they're not a dispensary and you never see cash flow. everything is free, given from the heart. now, they have volunteer workers that are called interns. they put a lot of work into the plan that we have every week, like chess playing shall the monday group, h.i.v. class and shawn is a very nice, honest person. she's a very good facilitator and she puts a lot of hours into her work and she does a very good job of it. and it is a health department of assistance over not

planning. thank you for listening to me and supporting us. thank you. president chiu: president chiu: next speaker? >> good eve ash afternoon. thank you, axis of love operates as a gift economy, which makes it fundamentally different from a medical cannabis dispensary. it is not even an exchange system. we all contribute to the collective well-being of the collective with the unspoken understanding that each member will receive unspecified amounts of materials and social services, thus making it always different from any profit or not for profit medical cannabis dispensary. thank you.

president chiu: next speaker? >> good afternoon, speakers. way like to speak on at larming spread of government power. the mayor, supervisors and police chief all took an oath to the constitution. our rights come from god. they are natural, not graptd by constitution -- granted by constitution, meaning they cannot be taken away by men. sobriety checkpoints, police sobriety checkpoints, are ansumption of guilt. they also frequently ask for your identification which they shouldn't be doing. that's "your papers, please." the police are using tasers on the sisters -- citizens of san francisco and firing electrical charges into human beings. we're not cattle. red light cameras with excessive fines. fines for red light cameras i believe are over $500. for many people that would put them in a pretty bad way.

also the newest edition -- addition to san francisco are dome cameras which according to my inquiries here in city hall are from some other government agency. they can't even identify where the cameras come from. they're in low or no crime areas. there are no buses or muni going by these areas, yet you're watching the citizens. i'd like to know, you know, what is your role here? we did elect you to represent us. you are upholders of the constitution and the law. we asked you to be office holders, honorable good men and women who hold office honorably and not be the greatest enemies of free men, and that would be politicians. thank you very much. president chiu: thank you. next speaker? >> my name is yvette fernandez. and i'm a cancer survivor of three months. i joined axis of love three

months ago because i was able to receive compassion and a meal when i badly need to do and the camaraderie of people who had overcome other things such as h.i.v., etc. you are asking them to get a license when there are two dispensaries up on ocean that already have licenses. we do not sell any products of any kind. what we give, we give for free. we are a collective of people who help each other, work in the community and do political action. what axis of love does is satisfy a viable need in the community, helping the very poor an indigent of san francisco. if the license law is applied to us we will be forced to end our food programs and some of our outreach programs. why would you want to destroy a

program that helps people? you can never destroy the love and bonds create in this group for over 10 years. we will stay in contact with each other via our phone tree and continue to distribute compassion even if it means dispensing it on the steps of city hasm you may try to disband us but we will come back like mold or the plague right under your nose forever. this is a lifelong commitment and we are here to stay. thank you. president chiu: thank you, next speaker? >> hello, my name is teresa cooper and i'm a teacher and laider in the community. i've worked for a cannabis dispensary and most of the duties that i had was around money. doing bookkeeping, personal assisting. some of the best jobs i had was carrying around money, getting money orders, paying bills, money, money, money.

everything we did was about the money. no one ever actually gave me cannabis when i worked there. i did get a discount on my medicine. i did sit on the cannabis task force for one of the members, the seat of 12, and shona wasle -- was the one person seen me sitting there and reached out to me and supported me. i paid attention to that woman, who is friendly, informative, gave me her number, and remembered her so when i was fired from my job due to money issues again, it was all about the money, i found shona on 420. i went out, i went to almost every cannabis dispensary because i only ever hung at -- out at my own dispensary and bought it with my paycheck.

being unemployed now, i con afford it. i was actually pushed out of the office. i found shona. as a healer i've learned to stick up for my rights. i've learned to -- i've been harassed in my own building. i've had so much social support i'm actually successful. i actually have a dog from hope net. my whole life has changed. i've been told my shona the difference i've made in this community center when i'm unemployed and think i have nothing to offer. president chiu: thank you very much. next speaker? >> i'm here to tell you that i support axis of love and help net and the ocean street dispensary. i really support everything

that offers, everything at this center. it's like a community center. everybody just comes together and love each other and there's a lot of groups throughout the week that support everyone. and i'm not a lawyer, but i can read the law. thank you very much. >> hello, my name is floyd, i'm a part of axis of love. one of the main reasons why i'm a part of this is because of all the good things shona has done for a lot of people. there she is. the key is that, i'm from a small city, ann arbor, michigan, and i was raised to always help those who cannot help themselves. when i first got here in 2006 i started volunteerle --

volunteering at project open hand. once again for nothing. i didn't even have a job. eventually i did get a job but i lost that job because it's in the mortgage industry. currently i'm doing all i can and everything i can for shona. right now i have on these dark glasses. the key is that i have migraine headaches that are so bad i have to go day -- lay down in a dark room. when i leave out of here and head home it's always in a dark place because the light is extremely irritating to my eyes. not only that, i have such a bad back my kisks -- disks are just constantly crumbling. so to not be able to go some place and get the medication i need, and it is true medication. that's the key word here. medication. she is helping us with our medication. she is bending over backwards for all of us and for all those

people who don't go out or even go to our club, it's crazy to take something away that's not costing you folks anything. president chiu: next speaker, please? >> hello. my name is linda. i'm part of axis of love. i'm part of the women's health collective. axis provides a clean and sober environment for women to discuss their health issues and various problems. it's a safe environment. it also offers various groups five days a week. veterans groups, cancer survivors groups, women's groups. so -- and as you know, axis of love has been in place for more than 10 years creating these various services ongoing.

and i can say axis of love improved my life more than 50% with the counseling. usually in the main stream communities when you go to a health center it takes two or three months for any type of services, whether it be mental, emotional, or physical. so i would like to ask axis of love, that ack action continue to operate on the same premises that it always has and you reconsider. thank you seven. -- thank you very much. president chiu: thank you. next speaker? >> my name is frank boldin and i'm here to speak for shona. i used to work at a place called champs which was a cannabis dispensary. i've known here -- her for 11 or 12 years and her work hasn't

changed. she's full of love, as you probably noticed. it hurts sometimes but they still fights. just please give her what she wants and make our people happy. thank you. >> yes, my name is tony. i'm not a lawyer but i do know the law. i been with axis of love about two months and we are a family and shona is a good person. we, you know, we play bingo. we play chess. and shona is, you know, like better than my doctor that i had at general where i would be sitting in there for six or seven hours waiting to see a doctor for my, because i got a bad leg and bad back and the med cain -- medicine i do get from axis of love does cure me

and it is a nonprofit organization. and that's basically all i got to talk about. but keep axis of love going, please. president chiu: any other members of the public that wish to speak in public comment? >> i'm kathryn valdez, a patient of axis of love. the center is a outreach place. i am not a lawyer but i can read the law. let's see -- the center is not a pot club but a harm reduction, social service -- let's see -- axis of love -- i

been in axis of love for 10 years. the center is not a nonprofit resource, medical cannabis. i support axis of love center. they helped me, my housing, my food, my medicine, my public medication. i have to -- i go to the women' -- women's group. we have the best women's group in san francisco thanks to shona, thanks to axis, i mean hope net, 1944 ocean and ms. smith. president chiu: are there any other members of the public that wish to speam in public comment?

ok. at this time seeing no other speakers, general public comment is closed. thank you for coming today. colleagues, could we move to the adoption without committee reference calendar items 56 through 64? >> items 46 through 64 are being considered for adoption without committee reference. they willing voted on in a single vote unless a matter is called out. supervisor elsbernd: will you remove item 56? president chiu: any other items? ok. if we could take a roll call on items 57 through 64, please? supervisor daly: aye.

supervisor maxwell: aye. supervisor alioto-pier: aye. supervisor campos: aye. president chiu: aye. >> 11 ayes. president chiu: item 5 -- 56? president chiu: roll call vote please? >> supervisor elsbernd no. marray, supervisor mirkarimi aye. supervisor alioto-pier? alioto-pier no. supervisor avalos aye. supervisor campos aye. supervisor chu aye.

president chiu no. there are eight ayes and three nos. president chiu: that resolution is adopted. madame clerk, are there any in memorandumorians for today? my apologies we do have a special 4:00 order. if you could please call fms 46 through 53? >> items 46 through 53 constitute the two special orders at 4:00 p.m. 46 through 48 pertain to the appeal for determination of exemption for environmental review referring to bernal heights neighborhood

president chiu: supervisor campos? supervisor campos supervisor campos thank you. we have been meeting with both parties to this item and are asking tore -- for a continuance to november 11 to kind -- find a resolution. president chiu: any public comment on supervisor campos' motion that we continue this item to november 15? seeing none, can we take this motion to continue without objection? without objection these items pertaining to 10 bernan -- bernal heights boulevard will be continued. do we have in memoriams? >> yes.

today's meeting will be adjourned in honor of the late paulina, matthew douglas good, allen cohen, the late ms. gladys jones joubert. excuse me, that is on behalf of the full board. on behalf of sproiment the late lauren marie nelson. on behalf of supervisor chu the late nick blatunic. the late nia. on before of supervisor elsbernd for the late elaine mckenna and supervisor mar for the late derek allen. president chiu: do we have any other business in front of this board? >> that concludes our business. president chiu: before we

conclude i would just like to congratulate the giants and san francisco. with that we are adjourned for with that we are adjourned for today.

oh, my! haa ha ha! ha hha ha! [snortg]

>> thank you all very much for taking the time to be here. as chief gascon promised, we're keeping you abreast of our changing crime statistics on a quarterly basis. of course, as you knew with the new model of policing, we do that more often and technology and data is really driving so much of our deployment and strategies in terms of crime fighting and crime prevention in our city. the good news is we were audacious in our goal setting earlier this year. we had some stretch goals. we raised the bar in terms of our expectation. we came into the year with among the lowest homicide rates we had seen in a generation. in fact, till the early 1960's, we had no seen homicide rates as low as they were last year. there were some that felt it was inappropriate to set the

goal of continuing that trend downward in terms of the homicide rates in particular since lastior some had suggested was an anomaly. we felt differently, not only in terms of the goal setting, but we felt that last year was an extension of a trend that we saw happening occurring in the middle part of 2008 and the summer of 2008. that trend continues now into the new year. while the statistics, you will see in the presentation the chief will provide very shortly, shows that homicide are up by one homicide, 3% the actual numbers today if they were adjusted show that homicides are down by 3%. the new numbers that we just brought in today actually shows them lower than last year. nonetheless and to the point, we are seeing part one crime continuing to decrease in the city. it was double digits last year and it's down as you'll see in a moment 9% this year.

we're making progress. the work that the police department is doing in concert and partnership with the district attorney's office continue to show very positive gains in terms of reduction in crime. the stats, as always, mean nothing to the people of this city. behind the stats are real human beings, real narratives and real lives. we recognize we can do more. we recognize we can do better. we recognize good enough never is. but i just want to compliment before i ask the chief to make the presentation and the district attorney, to complete our presentation and answer any questions, i want to compliment the men and women in uniform, the men and women of law enforcement in this city. i want to compliment the partnerships with the district attorney's office and the courts. we are making tremendous progress. we are seeing stats that we haven't seen in decades in san francisco. we're seeing a reduction in violent crime and property crimes, the likes of which we haven't seen in decades in this city and we're doing it

longwindedly with this point. we're doing it with less resources, that money has not been our excuse. we're doing it with substantially less resources than we have had in the last few decades. that, i think, is a remarkable testament to leadership and with that, let me give you leader of our police department, our police chief, george gascon. >> thank you, mr. mayor, and thank you everyone. as the mayor indicated, this is really about people working together. it's about the police department, the mayor's office, the district attorney's office, our chief probation office and her department who happens to be here and the community. certainly our federal partners. what we're going to do very quickly is walk you through a powerpoint that will illustrate what the numbers are. i think it's important as the mayor indicated, there are lives, there are real people behind the numbers. i think that is what we should be focusing on. while the numbers tell a story, the numbers really are meaningless unless we put the context to the numbers. the fact that there are less

people being victimized in our city. as a matter of fact, we were looking at a study that was published a few months ago, actually at the end of 2009 where they took three different assessments of the cost of crime in this country. and we averaged the three different numbers that were provided by the studies. in looking at those numbers, if we were to compare the number of homicides that we have to date and quantify that in dollars and cents to the cost to our community and compare that to just two years ago, the savings are staggering. it's almost $800 million in savings that this community has realized by this reduction in crime. these things do not happen by accident. they happen because good people are working together and making a difference. first we'll begin with the bases for our driving force, if you will. if you recall, one of the things that we wanted to ensure is that we continue to work

collaboratively with our community to make san francisco the safest largest city in the country. although we're not there yet, we're certainly moving in the right direction. that is something we want to talk about all the time. next i want to put the numbers up there for you so you can see, just very briefly, what in short three years' time the reductions in crime of serious crimes in the city. as you see, we're down 13%. if we compare it to two years ago and 9% when we compare it to a year ago. these are year-to-date numbers. next, just another way breaking down the crimes and looking at it. all of you will get a copy of this powerpoint. i'm not going to read it for you. we have a agenda today and i want to make sure that we get to some of the real important points that we want to make here today. those numbers are there for you and you will have access to this powerpoint. what i would like to do now is we're going to have, we have a couple of speakers that are

going to come before our d.a. comes up and closes this portion of the press conference and then we'll open it up for questions and answers. one number that i really like to point out to you because there is no question that without the hard work of the men and women of the police department and their ability to work well with all of the other stakeholders, crime would not be as low as it is. and one of the things that i think is really important to illustrate is how aggressively our men and women are going after violence. this is really illustrated, if we can go to the next slide, please. the one that has the -- the next one. i think we're going perhaps backwards. i'm talking about the one that has violence reduction accomplishments and it has -- there we go. look at the number of firearms that have been recovered year-to-date in the city. 787 firearms. those are crime guns.