tv Government Access Programming SFGTV September 19, 2018 9:00pm-10:01pm PDT
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brothers and sisters for having the courage to bring you this issue today and for your response and really listening to the concerns of city employees. i guess i would like to speak to the fact that a lot of my colleagues are suffering. the issue of racism and discrimination is an issue of power, privilege and resources and whos has them. and who are the decision-makers. i worked for the city and county for 20 years and i have seen a lot of people being passed up for promotions, we're encouraged to continue our education and then we don't have promotional opportunities. i started in the healed health -- in the health department as a health worker and i'm a program coordinator and striving to get another promotion. i just think that you really nao ed to look at the hiring practices, the retention, working closely with h.r. and have people that are impacted by these decisions at the i believe that. we're asking for solutions but solutions can't be made in a
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closed door when there is only five people in the room who have no understanding of how this impacts people's lives. [applause] we all go home. we're suffer. we're scared. a lot of people suffer from anxiety and are afraid to come to work or just, you know, don't know what to expect. so i take heed to -- i want you to take heed to their concerns and see all of us as human beings and really reach out the your compassionate and your response to these issues. >> good afternoon, commissioners. i'm karen pearce. i'm a native san franciscan, a homeowner. i've been working at the department of public health for 20 years now. i previously worked for the city in the former department of social services and the police department. i have witnessed racism through all of those years. but what i'm witnessing now is
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so much worse than i've ever seen before. while d.p.h. has adopted number of projects to address racism and equity, the culture has not changed. and there is no indication that the culture is going to change. so when you get responses and the responses are what we're doing, there may be a lot of money being spent on it, but it is not having a difference in the culture that we have to live in. [applause] development of solutions to this problem cannot be left in the hands of the executive staff that exists right now. >> yeah! [applause] >> you've heard that. you've heard that. [applause] the personal descriptions that have been given also prove that. if we are going to get to solutions, number one -- power and authority must be given to
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line staff, to other staff members -- [applause] to come in and to develop these changes that are necessary and that will help us move forward. and finally, to show you what the ultimate impact is on our communities, the people we serve our residents, just check the health status in bayview runners point and the millions of dollars we spend every year and we have not seen any improvement. [applause] >> thank you. >> how y'all doing? how everybody doing? my name is queen vanessa banks. i'm a born native here of san francisco. i'm 48. i'm not 28. and so i'm really pissed off because i was employed with san francisco park and rec for six
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years. and so i'm gonna have to switch over to racism. what is racism? because you got more black folks in here doing a black folks role than anybody else doing us wrong. so we'll talk about everything. you understand? because see it's two type of coons. you gotta educate a coon that think they know it all -- mm-hmm -- and you have to uneducated coon that don't know much of nothing. well i'm both. [laughter] and i'm sick of it. i had to quit my job from park and rec from being bullied for six years. i'm the only one out there doing something and you have someone like jackie battle, or whatever category you want to put her in. didn't even acknowledge me as i sit there and do everything out there at hunter's point without no pay. without no money. but then when they kill mario woods, i said something. i wasn't on their payroll that
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day. i wasn't in their uniform that day. and they been black balling me every since. so, i quit. because let me tell you something. i'm 'hood and i do retaliation and you ain't scaring me and i'm not running and go make no [inaudible] which i did go to e.o.c., i went to the union, i went to h.r. department and park and rec. never heard nothing from 'em. so, you know what? they pushed me to ccff because i just on my way to get my degrees of two of three because, see, i'm just not about that life just gonna keep coming down here complaining to y'all. y'all know what this city doing to us. [applause] and the black folks in position know what they doing to us. [microphone cut off]
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[bell ringing] [microphone cut off] [applause] >> thank you. >> good afternoon. my name is rosalyn butler and i'm glad i could come here and speak to the supervisors so ms. furor -- i remember you from the school district. i worked at the school district for 12 and a half years and i remember you, too, jane kim. so, 12 1/2 years with the school district, i left there because of all the hell i went through. i pray to god, and i made a decision to leave. [voice breaking] like the other woman said, one medication to almost five. and that's when i finally said enough is enough.
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i worked in my department for almost three years with no supervisor. i ran that department. worked overtime without getting any pay and was the best person in that department for them to hire someone 20 years younger than me, asian, who had never worked in city and county and who had never worked in a print processing department and mail services like i did. i left and went to laguna honda. i said i would never let anyone do to me that happened at the school district. i get there, two supervisors try -- they went to h.r. over the executive director who was black and over the operations manager who was black to try to get me fired. i said the first job i could get to get me out of lou -- laguna honda, i would leave and i did. i currently work for the san francisco police department. i am the only black person in my department and i can finally say -- knock on wood -- i am stress-free at my job.
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i would like the say to you guys, you know what's going on. you need to do something about it. 16 years ago my sister told me to apply for a city job. i said no. because you only get a job if you know somebody and that was 16 years ago. and here it is 2018 and it's still the same thing. you guys need to stop hiding. i am one rosalyn, a black rosalyn who is the daughter -- [microphone cut off] [applause] >> hello. my name is michelle pearce. i'm with the bay view hunter's point community advocate. >> whew! >> i'm here because these things, as we have heard, are not even hidden. we know they're happening.
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and my greatest concern, as someone who does environmental justice and equity, is that these practices brought down on city government employees bleed out into the community. you have people in this city expecting services from your employees who are being treated in the same way with the expectation that there is no accountability and no repercussions. [applause] and that is unacceptable for us. we use pretty words and this is directed towards you, supervisor kim, because i use the same words. we use pretty words like "outmigration" and "displacement" and the reality is the african american community is being run out of this city. [applause] we are being targeted out of this city by employees who are just transferring their mistreatment to us. and the consequences can be
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seen in the numbers. you're running out the nurses and the m.d.s who are working in our neighborhoods with our communities. why is the maternal and infant health outcome -- in san francisco -- worse than most third-world nations? [applause] worse than the south. because the health department -- this is epidemic. why are our asthma rates worse than third-world nations? than anywhere in the south. because the employees in our health department, who can acknowledge that these are epidemics, are not willing to do anything about it because there's no repercussions when. -- when we die. we have to leave. we have to outmigrate in order to survive. these are real issues for us. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you. >> supervisors, thank you for a long overdue hearing.
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i'm tony kelly. what the city is doing to its own workers, as you hear today, toward african american workers, depriving them of middle-class jobs of dignity and respect, they're also doing to the working-class neighborhoods of color in the city. just like you hear from michelle pierce. in the southeast of the city, supervisors, you probably know that there is up to a 14-year shorter life expectancy. than other zip codes in the cities. we have dispair notice on cancer, heart disease, asthma, average h.i.v. load. many other disparities. the department of public health, other cities study this. others are similar distear pis. an african american woman in san francisco has six times the infant mortality rate of white women in the city. it is the worst disparity in the country. other cities study this. our department of public health does not. they don't even collect data
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and still telling us in neighborhood meetings like they will do tonight at the shipyard that its demographics or choices that lead to these disparities. like skipping a visit to the clinic for one week or going to [inaudible] instead of trader joe's. i do want to remind you that it is assurances from this departments of public health that led to the approval of the shipyard promise, including asserting in this room and in the nresz 2010 that the ground, the dirt at the shipyard, nothing was in there that could not be safely touched, breathed or eaten for 30 years. you know they're not saying that today, ladies and gentlemen. it is time for the department of public health to eat shipyard dirt. >> yeah! [applause] >> they need to live up to their responsibilities and come to terms with what they have been doing to african american workers and african american communities in san francisco. thank you for listening. [applause] >> thank you, mr. kelly.
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>> it's unfortunate i'm always constantly speaking out, as they say. wisdom is speaking out in the wilderness and it is really unfortunate because in actuality, i do know that none of you here, none of you are going to be able to help us. that is the bottom line. we need to start telling the people the truth is that this corruption is going on internal, the not going to be able to help us. because you know why? the reason you can't help us is that because can't help yourself. your morals and your values are totally obsolete. it doesn't matter anymore. you feel that you can do what you want to do, say what you want to say. as long as you think that you are going to represent these people. many of you have been in how many positions all this time and the condition is getting worse. [applause] you know it's getting worse. i want to know why we playing the political game. yeah, i'm running for this office. but i'm running not ton -- to be a part of you. i'm running so you're exklutted. there is no way on earth that
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we have to continue to be here and hear why women are so stressed out and we're always supposed to be self-contained and not be able to express ourselves to the truth of what is going on. so, you would be so quick when we're hurting on the inside internally for your men with your guns and you can come and shoot us at any time and incarcerate us and we're supposed to be steady quiet and see the children suffering and the low self-esteem they got because they never see us and you make it so hard with your regulations. always your regulations and your permits and ticketing us every time we park somewhere and you can't park. we don't nothing around us. we can't live, we can't's, we don't have shelter, we don't have schooling. we don't have anything constant. we don't even have a culture anymore. you took that and now you make it to even apply for this you have to speak another language. how many black people you know speak another language. but we just saw one. but if we had the right opportunities and you out of the way, i feel government needs to be taken out of the way.
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but i want -- if members of the public can be mindful of the time that's remaining. so that everyone can speak. >> good afternoon. i'm karen fleischmann. i'm a white ally of my brothers and sisters of color and i stand in support of everything that they've said to you about what needs to change in the city and county of san francisco. i want to talk about three policies that are exacerbating the racism of my white brothers and sisters and these policies also need to change. number one, offering tax incentives to tech companies without requiring that they hire black and brown people. i moved here because my ex-husband was recruited by a tech company. i facilitate workshops at tech companies. i know what they're like inside. a sea of white and asian faces with a big black security guard outside, a latino woman as the custodian. and a white woman head of h.r. with her little flippy ponytail.
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this has to change. [applause] number two, setting aside low and moderate income units in luxury residential developments does not address the housing crisis for black and brown san franciscans. [applause] all it does is set up further permit paddy situations because now you have all of these white rich people saying who is that weird black and brown person living in my building? i know, let me call sfpd on them. which brings me to number three. hiring 200 more sfpd officers without addressing the bias issues within the department, without holding accountable the killers of black and brown san franciscans is only going to lead to more alex niesos, more mario woods, and let's not forget it was white newcomers to san francisco who racial profilinged alex nieto for wearing a 49ers jacket and called sfpd and said we have a gang member here.
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alex nieto was born and raised in san francisco. that was his park, not newcomers' park. and you as public officials need to hold white people accountability. [applause] >> thank you. i'm going to just call the rest of the speaker cards because not everyone that has come up has been called up. eunice, shahmon, commissioner wallton, edward, terrence and mary. those are all cards that i have remaining. if i have not called your name, please feel free to line up. >> hello. my name is natasha bell and i'm one of the 15 nurses that was severed from the city. i was a registered nurse at san francisco general for 29 years. and i was let go in june and i don't know why. and here's the thing -- my department labor and deliver, where i have worked for 27 of my 29 years, needs nurses.
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it puts out the call for nurses pretty much every day. and for the last seven years, i have been an on-call nurse so i'm exactly the kind of nurse they need to fill these open positions. so i am confused. i am ready to work. i'm available to work. they need nurses to work. but i have been told that i'm not needed. aaron kramer came up earlier to address this. he is the sciu representive furs. so, my conclusion is i'm not allowed to work because i'm over the age of 50. [applause] there is -- this is so clear to me the unfairness of this situation that i've hired a lawyer who is helping me pursue my claims as age discrimination. because the issue is very clear they need nurses and i am available to work today. i would appreciate any help that you can give me and the other nurses around this issue. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, ms. bell.
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>> honorable members of the committee and my fellow brothers and sisters of sciu, i'd also like to recognize the fact that the third in command and our h.r. director is here today for the san francisco fire department. but pay attention, i'm about to put you on blast. my name is keith baraka, i'm a member of the san francisco fire department, firefighters local 798 and executive of the san francisco and california democratic party and homeowner here in s.f. i believe my career -- i'm sorry, began my career on july 27, 1997 while the san francisco fire department was under a well-publy soyed ascent decree. as you're aware the department has as long history of discriminatory practices. please, by all means, count up the discrimination lawsuits against administration of joanne haze white alone. i'm certain that there is a seven figure category there. in my years of service with the department, i havensed and been
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the victim of despair treatment, harassment and homophobia. having the courage to speak out on these matters almost guarantees retaliation. but in ways that are much more subtle than they used to be. the new style of retaliation involved subterfuge and is dramatically more opaque. for example, refusing to fulfill a routine uniform request or creating new work rules to hinder my ability to do my job at the department as a recruiter, case in point -- the department has ordered me not to meet with prospective candidates. take a moment to think about this. the recruiter for the department and i've been ordered not to meet with candidates. because it provides, quote, an unfair advantage. really? this new directive seems to have come about only after i made issue of a completely inappropriate, unqualified instructor that used the n-word during a training exercise. moreover, it has come to my
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attention to a former request that every single member working in my division was paid at a higher rate. nearly $2 0 more per hour for -- [microphone cut off] [shouting] [applause] [microphone cut off] >> thank you, delegate baraka. >> my name is rafael picasso. i am an sciu 1021 vice president of the school chapters, negotiator and 30 years shop steward. i've seen discrimination throughout my career here. i plan on retiring hopefully in five years so i ain't got to deal with it no more. that being said, i heard h.r. earlier give a description of how they're hiring practices
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are. that's all fine and dandy. you know, we all put rules together and union contracts together, too. and in our union contractses we talk about discrimination and all sorts of stuff. but do our managers follow those union contracts? no! they violate those union contracts on a daily, ok. i'm -- like i said, i've been here 34 years. i started off as a janitor. i worked my way up as an interim director. you know what i get paid? 5% more than my employee that works under me. but you know what the director that sits in the other office gets paid? a lot more than i do. why? is it because i'm a mexican with brown skin? and the person that acts as the director in the office next to me gets paid way more than i do. h.r., what's up with that? how do they do that? how do they get away with not paying a minority, whether you're black or brown, a proper salary based on, what, my color?
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i mean, that is not right. over the last 20 years i've asked to put a j.a.q. in that i've done and each time got the run-around by h.r. whether it's h.r. in the school district or h.r. in the city side. that's denied me as a mexican my right to be paid as a director of my department. so you cannot tell me there is no discrimination. not just throughout the city but into the city college and the school district. thank you for your time. >> good afternoon. supervisors, my name is eunice. i'm from laguna honda hospital and seiu member. i'm here to address the evil management in laguna honda hospital. >> yeah!
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>> i thought i was coming to a civilized [inaudible] to work when the federal government invited me to come here to work as nurse. and i figured it out that america somehow is not civ lied. -- civilized. i can't understand in 2018 we still talking about race that has been dealt with 200 or 300 years ago. it breaks my imagination we're talking about a human life in a government hospital. local government hospitals. county hospitals. what do i take outside united states to tell people? that this is my witness here. caring for people and you can't speak up. when you speak up in laguna honda, your job is gone. that shouldn't be. that shouldn't be in a civilized world because any one of us can lay down on that bed. you never can tell what happens. please, i want you, supervisors, not everybody has
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been saying something and makes people come over here to lay complaints and nothing is done. all of you should have a conscience. if you are black, and you have a [inaudible] and wake up to know that you're black. what happens? how do you expect somebody to look at you? how do you want them to address you? how do you want them to treat you? the bible said we should always remember to treat others the way we expect somebody to treat us. if they're [inaudible] [microphone cut off] [microphone cut off]
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[microphone cut off] >> thank you. thank you. [applause] [laughter] >> hi, everybody. my name is darla brown. i'm here to support my brothers and sisters at sci-1021 and all the people here who have been discriminated. i have maybe one little resolution to this whole situation. just a little tiny resolution. start off with eeoc. clean that whole house. get rid of all the team -- too many directors and not enough investigators. [applause] because none of these managers or directors have nobody to be accountable because eeoc just gives you a letter, they don't
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find no findings and they just give you a letter saying, go right to sue letter. that is not resolving the issues. my name is darla brown. i was terminated my work in oakland, alameda county. i was terminated and a year later i was hired because a judge found there was no grounds to terminate me. but eeoc said they didn't find no findings. this is some of the problems right there. if the directors and managers have somebody be accountable, maybe a lot of these cases or a lot of these stories wouldn't be told like it's been told. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, ms. brown. >> thank you, supervisors, for allowing us to speak today. my name is alyssa jones-garner and mr. jyles has graciously ceded his time so i could speak today. [inhaling]
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i was hired as a 1404 clerk in the office of the chief medical examiner. [voice breaking] during my hiring process, i endure add level of scrutiny reserved for police officers. including a witnessed drug test, a urine test that was administered by someone that i would be working with. [inhaling] as a clerk. [sniffing] after asking questions about the severity of this hiring process, i began to endure harassment and discrimination on an hourly basis for months. i reported these issues to
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several directors whom are here today and was sent back into that office. after one incident, i reported to e.e.o. and my pay was docked for going to report it. i am now on a mandatory medical leave because the director of operations said if you are not 100%, you cannot come back here. i'm a native of san francisco. i was born and raised in district 10. i worked in district 10. i helped my community in district 10. i have almost 20 years of work experience, four degrees. and now i'm being -- [microphone cut off]
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>> thank you. thank you. [applause] >> oh, boy. i don't think i need to even say anything after that. my name is salina keen. i go by ms. k. i'm with the human service agency. i just got elected as vice president for the 1021 chapter of my agency. i've witnessed and within a victim of discrimination. just like a lot of the other individuals that spoke here. i think my question at the end of the day is really what the board is going to do about this. >> yes. yes. >> i don't think i really even need to say anything else. what do you guys plan to do about it? you said it's blatant. disparity is out of control. i mean, one of solutions i actually brought up, even with the hiring process, is just
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basically return the hiring process back to d.h.r. and get it out of the agencies because the agency's gonna discriminate anyway. [applause] because it's all the family and friend plan. if you aren't part of those circles, regardless of your background, your education, what you know about that job, it doesn't matter. >> amen. >> ok? so what are you guys going to do about it? i've met a couple of you personally. but it's time. this is ridiculous. why do we have to keep carrying on for another decade, the same old thing every day, day in-day out? ok? the other thing i thought of, just in case you don't do that, which makes a lot of sense to return it back to the d.h.r. and get it out of the hands of the agencies is to basically put oversight committees over each agency, manned by people like me, to ensure that this discrimination doesn't continue or that we can catch this to help out the shop stewards. ok?
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help out our unions. ok? so we can stop all this. because this is totally ridiculous. why do you guys want to keep on repeating this? what are you guying to do about it? >> ok, sister. >> ok? at tend of the day, stop unnecessary -- [microphone cut off] >> thank you. [applause] >> hello. thank you for your service, supervisors. i'm kind of nervous. i don't usually do this. but my name is vernelle boyd. i'm a 9132 transit fare inspector in the proof of payment unit. i'm here today because our department, for the last couple of years is under new management and has really failed us. when lou lamatello was our commander-in-chief, proof of payment ran so smoothly. for the last couple of year,
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it has been a hostile environment. our assistant manager has retaliated against us. he has disgusting comments about women. there's been sexual harassment in our department. and there has been suspensions because we didn't bring in seven citations. and for me there is no quota for proof of payment. we -- i have followed the chain of command, and like i said, i usually don't speak up. but these derogatory comments against women, there's five of us, and it's bad. so i followed the chain of command and then i just thought to come up here and speak. what can we do? because obviously nothing is getting done over there. to me, if there is sexual harassment or something against a woman or talking about a woman's breasts or ass, excuse my language, i think he should be on administrative leave.
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and nothing -- nothing's happening. you know, i know donald ellison is doing his best. i spoke to ed riskin and now i'm here to speak to you because you are going to be shocked. out of 52 proof of payment officers, guess how much are working? 25. that's it. and it's because of this harassment, the stress, everything we're going through. nothing is happening. so i really hope -- like i say, i don't really talk much. but i really hope that when -- [microphone cut off] >> thank you. and i actually didn't know that don ellison from sfta is also here to listen to members of the public. thank you for pointing that out. >> hi. my name is shelby and i'm here to speak on behalf of brightline defense a public policy nonprofit thats has advocated for local hire, good paying jobs and work force developments that impact
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sfairns in san francisco. nine years ago in 2009, the african american migration task force found that san francisco was rapidly losing its african american middle class. and this trend has not been reversed. meaningful nondiscriminatory employment opportunitis are essential to ensuring that african americans are able to remain in san francisco. as a second largest employer in the bay area, the city and county of san francisco must work to end discrimination in its workplaces and ensure access to jobs for black san franciscans. this hearing and mayor breed's directive are a first step to ending the discrimination against the black population. brightline is here to listen today and we hope to continue to work to support san franciscans black community. thank you. >> thank you. >> good afternoon. thank you all for having this hearing. but i hope that something will come of it to change things. my name is norma nelson and in
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2012, i was constructively terminated from the port of san francisco by the current executive director of the port of san francisco. i had worked there for seven years and had not had any disciplinary issues at all. however, i did slip and fell on my back in the lobby of the port and injured my back and while i was out on disability leave, i was required to still do my work enhave -- even though i was out on disability leave. once my doctor didn't release me back, i requested the opportunity to have light duty or transfer to another department. i was denied any opportunity to return to my job. finally i was -- the reason i say i was constructively terminated is because i had no place to go and my health would have been jeopardized if i
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would have continued to work in the hostile work environment that i was suggested -- subjected to. the hostile work environment came as a part of my duties as an 1824. i was responsible for contracting activities at the port. i uncovered a number of inappropriate contracting activities that were going on there. and specifically discrimination against african american contractors and consultants. when i brought this to the attention of my supervisors there, rather than to try to rectify the situation, i was then investigated for unfairly selecting the -- helping the staff elect the consultant that they wanted to hire and they did not look like me. and so i was constantly sundayed to hostile -- [microphone cut off]
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>> thank you, ms. nelson. [applause] >> hello. any name is yeva johnson. i just wanted to say one, i'm a human being. i'm a black person. i'm a woman. i'm a lesbian. i'm a jewish person. i speak spanish. i speak some french. i am a physician. i am a family physician. i'm the first family physician or any physician in my family. i've lived in san francisco most of my adult life. i work for the city and county of san francisco. for all but two of the last 28 years, mostly in the department
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of public health with the exception of six short months of the department, the human services agency. the reason i'm here today is because one of my colleagues at laguna honda hospital where i currently work, an environmental services worker gave me the flyer so i just came as a support person for sciu. i'm in the uapd union of american physician and dentists. my qualifications are as a person who has an m.d.and an m.p.h. from berkeley and received a complete scholarship from berkeley for my leadership in public health is to run a public health department and that used to be my aspiration. i currently came today just to be a support and sit here in support. but i came up to speak because another speaker said to you a supervisors -- and thank you to her -- that you looked her in the eye and that was a trigger for me that, unfortunately,
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that is something that's incredibly needed is for people to be looked in the eye, that basic human dignity. and the other reason i came in terms of policy is that when you have trainings, for me these trainings are a trigger. the trainings of humility and harassment tell what should be done and for those people, i have colleagues -- all kinds of colleagues -- [microphone cut off] >> thank you. thank you, ms. johnson. [applause] >> hello, i'm christopher christianson with the ilwu local 10 as wells as the district council and labor council delegate. first off, let me start to say
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that the international longshore and warehouse union has a zero -- less than zero tolerance policy on racial discrimination, sexual discrimination, sexual assault and all kinds of things. i've heard from all of these sciu 1021 members. so i ask why are we not helping these members? why are we not helping these members just go to work? provide for their families. live a happy existence. have a happy co-existence at their jobs. you should feel safe and secure. at your job. not afraid. and on edge. and with that being said, i just also want to say that the ilw local 10 and all i.l.w. supports in any kind of rally, mobilization, any kind of fight that they have, that nay need us for, we will be standing in solidarity arm in arm. [applause]
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>> thank you, mr. christianson. >> i'm going to keep this very brief and try not to make it too personal. i'd like to start off by saying my heart goes out to everyone here who has been discriminated against. who has a family member who has been discriminated against. i thought i was in this by myself. my name is edward simple. i started my career as a 9-1-1 dispatcher for the city and county of san francisco in 1988. i resigned in 1993 due to what we're talking about here, retaliation, discrimination, harassment, etc. once the department went civilianized, i'm not sure of the exact year, i came back in 1999 and i resigned last friday, september 14. this is a job i love. i was born and raised in san francisco.
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i went tos private schooling my entire, you know, curriculum in san francisco. private schooling. graduated from archbishop high school in 1984. i love this city. and i love my job. i was told by three chiefs of police in san francisco over the radio, when they pulled me to the side in private and told me i was the best dispatcher they ever heard over the radio. i've been told by numerous officers that i've been the best dispatcher they've heard in their entire career. if you've ever gotten me as a call taker on the phone, i was told i am the nicest dispatcher in san francisco. i love my job. so for me to have resigned twice from the city due to harassment, due to discrimination, due to just unfair treatment, it says a lot
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and i have a piece of paper here. i would like to hand -- [microphone cut off] >> thank you. we'll take that. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is terrence hall. i'm secretary treasurer for transport workers local 258. we represent the muni operators 7410 automotive service workers, 9132s, which ms. brown spoke on and city workers also. where do we start? ha. so our members, african americans and brown and all, are subjected to seniority violations. they're subjected to working at a classification where they're hired off of one list and given dutis that they shouldn't be doing.
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the sfmta, with their hiring practices in what they've done in contract negotiations, has put a ceiling on your advancement. they put in different levels, used to come in as -- i'm speaking for all departments. we don't have anyone -- we have a human resource director and safety. we're african american. everyone else is not. when this agency was great and your service was great, you hired from within with people who knew something about it. now it's exempt and they bring in people from alabama, atlanta, new york to try to run this city and that is why your service so poor. so, if you could reach out to me, i know supervisor brown you are, thall@twsf.org. reach out, we need to talk. because there are other problems that need to be resolved. as far as all other departments
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that work, we have public health workers that can't get -- their jobs are being outsourced and contracted out. and they can't get advancements. all of these things are happening with the city. since i've been here since 2000, it's just gotten progressively worse. so if you're serious about doing something, reach out and talk about -- [microphone cut off] >> thank you. >> thank you, mr. hall. [applause] [please stand by] [please stand by]
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had >> good afternoon. my name is daniel, i'm -- daniel becker, field representative for san francisco general hospital miscellaneous workers. i want to start by thanking you for giving our members the opportunity to speak about their experiences with racism and discrimination in the city. as you've heard, this is an ongoing issue and it needs to stop immediately. i would like to add that seiu
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fully supports these members and a world without racism and discrimination, not just in the workplace but everywhere. we have made a request to prove what we already know. people of color, especially african american workers for the city and county disciplined higher levels than the white counterparts. this information has been kept from the union until recently. i'm pretty sure i know why. right now i think it's important to just point out the obvious. the city and county of san francisco would like to brand itself as a beacon of equality but it is plagued with white supremacy, and it's important to point out that white supremacy is not just swats -- swastikas and donald trump, repeatedly deny them when they are doing
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out of class work. disproportionately disciplining people of color. white supremacy, dismissing allegations of racism in the workplace and then disciplining the members who bring up these issues. it is removing these people from probation at a much higher rate than anyone else. delaying information that what the members are saying is the absolute truth. i see these examples happening every single day. i know who gets disciplined and fired from probation. i know -- >> supervisor kim: thank you. thank you. thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisors,
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and i really appreciate this grassroot effort. i'm not in the union, but i'm retired, and i've lived in san francisco about 27 years. it's admirable that san francisco as the previous speaker said tends to want to be the hallmark across the nation in this current administration of being inclusive, and unbiased. but this hearing today with an overflow room of folks, we have a lot of work to do as far as looking deeply in our hearts, and in our structures if they are supporting systemic racism in any form. in the years that i've been in san francisco, i've always sensed, as another speaker said, that the condo i live in that makes me such a target for, are you supposed to be here, i dare to live well black in the city that again supposedly the beacon
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of inclusiveness, it's just recently that some of us in my community, which is south beach, mission bay, got together and we did have our own little safety -- safety forms that are based on welcoming communities. we looked at some of the barriers to embracing every person in the city as equal, but were not attended very well because i live in a very wealthy area, where real estate seems to be more valuable than the lives of people who has been san francisco. i do appreciate the hearing today by the city itself. i do hope we can look into ways of structuring things so everyone does feel quite included. and i do hope that we'll use also this period of reviewing the collaborative effort by san francisco and the police department in it we are retraining law enforcement officers -- [microphone cut off]
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>> my name is mary, a former employee of the human rights commission. i worked 16 years for the city in various departments. because as you know, the human rights commission is a regulatory body. i worked those years with no promotion. i showed an attorney my personnel file, and she said well, why did they get rid of you? i said for various personal reasons. she's black, she doesn't support the things that the human rights commission supports so and so forth. and they took me off of all three jobs that i worked on, the last time they put me on, caused so much pressure on the optic nerves of my eyes that my primary doctor, took me off the
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job a year, and when i came back to work they destroyed the stuff in my cubicle, and do you think you can do the job if we put you back to work, and i don't know, we are going to send a questionnaire to your doctor as what you can do. doctor had stated don't increase the amount of typing, eliminate some of the typing, 8 to 10 hours a day is too much pressure on the optic nerve. what the department said, and this is d.h.r., under mickey callahan, very nasty to me, said she cannot perform the essential functions of her job. so, we are going to transfer her to e.o.c. transferred me over there, and that, attempted to downgrade me as a clerk from a contract compliance rep to a clerk. this is what the board of supervisors and the unions need to address. the civil service commission allows city departments to
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downgrade you if they don't have any work in your field, or right, in your field. or any work in your classification. what you need to look into is to change that -- [microphone cut off] >> supervisor kim: thank you. thank you. thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisors. david williams. president of the west bay retirees chapter of seiu 1021, members and retirees come to the meetings to talk about how they have not been accommodated in
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trying to return to work, what troubles they have, how the departments do not facilitate getting them back but rather obstruction. likewise, they talk about how they have been bullied and pushed out because of ageism, and forced to retire after working for many years when they are not ready to. you've heard all the rest of the stuff. what really needs to happen here is this meeting, this hearing needs to be taken to the full board, every supervisor, all 11 supervisors need to hear this, they need to hear all this and need to respond. they need to tell us what they are going to do. they need to direct the managers and the department heads as to what they expect of them, and we expect change and we expect the whole board to facilitate that happening. thank you. >> hello, gail romly, unit clerk at laguna honda hospital.
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been there three years. when i first came to work, in the first week i was told to report to the nursing station every time i left the nursing station. other two unit clerks on the same classification of me asian, were not told the same thing. i was told not to speak with case managers from outside hospitals, did so one time, was reprimanded for it, my other unit clerk, same classification as me, did the same thing two days later, no reprimand. so, since then when i complained i have been the target of discrimination, retaliation, a hostile working environment. they also did the same thing to the other two unit clerks before i started, one was of african american descent, the other hispanic. they left. i said i'm not
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