wanted a career in the military or decided just to want to use those particular experiences and apply it to something else. the question has been dead as why do we not have similar type of academies that unite the interests of our hiring practices in the san francisco city and county, police, fire, sheriff's department, public safety, and with the school district and city college. there has been ad hoc programs that have been implemented over the years, but no program exists today that brings together the city and county, san francisco school district, and city college, that actually helps with and assuring of us being able to provide and facilitate the interests of high school students who would like to me to pursue a career in the police apartment or in the fire department, public safety, and

who would like to seek out what those experiences might look like while they are in high school. what the ordinance does is help solidify some of the work that has been ongoing, but it has been ongoing in a way that is not institutionalized, in a way that i think we should. right now, recruitment at the police department for people outside san francisco is at an all-time high at about 76% of recruits coming into sfpd not living in san francisco or come from san francisco. it is almost as high with the fire department. when we look at the relationship, i think, between recruitment to our public safety sectors, and ask why there is not more, i think, hunting and recruiting of people locally, the answers are, i think, we

would love to do so, but there's not much of a focused strategy to make that happen. unfortunately, as of the national downturn economically, we have now seen that the unemployment rate for 16 to 19 year-old literally is over 40%, the highest since world war ii. that is pretty much minute here in the city and county of san francisco. we also know that 1000 police officers and 500 firefighters will be retiring or could be retiring within the next five years. we would like to see -- there to be some strategy in place that helps, i think, replete the number of personnel that we may be losing, but also benefits in the fact that these are san franciscans who would really like to work for the city and county of san francisco, who know the communities in which they would serve, and i think

the long-term employees of the city, where they would be developing relationships that we all could, i think, benefit from. this legislation would also go before the school district, too, like other pieces of law that we have devised that had joint partnerships. there will be weighing in of those entities as well. ideally, what could happen is one example is it we had an academy in the san francisco unified school district or the police, similar to their police activities league, their pals, the debt program, but it would actually be part of the unified school district where it could earn some credit, and as people who have earned credit may want to go on to city college where they have a well-known criminal justice program and burn their -- earn their aa and perhaps after that pursue a career in

the police the bombing, that they would have to pass muster of all the clearances, psychological tasks, -- a career in the police department, that they would have to pass muster of all the clearances. that would then give them a leg up potentially, to somebody who has endeavored through high school and then through city college or whatever other secondary education they may have, post-secondary, in order to get in, that speaks loudly that this is a strong prospect of somebody who should be considered for potential of one. this legislation just helps unify from the different entities of city college, school district, and the city and county, and colleagues, i would be more than happy to answer any questions if you would like. and i would just like to say that i have had very positive and constructive discussions with chief gascon and the police

department and department of h.r. and the school district and those who run the police athletic league. very appreciative of their enthusiasm and optimism. the chief says he really liked this idea. he frankly was surprised san francisco does not have something in little more institutionalized. >> i agree with you again. 343. the police activity lead -- we just graduated 28 young men and women on friday, ages 13 to 18 that now will be intense in both english side and bayview station. leadership skills, the goal attainment -- it was a fantastic class. it was a four-week academy where they learned a lot about themselves. again, we came from an environment where the explorer program is probably referencing exactly what you're talking about. each police station in los angeles had somewhere between 25

and 40 explores in each of those stations, leadership skills, and a lot of those explorers went on to beat full-time members of the police department. i think it is something that is severely needed here, and it is something i think can take a lot of discussion. it needs to be acted on. i concur with what you're saying. we lose people for retirement purposes. it would be nice to bring them in from the ground up at a younger age and to groom them in law enforcement if in fact that is what they desire to do for a career. i agree with you. that program needs to be propped up as soon as possible and needs to start going out into the community, bringing the young men and women in to give them an opportunity, and at the end of the day, even if they do not join law enforcement, it is a career build a, a goal a tenor, and i think it does allow for the self-confidence, and it is a win-win, whether they joined the department or not. supervisor mirkarimi: i quite

agree, and i again want to express my compliments with the police apartment. i think of that programming, but it has not blended into the city's institutional system in a way that i think it should get recognized and help that particular student final potentially towards a perspective career and the way that it may eyeless angeles or in other cities. >> most importantly, what it also does, once they are sent out to a particular district, with his men and women now are working administrative positions, they are doing certain things with in the building, quite frankly, that we have sworn officers doing that it will not need to do and we can get more cops back out on the street. they serve a fantastic function as far as administrative is concerned, and they take upon a lot of responsibilities that would allow us to put more uniformed officers back on the streets, so it does pay dividend, even in the beginning, even if it were not a full-time

employee. they are getting involved, and it does take some of the work load off of us and allow us to put more cops back on the street. >> -- supervisor mirkarimi: part of it is we are apprenticing people who know san francisco, who had a relationship to it based on their residency, but quite likely, on the generations of families who have been established here. that in and of itself can benefit the goal of community policing, something we have been talking a lot about. for community policing, i would say that this would be a primary strategy to bolstering that, but also an antidote to the, what has been over the past few years, recruitment outside of the city, which has been growing quite a bit. >> i agree. supervisor mirkarimi: thank you. i do not know if there's anyone else hear from the police apartment. i see members here, and i do not know if they would like to speak

as well, but thank you. i also see someone from the u.s. commission here. -- the youth commission here. >> thank you, supervisor mirkarimi. we just wanted to articulate that the yout commissionh is very much in favor of this ordinance. it is exceedingly exciting. this is exceedingly common sense in our opinion. we support this for three reasons -- young people really want jobs. in october 2009, some 9000 san francisco unified school district students who were surveyed, 84% of them said yes, they want job training and career preparation class is. second, and supervisor mirkarimi was speaking to this, what is unique about this ordinance is it tries to unify

the san francisco unified school district's existing pathways and academies with the kind of p training kind ofal is doing -- the kinds of training that pal is doing here on a whole, they're very successful. i have a memo that speaks to how great pathways and academies are for high-school students. in big, comprehensive, public high schools, it is really important to have a cohort and fellow students who have similar interests, similar passions, and the third pillar of our support is yes, community policing involves getting young people from san francisco's community, so thank you very much. i thank the committee, and we

look forward to talking with the police department. thanks. supervisor mirkarimi: thank you. i have no other primary speakers, so mr. chair, i would be more than having to turn over the public comment. supervisor chiu: public comment. mr. paulson. >> i want to say -- ♪ climb every work force mountain ford every stream until you find your academy dream , in every work force mountain ford every stream soar in the sky fly and ford every stream until you find your dream ♪ supervisor chiu: thank you for always giving us the sound of

music. any other public speakers on this topic? seeing none, public comment on this item is closed. supervisor mirkarimi: colleagues, i would love it if you certainly move this forward with recommendations. i see this ordinance just again institutionalizing what are some ongoing practices, but it focuses on the missing links of vocational training, and that is where i hope we endeavor to unify city and county with unified school district, city college, and ultimately speaking with hiring and recruiting practices in the public safety sector of our city to give our young people a chance to have a job with something that they might seek, summer -- some real career potential, and i think the dividends are completely without any ceiling. supervisor chiu: thank you. i want to thank you for your leadership on this important topic and for moving forward what i think is a very good set of ideas for our young people

and for work force development. colleagues, can we move this forward with recommendation? supervisor elsbernd: let me just say that i'm happy to vote for this order is because all this ordinance does is say, " apartments, ride a plan." there really is not much action. there is not really much to this or events at all, but to be clear, it suddenly, the plan turns into something else, i do not want this ordinance to be held over our head as some sort of unfunded mandate. that is a much broader addition, and that truly is the real discussion the needs to have to implement this, the question of funding. anybody can have a plan written, but it is funding the plan. i just want to get it out now -- voting to have a plan does not mean voting to fund because inevitably, voting to find means defunding something else, and we need to have a discussion about budget priorities when we do that, so i'm happy to send along with recommendation, but be very clear -- in no way, does that

mean i am ready to fund this -- in no way does that mean i'm ready to fund this. supervisor mirkarimi: that is fine in terms of the appetizer to the on trade. that is how we view this legislation. in the recruiting budgets, the police department, the fire department, etc., they would have to or we would then have to impose summary shifting -- impose some reshifting of dollars. this meant a lot of sense, which is why this is the first step in bringing together city and county -- in this case police department -- school district and city college where funding may not necessarily be required but shared because of ongoing practices already, but make no mistake about it, if we really want to, i think, amplify this in a way that gets to the heart of shifting our recruitment strategies, then recruitment budget priorities will have to be reoriented.

that is not what this legislation does, but do not be surprised if down the road we may come back with either or events or budgetary discussion -- with other ordinance or budgetary discussion. supervisor chiu: all the work done by the general fund departments are creating this plan, make sure it gets itemized. this would be new. this would absolutely qualified. if this is about the school district doing something, the school district should start paying a little bit more on their in-kind services. with that, why don't we move this item with recommendation to the full board? madam clerk, is there any more business in front of this committee? >> no, mr. chairman. supervisor chiu: thank you. with that, this meeting is adjourned.