decided to do is take all of this information that we gathered and start to put together a process and so what you will see here on the diagram is a timeline if you will of our agencies' efforts and the work we've done thus far and also i will talk a little bit about what we're going to do moving forward in 2018. so after we did that assessment. we really had to think about ways we could improve our outreach and engagement which we also call our public precipitation. and so we did was we didn't want to assume we know the answer and that is the worse mistake you can make in public precipitation. we looked across the country and we talked to other city departments, government departments, we talked to other entities and asked them what do you do for your outreach and engagement. it didn't have to be someone that was similar to us. what are the approaches that you take? do you have best practices? i think the most stunning thing i found a lot of folks don't have this and a lot of organizations didn't have the

formula or strategy in place but they all recognized the growing need for it because of the public really demanding this and wanting more of a standardized approach. so when we gathered all that information up we started to pull together a really good core team, about 50 of our staff that represented all the divisions across the agency so we had to develop actually a standard on how we could conduct our outreach and engagements and that's how poets was generated. it was a team strategy. the key word is team because we had to make sure all the staff whatever division they were in if they were involved in implementing outreach and endangerment, they have to have a seat and say at table. the core group that we had was about 50 people, a lot of folks like myself that conduct outreach and engagement and it took a while for 50 people to come together and we made a

commitment to our staff and said while we practice these standards and implement these standards we're also going to listen and we're going to start making sure that we have classes and we start training them. we've done extensive training over the past year and i'll talk a little bit about that but the peer group is what really helps us get this started. 2017 was really the implementation of all of these efforts i've just mentioned. wore still in the process of implementing these efforts. as we move into 2018, the core thing you will hear me talk about is we're no longer talking about stand addres standards. when you think about

accountability, anybody that has to conduct outreach and endangerment moving forward on a project with our agency, they have to be accountable and they have to follow these requirements. we're not asking anymore. so it really is raising the bar for us. so let me just talk briefly to you about the three core foundations of poets really comes down to three core components. and those components, like i mentioned are requirements they're based on resources and pockets and the other is relationships and with those components and we're on the right track for success and you will see the first part and requirement and briefly there's a lot of detail around the requirements i can get into and out of respect for everyone's

time here is the main part and we have to make sure that for ever project we a sass the projects impacts, what are the impacts to the community. and identify who those key stakeholders are. before we do anything we have to know who we're supposed to be talk to go and engaging with. we have to develop a plan. the plan is basically an outline of here are the impacts for the projects and decision space. based on that decision space here is how we're going to engage with the community. here is how we're going to take their input and here we are most importantly going to make sure they understand when we take their input we're going to come back to them and let them know how their input shaped that final decision of the project and it was a big complaint we heard was people said if you are going to bring me in a room and ask me what i think, let me know what you did with what i thought. of course, the early engagement kept rising and all the discussions that i had across the city with people was it's ok

if you don't have a fully thought out plan. we would rather you come to us early on when you know there's going to be a project formulating in our community and sit down and work with us. more often than not, we find when we do the engagement there are obstacles, unless you live in that neighborhood you don't understand. you can sit down and be transparent and sometimes that loading zone that doesn't make sense those things can actually be resolved within a group. we found that was important to make sure we included that in the process and the last piece really was we have to make sure that our staff understands and know how to use all of our communications channels. there are so many ways as an agency that we can reach the public. but making sure that our staff knows how to use those ways it's not just our website, there's lots of opportunities. also, not letting a project become quiet. more often than not, i know a lot of you have heard the complaint is i haven't heard

about this project for two years. as far as i'm concerned it's starting over. if we really do our due diligence, that will not happen because we will make sure that we have on going engagement. we remind people while some are in another room building a project for a plan that's approved the project is in process. we'll second ou spend out flyerk with our aids and all of our community and neighborhood and merchants groups to remind them and the community is that the project isn't going anywhere. that was a really core piece of what we heard when we talked about our outreach and engagement. so the second r is resources. that speaks more to us as an agency and how we support our staff, right. so right now i'm really happy to say we've actually trained 100 of our staff. i think actually you know about this training because you were interested in it it's a one week

long training with the international association of public participation and this really does take our staff for a full week off site, explains to them this is what public participation is. why it's important and the foundation of your agency. here are what you consider when you put together a plan for a project. that is the one thing, i get requests all the time for that class from our staff because at that moment they truly feel they understand it so much better than they have and they feel they have some guidance and help on how they can start to develop a plan but also feel more empowered and confident about going out and talking to the public. and that's not an easy thing to do. and so, the education and train asking a core part of the training is core support. we have office hours and staff can sit down with someone like myself and more senior members

that understand outreach and engagement and sit down with their project and will help them develop a plan. because i find sometimes staff just needs that extra guidance and help. and we're also going top webinars some of which will be our own and some of which we can borrow from other true public practitioner professionals and it will be things such as best practices, tools and techniques, things of that nature that you can use. there's a pretty robust list of the plan that is going to launch with the requirements. i won't get into all the detail but if you are going to ask people to do a job you have to provide them with what they need to do the job well. and that is what we're trying to do with the resources. the last part, well relationships, right. so if we don't build trust with the communities that we serve and we don't sit down and listen to them and work with them, without a relationship and trust projects will not move forward. it's just a fundamental commonsense thing. and so we have ways in which we're trying to help staff with

that. this is a very important core piece of the poet's programs. we do have and i think some of you have heard about our district liaison program and they're actually dedicating to a specific district. some of them have built solid relationships now. they go to the community meetings. they go to the merchant and neighborhood group meetings and they understand the concerns the community has. they report back to the supervisors and their aids. a lot of the community members know them and trust them and as a conduit to the agency so that time where you picked up the phone and didn't know where to go, they clear that path and get you into the right direction. they don't solve all the problems but they do mitigate a lot of the frustrations that used to come with those problems. and then of course you've probably heard of some of the

working groups we've done. we had a d3 working group with supervisor peskin and his aids and i thought it was a successful one. we sat down with representatives of the community, merchants and neighbors and advocacy groups and really listened to them about their concerns specific to their district. sometimes when you troy to implement a project and 100 people in a room is very difficult. but finding five to 18 people that the community feels represents them, allows you to dig deep no into a project. we've gotten a lot of input on the requirements. we're launching in july, i conducted about 30 input sessions. i went out and talked to different community groups, members of the community, leaders of the community and we have talked to a lot of folks and asked them in a perfect world, if we were to conduct outreach and engagement what do you think is missing?

what are we doing well and what would you like to see change and i really feel that with the lessons learned a lot community meetings we've had the past couple years the implementation of our standards and listening to everybody the requirements really are a culmination of those efforts. but you know, when you launch something like this of this magnitude the requirements do take some time and i think the education that we're going to give and the training we're going to give our staff will be helpful and instrumental. so the last piece is really how do we know if this is all working and quite briefly, if you think about it, it really says the stake holder relationship, which we've already talked about. if we have those solid relationships and we develop that trust and we can work with these community groups, we're going to see projects move a lot more smoothly. if the project deliverly will be a important part of that because when you have those relationships and you do the right level of outreach and

engagement projects around stalled the way they have been in the past. and the last piece of course is our staff members and that is giving them the encouragement, the training, and the resources and tools that they need to go out and be better prepared to do a better job. that's my very brief summation. i look at ed because he laughs. i do tend to talk a little bit. it's a lot of information and there's been a lot of work done these past two years and some of you have been exposed to it and been part of the process. the last thing i would only say is thank you. to really say it takes a village. we've had a lot of people, like i said, there was a 50 membership of peers that helped me with this. leadership has embraced this and stood behind me and supported it. i've met with a lot of advocacy groups and a lot of members of the public who have given us valuable input. it really has been an on going effort with people involved so i would say thank you to all of those and their support.

the next step is launching these requirements and you know, putting our money where our mouth is and see what happens. >> thank you so much for the presentation. i'm going to go to public comment first. do we have public comment? >> yes, kathy di luca and david pillpal and stephanie di luca. >> hello, my name is kathy i'm the policy and program director at walk san francisco. and i think that deanna is brilliant. i think that everything she put up on those slides captures what we see and hear in the community all the time. i was listening to what she was saying and i stopped and i just wrote deanna is brilliant. listen to her, fund her and expand this program. that's really all you need to know. except that i'm going to add a little bit more. i think that this outreach that this really deep outreach that

deanna is creating for this agency is actually what can get us to vision zero by 2024. i think we're seeing delay after delay in projects and i think that engaging the community in a deeper way is going to get us there more quickly. and so i encourage you to double, triple, the amount of money and time and staff resources you put no outreach and make it a major vision zero strategy. when i think of deanna i think of the term decision space and it's a important term. she says it all the time but making sure staff really let's the public know where they can have input and not. this agency has goals and you are going to meet those goals and do certain things that not everybody is going to like. but where can you empower the community. where can you listen to them? where can you build that trust? how can you have trained staff that sometimes has to go out to the community and know they have to say we messed up. we're going to do better. that is how you build trust.

you go out and i think the poet's process understands that and will really help this agency meet all of the amazing goals that you have. deanne is brilliant, expand this program. >> david pillpal followed by stephanie. >> i agree with much of what kathy just said and i disagree with kathy on a number of policy issues but we agree that deanna is brilliant and you should support her. as opposed to my earlier comments i'm positive about this item. i think that doing this right may take more staff. i would be fine getting rid of some of the planners and hiring public outreach people. i think if we do fewer things and do them well rather than trying to do more things and do them poorly that would be better for the agency. do fewer thing things and do thm

well. supporters are already on board with what you are doing. and i think it's important to build trust with people who are on the fence about various projects and operations of the agency. people who oppose various things that the agency does. and finally, and again, agreeing with what kathy just said, be honest. when there's something that is working well acknowledge it and celebrate the people who are a part of that and when something is not working well acknowledge that and say you know, we didn't get that sign up or we didn't call that person. we really need to do a better job and do a better job and get back to those people. all of this is really critical stuff. perhaps more important than the earlier items on the agenda and some of the specific projects before you. the way we go about our business and interact with each other is important. i cannot support this work enough. >> thank you. >> next speaker, please. >> stephanie kahina, herbert

winier are the last two speaker cards. >> good afternoon. i'm the executive director of the action group. i just want to echo everything kathy said. deanna is brilliant. i'm part of the small business working group she has engage for about a year and a half now. analyzing gaps that really have been a disservice for the small business community and project implementation with m.t.a. a lot of the folks represented in that group come from diverse corridors that have different stressors and different dynamics but the one unifier we had because a general frustration of the outreach engagement processes with m.t.a. engagement being the paramount and most important thing that we are focusing on. one of the things that was expressed constantly were the financial implications these outreach engagements had and so with deanna we tried to find the

root causes of why there were so many issues with it. what's going on with this, right? and she let us workshop ideas and really get and have input on these processes and say this is not going to work and add this and take this out. it was an amazing process and just going through that process really restored trust, which is a big statement with this agency, right. it restored trust with a lot of community leaders that have lost it. and so i really want to congratulate deanna for doing that and i agree that this should be funded and implemented as soon as possibility. i acknowledge there's gaps in implementation and difficulties trying to launch this but i'm definitely hopeful that with this groundwork, that a good future is ahead for m.t.a. on this front. thank you. >> thank you, very much. >> next speaker, please.

>> herbert winier that is the last person who has submitted a speaker card on this matter. >> thank you. >> herbert winier. i'm in agreement with what everyone has said. i'd like to extend it a little further, however. i noticed that part of the political tone of the board has been identity politics. there's been the bikers, there's been vision zero, there's the transit riders union, but what about the individual? and that is the real problem. the individuals who are affected by the decisions of this board and sadly this board has been divorced from reality at times. there's been impacts. i've always referred to the long distance that seniors in this disabled have to walk to the bus stop. and i don't know if this was taken into consideration by the

board. this offers the opportunity to do that. and part of the proposal i would like to see, if an individual is concerned, they can call people directly and express their concerns because groups can express their concerns but they can't directly reflect individual sentiment. not every group represents everything i feel. i think people ought to be able to express their feelings and this is offering the opportunity to do that and i hope the group of this organization does that directly. it's a small voices that are not heard. and this proposal enables this and i think this builds trust between m.t.a. and the community and i think it enableses his

mission which basically all of us don't really disagree with. it's just how it's being done. which is often flawed. >> thank you, next speaker, please. >> the last person who turned in a speaker card. >> we have one more person approaching. >> thank you. >> my name is donna parker. and i want to tell you how happy i am that i stayed when everybody else kind of left because this was a wonderful presentation. this is what we need in the m.t.a. when sen drank fewer had a meeting and a number of us one of the highlights of her comments were there's no place to go that can tell us everything that the m.t.a. is doing in our neighborhood. so, we were there about the eighth avenue project. but, then we had concerns about the gerry which has changed names a number of times for us

but that they've taken the bus stop on ninth away, which leaves us going to park precidio or up to sixth avenue. i'm glad that you admitted to not having looked at all the information on the diversion plan because if you had you would see that eighth avenue is one of the few places on gerry that you can make a left-hand turn on to eighth avenue. that's part of the problem. the only place you can get in and out of the park and the only place on gerry street you can make a turn. so where is that going to leave people? now you will ask them to zigzag across streets, which is more dangerous than having them go direct. [ please stand by ]

>> director brinkman: please stand up and approach the p odium. >> my name is greenway i've been consulting to mta on the poets program in 2015. i want to share couple of t hings. one is how from the point of view of public engagement practitioner, how important this work is and comparative

perspective, within public agencies not just in california but really nationally. mta helped develop this program out of political leadership. which is an institute at the university of pepperdine and what they saw early on in 2015 was the something really special what attracted me was not just the project itself but the team behind it. deon in, candice and madeleine and the leadership from ed reiskin was critical. i seen all kind of efforts that start in the middle level of an organization and not ultimately been successful because of lack of sustained leadership. i ask you to give your support

and continue to watch the great work that this team is doing. because that leadership support is critical and i wanted to share with you really how much attention is being given to this work from an outside community of practitioners and public agencies. thank you. >> director brinkman: thank you for your work on the project. any more public comments. come forward. >> my name is frank. i have a background in community planning and public engagement. i want to echo. the report was actually well done. it was nice to read and c oncerned i am. what i would echo in your notes you need in not just agree with it. you need to institutionalize it that every new project fund has to be focused. your grants will end up drying up and outreach and engagement is the first place grants dry u

p. i would encourage you strongly to make sure that there's a fiscal affiliation or percentage of every new project will have a poets component built in. right from day one. otherwise your sustainability of these projects will fall flat in three years, five years. i would love to see start a year ago. coming from any other voice you need sustain this and you need to build it into a budget for every project. >> director brinkman: thank you very much. do i have any more public comments. seeing none. public comment it closed. the last public speaker, you did absolutely sum up what i i ntended to say which is it's so heartening to hear all of these public commenters about how important this is. we had a couple of examples here today as we just heard of how if we had this process in place, if we had this level of outreach and engagement, we may have had

a very different outcome. we can't underestimate the values of good, outreach and engagement and the follow-up and follow through. we're also going to have to absolutely, i know director torres will bring up the cost of this outreach. both what it cost up front to have this level of outreach and engagement and what it cost us on this side when we don't have good outreach and engagement and we have people who can't suddenly realize they can't park on air own street and they have a permit so they can't park anywhere else in the neighborhood. absolutely hear your frustration on that. i apologize that was something that a process like this had it been robustly aapplied, we would have caught that. the eighth street neighborway i felt staff frustration and that was really hard for me to watch to realize that they obviously felt like they had the wind knocked out of their sales

because we didn't have a good process to get to a great solution for that street. which that street deserve and the citizens deserve. i just want to say, i know that this is -- it's a lot of verbage for those of us who aren't in that area. it's a lot for us to understand. i'll remind us all director ramos left this board to go to sfmta to work on this. we know what good people are involved with it. i'm confident that with our support, with continuing to move forward on something like this. we will have fewer of these situations where we have neighbors come to us and say, what about this and that. you missed this, we've got this wrong. we don't agree with this because we don't understand what the impact is going on in the neighborhood. thank you very much for your work on this. i really appreciate it. you have my commitment to absolutely support that outreach work. i think we're going to start s eeing the benefit of this.

we need to see the benefit of i t. we hear it from supervisors and citizens we know we need to do better job. this is how we're going to do i t. so thank you very much for that. yes director torres. >> director torres: i don't recall hearing, i was listening carefully. maybe for incorporating our f ears and concerns. do we provide outreach meetings interactive opportunities for female -- people who can call i n? we finally set allowing public to call in and public comment. because we're statewide agency, it was much more problematic. i think that might help especially if disabled or s eniors can't get a way to go to these outreach meetings. i don't think technical requirement will be that hard. i wantedito put that out there.

we can figure out if that's feasible. >> absolutely. what public participation is all about is knowing that pecple are not going to always come to you. implementing new technology in ways that we can get to them and the gentleman said earlier, it's not just about the groups but it's about the communities. we have to go outside and actually go door to door and talk to the community. i seen those in action and they work really well. >> director torres: thank you madam chair. >> director brinkman: director boredden. >> director borden: i was congratulate them on their amazing work. i'm excited about this. people i've known since i been on this board. this has been a big issue for m e, having done community plans and working with developers to make sure that they engage with the community to reach the best possible outcomes. i'm thrilled that we are making this real. obviously the challenge will be

really implementing this going forward. even backtracking on some of the existing projects to really kind of be more robust in this area. i'm confident that we are. i'm glad to hear you say that trust is the next system of the most important aspect. one thing i heard on the board of the mta, real lack in trust of why we make the decisions we make. it's frustration when you have vision zero and trying to include transit performance and that people doubt -- they don't trust us enough to believe that the improvements are done for the right reason. it's not special interest that come up. we believe this is the best approach to achieve certain outcomes. i think that's really important. any way we can increase our ability to gather more feedback, we also hear different call for people to attend them.

that's another factor is. people work and people don't have access to the internet. really trying to be creative how to best reach people. it's going to be quite dynamic. i'm 100% supportive making sure we fund community outreach efforts. make sure we do this holding members whether it's agency and contractors accountable. >> empowering staffing to be comfortable enough say, sometimes the answers are no. true public transportation doesn't mine 100% consensus. sometimes we have to make difficult decisions. we showed we listened to folks, we can stand behind our d ecisions. that's where the trust starts to grow. >> director borden: i would love that. we can start with. we can't do everything that people suggest that we do. people come up with great ideas.

point is, we have to be honest with people about the tools that we have in our tool box to make changes. so we don't bring people together with unrealistic expectations and to say no and also you pointed out, bringing back the feedback and explaining what are the parameters when we start off with what we have to work with helps a lot in being creative. >> very much so. >> director brinkman: vice chair heinicke. >> director heinicke: congratula tions on good work. i will support this. it's something that needs to be done. it's been getting better over time. when i first started it was hit or miss. there were certain people who seem to get the praise for the outreach and maybe other folks who didn't. standardizing this is clearly the way to go not just depending on the independent and individual project managers.

in that same time, i sort of seen three categories of outreach. there's one we didn't know about it. our friends from market street here today who sat through this whole meeting. fall on that category. that's just a mistake. hopefully we'll fix that and they'll know. there's people who knew about it but they didn't feel we listened to. that we just came to them and we said here's the plan. we'll tell you about it. if you have questions ask them and we're not going to listen. there's people who knew about i t, got a chance to input and just don't like the decision. they're going to come back that's an outreach failure. by definition that's not an outreach failure, they knew about it and they participated. it's the category in the middle that i'm most worried about. to two friends from market street, hopefully that won't happen again. but that's more easily a ddressable. it's are the one in the middle. the complaint that i hear on the one in the middle is this.

staff shows up with a plan, communicates the plan and there's a sense that that just the plan. they are there to provide information and answer questions and tell you how life will be and give how fancy dissertation on why harvard public school will endorse this thing without listening to the neighborhood concerns. i saw that in your presentation. it seem like there's precollaboration in there. i realized there's tension. you can't just go out to pick the richmond, eighth fulton and say we're thinking about solving the bike problem. what do you guys think. that's not going to to do it either. there's some middle ground. i would say as you're doing this and maybe this is built in the program, be aware of the perception that we go out and tell people how it's going to be and then just impose it. i think even if you go out as we

often get as board members, several design plans with a recommended one for us to c hoose. several options within a menu for people to consider and give your input on. that will go long way towards solving problems. i think it has to be more than just listening. i think considering design alternatives considering program alternatives and bringing them to the neighbors and the supervisors and the people there so they're actually concrete choices and concrete discussions to have is going to go a long way. because the tension or the resentment that i'm talking about is palpable. it's not only bad for the policy and it can inhibit dialogue where people will feel like they will not be heard and why bother in the process.

we want the neighbors to show us and fell us how to do it better. that's going to be critical. perhaps something you're well aware of. i will tell you over 12 years of doing this, that's the complaint that i hear at this end of the process and when i'm out in the community what concerns me the most. >> i can come back if the future and talk about that. there's really definitely what you're speaking to makes lot of sense. there's different stages of project in different decision spaces. there are projects where we are here to inform you. this is a safety project. there's no work around this and no decision space. why do we ask people for their input. why do we not be transparent. there's other area where we do have parameters by which we can frame a project without having a fully baked idea where people can weigh in and help us maybe that final decision. part of that comes better educating our staff and actually better articulating that to the public. you're speaking directly into

that middle area that we have to work the most. that's where the genesis, lot of the frustration is. i hear you loud and clear. in part of the plan on how to address that. >> director brinkman: director what shoe any comments. >> director hsu: you all covered pretty well. looking forward to seeing how this gets played out. especially vice chair heinicke's comment about the perception we'll do it this way. that is really good issue we can get out in front of that as much as possible. it will go a long way. >> we are human beings, there will be mistakes. no matter how much we try as an agency. staff will sometimes miss a mark and what we should do is correct that and acknowledge it. it takes a long time. we're changing the culture of an agency. we are being looked at from a national level across the country. lot of organizations have not

attempted to do this. without leadership like director reiskin and what -- hsu behind, this would not be happening this takes time. we'll be traitor and acknowledge when -- transparent and acknowledge when mistake is made. it's really difficult job for them to talk to the public. sometimes it's very i ntimidating. not for me but other people. >> director brinkman: thank you so much. director reiskin thank you for your support for this. we're going to have citizen who are more engaged and feel like we are out there doing the best for them. our work depends on this. we're going to get there. thank you very much. >> thank you guys. >> secretary boomer: item 14 whether to vote attorney client

privilege. >> director brinkman: do i have a motion. all in favor aye. any public comment ongoing into closed return. >> how many lawyers does it t ake. >> mta board is back into open session. item 15 announcement of closed session. >> move not to disclose. >> director brinkman: second. all in favor aye. we will not disclose. >> secretary boomer: that concludes the business before you today. >> director brinkman: we are adjourned. thank you for spending your tuesday afternoon with us.

>> first of all, welcome everybody. we will make this routine. i'm very glad that everyone here has partnered to end s.f. gun violence. all over the world, it is a phenomenon that is going on. we are playing our part that we end this gun violence. we live in a country that has villains everywhere. but one thought -- gone off the

streets, potentially packed could save one person's life. you could save the planet. what i mean by that, you do not know who will be the person that you might save. i will give you a prime example. we have a mayor in san francisco who is born and raised. she is a native from san francisco, born and raised in the o.c. projects. if anyone knows san francisco, it is one of the hardest projects in san francisco. to come out at the o.c. projects and fillmore as a negative, you tell me that? [laughter] come on. so look at her. she is the mayor now. give it up for the mayor of san francisco. [applause] you never know who is going to be affected, and who is going to be saved by doing the work that we do together as partnerships. we will have four speakers. i will have the current mayor right here and then the elected mayor come speak. and then i will have, where is

captain redmond? i went to school with him. we go back like a hot bowl of menudo. and then i will have my sister right here, patty, who lost her son to gun violence. i just want to welcome you all here. i want to welcome everyone here. and all of our partners pick without further ado, i will bring up mark farrell, our current mayor. [applause] >> mayor farrell: thank you. first of all, i want to thank you at the united players for holding this event, as well as the gun buyback program. i want to thank mayor elect reed who has been a champion for a long long time. this is not something new to her. kudos to her. [applause] i want to thank our police department for being here. to the captions that are here. give them a round of applause, please. [applause] and i also want to give a shout out to our late mayor ed lee, he was a huge supporter of this

program as well. for all of his support over the years. we are here to talk about gun violence in san francisco. this is an issue that affects our entire country. it affects us in our streets. ever.every year, in our countr whoa. >> it was ed lee exco. [laughter] >> every year in our country we have 12,000 people killed by gun violence. 106,000 people -- 106 people every day. for everyone killed by guns, and other two are injured. 24,000 are injured on the streets of our country. and that has to stop. we are going to continue to push in san francisco. and mayor elect breed will push in san francisco for policies and commonsense policies to get guns off our streets. we are here today that san francisco is going to continue

to lead the effort to get them off of our streets. [applause] >> i'm so excited to be here today. san francisco is doing something different, once again. we are leading the charge. when our country and our congress and our presidents continue to do everything that flies in the face of san francisco values, san francisco is stepping up. we're doing things different. doing things a san francisco way. we are here to protect the youth of san francisco and here to protect the generation of san francisco leaders. i'm proud to be here today and proud to join everyone behind me. thank you for being here. [applause] >> i want to acknowledge a lot of our partners who made this happen. mothers in charge right there, mattie skye. [applause] her son is actually on the wall right here. she has been tremendously fighting throughout many, many years to end this gun violence. you have sfpd, the mayor's

department. a whole array of community-based organizations that are here. project level, the brothers against guns, rate? we have the suicide prevention organization. we have the brady campaign. who else have we got up in here? the foundation. john did what we you all heard that. that is the honey on my tongue. sometimes i can't spit it right. you heard that. does a lot of other organizations. i want to thank our business partners who actually funded this event. that you all see them out there. [applause] all my homeboys who wanted -- to run the dispensaries. [applause] elevated, green boy, grassroots. am i missing anymore? we need to get some more because

they have a lot of weed stories in san francisco too. i'm sure there's plenty more. i want to acknowledge salesforce, boston property, kilroy, clients, all partners. there are so many different dimensions that are coming together as one to end gun violence. i want to thank all the leadership from everybody who has been a part of making this happen. without further ado. i will bring up the amazing and intelligent and beautiful london breed. our mayor chair applause -- [applause] speed you -- >> it is so exciting to be here for something that i know, for certain is going to save lives. last year, when we did this in december, 280 guns were collected through that last buyback. that is 280 lives saved. i have to tell you, rudy said that i come out of the concrete.

o.c. projects, out-of-control projects. let me tell you a story about ocp. i was about 12 years old, one night, and i know sean richards will remember this. we were all hanging out and purging in a place called the tunnel. some of you will remember the tunnel if you grew up in the western addition. most people did not come to the projects that i grew up in. but the people who lived there and were welcomed there would hang out in the tunnel. at night, we were playing music and having a good time. we were just hanging out and enjoy ourselves. and sadly someone came through the tunnel and started shooting. that person was after somebody. there were a lot of people out there. that is where we hang out at. when all the dust settled, there was one person who was dead. do you all remember when stacy died? stacy, if you know -- if you

knew stacy, all the mothers loved stacy. all the kids loved stacy. everybody loved stacy. and he wasn't, again, even the person that this shooter was targeting. he is not here with us today. that could have been me. that could have been anybody else in the tunnel that night that could have died because of a gun. because of senseless violence. this is why, what we do here today, is so important. our goal is to save lives. our goal is to help people who are out there with guns understand the tragedy that they are inflicting on the lives of the people that have to suffer the consequences because of their mistakes. we want a safe city. we don't want to see our young people continued to die to gun violence. we do not want our kids to feel

like every time they hear a loud noise, they have to get on the ground. where they are learning and they are learning environment and in our schools. we not only have work to do in the city and county of san francisco, we have work to do around getting guidance out of our communities all over the country. and as your future mayor, this will continue to be at the forefront of my advocacy efforts, as long as i am a part of the city can't get as long as i am living and breathing, i will always be an advocate for getting rid of guns on our streets on a regular basis. [applause] so here is an opportunity. we need to change our lives. for those folks who feel they have to have a gun, no questions asked. no questions asked. no judgement. turned them in. we are asking you to help be a part of the solution and make our city safe.

thank you so much and i hope to see you here on saturday. thank you. >> right on. [applause] spoken like a right -- a real mayor. i just want to -- i apologize, i didn't acknowledge who does the outreach for the gun buyback. you have to catch this. they did it by you, and ten gentlemen who did a life sentence in prison. come on up here. you all have to be up here. you are part of it. all these brothers right here did a life sentence in prison and are now back advocating to stop gun violence. [applause] we have over 300 years of prison time up here. instead of taking lives, they are saving lives. [applause] i have to make sure i acknowledge glenn holden, our reentry leader there he did 45 years in prison, straight and is out now leading the charge to

end gun violence. forty-five years. longer than probably -- you probably didn't have cameras back then. [laughter] this brother right here, in these brothers right here are miracles that are walking legends. let's not neglect and forget these gentlemen right here. theories are the gentlemen that are pushing the line to get the guns off the streets. with that said, from convicts to the police -- police, my brother there, thank you. i want to bring up one of his fellow brothers who i went to school with at mission high school. brother tony chapman. [applause] >> first of all, it is hard to follow our current mayor and our mayor elect. both are detailed. they are faced -- they have detailed what we are facing and

how we are facing it as a team. i want to, before i say anything, i want to give a shout out to the mayor, and everything that he has done and the mayor elect for everything she has done and will do. think both of them. thank you. [applause] secondly i did go to school with rudy and he has been passionate about everything. and stories about me taking his lunch money are all false. [laughter] let me start off with the good news. let me start off with the good news. the good news is the homicide rate in san francisco is down 43%. [applause] another piece of good news, the shootings are down double digits, but in the teens. we want to get that a lot better. now the bad news, last night and early this morning we had two shootings and two different neighborhoods in the bayview hunter's points that illustrates the point we need more guns off the street. the thing that this country has to wrap his mind around and the city and county of san

francisco, we get it here. the rest of the country, we need to drag them along. a study came out and it was a national study. there are more guns in this country than there are people in this country. anyone who thinks we don't have to do this gun buyback, they are mistaken. if you have a gun that is sitting at home and you are not using any think is there for protection, and it has been sitting there for a long time packed think about the potential of your house been broken into and that gun being used and consider bringing it down and turning it into the gun buyback program. what we aim to do, and pardon the bad pun,'s ge is get as manf these weapons off the street as possible. again seized as a life saved. the reason our numbers have been dropping every year, is we have been doing these gun buybacks every year. were getting more and more of these weapons off the street. i implore anybody out there with a gun to come and turn it in. there are no questions asked. we will not call you later and talk to about the weapon. turn it in and we will take it from you. my last shout out has to go to

the united players. they are right. this partnership is necessary. it takes a hood to save the hood. thank you. [applause] >> me and him went to school and he had a jerry curl back then. [laughter] yeah. [laughter] before we bring on our last speaker, there's a lot of people who also have been in the background. they are sometimes, sometimes they don't get acknowledged, but they do all the major work that makes it happen. i have to give a shout out to my brother damien posey with paradise. where are you at? you see that hampso hamsun brotr right there? [laughter] and sean richardson. my brother right there. big rich. project level. these are people that you can't forget about behind-the-scenes. we have a lot of women who did this. this world is ran by women. how about that.

are supervisor president? and a sister. come on, now. so i want to acknowledge carolyn and misha who are often behind the background who don't like to get acknowledged. you know, add to my beautiful daughter right there. she has all of her teeth. [laughter] i want to bring on a mother who i met to his amazing and incredible. she is doing big things. i will bring her on up. her name is patty. her son passed away, we will dedicate this gun buyback on saturday, june 30th, from 8-12 to her son, robbie. come on up, patty. [applause] >> good afternoon. i want to thank you rudy for inviting me to come here and think united players for the great work they do in the city and beyond. my name is patty. on the founder of the robbie pub d. foundation. i have a very unique perspecti perspective. for almost a decade, i was

working at the chronicle just down the street as a metro editor. at a columnist and an editorial writer. for years, i ran headlines about gun violence. when my son was shot and killed in 2014, i understood what it meant to have that headline me about your family. all we know is that headline. we don't know the aftermath. there aren't stories about what happens to the family and the life sentence that is imposed on the family. within seconds of pulling that trigger. i gained a lot of appreciation. i didn't understand it when i was writing the stories what it meant to those families to have that last story about their loved one. and my son was just on the verge of getting hired full time. he was learning how to weld. he had set his suit out for his interview on his bed. that was a suit that we buried him in. so, you know, for two years, i had a really bad ptsd.

i couldn't even return to the place where i called home for 30 years because of that ptsd. one day, i looked at my daughter and said she had lost her brother and she will not lose her mom. i created the foundation. we do gun buyback just like rudy. that is why we are so proud to partner on this one. we get that metal and we redistributed to artists throughout the country. they create art out of them. alameda county has adopted that there. there are two exhibits made out of guns that were confiscated in homicides and gun violence throughout the country. i hope to bring that way the rudy to san francisco. the other thing we do, as we provide paid vocational scholarships for exoffenders and at-risk young adults because there's no better challenge to crime then a good paying job. i wish, i wish someone gave the four men who killed my son that opportunity. we can take the guns away, but that does not address the

desperation and hopelessness that causes them to pull the trigger. i applaud rudy. i applaud everyone here. all the partners that support him. it takes all of us. i can't do this alone and he can't do it alone. it takes all of us. thank you so much for supporting all of this. [applause] >> before we close out, i want to thank our mayor, mark farrell, for coming. our mayor, london breach. the real deal seal. [laughter]

>> don't forget about your brother. come on, now. my brother tony chapman. i know right now they have a bad rap. but you can see there's a lot of good cops, you know what i mean? we have to build relationships with the police to. we want to make sure they holds the bad police accountable. what is fair is fair. if we all commit a crime, we should all go to jail. so, thank you to everyone coming out. it takes all of us to make this happen. all of us. i want to say this last. you wonder why i am carrying this shovel? there's an organization that's called lead to life that me and patty match. they are in oakland. they flew us out there. the guns we took off the street, 280 guns that was given to us by sfpd, 5, 50 of them were melted down and we made shovels. [applause] this is made out of a gun. we planted 50 trees in atlanta where martin luther king's granddaughter was there to help plant 50 trees, right? the soil be used came from young men who were lynched back from mississippi mississippi alabama. they were lynched and the dirt was thrown in the chattahoochee river which they preserved, and they gave it to me.