fall back onto the city's public health system and safety providers san francisco taxpayers. as a result it is critical now more than ever that we eliminate this incentive, this perverse incentive for employers to use accepted benefits hras in the hopes of evading their obligation by requiring that they -- that only irrevocable expenditures will count towards meeting the employer health care spending requirement here in san francisco. the second point that i want to make is that we also have a unique opportunity to [speaker not understood] public benefits program under the health and security ordinance to maximize the number of san franciscans that purchase health insurance and to create a needed wrap around program for medi-cal receipts. one of the unique strengths of the san francisco city option is that because it is a public

benefit program, worker can use city medical reimbursement accounts to pay for premiums, deductibles, co-payments and other costs associated with carrying health insurance coverage through cover california without actually disqualifying them from federal subsidies under the aca. during the process thats was followed by the universal health care council, staff and the mayor's office, the department of public health, and the city attorney's office vetted the question with federal officials, and i believe that they were all satisfied that the city mra funds could be used for these purposes. because of that, i have asked the city attorney's office to explore how we can best codify the structure of the city option as receipts of employer funds and assignment of enrollees to receipt sets of benefits with the aim of ensuring that the funds are most efficiently used to encourage enrollment and health insurance and to provide useful benefits to medi-cal

beneficiaries. the third point that i want to make is that while the combination of the aca and the hcso have the potential to make health insurance truly affordable in san francisco, coverage will remain unfortunately unaffordable for significant numbers of individuals beyond the most frequently cited group of undocumented immigrants who are categorically excluded for -- from eligibility for subsidies. as tom ammiano said, there will be people who simply will not be able to afford to enroll in the aca. therefore, i have asked the city attorney's office to clarify eligibility requirements for healthy san francisco to ensure that the program remains open not only to the city's undocumented residents, but to other groups of immigrants who are excluded from subsidized exchange coverage. medi-cal and medicare, to ensure that it's accessible to dependents who are disqualified for exchange subsidies because

their family members have received offers of affordable individual coverage, payer with unaffordable dependent coverage and to other individuals who are exempt from the individual mandate provisions of the aca. the final point, final principle that will be at the heart of this ordinance is that in order to maximize the uptick of health insurance recover california, the legislation will direct the department of public health to educate employer and employees more urgently on the options available for them to utilize employer's required contributions and access federal subsidies towards that end. i am confident that we will be able to close this loophole this time. i believe that all of us share in what mayor lee has said should be the objective when it comes to health care in san francisco, to maximize affordable quality health insurance coverage for all san

francisco residents and employees. i look forward to a robust and productive dialogue over the coming weeks. i look forward to your input. and, again, i want to thank my staff, specifically hillary ronan, the city attorney's office, the department of public health, and so many people including the coalition that brought us universal health care for all their input. i am confident that in the midst of this affordability crisis that we will make sure that access to health care remains affordable to all san franciscans. the rest i submit. >> thank you, supervisor campos. supervisor cohen. >> thank you. thank you very much. 18%, 18% of 3 to 4 year olds that are enrolled in our [speaker not understood] programs in san francisco were actually obese last year. ~ head start programs. so, today i'm going to call for a hearing on the impact of chronic diseaseses that are related to consumption of

sugary sweetened beverages and san francisco's low-income communities. and, you know, recently there's been a lot of dialogue about how diabetes impact our youth and our families nationwide as well as city-wide. but as many of us can attest, chronic disease he related to the consumption of soda and sugary sweetened beverages really hit low-income and minority communities particularly hard. these diseases include but are not limited to heart disease, tooth decay, liver damage, and obesity. now, i'm sure many of us have seen the [speaker not understood] impacts of sugary beverages on neighborhoods, probably even inside your own personal families. and we know that in recent years that the bayview hunters point neighborhood had more diabetes related emergency room visits than any other neighborhoods in san francisco. so, as you see there is a theme here. supervisor campos is

introducing consideration for a measure that will address health care. i am asking for a hearing that will begin to help to address health care disparities. we need to start to do more, rolling up our sleeves, and making sure our walk and our talk are in line with each other. it is my hope this hearing will help us understand the correlation between chronic diseases and the low-income communities in san francisco. i also hope that the hearing will help shed light on the prevalence, the impacts and more importantly, the cost of these diseases on the most impacted neighborhoods across the city. the rest, madam clerk, i submit. thank you. >> thank you, supervisor cohen. supervisor farrell. >> thank you, madam clerk. colleagues, last summer as we start to dive into spending and what we've done in the city around the homeless population, i requested the legislative analyst put together a report designed to understand where we're spending our money in san

francisco for homeless services with also comparisons with other jurisdictions that have a sizeable homeless population both inside and outside of california. today i'm releasing that report. i do believe that an order significantly impact the homelessness in san francisco, we need to under how [speaker not understood] and this report helps us do just this. i wanted to get this report out today because it served for me an unbuysed base to understand more about the services we provide today as a city. as a starting point to analyze areas where we can improve. the report highlights strides in the city to reduce the homeless population and also highlights that our population over the last 10 years has remained the same. i will continue to say that i believe we need data driven solutionses to significantly impact the homeless population here in san francisco and this report is real data and real facts about the homeless services we currently provide. i hope this report serves as a base of understanding as we

move into budget season and begin to make decisions about how we're going to allocate resources for the homeless population. i am also requesting that our budget and legislative analyst produce an annex to this report. there will be a thorough examination for the costs and subsidy -- cost and subsidy variation in our supportive housing programs and units city-wide. the report will also analyze tenant outcomes in the front end assessment that happens in our supportive housing programs as well as intaking compliance criteria for entry into supportive housing. a previous controller's report irish to youed to theactionv supervisor mirkarimi, found targeted investments into supportive housing generated significant cost saving but specifically mentioned they lacked a greater analysis of the issues i mentioned. we are working with the budget and legislative analyst to help us make beter and data driven decisions about [speaker not understood]. i know our department of public health, the human services

agency, along with our supportive housing providers do a fantastic job today, but more analyst is needed to help improve tenant outcomes in the supportive housing programs. i look forward to sharing this report and the additional report i have requested for my budget and legislative analyst and the rest i submit. >> thank you, supervisor farrell. supervisor kim. >> thank you. i just wanted to add my [speaker not understood] support for legislation that supervisor campos is drafting today and looking forward to renewed discussion on closing the loophole for our health care security ordinance. as you know, we had a spirited discussion three years ago on this issue. one that i was actually really divided about throughout the debate, but came at the end to decide that this was incredibly important for so many of our workers, particularly in our restaurant industry. this loophole is long, long overdue and i support the efforts to close it. and i am excited to see the

details of the legislation and looking forward to -- with supervisor campos to make health care health insurance affordable for all san franciscans. and the rest i submit. >> thank you, supervisor kim. supervisor mar. >> thank you, madam clerk. colleagues, last week i chaired a hearing, it was a very heated hearing on the rapid growth of uber type private vehicles on our streets. also known as ride share companies or, quote-unquote, transportation network companies or tncs. at the hearing, chair campos, supervisor yee, supervisor avalos and i learned that the convenience that so many san franciscans are enjoying with these types of vehicles is coming at a price to the public safety and the city's economy. with up to 4,000 additional private vehicles, cars driving people in uber and vehicleseses throughout the city without

proper insurance, drivers, passengerseses and pedestrians alike face significant ~ safety risks. and when medical costs aren't covered by insurance, it strains local public health system to make up the difference. this new unregulated industry or as some of us call it a wild west of additional cars on our city streets, it pose he many challenges and the issues are extremely complex based on state policy and local policy as well ~. i believe we don't need to trade convenience for safety and we could achieve both. but i think we must study the costs and the impacts of these so-called tncs and figure how they best fit in within our existing transportation system. so, with the co-sponsorship of supervisors campos and avalos, we are asking the budget and legislative analyst office to study two thing. one, the fiscal impacts of collisions involveding uninsured or underinsured tncs on the city and, two, what

policies of other cities consider not just seattle, but perhaps other cities are enacted to mitigate the impacts of these so-called tncs. we want san franciscans to enjoy high quality and safe service and we believe we can have both. so, i look forward to continuing the conversation and learning more about the complex issue. a we he craft legislation for accountability, transparency, and most of all, public safety as the new industry of uberses and other type vehicles expands in our city. ~ also, i wanted to alert people that traffic danger and pedestrian safety issues haven't been only occurring in other districts, but in the richmond district, it's been one of the critical issues of many of us in district 1. last night at about 5:15 p.m., a five-year old child and one adult were struck right outside the golden gate park senior center on 37th and fulton, and my office has been working with

residents in that area for quite a while to try to calm traffic, but it's another example of how i believe the city must deliver safety projects much, much faster and the vision zero [speaker not understood] and transportation first are good steps, but i want to keep urging the [speaker not understood] to be proactive as we slow the number of collisionses and make our streets safer. also i wanted to commend supervisor campos for continuing to advocate and to show leadership on health equity for all of our neighborhoods and for low wage workers, especially around the health care security ordinance. we have an unprecedented opportunity to make health insurance of covered california truly affordable to san francisco workers. i'm hopeful that we can coordinate the health care security ordinance and our affordable care act together in order to increase the number of

insured san franciscans. i'm continuing to support supervisor campos and others'ertionv to close the loophole and i'll continue to do soughtv so, thank you to supervisor campos for introducing that. ~ to do so also, as supervisor cohen alerts us of the dangers of obesity and diabetes and other health problems from unhealthy foods and drinks, junk drinks, i think the anecdote often has been not only increased healthy and affordable food access or taking on big companies that promote and market to our kids and communities, but also it's promoting physical fitness in our neighborhoods. in the richmond district coming up on saturday, we're having the city's mobile rec coming to one of our newly renovated parks in the richmond district. it's the folsom playground and it's from 11:00 to 2:00 p.m. i challenged my colleagues on the board and your staffs as

well to learn how to skateboard with me. i'll claim the rock climbing structure with you as well, but i want you to come out and join us as we have a fun day with rec and park staff and others to really look at how we can increase physical fitness and activity within our neighborhoods. so, join us on saturday. also, it's the san francisco unified school district youth arts festival coming up from march 15th through the 23rd at the asian art museum. and thanks so much to jay and his staff for accommodating the great young artists from our school district and all the schools in san francisco. it really shows what creativity has been generated from our arts education work in the school district and throughout the city. for the past 28 years, the unique san francisco event, young and art, formerly young and art, ha brought together families, teachers, artists and others to make sure that our

city can be proud of our supportive arts education. i also wanted to say that 30 years ago i was an intern with an organization that's now become cam, the center for asian american media. it was formerly called the national asian american telecommunications association, quite a long term, name. and supervisor campos and i are both -- or supervisor chiu and i are both attending the kickoff this coming thursday for the asian american film festival. and i wanted to let my colleagues know that it's running from march 13th through march 23rd and it's at many locations in the bay area, including the castro theater, the kabuke cinemas, new people cinema in japantown, nihamache, unique places david chiu's district great star theater in chinatown as well. the great stars had deep roots in chinatown showing movies since the '20s. it will be a treat to see movies in that old theater

again. also, one of the film showing that i'm looking forward to is on sunday, march 16th at the castro. it's a film by a film maker grace lee. it's called american revolutionary, the evolution of grace lee boggs. 98 year old grace lee bogs, many of us met her. i met her 20 years ago the a conference at ucla people conference. she is an amazing activist in detroit creating gardens, bringing together african-american and chinese immigrant population. she is an amazing person with energy like crazy. i'm happy the films come together with the support of danny glover, so many who helped grace lee make this movie. i urge you to join us for film like that and many others that are coming. i wanted to finish by saying that my colleague, john avalos, and i'm happy it's john avalos day today, and he joins the

over 50 club that norman yee has been in for quite a few years. and i joined quite a while ago, but i'm not going to tell you how long ago. but it's nice to have a third colleague in the over 30 club. but i wanted to say, too, that to avalos, i think 50 is the new 30, but i would ask you not to follow jeraldo rivera's lead in taking selfies of yourself. [laughter] >> [speaker not understood] our colleague, john avalos. and i'll explain them in a minute. i think some in the crowd celebrating john's byerthctiontion day last night were calling him the latino george clooney ~. the latino george clooney, the actor, right. i think that is at the national level i see -- i think that's

an insult to our colleague supervisor avalos because i think his leadership with local progress at the national level with city council people and county supervisors and local leaders is tremendous. he's acknowledged from all the cities around the country as an amazing, amazing leader who builds policy from the grassroots and from the bottom up. he also is strongly supported by grassroots network here of many community based organizations. i view the george clooney comment as an insult. but i think john avalos is more like, i would call him like a senior version of zap [speaker not understood] so i'm giving you one of my favorite compilations. it's live and rare cuts of [speaker not understood]. his colleague from l.a. area. the other thing that i'm giving him, i see avalos as more of a

nerdy of herb alpert. when my house burned down and i lost my turntable, i remember we went through my album collection and john took quite a few of my albums. this is a really important one. it's herb alpert's lonely boy album. i think avalos will kind of understand the [speaker not understood] there. but i think if he had to choose [speaker not understood], his partner and his kid rene and [speaker not understood], i think john really wants to be the latino [speaker not understood] and if he could, lead efforts like the clash ha led over the years [speaker not understood]. so, a gateway kind of version of the clashes from london to jamaica, too. but i think john encompasses art and creativity and brings so much progressive leadership to our city and i just wanted to thank you on john avalos day with these three gifts. so, thank you so much, john. thank you. the rest i'll submit. (applause)

>> thank you, supervisor mar. supervisor avalos. >> well, thank you, supervisor mar. thats was really sweet. i didn't realize i was that nerdy, but i do really like herb alpert. maybe that makes me nerdy, i don't know. don't have much to say about that, but just thank you. [laughter] >> i wanted to thank supervisor campos for his effort around closing the loophole around the [speaker not understood]. that was business that was left unfinished back a couple years ago. i think it's really significant that we make sure that we can have complementary program here locally with the affordable care act at the national level. and i look forward to the work around that. the rest i'll submit. >> thank you, supervisor avalos. supervisor kim. >> thank you.

i actually in my role call forgot to say happy birthday to my colleague, and now my new next door neighbor. i'm going to take a selfy of us sitting together. supervisor mar, you should have been in the [speaker not understood] last night. that was great. i just want to also just add on my words of my appreciation for you, john. i think we've now worked together for 10 years, first meeting -- we were starting to work together back in 2004. and, so, to have a ten-year history with someone on this board, i've been working on so many different issues, actually health care was one of the first issues you worked on 10 years ago, diminishing youth violence and reaching our public schools. so many different efforts, and i'm proud to stand with you today. and i do appreciate your leadership and your service. and i think so many of us on this board -- a lot of things that we do, but the one thing i

consistently hear about you, john, is how authentic you are and how honest you are and direct, and that you always stand where you are. and that's something that even with individuals that don't agree with your perspective, it's often what i hear that everyone respects about you most. so, happy birthday, john. i'm looking forward to joining your club one day. not soon, but one day. [laughter] >> i'll be the one, but i just appreciate your history as an organizer, working as a legislative aide and now here on the board of supervisors continue to support the people. happy birthday. >> thank you, supervisor kim. mr. president, that concludes roll call for introduction of new business. >> thank you. ladies and gentlemen, why don't we now go to general public comment. >> at this time the public may comment generally for up to two minutes on item within the subject matter jurisdiction of

the board including the policy discussion between the honorable mayor and the board and item on the adoption without reference to committee calendar. please note the public comment is not allowed on those item which have already been subject to public comment by a board committee. please direct your remarks to the board as a whole, not to individual supervisors nor to the audience. speakers using translation assistance will be allowed twice the amount of time to testify. and if you would like a document to be displayed on the overhead projector, please clearly state such to sfgov-tv and remove the document when the screen should return to live coverage of the meeting. >> thank you. let's hear from our first speaker. good afternoon, i'm peter wolf, executive director of library users association. on supervisor avalos's 50th birthday, all i can say is for many years, my dad on the occasion of various birthdays would say to me, wow, nobody gets that old. [laughter]

today's topic is new and more illegalities officially recognized at the library by the sunshine task force. last wednesday, march 5th, the sunshine ordinance task force voted unanimously 7 to nothing that the library commission had held an unlawful secret meeting in violation of san francisco's open government law. i might remind this body that you -- the sunshine ordinance is the official launch pad for the city on open government matters and all of the members are appointed by you, the supervisors. this finding is on a complaint filed by my group, library users association, following a hunch or curiosity on some public records request. the library commission committed essentially an illegality upon an illegality. it discussed a letter and agreed to send it to a newspaper that was working on a

story about friends of groups, including friends of san francisco public library. and what did this letter say? well, it was written to support the city librarian luis herrera with respect to his acknowledge many of unlawful filingses to the california state fair political practices commission ~. he had affirmed under penalty of perjury that he had received no gifts from anyone and did so for three years in a row when in fact he had received thousands of dollars from friends of s.f.p.l. i ask the supervisors to hold a hearing on library accountability, policy practices and procedures. thank you. >> next speaker. good afternoon. dr. espinola jackson. happy birthday. mostly of you are the same age

as my children. i hate to come and sometimes spank you to do the right thing. i would like to say that there are a lot of problems in my community, which is in district 10. the shipyard housing that is being built, there was never an e-i-r done. and the fact that that area is so toxic, and what is happening here at san francisco city hall is that we have you all [speaker not understood] policy that you should be making. and i would like for you all to start holding hearing dealing with the mia. you see, we in my community are not going to be able to move in thea fordable housing, so-called affordable because we do not make $48,000 a year. you have to look at what do the citizens of san francisco make? not those people that come into san francisco work, and take

our tax dollars out. and what you are doing is making sure that none of us -- i've been in san francisco for 71 years and there is no way that i could afford to move into any affordable housing that they are saying here. we need to look at the fact that these commissioners that are rubber stamps to the redevelopment agency and the policies that are being made dealing with the grants that we receive in 1992 -- and i mention that had to you all before. these grants are being used but not the communities the grants were granted for. they are still coming to city hall and there needs to be an investigation. you all need to check on what's going on in this city because the housing is a mess. it's really a big mess. and thank you so very much. and i would like for you all to put the number on me, but i want you all to check into all of these things that 40% of my people are [speaker not understood]. (applause) >> thank you. next speaker.

supervisors, in this auguste chamber, the least you can do is provide us that podium where we can speak as we spoke -- a we used to speak for a long time. the least you can do is search that podium because this is like a mickey mouse thing. i was listening to you all. if y'all want to have saturday live [speaker not understood] of this board of chambers, y'all can have it privately, have it taped. but what i feel seriously about the chamber is that, having attended so many meetings for the last 30 years, is that it's going from bad to worse. and you know that, but we speak about this, that and the other. but i wonder if y'all are compassionate enough to really

know the impact of the constituents of san francisco. a lot of them are hurting. and it looks as if joking and jokesters is like fodder for agenda. we are given just two minutes, but y'all run, run, run, run, run your mouths, on what? do you really represent the constituents of san francisco? i doubt so. so, i don't come here that often. i don't have to. i can write about you all. but i come here sometimes so that i can look y'all in the eye and tell you all that you are not doing a good job. so, some of you will be going to the state assembly, more power to y'all. there is one supervisor that fought for a [speaker not understood] center at 3450 third street. and now that doctor jumped ship and has given it to this ot