tv [untitled] February 4, 2014 2:00pm-2:30pm PST
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supervisors meeting of tuesday, february 4, 2014. madam clerk, could you call the roll? >> yes. [speaker not understood]. campos present. president chiu? chiu present. supervisor cohen? cohen not present. supervisor farrell? farrell present. supervisor kim? kim present. supervisor mar? >> here. >> mar present. supervisor tang. >> present. >> tang present. supervisor wiener? >> present. >> wiener present. supervisor yee? >> present. >> yee present. and supervisor cohen. >> present. >> cohen present. mr. president, all members are present. >> thank you. ladies and gentlemen, could you please join us in the pledge of allegiance? i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands; one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> madam clerk, are there any communicationses?
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>> i have no communications today, mr. president. >> and could you read our consent jedv? >> items 1 through 11 comprise the consent calendar. thea items are considered routine unless a member will object. the item may be removed and considered separately. >> colleagues, would you like to sever any of these item? madam clerk, could you call -- sorry. could you call the roll on items 1 through 11? >> on items 1 through 11, supervisor mar? >> aye. >> 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 cohen? cohen aye. supervisor farrell? farrell aye. supervisor kim? kim aye. there are 1 ayes. >> those items are approved. [gavel] >> and could you go to item 12? >> item 12 is a resolution to approve an agreement with the
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nonprofit owners association for administration management of the renewed and expanded property-based central market community benefit district for a period commencing upon board approval until june 30th, 20 28. ~ >> colleagues, can we do this item same house same call? without objection, this resolution is adopted. [gavel] >> next item. >> item 1 is an ordinance to amend the business and tax regulations code by adding article 15 a to provide for the establishment of assessment districts to finance public realm landscaping improvement and maintenance of outdoor spaces and to authorize the purchase of real property with the assessment funds. >> colleagues, same house same call? this ordinance is passed on the first read. [gavel] >> item 14. >> item 13 -- item 14, mr. president? item 14 is an ordinance amending the planning code to repeal pro he visions of and establishing new provisions for the 1500 page street affordable housing special use district for the property located at
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1500 page street and to amend the zoning map to amend the affordible housing and modified height and bulk limits. >> supervisor breed. >> thank you. i know there's been a lot of concern ~ throughout our city about affordable housing and a number of the challenges that we face, and many of us are working on legislation to try and deal with that particular issue. but i do want to take this opportunity to highlight this project because this is a great example of what the city is doing right. this ordinance will create a special use district for a great project in the upper haight and this is a project for housing opportunity for development only disabled individuals. and in this particular project we have mercy housing and the arc working together hand in hand not only to rehabilitate these units and provide them to this particular population, but
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the arc, which is really the expert organization in working with individuals with mental challenges will be at hand to provide social services. so, this is just absolutely an incredible project. we have a number of organizations that traditionally in this particular area disagree on almost everything that comes out to the public. they actually have all come together, including the haight/ashbury improvement association, hank, and the hate ark bury merchants, the urban school located right next to this project, they all have agreed to support this project ~ because the outreach efforts were amazing. the communication with the community was amazing. and tim dunn in mercy housing in particular deserves the credit for their amazing outreach. i think this is going to be a wonderful project for the community that provides a great housing opportunity for a
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community that experiences challenges with access to affordable housing. so, i'm truly looking forward to the day that this opens and just want to thank everyone for their hard work on bringing this together and look forward to moving this project forward. thanks. >> thank you, supervisor. colleagues, can we take this item same house same call? without objection this ordinance is passed on the first reading. [gavel] >> colleagues, why don't we skip over our 2:30 and 3:00 p.m. special orders and go to item 20, madam clerk. >> item 20 was considered by the land use and economic development committee at a regular meeting on monday, february 3rd, and was forwarded to the board as a committee report with the same title. >> colleagues, would anyone like to discuss this item? item 20. >> yes. >> supervisor kim? supervisor cohen.
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>> well, okay. supervisor kim, would you like me to go first? >> that's okay. i apologize. i thought this was item 29, so, i'll start. >> okay, supervisor kim. >> this is something really exciting for us to celebrate. many of you know that i've been working for the last year and a half -- year with supervisor kim. you heard me speak about the importance of this legislation when we introduced it last week. this legislation supervisor kim and i have been working on is really borne out of our desire to provide real employment opportunities and housing opportunities to individuals that have a conviction history. one in four californianses have a conviction on their record. i represent a district with the highest percentage of individuals who have this conviction history. and data tells us that access to housing and employment opportunities are key components to preventing recidivism and supporting public safety in our communities. the legislation is really long
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overdue and this is -- certainly think supervisor kim agrees, this is landmark legislation and it's long overdue and i believe it will help eliminate the conscious and more importantly unconscious bias that exists when hiring and housing individuals with a conviction history. as a city it's time for us to help change the perception of people who served their time, paid their debt to sew satiety and want to be productive workers in community. this legislation is not designed to give individuals a preference. rather, it's to ensure they are judged on qualifications, not their previous actions. and there is a long list of folks that have helped to make this a reality. i'd like to take a moment just to thank a few of the organizations that have helped us along the way. all of us or none, legal serve is he for prisoners with children, lawyers committee for civil rights national power, coalition on homelessness, hospitality house, coleman advocates, chamber of commerce and small
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business commission, and also there are a litany of neighborhood folks that helped gather signatures for us to continue to move this forward. and i hope that you will join supervisor kim and i in voting favorably for this legislation. mr. chair, the rest i give back to supervisor kim. >> supervisor kim. >> thank you, supervisor cohen and president chiu. it's always important to put a face behind legislation. and today's legislation is for these very individuals. the fair chance act is for an individual named don he will who was fired from his janitorial job whos was fired for failing to tell about a 1974 arrest for transpesting. the fair chance act is for a woman named sandee who won the lottery at nema across the street, but was disqualified because she failed to pay child support in the late 1990s, even though she served time for that
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failure. the fair chance act is for denise who was told she shouldn't bother to apply for a job as a cook because she had a conviction for shop lifting when she was in high school. as supervisor cohen mentioned, for one in four adults in the united states, an arrest or conviction record is a stigma that means "you need not apply." these examples are real life obstacles preventing individuals who are actively looking to change their life by getting a job or finding a roof over their head. yet we know having a stable job and housing are the two most colt cal factors that reduce recidivism. so, what if we could change that reality so that employers and housing providers could still obtain all the relevant information that they need to make responsible decisions and yet at the same time 65 million americans who live with an arrest or conviction record in the past can get a fair chance to present their qualifications first. over the last year our office along with supervisor malia cohen worked with a broad range of stakeholders so rights
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advocates, nonprofit and private housing developers, business community and law enforcement to develop the fair chance act. our goal was to reduce racial difficult parrott in the criminal justice system, improve safety and well-being, yet reduce the cost of the criminal justice system saving taxpayer dollars. we knew the success of this policy hinged on stakeholders investing this law work. an attestment to years worth of teamwork, it is coming to the full board for historic vote including both hometown youth papers san francisco chronicle and examiner. once this ordinance passes today, hopefully with the unanimous support from this board, san francisco while following the best practices of over 10 states and 56 municipalities will be the first local down the box lock in the country that covers affordable housing, below market rate units, contractors with the city, private employers with 20 or more employees. the policies embodied in this act helped open the doors of
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opportunity for all which make our city safer, healthier and stronger for everyone. questions for conviction history can still occur, but only after a live initial interview and decision-makers will still have an opportunity fully vet applicants like the now sandy and more seeking stable housing is and employment while getting a critical opportunity to make a first impression based on the quality of their experience and their qualifications. supervisor cohen has gone through many of the mechanisms of the legislation itself. so, i won't repeat that. but it is really important to mention again that this act places a limit on well establishing consistent procedures for the use and arrest conviction history by employers and city contractors and subcontractors. it does remove the initial application and it delays inquiry until after the first interview or conditional offer of employment or housing. ~ box we also create consistent set
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of boundaries to what can be inquired into for instance the seven-year look back. i also do want to thank again the organizations that supervisor cohen has mentioned. they have worked tirelessly with our office through many, many meetings throughout the year, whether it's all of us or none or the chamber of commerce and our housing providers. and i also want to give a special thanks to the san francisco small business commission and the san francisco youth commission which both endorse this legislation. and from the departments here, dhr particularly susan guard and olsc donald levitt and the office of contract administration for providing their input as well. as a society we orphan talk about how an individual has paid their debt once they have paid -- once they have served their time. it is often not true. we find that individuals, even after they have served their time, lived with their conviction or arrest history for the rest of their life. and, in fact, we have tried to
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tie in this legislation with the celebration of our civil rights leader martin luther king and his birthday. we missed it by a couple weeks, i'm reminded by what he had said about those that had been part of our criminal justice system and to borrow from king he called it the quick sand of injustice. but he also said, "the situation can change and will be changed and i'm not willing to allow formerly incarcerated men and women toual owe in the valley of despair." obama also talked recently how one's liberty is linked to one's livelihood and the pursuit of happiness requires of dignity of work, skill to find work, decent pay and some measures of material security. for many ex offenders that is elusive shown in the data here in san francisco. just in the pool of men and women that are part of the san francisco public defend erredx clean slate program, only a few of those individual seeking assistance are able to find employment and the vast majority of even that third ~
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make less than $3,000 a year. how is it possible to find opportunity and start a new life? with that is the opportunity you get after spending time in prison. so, this act, the fair chance act is san francisco's commitment to second chance and to a fair chance for all. and i do want to thank my colleagues, co-sponsors of this legislation, but in particular supervisor malia cohen's office and to the two ladies that have really worked on this legislation, andrea and ivy lee spent countless hours making sure we keep a broad group of stakeholders together. this legislation might have been voted on and passed by the board but we knew it wouldn't be fully implemented without the investment of many of our stakers including employers and housing providers. we're excited to be here this day. this is truly historic civil rights legislation for san francisco and i'm proud to present this today with our co-sponsors and supervisor cohen. >> thank you, supervisor kim. supervisor mar.
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>> i wanted to first express tremendous respect for all of us or none and the grassroots coalition that really led an empowering campaign for people who are formerly incarcerated, but also those who continue to be behind bars. i wanted to thank supervisor cohen and kim for supporting this effort to make policy from the bottom up. and i feel very proud to support this civil rights and historic human rights measure in san francisco. i know when we passed the policy for the public, ban the box years ago, and oakland did as well, it was also the result of grassroots organizing from the community based groups. i think legal services for prisoners with children and many others have broadened that coalition to include others like jobs with justice. nothing but props to public defender jeff hadachi and so many others who have really put their efforts into supporting grassroots organizing and coalition building like this as well. i, too, support a fair chance
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and i see our criminal justice system's future as really focusing on restorative justice and i think once people are released, giving them a fair chance, giving everyone a fair chance at jobs and hiring is the best way we can pull up all the communities from poverty and support civil rights for all. so, thank you so much to supervisor cohen and kim and the grassroots coalition. >> supervisor wiener. >> thank you, mr. president. i want to again thank supervisor cohen, supervisor kim and everyone who made this legislation a reality. we know particularly with realignment that it is in everyone's interest in this city to make sure that when people come back into society after -- whether it's incarceration or any other kind of criminal penalty, that we are absorbing them effectively into society, and that means housing, it means giving them access to employment because we're just shooting ourselves in the foot if we have people who come out of the criminal
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justice system and can't get a job or a place to live. it has a cascading negative effect on the entire community. so, this is a very important piece of legislation and i'm happy to support it. >> thank you, colleagues. do we need a roll call vote on this item? without objection, this ordinance is passed on the first reading. [gavel] (applause) >> congratulations to the advocates and the community. and with that, madam clerk, why don't we go to roll call for introductions. >> yes, mr. president. i will call on supervisor mar who will be first to introduce new item. >> thank you, madam clerk. congratulations again to the civil rights coalition on that historic vote. colleagues, after months of work with community leaders and health experts, today with supervisors scott wiener, malia cohen and john avalos and our
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new co-sponsors president david chiu and supervisor david campos, i'm proud to be introducing a unified tax measure that strengthens our community's commitments to san francisco's children and their families. i'm proud to stand with the majority of the board of supervisors that are co-sponsors on this. as we move this forward to make history in san francisco. and i know we can make history by passing this ballot measure in november. our coalition for the sugary drink task is building unity also not only a unified measure that's come forward today, but also a unity in our neighborhoods and solidarity for our children's health in a fight across this city because we know big soda corporations like coca cola and like pepsi and dr. pepper, the three big industry giants and their so-called american beverage association will be pouring millions of dollars, perhaps more than we've ever seen historically, in san francisco. and they even spent $4 million
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to defeat measures in small, tiny cities, richmond and el monte a few years ago, but we expect them to pour huge amounts of money to mislead san franciscanses. we'll be fighting back with science, commune edward jones ~ education, and shape s.f., also the danger of bad food and drinks as well. we'll send a message san francisco is not for sale and we will not allow you and your lobbyists to continue your decades of harming the health of our children and our communities ~. many of you know that i'm a parent of a 13 year old girl, a teenager, and i know directly that big soda targets heard and adolescence with targets them with harmful energy drinks and sodas.
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obesity has tripled for my daughter's age group in the past 30 years, and scientists and studies show that big soda is largely to blame. as a father, i know our families need help when they live in environments saturated with sugary drinks that are aggressively marketed everywhere children and families turn, like billboards on top of people's houses in the bayview or on our buses, or saturday morning tv. as a san franciscan, i also share our collective desire to make san francisco more livable for families and to continue to be a city that sends stands strong in protecting the public's health and allows all of our neighborhoods to thrive. as a local legislator and a law maker like the left of us, i also believe that nothing we do is more important than protecting our children's health and the public's health. we're lucky, as i mentioned, that we have strong coalitions for health equity and food access in our neighborhoods, especially in the bayview and the tenderloin. but it's growing in many other neighborhoods, too. and they've been building
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alliances with doctors, health experts and scientists. some of the best science in the world from ucsf researchers and the center for vulnerable populations and many other pediatricians and ucsf to yale university's center for food policy and obesity studies. they've all helped us develop this measure as we're moving forward today. the science is crystal clear. big soda is causing significant harm to our health and economy. a number of us have held a hearing, and i commissioned a report in december that shows that in san francisco sugary drinks are responsible at the very least for over $50 million of harm to our city's economy. and that's just for obesity and type 2 diabetes alone. so, there's a lot more for oral and dental health, liver damage, and heart damage as well. so, we know the economic harm of big soda and we know that it's much, much higher than that number even from our report. the sugary drinks fee we're proposing today is a reasonable
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and responsible first step in mitigating the harm. 2 cents per ounce, it's a tax of two pennies per ounce for drinks like this and it's levied on distributors, not on small businesses. the legislation is written so that the revenue generated more than $30 million a year will be used in the most equitable and resourceful ways to counter the many health problems sodas cause. i'll just hold up this picture of a can of coca cola 12 ounces. it probably would raise the cost maybe a quarter, but i don't know if you could see the sugar cubeses lined up. some people measure it in teaspoons or in packets of sugar. that's about 15 sugar cubes in that one can of coke. and i think researchers that malia cohen and supervisor wiener and john avalos and i have been working with really are documenting and showing what the best research on how that's harmful not just in the ingestion of that drink and
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eating a lot more, but also in its long term effectses on people's health, not just with diabetes, but also obesity and other diseases that harm people's way of life. also, our measure will create an accountability mechanism, an independent 13-person steering committee of public health leaders, parents, students, community members will be responsible for ensuring that the revenue is spent fairly. and again, it's about 40% to the san francisco unified school district for physical activity and health and nutrition programs, about 25% to the recreation and parks department for parks and physical activity and recreation and about 25% to the department of public health for continuing health education and about 10% to community-based groups for health work and physical activity. i also wanted to say that a significant amount of the money will also go to alternatives like drink tap water fountain
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stations especially in neighborhoods that don't have good access to fresh and clean water that i think is the best alternative to harmful drinks. the measure requires that communities most affected by the harm from sugary drinks will be prioritized. it will increase access to healthy foods and physical activity, both in and outside of school, especially in neighborhoods that need it the most like the bayview, like the tenderloin, like the mission, like chinatown. our growing coalition is strong and diverse and rapidly growing and it now includes senator mark leno and assembly member tom ammiano. the author of our public education in richmond fund and healthy s.f., so, we're growing every day with support from our neighborhoods. and the legislation carries on san francisco's long tradition of passing local laws to protect our families and our public's health. big soda doesn't share these concerns. big soda is already spending as much money as possible, scheming to defeat us and to protect their corporate profits. we can make history together in
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san francisco. philadelphia couldn't do it. new york city couldn't do it. richmond couldn't do t. but i think we can do this in san francisco. and i think as we build this coalition, it will mean more public health and community organizing and community education for the future ~. so, i ask, colleagues, as this moves forward that you join us, the six of us, in this historic campaign. and i thank all the coalition members that ca
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