debut a digital census, and san francisco must adopt some smart strategies throughout his contact outreach. that address the digital gap as it pertains to access and literacy issues, because it disproportionately affects hard to account communities that are limited english proficient, living in poverty, and/or are homeless or are in instable housing. [please stand by]

. >> -- and federal policy is threatening even green cardholders has struck fear in the hearts of families. which is agencies that are trusted by immigrant families must be incorporated. we really want to use the census as a way to encourage civic participation and civic

engagement for immigrant families from a place of power, not panic. lastly, is the bureau issue espolicy plans. the -- issued its policy plans. paper materials such as mailers and surveys will only be available in english and spanish, and we know that the limited number of languages on-line for services that will be digital will not suffice given the language diversity that's within hard-to-count communities, and that language limited families will have to rely on glossaries. we have to leverage the strong community partnerships through initiatives such as the san francisco language access network and all of the community partnerships that exist in the city so that we can really bolster our plans to move forward. but you know, i think the silver lining that we have

despite all of the challenges and all of the challenges that we faced, san francisco has once and over again has really risen to the occasion. elected officials, city government, community groups like c.a., we have always coalesced. back in 2010, san francisco really stepped up. when california reduced its financial operations during the recession, the san francisco board of supervisors and the mayor really took up leadership to make sure initiatives were funded. but also working with the city attorney, making sure that the census bureau took a course that included language diversity in its operation plan. s.f. is a vanguard in terms of approaches that included community-based grants ten years ago, and c.a. was one of the organizations that formed a grassroots coalition that did

the phone banking, outreach, and door knock being and we were able to reach 50 hard-to-count households, and we coordinated local efforts with the bureau itself. as you all have heard, san francisco won because we are the only county and city to see an increase in mail response rate even though the rest of california had really suffered because of the lack of investment. we know that the census is a total city and community effort. and it really should include mobilizing all sectors of society, and that what we know is a key to full and accurate count westbound reaching those hardest to count. and community-based organizations, we know these people. these are people of color, immigrant families, homeless, people living in s.r.o.s, and we see them every day. they are a part of our

grassroots efforts. we see them on evenings and weekends, we provide them with services that connect them with other parts of san francisco's safety net, and we can explain how completing the census will make a difference in our programs and public services. and it's really about connecting the dot between the census -- their place in san francisco as people and how much power that we have. so in 2010, more than 25 community-based organizations received funding from the city to do the work, and the diversity and mixed groups reflect those who we need to be reaching. efforts should be made to resource groups that reach the most marginalized communities, and we know that this investment will payoff. we want to thank the board of supervisors and the mayor for including this in its budget funding to date, and c.a. looks

forward to being active partner and engaging in this corridor stone of democracy in the future. i want to turn the microphone over to laura who's going to talk a little bit about the processes and s.f. rising. >> good morning, supervisors. i think she said it all, but i'm going to elaborate on just a few things on the community organizing and the things that have enabled us to build the trust and relationships with our communities to ensure that they are part of the processes and that their voices are being heard and counted in this census work. my name is laura, and i'm a civic engagement organizer with poder, people organizing through demand and economic rights. i would like to share with you how our fund raising efforts have allowed us to build really

strong relationships and trust in the people power that's needed to ensure that everyone gets counted. for 26 years, poder, in collaboration with the sister organizations such as c.a.a. has been able to work in the most impacted communities of san francisco, including the mission, excelsior, portola, visitacion valley, and many others. we are able to find community members who are often left out from important political processes that impact their lives. parent leaders and peer organizers have been instrumental in helping us inform and educate our communities about important issues such as the census. for example, in 2010, poder was part of a coalition, just we count campaign, so ensure that reaching out to all of the latino families in our communities and to ensure that

they were part of completing the census forms back there. our members, as my colleague said, were door to door, knocking people's houses and their friends and families and educate them about the importance of being counted, and especially the importance of getting the resources for their children, the hospitals and the schools and all the different services that they are accessing -- the importance of having them, being able to have the resources to access those services. by being out in the community and knocking on people's doors and helping them understand how to properly complete the census forms, we were able to also touch their hearts. we were able to build community trust and recruit them into organizations so they become active leaders in our communities. little by little, our work has become more transformational

and not just transactional. for the 2020 census plan, we think that it's crucial that we incorporate the veess and expertise of our community members in our communities. our community leaders are ready to walk up and down the streets of our neighborhoods to ensure that everyone gets counted. in this political climate, having an accurate count will be extremely challenging due to the environmental fear created by the current administration. it's very important that we all work together, and it's very important that we collaborate as much as we can to ensure that everyone gets counted and so ensure that -- to ensure that we get the resources that san francisco needs to take care of its families. with that, i wanted to thank you for taking the time to listen to our comments and listening to the input that we wanted to share with you all. thank you very much.

>> supervisor fewer: thank you. and now, i see we have supervisor brown that's first up to speak. >> supervisor brown: thank you for the information, and thank you for the presentation. i'm so happy, director pon, that you have more people this time, and some dynamic people to help you do this difficult job. i was actually working in the district five office in 2010 when we did it last time and realized there was a lot of people that were uncounted for various reasons. so i'm hoping a lot of building your department and also hiring the people that you're hiring will make a huge difference this time. but this is my concern, and the last time that we went through this, i have a lot of hud

housing, and i have the largest hud housing in the city, and i think district ten has the second largest -- excuse me. but what has happened, and it happened in 2010, a lot of the people that live there, african american community, not only they don't trust the federal government, but they don't trust the city, either. so -- and what has happened in those -- a lot of the communities -- because people have lived there from the late 60's to the early 70's, we've had many kids come -- grand kids are living with their kids or their grandmother or they've just taken over the unit. but what happened in 2010, they were very untrusting of giving this information because they were afraid that their rent would go up, that the -- you know, the management didn't know everybody that was living there, and so they weren't

willing to give this information or they would just say oh, my grandmother just lives here, we're just visiting. and so it was a real inaccurate count. unfortunately, they didn't realize it was never going to be used against them, but we could use it to get money to help them. but that's a huge worry for me. as far as getting community organizers in there, if you've seen the hud properties because of their long-suffering violence in the area, that they are locked up, hard to get in. you can't even get in to knock on people's doors. even when i go, i have to call someone to let me in, and it's just difficult. so i'm just really worried about that, the under count in those communities. one of the things because san

francisco is probably the most expensive people in the country, we have multiple people living together. families, friends. i have been going door to door, and people have been talking to me and saying oh, i am the master lease, and i have five other roommates, but don't tell the landlord. so how are we -- and that's a totally different -- i think it's completely different population and attitude than we had ten years ago. we have a lot of people that have master leases, but they don't want anyone to know how many people are living in that unit because san francisco's just so affordable. so just wondering how we're going to address that also. thank you. >> supervisor fewer: yeah. so miss pon, would you like to respond? >> thank you, supervisor. i think you hit on a lot of key challenges that we've had in the past and will be, i think,

multiplied in this census count. that's why i think working with ethnic media, going where people going to get their -- go to get their information is going to be important. i know a lot of seniors with meals program, we're going to make sure sites that people go to, we are putting an emphasis this time, this year, on youth with families. that's why we spent some time talking at events with dcyf and san francisco unified school district, because we know that a lot of the kids act as interpreters or information sources for their families. i think the things that you point out are absolutely important for u homes or at

least make them less afraid of participating, but we will absolutely work with you to taylor a plan. >> supervisor brown: okay. thank you. >> chair fewer: supervisor safai. >> supervisor safai: thank you, supervisor fewer. really thank the thoughtfulness. i want to thank every single community member for coming out. when i see the slide, district 11 just jumps out the highest. it's something like that dab on every single category, lower english, lower income, no internet access. i will say having worked those streets, i think the most effective strategy is working with our community partners and going door to door. i just want to emphasize that. i think the door to door is very effective in our part of town. we have a lot of homes that have been converted into

multiunits. walking in those streets and going into the houses -- but it is really, really important and i think that's what the community partners and hiring residents directly -- the limited language proficiency is a really strong emphasis point, and then having people that they have worked with, that they have trust with, that they can explain this is not something that's going to be used against them, not going to be used to enforce any other laws or as a way to negatively impact their lives but actually will positively impact their lives based on resources and allocations and just having a count. so i -- one thing i'd like to hear you -- if you can respond to that. but i'd also like to know -- and maybe i'm missing the presentation, how you have determined the low response rate to how you're able to kind of gauge what parts of town -- or is it just based on previous data that you had based on

these categories. just wondering how that comes about and how you determine -- i mean, i pretty much know some of the answer, but i just wanted to hear what you had to say. >> sure. the low response rate is a measurement that the census bureau does, and they use 25 variables. i can read them, but they kind of talk about who lives in housing, so if it's a crowded unit, if they're low-income, if they're renters or homeowners. it talks about demographics, so people of color, hispanic, etc., and it just uses all -- >> supervisor safai: they just automatically put them in a low response category? >> no. they put them in an algorithm that says you are two times likely to respond or not to respond, basically. >> supervisor safai: that's what i mean. they use all those determinants to say we give you a score based on previous practice. >> yes. so they use a previous degree of practice based on mail

response rate from 2010. >> supervisor safai: okay. thank you. i just wanted to hear what miss pon had to say about door to door. i heard what you said about tailors the plan, but i wanted to make sure we had a real robust -- at least for district 11, that we have a real robust strategy. i think going door to door -- because we have the lowest internet access and working with community partners and folks that have familiarity with the community and language proficiency and cultural proficiency. i think that's extremely important. and i really want to thank you for emphasizing the family strategy. i heard you say that. i think that's also very important. thank you, supervisor fewer. do you want to respond to that -- any of that -- through the chair? >> chair fewer: yeah, go ahead. >> supervisor safai: yeah? >> thank you, supervisor. yeah, i think in districts ten

and 11, we will probably most likely still employ door to door or the ground crew. i think it'll be different for some of the other public housing groups quarters. you know, we had an issue in 2010 with the san bruno jail in county. our city residents and san francisco residents, rather than san bruno residents and had a lot of fun being threatened by the u.s. census bureau folks. and the sheriff -- and i'll say our city attorney herrera and staff were just amazing. and we were able to figure out together a solution to that. so in your particular district, yeah, we're very much aware of that. you have a lot of monolingual and limited english speaking individuals, really diverse in your district. not as many c.b.o.s that may be located there, but there are a lot of community-based organizations throughout the city that work and serve the

people in the district, and we definitely are going to encourage them to be part of the community grants program. they will be helping us figure out the strategies. it's not like the city's going to figure this out alone. we have city departments also that serve the population, and that's why we're training everybody. you know, this preparation period's really important. a lot of cities are just jumping right into messaging, and we are spending six months -- we are actually spending a whole year in technology making sure we have the right approaches, testing things out because the census bureau didn't test anything out. in answer to your question how do they determine the people who don't respond, it's people that didn't respond to mail-in questionnaire. the landscape has changed, the game routes have changed because now it is a digital census, and you only have written notifications in spanish and english.

so it's like all these things making it harder for people to participate, but we'd love to work with you on tailoring a plan for your district. >> just one follow up question through the chair. thank you, supervisor. i think both of the organizations are present here today and have been doing networking in my neighborhood, so that's one good sign. and i wanted to 'em if a ice a point. based on past responses and algorithm, it allows us to focus on the area that's have a lower response rate, is that right? >> yeah. in 2010, we identified areas of the cities with the lowest response rate. like the bayview was the lowest in the response with below 50%. and they improved -- it was amazing, based on the on-the-groundwork that was done. in 2010, we didn't have a

real-time mapping system that said okay, if we do a campaign and do some activities in this area, will there be an up tick in participation. now, we'll be able to get a sense is anybody responding in d-10 or d-11 and if not, we're going to up the effort -- >> supervisor safai: like, to do a recount. >> yeah. >> supervisor safai: wonderful. thank you, supervisor. >> chair fewer: thank you, supervisor. supervisor haney? >> supervisor haney: yes. so first of all, thank you for all of your work. it's definitely a huge undertaking and thank you for also being honest about the challenges that we have with this, particularly around what's happening at the federal level. i -- i know that there will be a lot of partnership with community organizations and thanks to everyone who came out and who's going to be a part of

that. i was just saying to supervisor fewer that we obviously had a challenge around the school board noncitizen voting and potentially the sense that it wasn't safe to step forward in that way. i know that we're going to be doing a lot of work about how important it is for people to participate, but are there any real fears that are valid that we have that we need to consider or protect against or anything that -- that we should be thinking about in that regard? i know that the information is, you know, used in a particular way, and i know that there's still a conversation going on along the citizenship aspect of this. but how can we really make people feel secure, and is

there any added thing that we can do as a city to make sure that they are protected? >> supervisor, those are excellent points. you know, i'm going to be real honest with you, i do not personally know what this crazy federal government is going to do with the information. we are hoping that they're going to follow the law which says that you can't misuse census data collected for any other purposes, but as you know in world war ii with the incarceration of our japanese american citizens and residents that that did not hold true. but we as a city -- you know, you can approach this as a couple of ways. you can approach this by being fearful or we can overcome it and point out the positives by participating. and that's really going to be

what our approach is going to be. but just as c.a.a. did an excellent job in the citizen voter outreach, i think because they didn't get funding enough, they might have caught some of the families before the school semester ended, that this time around, we hope we're early enough, and we will figure out how to allay those fears. i remember in the 2010 census, we have a lot of landlords in chinatown that have a lot of students in their apartment buildings, multiple families, multiple households who were fearful to report. i said you don't have to be. go ahead and participate. they had a huge outreach fair in the community and self-help with the elderly, was able to get the highest response rate in the city. so we know we can overcome those fears, but it's not going to be a challenge. and i'm not going to lie, i don't know what this

unpredictable federal government will do, but we're going to do our best to make sure that people feel confident, they know the risk. and i think that we as a city just have to -- you know, we just have to push ahead and say that we can't believe that a federal government would jeopardize the safety and well-being of an entire population. so -- and we have to move forward and be assertive about it. >> supervisor haney: i appreciate that. i recognize -- >> supervisor walto. >> sorry. i wanted to add to something that supervisor mar said. the department of justice is determining whether the patriot act will trump the other act, and the other big issue is that

the census bureau, if the citizenship question does make it onto the questionnaire, is willing to release redistricting data with citizenship as a consideration for population, which will also change how a democracy works. >> supervisor haney: thank you. so i would imagine if either of those things happen that we would want to have an update on it. it sounds like there's at least two important remaining legal questions that need to be resolved that would impact how we view -- >> and ihere, i also have

some experience with door knocking in

i can follow up with you for sure, but i do know they have a special task force westbound the bureau he's enumeration

process. we plan to work with the department to figure out all the mechanisms that they've figured out for the local time count. so we are planning to meet with them and to learn more about how the census will actually approach

master list of the census bureau. >> chair fewer: thank you very much. and can you please tell me about the san francisco complete count committee? i understand that it's supposed to be in place by april of this year. >> thank you for that question, supervisor. yes. we are currently working with the mayor's office. there were some names submitted. many of the names were experts who worked on the 2010

three of us are tripling up to do this. so it pays for a little bit of staffing, the complete count committees, and then, the funding that will support the mini complete count committee. so for instance, in 2010, we

gave small grants out to mini complete count committees. in the mission, i think it was

budgets, or you think they might need added resources because they're not able to absorb this depth of work into their budgets? >> i think some of the smaller departments might need a little more resource and assistance. the whole success of the census effort from the city's perspective is really the coordination. you know, everybody, like, working together, sharing information. so i think we mentioned in one of the slides the efficacy and efficiency of doing a game plan. it's real clear, and everybody's executing it, and we're talking to each other every single month. we also are going to make use of the interagency collaboration that's been meeting for the last two years -- well, since 2014 on immigration issues -- actually, since 2016.

so we are

particularly -- have a target on their back, our arabic speaking community is going to need extra outreach. and yeah, i just want to thank you to your presentation today, and to chair mar, i would request that we continue this item or be able to bring back this item to the call of the chair. since we have some updates, i think we will hear what the federal government is doing to hinder our efforts to get an accurate count. >> chair mar: thank you so much, supervisor fewer for calling a hearing on this issue that we're starting to move forward on the city. i wanted to add one really brief comment, and that is commending director

speakers are encouraged to avoid repetition of previous statements. >> good morning. my name is beatrice. i'm associated with an organizations working with low-income communities, communities of color in the city to build electoral power. we recognize that when our residents participate in the census, it brings added revenue in the city in order to be able to serve them more directly. last year, s.f. rising was able to participate in the office of civic engagement and city affairs in order to identify households that may have been excluded from previous count in san francisco. we had a team of about 16 canvassers that covered 33% of the city, you know, doing outreach in the excelsior, the mission, soma, bayview,

tenderloin, and we were very successful. we reached and identified 500 previously unidentified units of housing. we became experts at looking at this is a concern that we have, as well, and it isn't just a question for those who are undocumented, but also, there are family members that are documented. i'm an educator at city college, and a lot of our students have said that if that question's included, they are not going to want to fill out that question, also. so there's a lot of things that are at play, but we think that if we continue to build and tap into the relationships that we have with community relations', we'll be able to tap into the relationships that we already have with community leaders to best find out how to participate in this process, and we thank you for your time. >> chair mar: thank you. are there any other speakers for public comment? seeing none, this item is closed. [gavel]. >> chair mar: and we will continue this to the call of

the chair. >> clerk: do we have a movement from a member of the committee? >> so moved. >> clerk: okay. >> chair mar: so can we file this hearing -- >> clerk: it has been continued to the call of the chair with a motion from supervisor haney. >> chair mar: thank you. mr. clerk, please call items five and six together. >> clerk: agenda item numbers five and six are hearing and the resolution responding to the partial federal government shutdown, affirming san

francisco's solidarity with federal workers and urging the mayor and city departments to assist those impacted by the shutdown. >> chair mar: thank you. at this time, i'd like to pass it off to supervisor haney. >> supervisor haney: thank you, chair mar, and unfortunately, it seems that we have a bit of a theme in this committee hearing about the federal government and their -- their failures and some of the ways that we here in san francisco have to step up and be there for our residents in that context. i want to thank the cosponsors of the resolution that are going to be a part of this hearing conversation. supervisors ronen, walton, mar, and yee, and there are a number of folks from different deputies w departments who i'm going to be calling onto provide some insight and answer some questions, as well. on december 22, 2018, the federal government began the longest government shutdown in u.s. history after congress refused funding for trump's -- president trump's immoral and ineffective border wall. the shutdown lasted 35 days and left 800,000 federal employees without pay, unsure of when they would return back to work. on january 25, after 35 days and immense pressure from federal employees, labor unions, and speak pelosi, the president announced a temporary end to the shutdown with what

still may very likely be a continued

job because of the uncertainty of what will happen on february 15. i don't have to remind everyone about the astronomiccal costs of living in the bay area for people who are trying to survive here. federal employees are

underpaid, paid less than those in the private sector, and san francisco has the highest pay gap. the livelihood of federal workers and contractors were held hostage during the government shutdown, and it is imperative that the city be there for them. i want to thank the san francisco symphony and zoo who offered free tickets, businesses who offered free laundry services and meals, and much more. there was provisions of services that we want to make sure we are prepared for and aware of. e.p.a. inspections, national park management, grants to nonprofits and municipal agencies being delayed, businesses who are serving federal employees, losing customers, and there's a possibility that this -- even

though it's stopped for now, may continue again in a week and that there may be unfortunately situations in the future where we have to deal with this again. as i mentioned today, we're going to hear from various city departments that relate to the day-to-day lives of people who live and work in san francisco so we can better understand what to do in the future and what happened over those 35 days. i do want to say that one of the things that initiated this conversation was that there were cities and counties all over the country who took steps, from kansas city to denver to atlanta who took steps to support their furloughed employees. we were able to talk to many representatives from those cities. in kansas city, federal workers were entitled to free rides on public transportation for the length of their shutdown, and all they had to do was show their federal i.d.s. in san mateo, they've offered free rides on

citizens provide the necessary safety net and support to the individuals who either live or work here to be supported by our city and county. i want to thank the representatives of the federal workers who are here today who you'll hear from in public comment, and we have some particular things that we are alrea a low-income payment

plan that has a $5 enrollment fee. customers can have their late fees waived, up to 18 months to pay, and there's no limits on the amounts that can be enrolled in these programs. currently, since july 1, we have about 1900 people enrolled in these programs. our community service program for payment in lieu of parking tickets, actually, we're not aware of any other city in the state and possibly the country that provides this kind of opportunity where customers can perform various community service at nonprofits across the city, and we offer a

$15-an-hour credit, equivalent to minimum wage. a new effort recently undertaken within the last six months, we implemented a reduction on our boot fee, which is when vehicles are immobilized for having five or more delinquent tickets. the regular fee is $505 to have that boot removed. we've reduced that for low-income customers to $100. another change that we've implemented recently is any of those customers can also enroll those citations after the vehicle has been booted or towet. so again, the m.t.a. has made a very strong commitment to addressing the need of low-income customers throughout the city, continue to do so, and i'm happy to answer any questions.

>> i appreciate this, and i appreciate all of these programs that we have, and great to hear that we're leaders in them. one of the things that -- that i'm wondering about is it's likely that these -- this particular category of workers -- and there may be other people who are in this situation for other reasons -- likely wouldn't qualify for a low-income discount or a low-income deferral. they're in sort of a short-term situation. are there -- are there any opportunities for people who might find themselves in a situation where they have a temporary economic hardship but would not qualify for a low-income, and is there -- do we have anything like that? i mean, is there any contingency plans for people to get into a payment plan or anything like that if you're not low-income, which i think, you know, it's an immediate

need that needs to be made available but that they don't ha