>> april 30th, we'll have the definitions and we'll have the outline, the steps that we are recommending to the board to pursue everything. >> correct. >> all seven points, including the watch list and the level 2 bench marks, not saying they would be set up but the points. to make sure we're on track and that the board approves the direction we're going in. >> correct. >> and i thought i heard that we would have six months from that point, where the board has said we're going in the right direction to bring back options for the board to vote on as to who is identified and who we recommend to divest from. >> i'm fine with that. it's reasonable. >> you can tell us we're going in the wrong direction and you can turn the car around and come back. >> hold on, let's get a hold of this meeting again.

i made a motion, will you second that motion. >> yes. >> i believe we're all in the same page. i'd like to call a vote. you can do a roll call vote. if you are in agreement vote yes and if not vote no. >> i'm going to vote against this. i think that we have distribute hardest decision today was the one that we made 30 minutes ago. this is the easiest decision and yet we spent the more time talking about it. from a procedural perspective there's no reason to have two different timelines. we told staff to come in july. we asked them to come back with a plan, it should all happen at once. staff has a ton of work on their plate and this is a real challenge for them and we have made a ton of progress in the last several months. commissioner mackers wanted this a a -- we have worked hard to

get this done and i'm telling you, i do not think they have the bandwidth to do this, i'm not vote are for this because it's a matter of process. >> ok. >> i support the motion. i believe this body is given staff every body they want to do their job. i specifically ask how much bandwidth do you want to accomplish everything we're doing. also what is on that agenda for five years? we know we're talking about this i trusted them when they say this is the team we can put together to accomplish what we want and i believe the budget was passed unanimously for that. just because we're off on occasion, we have our consultants, we have certain lawyers on the team, we can

higher someone faster than the city can hire someone. we can't go to a couple of universities and ask their professionors to give us an analysis? i don't believe there's not a rating out there we can take as a beginning point to accomplish all of this. so i think that we have the team and if they -- the difference is , forgive me for saying it, it's the commitments to do it. to get it done. it's not the time and resources to do it. and i will be critical on what was said from when we voted in 2013 to now. i will be critical that the material that was shared with this body is questionable. for one, the label of the item, just the label of it, said

commission information. it's not my motion. >> guys and ladies. >> it was your question. >> it was for the supervisors resolution urging us to devest. >> you made the motion in open session, seconds by commissioner bridges. >> but i put forward the board of supervisor motion urging us to divest their second motion urging us to divest. i'm not going to go through the whole thing and be critical about a bunch of items in there. i may just do that off line in writing for entertainment purposes. the vote took place and i'm pressure tive. everyone knows if there's a motion to take our worst defenders for five years, i'll support that. if there's a motion it devest from our owe pend fenders, that we made no money in 10 years i will support that.

i'm dump the whole thing in the 180 days and we don't have to have this discussion. on how we're going to monitor and how we're going to track the people that are polluteing the world and we're going to track the district of stuff that are just loosing money for us. so those were easy decisions for me. i'm not going to sit here and say we should plot out what we want staff to do. if staff can't do it they should come back to you and mr. president or this commission at the next meeting and say we need to spread out the time for this reason or come to us and say we want to hire two people or come to us and say we're going to go out to the private sector and ask them to help us. >> but they just did ask you that. >> let's call the vote. >> call the vote. >> anymore discussion on this item? >> i know you have to leave.

i made my suggestion trying to bring clarity to what we were trying to do. clarity is one of the key issues to get commitment for action. >> that's right. >> through the whole series of steps. but this effort has made it more confusing. we did this several years ago and we told staff how to do it and step back to do it and criticize them when we didn't want them to do. they didn't do it the way we thought. we could not agree on what we told them to document i'm trying to avoid that mistake again. they may not have the resources to do it and they have to identify what they understand from us and what they think the work plan would be, the resources they'll need to do it. whether it's hiring someone or contracting out, that's their decision. we'll approve it i assume. but this is gotten messy over an important issue. i want to give staff the time to

do it right. it's too important an issue and if you want this done and you don't have the resources and you haven't hired the right people. i don't want to take a risk that we're not going to do the right thing. i am much more pro giving staff the benefits of the doubt if you want to add a progress report in between, because you don't want to give them the extra six months with an open window, i would be much more prone to vote yes for that, if that was the case. >> i think that -- >> that's what was stated. >> from the april date? ok, i'm fine with that. >> ok. >> i don't even know what the motion is on the table. >> april. >> with definitions and a plan.

an outline of a plan and six months later to do what was in the original motion, which is to deliver to this body options for divesting of the dirtyest and riskyest assets on a -- >> the july 31st date has been moved. >> i thought i heard he was still. >>

>> raise your right hand please. >> i mark farrell. >> i mark farrell. >> do solemnly swear. >> that i'm support and defend. >> the constitution of the united states. >> and the constitution of california. >> against all enemies foreign and domestic. >> i will bear true faith in allegiance. >> to the constitution of the united states. >> and the constitution of the state of california. >> i take this obligation freely. >> without any reservation or purpose of evading. >> and that i will well and faithfully discharge. >> the duties upon which i'm about to enter. >> and during such time as i hold the mayor of city and county of san francisco. (cheering)

>> good evening everybody. it is an honor to stand before you this evening. the past six weeks have been an incredible roller coaster for the city of san francisco. for those of us who knew and worked with mayor ed lee, it has been an incredibly challenging time. he was someone i admired greatly, both personally and professionally. he was incredibly kind to my family, in particular our three children, and he's gravely missed. agree or disagree with his politics, we can all agree he was a great human being, a devoted public servant to the city of san francisco and someone whose life i hope we celebrate as a city for years to

come. i personally want to thank london breed for her grace and leadership during this difficult time. she led our city during the mourning of mayor lee and i know she works tirelessly for the residents of san francisco. i want to thank my colleagues on the board of supervisors for trusting me with this position. i assume this role with great pride and humility. the most important concern for me is the continuity of the government of the city and county of san francisco. residents waking up tomorrow morning, expect muni buses to run on time. they expect police officers to be walking the beat, public works cleaning our streets and all vital services that the public expects us to deliver as a city and we'll do exactly that. and it means tackling the most pressing issues, getting

homeless off the streets and into shelter and housing. making sure our streets are safe and clean for san francisco residents. continuing to build on mayor lee's legacy of housing and addressing the housing crisis. the next six months will be incredibly active. san francisco residents deserve nothing less. san francisco's future, our future is incredibly bright. and despite our issues, we live in the most amazing city in the world. thriving local neighborhoods, the booming economy, natural beauty unrivalled anywhere in the world and adversity and inclusion. this is a time for leadership. it's a time to look ahead. i look forward to the road in front of us all.

thank you very much. >> will you take a couple of questions now? go ahead. >> reporter: the reaction to your nomination and vote to point you in this position were very emotional, people were very upset in the board chamber, claims of racism. there's a division in the city and how will you bring people together and what's your reaction? >> to me this is not about politics. it's about moving the city forward and the continuity of our government. all i can say is i will work to represent every single san francisco resident, no matter the race, ethnicity, religion. it doesn't matter. my job for the next six months is to build on the legacy of mayor lee, to build on what supervisor breed did during her time as acting mayor and make

sure san francisco residents get everything they deserve out of the city government and that will be my job. >> reporter: did you see the nomination coming for mayor? >> again, i have heard many different rumors as many people had. but, again, to me, this is not about politics. my focus is not now on the past. i thank my colleagues on the board of supervisors for entrusting me in this position. i appreciate their support and trust. in my office this is about moving the city forward though. >> reporter: mayor farrell, perhaps -- or wait for june. which path do you choose? >> to me there's one path, making sure that the city and county of san francisco continues to function, deliver the services it does for the city and residents. there's going to be a heated

mayoral election and campaigns that have already started over the past few weeks and that will continue through june. my job over the next half year is to make sure our muni buses run on time, we do everything we can to get the homeless off the street. have police officers on the street, make residents feel safe and deliver all functions that residents expect. >> reporter: you didn't touch on affordable housing. that seems to be the biggest issue. >> affordable housing is top of the list. that's an issue mayor lee spent his entire time in office focusing on and i will continue to build on that through housing and everything else in the city that san francisco is as affordable as it can be for every resident.

>> reporter: [indiscernible]. >> to me, again, this isn't about politics, this is a situation that our city charter contemplates. my colleagues, i do trust their -- i appreciate their trust and their judgment in putting me in this position. i look forward to leading the city of san francisco for the next six months and making sure that everything that our san francisco residents expect continues to get delivered as a government. >> reporter: there were people so passionate and so upset tonight, what do you as mayor now say to them and the people they represented tonight about what has happened and how you plan to charge a path forward. >> i heard the emotion in the room, i was there as well and felt that also. people were passion on many sides of the discussion. over the course of the last month as i have talked with people and residents across the city of san francisco, those

emotions have come through. what i will say, i will be mayor for every single san francisco resident. my focus and job as mayor is to represent everybody in the city of san francisco. no matter what their race, ethnicity, religion. my job is to represent everybody and i will do that over the next half year. >> thank you everybody. >> what is >> good morning everybody. my name is aaron peskin and it is my privilege to serve as a supervisor representing the third district. for those of you who do not know, i have long served in

another capacity as the president of an environmental nonprofit that for the past 20 years has worked to negotiate the purchase of land and water rights on behalf of native american tribes in the great basin nations in the united states. for those who don't know where that is, the great states of nevada, utah, parts of arizona and oregon. and before that i worked at the trust public land. and i'm happy to lead with london breed, malia cohen, our former supervisor who first championed this issue, in favor of the full divestment from fossil fuels. i want to start by thanking the broad coalition of environmental advocates, public health advocates, clean fuel transportation activists,

democratic party officials, grassroots advocates and retirement board members and as of last night, the commission on the environment who have turned out today to demand that san francisco employee retirement system divest now from fossil fuels and we're getting to labor, we're saving the best for last. and i mean that sincerely and it is in my notes. i want to start by saying that sciu 10-1 has been the wind at our backs. i cannot thank you enough. to the folks from dapo, i cannot thank you enough. we'll hear from all of them. i want to start not with our president, not with our retirement board member but with our former supervisor. we have a lot of great speakers but this started with supervisor john ovolose who first issued

the resolution unanimously adopted by the board five years ago that has not yet be heeded but perhaps with malia cohen's leadership will be heeded today. >> good morning. it's great to be here. but also kind of strange to be here. five years after we had first voted unanimously to call upon sfers to divest from fossil fuels. since that time i'm a retiree of the sitting council of san francisco, so i depend on sfers to respond. what we have done in five years of analysis, we know fossil fuel investments is a bad investment. we're seeing the great volatility of fossil fuels while our sfers overall fund has grown

from $19 billion in 2013 to $23 billion in 2018, our fossil fuel portfolio has only stayed about the same, meaning this is a really poor investment while we see growth elsewhere. we know why it's a bad investment. we are seeing increasingly, the harm that's caused low income communities of color, to cities and towns along the waterfront are suffering from sea level rise, from climate, from dramatic climate events, from hurricanes and typhoons and in california we have our fires. these are all signs that our economy founded on oil and fossil fuel is one that harms life on earth. and it's way past time that we start moving our economy to renewable power, renewable energy generation. we have called upon sfers for five years to do this, take our

money out of fossil fuels and put in renewables and they have dragged their feet almost all the way, like they have the donald trump administration on the board to deny the fact that the world is becoming harmed every day as we continue to invest in fossil fuels. i want to thank supervisor peskin, supervisor london breed and supervisor malia cohen to continue with the work to make sfers do their part to divest and today we'll see if they're going to move this the way they have had to these five years. it's time to divest, divest now, sfers your time is up, thank you. >> thank you. this has been a tough 24-hours in this building, but president breed said something which is

profoundly important, that our relationships have to transcend and that number one, it's all about public policy. and with that, under president breed's leadership, we, again, unanimously adopted last year the same resolution that a different board adopted when john was on the board of supervisors. it is my pleasure to introduce on the same policy page, the president of the san francisco board of supervisors, london breed. >> thank you. hi everybody. i'm happy to join many of our environmental leaders and our community members and members of the board of supervisors and everyone who is here today, who is committed to a cleaner planet for future generations. there are many people to thank, but i want to start by thanking supervisor malia cohen, who is a

member of the retirement board who has been leading the fight on this divestment at the retirement board along with victor macres who is also on the retirement board. thank you both. i want to acknowledge sophie maxwell for her long time work to protect at-risk communities from polluting power plants and i want to thank labor. the members of sciu 10-1 and 350.org for your advocacy and staying on top of the issue and members of the commission of the environment for ongoing advocacy on this measure. san francisco has always been a national and global trail blazer for environmental practices. we have reduced greenhouse gas

emissions 28% below 1990 levels, cleaning our air while our population was growing and our economy was booming. we have launched our clean power program, clean power sf, the single most important thing we can do to combat climate change and i was proud to lead that initiative here on the board of supervisors. with the enrollment of clean power sf, we're well on our way to achieving the 50% renewable target by 2020 and 100% by 2030. goals that even outpace the ambitious goals set by the state of california. and we're providing reliable energy at great prices. through the work of so many community leaders, we closed the last two fossil fuel plants eight years ago in this city. and we are leading the nation in waste reduction and resource recovery thanks to the recycling

and composting programs. we are recovering more than 80% of materials from landfill. we are preventing many harmful products from entering our city at off we were the first in the country to ban plastic bags and through legislation i proudly wrote we have the largest styrofoam plan and drug take back program that has kept more than 24,000 pounds of the bay and landfill. that's what we're doing here in san francisco. san francisco has been at the forefront of so many ground breaking environmental issues and today, our retirement board has a chance to make history. we cannot continue investing in companies that pollute our ea h earth. it's time to divest. it's time to divest.

it's time to divest. it's time to divest. and do so, quickly. washington d.c. may ignore climate change. our president may ignore climate change. but here in san francisco, we are going to put this at the forefront. we're going to make sure that they know we have to make change and we have to make change now. it's not fair to our planet and future generations to come. divest now, do the right thing, let's get this done. thank you for being here today. (applause) >> thank you president london breed and thanks for shouting out sophie maxwell. we had two polluting plants, the hunters point plant that

supervisor maxwell led the fight on closing and years later with the incredible work of the city attorney's office, the murrant plant was closed. as supervisor breed said at the forefront of this, inside the belly of the beast, supervisor cohen has been a star in making sure that we divest. and that vote is happening shortly. she has to go in a closed session at 11:30. supervisor cohen has been leading that fight and god willing, a little after 1:00 p.m. we'll get that vote. it's still on the bubble but i know malia is going to make that happen. >> thank you. ladies and gentlemen, good morning. first, i want to recognize many people that have brought us to this point today. i don't see jed holtsman, he's

been attending the sf retirement meetings for years. i want to recognize supervisor peskin for bringing this issue to us and lending his voice in the desire to put pressure on the staff to make this vote happen today. and i want to recognize supervisor ovolose, he took an unpopular position early on and i want to appreciate his leadership style, although different from mine. but nonetheless, here we are today. i think it's a testament that you need both moderate and less support to make this happen. it's not a political issue, this is really the right thing to do when we think of the health and wellness of our entire world. i want to recognize the members

of siu 10-1 who have spoken in two minute intervals. many i had to cut off because your comments were too long but it was good to see you all. and the retirees making the most of their retirement time coming out to support. and i want to recognize the number of staff people to help me and educate me on the importance on this movement and how we can continue to move forward and uplift and recognize our indigenous folks who are here that led the way when they were fighting dapo. there are many people whose shoulders i stand on that we need to recognize. the seriousness of the issue we're going to vote on today is not missed on me. we all know fossil fuels emissions are harming our children and health and doing irrepairable damage to our planet. as a city, we cannot build our

pensions on the health and wellbeing of our children and future generations. but divestment is not just a moral imperative. this is not just a talking point, a political issue of the day. as a fiduciary member, we have a responsibility, as fiduciary member of the retirement board, i have to make sure every person can retire with dignity, with assurance that their pension is safe and no one is taking a gamble. the investments in fossil fuel endanger that promise. the board of supervisors has repeatedly demanded that staff implement divestment plan and frankly we have no plan. the "engagement strategy" that has probably had a hand in jed

holtsman's hair falling out, i think you would agree that engagement strategy has been very hard to stomach. the staff has touted the strategy but honestly there's been no accountability. they've had no mandated timeline for any company's responsiveness. i'm getting in the weeds but the retirement board has a process on how they pull back divestments and it's a multi level multi tier response. it's too much pollution. they have not identified an acceptable ratio of returns to emissions. due diligence hasn't been done. the process for evaluating environmental and social risk has been haphazard and inconsistent. as our city continues to pay out money for