>> good morning, welcome to the government audit and oversight committee for wednesday, september 19th. my name is jane kim, i serve as the chair of this committee, and today i am joined by supervisor vallie brown. unfortunately, aaron peskin cannot be in attendance today, as it is yom kippur, so taking a motion to excuse his absence. recognize the committee's clerk, john carroll, and the staff at

sfgov tv. mr. clerk, announcements. >> clerk: silence your cell phones, and completed speaker cards should be submitted to the collect. items acted today on the september 25, 2018, agenda unless otherwise stated by the committee. >> supervisor kim: i would like to take a motion to excuse supervisor peskin, without objection. so members of the public know, because of supervisor vallie and i constitute quorum, it mayor be in the middle of the meeting we may have to take a break to use the bathroom and other things like that. >> clerk: items 1, 2, and 3,

non-renewal of a mills act historical property contract, 215 and 229, haight street, and 627 waller street, and 973 market street. under administrate code 71, notice of the non-renewal and authorizing to send notice of the non-renewal to the property owners. >> supervisor kim: thank you so much, and supervisor peskin is a sponsor of these items. we will be opening up for our senior preservation planner, shannon ferguson, present on this item and tim fry is also here from h.p.c. to answer questions from committee members. >> good morning, supervisors, shannon ferguson, planning department staff. items before you today are resolutions for non-renewal of three historical property contracts for 215 and 219 haight street, 617 waller street, and

973 waller street. legislation authorizes local governments to enter into contracts with private property owners of historic properties. this agreement provides property tax reductions for those historic properties, and allocate toward appropriate rehabilitation and maintenance plans to preserve the property. currently holds 31 active mills act contracts. under that and chapter 71, 1 year is added automatically to the initial term of the contract at the anniversary date, unless notice of non-renewal is given. agreements are ten-year rolling contracts renewed annually, essentially in perpetuity. the mills act contract of either the property owner or the city to not renew the contract. if written notice is not served prior to the renewal date, one year will be automatically added to the term of the contract. the board of supervisors will

make the determination the contract not be renewed. property owners will pay property taxes based on the fair market value of the property after the contract expires. the mills act contracts for the three companies were approved on october 4, 2017, and on november 14th and december 12, 2017, the historic preservation commission approval. information provided by the assessor's office and weighing the benefits to the mills act and the historical value, with the cost of the city, board of supervisors approved the mills act contracts. at that time the board of supervisors also expressed interest in limiting the contracts to ten-year term to balance between the benefit of the mills act and the cost to the city. haight street, waller street, and market street are proposed to be limited to a ten-year term

only. rehabilitation and maintenance work will be completed in that ten-year term. the department recommends the board of supervisors approves limiting to the ten-year term, it will provide incentive for historic preservation, rehabilitation and maintenance work completed in the ten-year term, and achieves a better balance between the benefits to the property owner and the costs of the city. this concludes my presentation. i'm happy to answer any questions, and the assessor is also here if you have any questions. >> supervisor kim: thank you so much, we will open for public comment on items 1, 2, 3. >> this item here on historical buildings, it should be permanent. no touching these historical buildings, period. this is a discriminatory practice used by the city for decades. you stop the protection, you

renovate the building, you create apartment building complex and then you make the requirement to be eligible to move into the building and tenant, and the income -- and essential location of the building in question. you call it gentrification, and only where people of color are located. never in areas where people are predominantly white. it should be permanent protection, period. not just five years, ten years, it should be life preservation for the historical buildings and not to be with the apartment complex where only people with high income brackets can afford to move in. you claim 100% affordable

housing, but you put in the application to be a tenant, income of minimum $80,500 a year. way more than the income of the people who originate in the vicinity where the building is located. disgusting. you did it to the fillmore addition, russian addition, two different ways discriminated against black, with the technique there and the technique that the army used to displace blacks with the chemical warfare on hunter's point. >> supervisor kim: any other members like to speak on items 1-3? seeing none, public comment is closed on these three items. i did just see an email from our city attorney 15 minutes before

the committee hearing asking us to make some clarifying items to make the language clear in terms of the action taken by the committee today. do you have any comments to make? >> deputy attorney, john givener. coordinated with supervisor peskin's office, basically clarifying, correcting one where we had on the original resolution, the city had informed the property owners 60 days before the annual renewal date that we were planning to terminate, rather than 90 days, reflected in the amendment, and adding result clause authorizing the planning director to record a notice following the adoption of these resolutions.

>> supervisor kim: thank you so much, mr. givener. we have the language for the amendments before us. does that count as reading the amendments into the record? so, i will make a motion to amend as said into the record by mr. givener. and we have a motion and we have a second, i'm sorry, and we can adopt this amendment for that objection. may we take a motion to move items 1-3 forward with recommendation to the board as amended, we have that recommendation, and we can do that without objection. mr. clerk, can you please call items 4 and 5. >> clerk: called together? agenda item 4, resolution receiving and approving annual report for the ocean avenue community benefit district, and item 5, report for greater rincon hill doing business as the east cut community benefit

district for fiscal year 2016-17. both submitted by district law of 1994, agreement with the city. >> supervisor kim: thank you so much, and i see mr. korgas, and recognize that dan weaver, is also here today and will be presenting on item number 4, and andrew robinson, executive director at the greater rincon hill community benefit district also known as east cut will also be presenting on this item. mr. korgas. >> thank you, supervisor kim, supervisors. i'm part of the team that oversees the community benefit district program. today hearing two annual reports in the interest of organization, we'll hear about the ocean avenue c.b.d. first, invite mr. weaver up to present on the program achievements and then i will come back up and speak

about the east cut and invite mr. robinson to do the same. the community benefit districts and business improvement districts are governed by two laws. first the state law known as the 1994 act, and local law, article 15 of the san francisco business and tax regulations code. covers the annual report for the fiscal year 2016-17. ensures all c.b.d.s and bids are meeting management plans. conduct a staff review of the annual reports and c.p.a. financials, and provide the board of supervisors with a summary memo on our findings. ocean avenue c.b.d. is a property based district of approximately $239,000, established in 2010 as a 15-year district and set to expire on june 30, 2025. the staff is executive director dan weaver, assisted part-time by neil ballard and alex malaney. service ambassadors, cleaning

program, beautification, activation of public space, applies to zone 2. and the first, the budget amounts are 10% point from the management plan. benchmark two, when 1% comes from sources other than assessment revenue. and 3, whether the budget amounts was in 10% from the actuals, and 4, whether the c.b.d. is indicating the amount of funds carried over from the current fiscal year and demonstrating products in the upcoming fiscal year. benchmark one, historical met the benchmark. for two, ocean avenue c.b.d. raised approximately 19.1% in nonassessment revenue during the fiscal year and met the

benchmark. for three, ocean avenue did meet the benchmark in fiscal year 2016 and 17, after two years in fiscal year 13-14 and 14-15 of not meeting this benchmark. recommendations were taken into account and this benchmark has been met since. ocean avenue did indicate its carry forward amount from fiscal year 16-17 and indicated how the money would be spent in the upcoming fiscal year, due to the way the city disperses money to c.b.d.s, about half of the operating budget carries forward into a future fiscal year. in conclusion, ocean avenue has implemented well in the service plan in the district, implemented all recommendations from the 15-16 annual report, successfully sponsored and implemented neighborhood events and programs including second sundays and the ocean avenue project. partnering with stakeholders and municipal agencies and maintain

an active board of directors and several subcommittees. if there are no questions for staff on this particular c.b.d. annual report, i would invite mr. weaver up to present on his benchmarks. >> good morning, supervisors. i'm dan weaver, the executive director of the ocean avenue association. let me move this forward here. this is a map of the district. generally we have the long, along ocean avenue up to geneva, from, we have a retail district, which is composed of approximately 150 parcels, where

we have our marketing and promotion section of the assessment budget. we collect it only from the retail district, and then we have what we call the educational district, which includes at least on the map all of the ocean avenue campus of city college, as well as the high school across the street. so, that's the existing map. i should mention in terms of the map, we are looking at some time in the future bringing the transportation area, which primarily includes the bart station at balboa park into the c.b.d., but we are not looking at that until we re-authorize the c.b.d. in the future. but nor now, we are trying to establish a contract to provide services to maintain their outside areas around the

station. so, that's an additional part of the c.b.d. that we are trying to develop. we have 2 active committees, street life committee, business committee. street life committee focusses on the activation, particularly of the commercial corridor, and the business committee focusses on developing business growth and retention. some of our partner organizations that we have worked with over the past few years. and these are city agencies that we have worked with since we were established in 2010,

december of 2010. this is a break down of the grant income we had for 2016-2017 fiscal year. cleanscapes sf provides us with daily or six days a week maintenance and cleaning service on the entire corridor primarily focussing on the retail district which has more of that to contribute, more trash, more graffiti and so forth. arborist now also maintains our urban forest, which we try whenever possible to add to,

with additional trees and landscaping. in this fiscal year 2016-17, we were able to finally complete landscaping of two large public works owned parcels at the intersection of geneva and ocean, including an eye catching mural on a former graffiti retaining wall near the intersection which actually now has inspired city college to do something with their retaining walls and put up some large murals as well. 2016 and 17, we organized a program called second sundays. we provided music and other events held in small businesses and community spaces, through

june 2017. the biggest event we had there was we were able to get inside the city landmark el ray theater building on a sunday afternoon and do a historic preservation of the neighborhood program where we had about 200 people attending. and as of this fiscal year we are talking about, we had gotten some funding and we were preparing to carry out public events at a large plaza which opened quite recently and we started that programming with funding in 2018. this is a picture of the lobby of the el ray withstanding room only where we got presentations of neighborhood historical

places from western neighborhoods project, volunteers. challenges, high rents, and difficult to work with business spaces have often led to long-term vacancies, especially in 16-17, vacancy problem has improved greatly since then, but back then we had some difficult vacancies, and interestingly enough, some of the newest and biggest spaces are the vacancies that are the most troublesome because it takes a big, large business to come in there because it's a big space and expensive. also for older buildings, property owners underinvest in

their store fronts, which gives a facade sometimes a shop or experience. opportunities, a high interest in the neighborhood for public art events and entertainment. i should add, an additional tree planting and landscaping as well. o.a.a. is working to program free public events and install a variety of new public artworks on the corridor. new businesses establishing on each avenue bring the potential for business owners to participate in advocating for the community. some of the projects we were working on then and continue to work on include providing free public programs at the new unity plaza, pursue maintenance agreement for balboa park bart

station area, outside area, outside the station with bart, which continues. let me go back here. successfully raise funds, for artwork, and o.a.a. 15-year plan for the c.b.d. corridor. >> supervisor kim: thank you so much, mr. weaver. a quick question. you had mentioned some of the challenges for the corridor, accessible business entryway program, high rents, design challenges. what has the c.b.d. done or proposed or advocated for to kind of help alleviate for address some of these challenges on the ocean avenue corridor? >> primarily what we have done, well, for shop worn buildings we

have worked with people, we have tried to get whenever possible funding from s.f. shines. we have, and just right now we are, we have gotten the last six months two facade improvements carried out through s.f. shines money. that's a project that's difficult to fund for a couple of reasons, or to carry out. first is the funding seems to be city-wide and it's unclear when it's available or where, and secondly, the projects take years. they take years to get done, from, well, from start to finish. it's -- it's difficult to keep momentum going. it's difficult to get a real start. the rules at s.f. shines comes with or the grants come with are

complicated. and, but they right now -- they are in a good place. yes. >> supervisor kim: if i could just ask, what are some of the challenges to the property owners, just investing in their property? >> i think there's much -- much easier for them to do it, just by themselves. >> supervisor kim: right. so what are the challenges for the property owners investing? >> the challenges that i hear about is basically going through the city process of getting plans approved. >> supervisor kim: does your -- does the c.b.d. provide any services to help facilitate this process and help kind of guide? >> we do try whenever we can, yes. we are offering services that are related to that. >> supervisor kim: that's great. >> so, we do make that effort.

we also advocate for filling up empty spaces, ideally with appropriate businesses that people have said they like to see on the streets. ok. great. >> supervisor kim: one last question, and i only ask this because there was an article that came out in the examiner this morning about community benefit districts and i'm sure, what percentage of your budget or resources do you spend on policy advocacy with the city? >> policy advocacy with the city -- other than me talking to supervisor once in a while, usually our own, none. >> supervisor kim: ok. thank you so much, mr. weaver. >> ok. >> supervisor kim: thank you for being here and i know your long commitment to this neighborhood, appreciate seeing you here. i'm so sorry, supervisor brown has questions as well. i'm so sorry.

>> supervisor brown: that's ok. thank you, mr. weaver for coming back. it sounds like the ocean avenue c.b.d. is doing some great things for the commercial corridor, and the community. the but my question, on ocean avenue, has a very diverse community with many chinese language merchants. and what are you doing to provide language appropriate outreach to these merchants? >> this is a problem we have recognized, was talked about last year as well. what we are trying to do is to get a chinese speaking small business manager. we have not been able to do that. it's difficult to find such a person. we have talked about other alternative ways rather than just advertising, and we have come up with the idea of trying

to get an internship program or programs going at s.f. state where students would get credit for working with us on just those matters. we have also, whenever possible, tried to pass out information generally, for example, the new requirements for a.d. access to small business spaces is an important one. we were able to get an o.e.w.d. package which was translated into chinese as well as english. so, we circulated that, and that was well received. so, we are trying to function here in a high employment environment which is difficult to have a choice of employees when you hire anyone, and we are continuing to try to work

through this. >> supervisor brown: have you talked to the city college, with maybe a part-time student to help? >> we have not done that yet. our understanding is, i intend to follow up by actually checking with that. they don't have internship programs, unlike state where they get academic credit for it. but i'm going to further research that. >> ok. thank you. >> supervisor kim: thank you so much, mr. weaver. mr. korgas, presentation for the next item. >> absolutely. interest of time, i'm going to skip over some repeat slides. >> supervisor kim: great. >> so, the rincon hill benefit district is doing work as east cut community benefit district. established in 2015.

assessment budget, an i approximately $2.4 million and will expire on december 31, 2030. executive director of the district is andrew robinson. the service areas, and quite a few of them, public safety, cleaning and maintenance, parks and green space, communication and development, management as well as operations. the benchmarks reviews are the same for all c.b.d. however, benchmark two foreign con hill and the east cut is different due to a unique engineer's report. so, due to the different service categories, it was determined that 1.40 of the actuals for public safety need to come from public sources other than assessment revenue. and 1.4 from cleaning and maintenance needs to come from sources other than assessment revenue. and 6.79% of the actuals for the

parks and green space area need to come from sources other than assessment revenue, and that was due to the engineer's determination the parks and green spaces substantial general benefit compared to the other two areas. the other three benchmarks are the same. for one, the first annual report as required by the state of california. for benchmark one, the east cut c.b.d. did meet this requirement. for benchmark two, the east cut c.b.d. met this requirement across all three of the subject -- the different sort of category areas that require general benefit. for benchmark three, east cut c.b.d. also met the benchmark, and the east cut c.b.d. did indicate the amount carried forward and how it would be spent, they did meet this as well. in conclusion, they met all

three benchmarks and the management agreement with the city. the c.b.d. management plan -- given service area as mentioned. each service category has a different general benefit, because the c.b.d. will maintain and has maintained various parks in the school district, including the new city park on the, i think -- as park and public realms have a large impact on general benefit, determined to be the most equitable way to portray the general benefit amount. identified general benefit, grant in kind donation and volunteer hours to meet these requirements, and on april 10, 2017, owners association voted to rename the c.b.d. to the east cut community benefit district. and there are no questions for staff, i would invite mr. robinson up to present on the

workings of the east cut c.b.d. >> supervisor kim: thank you. and i see that andrew robinson is walking up and want to recognize lauren post, the former president of the board of directors of the east cut c.b.d. for attending today, and i know you were so integral once, and many volunteer hours so thank you for your leadership and acknowledge the current president, matt letuchy for the continuing leadership. >> great. thank you very much. good morning, supervisors, supervisor kim, supervisor brown. and thank you to lauren post for being here today. she was instrumental in the first year for the c.b.d. certainly. i'm andrew robinson, executive director of the east cut c.b.d. walk you through a pretty fast presentation in the spirit of time. but the east cut c.b.d. unites historic rincon hill, transbay transit center district, folsom

street corridor, boundaries, east from second street to stewart street north of mission to south of harrison. we currently have over 4200 property owners and parcels in the district, and about 2,000 housing units under construction today, many of which are affordable and below rate housing districts. 11,000 residents, and 80,000 come in and out on daily basis. c.b.d. has three color areas, cleaning and safety, parks and open space management and public communications and economic development. in our public space stewardship program, which again, 16-17 was the first full year of operations, we implemented a cleaning and community guide program, which runs from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

we also had an overnight security program from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m., and operate 24-hour dispatch line for residents, workers, really anyone in the district to contact the c.b.d. about safety cleaning issues. during our first fiscal year, we removed over 1700 graffiti tags, responded to over 3,000 calls for homeless outreach assistance, picked up over 130,000 pounds of trash, responded to another, almost 1200 calls for cleaning issues or safety issues. and then topped off about 2,000 city trash cans overflowing in the neighborhood. these are some images of our team at work, sort of cleaning up one of the four go bike stations, helping somebody with directions and information. additionally a large mandate to operate and maintain up to five parks that are coming and a few that are already only. during the first fiscal year,

let me just tell about the parks. parks are, as mr. korgas mentioned, emerald park, the only opened during the fiscal year. and significant contributor to the maintenance operations for the sales park, and guy place park and the future transbay park, where the middle third of where the temporary terminal site was. this is an image of emerald park, the c.b.d. has maintained, doing all the landscaping, pest control, even programming the park during the first fiscal year. also places for future parks to come, essex hillside when the c.b.d. started, we worked to clean the space up, removing thousands of pounds of trash and make this a better space for the neighborhood even in the interim period, hillside to becoming a park. and then with this neighborhood

sort of forming and being so new, a lot of the work that we have done sort of after hours and on the weekendses has been about neighborhood together. we have been activating vacant retail through pop-up events, film screenings, an image of one such events. there's been a tremendous appetite for this, and as this neighborhood grows and develops, the need for places to linger and gather that are intergenerational, socioeconomically diverse are really apparent, so the c.b.d. is doing its best to have places for that. and done someplace withes the parks coming online slowly, an effort to activate privately owned public space, an image from 16-17 of a beer garden we did during beer week with four point press -- excuse me, four

point brewing, not press. and then lastly, the neighborhood is in such transition. we have initiated and embarked on a community planning project with s.f. planning. this is an image of the east cut district from about, just ten years ago, 15 years ago, where it is mostly surface parking lots, the old embarcadero freeway used to land, transbay transit center in the top middle of the picture. this is what it looks like today. tremendous growth in the neighborhood. what the c.b.d. really cares about, active and public realm, people feel welcome, safe and good open space. so, and then this slide depicts some of the housing coming into the neighborhood. all the former redevelopment neighborhood projects and what they will become, the average across these projects will have 35% below market rate housing, something that the neighborhood is really proud of, to be accessible to san francisco, to have socially economic

opportunities for all. the project for planning, we are co-leading with the s.f. planning department, called the south downtown design and activation plan. we kicked it off just started to launch at the end of 16-17 fiscal year and continue to work to this day. and the budget quickly, c.b.d., almost three-quarters of the budget on cleaning and public safety. and then the remainder went to the economic development, parks green space and the organization, and that is my presentations. happy to answer questions. >> supervisor kim: thank you mr. robinson, i've been able to work with you for maybe all eight years, starting from when you are at a different community benefit district and i was excited you were going to the east cut. you did such an amazing job serving the district, and great to see how it's grown and i have to say, you know, just, i

remember eight years ago and it was really just metropolitan and the millennium, and to see this neighborhood grow so quickly over eight years is actually extraordinary. i had a few quick questions about the neighborhood. i did get these dates but i just want to get them out on, for our public committee. when is the expected opening for the underramp park? >> great question. 100% schematic design is right now, i believe, and going to the o.c.i. commission in the next few months. expected opening is 20-21, from what i understand. >> and does this, i'm trying to jog my memory, basketball court and does it include the hillside? >> the hillside was originally part of it. it still is slated to be a future park, although it is now under review as a potential

landing for a bikepath from the bay bridge, and sort of it's not going to be built in the first phase, but the phase that will be built is south of folsom at essex, sports courts, and extend north almost all the way to the transit center. >> with the transit park, do we have an expected opening day date n>> with transbay, there is an m.o.u. been o.c.i. and public works moving forward right now. that has a similar opening, although i would really estimate probably 2022. >> yeah. i only ask because i know, by the way the rooftop park is amazing and how quickly the utilization has developed, and i know that i was very concerned about a rooftop park and how activated it would be, and so concerns were alaid when they opened and that's incredibly

exciting and also know the residents have a lot of dogs in this neighborhood, and sales park prohibits dogs unless they are service dogs. commitment i get is they will open up and the underramp park and transbay open for dogs. if they are not open for another three years, what are the alternative options that you recommend to the residents for dog walking? >> excellent question and it is a real challenge in the neighborhood, with so many dogs. as you mentioned, underramp park will have a very generous dog area, an acre in space. a third of the park. in the interim, c.b.d. is exploring doing an interim dog on the now vacant temporary terminal site, a dog there -- >> block four. >> either block 3 or 4, really. but, and then essex hillside

actually has a flat landing area that's only about 3,000 square feet, but o.c.i.i. has said the c.b.d. could work to get a dog space there as well. >> okay. i would like to work with on that, that's an issue coming up in the neighborhood. what do you find is the vacancy rate in the neighborhood. you mentioned pop-up activation, this is a new neighborhood, all new buildings. so, not the same as the ocean avenue c.b.d. had talked about. what has been the -- i guess the occupation rates for businesses coming into the neighborhood? >> sure. that's actually kind of a moving target for us, i cannot lie. with the opening of the new transit center and about 120,000 square feet of retail there, that has retail that's going to take -- >> let's not count -- >> supervisor kim: we do track the retail across the district. but, what i want to give a shout out to is some of our affordable housing developers, both at the

c.h.p. and the mercy housing projects for getting retail into their spaces quickly. we have phil's coffee, a chocolate shop, fitness, all in the projects, and the market rates housing, it's been much lower to lease up, although the block six, i believe it is, the solare project has leased two of the three spaces. c.b.d. activates the third space b3,000 square feet. but the c.b.d. trying to employ a three-pronged retail strategy. one to do the pop-ups to show, to provide something for the neighborhood and show demand to potential tenants as well as brokers that there are people in this neighborhood looking for opportunities. and then two, we are, we have hired some consultants to do some economic analysis for the neighborhoods. one thing i think particularly interested in, a study that would assess the value of the

ground floor retail space to leasing office or residential upstairs. and that there would be a reason to get a tenant in there that is active, maybe at a less than market rate. if i can say that. and the last piece is in the south downtown activation plan, we are looking at the ground floor retail, hoping to make recommendations potentially around code changes to support small businesses getting in, more flexibility in the use of ground floor. >> supervisor kim: actually, it's really great to understand that the pop-up activation is not just for the mere sake of temporary activation, but also to demonstrate the need for tenants to come into -- >> we have had over 1,000 people to show up just to a friday night event, d.i.y. event done by the c.b.d. >> i'm pleased to let the office know how we can assist and encouraging our new buildings.

i have also noticed that our government and affordable housing developers have been much quicker to lease up, m.t.c. is another example that they have worked on activating their ground floor. this is something that was a huge issue when i was running for office, our constituents were asking for more amenities in the neighborhood, so please let us know how we can work with you. great to see the strategy that the c.b.d. is undertaking to help fill the location. i just want to ask the same question that i asked of mr. weaver as well, with i is what percentage of your resources or budget is the c.b.d. fund on policy advocacy to the city and county? >> it's probably next to none. i mean, we are very clear we don't take any advocacy or policy decisions. we did host a d6 summit, just, for informational purpose, we feel like we want the residents to meet the candidates but don't take positions on anything. >> ok. thank you so much, mr. robinson. really have enjoyed working with you and the entire board. you guys have just done an

incredible job and i have really just heard very positive things from our constituents, and particular the services that you provide just at night, c.b.d.s have typically provided services during the day, but i think providing the services between 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. was a great additional service and other c.b.d.s are replicating. thank you to your board, your staff, your team and for your leadership as well. >> thank you very much. >> supervisor kim: all right. so, supervisor brown, do you have a question? ok. so at this time we will open up for public comment on items 4 and 5. >> yes, steve sellser, united public workers for action. i think one of the things that's been lost about these special benefit districts is the racism of these districts. i don't know if the supervisor is aware, but the districts are

privately run, privatize public jobs, no unions in the district, they are union busting districts and are used to push out homeless people, low income people and minorities. that's the record of the districts. an article in the examiner today. we know in san francisco that public workers are under attack and these districts are part of that attack. why can't public workers do this work? why is it being out sourced to other workers? public workers in san francisco have a right to do this work. these districts are paid by the taxpayers, myself and others, they should be public workers who are accountable. i don't know how the districts operate. systemic problems with the special business districts. privately run. they are taking over what should be parks, public parks paid with our money and run by private agencies, it smacks of union busting, smacks of privatization

and outsourcing of public jobs and the people of san francisco have to put an end to the special districts. how many workers are union. what are they paid, minimum wage? none of this comes up because it's all private. it's all hidden. the privatization of the public districts is growing threat to the people of san francisco. thank you. >> supervisor kim: thank. [applause] >> demonstration just flows, i want to start off with taxes. you come up here and talk about how you are paying taxes, demonstrations on your schematic, you have a total of seven different departments that's part of the city, and they are paying payroll taxes. this is another example of selective preferential treatment. you have multi-trillion billion dollars companies, such as twitter and five of the high-tech companies not paying payroll taxes but every

department part of your department is paying taxes. twitter has gotten away with a minimum of $270 billion worth of tax free money. it's a lot more than that now. i estimate they are in the range of $350 billion worth of tax free money. twitter does not need a break. the people are economically disadvantaged, and homeless people in the street and the area where he's price-fixing and price gouging the expenses of rent to live in his area. now, you talked about article in the newspaper, s.f. viewer, please, these taxes are being used. tax dollars meant to improve quality, a bull [bleep] lie, but the truth of the matter is to push out homeless people. special districts drive out homeless people. right here in the first paragraph, it says tax dollars

addressed to the quality of life in san francisco, neighborhoods following a report that makes non-profit groups to the harassment and displacement of homeless people. and earlier the c.b.d. said the proportion of $800,000 budget hosts landlord tenant, and takes support and potential disputes that could end -->> supervisor kim: thank you so much, mr. wright. are there any other comments for items 4 and 5? seeing non, public comment is now closed. just to address members of the public, i did also read the article this morning and i do have some overall concerns about i think our community benefit districts as a whole, but i did not think it was appropriate to target just two of our c.b.d.s and having the larger discussion.

i think the article raises a number of good questions, but i also know that there are many positive i am parts to our community benefit districts as well, i think it's a longer conversation how we address poverty and homelessness in the city. and ensuring that we are doing it the right way. so i think that that is a much larger discussion but i think it is an appropriate discussion to be had with our community benefit district, our office will be engaging mr. korgas on how we can make sure the c.b.d.s are not a way to segregate our neighborhoods but a way to ensure we are providing the services that are direly needed in these neighborhoods. i want to appreciate mr. weaver and mr. robinson for being here today. at this time, this is just a recommendation to move forward, annual report to the full board. so, take a motion to move forward items 4 and 5 with recommendation, we can do that without objection. thank you everyone for being here today on these two items.

mr. clerk, before we call the next item, which is a slightly more lengthy hearing, i want to take a two-minute recess. for members of the public not here earlier, the two supervisors constitute quorum, we will go to the next hearing without any >> supervisor kim:

>> supervisor kim: we are resuming the government audit and oversight committee. i know many members of the public -- we are resuming the government audit and oversight committee. i did want to gavel down as quickly as possible, i understand members of the public do have to leave so i want to make sure we get the public comment as quickly as possible. thank you all for coordinating and making sure we can start our meeting back in time, and thank you also for your patience in providing a bit of relief for committee members. so, mr. clerk, please call the next item. >> clerk: agenda item number 6, hearing african american work force hiring, retention and promotional opportunities.

>> supervisor kim: i did call the hearing and thank you for allowing us to hear this incredibly important item. topic of racial disparity in the work force has plagued our country throughout our history and certainly one that the city and county should be at the forefront and leadership of in ensuring that every member of our society is treated with respect and dignity in the workplace here in the city. a few months ago, approached the office to express concerns of anecdotes they had been hearing from the members regarding what they perceived as racial inequity in the work force and i want to recognize vice president joseph bryant and regional director david cannon for bringing this hearing to our office and helping us shape the topic and the questions that we will be hearing about today. as you know, particularly here in san francisco, african

americans have faced a massive outmigration in the city. in the 1970s, african americans represented 13.4% of our city's population, and over the last 40 years, we have seen a very steady and rapid decline of our african american community in san francisco. as of july 1, 2017, the u.s. census borough that african americans are making up 5.4% of the city's population, which is an 8% decrease over 40 years. brookings institute in 2017 also published a report that found that african american employment levels have seen a significant drop over 40 years as well, made up 23% of the entire work force in 1976, by 2013, dropped by 50%, to 12.8%. members of s.e.i.u. have expressed concerns some is not just related to outmigration,

but also racial discrimination, bias and promotion, discipline and also termination. and thag these allegations very seriously, the office, along with supervisor peskin and others, have asked d.h.r. and the city departments to engage both in responding, looking at the data, but also a long-term plan and approach to how we address this issue. so, i want to bring up our director from department of resources. and also let members of the public know that chanda ikdia is here, louana kim is here, michael brown, ken gee is here, ronald wegalt, linda young, ramon williams, linda simon, and

derek kim, part of human resources at sfmta attending here to listen to the members of the public and also to the presentation here today. thank you. >> thank you, chair kim. mickey callahan. i have a big presentation, take approximately 15 minutes. anticipation you'll want to get to public comment and also may have questions. i have my executive staff here, linda simon is here, a number of issues relate to equal opportunity and she is the director of that program. and remind you and the public that we cannot respond to individual cases in view of the privacy considerations for both the people who have made claims and also those who are respondents to those claims. so, we are here to talk more about policies and programs and

what our plans are. the mission of the department of human resources so use fair and equitable practices to hire, develop, support and retain highly qualified work force. d.h.r. is the central human resources agency for the city. authority to discipline, hire, fire, and manage employees rest directly with the employing departments, so our agency acts as a body and resource body and investigate body. and demographics and programs that we run which address the issue of diversity. first of all, next we'll talk about the data that we have been developing over the last several months. largely, and in fact, predominantly in response to sciu, a process that continues as we try to drill down and

produce meaningful data which will also respect the privacy of individuals and then talk about future focus and as we know, the mayor issued an executive directive on supporting and ensuring a diverse and fair work force in the city. many of the programs i'll be talking about are geared to that end as well, and in fact, are part of the mayor's determination. the current work force and programs, i want to point out first the demographics of the work force. current demographics show the city is actually a diverse employer. we have -- attribute our success, the fact that we exceed the labor market in diversity and in fact, in the employment of african americans because of, we have merit-based hiring, anti-discrimination policies and training, and we have pipeline programs to try to ensure that barriers do not prevent people who are qualified are prevented from gaining employment with the

city. the labor market availability in san francisco for people who are available to work for the city, so it excludes retirees, for example, or children. but the labor market availability of african americans in san francisco for us to employ is 4.6%, and the city is at a robust 15%. so, that is a piece of good news. moving on, i'm going to talk about four of the different areas in which we have programming. first is the area of recruitment. without going into great detail, i want to highlight four different examples of ongoing programs, intended to improve the diversity of our work force. we have our clerical eligibility test, people with 0 experience to take an examination and get into, and qualify for entry level clerical jobs, can lead to a career en the city. and with a number of people whom we have recruited in fact through the human services agency as former clients who have obtainedy