client can follow complaints of any standard violations, and they can file them by phone, e-mail or in person. real briefly, i haddy like to talk about the different sites that are monitoring by the shelter monitoring committee. we monitor resources, shelters and drop-in centers. clients can receive services such as shelter reservations and/or services such as meals, laundry, showers, case management, a lot of different services, but it varies, depending on each individual location. the largest group of sites that the community monitoring would be the single -- monitors would be the single adult shelters, which provides homeless adults shelter for people over age 18 as well as the shelters that provide housing for -- emergency housing for homeless families. the total number of sites

monitored by the committee are 20, and for additional information about each of the sites, there is -- that information listed out on appendix d. >> chair ronen: let me ask you a question. why are navigation centers not included on the sites that you monitor? >> that was a discussion that the committee had with the department of homelessness towards the end of last year, and that's something that the previous committee did express some interest in, but as of the time of the 17-18 report, they were just not part of the sites that were assigned to the shelter monitoring committee. >> chair ronen: okay. but you don't know exactly why they wouldn't be included? >> as far as why they were not initially included, they weren't -- navigating centers weren't around when the shelter monitoring committee was first setup. and so once they were introduced, there was a conversation that best needed to be had, and that was something that the committee

has been discussing with the department of homelessness, but there's a couple challenges that still need to be figured out. now once we have the new committee term that started the beginning of january, i imagine that'll be a new conversation that'll pick up again. >> chair ronen: i'll follow up with scott walton, who i see in the audience. >> and i'm going to hand it over to committee member jonathan adler to go over the rest of the report. >> hello, supervisors. i was appointed by the local homeless coordinating board to the shelter monitoring committee in 2017, and i've had the opportunity to should ha have -- serve on the shelter monitoring committee for 1.5 years now, and it's been a great experience. i work for an organization called community housing partnership. i was appointed to a couple of

different seats -- well, the initial seat that i was appointed to is different than the one that i'm appointed to right now. so just generally, what's going to happen is it's my responsibility to just go to the sites and work with howard to document the standards of care and see how well the service providers at the sites are practicing the legislated mandated standards of care and then documenting that, and if there's any resolution, howard follows up with the site staff. so for fiscal year 2017-2018, site visits for last year's report, we completed 117 site visits, which is 100% of the mandated total. [inaudible] >> fewest infractions, hamilton emergency center had the l

lowest. [inaudible] >> standard eight, sites must comply with a.d.a. and post shelter rules and policies, and standard 12 provide clients with sheets, blankets, pillows, and pillowcases. and communicate with clients in their native language and require all staff to wear i.d. badges. the number of site visits changed between 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 year by eight, and we fulfilled as a team the total mandated number of 117 site visits. the total number of infractions noted this past year was 114, which is a decrease of 40 infractions from the prior year. 2016 and 2017 had a total number of 40 more infractions, so a total number of 154 infractions.

and then, also, the fullest of how many infractions of each standard are on page 13 again. the four -- the four or five top infractions were the same as last year, 3, 12, 21, or 25. i believe in your annual report, if you want to look at the specific standards of care, so it's the very back page, if you want to know exactly which ones those are. although all sites had issues with the same issues, fewer infractions were noted for these standards. standard eight was the fifth most number of infractions this year, although the number of total infractions stayed the same. the total number of compliants' complaints, so there were 46 fewer client complaints, 20% decrease in complaints, and 26.9 decrease in client filing complaints. so the committee received 174

complaints filed by 98 unduplicated clients. lea [inaudible] >> and then, the most complaints received were from next door shelter, which is san francisco's second largest shelter. like last year, next door had the most complaints, but next door actually received 68 complaint this year, which is 55 less complaints than they received the previous year, and a reduction of 44%. and then, there's a -- this -- this next slide is a client complaint breakdown, so it's just giving you the type of complaint. so what happens is when somebody gives a complaint then they give two or three different types of complaint in a -- like, a written letter or e-mail or something like that,

and so howard goes through them and sort of cyst between, so these numbers might not necessarily represent, like, the total? it's just he has to go through them to make sure that each individual complaint is being followed up on. the top allegedly violated standards of care, standard one, in 2017-2018 decreased. standard two, three, and then again, repeating the standard eight stayed the same. so generally, the summary -- [inaudible] >> although the committee completed more site visits than in the previous year, the total number of infractions noted across all monitored cited decreased. when compared to the previous year, the standards that sites had the most problem complying with remained the same, 3, 12, and 25. however, the number of

complaints decreased from last year. [inaudible] >> and then, also, just -- although the committee is receiving fewer complaints, the most frequently named issues are the same, standards one, two, and three and professional site staff or failure to follow shelter rules and procedure, unsafe shelter environments, and unclean shelter facilities or lack of hygiene supplies. >> were there any questions from rules committee about this report? >> chair ronen: i had one question. since many of the complaints are about staff conduct, i'm wondering what type of strategies have been recommended or put in place to address those complaints. >> i can speak of two things

that we currently already have in place. the first is that the committee tracks the name of any staff that come up in a client complaint. i'd like to point out that these complaints are allegations, we do not necessarily have the proof one way or another of whether these allegations are true or not. but the idea is if we have the staff that comes up in multiple complaints by multiple clients, that's definitely a red flag. any staff that comes up multiple times in multiple complaints, their name is submitted to the department of homelessness as well as shelter management to point out that this employee has been plastfl. the other thing is any time

clients receive a threat of violence, that is also flagged and sent to the department of homelessness contract monitor, as well. >> chair ronen: and then supervisor walton? >> supervisor walton: actually, i was going to ask the same question. >> chair ronen: supervisor mar? >> supervisor mar: i -- from the report, i noted that first friendship and bethel a.m.e. had the most infractions this year, and that kind of stuck out because they're both family shelters, so i'm just wondering what problems do you see that are specific to family shelters and which -- which might need to be most immediately addressed. >> okay. i'm not sure -- we have some representatives from the department of homelessness and supportive housing here and also from the providence foundation themselves. i'm not sure if they'd like to speak on that. from what we've seen, some of the most frequent infractions have been related to the

provision of required bedding and linens. as was noted in the report, standard 12, i believe it is, requires clients be provided with sheets, pillows, pillowcases and blankets. and for a long time we were told that there were some issues at those sites related to the laundering of sheets, so they could not provide them to clients. unfortunately, the shelter monitoring committee must conduct our site visits based on what's required under the standards of care, and there is no flexibility of care. even though the sites were not able to provide those linens, we still had to mark the site visits down. what we found that the site was providing extra blankets to provide kind of a work around. i believe an amendment was passed by the board of

supervisors this past october, and so what we're hoping is that that would see a reduction in some of those type of infractions. obviously, not all but at least those that were caused by the committee being required to know that bedding wasn't being provided that the shelter couldn't provide. so i know that was at least one of the specific challenges that those two programs were facing. >> chair ronen: and one other question. how do clients know when and how to register complaints? >> there's a couple different ways. although it isn't a strict requirement, almost every shelter program that is monitored by the committee, they have our information posted up. you can file complaints through their office. as far as on the ground, when we do go in and we do our announced visits, we found that

is one of the best ways of getting our name out there and letting people know there is this agency out there that can take complaints from clients. that starts the conversation about who are you guys, what do you guys do? >> chair ronen: so to file the complaint, clients have to come to your office? >> they can call into our hotline. we also take complaints by e-mail, and we also have drop-in hours twice a week, tuesday and thursday mornings, although if the clients can't make it then, we can setup appointments outside of those times, as well. >> chair ronen: do you have any other questions? oh, supervisor mar. >> supervisor mar: yeah, i just had one more question around the shelter monitoring committee. can you confirm if the melter monitoring committee been understaffed the last year, and

what impact has that had on the ability inform follow up on complaints. >> -- to follow up on complaints. >> the previous health worker moved onto a new position, and we've been trying to fill that for a little while. unfortunately that's made it difficult to the workload. the main thing we've done is cut down on our drop-in hours from four days to two days a week, but if folks can't come in in those hours on tuesday and thursday mornings, i'm happy to schedule an appointment outside of those times to meet with them. >> chair ronen: i'm wondering if scott walton from the department of homelessness and housing could come up. good morning. thanks for being here mr. walton. i'm wondering if you could answer the first question about why navigation shelters aren't

included under the provision of the shelter monitoring committee. >> sure. good morning. i'm scott walton. when navigation centers first launched about 3.5 years ago, they were viewed as something completely different. as they've evolved and become something nor consistent with the department of homelessness and supportive housing, we do see they fit in. the shelter monitoring committee because of understaffing and also the structure of that committee which also changed this last october which was all the committee members' terms ended at the same time, so there was no overlap. all the committee members exited, some rejoined, but they were changing every two years. with the terms overlapping, they've had the challenge of taking on additional sites to

monitor. so that was a challenge that the committee has been facing, and we're hoping this year, they can start monitoring our five current navigation centers. and then, over the last year we've been working to review one by one the 32 standards of care, some of which do apply and some of which will be -- will not apply to navigation centers just by nature of the programming. so we've been getting ready to do the programming, it's that we're waiting for the committee to start visiting. we are already sharing information with the navigation centers, you know, if clients make complaints to shelter monitoring committee, we pass them and address them in a parallel fashion until they're ready to take them on. so we're in the process of working on it, but it's really been a combination of their staff. the volunteer members of their committee do all these site visits. if you add another 30 site

visits, which is our current five time six a year, that is something that they would have to fit into their schedule. it's not a legislative -- we're moving in that direction. we identified with the formation of the department of homelessness and supportive housing that that was a direction that we want to move, and we've just been trying to get to the point where we could do that. >> chair ronen: got it, and when do you expect -- >> i expect this year. we're very close to clearing up how the standards apply, and there's only two left to clarify. it's really with the new appointments that started as of january for the committee, we're hoping that at some point in 2019 they'll be able to start doing these visits. and we'll probably do some sort of orientation to get them ready, but we've been working on this. >> chair ronen: okay. thank you so much. any questions for mr. walton?

thank you so much. i'll now open this up for public comment. any member of the public who would like to comment on this item, have you two minutes, and if you could please lineup here. seeing none, public comment is closed. [gavel]. >> chair ronen: i want to thank everyone for your presentation. can i take a motion that this hearing has been heard and filed? so moved by supervisor mar. without objection, this hearing has been heard and filed. [gavel]. >> chair ronen: thank you. mr. clerk, can you please read item number five. >> clerk: a hearing considering appointing three members term ending february 20, 201, and one member term ending april 30, 2021 to the commission on animal control and welfare. four seats, five applicants. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. is annemarie fortier here? if you'd like to come up,

you're seeking appointment to seat number one. >> good morning, supervisors. thank you for taking this into consideration. i'm the chair person of the animal control and welfare commission. i have been for about two years. this'll be my third appointment. my term expired last year, in 2018, but we have been unable to have a hearing for reappointment. i've been on the commission, like i said, this'll be my third appointment. i came to it because i am a young mother in the city. i'm out and about in the parks in the city. i have a strong interest in children but also the animals in the city. this is a great way for me to be involved in the civics of our town and also to demonstrate to my children and others what it means to be an active community member. we have fielded a few issues over the years. nothing extremely pressing right now.

this is the perrenial coyote issue, but this is my passion to serve, and i would appreciate reappointment to the commission. >> chair ronen: thank you. is bunny rosenberg here, who's applying to set number two? no, i don't see her. nina irani -- hi -- applying to seat number one, two, or three. >> yes. good morning, supervisors. i really appreciate your time this morning. my passion for animals began as i'm sure many others did, from my bond with my first companion animal, charlotte, who i purchased from a local pet shop over nine years ago and who is suffering from serious health issues from the day i took her home. as i began to take care of her and began to suspect she originated in a puppy mil, i

educated myself and began volunteering with a local dog rescue group, helping at weekly adoption events in my hometown. our compassionate group leader worked tirelessly to find homes for the endless number of dogs sachbed from local shelters that were stretched to the limit. i when moved to san francisco almost five years ago i looked for a way to become active in my community. wishing to benefit animals in a more direct way, i volunteer and train as a dog socialization volunteer as the san francisco spca volunteer adoption center and spend weekends helping to train and prepare shelter dogs for adoption. i learned firsthand about the stresses animals endure in the shelter system even in a system with state of the art shelters

and have the best rehoming figures in the nation. this led me to the humane society of the united states and their programs for grassroots organizing. after participating in one of their lobby days three years ago in sacramento, where i advocates for animal protection laws, i applied for their district leader program and was accepted as a leader for the 12th congressional district. i've had the opportunity to campaign for animal welfare legislation and initiatives including the historic campaign for district 12 which passed this last november november and ad-485, which bans the sale of cats and dogs which did not come from rescues. like with many other issues, san francisco has been the forefront -- at the forefront of animal welfare, passing progressive laws before our

state and federal governments act, such as the city's ban on wild animal performance, fur ban, and sail of animals in pet shops. san francisco can lead in so many more ways. just a couple of examples, by working to help animals shelter with their guardians who are victims of domestic violence as very few women's shelters accept companion animals and which working to make sure that homeless shelters and other areas accept companion animals so guardians don't have to choose between health and their beloved companions, and i appreciate your time and consideration. thank you. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. any questions? no questions? okay. thank you so much for being here. is stephanie carpenter here, who's applying for seats one, two, or three. don't see her. is brian van horn here who's

applying to seat seven? hi. >> morning. brian van horn. i'm a practicing vet in san francisco for the last 12 years or so, and i'm applying for a seat on the commission because i think i can bring an unbiased wealth of information for the committee to work with regarding various issues. i've been involved in animal work since i was 12 years old or even younger. my grandfather was a mixed animal vet in wisconsin. i grew up in the central san joaquin valley. i was an animal control officer and humane investigator, expert witness in the state of california putting dog fighters and cock fighters in jail. worked in lots of animal labs. i got my public or my vet

degree at pomona with an emphasis in public health, specifically bioterrorism and agro terrorism. i can act as kind of an unbiased opinion on a lot of matters. just this weekend, i spent saturday talking at length with a retired fish and game officer who dealt with a lot of invasive species. on sunday, i dealt -- had a long conversation with a colleague who produces exotic and is dead set against my buddy with fish and game's opinions, so kind of getting both sides of the story and being able to deliver that in an unbiased way. other than that, well, i just think it's the best way that i can sort of provide my skill set to contributing to the

function of the city. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. really appreciate it. any questions? >> supervisor walton: quick question. where's your practice? >> physically, we're located at 491 27th avenue, geary and 27th, but i'm a house call vet. we only use that iffacilities r surgery, dental, something like that. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. i will now open this item up for public comment. if there's any members of the public that would like to comment on this, now's your opportunity. seeing none, public comment is closed. [gavel]. >> chair ronen: i did want to mention bunny did send in a letter. she is an incumbent and would like to continue, but due to a work conflict was unable to

attend today, but despite that, it did not diminish her passion for reappointment. so would any of my colleagues like to make a moment? >> supervisor mar: just wanted to make a comment. just wanted to thank miss fortier, miss irani, and mr. van horn for their commitment. these are all personal issues for my family, and i know for so many residents in the city, animal welfare is such an important issue, so yeah, thank you so much for your commitment and to serve on this commission. thank you guys. >> chair ronen: commissioner walton? >> supervisor walton: thank you. we have to take these one at a time, correct? >> clerk: no, you can make more than one motion to appoint and -- you can make a motion to appoint more than one person at a time. >> supervisor walton: so i would like to move forward with a positive recommendation to

the full board, annemarie foert "ay" for seat one, nina irani for seat three, and brian van horn for seat seven. >> chair ronen: without objection, the motion passes. thank you. [gavel]. >> clerk: and just so the committee knows, we do have some additional vacancies coming up on this board that will be expiring in april, so there's additional opportunities. >> chair ronen: fantastic. thank you so much for letting us know. thank you, everyone for your service. really appreciate it. thank you. is there any other items? >> clerk: that completes the agenda for today. >> chair ronen: great. this meeting is adjourned. thank you. >> clerk: thanks.

- working for the city and county of san francisco will immerse you in a vibrant and dynamic city that's on the forefront of economic growth, the arts, and social change. our city has always been on the edge of progress and innovation. after all, we're at the meeting of land and sea.

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with the city and county of san francisco. >> okay. i want all of san francisco to hear us, so louder. >> all right. we want to first off welcome our mayor, the mayor of san francisco, mayor london breed. [applause] >> we've got to check this out. >> the hon. london breed: the pressure. [speaking foreign language] [applause] >> the hon. london breed: i am so excited to be the mayor of such an incredible city, where we celebrate our diversity,

where we celebrate our culture, where we focus in on really important opportunities to really engage with our families and our communities. lunar new year is that celebration, which really highlights the importance of family, of coming together, of community, and of celebrating each and every person that is important to our communities and our neighborhoods. and i'm being upstaged by a pig. but happy year of the boar, everybody. here in our city, we will break bread together, we will watch and celebrate the festivities together. there's an incredible market in chinatown where there are

flowers can you purchase, goodies that you can purchase chas, and i. i along with many people that you see will be participating. the beautiful floats, the outfits, the excitement, the kids, the costumes. firecrackers, all of this is an exciting time to celebrate lunar new year in san francisco. i hope you will join us, i hope you will celebrate the year of the boar as one of luck and prosperity and hope for the future. thank you today for being here, everybody. [speaking foreign language] >> wow. a lot of the events in chinatown wouldn't happen without the chinese chamber of commerce. the president, eddie yao.

>> i have to say something in chinese today. [speaking chinese language]

>> wow. one-fifth of the world is smiling today. everybody's happy, all around the world. and we have the general council

from china here, mr. wong. general council wong, give him a super global hand, yeah! [applause] >> honorable mayor london breed -- [speaking chinese language] >> -- and to improve the business environment, and i think great progress was made.

[inaudible] >> -- equivalent to $13.6 trillion u.s. representing 6.6% year over year. and china's trade with foreign countries amounted to $12 $12.6 trillion u.s. and china's trade with the u.s. raising $6.25 million u.s., and created by 8.5% with china's exports to u.s.

all those figures represent -- i think demonstrate that china's economy has maintained stable and good momentum for developing. and well, the tariffs increased on china's exports to the united states were counter productive, and that -- that's led to the down sizing of the united states market share in china. that's also told us that there's an urgent need to bring u.s.-china trade relations back to normal sooner rather than later. looking into the new year, i think china and the united states would work together,

work together to develop the relationship based on coordination, cooperation, and stablity as outlined by the two presidents cheering on the sideline of the g20. and i think our countries are working very hard now to implement a consensus. and i would like to work with all of you to materialize the consensus reached by two presidents. both of our countries can benefit more from our cooperation. thank you. happy new year again. [applause] >> wow, council general from china. we're all supposed to be happy. good news, so happy new year, mr. president trump. hope that you will continue to preserve a positive relationship between our

countries. yeah. okay. so we've got all of the big shots here, a lot of big shots fr . from the board of supervisors, i was advised that supervisor norman yee would come up and speak, and all the other supervisors would back him up. come on. >> president yee: [speaking chinese language] >> president yee: happy new year of the pig. >> there you go. aren't they cute? >> president yee: i just want to say this is going to be a great year of celebration starting today, new yes, sar's. many things are coming to make chinatown a place where more people are coming. last year, they opened up the

new chinese community centers. this year, we -- for the first time, i've actually seen the children from ctccc that started the first bilingual chinese preschool in chinatown. so this is going to be a great year for us, and i'm glad that my colleagues are all here to help kick off the new year's, the year of the pig. thank you very much. [applause] >> supervis >> supervisor fewer: [speaking chinese language] >> supervisor fewer: hello, everyone. i'm sandra fewer, the supervisor of district one. i just want to say how happy i am today to join you in the celebration for the lunar new year celebration this year. wishing everyone a lot of prosperity, good luck, good

health through 2019. [applause] >> all the way from sacramento -- no, he's really from san francisco. assembly man david chiu. >> i want to welcome everyone to the heart of san francisco in chinatown on this warm and balmy day. i often in our state capitol brag about the fact that san francisco has the oldest, the moe most historic, and the most significant chinatown in the entire country. we have the best line dancers, the best dragons, and the cutest kids, and the cutest

pigs. a this is an amazing chinese community with our wonderful mayor london breed, our president of the board of supervisors, normanier, and board of supervisors, and nonprofits organizations like ccdc, and on behalf of our state delegation, we want to welcome everyone and wish everyone a happy lunar new year. happy year of the pig. thank you very much. >> we've got the chief here, we have the district attorney. i think he's going to try to speak a little chinese. give it up for diego gascon. let's see if he speaks any chinese. [speaking chinese language]

>> this is a special day for me. i come from a family that's very large and very close. i know this time of year in the chinese community is a time of hope, it's a time of community, it's a time of family, and it's a time of looking forward, so i'm very proud to be here with you today, celebrating. i want to thank the entire chamber, entire city family for being here today, and again, happy new year, and happy year of the pig. [applause] >> my favorite blessing is the one that says may your dreams come true, so we're going to yell out, right? okay. help me lead it. her chinese is better than me. go ahead. >> okay. norman wants us to say -- [speaking chinese language]

>> one more time, one more time. >> one more time. [speaking chinese language] >> hello, everyone. my name is carmen chu, and i serve as san francisco's assessor, and i want to wish everyone a happy lunar new year and year to come. [speaking chinese language] [applause] >> okay. i want to acknowledge a lot of people, and thank you for not speaking today, okay? it's coal. commissioner allen low, standup. city administrator naomi kelly. we have all the supervisors, we've already mentioned them. there's some big shots that keep this park clean, and our alleyways. one of my favorites, mohamed, is over there to may right. yeah, you know it.

chief william scott, we'll give you a chinese break today. council member stevens couldn't make it today. do you want to say something for him? >> i just want today say dr. stevens couldn't make it, but we have over 100 communities being represented, coming down to the parade and looking at the fine art. >> and there are a lot of other big shots here, but we don't have time. but i hear the mayor has a proclamation or certificates or something? can we do them all at once? okay. you got them? [inaudible] >> the hon. london breed: thank you, reverend fong. and before i issue the certificate, i just want to take this opportunity to

acknowledge the new member of the board of education, jennie lam, and just add that the san francisco chinese chamber of commerce for so many years continues to not only promote and support businesses in our chinese community, they have led the efforts to make lunar new year here in san francisco one of the best lunar new years anywhere and especially because of their commitment to basically hosting and pulling together one of the -- putting together one of the best parades anywhere. so on behalf of the city and county of san francisco, i'd like to present the president of the san francisco chinese chamber of commerce, eddy ao honoring him with his commitment and his work in making this parade even better, and the best is yet to come.

thank you. [applause] >> before the dragon comes out, all you big shots right front and center so we can take a group picture. sorry i didn't get to mention everybody, malcolm, you know, everybody's here, captain yip and everyone, we're going to take a big picture right in front here. the mayor just volunteered to hold the pig. [laughter]

adjourned. >> shop & dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges residents to do their shop & dine in the 49 with within the 49 square miles of san francisco by supporting local services within the neighborhood we help san francisco remain unique successful and vibrant so where will you shop & dine in the 49 my name is jim woods i'm the founder of woods beer company and the proprietor of woods copy k open 2 henry adams what makes us unique is that we're reintegrated brooeg the beer and serving that cross the table people are sitting next to the

xurpz drinking alongside we're having a lot of ingredient that get there's a lot to do the district of retail shop having that really close connection with the consumer allows us to do exciting things we decided to come to treasure island because we saw it as an amazing opportunity can't be beat the views and real estate that great county starting to develop on treasure island like minded business owners with last week products and want to get on the ground floor a no-brainer for us when you you, you buying local goods made locally our supporting small business those are not created an, an sprinkle scale with all the machines and one person procreating them people are making them by hand as a result more interesting and can't get that of minor or

anywhere else and san francisco a hot bed for local manufacturing in support that is what keeps your city vibrant we'll make a compelling place to live and visit i think that local business is the lifeblood of san francisco and a vibrant community >> the teams really, really went above and beyond and is continuing to do that today. this past year, the san francisco public utilities commission water quality division started receiving many more requests to test for lead in the public school system here in san francisco as a result of legislation that had passed from the state requiring all of the public schools to do lead testing. and so as a result, the public

utilities commission and the water quality team in particular was asked to meet with the san francisco unified school district to begin to prioritize which schools to test to meet that state mandate. >> the team that tests, we're a full service environmental laboratory, and we take care of both the needs of the water quality division and the waste water enter price. and on the water quality enterprise, we have to also have drinking water that meets all federal and state quality regulations. and lead in schools, we're playing a problem in remediating this problem of lead in schools. >> our role here in communications is being able to take the data that we have that we know is protective of public health and safety and transmit it, give it to the public in a way they understand we are really doing our jobs well and making sure that they are safe always. >> the public learned very

quickly all the accurate facts and all the critical information that they needed to know, and it's up to these individuals and their agencies and their commitment to the city. >> i enjoy the work because i can help people, and i can help the utilities to provide a better water quality, make sure that people feel that drinking hetch hetchy water is actually a pride. >> hats off to the water quality team because between them working on late nights, working on the weekends when the schools are closed, and working as a partner in the school district for the times they found a higher lead sample, they worked through to address that, so the team went above and beyond and is continuing to do that today.

>> in 201,755.7 million passengers traveled through san francisco international airport. we have on average 150,000 people traveling through the airport every day. flying can be stressful so we have introduced therapy dogs to make flying more enjoyable. the wag brigade is a partnership between the airport and the san francisco therapy animal assistant program to bring therapy animals into the airport, into the terminals to make passenger travel more enjoyable. i amgen fer casarian and i work here at san francisco international airport. the idea for therapy dogs got started the day after 9/11.

an employee brought his therapy dog to work after 9/11 and he was able to see how his dog was able to relieve passenger's jitter. when we first launched the program back in 2013, our main goal was to destress our passengers however what we quickly found is that our animals were helping us find a way to connect with our pang. passengers. we find there are a lot of people traveling through the airport who are missing their pets and who are on their road a lot and can't have pets and we have come in contact with a lot of people recently who have lost pet. >> i love the wag brigade. >> one of my favorite parts is walking into the terminals and

seeing everybody look up from their device, today everybody is interacting on their cell phone or laptop and we can walk into the terminal with a dog or a pig and people start to interact with each other again and it's on a different level. more of an emotional level. >> i just got off an 11.5 hour flight and nice to have this distraction in the middle of it. >> we look for wag brigade handlers who are comfortable in stressful situations. >> i like coming to airport it's a lot of fun and the people you talk to are generally people who are missing their dogs. >> they are required to compete a certification process. and they are also required to complete a k9 good citizen test

and we look for animals who have experienced working with other orgorganizations such as hospits and pediatric units and we want to be sure that the animals we are bringing into the airport are good with children and also good with some of our senior travelers. i think toby really likes meeting kids. that is his favorite thing. he likes to have them pet him and come up to him and he really loves the kids. >> our wag brigade animals can be spotted wearing custom vets and they have custom patches. >> there is never a day that repeats itself and there is never and encounter that repeats itself. we get to do maximum good in a small stretch of time and i have met amazing people who have been

thrilled to have the interaction. >> the dogs are here seven days a week, we have 20 dogs and they each come for a two hour shift. >> there is a lot of stress when people have traveling so to from these animals around to ease the stress and help people relax a little bit. i think it's great. >> one of our dogs has special need and that is tristine. he wears a wheel around. >> he has special shoes and a harness and we get it together in the parking lot and then we get on the air train. he loves it. little kids love him because he is a little lower to the ground so easy to reach and he has this big furry head they get to pet and he loves that.

>> he doesn't seem to mind at all. probably one of the happiest dogs in the world. >> many people are nervous when they travel but seeing the dogs is just a wonderful relief. >> what i absolutely love most about it is the look on people's faces, so whenever they are stressed and flying is stressful these days you get these wonderful smile. >> i am the mom of lilo the pig and she is san francisco's first therapy pig. >> lilo joined the wag brigade as our firs first pig. >> wag brigade invited us to join the program here and we have done it about a year-and-a-half ago.

our visits last 1.5 to 2 hours and it does take a little bit longer to get out of the terminal because we still get a lot of attention and a lot of people that want to interact with lilo. >> i feel honored to be part of the wag brigade. it's very special to meet so many people and make so many feel happy and people that work here. it's been a great experience for me and a great experience for to totoby. >> it's been an extremely successful program, so the next time you are here, stop by and say hi.