education piece. so, on monday and today, actually i have been able to bring together so you can actually see it themselves, two programs that can, can really enhance our ability to educate our children about pedestrian safety ~. and one of them actually was a video game developed by dr. newsome who is a trauma doctor for ucsf that practices at general hospital for the last 25 years, and she developed this game so that kids could actually learn about pedestrian safety issues. and in conjunction with that, she worked with the china hospital in los angeles and they developed this assimilated

street scene called l.a., l.a. safe streets, named richy's neighborhood and the kid get to learn a lot of traditional safety issues in this simulated street scene. i brought it up from l.a.. we don't have one in san francisco, unfortunately, to show the school district, show parents, show other public what a great program this could be if we had it in san francisco. and it's really hard to explain unless you see it firsthand. and even though i saw it on the video which was exciting, it was even more exciting to see it firsthand with the superintendent there and other school members. so, i was really happy that we had this opportunity. hopefully

in the future my colleague here and other people in san francisco can support developing or finding the resource to develop these to activities that can really enhance our ability to educate our children. the rest i submit. >> thank you, supervisor yee. supervisor avalos. >> rerefer. >> supervisor breed. supervisor campos. >> rerefer. >> supervisor cohen. >> thank you. thank you, okay. two things today, colleagues. first i'm introducing a hearing request on the safety conditions and practices practices at san francisco general hospital. we all know of the great and amazing work that surgeons, nurses and doctors, technicians and all other staff at the hospital are doing every day to save lives and the quality of life. but because these individuals work so hard every day to save our lives it is our duty to

ensure that we are providing a safe and clean work environment. i want to make sure workers are protected and the safe working conditions possible paying particular attention to the staffing ratio. i have recently fielded many phone calls and heard from staff in general about some of the working conditions and how they can be improved. and after the tragic incident with lynn spalding we know that there is room for improvement. so, colleagues, today i'm introducing a hearing request to shed some light on how we can continue to make san francisco general hospital the best hospital around or continue -- that it will continue to be the best hobble around. also, i have a resolution urging resolution from this board, asking the state to go further by requesting that commercial property be reassessed regularly between one and five years just like in

every other state in the country. this is a resolution in support of assembly member tom ammiano's bill that he introduced dealing with the reassessing of commercial property taxes at the change of ownership for commercial property. this is addressing prop 13. i have circulated a copy for your review and, madam clerk, the rest i submit. >> thank you, supervisor cohen. supervisor farrell. >> thank you, madam clerk. colleagues, today i am introducing two pieces of legislation to implement laura's law here in san francisco. each year millions of individuals slip through the cracks of our mental health system, across our country, and many right here in our great city of san francisco. they makeup a significant part of the homeless population and cause indescribable pain and suffering for their family members who have cared for them so deeply. i believe we need more

effective tools locally to help those individuals and laurel's law is one of those options. similar laws enacted across our country have produced dramatic results and i believe it's time for san francisco to move forward. so, today i am introducing legislation for consideration here at the board of supervisors to implement laura's law as well as an initiative for the november 2014 ballot for the voters of san francisco to implement laura's law as well if we cannot do it here at the board of supervisors in these chambers. i want to take a moment to thank my co-sponsors of the legislation and the initiative, supervisor wiener, supervisor tang and supervisor breed as well as the support of mayor ed lee and the countless individuals that are supporting this initiative at the national, statewide, and local level. today when we announced this initiative, i shared a story of

a mother that i have gotten to know here in san francisco who is dealing with the pain and suffering of not knowing where her son is, a son that was mentally diagnosed as mentally ill years ago as a teenager who while upped her care as a teenager at home was able to get his illness under control. but once he turned 18 decided not to seek treatment any more, became abusive to himself, to his parents, locked himself in his room all day long, stopped going to school, and now has left home and the parents have no idea where he is. i think to me what is even more compelling is the story of laura herself, and i had the opportunity to meet laura's parents today who came down from nevada county to share their story, nick and amanda wilcox, their daughter laura who did not suffer from mental illness but was a bright 19

year old rising is junior in college back east who lived on the coast of the nevada boarder here in california who was tragically shot and killed by someone who did suffer from mental illness and someone whose parents were seeking help and someone who simply, there were no options in their county. and it doesn't have to be this way. parents, families and friends shouldn't feel helpless at a time they are in need. they should feel supported by their city and community and the mental health services offered by the city and their county that meets those needs. if laura's law were in place in nevada county at the time and if it is in place here in san francisco, the tragedies that belie those families don't need to take place any more. now across our country there is a mental health crisis. there was a report last week that came out in a national publication that over 43 million individuals in the united states suffer from mental illness. over 9-1/2 million adults experience conditions such as

schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression and over 3-1/2 million people across our country do not receive treatment. laura's law itself as has been discussed at many different times here in san francisco provide community based assistance to individual who as a result of their illness are unable to access mental health services on their own. adopting laura's law in san francisco will help toes who need it the most and improve their quality of life and those around them. while i argue our mental health services system here in the city is one of the best across the country, it is true that there are individuals slipping through the cracks. laura's law focuses on those individuals and it is important that as we talk about laura's law it is a focus on the individuals in getting them the help they need and cannot seek themselves. of the 44 of other 50 states that enacted similar laws there have been dramatic results.

[speaker not understood] law in new york state called kendra's law. 74% of folk experience fewer homeless necessary. [speaker not understood]. [speaker not understood] 87% fewer experience incarceration. it is also a cost saver relieving the burden not only on our public safety personnel, but on our public safety infrastructure of emergency rooms and hospital beds. and also a positive resource, again, for those families surrounding them. again, i want to thank all of my co-sponsors, supervisor wiener, breed and tang, mayor ed lee, i want to thank barbara garcia for her support during this process and the numerous people that came out to discuss their support for laura's law today. i also want to make sure to note that as we talk about this and certainly in the context of homelessness here in san francisco, this isn't a

panacea, this is one tool in the tool box to make sure individuals and families get the help that they need. there is no solution, but i believe this is an important step for the city and county of san francisco to implement. i rook forward to having a robust discussion here at the board of supervisors. i hope it gets to the board of supervisors, but if not, also with the voters of san francisco. the rest i submit. >> thank you, supervisor farrell. supervisor kim. ~ >> thank you. a few weeks ago i had expressed frustration with actually the department of health contracts with [speaker not understood] s-r-o buildings that we rent to homeless on our streets and we use taxpayer dollars to house folks. and also noting that a number of those buildings have numerous building violations and health violations that aren't a trust yet we continue to contract with those buildings. last week on may 12 the city did file a lawsuit against one of the families that owns a

number of these hotels, 15-s r.o.s, over 880 room. the families have a history of health safety and building code violationses and unlawful conduct over the past couple of years. the city continues to pay the family using taxpayer dollars for providing housing even though they have outstanding violations and continue to deny residents health, safety and tenancy rights, including participating in on a legal policy of rotating tenants out of their room so they cannot achieve their tenancy and therefore the eligible rights to that unit. i am introducing a resolution today to urge dph to divest all city resources, investments, and financial contracts related to the substandard s-r-o hotel owned or operated by the family and to also catalog all the s-r-o hotels that have a history of health, safety and building code violations and to establish a plan to similarly divest city resources and to develop and implement a plan to

relocate all tenants who are still living in these substandard residential rooms in s-r-o hotels named in the city attorney's civil action. i look forward to working with the department of public health on this issue. i think it's incredibly important that when we fund housing, particularly for our most vulnerable residents that we are providing them safe and adequate housing here in san francisco and rewarding property owners who are accountable and responsible to our residents. second, i'm also introducing a charter amendment today which i hope will finally culminate or consolidate with three he other charter amendments regarding our children and our youth. that is the children's fund, the public education enrichment fund and our children on city council. this is a proposal to voters to amend what supervisor tom ammiano, then supervisor tom ammiano worked to create the city rainy day reserve. this would bifurcate those fund so there would be one for the

city and one for our public schools and would actually change the discretion in terms of how those dollars could be approved for the school district. just wanted to thank our controller's office and also young lee, our deputy superintendent who worked on crafting this compromise and look forward to our continued conversation at rules committee and the rest i submit. >> thank you, supervisor kim. supervisor mar. >> thank you. colleagues, today i'm proud to be carrying legislation championed by our san francisco youth commission, the youth commission has asked our help as the board of supervisors to achieve their charter mandate, especially promoting a stronger youth base in our board of supervisors meetings and committee hearings. but with so much of our business happening during the middle of the day, youth who are required to be in school are effectively barred from regularly participating. what i am proposing today along with my co-sponsor supervisor

david campos is a simple and very practical change to the board rules. the rule simply allows the youth commission to submit a formal request for a hearing on an item that has been referred to them to be held at a youth friendly time and that just means the time when they're not barred from at least paying attention and coming to speak before us. and this requires the committee chair to reply to the commission prior to calendaring the matter. and i know my office and i have to coordinate closely with our clerk and our clerk's office as well, but we think that this common sense measure simply formalizes a process that has been an occasional challenge in the past. while many supervisors worked well with the youth commission, this hasn't always been the case. in the commission's nearly two decades of operation, hearings about the city budget, juvenile hall residents -- juvenile hall rebuild, youth services and muni cares have occurred with hardly any youth attendance.

this is simply a question whether we honor young people and whether we can better facilitate their engagement in our work and deliberations. i'm also introducing a sister resolution that urges other youth serving boards and commissions to also develop their own policy to encourage youth participation. i look forward to passing this relatively simple measure and urge my colleagues to accommodate young people and youth voice as often as possible and i will consider -- and i will consider an even stronger measure in the future if we are as a body unable to create this space for our young people. also tomorrow i'll be hosting a transportation town hall meeting in the richmond district, it's part of the mta's efforts around the city to promote our transportation or t-2030 recommendation. and over the past year in the richmond district, i'm proud that we've implemented a transit first agenda from establishing a 5 fulton limited line to advancing the geary

rapid timeline from 2020 to 2018. more info is available at go geary.com. new painted lanes for the 38 geary line and the events improve arguello boulevard, one of the vast corridors that can [speaker not understood] with golden gate park. it's also one of the key bicycle corridors in our city. t-2030 is really important and for all this work to continue i think supporting transportation 2030 recommendation are critical. and i urge all of us and the mayor not to back down from restoring the vehicle license fee or vlf to pre-governor schwarzenegger level. we have too much work to do and we need the funding to accomplish it. i'm prepared to go to bat this november like i know many of us are for this funding. and our town hall in the richmond district will also begin on wednesday, from 6:00 to 7:30 on 18th avenue and clement. it's also supported by a group

of transit riders in the richmond district called go geary and they're providing food and drinks at the meeting. so, please come and join us. i think the food is from angelina's. i hope everyone will attend the meeting and join the conversation. thank you and the rest i submit. >> thank you, supervisor mar. supervisor tang. >> thank you. today i have an in memoriam for someone who was a huge member of our sunset community and was really respected and well loved by all of her fellow animal lovers. jennifer jamison is someone who has served on our animal welfare commission and actually as the, i believe the vice-chair in this past year. and, so, ashley from my office sfgov-tv will allow me, we do have a few photos showing jennifer. she did pass away unexpectedly and we are just so devastated to hear about her loss. she started a [speaker not

understood] rescue in 2010. they are dedicated to rescue and re-homing black and dark coated companion animals from shelters. believe it or not, they are actually disproportionately euthanized for their color. black cats are often associated with superstition while black dogses are the last to be adopted from shelters and are often the first to be euthanized for their color. so jennifer was actually dedicated to making sure those animals found their forever home. lou guru rescue partnered with many shelters and agencies including animal care and control here in san francisco. our spca, san jose animal shelter, sacramento, contra costa, kern county, merced and many others. in addition to running lou guru, jennifer was an active volunteer with many other rescue groups. is like we said she worked with spca with [speaker not understood]. shelter cat rescue and housed and cared for foster cats until they found a permanent

placement. she organized volunteers for walk a dog regular queue where she grew the workforce and coordinated staff adoption events. and she was very, very engaged with our office and many of the community efforts that he we had. she was often seen in the community such as our movies and the coffee free movie nights where she would work with us and animal care control to share various animal with the community. and, so, again we're just so shocked by her passing and really want to wish her family all the best as they deal with this difficult time. and would like to ask that we adjourn in her memory today. >> thank you, supervisor tang. supervisor wiener. >> thank you, madam clerk. today i am introducing a charter amendment that ties the mta's baseline to population grove so that a population increase he he in our city, mta funding increases, the additional funding would be dedicated to primarily to

improving muni's frequency capacity, reliability and state of good repair with the smaller amount being dedicated to street safety improvements. colleague, i'll be honest that i did not want to introduce this amendment. i would prefer that we proceed with the vehicle license fee and i agree with supervisor mar in that respect. i believe that would provide long-term dedicated sustainable funding for road resurfacing, for cap pal improvementses to make muni run better and improve the safety of our streets. and i'm hoping that we will be able to move the vlf forward. however, if the vlf doesn't move forward, then i would intend to ask the board to place this charter amendment on the ballot which will help us keep our commitment to having a great public transportation system for our city. we know that the population of san francisco is growing and will continue to grow. our population has grown by

85,000 people since 2003. we're project today grow by another 150,000 by 20 40. we cannot have a situation in san francisco where people feel that they need to drive in term of the new population coming here, we cannot have another 50 or 100,000 cars on our streets. it doesn't work. it will lead to perpetual gridlock. it's bad for drivers. it's bad for pedestrians. it's bad for muni. it's bad for [speaker not understood]. it's bad for everyone. what we need to do is make sure we're providing world class public transportation. the mayor convened transportation task force in which i served as well as supervisor avalos and supervisor chiu. it was an excellent task force, did great work and has made multiple high-quality solid recommendations to the mayor and to this board of supervisors and we need to move forward with those recommendation and i hope we'll do that and they'll be in a

position to draw the charter amendment. the rest i submit. >> thank you, supervisor wiener. supervisor avalos. >> thank you, madam clerk. a couple items for introduction. first i have an in memoriam for john [speaker not understood]. john [speaker not understood] was incredibly long-lived excelsior district resident, known as the mayor -- mr. excelsior. i've known john for at least 10 years myself. he has been quite a main stay in the excelsior district. he passed away at the ripe age of 97 last tuesday surrounded by his children in the home where he was born and raised. john was known as mr. excelsior because of his dedication to the community. he helped to revitalize the excelsior district improvement association, the edia. in 1959. and to this day the edia holds

its monthly meeting in the spacious basement of his home on santa rosa avenue. john continued to remain active as the sergeant of arms and led the pledge of allegiance before each meeting. as a former president of the edia, one of his proudest accomplishment was to safe 88 homes from the demolition for a parking lot. john organized a petition drive and delivered 8,000 signatures to city hall to successfully stop the demolition. i can't imagine that happening now, what an incredible feat that would be. john was a very active member of corpus christi church which is right across the street from his home in the excelsior. even recently he he served in many capacities at the parrish and school. along with his siblings john continued the [speaker not understood] that his mother helped start in the church in the 1940s. my father also when he comes to san francisco goes to corpus christi church. john once invited my father to his home for breakfast.

john has served as a role model at his alma mater, balboa high school where he has played -- played right end and won [speaker not understood] honors in 1934. in 1 79 he was inducted into the balboa hall of fame in recognition of his accomplishments. john was a proud member of other organizations in the city including the balboa tennis club, madrids, italian cattionv lick federation, italian american social club, holy name society, [speaker not understood] institute, and men's club at corpus christi. for 44 years john was also an iron worker with j.p. murphy, bethlehem steel, and belonged to the local steel workers union 337. he worked at a number of hospitals, churches, skyscrapers and municipal projects to the bay area including the bart tube under the bay and he would often take people all over the city to show the work he had done and point to a building or sculpture and say, that's my baby.

john had a number of stories to always talk about living both in sicily and the united states as a young person. he was also stationed in beliz [speaker not understood]. he gave a lot of spirit to the neighborhood and he was well loved in the excelsior district. he he he is survived by six of his children, 12 grandchildren, 12 great grandchildren and 11 nieces and nephew. i hope we can close the meeting in his name. ~ my next item, colleague, is a charter amendment and i'm submitting for us to decide to go to the ballot. the amendment is called democratic special he election to fill vacancies in elected offices, city elected offices. i'm also looking at let's elect our officials act of 2014. the adjournment would allow for

electionses to fill vacancies on the board of supervisors, the community college board, the school district board of ed., and city-wide offices including the mayor's office. actually, the board of trustees of the community college board and the school district, the opponents will not be made by the mayor, but they will select their colleague who will serve until the next scheduled election. ~ appointed that will be the only difference between those bodies and the city offices will be that they will be special elections for vacancies to fill vacancies for the city-wide offices. the special election for city osvs will be held within 120 days. in the event that the vacancy occurred within 105 days of our regularly scheduled election, the special election could be consolidated with that election to reduce costs. what happens during a vacancy? for vacancies on the board of supervisors, the clerk of the

board would designate staff to keep the district office open and respond to concerns from constituents. staff will be -- would have to keep the office open for at least 20 hours a week. if the mayor's office became vacant, the president of the board would serve as acting mayor until the special election is held. in another city-wide office, if another city-wide office became vacant, the deputy of that office would continue to run the office until the special election is held. last year the local area formation commission, lafco, studied how other jurisdictions filled vacancies in vacant offices. one unique san francisco's appointment process is the mayor has discretion to [speaker not understood] to fill vacancy. that process let alone the democratic process for how the mayor makes these [speaker not understood]. there are no time constraints

when the mayor make these appointments. [speaker not understood], she was not appointed to be assessor until february 2013. and there are no -- there are virtually no other examples of this lack of public process in filling vacancies in many place around the country. the colorado governor makes [speaker not understood] to fill a vacancy [speaker not understood]. the mayor of philadelphia make appointment of vacancies in their city, but there is no other executive office where they have this ability. this will bring us in line with processes for filling vacancies in our state and federal legislative bodies. example, appointees that happened over the years. there have been 23 appointees to the board of supervisors since 1960. since 1960s. since we moved on from that administration there have been 15 appointees to the board of supervisors. there is only one case of an

appointed district supervisor losing in the subsequent district election. at one point willie brown had appointed six members of the board, many of whom he described as his sure votes on the board of supervisors. gavin newsom had a triple play where many seats were traded, moving a member of the board of supervisors to actually moving someone off -- moving someone off the tida board and an official from the board of supervisors onto the tida board and removing [speaker not understood] to the board of supervisors. this type of trading is called a triple play in san francisco politics. recently there have been double plays moving supervisor carmen chu to the assessor's office and katy tang to the office of [speaker not understood].

we had christina appointed to hold the district [speaker not understood] until the election happened in november of 2012. there are many people through that process who felt that we didn't really have a transparent democratic way of making that appointment happen and that caused a lot of ripples and discord in the election in that year. we are much better actually having a process that is democratic, that is transparent, that is based on people applying to open vacant seats enthuse a special election. i want to thank city attorney jon givner and [speaker not understood] for their work on this ~. also in my office, jeremy poet for his work. i also want to thank the department of elections director john arents for his assistants. [speaker not understood] to bring this forward. i also want to thank my colleagues who are so far co-sponsoring. supervisors mar and supervisors campos.