they're contradictory pieces of legislation that is impacting the implementation of the ban on flavored tobacco. so there is going to be going back to the drawing board a little bit in those conversations. and one of the policy tools we need to think about is how to give the city the tool to buy back tobacco licenses. right now, there is a law that alcohol licenses, type 20, type 21 can be bought back by the city, but there is not the option for tobacco licenses. and also part of that conversation is how do we hold other departments accountable to this conversation because there is tangential fee schedules on tobacco, the department of public health and dpw are part of, and fee streamlining as a mitigation is going to be another tool i think this body needs to brainstorm. so please keep in mind, i'm

going to be part of those meetings and i would love support. the first one is planned at the end of the month. we can talk offline about that. second thing, new business, i would like there to be more information about how to prepare merchant or merchant organizations for potential rfps for the city. there is going to revenue from the sugary beverage tax and we should try to support merchant organizations to get some of that money. if there is a tool or workshop we can do or presentation, that would be awesome. >> president adams: does that involve lbe? no? >> commissioner zouzounis: they'll have to be registered nonprofit or entity of which then the merchant association

could have a sponsor who takes the money, administrative -- fiscal agent. thank you. >> if i understand properly, you're suggesting that we have better outreach so that -- or enable merchants or small businesses to get a piece of this action? >> commissioner zouzounis: also merchant organizations. there are two examples i'm thinking of. the healthy retail program still has a pilot for fresh produce delivery model they want to develop. so it would be rfp for somebody already delivering to store. how do we outreach and make sure that is open to somebody already doing that. and then -- >> just to be clear, anybody who -- any entity to receive money from the city needs to be registered with the city as a

compliant supplier, vendor. bidder. and i think in this -- then they also have to be a registered entity and have a business registration. to have a business registration means for any of the merchants associations, then they need to have a 501 c-3. but they have to have some sort of business structure. so is maybe something that is also brought up with the council of district merchants. if you were thinking about merchant areas being able to access some of that money, then to me that sort of seems like a good entity to help be a fiscal agent. >> right. we're having discussions about that. >> but i can -- we can ask the office of contract

administration or the controller's office. and rick has done actually a phenomenal job working with our legacy businesses on putting together -- putting together a document on how to become registered with the city. and because we are now marketing in the legacy businesses as vendors that departments can do business with, because for those that become 12-b compliant, then the city can do business with them. so we're also -- rick is also going to be putting together over the next 2-3 months, a guide on how best to do business with the city. so understanding how the payment process works, all of that. because it's very different than your traditional b to b. >> commissioner zouzounis: one

last new business -- sorry, this should have been part of my report. i went to the reopening of the sav mor market on 3rd street and they also won their board of appeals for moving their license. so they are now viable in their new location. >> awesome. ok. any other new business items? >> this is not a new business item, i just wanted to add for the record, sonny made great points about district areas that are having problems with construction and you know, owning a bar and restaurant on polk street and owning a bar and restaurant, i do a pop-up at may's oyster house.

she's definitely onto something with the pop-ups to try to get some of these store fronts filled. i highly encourage anybody that wants to try a pop-up or something to that effect, that they -- you know, we give them a chance, because that's a great way to find out if they want to do small business in san francisco. >> great. i have one new business item. so it's my understanding that corporations can sponsor government activities, correct? is there a mechanism for corporations to sponsor things like the legacy business program? >> well, there is. there is a process of doing accept and this happens with specific programs. >> the reason i ask is because one of the things that we could do to accelerate the legacy

business program is to get more support on the onboarding side. we have one person who is not his sole responsible to onboard legacy business candidates. and so i think that if we wanted to reach out to a number of the large companies that have expressed interest in preserving small business in san francisco, like airbnb and square, they're making significant donations to activities in the merchant corridors to individual merchant associations as well, that we could outreach to them and others if we had a specific ask. so for example, if we could fund a full-time position to assist with onboarding legacy businesses. i just think that program is

such a hallmark of our commission and an area where we can have real significant impact, but it cost money and we're forever going to be budget constrained, and one of the best things we could do is have one or more sponsored positions. also internships. i was at square earlier this week, or last week, for a cdma meeting with square. and they had a number of interns in our meeting and i chatted with one of them who is a princeton student, she was about to go back, but she said my internship has been awesome and i've been tagging around with the government outreach team and learning how this company is interacting with the city. it occurred to me, how could would it to be a get an internship at airbnb and you were to help legacy businesses?

i think we should look into how could we facilitate these companies helping at a level making donations to san francisco city and county, and you know, all the p.r. benefits that come from that. especially with our program which is really, i think, shaping up, especially as we're finishing our branding program and start to roll that out. it will become a lot more visible. i know that the legacy business is grateful for the support they receive getting through the process. if nothing else, there is the gratification of documented your history which you've never taken the time to do. not only for yourselves but for your children and grandchildren. there is nothing but feel-good out of that exercise. so the more of that we can do, beyond rent mitigation, all the potential financial benefits, but the mere benefit of going

through the process of getting on the legacy business registry, i think is a beneficial one and one that we should try to do more than we do. because right now i feel like we're in a little bit of a reactive mode. again, that's part of your new supervisor orientation. here we are and one of the best things you can do is nominate legacy businesses, that gives them an opportunity to meet the businesses. a lot of times those owners are the most active in their districts because they've been there a long time, and they've been fighting the good fight. those are the people the supervisors need to know any way, so it's a reason for them and their staff to outreach to them and say, hey, you're not on the legacy business registry, how can we make that happen? >> is 365 a legacy business? >> good question.

>> commissioner dwigh >> commissioner dwight: look, i went to the opening of the terminal and closing of gumps this weekend. and it's just proof that even the most longstanding of institutions, whether it's fao schwartz, you name it, they come and go. and we all have to remember as small business owners and business owners in general, we're the first line of defense for our companies. we have to fight for ourselves. and you know, whether it's the internet or amazon or a formula retailer or the city doing things that are kind of counter to our business interest. at the end the day, if we don't fight for ourself, we're going to go out of business.

we can provide support. but even the most venerable businesses are vulnerable if they don't keep up with the times. and gump's admittedly didn't keep up with the times. whether they survive bankruptcy or not is to be seen, but there is a lot we can do to support businesses. >> can i ask a question of rick? >> commissioner dwight: sure. >> i'm the third or fourth owner of may's oyster house, it's the second oldest bar and restaurant in san francisco. would i qualify for a legacy business? or you know, for the fact that i kept the name and kept the seafood going, et cetera, et cetera? >> there are three business criteria on the application process we look at. the business has to be 30 years old or older. there is exception for 20 years if they're at risk for

displacement. they have to have added to the community or the city and then the third thing is have maintained their business model. so we look at all three of those. >> change of ownership is not a disqualification. >> that's what i'm asking, i'm sorry. >> change of location is fine. those don't affect the criteria. >> commissioner dwight: the answer is yes. >> i probably will do that with a blue light cafe, too, there is another one. interesting. >> and so, commissioner dwight, we have met with both new supervisors' offices, we did meet with the aides of supervisor brown and i think one of their questions is always what is the outreach that you're doing? and at this point we're none,

because we can't facilitate it. so i think to your point is, even the ability to take on new applications and help with that, but also the process of outreaching, and educating businesses of this opportunity, i think that's a good point to bring. and i think to your point of engaging the private sector, i don't know if commissioner corvi wasn't on the commission at the time, but when the discussion of the creation of the legacy business was created, professor giles from usf had talked about engaging, especially with the larger legacy businesses to help support because we do have some very small businesses that, you know, probably would love to be on the legacy business registry. and especially those where

english is not the first language, so the challenge of writing the application can be a challenge. so getting more support in that area to also bring on those -- >> you don't have to be writer to write a book, you just need to talk to someone who is a writer. so i think if we could fund again this onboarding and also to your point, outreach, we could fund more outreach efforts, especially as we have our tool kit with all the branding. it would be much easier for us to really show, here's the package, here's the extra little bit of gloss you get to put on your business related to legacy business. that is helpful. but we should talk about how we can start outreaching. what is our ask to these businesses, corporations, who want to and have a stated goal of supporting small business?

i think that there -- there is a huge demand for the ability to say we are putting our money where our mouth is to support small business, whether it's buying employee lunches from local restaurants to funding programs like this one. and this is low-hanging fruit if you're in the government affairs department of any of these companies to be supporting legacy business programs in san francisco. as unique as it is as well. and to be shouting that out to not only within san francisco, but beyond where all of your others say, hey, look what we're doing in san francisco. we're not unique in the fact that small business is an endangered species in our city. every major city throughout the united states is experiencing gentrification and the displacement of small businesses. all the same reasons that we

are. anyway, let's see how we can go reach into the pockets of our generous local businesses and have them support a very specific program. it's a lot different than saying we're going to levy a tax on you to pay for general things, or already heavily funded things like homelessness. big problem, you kind of hard to get your arms around that. you're throwing money into an awfully big pot there. but when you're donating money and you can donate a smaller pot highly directed and really see the results, that's where you can get powerful -- it's a real powerful story and ability to sell that. enough said. >> but i think your point is, we could specifically reach out to the city attorney, so that you fully understand what we can do, what kind of ability to allow

for the visual identity of the association of those that are contributing the money in terms of joint marketing. >> what i want staff to do is talk to the city attorney and any other departments that have to weigh in on this. what can we offer corporate san francisco to support the legacy business program specifically? because then we'll have -- here's what we're asking for. we want this to do this. we want this money to do this. and i think it would be onboarding and advocacy, two major things, there may be others. let's find out. and does that mean can we fund a position? what are the -- i'm sure there are always kinds of issue with that, because there is the pension program. but it has to be sustainable. but then there are some things that don't have to be as sustainable. funding outreach programs, you can turn them on and off.

you either buy the ads or you don't. if we could fund a stable position and then also fund p.r. efforts, that would be tremendous. and i think we could round up the funds to do that. so that's my -- that's what i'm gauging as i'm floating that idea with a few of the government affairs people. staff can report back to us. if we have no other new business, commissioners, i'll put it out to public comment. any public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. >> sf gov tv please show the slide. >> it is our custom to end with a reminder that the off thes of small businesses is the only place to start your small business in san francisco and the best way to get answers to questions about small business in san francisco. the office of small business

should be where you go next. the small business commission is the public forum to voice your opinions and concerns about policies that affect the vitality of small businesses in san francisco. if you are a small business start here. item 8, adjournment. >> all in favor? >> aye. so be it. motion passes 4-0. meeting is adjourned the 6:53 p.m.

>> really appreciate you being here. in april 2013, urge the leadership of the late mayor ed lee and then supervisor london breed, the city and county of san francisco resolved to undertake something that had never been done before. in the face of decades of federal underinvestment in public housing, they've put together a massive plan to utilize the new rental assistance demonstration program, to undertake massive repairs across 29 public housing properties in san francisco. the rental assistance demonstration program did not offer any new funding, but instead flexibility around rules show that cities could utilize creative ways to finance the work. what san francisco accomplished, renovating 3400

homes at a total development cost exceeding $2 billion a true model for the nation. if there is one lesson to be learned from all of this work from me, it is that monumenttal things can be accomplished when an entire community across a all levels of government and with the private sector come together with a shared vision. it is my tremendous honor to introduce leader nancy pelosi. [applause] >> thank you. thank you so much. thank you so much for your great leadership and today is a very special day for us personally and officially because of what it means to the residents here. and what it means to the redenlszes here is that they have been treated with great dignity and respect. and having a say in how this

place, this wonderful burton manor has been developed, to recognize the leadership of our dearly departed mayor lee with the program working with the then-president of the board of supervise source and now our distinguished mayor of san francisco, london breed, to bring this to fruition. there are many factors at work and you'll hear from folks like the bank of america because there is a private sector role. beverley will talk to us about her experience here. i just want to talk a moment about john burton, a former member of congress and former president of the california state senate and california -- so many titles. so much commitment -- [laughter] so much commitment to our country. and to this great state of california. someone said to me earlier, i never had -- don, actually, said

-i never got to meet her. she was a force in our community for a long time as a member of the team of phil burton, who served in congress for a long time along with his brother john. somuch about, again, the dignity and worth of every person. and always the saying that it really matters that people have the dignity of the home, the respect we give them and the decency and the -- just dignity of where they live is a sign of how much we connect with them and their aspirations and she was a force in our community. person of deep values who would be so happy -- wouldn't she, john, to see this beautiful place.

now we just met the colonel and he showed us his apartment. it's lively and he told me he was his own personal decorator there and that it was an advantage to him that when these apartments were being rehabbed, that he move to a different floor and then came back. but one of the things that we all shared was that we have recognition of people in the neighborhood to have access to facilities and just keeping some people in the building helped to facilitate that. when a private second is to side, it is really important to note that much of the housing in san francisco, affordable housing that has been developed has been developed because we had a tax code that enabled us to take advantage of the low-housing tax credit. thank you, bank of america, for

doing that and being so much a part of this. [applause] that -- [applause] you can ask any of our nonprofits and certainly the tenderloin folks would subscribe to the fact that that public-private partnership was -- has been essential. i have to say sadly that much of that has been diminished in the tax bill that passed last year. in the congress of the united states, signed by the president. and we really have to reverse that. because it is -- it had been an impetus for us to have more affordable housing now that it is being diminished. but thank you to bank of america for participating, up until now, to make today's if ribbon cutting possible. so you had something to do with

it, for-profit wise, and nonprofit-wise in every way and they knew how important our seniors and our people with physical challenges are to our community and how proud she would be to have a facility dedicated to their health, well-being and just the dignity that sala burton would be very proud. thank you for the opportunity to participate today. [applause] >> it is a huge honor for me and i hope you will join me in giving a warm welcome to our mayor. mayor london breed. [applause] >> it truly is an honor to be here today with people, i think, that are legends in the political world including john burton and leader pelosi and the work that they have done to pave the way for opportunities like this many of you knew i grew up in

public housing called plaza east. >> yeah! >> also known as o.c., out of control projects -- [laughter] and it was definitely an out of control experience. we had a lot of challenges and the conditions that i grew up in sadly when i became a member of the board of supervisors were a lot of the same chance too many of our public housing residents were still living in. i know what it feels like to live with the mold, with broken elevators, with the roaches, with the neglect, with the messed up pipes, the need to use someone else's bathroom on a regular basis because yours didn't work. the bathtub that didn't work. the frustration, the hopelessness and the feeling that nobody cared. and that is why when i became a member of the board of supervisors my first year, i went to mayor ed lee and i said to him, when he asked me what

my top three priorities were, i said public housing, public housing, public housing. when you have had to live in the kinds of conditions, sadly, that these buildings that existed in these buildings for over 20 years of your life, you wouldn't think about anything other than making sure that we change those conditions and immediately, immediately leader pelosi stepped up to the plate to provide the opportunity to work with us down this path. we began work in 2013 as don falk said, we had many fights in the community, talking to people about what this would do. and as i said, i grew up in plaza east. and when plaza east was torn down and rebuilt, my family and i were displaced. we weren't moved on the property. that's why it was so important

that we assured the residents that we were going to make sure that they get back into the same unit that they have lived in. that we were going to rehabilitate the unit, move them within close proximity of where they felt so they felt they meant exact little what we said they were going to do. and we made it happen. here in sala burton, we made it happen for 100 residents in 89 units. beautiful units. a beautiful community room. a clean place and affordable place. a transformative place. for the people who deserve nothing less. and i am so proud to be mayor of such an amazing city where opportunity can exist, where change can happen. this is what happens when we make the right decisions. when we work together. when we do what's necessary to work with all of our city. departments, our federal partners and federal and state agencies.

and had it not been for a fierce leader in congress, we would have never gotten as far as we've been able to get with rehabilitating over 1600 units so far and still counting. and the we finished pitt ma -- plaza, a place that ed lee, myself and we took a tour of pitt's plaza and it is beautiful with free wi-fi for the residents. a transformation. that's what this is about. no longer will residents in san francisco who live in public housing be neglected, live in substandard conditions. you are residents of san francisco just like anyone else and what we have been able to accomplish here by renovating this property demonstrates our commitment to you now and in the future. i want to thank tndc for their

work and don falk and his team and kate hartley. barbara garcia is here from the san francisco housing authority. thank you all. jeff buckley and olson lee and so many people who played an important role in making this incredible project worthy of the name that it represents. sala burton manor. thank you so much. [applause] >> thank you, mayor breed. tndc has had a partnership with the bank of america that extends back 30 years. please join me in welcoming maria barry. [applause] >> hello, everyone. it's so great to be here with you today. on behalf of bank of america, i want to really start out with many thank yous. starting with leader pelosi for your support of affordable housing and the rad program. mayor breed for your support when you were a supervisor and

now as mayor. mayor lee, the late mayor lee and the office of community development. tndc, as don said. we have a partnership that's gone back 30 years, which is justs so tremendous. h.u.d., the housing authority. thank you for trusting the new partners and really overseeing this and ensuring that they will be a steward of these properties going forward. and also i want to thank our bank of america team. ari belliak who was the head of organizing this for our firm, told me that we had over 40 people working on this. so i -- so it was quite an initiative and something that we were so incredibly pleased and proud to be a part of. this rehab is about so much. you know? it's about the mccal and life safety changes.

it's about the public spaces now being so welcoming and really creating a great sense of community. but it's also about the residents, as everyone's been saying. it's really about transforming their lives and a major part of this was a social services component that was included in our participation and i got to hear more about that this morning. and just what it was able to do to make this transition so much easier for the residents so when they moved into their new home, everything went so much easier for them. and a lot of the little things were taken care of, which we're so happy to hear and be part of. this is my second time out to look at these developments and a couple were finished my last trip and now getting to see sala burton apartments so wonderful.

these homes are incredible. it's fan it is a ticket see -- it's fantastic to see on resident's faces the story of how nobody knew each other before and now it's a real sense of community. that is how it is for us at bank of america. it's about providing the financing so that the residents can live in safe, comfortable homes. it was nice for a long period of time. they're built on a sustainable manor. so, long-term they will be wonderful homes to live in. at bank of america, we have a very strong commitment and we were founded over 100 years ago and we invested $2.2 billion into sfrad. and that is such a big investment for us. to give you some perspective. in 2017, we lent and invested $4.5 billion across the country.

so we put a significant amount of our resources here and are so happy to see the progress that's been made and the transformation. we also provide foundation money so last year we provided $5.1 million to local nonprofits and we have about 4200 associates in the market. and we also put in $40,000 community service volunteer hours. one of the things that we value is shared success and we're not successful unless communities and customers we serves are successful as well. so this project was all about that. at sala burton, our purpose was to help the residents succeed in their quality of life and live in safe, comfortable homes. thank you so much for including bank of america in this exciting work.

we are so proud to be your partners. thank you. [applause] >> and now it is my great pleasure to introduce beverley saba. [applause] >> we are here to honor and celebrate for women who are our founding mothers for rad in san francisco. barbara smith and alicia cisca of the housing authority, london breed, president of the board of supervisors, now mayor, and nancy pelosi. without these women, rad would not have been able to come to san francisco and be launched as the class act that it is. barbara and alicia had the sad task of informing us that the

traditional funding was not in any way adequate to take care of the habitability of our housing and ultimately our housing itself. they applied to get rad to come to san francisco and it meant that the housing authority had to completely restructure itself, which was revolutionary and dauntsing. but their commitment was absolutely to the tenants inhabiting the housing that they were providing. they made sure, these two women, i know there were other people, but primarily these two women made sure that rad could come to san francisco. housing authority had to go through a lot of goalposts

passing through in order to get it here. they did it. now it's here or it can be here. public financing and private financing, it had to be launched. they had to be brought together. so london breed, when mayor ed lee announced the reimagining of public housing, got right on board. and she put her effort in and it was a positive effort to get this to happen here. and nancy pelosi, using her political influence -- which is formidable -- her political power and her savvy, made sure that it was launched and launched as a class act. when the building was scheduled to be renovated, tndc sent

their promising manager, tom lauderbach and the architect chris duncan, to talk to the tenants. their question to us, what do you want? not once, not twice, four times. at least four times. we spoke. they'd come back and say well, we can do this. but we can't do that because of code. let's figure out something else. first time anybody asked us what the hell we wanted. [applause] and good for them. [applause] one of the things we advocated for was a community room. we didn't have one. lara, they built us this room. it did not exist. tndc got in and they built it for us so i want to make sure everybody understands, tndc and

our four mothers really put on or made sure that red became a class act. and to our founding mothers, can we get the flowers, please? ok. [applause] from our heart to yours, nancy may i give that to you? ok. we have barbara and alicia. there's one over there. >> thank you. >> we'll put them in the back. >> i'm sorry, sweetheart. this goes to alicia and barbara. right there. [laughter] so founding mothers, from our hearts to yours thank you.

>> thank you. >> thank you. >> love you, sweetheart. >> thank you, beverley. >> you're welcome. >> we'll do that afterwards, is that all right? >> my apartment burned down 1.5

years ago in noba. my name is leslie mccray, and i am in outside beauty sales. i have lived in this neighborhood since august of this year. after my fire in my apartment and losing everything, the red cross gave us a list of agencies in the city to reach out to and find out about various programs that could help us get back on our feet, and i signed up for the below market rate program, got my certificate, and started applying and won the housing lottery. this particular building was brand-new, and really, this is the one that i wanted out of everything i applied for. and i came to the open house here, and there were literally

hundreds of people looking at the building. and i -- in my mind, i was, like, how am i ever going to possibly win this? and i did. and when you get that notice that you want, it's surreal, and you don't really believe it, and then it sinks in, yeah, i can have it, and i'm finally good to go; i can stay. my favorite thing about my home, although i miss the charm about the old victorian is everything is brand-new. it's beautiful. my kitchen is amazing. i've really started to enjoy cooking. i really love that we have a gym on-site. i work out four days a week, and it's beautiful working outlooking out over the courtyard that i get to look at. it was hard work to get to the other side, but it's well worth it. i'm super grateful to the mayor's office of housing for having this for us.

>> hello! is it afternoon yet? yes. [laughter] you know, the hours just go by so fast now. my name's london breed, i'm the mayor of the city and county of san francisco, and i am excited to be joined by so many amazing people to talk about something that so important. -- that is so important. in july, san francisco became the first country in the -- became the first city in the nation to stop charging administrative fees to people who are exiting jail and the criminal justice system. >> whew! [applause] and i was really proud to sponsor this legislation when i was president of the board of supervisors. the public defender was working so hard with the committee of folks to come up with a way to

address this issue and i want to thank him for his tireless leaderships on pushing to reform the criminal justice system. [applause] but we didn't stop there. today we are proud to announce that we have taken this even a step further. people have been charged these fees for years and a lot of the debt has built up. this burden has been bearing down on thousands of families across our city. [motorcycle engine] today we are announcing that we are eliminating this debt. $32.7 million of debt! [applause] again, thanks to the advocacy of our public defender jeff hadachi and the d.a.'s office. this debt is owed by over

21,000 people. in our community, an average amount of $1500 per person. i want to make sure everyone knows how important this is. a lot of people don't know what happens when people are released from jail or exit the criminal justice system. they are charged thousands of dollars in fees. fees only meant to recupe costs for our city and our county and our courts. but we know the reality. the fees pile up, thousands of dollars in debt and drive people into the underground economies and make it harder for them to re-enter and be successful in their communities. i saw this time and time again when i was the executive director of the african american art and culture complex. we believed in the second chance. we opened the doors to opportunity. and i saw how hard many of these employees work after paying their debt to society

and receiving a second chance. they wanted to make a fresh start and they grew discouraged when they started to see their paycheck garnished and their bank accounts levied. we also know these fees are not an efficient way to raise revenues for our city. charging people fees who simply cannot afford to pay them is not the way to balance our books. the collection rate for some of these fees is only 9%. there is something wrong with a fee when the collection rate is only 9%. it's important to remember that people paying these fees have faced other consequences. they've spent time in jail. they are paying fines. the job of these fees to recover the costs are additional layer of punishment. and they failed to do the job. so, we need to be more fair, we need to be more just.

we need to reevaluate how we do business. i want to thank the people who are a part of making that important legislation a reality. and i couldn't have imagined that we were able to build such an amazing coalition of people from all parts of the city family as well as many nonprofit organizations and community members. thank you to our treasure, jose ciceros. thank you. [applause] thank you to the public defender -- [applause] our district attorney, our sheriff who immediately, when i introduced the legislation, stopped assessing the fines and fees. the san francisco public adult probation department karen fletcher -- [applause] and i also like to thank the amazing organizations that are

here today that came together to make this happen. so many people, so much time. these fees are not what san francisco is about and i am proud that we are first in the nation to end this practice. these reforms started in san francisco but i know they won't end here. other counties are contacting us about what they can do to move this forward. and now i'd like to turn this over to our treasurer, jose cicneros who helped make this possible. [applause] >> thank you, mayor breed. it's a great day for financial justice in san francisco! [applause] >> yeah! let's hear it! almost two years ago, i launched the financial justice project and began speaking with local community members who were raising the alarm about the impact fines, fees and tickets were having on low-income people and on communities of color.

i was moved by the stories of how a single fine, a single fee or a ticket could keep a family trapped in sieblgs of poverty if they could not afford to pay it. our financial justice project convened a task force of community advocates and government leaders to see how we could right-size these fines and fees. through this process, we learned that our city was charging thousands of dollars of fees to people exiting the criminal justice system at the exact moment they were trying to get back on their feet. these fees piled on thousands of dollars of debt on our city's most vulnerable residents and prevented people from successfully doing things like getting a job, getting a place to live and doing all the things they needed to do to get back on their feet. they often trapped people in debt they could not escape. so i'm the city's debt collector and i believe the collection rates on these fees

that were simply as low as 9% on some probation fees were too low because simply people could not afford to pay it. our city leaders came together and because they saw these fees were high paying to the people and low gain for government. mayor breed, when you passed this legislation last month and our partners at the district attorney and public defenders office took a step further, we went a step further and asked the court to eliminate all the debt hanging over familis from the fees that were charged in the past. as the mayor said today, we are proud to announce that the court has eliminated $32 million in debt from 21,000 people in this community. [applause] this is debt that we never would have collected but has been keeping families trapped in poverty. today represents what our city can do when we work together. this would not have happened without the leadership of our

mayor, mayor breed, the district attorney, our adult probation chief fletcher and sheriff hennessy and countless others who made today happen. but honestly these reforms would not have happened without many community groups and organizations that opened our eyes to why it is so important for our city to move these reforms forward. so i'd like to thank the community housing partnership -- [applause] leo services for prisoners with children -- [applause] the lawyers committee for civil rights. the san francisco human rights commission. the coalition on homelessness. [applause] the young women's freedom center. [applause] our friends at the san francisco foundation and the

walter and elyse haas fund and tipping point communities. our friends at policy link and the california reinvestment coalition. [applause] the east bay community law center. [applause] the ella baker center. the insight center for community development. [applause] united playas. university of california-berkeley public advocacy center. and the university of california hastings. [applause] i want to personally also acknowledge the amazing leadership of my colleague anne dryer who commands the financial justice project. [applause] i think everyone, as you see here, knows anne and can appreciate how instrumental her leadership has been to securing this win today. thank you for your compassion, for your tenacity and your inability to take "no" for an answer. [laughter] now i'd like to turn it over to

jeff hadachi who has been another key leader in this effort. jeff? [applause] >> thank you. on the day before thanksgiving, i was working at the front desk. my staff leaves early and so i was working the front desk. [laughter] a young man named joseph came in. and he was holding a paycheck stub in his hand. and i asked him what help he needed and he said look at my paycheck. he says every paycheck, $200 is taken out to pay these fines and fees. he was only making $800 every two weeks. he told me i have two children. i'm a single father. i have the sole responsibility of taking care of them and i can't feed my kids because of this. broke my heart. at about that time, we had already started an initiative to change the way that san

francisco collects fines and fees. we weren't sure at that point what was going to result. it was a very ambitious idea and i wish i could take credit for it, but james tracy from the community housing partnership came to me -- [cheering] [applause] and he said we're going to wipe out fines and fees. i'm like are you crazy? who are we going to get to agree to that? so we started meeting and fortunately at that time, jose and his staff had already begun looking at this issue and issued a report and we decided to try to focus on fines and fees and we thought how are we going to get the board of supervise source and the mayor to agree to this. and so we brought it to then president of the board and supervisor london breed. and she didn't ask for a report. she didn't ask for a hearing. she just said we're going to make this happen. she got it right away.

she understood how these fines and fees crushed families. crushed individuals who are trying to turn their life around like joseph and destabilize communities. you know, even though when you get a call from our treasurer, it's usually not good news, he got it right away, too. so we were able to go to sheriff hennessy, d.a. gacon and probation chief fletcher and they all agreed. so, that was very important. and it sends an important message. you have to remember that san francisco is a place where ban the box first started. [applause] that initiative within two years went statewide. and this week, there is a bill in the federal government that's going to be introduced in congress. so we can do the same thing here.

there's now an initiative to bring this statewide. and to bring this nationwide. there are people suffering all over this country. because they are charged with these fines and fees and mind you these have nothing to do in most cases with the conviction itself. we're not talking about restitution or paying back money for property damage or injury. that's still required under the law. most of the things are for like court fees, for courtroom construction, things that are not related at all to the criminal conviction. the time for reform is now. we're seeing the pieces of reform happen. this is huge. but you really need to hear it from somebody who has experienced it, who knows the impact and i'm very pleased to introduce marie vandergrif. mary? [applause]

>> good afternoon. my name is mary vandergrif. i am assistant lobby supervisor for community housing partnership. this law fruili affected my life. i, too, have a past. i'm a single mother who is just trying to make it financially and worrying about these court fines and fees made it hard to sleep at night. i was always wondering when my cheque was going to be garnished when i was trying to be successful in my life. today i no longer have to worry. this law was passed. we have a brilliant amount of people working on it and we all came together and did this. so i think everybody who worked on this project -- thank everybody who worked on this project and i'm thankful to everybody behind me who has affected and eliminated these fees for them. thank you. have a nice day. [applause] >> thank you very much for coming out. again, we still need to continue to suffer. this only gets rid of about half of the fines and fees.

the others are imposed by the state. >> [inaudible]. >> yep. that's what we'll do. thank you for being here and you can ask any questions of the speakers after the press conference. >> thank you. [applause] [ gavel ]. >> good afternoon. my name is miguel bustos. this is the regular pleting of the commission on community investment and infrastructure, the successor commission to the san francisco development agency. august 21,