it's the training capacity working group that's been working on that, so you should definitely tap them for that. i just want to thank you for this. you know, the idea that you are taking ownership of the challenges that we're faced with and acknowledging the -- some of the comments that -- that get made about us is a first big step around creating a policy of service culture. i think it's also really important because these aare -- this is -- this is where people learn about us, you know? this is that -- this is where people make decisions about coming or not coming to our schools or -- or being engaged or not being engaged in our district. so i really appreciate that we're taking this on. the -- you know, i always get the whole, you know, wanting to start with people that want to

start with this, so -- 'cause i think that's really important. i just want to understand what the plan is for after the early adopters. and then, i also just want to know what your early adopter departments are, because i think it's really important to acknowledge those who are stepping forward and wanting this training. so i'm curious who those are, and what the strategy's going to be for the next round of departments and when that training's going to happen. 'cause my guess is the ones that need it the most are probably not the ones that are necessarily the early adopters. so got that. could be wrong on that. >> i am excited to say i think some of those first points of contact for people are early adopters, so human resources and the educational placement center are the leadership in both of those areas. i'm very excited to be part of this, and so -- and as you know, they both are a touch

point for job seekers and potential parents as well as current employees and current parents. and then, we're also really excited that the financial services division is interested also because they -- they work a lot with our internal clients, so they interface with many different administrative assistants as well as principals and other staff in the district, so i think we have a good cross section. we've heard interest in other departments, as well, and the superintendent's leadership team knows that this is a priority for the superintendent, and we are planning to continue on with the training after this pilot phase we'll be picking up again in september and october. >> with a plan to have all departments trained? >> resources allowing, that is our plan. we are still identifying all the resources to be able to do that. but i think to commissioner merase and your suggestion, we

have been trying to find also some potential training partners that could help develop that capacity without a big cost to the district. so we -- we have explored some possible avenues for that, but it sounds like there may be some that we can still explore, so i'm excited about that. >> great. and i mean i don't know about my other commissioners, but i think this is a priority of ours because it has a ripple effect for so many other things that we do, so we should work hard to figure out where those resources can come from. any other questions or comments on this item? okay. thank you all. appreciate it. [applause]. >> it's nice. you can applaud for them. it's very sweet. it's good customer service. section i is a consent calendar. items removed as a previous

meeting. there are none. section j is an assignment of proposals and rejection by committee. so board policy 3110, transfer of funds. let's see...are these all going to the same committee? okay. so board policy 3110, transfer of funds. board number three, board policy 3514.1, hazardous substances. number four, board policy 5111, admissions. board policy 5111.1, district residency, and board policy 5117, interdistrict attendance. board policy 5113.1, chronic absence and truancy, and dp

35112, all of those items, miss hock, will those go to rules? >> rules, and then you may wish to refer some of these items to additional committees. for example, item number two, transfer of funds, you may wish to transfer to the budget -- or excuse me refer to the budget committee. and item number four, you may wish to refer to the student assignment committee. >> okay. okay. so miss casco, so item 2 will go to both rules and budget, and item four will go to both rules and student assignment, ad hoc. okay. and i don't have any public comment on those items. item six is the superintendent's proposal, 184-24 ft 1. this is the first reading of authorization to grant or in alternative deny the petition for the mary l. booker leadership academy charter

school. so this item is being referred to curriculum and program and to budget and business services. could i get a motion and a second for the first reading of all of these policies and superintendent's proposals? >> so moved. >> second. >> thank you. i do have speakers for item six, which is the reading of the authorization to grant or in alternative deny the petition for the mary l. booker leadership academy charter school. i have ten speakers on this item. we usually provide for five minutes on first readings, and -- but i will call your name and please come up, and you'll each get a minute. so susan solomon, alida fisher, julie robert fong, castro

walker, c.m. bivens, come on up. terrence davis, betty hunter, susan fong wong, tiana cuman, and geraldine anderson. >> thank you, commissioners and superintendent. my name is alina fisher, and i am the chairman of the advisory for community education. as i've stated before, the c.a.c. board and our membership is in agreement that we have very serious concerns with charter schools that opt out of the governance and oversight structures put in place by our c.a.c. here in sfusd. we have found that charters who come into the schools and colocate impact our most marginalized students, our

students with disabilities by displacing our intervention room and supports. so we would actually encourage the mary l. booker family who's here to consider joining the san francisco unified school district scpa and make yourself available to the families of sfusd and provide the same accountability and oversight and parent involvement and parent oversight that we do as sfusd schools do. thank you. [applause]. >> good evening. i'm susan solomon, executive vice president of united educators of san francisco. first of all, we also have concerns about colocating. we've heard that might happen. you heard from malcolm x community members last time, and we do have concerns, especially colocating six to 12th graders with elementary school. i have a couple of other concerns that i'll try to cover

tonight. one is that the school specifies that because of the charter school's specific target students, the charter school's rascial and ethnic balance may vary somewhat from sfusd as a whole and instead reflect the neighborhood demographics of students that may attend. i believe this is code for segregation for intentional segregation. back when we -- the coe decision back in san francisco, our schools immediately resegregated, and we should not be intentionally going back there. i do want to make one more quick point. it also says traditionally students with disabilities are pulled out of their academic classes to receive intervention. that is not traditional what's happening in sfusd. we are proud of the fact that we have fully inclusive practices in this district, and

we have at this time. thank you. >> thank you, miss solomon. next speaker, please. [applause]. >> good evening, commissioners. my name is terrence davis, and i'm the school founder of mary l. booker leadership academy. i'm excited to be in front of you tonight and formally submit the petition for mary l. booker leadership academy. we've been working for the past year to design a school that will meet the needs of all students. a little bit about myself. i'm a special educator. i'm also a father and husband to my two boys, jaden and elijah. we're a community school. we've been designed working with our parents. we recognize the needs of each individual students. our core values are equity,

community value and leadership. community is how we are designed with the families that are standing behind me. equity is making sure we're meeting the needs of all students, and leadership is developing the next great generation of leaders. thank you again for hearing our petition. >> good evening. i'm sam bivens. i'm the parent of a middle school aged child, and i've -- i'm urging the board to support mary l. booker academy. vote yes. it's absurd that we have to send our children out of our neighborhoods over to other neighborhoods to hopefully get, you know, what they need. teachers feel helpless because they know they're failing our children, our black and brown children. you guys know that you're failing our children.

it's clear that you can't even retain teachers at your high potential schools. the ship is sinking, and we want out. we demand that our right to choose, whether our right to choose education for our children, whether it comes from world class education -- i mean, whether it comes from private school, montessori, private school, charter, public, we need to be the decision holders on that. we don't -- we don't have another five years to wait for you guys to fix your schools. the schools are in bad shape. everybody is aware of this. >> thank you. >> that's it. >> next speaker, please. >> honorable commissioners of

education, i am dr. aurelius bishop, pastor of church of god in bayview. i've been pastoring 50 years next month in the bayview. i'm socially involved in education and housing and a variety of things. one of the thing i want to speak, because i only have a minute, is to my experience. my experience -- i spoke at this board sometime three months ago that the african americans, there's the latinos, and the pacific islanders are totally overlooked and they're not being taken care of as they should, and matter of fact, a coalition which i'm a part of, they passed a resolution.

the directors of tcdc as its scheduled meeting of january 3rd, 2018 voted to endorse and support the establishment of urban education academy, the charter schools in the bayview, and mary l. booker academy, and we're standing strong behind that. and i would urge the board to allow this mary l. booker school to also survive to be implemented and support it. thank you very much in advance. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good evening, superintendent, dr. vincent matthews and board of education commissioners. my name is shari taylor. i am a teacher and a product of the san francisco unified school district, and my own children were products of san

francisco unified school district. at mary l. booker leadership academy, we will assist all students in increasing their grade point level average. as we know, many students go from one grade to the next, and they're pushed socially. there are students that do not -- that are promoted and graduate at three and four grade levels below. we have seventh and eighth graders in the public school system that still do not know how to do long division, they do not know how to read the analog clock, they do not know how to write effectively, and we would like to build a community -- our academy, mary l. booker leadership academy would like to build with the parents, so we can have a parent involvement, a relationship where they can trust us, and we can lead our children to victory.

thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good evening. my name is betty hunter. i'm a parent of an 11-year-old child here in san francisco school district. i'm also a product of this district, and i'm just here today to speak on behalf of mary l. booker leadership academy. our son, if this school is opened, will be attending as soon as it opened. not only that, but i've sat here this whole entire time and watched the board talk about equity, and this school will provide that type of equity. not only that, but every speaker who's got up here to have and make a public comment has stated abouten witne equit. the superintendent of this board has stated that this is an equitiable education and district andum is, and it's not showing because san francisco's unified school district at this point is failing all of their after american and latino students, and me as a parent is completely frustrated. my son will be graduating fifth grade this year.

he is not at the level that he should be at, and that is not on my child, nor is it on me, but it is on the school district, the teachers, the principals and all of you board members. and if you guys have a heart or even care remotely about equity as much as you guys speak about it, you guys should implement this school immediately. thank you. >> next speaker, please. >> hello. thank you. my name is susan wong. i'm a mother of three current and former students in the school district. i've been -- so i've been involved with the school district for 17 years as a parent. with this experience, i thukly support the chartership of mary l. booker leadership academy, a much needed six through 12 school in the bayview in light of the low achievement of many bayview mission and excelsior schools. i support a new school which offers fresh hope and greater

choice to these communities. mary l. booker leadership academy deserves your support so that the long-standing achievement gap that we see in the latino and african american community can be closed. i haven't seen any progress in the last 15 years. we've had no child left behind, we've had every child succeed, and to me, they're just empty slogans, because san francisco hasn't changed. so me, the under served students in san francisco would like a school like mary booker that would value their children. thank you. [applause]. >> good evening, board members and superintendent. my name is geraldine anderson, a single mother of two boys, who attended schools in the bayview. i come in support of mary l. booker leadership academy.

she was a woman in the bayview who captured the support of the community while teaching children, young adults and elders to make the bayview neighborhood a better place to live, work, and raise a family. as a single mother, i look to the schools my children have attended to be a support system for my children and myself. i ask that you take into deep consideration allowing this school to not only open but stand to commemorate on our neighborhood, especially our children. i understand the district is in full throttle, trying to make positive changes in schools in the bayview, but i would like to see immediate remedies that are current active in our bayview schools. our children desperately need mary l. booker leadership academy. thank you. >> my name's julie roberts, and

i'm with the san francisco families union and have been working closely with m.e.c. families who have been facing forced colocation under a charter. i have some questions about the mary l. booker academy. they say they're going to offer seats for 420 people, but i'm wondering where these students will go, and i think there's real concerns about ge gentrification and displacement in the city. the folks at mary booker said that he would love to see a school located at malcolm x. or willie brown. all of them have been showing significant progress for students, so i think as we're asking -- talking about choice, we also have to ask, where's the choice, what's the process for schools that are being forced into colocation and who are losing resources because of charters? i want to notice that even though folks say bayview schools are failing students,

that didn't stop them from stealing some of the carrar language in the mary booker proposal, which i think is in recognition of the great work that carver's doing. and i want to acknowledge seven out of the nine board members for mary booker are people who did not live in san francisco a year ago. thank you. >> thank you. [please stand by for captioner switch]

>> i wanted to congratulate the middle school performing arts group for their amazing performance of little shop of horrors. it was really fantastic. the middle school has become this hub for students who are interested in the arts, and they are now feeding many students to the school of the arts. so i want to congratulate

everyone who made that possible. i wanted to recognize a few folks who participated -- who received recognition from the school health programs for their artwork against tobacco and alcohol -- i want to congratulate a couple of students. there was an lgbtq themed contest. i want to congratulate the youth outreach workers, johnson chan ooflincoln high school. our family coalition's night out is scheduled for may 11th, and the latin america teachers association is having their annual scholarship dinner on friday, may 4th. finally, i want to publicly acknowledge quad for their first

ever youth take over in the month of april where some of our public school students are reciting poetry, reading excerpts from essays. it's a great way for talented. our final meeting of the school year on thursday, may 3rd. hope folks can come to that. >> thank you. any announcements from board members. meetings or other reports? >> rules committee will be meeting 6:00 p.m. may 8th. >> 7th. >> 7th. sorry. >> okay. thank you. before we go to committee meetings, i want to just make a couple announcements. i want to reiterate our great thanks to the san francisco symphony and their adventures in music. they've been with us for 30

years and our children get to go down to the symphony and they get music in the schools which is just fantastic. this week on thursday, april 26th, it's youth advocacy day at city hall. so many of our young people will be meeting with supervisors and advocating for the needs of students. so i'm really excited to see them doing what they need to be doing especially at city hall. then i wanted to congratulate the filipino teachers association in particular freedom from balboa and cherry from lincoln high school who led the charge to provide scholarships to our filipino students. any other committee meetings that you want to announce? budget and business services? commissioner haney? may 23rd is not -- that's not -- okay. buildings and grounds, we have a

schedule for may the 28th. curriculum and program, commissioner, do you know what that is in april 30th, does that sound right. >> that's correct, april 30th at 5:30 p.m. >> 5:30. >> okay. so curriculum and program will be monday, april 30th at 5:45 p.m. okay. ad hoc committee on student assignments. >> may 3rd. >> okay. that's thursday, may 3rd at 6:00 p.m., ad hoc committee and personnel matters. commissioner sanchez. april 26th, does that sound right, at 5:00 p.m. >> yeah. we have it then, but i don't know if it's confirmed. >> that's when we have it tentatively. ad hoc for school district and city college joint committees scheduled for june 14th at

6:00 p.m. that one will be held at sfusd. okay. section m, other informational items. we have two items, first item is on peer assistance and review or par. we have margaret reyes who is going to be presenting on this matter. you have two minutes to present on this matter. >> press the button. a light will come on. >> all right. i want to say thank you to the san francisco school board and mr. matthews for giving me the opportunity to speak today and thank you for everyone staying this late. my name is margaret reyes, and i'm a teacher here in san francisco unified. my employee id number is 18505.

i'm here to respectfully request an immediate moratorium and investigation into the uesf sfusd peer assistance and review or par program. mr. kelly, the former president, while he was uesf president stated and i'm going to put a quote, par has a bad reputation. that's where you put a teacher when you want that teacher dead. during the recent fraudulent skelly hearing, the representative stated on audio recording that par was being used as a weapon. with that said, it seems that both uesf and sfusd have an obligation to look into par. on december 26th, 2017, the school board and dr. matthews and members of uesf rereceived a

whistleblower letter and attached was a spreadsheet that had been provided to me and had been provided by, i believe, labor relations, and it had the participants in par for the last 7 years. she attached a mathematically sound argument to prove that the par program is operating in a discriminatory manner and targeting specific groups of people. i personally have asked both sfusd and uesf to answer the allegations and both have refused. the uesf president stated they don't know how the data is gathered, stored, or reported. i made a public reports request regarding the storage and reporting of par data and sfusd told me that they diligently searched, but don't know how they store the data. par is siphoning a million

dollars a year from proposition a funding. there is much about propsation a and appendix x that warrants additional review. >> your time has passed. >> okay. thank you for your time. thank you. >> then i do have two speakers on this item gill. >> he had to leave. >> and steve. >> hi. >> thank you. >> again, i'm with defend public education now. i think we're not talking about san francisco. we're talking about a program that's been implemented all over the state in lausd, thousands much teachers have been put in teachers jails. in berkeley it was challenged by a steward of berkeley federation of teachers because it was -- he found it was being targeted senior teachers and african-american and latino teachers. and after he began to defend those teachers, he himself was put in this program.

so there's a -- i think it's becoming apparent and clear this program is used in a discriminatory way with a lack of transparency and also that there's also some other things that are going on here in this district. that is, teachers are being requested to have nondisclosure agreements when they go into the par program. secret nondisclosure agreements to they can't talk about what's going on. i think it's illegal and n. a public body to require nondisclosure agreements. why with you do that? why would you do that for a teacher? the reason is, there's a lot of bullying -- workplace bullying and discrimination going on against the teachers and staff in san francisco. we have examples with the martin luther king middle school where teachers were being bullied by the principal and the assistant principal, harassed out of the school. there was a frame up against a staff member to fire him and one

of the problems is there's not transparency. i think there needs to be an investigation of this program, and i think it should be terminated or at least moratorium should be put on the program and action against teachers until there's a full investigation. i found it -- we found it outrageous that $1 million is being spent on this program when that money should be going to the teachers, should be going to the staff. it's coming from parcel a. it was teachers were unaware this was going to be happening. the public is unaware. if it's going to go places should go to the teachers and staff and not consultants and programs that bully and intimidate the teachers. we say enough is enough. it's time to stop harassing and bullying the teachers out of their jobs. >> okay. thank you. the next item is 2, posted in the agenda a listing of cash donations. also, of supplies and equipment items donated to the district

item n is the memorial adjournment. this is in memory of ann austin, a retired district administrator. educator ann austin served in an exemplary manner for more than 30 years as a teacher, counselorrer, assistant principal, program director, and principal of the san francisco unified school district. she was known for wearing eye-catching african attire. educator ann austin started her career as a teacher at polytechnic al high school and retired as the principal of ida b. wells. a learner, she was reared in alabama, graduating from the local high school during the segregated south and learned a degree from a and m, a distinguished school where she spent her life as a supporter and active member of the san francisco bay area alumni chapter. she earned an ma from an

educational administration from san francisco state university. educator ann austin worked with african-american and latino students. she wanted to help students from single family households and students raised by grandparents. in order to help her students in the business courses that she taught at gallileo and the former school of business and commerce, educator austin was a visionary and called her students -- and taught her students the king's english using rap. educator austin would go around the city sharing her poetic talents, released a cd and became known as the education rapper. she was an active member of the san francisco alliance of black school educators and a sorority. she served as the alliance isn't

with a passion for serving on the oratorical festival and raising funds for student scholarships, many were the first generation to attend college. on monday april 16th, when she arrived at ida b. wells, the school was like a ship turned on its side in turbulent waters at sea. educator austin urned it the school around. she implemented the 3as, which the school uses today, first is for attendance. second is for attitude. third is for achievement. she coined the terms i rise for the exemplary saturday school program held at dr. martin luther king middle school in partnership with the sfusd and the san francisco alliance of black school educators. ann austin passed away on march 13th, 2018, and the board of education, the superintendent of schools extend our deepest sympathy to her husband of 52

years, dr. therman austin. she now takes her rest. however, she will never be forgotten by her students, colleagues, parents, and family who make up the sfusd. thank you to virginia and emily for providing us this beautiful tribute to educator ann austin. thank you. [ applause ] >> so at this time, we would like to take any public comment for those who have submitted speaker cards for closed session items. i do not have any cards at this time. so section o is closed. the board will go into close the session. i call this regular meeting into recess, and we'll be coming back . ess, and we'll be coming back >> section p is following the

closed session. we're going to resume the regular board meeting and i'm going to report on the closed session action items. a vote on approval -- i move approval of a stipulate expulsion agreement where the parties agreed to waive the expulsion hearing of one high school student case number 2018-13 and stipulated to the expulsion of the student from the district for one year from the date of the board's approval of the stipulated expulsion agreement. i move approval of the expulsion pursuant to the recommendation of the administrative hearing panel of one high school student case number 2018-14, from the district for the remainder of the spring 2018 semester through the fall 2018 semester. this is the readout of the april 24th, 2018 closed

session. the board by a vote of five ayes, two absent, cook and norton approved the -- of two principals in. the board by a vote of five ayes and two absent cooke and no, sirton giand -- no, sir -- ton -- -- [ inaudible ] >> -- give direction to general counsel in the matters of 123d usd in the matters of hl versus sfusd and dc versus sfusd. the board authorized the general counsel to initiate litigation. so those are the closed action items this even.

item p is adjournment. this hearing is adjourned. thank you. good morning, everyo.

good afternoon. i want to thank you all for being here today to talk about not only the success that we've had here in the garage in the mca with the police department, but also talk about what we're doing around car break-ins. i want to thank the director, scott, peskin and stefani, who have been at this and talking about this for some time. you know, we have and have had a car break-in epidemic in the city of san francisco. in 2017, we had 30,000 break-ins in the city of san francisco. as we talked about for months and i have as mayor, it should

not be a gamble to park your car on the streets of san francisco. this affects people who visit the city of san francisco, the people that work in the city of san francisco and it affects the people that live in the city of san francisco. and the current conditions on the street, is something that is unacceptable. i want to commend chief scott. at the end of last year he implemented reforms, creating a dedicated unit in the police department and increasing foot reforms, we've seen 17% decrease this year alone, but as we talk about all the time, we're not resting on our laurells, it's still unacceptable what is happening, so we're moving forward. we're here in the stockton garage. this is a garage that is one of the most popular in the city. right next to the financial district, right next to union square, right next to places that people come to visit.

last year, 2017, it was a hot spot for car break-ins. a high of 62 one month. but thank foss the reforms, we have seen a dramatic decrease in the amount of car break-ins here in the stockton garage. specifically an 83% decrease in the amount of car break-ins here. so in january, we had 44 break-ins. in february, 12. in the month of march, 9. and knock on wood, this year, so far -- this month so far, we've had zero in the month of april. so if you think about that from a high watermark of 62 last year per month, to now zero so far in the month of april, we need to acknowledge, celebrate and respect this as the city of san francisco. and we need to think about

moving forward and what we're going do do about it. we thank chief scott, dedicated foot patrol officer here in the garage, which i know we can't replicate everywhere, but we've installed cameras, done fencing around the infrastructure to reduce the loitering. a ton of software and hardware upgrades, entry kiosk, monitoring system. simple but effective hardware and software upgrades making a difference for the people that park their cars here in the garage. it's with great excitement we're here to celebrate that. we're doing this in other garages, six throughout the city of san francisco. a garage that supervisor stefani represents, when i was a district 2 supervisor was the bane of our existence on pier street, now down 55% thanks to the efforts of the mta and the police department. i want to thank captain engler

representing the area. we are doing it right and the sfmta and our city garages are doing it right. this is where we can lead by example. we can control this property. and we can focus on efforts that are going to work for car break-ins. so today, we are not only celebrating and honoring what we have accomplished so far, at stockton and these other six garages, but we're announcing also today that all 22 city-owned garages, by the end of next year, we'll be implementing all of these reforms at all of our city-owned garages. car break-ins are epidemic, but don't have to be moving forward. just the other week, we launched the parks mark campaign, a number of announcements are coming in the next weeks and around street cleanliness and

homelessness, but as it relates to car break-ins, what we're doing now is working and we're going to now put the pedal to the metal and make sure that every one of our city-owned garages republiclicates what we seen. we all want to see it replicate the success we've had here as well. thank you for coming here today. with that, we'll introduce the chief of police, bill scott. >> thank you, mayor farrell. first let me say thanks to mayor farrell and supervisors peskin and stefani for their leadership. keeping the focus on the issue is important in terms of us moving the needle and turning the epidemic of car break-ins around. i'm going to talk about mr. ed riskin, head of mta, but today's approach, we know is the way to

go. we have to be a more resilient city. we talk a lot about prevention, don't make yourself an easy target, but there are other things we can do to be more resilient and prevent the crimes from happening in the first place. the things that have been implemented here, the fencing installed, to stop unauthorized entry, the lighting and the surveillance cameras to discourage would-be thieves, this is a team effort. and this is what collaboration brings to the table. again, go back to mayor farrell and his leadership and before him, mayor lee in order to force this issue, force a collaborative partnership that has led us to some success this year. we are working hard to continue the effort as the mayor said. this is going to be spread to

all the city parking garages. although the deployment is part of that factor, we'll do what is necessary in terms of having the visibility and the presence to make sure that people know we're out here. that was part of our doubling of the foot beat. the people that are apt to victimize others need to see us, they need to see their police officers out here visible. i think that gives everybody not only a sense of security, but also it deters these crimes from happening in the first place. we know we can't have a police officer at every corner every hour of the day, and that's why we need other measures, fencing, lighting, cameras to help us identify people that are apt to victimize others. so with this initiative, we believe that we will continue in the direction that we're going in terms of reducing these types of offenses and as the mayor said, we have about a 17%

decrease year-to-date which is over a thousand less victims. i think that's something we can all be pleased with. but we still have a lot of work to do. i would like to introduce ed riskin, the head of mta. >> thank you, chief. good afternoon. we're happy to be able to be here. it may not be sexy stuff, but parking garages are an important part of the transportation system here in san francisco. we want people to be able to find parking and feel their car is going to be safe when they leave it, whether it's on the street or off the street. the parking garages are ways for people to find parking, not spend time looking for parking on the street, and we want them to know when they leave their car in a public parking garage in san francisco that their car is safe. so we have been working on this in a number of different ways, partner with the police

department, the leadership of chief scott has been critically important. a lot of the success that you heard the mayor and the chief talk about at this garage in particular has really been the presence of san francisco police department. and we work with them in districts around the city where we have our garages to try to focus their resources as strategically as we can, because as the chief says, we can't have a cop in every garage all the time. to that end, we're using old technology and new technology to make more sustainable improvements in the garages, so that we need to -- so that we can really rely on the police only when we need them. the old technology as you heard, it's fencing, lighting, signage and we've seen some pretty good results already from some of those activities. and then there is the new technology. a number of years ago, doing an assessment of our garages, what we determined was that a lot of the technology in our garages

was old and out of date, not just from security perspective, but operational and revenue collection. so we developed a program a number of years ago supported by mayor lee and board of supervisors and the mta board of directors, that culminated in a three-year project to modernize and upgrade all our garages. we're about a third of the way through this 3-year project and these improvements do include things like high-definition cameras that hope us both monitor activity in realtime, but also help the police after an incident make positive identification of suspects so they can -- and particularly they can identify repeat offenders and really target their investigative resources appropriately. it includes more secure gates for folks getting in and out.

communications equipment so that patrons can communicate with garage staff. a number of other improvements to make our garages safer and secure facilities. as you heard from the mayor, the initial results at the pier street garage which i used to hear about from mayor farrell back when he was supervisor farrell and supervisor stefani, it had been a problem area. you heard the results, 55% reduction since the new improvements were in place. this is success we hope to replicate everywhere. we're not declaring victory here. you see a park smart sign, not a mission accomplished, because as the chief said there is more work to do, but we'll continue and complete these installations by 2020. we'll continue to coordinate with the police department and the d.a.'s office and are grateful for the strong leadership we have in our mayor and board of supervisors and the

mta board of directors to ensure that our garages can be safer for people to park. thank you. >> thank you. and for your leadership. i would like to bring up two members of the board of supervisors who have been focused on the issue for a long time now, and have been leaders on this, supervisor peskin and supervisor skef stefani. >> thank you, mayor, chief scott, ed riskin, the working men and women of the police department. i want to note a number of great cases that the cops have made in the last number of days, 11 arrests out of northern, central and southern stations, so thank you, captains, for that work. and then supervisor stefani and i are doing our part today by funding that $32.5 million which is to say that we're parking

here and those parking validations, those parking costs go to pay that. we're always worried about the money. this has been extremely frustrating, not only as a supervisor, but somebody who had his car broken into on the street. and i cannot tell you how delighted i am that we are addressing it. and those numbers are extraordinary numbers. 83% drop in this garage in a few month's time is really something to celebrate. i was just across the street at my optometrist and she said they have noted the immense change. so i heard about it from people on the street before i actually heard about it right here from the mayor. i want to thank you again and look forward to getting it to zero. [applause] >> thank you, supervisor peskin. last month at the budget committee, we approved the resolution of transferring this back to the sfmta and i raised

questions about their greater public safety measures at this location and all the garages under their jurisdiction. i was motivated to do so not only on the terrible story of someone's dog thrown off the garage, sorry to bring that up, but it was devastating to many people and its owner. and the only way the police were able to identify the perpetrator was because of a private dashboard camera that captured the crime. but i was able to do so based on my own experience sitting in the pier street garage and witnessing sophisticated criminals staking out cars while i tried to call it in. they laughed at me while i was on the phone with police. this is criminal tourism and it must stop. this is a garage in desperate need of help and i want to thank the sfmta for their attention to these issues. we've heard everything that has been done in the garage and after the installation of 12

cameras, new lighting, signage, the pier street garage saw a significant decline in break-ins. with a 55% reduction in six months after the upgrades. i cannot thank everybody enough. i hear from constituents every day they do not feel safe and we're responsible and accountable for the safety of our community and cannot allow opportunities for people to be victimized. i am encouraged by their progress we have seen here, due to the measures put in place through our partnership with the mta. improving public safety and reducing car break-ins takes a multi-pronged approach and we have to use all of the tools available to us. i applaud the sfmta and the police department for working together to address this epidemic. this type of collaborative approach will combat future problems. i'd like to thank mayor farrell for his amazing leadership to make sure all departments are working together to make

significant improvements in the area. as the numbers show, special attention and the presence of security enhancements actually do work. it is my priority to fight for these resources. we know that when captain joe engler of northern station assigned police officers to the palace of fine arts, a hot spot for auto break-ins, there were zero break-ins. we know what works outside the garages and inside them and we must invest in those resources to keep our communities safe. these initiatives are just the beginning to tackling this crisis head on. last month, i called for a hearing to review the progress of safety measures in place at our city-owned parking lots and garages and that hearing will take place in june. this is yet another chance to learn about initiatives at these sites and to receive updates on what is working. i know today that we all agree that residents and visitors to san francisco should not be fearful of break-ins or their

own personal safety in parking garages or lots and we must do everything we can to keep them safe. thank you, mayor farrell, chief scott, supervisor peskin, all those who worked to improve the safety in our garages. thank you very much. >> thank you, supervisor. that wraps up the press conference. we'll be available if you have follow-up questions afterwards. ♪ >> not only did the total death

on our streets from traffic collisions decrease dramatically in 2017, pedestrian deaths did as well. since 2013, fewer pedestrians have been killed on our streets. this is really good news. you know, no one wants to see the accidents on the side of the road, no one wants to experience going to a crime scene on the road knowing your loved one has been hit by a car or sadly tragically killed. this is about bringing that number of 20 from 2017 down to zero. we don't want another death on our streets because of human error, because of anything that we can avoid. if we change our behavior, we change our roads and we do a better job here in the city and county of san francisco. >> my ask of the public, number one be aware of your surrounding, be aware of the law, be aware of the street

signals and crosswalks and try to work within the laws designed to keep you safe. look at where we were and look at where we are. this vision will be a reality. >> we all have to remember that all of us, all of us every single day, no matter how you get to work, school, wherever you go, all of us are always pedestrians. this impacts all of us. >> school starts again on monday, so i hope as you are reporting today you will encourage people to slow down, to be mindful, to recognize that you're going to have more cars on the street on monday. we're going to have more kids on bikes, more kids walking. please, be slow, be safe and be mindful. >> i just want to urge everyone at the sound of my voice to make some corrections. if you operate a motor vehicle, think about it, think about the person standing on the corner. think about how fast you're driving. think about the stop sign you're about to come to. just think. and just doing so, you'll help

someone live another day. i guarantee that. i guarantee that. ♪ [gavel] >> all right, welcome to our land use committee of, i'm katy tang, to my right is jane kim and to my left, asha safai. we would like to thank sf gov tv. any no