please stand by for the san francisco rules committee meeting of june 27, 2024. >> the meeting will come to order. june 27, 2024 rules committee meeting. i'm supervisor ronan, chair, joined by supervisor walton and committee member safai, we are also joined by aaron peskin. the clerk is victor young and like to thank eugene--i wonder if eugene is new. welcome, eugene. from sfgovtv. >> public comment will be taken on each agenda. please line up to speak. you may submit public comment writing e-mail to myself the rules committee

clerk at victor.young@sfgov.org. if you submit public comment viae-mail it will be forwarded to the supervisors and included as part of the file. you may send written comment tuesday city hall, 1 dr. carlton b goodlett place, 244, san francisco california 94102. silence cell phones and electronic devices. items acted upon today are expected to appear on the board of supervisors agenda july 9, 2024 unless otherwise stated. that completes my initial announcements. >> thank you, please call item 1. >> item 1, charter amendment first draft to amend the charter to establish the position of inspector general in the controller's office to provide that the inspector general nominated subject to approval to authorize the

initiate and lead investigations regarding potential violations of laws or policies involving fraud, waste, abuse, or misconduct to expand authority of the controller's office to issue subpoena and authorize the execute search warts to the extent permitted by state law at an election held november 5, 2024. >> thank you. president peskin, would you like to present the item? >> thank you chair ronan. thank you for scheduling this as the first of the charter amendments that the rules committee is considering for the november ballot and let me just start by thanking the collaborators in putting this together, starting with my staff,inate, who did a national search of best practices and looked at models from cities around the country and consulting with leading

academic experts in the field. let me thank the controller office, greg wagoner and members of his team who had a hand not only in doing audits and running the whistle blower program pursuant to the charter for many years, but also authoring a number of public integrity reports under the leadership of the previous controller recollect , ben rosenfield. let me thank the city attorney office for help and collaboration as thought partners in drafting this charter amendment. let me just start out with the obvious, which is, government relies on trust, and the erosion of public trust

is an erosion of government and our ability to do what government is supposed to do, and the last number of years have been really quite shameful as a number of high profile public integrity scandals have thankfully been uncovered and as somebody who dovoted the lion share of my adult professional life to governance and good governance, it has been devastating and eroded public trust, and these are not new occurrences. the occurrences have gone back long before i was elected 24 years ago. while i thank the federal bureau of investigation and the u.s. attorney for rooting out corruption in san francisco government, i think it is time that san francisco have the mechanisms in place to clean our own house.

we know that in the last half dozen years charges have been leveled against over a dozen people, many of those charges have lead to convictions, including of course the highest profile case of former department head, mohammed nur rurks and it is time to stab the role of a public integrity unit and in doing our research, we relize the gold standard is the inspector general, and most american cities already have one and san francisco is probably the city most in need of one. this ballot measure takes the best aspects of the strong inspector general model recommended by leading public integrity experts in practice successfully in dozen major

cities. it is clear mandate, public accountability and independence. it puts the role within the controller office in order to harness best practice and streamline them with existing functions building on what works at no additional cost to the taxpayers, because the controller's office already enjoys a set aside with room in it for this position. i have a little presentation and if i could ask my staff, nate horelto come forward, we can run through this very brief power point, which you will bring it up. the inspector general- >> can we have the--thank you. >> thank you, victor. the inspector general would be appointed by our independent

controller, i think we all recognize and acknowledge that the controller's office is truly a non-partisan independent office. i have personally experienced that under three controllers. that is a position that is nominated by the mayor and approved by the board and the controller would have the power to appoint this person subject or to nominate this person subject to the approval of the mayor and majority of the board. that individual would not be subject to civil service and as i said, would be funded by the previously created set aside. let's move to the next slide. as to expanded investigative powers. give the broad anticorruption

mandate to receive complaints and investigate, expand the controller's and inspector jen polk subpoena power to include contractors, lobbyist and anyone seeking contracts, grants, loans, permits, license, tax incentive entitlement or other from the city. expand the subject of whistle blower complaints to include contractors, lobbyist and above mentioned permitees. grant powers to execute search warrant which are allowed under state penal code section 830.13 and codify duty to cooperate for city employees. requires and cooperation and information sharing with the between the inspector general, with ethics, the city attorney, and the district attorney. many of those mechanisms

already exist in the charter today and f.1 06. dual reporting to the board and mayor twice yearly by inspector general. internal accountability through required reporting by inspector general with local enforcement entities, ethics, the city attorney and district attorney who receive referrals, as well as the ability for the inspector general to hold public hearings. and then the next series of slides, just compare us to other major american cities, new york, chicago, washington dc, new orleans and los angeles and you will see that san francisco right now does not have, but this would give us broad subject jurisdiction. it would allow to initiate our own investigations and you will see that virtually every other city ther

has those powers. we have ability to accept anonymous reports as most other cities and already have whistle blower protections as do most other cities. if you compare the powers, we are the only city that currently does not have broad subpoena powers in that mandated position, and we are one of most cities have the power of search warrants in a inspector general position. we currently do not have dual reporting requirement, which every other city that we compared to already has . the same with public reporting. and then if you go to independence, removal protections, thes would provide removal protections as well as given the set aside budgetary protection. that is this high level summary

of everything that provides other cities have. my staff worked closely with several public integrity experts and consuted with cities with inspector general positions including jennifer rogers claumia law center for advancement for public integrity and they and others recommended the strong ig model as the gold standard. i like to take a minute to address the concerns raised by staff at the ethic commission and point out i believe important factors. the ethic commissions requested a clause be added to this charter amendment that would explicitly state this new inspector general not be able to investigate the two sets of laws enforced by the ethics commission, political form act and campaign conduct code. the problem is it would scale back the current authority provided to

the controller, even more then the charter currently has. the reality and this is specifically called out, the charter currently and very intentionally does not wall off ethics and district attorney or the city attorney. they have overlapping authority now, and depend on effective cooperation to function. this is how it would continue to function with empowered inspector general in the controller office and exactly how the works in the other model jurisdictions we closely looked at. there is always some overlapping authority and always up to ininvestigative and enforcement agencies to cooperate and collaborate. the charter already gives the controller ability to [indiscernible] suggested language would take away that ability. if you look at section f.106, and our

city attorney can confirm this, the controller shall have there duty to perform regular oversight of the city contractor procedures including developal eing modeling criteria, auditing compliance with city contracting rules and where appropriate investigating cases of alleged abuse or conflict of interest. that is in the current charter. f.107, subsection a, sub1, the controller can investigate any complaint unless they are subject to ongoing investigations by ethic city attorney or district attorney and states the controller impede or delay a investigation. that is already in the charter. however, well intentioned the overly ridged carve out will do more harm then good. investigations may start in one place and end up somewhere else asthy unfold may uncover different types of conducts in areas of law. instead of referring a

investigation the moment there is a possible ethic violation, this gives the inspector general the flexibility to work cases for high level enforcement if they deem that the best course of action, and again, ethics in writing already has the ability to assert that controller's investigation would impede or delay an investigation. when considering changes to our charters important we not be overly prescriptive. instead of setting each jurisdiction behind a wall we should see adding to the investigative capacity and there is plenty public integrity work to go aroupd. round. finally colleagues and coordination with supervisor walton to avoid confusion, this charter amendment also specifically calls out that the current ig position in the sheriff office be called the sheriff inspector general, so there is no confusion.

and i am available to answer any questions and would be delighted if we could continue this item to your next meeting, because we are meeting and conferring with the municipal executive association this afternoon. >> no problem. supervisor walton. >> thank you so much chair ronan and thank you president peskin. just wanted to say thank you for coming up with a strategy to try to distinguish the difference between the office of inspector general for the sheriff department oversight board, and that body. that was the only question i was going to have and i appreciate the work on that. thank you. >> thank you supervisor. >> supervisor safai. >> thank you. thanks supervisor peskin for this work. i want to add a few words to this. >> i neglected to thank you for your early cosponsorship supervisor safai.

>>eme polk deeply offended, please remove me as a cosponsor. just joking. [laughter] thank you. no, listen, i think any of us that worked in this building and been on the board for the last 6 or 7 years, but particularly the last 4, it has been very discouraging to see the level of corruption that prevaded city government. multiple department heads, multiple commissioners, multiple front line staff. to see people taking money that was intended to improve small scale community projects and buying products and selling them on the internet to enrich themselves, having friends and family active false employees

to enrich themselves. it literally brought a cloud over the gurmt and there are so many wonderful city employees in the city and county of san francisco that literally dedicate their life to making this city what it is and one of the best cities in the united states. but this is something that has gone on too long, and part of the reason i put my name as a cosponsor is because we need a position at this level that has the power that this is proposing to investigate. one thing to have a hotline, and people whistle blow, another thing to have the investigative powers and the subpoena powers to call people in as investigations begin and information is brought. i agree with supervisor peskin, often times you don't know where

someone will end up when the conversation begins so we done want to limit in any way. i think this is a step in the right direction. i think we have a duty to rebuild public trust, and ethical behavior begins with us at the top. the leaders of this city, and so, i'm very strongly in support of this. in many ways, this was long overdue, so i believe that the voters of san francisco deserve the opportunity to weigh in on this, make the adjustment and the charter begin to restore trust and also insure that the public employees, people that are the front line workers, those that work in these departments, their moral is impacted. i have spoken to them. they feel discouraged in all of these departments that this corruption has prevaded. they feel discouraged and wept to restore that. we want them to understand we are here

to support them and make a real ly strong step in the right direction so thank you supervisor peskin and i'm happy to be a cosponsor of this. >> thank you. >> thank you. colleagues i wanted you and the public to know that i did take the ethic commission letter quite seriously. i talked to both president peskin and city attorney office about it. the crux of the concerns-their concerns are, there is basically too many cooks in the kitchen, and i don't necessarily agree with that. i think right now we have you know, really responsible adults who share jurisdiction over several matters and act like professionals and get in a room and look at their limited resources and decide who will take the

lead over a particular type of investigation and i think adding one more leader into that discussion--it is from the same office that already is in the mix, so it is not radically changing in many ways what is already happening right now. and then, you know, in talking to city attorney gibner, the way he explained it is, it would really require sort of a out of control person in this role who really just can't get along with others, or wants to make a name for him or herself. really doesn't cooperate and goes above and beyond their duties. i said in that case, we have more protection in this regard then if there was a rogue da or rogue city attorney

or rogue controller, because in this case, the controller could just fire this person if they got out of control. there wouldn't have to be a recall or election in the future. i really don't agree with the contents that letter, and years ago, when i worked for supervisor compos, i worked on public advocate piece of legislation that shared similarities to this and always thought it was a good idea. i thought having a city employee who's at the leadership--the number one job is exclusively to look and become a expert and truly understand what is happening in the city to prevent fraud and corruption, it makes a lot of sense. the city attorney has a lot of responsibility. the district attorney does as well. the controller does as well.

to have a position who's full time job is to focus on this and work with all the different departments and make sure that we are using resources in the most useful way, it makes a ton of sense to me. i want to thank supervisor peskin putting this forward. i like to be added as a cosponsor mr. clerk. with that, i will open this item up for public comment. >> yes. members of the public who wish to speak should line up to speak at this time. each speaker will be allowed two minutes. you can proceed. >> good morning supervisors. supervisor peskin, thank you for bringing this forward. i support the idea of the inspector general. my name is barbara, second generation san franciscan. my grand daughters are fourth

generation. i'm very concerned about city hall, city politics and all the current concerns raised. supervisor peskin, i really appreciate your comments about looking at best practices in other cities. i think that is always very important when you are considering a change and thank you very much and i support your legislation. thank you. >> thank you so much. >> any additional speakers on this matter? i do not see additional speakers. i believe we can close public comment. >> public comment is now closed. i am going to make a motion to continue this item to the call of the chair while we wait for meet and confer to finish. can we have roll call on the motion? >> motion to continue the matter to the call of the chair, walton, aye. safai, aye.

ronan, aye. the motion passes without objection. >> motion passes unanimously. thank you president peskin. >> thank you. >> mr. clerk, please read item 2. >> item 2 is charter amendment firs draft to amend the charter of city and coupty of san francisco to provide for the election of director sof department of police accountability held november 5, 2024. >> vice chair walton. >> thank you so much chair ronan and thank you for making sure we heard this item today. this amendment is about electing the director for the department of police accountability and this is really about establish mechanisms to insure that accountability and build trust between low enforcement and the public. independent oversight helps to bridge the gap between law enforcement agencies and the communities that they

serve. thus, improving public safety in the longrun. our city has not been immune to instances of police misconduct and butality that challenge the very principals of justice, equality and community. from the tragic death of mario woods, alex, kenneth, lewis, to the national tragedies of george floyd, briana taylor, freddy gray and countless others. these instances serve as stark reminders of the urgent need for continued reform. we should not have to prioritize accountability and transparency only when tragic incidents occur in our communities. as a city that values justice accountability and safety, we cannot afford to turn a blind eye to these realities. we must strive to implement

robust oversight measure that empower independent bodies to thoroughly investigate any allegations of miscublth. miscublt. misconduct. i doopt to address concerns that were brought up about this charter amendment. the city can legally create an elected position with this type of employment qualification. the city can and sometimes does give other duties to elected officers by ordinance. for example, the city attorney serving as the supervisor of records. in section 13.102, all references to instance run-offs was removed because the most common term now is rank choice voting so we cleaned up the language to avoid confusion. in regards to the salary of the

position, this provision allows the civil service commission, the flexibility to look to various manager classifications within the determining salary base. because sthra range due to the different sizes and functions of different departments, the civil service commission will make a judgment about which one department head salary classes is most applicable to the department of police accountability director position. we specify the focus should be on non-elected city department heads, because the salaries of elected department heads are set under the county surveys, which have no relevance to the dpa director and this would create a first of its kind position. i'm proposing this charter amendment to make sure this position should be elected, because when members of the public see allegations of misconduct being investigated by impartial

bodies and not beholden to a department or anyone, the trust and integrity of the police force is fostered. this enhances community police relations, promoats transparency and cultivates a culture of accountability that benefit every resident of our city. this is about public safety for everyone. i do want to thank the deputy city attorney, christina for helping work on this important measure. nely from my teal and also want to take the time to thank cosponsors supervisors safai, ronan and supervisor preston. i would have a couple other things to add after we go to public comment, but i will also have to continue this as we need to have meet and confer with mea as well. thank you chair ronan. >> supervisor safai. >> i think that one thing that

we see a lot in this building is, the political wind shift when it is convenient to be a part of a particular movement or particular moment. people will jump in and then when they feel it is not as convenient or supportive they wake away. y walk away. one thing we have done and proud to have been a part of is tremendous amount of justice refomp. form. this is a positive step in the right direction because if we want to insure true accountability, the person that serves in this pz should not be beholden to the person that appoints them and their political point of view. this should be a objective position and i think this is the right way to reform this. not to say the person that serves in the position right now is in

any way, but this allows this more freedom to be as objective as possible and not subject from political pressure that appointed them and i think that is a important aspect of what we are trying to reform here, so i appreciate it and also want to say thank you to the person who served in this position. paul henderson. i think he has done a tremendous job, but at the end of the day, having the voters directly weigh in on this position allows for more freedom in terms of how this position should be connected. thank you and thank you supervisor walton for bringing this forward. >> thank you supervisor safai. i agree. i think the independence that would be afforded the person in this position is worth trying, and by electing

this person to this person being appointed, brings that independence with it, so thank you for bringing it forward and i'm happy to be a cosponsor. with that, mr. clerk, let's open public comment. >> members of the public who wish to speak should line up to speak at this time. each speaker will be allowed two minutes. is there anyone who would like to comment on this matter? >> hi. barbara--again. thank you having this hearing. i worked at the department of occ for 15 years before it was department of police accountability. i was a director for the berkeley police review commission, the independent police auditor in san jose. i'm past president of the national association for police

accountability, and am a current and have been a member that association for 30 years. i'm very concerned about this legislation. i totally agree with all of your statements that this should not be a political position. i'm concerned that having that person run for office would make it more political. best practices in oversight are that you hire a head hunter and bring in candidates from all over the country who are current directors who have experience in this field. these other directors from other agencies are not going to come to san francisco and run against whoever is running for this office. we want competition between people who have proven themselves as accountability experts, not political people.

i agree that there have been political appointments in this office. it should not be a political appointment. it should be as i said, competition between experts in the field. i like the idea of for the inspector general to have the controller's office decide who can be that elected person. why not do a charter amendment to have the controller's office help to make that appointment? but making it a position where people are running for office is going to further politicize it and make it less effective. thank you for your consideration. >> thank you. any other members of the public who would like to comment? no other speakers. i believe we can close public comment. >> public comment is closed. supervisor walton. >> thank you chair ronan and

definitely appreciate all the conversations we had around this charter with colleagues, with the public and experts in the field and understand concerns about over politicizing a position. i do really want to state that, this is really about being proactive and about making sure that we are not waiting for negative incidents to happen in our communities before we do something that is going to really create independence in our oversight, and make our law enforcement entities think twice before they are over zealous sometimes in their policing. i do want to state for the record too, if we really want to have complete independence, an office should not beholden to the mayor office or this board of supervisors. currently as a department head, the dpa leader is beholden to the mayor's office and therefore really

cannot be afforded the true independence of what is needed to investigate and fully have the power to conduct independent investigations. i want to state much like supervisor safai, for me this is about policy. this is not about the current leadership of dpa, it is not about the current leadership of the mayor's office. this is really about policy and place that creates the independence we want to see when we have someone who has to investigate some very serious allegations when it comes to mistakes made by folks in our law enforcement entities. it is really about accountability and strengthening ability of this office, but i will say that we do have time to have more conversations. we will be meeting with community and are meeting more with the leadership of the city and of course we have

to meet and confer with mea so i do want to continue this item. >> continue to call of the chair? >> call of the chair. >> thank you. i just want to say, have so much respect for barbara and your decades and decades of experience, so i will look forward talking to you more in the break that we have, because i just value what you have to say on this issue tremendously, so thanks for coming out and thanks for giving your public comment. it is being taken seriously and heard. appreciate you. and witht that, mr. clerk can we have roll call vote on the motion? >> on the motion to continue the matter to call of the chair, walton, aye. safai, aye. ronan, aye.

that motion passes without objection. >> motion passes unanimously. thank you. mr. clerk, please read item 3. >> charter amendment (second draft) to amend the charter of the city and county of san francisco to establish within the charter the department of emergency management, the position of the director of the department, and the director's qualifications and appointing authority; at an election to be held on november 5, 2024. >> supervisor safai. >> [unable to hear speaker] i don't have much to say about this to respect everyone's time. i like to continue this item again. i think there is more discussion to be had. i still stand by this and think it is a really important charter amendment. i think having the requisite qualifications for head of department of emergency management is a important thing we should put in the charter. similar to the conversation we just had about the politics infusing

oversight and accountability in the police department, i think prior to this leadership here, there have been time s when we haven't necessarily put people in the head of the department of emergency management that needs minimum qualifications necessary. i think mary ann cellar has done a wonderful job and tremendous in terms of our leadership, but i still thinking having the requisite requirements for the leadership of the department is a important thing, so i ask to continue this item and we can continue the conversations. you can continue to call of the chair. >> like to open up for public comment. >> yes, members of the public who wish to speak should line up to speak at this time. each speaker is allowed two minutes. is there anyone who would like to comment on this matter? there are no speakers on this matter. >> public comment is now closed. roll call vote on the motion. >> yes, on the motion to

continue the matter to call of the chair, walton, aye. safai, aye. ronan, aye. that motion passes without objection. >> motion passes unanimously. mr. clerk, is there any other items on the agenda? >> that completes the agenda for today. >> the meeting is adjourned. [meeting adjourned]

san francisco is known as a city filled with diversity culture and progressive ideas. our ever changing city and the people within in. but it was not always this way, women struggled to have one of their own on their life until 2021. it would not be until 32 years later that the mex women clarissa mcman served in the board of supervisors. since then women have continued to make significant contributions to the board of supervisors. so who are these women? and what impact have they made

with their time on the board. >> to be honest it came as a surprise when i became as a supervisor. i was working as a deputy director in the mayor's office and there were some challenges with the then supervisor and mayor gavin newsom at the time removed that supervisor from office. i was asked to serve on the role. it was a quick transition, but i got into public service because i really believe that government is a place where you can create opportunities and level the playing field. >> madam clerk, would you please call the roll. >> i was on the board of supervisors from 2001 to 20111. i have been involved in working my community, there was scheduling to be a redevelopment area plan and as african americans we knew that meant, that was usually a removal of certain kinds of people. so because fs path, there had to be a committee formed of all the people that lived in the community.

everybody had to be involved in this committee and there were certain rules and regulations and we had to get neighbors to vote for us and so we did that and i did that, and i won the seat on that committee and that kind of started everything. >> supervisor kristenson. >> i think having women in the board of supervisors and legislative bodies all around the country have meant that some of the issues that have traditionally called family issues are now raised .d >> i think san francisco and the rest of the country here is very behind and i think that you know, many mothers, they don't have a choice about whether they get to return to work or not. >> having individuals who are women in all of these places helps to create, a more rich dialogue around what policy choices actually mean and what the impact to people and family and lives would be. so sing having women on the board here in the city has been impactful in that way. >> supervisor kim, kim presentation.

>> democracy is about representation, how can you leave off over half of the population. a lot of women are not just taking care of children but taking care of parents and working so all of those life's experiences are part now of our policies of our city policies and throughout the country >> supervisor breed. >> here. >> breed present. >> supervisor maxwell. >> we saw two of san francisco female mayor having originated from the board of supervisors as well. that's where people are seen as leaders and get exposure and have the influence to influence policy. i think it's important to see ourselves in that. >> supervisor cohen. cohen present. >> doris championed rent control. contracts for black women, women of color and small businesses, he will a was

really really special, she was really who motivated me. she worked for the lawu, she was a switch board operator and then secretary. and then founded an organization cofounded with somebody called congress of racial equity core. so the lin she came with was about equity, about young women, seniors at-risk youth having jobs. it was about more police guided. those three women to me left their legacy. >> supervisor elliot. >> when you think about the legislative and women legislatures, i think the tendency is to find a women issue that would otherwise won be covered. but so many of our legislatures women included have touched on so many faucets of policies. it's important to be seen

through your life experiences how you identify and for a young girls, i think having women on the board is important because you get to see that you actually changed seat yourself in that power of decision. >> that concludes business for today. >> there was one where the fellows, at the time, they were arguing and i was the only women and only african-american, and i'm sitting there, thinking oh my god, it's a room full of people because it's a board day and i'm thinking, what can i say to stop this. so the universe gave me the words, gentlemen, let us be about the people of business. and of course all the people started clapping. and they had to do what? they had to act like gentleman, that one for me, showed the importance of having women, having the importance of having african-americans and the african-american women. >> to the women of the board,

past, present and future, thank you for your strength, grace, and commitment to changing san francisco for the better. let's continue to make history.

[music] >> started with a community at the secret gardens is down the block. was about food, culture and it was a

success and something we thought we could keep going and yeah, the space opened up and we are like, lelts let's give it a try. we have been artists all our lives and ewoo wanted to continue to do our art and make art accessible. >> we grew up here. i went to school up the street and elementary school down the street. [indiscernible] really important to us and our upbringing, like the location malters. >> this feels like home and for us to be able to contribute to our home and add something and just kind of bring a really fun and artistic vibe to the neighborhood. it is a blessing for us. >> all that is left is creative studio gallery. we have a shop where we sell merchandise and art and now we are shifting into a creative space and studio where we have different smaller projects with artists we worked with in the past. >> we have workshops and teach

monthly classes . >> combines designing and creating and sketching and refineling that and make it in a final product. that is how i got into art. >> i was really interested in the [indiscernible] just being able to capture stories was important to me and my art was make up at the time. i was using color and make up to express my is lf and documenting it. >> we started mostly as a gallery. we throw group art shows or feature local artists and they put art on our walls and we also pop up events. trying to get a network of artists going and creatives going to get together and just kind of show out and show off and do fun projects. we get to bring people we worked with in the space and to the events and projects and continues to grow.

>> our current instillation is [indiscernible] women of the resistance. we were fortunate to have alexa also known as lex-[indiscernible] so, to be able to have her work featured was an honor. really wanted to show [indiscernible] and i think she was really able to capture that. >> we designed a lot of stuff how we are feeling and colors we are vibeing with and that is how we do our creative process. >> we feel we are a beacon in san francisco. i feel we sprelshize in screen printing so if you need something screen printed you can count on us or a art show, you can count on us as well. [music]

>> this is one place you can always count on to give you what you had before and remind you of what your san francisco history used to be. >> we hear that all the time, people bring their kids here and their grandparents brought them here and down the line. >> even though people move away, whenever they come back to the city, they make it here. and they tell us that. >> you're going to get something made fresh, made by hand and made with quality products and something that's very, very good. ♪♪ >> the legacy bars and restaurants was something that was begun by san francisco simply to recognize and draw

attention to the establishments. it really provides for san francisco's unique character. ♪♪ >> and that morphed into a request that we work with the city to develop a legacy business registration. >> i'm michael cirocco and the owner of an area bakery. ♪♪ the bakery started in 191. my grandfather came over from italy and opened it up then. it is a small operation. it's not big. so everything is kind of quality that way. so i see every piece and cut every piece that comes in and out of that oven. >> i'm leslie cirocco-mitchell, a fourth generation baker here with my family.

♪♪ so we get up pretty early in the morning. i usually start baking around 5:00. and then you just start doing rounds of dough. loaves. >> my mom and sister basically handle the front and then i have my nephew james helps and then my two daughters and my wife come in and we actually do the baking. after that, my mom and my sister stay and sell the product, retail it. ♪♪ you know, i don't really think about it. but then when i -- sometimes when i go places and i look and see places put up, oh this is our 50th anniversary and everything and we've been over 100 and that is when it kind of hits me. you know, that geez, we've been here a long time. [applause] ♪♪ >> a lot of people might ask

why our legacy business is important. we all have our own stories to tell about our ancestry. our lineage and i'll use one example of tommy's joint. tommy's joint is a place that my husband went to as a child and he's a fourth generation san franciscan. it's a place we can still go to today with our children or grandchildren and share the stories of what was san francisco like back in the 1950s. >> i'm the general manager at tommy's joint. people mostly recognize tommy's joint for its murals on the outside of the building. very bright blue. you drive down and see what it is. they know the building. tommy's is a san francisco

hoffa, which is a german-style presenting food. we have five different carved meats and we carve it by hand at the station. you prefer it to be carved whether you like your brisket fatty or want it lean. you want your pastrami to be very lean. you can say i want that piece of corn beef and want it cut, you know, very thick and i want it with some sauerkraut. tell the guys how you want to prepare it and they will do it right in front of you. san francisco's a place that's changing restaurants, except for tommy's joint. tommy's joint has been the same since it opened and that is important. san francisco in general that we don't lose a grip of what san francisco's came from. tommy's is a place that you'll always recognize whenever you lock in the door. you'll see the same staff, the same bartender and have the

same meal and that is great. that's important. ♪♪ >> the service that san francisco heritage offers to the legacy businesses is to help them with that application process, to make sure that they really recognize about them what it is that makes them so special here in san francisco. ♪♪ so we'll help them with that application process if, in fact, the board of supervisors does recognize them as a legacy business, then that does entitle them to certain financial benefits from the city of san francisco. but i say really, more importantly, it really brings them public recognition that this is a business in san

francisco that has history and that is unique to san francisco. >> it started in june of 1953. ♪♪ and we make everything from scratch. everything. we started a you -- we started a off with 12 flavors and mango fruits from the philippines and then started trying them one by one and the family had a whole new clientele. the business really boomed after that. >> i think that the flavors we make reflect the diversity of san francisco. we were really surprised about the legacy project but we were thrilled to be a part of it.

businesses come and go in the city. pretty tough for businesss to stay here because it is so expensive and there's so much competition. so for us who have been here all these years and still be popular and to be recognized by the city has been really a huge honor. >> we got a phone call from a woman who was 91 and she wanted to know if the mitchells still owned it and she was so happy that we were still involved, still the owners. she was our customer in 1953. and she still comes in. but she was just making sure that we were still around and it just makes us feel, you know, very proud that we're carrying on our father's legacy. and that we mean so much to so many people.

♪♪ >> it provides a perspective. and i think if you only looked at it in the here and now, you're missing the context. for me, legacy businesses, legacy bars and restaurants are really about setting the context for how we come to be where we are today. >> i just think it's part of san francisco. people like to see familiar stuff. at least i know i do. >> in the 1950s, you could see a picture of tommy's joint and looks exactly the same. we haven't change add thing. >> i remember one lady saying, you know, i've been eating this ice cream since before i was born. and i thought, wow! we have, too. ♪♪

>> commission, the meeting is being called to order at 4:32 p.m. broadcast live on sf gov. tv. media service sxz thanks sfgovtv for streamlining. we welcome the public's participation during public comment period. there will be an opportunity at the end of the meeting and there will be an opportunity to comment on each discussion or action item on the agenda. public comment during the meeting is limited to three minutes per speaker. speakers are requested but not required to state their name.