>> i call this meeting to order. anthony, will you let us begin. >> good evening, this is a meeting of the san francisco commission on the environment, the date is wednesday, march -- special meeting, the date is wednesday, march 14, 2018, and the time is 5:04 p.m. reminder that the use of cell phones and electronic devices are prohibited. the chair may order the removal from the meeting room of any persons responsible for the ringing of use of cell phone, or electronic devices. there will be opportunity for public comment on every item on the agenda as well as opportunity for general public comments on items that are not on the agenda, that is item number 4. moving to item number 1. roll call. president is cued.

suspect wald? here. there is a quorum. the next item. item 2 is for discussion. >> good evening, and thanks to all of you attending our meeting today, be you staff, partners or members of the public. as those of you who -- no, i want to acknowledge that this is the first time in my career as an environment commissioner that i have sat in this seat and it's a great honor, and i want to thank my colleagues for making that possible. as i was saying, those of you who have attended past environment commission meetings know, we like to have themes meetings to show the interconnectedness between our departments initiatives, especially as they relate to our work with our community partners

and other city agencies. i am pleased that today we are discussing the department racial equity initiative and another initiative, the led giveaway with equity in mind. my fellow commissioners and i have been inspired by the work of the environment justice team in the department and it is great to hear that the team is organizing to address individual institutional and structural equity. we are also very excited to hear about the results of the much discussed led giveaway. at this point, i would like to table the rest of my welcome, remarks to the call of the chair. do any of you have any objection?

hearing none, will you call the next item? >> the nexttime is item 3, approval of minutes for the february 21, 2018 commission on the environment special meeting, the ex-plan tory documents is the draft minutes, this is for discussion and action. >> commissioner wald: thank you, may have a motion to approve the draft minutes? thank you. a second? we have a motion by commissioner hoyos and second by smish stephenson. is there any public comment. wait, i'm actually supposed to ask if my commissioners have any comments or changes to recommend? public comment? >> david, good evening, and yes i think this is historic that

commission wald whom i've known for many years is finally chairing a commission meeting. after all your good work. just one minor item on the draft minutes. i did not look at them in great detail, but did notice item one, the commission on the environment meeting should insert word at 2:03 p.m., but that leapt out at me. >> commissioner wald: all those in favor of i proving the minutes -- approving the minutes, please say aye. any opposed? the motion passes. the next item, please. >> the next item 4, general public comment, members of the public may address the commission on matters that are within the commission's jurisdiction and are not on the agenda.

>> commissioner wald: would anyone like to make a comment about a topic that is not on the agenda? >> david again, not staying for the whole meeting, market street workshop at hastings i was planning to attend, but i did want to note at least one major staff transition actually, one, but it's really two, and i'm sure director raphael will discuss this later in her report. i understand the effected primary person was not able to be here, donnie oliveira has accepted a position and has now left the department and left big shoes to fill and i understand it will be janelle fitzpatrick also leaving. so they have both been great

assets to the department, first with the environment now program and then in the larger outreach team leadership, but i certainly wish him well in future endeavors. we expect many great things from him and from janelle and wish them the best, but really wanted to appreciate for both of them, their good work and significant contributions to the department on, again both environment now and outreach, annual reports, strategy, communications, public engagement, overseeing the various programs within outreach, et cetera. donnie has done a lot and will be significantly missed. so there are other staff things that i think director raphael will note later, but i wanted to highlight that because it's significant i think for the department, for the commission,

for me, for the public. >> commissioner wald: thank you very much. there is still a possibility that donnie will make it here this evening at which point we will all have an opportunity to thank him in person. i have one more member of the public who wishes to spea purview of forestry and asked what the commission is doing. i would like to highlight gaps and short falls and make suggestions on those might be addressed. a quick overview of the city's

plans, we know about the 0, 80, 100 roots plan and this plan is growing the urban forest, but doesn't have specifics and encouraging people to volunteer with friends of the urban forest. and then there is the san francisco forestry plan released in fall of 2014, it has three phases. phase one, prop e, 2 is trees and public spaces and 3 is private land. the plan acknowledge that friends of the forest is a nonprofit that relies on volunteers like me to plant the trees. they secure their own funding. it currently has no guarantee of funding beyond what it scares up every year and has no certainty of meeting the goal of 2500 trees a year.

the current goal is 2000 and we're way behind 2500 a year since the plan was released in 2014. they are not empowered to plant other than along the public right-of-way. so what i ascertain are the challenges, there is no integrated comprehensive tree data management system. agencies with responsibility for trees all have their own or none at all, which means the city cannot gauge whether it's meeting the objectives. there is no single full-time dedicated personnel to oversee. there is inadequate funding to support the funding. and there is not a goal for percentage of urban canopy we hope to obtain. change the way we calculate fee for developers. they require street trees to be planted as part of projects, essentially one free for every

20 feet of frontage. but it makes it irrelevant on the impact the development has on the ecosystem of the city. i suggest that fees be calculated based on carbon footprint. specifically speaking, ratio equity is removing 22 trees in the bayview and this is not through the bureau. approve improvement ratios and create a dedicated role in the department of environment to be conveyor of the city plan. [bell ringing] >> commissioner wald: thank you. >> come back next month. >> commissioner wald: [laughter] is there any further public comment? seeing none, anthony? call the next item. >> the next is presentation of the commission on the environment, environmental service award to the tenderloin neighborhood development

corporation. the sponsor is johanna wald, this item is for discussion. >> commissioner wald: the way we will do this, i'll say a few words now, present the award. we will all have our picture taken together. and then we will invite the awardee to say a few words and then anyone you like can say a few words and then public comment. i'm pleased today we will be presenting the commission on the environment, environmental service award, to the tenderloin neighborhood development corporation, or tndc. the tndc was founded in 1981 to provide services to the residents of the tenderloin neighborhood in its over 35 year history, the organization has grown to provide affordable housing and many, many other

services to over 4100 low-income residents in six neighborhoods across the city. the tndc does more than just provide housing and services. they work actively and attentively to build community. they are active with neighbors and community groups and have been a partner with the city to serve low-income residents. most recently, they worked with the department of the environment to implement energy efficiency upgrades and install led light bulbs as we will hear more about in the meeting. they serve as a model for community engagement and development. thank you for all you do to serve the residents of san francisco and for your efforts to incorporate sustainability into your developments.

this evening, with us, is sustainability manager with the tndc. colleagues?

thank you, commissioners and the department for recognizing our efforts. as you all know, i'm

sustainability manager at tndc, i'm thrilled you're recognizing our efforts and our mission is to keep housing affordable. as you know, affordability doesn't happen by itself. sustainability is a key business strategy for us. we're doing this not only because we have good hearts, but we want to make impact on our residents improve their lives. i really appreciate how prince william antly this -- brilliantly this program was designed, it was administratively simple, simple to understand. our residents really appreciated it, because the bulbs are not only making direct impact on their utility bills, but light is much cleaner, crisper and feel happy in their units. this is important to us. thank you again, i appreciate it. [applause]

>> commissioner wald: thank you, president wald, that sounds good. so richie and lori and everyone from -- richie can you come back up? i want you to tell a story. so i was lucky enough to go to the -- one of the sites that they administer and meet the staff who were implementing this program, meet some of the residents and listen to the genuine heart of the organization and one of the stories that richie told me was really compelling about the idea of affordability. mayor lee always said to us, it's important to make sure that

environmental benefits get to all san franciscans and i think this work with this partnership between the department of the environment and the tenderloin neighborhood development corporation is the quintessential example of that. and richie, you shared to me an example of how you were not in every unit, but there were sometimes when you could actually pass on cost savings to the residents. can you just share that story, because i think it is such an amazing tale. >> definitely, so through this program, we were able to provide 3,000 led light bulbs across the five buildings. we selected these buildings because they have to pay their own electric bills. we give them an allowance, but it's small and the electricity prices keep going up. this is an excellent way we put light bulbs, so it's not only

safer and better, but it's directly impacting their bottom line, even if it's $5 a month savings, it really matters to people whose income is low. thank you again. i was really so happy about this. >> i'm so grateful for your energy and the energy of paris and all the people who work with you. it's such a blessing to be ail to partner with you -- able to partner with you, congratulations. >> commissioner wald: commissioners? would you like to make additional remarks? commissioner hoyos? >> commissioner hoyos: i wanted to thank you on behalf of all my -- well, along with all my colleagues here to say that one thing that matters a lot in life is enthusiasm and even though i'm just seeing you for the first time, i can tell you bring

a lot of passion and energy to your work. so we'll keep wanting to support your work and thank you for your leadership. >> commissioner wald: thank you. now we will have public comment and i know there is public comment. our first speaker is amy chan. >> good evening, commissioners, i'm from the mayor housing and community development and i'm here to congratulate tndc on their well-deserved award today. they are incredible partner of ours and do excellent work in not only building affordable housing and beautiful housing for low-income residents, but environmentally sustainable housing. they have understood that environmental sustainability in their projects also serve their residents directly.

so we applaud them for their work. they have a number of projects in construction and we're looking forward to seeing those open and seeing more of their great work this year and next year and the years to come. congratulations again. >> commissioner wald: thank you. is there additional public comment? hearing none, anthony, the next item? >> the next item is 6, review and vote on approval of resolution file number 2018-04, approving funding for the san francisco carbon fund grants. the sponsor is deborah raphael and speaker shaun rosenmoss. the explanatory documents are resolution file, san francisco carbon fund grant and funding recommendations. this is discussion and action.

>> commissioner wald: thank you. >> the carbon fund just to give everyone in the room a reminder went into effect in 2008. the city puts a fee on air travel for city employees. that money goes into a fund we call the carbon fund and is used to loosely offset the emissions of the air travel. it has gone into all sorts of projects since 2009 when we started distributing the money with this amount of money that shaun will be talking about, we'll hit the $1 million mark in community programming. and like our work with tndc, our focus on the carbon fund is also making sure that all san franciscans benefit from these programs. there is a very big focus on resiliency, on community benefit, on equity, when our

team headed by shaun distributes this money and partners. i'm excited about this particular one, it's important and far reaching project she'll describe to you. >> commissioner wald: thank you. good evening. >> so this grant we want to award $120,000 to california interfaith power and light to do work with at least 10 organizations, faith based organizations in san francisco. very deep environmental work. first from an operational perspective, so connecting them to our programs. energy watch and clean power sf and go solar sf and all of those things that quite frankly, a lot of faith-based organizations are interested in and they simply don't have the staff, time and technical expertise to really participate as fully as they would like to in our programs. we know this. we've done energy watch with a lot of faith-based organizations and it takes a lot of work and

lot of hand holding. so we decided we would try and find a nonprofit organization to take this on and really do this work. so the first tier is the operations of the facility and then the next would be pushing some of that down to the congregat congregates. if we're going to do energy watch, talking to them about their own energy efficiency and signing up for clean power sf. so we'll be able to reach a lot of people. some of the other things, they'll be working with us to select the congregations and it will be based on demographics, geographic location, the city, and what the congregation provides, so we're looking for congregations that do work like childcare, feeding seniors, after-school, food pantry, so the congregations that are really open, almost 24-7 throughout the year.

and then the other thing that is going to come out of this grant is that interfaith power and light is going to be working with berkeley on developing a carbon calculator, we're going to use it here, pilot it here, but they will ultimately be able to roll that out to congregations around the country, which is exciting to me, because we're leaders. yeah, so that's kind of the gist of this grant, this is really, really different for us, but also hugely exciting. and, susan -- so, susan is the executive director of california power and light and she can give you a little more background on the organization. >> thank you so much, shaun and thank you to all of you for considering this proposal.

we're excited and honored to work with you, to help ten, at least ten congregations here in san francisco get to at least 80% carbon reductions by 2020. i don't know if shaun mentioned california interfaith power and light is based here in san francisco, which is also our national headquarters. we started in california but we reach about 20,000 congregations around the country that are all working to teach and preach about climate change as a moral issue and inspire our communities, hopefully by example, leading by example to show that climate solutions are within reach and possible. so, it's great to be able to model this in san francisco, especially as we build toward the governor climate action summit in september. we hope to have maybe one congregation already well on its way to show case at that summit and we plan to have interfaith

service as grace cathedral to kick off the summit. where lots of leaders from around the world will be attending. so there is many things coming together that makes this perfect time. we have a congregational footprint calculator that is in need of being updated. we have a team at uc berkeley that is working on this and we'll get that done this summer. thank you so much. >> commissioner wald: thank you. questions for susan or i? >> may i have a motion to approve funding for the san francisco carbon fund grant? thank you. may have a second? thank you. any further discussion, colleagues? >> i was hoping to ask a question. >> commissioner wald: you may. >> would you please tell -- if there are people watching or people here in the audience who

might have faith-based organizations they would like to direct your way to see if they can participate, how would they go about that? >> thank you, i meant to mention that. we're working on an application at interfaith power.org and i'll send it to shaun. we have 80 congregations in california that are members already, but we want to get it out farther, maybe get new congregations involved, that wanted do things, but haven't been able to because they didn't have the capacity or technical ability. we provided in the budget, a little bit of a mini grant to each congregation once they're approved to be one of the ten to help them get started on the work. would love your help finding a representative, diverse mix of congregations from all over the city, different religions,

ethnicities. and i have information on the organization i'll pass around. >> commissioner wald: thank you. commissioner hoyos? >> commissioner hoyos: just quickly, i'm very familiar with power and light and i'm thrilled that you're going to be working so hands-on right here in san francisco and i think it's a great opportunity for the department of the environment to reach out further, which i know is a big priority into all sorts of communities, including communities of faith, so thank you so much for getting this going. >> commissioner wald: thank you, indeed. is there public comment on this item? seeing none, will all those in favor of this resolution signify by saying aye? any opposed? the motion passes.

anthony? next item. >> the next item is 7, review and vote on approval of resolution file number 2018-05, affirming the commission's commitment to racial equity in the department of the environment's programs, policies and services. the sponsor is sarah wan, and speakers wendy goodfriend, sraddha mehta, and the document is resolution file 2017-05, racial equity initiative. this item is for discussion and action. >> commissioner wald: thank you. director raphael? >> thank you, i want to give a deep thank you to commissioner wan for her incredible support and excitement over this initiative and to commissioner ahn also for his interest and

encouragement. this was very important to staff to know that the commission was paying such close attention and was challenging us and inviting us to look deeply at our own practices. i think it's fitting that after we just talked about interfaith power and light to reflect on the words of pope francis who reminds us that we must listen to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor, that social justice and environment are inextricably linked, we cannot heal the planet if we do not focus on the people who we are serving. and that it's not enough to ask the question, how do our programs measure up? it's more that we need to do something about it. that it's not enough to be aware. there has to be deep commitment to change in our own actions and

own systems. the two people you'll hear from today, soko and sraddha mehta are invested in this, they spent the last year with the government alliance with race and equity. this is a group endorsed by the entire city family, so a number of city departments have spent time going through this program. i got to go to the graduation ceremony where there were city staff like soko and sraddha from around california, but people from the central valley, east bay, here and the energy and pride in the group at getting this certification and going through this year of deep reflection and self-examination was so palpable. so i think having the commission validate that kind of commitment is incredibly important and

critical. and i thank you for paying attention to the issue, i thank you for putting your voice inside with us, and i'm excited for you to hear from wendy and sraddha mehta and soko as they explain the journey of where we've been and where we hope to go. >> that's a wonderful introduction and thank you for hearing the presentation. and then having resolution in front of you on this initiative. so, i wanted to start by hopefully the slide will come up. ta da. i wanted to introduce to you the racial equity initiative that we're sharing with you today. and i wanted to start by reminding us under mayor ed lee's leadership, the city and county of san francisco has developed a strategic plan in which racial equity and inclusion were identified as a key priority for all city

operations and departments. in mayor mark farrell's first communication with department heads, he reminded them it was very important and he would be looking at our budgets and activities through the lens of racial equity. our own san francisco department of environment strategic plan also articulates the value, the engagement and importance of equity and racial equity in our -- in the value statement which is on the slide above. it says our programs benefit all residents and businesses in san francisco and focus on supporting those communities most in need. all of our initiatives are underpinned by incluesist and accessibility. so today, we're here to tell you about the racial equity initiative. how we will operationalize the values and our goals and the city's vision for racial equity in our programs, services and practices. and we will present to you at the end a resolution which will

codify the department's compliment to racial equity. so -- commitment to racial equity. we're going to present in order. so shaddha is going to talk about the longstanding work on equity. >> thank you, wendy. i'm sraddha mehta with the environmental justice program. the focus on equity is not a new concept for our department. sf environment has a longstanding engagement with community of color on environmental issues and creating programs to serve those communities. the program works to address or mitigate environmental burdens, increase access to environmental programs and benefits, increase community engagement and improve health outcomes and the quality of life for our most -- for our

residents that are facing the greatest disparities. the ej program began as a result of settlement funding located to two power plants located in the southeastern part of the city. through the years we've worked on projects and programs and in addition to the ej program, the other programs of the department of the environment have also spearheaded initiatives that increase access to the programs and focus on equity. so in the area of toxic reduction, we worked to expand the practice of integrated pest management in public housing. this is not a photo of coffee grounds on a counter top, it's cockroach drolings that we found -- droppings that we found when inspecting a public housing unit in the city. recognizing that exposure to pests and pesticide can trigger and cause asthma the department

is continuing to work with the partners to ensure that the housing sites are managing pests in a safe manner. in the area of zero waste, we recognize that certain communities have been heavily burdened by abandoned waste. this often includes construction materials and even drums of hazardous waste that are not coming from residents. this is an image of a dumping hot spot in bayview hunter point where we were able to get the site cleaned up with the help of the colleagues at department of public works. 480 tons were removed from the site and the department is working on programs to prevent dumping. there are many examples, this is recipient of a solar system. the ej program has provided funding that resulted in the installation of over 100 pv

systems on low-income homes and communities serving facilities in bay view hunter point. community engagement is an important aspect of our work. one example of our engagement and you've heard many others through the years at these commission meetings, but one example is the participation in the bay view hunter point environmental justice task force, which is a problem solving task force that involves residents, cbo, local state and federal government agencies working together to solve environmental problems. yet with all these efforts, we continue to see major disparities. this is a slide showing preventable adult hospitalizations with darker colors reflecting higher rates. and we continue to see economic disparities by race as well. and we know that these

inequities will get worse as the impact of climate change unfold. while climate change will impact everyone, low-income residents and people of color will be hit the hardest and have the least amount of resources to adapt. climate change is expected to impact our daily lives, not only by causing extreme weather events and natural disasters, but also by making basic human necessities such as food, affordable housing, and energy more expensive and difficult to obtain. these inequities are well documented. this is an example, it's a report called the climate gap published in 2009. thanks to our department of public health, we have a lot of local data making the connection between climate and health. for example, here's a map that illustrates heat vulnerability in bay view hunters point. so as we continue to see these racial disparities persist in

our communities and in our field, we recognize that it's our responsibility to address these disparities, so today we wanted to share the reenvisions of sfe's work on equity, specifically racial equity. we're launching the initiative in the department because we recognize that this work needs to be integrated into all of our programs and across all staff. and that it's not something that is just a project of our environmental justice program. we also need to be more organized and deliberate in how we normalize conversations about race and operationalize policies, procedures and practices to achieve racial equity in our work. soko will go into more details about the main components of the initiatives. fortunately, as debbie mentioned, this is a growing movement. there are many others doing the work, so there is no need to

reinvent the wheel. soko and i were fortunate to be part of a training program put on by the government alliance. we were part of the city and county of san francisco cohort that included 15 city departments and that were all going through the same process of transformation. a few of our cohort members are actually here today. our cohort was led by the san francisco human rights commission. and in addition to the training we received, our cohort continues to meet on a regular basis to see how we can work together to advance racial equity. we recognize that no one department holds this on their own and that together if we support each other, we can achieve more. and san francisco was just one of a number of cities, counties and regional agencies that participated in the effort. the northern california cohort included over 200 people coming

from all over northern california. the training gave us the tools, resources and partnerships we need to move forward from theory to practice. so before i go further, i want to pause for a moment and tell you what i mean when i use the term racial equity. the san francisco human rights commission defines racial equity as closing the gaps but that race does not predict one success while improving outcomes for all. and you might be wondering why we picked racial equity when there are so many different forms of marginalization. this is not to say that the other forms of oppression are less important. we chose to lead with race because race is consistently a primary indicator in a person's success and wellness in society. whether you're considering

housing, education, employment, environment, or any other institutions, race indicates how well you will do. and even when you hold other factors constant. for example, if two people with the same income and same education, but different races are compared, the outcomes will still be greatly different based on the race. also racial inequities are deep and pervasive and as we've seen in the news, racial anxiety is on the rise. there is intersectionality between race and other areas. for example, a transgender will have greater disparity. so focussing on race, we can bring people together to organize on change. we'll have the tools, resources and partnerships in place to take further steps creating an equitable society.

now i'll turn it over to soko and she'll walk you through the framework for change and tell you more about the racial equity initiative. >> thank you. good evening, commissioners. i'm soko made. the movement has been around for 18 years and even with our current efforts, the reality is the environmental movement is still seen as a privileged white cause. persistent racial inequities indicate we need to go beyond individual prejudices and examine the systems we operate in. this means investigating how our department's policies and practices unintentionally support racial inequities and change them. we start by looking at individual racism, which is prejudgment, bias or discrimination by individual based on race. now most of us, our staff have

gone through the implicit bias training through dhr and department of human resources, and new staff will do the online training and we meet with them and debrief and then talk about the racial equity initiative with them. this brings us to institutional racism, which is policies, practices that work better for white people than they do for color. often unintentionally. so part of the initiative is to look at both our interm and external policies and procedures. and finally this brings us to structural racism. a history of institutional racism combining to create a system that negatively impacts communities of color. none of this is because of one person or department. it is a combination of decisions that over time have gotten us here. each institution has a role to play in creating this structure

and through our city-wide team, we'll be able to find different strategies to chip away at it. how does racial inequity manifest in government policies? the first example you see is federal housing administration red line specific neighborhoods and designate them for communities of color. the second is more often than not, our trash transfer stations are in communities of color. and the final example is from seattle, where the mayor went out to a low-income community and saw that many of the streetlights were out. on further investigation, he found out that the streetlight replacement was based on a complaint system. primarily from privileged neighborhoods. so what he did was change the policy to have all the streetlights changed often a calendar cycle. so the department of the environment racial equity initiative is following best

practices from other cities and counties that are also doing this work. our initiative is modelled off seattle, portland, madison and the sf public utilities commission. it includes participating in the city-wide racial equity team, convening a steering committee within the department, the committee has a point person from each program area within the department. bringing a racial equity resolution to the commission. developing a departmental racial equity action plan. and providing fast training and building internal capacity. we've begun to look at our work through a racial equity lens and i'm going to provide you with examples. the first is through the energy watch program, which has been providing audits and energy efficiency incentives for small businesses in the city. these small business owners are predominantly people of color

and a large percentage of them are immigrants. in visiting the corner stores, our energy watch staff discovered that many of these businesses have refrigeration systems that hadn't been maintained for some time and needed repairs. so staff sought funding to pay for the costs and they engaged 33 businesses that resulted in savings that wouldn't have been gotten otherwise and improving access of the programs to communities of color. the second is our website translation. the communication team continually strifes to serve the 44% of san franciscans who speak a language other than english. the most recent demonstration of this effort is with the launch of the sf recycle in chinese and spanish. the tool is the location for what goes where and it's

ubiquitous as it is permanently placed on every sticker, handout distributed throughout the city. so how do we move from theory to practice? and consider racial equity in our decision-making processes? this approach includes a set of questions such as who will benefit from the decision? who will be burdened by the decision? have we talked to the stakeholders who may potentially be effected? what are the possible unintended consequences of the decision? how can we develop strategies to advance racial equity? and how can we mitigate unintended negative consequences? using this approach can help develop strategies and actions that improve success for all groups. too often the policies and programs are developed and implemented without racial equity.

when racial equity is not brought into operations and decisions, then racial inequity is often perpetuated. several of the cities are starting to apply this approach am one example i have, the sf planning and public utilities commission are using this approach as they start reviewing the internal processes such as hiring practices. we're also following in the same vain. so what we've done is we've provided staff training to the different program areas and are providing the resources such as methodical approach i mentioned earlier and we'll have assessment of internal processes and external as well. we're going to development and implement an action plan that will be data-driven, consistent, deliberate and have both metrics and measures to hold us accountable. now we recognize that we cannot work in a vacuum, so we will

continue to collaborate with the city wide cohort as well as national partners such as the urban sustainability director network. our city has had a longstanding history of equal rights. we're now shifting from the next phase from equality to equity. it recognizes that an equal playing field does not always address the specific needs of communities of color. unfortunately, the reality is more often than not, our policies and programs do not benefit communities of color and this initiative seeks to change that. equity is about changing systems so that everyone benefits. the ultimate goal is to remove the barriers for all. at the end of of the day, if we do not address longstanding racial inequities, can we truly achieve our environmental sustainability goals? i'm going turn it back to wendy now.

>> i want to thank them for their incredible work and leadership in the department and to bring to you this amazing presentation and crafted this resolution. commissioners ahn and wan showed great leadership and worked with us, and to that we're eternally grateful. i believe you have the resolution in front of you, and therefore, we can entertain any questions. i don't know if it's to be read into the record. so i'm here to answer questions for you. >> commissioner wald: thank you. an i have to begin with a request for a motion? may have a motion to approve the resolution affirming the commission's commitment to racial equity in the department of the environment programs, policies and services? thank you. may i have a second?

thank you. is there any further discussion? mr. stephenson -- commissioner stephenson? >> commissioner stephenson: i got a preview at the operations committee and i was so impressed with the work you're doing, but how clearly you laid out the plan and the process for people like me, who are novices and haven't been following all the training you've been doing. i have a question that might be for you, debbie, but i know that as somebody who stares at the budget year after year, we've long been concerned about the ever dwindling ej account and wondered how we would recoup that money to keep the program going as part of the idea we're going to take ej and bake it into all the operational areas of the department? >> it's a great question. so it is an and, not or.

so we're continuing to look for ways to expand environmental justice budget. and then in addition to that, we're leveraging it hugely by intentionally as you say, embedding it in all programs. >> commissioner wald: commissioner wan. >> commissioner wan: i want to echo that i'm impressed with the work of the department and the leadership. this is a big commitment and is not an easy thing to change overnight. it takes a whole organizational and cultural change. i want to say if you need help from the commission from the future, i want to see this department as a pioneer in this kind of work and happy to see them carry on the legacy of the late mayor lee.

>> commissioner wald: thank you, commissioner ahn? >> commissioner ahn: just echoing, thanks to staff and director raphael and commissioner wan for introducing the resolution in the first place. if there is opportunity, perhaps staff can speak to the interdepartmental relationships involved? i know you mentioned planning. maybe we'll hear them during public comment as well. >> so, yes, there is 15 different departments that we're part of the cohort, and there is more that are engaged this year. and i do think we'll have speakers talking about the sf racial equity team. we have learned a lot from each other and have leveraged relationships to bring some of our services to other departments and learn from them about different kinds of initiatives they're doing. so, i think that i will let the cohort speak for themselves, but

i think as an additional benefit to all of us working on this movement together, we're building stronger bonds in relationships across departments and then at the staff to staff level, really providing support to each other because this work as commissioner wan has said, can be challenging and can be very personal. so that support and the leadership by the human rights commission has been incredibly beneficial.

>> i do not know all of the wonderful people putting time in. i know how grateful i am and i want to thank the human rights commission. without their calm to keep going to give us guidance but also encouragement, we wouldn't be as far as we are. >> thank you. for my part i would like to observe that in all of my years on the commission, i have always been impressed by the program

and the incredible work that you have been doing, but i have never been more impressed than i am tonight in listening plan, and hearing you describe all of the work that went into it and what your hopes are for it. i want to congratulate you all on the new initiative and say, and i know my colleagues are looking forward to following its implementation. commissioner. >> i had the chance to attend in 1991 the first national people of color leadership summit in d.c. where we live, work and play instead of something to beacon served. it is a testament to the power

of social movements intersecting with government that these principals are now being integrated in a comprehensive way to the departments across the cities and obviously as we have already acknowledged the leadership in the important endeavor. it is 27 years. there is a sense of the way of thinking having arrived. i just want to thank the department and everyone involved in leading us in this direction for your insights and commitment. thank you. >> is there any public comment on this? >> hello, commissioners.

my name is daniel menendez. in odor to make it more -- in order to make it more impactful, we need to include all communities. i began my work as a volunteer with sunshine. she was guidance. clean power was the first campaign, to being a intern on the zero ace time to now the environment now team. the department goes all over san francisco as i have gone all over san francisco speaking to, you know, the local food pantry to the local businesses. especially with the new ordinance on flame retar dance. that is the new campaign. this resolution is something that the department holds deer, and they are going to strive to continue moving