>> president breed: good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the san francisco board of supervisors meeting for tuesday, may 8, 2018. madame clerk, please call the roll. breed present. cohen not present. fewer present. kim present. peskin present. ronen present. safai not present. sheehy present. stefani present. tang present. yee present.

madame president, you have a quorum. >> president breed: thank you, please join us for the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic, for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> president breed: thank you, madame clerk, any communications? >> there are none to report. >> president breed: colleagues, we have the meeting minutes for approval for the meeting of april 3, 2018, is there a motion to approve the minutes? moved by supervisor peskin, seconded by sheehy. without objection, those pass. >> special order, 2 p.m. is the appearance by the honorable mayor mark farrell. no questions were submitted from the eligible supervisors. the mayor may address the board

up to five minutes. >> president breed: welcome, mr. mayor, the floor is yours. >> mayor farrell: thank you very much, it's good to be back here. i wanted to speak briefly during my few minutes about how we're helping the city plan for an uncertain economic future. for the past seven years our city has enjoyed unparalleled economic growth, the likes of which san francisco has never seen before. we've added 190,000 jobs since 2010 and our unemployment rate has dropped to under 3%, one of of the best rates in the country and the lowest in san francisco history. since the recession, our general fund revenue has grown by over $1.9 billion helping us provide more public services and programs that our residents depend on. additionally, we have built up our budget reserves to protect against the next down turn. seven years ago our reserves

available amounted to just under $40 million. which was just 1.4% of the general fund revenue. since then, our reserves have grown over $400 million, which is 9.6 persz of the general fund, just under the 10% goal. across every sector, from tourism and hospitality to manufacturing, health care, finance, technology and small business, our city's economic standing has never been stronger. but we know the growth can't last forever, it's unsustainable and we would be irresponsible to believe otherwise. while we're in the midst of unprecedented economic growth, the legacy of the great recession looms large. during 2008 and 2010, san francisco lost 50,000 jobs and unemployment reached almost double digits. we were forced to reduce critical services, everything from muni to library hours to street repairs, and health

services impacted by the last recession. as public officials we have a duty to prepare for the next economic down turn. just like we have to plan to ensure that our buildings are seismically safe, we have to prepare our economy to be ready in the event of economic disaster. one of the major threats is from the current white house. we're dealing with a volatile federal administration that plays fast and loose with fiscal policy and shown no indication will support local government when those policies back fire. so that's why today i'm pleased to announce the next step in the city's economic plan. mayor lee established a framework for this first in the nation plan back in 2016 and we're announcing significant progress to ensure that san francisco is prepared for the next economic down turn. as a result of the work carried out through the plan, we have now established detailed

recession scenarios and the impact it would have on the city. to understand how to best recovery, we need to know what kind of effect it would have been the city. a down turn in the technology sector would lose 54,000 jobs. even the mildest scenario results in a loss of more than 15,000 jobs and the unemployment rate of over 6%. with this data, we can develop strategies. along with the recession, we have identified key economic factors to indicate when a recession appears imminent. we have established a cadre of local, regional and national trends to watch, including numbers related to personal income tax revenues, gross receipt filings, stock prices among many other factors. when these figures hit certain economic thresholds it will indicate that we need to take

action as a city. we're going to get lengths to ensure we collect the information necessary to predict a recession. now we need a group of professionals to monitor and act according to the data. that is why i issued executive directive establishing a group of city staffers that will observe economic trends and develop short and long-term mitigation strategies to ensure a prompt recovery from the next recession. this will be city controller, city economist, city administrator, the mayor budget director and the director of the office of workforce development. i'm directing the group to submit strategies by september 1 of this year. i'm also directing all relevant city departments to support the group in the planning and implementation of the policies. this unprecedented level of economic prosperity will only last for so long and our fiscal responsibility is clear. earlier this year, moody awarded

san francisco its highest possible credit rating and the highest rating in city history. as budget chair of the board of supervisors for four years, i was glad to craft a number of -- [bell ringing] -- we can't rest on our lawyers -- laurels or be complacent as a city. thank you everyone for your time. >> president breed: thank you. madame clerk, go to the consent agenda. >> clerk: items 1 through 6 on consent, considered to be routine, this member may be removed and considered separately. >> president breed: roll call. >> items 1 through 6, ronen aye. safai aye.

sheehy aye. stefani aye. tang aye. yee aye. breed aye. cohen aye. fewer aye. kim aye. peskin aye. there are 11 ayes. >> president breed: those items are adopted unanimously. >> ordinance to amend the building code to revise the city's slow protection act by clarifying the scope, upping the map references. regarding the type of proposed construction that triggers application of the act into ceqa determination. >> president breed: supervisor peskin? >> supervisor peskin: thank you,

madame president, colleagues, when this item was before the board two weeks ago, following a unanimous approval by the inspection commission and favorable recommendation from the land use committee we were grappling with concerns raised to the scope of applicability and concerns that this might increase the workload of the department of building inspection such that it would be difficult to comply with it. as a baseline principle, my endeavor with the revisions i'm going to propose, that development projects proposed for sites on seismic or landfill hazard zones receive the necessary level of review to ensure that -- really not if, it's when a catastrophic earthquake hits san francisco, our structures withstand that disaster. and i'm pleased that over the last two weeks, my staff, i particularly want to acknowledge

lee and dbi staff have arrived at a compromise which vests in the department discretion send the project to a higher level of peer review or review by a structural advisor committee dbi while preserving a paper trail and set of objective criteria reflecting why a certain project was be subject to a higher level of review. these criteria are reflected on top of page 5, beginning line 2, and include the ground slope, the soil, geological conditions, nature of the planned excavation and construction, proximity and type of adjacent construction, the effect on safety and stability. i can read all of the amendments in the record if you like, they are not substantive and with that, colleagues, dbi staff is

on hand to answer any questions or satisfy any lingering doubts, but i believe that we are in agreement and i'd respectfully move the amendments before you and ask for your support of this ordinance as amended. >> president breed: supervisor peskin has made a notion amend, seconded by supervisor safai, can we take the amendments without objection? without objection, the amendments pass. >> supervisor safai: i wanted to add in a couple of notes. i really appreciate the hard work that supervisor peskin and his staff did. this is an important piece of legislation as it pertains to a city that is constantly under the threat of unsafe ground, earthquakes and other things that we need to be really cautious how we proceed with projects that are on slopes. i appreciate the amendments that are made. i know there was a lot of thought that went into this and i wanted to be added as cosponsor. >> president breed: thank you supervisor. supervisor cohen?

>> supervisor cohen: please add me, this is tremendous work you and your staff has taken i am delighted to be added as cosponsor. >> president breed: thank you. colleagues, can we take this same house, same call? >> supervisor sheehy: supervisor sheehy asked to be added. >> president breed: thank you. colleagues, same house, same call? without objection the ordinance as amended passes unanimously on the first reading. next item, please. >> item 8 to authorize the filing of application for funding assigned to the metropolitan transportation commission, committing any necessary matching funds and to authorize public works to accept and spend $19 million in one bay area grant funds awarded through the mtc. >> president breed: same house, same call? the resolution is adopted.

>> item 9, accept and expend $2.7 million from the united states department of transportation federal highway administration for state financial assistance under the california disaster assistance can act. >> president breed: same house, same call? without objection, the resolution is adopted unanimously. next item. >> clerk: item 10 is resolution to retroactively authorize the rec and park department to accept and expend $3 million grant from the state of california department of housing and community development for the period november 22, 2017 through june 30, 2019 to fund parks and community center project. >> president breed: same house, same call? without objection the resolution is adopted unanimously. madame clerk, please call items 11 through 13 together. >> clerk: three resolutions to

authorize the office of the district attorney to accept and expend grant money from the california governor's office of emergency services for item 11 in the amount of $1 million for the victim witness assistance program october 1, 2017 through september 20, 2018. for item 12, $700,000 grant for the elder abuse program july 1, 2016 through december 31, 2019 and item 13, approximately $307,000 for the response to marginalized victims program january 21, 2018 through december 312019. >> supervisor cohen: i would like to be added to these three items. >> president breed: thank you. seeing no other names on the roster, colleagues, can we take these items same house, same call? without objection, the resolutions are adopted unanimously. next item. >> clerk: ordinance to amend the

planning code to allow the owner of premises leased to the city for public safety related use to resume a preexisting self-storage use after the city have a indicates the property without regard to whether that self-storage use was established with benefit of permit from the ceqa determine nation and make the appropriate findings. >> president breed: same house, same call? the ordinance passes unanimously. >> item 15, resolution to respond to the recent proposal to expand the private marina located in clipper cove at treasure island and reaffirm san francisco's commitment to public recreation, public education, environmental protection and social equity. >> president breed: supervisor kim? >> supervisor kim: thank you, colleagues, i am asking for a one week continuance on item number 15. this resolution concerns the environmental protection public recreation and use education at clipper cove. and for those of you that do not

know clipper cove, it is a public space on treasure island that has proposal for a marina development. after the passage of the resolution and strong support from the community including the sierra club and others, the stakeholders have agreed to sit down to see if they can further compromise on an outcome for the marina development over the course of the next week. i want to thank supervisor peskin for assisting with the mediation. no matter the outcome, i am committed to moving this forward and have the board of supervisors on record to protect this valuable public access. i want to recognize supervisor fewer and sheehy for cosponsoring this resolution, i'm asking for continuance to next week, may 15. >> president breed: supervisor kim, motion to continue this item one week to may 15, 2018, seconded by supervisor safai, colleagues take that without objection?

this item is continued for one week. madame clerk, let's go to roll call for introductions. >> clerk: first member to introduce new business, supervisor ronen. >> supervisor ronen: thank you, colleagues. today, i am proud to introduce an ordinance that would create a office of sexual harassment and prevention. sexual violence is a national epidemic. with the powerful #metoo movement, thousands of survivors have been inspired to break the silence around abuse. frankly, i wasn't surprised to hear that so many women here in san francisco go through this horrific experience, but what did shock me was to hear about the appalling failures on the part of our city systems in responding to these victims. i have heard enough stories that it's clear that these are not just a few isolated incidents.

there is a pattern of negligence and mistreatment that is abusive toward women. from hospital workers sending a pregnant woman home to heal after disclosing rape during a checkup to a police officer saying both parties involved needed to take responsibility as if there is no difference between victims and assailants, we see departments unable to keep san franciscans safe from sexual violence. these are our city employees who are blaming victims for their own assaults, disregarding the severity of the rape, and denying survivors the right to investigation. but enough is enough. i am introducing this legislation today to ensure there is a dedicated team to oversee departmental accountability when sexual harassment and sexual assault cases are disregarded by the city. and to also help survivors find solutions that restore their dignity and sense of safety. i am creating this department with the goal of remedying

complaints about city department failures, promoting transparency through information sharing and developing policies for systemic harassment in san francisco. the office would have a team of three employees, one staff member would be tasked with interacting with sexual assault and sexual harassment survivors and their advocates, to receive complaints and navigate survivors through their options for remedy. one staff member will collaborate with city departments and community agencies to gather data, understand current patterns of violence on the ground and produce yearly reports with policy recommendations. the office director will provide mediation between survivors and city department staff and written guidance to remedy mistreatment and objectively proceed with cases. the director will also serve as the public spokesperson and liaison with the board of supervisors and the mayor. i want to thanks so much the survivors that have come forth

to bravely share their stories and partner with my office to prevent more survivors from going through this nightmare. many of these women testified during a hearing two weeks ago, and then again today, at a rally before the meeting. i want to thank all the community-based organizations and advocates for collaborating with my office on this legislation and for doing this critical and hard work every day. i want to give a very, very special thanks to catalina morales of my office who has put her heart and soul and incredible expertise into the legislation, and is truly responsible for making it possible and happen. and last but not least, i want to thank all my colleagues on the board of supervisors for unanimously cosponsoring this legislation. what a rare thing to introduce a piece of legislation that is unanimously supported and what a strong message we are sending as a board today by doing that. it is an honor for me to serve

on a majority women board of supervisors and to stand together to ensure accountability for the survivors who have been wronged twice. once by their assailant and once again by our broken system. it's an honor to stand with our male allies as well. i look forward to the work of the office to begin hopefully this summer, move as quickly as possible and for true accountability and transparency to be the norm for survivors in san francisco. the rest i submit. >> president breed: thank you, supervisor. supervisor safai? >> supervisor safai: thank you. i have two items, one i will re-refer on, with supervisor tang, the first is a request, i've asked the city attorney to draft legislation as it revolves around the emerging transportation technologies we see, in particular the scooters we see on the streets. many of the people enjoy the privileges of being able to drop

off and pick up the scooters wherever they may be and we're happy to have new industry in san francisco that can move people around, get them out of cars, but when we think about how those scooters are picked up and dropped off, we forget about the workers doing that work. in these cases we're talking about people that are paid $5 to $12 a scooter to pick up the scooters, recharge them, haul them away, often, and bring them back without any training, without any safety standards and without a fair wage rate. we've asked the city attorney to look into the idea of adding a provision in the prevailing wage code to protect the workers and have them fall under that category and they're investigating that. we've also reached out to the sfmta asking them when they do issue the permit, asking them to amend the permit to require prevailing wage as well as labor harmony provision be added to

that. i hope that the fruit of mr. givner and his team's labor provides something and a pathway to protect workers in our city. these companies are capitalized, we're talking about millions and millions of dollars in startup money. some have $25 million for one company that just emerged in the last few months. recently, we found out that lyft, which is capitalized over $2 billion is going to get into the scooter business as well. if they have that level of cash, and that level of capitalization, they need to be thinking about the workers that are providing the service and making it accessible to all san franciscans and all san francisco neighborhoods. we're not asking it to be limited to scooters, but with we wanted to look at all the forms of emerging transportation and workers and their wage. the rest i submit.

>> supervisor sheehy: today, i have in me more yam for sun wolf. she decided to lead the parade on motorcycle. they moved to the front because frankly, they didn't want the bikes to overheat. while they were in the back, idling. and so they the harleys and indians, they led the way. when they first started. it was obviously just a handful. but with each pride parade, dikes on bikes, the contingent became bigger and bigger.

there are more than 400 riders in some parades and always leading the way for 40 years was wolf, in her leather vest, with the dikes on bikes logo and chaps. this has become an international phenomenon, with 16 chapters and thousands of members throughout the united states, britain and australia. dikes on bikes are always at the head of the pack when there is a parade. and the dikes on bikes has been this vigorous vibrant unequivocal expression of our fight for liberation. going back to 1974, when we really didn't have rights and even san francisco was not a safe place for us. you know, i think they're a living symbol of the strength of

our community, and the strength of our resistance. wolf is survived by dikes on bikes around the world, and the rest i submit. >> clerk: thank you, supervisor. supervisor stefani. >> supervisor stefani: thank you. supervisor tang? >> supervisor tang: today i am excited about the piece of legislation i'm going introduce. despite many exciting pieces of legislation, this is my favorite in my whole career because i'm trying to attract small businesses to district 4 and partnering with supervisor safai to bring this to his division as well. we're introducing legislation to create a small business attraction program for district 4 and 11. and what it would do is eliminate the notification process for certain types of already permitted uses within our two districts. we welcome other supervisors to join along and the beauty of the

legislation is that it still allows each individual senior and district to -- supervisor and district to respect the zoning you have to your current neighborhoods. for example, if there is a permitted use going to another permitted use, there would be no requirement for neighborhood notification. some may wonder, you know, well why should we take away neighborhood notification? for one, i would say that the vast majority of projects that have to go through whether it's even conditional use or change of use process, for the vast majority of time, they're almost always approved. and just the length of time businesses spend trying to open up shop, it would shave down 3-6 months in the permitting time. and for our neighborhoods, it could mean the difference between a business locating in our neighborhood or not. we've had many hearings about store front vacancies so i know supervisor safai and i are very interested in solving for this

issue of store front vacancies of the emerging -- well it's really taken over the world already, but the e-commerce where everyone is shopping online. we want to preserve our brick-and-mortar stores in our neighborhoods. i would say that almost every other week we're getting calls from people who want to locate in district 4. and so i'm very excited by that enthusiasm and energy, but a lot of times people are turned off how long and how onerous the permitting process is. so i really hope this will be a great tool for us and i invite other supervisors to join us in this effort. if there are uses that still require conditional use or alcohol permits, liquor license permits, live entertainment, or if there are programs already in place city-wide such as cannabis program we have, or for massage uses, that those would still require neighborhood notification in addition to

formula retail. these are really those uses such as restaurants and retail that we aren't getting in the neighborhoods that we would like to see occupy our vacant store fronts faster. i really hope that we'll be able to move this forward and then maybe we could turn it over to my cosponsor supervisor safai who asked to re-refer on the item and i want to thank my office, the brain child of the legislation. and really helped to bring to light the goals that i wanted to achieve legislatively, thank you, menka. >> supervisor safai: thank you, supervisor tang, thank you, i think sometimes like minds work alike. we were working on this item in parallel without knowing until we just talked to one another or had our staff talk to one another. this is really exciting. i know some parts of san francisco don't necessarily have some of the barriers that we do, but i think every district in

the city understands the barriers that small businesses face when they're trying to open up, particularly when locating in a space that might have been a previous use that wasn't the exact use they're intending to. so what motivated me was when i came into office about a year and a half ago. we had a woman that i met when i was going door-to-door and she said my dream is to open up a cafe on mission street. so the location she found happened to be a spot that was a woman's clothing store, but had been used actually as a front for illegal gambling and after-hours place of ill repute. for lack of a better word. and so, that was shut down, thanks to captain mcfadden over a series of time, but then she came in, found this location and was ready to open up the cafe. signed the lease and believed she was going to open in a month, but found out because it

was a women's clothing store and she was opening a cafe, they had to go through change of use and notification process. it has added literally a year to her process. and she will be opening up this month. her husband is a teacher. they're a local family. they live within walking distance, it's exactly the kind of business we want to encourage in a corridor like mine that has high rate of vacancies. i'm happy to stand with supervisor tang on this pilot effort. we would like to see uses permitted, or have to go through the conditional use process as many of the categories we've defined. this is about sending a signal to other businesses, some of whom are down stairs, that i was recruiting at our pop-up, saying we have empty store fronts, we have places of business, we have cheaper price per square foot. we want to make it easier for

you and more timely, so we also think there is another benefit to this. this will free up planning department staff time and i know supervisor ronen and i have talked about this, many of my other colleagues. we want to free up the staff time to facilitate the affordable housing and housing in the city. by freeing up the planners that would be reviewing some of the projects, this will now allow them to focus more on the crisis at hand and our housing crisis in the city. there is a double benefit for it. it facilitates opening up small businesses, but also staff time at the planning department, so we're excited about this. colleagues, i hope you support moving this forward and we hope it will expand to other parts of the city. supervisor peskin and i started a conversation about expanding this to other parts of san francisco, but we wanted to do this, supervisor tang and i, in an aggressive way in our own districts and look forward to

expanding to other parts of san francisco. the rest i submit. thank you. >> clerk: thank you. madame president, it being 2:35, we will return to introductions and i'll yield the floor back to you. >> president breed: today, we are celebrating asian pacific american heritage month and we have a number of special guests here in the chamber to honor. each board member has chosen someone special for their work and everything they contribute to the quality of life here in the city and county of san francisco. so at this time, i would like to turn it over to supervisor norman yee to introduce our special commendations and we'll proceed at that point. >> supervisor yee: thank you, president breed. colleagues, in 1978, president jimmy carter signed into law declaring may 4-11 as asian

pacific islanders week, then in 1991, george bush declared the entire month of may as asian pacific american heritage month. historically the community has contributed greatly to the social, economic and cultural development of our country and city, yet their contributions were not always recognized. and they have faced significant discrimination over the years. apa immigrants have worked alongside the irish to build a transcontinent al railroad, labor and canneries on the coast, toiled in our laundry service industry, restaurants, nail salons, nurtured young children in childcare centres, care for sick patients as nurses and health care workers. all to improve the quality of life for their san francisco residents and neighbors. they have also been public

servants such as our late mayor ed lee. my own family is part of this legacy. my grandfather immigrated from china to san francisco in the late 1800s. my father, who was born in china, was a paper son, so he had to go through this whole act of dealing with the exclusion act during that time. my parents owned a grocery store in the castro neighborhood in the 50s and 60s. i'm a proud son of hard working immigrant family. there are countless others who face great hardships trying every day to make a better life for themselves and their families today in the u.s. let us remember that. and what unites us and not divide us, we are all immigrants of this country at some point in our family's heritage. as san franciscans let's stand

by our immigrant brothers and sisters, and today, and during this month of may and apa heritage month, let us celebrate and remember the many contributions of our asian pacific american brothers and sisters. as recognizing each district's honorees, my office reached out to the center of asian american media, and in anticipation of their annual film, food and music festival. this year, they are generously giving a pair of free tickets to attend the opening night gala at the castro theater this thursday, featuring the documentary on congressman norman manila's life. in order for the apa heritage month i am so excited this is

the first year camfest, which highlights the diverse tal won'ts of the apa -- talents of the apa community, coincides with apa heritage month. i encourage everyone to enjoy the rich offerings by the camfest. by checking the heritage foundation website. apasf.org. before i introduce my honouree, i would like to bring up, if you're here, come on up, it seems this is tradition for claudine to address our chamber during this month. this is one of our community's happiest month of the year, the month of may. i want to thank supervisor yee

for reading into the record about the history of the month. we celebrate, join the rest of the country in celebrating the 40th anniversary of this particular month where we try to make sure that we celebrate the history and accomplishments of asian pacific americans in the san francisco bay area. supervisor yee mentioned about camfest, i also wanted to say on thursday, during the opening night, we will be honoring congressman, former congressman and secretary of commerce for his work 40 years ago. it was because of his leadership at the time back in 1978 that today we celebrate the 40th anniversary. so we want to encourage everybody to attend camfest for the whole month and because it is the 40th anniversary, the apa heritage foundation has teamed with the camfest, the san

francisco public library, the museum and the asian pacific fund in providing a month long of celebration activities. we have compiled a calendar of events on our website, as supervisor yee mentioned, and here are copies. we would like to leave it for the public. please enjoy. and learn more about diversity within the asian culture. thank you. >> supervisor yee: thank you. so right now i want to introduce my honouree. i would like to introduce immigration partner, she has overcome -- i'll read a few things about you. she la over 20 years of experience -- has over 20 years of experience, working with

entrepreneurs, and filmmakers. her desire to work in the immigration stem from her parents experience immigrating to the u.s. in 1946. while studying at u.c. berkeley in the 70s, her passion for civil rights and ethnic pride grew, especially during the vietnam war. she became the executive director of the outreach, leading a term of attorneys, advocating for immigration and housing rights. she credits her experience at apollo as part of her inspiration for her pursuit -- to pursue her law degree. in addition to her daily work at the law firm, where she is a partner, she serves on the national board of trustees for

the american immigration council. advising on national policy affecting immigrants seeking to work and contribute their skills in this country. recently, she successfully represented the state bar of california before the california supreme court in a matter of sergio garcia. an undocumented immigrant who applied for the california state bar, but was almost prevented from doing so due to immigration status. thanks to her and her team's advocacy on his behalf, he was ultimately admitted to the california state bar. the state supreme court decision followed a bill that governor brown signed last fall, allowing the state bar to admit undocumented residents who meet all requirements to practice law. and on january 1, 2018, california became the first

state in the country to license undocumented immigrants as attorneys. she was quoted as saying, whether it's reuniting families and working to grant refuge or safe haven to someone who has been persecuted or someone who wants a great job or wants to carry out their vision for business, immigration law is really about possibilities, she says. that's the part that is compelling for me, that's quote unquote. in the community, she also serves on the advisory board for the center for gender and refugee studies at the university of california. at hastings school of law, as well as on the board of the directors of the asian pacific legal outreach which provides services to those facing domestic violence and human

trafficking. not only does she work on behalf of immigrants daily, she mentors younger apa attorneys. one of her former mentors is ivy league chief of staff to jane kim's office and this is what ivy lee said, when i was a young attorney trying to understand immigration law, she helped me demystify processes and made me feel very welcome under pressure. she always acted with great poise and calm. she is a leading national expert on immigration policy and is a frequent speaker at the regional national conferences and panels. for three straight years from 2014 to 2016, she has been selected as one of the top 50

women northern california super lawyers. that's quite an accomplishment. from 2004 through 2017, she was named -- she has been named in northern california super lawyer by law and politics magazine, an industry wide poll which identifies by peer review the top 5% attorneys in the field. so she actually has a million of these type of distinctions, but i'll let her talk about herself. today, we recognize your commitment to have beeninging on behalf -- advocating on behalf of all immigrants regardless of nationality and your advocacy to make sure that america remains a land of opportunity for immigrants from all over the globe. who wish to use their talents and skills to better the lives for their families and their communities. give her a warm welcome. [applause]

>> thank you very much, supervisor yee. and to the san francisco board of supervisors. this is quite an honor for me. and quite unexpected. so i appreciate the recognition, especially since so many of my colleagues and friends in the city are so involved and so active in the asian community and have done so much, they should be standings here with me or instead of me. i've been practicing immigration law for close to 30 years, and i have to say that the last year and a half has been by far the hardest. every day we face an immigration service and mindset that is

mean-spirited and unfair, inconsistent, anti-immigrant in the way they approach the law. and it has been discouraging and a struggle and stunning the kind of decisions they're making, be it at the airport, the border, the consulate, or in the courts, or in detention centers, the lack of humanity that we're seeing is something that i never thought i would witness. at the same time, i'm so grateful to be an immigration attorney and to have the years of experience that i've now accumulated, because our clients and our communities need us. people are leaving, people are being denied entry, people are

being told to leave, are being deported, and it's a really sad state of affairs, but together with 14,000 other immigration attorneys nationwide, we're fighting back and servicing as many people as we can. i want to thank the city for being a leader nationally in all the policies that the board of supervisors have taken over the years, be it in the commissions that you formed, the positions you've taken on immigrant rights and your position on sanctuary. thank you so much. [applause]

>> president breed: thank you again, and congratulations. [applause] colleagues, i just want to remind each of you that we do have ten honorees, it's going to take us some time to get through. so if we could please keep our remarks to a minimum, so we can give the honouree a chance to talk as long as they'd like. at this point, i'd like to call up my honouree, alex akeno to come forward, please. alex? [applause]

take your time, alex. i was kidding. come on, come on. [laughter]. born and raised in san francisco, alex has been an entrepreneur in the lifestyle clothing events production and marketing industry in san francisco for over 20 years. he lives in the haight ash bury community and has been a business owner there for over six years. some people may know his shop, black scale, there used to be really long lines to get in there. not only put on amazing events like live nation and golden voice, but has been a tried and true community leader. he's a board member of the haight ashbury neighborhood council and liaison and vice president on the board of take it into the streets, which is a nonprofit program based in the

haight community that helps youth live their lives through workforce development and housing. they cleaned up the haight street area and it's been an incredible program with much success in our community. they have done a tremendous job. and alex is also a board member of project reckless, an amazing nonprofit in the bayview that provides at-risk teens with opportunities through restoration of incredible old school cars. here they learn valuable mechanic while getting mentorship opportunities and support. and lastly, alex was the first ever producer to ever take on sponsoring the infamous 4-20 event in golden gate park. many of you know the challenges of 4-20 every single year, the issues with traffic and safety and cleanliness and the quality

of life, over 15,000 visitors from all over the world flood into city to participate in this unsanctioned holiday. and my constituents have had to pay the price every year after 4-20, our parks and our streets are trashed. and over five years ago we decided to do something different. we stepped up and made changes to make the event a lot more safe and clean up, but the city was fronting the bill for the expenses and then last year, alex said, look, i want to be a part of making this a better event for the entire community, so he stepped up and found sponsors to help cover private security, porta-potties, food vendors, entertainment and more and been an amazing partner to ensure this event is safe for everyone and it's a lot better for the community. we're so grateful for all the work that you continue to do so support this amazing city. i know you say it's because you're native and you love san

francisco, but we appreciate you and your hard work because you don't have to do it, but you choose to do it anyway because of your commitment to the people and city and county of san francisco. alex, you're a true treasure and we're honored to have you here today. thank you so much for your work. [applause] >> i'm honored to be up here with all the rest of the people. i want to keep it short, thank you to the board and president. >> president breed: oh. that's really short. [applause]

come on down. [applause] now during this very important month of may, i will be honest with you, i definitely go out of my way to try to uplift the p.i. and asian pacific islander heritage month. [applause] i think too often in this town, the hawaiians get overlooked so

this is an opportunity to uplift a part of san francisco that deserves recognition. and in the samoan culture it's called -- did i say it right? thank you for the love back there. thank you. hello to everyone, i want to say hello and introduce you to, colleague, this is john ina my nominee for the heritage month. currently the director of the pacific island youth alliance and samoan community development center. it's tucked away back in the back of sunnydale, but it's got a huge presence in the community. it's incredible.

what they've been doing. it's a nonprofit organization in the district with the mission of improving the quality of life for samoans and pacific islanders. she has facilitated youth programs and workshops for the last 15 years. you talk about unsung hero, 15 years in the background doing the work. she has coordinated the pacific island youth alliance leadership summer program. the summer program provides youth from all over san francisco the opportunity to learn about the samoan culture through dance and music. if you've ever been to an event, they always have food, very good food. also, ms. iona has been a trailblazer in the lgbtq community with strong bonds that she has cultivated throughout the years, it's reflected by the number of community members lovingly refer to her as aunty

john. do we have community members here today? stand up and give the love. give her the love, please. [applause] thank you for being here. her mentorship has supported and inspired many young minds in the samoan community. it's a great pleasure to provide the certificate of honor, thank you for all your hard work. i want to give one shoutout, happy birth day, to you, honey, we love you. the floor is yours. >> thank you so much, supervisor cohen, as well as your fellow colleagues and all the supervisors on the board. i want to keep this short and sweet as well. i'm honored to be recognized by supervisor cohen as well as all of you here. i just want to give a shoutout to the samoan community development center, because i

think if i was not working there, i would not be recognized as i am today. i want to give a shoutout to all of the staff members that work at the community development center, we're really small hidden in the vicitation valley district. i want to give thanks to our executive director, to be able to work beside someone who encourages me to continue the work even with all the hate that may be out there, and so for 17 years, i had the privilege to stand by her side and partner with her as well as other city agencies to help bring services to our polynesian community. a special thanks to all my family members i didn't tell about this event and the pipeline just went down and they're all here, so thank you to all of my families and my mothers that are here. god bless us all, thank you very

much. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, i would be remiss if i did not give an opportunity for patsy treat tow to stand up. and unsung matriarch in the community, thank you very much to everyone. [bell ringing]

[applause] next up is supervisor fewer. >> supervisor fewer: thank you very much, president breed. it is my pleasure today to recognize raj, an accomplished engineer and human rights advocate who is also our richmond district resident. i have had the pleasure of knowing raj for most my life and proud to honor an extraordinary man during asian pacific american heritage month and pay tribute to his legacy today. born in 1928, raj recalls an early interest in math and science and was encouraged by his family to pursue engineering. his choice was confirmed upon witnessing earthquake damage to the city of mumbai where he earned a batcherler degree. he went on to