send this recommendation to the full board with a positive recommendation. roll call vote, please. >> clerk: on the motion -- [roll call] >> clerk: the motion passes with supervisor mandelman being absent. >> chair peskin: and mr. clerk, this is very unlike supervisor mandelman. you will attempt to contact him again, correct? >> clerk: i or my staff. >> chair peskin: yes. could you please read the next item. >> clerk: yes. item 4 is a hearing to consider appointing four members, terms ending january 31, 2023, to the golden gate bridge, highway and transportation district, board of directors. >> chair peskin: thank you. i want to thank everyone seeking reappointment on the golden gate bridge board, and i'd like to thank the fifth member, mr. francis gleason, for his application. let's start with the names on the agenda. sabrina hernandez? >> thank you. can you hear me? >> chair peskin: we can hear you. >> thank you. i'm here seeking seat one public at-large to be appointed to the golden gate bridge highway and transportation district board of directors. it's been my honor for the last over ten years to sit on this board. it's particularly important work, and i thought i made significant contributions on the part of our labor partners who have, under the terms of this pandemic, come under a lot of stress because of the logistics. that's what you do when you sit on the board, is make difficult decisions and make sure everyone is heard. as i've said, i've been on the board for ten-plus years. i currently sit on the public policy and industrial relations committee. i sit on the advisory committee for the [inaudible] and on the committee for the evaluation of executive officer performance, and recently, i was able to work with the president of the board barbara parr to establish a committee on review of disparity and equity on this subject. first, we're looking at how we procure our contracts, and second, how we evaluate our employees, and how we select our committee members, and the president has selected me to help run that, so if you have any questions of me, i'm happy to answer them. thank you very much. >> chair peskin: and i just want to apologize to committee members and the public that i am in receipt of a note that supervisor mandelman was going to be 30 to 40 minutes late, so i would like to make a motion, if i can do so, to excuse him from the previous vote, and mr. clerk, if we have to retake that vote in order to set the record straight, i'm happy to rescind the vote later on on item 2 after we disposed with this item, but i apologize, i did have a note to that effect that i overlooked. thank you, miss hernandez. why that, why don't we go onto mr. hill? bert? >> can you see me? >> chair peskin: i can hear you, and now i can see you. >> good. that's great. good morning, chair peskin, supervisor chan, and hopefully supervisor mandelman in a few moments. first, i would like to acknowledge my fellow commissioners, hernandez, grosboll, and theriault. these have been very trying times, especially this last year, they have had to make decisions with gravity affecting the lives of our employees and their families. to date, our decisions have minute mined loss of income, supported safety protocols, and allowed operations to continue. we face a challenging future, recognizing the possibility that the 84-year-old revenue model and vehicle tolls may not continue to produce sufficient subsidies for public transportation. i serve on various committees. i serve on the transportation committee, government and rules committees, and also on the labor advisory committee and the equity and diversity committee. director hernandez started it recently, and we've had a couple of meetings, and it's really going well. i would lastly like to thank victor. victor young, i've known him for years, and he does just a fabulous job. he must work very hard and very long hours, and i hope the supervisors recognize the work that he does, so this is just a little push for him, and the last i want to mention is that we need supervisors on our bridge board. we also have a minority. we're going to be making hard decisions. we really need support on the committees. >> chair peskin: yes. i'm painfully aware of that, mr. hill. i might even have to return. >> well, that would be good. >> chair peskin: not for me. >> i'm honored to serve on the golden gate bridge district, and i'm happy to take any questions. >> chair peskin: thank you, mr. hill. i see no questions. mr. grosboll. >> hi. dick grosboll, can you hear me all right? >> chair peskin: yes, we can, dick. >> thank you, it's been my pleasure to serve on the board for quite a while, since 2006, and my primary stage and goal is working with the suicide deterrent system. we originally had a completion date was january of this year, and unfortunately, we were not able to make that, and now, completion because of some issues is not until january 2023. i am chair on the deterrent system, and sabrina and michael have been valuable members of this committee, and bert has contributed on that issue. you know, we do have a good staff at the bridge. we're fortunate in that regard, and we've gotten a lot of help from m.t.c. and the government in getting money over of the years, but it's been hard this year in terms of loss of revenue as well as possibly driving over the bridge. it's been hard work, but i would like another couple of years on the board to work on these issues. thank you. >> chair peskin: thank you, mr. grosboll. mr. theriault? >> now i can hear you. okay. new program for me. little hard to get used to. so i want to start as director hill did, in praising my three fellow current board members on the bridgeport. director hernandez has been absolutely wonderful. as she said, she helped established the new advisory committee on equity, and we're looking forward to seeing what we can accomplish there at the district in that regard. she manages to share some of the same upsets and passions that i do on the board while being much more polite on it. director hill, i see nothing from bert but devotion to the bike, but he's a little better acquainted with policy matters in that regard and in transportation generally has been an absolutely valuable voice there. director grosboll, having an attorney's background, asks some of the hard questions that i've never thought to ask, and i appreciate his leadership on the suicide deterrent advisory committee, as well. my own reasons for being on are, in some reasons, fortunately or unfortunately, are the same as i applied two years ago. i think i bring some particular expertise to that committee with my knowledge of the construction industry, with my knowledge as a retired ironworker of the bridge in general and of bridges, and i think i've made important contributions at flex points in the discussion of that -- of that suicide did he tern system and the contractor difficulties we've had there. the other item that i've brought before the committee last time i was here was the bus drivers pension trust. i'm a management trustee on the bus drivers pension trust. that is a pension trust that has seen considerable difficulties. it is, as some of you with knowledge of pension terms would understand, a mature pension. it has a high ratio of retirees to actives that presents particular challenges in contribution to the plan itself and its funding and its administration over the years. we have gradually been working through the issues of the trust. many of the changes that have been achieved have been achieved in large part thanks to my particular identification of them and my particular suggestions with regard to them, and there are others still to be accomplished. the third thing that is new in my particular presentation today, in the course of how things work on that board, as supervisor peskin would understand, there's a set of rotation for the offices of the board that is based on two things, on geography and on seniority. it alternates on the presidency and vice presidencies between directors from north of the golden gate and directors from south of the golden gate. currently, i sit as first vice president on the board. in a year under that rotation, i would be president of the board. at that time, i would like to undertake a task that has not been taken in quite sometime for the bridge board. currently, as supervisor peskin, again, is aware, the board agenda tends to be staff driven. one way of countering that to some degree is to come up with a new general plan that provides some direction to the staff in providing us agendas, and i'd like to see some direction with that. with that said, supervisors, you have my biographical information before you, you have my information, and i welcome any questions. >> chair peskin: thank you, mr. theriault. i see no questions, so why don't we move onto mr. gleason. mr. gleason, the floor is yours. >> hello, supervisors. are you hearing me? i'm going through a tunnel right now. >> chair peskin: thank you, mr. gleason. we hear you. >> i'm going to read something just to introduce myself to the two of you, and maybe you can pass this onto the other supervisor, mandelman, when he shows up. my name is francis gleason, and i live in san francisco. my last job was on the golden gate bridge. hopefully going to be on the board. i live near [inaudible] city boulevard and now how the bridge can affect my neighbors. i know the passengers, the employees, the supervisors. i'm familiar with the other five county board members. i will bring firsthand knowledge of the employees and passengers and residents concerns. because i travel the bridge daily, i will be able to contribute empirical dialogue to call bridge board discussions. i'd ask you to please utilize my experience and knowledge by recommending my appointment. the golden gate bridge has many advocates, and i love the bridge, and i am an advocate for those who use the bridge. by appointing me, you will be getting a native of san francisco, a concerned neighbor who will work with all parties for fairness, transparency, and equity within the city of san francisco. and as far as my experience with the board itself, as the other directors have just spoken, no. we do have a very bad, poorly funded pension for the -- >> chair peskin: you're breaking up there, mr. gleason. >> [inaudible] with my efforts, we've actually got the contribution rate up to the right amount. before, it was in the 15s for many, many, many years. i've represented my fellow workers when we were all going to get laid off when there was still money from the c.a.r.e.s. aid fund. i'm very glad that nobody was laid off, but initially, there was plans to lay us off. i do agree with the board of directors who have just spoken, however, none of them have [inaudible] employees in this district need to have a little bit more respect. this is a bridge, but this is also a transportation district, and that's going to come back when people get all these vaccines. i got mine. people are getting them, and we've got -- 35% of california are getting vaccines. things are going to be popping back faster than we think, and that's why the c.a.r.e.s. funding is there because when it pops back, it's going to pop back as quickly as it fell off. most people that are working from home are anxious to get back in their cars and go and drive to work. they want to see their friends from work, they want to see the things they want to see at work. i have hopes that the transportation industry is going to be more successful than before, but you need planning, you need more information, and you need a boots on the ground guy to see what's happening. and because i drive all of these every day -- i drive the three bridges every day. i'm a union member, i'm an amalgamated transportation union member. i support people driving the bus that are getting up early in the morning to do the landscaping and maintenance in san francisco and marin, and i appreciate your support. >> chair peskin: all right. we've heard from the five members for four seats. i see no questions from my colleagues. mr. young? >> clerk: yes. members of the public who wish to contribute public comment, dial 415-655-0001. meeting i.d. 187-725-3857. press pound, and pound again: press star, three to enter the queue, and you may begin speaking when the system indicates you've been unmuted. >> chair peskin: okay. somebody needs to unmute. >> good morning. >> chair peskin: good morning. >> good morning, supervisor peskin and supervisor chan. [inaudible] i'm calling in support of sabrina hernandez for seat number one, dick grosboll for seat three, and michael theriault for seat four. their experience will serve the district and the citizens of san francisco over the next two years as they look to come out of the crisis. on behalf of ibew number six, i enthusiastically support their appointments. thank you for allowing me to speak. >> chair peskin: thank you, mr. dougherty. next speaker, please. next speaker? >> can you hear me now. >> chair peskin: we can hear you now, mr. pillpel. please proceed. >> good morning. david pillpel. i'm sorry. i missed the presentations earlier. i joined last, but i do know the incumbent directors. i attend and participate in many of the bridge committee and board meetings. i know that the four incumbent directors have worked hard for the district and for the public, and i support their reappointment, but i did want to offer a couple of brief comments. i hope that with their reappointment that they would try to deescalate the recent tension on the board and reduce the divide between those perceived as more or less supportive of labor. in my opinion, the environment on the board is not good right now, and hopefully will get better. there are important and difficult issues and decisions before that board related to finances, policy, transportation recovery, labor, a number of issues there, and as i say, that divide amongst board members has become more apparent, and i believe is not helpful for the district or the public, so i hope that that will be high on the minds of the appointees and presumably director theriault would become board president next year, and i think he would do a good job, but i believe that we need to bear in mind that they work for the public, the entire public, and that the district needs to be kept whole and sound, and that, again, that dwight should be reduced, and we should try to work together in difficult times. that's all from me right now. thanks very much. >> chair peskin: thank you, mr. pillpel. next speaker, please. >> good morning, chair, and distinguished members of the committee. my name is rudy gonzales, and i'm secretary of the construction and trades union council. we call in this morning to weigh-in in support of the incumbents, first and foremost, director sabrina hernandez, who has served with incredible integrity and vision. she has pushed the committee and her colleagues as a whole to develop more committees and find more solutions. i have to say that the times that we find ourselves in are not unique to the district, but the bridge is truly an iconic piece to our bay area, in addition to being an essential part of our infrastructure. the view that bert hill brings has been important. i would say the same with dick grosboll. finally, seat four, michael theriault, an ironworker, whose hands served to build this iconic piece of infrastructure. it is important, the last comment talking about ways that we can work together. there is a lot to be desired with the overall composition of this board, but let's be clear. these four seats are intended to represent san francisco, and i think these four directors have done a heck of a job in terms of working together, making sure that san francisco is well represented and working together as much as possible in bringing all of their personal and professional experience. we appreciate the incumbents, we appreciate the opportunity to weigh-in, and we appreciate the public comment. thank you. >> chair peskin: thank you, mr. hernandez. are there any other public comments on this item? >> clerk: there may be one additional caller. do we have any additional callers at this time? i believe we do have one additional caller. next speaker, please. >> hello? hello. good morning, supervisors. my name is john bolden. i'm a native san franciscan of the north beach district two community. i would love to say that the past president, sabrina hernandez, has done an excellent job in representing san francisco, as well as director theriault, who has mentioned that he will be the next president of the board of directors. i would also like to support my fellow a.t.u. 1575 brother, francis gleason, another native san franciscan of the richmond district. during this time, we've had sometimes just one vote passing on layoffs, so it's important that other supervisors of the san francisco step in. hopefully, supervisor chan can help in and one more supervisor, so we can get a full san francisco representation on the board of directors. my own personal reflections, after observing meetings for a few months, director grosboll has been absent a few times over the last few months. he's done a great job, but i think it's important that the a.t.u. transdrivers are the biggest union, have the most members and employees at the district, and we're underrepresented at the board. >> chair peskin: thank you, mr. holden. are there any other members of the public for this item number three? >> clerk: i.t., could you please confirm if we have any additional speakers at this time. >> operator: i believe we have one more. operations, can you unmute user nine. >> hello, supervisors. this is kim cavaloni with the san francisco labor company. we proudly support the incumbents, grosboll, hill, hernandez, and theriault for the openings on the golden gate bridge board. they have done an excellent job, and the labor council would ask that you allow us to continue to work with them. they've been great advocates for san francisco, and we respectfully ask that you confirm them for a full recomm. >> clerk: on that motion -- [roll call] >> chair peskin: thank you. mr. clerk, please read the next item. >> clerk: item four is an appointment to the public utilities revenue bond oversight committee. there is one applicant. >> chair peskin: thank you, mr. clerk and for applying, mr. kamt. it sounds like you are qualify in terms of you have the qualifications and expertise and experience, certainly, in the field of economics, and with that, mr. kamp, the floor is yours. mr. kamp? >> can you hear me now? >> chair peskin: we can hear you now. >> perfect, thank you. chair peskin, supervisor chan. good morning. the bulk of rain in san francisco occurs in just three months. december, january, and february. this three-month window is why a reliable water infrastructure is so important to san francisco, and it's why i'm interested no joining the revenue bond oversight committee: to contribute to the infrastructure of san francisco. my name is lars kamp. i've been a resident of san francisco living in district two. i worked for 12 years for [inaudible] as a founder of a software company and members of the board, i've raised both debt and equity and understand financial markets. my experience includes the auditing of annual financial statements and reports. i believe this can be a significant contribution to the arba, and i'd like to thank victor young for guiding me through the application process, and it would be my honor to contribute to san francisco infrastructure. thank you. >> chair peskin: thank you. is there any question from committee member? seeing none, is there any public comment on this item? >> 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 187-725-3857, then press pound and pound again. if you haven't already done so, press star, three to lineup to speak. please wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted and you may provide your comment. operations, can you confirm if we have any public comment? >> operator: i don't believe we -- [inaudible] >> chair peskin: next speaker, please. >> i'm sorry. is this for item five? >> chair peskin: no. >> okay. i'm sorry. >> chair peskin: no worries. you can come in on the next item. are there any speakers for this item number four, the rboc appointment? >> operator: no further speakers in public comment? >> chair peskin: mr. kamp, we look forward to seeing your report, although you're welcome to report on it more than annually. i see no questions from supervisor chan, and i'd like to excuse supervisor mandelman from this item. mr. young, roll call, please. >> clerk: on the motion to excuse supervisor mandelman from item number four is approved. [roll call] >> clerk: the motion to excuse supervisor mandelman is approved with supervisor mandelman being excused. >> chair peskin: and then i'd like to make a motion to approve mr. kamp. >> clerk: on the motion to approve mr. kamp -- [roll call] >> clerk: the motion is approved. >> chair peskin: congratulations, mr. kamp. next item, please. >> clerk: item 5 is appointments to the sugary drinks distributor tax advisory committee. we have seven seats and 12 applicants. >> chair peskin: thank you. i've read the applications, and this is going to be a difficult selection because everybody is so superlatively fit to serve on this board. why don't we just take them in order as they appear on the agenda, and i do have a cheat sheet here as to what was able to attend. i think pretty much everybody or most everybody was able to attend, so why don't we start with vanessa bohm. if you just want to make -- if each of you want to make a brief -- given that there's a lot of folks here, try to keep it to two minutes if you can. miss bohm. and if she is not available, we can move onto sonia banks. >> clerk: i believe that miss banks submitted a request withdrawing her application. >> chair peskin: okay. that is correct. i do remember seeing that. so now, we have 11 applicants for seven seats. with that, miss francis -- frances abigail cabrera. >> hello. good morning. time to unmute myself. can you hear me? >> chair peskin: we can hear you and see you. >> okay. thank you. good morning, supervisors. i'd like to share that i'm a proud daughter of filipino immigrants. first and foremost, i am a proud filipina and working deeply within my community and would really like to have the opportunity to represent both my personal and professional experience. i have a deep passion for improving health equity, disparities. i attended school in philadelphia where i obtained my master's degree. i was the hospital liaison to the community school funding from philadelphia sugary drinks distributor tax, and as a bay area native and san francisco resident, i'm happy to be back working in the communities that raised me and would love to give back. i'm currently a program manager with the excellence in primary care at the university of san francisco, and i've had the pleasure to be a project manager with a program called stop covid. i would really be honored to serve in that capacity. thank you for your time, and i well come any questions. >> chair peskin: thank you so much for your application and your experience. why don't we -- if miss bohm is all with us, although i do know she is confirmed. why don't we go onto dianna cavagnaro, and miss cabrera, you can go ahead and turn your camera off. >> thank you, supervisor peskin. you are close. i am dianna cavagnaro. i'm most interested as the parent of an sfusd student, that seat. i have lived in san francisco since 2007, and i have invested a lot into the city both through my career and volunteering, and from 2016 to 2019, i worked with the san francisco chamber of commerce where i was the vice president of investor initiatives and events, and i coordinated over 250 events for the community's largest business advocacy organization? there, i was able to put a lot of people on the stage and contribute to the community here in san francisco? this would be my first foray into something like this, but i am on the board of the marin food bank and have been for almost a year. food scarcity is such an important issue for people in the bay area, especially in these unprecedented times? i would like to participate in this committee because i have full personal and professional experience. when i was pregnant with my daughter, i had gestational diabetes, which i'd never had before, and i was confronted with what i put in my body and what that means. i've lost over 75 pounds in the past year, so i think this would be an integral part in deciding how these funds are distributed? i also have worked for various art and nonprofit organizations in san francisco, where i focus on fundraising efforts for everything from community engagement and arts education. now i'm the c.o.o. of an events company, and unfortunately due to the pandemic has been furloughed, so now have a greater depth of understanding for the need to look at your funds when it comes to food and food scarcity and diversity. and i thank you for your time and welcome your questions. >> chair peskin: and just for seat seven, which had to be nominated by the parent advisory committee, were you nominated or not? >> no, i didn't know. this is my first time doing this. >> chair peskin: okay. i think there's only one person eligible for that seat as they were the only person nominated by the parent advisory committee. i'm making a note that 15 does not apply to you, although i understand why you want that. all right. thank you so much, and if ms. bohm is not here, why don't we go to maureen guerrera. >> clerk: before we go on, i just wanted to let you know that we had an emergency message from miss bohm, and she will not be able to attend today. >> chair peskin: okay. thank you. miss guerrero. >> hi, everybody. i'm applied for seats 1, 2, 3, and 16, and i'm currently a director of programs at ymca. has program has the ability to serve all programs across the community of san francisco. i've also, through the family resource center, have been able to design programs for children five and below and their parents. a large part of my work has been focusing on families and reaching their goals around employment and housing, and with that, i saw that health and financial well-being go hand and hand, and as soon as i noticed that, i would start to bring as many resources as i could to those communities to [inaudible] per year, free workshops, health screenings, and resources, just resources in general, and that was all in partnership with ucsf nursing students and walgreens. i also was able to bring healthier tools workshops, and currently with partnership with d.p.h., we're doing covid-19 screenings at our sites. currently, i'm also working on a masters in public policy program. a large part of my study has been looking at sugary drinks tax and what's been working in other cities, and trying to find out what components can be duplicated other places and what shouldn't be duplicated. one of the things that i have noticed that this committee has focused on is the food insecurity piece, and one thing i would like to achieve is increasing support with neighborhood markets? they have also been greatly impacted by the covid pandemic, and oakland has a model where they're actually working with markets, making sure that they keep investing in nonperishable foods to, you know, decrease the cycle of food deserts in our communities, so that's one thing that i was just looking at, and yeah, open to any questions. >> chair peskin: thank you, miss guerrero. great presentation. really appreciate it. i see no questions for you. why don't we move to maysha bell. >> thank you. >> are you able to see and hear me? >> chair peskin: able to see and hear you. >> great. thank you. i just wanted to say happy women's day to all of my women colleagues. my name is maysha bell, and i am a san francisco native, and i am the mother to four san francisco natives. i have come to live in san francisco about 14 years ago, and i just want to say that my purpose is dedicated to the heart and life in this city. i have [inaudible] in san francisco for 14 years. my current and new role is executive director of out of school time program? during this time, i've had the opportunity to become a trainer in evidence based practices that was developed for active schools and out of school program staff to support healthy outcomes for youth and their families? i also help inaugurate our diabetes program at john muir in western addition beacon in 2019. it was so important based on what we know of the impact that diabetes and sugar sweetened beverages have on the african american communities, especially those coming into that 30 to 40 age group for african americans, which is really high in the city of san francisco. and also, i was able to support our youth campaign. before the program was initiated, we had a group of young people with the ymca in san francisco that was [inaudible] and so they went through a variety of initiatives and activities just to engage the community in dialogue and to really get people to understand why is this something that should matter and why it is something that we can put our support behind. what i'm most eager to bring to this committee, this body, is my ability to get to the heart of the matter. one thing i know is that what people eat, what they choose to eat, yes, it has a lot to do with access, it has a lot to do with resources, grocery stores in your neighborhood, yes, all those things are a factor, but another component that can be missed at times is really the handing down that comes, the cultural aspect. what makes me decide to feed my kids what i feed my kids, and the fact that a lot of habits that i have are things passed down to me of things that i love and trust, and so when we're looking at making changes to this system, we want to make sure that we're giving space and celebrating and acknowledging that context. i think that's the thing that helps people to get on board with whatever recommends and recommendations that we're bringing forth, if we really can find a way to celebrate that experience and not make one party feel challenged or wrong. so that's what i continue to bring to my work, and i see an opportunity to uplift in space. i just want to thank you for your time and giving me the opportunity to speak today and being here, and once again, happy women's day, and see you soon and bye. >> chair peskin: thank you, miss bell, for that presentation. our next speaker will be diana lau. miss lau? . >> hello, supervisor peskin. thank you, everyone, for the opportunity to be here. my name is diana lau, and i work at ucsf, also, and my job is i'm the director of asian health institute at ucsf. i've been in this job for many years now, and my basic training is i'm a nurse, and i obtained my ph.d. about ten years ago from ucsf in the school of nursing and major in cardiovascular nursing. one of the main pet peeves is i am an immigrant, and i am aware of the difficulties that immigrants have in navigating our complex health care systems, and my specialty is language access, health care access equity, and trying to raise the choice level so that they do not have so much disparities when they need to utilize our health care system. so i also serve as a board member [inaudible] on the side as a volunteer, and impart of the reviewers for the grants for the asian research center for minority aging research. we call it rcma. so any way, i am pleased to be able to do that as you hear a lot of good ideas when people present their grant projects to you. i also have served on the san francisco immigrant rights commission. you might not have remembered me, supervisor peskin. >> chair peskin: i do remember you, miss lau. >> i served -- go ahead. >> chair peskin: no, no, i remember. >> okay. i served for eight years and chaired four of it, so i am kind of aware of how the city health system works, but then, i went to [inaudible] school, so i drop off because i was working full time and going to school full time and my hair was falling out and i was itching all over the place, and i didn't understand why. but any way, i got through it, and so that's good, and so now, i think i'm ready to come back and serve now, and i would be happy for the opportunity to do so, and thank you so much. if you have any questions, i'll be happy to entertain. >> chair peskin: thank you, miss lau. i see no questions from committee members, so why don't we move onto marna armstead. >> good morning. thank you. can you hear me? >> chair peskin: we can hear you, and we can see you. >> thank you. good morning, supervisor peskin, supervisor chan, and supervisor mandelman in his absence. my name is marna armstead, and i submitted an application to the sugary drinks advisory tax committee. >> chair peskin: miss armstead, i will tell you how to make that echo go away. mr. young, what's the trick? >> i think that was someone else's line. >> yes, i believe there was another participant echos. >> thank you. again, i'm going up for the sugary drinks tax committee advisory committee. i'm a founder of a black led and community led nonprofit committed to providing doulas for the community in need. we also have partners and provided food, food vouchers, and gift cards, and we really try to provide wraparound services for our clients during the perinatal period. as a black woman, i've struggled through health conditions with the poor conditions marketed to me in san francisco, and for decades i struggled to learn about nutrition with very well awareness of the damage being done to my body and find proper nutrition and adapt it in a way that i could consume, literally consume. so in the past three years, i've learned the tools needed to help me lose over 50 pounds. over the course of that time, i've learned ways to manage my health condition and i seek ways to be healthy and have weight reduction and eventually the elimination of sugary drinks from your diet. i'm a san francisco native, a lifelong district ten resident, and i'm committed to my work through sister web, through megablack s.f., to the latina task force, through ucsf black health initiative, through s.f. black, and the s.e.c., the southeast community coalition, and the healthy southeast coalition, and a couple of other things that i will endow because i just like to be in the know. my passions are addressing racism as a root cause and addressing health disparities in communities of color. by nature, i'm a facilitator type and a team player. i plan to lend my experience to the efforts to affect the impacts of health disparities on those in my city. i want to continue to make sure that a voice for san francisco's black communities continue to have a seat at the table and to be recognized and flunl in systems that affect our livelihood, and i believe i'm the person to hold that voice. also talk about a couple of the other things i do. i work with all of the hospitals in san francisco. that includes many doctors, nurses, mid we've beens, dietitians, you name it, and i also work with a number of community-based organizations. i have a number of natural organic relationships with neighborhood communities, so at this point, i'm going to end my presentation and ask if you have any questions of me. >> chair peskin: miss armstead, i do not have any questions, though dare i say that you may be overqualified for this position, so thank you, and why don't we move onto nicolle elmore, and dr. mendoza, if you could just turn your camera off, we are going to get to you next. thank you. >> good morning, supervisors. i want to apologize for my mask and the background, but i am here at collective impact in the western addition, getting some work done for our youth, and so i just want to share a little bit about myself. i am applying for the health equity seat, number three, for the sugary drink distributor tax committee, and so again, my name is nicolle elmore. i'm a first generational college student. i recently started my quest for my doctoral degree at [inaudible] university in naturopathic medicine. the -- san francisco's black community supports and acknowledges my efforts and advocacy for my employment. i currently act as the program coordinator for opportunities for all, mayor breed's workforce initiative, san francisco's human rights commission, and i have dedicated to my short life span and life experience to the ethical implementation of health equity for our disenfranchised community. i have had the opportunity to work for my community, becoming a voice for voices around mental health and mental health resources. through these mental health disparities that have plagued our community members, we have figured out ways not only how to survive but to thrive. i work as a student liaison community organizer, and we have launched over three policies and wellness centers at the schools, which is a huge accomplishment for the youth, and we are really proud of that? and we have really worked on figuring out how to navigate through the devastating road blocks of health disparities happening in our community? and i would also like to share that as a youth advocate, i have worked with countless community members in all of our districts in san francisco to acknowledge the monumental role of lack of access to health pathways as well as naturopathic medicine? and within the sugary tax committee, i seek to work with community members as well as the board to create essential framework to recommend -- not only to create intention but to recommend community based education, nutritional education as well as equitable school nutrition around food securities? i also hold positions with the megablack san francisco coalition task force, the japanese community youth council. i am an active member and do a lot of work through collective impact, through community development, and around san francisco, and i know i don't have as much life experience, and i just want to uplift dr. armstead, who went before me because she's such an inspiration because it's my goal to have that catalog and give back to the community. i'm really committed to the drivenness and the essential framework that we need in our community and the black community around food security, nutritional education, and wellness. so thank you all, and now, i will pass it over to you if you have any questions. >> chair peskin: thank you, miss elmore. i see no questions, but sincere appreciation for everything you do in the community and for application to this body. i said at the outset, this is not going to be easy because we have 11 superlatively qualified individuals, and the selections are getting tougher by the minute, but with that why don't we go to dr. mendoza >> hi, everyone. can you hear me? sorry for the technical difficulties. [inaudible]. >> great. so my name is rosalia mendoza, a latinx doctor working in the community since 2008. most of the chronic diseases that i'm working with patients to manage include diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease that, as we know, are directly tied to the negative consumption of sugary drinks. i trained as a research fellow and faculty members with the department of family and community medicine with ucsf, providing family care through the family health center and immigrant health clinic. research with the ucsf center for addressing oral health disparities, we focused, and my roles were generally around writing other n.i.h. grants, doing analysis, doing community feedback in the study design as well as data recruitment and as well as doing quantitative and qualitative research with our focused groups. our interventions that we focused on in those studies involved the improvement of education to parents and physicians around oral health and primary care, which, in the last ten years, has started to expand thankfully. fluoride dental clinics in san francisco, reducing sugary drink consumption, and trying to include fluoridated water in bottled water in san francisco. my experience includes a long history of representation of underrepresented minorities, doing continual education with our ucsf medical residents, and a long-standing relationship with community based organizations. the longest affiliation i have is with clinica martin [inaudible] providing health care to immigrants and day laborers in the mission district [inaudible] which has made it challenging for people not able to navigate some of the traditional health care systems that we have in place. the pandemic has shifted a lot of our efforts. all of those aspects have taken a huge highlight and probably a bit [inaudible] so that people can continue to manage their chronic diseases. my aim in applying to this seat is really to kind of bring my expertise in data analysis, chronic disease management as a family physician. community engagement with our existing c.e.o.s and serving the low-income and communities of color in our city. it would be an honor to work alongside many of the people that we heard from today, and i'd be happy to take any questions from supervisors or anyone else. >> chair peskin: thank you, dr. men dose a, and thank you for your time in the community and in public health, and i see no questions from members, so why don't we move onto carolyn or caroline fichtenburg for seat four. >> clerk: chair peskin, i'd just like to let you know that we received a message from caroline withdrawing her application for the seat today. >> chair peskin: okay. so with that, that takes us to ten applicants for seven seats, and that takes us to laura derosier for seat 15 from the district's parent advisory committee, so please proceed if you're here. and sounds like maybe she is not here. >> clerk: i am double-checking to see if she is logged in. i do not see a log-in at the moment, but it is a long list, so she may not be logged in at the moment. >> chair peskin: okay. why don't we go to general public comment on this item. >> 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
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