takes the child off of drugs and puts the child in a music class, dance class. that child grew up on community- based art and dance experiences. went through medical and high school and went on to college. this child who was dubbed having a learning disorder, could not reach its full potential did so because of an through arts education programs. that child went on to earn not 3 degrees. baton would grow up to become the director of education of the san francisco ballet, and that china would understand that giving back to create the same opportunities for other children who might be kept in the dark, or labeled too early, too soon. the arts are not just saving children. it is saving lives. we are not just treating the creative culture of tomorrow. we are saving children's lives and we are enriching this planet

in a way that brings us together. on behalf of all these organizations, thank you for your continued support, funding, and thank you for saving our children. supervisor chu: thank you. thank you all for coming. we have received all of your e- mails. [laughter] next speaker please. >> good morning, board of supervisors. i am so happy to see the opera and symphony. i used to volunteer for them. i came here to advocate for the life program. but first, i want to say a little bit about myself. 35 years ago, i came from

brazil, from a conservative family, and they did not want me to come to the united states. they disowned me because i came to the united states. i am very proud to be an american citizen. one time, i had major surgery, and the day that i was discharged was the last day to go. i asked the ambulance to stop so that i could vote. so i had a good job, wonderful employees. i've always believed in studying. i have hiv and terminal cancer. i donated my horse to stanford and have been doing volunteer work.

i went to the hospice and now i live at cohen residence. for all of this time, the life project has helped me to keep my dignity, keeping my spirits, to be glad i came to the uned states, to love this country, my friends, and i came here to ask, please, help the life of program. they are helping me, have helped me, and because of that, i am helping lots of people. thank you very much for your attention. supervisor chu: thank you. >> my name is cameron. i am here on behalf of the

support of housing. we are facing a $118,000 reduction to our overall budget. we received $140,000 from hrsa, and they are proposing to cut 118,000. i think it is a well-known fact that the one stop system is not prepared to serve people with multiple barriers looking for employment. the office of economic workforce development may not say that they know this but they provide funding to agencies, including us, to provide job readiness services, which are supposed to help people with multiple pairs of employment enter the mainstream. trading programs, funding, so that people can get to that extent. we were recently given an award by the office of work force to the elements for excellent collaboration which was presented to us by supervisor jane kim. that was in april.

i just find it a conflict of interest that we are looking to be cut by one agency and being awarded by another. we depended on both sources of funding to provide excellent service as we do. i would also like to add, last year, mayor newsom added us back himself, and the before, this year -- or supervisors. we are experts in providing training and implements services to the homeless and families. at a time when there is outcry for cdo's to collaborate with each other, i do not know why we would want to cut a long standing, or performing, highly successful, nationally- recognized collaborative model. i hope you consider restoring our funds once more. supervisor chu: thank you.

>> members of the committee, my name is lesley. i am the director for clinical operations at san is as good general hospital and trauma center. for the record, we are here on our own time. we are here to urge you to vote yes on proposition j which would allow the contract thing out of security services at san pritzker general. we believe this presents us with a unique opportunity for our hospital to integrate security as part of our health care team, rather than an entity solely devoted to law enforcement. currently, the constraints placed upon the shares deputies, because they are sworn peace officers, render them unable to support clinical situations in which patients, for no fault of their own, despite dangerous behavior to themselves or others. deputies can only restrain and

attain what criminal or assaultive behavior has occurred. we envision a model where security is part of the health care delivery team and a trickle at and visible presence that can afford our institution and patients a sense of safety. additionally, the operations section, which is responsible for the minute to minute operations at the hospital, would have the power and authority to deploy such security where the need arises. something that is currently lacking under our current record model. kamala week to pressure the longstanding relationships with the share, it is not one that goes far enough that meets the needs of our patients and staff. therefore, we urge you to support proposition j. supervisor chu: thank you. >> good morning, supervisors. i am the chief medical officer

and a practicing physician at san francisco general hospital. i am here to speak on behalf of the dph budget regarding the security issue. contrary to some comments you may be hearing today, this is not fundamentally a union issue. this is a patient care and safety issue. with all due respect to our law enforcement officers -- and i would not despaired of those folks in any regard -- we simply do not have the employees with the training, skills, and most notably, the legal flexibility to manage medical crises in the hospital. this is a health care issue, not a legal or law enforcement issue. we need trained personnel who can act on behalf of patients, consistent with hospital policy, and integrated into the health care team. the issue may seem complicated but it is really not, so i will keep my comments very brief.

as health-care providers, we have a duty and obligation to provide safe and appropriate care, especially to the most vulnerable patients. and those are the folks without capacity to make rational decisions, due to their acute medical illness. we must have the tools and resources to provide that care in a safe environment for patients and staff. supervisors, is your obligation to provide us with the personnel and resources to do so. supervisor chu: thank you. >> thank you, supervisors. i am a psychiatrist at general hospital, where i have worked for the past 22 years in our psychiatric units, and jail psychiatric units, and psychiatric emergency services. i am here to urge your support of the contract out of security

services for the hospital for two reasons. safety of patients and staff. this is paramount. and fiscal responsibility. this proposal would save over $4 million at a year when we are being forced to cut the city's health-care services. i personally enjoy and value working with the outstanding officer that currently staff the hospital, but legal mandates have changed in the past years so that they can no longer restrain or detained patients unless they have a court order or there is criminal activity. this puts our patients and staff at risk through no fault of the officers themselves. they are simply not able to act in many situations. a high-quality contacted security firm would be able to do these things. they would be part of the health-care team and not sworn officers. we know this can be done safely because they have been doing it for the past two years in alameda county. i have spoken directly with

staff. as a member of the department of public health, i feel an obligation to use precious public money in the safest, most efficient way possible. this contract in proposal would do just that, and without any layoffs of current staff. thank you very much supervisor chu: thank you. -- thank you very much. supervisor chu: thank you. >> hello. i am an rn at san francisco general hospital. i am here on my own time. i wanted to talk about proposition j. i find it to be an unfortunate situation, in a lot of ways -- supervisor chu: we cannot hear you. please speak up. >> i find it to be an

unfortunate issue, because i personally support unions, and i find this is a very conflicting situation. when it comes down to it, the systems are not compatible, and that is because law enforcement is involved in criminal issues and the situations where i have needed support have not been criminal issues, per say, where we have a patient on surrogate old, which means family members take care of the patient and the patient is entrusted to us, but is not capable of making decisions themselves. the police officers have no ability to hold this patient if the patient decides, because they are having a medical crisis essentially, that they are going to leave. it is that sort of flexibility in the system that is necessary in order to ensure patients are

safe and staff is safe in trying to maintain patient safety. i have run across more than one situation where it has been very, very stressful, because a patient who everyone understands is not able to keep themselves safe, from not walking in front of cars, doing something that will cause them great harm. on more than one occasion, i have had officers say to me, i am really sorry, but there is nothing we can do in this situation. those are my concerns. thank you. supervisor chu: thank you. >> my name is jennifer. i am a registered nurse at san francisco general hospital.

i am also here to talk about the proposition that my colleagues are talking about. i would just give you an example of a position i was put in as a nurse with a patient who was disabled, actively psychotic, delusional, could not make choices about -- he could not plan for self care wants out of the hospital, and he had a serious injury that needed multiple surgeries and he was on a psychiatric hold, which is a 14-state but psychiatric hold. he decided he was going to leave. i told them we still have to do treatment. i was trying to be supportive, non-threatening. he decided that he was going to leave. i said, you cannot leave he was very smart and said, why can i leave? the doctors did not say that. the doctors said if i had a friend come pick me up, my friend provides a place for me to stay, i can go. i said, actually, you are on a

psychiatric hold. until we can figure out a plan for you, you have to stay. his friend showed up. he said, i am leaving. in the meantime, i am making multiple phone calls to the doctors to reassure him to stay. he was not going to have it, so i called the institutional police. three officers showed up and they said we cannot keep him here. he is on a psychiatric told, here is the paperwork. they said, i am sorry, we cannot do anything if he is breaking the law. i said he threatened to kill his mother in, and intermittently, regretting his mother seeing him in the hospital. his mother flew in from france because she was so concerned about this psychotic breakdown. he basically hobbled away from the unit after begging his

friend, please do not take him home with you. he is not well. he left and his roommate brought him back two days later to the psychiatric ward because he was so unstable. thank you. supervisor chu: thank you. >> hello, supervisors. i work at san francisco general. my main concern is a safety issue. we pride ourselves on giving the best patient care that we are able to give. but if we are so focused on safety on top of that, -- well, they have taken us away from focusing on patients for medical reasons. now we have to focus on medical and safety. that puts us in a difficult situation. i would like a solution to this problem. i want to make sure my nurses are safe on the floor so that we can continue to do our jobs.

that is how -- that is how it is supposed to happen. supervisor chu: thank you. >> i am a nurse on 5c at san francisco general hospital. i am here on my own time. we have the need opportunity to work with patients from marginalized communities around san francisco. we work with many from sro's, in the mission district, tenderloin, and pretty much everyone knows that what goes on in sro's, in many instances, are criminal. when they get to us, they have health issues. we need to address these issues. they are not criminals when they come to us, but they are treating the day they are treated like criminals. this is a fire that i found that says no to proposition j. once again, and dph is looking

to increase security at hospitals. i do not want my patients arrested. i want them to get healthy. lacks necessary training. well, the current sheriff's deputies that we have lacked training. we need people, security, who are trained to be empathetic to the people that we have and the types of patients we represent. help us help them get better. thank you. supervisor chu: thank you. >> good afternoon. my name is stephanie. i go to george washington high school. i am a senior. i am here as a youth representing the richmond district neighborhood centers, which will be affected by cuts. i am here with my gsa members. i am the president of the

alliance there. when we heard about these cuts that would affect the beacon, we were horrified. most, if not all the multicultural program there are sponsored by the beacon. so the cuts we would get from the budget would pretty much be the end of the multicultural programs. there are large schools in the richmond district that have beaten programs. there are literally thousands of students that go to these clauses that will be affected. i feel like i am screaming for help, but i have not. supervisor chu: thank you. >> hello, my name is natalie. i go to roosevelt middle school. i am involved in the beacon program. i go to the art academy three

times a week. this is not an avid program that you just go in and get picked up. they let you go outside every day and teach a new things, give you books, let you go out to different monuments so that you can learn how to draw, learn the history behind burke. this is basically my only chance to get any program in arts. i want to go to an art school, but it is very competitive now. if you want to go to an art school, they only want the best people if they are going to waste their money on you. that, basically, is sad and pitiful. a 12-year-old girl like me knows that she basically has no future to actually reach the goals she has been thinking of. supervisor chu: thank you. >> good morning, supervisors.

i am the program coordinator of the san francisco immigrant legal education network. as part of some of the leading immigration and providers, we provide free services and cultural and linguistic services. we are composed of african networks, the asian law caucus, asian-pacific islander out rich, the central american resource center, the filipino community center, delores street agencies. the collective has been funded through the generosity of the mayor's how high office. have for the upcoming year, we are facing $140,000 shortfall. you look at the funding for the collaborative, between the current fiscal year and the upcoming fiscal year, there does not appear to be a shortfall

because of a technicality in our contract period. in the current fiscal year, we are only written into the budget for 10 of 12 months. for the next fiscal year, we are going to be kept at the same level which means 10 months will be spread across 12 months. the impact on our services will mean over 600 san franciscans will not be able to receive the necessary immigration services to navigate a confusing immigration system, including counseling, a process for naturalization, but immigration proceedings, education and immigration services. and large portion of these cuts extend beyond the immigrants in the city. our services help keep families united, prevent homelessness caused by the stabilization of familiar units. we also helped folks maintain the proper paperwork. on behalf of the network, i want

to thank you for the support over the past five years. it has been helpful for our community and to ask you to reconsider the cuts to sf island. >> good morning, supervisors. i am here to support the veterans equity center. we serve world war parents and seniors who are enjoying the programs are now. i am a veteran. i came here to speak for the vec. in 2006, i needed to go to the philippines, but i could not go home because of financial reasons. so i went to the vec to help the

veterans. i went there and asked for their support. one of the community leaders, rita, help me fill out the application forms so that i could get what i want. after a year, i went back home and i got the answer. every first and third month -- days of the month, the fridays, we received free cleaning. -- free legal clinic. this clinic, we learned the status of immigration for our relatives. we were updated to the current and proposed benefits for filipino world war two veterans. once a month, we receive this

socialization, dancing, and free food. we know each other and the veterans. seniors are also updated about computer skills. they are being taught how to use the computer. once a week, we received food every thursday. arts and crafts, too. i would beg the board of supervisors to please not cut their budgets so that seniors can enjoy their twilight years. thank you. >> good morning, supervisors, distinguished members of the community.

i had been a client of the veterans equity center since 1998. my husband and i would always go there for services and support. our children are in the philippines. when my husband passed away, the vec assisted me with funeral arrangements and they helped me to bring my husband's remains to the philippines. today, there are a growing number of people like me who live away from their families. i am appealing for the community to help us. please reject the cuts of the veterans equity center, because

the proposed cuts will reduce services to seniors. i would like to thank you all. thank you very much. supervisor chu: thank you. >> good morning, everybody. 81 years old, widow of a world war ii veteran. i am receiving the services of the the veterans equity center for almost five years. i used to sleep in closets. only hardwood.

i am here to stand before you to say what i have understood about budget cuts. these budget cuts are deplorable. the agency's will be closed and it will affect the people it helps.

it is sad to say and hard to admit, this situation affects the people working at the agency. all of us understand that work is the source of our livelihood. we work to live. supervisor chu: thank you. just a quick announcement. i know there are individuals outside who are still waiting to come into chambers. if you want to come in, please contact the sheriff. if there are individuals that need to be accommodated, seniors, individuals with disabilities, please let the shares know so that they can let you in. in