3 4 f1 . >> we have a consent agenda. could i have a motion to approve the consent agenda as circulated? >> so moved. >> second. >> okay, it's been moved and seconded that we approve the consent agenda as circulated. all in favor, aye. opposes? ayes have it and so the motion is carried. as of now we have general

public comment. is any general public comment at this time? three minutes. >> good morning, members of the commission my name is jessica layman with senior disability action. i thank you for the consent agenda for funding for the sga for projects we worked on with daas. second is another thank you for your support of free muni. i see some mta folks here, i don't know if they are going to announce it, i don't want to steal anyone's thunder. it was approved. we are very excited, lots of people are signing up already and if you want to spread the word please send people to the mta web site, it's easy to find under i

think it's free and discount passes or something or you can look at our web site, sga.org and it's all there. we do need to spread the word that you need to apply. you can't expect to just get on the bus and ride for free but you need to apply and have your senior clipper card or senior saver card tagged. i wanted to make sure everyone knew about the passing of derrick jarda who was a former member of the mayor's disability council. he was a very young, energetic wonderful advocate for people with disabilities and it's a real loss to our community. then the last thing is on a more positive note, i wanted to let people know sga is doing a poetry night with poetry by seniors and people with disabilities. it should be a lot of fun, it's on friday, february 13 from 6:00 to 9:00

at 518 valencia and we'll have some mexican food from puerto allegre that will be available for a small donation. i'll leave these on the table. >> good morning, valerie viella, director of 30th street senior center. i would like to go on record to ask the commission to consider not printing so much pieces of paper. i understand the sunshine ordinance wants people to have information, but if it would be, like you already send out the agenda, which is great. if there's any way you could send attachments and then let each of us decide how many of those pieces of paper we really want to print because it's a lot and i don't know how many people will even take it, but i just would like to have us kind of look towards paperlessness as much as bureaucratically

possible. i know we're all in our own organizations trying to do the same. >> good morning, commission james, in general comment but related we're now this budget season and we're grateful in terms of our constant negotiation and support from the department and anne hinton. there's an important issue we need to look at which is the minimum wage issue which has been approved by the voters and will be put into a phase of budgetary effects. i want everyone to understand that all of us are in support of that

concept of increased minimum wage in san francisco, particularly in san francisco considering how difficult it is for us to live and work here. but also we the nonprofits who work here in the cities, as we adjust to that, we also need support and supplemental funding or funding that matches that kind of increase in the operational phase for us as nonprofit organizations, particularly senior centers. i just want everybody to understand that because i think it's important that we the nonprofits advocate to the mayors and the budget directors the concept that philosophically if there's going to be an increase in minimum wage how that will affect us. at the senior center many of us are constantly looking at the future in terms of how it affects us and what the minimum wage is going to be. i think that needs to be brought to

your attention. steve yioshi >> good morning commissioners, mariagi yen. i know many of us are excited with the news that harper lee, the author of to kill a mockingbird, has another book in store for us. that's very exciting. but i want to draw your attention to another book that has real significance, especially for us in the aging and disability network, and that has to do with a book written by igen poo who is a leader in the national domestic workers coalition alliance and also a real staunch supporter of immigrant communities. she wrote a book called age and dignity and it's just now released. she actually will be in town on the 25th and will be willing to sign copies of her book. but the book itself, you know, it's her premise that

home care workers, right, she considers home care workers the fastest growing lowest paid work force in our country and the future of our economy. so she writes turning care giving jobs into dignified jobs will have a ripple effect on the society, on the economy and on our spiritual health. so by doing so we affirm the dignity of people at every stage of age into old age and into every walk of life. if it's possible i would like to share the information with the commission secretary who could then forward it to you. thank you very much for your attention. >> thank you. i just want to remind everybody, some of these things are announcements so would you hold them if they are announcements? they really fall under announcements. thank you. okay, moving along, reports. we have the employee of the

month, humberto alvarez (applause) department of aging and adult services intake worker. >> so the note, but i knew this already, the write-up about you talks about your wonderful smile and we all get to have the privilege of seeing that this morning. this is what we all see every day for those of you who don't know him.

so before we say any more about you, we were just commenting up here, the commissioners and myself, that we have a lot of people here today. but we're suspecting that as soon as we're done honoring you the room is going to get much more empty. so would all the folks who work with humberto stand please? (applause). okay. okay. and before you sit down, because there's two grueps here to honor you today, we have the daas intake staff, right, then we have ihs on staff here as well. i thank all of you for being here today. it's greatly appreciated. so there you go. just to say a little bit about this intake, you know some years back we went to a model of pulling together intake folks from across the

department and with community support have added some other things into that. and we now have an intake unit that provides intake to ihhs which is the biggest proportion of our department, largest part of our department, adult protective services, it's the home-delivered meal wait list, it's where we do our transitional care work -- what else have i forgotten -- and all the myriad answers to any question anybody in the world might have. now, we don't always know every answer to every question in the world somebody might have, but staff are tasked with finding answers and seeking out experts. and you have come as part of the ihhs world, right, having really worked in ihhs for some time and know all the ins and outs of intake there. but what i noticed on this little write-up about you is

you are a whiz and very knowledgeable so people seek you out related to medical, which is important in terms of ihhs, and computers. >> yeah. >> i don't know which is more complicated, frankly, or which is more problematic in terms of trying to understand it. medical, you think? okay, that's for you. for me it's -- anyway, two pretty important things in a world where technical -- our technical abilities help us to move, right, folks to whether they are in or out of the program and what's possible for them. so couldn't be better in terms of two talents to have, including the smile. but also the fact that it goes on to say that you really irregardless of how staffing is looking on any particular day, have managed to meet the targets and get people into the program as fast as possible, which is always important because when people call for ihhs they usually need

it now and it can't really happen now. there's a little thing that has to happen around eligibility and so on. so the faster we move, the better for the consumers. so i thank you. clearly your colleagues thank you as well and congratulations. (applause). >> thank you very much for this opportunity. i have actually written a little bit of a small speech, if i might. thank you so much. >> go right ahead. >> thank you. i'm just going to put this over here. oh thank you. please bear with me, i'm not accustomed to doing this very frequently. ladies and gentlemen, fellow workers, esteemed attendants, esteemed executive director, honor obl

deputy director, supervisors, distinguished guests. i humbly come to be today in your presence and would like to take the opportunity be to thank you for this great honor. it is a privilege to be here nominated as the employee of the month, a privilege for which i am profoundly grateful and one for which i hope to remain worthy. however, i would also like to give credit where credit is due and would like to underscore the fact that i would not be here without the combined support of my fellow workers who i feel are some of the best professionals to grace our halls. they also deserve great recognition in their effort to help serve the public and make our unit function as well as it does, as does the enlightened leadership that guides our program. (laughter). incessantly working while striving to bridge the gap between that which was and the future of daas social services

outreach, they are helping establish its presence in our fine community. it has always been my aim and personal goal to help find new ways of bridging gaps being that of service either to the public or my fellow workers. it is indeed a privilege to be part of such an amazing avaupbt guard team as is our daas integrated intake. having the opportunity to be the voice of advice, assistance, guidance and support to our staff in matters regarding ihhs is a joy for which i am deeply grateful. likewise, i stand here in appreciation to all those guiding voices that supported me in the past and continue to assist me today in all matters linked to ihhs. our combined effort working in this integrated intake has granted us opportunity for pause and reflection, while striving to serve the public in ever more effective and immediate ways such as the no

wrong door policy. i believe the future is bright and full of hope, that today, rather than tomorrow, we may live in a more enlightened society where services are made readily available to those in need. today this is a reality which seems closer as we continue to move forward leading the way into the 21st century while speaking new ways of serving our beloved san francisco. i am thankful to be part of this endeavor and hope to continue my efforts in support of this vision. thank you.

(applause). >> next on the agenda item b, director's report, executive director anne hinton. >> i have several things to report on this morning. but i wanted to start with something that came up at our last commission meeting at which i didn't feel i had enough information to report on and so

wanted to start with that today. and i'm asking tom nolan to help me out here if i get into more information. but as you remember at our last commission meeting we had a report on free muni. there were a number of questions that were asked, all really great questions, some of which staff from muni were able to answer, some which they weren't and tom wasn't here at that point and i again was unsure about some of the information that i thought i had so i wanted to talk a little bit about that today. as one of the issues that came up at the commission meeting and also came up on our committee for advisory was means testing. so it has been my understanding that the cost to do means testing for this particular program would far outride what we expect to have happen in terms of the cost of the program itself. unlike the free program for youth, that's

based on people who, kids who have, families have already had to show proof of income-related school lunch program. but in the group of folks we're hoping will receive this benefit through the city, there isn't an easy answer to that because it's not just being on medical, it's not just being on ssi, some people don't fill out tax forms because they don't have to because of income. so it's a little more difficult situation and therefore a more costly situation to do means testing. so i wanted to start with that today and tom, if you or the gentleman from muni wanted to say anything about that, that would be enormously helpful. >> i'm here today with emmett nelson from mta staff. we'd like to talk about that issue in particular but would like to report as of today 20,000 low

income seniors and persons with disabilities have signed up for this program. that is amazing. we are estimating the total amount will be 25,000 and this is within a month. i think it demonstrates there truly is a need for this program and it will start march 1st. the reason we decided to start without a means testing, as director hinton suggested, is it would be very expensive. our free program for youth has been very successful and very few programs. a very interesting thing that's happened along the way, fare evasion used to be about 9 percent among all riders, now it's down to 7 percent. part of that is all door boards, you can put your card in the back as well as the front but it

seems like it's working very well. i've seen the lines out the front and jessica layman mepbsed about getting the word out even more and we hope everyone who is eligible will sign up at some point. at our commission meeting some months ago, i expressed my own philosophy about it, a commissioner has to look out for the good of the whole city but being mindful of particular groups with special needs of different sorts. i've come to this conclusion i ride muni a lot, muni is for everybody. 702,000 people a day are riding the system but it's mostly for the people that need it the most and in my mind the people we were able to cover with this, free rides for low income seniors, need it the most. i'm always proud to be on the mta board, i've been on it for 10 years. the most proud i've

been is when we did free muni for low income youth and also free muni for low income seniors and people with disabilities. the cost by the way, we are expecting it to be about $4 million a year out of an annual of $925 million. as you probably read, the mayor is actively seeking support from the tech industry as he did, google is actually paying for the low income program for youth. this mayor is very persuasive so hopefully he'll find some money to do that, but we think it's a small price to pay for people who really need it. emmett is here to answer any questions about how it's really working. if they are hard questions, emmett will take those. softball question or something --. >> i came prepared to make sure i can answer questions of the commission. >> you mentioned you folks anticipate 15,000 now 20,000

have signed up. >> we anticipated 25,000 and so far 20,000 have. >> 20. you anticipated 25,000. >> uh-huh. >> what if 32,000 people sign up are you going to find some budget to help out? >> well, we made the commitment, we'll find the money somehow, i'm sure. again, $4 million out of that type budget, that size budget, is not huge. we made the commitment we're going to do it so we're not all of a sudden going to come up with means testing or something because we have too many people. that would be a good problem, really, if we have 32,000 people who are eligible for it and want to do it. >> thank you. >> i just, as i said to you, i just have some concerns that when you do it in part and bits and pieces the muni budget, we

doing youth, that's a part, then you are doing the seniors. this is not the total budget in looking at what could be the problems may come up. i think at another time, not now, maybe we can come and go into detail in terms of as i said, my concern was about the $2.25 that's charged for taking seniors to medical appointments and dental appointments. i think the group of seniors who the association said that they were concerned about is the long-term care agencies that serve seniors that they were concerned about those who are disabled getting to their medical and dental appointments. that's a lot. so you want to take that in as well as we talked about the placard cards, all of that is part of muni budget. i just would like to see all these things that affect seniors, you

know, be looked at in terms of the total budget of muni and how it may affect seniors and their ability to get -- not today, but at another time as the program progress then we look at it. but that would be my concern. >> i would look at this as a beginning of what i hope would be a very fruitful relationship between the two bodies. i do work at daas as well as muni so try to help out. the paratransit and transportation of the disabled is a very big issue and i think it probably is the one we need to look at next to see how we can do it and then talk to folks about the adult day health care centers, how long people are in the centers, more than two hours. by state law it's supposed to be an hour, hour and a half at the most. that's very hard to people. i would be very eager, my fellow commissioners and staff, to

look at ways we can better serve the people you serve and we all serve. >> first off, emmett and tom, thank you for taking the time to come in. i want to say both as a member of the commission and part of an organization that serves so many aging adults and people with disabilities, i think it's an innovative and truly wonderful idea and service the people of this city and mta have come up with. i think it represents what we want the spirit of our community and city to be. the estimate i heard was 25,000 folks, i think it's impressive and epitomizes the need that 20000 people have signed up and these are people to find it more and more challenging to live in san francisco and i think it will make a tangible difference in their lives. i am grateful to the staff and board of the mta and proud to be part of a community that would want to do this kind of thing and have a mayor and a board of supervisors that supports it as well. so thank you for your efforts on this.

>> thank you, i appreciate that and look forward to continuing -- did i make any mistakes or anything? >> i will hit the way to apply again really quick. if seniors or people with disabilities already have their clipper or rpc card please go to the web site to apply. we've already had 12,000 people apply using the web site. that's a big help on staff from our end to save us from data entry. but if you are a new customer, we will have a new clipper card to you within 4 weeks. the people who have applied they will all receive notice before the program begins on march 1st on their status. those 20,000 people should be riding on march 1st. >> we'll see you all on muni. >> i rode muni today. >> god love you. thank you.

>> to continue with report, i wanted to announce this week self-help for the elderly opened a south portal site, first time in my memory we have had a program there. it's at 131lennox way, i'm missing commissioner ow, he usually wants to know where these things on and he makes an effort to get to these places. it's a beautiful site, it's a recreation center with a lovely patio area you can eat on and a grassy section beyond that. lots of light, really bright, and many, many people have already signed up for the program. so we're pretty excited about that. that was part of our expansion given the newsom trition -- new nutrition money from the board. i don't know if members of the

audience held the news but the older americans act has finally passed out of the health committee of the senate and it's going to the full senate now and if it passes there it will go on to the house. and we haven't heard in the past any ripples from the house who are not supporting it, we just have to see. the reason that they were able to move on the older americans act is they were able to come together around a compromise for the funding formula and that was the only reason it was, there was a hold up on it. you may remember that the funding formula has been set for many, many years but what's happened across some states is we've had not only slower growth, we've actually had people leaving the state where we have a lot of growth in other states. california is one of the 10 states that actually has had more growth. when sequestration came into place is really the first time there's been