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tv   [untitled]    April 19, 2012 12:30am-1:00am PDT

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supervisor avalos has raised to compare with the c. o. l. a. -- what the c. o. l. a.'s look like, and we have some more c. o. l. a.'s than others. is that a question we did get answered? >> when you talk about a c. o. l. a. in that context, are we talking about the amount the city holds with the contractor or the amount on the contractor side of the c. o. l. a.'s they're providing to workers? we're using this change -- terms in interchangeable ways. it is the amount of money the city is interesting -- entering into, that information is readily available. as of the court -- the departments that hold the contracts can speak specifically to what this contract dollar
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amounts are purchasing from the provider. the second question i think would be more complicated. i would have to defer to the contracting departments. president chiu: the first level is something we should get some answers to. how would we be able to get that and fairly quickly? can you provide us with that analysis? >> sure. if you go to the comptroller's office website, at the top of that page there is a frequently asked questions and you can pull down that bender -- menu and it has a vendor database that any member of the public can open. you can look for the name of an individual contractor, nonprofit or for profit. it will pull out the history of city spending with the provider for the last three years. it can do the same search for a given department or for the city as a whole and screen for non- profit service contractors. we have a searchable database that is available to members of the board and the public.
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that does provide contract level information so it does not get down to the level of what services are we purchasing as a city from each of those providers. that information lives in the contracts themselves which are held that the department level. president chiu: thank you. supervisor chu: thank you. >> there is one final -- to wrap up. -- there is one final slide. the figure we're using for fiscal year 12 and 13 comes from the state's projections of the department of finance. that is the nearly 3%. for the san francisco area. going down bottom-line if you look at the universe of nonprofit contracts that those excluding the uc contracts --
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excluding 4.4. each 1% increase depending on which universe you're looking at is $5.3 million or $4.3 million if you expect -- excluded the uc contracts. if you want to fund the full protection we would be looking at $15.60 million if you're including the uc contracts or if you are leaving them aside. that is 40 million of general fund dollars. that concludes my presentation. supervisor avalos: thank you. appreciated. question for k. howard. a lot of non profits have met with the mayor over the past few weeks in preparation for the budget. has a commitment been made about an annual cost of doing business increase with the mayor's office?
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>> you are correct that over the last few months the mayor has been meeting with nonprofit organizations, with non-profit service providers to talk about the budget as a whole. one of the key issues that has come up in all those conversations is the struggles that our nonprofits are facing with respect to their inflationary costs and the fact the city has not been able to fund increases that would help them meet those inflationary costs. as you know, we're still facing a significant budget shortfall of $170 million and 312 million in the second year. a 2.9% c. o. l. a. would be nearly $12 million in aid to those years.
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the mayor has not been able to make a commitment to providing a c.o.l.a. to nonprofit organizations. it is one of those factors will have to think about when we balance the budget. supervisor wiener started to highlight this in talking about how we are dealing with state and budget cuts. how are we going to address this issue of the nonprofits that do work on our behalf as a city? as you know, we have deferred and not fully funded our capital plan every year for the last five years. we have not fully funded the hotel tax allocation for many of the arts organizations in the city. there are number of -- a number of trade-offs that have to be made as to balance the budget
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and that -- this is one of those choices. we do not have a balanced budget so we're not in a position to offer a c.o.l.a. i would also point out one final thing. every -- for most of our departments, maybe they will speak to this. they conduct rfp processes. they go out and request proposals for how to conduct services, how much will it cost to provide service a or b. and community-based organizations submit proposals detailing their costs. although there has not been a c.o.l.a. per se funded in these past five years, services have been rfp'd. there are organizations that
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receive funding based on the cost of that business. there is a more complicated story that is going on than just flat funding. supervisor avalos: thank you. often organizations do not get funded fully. there is an expectation they will get money from outside courses as well. i realize the rfp process in a new contract is an opportunity to square up with the cost of doing business. we're talking about the years in between, how we can make sure that nonprofit organizations can meet the rising demand. i thank you for your answer. i have a list of names i want to call. this is for public comment. we can open up public comment to allow for members of the public to testify. >> why don't we open a public
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comment for item one. >> i have monica morgan, steve fields, and other speakers. >> i am executive director of the coalition on homelessness. in the late 1990's, the filthy 52 largest corporations in san francisco sued san francisco to eliminate the gross receipts tax. san francisco lost $50 million a year since then. it has been our very pores to have paid. san francisco lost a whole lot more than money. we lost parts of our safety net. since budget year 2000 and
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2008, $98 million has been cut from the ph and when you remove administrative cuts, you have 32 million in direct services. we have lost $1.8 million in aids funding, primary health care has seen a 31.5 million in a country of 2.2 million in acyf. i could go on and on. what do these numbers mean? medimmune brownley long waits for life-saving services. increased security in the population seeking services. decreased capacity to respond. we're paying five times as much putting people in lockdown are having the police respond. decimation of our communities of color print we can do better and we should. i want to walk you through one person and how this would impact
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her. this is sam, a native san franciscan. she has ptsd and personal health issues. she was homeless after losing her mother and she stabilized after she got disability and regular milk -- regular mental health care. her disability was cut and she became homeless. share rapidly went down. -- she rapidly went down. supervisor avalos: could you tell us more about her typical day? >> this is one of many programs we have lost. i would like to walk through more of her day. as for overall health deteriorated, her mental health deteriorated and she went to four different research centers and found them) to try to find shelter but one-third of the
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beds were lost. she found herself boarding her shoulders with others who had been providers. she has nowhere to go and she cannot sit down because that is illegal. shakow case -- she cannot get case management. outpatient treatment is a six month wait. so many beds have been lost. as her health deteriorates, she gets taken to san francisco general and the city racks of thousands of costs that she has -- and she is repeatedly hospitalized. her fate is sealed by these decisions to sacrifice poor people to protect the wealthiest corporations, -- will this corporation -- weathiest corporations' bottom line. supervisor chu: we do have a number of people who are speaking. i would request that we hold
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the's beef -- we can get through public comment. >> thank you for this opportunity to expect -- share my experience. i work for baker places, inc., in progress foundation. i am a single mother with two children. due to the increase of the cost of living and lack of pay increase, i am first -- forced to work two jobs. much like the services are provided for the clients we serve, creating an environment safe for them. they have experienced neglect and trauma. mothers who are working to reunify with their children along with managing mental- health symptoms. my workout -- workload has changed due to cuts in the crisis. but jeudy has increased without
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the increase in staffing. added to the requirements of the computer system that takes away -- the hiring rate is low and the turnover rate is high. due to the ongoing effects because of the budget cuts. this work requires true dedication and -- in helping people in need. it takes a special person. the turnover does not allow for relationship building. our clients have suffered multitudes of issues in trost, a trauma and neglect and abuse trade having a team that has solidity and longevity provides the stability, trust, and foundation. supervisor avalos: thank you. next speaker. >> thank you. and the executive director of progress foundation, co-chair of the human services network. i acknowledge the mayor's office and there unprecedented reaching
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out to our sector and especially supervisors chu and avalos. it is an opportunity. i want to lay out a couple of important points. we're asking for the cost of doing business increase because that is the best way to ensure that we can pay our employees their long overdue fair salary increases for the hard work they do in the major reason is our biggest cost pressures besides our inability to pay a fair wage to our workers, are on the doing business side of our agenda. health-care cost increases, workers' compensation increases, recently, gasoline increases it up so much of our budget that if we only get a c.o.l.a., we we end up -- we end up with less money.
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if we are going to stay open we have to meet these pressures. 2 supervisor wiener's question which is legitimate. we cannot -- there are many decisions the city makes in the mayor's budget and that mou are agreements undersigned, in the decisions that have to be made the and and a yacht that reflect priority. what we're saying is, this sector is the future of being able to respond to health and human services challenges in the future. we're going under water. we're like a mortgage that can no longer be sustained. these years that we have been living with one cost increase after another and observing them has resulted in many reductions in service the have been hidden. let me say about the rfp process. i went to the lost -- the last process. the parameter was there could be no requested increase in your contract.
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thank you for this opportunity. supervisor avalos: you talked about a couple of things i would like to follow up with on questions. one is hidden costs and consequences of what funding. if you could cover that. and i will ask you as well about the ability to get funding. >> there is the obvious reduction when programs are closed. the issue that was raised about whether there have been any increases in contracts since the 2007-2008, i do not know of a single contract that is a baseline contract with -- was increased. there were no individual negotiations that resulted in higher contracts because we're cutting. we were reducing services throughout our health and human services sector for the last five fiscal years. there was no opportunity for new negotiations. what that means is you see the obvious things which is closed programs and other things. the other factor is that there is layoffs. there is more workers carrying
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larger caseloads. at the same time, there is an increasing level of acute need in behavioral health and health care services because of the economic conditions that our honorable conditions -- clients face. we're increasing need and increasing capacity to respond. you could argue the non-profit sector has been our own worst enemy because we keep observing these cuts and make no mistake, flat funding in a climate of 2.9, 3.45, 1.2% increasing in the cost-of-living index is a cut. we absorb them silently. and at the same time, we're asking our workers to take on more and to go that extra mile and to work harder. they're not getting any increase in their salaries. we were at 30% disparity between comparable nonprofit jobs for people doing the city's business, after all. these are not batik services.
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we have asked the city to fund. these are essential services. hiv aids. primary-care clinics, supportive housing. we are the major purveyors of services in that sector. our workers are asked to absorb no increases. there will never be a proposition c for our workers prepare do not have a retirement plan to give back. as we can absorb these costs that are not visible to the public, we often hear people say, another crisis is coming and it got averted. what our sector is saying over and over is our last to see is gone. we are sick -- we're at the point of having to close programs and we will not go any longer, taking advantage of the willingness and commitment of our employees to keep going year in and year out without an increase in order to keep
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services open that the city is not willing to pay for. [applause] supervisor chu: if i can ask " -- folks to hold the applause. please hold the response we can get the question and answer and your public comment as well. >> spirit fingers also works. >> we can mix in supervisor chiu. president chiu: could you give us a sense of how nonprofit wages have been matching up against cost of living? we all have the sense that the so-called 99%, folks are not keeping up. i want to get a sense from await standpoint how that compares and could you talk about the cost
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drivers within nonprofit organizations on health care. what sort of percentage increases are you saying and how does that fit into the equation? >> hsn is doing a service -- a survey on the specific issues. let me say this about the salary pace. i can use my own agency. i am unionized. we have an seiu contract and we're proud of it. one hour starting salary for a counselor who works in a kid diversion unit in the city, taking clients out of the emergency room of san francisco general hospital, saving the county tens of thousands of dollars, the starting salary is $38,000.50 years ago. it still is that amount. -- $38,000 five years ago. it is still that amount. i think that proportion of
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it -- you could basically say that if the costs numbers are applied, that is the amount we lost each year cumulatively to the ability for our workers to be able to keep pace, because there have been no raises during that time, and that is a similar reality process system. we have not had to cut salaries. we have a union contract, and we have other realities, but some agencies have had to go back to their workers and ask for our reduction to keep above the water, sir asking for keeping pace with the cost of living index is just keeping us even. what is not covered is five years of incremental falling behind. there should be a request to make up the five years we have lost just to stay home, and we
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are asking for something more modest. we want to be included with a fare increase in our contracts, and many people may think i am being too conciliatory. it is an incremental problem that magnifies each year the we are not able to pay an increase. my health care has been ardent down to 100,000 more. that is something i cannot pay unless -- if i am to pay their health insurance. >> it is often suggested nonprofit organizations ought to go to philanthropic organizations and public not -- other public donors to give us a
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sense of these cuts. can you give us an idea? >> it is something that needs to be put into context. the economic downturn created the real deficit and affected the philanthropic community. at the same time, funding has been produced of the federal, state, and local level. gso has the ability to give more money out of their portfolios a. there has been a reduction, because their portfolios have suffered more than the cities have. the san francisco foundation, one of the most philanthropic of until the next few years has had a maximum grant of $30,000.
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maybe you can get a three-year grant, but you have to continue to get that money. it used to be government was the answer. that is not there anymore. no foundation will fund ongoing operational support for a longstanding agency year in and year out. it is one piece of the puzzle, but it is not a solution to funding reductions. it is a fair allocation for the city and county. >> did you have a question? >> that was my last question you covered. next up and we have emma. it looks really good from here. it looks like the chambers have been occupied.
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>> fifth chambers have been occupied. did we have overflow rooms full and about 50 people waiting to get inside, and it shows what a need there is for this. i have the opportunity of working for nonprofit workers, and i am going to go over some information about the cost of living in the city right now and with the wages are and the comparison, so as you have heard, there has not been an increase for nonprofits in five years, and in this time, there has been a substantial increase in cost of living. if you look at five years and combine them, it is about 8%. this year it is 3%, and the cost of living in san francisco is 61% above the national average, which is considerably higher.
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gooif you look at gasoline, it s increase 14.4%, and the prices at home have increased 4% curator and -- have increased 4%. san francisco is the most expensive rental in the nation. if you look at a 2-bedroom apartment, it costs an average of $2,300, and if you take a calculation of needing to pay one-third of your income on rent, that is $41.31 an hour, and we all know that our nonprofit workers are way below that your good -- is way below
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that. the average case makes $7.86 an hour. that is quite a large difference, so from our perspective, there needs to be a lot of catching up to do for people to live in the city, and a lot of nonprofit workers live in the city and contribute to the economy and have children and need to get a cost-of-living increase and cost of three business increase. goo -- cost of doing business increase. there has been an increase in health-care costs among employers. they have had a 71% increase in health care across. that is completely staggering, and in the time, funding has
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remained flat, some money that could possibly go to our members' wages go to kaiser and health-care providers but do not need more money. i think the thing we want you to take from this hearing is that you can see the great need of this cost of business increase for nonprofit workers. this is important to us. we have people waiting out in the hallway. goothis is really important to r community. good >> thank you very much.
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>> i am a nonprofit proudly represented ivby sciu. i am here to talk about the pressures are faced running an organization with 260 and people. i face the same pressures as any small business here in san francisco, and i am being told but we need to do more with less. for years, for the last five years, our funding has remained flat while our increases for health insurance, workmen's comp, television supplies have skyrocketed. we have had an ability to keep up with infrastructure because our contracts to not carry those costs, and we are constantly scrambling to make sure we provide a safe level of care to the 1800 formerly homeless tenants