>> >> if anybody has a right to ask a question, that's dr. joe marshall. i am very dedicated and certainly this commission is very dedicated to doing the prevention work and we do need to have a broader conversation about that. i think that as we started out with the discussion, executive director dr. -- indicated that this year so far we have had 0, we have so many days left in this calendar year, talking calendar year not fiscal year. we have had zero homicides as a

result of domestic violence. that is really something to take note of. i don't think that that has occurred by happenstance; it is not a statistical anomaly. i think it is because we are gearing our work more as preventative. preventative - the collaborative effort that we are working with, the various departments, the police department, the various partner agencies is in and of itself becoming more defined preventative. a lot we heard this evening is interventive; as we go forward the fruits of that labor become more definitively preventative.

nonetheless i think that you are absolutely correct and that is correct question that we have to keep asking ourselves day-to-day. how do we behave? how do we make sure that we are moving our resources and directing our resources towards more preventative measures? if anything at all, i think in this particular year and i'll be the one to say it, is this: we have moved the conversation in the city from the idea that one, domestic violence is specifically a woman's issue. is not. that's why i asked the captain in terms of this issue of integration. it is not a women's issue solely, wholly, or inevitably.

it is a community issue. is a social issue. it is a health issue. it is a multidimensional issue. it is not as we know, a private issue. is a community issue and so as we are thinking along that continuum from preventative to intervention to actually ending hopefully our domestic violence, we have to certainly acknowledge the fact that the needle is moving. and that the conversation is broadening and i think we are getting more specific and more expert amongst all the various departments. around the issue of domestic valiance. i'm very glad that we are having this meeting this evening. that is another milestone in

terms of the conversation around how do we view and what are our values not only about intervening but presenting domestic violence in our community and understanding that he cannot, will not, i should not exist in any particular silo. it is not just an ideological issue. it does not belong to a particular class of women or minority; it is everyone's issue and everyone has a role to play. we need to make sure we presented and hopefully and it. prevention is very key. and a driving force in the work that we're doing through -- the department, and the work that we continue to do in this collaborative and comprehensive partnership. so every department, the police department, the public defenders office, the district

attorney, department of public health -- other departments involved, the sheriffs department, all must be involved so we can become more preventative. >> thank you. any further questions for captain flaherty or lieutenant --? we will now move into the public comments section. it says five minutes total. the city attorney suggests that we give 2 minutes per person without a five-minute limit. >> speaker shall address remarks to the commission as a whole and not to individual commissioners, or department or occ personnel.

neither police or occ personnel or commissioners are required to respond to questions, but may provide a brief response. occ personnel and police shall refrain from entering into a debate with speakers. limit your comments to two minutes. >> as any public comment regarding tonight presentations? there is no comment. before we move to the last item, we will like to adjourn in memory of some folks. i want to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for tonight's presentation. a lot of work went into this from the commission staff, members of the commission and this was very important in light of recent events. our goal tonight was to let the

public know that the san francisco police department, attorney's office, occ, the commission, we want to assure women and men dickens of domestic violence that we are here to help you. this is the community matter. we want to help break the cycle of violence. the presentations tonight were excellent. the message is very clear. the city and discounting takes domestic violence extreme we seriously. we have a police chief to support it and everyone in the room to support it. i cannot thank you enough. it was a great presentation. >> it was an honor to have this joint meeting.

i hope it away 10 years to do it, particularly surrounded by the men and women in blue. i feel safer everyday. it is great to see you on the street but more importantly to have interaction with you and know that we have common goals. also to our immigrant communities, we are here to serve you and language barrier should not be an obstacle to seeking help nor your immigration status. we work hard. i am a fourth-generation san francisco. i'm taking cantonese and mandarin classes to reach out. i hope that for members of the community this was an enlightening experience to learn more. i thank everyone for participating, and the organizational aspects by the respective staff.

>> vice president marshall: i like when the commission joins meetings, some more than others. there is more of a nexus. we should do it again. much sooner than never. and that we stay on top of this. there are times when just because things happen, there is a focus on it. partly what is happening the city and elsewhere, it will stay on this, reconvene, we can really do something about not only domestic violence but the triage that we have been talking about. a bit strong support that and i know my fellow commissioners would also.

>> is there anything further? we would like to adjourn in honor of -- >> i defer to commissioner -- >> if you allow me a personal moment to adjourn in memory of my mother-in-law. is rather appropriate because she was the mother of the san francisco police officer. she immigrated to this country, strong armenian woman, and had to go back to school to be reregistered as a nurse. she went back to state college later in life and completed courses where she received a teaching certificate to teach preschool at west porta in the early days of preschool days. she was small in stature, but i stood tall on her shoulders

and women like her. >> i would also like to express condolences to mike nevans' family; he was a police inspector. i got to know him when he was state legislature. he is also the late uncle of someone who has been in the city -- pj johnston. >> also we would adjourn in honor of spector mike nevin. also sadly we have to adjourn in honor of three current san francisco officers. these are current members. our thoughts and prayers are with her family, their cohorts at the stations, tonight we

adjourn in the memory of them and others. we are adjourned. >> it has been amazing. the people have been so gracious and so supportive of what we're doing. the energy here is fantastic with so many couples getting married. it's just been an absolutely fantastic experience, so wonderful.

>> by the power vested in me, i declare you spouses for life. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> to actually be able to get married and be a part of this time in history and time in our history is amazing. >> this is a momentous occasion for us to be able to actually have this opportunity to have equal rights. >> we have been together for 14 years. everyone is so welcoming. it's been all set up and people have guided us from step to step. it's been easy. there was live music. people are so friendly and excited. so excited for us. >> it's really great. >> yeah. >> and salvador is party a here to known as party a. >> on the out it looks pretty simple. you come in, you made your appointment. you pay. you go here for your license. you got there to get married.

you go there if you want to purchase a certified copy. behind the scenes, there was just this monumental just mountain of work, the details into everything that we had to do and we quickly realized that we were not ready to issue the numbers of licenses that people are anticipating that we would need to issue. we definitely did not want people waiting in long lines. this is somebody's wedding. you want to be able to plan and invite your family and friends. know what time you are able to get your marriage license, know what time you're going to have your ceremony. >> thanks for volunteering. >> we got city volunteers, we got members of the public volunteering. we had our regular volunteers volunteering. we had such an overwhelming

response from city employees, from the members of the general public that we had way more volunteers than we could ever have hoped for. we had to come up with a training program. i mean, there are different functions of this whole operation. you were either, you know a check-in person. you were a greeter. you were part of the license issuing unit. you were deputy marriage commissioner, or you were on the recording side. each one of those functions required a different set of skills, a different oath of office if they needed to be sworn in as a deputy county clerk to issue marriage licenses or as a deputy county recorder if they were going to register the marriage licenses or the deputy marriage commissioner if they were going to be performing ceremonies. >> donna, place the ring on her ring finger. >> the marriage commissioner training was only about a half hour. it was very simple. very well run, very smooth and then we were all sworn in.

>> they said we would get our scheduled sunday night and so 7:00, 8:00, 10:00, you know, i got it at 11:00. this person who was orchestrating all of the shifts and the volunteers and who does what, you know, said from her office sunday night at 11:00. they are just really helping each other. it's a wonderful atmosphere in that way. >> have you filled out an application? >> not yet. you want to do that. >> take this right over there. >> all right. >> take it tout counter when you're done. >> very good. >> congratulations, you guys. >> for those volunteers, what a gift for them as well as us that they would take up their time and contribute that time, but also that they would in return receive so much more back because they're part of the narrative of someone else's love and expression of love in life. >> this isn't anything that we had budgeted for, so it was basically we asked our i.t.

director to do the best you can, you know, belling, borrow, steal if you have to and get us what you need to do this. and he knew what the mission was. he knew what our goal was. and, you know, with our i.t. grids and our software vender, they really came together and pulled it together for us. it made it possible for us to be able to serve as many couples as we have been. >> so once you're ready, you and your husband to be or wife need to be need to check in here and check in again, ok. are you also going to get married today? >> yeah. >> let's process you one by one. do your license in, exit and re-enter again check in at that desk. >> our wedding is at 3:00. >> as long as we get you in today. >> we're getting married at 2:30. >> don't worry about the time line. we're greeting people at the doorway and either directing them to the services they need on this side which is licensing

or the services on this side which is actually getting the ceremony performed. >> this is an opportunity to choose to be a part of history. many times history happens to us, but in this case, you can choose to be a part of it. this is a very historic day and so i'm very, very proud to be here. >> i have been volunteering. last monday i performed 12 different marriage smones. the least amount of time that any of the couples that i married have been together is two years. most of the couples have been together eight, nine, 10, i'd say 70% have been together at least that long if not longer. >> there is a lot of misconception about who gay and lesbian people are. it's important that people see that we love our husbands and wives to be and love our children and have the right to have families just like

everyone else. >> it's important that we have experienced our own families, our own friends, and the excitement of the volunteers when we get here has made us feel wonderful and accepted and celebrated. >> there is a lot of city agencies, city departments, divisions that offer up their employees to help us out since overwhelming response, it's unbelievable at how city government works. this is the time that san francisco city employees have really outshined san francisco's clerk's office didn't need to hear from the mayor to say what's your plan. they offered a plan and said here is our strategy. here is what we can do. we can add all of these computers here and there. we can connect our databases, we can expand our capacity by x. we can open up early and stay late and stay open on the weekends. it's unbelievable.

we can coordinate all of the training for our volunteers and them in as deputy marriage commissioners and make sure it's signed and certified. that's an example and a model for others. this is -- what happens is when people prove that things can be done, it just raises the bar for what is possible for everyone else. >> it kind of went cooled plan and this is what we planned for. in some respects, people have kind of commented to me, oh, my god, you were a part of history and how many couples did we mary? how many families did we start? how many dreams did we make come true? the whole part of being part of history is something that we are here and we are charged with this responsibility to carry out.