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Tuesday, May 12, 2020
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. >> good afternoon, welcome to
the May 12, 2020 meeting to the board of supervisors. Madam Clerk, will you please
call the role.
Role call: . >> Mr. President, all members of President.
>> please place your right hand over your heart. Will you 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 makes under
God, indivisible, with liberty
and justice for all.
Thank you. On behalf of the board, I would
like to acknowledge the staff at
sfg tv. >> the special order is the
appearance with the honnable mayor, london breed. There being no questions
submitted from supervisors one through four, the mayor May address the board up to five
minutes. >> ok.
First of all, I want to welcome Madam Mayor breed and there were
no topics submitted by supervisors today, but before
you get started, I want to take
the time to address the public
on what we are preparing to
announce next week.
I want to acknowledge how we are collectively are reevaluating the structures we have in place
with the emergency response. Communications between the board
and emergency operation's center has been a work in progress and
it has been difficult for own our constituents to understand the
status of the evolving emergency
and what the future might hold. We have been in discussions with
the mayor's office on how to clarify this and make sure that all policy decisions moving forward can be clearly articulated to all members of the public.
As elected supervisors, we are
held accountable to our extents
regardless of the social
economic status or their vote.
As the duly elected governing
body of policy make es, makers, we are responsible for weighing and mitigating the policies for the greater good of the city and county. It has been challenging to
respond to this crisis but we
are working diligently with the
executive branch to make sure
there is an actual plan that we
can share with it general public
and restore the confidence that
we are going to get through this
together and won't be leaving anyone behind.
In the coming weeks, the mayor
and board are refining
respective roles towards a more coequal collaboration.
By bringing the policy makers
closer to the poly-making
policy making operations.
Everything the city is doing is
improving so we can optimize how we serve all of our constituents, the great people of san francisco.
I want to thank you, madam
mayor, for taking this opportunity fire collaboration
by work with the board and
liaison stations at the emergency operation's center and
now working with us as we try to
establish a deeper level of engagement so we can provide
more accessibility is responsiveness for constituents, especially as we advance into
the next phase of the emergency
response and work towards the preventing and recovery.
So I thought I started off with
that, Madam Mayor and we welcome
you to share your remarks.
>> thank you, President Yee, and thank you so much for your
willingness to collaborate and partner.
As you know, this pandemic hit us hard.
It hit the entire world hard and I think that san francisco has
been a leader in addressing this
challenge as we have seen. Rather than the focus on being what's happening in our hospital system and being overburdened with the number of cases that
people are diagnosed with, we
are, of course, at a point where we are having discussions about our economy, about recovery and
we appreciate and welcome your partnership and feedback in those efforts.
We are all in in together and I think it's important to work
together to try to resolve these
very challenging issues during this time and so thank you for the opportunity to address the board.
Today I really want to focus on
our economic recovery and the
bond for this upcoming election.
Last November I asked the capital committee to replace
this the park's bond with a mental health bond.
We know this has presented challenges for our city. During this pandemic, we have seen this become more difficult for those on our streets and for
many of or residents.
We need serious investments in the better long-term care and more support for our neighbors in crisis.
But now, with nearly 100,000 people in san francisco filing
for unemployment, we also need to support jobs, to build
towards recovery and to support
our communities, especially in
their time of need. Today, I'm introducing
legislation to start the process
for a new recovery bond.
First, this bond proposes
serious investments in building, purchasing and the mental health
facilities that our city and our most vulnerable so desperately need.
And we cannot wait any longer to lay the foundation for a better
system of care. The recovery bond includes significant investments in parks
across our city and particularly
in those neighborhoods that have
seen reduced resources.
These parks will disproportionately serve communities of color and directing resources to these projects, we not only build a safe space for our residents,
but we can invest in jobs and putting san francisco back to
work because these projects are shovel-ready.
Finally, I've carved out some bond capacity for basic infrastructure.
Repaving or roads, laying our
bike lanes and even building out curve ramps. These items aren't flashingy, but
flashy, butthey keep the city running and
ensure to deliver basic services in every corner. Given the current state of
emergency, I know it feels like today's bond deadline crept up
on us and that there needs to be more discussion. I want to ensure all of you that
I'm eager to hear and incorporate your feedback. I've already heard from many of
you that you want to see more
and different parts reflected
and I I've heard you don't think
the urgency of our mental health crisis is reflected in this structure. I want to say that I hear you,
I'm listening and I welcome your
feedback and we do need more mental health support, more care for our neighbors and at the same time, during this pandemic,
we have seen the incredible importance that outdoor space
plays in our communities and
everyone deserves a safe space to spend time outdoors and in their neighborhood and this bond isn't done.
We have a month to get to -- we
have a month to roll up our sleeves, speak with extents and weigh the completing
the competes priorities of our city. This will be several hard choices in a very, very tough economy.
After several years of strong
economic growth and a growing budget, this year, we will have to make tough choices in our
capital plan, in our budget and
in how we prioritize services
for our city and in the last year, we were community to
champion together a $6 million
affordable housing bond and over $6 million for emergency response and public safety and I want to thank all of you for your partnership and support of those efforts.
Now to be clear, we've borrowed
as much as we can from future
bond plans and we've soaked up
all of the extra debt capacity
and we have to decide on what is most important.
I want to hear from you.
I'm committed to having those policy conversations and taking
your feedback and I'm hoping we
can work collaboratively and
quickly to create a bon measure bond measure we can all support this November. Thank you all for the
opportunity.
>> thank you, Madam Mayor, for joining us today. This concludes the special order.
This item shall be filed.
>> thank you.
>> Madam Clerk, let's go back to our communications, and do you
want to start it off. Do we have any communications? >> yes, since the local
emergency was declared, board members have been participating
in board meetings remotely through video conference as if they were physically present in their chamber.
Provisions have been made for
members of the public to participate remotely in the following ways. For members of the public who do
not have access to the internet,
the U.S. Postal service will deliver written correspondence if you address to the board of supervisors and address it to
city hall, room 244, san
francisco, california, 94012 and for those whose interest is just
to listen to the meeting and not
speak, you May do so by dialing 882-04-5948.
When prompted enter 350-1008 and press pound twice and you'll have joined and can listen to the meeting in progress.
If you would like to provide
public comment when item 12 is
called, that's general public comment, there are some best
practises and you can call from a quiet location, mute your
television or radio, speak slowly, clearly and each speaker
will be allowed two minutes to speak in the jurisdiction of the board. Election time is always around the corner.
There is to be no election ee
eeingin this video environment. Address the supervisors a as a
whole and not individual members.
If once you are listening to the meeting in progress and you wish
to enter the cue to speak, dial
1 and then 0 and that will move you into the speaker line to speak and you'll be prompted when it is your turn to provide comment.
You can get in line early or you can wait until public comment is called.
The key is to press 1-0 only one time. Otherwise, if you press it twice, you'll be moved out of the speaker line and back into
listening mode. Two last points. the director of the office of
civic engagement has assigned
three interpreters to be on stand
stanby to assist speakers in language with their comment.
I would like to have each of them introduce themselves and let the community know they're
here for them.
Today let's start with fay.
Speaking foreign language: .
>> agnes lye.
Speaking foreign language: . >> if you do have the internet and would lick lick
like to submit written
comments, submit them and you
can watch it livestream and you can watch channel 26. Note it is cable cast and
results in a 20-second broadcasting delay and thank you, Mr. President, and to all of the members of the board and the public for your patience wit length of this communication and we are being advised from the
public on what type of guidance is actually helpful. So thank you to the public and
keep your comments forthcoming. Thank you, Mr. President.
>> thank you, Madam Clerk. Before we begin, just a friendly
reminder to mute your
microphones. Are there any changes to the
meeting minutes?
Seeing none, can I have a motion
to approve the motion as amended?
Motion to approve made by
mandleman and seconded by supervisor stephanie.
>> Madam Clerk, will you please
call the role.
Role call: .
>> there are 11 ayes.
>> ok, this will be approved as
presented.
So before we get started, I want
to give updates and ask a few
other of my colleagues to give
some brief updates on some emergency situations and what we're doing about it.
So, as you know, the board of
supervisors have been going down different
to the emergency operation center over the past two months and I want to thank everybody
that has volunteered to do that.
And I particularly want to thank
supervisor fewer who actually stabilized it for about a month
there.
And supervisor mar was there for
the last two weeks.
So this week, we actually don't
have anybody down there and part
of this evaluation that I talked about earlier is to step back
and to see what is the best
usage of at least the board's
time in regards to our role with
policy making and also to keep
the best communication we can
with the operations down at the moscoli center. So this would give us a time to
reflect and say, well, should we
continue going down or not?
Is it helpful or not helpful and
then if we conclude that it's
helpful, then I would, again,
ask my colleagues to step up and
volunteer to go down there.
So that's sort of the update,
with by related to our emergency
order that we have started
between mayor breed and myself,
we ask that a task force be
created, called the economic
recovery tax force and I asked
supervisor mandleman, would you
give a brief update.
I know that you and supervisor peskin have been attending those
meetings and so supervisor mandleman. >> yes, happy to provide a brief update.
Thank you, Mr. President.
So this economic recovery task force was convened by yourself
and the mayor and the cochairs
for the task force are carmen
chu, the recorder and the
treasurer, rodney fong from the chamber and rudy gonzalez from
the labor council and supervisor
peskin and I are representing
the board and folks representing
different sectors of san francisco from big business,
small business, labor, nonprofit
community and lots of folks and
then with abled staffing from
the city administrator and
workforce develop, the office of resilience and capital planning, the human right's commission,
the treasure tax collector and melissa white house
melissa whitehouse is the
staffperson and I believe carmen
reached out for feedback.
We had a meeting on April 4th,
a just getting started meeting
and the staff then convened, I think nine different smaller
groups to discuss what folks are hearing and what they would like
to see prioritized.
And those smaller subgroup meetings, I believe have now been finished, and the meeting
of the larger group is this thursday, May 14th. Based on those initial
conversations, I think as
recorder chu and
and thinking about going forward in three buckets
of areas.
First is the developing of plan protocols and tackling issues
related to safe reopening and that is through May and that
would drive the task force's
work in May and June thinking about what kind of ppe businesses we'll need and what
processes need to be in place and what questions should the department of public health be
asking and what questions will
businesses they're asking about pph.
So trying to be fa sill
facilatative and helpful.
So in July and August, the other
two buckets are more about supporting business resiliency
over months and even years as we
continue to deal with covid-19,
thinking about some of the issues that have come up with outdoor spaces and use of the
outdoor space and how to support
workers and workers resilience.
And then the as
aspirational thinking, using the better
resources we have, tackling the longer-term challenges and using
this time to experiment and
pilot new ideas and think about
things like the greater
challenges around environmental crises and how this period can inform that.
So a lot of work to do and members of the board who are
interested in engaging stakeholders in their districts, there is a website and folks are
encouraged to fill that out and there's an email, I believe,
that members can members can get
in touch with melissa or carmen.
And I think that's what I have. Thank you, Mr. President.
>> thank you, supervisor mandlemma
man. mandleman. >> there's a lot going on in the city, trying to address the
future is the media and certainly the economic recovery
task force is just one of many,
by do have our people on the board as representatives.
And another body that has been
some work, that's trying
trying to push
for more local relief is also
represented by two of our colleagues on the board of supervisors and that would be supervisors research
ronen and supervisor stephanie.
Supervisor ronen, can you give a
brief report in what's going on
with how to get started and how
it got started. Supervisor ronen.
>> thank you, supervisor yee, for this opportunity.
I have a few updates to give to sf and they're all pretty exciting.
I wanted to start out by saying
that the give-to-sf program was started by the mayor at the
beginning of the crisis as a way
for donors throughout the city
to support other people in san
francisco as the situation has
become more and more grave.
And since then, the mayor's office developed a committee to
serve as oversight of this fund and supervisors stephanie and I are sitting on that committee on behalf of the board of supervisors.
The oversight committee makes decisions about how much to
allocate to each need and when
to do that.
And in general, we have -- there
are three different bucks buckets
where the money is allocated and
50% of the money goes to food security, which is an endless
need that we have all over the city.
For the first time, we're seeing
unhoused residents in the street citing hunger as one of the biggest challenges to surviving
and we have food banks and lines
at every food give away that
extends for blocks and the donors run out of food way before everybody gets the food they need. And as the mayor mentioned
earlier, we have a record number
of unemployment in san francisco
reaching 108,000 today and so,
the need for food security is greater than its
than it's ever been. The committee is making sure that 50% of the funds go to this
need that is urgent all around
the city, especially with cities and unemployed families and the unhoused.
An additional 35% goes to
supporting small businesses and
the low-wage workforce.
The most two important programs
finished exclusively by
give-to-sf are the resiliency grants of $10,000 to small businesses with five or less
employees, as well as the
$50,000 zero-interest loans to
small businesses with $2.5 million in gross receipts
and under and if we want to
continue to increase those resiliency grants, which I know all of the my colleagues and I
are desperate to do because we know so many small businesses
facing closure if they don't get
help, we've got to raise more
funds through give-to-sf.
And then finally an additional 50% of the funds -- and this is
all rough and can change based on urgency.
Go to the mayor's office of community development for
household assistance.
But it's broad, what that means.
It can be anything from unpaid utilities, security deposits, basically needs to keep people
housed and to keep them safe in their homes.
The last thing I will mention is
that we have launched a very exciting campaign today.
I think you've all received emails from my office and I want
to give a huge shout-out to jennifer lee of my office who
spent all of last week citing
150 images and I would like to
share my screen so you can see
really what these look like.
If you could share these images
with your constituencies on
social media, we think that people in san francisco will be very inspired when they see who
is giving to give-to-sf and who is receiving the funds. This is today's graphics that
depict a donor who wanted to help small businesses because he was born and raised in san
francisco and his parents were former small business owners and
then a small business that receive
received those funds and might be able to make it through this crisis because of it. So if you could all -- I sent
you the toolkit and if you can
share that with your community
of supporters, it will be very helpful. We're asking every elected official in san francisco to do
that, both on the local, state and federal levels. and we're hoping that will
greatly increase the funds to this program.
I want to remind you that all of
the programs that are serving
and supporting undocumented community, small businesses, they're exclusively fund
funded by give-to-sf and saving money in the general fund. Those of us who are very scared
of the next budget cycle, we
were facing a 1.5 billion budget
deficit, but also are working so hard to meet the basic needs of the constituents, this is the way we can collectively raise the funds to do so.
And that's all I have for you.
>> thank you, supervisor ronen.
And I just wanted our listeners to know that these are just a
few ways in which the board of
supervisors and the city
administration are working
together to bring whatever
relief we can and improvements
we can while we're facing this emergency. Thank you very much to all of
you.
So Madam Clerk, I believe let's go right into our regular
agenda.
We'll call item number one.
>> item number one, ordinance to levy special taxes within the
city and county of san francisco
for 2020-1, for the mission rock
facilities and services. >> Madam Clerk, I don't see
anybody on the role, so could
you call the role on this.
Role call: .
>> there are 11 ay session. Ayes. >> this passes unanimously. >> item number 2.
>> the administrative code to
close county jail number 4 on the seventh floor of the hall of justice by November 1st, 2020, to require the sentencing commission to establish the
safety and justice challenge subcommittee, the reduction of
the city's daily jail population
and closure and determinations
to the california environmental quality act. >> Madam Clerk, please call the
role.
Role call: .
>> there are ten ayes and one no
with supervisor stephanie in the dissent. >> Madam Clerk, item number 3. >> to amend the planning code to
create the intermediate length occupancy, residential use
characteristic and to affirm the
seqa determination and make the appropriate findings.
>> please call the role.
>> this is item number 3.
Role call: .
>> there are 11 ayes.
>> thank you.
And this ordinance has passed unanimously. Madam Clerk, the next item. >> item 4 is a motion to approve
the mayor's nomination for the
reappointment for christina ruki to the transportation agency,
bad of directors, material term ending
March 1st, 2024. >> supervisor ronen.
>> thank you, colleagues.
>> I don't know how to get back to the screen. Can you see me? >> we can see your icon photo, but not you directly. >> I'm sorry, I can't figure out how to get back to the screen, so I'm sorry you can't see me when I talk, but at least you can hear me. Here we go, thank you whoever
did that for me. >> john and brent.
>> and I'm back, thank you.
Colleagues, I have had voted at
the rule's committee to support
the nomination of christina
rubki to the mta board because I
have a ton of respect for her and appreciated her answers to many questions that I asked during committee.
But something happen hasn't sat
well with me over the past few
weeks about this appointment and
primarily, it's the fact that we passed two unanimous resolutions
at this board of supervisors and one was unanimous, which urged
the mta to name the station and
the second one was a 10-1 vote
urging the mta vote not to raise
fees on people in san francisco during the worst health and economic crisis that this city
has seen, perhaps, ever, certainly in decades.
And both of those resolutions
were basically ignored. By this
mta board christina rubki sat on. I'm thinking what we have coming
up ahead of us in the next couple of years and the fact
that mta is going to have to
decide which services to cut
with unprecedented holes in the budget and it just doesn't sit
well with me, that this board of supervisors, that are closest to
the constituents on the ground,
that advocated based on what our constituents need for us, that
that opinion, when it's so
overwhelming at the board of supervisors is just ignored by the mta board. It just doesn't sit well with me. And for the first time since i've been elected supervisor, I've changed my mind and I've decided that I'm going to vote no on this appointment.
And I hope it sends a message to
the mta board that when we speak and we speak overwhelmingly at
this board of supervisors, we do
not want to be ignored by that board which is appointed, by the way, exclusively by the mayor.
And I just wanted you to understand why I'm changing my vote today.
Thank you.
>> thank you, supervisor ronen.
And supervisor peskin. >> thank you, President Yee. And I want to appreciate the
comments of supervisor ronen.
And as you know, I have a long
history around charter reform as
it relates to the sf mta and was
the author in 2007 of
proposition a that gave the sf mta more independence from the board of supervisors.
And I note that it is very rare,
although supervisor ronen
outlined two of those rarities, that this elected legislative
branch of the government signals
by resolution to this appointed
body what our policy desires are.
And the only check and balance
that we have really comes
through the nomination and confirmation process.
And I think that sending a
message not only to the mta commission, which is, by the
way, the only other body that has legislative authority in the city and county of san francisco
but to other commissions that legislative branch of this
government comes up with a
policy urgence, that it must be heated.
we can do what supervisor peskin and I propose, which is to
tinker wilt charter authority
that we gave them and the voters gave them. But meanwhile, the best way to enforce that message and really fulfill our obligation to be a
check and balance in this process is by sending that
message and voting no on this
nomination.
>> supervisor fewer.
>> yes, thank you, President Ye. Yee. >> thank you for your service on mta. I have gone before the entire
board of the mta with specific questions about the budget and never once did I receive a response. And not only that, but the fact
that I feel like there is a
lack, in fact, there's is zero
representation on the mta board
and I want to say thank you for her service, but I will not be able to support her today.
I had a conversation about this and so, I just wanted to say
thank you for your service, and I will not be able to support this nomination today. Thank you.
>> ok, thank you. >> anybody
I don't see anybody else on roster and Madam Clerk, May we
have a role call.
>> item 4 --
Role call: .
>> fewer no.
Hainey no.
Peskin no. Preston no.
Ronen no. Walton no.
There are fivasm
five ayes and six nos.
>> so with a 5-6 vote, the
motion to approve is defeated. >> item 5.
>> an ordinance to amend 170-19,
the annual salary ordinance for
fiscal years 2019-2020 and
2020-2021 and to enacted military service related to the covid-19 pandemic and to the
enumerated events that qualify for expression
sum
supplementation.
>> this is allowing employees
calling into duty for the
covid-19 response to receive the
same pay other active response receive.
This will pay for military leave difference between city salary and the military pay when they are called into active service for more than 30 days in
response to terrorist attacks or acts of conflicts. These same individuals do not get the same benefits if called
into active duty for covid-19 response. In March, the President Authorized california to deploy
the national guard to respond to covid-19 and approximately 1,000 national guard members have been
deployed state-wide. My office identified two individuals who were in this
situation is the budget identified five possible additional individuals after
surveying our city department.
Base on the low number of individuals, the impact to the budget will be extremely small
and absorbed by the departments within their current budgets as stated at the budget and finance committee.
But the impact really is for the individual families is extreme and they will still have to meet the living expenses, of course, and that will be significant to
them. Covid-19 disaster response, I think, we can all agree is some of the most important work anyone is doing right now and
why the city has deployed so
many of our own employees as disaster service workers. I don't believe anyone should have to choose between this important work and supporting their families and I want to
thank President Yee for waiving the 30-day rule and for his questions at the budget and finance committee, I understand
they were answered and I want to
thank chair fewer for scheduling
this is walton and mandleman for sending this out. Thank you, and I would
appreciate your support. >> thank you, supervisor
stephanie.
And thank you for bringing alert
to this issue and realizing that
there's the laws that govern the
reimbursement is somewhat short-sighted and not seen some
of the emergencies that we were
activating our troops.
And one of the reasons I ask questions about what the impact
might be to the budget is that not knowing how many people
would be activated and so forth
and so I
the reports are not 100% accurate but close enough in
terms of some estimates of what
it could cost the city.
Madam Clerk, role call, please.
>> thank you, Mr. President. On item 5 --
Role call: .
>> there are 11 ace
11ayes. >> in has passed unanimously in
first reading.
Madam Clerk, call item 6 and 7 together.
>> two resolutions that both
authorize the director of real property, 5 and 6, to exercise
two real lease amendments at
3119 and 3120 and both are on mission street for service
spaces with klw investments for
items 6 and for each lease
five-year terms to commence July 1, 2020 and expire on June 20, 2020, for a base rent
close to 2.1 million with a 3%
increase every year and
specifically for item seven, authorizing the director of property to extend a real
property lease located at 2 goth
street for a five-year term
commencing on July 1, 2020 and
expiring June 30, 2025 for a
base rent of 624,000 with a 3% increase annually.
>> supervisor peskin.
>> thank you, President Yee, and
I want to thank the chair of the
budget committee, supervisor
fewer, for holding this over and
giving our folks at real estate the opportunity to renegotiate this lease.
I would like to thank andrico pennick for the cost savings that was achieved in the two-week period when the budget
and finance committee did not hear the item as originally presented or did not vote on
item as originally present presented and
this is a model for the city's lease negotiations going forward, where there has been a
significant price reduction from
the original negotiated price.
So thank you, Mr. Pennick, and Mr. Fewer.
>> role call, please.
>> on item 6 and 7 --
Role call: .
>> there are 11 ayes. >> this passes unanimously. >> is supervisor fewer on the roster? >> I was going to comment on the last item. It is fine and thank you for checking.
>> thank you, supervisor fewer. >> thank you for checking. >> no worries. >> the next item?
>> item 8, resolution to authorize the treasure island development authority to execute a standard agreement with the
california department of housing and community development, hcd,
under the affordable housing and sustainable community's program
for a total award of 20 million,
for a loan to the project
sponsor for 100% of affordable
housing and parcel c3.1 and a
grant dispersement for public transportation improvement on torrential island for the period
ending June 30th, 2039 and authorizing the authority to
except and expand a $600,247,000
grant for a ferry terminal and pay bridge improvements and
other transit.
>> please call the role.
On item 8 --
Role call: .
>> are 11 ayes. >> thank you.
And without objection, the resolution is adopted unanimously. >> Madam Clerk, please go to our
next item, number 9. >> item 9 is an ordinance to amend the planning code to
require conditional use authorization for applications
to demolish a single-family
residential building on a site
zoned as h1, residential house
district, one family or rh1d, residential house district, one
family detached. When the
building is demonstrably not
affordable and to affirm the sequa determination and make the appropriate findings.
Please stand by: .
6789 --
>> President Yee: -- have participated in national elections since 1986.
We need to ensure that young
people build a habit of voting as early as possible and
continue to participate in our
democracy across their lifetime.
Evidence from other cities and countries that have set voting
at an early age of 16 shows
that the lowering age increases
voter turnout among younger voters and even encourages
people to vote at higher rates. >> we know that the issues that
we vote on as a city don't just
impact everyone 18 and older.
They impact our young people, too. 16 and 17-year-olds go to school but don't have a say
on -- in a decision we make about their education system.
16 and 17 year olds can be
tried as adults several times,
but don't have a say in our
criminal justice system.
And 16 and 17-year-olds pay
taxes but don't have a say in
how we spend tax dollars.
Ultimately, 16 and 17-year-olds should have a say at the ballot
box in economic impacts, .
I'm sorry.
In advance of civic and human
rights address inequality and
reform our gun vials, and confront climate change.
I have seen this over many
decades -- decades that I have had the opportunity to work with youth.
Many years ago, I was able to
work with an organization to organize a youth summit.
Over 275 youth participated.
Not only did they participate,
they provided leadership and
facilitated all the workshops.
What it showed me is youth in
san francisco can and want to navigate complex issues.
The question is not are san
francisco youth able to
contribute to society for the
better, it's that they can. We have come a long ways but
still have far to go to ensure that everyone has been afforded
the right to vote in this
country, is able to cast their ballot on election day, and we
have a long way to go to ensure
that groups that have not been afforded the opportunity to
vote but so greatly deserve to do so are extended the right.
That is what this fight is about.
This is about moving us forward
as a city and sending a message
to our country at a time when we are confronted with
division, gridlock, and so many seemingly intractable problems.
It is about recognizing that
our youth have always pushed our city and country forward, and it is about recognizing
that our democracy has struggled when everyone is
informed, engaged, and able to participate in decision making.
Colleagues, I hope you will all support this historic effort to
extend voting rights to 16 and
17-year-olds here in san francisco. The second item I'd like to
introduce is today, I will be
introducing a resolution urging
congress to support $100 billion for relief funding for
child care in the next covid relief package. A letter signed and sent to the
house of representatives called
for $50 million to a short-term
stabilization fund and
long-term recovery fund for
students, aide as, and providers.
However, previous to the
coronavirus incident, child
care was under funded.
The covid-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the
early education and child care industry. The national association for the education of young
children, a review that only
11% of the country's child care
providers would survive without government aid. This is unacceptable. Losing the providers would not
only put a center-based and
family child care providers out
of work, but there is a ripple effect.
Families without care for the children will also lose their jobs.
My office has received letters
from the hispanic family child care network expressing exactly this, knowing that they will have no choice but to close without support.
Early educators and child care providers are the backbone of our economy.
As they face increasing economic impact, we must make
sure that they are not left behind in a response to covid-19.
We must ensure that centers and family child care continue to operate after the pandemic, and
that we provide support in our
early educators during and after this pandemic.
Now, more than ever, we must
private child care to families who rely on child care services. We must advocate and demand that the federal government support families and these essential workers. This is why I'm introducing this resolution in supporting
the house of representatives'
call for the investment of
early care and education. Thank you for my supervisors
peskin and mandelman. I hope that others will join in this effort. And the last thing I'd like to introduce is a resolution called asian american and
pacific islander day against bullying and hate.
Today, I am introducing a
resolution to declare May 18, 2020, as asian american and
pacific islander day against bullying and hate.
I want to thank supervisors
ronen, peskin, mandelman, and
stefani for cosponsoring, and even before current -- the
current covid pandemic, the asian pacific american community, particularly the
youth, were increasingly
targetland for hate and bullying crime, where certain populations, including the
south asian, our muslim, sikh,
micronesian, english proficient
limited youth are at greater
risk than others. This time often compounded by
religious and linguistic
barriers that prevent these
communities from seeking help. Two-thirds of the sikh american
students face bullying, and half of the muslim american students report bullying.
May 18 was chosen because it is
the birthday of esru chen, who
would have been 65, but in 1985, he was brutally murdered
in a hate crime in detroit.
Since May 18 is next monday, I
am asking this item to be
approved as part of the
imperative agenda because it is purely commemorative in nature.
The rest I submit.
>> Clerk: thank you, Mr. President. Supervisor fewer?
>> Supervisor Fewer: yes, thank
you very much. Thank you very much, Madam Clerk. Today, I am introducing a resolution urging the mayor and
city departments to prioritize public departments and transparency during the
covid-19 emergency. Since the covid emergency began, there was a state of emergency declared, and the mayor has introduced a series
of proclamations given the unprecedented conditions
initiated by the pandemic. These conditions and the related actions have also had an impact on government transparency and government access to information, including the suspension of public meetings and provisions
of the brown act and sunshine ordinance. In addition, the seven economic
recessions triggered by the covid-19 emergency and following public health orders have had an immediate and significant impact on the city budget, forcing the mayor's
budget office and controller's
office for the next two fiscal
years and modify the fiscal calendar.
We now have modified the
schedule for the next two months, allowing the
departments to revise proposed
budgets, and mayor to revise her budget with relevant information. All of these are leading to
questions about how to ensure public transparency within the
budget process on such a short timeline, more than ever needed
this year with the likelihood of cuts being considered. This allows the mayor to
implement some recommendations regarding transparency from the league of women voters and urges the mayor and select city departments to put into place measures for transparency
during this year's trunkated
but high stages budget process
including a revision of
department's budget proposals. Colleagues, I hope to have your
support on this item.
And today, I am proud to stand with supervisor yee in support
of vote 16 and the expansion of
voting rights for the youth and teens of san francisco.
I have long been a supporter of this. We have an incredible opportunity to engage young people in discussions about
civics and social issues while they are in high school that can deepen their ownership of
the democratic process.
We know that the earlier that
people are registered to vote,
the more
prolivic voters they become. Once a person votes, that person is likely to vote again.
At the age of 16, a young person can drive or be sentenced as an adult for a crime.
If we as a society are willing
to grant such responsibility on 16-year-olds, it makes no sense
that we would deny them the
right to vote and engage in the democratic process.
If we are seriously invested in training the next generation to
be socially and politically involved, this is how we start. Currently, the average age of a
voter in the united states is 43 to 46 years old.
If we truly want a democracy that recognizes the voices of
all, it is time we add the
future generation into that democracy, and we can do that
by allowing them to vote. Thank you to the commission and
norman yee for allowing this effort.
I'd like to be added to President Yee's legislation
concerning A.P.A.S against bullying and hate.
>> Clerk: thank you, supervisor fewer. We will add you to that.
Next up is supervisor haney.
>> Supervisor Haney: thank you,
Madam Clerk.
Today, I'm urging the governor
to invest in small businesses
operating in C.R.V. Convenience zones and forgive the outstanding balances of small businesses who have been unable to pay fees for operating in these zones. Something I've heard in conversations with a number of small business owners in my district is the incredible
burden that C.R.V. Fees can
place on our cornerstone markets. These businesses are essential in serving our communities, especially in times like the current emergency. While many businesses are
taking on the cost of
implementing safety measures and supplying with social distance -- complying with social distancing measures, they are weighed down by these fees.
That's why I'm urging the
government to waive the fees
and to forgive the outstanding loans of the many small businesses unable to pay fees operating in these zones. I believe that relief from these fines -- relief from these fines at this time and for the duration of the emergency order is one
important way we can support
our small mom-and-pop stores and say thank you for putting
their lives on the sign as they
continue to serve us during our time of need. The rest I submit.
>> Clerk: thank you, supervisor haney. Supervisor mandelman?
>> Supervisor Mandelman: thank
you, Madam Clerk.
Today, colleagues, I'm asking that we adjourn our meeting in
memory of courtney brousseau.
Courtney was 24 years old. He was walking home from dolores park when he was struck
by a bullet from a drive-by
shooting at 14th and guerrero.
The follow monday he died from those injuries. Courtney was, by all accounts, an extraordinary human being and an extraordinary san franciscan. According to his friends, he
would immediately reply when someone shared their adventures
in their city with, "I love
this city so much."
courtney was an eagle scout, a supreme court justice in his
local ymca youth and government program.
He was the editor in chief of
his student newspaper in
newberry park, california.
He and his fellow student
journalists defended themselves
in the freedom of the press
from angry parents on the
school board and never backed down.
They won and never aired the
apology that was demanded of them.
He attended U.C. Berkeley where
he somehow managed to get more
involved in his school and community.
Courtney worked on issues like student housing and improving
the berkeley mobile student resources app. He was also a member of the cal
berkeley democrats and berkeley
forum during his time on campus. Following his graduation with a degree in economics and computer science, courtney
moved to san francisco in 2019 and got a job as an associate
manager at twitter, focusing on
projects to make them more inclusive and less prejudicial. He was active with the san
francisco transit riders union and frequently spoke about the need to improve our transportation system and make our streets safe.
He cofounded the gay for meet
up groups with his friend,
janet lee, providing a place for people from all walks of
life to celebrate public
transit in a queer space. Courtney changed the world and
the lives of many of those he came into contact with during
his much-too-short lifetime.
I am honored to have had the opportunity to represent someone as invested in his
community as courtney, and I
want to express to his friends
and family our deep sadness for their loss.
I know that supervisor haney knew courtney, and I know he
has some words he wants to
share with us today and some friend words from his friends and neighbors.
>> Clerk: supervisor haney,
did you want to go now?
>> Supervisor Haney: yes. Courtney had a huge impact on
so many people who were
inspired by him, found hope and
joy and his connections and his ability to connect people, and
above all, his love for the
city and his commitment to the people. I had the opportunity to know courtney. I had the opportunity to meet courtney for coffee just a few weeks ago, and I was able to learn from him. And I remember leaving that conversation just a bit more hopeful about our city and the
people who care about it more deeply. I want to share just a few
short things from some of his friends.
From his friend sarah, when someone dies young, we often
hear the phrase, they held so
much promise, as if their life up to that point was a testing ground for their accomplishments to come.
And certainly, while we learn
later in -- learn in our life that things we do can set the
stage for later, it is clear that courtney's life was
certain to be full of joy,
volunteerism, inclusivity, and yes, promise. In his short life, courtney already showed that leading a life full of promise isn't
something we need to reserve
for a eulogy.
It's a call to live our life
with a promise for a more just world. Courtney fulfilled this every day through his volunteerism, donation, friendships, sense of
humor, and other worldly empathy. May courtney's memory be a
blessing and his life a call to
action for all of us to live up
to his promise.
From his roommate, kane, we heard about his love for the city.
It had taken over him, and his purpose was to make it a better place. Being lucky to witness how deeply courtney loved san francisco will remain one of
the most sacred honors of my life.
By love, I don't mean he simply
loved his city, he demonstrated his devotion to san francisco through his good works. Courtney made it a daily
practice to lend his time, his resources, and his standing in
the community to advocate for and help those less fortunate. He is a permanent part of the soul of san francisco, and
he -- he had something that he
would say a lot, and chris, one
of his closest friends,
remembers the reply that he
would immediately get when they shared shared photos of adventures in this city.
He would say, "I love this city
so much." courtney, we won't forget your
impact on this city and what
you held what was possible here. So to your family and friends,
our condolences.
>> Clerk: thank you, supervisor haney. Supervisor mandelman, you'd like to continue?
>> Supervisor Mandelman: only
that I received a text message
from supervisor ronen, asking
that this in memory -- memoriam be on behalf of the entire board.
>> Clerk: thank you, supervisor mandelman. Supervisor mar?
>> Supervisor Mar: thank you,
supervisor mandelman, for those touching words about courtney.
I have one item.
I'd ask the supervisors to
draft legislation while the
city has extended the payment
for the business licensing fees down the road, some of our businesses will not make it. The looming debt to the city makes it less likely that they will not survive.
many of our shuttered storefronts have not received a dime in local or federal
support and they have no
ability to generate revenue.
As we slowly lift measures and
allow businesses to operate,
businesses will have to decide
whether they open up or shutter permanently.
This will allow our businesses to continue providing the goods and services we all need to thrive. I'd like to thank the many
shake holders who provided
valuable input on this,
including small business owners, the chamber of
commerce, mayor's and
treasurer's office, oewd, and the office of small business.
Also as a parent of a teen with her own world view and political opinions, I'm proud
to cosponsor the charter amendment read by supervisor fewer yesterday today. The rest I submit.
>> Clerk: thank you, supervisor mar.
We will make you a cosponsor.
Next is supervisor peskin.
>> Supervisor Peskin: submit.
>> Clerk: thank you. Supervisor preston?
>> Supervisor Preston: thank you, Madam Clerk, and first,
I'd like to be added as a cosponsor
cosponsor on President Yee's antibullying A.P.A. Resolution.
And colleagues, today, I am
introducing
introducing legislation to allow police commission to resume their meetings during
this ongoing state of emergency. the police commission's in charge of overseeing the police and ensuring accountability,
and they've not been allowed to meet even virtually since
February 26, about 2.5 months, and that is unacceptable and needs to change. The important of allowing the
police commission to meet was made very clear by an incident that occurred about two weeks
ago in response to a peaceful protest. Police officers were
photographed with masks that
depicted a black and white
american flag with a blue line,
a reference to blue lives matter.
In addition to being
insensitive, it's altering a police uniform. The body involving police matters needs to respond. The fact that the commission
hasn't been able to meet is unacceptable, and it's necessary for the board of
supervisors to step in to restore oversight and accountability.
And let me be clear, colleagues, this is about more
than one incident, troubling as that incident was.
In a letter written by
commissioner commissioner john
hamasaki and commissioner petra
dejesus, they write that it's
one of many incidents, including officer involved
shootings and a study on the
adequacy of police patrol staffing.
This motion to allow the police
commission to meet is about
restoring and ensuring when it
come -- allowing greater
transparency and oversight is
more critical than ever. I want to specifically thank
commissioners hamasaki and
dejesus for their leadership on
this for bringing it to my attention, and their commitment
to making sure we have ongoing oversight, accountability, and
transparency when it comes to public safety in law enforcement during these difficult times.
I also want to thank public
defender noah ajun for
requesting that they resume
meetings and for the content contained in that letter.
Thank you to my sponsors peskin
and haney, and thank you for
allowing me to move this forward. We heard just before today's meeting that the mayor May be
considering an order to allow one or more police commission meetings to be held.
We look forward to hearing the
mayor's plan and looking to get
this done as quickly as possible so the police commission can get back to work. Thank you.
The rest I submit.
>> Clerk: thank you,
supervisor preston. Supervisor ronen? .
>> Supervisor Ronen: today, I'm introducing several amendments.
Today, the first inquiry is about deaths among unhoused residents in the city of san francisco. I'm asking for the department to report if there have been
any deaths have coronavirus among people sleeping on the
street since the stay-at-home order began until today. i want to know how many people have died on the street during the shelter in place order and how this compares with the
number of deaths among unsheltered homeless individuals in the same time period as last year.
And then finally, what the
protocol is from the medical examiner's office to discover whether people dieing on the streets are positive or were
positive for coronavirus.
The second inquiry that I'm submitting today is together with supervisor sandra lee fewer. This is regarding access to
shower facilities for unhoused residents, which is becoming a crisis on the streets.
I want to know how many public
showering facilities there are in the city of san francisco,
where these facilities are
located, which if any of these
facilities are accessible to
unhoused residents, and during
previous pandemics where shower facilities were immediated needed for residents, where those facilities were located in the
past, and the rest I submit.
>> Clerk: thank you,
supervisor ronen.
Supervisor safai?
>> Supervisor Safai: yes, I'm here.
>> Clerk: yes. Present your new business.
>> Supervisor Safai: yes. I have a few items on the agenda, one of which is a resolution in which I'm
introducing in partnership with
President Yee, urging governor
gavin newsom to release $350
million from the C.A.R.E.S. act, to provide support for
early childhood and care providers.
As I said last week, we talked about having a support from the mayor's office. I know supervisor ronen and
others are working with gettosf.
We're hoping that this will be a subset of support. But this is urgent support that
we need to provide at the end of the day if people don't have a place to put their children in when they go back to work or as they start to go back to
work, it's going to be an additional barrier, particularly those in my district that have been
affected the most, those in the
hospitality industry who rely
on child care.
Per the S.F. Child care
council, there's an estimated
77,000 children sheltering in place. Further, child care employment found that 63% of the programs would not survive another month
of sheltering in place absent financial assistance.
We have thousands of early
childhood care providers, and
almost 90% of them reside in south san francisco. Colleagues, I ask for you to
support urging governor newsom and the california legislature to take immediate action to
release this money of $350 million of C.A.R.E.S. Act so
that we can provide that early childhood care support. I want to thank President Yee
for his years of leadership on this.
President Yee, if it wasn't clear, please add me a cosponsor of your resolution at the federal level, and thank you to the child care council
and the court coalition of family early childhood care providers that have been working with us, advocating for themselves and their families and working families in san francisco.
So I'd hope, colleagues, you'd all support me on that.
And then secondarily, I want to thank supervisor fewer for bringing forward the ability to
vote for 16 and 17-year-olds. I think it's wonderful that we
would be encouraging in a time
and a place with so many barriers, even in the last election cycle, there were reports of barriers being created for voting in this day and age in 2020. We want to be doing everything we can to encourage the next generation of leaders and voters and those participating
in our democracy, so I'm absolutely happy to support promoting an early agenda of early voters.
Thank you, everyone, and the rest I submit.
>> Clerk: thank you, supervisor. Supervisor stefani?
>> Supervisor Stefani: thank you, Madam Clerk. Colleagues, I just briefly want
to report on you all out on the
county services veterans
service officer position was vacant, I introduced
legislation to the human services director, asking for more information about the vacancy. We also heard from a number of
members of the veterans affairs commission who were troubled by
the length of the vacancy because this position is affecting veterans of our county and the benefits and services to which they're entitled. I am pleased to report that the position was posted yesterday,
and qualified applicants are
encouraged to apply through May 25.
I'm looking forward to this item moving forward in a timely
fashion, and the rest I submit.
>> Clerk: thank you, supervisor stefani. Supervisor walton?
>> Supervisor Walton: submit. Did you catch that?
>> Clerk: yes, thank you, supervisor walton. Thank you.
>> Supervisor Walton: thank you.
>> Clerk: are there any other members on the roster I might have missed?
All right. Mr. President, seeing no new names on the roster, that concludes the items for new business.
>> President Yee: okay. Thank you, and thank you to my
colleagues who have cosponsored some of the items that were introduced today.
Madam Clerk, let's go to public comment.
>> Clerk: at this time, the board of supervisors will host
remotely via teleconference public comment. Each speaker will have up to two minutes to provide public comment. At the beginning of the meeting, I provide the telephone number for those who may have just wanted to listen to the proceedings, and if anyone in that early group
would like to speak, if you haven't already, press one and
then zero to get into the queue to provide your public comment.
The key here is to press one and then zero only one time. If you press it twice, you'll
be moved out of line and back into listening mode, and once in the queue, please stand by,
and the system will prompt you when you are next to speak. For those of you calling in now, the telephone number is
displayed on our website and
crawling on channel 26.
It's 1-888-204-5984, and when
prompted, enter the access code 3501008. Press pound, then press pound again to join the meeting.
Then, you'll be added to the queue.
You'll then dial one and then zero. The system will prompt you when it's your turn to speak, and
while the speakers are queueing up, I will note the best practices for your location. Your location should be quiet. Speak slowly and clearly so we can understand your message.
Each speaker has up to two minutes to deliver your comments. If you're using an interpreter, the interpreter will be timed for two minutes.
Remember to keep your subject matter appearance to subject matter
jurisdiction by the board.
You May oppose an item on the
agenda, but there is no electioneering at these meetings.
please do not ask for support of anyone or oneself on a ballot.
If anyone has to continually be reminded, they will be moved
out of the line and back into listening mode. Address the board as a whole. Do not address individual members.
Once your two minutes have concluded, you can -- the system will just put you into listening modes.
Two last points.
Director of the office of civic
engagement, adrian pond, has
assigned two staffers to be on
stand by for assistance with language in public comment.
This is the opportunity for
members of the public to speak.
We'll just start with the interpreters.
[Speaking foreign language]
>>Interpreter: thank you.
That's it for me.
>> Clerk: thank you, Miss
Lee -- or Miss Lacanalial.
Now we'll go to Miss Lee. [Speaking chinese language]
>>Interpreter: thank you.
>> Clerk: thank you, Miss Lee. And Miss
R. Cosenza. [Speaking spanish language]
>>Interpreter: that's it. Thank you.
>> Clerk: thank you, Mr. Cosenza. For those of you that do not
have access to the internet,
you can use the usps to deliver
your comments to the board. And if you do have the
internet, you can submit your
written correspondence via
e-mail, board.Of.Supervisors@sfgov.Org.
You can watch the meeting on
sfgov.Org, and note that the
on-line broadcast results in a 20-second delay. Okay, Mr. President.
>> President Yee: okay.
I guess, let's get started with public comments.
>> Clerk: operations, send the
first speaker through, please.
>> Operator: you have 16 questions remaining.
>> Clerk: welcome, caller. >> hi. Good afternoon, board of supervisors, everyone.
Kelly torres, portola resident, san francisco native with deep family roots in this neighborhood.
I'm calling today to add input
on the idea introduced by
supervisor ronen last week.
I am in no way insensitive to
the situation of the homeless,
however, Mclaren park is finally receiving some much needed attention. Please don't reverse the
progress and efforts that your constituents have made to shed the negative memories of Mclaren, and please don't use my taxpayer dollars to reverse the positive attention Mclaren is finally receiving.
As a steward of the natural world, more importantly and
specifically my city, my place, I am on-line today to oppose
this idea of using our city
parks as homeless encampment areas. Our neighborhood is already
plagued with excessive amounts
of garbage, hypodermic needles,
panhandlers and residents that
spit on you if you don't give them money. It is time for san francisco and her neighboring cities and counties to come together and
solve this issue.
It is not a one city, one county problem. Breakdown those silos. Work together.
Put construction time and money into repush
furbishing those big box empty structures.
We voted for a board of supervisors we believe have vision. Please don't disappoint us and
make this damaging decision. If this idea is allowed to move forward, our parks, and more importantly, the urban wildlife
that depends on them will never recover. Thank you.
>> Operator: you have 15 questions remaining.
>> Clerk: welcome, speaker. [Inaudible]
>> -- former libbertarian party.
A face covering should not be
used by any person who has trouble breathing.
I rise in support of people
with asthma and copd.
Under hipaa, I shouldn't have to disclose my medical
condition, but I've had asthma my entire life.
I have c-pap, I have a nebulizer, I can't breathe. A face covering causes me to
have an asthma attack.
I've already been to the E.R.
Eric gardner didn't die of a
chokehold, he died of an asthma attack. You probably don't know this, but his sister did, as well.
The enforcement of this current public health order and the lack of communication is
causing a racially disparate
problem.
The conditions of asthmatics is
addressed in numerous
articles -- [Inaudible]
>> even the california air resources board says it is junk science, so people who take the time to study the science and
take the time to understand
that it is government, it is
organized crime masqueraiding
as government does exist, and supervisor fewer doesn't care.
Supervisor stefani doesn't care. Steph
supervisor peskin doesn't care.
None of you care. [Inaudible]
>> Clerk: you have 14
questions remaining.
>> my name is jayan dacosta.
I think this would be the right
time for some of you
supervisors to pass a
resolution and a commendation
for our -- [Inaudible]
>> that's the right thing to do.
Also because many of you all
were not informed about the
pandemic, and I still see that
that you're not educated on issues when it comes to
supplies and knowing what has
to be in place in the pandemic.
It's a learning curve, but I
will ask you all to be educated on issues.
Now, our nurses have a whole
year that we decide to honor them.
But the world health
organization has gone even deeper, even further, and set aside the whole decade to honor
our nurses, and I want each one
of you all to read something
about it, and take time to
honor our nurses and craft a beautiful resolution and still
better commendation for our
nurses, our doctors, our janitors, our medical technicians. We need to respect those --
>> Clerk: thank you for your comment.
>> Operator: you have 13 questions remaining.
>> Clerk: welcome, caller. >> linda chapman.
I'm going to follow up on my comments on the special hearing
that was called by supervisor
haney concerning the response
to the supervisors' resolution
or ordinance, actually, to get
people off the streets and into hotels or motels and so forth. I happened to see an article in the paper in which the
officials that have done this disgraceful thing of spending
millions of dollars for hotel
room and holding them empty, and they respond by well, they thought first responders would
be coming from other areas, and they thought they would need them. I mean, just covering up what they actually did.
They said that they wanted the local first responders to use them because they wouldn't want to go home, and then, when they discovered they didn't want to
use them, well, they just left them empty because the people who were living on the street
were considered to be suitable
to move in there. You know, I am appalled.
Now we're talking about putting people in tents in the park.
The people in bayview who
decided to set up an encampment did what they had to do because there was no government response.
But you have the power, together with the city
attorney, to get the people
into rooms where they belong. When there are other disasters, it would usually be the job of
the army or fema to get people
housed, and normally, in those circumstances, there are not habitations available.
Where my grandmother -- when
the chimney fell through in her room, people went and lived in
the parks because there were no habitations. But now, in the city, we're swimming in thousands and thousands of empty rooms. Obviously, it would be a
benefit to the hotels and their employees to have people housed in them. The federal government would
never pay the rates that are
being paid by the city here or in oakland.
>> Clerk: thank you, caller.
Your time is up.
>> Operator: you have 12 questions remaining.
>> Clerk: welcome, caller. >> hi.
My name is Dr. Teresa palmer.
I'm a geriatric doctor and I have a 102-year-old mother who
lives in a long-term care home.
I'm calling in support of item
16, which proposes financial
action to
all long-term care homes concerning sexual orientation
and gender identity.
L.A. County has a great website
that lists all congregate
living facilities, including
jails, and other living facilities, including nursing homes.
We need public data where covid
infection deaths are occurring
if we are to avoid more of a first wave and a second wave. And families need to know where
the infections are occurring in order to make intelligent decisions about taking care of
themselves and their loved ones.
So please, board of
supervisors, support the
legislation for data collection.
We need accountability so resources can be directed to
the people who need to be taken care of. Thank you very much.
>> Clerk: thank you for your comments.
>> Operator: you have 11 questions remaining.
>> Clerk: welcome, caller. >> yeah, hi.
I'm ray allen.
I'm a long time portola resident, and this is in regard to the legislation introduced by supervisor fewer last week,
the use of public parks. I use our parks in the city about every day.
I walk the dog, I volunteer, I
play ball at the big rec down at golden gate park for the
last 40 years, and I've seen
the homeless ebb and flow over those years, and I've cleaned
up after them, and watch the drug abuse and alcohol abuse, and watched the wild rants, and
had my car broken into. But I've also been friends with them.
I don't have any illusions with the situation with the homeless.
I'd like to end with the proverb, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. And the board of supervisors,
to use san francisco parks for
homeless tent cities has a
really good intention but a really bad outcome.
>> Operator: you have ten questions remaining.
>> Clerk: welcome, caller.
>> peter warfield, director of
users of libraries coalition.
I wanted to use this as a means to clarify and repeat some of
the points that I made last week. The minutes have left out some
of the important aspects of my
comments and actually
completely misunderstood the major comment that I was making, and that is that there's over 100,000 people in the city who do not have access
to the internet, and that those
people are being left almost completely behind by the library, who has dropped almost
all services to those people. What am I talking about? If you look at the san
francisco digital strategic equity
equity plan to 2024, there are
very disparate impacts to the usage of internet. For example, household income
over $25,000, 59% have access
to high speed home internet.
Whereas 200,000, it's 98%. Blocks
block blacks, 78%, latino, 72%. The library has dropped all access.
There's no curb side delivery, no mail delivery, which other libraries are doing.
I said that library services
and hours to accommodate those who do not have internet service and May never have it, and you put it as those who require internet services.
I also commented on city
colleges open government violations, which was completely left out. Thank you very much.
I hope you can fix those things.
>> Clerk: thank you for your comments.
>> Operator: you have nine questions remaining.
>> Clerk: hello, caller. Welcome. >> hello.
My name is Mckenzie tobin, and I just wanted to say thank you for everything you're doing
during covid-19.
As a santa clara student and
resident, I thank you so much.
>> Clerk: thank you for your comments.
>> Operator: you have eight questions remaining.
>> Clerk: hello, caller. Welcome. >> good afternoon.
My name is kevin rose.
I'm from the law firm reuben,
junius, and rose in san
francisco, and speaking on item
19 concerning property taxes at
364 birch street, I would ask that you consider postponing the motion of the board of supervisors sitting as a committee of the whole to a
future date 30 to 60 days in the future. My office has been working on behalf of the taxpayer to get this delinquency paid.
There's some questions with regard to the value of the
property, and the taxpayer just received notice of this delinquency on March 4 of this year, which was about two years
after the closing date in 2018.
At that closing, a change of ownership report was filed with
the assessor's office, so there's some concern on the taxpayer's part as to why it
took two years to issue this delinquency notice and the associated penalties and interest. Given the timing of the notice,
just weeks or days before the covid-19 crisis, it's been very
difficult for the taxpayer to
obtain equity or new financing to pay this debt, and as I mentioned, there are some
factual issues that need to be resolved, and legal issues. So I do ask for an extension of this date, and I thank you for your time.
>> Clerk: thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please.
>> Operator: you have seven questions remaining.
>> Clerk: welcome, caller.
>> good afternoon, supervisors.
My name is kylie, and I'm a
member of the san francisco
youth organization.
Thank you to everybody that has
cosponsored, and thank you, board President Yee, for introducing this. On a personal note, it's my four-year anniversary at san francisco youth commission, and
my first week on the job was
when the supervisors held a
joint meeting with the youth commission to vote it on the ballot.
It's wonderful to see this
coming to fruition four years later with young people that are passionate about this issue, and we're going to win, so thank you for introducing this legislation. Thank you.
>> Clerk: thank you for your comments.
Next speaker, please.
>> Operator: you have five questions remaining.
>> Clerk: hello, and welcome, caller. >> hello.
This is anastasia ionnapolous.
I'm asking you to deny senator
wiener's sb bill 2. It will threaten -- 902.
It overrides local plans and policy while imposing infrastructure costs, upzoning
to allow ten units on city lots with no value recapture is
simply a bonus to developers. Next, I support supervisor
fewer's resolution supporting
ab 2058 for a housing preservation tax credit to
provide a 50% credit against
the state and federal capital gains otherwise owned by the
seller if they sell to a
nonprofit entity who will operate the property as an affordable housing for low-income housing for 55 years. And finally, I support
resolution opposing ab 1261,
sponsored by peskin, safai, and
mandelman, which would preempt san francisco's precedent setting prohibition on government acquisition and use
of facial recognition technology. Thanks. Um.
>> Clerk: thank you for your
comments. Next speaker.
>> Operator: you have six questions remaining.
>> Clerk: welcome, speaker. >> hello, board of supervisors.
My name's terry Mckuhn. Got two things.
One, the pandemic virus is obviously spreading in high
density areas, and I thank Miss Wiener's position on san francisco and the state of california. Identity is not our friend anymore.
I think the city's overbuilding
anyhow, but regardless,
identity is going to hurt us
because this is where pandemics spread.
Secondly, on the homeless
issue, we all want to try to take care of issues before they spread. But I've spoken to the police
officers down there, and they're not treating the rooms down there as they should.
There's a lot of damage going on, and who's supervising that? The board of supervisors should know that this is an issue, if this is a correct statement or not. But we need to have a plan as to how you're going to -- when this is over, how we're going to get the homeless back out of
those rooms and back off the streets? And we know that there's been
people coming from all over the place to come here. That's been well documented in the newspapers, and it's an
issue that needs to be thought
out right now, . If it hasn't been, it should
be, and put out to the citizens of the city what the plan is going to be and what the cost is for all those hotels and
everything that's going on. If damage was done, what -- I'm sure the city is going to have to pay for that, so that's going to be an extra cost that
we can't do and put into other things. So please discuss that, and I appreciate it.
Thanks for your time. Bye-bye.
>> Clerk: thank you, Mr.
Mckuhn.
>> Operator: you have five questions remaining.
>> Clerk: hello, and welcome, caller. >> thank you. This is randolph sloane. I was appointed by the san francisco board of supervisors
to the department of building
inspection's S.R.O. Task force
as an S.R.O. Tenant
representative back in 2019.
I just want to share some good
news today, and that is a new
program called S.F. New deal. They've started delivering
meals, three meals a day to
S.R.O. Tenants in the city.
And I express my thankfulness
to the S.F. New deal people, and I just want to read this into the record.
I just needed to thank you, episcopal community services san francisco and the new
community partnership, S.F. New
deal, for the korean food delivery.
As we know in past, people have
had to routinely wait in line
after line after line to
participate in means testing,
etc., to get what they need.
After waiting in line for applying or support, the next line awaits. After appealing another
decision, more time goes by. They spent a lot of their hard
time screening and waiting to
be judged by institutions,
local, state, and federal.
We need local addition and primary supports immediately, not at some unpredictable time in the future. And after all of that waiting,
there comes the annual renewal
process.
More forms, more scrutiny, more shame.
I thank you for three meals
while sheltering in place today.
I won't soon forget the
authentic kindness today --
>> Clerk: thank you, sir.
>> Operator: you have four questions remaining.
>> Clerk: welcome, caller. >> hi.
My name is cliff barton, and I
live on potrero hill.
I'm calling to express my
extreme disappointment for
failing to reappoint director
rubke to the transit board. [Inaudible]
>> Clerk: Mr. President, could
you please mute your microphone.
>> President Yee: no, I'm
sorry.
We're pausing your time, Mr. Speaker.
Has this item been heard? >> yes.
>> President Yee: so Madam Clerk, could you remind
speakers, that items that have
been heard they are not to be
speaking on.
>> Clerk: so speaker, if an
item has been heard in a board
committee, it has had its item satisfied.
You are speaking about the rubke appointment?
That item has already been
called and is not before the board right now, so thank you for your comments. >> thank you.
>> Clerk: thank you. Okay. >> I'm very disappointed. Thank you.
>> Clerk: thank you, sir.
>> Operator: you have three
questions remaining.
>> Clerk: hello,
speaker. [Inaudible] >> -- from senior and disability action, and I'm calling in support of item 16
which would greatly increase
the tracking of covid cases and
covid deaths.
[Inaudible] >> we all have seen the great and tremendous cases of deaths in nursing homes, and it's been
a tremendous struggle to get
reporting and testing in those
facilities, which is just now
being -- [Inaudible]
>> -- doesn't have complete
compliance, but item 16 would extend this demand for adjusting and reporting to
other types of facilities that
could be affected even worse than nursing homes, so please support it. Thank you.
>> Operator: you have two questions remaining.
>> Clerk: hello and welcome, caller. >> hi there.
My name is tim kingston.
I'm a representative of the san francisco public defender's racial justice committee, and
I'm calling in support of aaron
peskin's resolution approving ab 2261 which allows facial
recognition technology to be used in the state of california.
And it endangers people who are liable to be confronted by I.C.E.
It allows the facial recognition to be used in health care systems and other
basic necessities by the use of this in private and government
agencies, and it also seems to
allow the use of clearview
A.I., which is a known
reprobate company in the use of its facial resolution technology. I strongly support his resolution, and that's all I have to say. Thank you.
>> Clerk: thank you, Mr. Kingston. Next speaker, please.
>> Operator: you have one question remaining.
>> Clerk: hello, and welcome, caller. >> good afternoon, supervisors, and thank you for your time. Just to reintroduce myself, my
name is ariana nisterie, and I'm the chair of the san francisco youth commission. I had the privilege of seeing a few of your cases this afternoon at your covid-19 press conference, and I just wanted to thank President Yee
and all the other sponsors for
the sponsoring the legislation
for the November 2020 bid.
And should it come to pass, we
look forward to implementing
these youth franchises across the city. thank you.
>> Clerk: thank you for your comments.
>> Operator: you have zero questions remaining.
>> Clerk: Mr. President, if there are, in the next second, no other callers, I believe that would conclude public comment.
>> President Yee: okay.
Let's give it five seconds.
>> Clerk: okay.
>> Operator: Madam Chair, one caller.
>> Clerk: all right.
>> Operator: you have one question remaining.
>> Clerk: hello, and welcome, speaker.
>> my name is leslie burke, and
I live in the excelsior, which is called the excelsior heights at the moment.
I've had the privilege to work the excelsior in the past few
weeks and gone up to Mclaren,
and was blown away at all the improvements that have been
done to that facility.
It's a very secretive park.
Most people on the other side of town have no idea such a
park exists, and they've done a
lot of work to create such a beautiful park. The condition in the tenderloin, it hasn't changed, it's almost gotten worse.
This has gone on for years, and I didn't walk the tenderloin, knowing that there were problems.
Solutions, put up showers, put
up bathrooms, you know, we'll move the centers.
There seems to be a lot of ideas but no follow through
because of the population,
which is very, very hard to work with and accommodate and deal with mental health, etc. My concern is putting these individuals into parks within
the city will not solve the problem, it'll just move the problem. Because parks are more in an
isolated area, and when you isolate people, they tend to mentor among themselves.
When you don't isolate people, they tend to learn where they live.
You all remember 1906, when there was a fire in san
francisco, it was almost to golden gate park, almost the
center of the city.
You have them almost in the center of the city, and also, they have the security to make it a safe environment.
The other suggestion I have is when you said today that you granted $20 million passed for affordable housing on treasure island, what a beautiful, large
site that has the infrastructure built in and the building --
>> Clerk: thank you, ma'am.
Your time has concluded.
>> Operator: thank you. You have one question remaining.
>> Clerk: thank you. Next speaker, please. >> my name is sarah chong, and
I just want to say how thankful
I am to President Yee for introducing the legislation to vote at 16. We're excited to have it on the
ballot in November and hopefully get it passed, and
thank you to everyone who's
cosponsoring and endorsing, and we thank you for this next step forward.
>> Clerk: okay. Thank you for your comment, speaker.
>> Operator: you have zero questions remaining.
>> Clerk: thank you, Mr. President.
There are no speakers in the queue.
>> President Yee: okay.
Then public comment is now closed.
Madam Clerk, let's go -- call the for adoption without
committee reference, agenda
items 13 through 20.
>> Madam Clerk, you're muted.
>> Clerk: thank you, Madam Deputy. Items 13 through 20 were introduced for adoption without reference to committee. A unanimous vote is required
for those items on first
reading today. Alternatively, a member May
require a resolution to go to
committee. Mr. President, your mic might be muted.
>> President Yee: sorry about that. Thank you, Madam Clerk.
Would anybody like to sever any items?
Supervisor stefani?
>> Supervisor Stefani: yes.
Items 13 and 18, please.
>> President Yee: supervisor mar?
>> Supervisor Mar: item 16, please?
>> President Yee: any others? Okay.
Seeing no others, then, for the remainder of the items, then,
can we call the roll, Madam Clerk.
>> Clerk: yes, on items 14,
15, 17, 19, and 20, supervisor yee.
>> President Yee: wait, wait, wait.
Did you say 15?
>> Clerk: yes.
>> President Yee: supervisor
mar, did you say you want to sever 15 or 16?
>> Supervisor Mar: 16.
>> President Yee: thank you.
>> Clerk: okay.
>> President Yee: okay.
My handout doesn't have 16 on it at all.
>> Clerk: okay. Okay.
So for the record, I'll just restate.
Items 14, 15, 17, 19, and 20. [Roll Call]
>> Clerk: there are 11 ayes.
>> President Yee: okay.
So these resolutions are adopted unanimously.
Madam Clerk, let's go to item 13.
>> Clerk: item 13 is a
resolution opposing california state assembly bill 2261,
authored by assembly member
edwin chau, which would preempt san francisco's precedent setting prohibition on government acquisition and use of facial recognition
technology and there by imperil the public health and safety of
san francisco residents and visitors.
>> President Yee: supervisor stefani?
>> Supervisor Stefani: yes, I
would simply like to ask for a roll call vote on this item, please.
>> President Yee: okay.
Madam Clerk, roll call vote, please.
>> Clerk: on item 13 -- [Roll Call]
>> Clerk: there are ten ayes
and one no, with supervisor
stefani in the dissent.
>> President Yee: okay.
This passes with a 10-1 vote.
Let's go to item 16.
>> Clerk: item 16 is a resolution urging the inclusion
of additional data sets in the
san francisco covid-19 data tracker for sexual orientation and gender identity, and additional congregate residential facilities.
>> President Yee: supervisor mar?
>> Supervisor Mar: I introduced this resolution because we can and should do better.
We can and should do more to
inform the public on covid-19
transmission rates for some of
our most vulnerable populations. While the board already adopted a resolution authored by supervisor peskin that justly and rightfully pushed for the resolution of covid-19 transmission data for S.R.O.S
and shelters, residents in other kind of congregate
residential facilities are also vulnerable and deserve better
data. Just this past friday, the
chronicle reported nearly half
of covid-19s deaths are from nursing home residents and
staff, nearly half, and yet,
san francisco is not reporting
on data from nursing homes and
similar congregate facilities.
In addition, the lgbtq
community disproportionately
experiences incarceration,
homelessness, and housing
insecurity, and where they have
disparate public health outcomes. if anyone can and should lead on this, it's san francisco.
With this resolution, we are saying loudly and clearly that
health outcomes for lgbtq people matter. We are saying that health
outcomes in jails and other
congregate facilities matter.
With everything going on today, people deserve data on this matter.
I'm grateful to terry palmer in
my office for working on this
resolution, and want to thank
cosponsors supervisors walton, row
ronen, and haney, and colleagues, I urge your support of this resolution.
>> President Yee: okay.
Madam Clerk, go ahead and call the roll.
>> Clerk: on item 16 -- [Roll Call]
Kroezer crozier /- ]/
>> Clerk: there are 11 ayes.
>> President Yee: okay. So this resolution is adopted unanimously.
Madam Clerk, let's go to item 18.
>> Clerk: item 18, resolution
to commend captain brett elliott kroezer, crozier, united states
navy, for his courageous
leadership as commanding
officer of the U.S.S. Theodore roosevelt.
>> President Yee: supervisor fewer, this is the second time I've missed you.
>> Supervisor Fewer: oh, I just
wanted to be added on as a
cosponsor of supervisor mar's resolution.
>> President Yee: supervisor stefani?
>> Supervisor Stefani: captain
crozier is a bay area resident,
and he had a long, decorated
career, culminating as the
commanding officer of the U.S.S. Theodore roosevelt.
The captain identified a covid-19 outbreak among his men.
He was met with an inadequate
response from navy leadership.
He outlined a letter as we all
know, detailing actions to limit the spread.
He leaked the letter, and as
you know, he was removed from his position because of the
leak of the letter. Ultimately, acting secretary of
the navy, thomas v.Modley was
ultimately forced to resign in
the wake of publicly berating capped captain crozier.
I would like you to join me in
recognizing him for his role.
>> President Yee: okay.
Let's call the roll.
>> Clerk: on item 18 -- [Roll Call]
>> Clerk: there are 11 ayes.
>> President Yee: okay. This resolution is adopted
unanimously.
Madam Clerk, call the imper imperative item agenda.
>> Clerk: okay.
The imperative item called by
President Yee is a resolution
recommending asian and pacific islander day against bullying
and hate in san francisco.
>> President Yee: colleagues, earlier today, I had introduced
this item as an imperative item, and it's an important
item that I wish to have pass
on time, and -- but, you know,
we can make arguments one way
or other that it May not be imperative. But as a supervisor, as the
President Of this yee, I feel I
need to discipline myself as the President To -- to actually watch what I'm introducing in
terms of what I'm calling imperative, and since this is
sort of very borderline,
whether it is imperative or not, I've decided that I'm
going to withdraw it as an
imperative item and remain
disciplined so I won't get into the situation where people might question why did you approve one thing and not the other.
So we will take this as a
regular item and have a vote on
this next week and hopefully
we'll consider this
retroactive.
So given that, then, I think we
are in memorial, I guess.
>> Clerk: that's right, Mr. President. Today's meeting will be
adjourned today in memory of
the following beloved individuals, at the request of
supervisor mandelman, on behalf
of the entire board of
supervisors, courtney brosseau.
>> President Yee: okay. That brings us to the end of our agenda.
Madam Clerk, do we have any further items on the agenda today?
>> Clerk: that concludes the items on the agenda, Mr. President.
>> President Yee: okay.
I will conclude the meeting,
and colleagues, there was no
call back from Dr. Aragon or colfax to give us a high level
briefing, and so we'll do that
in -- give ourselves a five-minute pause to do that. So regular meeting adjourned, and we will have our briefing in five minutes.
>> President Yee: okay. Thank you, and welcome back, everybody else and colleagues that are listening.
So we are going to be receiving
a briefing from the chief
health officer, Dr. Tomas aragon, and the director of public health, Dr. Grant colfax, at this moment, and
this briefing is occurring under the authority of the governor's executive order, which allows policy bodies to
receive updates from local officials relevant to the
declared emergency and to ask questions of such officials, provided that the members of
the policy body do not take action or discuss amongst
themselves any item of business
that this is within the subject
matter jurisdiction of the body.
This will allow the body to be
fully briefed on the public health, and to ask questions. So I just wanted to ask
questions that I want to thank
all of you for submitting
questions that we could have
the two doctors respond to today. In putting you all together, it was delayed a little bit more
than I had hoped for, and I actually just provided these
questions to Dr. Aragon and Dr.
Colfax yesterday. I think it was around afternoon
when they received it, and
so -- and there's a lot of questions that were submitted.
So when I talked to Dr. Colfax,
i said what I'd like you to do is if you cannot answer all the questions -- I think there's a
lot of them, about 40 of
them -- today, in the one-hour
limitation, then you need to come back next week to answer the rest fully. So that's how I'd like to
handle this, is to give them
a -- this hearing about an hour
and see how much we can get through.
So who'd like to start?
Dr. Aragon?
>> this is grant colfax.
I'll start, and Dr. Aragon will continue.
Good afternoon. It's a pleasure to present to
you an update on the city's covid-19 response.
In talking with Dr. Aragon yesterday, I thought it would
be good to provide an overall overview to frame the
discussion and also within the
context of the presentation answer some of your questions.
So a couple of key points to start with. I'm really so proud of the
supports of mayor breed, the support of the board with
regard to the aggressive actions we took as a community
to the covid-19 response, and it is clear at this time that
we have flattened the curve. And not only have we flattened the curve and slowed the spread of the virus in san francisco,
but we have literally quantitatively saved lives. And just to provide some data
with regard to that, while any
death from covid-19 is one
death too many, we are
currently -- our mortality rate
is four times less than the
mortality rate in L.A. Just more than half the rate of
california overall, and a striking 35 times lower than new york.
And it was not too long ago
that I was talking to many of
you and the mayor about deep concerns about the situation unfolding in new york.
And because of the early hotel citywide actions that we took, the curve has been flattened.
So that's the good news.
The challenges before us,
though, are tremendous, and we
are both in a response mode as
we enter a modified recovery mode.
We are going to be in this for
the long haul, and the virus doesn't have a timeline.
I think it's really important
to emphasize that because
despite some of the overly optimistic scenarios that are being projected in some places,
the virus is here. There is more virus in our community than there was in March, so we have to be very thoughtful and follow the
science data and facts as we move forward.
We are likely in the second ending of a long, long game
here, and I just want to emphasize that because this is not about only what happens next week or even next month,
but the best projections are that we will be managing the
situation for probably 18 to 24
months if prior flu pandemics and prior knowledge fighting pandemics are applied to this situation. So can I have the slides up, please.
So I'll go right to the next
slide, thank you.
So this really emphasizes the
actions that were taken with regards to health directives and orders. And just how the mayor announced a local emergency
even before we had a covid case diagnosed in san francisco,
with this board approving the
local emergency declaration following the mayor's declaration, many of you are familiar with the other health
orders, directives, and directive orders.
But certainly the shelter in
place is the most aggressive
and wide reaching of those. And just to remind us that
that's now been renewed three
times, most recently on April
19, with some loosening of some restrictions. Next slide, please.
This is where we are today.
We've had 1977 total cases of covid-19 reported, with,
unfortunately, 35 deaths, and
you can see that as we
increased our testing, we
certainly diagnosed more cases. Next slide. In terms of the cases that have
been diagnosed, we see what
unfortunately is a long-term
pattern with infectious disease and long-term disease in san francisco, which is that
covid-19 is spreading in
communities that already share
a whole disproportionate burden of other diseases in san francisco.
You can see in particular that
the tenderloin, the mission,
the bayview areas have a higher prevalence of diagnosed
covid-19 than the rest of the city.
the blue on the map in the zip
code areas, the greater the
presence of covid-19.
And they have a map of hiv and
other sexually transmitted
diseases, preterm births -- preterm birth is certainly a
condition, not a disease.
But you can see that historical
patterns of disease inequity in
san francisco are being
reflected by the covid-19 epidemic, and unfortunately, we
are seeing these play out in san francisco and across the nation. This is the nature of the pandemic, and even before the first case, that we 'em emphasized the need to focus on our vulnerable populations and to strengthen our work in health
care setting and in community
to be as prepared as possible
to address the pandemic in communities across san
francisco but especially in communities where there are
already disproportionate or
poorer health outcomes.
Next slide. So this is a slide of our deaths. We've had a total of 35 deaths
in san francisco.
You can see that, by gender,
the portion of people who identify as male is consistent, again, with national and
international data, which show that people who identify as
male have a higher death rate
compared to people who identify as female.
We have not had a transfemale
or transmale deaths in san francisco at this time. You can see that, again, consistent with the national
and international data, deaths
are concentrated in people who
are 60 and older, and you can see also that by underlying condition, we know that people with underlying conditions are
at greatest risk of dying, 34
of 35 deaths in san francisco
have been of people who have
underlying conditions, including medical conditions
such as auto immune disorders, cancers, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and so forth.
And then, I think looking at
race and ethnicity, we see a striking difference in -- these
numbers are small, so
statistically, it's difficult to draw any firm conclusions here, but I do think it needs
to be pointed out that the
number of deaths among asians
is high, accounting for almost half of deaths.
And when we dig a little deeper into those datas, can it appears to
be very much correlated with
age, that since 90% of the
deaths among asian are -- among
asians are among people who are
over the age of 60, and 70% of
deaths among asians are among people above 80.
And also, the deaths in the
asian population are more likely to occur among people
who are residents of long-term
care facilities, which we know
are a high-risk setting.
So overall in testing, the
rates of covid-19 diagnosis is
lower than the general
representation of the asian population in san francisco, but -- representation of the
asian population in san francisco, but those are
correlated with a higher age rate, and also the long-term care facility residents. Next slide, please.
So this is looking at our
cases, so you will see that --
the distribution of diagnosed
covid-19 cases by race and ethnicity.
What really stands out in this chart is a couple of things.
One is the really high prevalence of diagnosis of
covid-19 in a population representing almost 41% of all cases diagnosed. Some of that is due to the recent mission study which
tested a very large proportion
of latinx residents in one zip
code -- sorry, one census tract
in the mission, but this is consistent with what we've been seeing since March.
And this was actually first
detected at our public hospitals, zuckerberg san francisco general hospital
where a very high number of
hospitalized latinx patients was noted as consistent.
You can see there are a large
number of unknown people being diagnosed -- people whose race
and ethnicity are being put as unknown who are dying of covid-19.
>> President Yee: Dr. Colfax, I realize you're going to be short on time, and I also
realize that, so far, most of
the things on the slides that
you've shown, we already have received those. I don't know how many more
slides you have, but it's -- if we could get through those
other slides quickly because, again, I don't think we're seeing anything new.
I think the -- >> okay.
Yes, President, I can go more quickly.
I just -- one of the questions
I believe we were asked was why
were there so many people of
unknown ethnicity were on the test results? Ist ist -- I was trying to answer that here, that we weren't getting that data from our testing partners. I can go faster here.
I just do want to emphasize the
factor of testing.
>> Supervisor Peskin: Mr. President?
>> President Yee: yes? Who's speaking. >> Supervisor Peskin: supervisor peskin.
With regards to Dr. Colfax's testimony, which was statistically quite significant, is there any
reason why the chief medical
officer has not ordered those
organizations to produce that
testing demographic data?
>> so Dr. Aragon can answer
that specifically. I think we would encourage testing even if the person wouldn't report that, so I'll let Dr. Aragon report on that in just a few minutes.
>> Supervisor Peskin: okay. Thank you. >> I'll go faster, supervisors.
Let me get to some other slides that I think is helpful for folks.
>> President Yee: mm-hmm. >> next slide, please.
So this is the curve of hospitalizations across the
time from April 8 all the way through to May 10. This is what I talk about when we're talking about flattening the curve.
You see that we've ranged from
94 to 70 over the past few months. It's really quite remarkable
how flat that has been, but we
will be watching that carefully going forward.
Just again, people May have
seen the sites in terms of the
purple bars that show suspected covid-19 patient counts.
Just to emphasize, when you see
some of those higher numbers,
say, on the 14, 26, and 6, those are really receptive of
our testing at laguna honda, because when we do widespread
testing at that site, it's in
our hospital system, so those
numbers can spike if we're doing an investigation or we're starting to increase our testing there because of the
routine testing of staff and residents. Next slide. So I believe this is a new
slide, so I wanted to focus on this, and it does get to one of
the questions -- several of the questions, I believe, that the board submitted.
This is a slide on the y axis,
shows the mobility index, so
basically a measure of how many
people are moving around in san
francisco as determined by cell phone data.
And on the x axis, of the date, shows how much people are moving around on those dates.
And then super imposed on this
slide is the -- the reproductive number or the
estimated reproductive number of covid-19. these are estimates. I think it's really important
to emphasize these are based on
models that we have been working with.
Dr. Maya peterson at U.C. Berkeley and her team, so there
is some level of error, but I think what's striking about this is the more we move around, the more virus is transmitted.
So a reproductive rate of 3.5, which you see in early March,
before the shelter in place or any action is taken basically
means for every person who's
infected with covid-19, they --
they transmit to 3.5 more people, which is a very, very high rate of transmission. You're going to see, then, that
the reproductive rates decrease
to about 2.6 as we took more action, and then, to the best
of our -- of Dr. Peterson's modelling estimations with the
shelter in place, the reproductive rate was reduced
to below one, and this is an incredibly important concept because if the reproductive
rate goes just above one, the virus will continue to spread throughout our community.
If it's just below one, even.94, the virus will slow,
and you can -- and so this is
very important.
It's also encouraging and remarkable that we have pushed
the virus to below one, to.94,
to the best of our knowledge, an estimate. So you can see here as the movement decreased, you can see on that blue line how much movement needed to decrease to
get to just below one, of.94.
So just conceptually, these are data that we're going to be
watching very carefully as we
gradually and cautiously
determine how to best decrease
the shelter in place
restrictions, but you can see
here everything applied.
So these are data -- these are
basically data from other pandemics, specifically the pandemics that researchers at
the university of minnesota have post skbru ulated as possible scenarios of covid-19. Because of the asymptomatic
spread and higher reproductive
rate, covid-19 is spread more
easily than the flu.
Based on patterns of flu pandemics, outbreaks will
last -- likely last 18 to 24
months; and depending on
cofactors, we May see different waves of different heights.
So scenario one, with peaks and valleys, this would be a
situation where we would have
periodic large outbreaks of
covid-19, followed by a
decrease, with increased controls.
But as those controls get reduced again, that we would
see additional increases.
Scenario two is if there is a correlation with seasonality.
We don't know yet for covid-19
if there will be, but this is
the -- for covid-19 -- whether
the transmission of covid-19
will be accelerated by seasonal changes. That's shown on the slide, but I think also needing to consider is the fact that
eechbl -- even if we get to a
covid-19 base rate, if seasonal patterns of flu are sustained
as they have been in a past.
so a peak due not only to
covid-19 but super imposed on the condition of the flew.
So scenario three is a slow
burn, where we would have smaller but manageable outbreaks going forward.
So this is really important for
us to think about as a city
response, as a community
response, as a county response, thinking about how we manage potential outbreaks going forward and by keeping track of
the data to see whether any of these three scenarios will come
to fruition. I'll also say the differences in what's happening internationally and nationally,
other states opening are
quickly, in my view, recklessly, and also what's
happening internationally, now in south korea, you May have
read that they had a cluster of
cases reported.
We're talking to a reporter about those situations so we can be better prepared in our ongoing response.
Next slide.
So these are our scenarios, and I don't believe they've been formally presented at the board, is that correct, President Yee?
I just wanted to make sure that these were shared with all the board in a consistent way. These are the indicators we will be watching particularly
carefully with regard to those
curves and the possible
resurgence of covid-19 beyond
flattening the curve, so in
terms of our surveillance --
>> Supervisor Walton: just real quick, President Supervisor
yee, how long do we have with
dr. Aragon, Dr. Colfax? I think you were muted,
President Yee.
>> President Yee: we have 45 minutes in total left.
>> I have one more slide left after this. I can go through this really fast, just to emphasize that we're looking at the hospitalization curve.
We're needing to keep hospital capacity at a high level with
some redundancy that we haven't had historically in a hospital
because we need to be able to
care for people efficiently and effectively across our hospital systems. Our testing capacity needs to
go to 1600 to 2,000 a day. Our contact tracing, to be
increased, and you can see our
goal is to reach 90% of cases
and 90% of all patients will be
I.D.Ed, so we're scaling that up. The P.P.E. Struggle, you've seen that nationally and locally.
We're making sure that we have
a 30-day supply so we can protect our health care workers and first responders.
Next slide.
And this is the slide for the
iteration of the state of california reopening. I will just say, if our data continue to hold, we will be
moving on May 18 to curbside
pick up and manufacturing, and
we'll move to phase 2, 2-a,
very early in the stage, with the assumption that we're able
to maintain the positive
patterns that we have had to date.
So that concludes my portion of the presentation. thank you so much, and I'll
turn it over to Dr. Aragon.
>> President Yee: before
anybody starts, if this is kind of a similar presentation, I
can tell, even myself, you know, we were hoping that we
could get into specific answers to questions. Even though you can't get to
all of them, we'd like to see some progress, if possible.
Dr. Aragon, you're next. >> okay. Thank you.
I do not have any slides.
First of all, can you hear me?
>> President Yee: yes. >> fantastic.
So first of all, let me start
by answering supervisor peskin's question about the racial equity data.
So the way that data comes to us is two ways. We have the offices and
hospitals to send us data, or we get it directly from
laboratory reporting.
Oftentimes, hospitals do not
provide the racial equity data,
and laboratories almost never report that. When they do report, we
contact -- if we do a case investigation, sometimes we'll contact the physician to collect that information, and
we do that for high priority
conditions like hiv, where we have a tremendous surveillance system that goes out and collects all that information.
And so now with covid, covid is
now very different because with covid, it's not just providers
in laboratories, but now, we
have all these pop-up providers that are spending that not spending time collecting that information. This is an area that we do need to improve, because sometimes people do register on-line, and that's an area that we brought
up to them, and we hope to improve. One of the things that the state did, you'll notice the
gap right now is about 18%. When it first started, it was over 30%, so it is improving, and through our case
investigation, we'll get better at closing that gap. What I wanted to do now is just to go through the questions and
give you some concise answers
because I know -- I know there's -- there's a lot of questions, and I won't get
through all of them. What I'll try to do is group
them into some themes that I recognize.
So first question here. We understand that san
francisco has engaged in general agreements across the
bay area counties, and the question here was what
commitments, formal or informal, have you made on behalf of san francisco with respect to health officer guidance for san francisco and
with the other counties?
So in the bay area, we have
what's called the bay area association -- association of
bay area health officials or abaho. It's basically the health officers and the health directors of the region that have come together.
This started years ago back in
the hiv/aids epidemic because
they realize in order to fight
hiv/aids, we needed to act as a region, and this was critical
for infectious diseases because infectious diseases across boundaries, we're interconnected, we're connected, we're commuting back and forth.
The other thing here is we're hearing we have inconsistent
policies across counties.
Residents get very upset, and
they're wondering why are you
doing things differently than someplace else?
So the officers communicate and collaborate to shield the public from public health threats. There's no formal agreements.
From our perspective, it's just good public health practice.
Just to let you know, we're organized across the whole state.
Health officers are agents of the california department of public health.
We're part of the local health officers, part of the state health department. So we provide advice to the state health department on things like communicable diseases. The second question here is how often do you meet with your counterparts from the other five counties, including the city of berkeley, and what do you report to after those meetings?
So abaho officially meets biep monthly,
biep -- bimonthly.
So since the pandemic, we've been able to meet once a week
by phone, and we're trying to
align around orders, so we try to coordinate our decisions for the reasons that we mentioned above.
I report to Dr. Foal colfax.
I keep him and our D.P.H. Team
apprised of all of our productions. During the initial phases of
the covid-19 pandemic, as part
of the E.O.C. Regular briefings, I was providing briefings to the board of supervisors and staff three times a week, and the workload just increased dramatically that I have not been able to
participate in those briefings, so that's an area that maybe we
can improve as we move into the future. So the pandemic has really
caused us on having a strategic
alignment across the region, and most recently, this is
where I really spend the vast
majority of my time.
Number 3 is that the role of
the health officer to initiate draftings of the san francisco -- of the health orders who has input and reviewed the health orders from city policy body before the health officer signs the document, creating formal policy for the city and county of san francisco.
Does this include any members of the board of supervisors?
So just to let you know, so health officer legal authority and orders, we've been doing this forever. People don't normally notice we're doing it because it's
just part of what we do.
We do it around communicable
diseases, varicela, measles, communicable diseases.
They're really based on public
health science and principles of communicable disease transmissions. For difficult scenarios, we difficult with the california department of public health
and/or the C.D.C., and this is definitely true for communicable diseases because they obviously cross boundaries. One of the challenges that we
have is in doing orders, we --
we use a public health ethical framework to balance the rights of individual freedoms and then the rights of community protection, so we're trying to do the least restrictive option that we believe will be effective.
Just to give you an idea of the types, in general, the orders
that you have been seeing primarily have been around restricting movement and freedom of choices. And the types of things that
you've seen, this pandemic
has -- has caused us to pool basically almost everything out
of the play book, so isolation, quarantine, sheltering in place, social distancing,
including prohibiting schools,
mass gathering, what's called
protective sequestration, where we started visitors from coming.
We wanted to really protect the
residents, and that's one of the reasons why, compared to other places, that we've done better. And then laboratory and disease
reporting are major areas.
I consult primarily with public health experts, taking direction and guidance and input from the experts that we have at the department of
public health, including Dr. Colfax. We're fortunate, in san francisco, that we have really
an amazing team of communicable disease specialists in all
different areas, and so I'm fortunate because I get to pick their brain and sort of figure
out what might be a best option. The question -- there was a
question in terms of who was involved. Primarily, we work with the city attorney.
In general, elected officials
aren't involved in drafting the
health officer orders. However, keeping communication is really, really critical, and
I get e-mails, and I get great ideas, and there's sometimes things that I can't see, and people point out, did you see this, and it gives me some
great input and feedback onto what's happening. Dr. Colfax already covered
around the increase in asian mortality.
I just knew -- I want to
mention to summarize the major takehome for message in san
francisco is that the asian population is getting infected
at a much lower rate compared
to, for example, the latinx population. However, when they are infected, they're dying at a
higher rate, and as Dr. Colfax
pointed out, that's primarily due to much older age and being in a long-term care facility
where the risk is highest. And we're going to continue to monitor that carefully.
There's a team at ucsf that's monitoring this, not just in san francisco, but in california, where we have a
large asian population to see if there's something happening
that we need to take into account.
>> President Yee: just one remark.
I shouldn't be stopping you.
>> no, that's fine.
>> President Yee: I saw the
data in terms of the asians versus the rest of the people
that were dying, and the age categories for the asians and the other people that were dying were almost identical. So what you just said doesn't make any sense to me. >> yeah. Well, it's a combination of -- well, just in general, I'll just -- this is just, if you just look at the demographics
in san francisco, the asian population has more older
persons than, let's say the latinx population that has a
lot younger and immigrant population. So the age distribution in both of those are just very different to start with, so you're going to have a bigger group -- you're going to have a bigger group that's at risk.
What we're seeing is -- what we're seeing is the number of cases -- the number of cases,
but there's a higher number of asians who are older.
And of the oldest, they --
compared to other groups, they
tended to be in long-term care facilities.
So you have older age in the long-term care facilities.
One of our epidemiologists told
me today that there's a number that we're also part of cruise ships, so they got exposed on cruise ships. So that taken together I think
partially explains what we're seeing. I think it's still early. We've only been in this
pandemic for a few short months. I think as more data becomes available, we will learn more,
and we do have ucsf researchers
that are interested in understanding this better.
>> President Yee: supervisor
peskin, did you just raise your hand?
>> Supervisor Peskin: I did.
I appreciate Dr. Aragon putting
forth all the data to the board of supervisors and President
Yee, but I think it would be
helpful to jump in on things.
I just wanted to go back to an
earlier contention that Dr.
Aragon brought up, which is how abaho and the individual health
officers consult folks, and what we heard is it is entirely
within a -- or almost entirely
within a chain of command that
is cal D.P.H. And the C.D.C.
And not in consultation with the executive branch of san
francisco or the legislative branch of san francisco and for the other counties. Did I get that right?
>> well, no -- I mean, we
don't -- we don't operate independently, so as the --
the -- by law, every county has
a physical health officer.
The physician health -- a physician health officer.
The physician health officer
works at the city, with the exception of the city and county of san francisco.
the health officers are appointed by the board of supervisors, so they work very closely together, and they communicate frequently.
In my case, because I'm part of the health department, all officers are part of health department.
They usually run the public health component of the health departments. Our case, we're actually a health agency because we have
much -- we have -- our services
are way beyond public health. Includes public health, substance abuse, and clinical services, so we're a big agency, and public health is just one component of that.
I run that component, which is called population health division, and I'm part of the health department, which the
health agency, and I report to Dr. Grant colfax, and I'm part of the executive branch.
So most of my interaction is in direction.
It comes from Dr. Colfax, and most of my interaction's working with the team here in terms of influencing public health policy. But I would never say that it's never me alone.
It's really -- I'm one of many people that come together to problem solve around the complex -- the complex problems. I would say the area that I
tend to be more involved in is
in communicable diseases
because that's just one of the areas where public health has a
big footprint in is communicable diseases.
>> Supervisor Peskin: so through the President, Dr. Aragon, I guess what I'm trying
to determine is how you and
your similarly situated counterparts in the city of berkeley come up with some of
the these things.
Look, we're obviously all living through a very frustrating period, and it
falls on the elected folks, the
11 members of the board and the
mayor, to experience not only our personal experiences with
the virus but that of our constituents.
So what I'm trying to figure
out is -- and obviously, all of
this is evolving very quickly, but there are things that happen that we don't understand
and are very hard to explain
that, in my mind, go beyond the
purview of straight ahead health decisions. So, for instance, when the health officers came up with the directive that construction could go forward in projects
that had 10% affordable housing
but not projects that had 0% or
50% or 100% affordable housing,
that did not appear to this
supervisor as a health decision per se.
There was an element of nonhealth policy and politics in that.
And what I'm trying to
understand is did abaho collectively or did you individually -- how did you come up with that? Because the metric, how many
people are in an elevator together, building that building or whether or not they
can socially distance as they put up sheet rock?
>> no, you're absolutely right. so basically, we came up with principles, and we tried to
stick with the principles as much as possible. And things around affordable
housing is -- we were -- I'll just share with you the way
that we are thinking about that. The shelter in place, we knew that it was going to have a big economic impact.
People are going to lose jobs, people May actually become
homeless, and we're thinking
boy, we just need to -- just
knowing the epidemiology, Dr.
Colfax just presented to you,
this is really a long haul, and we're thinking boy, we've got
to make sure that some of that
pipeline of housing continues because we're probably going to need it.
And that's how we were -- that's how we were thinking about it.
But I agree with you, we felt
sort of -- we were in a -- we
were outside of our comfort zone in making some of those
decisions, and I think it --
some of those areas -- some of those areas were challenging,
but I would say the major focus
would be is what big intervention can we do not to become new york, not to become
italy, and I would say that was
95% of our focus was on really
avoiding new york city catastrophe.
One of the things we learned is shutting down, opening up is
much more difficult because it requires much more expertise than we have. We're shifting -- we're
shifting our focus on really
focusing on the health issues and looking to outside guidance
on how we move forward because we realize is that it's going to take a bigger group of people to do this.
>> Supervisor Peskin: okay. I have many more things, but I will leave you -- I will make
space for other folks.
>> so I was covering -- I was
briefly covering about how often we meet, and I think I already mentioned -- I think I already mentioned most of those.
So I'll keep going, and just feel free to interrupt me if you want to just -- I think I covered -- I covered the different things of laboratory
reporting, I covered asians. There was a question -- question number 6 was the health officer has been in conversations with at least one supervisor around issuing a health order requiring system wide health data sharing across all hospitals and health clinics providing testing and treatment of covid-19. Why have you not issued a health order to mandate this
type of anonymous data or disclosure? Is it because you're waiting
for other counties to agree to
do it? At the same time, is there
medical rationale why we're not
mandating public hospitals and
clinics to share this
retroactively, and where is the data?
So first, I'll cover -- for a health care emergency like this, I have access to all that data. I just don't have the band width to go and look at all that data.
So we -- we have access to the
clinical data around reportable communicable diseases, and that's true for all of them.
And where we -- where we
implement that in a -- in the
most rigorous and comprehensive comprehensive way is through hiv.
So we -- with hiv, we go into hospitals, we review medical records, we have access to
everything we need, and that's just a general authority that the health officer has, so we don't need to write health orders for that. We don't consult with other counties around that.
What has been different with this one is that what is new is that all of a sudden we really
need to get our hands on better
metrics, so really -- because
we knew of the issues of
hospital surge, I.C.U.,
shortages of leaders, we needed to figure out how we were going to get good hospital data across the region and across the state.
And the way to do that has really been through the state
health department. So rather than each county trying to go to each hospital and just figuring out how to do it, we really turned that responsibility over to the
state. Basically, what the state is doing is the state is telling
all the hospitals across the state, this is the information
that you have to report to us every single day.
That gets input into a database
and sent to us locally, and then we map our hospitalization.
So we're getting the data we need, but we do it by working through the state so that the whole state has consistent,
good data.
Of course, there's always
things that we can improve, but that's where it is at the moment. The hospitalization data is the most stable data we have in terms of monitoring the pandemic. The limitation of the hospital data is it tells us what happened two weeks ago.
And so while it's reassuring to
see it creeping down, awesome,
we also get a little nervous,
realizing that it's really something that tell is us
what's -- that tells us something that happened two weeks ago.
Number 7 is the reproductive number --
>> President Yee: that was answered. >> okay. So I can leave that alone.
>> Supervisor Peskin: but is that data going to be shared publicly? That data, that was the first time we ever saw that slide. Will that be shared publicly going forward? >> yeah. So one of the -- so one of the
challenges with measuring what we call the effective reproductive number on average, how many -- how many -- how many persons get infected by a case, that number changes over
time as you implement interventions.
It's not possible to measure
that directly, so a lot of that
is measured indirectly, and
what happens is that you take
what you can measure, which is incubation periods, hospitalizations, and then, you
look at what other people have determined from research, like
the basic reproductive number, which is its basic potential to
spread in a population, and the
modelers fit it into data, and they back calculate what the effective reproductive rate number is.
So we do have -- we do have --
we have a model that's being calibrated for san francisco, and Dr. Colfax showed you that.
You can go on-line right now, and you can find effective reproductive numbers for pretty much any part of the country.
So you can go and compare san
francisco county to seattle, so
there are modelers that have calculated it for the
california and counties across the country, and it gives you an idea, but we actually feel -- we actually feel -- we
want to have stuff that's
more anchored to our local data. And we're going to make the numbers available -- the program that we're using is open source. We're actually making it available to everybody in the world because we think it's a really good product, and we
want other people to use it.
It's been good in helping us
extend our intuition in what can happen in different scenario projections. Number 8, given the importance of this number --
>> President Yee: you just answered that. >> okay. So that's great.
Number 9 here, I know that Dr. Phil
phil -- Dr. Philip came and presented on testing, and I
think it's an incredibly important topic.
The way that we're doing
testing is different than we've ever done with different communicable diseases.
One of the things that we've
done is the pop-up sites that we've created. Another innovation is people creating rapid types of tests. The other thing that we are
required by law -- this is a
public health order, is that we required all negative tests to
be reported to us, and that's really critical because we want to know not just who's becoming a case, but we want to know the intensity of testing. That really helps you
understand if a group or a
geography is not getting enough testing, and it also gives us the proportion of tests that are positive, and that gives
you an idea of what the probability -- as the tests
become more common and more representative of the general
population, it gives us the idea of what's the possibility of an average person in that population being infected with
an agent, so it's actually an
important parameter, that it helps us understand how the epidemic is moving through our community. Currently, we have the capacity
to do 2100 tests through our
public health lab, our clinical
health laboratory at zsfg, and then through city test S.F. the testing number right now in
san francisco is 5800.
We had a goal as an indicator
to be -- to be above 2 per 1,000. We're -- as a city, we're clearly above that number, so we've reached that milestone, and now, we're working on
making it more -- more accessible to higher risk groups, so that's the area that we're moving into. And there's other questions on testing, so I'll cover some of
them as I continue to move through. Number 10 was why was the health officer not issued a public health order requesting
the information on testing resources and supplies on hand
across the provider -- the
provider network?
So in general, we don't issue orders around information that we can just get by just -- by
just partnering with folks. We did do it around testing
because we felt that it was so critical, for example, for them to report negative to us.
We felt that it was critical to our system, and we felt that we needed it.
So D.P.H. Did hire a team to focus on improving testing capacity. And just so you know, san francisco is doing more testing than any county in the bay area, and we're just getting started. We're committing -- we're
committing to even doing more
testing to make universal
access a reality. The big challenge that you face with a pandemic that's different -- that's different
from, let's say a wildfire or an earthquake, when you have a
local disaster, you can -- you can seek mutual aid for what you need.
When you have a pandemic, everybody in the world is asking for the same materials,
and so that's why there was a
big shortage of testing swabs, reagents, personal protective
equipment, and this was
really -- everyone knows this. This was a hue mon mongous testing at the federal level. It made it difficult for us, and something that impacts the whole world, these shortages. Things are getting better, and as resources improve, you're
going to see us move towards universal testing.
The next question was about collecting -- has a health
officer considered taking steps
to consolidate resources across the hospital provider network
and to develop a prioritization
and to develop those resources? So what happens is in general,
we don't -- we don't control
those resources.
It would require a whole logistical infrastructure to do that.
So in theory, it could happen, but it wouldn't be efficient. It's better to allow the health
systems to use their resources and then to -- and then to help support them as they run out.
So what would happen is -- is that as hospital systems needed
more resources, they would make
requests through the E.O.C., and then we would make a request regionally, and it
would go up to the state. And then, over time, as resources became available, those resources filtered down to the local level.
We we don't try to take away the resources because it
wouldn't make sense since it's really better for them --
better for them to manage it.
It says here, doctors across
the country grapple -- this is number 12.
Doctors across the country grapple with making decisions
over who will get access to
limits supply, such -- limited
supply, such as ventilators and
life making resources.
Has the officer considered developing resources across the network in order to avoid
having to make those types of decisions? So this is a really good -- a really good question, and yes, we -- this is -- like, this is our passion. Our passion is figuring out how
can we -- what's -- what's the
most effective, least restrictive, least intrusive strategy that's going to have
the biggest impact? And so we were fortunate
because we implemented shelter in place. We actually -- there was a
series of interventions that
Dr. Colfax showed you on the slides.
So we actually got involved really early, and what we know
from data, first of all, we flattened the curve.
We utilized less than 10% of our hospital surge capacity. That's how successful we were.
We had cpmc ready to help with 200 beds. None of that was required, so we were so successful in not
having to -- not having to face
of tough decisions how to ration ventilators.
And so we really stuck -- from
day one, we had three strategies, which was to mitigate community spread,
protect health care workers, protect vulnerable populations,
and then later on, we expanded testing and then optimizing hospital surge.
So we've been able to achieve on most of those. I would say the areas that
we're turning our attention to right now, we've achieved one,
two -- the big areas right now is protecting vulnerable populations and expanding our testing, and I think that's one of the themes that I recognize that came through, and I think
testing is really -- is really critical. Initially, when testing was
limited, we had to prioritize,
and we focused on people kwho who
had symptoms and people that were hospitalized, so we had
the highest percentage of positive tested. We've moved to testing asymptomatic folks, and I would
say that's really the area that there's a lot of movement -- a lot of movement that I'll mention in a second.
Then, we moved to testing all workers, anyone who works outside their home.
So right now, we're telling -- if you work outside the home in san francisco, you have free testing available to you. So people can either go to
their health care provider, or
they can go to citytestsf, and
they can get tested.
within our own free testing
sites, in addition to the two
S.F. Testing sites, we have testing at southeast health
center in the bayview, maxine
health center, and then at ucsf.
And then, there's a site that's
going into the bayview that's
being supported by the state health department.
We have a link that has all of our protocols. Every day, we spend time
talking about -- we implement C.D.C. Protocols, state
protocols, but then, they get customized to the situation that we're facing here.
I do want to announce a game changer that was just announced today by governor newsom that pharmacies are now going to be allowed to do testing.
So the fact that pharmacies are
going to allow to do testing is going to be a game changer
because we want to get to the
place where, during your
lunchtime, you have no symptoms, you're a food handler -- and we want food
handlers to get tested because they work in close quarters with other workers.
We want them to go on their
lunch, walk in a pharmacy they
go into on a regular basis, and
get tested. I think that's going to become a part of our future, is that testing is going to become more available. So I think the thing that's coming out of testing is the
testing of asymptomatics. We know that the information
that we're seeing here in the city, for example, from the mission study, of everybody
that tested positive, 53% of
them did not have symptoms.
That's how the epidemiology of this virus is teaching us
completely new lessons, so that's what we had was completely phenomenal, completely upside down.
>> Supervisor Walton: thank you, Dr. Aragon. While we know that we're not testing every single person where we know that there's a high concentration of folks with covid-19, not just
essential orders, but every single person in those areas of communities where we know that there are high concentrations
of folks who contracted the virus. Because you just said --
>> right, right, right, right,
right, right, right.
>> Supervisor Walton: because you just said you tested people
without symptoms at 53%. >> you're absolutely correct,
and that relates to some of the other questions that have been brought up, and that is testing
of high risk settings and also communities.
Within the area of -- let me start off with congregate settings.
We're prioritizing -- we're prioritizing congregate settings because we know that's
where the highest risk of transmission is, the highest
risk of mortality, and so currently, we're starting with our long-term care facilities that was mentioned earlier, that almost half the deaths in california come from persons in long-term care facilities, and
so we're going to start -- we're already started.
we're testing at laguna honda, residents, close to 800, and staff, which is 1500. Then, we're going to move to the next biggest one. We anticipate we're going to be
able to test the jewish home in the next two weeks, and we're going to work through the other long-term care facilities. I'm sorry. Go ahead.
>> Supervisor Walton: just out
of curiosity, what are the
long-term numbers of testing at
laguna honda and testing at other long-term care facilities?
What would you say is the number of people? >> so laguna honda is 800 residents and 1500 staff, so it's a lot of people.
It's over 2,000 people, and it's very resource intensive
for us to do the testing because it requires a team of people who have personal protective equipment, and so --
and -- and so we have --
currently, we have two mobile teams that are -- belong to
D.P.H., and we're also bringing on board some private providers, private testers to
help us with this.
Yes, it's a big -- one of the
specific challenges with this specific virus is we have to retest.
Our goal is to retest, every
two to four weeks, everybody.
So it's a huge commitment, but that's how we're going to be able to prevent infection and
save lives in the near future.
>> Supervisor Walton: so the answer to my question of why
we're not doing testing of
asymptomatic testing in every area that we see communication of the virus is because we don't have testing capacity? >> so right now, the
capacity -- the capacity is increasing, so right now, when I mentioned that I've
prioritized right now, is so
anybody who works outside the
home can go to any site, even
if you do not have symptoms -- right now, you do not have to
have symptoms to get tested.
>> Supervisor Walton: so -- but you have to be an eventual worker. >> yeah.
Anybody that works outside the home -- that works outside the home.
>> Supervisor Walton: correct. What does that do to our unhoused population or people
who live in those areas of high concentrations of people who have contracted virus that don't go to work?
>> yeah, and I agree with you. That provides a different strategy, and we're working -- we are working on doing a better job of meeting the needs of both the homeless population
and also the areas like the mission district, like bayview,
where there's crowded housing
and also where people are at risk, and so those are areas
that we're working onto do a better job.
I absolutely agree with you, including in the homeless population.
>> Supervisor Walton: so my
last question, if we're about 5800 capacity, I'm asking specific numbers. You haven't hit 5800 yet, and I know we're not doing that every
day, so I'm a little confused
as to why we haven't tested everybody in your priority
category, and that's focused in
care, living in cares, and
folks in laguna honda and other
congregate settings. Those measures have been in place for a while. If my math is correct, we
should have started testing of asymptomatic already.
>> yeah. It's been harder. That's our capacity today, but it's really taken a while to get up to this capacity.
I can just tell you, as of a week ago, we were debating on the types of swabs that we had access to. All of that is improving, and
really, that's what I can
communicate right now. I agree with you. Believe me, I wish it can go faster.
It just takes a long time. >> supervisor --
>> President Yee: wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I see two other people on the roster. >> go ahead.
>> President Yee: I'm sorry. Who's talking?
>> Dr. Colfax was just --
>> President Yee: okay. Go ahead.
>> so our goal is to have
universal access for testing
for covid-19, and I share your vision.
>> okay.
>> President Yee: okay.
Dr. Colfax, go ahead. >> our goal is to have
universal access to testing for all. Our capacity is the machine that can run the test, and you're exactly right.
We do not have the operational aspects, all of the solid supply chains, the staffing,
the P.P.E., the mechanisms all have to be worked out to reach that vision.
So our goal is to get there not
only through D.P.H. But our
private partners, as well.
So it's not like we can turn on
a switch and get to that number overnight.
That's why we're starting with
laguna honda first, so we can improve our ability to do
things faster and then move
onto the other S.N.F.S.
>> Supervisor Walton: my
apologies for jumping the
roster, President Yee.
>> President Yee: no problem.
Supervisor mandelman?
>> Supervisor Mandelman: thank you, President Yee.
I guess I share my colleague's
desire to understanding what capacity means.
I'm gleaning that this means a
workforce problem, but you never said that. I am assuming that to have
teams of D.P.H. Folks or folks under contract set up to go out
to each nursing home in san
francisco every two weeks is a
project that requires people,
and I'm wondering if D.P.H. Has those people.
And I'm wondering if layering on top of that.
Maybe you can tell me if this is true.
I imagine you'd like to do a similar exercise for every vulnerable population in a congregate living situation,
and that there's also a capacity problem which I'm also
imagining is sort of a, like, bodies or people problem, but I don't have a great sense of that. It would be great to have a sense of -- when you say capacity, it's not -- it doesn't sound like we're hitting up against the lab
number capacity problem, it sounds like the materials
problems are, you know, May or May not be getting resolved.
But it does occur to me that lodge sticks and number of people that you need to
manage -- and this is also probably true of contact tracing, you know, that there's
a lot of people that need to
get put into these roles, and maybe I'm not completely understanding. >> yeah. So let me just briefly
summarize that, and let me do
it in two phases. One, my colleagues remind me
that it's not just about testing because when you test,
you're going to find staff and
residents in long-term care facilities, some of whom are positive, and then, you have to
figure out what to do with them.
So there's this whole
infectious control, training on
how not to get infected, and then they have to go out to all of these facilities.
So they have to mitigate what's happening in their site but also figure out a path forward how they're going to continue
to operate, so it's a big challenge for them. You're absolutely right, and
that's really why, for us right
now, this is a transition
period as we're trying to think
about how do we begin to lift shelter in place because of the
health harms associated with shelter in place and the disrupting of the economy, but
then, how do we build -- how do we do what we're currently doing? Some people -- because we're activated right now, we're using disaster service workers. Some of them are going to have
to go back to do their regular operations. How do we backfill those positions? How do we expand in those areas that we're going to have to expand, and each one of those is very different. So what's required for a long-term care facility is very different than what's required for shelters, very different than what's required for S.R.O.S, different than what's required for contact investigation and training, so there's work issues across all of those that have to be scaled
up, and we're going through -- we're going through intensive planning right now, figuring
out how we're going to do that.
And I don't know if Dr. Colfax wants to add anything, but yes, what you're describing is absolutely -- is absolutely where we're at right now.
>> Supervisor Mandelman: and
who is in charge of all that?
>> that's -- that's -- the way
that -- right now, that's being
done through the E.O.C., and
the E.O.C., the D.O.C., all that infrastructure exists, that we depend on all that infrastructure for everything that we're doing.
>> Supervisor Mandelman: so that's being governed by a committee?
>> so our testing head on this
is Dr. Amy lockwood, as well as
Dr. Philip, who is leading the
testing concept.
>> President Yee: supervisor haney?
>> Supervisor Haney: thank you, President Yee. I have just a couple of things
that have been hard for me to understand.
One of them is a thing that a
lot of people are focusing on,
which is why we seem to have a different strategy that we're stating compared to other counties like los angeles, who have been very open that they're able to and willing to
test anyone who wants to be tested? I have a district where we have
many S.R.O.S where there were positive cases, and people who
live in those buildings want to be tested, but they don't currently fit into the
categories where they're tested, so they're not being tested. It seems like you're explaining
a lot of what our plans are and
what we're doing, but we seem to be doing different and
having a more limited approach
than even places like san
joaquin county who has taken a similar stance as los angeles. Can you just quickly explain
why aren't we saying exactly what los angeles is saying
right now on testing? >> yeah.
So I'm sorry, was someone going
to say something?
I -- so the way -- the way that
we're saying this, as dr. colfax is saying, we're moving in the direction of universal testing.
And given the limitations that
we nshlly initially had, we have been prioritizing, and we started off in a prioritized way with
the asymptomatics, focusing on outbreak detection, and so
right now, for example, if we have -- in a shelter, if one person has developed symptoms that's positive, we're treating that as an outbreak.
And so -- and we -- and we absolutely need to move beyond that, and that's exactly the direction that we're moving into, is going to be the universal access. And I completely agree with you. I don't know -- and I think what we need to do is because we -- because we received these questions last night, I
think -- and I know Dr. Phil --
Dr. Phillips came last week.
It's a complex problem, but I think we would be able to go
more into these questions in
detail by having the people in this work explaining what's
been done.
>> Supervisor Haney: any thing that I'm trying to understand
is your approach at the department of public health to
spechl people that are homeless, are -- specifically people that are homeless, in shelters, and H.S.A.S. We've heard presentations on that, etc.
It seems to me that because of
how vulnerable these individuals continue to be --
and I can tell you, from my
experience, from what I can see, very little has changed
with regards to the number of
people who are on the streets
in very vulnerable situations. There -- it's basically the
same as it was, if not worse than two months ago.
So as we begin to go to these
next set of phases around opening back up, and nothing has changed to put these people
in any sort of greater level of protection, and nothing looks
like it's -- going to happen any time soon, considering the rate at which people are going
into hotels, how can we be
confident that there won't be
spread, rapid spread among
these populations as we start to open up for everyone else
who has some protection while
we have done very little to
protect those that are most vulnerable? I just don't see how we're
going to drop the metrics when
we haven't helped people who
haven't had any change in their vulnerability? >> yeah.
We appreciate your comments,
and we realize that that is one area that we need to build up
our early warning systems, and that's one of the focus that we
have, as you're exactly describing. I think one of the things that
would be useful, at a future time, in addition to coming
back and talking about testing,
to have folks that do the
community hub, that do the work
on the ground and work with these community populations.
You can learn about how they're adapting testing to the
population that have mental health and substance use challenges. So it's a work in progress, and
I think it would be useful for
us to come back and report to you on how that is going. It's not an area that I'm spending -- I'm spending more
of my time on a higher level,
but I think it would be great for them to come back and speak to you.
>> Supervisor Haney: yes. We've heard from H.S.A. A
number of times, but this is an
issue of public health and how we're meeting certain metrics and how we're controlling the spread.
Last question I want to ask, because I know that other people want to ask questions,
it's related to the vulnerable population and homeless population.
So the plan, as I understand it, is for people who are positive to go into an
isolation and quarantine, and
once they are negative again,
they are spent back to a shelter where they are in a congregate living environment.
I've asked H.S.A. Before, but again, I feel this is a public health question.
What does it say to the people that are "post covid"?
It seems to me that these
people are still in danger because their immune systems are way compromised, having
just survived a deadly virus,
or from everything that I've
read, I don't feel 100% confident that they cannot catch covid again, that we are
putting them into a knowingly
vulnerable environment, a congregate shelter environment, in some cases on a floor,
having just survived this deadly virus.
Can you please justify that from a public health perspective?
>> yeah, and again, we can have somebody come and tell you more
details on how they're setting
up those sites. You're absolutely right. There's a lot we don't know. We know that persons who have -- for example, health care workers that have
recovered do go back to work xz , and so as long as they've recovered, they can go back to doing what they've done in the past. But of course, you're right.
We don't know -- in terms --
there are some people that May
excrete the virus for a longer
period of time, and people May
get reinfected, and that's why
we continue to practice distancing with face coverings because that is an unknown. So to the extent that people can recover, that they should be able to go back and deserve
to go back to do what they've
done before, but we do have to be extra cautious and recognize that we don't know, and that
people still need to practice
social distancing, facial
masking, washing hands, etc.
>> Supervisor Haney: and if I could just add, the concerns
that you've raised are obviously important, -- >> and if I could just add, the
concerns that you've raised are
legitimate, and are key in getting policies moving
forward, so we've working in the health department and making sure that things are
aligned with experts in infectious disease and people
who have been in homeless
medicine as much as possible.
>> President Yee: so are you done, supervisor haney?
I'm sure you have many others.
>> Supervisor Haney: no, I can ask another question, but I just want to say. I appreciate that, but I do want to be clear that I have not seen any public health
guidance that says it makes
sense to take somebody that has
just survived this deadly virus
and all its unknowns, and take
them and put them back in a congregate living environment.
>> President Yee: no. It doesn't seem that we're going to get to all the questions, obviously, and we're going to make sure that they come back. I know that you're about 20 minutes more than what I asked
you to do, Dr. Aragon, but I
want to stay at least ten more minutes because there's three more people in the roster. So whoever comes first --
>> I will try to answer them,
and then Dr. Colfax will back me up if I cannot answer them.
>> President Yee: so I'm going to go by this order.
Supervisor ronen, then safai,
and walton, I know that you're before safai, but I want to
give them a chance first. Supervisor ronen.
>> Supervisor Ronen: thank you,
President Yee, and director --
Dr. Colfax, and Dr. Aragon. I want to say thank you very
much for your work. I know you've both been just
working nonstop and have done a
tremendous job at flattening
the curve and not overwhelming the hospitals during this time, and I'm so appreciative to both of you.
But I just want to follow up on some of the supervisor haney's question because as you know, the place that we've been
having a really hard time understanding the strategy
around the department of public health has been with the homeless population. So we are now about seven weeks into the shelter in place order.
I know, you know, that, like so
many other san franciscans that
are blessed to be housed, we
are getting antsy.
I know this weekend, the parks
were filled and people had no masks and we're trying to inform them that we're not out of this yet, and that in order
to keep the curve flat, it
isn't a done deal; that we have to continue to shelter in place
in order to do that. But what's so hard for me when
I talk to my housed constituents is that outside
they door, they see massive,
massive tent encampments where
people are out in the streets
without masks, they're clearly interacting, sharing equipment,
have no access to showers, no access to water, have no access to food or very little access to food.
They're going to work, some of them, because despite the
stereotypes, many unhoused members of our city are working. and I've just been frankly
shocked that there has not been
one health order issued yet
directly related to this population.
And it seems like you've operated with two separate
standards: a standard of
protection, an expectation for
the housed population, and a standard of care and
expectations for the unhoused population, and it's been
really upsetting to me the entire time.
And I'll finally get to my question.
Why haven't you issued a health
order requiring shelter or some
sort of setup where people are safe and distancing and have
access to showers, water, and
hygiene for the massive
unhoused population of this city during this crisis?
>> and I'm sorry, supervisors.
I just -- per President Yee, I let him know that I unfortunately had a hard stop
at 6:00, and supervisor ronen, Dr. Aragon will answer your question.
I do want to emphasize, though,
that from the beginning, the
population experiencing homelessness was an acute priority of ours.
In working with H.S.A. And
H.S.H., we have housed in
hotels hundreds of people that
are particularly vulnerable. In doing that, we've saved many
saves, and the isolation and quarantine hotels, we currently have 200, and we have a capacity of 500.
I hear your concerns, very much appreciate them, but I do want
to emphasize that this is a
population that the health
department and other departments have been focused on during this pandemic.
So unfortunately, I do have to leave at this point, but I'll
turn it over to Dr. Aragon.
>> President Yee: Dr. Aragon? >> yes, thank you for that question. I know when I started looking
into this, we did consult with the city attorney of what -- of
just the whole topic of commandeering property. And one of the things that I learned -- there's actually two things that I learned, and that
is in order -- in order to commandeer property, we would have to show that persons are
not cooperating in our -- in
our attempt to secure hotel rooms.
And the other thing I learned is that because of due process,
it could take longer.
>> Supervisor Ronen: can you repeat your first statement? I missed that.
>> so the communication that I have from the city attorney was that we would have to show that
we were unable -- exhausted all resources -- all resources to
get hotel rooms, and as long -- as long as the city can secure
hotel rooms, that that should go forward. So that was -- that was my understanding.
So it didn't seem to me to make
sense to do an order if the
city has the capacity to
negotiate and get hotel rooms as the board of supervisors has
also passed an ordinance, as well.
>> Supervisor Ronen: well, Dr. Aragon
aragon, I completely disagree with your statement.
But second, you have a unique
power to order individuals that
walk out on the street and May someday need help in the hospitals have decided not to issue that order in the past seven weeks. I want to know why because it
doesn't make sense to me, and
it doesn't make sense to my
constituents, both housed and unhoused. If you walk the streets of the city, it doesn't make sense to
any of those thousands of
people that are obviously dangerously camping in the
street right next to each other
with no access to hygiene. So I don't want you to hide
behind the city attorney, I want to know why you haven't
issued a health order requiring
intervention on the basis of public health facility. You just shutdown the entire economy of san francisco, and you were willing to do that, and I stood by you, and I stand by you in that decision. You have not been willing to do
that for the homeless population, and I don't understand it.
We as supervisors have done everything in our power to try to force the situation, but we're not the public health officer.
That's you, and I want to understand why you haven't issued that order.
>> I'll explain it to you the best way I could, and that's
really all I'm prepared to say at the moment.
>> Supervisor Ronen: well, that's really disappointing,
Dr. Aragon. i have nothing more.
>> President Yee: okay. Thank you, supervisor ronen.
I'll say it mildly.
I don't disagree with supervisor ronen. Supervisor safai?
>> Supervisor Safai: thank you, President Yee. Thank you, Dr. Aragon. Thank you for -- let me just say that you -- for all the
questions that I have had, all
the ones that I have funneled
your way during this crisis, I really appreciate your accessibility and your response and your ability to explain
things in a clear manner,
joining us for our town halls,
and for working so hard to get
this information out as quickly as possible. It's been tremendous. I want to ask you, and if I missed it, I'm sorry because I know that there's been a lot of
questions. I want to talk a little bit about our skilled nursing facilities. I know I've talked to you about this last time.
I know we've had some conversations about when
testing would begin in an
aggressive manner, and when I
see that new york is -- has issued -- the governor of new york has issued that all persons in these facilities
would be tested twice a week, and they would be moving aggressively, and they then changed their orders that said
they would no longer allow covid-positive patients to be transferred into these nursing facilities. And then, when I read the statistics in the state that
over half the people that have
died have been in these skilled
nursing facilities, it makes me wonder why and how we haven't moved a little bit more aggressively.
I know you said you're still debating about the types of
swabs and so on, but what can
you do -- I know you've told us recently that the orders have
changed, and now, all the staff in these facilities are going to be tested.
But we put out on sfcity,
testsf that people can get testing at 7 and brandon without an appointment, or any person can get testing on pier 32.
I'm just wondering how and why
we haven't been able to move
more aggressively in our skilled facilities.
This is a big concern in the entire jewish community >> yes, thank you.
It is our long-term care
facilities, especially the
S.N.F.S, is our highest priority. And I think what you'll see if
you go back and look at all the
orders that were done on skilled nursing facilities, strom screening, temperature checking, we made it at laguna honda, the residents that could
prior leave, are not allowed to leave.
So what we did -- what we did early on with laguna honda because that is the biggest
location, we asked the C.D.C. And the california department of public health to come in and
actually develop a framework and an approach that we could
provide to long-term care
facilities, and we've gone beyond that, and we're
requiring testing for all staff
and all patients.
>> Supervisor Safai: I know that you guys have consistently changed your orders.
It just seems that we're not moving aggressively enough,
given the statistics of people that have died, and I just
wonder how we can move more aggressively. >> yeah. So let me just real quickly tell you our goal.
Our goal is to get every two weeks of testing.
It's big logistically, and the health department has committed
to making sure the testing gets done.
Other places will pass the orders and then just expect the skilled nursing facilities to do it.
What we've heard is they don't necessarily have the financial resources or expertise to do
that. So we're stepping up to do that, and if we see that it needs to be done for
frequently, we'll move in that direction.
But we agree with you -- and
I'm actually getting some texts
that I need to leave because I
needed to leave at 6:00, and
it's 6:15. That all your questions?
>> Supervisor Safai: well, I
did have one more questions,
and that's abaho sphere, and
how it's going to be
distributed throughout all the hospitals. >> I know our staff is looking
into that, because there's been changes how that drug is going
to be distributed. We're getting instruction from
the state, and I believe something May have just been distributed within the last 24 hours, I'll send it to you so you have an idea of how it's
going to be distributed within california.
>> Supervisor Safai: more specifically in san francisco. >> yeah. You'll want to know where it's
going and where it's not going.
>> Supervisor Safai: okay.
Thank you.
>> President Yee: thank you.
There's two more names added, but supervisor walton, do you
have a quick question?
>> Supervisor Walton: I know that supervisor fewer had a few
questions, so I'll pass it to her.
>> President Yee: yes.
Supervisor fewer?
>> Supervisor Fewer: yes.
Dr. Aragon, I can say I understand the frustration. Once, when you came before us,
you said early, the unhoused population, the people in S.R.O.S, they are our main concern, yet, we have not seen a public health order, and therefore, we don't know the
plan or direction what is happening to these people. I think also in the recovery,
but not only the recovery, but as go forward in the next couple of months, we don't know
what the plan is. If we're adopting a strategy of safe sleeping sites, that's something we should be doing right now.
We can't leave it to people in
the bayview, to leave it in their hands. this is leaving a whole population, and we're talking about thousands of people
without a direction, and we as supervisors don't have direction of where you're headed with this.
I think that it's -- it is
disingenuous, quite frankly, to say. This is a population from the
very beginning that we've had
concern about, and not had a
public health order, not one direction. We also say to people, thousands of people, in a very
middle class way, wash your hands 20 times -- for 20 seconds every time.
We hear from public health
officials, yet they don't even
have their clothes in their house. They have to undress before
they get into their own homes. When we are saying these basic things to folks, and yet, in the unhoused population, we don't even have a place for
them to wash their hands, I would say that we are looking at it through a wrong paradigm. We are looking at it through a
middle class lens, when actually, quite frankly, where we are going to see this outbreak, where we are going to
see saving lives of people, it
is in this paradigm where they don't have these options. We don't know what's going to happen, and even when we start
to loosen up the restrictions, these people still have not
been quarantined.
So I join my colleagues in wondering what is really
happening and what will really happen? we have not been shared on a plan, we don't know what the plan is.
I actually, quite frankly, think that during this public health crisis, that should be a public health mandate. So that is not a question, that is just my opinion, and I'm happy to have a private offline conversation with you about this, but thank you.
>> I appreciate the honest feedback. Thank you.
>> President Yee: Dr. Aragon.
>> I'm going to have to -- I'm going to have to run, so I
don't want to be rude, and I
know that we still have to --
>> President Yee: well, Dr. Aragon, excuse me, there's been
this question over and over again, and you're not going to
be able to answer it, of course, today.
And you're at least, I think for next week, you should start off answering this question,
what the plan is, if any, and if there's a reason for it.
And I want to give at least one
more person a chance who hasn't
asked a question at all, even
though you're way over.
>> no, it's okay.
>> President Yee: okay.
Supervisor peskin. -- supervisor preston.
>> Supervisor Preston: thank
you, President Yee. I want to share my concern of my colleagues. In your explanation, I heard a reason why you felt you
couldn't issue an order on kmond kmond on
commandeering hotels, but that
is only part of the issue that supervisors ronen and fewer has raised.
My question is, you came before
us on March 17, you said that we could do everything right in
our response here, but if we don't address our congregate living situations and homeless people, that we could have an explosion of cases.
I think you were right then and would like to see the orders
that my colleagues have
referenced address homeless people. But my question isn't looking backwards as to why you haven't. I'd actually just like a direct
answer as to whether you plan
to issue any health orders regarding homelessness on the
issues that have been raised:
social distancing among
homeless people, the
availability of rest rooms,
showers, hand washing stations for homeless people?
Are you planning on issuing a health order on those issues? >> yeah. So everything that you're describing to me are really policy decisions and strategic
options, and so what I want to
do is I want to just convene with Dr. Colfax and our executive team and really come
back and decide how we can
respond in a holistic way. I'll work with President Yee to make sure that we can come back
and discuss this further.
>> Supervisor Preston: thank you.
>> Supervisor Peskin: Mr. President, I just want to
remind all of us, and I'm sorry
for jumping in and keeping dr.
aragon, but I want to just raise the original contention
that Dr. Aragon presented at the beginning. And I admit that san francisco
is unique because we are a city
and county, but the reality is
this: the city attorney
believes, and I share this
belief, that along with the
other 57 counties, it is the
legislative branch that appoints this position.
And while it is true that as a doctor in the health
department, Dr. Aragon works for Dr. Colfax and is part of the executive branch. It doesn't actually have to be that way. That's not the way it is in the other 57 counties, and the city attorney says that should we desire to have Dr. Aragon be a
completely independent person who does not have to take marching orders from Dr. Colfax -- not that I'm saying
that Dr. Colfax is giving him bad marching orders -- we have
that power and ability.
So I think we really, for the
health of the body politic and
communications amongst decision
makers and communicators and
the public, we need to change
the dialogue between the chief health officer and this legislative elected body, and I just want to leave everybody with this thought. >> I'm really going to have to run because my wife is going to
be very upset with me.
President Yee, is it okay if I --
>> Clerk: Mr. President, you
might be muted.
>> I just want to be excused appropriately.
>> President Yee: I will excuse you as soon as I finish my sentence. >> okay. Thank you.
>> President Yee: so basically, you answered some of the questions, and thank you very
much for doing that, and there's some outstanding ones that were on the list that you
didn't get a chance to get to.
I think there's some fundamental frustration or questions that we have frustrations about that's going
to come back over and over again. You need to have a plan when you come back on how to do this, because it's not going to go away. The people on the streets
aren't going to go away by themselves, and the danger that's afforded to them isn't
going to go away, and we can't
come back every single time and say, we're thinking about it,
and we have a plan. Okay. Thank you for staying a lot later than we asked you to. >> okay. Thank you very much. Have a good evening.
>> President Yee: okay. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you, colleagues, and I
will continue talking with Dr.
Aragon and Dr. Colfax to try to
get to some of the questions
that you have presented, and I will now adjourn this update. Thank you very much.
>> Supervisor Peskin: okay. Thank you.