through the system. -- house and francisco would navigate through the system. -- it would help us figure out how san francisco would navigate through the system. please come up here. let me ask my colleagues to go one at a time. supervisor alioto-pier: it is very interesting. my understanding is that everyone shows up in the morning to go in front of the judge in her chambers. they sit down with the public defender and attorneys for the clients. could you walk us through how that works? >> in favor of course, we in the treatment team that includes the judge, district attorney, probation, and jail psychiatric services and city what providers. -- and behavioral health court. the judge says it is about treatment. she does not want to hear from the lawyer. she wants to hear from the commission -- clinician.

we give progress reports about whether they're going to groups and taking their medications, whether they are using drugs or not, how far they have gotten in getting a job. we then give recommendations to the judge on whether they should get on the honor roll or have sanctions. the judge might have them come to court more frequently. jail is definitely not used as a sanction. we do not remand people for not complying with treatment. people that are remanded, it is because they are violent and do not quite meet the 5150 criteria but are a threat to public safety. the clients come to court at 2:00 p.m. the judges on the bench. the clients come to the bench for a conversation between the judge and the client. the clients and develop a relationship with the judge.

-- the clients develop our relationship with the judge. they want to please her. the judge tells them what she wants. they take it seriously. our judge who has been there three years is leaving. i told her how important this relationship the judge has with the clients is. she spent the last three weeks talking to judges about her -- talking to the clients about leaving. the clients are bringing her flowers. bair said she is leaving. she has become part of their support system. there was a study done on mental help courts in the nation. ours was one of them. there was a questionnaire with clients on how coercive they felt their treatment was while they were in these mental health courts. almost 100% felt that the treatment was not coercive. they felt they were choosing to be in the court or not.

they felt like they were choosing their treatment. the overall satisfaction of the clients was that they felt they had better lives because of being in this court. supervisor alioto-pier: this is pedro court. they broke the law to get there. it was not a done deal that they automatically got in. we have limited resources in behavioral court. not everyone with mental on the skids to go through that process. a lot of people with severe mental illness and up in jail. they are not receiving the types of treatments in jail that matter. >> the goal is to keep these people in the community in a safe way. the goal in graduating from the haverhill held court is that the judge expects them to be engaged in productive activities like jobs, volunteer work, and school. it is not about just taking

medications. it has become a minor piece of that. as long as their behavior is good and they are engaging, they are engaging in life. when a lot of people do not take medications, they do not engage in life. they deteriorated quickly. they become incapacitated or violent to themselves or others. supervisor chu: all right. thank you. i have some amendments. i am not sure if we took them. supervisor chu: i know there is an amendment to strike some lines from page 23. you have made a motion to do that. is there any objection? without objection, the amendment

is made. now to the amended legislation. supervisor alioto-pier: i would like to make a motion to send this to the board with recommendations. thank you, supervisor avalos, for your comments today. i appreciate them. in a city like san francisco, particularly one where we put a lot of time and energy into our homeless programs, affordable housing, and a lot of things to try to help people get off the streets -- when i first heard laura's law laura's, he was only a few months ago. it seemed to be the missing piece to the san francisco puzzle of how we would help people get off the street. it is not just about -- you cannot give someone housing if they cannot hold down a job and pay for their rent.

it seems to be a cycle. i have seen this in my work with the disabled community for years. i have been doing it since 1992. it is not new. this is the first time i have seen something that acts as a solution to a bigger problem of helping people retained independent lives. i do believe that what happened in new york is quite remarkable. you can look at the statistics i mentioned earlier. you can have conversations with the people in new york about it. it has had such a positive impact. not everything is going to be perfect. i do my job is trying to get to as perfect as we can. i think this is a good way of helping people get independence. if people want to help, it is there for them. right now, i do not think it is. i believe that prisons can make

situations like this so much worse for individuals when they do not get the help they need. if we can help them in an assisted outpatient treatment or and our communities, that is the way we should do it. our goal should be for everyone to live safely and independently. aot is the answer. for a lot of people, it is. this is a law that we should pass in the city and county of san francisco. supervisor chu: supervisor avalos? supervisor avalos: thank you for bringing this forward. i want to acknowledge the public comment today, especially those of you who live with tremendous pain about your family members

on a daily basis or not been able to see them again. my family has similar pain that my closest family members live with of that sort. i have some reservations about this resolution and laura's law, whether it is something we really need to have here in san francisco. i look at the system of mental health services we have in san francisco working on multiple levels and for different types of populations. it is a rich array of services that i do not necessarily see that we have to implement another service to be able to assure that people that need mental health services and support can get that service. i think there are a lot of ways

that people can access the system we have. i do not think we have a need to do anything more. if we are only a holding on to our mental health services by the skin of our teeth, there has been discussion about restoration's we have made to our mental health services. i am not fully clear that we have made full restoration to those services. we could only enact laura's law if it would not replace outpatient services -- voluntary outpatient services in the city. i am not sure we have the ability to enact laura's law without doing that in the city. that is a big concern i have. city-wide mental health services received a $1.4 million cut. the mayor restored part of that. the board may be able to restore

the rest of that. that is a major service in the city. it is something i know will be on the chopping block again next year. i hope it is not, but i suspect it will be on the chopping block next year along with other mental health services in the city. it does not seem like we have the ability to implement it without replacing existing services for patients in the city. i do see the need for people to have greater access to mental health services and have strong treatment and the best the san francisco can provide for services. sentences spoken meet the needs of people on the streets or living in isolation. -- san francisco can meet the needs of people on the streets or living in isolation. i cannot feel comfortable this.

i think we could have a discussion with the full board. i think that would be a better way to go. i do not necessarily want to keep it in committee. we might go forward with a recommendation. supervisor chu: the item is before us. i believe we will need a roll call. before we do that, i want to thank supervisor alioto-pier for her leadership in bringing this item forward and bringing people together today in this room. i also want to take a minute to thank people on both sides have come here to share your experiences. it has been very educational to hear about your experiences. i want to say thank you for that. the other thing that is very interesting in this room is as i listened to testimony on both sides, i think both of you are right. i do think in terms of voluntary services and treatment programs that those are probably the most effective programs when people

do want and are part of the solution and believe they have a say in their treatment. i also agree with the other side in the sense that sometimes there is a need for a bit more. there is a need for some additional help. what has been compelling to me is the testimony from ms. lacey, a professional in this industry for many years who has worked in the behavioral courts who has seen firsthand what the court system looks like. voluntary programs and services are probably the best and very effective. but there's also a recognition that there is a need for additional help sometimes. i also appreciate that this would provide a truly a civil process for early intervention before a crime is committed.

currently we have to wait for a crime to be committed before someone goes into the community behavioral health court. a crime must be something that is not reversible forever like a loss of life. it is compelling to be able to intervene before that to help an individual prevent that through treatment. that is compelling to me. i do want to move the item forward with recommendations today. supervisor alioto-pier? supervisor alioto-pier: thank you for singe -- your support. i am sitting in for supervisor dufty. unfortunately, he had to go to a funeral today. i wanted to thank him for that publicly. i also want to thank the wilcox es for being here today.

i do not even want to begin to imagine how difficult going to hearings like this must be. i think it is truly a gift that you are giving us. i want to thank you for that. supervisor chu: if we could do roll call on the motion. >> on the motion to recommend the item to the full board as amended. supervisor avalos? no. supervisor alioto-pier? aye. supervisor chu? aye. the motion passes. that completes the agenda. supervisor chu: we are adjourned. ♪

>> this is a dpw corporation yard. i work for the bureau of street environmental services used to be street cleaning. we are a new age. >> here we are. >> here we are. >> clean. >> these are our communications dispatchers. hi. okay, no problem. you are welcome. bye-bye. >> all the information about the location, the nature of the complaint and we dispatch it.

>> near the steps. >> by new they have started a hundred calls for dispatchers. >> once a get a request if they are not on the air i will page that unit. these are the radio channels. we have 14 channels. i will give a service request. >> there is a lot of expertise that goes into a call. i think we can have you dispatch and track. >> 448. >> 448. >> 19th at california. >> can you give us a little bit of a view. >> we have the city broken up to different districts. we will go to zone e. we will go to iowa street.

put me to work. >> okay. >> bend it over like that. we chop it. >> while you do this if you come across something that looks hazardous, material wise, >> like this paint? >> you can't take paint. >> that gets dealt with by? >> we have a patrol truck thal pick up the paint. >> we have tv monitors and tires. you want to look for needles we

don't mix needles with the garbage. >> you have to be a positive person in a way to deal with this job. you are dealing with areas you know it's been cleaned. >> basically it happens a lot where you clean up an area. you come back a couple of days later and it's back to that again. we more or less are used to it. that's -- it's our job. you have to get used to it. it's a fact. that's the way it is. >> sure. yeah. >> okay. >> what do you think, are you ready to sign up? >> totally. i'm over dressed. >> a little warm? must be the sweat.

>> part of the daily routine is george our steamer. you see the wall people urinate on the and the sidewalk. a trick. i get it up like this. somebody got to do it. the bigger they -- >> pull the trigger. >> careful, the water's really hot, too. >> i have been on a packer truck. i painted removed graffiti. my favorite. >> what's that smell? pine. one of my favorite, a guy got

his head stuck in a trash can. we had to get vasoline and rub his ears. [laughter]. what goes on here we will empty out and clear this area. >> ever find stuff like drugs or anything? do you deal with that. >> i don't know, do you find anything? >> everything's trash. >> dave, let's get a little of that. >> the way to do it easier without opening the can is push off the debris off the top and you are topping off the can. we are not supposed to empty the can. there is a can on every corner. sometimes we get calls the

majority of my work is done on eyesight if i see it i do it. downtown we fill up 3 or 4 times a day. >> daily it could change and be various different assignments that come up. we can swing by, we see some of the trucks unloading in the area. >> this is our dump site, this is where we dump the debris. we come twice a day to unload all the trucks. i need you to go on up there and he will assist you to unloading the mattress and the futons. >> okay. okay.

>> sometimes you see it popping out. you have to be very careful. pushing in and down. pull it out. >> you have been here once earlier? >> did you have as much stuff? >> more. >> oh , my god. >> did you survive your day in dpw? >> i did i learned quite a bit. the packing truck. shovelling stuff. the steamer i thought i was a candidate for an industrial accident. >> we have 340 employees. most of the people out there do it every day. >> i'm ready to turn in my vest. >> did a good job today. >> would you pass him on probation. >> yes. see you tomorrow at 6

>> the san francisco arts commission's public arts program made a big splash in the civic center with the world premiere of three heads, six arms. the artist came from shanghai to help us celebrate the unavailing. we had a chance to speak with him about his work. >> the san francisco arts commission is pleased to be celebrating their relationship between san high and san francisco. the shanghai and san francisco.

this is a 30 relationship that stretches back to win dianne feinstein was the mayor of san francisco. we premiered a new work of art here in san francisco called the three heads, six arms. welcome to san francisco. thank you for bringing your extraordinary sculpture. can you tell me about what inspired you to create this sculpture? >> this started with some trips that i took years ago. i went to to bed and i saw a lot of statues and i started to really feel the spiritual life of people in tibet. it really inspires me and i went

back to shanghai and i started the creation of this. >> we see that one of the heads of the bullet it is your face. can you talk about the significance of that? -- we see that one of the heads of the buddha is your face. >> i started doing public art almost 10 years ago. what i want to express this as an extension of my our practice. this is an accumulation of my own experience as a performance artist. >> we see that the scale is

very important. we have seen other works where a limb of this culture is on the floor but everything is very big and large scale. what are you trying to accomplish with expanding the scale of these images to such a great size. >> i wanted to make large scale art and see how this plays a role in contemporary society. i think that is the mission of contemporary art, to serve as a social critique.

>> when the mayor knew some -- when mayor newsom join you in dedicating this, they wanted to find a work that was big and bold. he was so pleased with your participation that he made you an honoraria citizens of san francisco for the next 18 months. the public reaction has been very positive. what is your reaction of how people receive your sculpture? >> i think that san francisco has a long history. this gigantic sculpture is in

front of the civic center. i know that that is not the kind of a go with whole environment. there is an exchange with the american culture and the asian culture which has created this very strong power. this power was created by east meets west may be is exactly what our mayor or the public wants. they will start to be curious and wonder how this is here and how we look at the asian culture. >> you have lived internationally, you have lived in cities like new york and beijing, now shanghai. you made a very conscious decision to lend this culture to san francisco as opposed to having it premier as an exhibition at another museum.

>> i am very satisfied with the turnout and i lived in new york for 8 years and all of my children were born in new york. i already have the american spirit. i am proud to be here and i really appreciate the spirit of committing to things and being honored and being collaborative. when i flashed back to my career, i think about what an artist can do is a teeny tiny thing. i want to contribute to the hall human society. what art can do is just this tiny bit. >> your invitation has already proven to be a great success