>> today, i wanted to kickoff and welcome you to the first every family well forum (clapping.) >> compromising is carmen chu currently which this of the

family forum we put this event dough went to a lot of community meetings and we're he and she about families worries and troubles aaron planning for the future and ahsha safai for buying a home and college and retirement and for many of the seniors how to passing on their prompts to their kids. >> the family forum benefits throughout san francisco i'm supervisor norman yee representing district 7 people are homeowners fritter buyers and they don't thinks the planning. >> what you'll notice if you walk around today's activities multiple languages transactions available for people in the seminars and 101 counseling and the today, we not only have vendors that have come here the seminars where people are lining about important topics was of

most unique pieces we have one-on-one free counseling for people so important that people understand about taxes and how you transfer your assets to our next generation because we do it wrong as you may know to lose much money. >> we did if grassroots on the radio and worked with all nonprofit and partners to get the word out we personally went to community meeting to tell people about this event we'll have a whole line of people that will wait to ask skews i'm thinking about passing on my property or so glad i can speak but i cannot speak english well we created in first every family forum and hope that will bring a lot of people good information to plan for their future three

hundred people signed up for 101 counterand we so hope that is a model for success for the future and hope to do more if we learn from this one to be better

[chain saw whirring] [growling] listen, you are extremely terrifying-- just the scariest undead thing on tv, and i really mean that. i am worried that you could give my kids nightmares if they see you, so i'm gonna have to block you. [sighs] so, that's it. oh, and tell the zombies they're blocked, too.

>> 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 healthcare and invest in mitigating sea level rise and trying to prevent flooding on our streets, we must put our money where our mouth is, we must stand up and shout out. our pension budgets must not exassrbate the issues. we must limit for the safety of our residents and wellbeing of employees, working and retired. i call on my colleagues on the retirement board to join us,

take our children's future seriously and finally divest from fossil fuels. ladies and gentlemen, i stand with you, i'm excited and i'm looking forward to casting my vote this afternoon. thank you. (applause) >> thank you supervisor cohen. i want to make a few more shout-outs. first, as we just heard, this is not a conservative issue. this is not a liberal issue, this is not a moderate issue. this is not a progressive issue. this is a moral and financial imperative. to that end, supervisor cohen, supervisor breed and myself serve as members of the democratic county central committee and it was our colleague keith boraka that issued it to divest.

that passed unanimously. thank you keith for that leadership. thank you to bay.org, fossil free sf, indian people organized for change, next gen america. sf bernie-c.r.a.ts. and last night with incredible testimony from victor who talked about the way the investment industry works, about score cards, out of the half a billion dollars that the san francisco employee retirement system has invested in fossil fuels, over 20% of it has not yielded a positive return to the fund. just what supervisor cohen was saying, for five years or more. that's what we call a bad

investment. that is a bad investment. this decision can be made as a fiduciary decision and moral imperative as we did around guns and ammunition and tobacco. it makes prudent sense for the retirement system to divest. i want to shout out the commissioners gathered here who took the very bold step and at the department of -- commission of the environment last evening voted for full divestment within 180 days. which is a strong demand. thank you commissioners. with that, i would like to bring up isabelle sezie who is a young leader, a grassroots leader and

thank you isabelle for being here and thank you for your work. >> good morning relatives. i come from the northern tribes. i'm 23 years-old and live on occupied territory. i want to first pay acknowledge to the people of the land we do stand on because indigenous voices, indigenous rights and sovereignty is important to remember and acknowledge. i am a member of idle no more sf bay. sfd fund dapo coalition and defending mother earth treaty. i want to start by saying we welcome the pension board and

seiu public sector members to join our ranks as water protectors. the vote to defund is critical. it's critical to protecting the water. the divestment vote and movement in san francisco has been initiated and fostered by long standing grassroots, indigenous advocacy throughout turtle island and mobilizing groups that have fought long and hard for this moment today. we have seen and continue to see the violation of indigenous rights and the threats to our water. all of the sacred systems of life. the standoff at standing rock to stop the dakota access pipeline is not over and it's just the beginning. to show that the many other standing rocks around the world that we are not afraid to stand up to big oil and to divest. the assault on mother earth is

real. the climate crisis is real. and all who are living in those yet to be born need clean air, clean water and clean soil. and we need to remember that. we all need clean air, clean water and clean soil to live a healthy and sufficient life here on mother earth. and i want to thank the san francisco board for hearing us out and responding to the frontline call to divest from fossil fuel projects and the investments. and last, i want you all to know that my generation, the next seven generations and all our non human relatives, we thank you for this and we will be completely relived of any hardships and i send my best regards to the vote in favor for us to divest completely of fossil fuel projects and

infrastructure, expansions and any investments because we all know we need to keep it in the ground. keep the oil in the ground, keep fossil fuels in the ground and divest. thank you. (applause) >> thank you for those profound words. before i introduce the final speaker, i want to say that all aspects of our government minus the sfers board, at least until 1:00 this afternoon, are on the same page and i want to shout out our city attorney who has initiated some of the most ground breaking litigation against some of the largest fossil fuel polluters in the united states of america. and the reason i bring that up,

because as cities and states start this kind of litigation, these investments become more and more risky. these become stranded assets and i speak to you not only as a member of the board of supervisors but as a member of the california coastal commission, where last year more emergency permits were applied for because of sea level rise, king tides, beaches being buried under the sea, than any previous year. as we just heard, this is real. we would not be here without the strong support of labor advocates. sciu 10-1 have led on the fight and they take it personally because many are vested pensions invested in the risky big oil assets. thank you joseph bryant, thank

you martha hawthorne. with that, my friend joseph bryant. >> who is ready to divest in fossil fuels? >> we are! >> we're not in the chamber. i want to hear noise. who is ready to divest in dirty fossil fuels? >> we are! >> that's right. i'm the regional vice president of sciu 10-1. we represent in san francisco over 15,000 city workers who are vested in the city's pension fund and we're urging the board of retirement to divest in dirty fossil fuels now. i want to give a huge shout out to everyone who has played an important role in this, it's been a village that has come together to help move this. thank you former supervisor ovolose, supervisor peskin,

supervisor cohen, president breed. and the commission on the environment for your resolution pass last evening. thank you very much and i would be remissed without acknowledging our retirees here who have broken their backs to ensure this is a priority for sciu 10-1, particularly david page, melissa hawthorne and many others here who have led the fight. with this, we have reached the point of insanity. it's a bad investment. we're losing money on this investment and destroying our communities and we still have to spend our time, energy and effort here to fight for it. what is going on. this is absolutely insane. with all the challenges we're facing right now from the federal level, from throughout this country, we're having to spend our time in the most

progressive city in the country to fight for a very basic concept, to do the right thing, divest in fossil fuels. we're here for that and we're not just asking to say do it eventually. we want a timeline. we want something real. we need something real. so please join us today sciu 10-1, again adamant supporter, we'll be up there in the chamber causing whatever ruckus we need to to ensure it happens. thank you very much. >> all right. let's keep it real, let's make it real at 1:00 p.m., at 1145 market street on the sixth floor is the meeting. i hope all of us will be there sitting in the audience ready to testimony. and with that, martha hawthorne

leading us in a few chants. ♪

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