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 a major budget reduction and the 10 states -- all the states were hit by it. but the 10 states with growth actually took a kind of double hit because we had to hold harmless the states who have had no growth or low growth. so they had a floor at which their budgets couldn't go underneath and that meant 10 states had to take a little bit more of a dive. this compromise means that the slow growth states will be giving up 1 percent of their budget each year for the next 3 years and then everything will be stabilized at that point and the 10 states, which california

is one of, will be receiving additional funds over that time. having looked at the spreadsheets it's under a million dollars at its height so, you know, spread across california is it necessarily going to mean a lot of money for us in san francisco. i think the good news is it's good to finally see a resolution to this and congress is moving forward. so you will be sending out another announcement when it finally hits the full senate and then on to the house. wanted to remind everybody that this is the month that we're having many meetings. we are having of course the meeting today, but next tuesday, the 10th, we will have the first finance committee meeting that we have had in a long time. it will be to have the first reading of our budget that will be going to the mayor. then on the 23rd we will be having a full commission meeting that will be at born auditorium. bridget will be sending out all the

information, time, place, everything. that will be a full meeting to hear the entire budget then send it on to the mayor if you decide to do that. we also on the 23rd will probably be bringing -- usually we do that only as a budget meeting but we may be bringing a few add back items to you that we couldn't bring to you today. also wanted to mention that we have the california department of aging visit us a week or so ago. they were here for a week. it was fairly good-sized team of people to review both program budget finance and contracts within our office on aging program. and this is, it doesn't just take the week that they are here, it takes weeks before that to get everything prepared. we had contractors who also were involved in this because they make site visits, do some food testing, which they were thrilled about our meal program both for the

quality of it but also because we have such diversity in our meal program. it was one of the things they highlighted in their conversation with us on the exit interview. we did really really well and the review, very few findings, most all of them very minor so we're pretty thrilled. i really wanted, though to call out and will be sending this out in our department's newsletter. you know the department came into being about 10 or 11 years ago and it came because programs and departments moved together under the umbrella or the department of aging adult services. around that time is when human services agency was formed as well. in human services agency is where we at daas have all of our infrastructure and the beauty of that merger was that there was already an established entity in all those areas that i mentioned plus a few others. so we have over

these last many years really been able to draw from that well-established infrastructure. mergers are not without its ups and downs, people have to sort out roles and figure out who's been doing what and who has to do it now, new systems get developed and new systems learned. i think for me this particular review, all of the great comments from the state about how well our systems are in place as well as the interface of program assistance was really quite a compliment to all the staff. so i'd really like the folks who are here from those programs, who worked on it -- finance, contract and budget -- to please stand and let everyone know who, i know they are not all here today but i know that martha is here, david, you are here, we've got other folks from contracts and program and i'd just really like everyone to know

(applause). some of them have won employee of the month awards in the past, but some of them you don't always get to see. so the report will be coming out, we think, in about 90 days. not expecting any problems. and the last piece of information i wanted to impart was yesterday was the launch of the technology council. i don't know if marie intends to say anything about this later, but the community living campaign under marie's leadership helped to organize and really was the idea and the mover behind this idea of having a technology council that really relates to older adults and younger adults with disabilities. there have been a series of meet thation have combined business folks, folks from technology but folks who are in business with the primary focus of assisting older adults and younger adults with disabilities nonprofits,

consumers, a couple of city departments have been in the mix and we have been hosted by the consulate from the netherlands has been the host for these meetings. last night was the launch and it's a pretty exciting opportunity for us in the xhuepbtd. -- community. we think we're the only ones in the country and if marie has a chance later to say anything about it but we did a toast around 6:00 and everyone left the meeting truly excited about the possibilities. and that's the end of my report. >> questions, commissioners? >> anne, the meal site at west portal, what are the hours of operation? because i know that's a busy site. other facilities, other agencies use the facilities. >> lunch is from 11:00 to noon but i believe the site itself

is open from 9:00 to 2:00. then there's a children youth program that comes in right after i think the senior program is over. >> okay you mentioned that there's a lot of kind of people sign up for that. if the number comes like -- i don't know how many you are serving at that site say 50 and like every day 75 people come, would there be a chance of increasing the number of meals to be served? >> we do have two seatings at some sites so that's always a possibility if in fact, the space will allow for it and if the time allows for it. i'm not sure about that site and what will happen there, but you are correct, there are a lot of folks that live in that neighborhood that have not had access to a site before, so we're going to have to monitor it and determine over time what's really possible there.

we have also opened the champs program that's in that neighborhood as well so we're seeing a huge number of folks coming out for that program. so, yes, we're keeping an eye on it and trying to figure out what we will do. that's the beauty of opening up sites is also then what do we do if the demand is, which we assume it could be, more than we have in place. >> thank you. >> any other questions? if not, moving on. could we have the advisory council report? leon schmidt >> good morning, executive director hinton on january 21 the advisory council met and our first order of business was to present a citation from the mayor to mrs. marini reed for

her service to the commission for many many years. also i gave the executive director report that the cda spoke with the representative of the advisory council to make sure that we and the commission were in synch with our communications around the guidelines that are taking place in our communications and i was very pleased to hear that we are and do very well. also mr. emmett nelson from muni came to share information about the free muni program and as he spoke with the council everyone was very excited and very pleased to hear that this will come into effect march 1. also deputy director mcspadden came and shared the information about the new hub program that's taking place and wanted

the council to come to some of the group meetings and we were able to send representatives to those meetings. we had a report from our site visit committee and two sites were visited, the 30th center site and the cap street site and we got positive feedback on both of those sites. lastly, the education committee will be postponing our next class at the bethany center because there's a program on the same day, the 20th of february, that will be done through the lgbt community and there was a conflict so we had to postpone it. and we will be having our next training in march. and that is

my report. are there any questions? >> any questions? thank you. >> thank you and belated happy new year to everyone. >> thank you. joint legislative committee report, diane lawrence. >> good morning, commissioners. the legislative committee also met on january 21st. some of the groups had not -- that normally would report at a joint legislative committee meeting had not met yet, they were meeting the week after, so we'll have more updates at our march meeting. one of those was the california welfare directors that were meeting the following friday, but they had communicated that there was renewed interest in the older americans act which anne just reported on, so i'll skip that. we also discussed elder justice again which i think i

mentioned last month that $4 million has been allocated nationwide. we're still unclear how that will play out, no details have come forward. we were told that not too long before our meeting on the 21st that the courts had overturned the overtime for the ihhs workers. an appeal is expected and the committee will track the progress of that appeal. the ruling was the week prior so at our meeting we didn't have many details. i would expect we'd have more when we meet in two weeks so again we'll report on that next month. the shattered system reforming long-term health care in california report was released in early january. the committee discussed working through to distill the key issues from that report and look at, match that to federal