for holding this hearing and thank the members of the board of supervisors and the mayor for coming up with the funds to maintain the system of care. you know we have more people living with hiv and aids here in san francisco now than we ever have. i would love to see a greater investment in our system of care. and thank you for helping to maintain it [speaker not understood]. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. good afternoon, supervisor. i'm john weather man, speaking in support for the shanti project life program which offers direct services, education, and support to men and women with hiv/aids. at 71 years and 30 plus years paused, i am a thankful resip yetv of these services for the last eight years. ~ recipient the live program is based on a

12 week or 16-week workshop model which teaches health care self-management. most of us, if we're on an hmo model, see our doctors once every three months. we need to take care of ourselves the rest of the time. the shanti life offers a variety of support services for hepatitis c, hiv co-infection. it also makes it possible for us to reclaim some of the thing that have been lost on our journey. for instance, the reclaiming of our voices, self-respect, sense of worth and place in the world, security and knowing that we're not alone, and care navigation and volunteer matches for people when things get rough. the shanti project is celebrating 40 years of services to people in san francisco this year on the very simple premise that no one should ever have to face a life-threatening illness alone.

thank you for your time and attention. >> next speaker. good afternoon. i'm dr. jo anna [speaker not understood], i'm the hiv medical director at the mission neighborhood health center and this is my third year speaking to you on this issue. and this year i really just want to say thank you. thank you for your support which has let us keep providing team based multi-disciplinary care that hazlett my patients really thrive. i want to tell you about one patient today being discharged from san francisco general hospital just this afternoon, and this is a guy who a few years ago slipped quietly out of care. he was taking care of a sick relative and stopped taking care of himself. he was admitted to the hospital with advanced aids and active disseminated tuberculosis, highly infectious. and coordinating his discharge and the care that would follow has really taken a village. we've gotten him housing with

the help of tb clinic. previously he was sleeping on the floor of a garage where his land lady would lock him in every night because she was worried about getting infected. we're helping him figure out how to deal with the 16 hundred dollar co-payment on his medications all of which are essential. he has a lot of issues. he's got substance abuse challenges, he has mental health issues, he has cognitive issues related to hiv all of which make it really hard for him to take these essential medicines every single day. and it will continue to be a lot of work. and most of that work won't be done by me in the medical appointment. all i'm doing is writing a prescription. but you can see how the cost of not doing this work for him and for society are so much higher. so, thank you for your support as i feel very, very proud to be a san franciscan and be able to keep providing this level of care to people who really, really need it. >> thank you very much. next speaker. hello, i'm jeff sheehy and

i'm here from the [speaker not understood] coalition which is a group that's gotten together to get san francisco to zero new infections, zero deaths from hiv, and zero stigma. and we're doing this by engaging a broad variety and diversity of stakeholders and creating shared responsibility for achieving this vision and to achieve this vision we need to ensure that health and wellness of all individuals and communities living with hiv and at-risk for hiv. now, 10 years ago when i was mayor newsome's hiv agent, i never thought we'd be able to talk about getting to zero. and i really think it's a testament both to the political leadership here and i want to thank the mayor and the board of supervisors for continuing to backfill these cuts. but also the larger community which is always support support it give to hiv. and i especially want to acknowledge the work of the community based organization and the aids service organizations without which we couldn't even begin to discuss this.

i mean, they provided unbelievable service with growing patient and client loads with diminished resources and we would not be able to talk about this get tog zero without their work. ~ get tog zero without their work. getting to zero does not mean the end of hiv and aids. we do have a vision here for the first time of opening a new chapter where we would be the first city in the world to get to zero. we can honestly talk about zero new infections. based on the work that's been done by all the folks in this room and the larger community. and i just want to again thank the board of supervisors and the mayor for continuing to let us move forward and to create this next chapter in the fight against hiv and aids in san francisco. >> thank you. next speaker. good afternoon, i'm mary lawrence hicks. i'm a nurse practitioner onward 86 and i bring thousands of

thank yous to the board of supervisors and to the mayor for the life sustaining support that you all have agreed to continue. i've been onward 86 for 17 years. i've been on the care council five years and i'm currently a co-chair and i can say that we are getting better and better at what we do. we have become more efficient and we have deeply integrated care, prevention, and support services for our patients. and as a result we are succeeding. we have now a rate of unrecognized infections down to 6.4% in san francisco compared to about 18% around the rest of the country. 89% of our patients who are getting diagnosed are getting linked to care within three months of diagnosis and 68% are undetectable within 12 months. san francisco led the nation in offering treatment to anyone

with an hiv diagnosis regardless of cd4 count and we have higher rates of undetectable viral loads than anywhere in the country. in 2007 we had 53 2 new cases. in 2013 we had 332. let's go all the way. let's get to zero. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. good afternoon, i'm kerry [speaker not understood] the program manager at west side community services, aids case management program, and i just wanted to speak for a minute about how the continued funding of these serve is he has directly impacted a couple of clients that we work with in our program and explain what our program does. we have three brian white part a contracts that provide mobile services to folks diagnosed with hiv in san francisco [speaker not understood]. these contracts specifically allow us to provide services to folks who are under served, homeless, and individuals whose incomeses are not low enough to

receive support services from medi-cal, but whose incomeses are not high enough to pay for these services out of their pocket. our case management program comprised of masters level social workers, registered nurse managers that go out into the community, meet with clients in their homes, discuss the services that are needed and link clients to those services that already exist. our home care services are provided in client's homes in order to help them be able to continue to live independently and avoid costly institutionalized care. one client that i'd like to briefly discuss is an individual who our program has been working with for about 1.5 years. this is a person who is an older adult. he has a long history of employment. he has been a long-term hiv survivor of over 25 years. he is also a can survivor and has a neurological disorder. he had never used social services before coming to our program and some of the work that our nurses and social work case managers have been able to do is to work closely with the

primary care provider to make that link to the supports that he needs to ensure that he has medication adherence and that he's able to keep his viral load undetectable. we have also linked him to a lot of the other community supports like project open hand. we have worked with him to develop money management as he has been a victim of dependent adult abuse and financial abuse. and it's pretty clear that he's very appreciative of the work that we provided him. had we not been able to link him to other services that he would have need that had costly institutionalized care and would not have been able to remain in his home. thank you so much. >> thank you very much. next speaker. my name is mark e. bolt and i'm the voice of your past hiv clients for the project open hand, house of resource center and the aids housing alliance. i'm the past client. i'm the current volunteer and also probably going to be your future client again. new to the city i was newly

diagnosed and i didn't know about project open hand. when i was in my greatest need, very quickly over a two-year period i exhausted my $200,000 worth of saving and ended up in the tenderloin. as my health had slowly improved over that two-year period, dr. marcus conig decided i needed to keep my mind busy and told me about project open hand. that's when i found out about project open hand. i started delivering meals to the sickest clients in the tenderloin. visiting the s-r-os in deplorable conditions where facilities don't have adequate ways to store food and to prepare the nutritious meals. they just don't exist in those s-r-os. my health continues to stabilize. and as my hell continually stabilized what i realized is that i, even though i have a

undergrad and graduate degree, i don't have the energy to work full time any more without the use of ritalin, which my doctor placed me on to keep my part -time job. i selfie electricitied to no longer be a client of project open hand at that point. two months later the meals were reduced for the healthy clients. i can tell you that on days i get home from work, i need that prepared meal to put in the microwave. so, as we move forward to help get to zero for other people that want to keep from getting aids, i want to encourage you to please don't leave the hiv already infected long-term people behind. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker. hello, my name is [speaker

not understood] tom. i'm with the native american health center [speaker not understood]. i just wanted to thank the board of supervisors and the mayor for their commitment to hiv/aids services in the city and county of san francisco. i just want to say that your continued commitment allows for a continuation of hiv aid services at the health center that span prevention into treatment. for the over, i believe it's an estimated 6 to 8,000 hiv -- sorry, 6 to 8,000 amazing indian and alaskans [speaker not understood], we offer everything from [speaker not understood] and affirming to our community members and also includes traditional health. we are able to bring in traditional consultants and offer a very unique treatment approach for our community members. and after native american aids project closed down, we're the only hiv/aids services in this

city catering to american i understand indiana, alaskan nateiesv and first nation. so, i want to thank you for continuing to believe in our work with that community. and additionally, we're able to share the work that we're doing here as it is innovative with other agencies across not only the state but also across the nation and internationally as well. so, we just want to say thank you again for your support of our work. [speaker not understood]. and thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker. good afternoon. my name is jorge [speaker not understood], a social worker at [speaker not understood]. i want to thank on behalf of the latino community in san francisco, i want to thank the board of supervisors and the [speaker not understood] to prevent many cuts in hiv services. in addition, i would like to on behalf of the latino community, i would like to propose an increase in funding to better

engage and to help the latino community and other immigrant communities to navigate systems of care, prevention, and screening. latinos are still [speaker not understood] for hiv and there are many competing needs when a person becomes aware of hiv. so, the support that the individual -- [speaker not understood] is the multiple and we need to provide multiple services. and, so, we would like to invite you to consider increasing the funding for latinos in san francisco. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. good afternoon, supervisors. my name is eric arguello, and i'm [speaker not understood] here in san francisco. first of all, we want to thank you for your continued support, board of supervisors, to the mayor's office.

we do want to also propose an increase in funding for our population. there are a lot of cultural barriers that our population ha to face in order to receive culturally appropriate services. so, we just want to make sure that that's out there, that we looked at that, and make sure it's balanced appropriately to the barriers and to the population of san francisco also. i believe the population of san francisco latino is 14% and the increase in hiv is around 19, 20% for latinos. so, we need to look at those numbers, too. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. thank you, supervisors. i, too, want to express my appreciation on behalf of our clients for the work that you guys have done, again, to keep the funding stable. my name is lori thomas. i work at the alliance health project and our agency provides mental health and substance abuse services for 30 years.

our primary population of clients are folks who have hiv, also have mental illness and substance abuse problems. many of these services would not be available to them without the city's commitment to maintaining level funding. ryan white services include everything from hiv, psychiatric crisis assessment to peer facilitate i have support groups, assertive case management for folks with substance abuse issues to psychiatry treatment, hiv dementia assessment to individual counseling services. we are a grateful provider of care for people who are eligible for behavioral health with medi-cal as well and we still have more people, both hiv positive and hiv negative, that then we are funded to see in need of behavioral health services. thank you to the city leaders for your ongoing efforts to maintain the quality of care that is helping so many of our neighbors lead more healthy and meaningful lives. thanks so much. >> thank you very much. next speaker.

hello, i'm larry juicy edmonds, lgbt active laborer [speaker not understood] restraining order violation. san francisco weekly.com, the snitch, 2012 e-mail, just to let you know, i have been living in [speaker not understood] 25 years before [speaker not understood]. last month was my month that i tested here in san francisco. but -- and i love to thank the -- come behind the lion's. i go there for a lot of behavior. but when you live in the tndc in a hotel that abuses you, i need the alliance. i need your services to go down there. i need to be moved out of that building because all these building we are hiv positive, people give blood testses, they're not talking about being positive. they're not. i am undetected, but i do deal

with problem because other people want to hit you, break in your room, tie nooses on your tie rack. i want you to understand that the service you provide is good for the overall, but also you're not able to take people out of bad environments like the tenderloin. we know that aids is there. we know people are smoking crack. i'd say around 75% of the people in my building use he crack. so, you know, i don't use crack. i use medical marijuana. that makes me opposite on the chest with them. i want you to hear us today and hear me for the ones who do not want to be around people who are doing those drugs. they are spending their money [speaker not understood] president obama should not give money. if you don't want to get the crack pipe distribution, [speaker not understood] know what people's behavior are so they can control it because in the meanwhile i get hit aside the head and i get jabbed and i

want you to consider those things. thank you. please fund this. >> thank you very much. next speaker. hi, supervisors. you didn't call my name. can i speak? >> absolutely. thank you. all right. so, i'll try and make my message and four quick points. first, i'm really sad to see that we are having this meeting to, you know, find the ways to backfill the funding for those [speaker not understood] agencies. i want to start to show this picture of harvey milk which is may 22nd is harvey milk holiday here in california. and i don't think he he would be so happy to see or hear talking about this, debating

about budget cuts for hiv services for lgbt people. so, i'm a -- my name is david arajun and i am client of many of those agencies. [speaker not understood], san francisco aids foundation latino group, [speaker not understood], [speaker not understood]. also i saw here shanti project open hand, alrp and prc. so, i would like to ask you not to see those agencies as a burden for the city, but see those agencies as landmark because those agencies help so many people, dozens, hundreds and thousands of people. and unfortunately i don't have time to tell the whole story, but they are benefiting so many people, myself and many people

that i know. i'm also an activist and advocate for the community and if i have more time i could, you know, tell you more. and finally, i also reinforce to [speaker not understood] raise funding for those agency if you can. thank you very much. >> thank you. is there any additional public comment on item 1? i see a couple people walking up. mr. smith wick. good afternoon, committee members. thank you for this opportunity to speak with you on this really important issue. my name is michael smith wick. i'm the executive director of my tree compassionate care. as many of you already know at my tree we provide hospice and end of life and medical stabilization services to low-income san franciscans all with advanced aids in our 15 bed 24-hour nursing facility. we've served overall 1100 san franciscans in our 27 years and

have always had a waiting list for beds, which is a real testament to the need for our services which continues to this day. like other hiv agencies, we consistently deliver services well in excess of what's required under our federal contracts, but those contracts, of course, have gone nowhere but down and never, of course, any upward reflection of inflation. i simply wanted to remind you and i think you all know this, that aids is not a problem that's over, especially for the poor. and on behalf of our residents and those residents that are there currently and in the future, i just wanted to thank you for your ongoing support to backfill these federal cuts and thank you for being just as generous this year as you have been in the past. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker.

yeah, i'm just hoping that you definitely remember that there are certain groups of the community that are like -- it seems like their rate of hiv infections are actually going up and hopefully we can remember that. and i think it's important that we remember that especially in several communities that haven't been represented here today. i guess my other thing, too, is just how do we work on just making sure that those people with hiv and maybe even everybody just get really healthy food because i think that's going to be a major part of the processing program. i'm definitely thinking of some of the things that david woofy said. with that hopefully we can go forward with the monies and make sure that it is spent well. and i also want to have you remember about some of the activists who have actually fought for just a better san

francisco. and for me, i keep remembering of hank wilson. does anybody here remember hank wilson? yeah, just keep him in my mind, in my heart. thank you. >> thank you very much. is there any additional public comment on item 1? seeing none, mr. chairman, can we close public comment? [gavel] >> thank you. so, colleague, thank you for allowing us to hold this hearing today. i want to thank everyone in the community who came out. and i again want to thank mayor lee for his -- for indicating that he does intend to backfill the entire amount of the federal cuts in his proposed budget later this month and thank the mayor for his ongoing support over the years. these services,s as we've heard today, are critical to the health of our community and once again san francisco is

showing our city's collective commitment to fighting this epidemic, to getting to the point where we have no new infectionses, and to making sure that every person in this city living with hiv is healthy and able to be a fully functioning member of our community. so, mr. chairman, with that i would request that this item be filed. that's my motion. >> all right, colleagues, a motion to file item number 1. do i have a second? >> second. >> and we can take that without objection. [gavel] >> hold on one sec. [pause] >> okay, thanks. we have two more hearings on

dph's budget. we are joined by -- sponsored by supervisor avalos as well as a hearing on dpw's budget. we're going to actually take dpw first to allow some people sometime to get here for the second item. so, mr. clerk, can you please call item number 5? >> item number 5, hearing to receive an update on the department of public works budget for fiscal years 2014-2015 and 2015-2016. >> okay, thanks. want to thank dpw for being here. mr. nuru, thanks for coming. >> thank you. good afternoon and thank you for having us another year to present our budget. i will begin [speaker not understood]. okay. joined with me today is staff from our budget and finance department [speaker not

understood] has a handout. they will be passing out. okay, thank you. i will begin. the needle and thread that ties all the work that we do together at the department of public works is a strategic plan. and over the many years we have invested in a strategic plan where we work as a team in the department and set certain goals and -- set certain goals and objectives to guide the

work that we do. it is a living document within our agency and every month our managers actually meet and me you're and report on how well we are doing in terms of reaching our goals that are set forth by the department. the strategic plan also translates into the fulfillments of all the employees at the department of public works. and, so, we are able to measure how we are doing on meeting some of the goals. the plan itself has three major goals and i won't go through them, but the goals are primarily around delivering world class service, making sure that we can ensure clean and green infrastructure in the public right-of-way, and maintaining a beautiful and

highly functional and sustainable facilities for the city in addition to creating jobs and providing opportunities. last year some of our accomplishments, we -- our agency [speaker not understood] about 1,216 employees. we were able to abate over a million square feet of graffiti. we were able to do several miles of sewer work. we built almost 2000 [speaker not understood] in-house and we were also able to inspect over 2.7 million square feet of sidewalk that in some cases we were actually able to rebuild, over 25,000 tons of debris that was picked up from our

sidewalks, and mechanically swept over 146,000 miles of streets. our premiere program in educating residents and going out and building partnership with many of our city agencies, but also with the communities and the businesses is a program that we call the giant sweep. the giant sweep was launched last year. it is in its second year now. but last year we were able to log over 50,000 hours of volunteers who came out to help clean our streets, remove graffiti, plant shrubs, clean our medians. we were able to work with many of the schools in san francisco by doing outreach to them, but also offering opportunities for them to en