>> supervisor safai: okay. good morning, everyone. this meeting will come to order. welcome to the october 3, 2018 meeting of the rules committee. my name is ahsha safai. i am the chair of the rules committee. to my left is supervisor kathrin stefani, and to my right today, we're joined by supervisor sandy fewer. before we begin, can we

entertain a motion to excuse supervisor yee? okay. our clerk today is victor young, and i'd like to thank sfgovtv for airing this meeting. mr. clerk, do you have any announcements before we begin? >>clerk: items acted upon today will appear on the october 16 board of supervisors agenda unless otherwise stated. >> supervisor safai: okay. great. mr. clerk, today we're going to take items two, three, and four out of order, so can you please call item number two. >>clerk: i'd number two is an ordinance amending business and tax recommendation environment fire, health, police and transportation codes to make nonsubstantive changes that correct errors such as incorrect sighition at thats, typo graph cal errors, incorrect numbering or heading and omitting headers or references. >> supervisor safai: great. i'm going to hand it over to our

deputy city attorney, jon givner, who's going to present on these items. thank you, mr. givner. >> deputy city attorney jon givner. every year or so, our office worked on a cleanup to fix errors that appeared in the ordinances over the last year. this cleanup, it doesn't have any sub-stantive effect or cleanup that would change the law. it's really just fixing errors in the code. that said, since this ordinance was introduced, we have actually fixed a couple of the errors in other ordinances, so i've prepared for the clerk an amended version which i can hand to you which just makes

additional clerical changes on top of the clerical changes that are already in the ordinance. so i would just ask that following public comment you accept these amendments and forward it onto the full board so we can have a clean municipal code. >> supervisor safai: okay. unless we have any initial questions, i'm just going to open it up for public comment. anybody wishing to comment on item number two, please come forward. seeing none, public comment is closed. any comments from committee members? i'm going to make a motion to continue this for a month -- i'm just kidding, jon. make a motion to send this to the full board with a positive recommendation. >> mr. givner: accept the amendments, first. >> supervisor safai: motion to accept the amendments. make a motion to send this to

the full board with positive recommendations. so moved. thank you, mr. givner. mr. clerk, item three. >> to change the qualifications for member of the shelter monitoring committee, create staggered terms for members, establish a sunset date for the committee and to allow shelters that contract with the city to provide clients with blaine blankets if clean sheets are unavailable. >> supervisor safai: correct. mr. howard chen, policy analyst from the department of public health, is here to present -- oh, and can you -- i'm sorry. can you call item number four, as well. we're going to do item number three and four together. >>clerk: item number four is a hearing on the annual report of the shelter monitoring committee and asking the shelter monitoring committee to report. >> i'm tyler morimoto, assistant

deputy department of public health. the proposed legislation changes in the administrative code is regarding the shelter monitoring committee, which was established as -- established a committee of appointees from the board of supervisors and the mayor's office and also through the local homeless coordinating board. what this committee does is they also go out and create a standard of care for homeless shelters. according to that standard of care, they go out and inspect -- they do two things. one is inspect the shelters, and then, item number two is they take complaints from residents of those shelters. so there's -- we're requesting some changes in the administrative code. this has been quite a process because it started in -- we reviewed it -- began in 2015, november 2015, and 2016, january is when the shelter

monitor had reviewed all these changes, and we also went through with then h.s.a. and then h.s.h. about a discussion with these changes and included providers. and so the shelter monitoring then passed it. i can go over what some of the highlights of the legislation changes are. >> supervisor safai: just briefly. that would be fine. >> sure. so one is this change should be staggered starts for the committee because one of the problems, there are two year terms, and what would happen is at the end of the term, we would lose the whole committee. so what this does, it allows for staggered terms, and creates better continuity. there's also -- there was some stipulations on some of the seats, and one of the difficulties we had was one of them was living with her

homeless child who was 18. that was a requirement, and we had difficulty filling that seat, so we changed the recommendation to someone who was living with a homeless child under the age of 18 at some point in the candidate's lifetime. and then there was a staff -- there's also the issue about blankets and clean sheets. so in doing the site -- there's several sites that don't do separate sheets and blankets, and so they kept getting cited for the same thing. how they compensated, they would have two blankets. so we're asking for that request to change it, particularly around certain shelters, it affords them to provide two blankets but not have to do the sheet part. and so it -- and then, i think

the minor ones that there's a sunset date, and it creates a sunset date on this, 2020. >> supervisor safai: okay. great. sounds good to me. any questions from the committee members? okay. seeing none, i guess we can -- and then, who's going to do -- >> howard chan, he's going to do the report. >> supervisor safai: okay. come on up. mr. clerk, should we vote on three before we do the report on number four? i know they're called together. >>clerk: can you take the vote on three, and then, we can move onto item four. >> supervisor safai: okay. so let's just, before we do the report, any members of the public wish to comment on item number three, please come forward. seeing none, public comment is closed. [ gavel ]. >> supervisor safai: okay. so i'm going to entertain a moment to item number three to move the amendments governing the monitoring of sheltering committee to the full board with

a positive recommendation. can we do that without objection? okay. so moved [ gavel ]. >> supervisor safai: okay. please come forward and present the sheltering monitoring report. >> good morning, members of the committee. okay. thank you.

good morning, members of the rules committee. my name is howard chan. i am the policy analyst with the sheltering monitoring committee, and today i will be presenting the committee's annual report for 2016-2017. i'd like to begin by quickly going over the committee itself? the shelter monitoring committee is composed of 13 members who are appointed by three different bodies. the first body is yourselves, the board of supervisors, as well as the local homeless coordinating board and the mayor's office. of the 13 members, half of them are homeless or formerly homeless individuals. the rest of the seats are filled by service providers. the committee has two purposes. the first is to provide city agencies and the public with information about shelter

conditions and operations, and the second purpose is to monitor city funded shelter programs for compliance with minimum operating standards, known as the standards of care. the committee accomplishes these goals by conducting site visits at different shelter programs and taking client complaints. their several different sites that are monitored by the committee. resource centers, reservation stations and drop in centers which provide shelter reservations laundry, showers and more. in addition there's single adult shelters that provide shelter for homeless adults over the age of 18 and family shelters for homeless parents and children. moving onto the 2016-2017 site visits, one of the new features of this report is attempt to try to highlight programs that do exceptionally well either on item visits or client complaints. on the left you'll see several

programs that had two or fewer total infractions noted over the course of the entire year, so we did want to recognize those. there are also two programs that had a little bit more difficulty meeting the standards of care. these were women's shelter and community council. we conducted intensive site visit training which involved on-site visit and highlighting potential standard of care infractions so they could be addressed. i can report that in subsequent site visits, we have seen the number of infractions drop at both of those program sites. in addition, i wanted to speak really briefly on standard 12, which is the infraction that received second more infractions during the reporting period. that was one of the standards that were part of the recommended legislation changes that were just approved. as you can see, this was an issue where we were citing several programs over and over again, and there were a large number of infractions for that particular standard. moving onto the client complaints, the committee received 219 complaints filed by

133 unduplicated clients during the reporting period. once again on the left, you will see several programs, specifically, compass, hamilton, interfaith winter shelter and larkin that did not receive a single standard of care infraction that year. the program that received the most complaints was next door with 123, and we did take a closer look at the complaints that were submitted about that program, and we will have more information about that in just a few slides. just for -- to touch briefly on the status of the complaints, shelter programs did respond to all of the complaints that were received. 54 received responses that actually satisfied the client, while 24 received responses that did not satisfy the client. the remaining 141 were closed due to either no contact or if the client told us they were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied but simply wished to close the complaint. as far as the types of complaints that the committee received, the standard that came up the most was a standard one, which falls into the staff

category. standard one -- allegations of standard one that came up in client complaints were largely due to unprofessional behavior from staff. while we do try to investigate these allegations to the best of our ability, often these are he said, she said situations and they can be difficult to prove or disprove in either case. what we have been doing is tracking the name of shelter employees that come up in complaints. if their name comes up more than two in a month or six in a year, their name is sent not only to the shelter staff but also the h.s.h. contract monitor. lastly, i just wanted to speak briefly about the complaints that we received about next door. next door is the second largest single adult shelter that is monitored by the committee with a capacity of 334 beds. it is a 24 hour facility that shelters both 34e7b and women. we saw a surge in complaints compared to the previous fiscal

year, where they increased from 29 to 123. after investigating all the complaints, we determined that one, a disproportionate number of complaints were submitted enough by five individuals, the increase could not be attributed to any individual shelter employee as none of them were involved or named in more than six complaints over the year. third out of all the 123 complaints, 36 actually received responses that satisfied the client, which is a higher rate than the year before. and lastly, we have continued to track the number of complaints filed about next door, and we have seen that that number has dropped down in the following fiscal year. i would now like to take sometime to answer any questions that you have about this report. >> supervisor safai: yeah. i have a question that's not really clear here. how many shelters are there in our entire system and how many beds in total are you monitoring? >> so the shelters that are

monitored by the shelter monitoring committee do not compose of every shelter in san francisco. >> supervisor safai: why? >> so our legislation, our m mandate is to monitor city funded shelters. >> so how many city funded shelt shelters? >> 21. >> 21. >> supervisor safai: how many beds? >> there are approximately 1201 shelter beds. >> and how many of those are 24 hour. >> of those programs, i would have to -- i would have to double-check and get back to you about that exact number. it is -- there -- it is a mix because some of the programs are operated out of temporary facilities. i don't have the exact numbers of which ones are 24 hours, but i can follow up with your services. >> supervisor safai: yes. >> we have a representative from

h h.s.h. >> supervisor safai: okay. it sounds like you might have been a technical person. >> good morning, supervisors. my name is scott walton and i'm the director of shelter monitoring and incentive housing. there are 21 shelters, 8 -- >> you're breaking down the 21. >> yes. eight adult, six family shelters, and then, the other sites are resource centers that are not shelters but are places where clients go to access programs and so forth that are also falling under the shelter monitoring committee. >> supervisor safai: they're not really places where people with go for shelter. >> yes. >> supervisor safai: there's only 14 shelters that you're

monitor. >> when the winter comes on, we have an interfaith program that comes on. i can tell you that today, we have the eight adult shelters, of them, the largest are open 24 hours, although due to operational components, people don't have necessarily access to their bed at one of those 24-hour shelters, but they have a rest and recline area when the bed floors are being cleaned. >> supervisor safai: so 1200 for the adult. how many beds are there for the family? >> the family beds, it's roughly around 450. that's a little harder to give bed numbers too because we do rooms for family, and it may be a family of three. >> supervisor safai: so 450 rooms. >> i don't have that number in my head. i've just recently taken on the responsibility of overseeing family, but i can get back to

you. >> supervisor safai: i would just say since this is an important point of conversation that all of us are involved in, it would be good to have, when you're presenting the information, to say this is how many shelters are being monitored, this is how many -- what we just did, adult, family. and are you monitoring the navigation centers or is this outside the scope of this? >> i'm with the department that actually funds and oversees the committee. for navigation centers, that is something we're moving towards but we haven't fully itch willmented that, but -- implemented that, but that's where we're going. this is an annual report from 16-17. there is an annual report for 17-18 that will be coming to the committee. >> supervisor safai: when will that happen? >> the committee is scheduled to

vote on that at the october shelter committee meeting. >> supervisor safai: so we'll have that soon. >> but you are soon when we get to the shelter monitoring committee's report for fiscal year 18-19, i expect that shelter monitoring reports will be included in that for part of the year. >> supervisor safai: how many rooms or beds in total do the navigation centers have? >> so today, we have four navigation centers that are open, and i'd have to -- just give me a moment to do the math. >> supervisor safai: roughly. >> roughly, it's 300. >> supervisor safai: 300 beds or 300 rooms? >> 300 beds. this month, we're closing one and opening two. we do produce a matrix on these

sites. i did not bring that, but i'll make sure i bring this to future committee meetings so you have that. >> supervisor safai: thank you. commissioners, any further questions? supervisor fewer? >> supervisor fewer: yes. so i understand there's 1,202 year-round beds, is that correct? >> yes. those would be for the year-round adult shelters. >> supervisor fewer: and what is their occupancy rate, so are they all filled? >> our occupancy rate, when we take the snapshot in the morning, we're generally 95% full, but that is a moment in time count because generally, all of our beds are reserved at some point during the day, so then, clients may not show up for their bed so late that it may not be replaced with somebody else. so our occupancy report, which we produce daily and monthly shows that for the adult shelter system, a 95 -- roughly 95%

occupancy, but again, that's the 6:30 a.m. snapshot, and a bed may have it one or more reservations, but the clients never showed up for it. >> supervisor fewer: okay. great. because of these reports that we see, we see shelters that are doing great, and have zero complaints, and then, we have other shelters that have more complaints? are we seeing that clients actually prefer these shelters that have zero complaints to the shelters that have multiple complaints owe are we seeing the same is kroo the board. >> we see that the occupancy rate is pretty squint across the board. one of our sites that's 24 hours is more remotely located. one of the factors, it might

have a slightly higher vacancy on some nights. we have shelters as small as 30 beds in our adult system, and our largest is 340, so naturally, they have more people, more complaints. >> supervisor fewer: and these shelters, are they just for an over night stay, these are not for extended, 90 day periods? >> in our adult shelter system, we have a process where adults with get on our 311 wait list and get an additional 90 day stay, and get an additional 30 days. the beds that are not reserved are released for one night use. and then, we do have a portion of our beds in our adult shelter system that are tied with the care, not cash, legislation and those are filled by clients what are on cap benefits and homeless and in the care not catch

benefits program. and so -- cash benefits program and they get a stay that's roughly 45 days, because they see their worker every 30 and that's how it gets renewed. >> supervisor fewer: so the maximum that they can stay at a facility is 120 day zblz we do have some specific situations where people can extend an additional 30 if they have a pending housing placement, and they're under medical treatment that will be done in that 30 days, so we try to build in that flexibility. as soon as you drop off for a stay, you can get back on the list for the 90 day stay, you can use the process to get beds on a one night stay while you're waiting to get back in that. >> supervisor fewer: how successful are we using those fo

fo -- housing those folks once they're done with the 120 day stay. >> we've implemented coordinated entry where we assess everybody in a uniform fashion, so we had a pilot adult coordinated entry program for three years. we're implementing a new version of that now. we have a family coordinated entry program, and that is who determines who's eligible for the city's funded support housing, so it treats everybody the same whether they choose to use shelter or not. so the process of placing people out of shelter does happen, but it's not -- accessing shelter doesn't get you priority for housing? does that make sense? our process looks at people's length of homelessness, barriers to housing and acuity as determining who should have access to those services. and then, our department is rapidly -- it currently has and is expanding what we call or

problem solving alternate tiffs for people who do not get priority for that housing which would be some rapid rehousing responses or short-term subsidy or issues that will help them resolve their homelessness. >> supervisor fewer: thank you. and now, i wanted to know about the complaints. thank you very much. is there a difference in the people that are complaining? >> there hasn't been a done that we've noticed. we do get complaints from clients that are staying on a one-night basis, weekend basis, or staying the whole month. i would have to go back and pull the exact numbers. we typically see more clients that come in on a longer term

stay, but i don't have the exact numbers. >> supervisor fewer: okay. thank you very much. i have no more questions. >> supervisor safai: any other questions from the committee? okay. great. thank you very much. can we entertain a motion to file -- >>clerk: public comment. >> supervisor safai: oh, sorry. any members of the public wish to comment on this item, please come forward. >> good morning, commissioners -- i mean, supervisors. my name is ace washington, founder of the case community assistance service enterprise, and the reason why i put that together is because everybody knows me as ace on the case, that word, case, rhymes with ace, but it dignifies everything that i've been doing for the last 25, 30 years for my community here at city hall. i want to define what ace on the case means, because everybody thinks it rhymes. it rhymes but it has

significance to it. in every experience, i had significance in the homeless -- experience in the homeless program. you all may not know it, but i'm victim of the homeless program. most of my family is across the bay. most of them, blacks have left the city because of whatever reason it is, and i won't go into that right now. but i'm here speaking on these homeless programs, shelter programs, that the city spends hundreds of millions of dollars. ever since angela alioto took over the homeless program, that's when it was running the smoothest. but since then, hundreds of millions of dollars have been put in there. you've got your director of homeless, and all these other programs. you've even got a guy that worked in the shelter that's on the commission of homeless. i want to know when you're going to get people like myself that's on these commissions that can

tell you the truth and from eyeball witness that goes on at these shelters. these people, i've never seen before, they're new to city hall, talking with shelters and wraparound programs. i'm not going to waste my time with you right now, but in my report, it's going to show you totally different than all these people standing up here saying we've got this, we've got this. you need to hear from the homeless people how they're treated. when i was in these shelters, if you left and come back in, you've got to stand in lane. be aware, ace is on the case on this particular homeless programs, particularly since you've got all these millions of dollars -- >> supervisor safai: next speaker, please.

>> my name is lucy schwartz, and i was the lead crime reporter at the san francisco chronicle. because of various things that happened in my life, above all, my tender situation, i have become extremely active in the transsituation in the tender lane and frankly with the disadvantaged members of our society. woman's place is a scandal, a scandal, a scandal. i am working with someone who i have -- i have a pretty diverse past, as i'm sure you can imagine. i'm working with someone who's worked with francis coppola on a film. it's a film that's based on a french novel that casts trans women in traditional female roles. one of our stars living at a women's place -- i could give her name -- i can give her first

name on request, documented, mexican immigrant, extremely fine person, her hair was cutoff in the middle of the night without warning. now that obviously changes how we approach the project for a film. another woman that i know, not actually really trans, but nonbinary, lesbian, was harassed out of women's place over alleged sexual rivalries. this is a woman that i know, and i know her extremely well. i appreciate everything you're doing. i appreciate the progressive stand of the supervisors, not just progressives, but of san francisco leadership as a whole. down in the streets, it's real bad, real bad, and people are suffering. i live in an s.r.o., i'm safe, but i'm just appealing to you, do what you can and focus on women's places above all. thank you. >> supervisor safai: thank you.

next speaker. >> good morning. my name is dennis mcray, and i'm the drof irector of e.p.s., episcopal shelter centers. i just want to tell you about those 126 complaints that we've had in 16-17. we have in the last fiscal year reduced the complaints -- i think they were at 68. that's a 44.72% drop in the complaints, so we did our own analysis. we actually changed all the administration at that particular shelter, site manager. we added an additional administrator over there, and we actually now do our shelter trainings quarterly so that all

of our shelter staff, whether -- wherever they come in, that they receive all their trainings, and we actually redoubled our efforts to training our supervisors, changing our staffing schedules, so that we have custodians on 24 hours a day. a number of those complaints were about our bathrooms, so now we have someone on aisle 7 24 hours a day just in case someone's needed. we also hired an associate director of shelters. i believe he's going to speak a little bit more about the programatic h programatic stuff that we've done to address those complaints. so we expect this year, fiscal year 18-19, they will go down even lower this year than last

year, when they were 68. thank you. >> supervisor safai: next speaker. >> good morning. my name is marlon mendieta. i'm the associate director of shelters for e.p.s. i'd like to use my time to talk about the solutions about the complaints. one of the key changes we've made is rather than just focus on the rules and take a punitive approach to problems, we have a restoreative justice coordinator. we can take different approaches to solving problems, rather than simply going by the rules that we have to enforce. this allows us to do more mediation, more conversations one-on-one, small groups. we introduce community building circles on a regular basis.

we hold those circles and it gives people a chance to -- not only our guests but also our staff to communicate with each other on an equal level. this goes a long way to ease tensions within the shelter. we have a chance to introduce what we call restoreative circles. i think it's been instrumental in decreasing the number of complaints and improving the quality of life for our guests at the shelter. obviously it's an ongoing process but i'm very excited about it because i see the difference in terms of people's experience at the shelter. what i can say about the restoreative justice approach, it runs parallel to the griefance process, as least the way we look at it. every time we speak to our guests about a warning, there's the option to take a

restoreative approach. we all take that restoreative approach any time there's a problem in order to prevent minor complaints -- >> supervisor safai: thank you. thank you, sir. next speaker. >> hi. my name's gilbert canelo. i'm a formerly homeless vet, homeless for 12 years. during that time i was asked to review a medical clinic in the mission district which had 85% hispanic clients. first thing i noticed was the state advocacy groups that had put signs wiup all over about t patient's individual rights, they were in english. i asked the director why they didn't have them in chinese and english and spanish, and i don't -- can't even remember what he said, but it was whatever. then i asked him about how many

complaints -- they didn't have any complaints. i said, well, you have a silent majority here that doesn't understand what their rights and the rules are. therefore, you don't have any complaints. and i asked them, who was the point person, who would you talk to if you have a complaint? they didn't seem to know that, either. i wanted to fail them, but politics say no, no, give them another chance in a progress liberal city. we like to give everybody a second chance in progressive cities, but i'll bet if you go to shelters, if they have signs up, they're in english. we have a diverse community, english, spanish, chinese speakers. and they're not being represented. any way, new york city has 880 different languages that -- when people vote in new york city, they mail out 880 different languages in new york city, so

they have a more diverse group than we do. so if anybody wants to complain about three languages, go to new york and try to translate your ballots into 880 different languages. >> supervisor safai: thank you. any other members of the public wishing to comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. can we have a motion -- any other questions or comments? i would just say in closing, it would be helpful to have a little clearer idea, when i asked the questions publicly, they were different. i understand that the numbers are different than the numbers in the presentation in terms of the number of shelters, the number of beds. it's important for us as a said, as a member of the board of supervisors this is a constant question of information from the city. but i appreciate the report. i think it certainly does help to inform us. can we entertain a motion to

file this report? great. do it without objection. [ gavel ]. >> supervisor safai: mr. clerk, please call item one. >>clerk: item one is an ordinance amending the administrative code to establish the cannabis oversight committee to advise the board of supervisors and the mayor regarding the implementation of city regulations related to cannabis. [please stand by]

-- the committee will not have the ability to hire or evaluate the personnel in the office of the cannabis. that lies with the city administrator. the city will be in the city administrator and the city administrator is responsibility for hiring the facilitator. during 2018-2019, the committee will be funded by funds from the department of public health. the budget for this committee for the fiscal year 2019-2020, is part of an annual budget discussion. this oversight committee will help to advise the board on amendments to the current legislation, the situation of new amendments and the overall health of the cannabis industry in san francisco and the effectiveness of our current policies to meet the goals set forth by this board.

like all article 5 advisory bodies to the board of supervisors, the board of supervisors select the voting members of this committee. i am proposing some amendments to this ordinance. and as you can see i will walk them through -- i will walk you through them right now if that is okay. and as we see the first one is on page 3, line 4, we're adding a nine voting seat for the entertainment commission. line 3, page 3, line 6, adding a non-voting seat for the fire department. and page 3, line 17, this seat will be for an equity applicant as defined by police code. and page 4, line 19, to clarify that the city department is required to respond to requests for administration from this committee. page 5, line 1, the city administrator will provide

administrative and policy support for the committee. >> what is the last one? >> page 5, line one, sorry. and then also we are adding that it's not in your legislation here is that on page 5, the powers and duties, we would like to add this language that says, "this committee does not have the authority to hire, fire or evaluate personnel in the office of cannabis. that authority is still held by the mayor and/or city administrator." also we would like to add on page 6, to line 23, that we are switching from biannual to annual reports. >> okay. >> and today we have the city administrator's office. >> before we have bill speak i would just say on that last amendment -- no, no, on the last amendment that you gave instead

of saying that "authority is still held," it is held by the mayor and the city administrator? >> absolutely. >> and then mr. -- >> mr. gibnor. >> on this last amendment, if i can jump in, offline discussing with supervisor fewer's staff, just two -- two quick thoughts. one, this is -- this new language states i think for clarity what is implied in the text of the ordinance. this body, like all advisory bodies that the board creates, will not have decisionmaking authority over the executive branch, including the decisionmaking authority over any employment matters? >> that's clearly laid out in the charter of the city. >> right, right. so the language is legally

unnecessary, although certainly up to -- up to the committee if you want to add that language. if you do, i would suggest not specifying the second piece of that clause about the -- that authority. i think that it's fair in this section of the code to simply say that this body does not have the authority to hire, fire or evaluate employees. >> got it, thank you very much. yes, that was strictly included for clarification. thank you very much. and, chair, also you mentioned about the last amendment on page 6 that would actually -- instead of biannual report it's an annual report. >> i got it, i got that, i got that. >> and this committee only meets five times a year and we thought an annual report is the most adequate. >> and just for clarification on seat number -- so many -- is

that 13, the equity applicant? >> yes. >> is it "shall be held by an equity applicant"? and this is a question, an equity applicant or an ebbing e- >> someone in the pipeline as an equity applicant. >> if they're an applicant smat point, if they're chosen and they botto become a partner thed have to get off the seat. >> they could then apply for seat number eight which is the owner of a cannabis business permitted through the equity program. >> i'm just saying that seems to be -- if we're successful, that might be an ever revolving seat hopefully if there's equity applicant. because once you choose someone you are hoping they are selected. so i wonder what seat did you say they could apply for? >> seat number eight, owner of a cannabis program permitted

through the equity program. >> oh, okay. so... what? oh. >> right here. >> permitted... okay, got it. okay, no, no, i see it. i was reading the other eight that was crossed off. i got it. okay, sounds good to me. mr. barnes? >> mr. barnes, thank you. >> thanks. >> good morning, rules committee, supervisor fewer and members of the committee. bill barnes, the city advisor to the city administrator. and i want to begin by explaining why this is needed. the and the task force was created by this board of supervisors to advise on implementation that was extended as part of the legislation that created the permanent process but sunsets this year. supervisor fewer's legislation which create this is committee replaces that task force and we're really grateful for her for her leadership and for the health department for carrying us over in the fiscal year because we have gone from thinking of prop 64 to thinking

about how the office fupgz bees and how things can be improved and how they can be better positioned. so the supervisor fewer raised the issue around not hiring or evaluating personnel. and the city administrator wanted me to clarify that this committee isn't going to be where you get your permit. that happens in the planning commission and through the office. and i'm just looking at the questions of how the whole system is working, policy, data, statistics, reporting, so that we can get an organizational sense of what's working and what's not working and what can be improved. so i wanted to clarify that on personnel and on permits. public health has agreed to help us with the financing this year. and the next year there's a need for the budget committee to consider both the policy and the administrative role to make sure that the group can be successful. so we'll be back with you in july on that. and i wanted to thank the supervisor for agreeing that an annual report would be better, that's going to ease some of the administrative burden. and i would note that some of data sets are data that we have and that are available.

and others are harder to get. how many records have been, espionagebeenesponged are theree will do our best to get the data. i know that the language was added to encourage the departments to comply. and i want to state that some of the data sets are outside of our control and we'll do the best we can. with that we have no concerns about the legislation at this time. and i'm happy to take any questions that anyone might have. >> thank you, mr. barnes. any questions, colleagues? >> no. >> thank you very much. >> anything else? >> you have questions for me? >> we'll ask if we have any more afterwards. and we'll open it up for public comment. any members of the public that wish to comment on this item, please come forward. depending upon how many people we have -- hold on one second. >> i'm sorry. >> clerk: i'm trying to get a gauge on how many are here.

limited to one minute. >> sorry. i apologize. my name is lucie schwartz. are these minutes available to the public? >> yes, they're recorded the. >> they're online somewhere? >> clerk: pause time for a second. if you start asking questions -- >> forget it i apologize. all i have to say is this -- okay, all i have to say is one minute and 50 seconds. i'll do 50 seconds. as a member of the commission under mayor brown i had been appointed because i was secretary of the newspaper guild. and it strikes me that the city commission should be very inclusive in terms of the institutions and the community, like the newspaper guild and the league of women voters. one concern is that groups like access of love should be on these commissions, on this commission, and should have a seat reserved because of its history. and bottom line, cannabis is a

matter of life-or-death for trans people. i have gone through it myself and it can prevent suicide. i don't care about recreational, i care about medical, health and access of love. thank you. >> clerk: thank you. next speaker. >> hello, i am denise dory, and i have to make this quick. so now is a good time to regulate the industry, and the low-income patients, we need separate committees because we have different interests, different agendas. and the industry makes money. and the other -- we just want to live and harm reduction is very, very important. so we need our own committee and we don't want to have to -- because this is an ethics violation, really, to denic dena plant that costs us $10 a pound to grow. i'm just saying that we need to regulate the agreed factors first and we're last. why are the patients last?

that's what i am just wondering to myself for so long. why were we last? we had our own committees. i've got videos of all of the committees for years and how we were obstructed for years and years and years and it's all on video if you want to see it. thank you. >> clerk: thank you. next speaker. >> hello, supervisors, i am brandon brown with the cannabis retailers alliance. i'm the treasurer of that group. and i'm also on the cannabis equity working group. just a few comments and questions from the consensus through the retail lens. we're wondering where the cannabis oversight committee will secure funding. we don't want to see a committee with oversight of our industry with an unfunded mandate. and we ask for a funding source may be from the general fund just specifying that. i wish i had more time. we believe that the number of seats should be expanded. we sent you an email itemizing

that information. and then, third, we believe that the current seat definitions should be more broad, like the guy said earlier, you know, sometimes those seats, you're looking at a specific person and over time things change and if they're broader then it's easier to replace those people in those seats. we sent you an email outlining our information. so thank you for your time. >> clerk: thanks a lot. next speaker. >> good morning, mr. chair, and members of the committee. doug block with teamsters joint council 7, representing 100,000 teamsters in northern california, including 12,000 in the city and county of san francisco. here to speak in support and to thank the author for bringing this forward. this will bring the cannabis industry in line with other industries in san francisco where our members work such as film, that have commissions and

that have oversight authorities for them. and so we're here to speak in support. thank you. >> clerk: thank you. next speaker. >> good morning, supervisors. my name is nina parks. and today i'm will representing the cannabis equity working group. i am really happy that you're pushing this forward for us to figure out with some oversight and continued guidance from the cannabis industry will look like. just a few recommendations as far as the equity applicant seat, and having that equity seat by someone employed in the cannabis industry but equity verified because that's a very specific area since all cannabis companies have to have 50% employment as a verified person. so that might be an interesting voice to have at the table. and specifically to have the equity incubator and someone with a verified business, as a business owner or the business partner. so that's my two cents.

thank you. >> clerk: next speaker. >> hi, my name is gilbert, i'm a member of wake for warriors and acts of love. i saw the medical cannabis in the capitalist cannabis and now we're taken over by the capittist and they're not interested in the patient and not interested in the consumer. they're interested in themselves. but that's not unusual for a capitalist. so it's me, myself and i. and money, money, money, and more money. we're innovated by foreign powers, is it mosanta that wanted to take over the industry in california? well, anyway, you should watch the dark money. we're influenced by all of these outside sources and some people don't even know where the mob secoming from. it could be coming from isis, who knows. but, anyway, the thing is that

we need to represent the common consumer, the disabled veterans, the people that can't afford medicine. they've been forgotten. >> clerk: thank you, next speaker. >> good morning, supervisors. jennifer garcia, ufcw local 648. i'm here to speak in favor of the cannabis oversight committee. i have been a member of the legalization task force for three years and i have been a co-chair for two years. and i will say that serving on the task force and being the co-chair of the task force has influenced the decision to support the oversight committee. as a cannabis industry continues to adapt in a regulated market there should be a body that can oversee the process in the best interest of the community as a whole and advising the board of supervisors and the mayor regarding the impelementation and the enforcement of the city laws. and having key stakeholders on an oversight committee would ensure accountability and transparency that the industry and the community deserves.

thank you. >> clerk: thank you. next speaker. >> good morning, supervisors. my name is david goldman, from the brownie mary democratic club, a policy club and i'm here in support of this oversight committee. i'd like to see additional seats. before you is a document with my name on it, david goldman. it lists a whole bunch of recommended additions for additional seats. i want to call your attention in particular to seat 14, to make sure that we medical cannabis patients have representation on this committee. specifically for medical cannabis patients. we also would like to see in seat 15, san francisco residency seat, and by an equity applicant who is an incubator applicant. and seat 18 held by a representative from the neighborhood association. i would like to also recommend that a seat be held by a disabled veteran. thank you. >> clerk: thank you. next speaker.

>> good afternoon -- good morning, members of the committee. my name is michael cohen and i'm speaking on behalf of the san francisco cannabis retailers alliance. thank you. the first thing that i'd like to speak on is the funding. the funds needs to be secured through the general fund and earmarked for the office of cannabis. this will ensure that the priorities of the committee and the o.r.c. are the same. and the city created the o.r.c. and we need it housed within -- [alarms going off on phones] >> clerk: it's just a test. okay. your time was paused, don't worry. please continue. >> may i continue? >> clerk: yes, please. >> funding and staff for the committee through the o.o.c. is critical for success.

if the committee is housed under the d.p.a. as currently planned, the priorities of the o.e.c. and them will differ on certain policies and the industry would suffer. you would not house the entertainment commission within the police department. let's not house the cannabis oversight committee at d.p.h. my second point is the data. the o.o.c. also needs access to data for a successful outreach. please clarify that all departments must respond to data requests from both the oversight committee and the o.o.c. within 30 days. and also please clarify what department is responsible for delivering each data set. this will ensure that all departments are ready to deliver the required data that is requested. thank you. >> clerk: thank you. next speaker.

>> how's this? this okay? good morning, i'm charlie papp, co-founder and the chairman of divinity tree which closed in 2011. the first of the dispensaries closed by the fed and the medical cannabis commissioner. i haven't reviewed the makings up of the oversight committee but there's nothing more important than political oversight and this committee could help to you do that. san francisco had the best political oversight from 2005 to 2011, and, you know, it was unfortunately not enough support when the feds came but you're on the right track. my advice is previously the medical cannabis commission announced a san francisco task

force. too many people, it's going to be hard to advise you if, you know, too many opinions. so i would power down more, would be my advice and good luck. thank you. >> clerk: thank you so much, sir. next speaker. >> good morning, supervisors, chris schulman. i would like to thank supervisor fewer for bringing this forward and the co-sponsors. when it was a proposal for a commission and the new regulatory agency, we had some hesitation and, frankly, some opposition, but we recognized that there was a need for oversight and public input and input from the agencies and we would like to thank the supervisor for bringing this forward in its current form. we're very supportive and we're looking forward to participating and making sure that it's a success. thank you so much. and we're going to look forward to seeing this through. thank you