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Tuesday, May 05, 2020
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>> good afternoon and welcome to the May 5th, 2020 regular meeting of the san francisco board of supervisors and I want
to wish everybody a happy cinco de mio.
Madam Clerk, please call the
roll.
Role call: . >> Mr. President, you have quorum.
>> thank you, Madam Clerk.
Will you please join me in
reciting the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america
and to the republic for which it
stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and
justice for all. On behalf of the board, I would
like to acknowledge the staff at sfg tv who record each of our meetings and make the transcripts available to public online.
And Madam Clerk, any communications? >> yes, Mr. President. During the ongoing health emergency, members are participating in the board meeting through video conference
to the same extent as if they were physically present in the meeting and members of the
public are encouraged to participate remotely in the following ways.
If you do not have the internet,
the U.S. Postal service will
deliver your written correspondence, address the envelope to the san francisco
board of supervisors, city hall,
room 244, san francisco california, 94102 or you May use your cell phone to listen to the meeting and use the telephone
number on your screen
888: 204-5984.
When prompted enter the access
code 350-1008, press pound and press pound again to join and listen to the meeting in progress.
If you have the internet, you can submit your written
correspondence via email to boarddov.Supervisors@sfgov.Org.
You can watch the board meeting
livestreamed at www.Sfgov.Org or
you can watch the meeting on channel 26.
Please note the meeting is cable
tasked and results in a 20 to 30 second broadcast delay.
You wish to provide public
comment, you can wait until item 17 is called and best practises are that you call in early to the meeting to be early in the line.
Call from a quiet location, mute your television or your radio
and speak clearly and slowly. Each speaker will be allowed two
minutes to speak on items within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board and although we're
nearing election time, there is
no electioneering at these meetings and you'll be placed on
paused and redirected. If that continues, you May be cut off. Please address the board as a
whole, not individual members.
Dial the telephone number stated
888: 204-5984 and enter
the access code 350-1008 and again press pound, pound again to join the meeting. Now
we will ask you at the time if you're interested in getting
into the line to speak, dial 1-0
and that will move you into the speaker's line.
Office of civic engagement, the director there has assigned three interpreters who are
standing by to assist speakers in various languages and I would
appreciate it if the individuals would introduce themselves.
Can we start with arturo conse h
nza.
Arturo consenzo.
Speaking spanish: .
Speaking foreign language: .
Thank you, that's all for me. >> and agnes lee. To.
>> yes, I'm agnes lee.
Speaking foreign language: . >> thank you, Miss Lee. Ok, Mr. President, I believe
that concluding my portion of communications.
>> thank you, Madam Clerk. So before we get started, just a friendly are reminder to all of
the supervisors to mute your
microphones when you are not
speaking to avoid audio feedback.
Ok, next we will have supervisor
mar to share an update from the emergency operation's center and
I want to thank supervisor mar for being here last week and not only last week, but he volunteered to stay there again this week. Didn't
and I want to extend my thanks to supervisor fewer who has been
down there as a mainstay at this
point for about a month now and I really appreciate your leadership for the board down at
the eoc. Supervisor mar.
>> President Yee.
Yes, I'm pleased to offer this quick update as the current
board liaison to the emergency operation center and this past
week, al.
Allen wong and I had the opportunity to pair up with
staff and this has been a truly
unique and valuable experiences.
I would like to start with a key point on data.
From monday, April 27th to
friday May 3rd, the number of confirmed covid cases increased
sitly from 1,517 to 1,728, an increase of 217 cases. And the number of covid-19-related deaths increased slightly from 27 to 31.
And the covid-19 hospitalization
count declined slightly from 89 patients at the beginning of the
week to 86 at the end of the week.
And finally, the covid-19
patients in hospitals -- of the covid-19 patients in hospitals,
the number in intensive care
units declined from 28 to 26. These key data points from last
week reflect our continuing
success at preventing a surge in
hospitalizations and in kentucky in covid-19 deaths in our cities.
Over the past week, it can be
attributed to the continued expansion to of testing in our city. The biggest event of last week was obviously the extension of
our shelter-in-place health
order until the end of May,
along with slight loosening on
outdoor recreational activities.
This along with govern newsom's announcement yesterday, into the
transition of phase two of the state-wide four-stage reopening plan has meant we're starting to
see the light at the end of the tunnel and greater attention is
focused on how to gradually loosen restrictions being guided by public and safety health
precautions.
The eoc continues to focus on
the priorities to build a capability for effective, safe,
efficient and equitable testing shelter and feeding operations
to mitigate, prepare, respond to and recover from covid-19.
On a high level, I would like to
share that the eoc is supporting dph's testing expansion by
leading the efforts to add two new potential testing sites that
will be operated by the state.
And developing a multilingual outreach campaign for all essential workers regardless of
symptoms or exposure.
The eoc is supporting feeding
efforts delivering upward of 2,000 meals per day to those in
need, including those isolating or quarantining at home with no
one to care for them and those
who are food insecure and un-shelted home responsibilities. We
residents.We are transporting guests to
hotel sites, delivering ppe to disaster service workers and
guests and linking congregate
housing sites to cleaning sites and completing assessments tor alternative care and medical
sites to plan for feature medical surge and providing resources to stand up near housing sites. We are also continuing to
procure face coverings and are partnering with the human
right's commission, hsh, the police fire and sheriff's office
and cbos to deliver them to the most vulnerable members of our city.
The eoc also lead a block by block assessment of the tenderloin with community groups to help form late few
formulate a mitigation plan for all of those who work is live there.
The eoc launched a public-facing covid-19 alternative housing tracker.
I would like to thank mary ellen carol and the service workers who have stepped up in this time
of need to response to the health and economic emergency in our city. Their professionalism,
outstanding work ethic has been
truly impressive and inspiring
and finally this week as
President Yee noted, my office
voted to keep serving for a second week.
However, we need volunteers for next week and beyond. So please reach out
reach out to the board lee
liaison if you can provide this role. Thank you for allowing me to provide this update to the
board. >> you're on multi,
mute,
Mr. President.
>> thank you, Madam Clerk.
Thank you, supervisor mar, for
the update. Ok, colleagues, today we have
approving the minutes from the March 17th, 2020 meeting.
Are there any changes to these
meeting minutes? Hold on a second. I'm going to make sure I have
chat on.
I see on the roster.
So then, can I have a motion to
approve the minutes made by
fewer and seconded by preston.
And Madam Clerk, will you please call the role.
>> on the minutes, supervisor walton. >> aye.
>> supervisor yee.
>> aye.
>> supervisor fewer. >> aye.
>> supervisor hainey. >> aye.
>> supervisor mandelman. >> of aye.
>> supervisor mar. >> aye. >> supervisor preston. >> aye.
>> supervisor ronen. >> aye.
>> supervisor safaye. >> aye.
>> and supervisor stephanie. >> aye.
>> there are 11 ayes. >> Madam Clerk, please call
items one through three. >> items one through three pertain to the mission rock facilities and service's items. Item one is the resolution to
declare the results of the
special election and to direct segregation
the special tax district 2020-1.
Item two is the resolution to authorize and ratify the
issuance and sale of bonded
indebtedness and other debt in
an aggregate principle amount
not to exceed 3.7 million and
item 3 is the ordinance to levy special taxes within the city and county of san francisco for
the special tax district number
2020-1. i believe supervisor peskin is on the roster. >> no, Madam Clerk, I was trying to second the board meeting
minutes, sow can remove my name from the roster.
>> thank you. >> Mr. President, do you need
to be un-muted?
>> role call? >> I
silence is golden.
Could I have role call on 1-3?
>> supervisor walton on 1-3. >> aye. >> supervisor ye.
>> aye. >> supervisor fewer. >> aye.
>> supervisor hainey. >> aye.
>> supervisor mendleman. >> aye. >> supervisor mar. >> aye. >> supervisor peskin.
>> aye. >> supervisor preston. >> aye. >> supervisor ronen. >> aye.
>> supervisor safaye. >> aye. >> and supervisor stephanie. Aye.
>> there are 11 ay session. Es. >> ok, without
without objections, the resolutions are adopted and the ordinance is passed on first
reading.
Madam Clerk, the next item, number 4.
>> an ordinance to authorize the settlement of lawsuits filed
against the city and associated,
related and consolidated
litigation, pertaining to the milineum tour
tower for seismic upgrade, including court approval of a class action
settlement and this adopts the appropriate environmental findings. >> ok, Madam Clerk, can you please call role.
>> on item 4, supervisor walton. >> aye. >> supervisor yee.
>> aye. >> supervisor fewer. >> aye.
>> supervisor hainey.
>> aye.
>> supervisor mendlemn. >> aye. >> supervisor mar. >> aye.
>> supervisor peskin. >> aye.
>> supervisor preston.
>> aye. >> supervisor ronen. >> aye.
>> supervisor safaye. >> aye.
>> supervisor stephanie. >> aye.
>> there are 11 ayes. >> the ordinance has passed unanimously. >> Madam Clerk, let's go to the next item. >> item 5 is a resolution to
approve the levy on the secured
role of ad velorum and special
taxes on
taxes.
There are subareas I1-I-13 of city infrastructure at the port of san francisco, special
district number 2019-2, pier 70, leased properties and special
tax district number 2020-1, the
mission rock facilities and services and to make the
appropriate finding.
>> on item 5, supervisor walton. >> aye. >> supervisor yee. >> aye.
>> supervisor fewer.
>> aye.
>> there are 11 ace
11ayes.
>> without objection, this is
approved indianapolisly. >> unanimously.
>> item 6, this is March 1,
2020, board of directors.
Inaudible: . >> supervisor walton. >> move to continue to the next
board meeting.
>> is there a second?
>> second, supervisor preston.
>> and so question to supervisor walton, can you explain why
we're continuing this item? >> yes. Thank you, supervisor yee.
As you know, we are in the middle of a pandemic and a lot of issues that have hit my district and have hit the city which have allowed us to prioritize and I have not had the time to meet with the
candidates that have been up for
appointment.
>> I believe you have to un-mute yourself, Madam President.
>> thank you, supervisor walton for the explanation.
Madam Clerk, can you call the
role on the continuance.
>> selfny no.
There are ten ayes, one no with supervisor stephanie in the
dissent. >> 10-1 and the motion to
continue passes.
>> sorry, somebody
made
item 7. >> a resolution to approve a fifth amendment to the agreement
between the sheriff's office and the san francisco trial
diversion inc to extend this
through June 30th, 2021 and to
increase the amount by 5.9 million for a new total not
to exceed 15.86. 15.86 million.
>> ok, supervisor stephanie?
>> thank you, President Yee.
And I joined the budget and finance committee meeting
because I have some questions
about how the questions of pretrial conversion project for four years has been operating. I've been supportive of pretrial
in the past and worked to secure
funds for pretrial and I think it's an extremely important
service partnership wanted to . I wanted to know how many are
under monitoring and I ask this
because the sheriff's office is involved when monitoring.
I want to understand if they were duplicating efforts.
I asked about the recidivism rate for the clients over their
entire tenure and if client participation was interrupted
and after the hearing, I want
back and did further research on
the performance metrics and it
does not appear that the pre-version follows the
standards by the pretrial service agencies or the national institute of corrections, which
state that appearance rates and
safety rates should be
calculated based on a client's
entire time, not in 90-day increments.
I have supported the pretrial diversion projects executive believe they should
and theirmission is critical to ensuring they need obligations and that
remains true today.
this is $6 million for one year and pretrial will get a large number of new clients as the
jail population is reduced.
The budget legislative analyst report incomes
indicates the client will face serious charges.
For me, I feel I need a thorough understanding when these
individuals are placed in this program, measured according to national standards and measured according to standards that make
sense to me and I don't have the
level of confidence I need.
I received anticipations
answers to my
questions ten minutes before the
meeting and based on the recidivism rates, I will not be able to support this item today,
even though I remain supportive of retrial but because I don't have an understanding of the questions I put forward, I
cannot support it. >> thank you, supervisor
stephanie. So Madam Clerk --
>> I believe supervisor safaye is on the roster. >> I don't see him on the roster.
I see supervisor walton. >> thank you, President Yee, and
through the chair.
Supervisor stephanie, are you saying that you want more information or are you saying this was not a contract you're
going to support any time soon? >> supervisor stephanie? >> based on what you've received
so far, this is a contract I
won't support. >> thank you. >> supervisor stephanie, can you repeat yourself because I lost
it for a second there?
>> yes.
So through the President, I have
questions about an item that came before another committee
and I did my due diligence and I looked into whether or not those questions had been thoroughly answered so I could feel comfortable voting on this item before us today. And I did not get the
information I needed to feel
comfortable voting based on way
studied, which are recidivism rates and national standards and
therefore, although I remain
supportive of pretrial services, the fact the contract is
decreasing by $6 million, the
performance metrics where I feel comfortable, I will not be able
to vote yes today. >> thank you, supervisor.
>> thank you.
>> was there supervisor safaye
and I still don't see him on the roster.
No, I took my name of.
>> oh, I see, thank you.
Madam Clerk, can you call the
role on this item. On item 7 --
Role call: .
>> selfny no, there are ten ayes
and one no with supervisor selfny in the dissent.
>> this is adopted with a 10-1 vote.
>> Madam Clerk, the next item.
>> item 8 is a resolution to
authorize retroactive the department of emergency
management, to accept an
increase of 603,000 to the 2019
urban area security initiative
funds for a new total of 27.4 million from the U.S.
Department of homeland security through the california office of
emergency services, September 4,
2019, through May 21, 2022. >> ok, then, Madam Clerk, please
call the role. >> on item 8 --
Role call: .
>> there are 11 ayes.
>> without objection, the resolution is adopted unanimously.
>> item 9, to authorize the department of hubble pelt to
accept and expand an $88,000 grant from the california state
water resource's control board,
a division of water quality beach safety program for the public beach safety grant
program, July 1, 2019 through
June 30, 2022.
>> Madam Clerk, please call the
role. >> on item 9 --
Role call: .
>> there are 11 ayes. >> without objection, the resolution is adopted unanimously.
>> Madam Clerk, the next item. >> item 10, item 10 was referred
without recommendation from the budget and finance committee and
the resolution to urge city departments to authorize
additional funds and support to their contracted nonprofit
homeless service providers including free testing and incentive pay through increased
contract amounts and flexible
contract spending.
>> I see nobody on the roster.
Go ahead and call role.
>> on item 10, supervisor walton. >> aye. >> supervisor yee.
>> aye. >> supervisor fewer. >> aye.
>> supervisor hainy.
>> aye.
>> supervisor mandleman. >> aye. >> supervisor mar. >> aye.
>> supervisor peskin. >> aye.
>> supervisor preston. >> aye. >> soup store
supervisor ronen. >> am
aye.
>> there are 11 ayes. >> the item is adopted unanimously.
>>> item 11, to create the intermediate length occupancy, residential use characteristic and to amend the administrative
code to clarify the law
regarding the enforceability of
six termed leases covered by the cause protections of the residential rent stabilization and arbitration ordinance and
prohibit the rental units for temporary occupancies by non-tenants, to require
landlords to disclose to rent ordinance and to require the
controller to conduct a study to
analyze the impacts of new intermediate-like occupancy
units in the city and to affirm the california environmental quality determination, that's
the seqa determination and make
the appropriate findings. >> supervisor peskin.
>> thank you, President Yee.
I would like to thank the
cosponsors of this piece of legislation.
Preston, fewer, yourself, Mr. President and supervisor stephanie, for your cosponsorship and I would like
to thank my chief of staff for her work on this. this legislation was originally introduced in October of last
year and it has been the subject
of eight committee hearings and
five amendments. What is before you is legislative draft number 5 and
this is an issue the city and
county of san francisco has
wrestled with through
supervisors mable tang and many
others and I think that what
we're now calling intermediate
length occupancies formally known as corporate rentals is
going to be fundamentally regulated by this piece of legislation. It makes abundantly clear what
has been in the law for many
years but has been rather vaguely worded which is that we
will not have corporate rentals
in rent-controlled housing ie
housing built prior to 1979 and corporate rentals will be
appropriately regulated in post 1979 housing and that they are
only for natural persons, not
corporate persons. This issue was getting ready to
be brought to the board right before covid-19. A couple of weeks ago, the board
had a robust discussion over the
lucky penny and that actually
brought this back so thank you
supervisor stephanie, for your support and cosponsorship and I
look forward to, hopefully, passing this unanimously.
Thank you, colleagues. >> ok, Madam Clerk, can you
please call the role. >> Mr. President, sorry.
I put my name up at the last minute.
I just wanted to be added as a cosponsor. Thank you.
>> thank you. >> supervisor safaye.
>> I guess the sponsor and I hadn't closed the loop and I
would also like to be added as a cosponsor.
>> thank you, supervisor safaye. >> anybody else before I call
the role?
Ok, it looks like we can call
the role -- not yet, supervisor ronen?
I don't think so.
>> I just wanted to be adds as a cosponsor, thank you.
>> on item 11 --
Role call: .
>> there are 11 ayes. >> without objection, the
ordinance is passed.
Madam Clerk, please call items 12 and 13. >> the motion appointing the
following members to the soma
community stabilization fund,
advisory committee and christian
martin, residency requirement
waived and jenetta johnson,
carolyn calledwell, gina rosalis
and terms ending December 21,
2023 and for 13, term ending
August 20, 2020 and jane philips, term ending to the south of markets community
planning advisory committee. >> ok.
Give me a second here.
I have some technical difficulty here. Let me get back on chat to make sure there's nobody on the
roster ok, Madam Clerk, please
call the role on these items.
>> on items 12 and 13 --
Role call: .
>> are 11 ayes.
>> without objection, approved unanimously.
>> committee report, Madam Clerk.
>> it was approved at a special
meeting on friday, May 1st and recommended as a committee report and an emergency
ordinance to limit the spread of covid-19 by requiring the city through service agreements with
third parties to provide staff and maintain restroom facilities
at a ratio of one restroom per
50 up sheltered persons of the
affected date of this ordinance
and to suspend charter section 9.118 and that's the service
agreements to forego the board
of supervisor's approval and to
perform the seqa determination
and this requires two-thirds or
eight votes, a passage on one meeting.
>> ok, I believe I heard that
supervisor hainey wanted to make some amendments.
Do you want to do that, supervisor?
I don't see your name on the roster.
>> I would like to make some comments, too. >> thank you, President Yee.
And thank you to my cosponsors
and legislation as supervisors
preston and mar and I want to thank chair fewer for having an
emergency meeting of the budget committee. I have spoken at our board meetings many times about the
need for more bathroom access and handwashing stations and
it's urgent everyday, but especially during a pandemic.
Our board passed unanimously a resolution in March which calls
for adding additional pit-stop
bathrooms and 24-hour restrooms and hand-washing station expose we
stations and weintroduced this emergency to require it.
we have begun to see some additional toilets go out and I'm grateful for the work that
the mayor and the department of public works has done to abide
by parts of this legislation previously. But it's critical we put this
into law and that we set a standard that is one that
reflects what the united nations
and the centers for disease
control and prevention have. And this legislation would set
that standard.
It would provide much more
accessible access to both handwashing stations and bathrooms, not only for people
living on the streets but also for people who are made to rely
on bathrooms because they're out
working or delivery workers or taxi drivers and this will help
to protect our city, help to
keep folks healthy and also make
sure that people get access to the human rights of bathrooms is
protected. After discussions with the
budget at finance committee last week and deferring with public works, there were two amendments by the city attorney to further
clarify and assure this
ordinance serves a purpose of providing access to individuals
that need it the most and the amendments require that these emergency bathrooms shall be concentrated in areas with the greatest need and located within
a thousand feet of any
encantment and shall be opened 24 hours a day except for certain specified locations.
The emergency bathroom locations
from the 24-hour requirement are
either located in a thermos area
or having a pit stop in a reasonable distance and I
believe this is something based
on press release 30 minutes ago
that the mayor is committed to implementing and would bring up once this legislation passes the
number of 24-hour restrooms in our city to 49.
I'm note that about a month ago,
we had three 24-hour bathrooms
and with this we will have 49 and any in the future will be 24.
This is reimbursable through fema and the ordinance with a recollection from the budget and finance committee and I hope we
can support this and support basic human right and stop the
spread of covid-19 among some of our most vulnerable populations
and I would like to move those
two amendments.
>> a motion to amend and a second? >> seconded by supervisor walton. >> Madam Clerk, please call the
role on the ams. Amendments.
On the amendments --
Role call: .
>> there are 11 ayes. >> Madam Clerk, call the role on
the amended ordinance.
>> on item 14, as amended,
supervisor walton. >> aye.
>> supervisor yee. >> aye. >> supervisor fewer. >> aye. >> supervisor hainey. >> aye.
>> supervisor mandleman. >> aye. >> supervisor mar. Not
>> aye. >> supervisor peskin. >> amount
aye. >> supervisor preston. >> aye.
>> supervisor p
ronen. >> aye.
>> supervisor stephanie. >> aye. >> there are 11 ayes. The motion is passed unanimously. >> Madam Clerk, let's go to item 15. >> item 15 was considered by the government audit and oversight committee at a special meeting
on thursday, April 30 and recommended as amended with the same title as the committee report.
Item 15 is an ordinance amending
the administrative code to require the city to close county
jail number 4, located on the seventh floor of the hall of
justice by November 1st, 20. 2020,
to establish a safety and justice challenge subcommittee,
to plan for the reduction of the
city's daily jail population and closure of county jail number
four and affirm the seqa determinations.
>> supervisor fewer. >> yes.
>> colleagues, I am proud to acts for your
askfor your support in passing this
legislation to close county jail number four. I have worked for months with
every justice partner and key stakeholder to craft the piece of legislation that increased
the urgency to close this dilapidated facility but is also taking into consideration some of the concerns raised by
sheriff miamoto.
Thank you to the sheriff,
district attorney bodine, public
defender and all engaged with
that office.
Thank you to supervisor hainey for beginning to work on this legislation in October of last
year and thank you to all of our
other cosponsor, supervisors,
walton, ronen, preston, mar,
peskin, safaye and mandleman. This does three things. First, it requires the closure of county jail number four in
six months by November 1st of 2020.
And second, that in order to close the jail, we must reduce the playing to no more
population to no more than 90% of the facility, a goal that
is stated by the safety and
justice challenge-working group, an interagency collaboration that was born when the city
received a grant along with than
50 other localities to work for
a fairer justice.
It formally recognises the
missing working group as a subcommittee, and that existing
structure and requires that the subcommittee consider to meet
the objective of reducing the
population so we can safely
close county jail number four. The subcommittee will be required to submit two reports
to the board of supervisors with
progress made, data points and policy recommendations. This legislation is simply
creating a mandate to close the facility that everyone agrees
needs to be closed. Only on a more aggressive
timeline and it has been 24
years since the jail was deemed
to be unsafe and slated for demolition and the conditions
have only gotten worse. This is long overdue.
Our city administrators wanted
to close by the end of 2019 and
the former sheriff called this
facility decrepit.
>> let's do what needs to be
done is close county jail number four.
I have two items that are non-substantive that would have been shared with all of you and your staff.
On page 9, lines 23-25, at the request of the sheriff, we are including a language and allowance for the continued use of the jail and laundry
facilities at county jail number
four in case that the kitchen rehabilitation at county jail
number two is not complete completed by
the November 1st deadline.
We want to ensure we're not
leaving the downtown jail with
no facility --
Inaudible: .
>> we are discussing key
departments with the labor unions representing impacted worker stations at county jail number four.
And I want to give out a special thanks, of course, to my
legislative aid, kelly burlar and office staff who have worked
with chelsea on this.
Chelsea worked tirelessly ensuring that we address all of the concerns with the sheriff and, also, that it was responsible legislation to all
of san francisco. This would be to the office of
racial equity that we passed
last year and because of the timeline --
Inaudible: . Moving forward, we'll work with the office and the clerk to
ensure a clear process for this
racial analysis to be completed
prior to legislation being voted
on and I would like to call to
present a memo from the office
of racial equity.
>> thank you, supervisor. Go ahead.
>> thank you, supervisor fewer.
Thank you President Yee, thank
you, Madam Clerk and honorable supervisors.
I'm proud to serve as the inaugural director for the
service of racial equity, the
san francisco right's commission with cheryl evans davis and
today, I will present tow our to you our racial equity assessment for this piece of legislation.
Just give me one moment. I will share my slides with you
all. My office is in the process of developing tools to make sure that we're ensuring that legislation and policies being passed through the board of
supervisors does have a racial
equity lense.
This shall report on employment, public health, public safety and that May have an impact on
racial equity and racial despairties.
So fulfill this requirement, I'm providing the following brief assessment.
And, of course, this is on file 200 372 for the number four closure.
So in order to produce this
assessment, my office generally asks about five questions and
want to make sure that any piece of legislation can meet any one of the following criteria and
the criteria is as follows.
That the legislation explicitly
address racial despairties and passage result in the reduction
or elimination of racial
inequities and number two, will the legislature protest against
racial violence, profiling and explicit biased and discrimination. Number three, will the policy
help to eliminate barriers to
access resources, social
services, public benefits and institutions? Four, does the legislation
advance full inclusion belonging engagement for everyone in san
francisco and lastly, does the
legislation meaningfully approve
communities of color or strengthen the ability of people in san francisco to their potential.
This is what we use to assess
legislation and I will be given my recommendation moving forward.
And so, in looking at our contract justice system, we know
that there are
are very, very deep
racial despairties and people of
color are funneled into this
system and that racial
despaireries are
despairties are funneled support system. California is not doing a great job.
When we say racial equity, I want everybody to be grounded as
we define this as the justice for inclusion in society so that all people can reach their full
potential, no matter race,
ethnicity or background. But, unfortunately, within our criminal justice system, that's
not the case for so many
african-american, black, latin
x, native american, indigenous
and asian american pacific
island communities. In our racial impact assessment, which you all will be receiving
very soon in your inboxes with a fuller review, we have confirmed
that this policy will reduce
harm and racial despairties in
the criminal justice system for
the most critically latin x and native american communities. So the reason why we've come up
with that is because the closure of four in the jail population will significantly mitigate racial despairties in san francisco by reducing unnecessary use of the detention and encouraging use of alternatives, such as pretrial diversion programs. And passage of this legislation will help to look towards long-term solutions like the
establishment of safety and justice subcommittees which will promote longer lasting and public health and safety measures for justice involved and individuals, deputy sheriffs, employees and, also, our greater community at large.
And I want to take a quick
moment to stress why we have found this assessment. So I'm going to stop sharing my
screen for just a moment. And I'm going to add a couple of
comments into the public record.
We know that black and brown neighborhoods experience destabilization with residents cycling in is out of prison and
a lack of resources for re-entry
into society, such as housing, employment and educational opportunities. Additionally, families of color with loved ones in detention
suffer from increased financial stress, trauma, mental health
distress and dissolution.
And further, our criminal
justice system breeds greater
wealth inequality from a target
system of low-level offenders to employment prospects and
reduction of wage earnings upon returning home.
And we also came to this because legislation addresses several public health issues and so the closure of county jail number
four is deemed unsafe, plumbing, sewage, kitchen and laundry facilities, falling into deep disrepair and this has been the case for years and these conditions pose ongoing physical
threats to the safety of justice involved in individuals, employees and visitors.
And we also know that because we
are in the covid pandemic and
this is a public health
emergency, that our pandemic has illuminated and worsened racism
and health despairties.
The population has
underlying health conditions and due to the
correctional facilities, the risk of disease transmission is quite high. A safe reduction of jail population and the closure of county jail number four will
help to mitigate the risk of covid-19 in our jails. Racial despairties in our jail
system can be repaired and
disruptived by the introduction of appropriate policy and supervisor fewer's legislation does just that.
Further, in closing county jail
number four, we need to eliminate out-of-county transfers or expansion of jailing through electronic
monitoring and eliminating
jail-bed construction. This must be prioritized.
We need to uplift proven and
preventative measures to address poverty and redirect resources
directly to communities of
color, including fair housing, better healthcare, access to
healthy foods and culturally competent services such as
mental health reform and access to soldier health and substance abuse treatment.
In san francisco, we need to
disrupt root causes of systemic race ism with our criminal justice
system and we need to do this through broad population level change. And I hope that through the passage of this legislation, we
can do so to restore justice and dignity to those fairly affected by the system.
Thank you so much.
>> thank you. The
.The sheriff's office, I believe, would like to speak. >> are you on there? >> I am and thank you everybody over the board for the work on
this and the opportunity to
speak on its behalf. I just wanted to make sure that everyone is aware that our
office has been committed to closing county jail four, as well as our staff.
It's seismically unsafe and dilapidated.
I appreciate all efforts setting a timeline for this process.
I want to just take to moment to make sure everyone is aware that it is prudent to take into consideration our current covid-19 pandemic. the pandemic itself reveals just how radically our lives can change in ways we could not have predicted.
Although our efforts to reduce the jail population coincide
with the public health efforts
to minimize any exposures in the
jails, we don't know yet how this will change over time. And I do want to say, I am
extremely grateful to supervisor
fewer and her office on the many changes that we have worked on
in order to make sure that our
office has the flexibility to accommodate any future fluctuations in the jail population. As elected, it's our responsibility to be able to
listen to everyone and make thoughtful measured decisions and plans.
And I do appreciate the collaboration and opportunities
that our office has shared, all of our perspectives and concerns.
Ultimately, we all share the
same of ensuring there are prudent and responsible options in response to the challenge we
face with covid-19. Covid-19 that do not
include the use of county jail 4
again and thank you. >> thank you. Supervisor fewer, are you done? >> yes.
I would like to thank everyone for their comments and I have a
motion on the table for the amendments that I have just proposed. >> ok. Before we take -- is there a
second for that motion? >> second. >> who was that? >> supervisor walton.
>> thank you, supervisor walton. >> President Yee, I'm so sorry,
I think I see supervisor ronen on the cue. >> I'll recognise her as soon as
I make any statement.
My statement. Supervisor fewer, thank you for bringing this discussion today. I will be supporting the
legislation to close county jail
number four, located at 850 bryant street in the hall of justice. There is wide-spread agreement from our city leadership that
this facility is unsafe and
people have been saying that ever since I've been on the board of supervisors. The mayor, assistant district attorney, public defender, sheriff, county administrator
have all agreed that the hall of justice must be closed.
The building is seismically unsafe. The poor condition of the
plumbing, sewage, kitchen and laundry facilities pause
additional health and safety
concerns as was pointed out.
Supervisor fewer has worked
closely with sheriff miamoto, as
we just heard, and justice
partners to ensure that the
county jail four can be closed
safely by November 1st, 2020.
The plan laid out in this
legislation ensures that the safety of incarcerated people
and staff at the facility will
not compromise public safety. The legislation itself requires a reduction in the jail
population to no more than
1,044, which is 90% of the capacity of the remaining jail
facilities.
and this is for county jails two and five and let's be clear on
what this means. We have already meeting this requirement.
Over the past year, the city jail population has steadily declined.
A few days before the covid-19 health crisis, the jail
population was 1,063. In this was
this was only 19 above to close jail county four. As of this week, the jail
population was 695, which is 348
below what is required by this
legislation. The legislation tests the safety
and justice challenge with
developing a plan in coordination to an increase of
the jail population above 1,444. The subcommittee will not consider the transfer of incarcerated people to out of
county facilities in this plan.
And that,
alone was very important that we don't do that, that we wouldn't be sending my
inmates out of the county.
Sending incarcerated people out county should not be an option at all and never should be considered.
Transferring incarcerated people
to, but we want to -- when you send them out of county, it creates difficulties for the
families and certainly, we don't
need to hide attention and the
situation for these families. So I want to emphasize that it is dangerous and irresponsible
for anyone to spread this
information and rumors that this legislation would somehow make us less safe.
We are not closing the jail in an irresponsible way, as far as I could see from the legislation. We are not releasing individuals who would be a threat to
themselves or the public.
When I supposed to to sheriff
miamoto, he stated that this was the case. We are upholding public safety by ensuring we do not allow for this unsafe facility to continue
operating.
Again, thank you to my my colleagues for bringing this
forward and working closely with the sheriff and to ensure we
have a plan to safely close this facility.
We have all known that county jail four needs to be closed and this legislation allows us to do
so with the urgency of the situation requires.
I would like to adds as a
cosponsor.
Supervisor ronen.
>> thank you, President Ye. >> I
e.I e.
I wanted to express my gratitude and pride that we are finally closing this jail that has been
a danger to the human beings that were forced to stay there.
It wasn't fit for human habitation.
Every time I went there, I
couldn't believe that this great city would subject people,
individuals to those conditions.
And I just want to applaud this
effort and the work with sheriff miamoto to get it done. And I just wanted to give a special thanks to my former
chief of staff, carolyn gu second
sen,who worked closely with
supervisor fewer's office and
her incredible chief of staff,
chelsea boyard. Carolyn is now working for the public defender's office and I
wanted to thank her for that. >> supervisor stephanie, I
believe, is next. >> I struggled how to vote on this with the public safety
issues facing this city and I do
hear what President Yee just said. Before I make a few points, I
want to recognise supervisor fewer, for the way she brought this legislation forward is worked closely with our criminal justice departments, including our sheriff, before putting this
to a vote and I know that she and her staff wanted to be successful and it's going to be.
So through the chair, I just want to thank supervisor fewer for shepherding this to
completion in such a thoughtful way and for taking time out over the weekend to listen to me and
to hear my thoughts and concerns and, you know, I also want to
say that I absolutely agree with her didn't all of you about the
need to close this building.
This building at 850 bryant street has been in deplorable condition and should never have
been allowed to deteriorate to this point. I've been here a long time and
the jail's closure from neglect
and disrepair is not some kind
of unavoidable or foregone conclusion and it was a result,
I think, from this inability,
really, and this refusable to
compromise to so many different
people and I'm thinking if supervisor fewer were around back then, we might be in a different position because she
has shown herself to listen to so many different sides as we saw last year during the budget season. You know been
, I look back on this
and in 2015, the board rejected
that grant to build a new jail
and there was wide-spread recognition that we needed a new facility.
That was pre-supervisor fewer.
And then in 2016, former supervisor jane held a hearing
on the behavioral health center in tandem with law enforcement. We knew there was an
overwhelming need with the justice-involved population and
that was just two of the interventions on this facility
all along and all the while, we knew something needed to be done.
More should have been done to prevent this from happening in the first place. While we want to move away didn't should move
away andshould move away, I remain uncomfortable.
I'm very appreciative of how supervisor fewer went about this
and I want everybody out of that building. San francisco recently celebrated the decline in
violent crime and historic low homicide rates and I want to recognise all of the public safety for making that happen.
And for me -- and I know I have a lense that other people don't have.
And I know I have an experience that other people don't have and
I try to check my biased opinion but for me, when it comes to
crime, lower crime is not none
and it's not good enough for me.
And I just don't feel
comfortable with it.
We know a lot of crime goes un goes un
reported. And additionally, I can't ignore the fact that we still continue to have the highest property crime rate in california and
that the highest rate of property crime among the largest cities in the united states.
In fact, we are one of the few coins in
coin counties.
In the united statesthat saw a high rate. When you think it doesn't matter to the life of the victim, it
does matter a great deal and
being victimized and costly and traumatic and our own studies show that we need -- we haven't
been able to have a hearing on
it -- we need 200 to 300 more police officers to meet the
daily calls for service.
And like all of you, I want desperately for crime to
decrease to such a level we can decrease the jail population further. And I know there are varying degrees of what that looks like for all of us. But closing the jail at this time requires a level of risk I'm not prepared to take.
With that, I want to thank roma guy, because I loveler.
And love her and iwant to thank her with the call
with my aid and talked about this cautionary risk and how I add hire her and
admire her and just explain that
my lense doesn't allow me to see things the way others are seeing things here. i know this legislation doesn't mandate specifically who is released. Again, I'm grateful to supervisor fewer for including that level of care.
But when I look at the individuals head in county jail four, I know that those individuals have been accused of very serious offenses, because
in san francisco, we don't hold people for low-level offences
and we should be proud of that.
We have done more than more counties in this nation and I think we should be proud of that. I'm against mass incarceration and I'm thankful that san francisco has done much to remedy this issue and it's why
we have few people in our jails, because like I said who have committed low-level offenses. Prior to this
covid epidemic, san
francisco was the lowest in the state.
And now with the advent of this pandemic, both playings are further reduced. And between our low levels of arrest and low levels of detention, I believe san
francisco in a way and maybe and has become a
place to commit certain types of offences and the people who work here experience that everyday.
It's something I hear from my
constituents time and time
again. I think about those who suffer
abuse at the hands of others.
With regard to pretrial services, I really think our pretrial services are extremely
important and I was very uncomfortable with some of the answers I got. and that's what giving me pause.
I just want to be very open and honest and transparent how I'm feeling on this. I also have to share important questions about the charges
facing those slated for release and so much respect for the sheriff and I'm so happy that he and supervisor fewer were able
to work on these amendments. But we haven't yet received
anticipations to those questions
that made me feel comfortable to vote yes. While I do agree with need to
close this jail, I don't believe we can do that until I
demonstrate to my constituents that we aren't putting victims of crime, especially domestic
violence and sexual assault victims at risk and I personally feel I can't yet do that.
However, I know that many reasonable people see things differently.
And that's why I have so much respect for the people who put this legislation forward because I understand it. Again, I want to thank supervisor fewer for how she worked hard with our sheriff and the legislation to where it's
gotten and I think it's incredible that she was able to pull so many people together and make the amendments that she did. Today, however, based on my
comments, I won't be able to support the ordinance at this time.
Thank you.
>> thank you.
Supervisor safaye.
>> thank you, President Yee.
And let me just say thank you to
supervisor fewer for all of her amazing hard work on this. I know usually when it gets down to the finish line is when a lot
of the final details are put on
this project and in terms of -- I say it's a project, even though it's an ordinance and it's a piece of legislation.
But the idea of prisoners and
those that are incarcerated
being held in unsanitary, unsafe
and unsound conditions and everyone agreeing that needed to be dealt with in terms of a priority and then there being a fight about whether we build a
new jail or not a new jail, this
is what you call, in my opinion, a true balancing act.
It was approached in the right way. It started with the point of departure in looking at the
reality and looking at the statistics and numbers of how the population has gone down and then reaching out to our sheriff and the sheriff said it best,
this is was something too compromised but at the end of the day, we are going to close that and we are going to prioritize the safety of those incarcerated and it does have
room to deal with ensuring we're not sending people out of county. So I want to thank the sheriff
for his willingness and ability
to compromise and I want to
thank supervisor fewer for her leadership and I'm proud to be a sponsor and a supporter of this finally moving forward.
Thank you.
>> sheriff, are you still there,
by any chance? When we're talking p
talking closing
county jail 4, the inmates that there are now, we're not
releasing the inmates in jail county number four. >> no, that is correct.
>> we're moving them to the
other county jails to have capacity to accommodate for them.
Is that correct? >> yes.
For clarification, what we plan on doing is moving the
population currently on the seventh floor and integrating that population into what we
have at county jail two and county jail five and that's where right now soup
supervisor safaye referenced we have an
opportunity to do so President President prescribed by the legislation and that is
also why I expressed concerns of
making sure we have flexibility because in the case our
population increases, we'll only
have the two to work with.
>> thank you very much. You're confirming what I thought
I understood to be so.
I just didn't want the public to come out of this discussion thinking that we're going to release everybody into the
public from the jail, county jail number four. And so we have a motion on the
floor to amend and second it?
Madam Clerk, can you call the role on the amendment.
>> on the amend to item 15 --
Role call: .
Call (.
Role call: .
>> there are 11 ay session oness.
>> without objection, they are passed.
>> on item 15, supervisor walton. >> yes. >> supervisor yee.
>> aye. >> supervisor fewer. >> aye. >> supervisor hainey. >> aye.
>> supervisor mendleman. >> aye.
>> supervisor mar. >> ayee. >> supervisor peskin. >> supervisor preston. >> aye.
>> supervisor ronen. >> aye.
>> supervisor safaye. >> aye. >> supervisor stephanie.
>> no.
>> there are 10 ayes and one know with supervisor stephanie
in the dissents. Dissents.
>> a 10-1 vote, ordinance is
passed on first reading. >> Madam Clerk, that will take
us to role call. Role call for introduction with supervisor walton to introduce new business. >> thank you so much, Madam
Clerk.
I appreciate -- one second. I'm sorry.
I just have to pull up something
really quick. This is supported by all colleagues on the board of supervisors and this is something that we should have
been able to do here in san francisco years ago didn't so I
want to start off just by commenting all of my colleagues
for stepping up and fighting for
our population to have the voice
they deserve. As we know in san francisco, we've always worked hard to ensure that community is not left behind and it's for this reason that I'm honored to be a
part of this historical charter amendment asking voters to allow
all of our san francisco residents the opportunity to
serve on important advisory groups and commissions. All voices should be allowed at
the table and this is one step towards achieving equitable voice.
And I'm confident that all of san francisco will vote this into law.
Currently, the advisories created by the charter or through legislation can carve
out exceptions to age, residency and citizenship requirements.
And this charter amendment will remove the citizenship requirement, allowing all
qualified individuals to apply on committee.
I want to thank all of those who work to make this a reality and I want to recognise that
supervisor yee from President Yee's office for their original push in making sure that this
was an issue that was bought
brought to
the forefront and I want to
thank my team and the district
team office, specifically tracy
brown and natalie g. For all of
their work to make this charter amendment possible is to continue to push on behalf of community.
And I also want to thank advocates for making this a
reality and I would finally just
like to exalt the work of sarah
susa, who stands for and
represents all of whom with this
ordinance is meant to represent.
She has been someone who has
been fighting to serve and make sure that communities are
represented and this is reflective of her work and the
work of many people who have
been a fabric of san francisco
and who deserve the opportunity
to participate on policy boards, committees and advisory groups.
And so I just urge everyone to
join me, as well as this entire
board of supervisors in proving
that we are 100% fighting for democracy here in san francisco
and going to make sure that all voices matter.
And what a better day than to
introduce this charter amendment
than cinco de mayo. Thank you for your continued support. We still have our work cut out
for us to make sure the voters
support this important charter amendment, but equal voice, equitable voice is something I know we all believe in and this will help us to get closer to achieving that. The rest I submit.
>> thank you, supervisor walton.
>> supervisor ye. E.
>> I wanted to thank supervisor
walton for bringing this charter
chartered amendment forward and we strongly support it, also. It's something we should all embrace.
Please stand by: .
.
>> Supervisor Fewer: this legislation which ultimately
aims to slow the spread of covid-19 will also require the
department to create a written report of potential properties where safe sleeping sites could be suitable.
By setting up spaces where
people can spread their tents
12 feet by 12 feet apart while
also accessing drinking water,
food, and other 24-7 services, this can help slow the spread. As supervisor mandelman noted
in his resolution last week,
other cities like phoenix,
seattle, and eugene are
containing the spread of covid-19 through homelessness. This legislation does not call
on any specific site to be open
nor does it allow people to
camp freely throughout parks. I'm going to say that again.
It does not allow people to camp freely throughout parks.
It simply gives the city the
option to use rec and parkland
where suitable.
In this emergency, we need to protect public health, and that includes identifying all public information where the city can provide centralized health services, bathrooms, hand
washing stations, and other necessities for homeless san franciscans to slow the spread of covid-19. Our ability to lift the shelter
in place mandate depends on our
ability to protect our most vulnerable people and offer safe sites for people that
sleep on our sidewalks and get
them into safe shelter sites with enough room for physical distancing is just one part of the solution. The next solution is to get people into vacant hotel rooms,
but in the meantime, we need other options for people who
are living in our sidewalks.
With 3,400 acres of rec and park in san francisco, surely
we can set aside a couple of acres for people to be able to shelter in place.
i am also introducing a resolution today in support of
assembly bill 2058, authored by
assembly member jessie gabriel.
It would create an affordable
housing preservation tax credit
to create preservation of affordable rental properties and mobile home parks.
Last year, I was honored to
create the opportunity for acts with every supervisor signing
on as a cosponsor. Between 1
997 and 2018, california last 15,044 affordable homes as rental
restrictions expired.
Another 34,000 homes are at risk from converting to market rate rentals.
By keeping them from converting, we can keep up our affordable housing stock.
With covid-19 pandemic causing
record unemployment and people being able to pay their mortgages, we know that housing corporations will be looking to purchase large portfolios of housing just like they did
during the 2008 recession.
It makes sense to support this
bill and all we've been doing in san francisco to protect affordable housing. The rest I submit. Thank you.
>> Clerk: thank you, supervisor fewer.
Supervisor haney?
>> Supervisor Haney: thank you,
Madam Clerk and colleagues.
I have one resolution I'm
introducing today in support of national mental health awareness month.
This resolution recognizes the
amazing services of mental health service providers in dealing with this global
pandemic and their ability to successfully implement low
barrier mental health services to overcome the negative impacts of covid-19.
This pandemic has had a profound effect on the lives of
every resident. People have been separated from
their jobs, their families,
ability to go outside, all of
which have impacted the people they love. The result is that many more
people are struggling with
depression, anxiety, and often in silence.
These essential resources are
adequate, available, and effective and our neighbors need to know how to access them.
For people who struggle with
mental illness, this service is critically important. We know this is happening
because the numbers are clear and research studies have
linked social isolation and loneliness to poor mental health.
47% of people sheltering in
place reported negative mental
health effects related to worry or stress from the coronavirus.
Negative effects due to social
isolation May be particularly
more pronounced in older adults or households.
Just last month in April 2020, kaiser family foundation revealed that parents with
children under the age of 18, nearly three out of five say
that impact from coronavirus
had negatively affected their health.
The peer reviewed warm line,
which is now averaging 5,800
calls and chat sessions per month in March and April of this year. In light of these numbers, we need to step up and catch our neighbors from falling.
We cannot let them suffer in silence.
This resolution urges the
board, the health board, and
the mayor's office to offer side widespread health resolutions
for all. Second, continued prioritized
diagnostic testing, and third,
confirm our commitment to
mental health parity by removing the stigma around mental health treatment.
Tomorrow, I'm going to be
hosting a virtual information
session around covid-19.
We have the kaiser family foundation and the stanford center for health and wellness to address these topics. All are welcome to join, and I hope that we can make sure that
people who are vulnerable, who are struggling often silently
and quietly with mental health challenges during this crisis from the support and protection
that's accessible and needed for them. The rest I submit.
>> Clerk: thank you, supervisor haney.
Supervisor mandelman? >> Supervisor Mandelman: submit.
>> Clerk: thank you. Supervisor mar?
>> Supervisor Mar: thank you, Madam Clerk.
Colleagues, have a few items today. First as we grapple with the
ongoing covid-19 crisis, there
is another crisis growing at a record rate.
Unemployment is now a state of
emergency, too, for laid off workers.
The pace of our unemployment
crisis is greater than any since the great depression.
Nearly 10% of the entire
population of san francisco has lost their job during this crisis, representing tens if
not hundreds of thousands of
lives with the loss of their livelihood. As we move into the next phase of restrictions this week and plan for an economic recovery, we have to make sure that our
recovery puts people first.
Without action, unemployment
will be an enduring crisis.
In a country where access to health care is often tied to
employment benefits, our unemployment crisis is also a health crisis.
So today, I'm proud to propose
the back to work ordinance with
my cosponsors safai, haney, walton, and fewer.
This makes sure that those offered jobs first in the process if and when their employers reopen and start to rehire. If their job isn't available, but another job is that they're qualified for, they'll be offered that instead. And while they're laid off,
they'll be notified of city resources that with help them weather the storm. Workers deserve economic
certainty, and it's a win-win-win scenario. When public health allows,
businesses will be able to open faster by bringing back staff that's already trained and
ready to go, benefiting their
staff, customers, and the entire city.
I'd like to thank my cosponsors
and others who have endorsed
the proposal.
Second, I'm introducing a resolution introducing the collection and reporting of
additional data for populations, especially
vulnerable to covid-19 transmission. This board already adopted a
resolution sponsored by
supervisor peskin regarding
S.R.O.S and shelters, but
S.R.O.S and shelters aren't the
only vulnerable living situations.
We need better data on how covid-19 is impacting our
nursing homes, senior living facilities, skilled nursing facilities, and jails.
And while the city is reporting some gender identity information in our data
tracker, it falls short of data
standards for sogi, or sexual
orientation and gender
inequity.
We know lgbtq communities have
disparate outcomes where data
is reported, but no one is
tracking sogi transition. Our lgbtq communities deserve
to know how they're being impacted by the covid-19 crisis.
Finally, I'm proud to cosponsor supervisor fewer's emergency ordinance to allow rec and park facilities and land to be
potentially used for emergency needs as part of our comprehensive covid-19 response, including safe sleeping sites.
rec and parkland represents 11%
of all land in the city. This ordinance simply assures
that all options are adequately considered in our public health emergency strategy. While we must keep the focus on
bringing as many homeless people as possible indoors to shelter safely, we understand
this faces many challenges, and that we need additional temporary solutions for people left outside.
This will be especially true as growing unemployment drives individuals into poverty and homelessness.
A secured, staffed, and contained safe sleeping site
will be safer than the tents
lining our residential and neighborhood corridor
commercial streets and will save lives for housed and unhoused families. I look forward to working with my colleagues on the board, rec
and park staff, and the staff
on the E.O.C. To make sure that
our decisions are driven by the
needs of the public health community.
>> Clerk: thank you, supervisor mar. Supervisor peskin?
>> Supervisor Peskin: thank you, Madam Clerk. First, I'd like to thank the council of district merchants
and the petition that they have been circulating that we are
all in receipt of this
afternoon, urging a responsible relaxation in the chief health officer's emergency order as it
relates to curb side pickup for various businesses, including,
but not limited to book stores. Quite frankly, I know that all
of us have been wrestling with
the issues of an increasingly frustrated society under covid-19, and I think we all
have the same questions that
our constituents have as to why
there's been relaxation in
certain areas, including construction where in some
instances, construction workers
cannot socially distance or why
one of the earlier orders
allowed essential construction that was defined as projects
that had 10% affordable housing
as compared to projects that had in lieu fees to go forward.
So I'm looking for a modicum of
consistency and want to start a dialogue with our chief public
health officer verbally and am calling on the President To see
if Dr. Aragon can appear before
this body at next week's meeting to answer some of these
questions as it relates to
consistency in the chief health officer's orders and supplemental orders so that we can make sense of that and see whether or not we might be able
to have safe curb side pick up
as requested by the council of district merchants.
I would like to adjourn today's board meeting in the memory of
the late, great, unbelievable
david lupo, as well as my constituent, alice young, and
the rest I will submit.
>> Clerk: thank you,
supervisor peskin. Supervisor preston?
>> Supervisor Preston: thank you, Madam Clerk. Colleagues, today, I'm announcing a ballot measure for
the November 2020 election that
seeks to prove predatory wall street selection and impose housing facility.
It aims to double the housing
tax at projects that are $10 million or higher and direct
those funds to a housing availability fund which would fund a covid-19 rent and
mortgage relief, as well as the
creation of permanently
affordable housing. The city and county would be
exempt from the tax increase.
As we reel from the worst
depression in U.S. History, we need revenue generated by this
tax to make sure that san franciscans can get back on their feet without worrying about the roof over their heads. We know what happens in the face of a recession when
private actors are allowed to
dictate the terms of recovery. The aftermath of the 2008
recession is instructive, absent a comprehensive approach
to those with the greatest need.
In california, we witnessed
hundreds of thousands of foreclosures. This time, we cannot let the
wave of covid-19 fear fuel displacement of hundreds of
thousands of san franciscan
tenants and small business owners.
Already, corporations are gearing up to buy properties as
the prices drop as has been reported in bloomberg and other media outlet.
Make no mistake, wall street is
preparing for a bonanza of
buying opportunities.
We need to tell owners to steer clear of these buyers, and we
need to make sure that the
ultrawealthy are paying their
fair share and use it to invest
in long-term stable housing to those measures. A portion of the revenue would
be allocated to a rent resolution fund. These funds would be made available to landlords who
have, by December 31, 2020, voluntarily waved rent for their tenants that was due
during the covid-19 pandemic.
This will incentivize landlords
to cancel rent for tenants and
property owners who access the funds.
The remaining would be dedicated to a social housing fund.
These would finance the properties for permanently affordable social housing. This would include land banking, community land trust, and other social housing
efforts where the city maintains an interest in the property or land while providing affordable housing opportunities on-site. Today's announcement is the start of a conversation on how
we can protect our residents from wall street's real estate
investors that are circling our
city while ensuring stable housing for our residents. In the upcoming weeks, I look
afford to working with
community stakeholders and my colleagues on board.
The rest I submit.
>> Clerk: thank you, supervisor preston. Supervisor ronen?
>> Supervisor Ronen: yes, colleagues.
Yesterday, the results of the
mission district confirmed something that -- testing confirmed something that we
have long suffered, that the latin community has suffered
greatly and disproportionately
from the ongoing covid-19
emergency. 62 individuals tested positive.
Among those positive cases, the
racial and class disparities
were stark. 95% were latinx.
85% earn less than $50,000 a year, and 90% reported that they cannot work from home because they are still either working outside of their homes,
are furloughed, or are unemployed. These results strongly suggest that they cannot shelter in place. Many people who live in the mission are the essential employees who have kept our city running during this dangerous time, often at the
expense of their own health.
Mission is the backbone of many
local industries, including restaurants, construction,
grocery stores, janitorial and cleaning services.
Many workers who find themselves sick cannot afford to take time off work.
Low wage workers, like anyone else, deserve the opportunity
to shelter in place and quarantine if they're ill
without fear of losing interest.
It is in our best interest to make sure that financial vulnerabilities do not stand in the place of any worker who's
sick from being able to rest and recover, quarantine, and keep themselves and their families and the public safe. Today, I was going to direct
the city attorney to draft emergency legislation to guarantee any san francisco
resident who tested positive for covid-19 replacement wages
for 14 days if the individual
has no alternative access to
income -- replacement income
through state, federal, or
employment benefits, but I have some really great news. I, along with supervisor stefani are the board's
representative on the oversight
committee for give to S.F. I propose we fund it through
that apparatus, and the oversight committee voted unanimously to do so.
So I don't believe that I need to introduce legislation, which is fantastic because we don't
want to delay this.
Not only is giving individuals replacement income if they
don't already have it a just
and equitable thing to do, if
we are going to advise low wage
workers to self-isolate and get
tested if they are going to end up positive.
So I want to thank ucsf for
conducting the study that began with results, the discussion
with the covid-19 task force of latino residents.
Together, we came up with this
idea of how we can make sure of
how people feel -- especially in latino communities that are vulnerable feel safe getting tested and feel supported if they test positive.
And I also want to thank the give to S.F. Oversight committee for jumping on board and unanimously supporting this effort.
On that same note, I wanted to
let everyone know that we are
finally going to launch our
campaign next week to get more
donations to the give to S.F. Program. We have currently received
about $11 million in donations. Next week, the board of
supervisors, we'll be asking
for all of you for your help and support, we will be
starting a campaign where we're sending out information and ads to the community about the give
to S.F. Program.
It will feature both donors and recipients of this effort. Not a single dollar goes into the hands of the city. It all passes through the city
and goes straight to residents of san francisco that
desperately need help right now. In addition, the mayor will be
launching a campaign to give to our efforts to do so. We hope that we will not be
talking about tens of thousands of dollars, by ut hundreds of thousands of dollars which need
to get into the hands of those that are suffering like never before. I want to give a huge thank you to jennifer lee of my office,
who instead of going to the E.O.C. This week has been spent
all making dozens and dozens of
these ads, with her expert
design skills, locating people that have received help from
give to S.F. Jennifer, you're amazing.
Thank you so much for your work.
Secondly, I've got a resolution
that I've drafted calling on congress to bring resolution to
those affected by the covid-19 pandemic.
It's authored by rashida tlaib
and pramila jayamil, ensuring
people receiving $2,000 a month
during the pandemic.
Governor newsom announced yesterday that california is going to borrow money from the federal government to continue
to apply for unemployment assistance.
Nationally, more than 30,000 people applied for unemployment across the bay area.
Local low in san francisco, the
gold -- locally in san
francisco, as many as half of all san francisco restaurants
May shut their doors for goods,
and 85% of entertainment
employees May lose their jobs. We haven't seen anything like this in 90 years, and economists have warned that it
is likely to get worse and will extend into a second great depression if we don't take steps like this now.
So far, what we are seeing for
individuals from the federal
government through the
C.A.R.E.S. Act has been some
extended unemployment and one
stimulus checks, and yes, there
is now assistance for people
who are self-employed or
independent contractors.
And yes, the one-time 1200 checks are welcome, but these
are nearly not enough money and not long enough to cover the likely duration and loss of
income, and they are completely inaccessible to many people who desperately need help.
The A.B.C. Would provide a payment to every person in american including nonresidents
and people without banking relationships.
the plan would include to add $1,000 a month until the end of the crisis to help people get back on their feet.
It would be funded directly from the treasury without
adding to additional fund by
minting two $1 trillion coins. It would rescue people facing
debt and provide an injection into the economy.
Recent polling by data for
progress and the justice
collaboration found partisan support.
Our own nancy pelosi May be
bending, as well, saying a guaranteed income to help
people struggling because of
the coronavirus is worth a look.
My proposal recognizes
representatives tlaib and
jayapal for their authorship.
I'd like to thank my
cosponsors, shamann walton,
dean preston, and the rest I submit.
>> Clerk: thank you,
supervisor ronen. Supervisor safai?
>> Supervisor Safai: thank you.
Appreciate it, Madam Clerk. Thank you for all your hard work during this time.
I know it's not easy to juggle all of this technology in our
meetings and the distance, but I just want to start off by commending you and your team. I know that supervisor peskin,
when we have the land use
committee, starts off by thanking staff. I see how some of the other
places around the bay area have done video conferencing and so
on, and making this supremely accessible to the public, so I just want to start off by commending you and your team.
>> Clerk: thank you, supervisor.
>> Supervisor Safai: second
thing, but I think it's a big thing. The reality of the budget, the reality of where we are fiscally in san francisco, the reality of the very big decisions are already beginning
to trickle out in many ways.
Speaking to roger marenko and
local 258 are people on the frontlines, the essential
workers, those that are doing
back breaking work and are often confronting representative repetitive injury, we're already informed that the transit division, they're already back to work,
which is dedicated to minimizing and decreasing
workplace injuries is being eliminated. It's always in the context of the tough choices that we have to make.
I think obviously protecting people's employment can and should be a guiding principle
in moving forward, particularly for those that have truly
risked their lives during this process.
But, you know, at the same
time, this cut could be a long-term cost.
I spoke to the director of
M.T.A. Today, jeff tumlin.
I think their goal was to bring it back as quickly as possible, so that's a positive result.
But when you're eliminating
programming that reduces workplace injury, particularly for those doing that type of
work, it will increase the
number of people that can't
come to work.
I have to say that the types of
repetitive stress injuries were significant.
I just want to say that it's an
important thing for us to be considering in the midst of all the tough choices that we have
to make, but certainly, with preserving our workers and essential workers in this environment should be a goal in our conversations. The other thing that I wanted
to bring to light today also is
that as we begin to open up the
economy in the next few months, our frontline child care providers are dying on the vine.
Our family child care providers
are often women run, immigrant run small businesses, and they are struggling. They're not accessing the loans
that we have, they're not working.
They're not able to, in many ways, have the financial
resources to sustain themselves, and so I just
wanted to say I had a real positive conversation with our mayor today. She's also deeply concerned with this, and she is committed
to working with me and my team
to come up with a solution so
that we can help our child care operators survive in the city
and continue on.
And sorry, one more thing.
We've spoken to our county
health officer, we've spoken to our city attorney.
We're doing everything we can,
and it's reprehensible that
these foreclosures are able to
continue in this time.
hopefully within the next few
days we'll have a resolution
from our county health officer
to shutdown that process. I want to thank our sheriff for working consistently with shutting down that action on
the backside of city hall, and we're going to continue to do that to ensure that folks who don't have the money to fight foreclosures in this environment will have a fair fight in this process. Thank you, Madam Clerk, and the rest I submit.
>> Clerk: thank you, supervisor safai.
And supervisor stefani?
>> Supervisor Stefani: thank
you, Madam Clerk.
Colleagues, from the onset of this pandemic, one of my
foremost concerns is the impact
this crisis would have in the mental health community. Over the last week, I have
spoken with the domestic
violence consortium and the san
francisco domestic violence
prevention, and the reports are troubling. Incidents are increasing across the industry. San francisco suicide prevention reports that they
have seen a significant
increase in the acuity of callers that require immediate emergency intervention. Normally, these kinds of cases occur two to three times per month, and they are now
occurring two to three times per week.
They also report seeing a 22% increase in first-time callers since the shelter in place went into effect, and overall, they
have serious concerns that even
a larger spike May just be over
the horizon as people have to spend time rebuilding their
lives after the orders are lifted.
I'm calling for a hearing so
that domestic violence
consortium are seeing on the
ground so we can make legislation as quickly as
possible, and the rest I submit.
>> Clerk: thank you, supervisor stefani. Mr. President, I don't see any
names on the roster.
>> President Yee: okay.
Thank you, Madam Clerk. Let's go to public comment, item number 17.
>> Clerk: item number 17.
It's now time to host your remote public comment.
I've got up to two minutes for each speaker. I provided the telephone number
earlier, and if you dialled in,
you're welcome to press one and zero. If you haven't dialled in, the telephone number, I believe, is
being displayed on the screen. It's 1-888-204-5984.
When prompted, enter the access
code 3501008.
Press pound, press pound again to join the meeting.
To be added to the queue to speak, press one and then zero. The system will prompt you when it's your turn.
While the system is queueing
up, I'll provide the best practices.
Please mute your television our radio. Your location should be quiet. Speak slowly and clearly so we can understand your comments.
Each speaker will have two minutes to deliver the comments. If you're using an interpreter, the interpreter will be timed for two minutes.
Remember to keep your comments in the subject matter of the board. Remember, there is no
electioneering in this meeting. Do not address individual members.
Once your two minutes is concluded, you'll be moved out
of the speak and into observing mode.
We have three interpreters
standing by to interpret
chinese, spanish, and filipino.
We are able to host multiple language speakers.
The interpreters are going to introduce themselves today, and
then we'll begin with public comment.
[Speaking spanish language]
>> Clerk: thank you.
[Speaking tagalog language]
>>Interpreter: thank you.
That's all for me.
>> Clerk: thank you.
And Miss Lee? [Speaking chinese language]
>> Operator: you've been muted.
To unmute yourself, press star.
>> Clerk: okay. Mr. President, I believe that
we had 22 callers on the line.
We're going to ask for your patience. I understand the bridge line
connecting the callers has been
dropped for a moment, and I
will wait to hear from them as soon as the bridge line is back on board.
If I call for the first speaker, are they able to speak
without that bridge line? Okay. i don't believe so, Mr. President, so we're just going to hold a moment.
We apologize for this dropping of the bridge line. But to the individuals who are
trying to get in line to speak,
if you look at the television, you'll see the phone number there. We apologize that we're not
starting public comment yet, but we will shortly.
>> President Yee: okay. Why don't we just take a brief pause, and Madam Clerk, when we're ready, just let us know.
>> Clerk: I will. Thank you, Mr. President.
So if there are individuals
trying to get onto public
comment, it's 888-204-5984. The access code is posted there.
I believe it's on channel 26,
as well -- yes, it is -- in
addition to the life stream. 3501008. Press pound, and then press pound again. Once you're prompted, you will
be asked if you're interested in speaking. You'll dial one and then zero to be entered into the caller's line.
And right now, operations are
trying to reestablish connection to public comment and will let me know when we're
ready to go.
And Mr. President, we cannot go
to the next items, items 18
through 29 because those items require public comment on those items before we can actually
call those items.
So we are in a little bit of a standstill.
>> President Yee: that's correct. Right, that's why I said just pause.
>> Clerk: we are having a little bit of a problem.
Can the interpreters please
make the translations?
Great, thank you. Thank you for muting that.
Can the interpreters please provide the information in
languages due to technical difficulty.
[Speaking spanish language]
.
>> Clerk: thank you.
[Speaking tagalog language]
>>Interpreter: thank you. That's all for me.
>> Clerk: thank you.
And Miss Lee? [Speaking chinese language]
>> Clerk: all right.
Thank you very much to the interpreters for that. I believe operations are still working on this problem, Mr. President.
I might ask that we just take a five-minute recess or just a few-minute recess so I can speak with staff, come up with the best plan forward. I think this is a different type of an interruption, and
we'll return and let you know what we're going to do next.
>> President Yee: okay. All right.
>> Clerk: okay. Thank you. Apologies, everyone.
>> President Yee: so we're
going to call for a five-minute recess right now. We'll see you in five minutes.
>> Clerk: okay. Thank you.
>> I
I believe the team has fixed the problem. Maybe we can resume.
>> a major disadvantage is that smooth connection is not always
guaranteed.
A technical team to get us back
up and running but two things, unfortunately, we're not able to take the callers as they
originally lined up and the
callers will have to rely on the
system.
So it will be the callers lined
up with me requesting the next
speaker and please accept or apologies for these difficulties
and other inconveniences to you as you experience this pick public comment. So operation's team, we're ready
to didn't for the first speaker. >> my name is buckener and I'm a tenderloin resident for ten years executive want
.
Your agenda meeting -- I'm calling about something that continues to be ignored. About the drug dealing.
The drug dealers, the street
level corner drug dealers.
They have been empowered by the
actions of clothing or reducing
our population and refusing any new incarceration. So what am I saying here?
The police have been ineffective with their only tool being to
yell at the people through a loud speaker to go home. That's the strongest tool they
have and occasionally they say it in spanish.
That is all. I had somebody throw a whole
glass of vodka on me so I could
get into my gate. There's nothing coming from the san francisco police department
at all and calling the nonemergency line, on redial constantly making it worse. They will call out the 909 for
somebody to come and entire
and interview a
system.
People that come to buy drugs -- >> you have 17 questions
remaining. >> welcome.
Hello, this is magic altman, can
you hear me? >> supervisors, we need to have a commission's meeting for
oversight.
Interesting that the
the police commission needs to oversee the police actions, such
as the poa to denigrate black
live's matter by giving them blue life safe masks in
violation of the mall.
I saw four officers take down a
woman holding a teddy bear. We aspire to only reopening when
there's a remedy for the growing
failures of our system. And there
we need the sunshine task force to oversee this new form of meeting and they made the technology to do so. No one is answering the phones and paul, assistant to the
mayor, told me directly you
can't transfer phones to private
numbers and informed me he found
a way to do just that.
All of you that are answered by
humans now and also the human right's commission to take
actions to close the camps by
urging the governor to use his emergency powers to prevent
these detention camps from
becoming death camps. That the governor legally has this power. We cannot use this power to cover over business as usual. this is our chance to lead the nation as a great city that we are, but we need to able to talk tow. We need
to you and get in touch with you.
We need to be heard at the commission. Thank you.
>> you have 18 questions
remaining.
>> hi supervisors.
I'm the President Of the veteran affair's commission. I'm here to ask to please do everything to expedite the
employment on the interim county veteran officer until a proper
search can be completed and the search is filled.
I want to thank supervisor
stephanie and thank supervisor
safaye and ronen for providing efforts. I need to provide context to the reasons I'm here today. There are over 27,000 veterans in san francisco and the va is
doing a horrific job of tracking covid-19 data. We know that approximately 10% of covid-19-related deaths in san francisco have been
veteranses and that most reside
within districts 3, 6, 9 and 10
with a dense, dense congregation
and we have to idea how many
veterans are recovering or
living in the streets when there are so many vouchers available in the city that come with
wrap-around services.
The city needs a dedicated liaison for the emergency operation center and the state
and federal agencies, local nonprofits, veteran organizations, staff, volunteers
and not to mention sponsors for housing. The cdso would be the perfect position to do this work, specifically in a pandemic and not just the position for intake
and referral.
Article 11 amount of the
administrative code, shall
provide outreach to homeless
veterans as its main priority and the position has been vacant
for over a year and while there is a decision being worked on, we know how long it takes to hire someone in the city and the
veteran affairs has been trying to get this done until February.
The staff is not meeting demands for services and san francisco veterans are one of the most vulnerable groups with healthy
issues and higher rate for substance dependency issues and
we can no longer afford to not no what's going on during this pandemic. I'm asking you to please do
everything you can to expedite this. >> thank you. >> you have 18 questions
remaining. >> welcome, next caller.
>> good afternoon, supervisors. I'm with the domestic violence consortium. Thank you to supervisor stephanie and all supervisors
working hard to support survivors of domestic violence and their families.
I'm calling to remind us that today is May 5 recollect
5th, which is
murdered and missing indigenous day across the united states, canada and around the world. Indigenous women disappear and
are murdered at ten times the
rate of nonindigenous women and
the domestic violence consortium and community stand with our sisters and brothers in the
community to make sure that we
do not forget that today, even
in the covid era is May 5th,
missing and murdered indigenous women day.
San francisco lost two women last year from the native
community that we know of and
there are probably more.
Veronica shelease was an on-looker into a domestic case
on the street and tried to film it and was killed.
Jessica alda died after very
mysterious circumstances and
continued to call for a full investigation into whatever caused the end of her life and we do not believe she made that decision on her own. In closing, thank you in advance for everything that you can do
to support survivors who are
trapped and will be looking for services once the restrictions are released. We are going to need your support. We thank you and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts
and we thank you to supervisor stephanie for arranging a hearing.
Murdered and missing indigenous awareness day. Thank you.
>> thank you for your comments.
>> Operator: you have 17
questions remaining.
>> welcome. >> good afternoon, supervisors. I'm the director of san
francisco rising, which is a multiracial electoral alliance, looking at the needs of low income, communities of color in san francisco and I'm just
calling in today to urge you all to support and to thank you for
your support of the resolution sponsored and lead by board President Norman ye, which
ee, which I
believe all others have
cosponsored, so thank you to the
governor gavin newsom and adopt
an election reform for the November election which will be
for every registered voter, in addition to providing
alternatives to cast is ballot in-person safely. And we expect the governor to be issuing his executive order any
day now and we know that vote by
mail will be something that the
entire state will be moving
towards, what is level is
whether every voter will have an
in-person vote to cast.
What we saw from some of the recent primaries that happened, especially in wisconsin, is that when people did not have the
option to do vote both by mail
but cast a ballot, we saw
extremely long lines where 180
polling stations were reduced to five polling stations in milwaukee and that has affected
many voters of color and low-income voters that had no of course. We hope that sanfrancisco will be showing the rest of the
state, one of our best foot forward and making sure elections are available for everybody and we know that many people in our communities rely
on voting in person as an
alternative in addition to voting by mail.
So thank you so much for your support.
>> Operator: you have 16 questions remaining.
>> welcome, caller. >> good afternoon.
My name is jord saxton and I'm with the sister city committee
and I'm speaking on behalf of supporting the resolution
recognising didn't
recognising and celebrating
american heritage month in the
city of san francisco. Recently, the committee
celebrated its 25th 25th anniversary and due to
the pandemic, we were unable to
celebrate as we had thought we
would and invite not only the
vietnamese community, but also
the greater san francisco bay area community to recognise the
work that we have completed over
the last 25 years. I'm looking forward to taking
some of the supervisors to
vietnam as I May not have said
I'm a vietnam era veteran and
many of us are very supportive
of this program.
Again, I would like to say that
I want to fully support and the committee supports the resolution, item number 28, on the agenda. Thank you for your time.
>> thank you for your comments.
>> Operator: you have 15
questions remaining.
>> welcome speaker.
>> caller, are you there? >> hello? Hi, good afternoon.
This is sarah wan, the director
of cic and I'm calling to ask for your support and thank you
for your support to pass a resolution recognising and
celebrating every May as asian american heritage month in the city and county of san francisco. We are proud to be a part of
this year's celebration of our community's rich history, traditions and also cultures.
We were founded in 1970 and then today, we operating in three
offices in the tenderloin, bay co2
bayview, as well as community college and we impact the
diverse population of over 8,000
youth coming from primary
low-income and a community from asian pacific american, african-american community.
We also are celebrating our 50th anniversary this year. Through the apa heritage month, we will have a special opportunity to recognise the
many contributions and sacrifice
asian americans have made in the
areas of science, technology, transportation and much more. So thank you for your support
for making it possible for generations to turn our dreams into realities and thank you for your support. >> thank you for your comment President.
>> Operator: you have 15 questions remaining.
>> welcome, caller. >> good afternoon.
This is April Mcgill and I'm the director, the executive director for the cultural center
here in san francisco and I'm
also the director of community partnerships. Thank you, everyone, for supporting the american indian community. We do appreciate that. Thank you beverly for
acknowledging that today is nmiw awareness day for missing and murdered indigenous women and
please, you guys, always
recognise cinco de mayo and for recognising the missing and murdered women of this nation. We are number five in the nation with the most missing and murdered indigenous women and
we've had several women go missing and murdered here in san francisco. So please bring attention to that.
I would also like to ask you to support the american indian cultural district today.
We were informed that due to covid-19, the cultural district
is on hold from the mayor
assigning that and as an ally, we ask that you support us in
asking for that to please get passed. Those funds have been designated for the cultural district.
It's important that the american indian community be served during covid-19.
Many have going jobless and many
native people are suffering with
h-c, hic, have major health despairties is becoming homeless and taking care of one another. The native american health
center has been providing pop-up food banks for the community and people are losing their jobs and they can't support themselves, taking care of their families with childcare and we ask that you support them. The latino community has reached out to us and they have been important to us. But it's unfortunate that the mayor has been picking and choosing who she wants to help during this time of covid skids a
.We are in this touch and help us.
>> Operator: you have 15
questions remaining.
>> welcome, cardiovascular. Caller. >> this is randall slone and I
was appointed by your body in
2019 to serve as an sro representative on the san
francisco department of building inspections, sro task force. Unfortunately, when we need a
voice the most, that sro task
force has been hiatus for approximately six months.
I would like to call attention
to the press release dated April 28th, 2020 around the
mayor to comply with the new law
to secure 8,000 new hotel rooms. There were several miles
presented at the end of this press release and specifically
on pages 10 and 11.
And I would like you to consider
providing a smart phone and
unlimited data plans for 30 days
for any sro tenant that is provided in isolation and
quarantine hotel rooms and the
reason for my wish to provide
these folks with smart phone and
data plan for 30 days is that
they can suffer from isolation while they literally are in isolation.
And they lack the ability to connect with medical,
psychiatric, legal and addiction
recovery professional support.
>> Operator: you have 14 questions remaining.
>> welcome, caller.
Hi, this is the district 6
resident in soma.
My home is one block from smc south. The city has forced everyone to
live on the streets and we have
a very unsanitary condition on
fifth street between bryant and brannon.
You can't walk on the street -- you can't walk on the sidewalk.
you have to walk on the street. The important thing is, what can
we do to ensure safety for all residents?
We shouldn't be picking winners
and losers and prioritizing certain neighborhoods but where
there is the largest risk for
infection and right now the folks on fifth street are extremely high risk.
The board doesn't have any plans to -- hadn't made any plans to address this.
We don't have any place for these people to go to the
bathroom, to wash their hands and clean up.
It literally happens in the street and it's simply not sanitary and it's not safe for the unhoused. It's not safe for the people who live and work in the area.
Thank you. >> thank you.
>> Operator: you have 13
questions remaining.
>> welcome, speaker. >> good afternoon. I'm one of the board of
directors for apa heritage organization and I want to say
thank you for the board of soup supervisor for recognising May
as apa heritage month.
And to share and recognise positive contribution, along with positive exposure to the understanding of the unique
culture of asian pacific american communities.
Hope it will continue to engage our communities throughout the area and thank you for your
support.
>> Operator: you have 12
questions remaining.
>> welcome, caller. Linda chapman.
i attended the update on the
8,000 hotel rooms and I don't think anybody doubted that the city's response and the administration and the administration's response is a dismal failure.
You all deserve to be honored for your legislation and you
need to see that it happens.
And you need to use the city is the controller and whatever
other resources you have.
To walk back the ludicrous
agreements that were made. The officials are paying
millions of dollars for rooms
which they could get at a low
rate, such as one pays in a
chain motel, for example, in
good times.
And these are below that and
actually place people in them.
There was a perp
person talking about
how difficult it's managing with
five different organizations
when employees who will be unemployed who could do the
cooking and cleaning in a room occupied by one person who can't go in and out, you know.
And then you would have maybe a mentor and a monitor or something in there or a couple
of them.
You can employ city workers, but no, you don't want them doing anything outside of their work
for two weeks. They're carefully combing through all of these people to see who might be worthy of who is being housed. There's a whole population out there.
Trust me, supervisors, when I work for social security in that
same neighborhood with the same population of people let out of
mental institutions and jails and people with tb and all, they were all housed. There was not one on the street. >> thank you.
You have 12 questions remaining.
>> welcome, speaker. >> good afternoon. I serve oven the
on the library commission for san francisco. Thank you for the resolutions
support apa heritage month.
It is so vital we continue to
support this community that has given so, so much to san francisco and beyond.
Given the ongoing circumstances, sfpl staff has done an incredible job shifting their
program into online formats.
They are hosting book clubs and
all virtual library and curated books and films in partnership with the center for asian american media.
These are all available on the sfpl website. To me, this resolution is not just a celebration of apa community but of our library staff and they are the heart of the library and continue to serve the public even today.
Since the shelter-in-place
order, they have stepped up to
serve as staff and even now, our
own librarian, michael lambert,
is employed tonight in his own assignment. Among other assignments, staff
are working hard at food banks with the world around them shifts by the minute.
Thank you for your support that celebratessasm
s ap heritage month.
Thank you.
>> Operator: you have ten
questions remaining. >> welcome, caller. >> hello.
>> I'm a resident of d6, serving on the san francisco veteran's affair's commission and I want to bring to your attention the
urgent need to fill the vacant county service officer position
which has been unfiled for over a year.
The cbso is a tiny office serving over 20,000 veterans throughout san francisco, focused primarily on helping veterans with disability and compensation claims.
During the pandemic and economic disruption, veterans need a
fully functioning cvso. These are the life line for veterans facing poverty in
addition to their military, mental and medical health conditions.
The cvso should serve as a nexus
for the city and state that serve veterans. We observe only half of veterans
in san francisco are enrolled in
va healthcare by approximately 10% being covid.
We need to get veterans into va care, particularly those that have lost health coverage. Healthcare and homelessness
needs to be a primary focus of
the cvso. The income
they need to help the hundreds of veterans in the city.
In order to do this, the c involve
vsoneeds to be filled with nonprofit accomplishment. They should understand this is a
small office with a very tiny budget relative to the veteran population in the city.
Please keep in mind this represents cash assistance to veterans in this difficult type and we
time.We cannot afford a slow down due to vacancies. Filling this position and expanding the scope in housing voucher advocacy is not just the right thing to do. It can potentially save the city millions of dollars and that's
because veterans enrolled in va healthcare and other federal programs are less likely to use
resources at the city level because they draw resources to the city.
>> thank you, caller.
>> Operator: you have nine
questions remaining. >> the san francisco county veteran service office needs to
be filled and there are
currently 27,000 san francisco veterans. I would like to stress, also,
within my post, vfw 4608 formed
by the world war ii veterans and currently the membership and
leadership of the vfw4608 is
compromised of the war veterans
and the vietnam war ended 45 years ago. These aging veterans, they need to have near
their needs met and
they're meeting long waits,
while seeking assistance at the county veteran's service office
and they are frequently have to
have their medical va upgraded. The agent orange veteran that's
affecting the veterans, they're developing ailments.
So we would like to have the
staffing updates with a county veteran service office that
could meet the needs of the agent veterans in san francisco.
Thank you, board of supervisor supervisors, for considering this. >> you have eight questions remaining.
>> welcome, caller. >> I wanted to thank you all, first of all, for your considerate meeting here today.
I enjoyed listening to all of the plans and efforts to help everybody. So I want to say, first of all, I support the comment of a woman
earlier who sai de were would said we would like to get through to people. The mayor five me a call and we
had a long chat and it would be nice to speak to people when we call in.
And so, I was listening to the meeting today and decided to
make a comment because I heard
about an agenda item were
of placing
people in camp sites in golden gate park.
In addition, awareness month is
around the world because
infected ticks are biting people all over the world is some of these ticks are infected. My concern about placing people in the park, I would like to ask
you only to do this on asphalted
parking lot spaces because the
ticks could be in the vegetation and we have ten reported infections from a meeting in san
francisco and one of them is at
19th didn't mlk in the hillside behind the children's park.
She got lyme's disease and three infections.
It's random and no one ever knows if it will happen.
Not safe to have people placed
in the vegetation and I don't think we have sprays to take care of vegetation at this point. i think that the organizations
that you could check about with
the lymesdisease.Org and the california dph because they've
been following the infected tick situation in california. If you're going further with
this idea, I think you need to place people where they'll be safe.
And they'll be a lot safer on
asphalt than they would be on vegetation so I thank you for
your attention.
>> Operator: you have seven questions remaining. >> welcome, caller.
You have two minutes. >> good evening, soup
supervisors and happy asian heritage month of May.
I'm a district 7 resident and
veteran's commissioner. S 1 I'm here today
I'm here to urge a veteran
county officer. Badly we need one. I could tell thank you my experience. They're wonderful, great people, but, you know, I have to wait,
like, three to four hours to
just get service.
And if I don't make a complaint,
I'd probably be waiting forever. But, you know, I highly urge you guys to appoint one.
We got over 27,000 veterans in
san francisco, 900 homeless and
so, you know, please, I highly
urge the board of supervisors to
support and appoint a county veteran service officer.
Thank you.
>> thank you for your comments.
>> Operator: you have six questions remaining.
>> welcome, caller. >> yes.
my name is pete and I'm in the
same building as an earlier caller, turk and hyde executive just
.We need to enforce the rule from
10:00 A.M. To 6:00 P.M. On the tenderloin, close it, and that
will have a number of
an impact on the
number of drug transactions.
Living here it's easy to see. For many of us to walk this the street to go anywhere because
the sidewalks are crowded with
people and fought with extra
vehicle traffic and next, if you can work with law enforcement
and the D.A.'s office to reduce the number of dealers on the
streets in general, just something. It's a problem that's been
ignored for almost 20 years now and it's ridiculous.
These are the strongest drugs the world has seen and
responsible for a huge uptick
from overdose and deaths and things related to addiction and death by exposure by way of living on street, homeless, lost, forgotten because of this addiction and it's time we do something about that.
We can just keep ignoring that.
It's gone on for so long.
The pandemic has brought it to
light, and this is out of
control fast.
>> Operator: you have five
questions remaining.
>> welcome, caller.
Will the next caller press 1-0
to speak?
>> Operator: you have five
questions remaining.
>> welcome, caller.
>> good afternoon, supervisors.
To is peter warfield, director of library users association and
i would like you to provide much
more service to those who do not
have access to the internet.
The library has almost completely abandoned over
100,000 people in san francisco
with a heavy emphasis on the minorities, poorer people who do
not have access and it has
almost completely abandoned service to those folks.
There is a reduced reference service by phone and that's about it.
Other libraries are providing
books and materials at curbside.
Other libraries are providing
mail service.
The library has improve ed over
the years, but for those that
don't have access, they are out in the cold.
The library boasts about libraries delivering democracy as a slogan, where are the people that don't have the access.
They are lost use of photocopiers.
We ask you to urge the library not to abandon those who are
access to the internet. Speaking as an individual on city college, they are violating government concept and basic
rights of the public to know what's going on and participate
in the meetings.
We ask you to look into that.
>> Operator: you have six
questions remaining.
>> let me turn on my timer. Hello.
I'm michael petrellis and I'm
here to speak about three items.
The first item is public comment
time.
I find it very ironic today you
had so much trouble starting public comment time. Myself and others have been
urging the board for years to
set a fixed time for public
comment and are pleased for that to happen.
Now that you have meetings
virtually, we wait until you all
have finished your role call introductions before public comment starts.
I think it is very disrespectful
that public comment does not
come before your role call introductions.
I hope you will look into making public comment earlier in the meeting at a fixed time before role call. And the second item I want to discuss is the police commission.
The police commission last met on February 19th.
We are now in the month of May. The police commission has given no reason on their website why
they are not holding any virtual meetings.
It is vital that we have oversight of the police commission and that they start
meeting virtually.
My final item today is I am
again calling on the board of
supervisors to pass a resolution
calling on our member of
congress, nancy pelosi to reconvene the the house.
We need Mrs. Pelosi to finally get on board for virtual meetings, virtual oversight
hearings and to also allow remote voting.
It is crucial that the
supervisors tell Mrs. Pelosi to reconvene congress.
Thank you very much.
>> Operator: you have five questions remaining.
>> welcome, caller.
>> hi, I'm the lead producer of
the forthcoming documentary little fellow.
I wanted to say thank you and voice support introduced by supervisor stephanie,
recognising May 6th as the
150-year anniversary of
ape jeninie.
She helped to build out not only agriculture rely
al systems with giving support to the san francisco
after the 1906 earthquake and both world wars and I just
wanted to thank supervisor stephanie for the resolution and
thank you all for your work.
>> Operator: you have four
questions remaining.
>> welcome, speaker. >> this is julie from the san francisco general emergency department and thank you all for everything that you're doing.
I wanted to highlight two things.
Supervisor hainey was discussing bringing up a mental health disaster that's happening and that's one of my issues and the second is the failure of
management to provide the
regulations for the staff and
sfgh and ultimately, the san francisco emergency department, I wanted to talk to the staff about the management standing
behind you, talking to our
patients would be great, too.
And the ps and emergency
department bouncing around is cruel and often causes me
nausea. This is, I think, from the moral
injury that I see.
Enormous amounts of resources are wasted, and ultimately dumping them on the street, some same or worse condition and
people are transported via
$1,000 ambulance ride and they still remain homeless.
They can't continue to hammer these funds is resources, especially with a likely depression on the horizon and
multiple ways and other plans. People are desperate.
I wanted to highlight the
citations that are submitted for safety failures of our
management to provide multiple
things that today, I know that
there's persons not fitted for
ppe and other people have been
fully trained. I wish more oversight of the management could happen.
Thank you.
>> Operator: you have four
questions remaining.
>> welcome, speaker.
>> thank you. I'm christopher Mcdonald and I
would like to comment on the
need for the vso. In talking with john gallagher,
who is one of the vsos over there, they're in the process of working on that. And it has been a long time and
we do need to get those staffed, but we need to get them staffed
with qualified people.
The other problem that seems to
be happening is that you have veteran single parents out there
that need help in getting in housing, that need sponsors.
And those single parents with children living in cars and
they're not on drugs and they're
not on alcohol. And those -- something needs to
be done to help those veterans
get up and running faster so they can take care of their children in the process.
Thank you.
>> Operator: you have four
questions remaining.
>> welcome, speaker. >> good job.
This is francisco decosta. And some of our advocates have
been saying again and again, we
need to have this public comment
in the beginning.
I've been hearing very intently
that many people are speaking on
quality of life issues and we
have released thousands of hotel hotelrooms and you heard what
has been said about it. Half of the hotel rooms are
vacant at $80 a day, somebody is making money and that money is
taxpayer's money.
And I'm sure we can see that on the tv.
You know, this is public comment
time and so, they know that we
can't see them and so they're
gallivanting and the board of
supervisors are having sidebar
talks, again disrespecting
public comment and the citizens
and people in san francisco who
care about those who need help most. Our people, the poor people, are
dying on the streets of san
francisco.
San francisco named after st. Francis. This cannot go on.
Wake up, san francisco!
You have lost your soul. >> thank you for your comment.
>> Operator: you have four
questions remaining.
>>, caller.
>> welcome, caller. Print
pair
Inaudible: . >> we won't refuse the offer to
live in a safe environment.
Do something about the safety of
the regular folks that just want to live and we live in fear for our lives and for our safety.
This is a situation directly created by the inaction of the
board of supervisors, law
enforcement and the politicians
of san francisco. There's reactionary and responsible in legislation and
we seem to be only doing reactionary.
Please, help us, thank you. >> thank you.
>> Operator: you have three
questions remaining. >> welcome, speaker. You have two minutes.
>> hello, can you hear me?
>> yes, we can hear you.
>> hello, supervisors. I'm the executive director of
the asian art museum and I am here to express my support for
the resolution number 28 in
honor of the apa heritage month. The museum is closed to the public right now, like many
other organizations, but have
turned or museum into a virtual
museum. Particularly future asian
american lives and our asian american artists.
So I would encourage everyone to
take advantage of our online offerings and asian museum has traditionally played a big role
in apa heritage celebration and
in 2016, we were honor asked honored and delighted to receive the ward of the consistent work that asian
museum is a staff, board is volunteer have pulled together to serve our public and to honor the tradition and ongoing contribution of asian american pacific islands or community.
so I would like to encourage all
of you and to support the
resolution, particularly in this
moment of crisis, where, on one hand, art is so essential to bring people together and to
make sure each individual life and community life is well taken
care of, but also in fighting
the rising entire asian racism and that
that is doing on. Going on.
I want to thank you all for your great work and thank you for taking leadership in this very important institution and
ongoing activities, honoring the pacific island communities. Thank you very much. >> thank you for your comment.
>> Operator: you have three
questions remaining.
>> welcome, caller, you have two
minutes.
>> hi.
Thank you.
I'm the founder of the apa heritage foundation and thank
you all today for considering to
adopt a resolution for the apa
heritage month and also the contributions of this diverse community. This is especially important
this year, not because asian
pacific americans are not only facing the challenges of the
pandemic, but also the rising anti-asian prejudice and hate. We thank each and every one of you for joining the 90 some
community organizations to accept our invitation to be
celebration partners and to help
promote awareness of awareness month and your newsletter and
social media. Also, we call it the 30 second videos to share your thoughts with the community.
You can use that opportunity to
highlight exceptional individuals and organizations in this district. We do not have the special
commendation this month, so we
appreciate your support, participation and in closing, thank you to all of the 100 members strong volunteer groups
and organizations for your
support of promoting our apa
heritage month.
Thank you. >> hello.
I'm calling to, first of all,
thank you supervisor stephanie
for honoring the 150 birthday, founder of america and on tomorrow May 6th, I just want
to add to the comments that he
was an incredible innovators in the banking industry by expanding the branching system
and making branches and their
hours accessible to many and by democrati zing it
zing and he financial
the construction of the golden
gate bridge.
When I think about the spirit of san francisco in the bay area
and the type of people who are
attracted to be here, to build,
to innovate, I think of the
legacy of ap geninie I'm grateful for san francisco to recognise this occasion. Thank you.
>> Operator: you have one
question remaining. >> caller, welcome.
You have two minutes. >> this is the director of
little fellow movie, the movie
about ap geninie. This is very important for this
community and especially in in
time where we are touched by this pandemic.
It was a symbol of unity between population and different people
from the different countries and
we need a vote and so I want to
support these resolutions to
remember to celebrate these big
men, this guy who help the less fortunate. Thank you.
>> Operator: you have zero
questions remaining.
>> so we know that there are 19
individuals who are listening to this phone conversation still.
There are zero in the cue.
If from there are members listening who would like to speak, this is your opportunity
to press 1-0 to enter the cue to
speak. We'll just give it a second,
just to determine if anyone is in the cue.
Dial 1-0.
Ok, Mr. President. That
.
>> Operator: you have two
questions remaining. >> welcome, caller.
You have two minutes.
>> this is loraine petty calling.
I'm a philmore voter.
I urge the adoption of number
20, house resolution 5515.
We know that when the emergency
orders are lifted, renters will face overwhelming debt, that
they will not be able to pay.
So a tsunami of evictions could follow and our rent control
stock will be severely threatened. Renters need fast and workable
relief and I believe this
federal bill would provide
much-needed national help.
Also, one other thing I very much welcome the proposal by
supervisor preston to put out a housing stability act on the November ballot, especially if
it would provide a permanent
city source of rental assistance. Thank you.
>> Operator: you have one
question remaining. >> welcome, caller.
>> I'm gabrielle madina.
I the board treasurer
I am the
with the board research center.
I want to thank supervisor
walton and President Yee and the
board for their unanimous support.
I have to mention tracy brown
and their stellar staff who worked on this for a long time. This amendment is long overdue
but has so many benefits and waives the citizenship require
to serve on commissions and with limitations on where and how. And even though she was just as
much a public servant as my
father, this updates inclusion
of all genders and sexual orientations and giving the possibility, also, for
16-year-olds to serve a commission.
I also want to acknowledge apa
month and the missing and murdered indigenous women.
But cinco de mayo is a time for celebration.
And despite overwhelming odds,
we're still fighting colonialism and on the
the streets, today, we're
now at 37%, two and half times our population with covid-19. Adopted
Inaudible: . Our commissions are incomplete with our immigrants. We are all people in san francisco and thank you for
introducing commissions for all.
>> Operator: you zero questions remaining. >> it seems there are no other speakers in the cue. >> ok, then, public comment is
now closed.
Madam Clerk, let's call for the adoption of committee reference,
agenda items 18-29.
>> items 18-29 were introduced for adoption without reference to committee and unanimous vote
is required for resolutions on the first reading today.
And a member of the board May request an item to be sent to
committee. >> ok. Colleagues, would anyone like to
sever any items? Just for your information, I
will be severing 25, 26, 27, 28
and so, let's see supervisor stephanie?
>> thank you, President Yee.
>> item 22. >> Madam Clerk, please call the
role on the remainder of the
items.
>> items 18, 19, 23, 24 and --
21, 23, 24 and 29.
>> President Yee, I'm sorry, on item 19, I had previously spoken with supervisor p erb
eskin and I wanted to make sure it's ok with him to continue that.
>> somebody has to sever that
item.
>> severing be item 19 and 22. >> I'm totally listening.
It's just a resolution urging,
but if --
Inaudible: .
>> I would not in any way be
offended, but it is just a
resolution urging so if we get supervisor in district two does not want to sever that item, it
would cause me no phones. Offense. >> so supervisor stephanie, do
you want to sever item number 19?
Yes or no?
>> you're muted.
>> yes, please.
>> so Madam, clerk.
Please go ahead.
18, 21, 24, 29, supervisor
--
Role call: .
>> there are 11 ayes. >> these resolutions are passed
unanimously for what was called.
>> and Madam Clerk, item 19.
>> is a resolution --
Inaudible: .
Number 2261 authored by edwin
chow what free up the prohibition on government
acquisition and youth official
recognition technology and
imperil the health and safety of
san francisco visitors.
>> I would like to continue this item.
>> so this item is continued to next week's board meeting. And I don't think we have to take role in that, right?
>> yes, you do, Mr. President.
>> you need a majority vote to continue the matter and that would be May 12th. >> is there a second? >> Mr. President, this is
supervisor peskin. I am happy to second this.
I do want to say in the face of
the covid-19 crisis and supervisor stephanie executive
had a
and I had acandid conversation about this earlier today as it relates to contact tracing and what is
going on in south korea and
nonetheless, the notion of this
assembly bill is still anathama to this supervisor and I am
happy to have a one-week continuance to vote our minds
and I second supervisor
stephanie's motion. >> role call on continuance of
the motion.
Role call: .
>> there are 11 ayes. >> I believe you're muted, Mr. President. >> so the motion to continue to
May 12th passes. >> Madam Clerk, to item number
22.
>> item number 22, resolution to
recognise ap giannii for his
substantial contributions to san
francisco history, italian
american culture and declare ing
this a great day in the city and
county of san francisco. >> supervisor stephanie. >> thank you, President Yee.
We are voting on a resolution
recognising the 150th birthday
and declaring this ap giannii day.
I want to thank you for bringing
this item to our attention and
observing his legacy. Very few know the full extent of his contribution to the san
francisco history and many
people May know he found the the bank of italy which would grow to become the bank of america but most people, myself
included, did not know the depth
depthof his support for women and san francisco. He started the bank of san
francisco in 1904 and welcomed
people systematically not included.
as I said last week and I think worth repeating again, shortly after women won the right to
vote, he started the women's
banking department directed and staffed entirely by women and provided lending and checking accounts without the involvement of their husbands. Such a service never existed before in the united states.
This anniversary is special.
Not only is it his 150th
150th birthday and just two
years after founding the bank of
italy, the great earthquake destroyed most of the city.
He put a wooden plank across two
barrels as a make-shift bank
branch so customers so make
deposits and withdrawals.
Without his tenacity and foresite, the san francisco we
all know and love May not exist.
This is when our city has been paralyzed by another disaster and we all struggle to rise to
the occasion that we most need
to consider his legacy.
Inaudible: .
>> city hall will be lit up in
the colors of the italian flag to celebrate this incredible day
and I hope you will help me to celebrate.
Thank you to all for your 'do
sponsorship. >> thank you.
I am honored to represent the
district where ap giannii did
two things that in the face of this pandemic are remarkable lessons to the people of the
city and county of san francisco.
As supervisor stephanie said, he pro
procured lumber from the states of oregon and washington from
the early rebuilding post 1906 for what is the north beach, the historic north beach that we know today.
And in addition to that, he gave
incentives to crafts people to rebuild quickly which should be
a lesson and model to all of us.
I think what he did not only 150
years ago, but right after the 1906 earthquake should be
lessons for all of us during this pandemic and his headquarters at the bank of
italy still stands, at the base
of columbus and washington, of
jackson square and chinatown and where north beach begin, he
really, in many ways is the founder of san francisco as we
know it today and while we have
fights about nimbis, we should
all try to recreate ourself in the legacy of ap and thank you
to supervisor stephanie. >> Madam Clerk, please call the
role.
>> on item 22 --
Role call: .
>> there are 11 ayes.
>> so this resolution is adopted unanimously.
>> Madam Clerk, let's go to item
number 24.
>> item 24, Mr. President.
I'm sorry, I'm number 25. >> I'm 25 is a resolution to
reopen city hall in person, property tax payment location of
the office of the treasurer and tax collector for regular
business hourses on May 15th, 2020. >> ok, thank you, colleagues and
we have this resolution today to
reopen the treasurer and tax
collector office of the public
and taxes were due on April
April 10th, but due to the shelter-in-place and due to closure of city hall, we closed
the treasurer tax collector's office, and the last due date
was announced was May 4th, which was yesterday when the original shelter-in-place order
was supposed to be lifted.
The city administrator will be allowing members of the public
to access city hall for specific
purposes, including business or treasurer and tax collector and
there
therefore, it will be set to
reopen upon friday, May, 15th, 2020, with regular business
hours so that taxpayers who have
not paid yet May do so online. Or
by mail or in-person. May 15th will be the new deadline.
If a new taxpayer has any
challenges due to covid-19, they
May request a waiver for late payments after May 15th, and
we are working with treasures
treasures cisneros receive assistance.
I am going to have the treasurer speak about the process and how they are going to work with
taxpayers in making this new
deadline and answer any questions.
Treasurer, are you still on?
>> yes, President Yee, I'm here. >> the floor is yours for now. >> thank you very much and thank
you supervisors.
>> when I was here last time, as
President Yee just stated, your
resolution closed our office and
deferred the property tax
deadline past the April 10th April 10th deadline. I want to clarify that san
francisco was one of only two
california counties out of all 58 california counties, they
there were two that extended the april 10th property tax deadline and we were one of them.
With this action, we will be the
county that has deferred the
deadline the farthest and by
extending it to May 15th.
I want to report that as of
yesterday, the amounts of money still outstanding and owed in
property tax was over
$160 million from 17,000
property tax owers.
We are interested in closing -- opening the office and setting the deadline on May 15th for a number of reasons. But first and foremost, it's to make
make sure that the city has the
opportunity to get the property tax it needs.
And actually, the largest
portion of unpaid property tax bills are from many of our
prompt tax owners in the downtown area with an average
property tax unpaid amount of
around $50,000. We want to make sure that the
city has an opportunity to
collect taxes from all of the
taxpayers who have an ability to pay, even at this time.
And I do want to reinforce what
President Ye, you just said, if any property taxpayers are facing impacts from this covid-19 crisis, they will have
the ability to file a penalty waiver with our office which
will enable us to erase any penalties for payments made
after May 15th.
We are working very closely with
the administrate
the administrator's office to protect taxpayers as well as city staff.
And so, we still urge all taxpayers to possible pay online or by mail.
But if anybody needs to pay in-person, we will be allowing
them to come to our offices on May 15th and for a couple of
days prior to May 15th, opened for limited hours.
We're doing everything we can to keep everybody safe and collect
all of the money that is payable
and due, as well as afford opportunities for anybody
impacted by covid-19 to declare
that with us and file the penalty waiver form and to allow toss waive any penalties.
With that, I'll ask for the
board's support. >> will individuals be able to come through the front entrance
on the aka poke street side of the building?
I think it's very important that we establish that. That is the traditional entrance
and the handful of people who go
into city hall now go through
the growth street side. >> we would be happy to take your comments back to those folks and look at that. We were already planning out to use the court nearest to our
office to be able to mark out
social distancing markers on the
carpet and set up ropes to people will be protected and we
will require that everybody wear a face mask should they want to come into city hall and make a payment in our office.
We're also going to be opening
up an exterior window that will
allow folks with checks to drop
off their check and receive a receipt for their payment without having to enter the building. We're doing everything we can to
accommodate in-person payments that we would normally do under regular times and I will definitely take your comments
back to the city hall staff and
look into using the one entrance.
>> so to the treasurer, two things.
Obviously, there's a model for drop-offs that has over many,
many years set fort
th by the
department of elections on the
carlton b. Goodlet spoke street side of the building and that
can be emulated by your
department and to the extent as a matter of public health safety, we don't want to reopen the traditional side, I want to make sure that any individual
who goes to that door is
appropriately redirected to the
south and then to the west and,
you know, they can go into the
light court, but if people go to
that traditional entrance and are denied access, then I'm
going to have trouble voting for this resolution. And I can pull the resolution
up, but I want to make sure -- because the exercise that we're
going through is the notion of symbolically opening the treasurer's office so that these taxes can be collected.
I personally have paid mine. But many people are not property owners and I happen to have that luxury.
I want to make sure that anybody
who walks to that door is appropriately either let in or
redirected to the correct location. So as we continue this, I'm
going to look up the exact words. but I really want that to be abundantly clear.
>> supervisor peskin, I'm happy to hear that language. What I would like to commit to you right now is that we are
going to bring in treasurer's office staff who will not only be working inside the building, but actually be deployed outside of the building to make sure
that the taxpayers are clear and clearly understand where to go
and how to pay their taxes in-person.
So I would like to admit commit to you
right now that if the carlton b. Entrance is not open, we will
put a live staffer to in-person
direct people to the right
entrance of city hall so they don't waste time and can access our office. >> thank you. Anything else, supervisor peskin. >> thank you, President Yee.
So through the President To not
treasurer, but to deputy city attorney pearson, I am now
looking at the resolve
provisions of this item and I know that the deputy city attorney does not like things to
be done on the fly, but I think
that there are a handful of
words that we put in the resolve
provisions at the bottom of page
two and the top of page three
that actually reflect the verbal representations that the
treasurer just made.
>> deputy city attorney pearson.
>> I'm john givener, stepping in
momentarily with my colleague. Do you have proposed language to
stick in to the top of page three there. >> through the President To
deputy city attorney givener, I am formulating that language in my head as we speak.
And you can help me do that.
I think it is a subject two
provision in the first resolve,
starting at line 21 on page 2,
which is the board of
supervisors action of the city administrators didn't the tax
collector to reopen, bla, bla, bla, on 15, May. Didn't
and I think we need a provided
however that staff will be let
through city hall or set hours
until 4:00 P.M. How is that for a nonlawyer on
the fly?
[Laughter]
>> that sounds good to me and
the provided would be,
basically, subject to the city administrate or's determination. So the board wouldn't be
requiring the front door to be open, but you would be
conditioning the reopening of the treasurer tax collector's
office on the city administrate or allowing assets through the front door. >> what I said was either that
they're allowed access or that it's there to redirect
individuals to the growth street entrance. I don't want anybody to come to the front door didn't and nobody will
be there and then they'll end up in some unfortunate situation. That's what I'm trying to solve
for here. >> I've got it. I think that's provided that
language or provided however language. that accomplishes that. >> I'm not an attorney, but I
think I've expressed my policy
considerations.
>> we will commit to having -- if the door is not open, we will
have staff out there in orange,
bright vests, easily identify, on adebtor
alert to let everybody where
to go and that would be great. >> deputy city attorney, did you
capture the wording?
>> roughly, and I will work it
out on paper and send it to the
clerk after the meeting ends.
>> ok, so the intention is there and you'll just -- I can't think
of that wording, but we can vote on it.
>> yes.
>> so I like to make my motion
which quite clearly says that either individuals can go through the front door or that the city will be there to staff
them and send them through the growth street entrance. >> so second.
>> second.
>> supervisor safaye.
>> motion made seconded and on the amendment itself, Madam
Clerk, can we have a role call?
>> on the amendment to number 25 -- >> can we repeat what the
amendment is? >> through the President To supervisor walton, this is soup
store peskin, my amendment was
that any member of the public who is attempting to pay their
property taxes on 15, May, before 4:00 P.M., most people
who paid them in person go to
the poke street carlton b. Goodlet entrance and that either they are let into the building
or if they are not let into the building as the treasurer indicated, there will be
individuals to redirect them
into the grove street entrance,
whereby they can go into the
light court and subsequently pay
their property taxes.
So either the city administrator opens up the front door or there
are humans to rerefer those people into the grove street
entrance and that is the sum and substance of my amendment.
>> if I May, Mr. President,
just to clarify the -- this is
john givener again. The resolution authorizes the treasurer tax collector's office
to remain open at 4:00 P.M. Presumably until 5:00 P.M. On the 15th.
It can only be open to 4:00 on
the days preceding and I don't
believe supervisor peskin's
amendment changes that. >> right, that through the
President Is correct,
Mr. Givener.
>> Madam Clerk, continue.
>> on item number 25.
Role call: .
>> there are 11 ayes.
>> the motion carries to amend. >> Mr. President, I had my name on the roster and I have a
question to ask for the
treasurer, if that's ok.
>> yes, supervisor safaye. >> so I'm sorry, I was waiting
for supervisor peskin to finish his amendments.
But I have one clarifying
question and Mr. Givener pointed out this office will be
open until 4:00 P.M. Prior to May 15th, but it doesn't say what days it's open and I'm wondering how the public is going to know what days it's
open prior to May 15th and if
it makes sense to just call out what day actually the treasurer,
tax collector intends to reopen
its office.
>> thank you, supervisor.
We are planning to be open on
both the 13th and the 14th
14th from 9:00 A.M. To
4:00 P.M. On both of those days
and then on the 15th, friday,
the deadline day from 9:00 A.M.
To 5:00 P.M. For regular hours.
So I would just want to be clear
and I appreciate you letting me announce that here so people will know that they will actually have three days to come
to city hall and make their property tax payments.
>> my question, through the chair, would it make sense,
then, to actually put that in,
since we're making the amendment about clarity in terms of the front door, to not just put into the resolution that it's open on
those days. >> would you like to make a
motion to add that language it would be open for business for those two days? >> as stated by the treasurer, that we would add in the office
shall be open May 13th and
14th from 1:00 A.M.
9:00 A.M. To 4:00 P.M.
>> so is there a second?
>> second, sandra fewer. >> didn't Madam Clerk, please
call the role on the amendment.
Role call: Perform
.
>> there are 11 ayes.
>> so the motion passes. >> Madam Clerk, let's go and
take role on the resolution as
amended.
>> on item 25, supervisor --
Role call: .
>> there are 11 ayes.
>> so the resolution as amended is adopted.
>> let's go to item number 26.
>> item number 26, resolution to support a family constitutional
amendment number 5, introduced
by family members from the November 3, 2020 general
election to reinstate affirmative action in public
contact hiring and public education.
>> ok, colleagues, I just want
to thank everyone for cosponsoring this item.
And I just heard today that the
aca5 got out of the assembly committee and will be going to
the next step in the process.
We had a process conference on
this issue today, sponsored by the chinese affirmative action
and I want to thank them for
their work in pushing this issue
ahead. We hope to get this on the
ballot for November so that we
can finally get rid of prop 209.
Madam Clerk -- supervisor
peskin.
>> yes. Madam Clerk.
>> I'm happy to talk about aca5. [Laughter]
>> ok, Madam Clerk, please call
the role.
Role call: .
>> item 26 --
>> there are 11 ayes. >> this resolution is adopted
unanimously.
>> Madam Clerk, 27.
>> item 27, resolution to urge
govern gavin newsom and
secretary of state to adopt and implement election reforms for the presidential election
including vote-by-mail ballots
for every registered voter to provide
-- pair
Inaudible: .
>> thank you for cosponsoring this that governor newsom will
be making an executive order
about election for November's presidential election,
specifically to expand vote by mail. However, I am concerned there
May not be a universal guidance on in-person voting options for the state. While pro cautionary measures
need to be taken to ensure public health safety during the
election, we cannot allow
democracy to be under-mined by
county discretion. More mass public education on
how to vote and ensuring that equity is center in any of these
models that we implement so that the ederly people with disabilities, young voterrers
and non-english speakers have fair and equal access.
I really hope that we can
continue advocating so that
there are some limited, safe options in November state-wide
and I want to recognize san
francisco rising and the chinese
association of justice and just
cause, asian law caucus and acl ultimate
ufor ongoing advocacy.
Madam Clerk, a role call.
>> item 27 --
Role call: .
>> I didn't hear with the rumbling.
>> item number 27.
Role call: .
>> there are 11 ayes. >> thank you. So this resolution is adopted
unanimously.
So Madam Clerk, item number 28. item 28 is the resolution to
recognise and celebrate May as
asian pacific american heritage month in the city and county of san francisco and honor the
countless contributions of the asian pacific american community. >> thank you, Madam Clerk and
thank you colleagues for your
patience in the last few items.
I want to thank you for all of you, for your cosponsorship of
this item to celebrate the asian pacific american heritage month.
As you all know, traditions and policies to hold special
accommodations for asian pacific
american heritage month on the
first tuesday of May.
Because due to the
shelter-in-place orders, that
was suspended. I hope we can do that again, but
for now, the celebration will
continue in spirit and online virtually.
May is a very significant month
for the apa community because of two historical events.
One is the arrival of the first japanese immigrants to the
united states on May 7, 1843 and
the other is May 10, 1869,
chinese railroad workers day.
Now more than ever, we need to
rise with the asian pacific
americans in unity, given the
rise in racism and genophobia
during this pandemic and we will
not be doing special commendations and this will promote events and activities
taking place this month and in
to honor an apa individual or organization in your district through social media.
I want to thank claudine chang
and all for moving their events
online and coordinating a very
interactive program.
I want to include the center for
asian american media, the 50th anniversary, the youth
center of san francisco, cyc on
the occasion of their 50th
50th anniversary and japanese
community youth center, jcyc on
the occasion of their 50th
50th anniversary and the san
francisco sister city committee
on their occasion of their 25th anniversary.
I hope we can come together to continue to elevate the voices
and experiences of those in our
community that have made
countsless contributions. So I believe that everybody
should have gotten a copy of the amendments that I would like to introduce.
Is there a second to for these amendment his. >> second. >> seconded by supervisor peskin.
>> could I have a role call,
please.
(Role call
zip would
>> I would like to shot out to
norman reverend fong at the china community center for empowering young people for
taking care of old people and
for parts, for housing, for
keeping it fun and as reverend
fong says, you're beautiful.
>> I will second that.
>> I will second your statement. Madam Clerk, please call the
role on the amendment. On number 28 --
Role call: .
>> there are 11 ayes. >> Madam Clerk, please call role
on resolution as amended.
>> item 28 as amended.
Role call: .
>> there are 11 ay session. Yes.
>> it's adopted unanimously.
>> okay, so basically, Madam
Clerk -- any in memorium.
>> this will be ajourned on
behalf of supervisor peskin,
alison wong and on behalf of
supervisor peskin, is dave lupell. >> ok, colleagues, that brings
us to the end of our agenda.
Madam Clerk, any other business before us today?
>> just to thank our strong, technical team today who produced our meeting and thank
you, guys, john, brent, and to apologize to the public for the inconveniences. >> if you for staying with us
and colleagues, thank you for indulging me in the last half an hour.
Meeting is adjourned.