tv [untitled] June 22, 2013 9:30pm-10:01pm PDT
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port area. and i think it's important to make sure that we have a level of institutional knowledge on some of the commissions because oftentimes they changed when there's a new mayor. and in this particular case, commissioner brandon has definitely proven herself by being extremely actively engaged in the port's activities, actively engaged in the success of the port, but more importantly, actively engaged in her community and san francisco. so, i'm really honored that she is willing to continue her service to san francisco and i think we couldn't ask for a better port commissioner. thank you. >> thank you. colleagues, can we take this item same house same call? without objection, this motion is approved. [gavel] >> colleagues, i'd like to take a moment to go to our 2:30 special commendations. i actually have one commendation. i don't know if anyone else has any others, let me know. but i would like at this moment to invite up to the podium the
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founding executive director of the asian women's shelter as well as the newly installed executive director of the asian women's shelter, becky misaki and elizabeth kern. (applause) >> come on up. so, to member of the public, i think you all know that our city and certainly our city leadership, i don't think there is a single person in san francisco that does not support all of the efforts within our city to fight domestic violence. but we know that there are certain individuals who every day of the week are on the forefront of fighting domestic violence to hopefully a point where some day san francisco will say we have eliminated domestic violence. and among the organizations doing this is one of my favorite organizations, an organization that very recently had its 25th anniversary and an organization that we recently voted to pass a resolution to
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celebrate, and that is the asian women's shelter. and let me just talk for a moment about why aws, the asian women's shelter, has been so amazing. the asian women's shelter was founded as the first shelter in northern california, and the third in the entire country to provide language accessible services to women and children, refugees and immigrants who don't speak english and who have suffered from domestic try lenz. in 1991, they launched its multi-electrickvual access program to offer non-english support to survivors of violence ~. and in the last few years their on-call support is offered in over 30 languages and dialects, which has dramatically increased the number of folks that they can serve in the greater bay area. when the federal violence against women act was debated, through the testimony of residents served by the asian women's shelter, the provisions that helped to protect battered immigrants were added. in addition to that, and this is particular relevant given that this is pride month, aws
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has ~ had one of the earliest commitments to expanding services to lesbian and transgender survivors of domestic violence and addressing homophobia starting with its lesbian services program which became the queer asian women's services in the late 1990s, and currently the queer asian women and transgender services that include all survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking. about 13 years ago aws launched a community building program to provide community education and grassroots mobilization to make sure that the broader community is aware of these challenges. a year later they launched a national pier to pier technical assistance program to work with antiviolence agencies around the country to really trade in the information and advice and counsel that they have been able to provide given the working experience they have and training and services in this area. in 2002-2003, aws created the first antitrafficking program in the bay area to provide
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advocacy and services to trafficking survivors. and then a few years ago asian women's shelter launched the multi-lingual digital storytelling project to help empower immigrant survivors to convey their stories via different forms of media to really protect the voices that we have in all of the various diverse languages and communities that we have. and, so, we could go on and on, but i really want to just take a moment and thank all of the men and women who have been part of the asian women's shelter and wanted to thank your board, i want to thank your i donors and all of your supporters. i want to welcome elizabeth curtain. many of us look forward to working with you. you stepped into some fairly significant shoes. everything i know about you, particularly given your recent work with the u.n., i look forward to that working relationship. but i want to just end by thanking the founding executive director of asian women's shelter. many of you may not know that becky masaki is a national voice on these issues. she is legendary in the exhausted.
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community ~. i can't believe you led aws for 21 years. we want to thank you for that and on behalf of the board of supervisors to you and your colleagues at asian women's shelter, congratulations. (applause) >> thank you. thank you so much. thank you so much, president chiu and supervisors. this is truly an honor. you know, just like i was one of the founders of asian women's shelter, but i could never do it alone, just like the abused women and children that we work with can't do it alone. that's a need the community and the family of asian women shelter. so i would like all of the asian women shelter staff, board, volunteers, and members to please stand up that are part of the audience here today. (applause)
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>> from [speaker not understood], she and i were the first staff people. so, she's still on the staff 25 years later, to some of the newest board members and members that have joined in recent months, that's the asian women's shelter family. and i really want to thank the city of san francisco for all of your support, not just for asian women's shelter, but for the whole network of domestic violence and violence against women services that this city and the diversity of this city depends on. so, thank you. and i'd like to welcome elizabeth. so glad that she can carry on the legacy of asian women's shelter and proud of that. >> thank you very much. i hardly feel that i'm justified in standing here with becky and with my colleagues. and i've stood before you on other occasions and this is certainly the most delightful reason to be speaking to the
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board of supervisors. i'm honored to join my colleagues who really have been at the forefront, as becky has said, and on behalf of the aws staff, we'd like to thank you individually and collectively for the support that you've given to aws and to ending domestic violence movement. thank you very much. >> thank you, elizabeth. (applause) >> before you leave -- before you leave, becky and elizabeth, we have a colleague that would like to say a few more words, supervisor kim. >> thank you. i just also wanted to put in my words of congratulations to asian women's shelter as well. becky probably did not remember when i actually don't want to embarrass you, but i wrote you when i was in college when i was at an asian american leadership conference and we asked you to do a workshop at stanford. i only bring that up because president chiu mentioned how long you had been doing this work and how well respected you are. and i've known your name for a very, very long time and really
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respect your leadership around these issues. and i also just want to recognize, you know, we do have one of your board members at our office, ivy lee and i want to commend her leadership and work as well. i appreciate the asian women's shelter. family sharing ivy with our office as well and we look forward to working with you and hope we can be a partner to you in your work. congratulations on finding a director. i know how incredibly difficult that is. so, you have a lot of work to do and we want to welcome you. >> thank you. >> thank you, supervisor kim. and supervisor avalos. >> thank you. i also want to congratulate becky masaki with her work over the years with the asian women's shelter and also want to welcome elizabeth curtain who i know as liz curtain to the executive director position. i have known liz for, i don't know, about 20 years or so, a good family friend, and has done amazing work around the world in the u.n. and already has done amazing work here at the asian women's shelter. it's great to have you at the helm and i look forward to our
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relationship, looking forward to it in a new way. >> congratulations. (applause) >> sorry, we had one more colleague who wanted to speak who i didn't see on the roster, supervisor yee. >> i couldn't resist, becky. i remember even before 25 years when i was involved with women services and of course we have families, mothers coming in with issues in regards to domestic violence and nowhere to send them prior to that. and when you started the organization, we were so happy and delighted that finally we had somewhere to turn. and i have to say this, that when you started it, i never said this to anybody, but i said, you know, it's great that they started it. i bet you they'll be there for two years and they'll be gone.
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>> madam clerk, why don't we go back to our board business, item 30. >> yes, item 30 is a motion confirming the mayor's re-appointment of larry del car low for a term ending february 26 to february 26, 2017. >> colleagues, the last vote being unanimous, can we take this item same house same call? without objection, this motion is approved. [gavel] >> next item. >> item 31 is an ordinance amending the administrative code modifying board number 3, functions and making procedural revisions. ~ >> same house same call, colleagues? this ordinance is passed in the first read. [gavel] >> item 32. >> item 32 is an ordinance appointing supervisor malia cohen to the children first commission for an indefinite term. >> colleagues, can we have a
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motion to excuse supervisor cohen? motion by supervisor mar, second by supervisor campos without objection she shall be excused. [gavel] >> roll call vote on item 32. >> on item 32, supervisor mar? mar aye. supervisor tang? tang aye. supervisor wiener? wiener aye. supervisor yee? yee aye. supervisor avalos? avalos aye. supervisor breed? breed aye. supervisor campos? campos aye. supervisor chiu? chiu aye. supervisor farrell? farrell aye. supervisor kim? supervisor kim? kim aye. there are 10 ayes. >> motion is approved. [gavel] >> colleagues, we have two special orders at 3 o'clock, but before we do that, why don't we go straight to roll call. >> supervisor mar, you are first on row call for introduction. >> thank you. thank you, madam clerk. colleagues, today in conjunction with my co-sponsors jane kim and malia cohen, i'm introducing a new version of the substitute version of our healthy food retailer ordinance legislation that we introduced
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several months ago. this is a stronger effort now that's been cleaned up and it has even more support not only from the supervisors from the tenderloin and the bayview, which have broad strong coalitions of community based groups that are supporting this, but also the arab american grocers association and others that are supportive. this incentive program will create and oversee a city-wide incentive and assistance program for convenience stores or our corner stores that wish to offer healthier food in the areas of the city that lack access to fresh food options. so, it's about transforming corner stores into healthier businesses for -- to create a healthier neighborhood all over the city, but especially in the lowest income areas like the tenderloin and the bayview. it will also provide incentives such as technical assistance and low interest loans to existing mom and pop convenience stores that will help them change their business plans to offer fresh produce and offer healthy food.
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just as importantly, it will work with community-based groups such as, again, the tenderloin corner store coalition and the bayview southeast food access group to work with both merchants and residents to promote community awareness of the importance of healthy eating. we'll be choosing other corner stores soon that will become part of this program in the next few weeks and we'll let you know about that. i look forward to discussing this at committee in july. also, very, very happy on the healthy food theme to announce this coming sunday at 9:00 a.m., we're kicking off the richmond district's first full farmers market and it's going to be wonderful. the clement street merchants association and many of the small businesses support this. from clement street to second avenue to fourth avenue. it's run by the marin agricultural institute, a wonderful group that runs the stone town farmers market. it will bring healthy food choices to the richmond district.
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also, we have smaller farmers market street like the veterans affairs medical center one in the outer richmond and even the kaiser one on geary and an older one at usf. but this is the full-fledged farmers market with 75 boots and incredible range of different types of food and other activities that will be programmed. there is even a climbing wall and children's and family activities. so, i challenge any of you to meet me up the climbing wall this coming sunday morning. it's going to also run from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., and we're working closely with our -- the residents in the area and the small merchants to make sure it's successful. my office through my staffer peter has done a lot of work on this with a number of residents has worked closely with the clement street merchants and argon community gardens and again, the agricultural institute of marin and others that will help to organize and manage this event. so, this has been a long time coming. it's been several years of planning and we hope people will come out sunday morning
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9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and every sunday for the next several weeks, and please give us input as well. lastly, president chiu had asked us to give periodic reports about region a.m. bodies with we sit on. it's good supervisor cohen is a rep for an organization that is going to do incredible work. i also sit with her on the association of bay area governments or the abag board and we have an important meeting coming up on thursday, june 20th at 7:00 p.m. at the mdc offices in oakland. and it's really important because we're discussing the plan bay area, the regional shops, housing, transportation linkages and planning through 20 40, and i think a key issue for many ~ of the community-based groups, environmental and labor and other groups is how we manage the incredible number of people that will be moving to the bay area, especially san francisco.
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and we mitigate or hopefully address the potential displacement of lower income families and communities that may be caused by it this influx of new folks coming into the area and how we can plan wisely for new housing, hopefully with affordable housing connected to jobs and transportation as well. if you have questions please contact my office on the association of bay area governments and also the mtc's efforts to approve our plan bay area later this summer. the rest i'll submit. thank you. >> thank you, supervisor mar. supervisor wiener. >> thank you, madam clerk. today i have two in memoriams for folks that passed away recently very tragically. the first is for julian rodriguez who passed away on thursday, may 30th. he was born in 1977 and only 36 years old, passed away in the san mateo medical center. julian was a very, very popular
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barista at bernie's at noe valley on 24th street. according to bernie, who owns the coffee shop, "he lit up a room, you knew that you were going to get the truth from him whether you liked it or not. his loss will be felt deeply in noe valley. so i submit an in memoriam on his behalf. also tragic, on june 3rd, jim cunningham, a resident of the castro, passed away on hartford street. he was found on the sidewalk. it's unclear if he simply fell or if there was an assault involved. he recently retired to pursue his personal interest such as attending the symphony, the opera, and he himself played two instruments. he had had a successful career in auditing sd banking and was very well known and well liked ~ in the castro community. it was a true tragedy.
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he survived by a loving family and he'll be greatly missed. thank you. >> thank you, supervisor wiener. supervisor yee. submit. supervisor avalos. we will refever you. supervisor campos. ~ re-refer >> thank you, madam clerk. i just wanted to make just a brief set of remarks, but a very amazing lady, virginia ramos who is better known to the people of the city and county of san francisco as our beloved tamale lady. in the early 1990s, virginia realized that her job, her day job as a domestic worker cleaning houses in the city was not earning her enough money to put food on the table and send her kids to college, her seven
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kids. so, virginia learned to make tamales from her grandmother when she was growing up in mexico. so, to make a little bit more money, to make some extra money, she began to cook tamales in her kitchen after she got back from work. and, so, she started evenings selling tamales. she found an insulated cooler that she filled with her delicious tamales and traveled throughout the city going from bar to bar selling a hot, home cooked meal to so many folks who were hungry all over the city. one of the iconic personalities of the city has been known to -- that we have known to nurture as a city since the times of emperor norton, virginia has indeed become an
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icon here in san francisco and she has been on her own right become an institution. there have been documentaries that have actually been filmed about the tamale lady. there are bumper stickers and t-shirts declaring people's love for the tamale lady. and you can see those all over the city. and there is an even a compilation of songs that have been written about the tamale lady. for those who have interacted with her, they've referred to her as an angel, a saint, our lady of the tamale some call her, not just because she seems to miraculously appear when night life patrons need something to eat, but because she's known for her hugs, a shoulder to cry on, and her role as a surrogate grandmother to the people of the mission. in fact, if you have seen her, she has a t-shirt that she
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wears that says, i don't know you, but i love you. so, recently as you probably have heard, some of the bars that have been working with virginia over the years have been told by our department of public health that virginia is no longer allowed to sell tamales because she's not legally licensed, permitted in the city and county of san francisco. last friday i met with virginia and my staff to discuss different ways in which we can work with her to make sure that she remains in business in a manner that works for the department of public health so that we allow her to continue to sell tamales and ensure the public safe of every san franciscan. so, we have many options that we're talking to virginia about, and we lehman brothers making an announcement in the next few days about the best way to proceed in a manner that's consistent with her
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wishes. so, to her many fans and her close to 6,000 followers on twitter, we are doing everything we can to make sure that the tamale lady stays in business. since the media broke this story, our office has received hundreds, hundreds of calls and e-mails from people wanting to know how they can help the tamale lady. so, today i want to encourage people to attend an event that is taking place this friday in district 6 at the san francisco eagle, which is located at 3 98 12th street and it's an event to celebrate the tamale lady's 60th birthday. the celebration will begin at 7:00 p.m. at the san francisco eagle, and not only can you wish her a happy birthday, but you can donate a little money to help virginia to ensure that
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she continues to have a business here in san francisco. thank you. the rest i submit. >> thank you, supervisor campos. supervisor chiu. >> thank you. colleagues, i have two items. first of all, i have an in memoriam for eric aarons who tragically passed away on june 13th at the age of 44, four years after being diagnosed with brain cancer. originally from michigan, eric moved to our city in the late 1990s after completing his ph.d. in physics and he worked for well over a decade at the stanford research institute in the specialty of optics. but like many san franciscans, he was deeply passionate about what he did outside of his work, with the few friends he started and ran the dolores park movie night. way an avid kayaker and frisbee player and took roles planning trips and events to draw nonfrisbee and kayaking friends to join in the love of the sports. after diagnosis with cancer, he
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started a frisbee tournament which raised well over $12,000 over the past number of years. he mentored young people, protecting and enjoying the california environment that he loved. he was incredibly generous with his time, with his smile, and with his wit. he was a tenacious fighter in the face of challenges that few of us can imagine. in addition to his mother, his sister, his two brothers and his many nieces and nephews, eric will be cherished by the many, many friends who were like family to him, many folks in san francisco and i know around the world. there were services for him today in michigan and memorial is planned in san francisco later this summer. eric was a wonderful person and member of our city and he will be greatly missed. i have a second item, a resolution to follow-up on the fact that last year our board passed an ordinance that i
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sponsored to require a city to develop an agriculture strategy to coordinate the 7-plus agencies to that do work in this area to use the city's resources and to organize all our city efforts to make the community and neighborhood based demand for urban agriculture. under that ordinance our city administrator was supposed to recommend one agency to drive and coordinate urban agriculture strategy. this recommendation was supposed to come at the end of last year. it is or was a few months late, but at the end of the day the city administrator has recommended the rec and park department and has hosted a number of community meetings to educate the public on ongoing plans. under the ordinance we are required to pass a resolution to ratify the decision and recommendation by the city administrator and that is a resolution i'm introducing. i just also want to note that last year during the budget process we set aside $120,000 which was supposed to be spent for the first time on a full-time -- one full-time fte staffer.
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given that today and every year we have spent millions of dollars every year, but we have never actually had one person whose job it is full time to coordinate this work, we made that decision last year but never spent the money. i want to thank the mayor's budget office for transferring this money from last year to this year's budget and hope that once we pass this resolution and once we get this person up and running, finally we'll be able to move forward with a cohesive and organized urban agriculture strategy for the city. the rest of my items i will submit. >> thank you, mr. president. supervisor cohen. >> thank you very much. thank you very much, madam clerk and colleague. today i have one item for introduction. as the chair of the gao committee, i've been working with our budget and legislative analyst on our 2013 audit work plan. and in developing this work plan for this year, i drew from a number of issues that have come across in my time on the board. the first audit request focuses
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on recruitment, testing retention of uniform members in our san francisco fire department as well as evaluating overtime. also the board, we have -- we are asked repeatedly to approve superintendent letval appropriations for the fire department. ~ overtime, but i have not seen a commitment to addressing the structural staffing challenges of this department. so, it is my hope that this audit will give us a fuller picture of how the city can do better in recruiting more san francisco residents into the fire department and develop a pathway to addressing the staffing deficit for overtime costs. the second audit will focus on dcyf implementation of the children's fund. this is a key funding tool that supports many of the city's children and family services. i know that this request -- i know that at the request of supervisor mar and the budget committee will be taking -- i know that at the request of supervisor mar, the budget committee will be taking a look at this year's rfp process for these funds later this week and
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i am very thankful for your leadership on that, supervisor mar. i eagerly anticipate and await that conversation. but i also think that it is important for our budget and legislative analyst to take a look, a more comprehensive look at the last 12 years of the implementation of this fund, evaluate how it's been used, the role of the citizens advisory committee, and identify areas of improvement. the third audit will focus on the department of public health's compliance with privacy and security regulations that are specified in state and federal law with a focus on the data system and records management specifically at laguna honda hospital and san francisco general hospital. it's my hope that this evaluation will help identify areas of improvement in patient records, management as we move forward with the implementation of the affordable care act which is also known as obamacare. and i also want to announce to everyone that this thursday, we've got something really
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exciting happening in the bayview community. we're calling it third on third and this is when the bayview community is going to come alive. community wide art celebration for the whole entire family sponsored by the san francisco arts commission and the public utilities commission, and we've got some really cool activities which include pop-up galleries. we'll have food trucks and get this, everyone, we are also going to have a beer and winegard en, woo-hoo. [laughter] >> so, you definitely want to make your way down to 3rd street. we're going to also have art-making activities for the kids, and we also have cern grove on the road featuring bayview talent. so, i am very grateful for all the people that have put in a lot of work on making this event a success. i'm going to speak as if it has already happened. it is going to be a success. it is going to be this thursday, as i said. it is going
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