first step in establishing that for the city and county of san francisco. so thank you.

the director of women inc and we are a agency in the mission and thank you so much for your leadership on this issue. as you will see, in the family violence council. family violence is the number one reported crime in san francisco unfortunately and we will echo our hope for a workplace policy on domestic violence and we spoke about the positive impact that that could have not only for the survivors of domestic violence but for the co-workers and supervisor and everyone in the surrounding area at the workplace. something that i think is important to add, is that many of our clients come to us you

know, they have been in these relationships that are abusive for some time. and many times we are one of the last calls out that they make. and they lean on the support of family, friends and in a lot of cases, people that are in their workplace for some support, some options. and someone to lean on, unfortunately is what we have heard is that many times the response is that they were greeted with were not productive or posive. and i think that it is important to add that we believe that people have the best of intentions, they want to help people get out of abusive relationships or at least support them with some options. but they, if we don't give the community the tools to do so, workplaces, the tools to do so, and we can't really expect that great of an impact. and it can't all be done by

community-based organizations. it is a huge. and we thank you for your support and leadership on this issue. if there are know other members who would like to comment. we can close the comment. >> supervisor olague? >> i just wanted to say that today i would like to sign my name on as a response of this important resolution and i co-response ored once before and it was met with opposition from the domestic violence which i find ironic. but, that being said, to set the record straight because the woman for accountability pack dropped 100,000 of dirty money to launch a spear campaign against me to per spet you ate misinformation it does not make it true, that money would be better spent going to domestic

violence programs and shelters, what i and everyone else have learned from this experience is that there are certain faction in our political movement who will go to any length including exploiting an issue as important as domestic violence, i will not let this stop me from doing what i know and passionately believe is the right thing to do. in this case the right thing to do is sign my name as a sponsor and supporter and i won't be bullying into veering from my strong beliefs. >> as a woman from the working class, i will always and support the domestic survivors, my hope is that at the very least that my being scapegoated has led to a more exposure and something good will come out of it and i recognize the bully when i am being bullied as a

working class women of color i have been bullied by this community and i think that it is too bad. because i actually have worked with very, and low income women of color and other people of color and who are not people of color but people from the lgbt community and other communities that have been exploited and who have been victims of domestic violence. the women who have actually worked directly with the people who have suffered and been victims of domestic violence, i have. and so that being said, you know, i think that this pack was composed of white women and not the people who directly worked with people who have been victims have been able to

exploit, - i think that is unfortunate that that has been allowed to take place, and so, and in my experience working with the domestic violence victims, i think that there are things that are two things that are going on, one, is that many people who have been the victims of violence and bullying as i have been, actually, it takes a while before you start to recognize the patterns of violence that are kind of active in your life. so, i hope that this kind of education that will help people who are victims of violence, actually recognize that they are being exploited that they are in violent situations and it will give them the courage to kind of move out of those situation buzz but what i have

found is people who are from the working class and are strained and unemployed, don't have the means to leave abusive situations. president chu made sure that more money goes into this and it is long overdue and so if the experience of me, the experience of the level of discourse around the issue of domestic violence has increased this past year, and then, that is a good thing. you know? and i am glad that more money and more attention is being given to this. i hope that in the future we see more women of color associated with this issue, today i don't see any. there are not any here, aliana lopez had a different perspective she was never brought into the conversation

as somebody who was part of the conversation should never have bought into the conversation. and so hopefully, that occurs, and i hope that in the future, that women like myself, who actually have shown or who have a lot of compassion, who have been who certainly are not in support of domestic violence, perpetrators that this kind of bullying from the movement, does not continue to occur. and i think that it is really too bad that i have been sort of a scapegoated in this way. so, that being said, it is you know, again, i am glad that the issue of domestic violence is being highlighted in this city. i hope that more resources again, go into educating people maybe, even on on the in the school levels where you have a

lot of young people, a lot of people in elementary school age who are being exposed to violence in their homes. and that they learn early too that that is not the type of behavior that they should be engaged in as they get older and as they grow up. because we know frequently that the people who are witnessing this type of situation themselves they say, become perpetrators so i just hope that it leads to more education, in the schools. and it leads to more education from people who are being exposed to violence. and so that they understand how to extracate themselves from the domestic violence situations and that there are more resources given so that women and men who are in domestic violence situations where the means to extricate themselves because that is frequently not the case, the people from the working class and lower income don't have

those means. and people who are not from that economic class, don't always have the self-awareness, or the education to know that they are being exposed and victimized or victims of a violent situation. but, again, i hope that this escalates to the issue of bullying. you know, which we are seeing in a lot of you know, it is sort of like selective enforcement of bullying, it is okay for someone like me to be bullied and okay to go on in the housing authority with staff allegedly. it is okay for mayor staff to bully me, it is okay for some type of bullying to take place and other types of bullying if it is selective enforcement of bullying. so i hope that we cast a more fair eye on bullying and a fair enforcement of bullying that it is not selectively relegated to people that we have political agendas against and that we really take the political out

of the conversation of bullying and that it really become more of a situation or a thing that is like really fairly applied when we cast a judge mental eye on this bullying. that is all that i have to say, i want to sign my name on this as i was presented from doing so in the past and that is what i want to say. >> thank you, supervisor, olague and yes, i was actually very concerned here that you had wanted to sign on to this resolution in the past and were told that you were not welcome to do that. that is what i had heard as well. and i thought that that was actually, you know, very troubling because a lot of us come with very strong commitments against domestic violence and have a history of working against it and being counselors in the past as you have been as well. and that is very, very

troubling. that we all share a common goal of making the city safe and her that is pretty much of purpose of this committee as well. and the election, that you just experienced was something that was really troubling for me as well. that there was a large amount of money at the end of the election was thrown in and used domestic violence as a tool and a wedge to split you from would be supporters as well. and i thought that was troubling based especially because of your experience and history working in the field. so, i'm actually going to be putting my name on this as a co-sponsor for this resolution as well. and i look forward to working with domestic violence community in years to come to make the city a safer place. >> can i just say that i strongly stand behind my colleagues, supervisor olague and comments and sentiments and when a coalition group comes to my office to bring resolutions

forward or ordinances i am in total solid tarty with the organizations that bring it to me. if they ask for certain people to be on the resolutions i abide by that with them. i disagreed with their request to pull you off of the resolution. and i am sorry for that. but i abide by my solidary that brings them to me. but i will say that i totally gr with your comments about the need for a much better dialogue on race and class within the anti-domestic violence movement and how, political bullying and other efforts behind the scenes, we need to come together as different movements and i as allie am urging that as well but i feel terrible about what happened to you and i also support the domestic violence organization to have autonomy and when they bring issues to us and i am respectful of that that is why i abided by the request to pull

you off now that it is before the committee i am proud that you and supervisor avalos are on as co-sponsors and the point that you made about youth organizations and we did also have the department of children youth and their families as a key part of this and that is an effort that the young people are aware of the resources around them. this is one piece of raising awareness of the domestic violence in the workplace and also making sure that people know of all of the resources around them. and another piece of our efforts with the domestic violence and the commission on the status of women is also to strengthen the city's domestic violence by creating clearer department plans, a key point person in each of the departments, to identify the signs of domestic violence and to have action plans. and we are looking at other

cities and how they have workplace domestic violence policies and there is a budget analyst report that we will be analyzing soon but i am proud to have you on as co-sponsors because i know of the great work that both supervisor avalos and you. and what you have brought up especially on race and class differences in the movement and my goal is having a stronger movement but i always respect the autonomy of organizations that bring the resolutions and ordinances to us and i hope that you understand what i am saying about that. >> i believe that a lot of these organizations came to you with an outside political agenda. and i believe that if i hope that in the future, rather than bullying people and basically

sort of marginalizing and the voices of two latino women, me and lopez to a large degree, that we were actually approached by the domestic violence community, and engaged in some kind of healthy dialogue around rather than bullying and being marginalized by that very community that claims to be attempted to empower women in my case, women from the working class. and i think that they need to look at that too and look at how can in the future, we not ex-ploid person for their own... in some instances agendas that included pg&e monopoly on power issues and there were hit pieces on that that went out and it seems to me that there was a larger political agenda at play here. and i am sad that i was you

know, i believe unfairly characterized and there was a lot of character assassination and a lot of what i would border on slander, i believe in these hit pieces that went out and i just think that it is sad that at the end of the day that anybody in this community would have a more compassionate and less violent and bullying approach to engaging me and mis lopez in the conversation of domestic violence no one picked up the phone other than sending an e-mail claiming something that was untrue and baseless. and so again, i think that it is unfortunate that we were dealt with on a way that was bordering on bullying from the very community and i think that it is sad during the hearing that there were people that felt that they were in the community that they were not heard and i think that some something good comes out of it

and more resource and more education going to the dv issue, and then we all win. >> so i just think that it could have been me and it could have taken me out of the picture it is not a personal thing, it is, you know, it is not about me. >> thank you, and i really appreciate your comments and i will just say that within the commission on the status of women and the domestic violence that it has been many years that they have improved the workplace policies and i think as some stated in the public comments that this is the first step forward that i am very proud that both you and supervisor avalos are co-sponsors of this. >> okay, this item is before us, and could we have a motion to move it forward with recommendation? >> yes, and we will also provide the citations and i really appreciate the support and so moved. >> and we will take that without objection and madam clerk do we have any other

items? >> there is no further business. >> we are ajournd. >> we are adjourned.

>> welcome to "culturewire." today we are at recology. they are celebrate 20 years of one of the most incredibly unique artist residency programs. we are here to learn more from one of the resident artists. welcome to the show, deborah. tell us how this program began 20 years ago. >> the program began 20 years ago. our founder was an environmentalist and an activist and an artist in the 1970's. she started these street sweeping campaigns in the city. she started with kids. they had an exhibition at city hall. city officials heard about her

efforts and they invited her to this facility. we thought it would coincide with our efforts to get folks to recycle, it is a great educational tool. since then, we have had 95 professional artists come through. >> how has the program changed over the years? how has the program -- what can the public has an artist engage with? >> for the most part, we worked with metal and wood, what you would expect from a program like ours. over the years, we tried to include artists and all types of mediums. conceptual artists, at installation, photographers, videographers. >> that has really expanded the program out. it is becoming so dynamic right now with your vision of interesting artists in gauging here. why would an artist when to come here? >> mainly, access to the

materials. we also give them a lot of support. when they start, it is an empty studio. they go out to the public area and -- we call it the big store. they go out shopping, take the materials that, and get to work. it is kind of like a reprieve, so they can really focus on their body of work. >> when you are talking about recology, do you have the only sculpture garden at the top? >> it is based on work that was done many years ago in new york. it is the only kind of structured, artist program. weit is beautiful. a lot of the plants you see were pulled out of the garbage, and we use our compost to transplant them. the pathway is lined with rubble from the earthquake from the

freeways we tour about 5000 people a year to our facility, adults and children. we talk about recycling and conservation. they can meet the artists. >> fantastic. let's go meet some of your current artists. here we are with lauren. can you tell us how long have been here so far and what you're working on? >> we started our residency on june 1, so we came into the studio then and spent most of the first couple weeks just digging around in the trash. i am continuing my body of work, kind of making these hand- embroidered objects from our day-to-day life. >> can you describe some of the things you have been making here? this is amazing. >> i think i started a lot of my work about the qualities of light is in the weight. i have been thinking a lot about

things floating through the air. it is also very windy down here. there is a piece of sheet music up there that i have embroidered third. there is a pamphlet about hearing dea -- nearing death. this is a dead rabbit. this is what i am working on now. this is a greeting card that i found, making it embroidered. it is for a very special friend. >> while we were looking at this, i glanced down and this is amazing, and it is on top of a book, it is ridiculous and amazing. >> i am interested in the serendipity of these still life compositions. when he got to the garbage and to see the arrangement of objects that is completely spontaneous. it is probably one of the least thought of compositions. people are getting rid of this stuff. it holds no real value to them,

because they're disposing of it. >> we're here in another recology studio with abel. what attracted you to apply for this special program? >> who would not want to come to the dump? but is the first question. for me, being in a situation that you're not comfortable in has always been the best. >> what materials were you immediately attracted to when you started and so what was available here? >> there are a lot of books. that is one of the thing that hits me the most. books are good for understanding, language, and art in general. also being a graphic designer, going straight to the magazines and seeing all this printed material being discarded has also been part of my work. of course, always wood or any kind of plastic form or anything like that. >> job mr. some of the pieces you have made while you have been here.

-- taught me through some of the pieces you have made while you have been here. >> the first thing that attracted me to this was the printed surface. it was actually a poster. it was a silk screen watercolor, about 8 feet long. in terms of the flatwork, i work with a lot of cloddish. so being able to cut into it come at into it, removed parts, it is part of the process of negotiating the final form. >> how do you jump from the two dimensional work that you create to the three-dimensional? maybe going back from the 3f to 2d. >> everything is in the process of becoming. things are never said or settled. the sculptures are being made while i am doing the collages, and vice versa. it becomes a part of something else. there's always this figuring out of where things belong or where

they could parapets something else. at the end goal is to possibly see one of these collage plans be built out and create a structure that reflects back into the flat work. >> thank you so much for allowing "culturewire" to visit this amazing facility and to learn more about the artists in residence program. is there anything you like our viewers to know? >> we have art exhibitions every four months, and a win by the public to come out. everybody is welcome to come out. we have food. sometimes we have gains and bands. it is great time. from june to september, we accept applications from bay area artists. we encouraged artists from all mediums to apply. we want as many artists from the bay area out here so they can have the same experience. >> how many artists to do your host here? >> 6 artist a year, and we receive about 108