protraction on all of these things. we have been sensitive about everybody wants to contribute. if we want to put it in another section, that would be a different thing. we would have meetings going back again with folks that like it as it is. if we are missing something, we can add things, but if we are going to change something, we will have to go back. there has been a lot of thought along the way. i know he has really driven this project. >> i just wanted to note there

reason it is on for discussion and not action is the charter requires 10 days of notice, so in order to meet the notice requirement, we put it on for discussion for a future meeting, which we assumed was going to be december 28, but it is on for an end now discussion today. >> i think is important to get a commission decided to have the vote at the meeting, because it was the largest meeting were the most discussion happened. you will know early on if it is ok with them. >> this is just a suggestion. i particularly like the use highlighted every day -- that

the youth is highlighted in a positive and pro-active way. i think you have a lead by example with this piece. i think it is great to have more opportunities, and there are probably a ton of examples you can draw from as you put together this manual. my only thing is you mentioned language access. it is not a hard and fast suggestion, but it might be helpful to mention for people who english is not their primary language, but if it is late in the game -- >> that is something i cannot

believe i did not think of. >> i am sure the people would welcome that. >> if you can give us the language that would be appropriate, i see that belongs in there. if you can find the language to put in there, and running it by mour city attorney, i think that is absolutely appropriate. >> it will not be a big, long chains. >> it does not sound like something you have to get permission for. >> there are many that say what about, and you have an epiphany.

>> a lot of this is what should come natural to our officers. they learn about the community. that is why they joined the police department. it is great that new codified it, but is this something that can be used as a performance measure when evaluating officers? you are not going out to the community. you are just responding. is there any way to encourage the officers to make a performance measure? >> absolutely. if some officer has not been clear, and i think most of the officers are, but there is always room for improvement. this is what we are here to do, and a supervisor should call the officer in, and it starts off with may i remind you, and if

you get somebody that is intransigent, you tell them, it is a rule. you need to be able to get there, so i think the community expects their police department to be this way, and it is reasonable. >> is there anything further? is there any public comment regarding the general order 1.08, the draft general order? >> good evening once again. it is not clear to me what this is. are you coming up with a memo they are going to have to recite some of what is going on here? is this something he is going

to love to pull out and recite and that he is going to have to get an okay from the board of supervisors bowman -- the board of supervisors. what are you trying to do? and regarding community policy, what do we not now intends to do? it is not clear to remain the reagan -- it is not clear to me. are you going to force them to carry it around every time something and who takes place?

it does not make a lot of sense to me in terms of where the burden is between the resident and a police officer, so i would like that explained to me so it will be explained to thousands of people watching this tv show. i think the chief of police is doing a great job, but i think also the commission of board of supervisors is attempting to put them in a hoop in terms of what the police department is supposed to do as opposed to what their actual job is, and i would like some clarification and i would like this expanded in terms of bringing out some booklets in terms of what we are supposed to see.

i thank you for your time, and i would like to see some documents on a line. quex hannity should come for all officers. they are supposed to be members of the community. they are not going to walk around with some iran the carbon. >> it is not clear remain that is what has taken place. >> i cannot help if if if is not clear to you. >> it is not clear to a lot of people. he is going to have to carry some extra documents. i am still on my time. that is the clarification of would like to see, and i would

like to see some documents and have them on the table. i thank you. >> any further public comment regarding community policing? >> the department's general orders are on line as public documents, and it is a large binder no one carries around, but is essentially the policies and procedures that govern the police department. he is available on-line. it is about 2 inches thick, and this will become one of them. >> any public comment? hearing none, next item. >> item four, public comment on

item 6 including a public vote on whether to hold item 6 in closed session. >> public comment regarding whether or not we go into closed session regarding personnel measures pursuant. any comments regarding that? hearing none, please call the next item. >> item 5, a vote on whether to hold the next item in closed session. >> we are now going to move into closed session.

>> you can see that it is amazing. you can hear that it is refreshing. you reach for it because it is irresistible. and the taste. simply delicious. san francisco tap water. it engages the senses. 311 is an important resource for all san franciscans. shou>> thank you, everyone, for being here this morning. i have indicated to our new

chief and i will be an active participant in comstat. of course, this is only one of many ways that we measure our effectiveness in the community policing in the city. i have been fond of looking at data and making sure we compare ourselves to previous years, look at trends and specific categories, crime to property, homicides, violent crime to aurora's, and other areas. various local captains of all the stations know that the chief and i, command staff, and police commission, are working together to make sure that we work our best and keep our positive trends going. we are now enjoying, year to date, a 6% improvement over last year on all categories of

violent crimes. we are still down in homicides since 1960, continuing a trend that was very strong last year and continues to this year. all of this as a result of the men and women of the police department working closely with command staff, sharing information, and doing all the things that account for best practices. one of the most important thing that the chief and i talked about, and we knew that we would measure ourselves in the first 100 days, is that we would do and a fine community policing in every possible respect that we could. as you hear this morning, collaboration with other departments, the support that the chief has given to other departments to do their jobs while the police department does theirs, and also, a focus effort on improving the situation while we work with less resources.

in these first 100 days, the chief has showed his leadership. i am amazed that he can go out there with his 30 years of experience and ask for officers to come in on the weekends or nights. that is when most of the crime happens. to get a response has he does, getting "volunteers" -- we want to get to a better situation. the reality i have, i am looking at what is occurring all around the bay area. i know there are bad situations. we need to be focused on our situation, here in san francisco. i am committed to that. we also need to make sure to continue a detailed review, whether it is stolen bikes or property -- that sort of small stuff can lead to bigger things.

that is something that mayor willie brown taught me. we allow our communications to get through and people will get through to us. i also want to give my appreciation to the police chief being out there tackling those things, even if there are communities that do not understand what we are doing, trying to get to a level of communication that is comfortable for everyone, so that we get good information. as i said earlier, working with our public safety adviser and his staff to promote as much prevention as we can. it is not always going to be the police stopping everything. it will be other programs that prevent and change people's lives. that has to work in concert with our police department and all the things they do, but it begins with a good presence. the police chief has shown that

through a number of things he has done, making sure there are great communications while we ask our police officers, has with our other public officers, to contribute to the deficit, making sure that our funding gap is closed. this is one of the most difficult years we have had financially, and everyone is stepping up. even the command staff is looking beyond their own self- interest. this is one of the most selfless organizations we have in the city. congratulations and let us keep on working together. we want to continue that faith that people have, the confidence in the things that we are doing well. thank you. >> i want to thank the mayor

again for his support and eco what he was saying about the spirit of cooperation from the police department, other agencies, community. we cannot arrest our way out of crime. if you look at these numbers, violent crime arrests are actually down. partnership with other agencies, the spirit of collegiality, really, an atmosphere of cooperation. when i asked 60% of officers to move to weekend and night, they were willing to do that. we work out a contract negotiation that would help to close a $12 million budget gap, the corporation was there. everyone understands how serious things are right now with diminishing resources. we have about 4% mustaf than last year but we continue to have crime lows.

that is because the her using the force multiplier of goodwill within the city department, police department, and the community. and i cannot say this enough. it is all about the young people in san francisco. if we engage kids, give them positive choices, there is no reason why this cannot become the new normal in san francisco where we are just a safer city. again, i appreciate the mayor's support, going forward. >> [inaudible] are we not facing a crisis of a loss of officers? >> i do not think it is lost on anybody. the mayor and i talk about all the time. we have had a 4% decrease in staffing, but staffing is up in other areas.

the 35 officers that were not working nights and weekends are now. that is akin to an academy class. more efficient and one of the resources we have will hopefully get us to the point where we are hiring more academy classes as the senior officers retire. that will bring new ideas and greater efficiency and a safer san francisco going forward. >> i would also say, the police officers to police work. when the chief graduated one of the largest cadet class is in recent history, we are talking about civilians doing the civilian work while the police are out there giving the police work. we are identifying those activities within the police department that should not be done by uniformed officers, and assigning those to the right people. so we are just approaching resources the smartest way we

can while we try to get more police academy classis. -- classes. >> you talked about a game can? -- gang camp? [inaudible] >> about three months ago, i walked through the mission district with jane kim and david campos. this was after that shooting in the mission. we were walking along with officers in the district, just watching the streets, -- walking the streets, talking to merchants. we got an eyeful and an earful of these kids hanging out on the corners with nothing to do. people said the city has come out to come up with better programs to track these youth. they are listening to the people

on the streets trying to recruit them. we know that they are interested player from getting in ties into these gangs. we particularly listened to the community response network, the people that are in touch with these gangs. we have a program where they are helping police officers get information on what is going on. they recommended that we create an annual camp, where for free, about 50 kids -- and we may increase down the road -- will get a full camp experience. kids across whole arena of san francisco get these weeks where they go to camp and have a wonderful time. some kids do not get a chance because they cannot afford it, no one is enticing them. they see that and a bang, that

is not my life. my life is on the street. we need to integrate this live with them till ginsberg went out there to work with us. our friends at the family and children youth center that got the funding together. it begins at the end of the month for one week. we are recruiting literally those individuals -- we cannot get to the hard-core gangs, but we can get to those that are about to make a decision. they are true, on the edge with their grades, and we again be back. they can give as name referrals of kids that we can talk to. that we will be leadership development week at the camp. expos them to some fun. they may see some other people that may even be recruited by gangs that they do not like,

groups of people they do not like. to be able to experience them on a first name basis, i got to know you before, you are a cool person. we did some things together that is positive. experience what normal kids get to do everyday, except that they do not have it because of economics or cultural difference walls, or the wall themselves off because they are being recruited by other efforts. we are experimenting with this for the first time. we think we are going to receive a lot of excess -- success from this. >> quickly, as the mayor said, we are claiming -- it is not a game camp. we are claiming the skin before they enter a gang. we are claiming them first to give them a positive choice. >> [inaudible] >> with regard to the metal

death, this is an epidemic nationally. this is something that i dealt with at the puc. and it is dangerous. a lot of these folks, as they go for that copper, it is charged copper. it is a safety thing. it is a miracle that nobody has been hurt or killed. i met with members of the puc last week. we spoke to the acting director of the dpw who is affected by this, corporate security from pg&e. we will be assembling a task force within the next 30 days to attack this going forward. people are taking out manhole covers and leaving by whole -- the hole. i know that one school was affected over the summer months. i know when the east bay

terminal came down, that was scavenged. we will be working with the district attorney's office to gain successful prosecution. >> the san francisco cons tri of flowers in golden gate park is now showing a new exhibit that changes the way we see the plants around us. amy stewart's best-selling book, "wicked plants" is the inspiration behind the new exhibit that takes us to the dark side of the plant world.

>> i am amy stewart. i am the arthur of "wicked plants," the weeds that killed lincoln's mother and other botanical atrocities. with the screens fly trap, that is kind of where everybody went initially, you mean like that? i kind of thought, well, all it does is eat up bugs. that is not very wicked. so what? by wicked, what i mean is that they are poisonous, dangerous, deadly or immoral or maybe illegal or offensive or awful in some way. i am in the profession of going around and interviewing botanists, horticulturalists and plant scientists. they all seem to have some little plant tucked away in the corner of a greenhouse that maybe they weren't supposed to have. i got interested in this idea that maybe there was a dark side to plants.

>> the white snake root. people who consumed milk or meat from a cow that fed on white snake root faced severe pain. milk sickness, as it was culled, resulted in vomiting, tremors, delirium and death. one of the most famous victims of milk sickness was nancy hangs lincoln. she died at the age of 34, leaving behind 9-year-old abraham lincoln. he helped build his mother's casket by carving the woodallen petition douche the wooden petition himself. >> we transformed the gallery to and eerie victorian garden.

my name is lowe hodges, and i am the director of operations and exhibitions at the conls tore of -- cons tore of flowers. we decided it needed context. so we needed a house or a building. the story behind the couple in the window, you can see his wife has just served him a glass of wine, and he is slumped over the table as the poison takes affect. a neat little factold dominion about that house is actually built out of three panels from old james bond movie. we wanted people to feel like i am not supposed to be in this room. this is the one that is supposed to be barred off and locked up. >> the ole andersonner -- oleander. oleander. this popular shrub is popular