funding for our spanish speaking communities, our african-american communities, our pacific islander communities and our low-income asian communities because we believe if we continue to invest more in supporting all of our high need children and families, we will lift everyone up and make san francisco a success story for all of our families in our city. with that, i just want to emphasize that we really value and honor the partnership that we have with first 5 and with the office of early care and education. we are continuing to work together, but we would although love to continue to work together in a robust way. thank you. >> supervisor fewer: thank you very much. any questions from the colleagues or comments? none. so let's open this up for public comment then. when i call your name please

come up. jennifer grant, polly, renata. youzhny, jenny, vanessa, kenneth. and everyone will have two minutes to speak. good morning, my name is jennifer grant, i'm on staff at our family coalition. and i'm here in support of maintaining, if not increasing funding for first 5 in san francisco. and without their support, we would be unable to make this city welcoming and supportive to all lesbian, gay, bisexual,

transgender and queer families regardless of economic security. i've lived in san francisco for 30 years. i've worked in social services in san francisco for 25 years. my children were born here in san francisco. and i've raised them, they've gone through public schools, their juniors in high school now. and i really feel that without the wraparound services that were afforded my family in san francisco, we would not still be here. whether that was the preschool that had sliding scale for them. whether that was getting support services for my son's disabilities. the incredible services through the public school system, both through their teachers, the support staff, different things like that, again that accommodated some of my son's

disabilities. we were -- when they were very young, we went to a support group that at the time was called mamas and papas and -- is that my two minutes? >> 30 more seconds. >> ok. as a provider, i've seen the need for families, especially low-income families to get services and support to maintain their families and keep their children safe and healthy. thank you. >> hello, thank you all, supervisors, for spending time on this really important issue and thank you, supervisor fewer for the opportunity. i'm here from our family coalition, an organization supported by first 5, to testify that without their support we would not be able to make this city as welcoming and as supportive as it is to lgbtq

families regardless of their economic security. just a few things that we're able to do with first 5 support, we provide support groups for various different sorts of families, we provide play groups, informational work shops that help families understand the legal, social and cultural issues affecting their families. we provide parent education classes that strengthen their abilities to be the parents they'd like to be. and we provide community building events. all these sorts of things together essentially fight isolation which speaks to one of the critical issues raised before. with building strong families, we build strong children and with strong children, we build a healthy future for the city. and with the time remaining, i want to bring a couple of voices in from families not able to be here. saying some of the things we're able to do for them. our family coalitions work making california schools

welcoming and affirming of family diversity, this is a statement from san francisco dad. it provides a safety and warmth that helps shape our children into their own best advocates. ofc work training people to be media spokes people. without this support, we would not be able to advocate for our family. another family simply said there isn't anything like this for families like ours in the bay area, please keep it up. thank you for the opportunity. >> good morning. i'm instructor at coalition, so those people are part of my organization. so i'm here to just like them, to actually support funding for

first 5 and testify without their support we would be unable to make the family welcoming and supportive. i have here just a few testimony from families we've been able to support. thank you again to san francisco first 5. the first testimonial is from a family that attended our community building event and this mom said that you know, what sticks out for me most are small interactions that remind me why it matters that it was an lgbtq friendly space. it came down to swimming in the pool, dressing our kids and using the all-gender bathrooms, and making them feel safe and supported. thank you to the family coalition for creating pockets of fund and love for our families. so that is one example where our

families really appreciate the space that is provided to them, to connect with other families, to build community as well as it reflected in the -- the family that my family is the same just like ours. thank you so much. >> good morning. i'm mother of two and a half-year-old and 8-month-old and me and my husband is a new immigrant. and we come here from a low-income family. we cannot afford childcare baby sitting, so like a lot of parents in our program, we are a group of parents that have very similar backgrounds. so we appreciate the first 5 provide us the family supporting

program and service to let us know, learn new skill and knowledge to how to take care of the kids for the nutrition class, safety class and the parenting class so we can know how to take care of them. and also how to take care of ourselves, too. like imagine taking care of two babies and working full-time, me and my husband. a lot of stressful and challenging, so, with this program, we learn how to reduce our shares, control our emotions, so appreciate this program have give us a lot. i hope this program can keep running to benefit more kids, parents and family in the future. thank you.

i should have brought my two-year-old, that was an adorable moment. i am very proud immigrant, queer mama, and have been in the bay area for five years, served the human rights commission through the lgbtq advisory group and proud to be in partnership with first 5 and the city. as you heard from the providers and colleagues, the services we provide are impacting lgbtq families in the long haul. we would be depriving hundreds of families that currently experience isolation, our children continue to experience sort of bullying and harassment in public schools that we work

with sfsud to provide initiatives to our families, and so we operate not just through partnership that are vital with partners that you'll hear from, but also with the city and so at this moment i would like to urge you to consider how this is going to impact, not just what ingrid mentioned because of the exodus of families from san francisco because of how the housing insecurity sometimes, as well as our inability to access affordable childcare as you're all working on the issue i'm sure. we really are here to support our first 5 partners and to support all the others that are working to serve hundreds of families in the city of san francisco. personally, i have a two-year-old and as you know, as parents, it's no joke, serving our families, serving our

communities and being a solo parent, i represent a lot of the families. so thank you for your support. >> thank you very much. next speaker, please. good morning, i have a two and a half-year-old son. as a first time parent, i need a lot of support, not only from my family or friends, but also from professionals and other families like all these people behind me because they can share the experience, the skills, with me so i know what i'm doing. sometimes i'm curious, am i doing the right thing? am i teaching my son the right thing? when is the best time to change from diaper to underwear? and how to help my son eat by himself and stuff like that. without the help, the first 5,

maybe i have to read books or just look at youtube, but first 5 helps me a lot. and through the programs, like the nutrition classes, disaster preparation classes, or parenting, it does help me a lot. and i'm really thankful that my wife and i got into this program. and hopefully this program will keep going. because it's going to help, it's going to have a lot of different families and i'm pretty sure all these families, they need all the supports, too. i'm glad i'm not alone. i can see all these parents behind me, we're the same, we share the same thoughts. we're just helping each other. it's one big family. and thank you so much for your time. and happy new year. >> thank you very much. i'll call a couple of more names. juno, duane, mario, kitty,

marion. lucy. if i butcher your name, i'm sorry. gloria. marcela, and cassandra. >> hi, good morning, supervisors. my name is jenny. i work at edge wood center for the children and families and i'm the mother of two sons who were born and raised in san francisco. in my two decades at edgewood, i've witnessed the devastating affect of unaddressed childhood adversity. i learned of the high cost, financial and social and treatment and interventions that attempt to address these effects many years down the line. working every day in neighborhoods where families live in poverty, trauma and toxic stress, i've seen programs

come and go, leaving residents disillusioned and hopeless. first 5 has a laser-like focus on the positive developmental activities for children and their parent. in order to achieve simple but powerful outcomes, parents have the ability to meet the needs of their children, materially and emotionally, parent have a supported social network. children develop social emotional competencies that allow them to learn and navigate relationships and parents have a knowledge of child development and parenting skills. at edgewood bay view family resource center, on a budget of a little over $400,000, in 16-17, we served 500 children and families last year. that's about a 10th of the cost of a year of therapy for a child.

we went into early childhood education centers, public schools and public housing to offer work shops and groups. we offered parenting classes in three languages. we took kids and families surfing, camping and to museums. we helped children enroll their children in preschool -- [bell ringing [ ]. >> thank you very much. next speaker. >> good morning, supervisors. my name is mario. i'm the executive director of the good samaritan family resource center. thank you for inviting us here today. what does first 5 symbolize to us and for our community? we're an organization that has more than 100 year history. the last 30 years, we've been

operating as a comprehensive resource center. we serve low-income families. these are families that are living in substandard housing, they struggle day-to-day to survive. they make hard choices between food and housing. and they inspire us each and every day. parents inspire us because they put their hopes and dreams in their children's future. and they know if they can provide the best support to their children, their lives are enriched and they enrich our neighborhoods. that is what first 5 symbolizes to us. it's a promise. not just a few children are going to succeed, but all of the them in the city will succeed. especially those with challenges. we can talk about the achievement we've made, every child is getting the developmental screening. parents have the opportunities

to support their education. there is bonding occurring. by any other measure, first 5, created a national model of success. i encourage you to work with us. i look forward to working with all of you to ensure that we keep this promise that every child in san francisco can succeed and deserves that chance. >> juno, executive director of support for families. a family resource center. population based in san francisco. thank you for listening to us. 1 in 5 children have a special need or disability. disabilities is part of our natural condition. and yet, these children are at higher risk for abuse, neglect, dropping out, homelessness and juvenile justice system and are not faring well for readiness for school.

research shows these children can reach their potential with appropriate and timely services. however, families providers don't know what to do. that's why we exist. to help them know. first 5 is core to our work. it leverages other funding. it is focused on birth to 5 and creating a network specifically for families. they keep us informed about a field that is exploding with new information. they highlight best practices, provide training and coaching. their leadership has created connection to emerging opportunities statewide and nationally. in our case, help me grow. a family story. a doctor connected a family to our warm line, our mentors connected them to other families. they entered -- they attended a conference, a peer group was on site childcare and they said, we were exposed to a wealth of

knowledge and services, we knew we were not alone. and that is the goal to assist families to move from disappointment, confusion, isolation, trauma and/or fear and find their ground. build their inner resources. as a director of a nonprofit, i feel aligned with the families because that's how first 5 makes us feel. they help us build our family resource center and our resources -- [bell ringing] >> thank you very much. >> hi. i'm mary ann. the executive director and founder of family connections. we're 25 years old this year, which is pretty amazing to me. i managed, somehow i have a special talent, i lost my notes on the way in, so excuse my

reading from the phone. the essence of family support is treating families with dignity and respect. we adopted family support at our inception with participating driven services as the highlight. i want to underscore that. we can tailor our services and ensure good participation in the services. the network that first 5 created since 2000 has been instrumental in our ability to serve almost 3,000 families a year with 30 plus services at the excelsior site. first 5 supported us tremendously with funding, training, mentoring, early literacy, preschool support and evaluation. we are hoping first 5 cannot only continue their support, but

increase their support. because there is a demonstrated need and we really have to keep san francisco family friendly. she has been coming to family connections for ten years, first as a nanny, then as a mom, that has participated in our early childhood continuum of child parent drop in and the licensed pre-k program. four years ago she started bringing her son jordan to pre-k. her son is now in kindergarten. and the first thing jordan's teacher said to her this fall at the parent teacher conference was i can tell jordan went to a great pre-k. so that -- [bell ringing] >> thank you. good to see you.

>> good morning, it's a pleasure to be here. thank you so much. i'm katy, executive director at safe and sound. formerly the san francisco child abuse prevention center. we seek to strengthen families and end child abuse and our services every year impact thousands of people in our community. we are incredibly proud to be funded by first 5, the department of youth and families and human services agency through the amazing family resource center initiative and proud to partner with our brothers and sisters in the family resource center network. i'd like to share a true story that conveys the impact of family resource centers throughout the city. i've changed some of the information to protect confidentialate. preea lived in terror every day, surviving the abuse of her

husband. they had two young boys and desperately she wanted them to have a father, but eventually she found the courage to leave when one of her sons, when they were on muni, lean over to an older woman on the bus and said, daddy hurts mummy, will daddy hurt me? that night she packed up the bags, moved into temporary housing and came to safe and sound for support. for the first time in a long time, she felt safe, connected and supported. priya began counseling sessions and began a community of trust with other parents. we helped her find permanent housing. she came to the parenting education classes and other family events. her sons started coming to counseling too and our playroom gave them a safe place to play. two years later, life is much

more stable. priya will graduate with an associate's degree in accounting and her kids are doing well, happy and learning in school. priya's story reminds us of the power of a support network, the power of having hope. this is a power of the family resource centers. amazi amazingly, safe and sound is one of 26 family resource centers and together we serve more than 13,000 parents and children. [bell ringing] >> next speaker. >> good morning. this is my daughter, you want to say hi? hi. ok, so my name is lucy.

i'm from originally from indonesia. i'm an immigrant parent with three children. when i first got here, i was so depressed, no family. i got pregnant with my second son and i was home sick every day. i was introduced to the asian resource center, the family support, by parents from my first son's preschool. this got better when i brought my second son to join the family resource center. my first impression was they were friendly, warm and welcoming. i felt like this place was my extended family. i met a lot of friends in the sent. we're like one big family with different culture and background. we support each other, share information, we learn things together. the family resource center helped me become a better parent

through positive -- parenting program. i had never imagined i can do this job if i hadn't given the opportunity. i have help with workshops, including information and i'm able to build on my strengths. i have many good friends i can count on. my husband works full-time to support our family and doesn't have too much time for us. my extended family, and these are my friends. thank you. >> you know indonesia? that's good! [laughter] >> next speaker, please. >> good morning. so she has just found another

friend, supervisor. my name is gloria. executive director with ga moon, it's part of a system wide support service currently providing services in chinatown, richmond and sunset. they serve between 2500 to 3,000 families in three different neighborhoods through a whole variety of services from parent-child interactive group, information, and referral, parenting workshops and support groups. and also including newly expanded services of work for pregnant mothers and mothers with newborn babies. we work primarily with new immigrant families who can -- whose parenting job can be very difficult in this country because they don't have the language skills. they're lonely, isolated and

don't know how to navigate the government system, they don't know much about childcare, how it works in this country. you can tell that we have a lot of grandparents here today. because san francisco is an expensive city. both parents have to work to support the family. so the responsibility of taking care of the young ones are left with the grandparents. so it can be overwhelming because as grandparents not only do they have to take care of themselves but a younger one. different parenting skills from what they have been brought up. therefore, ga moon, these families are able to build a lot of support, so that during challenging times they have extended families they can count on and friends they can count on. thank you. >> hi, good morning. my name is brenda. i'm acting program manager.

today, i'm with a long time program and she would like to talk to you guys. >> good morning, my name is marcela. like brenda said, i have been a member for ten years of the institute family. as a mother an immigrant i'm thankful for the services you have tore families. -- for families. because it's not just an agency, it's part of my family because they provide us support. they give help to the children, mothers and fathers.

i think they need more help from the city for the groups. because personally, when one has difficult times, the agencies are there to help us. for my personal point of view, a year ago, my son had a stroke. and the institute is almost like a second home for my son. that has helped him a lot in his recovery. but now i have to leave my home. but the city doesn't really

provide many resources for families of low-income like mine. because with a child that is two years old and another one that has disabilities, i have to live in a shelter. because the city doesn't provide enough funding to give us services to put us in the right path. first 5 is an agency that is very friendly and it helps families. but i think they also need more help from the city so they can continue helping us.

because with families like mine, that are suffering a lot of difficulties, this the city is not doing much to help us. we would be thankful if the city became more attentive to that need. thank you very much. >> thank you. i'm go to call a couple of more names.

we know a lot about aces. and the impacts those aces impacted child's sense of the world as a safe place. the child often shows us through his big behaviors, how scared, angry or worried he or she is. these behaviors can be confusing for parents and care providers. that might seem daunting, however with the investment of first 5, with all their

interventions and strategies that you heard from ingrid, september, just to cite a few, teacher training, use of practices and the opportunity of health available to families and very kind of organic settings that they can access them, without having to -- has made a difference in improving the outcomes. mental health has a stigma, so the best portal of serving families is family resource center. you don't get families easily to mental health facilities, but they come to the resource centers and it's there they feel comfortable, connected. healing begins to occur. the family support specialists are incredible, creating safety and tools to address concrete names. we support them greatly, thank you so much.

>> good morning, supervisors, thank you for this opportunity to speak about our work in family resource centers. my name is amore, and i'm the director of family resource centers, chinatown, vicitation valley and we do a population base that reaches the api communities in san francisco. not all of the children can be as beautiful as the first baby and that was a really encouraging. you've seen some of the families. hopefully this engagement is one of our outcomes toward the development of families. i want to tell you one story that was particularly striking. we touched 7,000 kids, some very lightly, some deeply. i was walking down the alley in our office on nottingham place and there was a baby, tiny baby,

coming out of the hsa vehicle. and that said one thing to me. this tiny baby was taken away from her mother right at the hospital. what was our work to be done to ensure safety, but also help the mother with some of the skills, basic things, change diapers, know how to interact? that's our job. the collaboration with the agencies is remarkable. tobacco tax money is dwindling, marijuana tax money is going to increase and hopefully go on because there are real health benefits to marijuana that is recognized. it's no longer illegal. many of our families have been traumatized by the judicial system, perhaps this is a source for revenue. but whatever the source, i hope you continue to support us,

support collaboration and thank you for hearing us. these are my families. stand up. thank you very much. >> good morning, everyone, thank you for having me today. mission neighbor centers have a resource center and we're part of the mission resource collaborative. i'm here to talk about maintaining and growing the funding of first 5. because of the work we do, it's vital to our families, especially the latino families who are working with them, who are being used as a scapegoat by our federal government. at this time, we're finding a lot of the families needing support and this places of center and safety. and our frc provides that center

of safety for them and continue to ensure we're going work with them and have them a secured place where they can be and be successful and grow, they can provide groups for their children, where they can come into their own support groups, take parent education and curriculum. so the work that we've done and the staff has done with the families, is amazing. and due to the frc initiative, we continue to see this at all our frcs. talking to my colleagues and through the granting meetings, these conversations come up about how families are feeling safe and secure. it's vital right now. i want to end with a quick little story of a family that we worked with who they came to the door, didn't know anything, didn't know where to stay. through the work of the case managers they were able to find

secure housing, preschool, after-school programs and support. it was just one example of the work that is done through the frcs, thank you. >> hi, everyone, my name is estellea and i'm executive director, lead agency for the latino family resource system. this is a collaborative, it's without walls, it's a service that involves a number of our partners. i think i'll take my minute that is left, to actually go to the issue that i think this is important for all of you which has to do with being for us as community, government, to be involved in proactive planning and to really look at one, you hear today the great value that people have and the devotion

that staff have, and the appreciation and also incredible learning experience of parents. that they appreciate these services exist. this is what holds them in a place that is increasingly in many ways unfriendly to them as you've heard from a speaker who is going to a shelter today. it's heartbreaking, but she continues to feel it's through the frc relationships she's been able to maintain her sense of hope. and to be part of -- to continue to look at viable alternatives for her. so i think what i'm asking you as leaders in the city, is to take the information into your hearts, take it into our think tank as community members and work with us closely, deliberately and let's be

proactive, let's think about families. not only today, but the fact that without first 5, these families will continue -- will have increasing number of isolated families. and we have an opportunity to change that dial. so i appreciate your time and interest in the life and the quality of life of our families. thank you, all. >> good morning. my name is seth, i'm the executive director of ymca, we have three family resource centers, one in the west end, hill, and my neighborhood. you've heard b the different types of services, i would like to share a story from frc. for confidentiality purpose we call her samantha.

two years ago family resource center staff visited me in my home. the lady was concerned that my kids hadn't been to school in more than a month. it was because of that time i was going through so much depression, domestic violence in the home, not knowing how to control my three boys, i didn't feel the burden to get up and get them ready for school. as a single mom was hard and stressful learning how do i support myself as well as my kids? however, going through all this, the frc staff took the time to listen to all my stories and help me gain trust and develop tools to begin to deal with my stressors. it was through this, i was able to as a parent realign myself. frc staff provided me with so much support and training, i wanted to know personally, how could i give back?

it was through that opportunity, talking to frc staff i learned there was an opportunity. i became involved with the community as a liaison. and a parent advocate and support for the frc. that spun into me actually becoming employed with frc and now i am giving back and supporting families who were just like me. good morning. i'm the branch operations director with the bayview ymca. thank you for your time and interest in this topic. as it has been shared we're in support of the first 5 initiative here as you heard today and know, the first 5 initiative does tremendous work here in san francisco. particularly bayview hunter point, our family resource center is supporting families from all over the community. our families are amazing, they're powerful, but they're also in need and struggling like

many families here in san francisco. without the support of first 5, we would not be able to provide these essential services. some of them that look like merely connecting families to resources in the community or across the city. providing support groups for men, for women, for mothers, for fathers. literacy opportunities, so that our young people and children are ready to learn in school. and there are very basic things like diapers, like a cup of coffee, a safe space, a food box if needed. so first 5 has done tremendous work. i'm reminded of a story of a father who came into the facility with a 6-month-old and his toddler daughter who came to see if there was some services because we were ymca. was there anything that you had to offer? we soon found out that the family was a single father, just

struggling trying to make ends meet and doing the best that he could. first 5 makes it possible for families to do the best they can and so i thank you for your time, urge your support and look forward to denying to do this -- continuing to do this work. >> we are speaking today about -- >> i know what you're speaking about. >> thank you, michael. >> i want to start my time right now. this is a contract ordinance pertaining to housing for low-income and very low-income people at a 1500 apartment complex called mission rock. sf government, may have the government? >> i'm going pause the speaker's time to remind him through the chair that the agenda item called presently is the hearing on the first 5 and not the

development projects. >> it's related to first 5. let me explain something to you and the board. >> please, please, please. you can start your time, please. >> i paused his time. >> you're not to address the clerk. >> well, he addressed you about me. so this is related to the first 5 and the families because very low-income people that is coming up here, asking for your help is the ones that should be included in the housing opportunity to move in this apartment building complex. section 334.13 of the community development law says it clearly that 15% of apartments in the development in the planned area is to be available affordable housing. less than 40% of the dwelling is

to available to affordable housing, very low and low-income bracket people. that is relevant because all these people that is coming in here asking you for help, are not included in the housing opportunity to take care of their families at mission rock. is that clear? now, more demonstrated as additional information to show how you're price fixing. the lowest level income is 2% of api, $36,000 more than what they're making. the next is $44,000. then you skip and violate the 40% of the affordable housing by including -- [bell ringing] >> thank you. thank you. your time is -- >> thank you very much. >> how do you know my time? i like to finish my time.

>> your two minutes are up. >> supervisor fewer: thank you very much. >> big class action lawsuit on housing discrimination -- >> that's enough. >> thank you. thank you very much. any more public comment? seeing that, public comment is closed. colleagues, any questions, comments? on the first 5 issue. >> i just wanted to thank everyone for coming out and sharing their stories and their amazing work as a supervisor, of the mission, i know how important first 5 is to the children and families that live in all three neighborhoods that i serve. i know all of the organizations providing those services. and your work is just essential and critical. both not only to ensuring that

the children are ready for school, and are healthy and thriving, but what happens after that. i mean public safety in our streets. homelessness, every issue that is the most important issue impacting our city right now is impacted in a positive way by the work of first 5. and so i just want you no know how much i appreciate all your work, how much i support your organization and the collaboration between all of the agencies and departments that support our families. as a mother of a 5-year-old, it's very personal to me. i'm in it right now. in terms of the challenges of raising a young person in this city. and so i just wanted to thank you and supervisor fewer for holing the hearing and all your testimony and work today.

>> supervisor sheehy: i would like to oako what supervisor ronen said. i have a 13-year-old, maybe i fall into a deeper pit. 4 or 5 seems like a happier time. i do greatly appreciate everybody's work because i know how hard it is. just the statistics on families who are leaving or think being leaving is stark. anyway, is there -- do we want this filed? >> supervisor fewer: i think that i would request this hearing be filed. and any other comments from colleagues? if may, i'll make closing remarks. i just want to say that i wasn't aware of all the work that first 5 did until i became member of the commission and got educated on how first 5 is the foundation of supports among theionest

residents -- youngest residents of san francisco. as a mother of three, i know how difficult it is to be a parent, with my husband working as a police officer, but working three or four jobs at the same time. i know how important it is to have family to support you. and also to people -- for people to invest in your family's success. think i first 5 and dcyf and office of early care and education working together is a great support that so many of our families need. especially in this time where it's hard for families to live in san francisco because it is so expensive and our city is complex. i just want to say that i really wanted to bring this to the forefront because it is really about planning. as we see that the tobacco money -- and that is good -- is diminishing, now our communities are really supporting on this infrastructure of family resource centers and also the

support for the families through the tobacco money, the prop 10, as that money diminishes, what is the future of funding for these crucial services to our families? what i love about the first 5 also, they fill the gaps. and as you know, these are some families that would fall through the gaps if we didn't have this infrastructure in place. so, i wanted to thank all the representatives today, i wanted to thank all the families that came out and the people who came out to support what first 5 is doing and i want to thank my colleagues for allowing me to have this hearing today, so we can learn together about how important this infrastructure is for our youngest residents and their families to be successful here in san francisco. and to live healthy lives here and for their children to be the next generation of san francisco workers here. and also residents so they can

also start families here in san francisco, too. i think when we look at what our early care is doing about supporting families, it is conducive to san francisco values that we welcome everyone here and that we know that sometimes things are not equitable for some people and we strive to close those gaps and we do that. one of the ways we do that is through first 5. thank you very much, everyone. i learned a lot and i hope my colleagues did, too. thank you. >> supervisor sheehy: so we can file this hearing in -- do we need a motion for that? sure. >> make a motion to file the hearing. >> supervisor sheehy: no objection. mr. clerk? item number 4. >> item 4 hearing on the status of operations of the city's emergency call boxes city-wide.

>> i would like to thank my colleagues peskin, for sponsoring this hearing. i will turn it over to him to say a few words. >> thank you chair and supervisor ronen. a few weeks ago i was informed through the media that the emergency call boxes that we have throughout the city, many of them are not functioning, many of them were bagged and tagged and many of them had towels taped to them that were not working. and i wanted to get to the bottom of it. the research that i've done with the department of technology and the old department of electricity, and the fire department, there is actually quite a storied history to the boxes. so i thought we have linda from the department of technology here. it is actually a dt asset.

i've come to learn there are 2039 of them that date back to the 1800s. they are clearly still of use. most recently during the earthquake, and i think -- we should get to the bottom of this, too, we should have a conversation about whether they're a technology that we should continue to have, but it is a redundant system. they are actually part of the physical historical landscape of the city, these little red and in some cases blue police call boxes. i want to start with a little bit of background. i hope this hearing is like the 911 hearing that we had. this is not a game of gotcha. i would like to understand why they're not working and what we need to do. but also to hear from the department as to what resources they need. when we had the 911 hearing when

we were falling well below the 90% standards, that resulted in the board providing additional resources. i want to thank john and jack, who used to do the job of taking care of the boxes for visiting with me and giving me background. but my hope that is we can actually systematically figure out how to bring these things into the dawn of the 21st century and that is going to require time and money, but i think the hearing is a good jumping off point for that. with that, i'd like to hand it over to the relatively new head of the department of technology to give us background on the history of the emergency call boxes and who historically has maintained them and how many we have, how often they're used and how they work. and the fact that they go over to 1011 turk street, the emergency command center.

i want to thank deputy chief rivera for being here from the fire department. and i want to thank the press who actually brought this important issue to our attention. >> before you start, through the chair, supervisor peskin, department of electricity, the precursor to puc? >> the department of electricity was a standalone department that was ultimately -- >> turned into technology and then into puc. from my understanding. so thank you very much for the opportunity today. >> >> supervisor peskin: you might want to bring the mic closer. >> to talk about the city street alarm boxes. i serve the city as the director for the department of technology. before i start this conversation, i would like to sincerely apologize for any confusion in the community around the alarm boxes that are

out of service. please know that we are working diligently to repair the street alarms and clearly indicate which boxes are out of service. i would like to start with some background about the street alarm boxes. so, these boxes were actually invented in boston and were first installed in the san francisco in the 1860s. there is only one provider of these boxes and the parts are no longer manufactured. san francisco, new york city and boston, are the only major municipalities that still retain this type of alarm system. some additional background is that these boxes do provide fast reporting, secure reporting and

decreases the response time for first responders. they're mapped to a specific location. so the caller or the person that pulls the alarm has the location identified, which in some instances is difficult to find. as you mentioned, residents like the historic nature of the boxes. but it is on aging infrastructure. it's deteriorating copper cables that are over 150 years old and it is a maintenance challenge. there are repeated outages, so even when they're repaired, they break again. procurement of the parts is difficult. the conduit is owned by at&t, but it's going to be up in 2021, as at&t abandons the network for fiber. we have dhal enges around the

pole -- challenges around the pole location and requesting structural analysis and support to support the overhead cables. and permitting to the city to tear up the roads and repair these conduits and infrastructure is complicated. some quick data points about the system. it is a very densely geographic distribution of these call boxes. no person is more than two blocks away from a box. 2300 boxes in total. 2014 are working. that's 87%. sf fire department responded to approximately 283,000 alarm boxes over the last two years. and this -- i mean alarms in general over the last two years and this stree