are at five so far this year. we were at four last year. we've been involved in a couple of things that are ongoing with the d.p.a. right now. our contract has finally been approved with slalom for our case management system. we're excited. that is a big deal for us in terms of our productivity and efficiency. i think it's going to improve a lot of our efficiencies. we had a strategic planning session last week with the consultant before they began reprioritizing some of the areas that we want them to focus on and work with us on both mediation and outreach were part of our big agendas. i think that's where we've seen a lot of the changes that are affecting our numbers in the past year and where i want to try and increase some of our efficiencies. we're still in our budget process with the mayor's office and city hall.

there's not much for us to do until we hear back in that process, like the other departments. i will say in terms of outreach, we had a couple of events that we participated in. march 21, my staff attended central district station community meeting. the 26th of march, my staff attended the tenderloin station community meeting. on the 27, my staff participated in the university of san francisco government policy career fair that they had, and speaking. our policy director attended on monday night with chief scott the discussion of addressing bias at the jewish community center. that was a big event specifically with dr. everhart

out of stanford. her book is amazing, speaks to a lot of issues that we've been discussing tonight. i'm excited that the chief and director were on the panel with her, and there may be an opportunity with that and with her to address a lot of the things that -- i mean, i know she's available, available, meaning, you pay her, and she will -- she'll work with us, but i think she brings a lot of credibility to the discussion of bias and it's encouraging, so this department here in san francisco not only is communicating with her and presenting, but has the potential to institutionalize something with her on some of these complicated issues that we're dealing with on the police commission. here in the audience with me tonight is my chief of staff, sarah hawkins, and one of my senior investigators, christina

campani in case issues come up that need responses from the department of police accountability. >> president hirsch: thank you. any questions for the director? okay. next item. >> clerk: line item 2-c. commissioner items and reports. commission items will be limited to a brief discussion of announcements. commission items, commission president's report, and commission's report. >> president hirsch: i'll just report that i've been working with hilton hines and the department to arrange with a may 1 meeting where we're going to have a presentation at the police commission which really goes to the work that's been done to date particularly by hilliard hines and the department working through the recommendations by the department of justice for the

san francisco police department. i expect that to be between an hour and two-hour presentation with question-and-answer. any -- commissioners -- yes, commissioner brookter? >> commissioner brookter: yes. thank you to the chief for bringing up the homicide in district ten this weekend. saturday, april 6, there's a public safety town hall meeting that will be taking place at willie brown middle school from 10:00 a.m. to noon. you'll be able to hear from supervisor walton and just what the overall safety plan is in district ten. actually after that from 12:00 until 4:00, there's a war against guns march taking place starting at the bayview district opera house. >> president hirsch: yes, commissioner dejesus? >> commissioner dejesus: we went on this cesar chavez march

and made our presence known. >> president hirsch: okay. next item. [agenda item read]. >> president hirsch: anything from the commissioners? yes, commissioner dejesus? >> commissioner dejesus: so i think i talked with commissioner hamasaki, yes, and -- i was talking to jennifer fredenbach regarding the presentation on the hsoc -- >> healthy streets -- >> commissioner dejesus: yeah, healthy streets operations, and they'd like to do a similar presentation. they do have a presentation from u.c. berkeley researchers that they did provide to the board of supervisors, and so i was wondering if we could schedule a presentation here. >> president hirsch: okay. do we have a sense of how long

it is and how many people are involved? >> commissioner dejesus: i do not have that information. >> no. we can probably deal with that offline. >> president hirsch: okay. commissioner elias? >> commissioner elias: yes. i was going to ask to schedule a 1421 update. i believe that we've get -- i think it just needs to come before the commission. there was one area of discrepancy, but i wanted to calendar it so we could figure out a date and perhaps get some of the people that worked on the lemgs lation for 1421 to come to the meeting and answer any questions that the commissioners may have. so i just wanted to get an idea of when we could schedule that. >> president hirsch: has the working group finished whatever the working group can do on that? >> commissioner elias: yes. we have one area that is -- not an area of dispute, but one section -- there's a difference in language, so the thought is that we bring it to the commission and the commission

decides which language to use. >> president hirsch: all right. and is that ready to happen asap? >> commissioner elias: i was thinking about the next commission, but i don't know if i can get someone in here to present in terms of legislative intent on 1421, so maybe the 17 of april? >> president hirsch: i think we can't do it on the 17. that's the meeting on the bayview, but that gives everyone time. if i could look at may 8. >> president hirsch: thank you. okay. next line item.

>> clerk: at this time, we're going to call for public comment on items 2-a through 2-d. >> president hirsch: all right. we have a long closed agenda, and we have a long agenda so far, so i'm going to limit public comment to two minutes, and this is on the items that we've discussed so far. good evening. >> good evening. good evening, commissioners. jeremy miller. interstellar foundation. it's a big agenda tonight. i've been listening from another room. it's unfortunate, but i have to attend another meeting that's going concurrent to this. i thought i'd stop in, though, because i do want to acknowledge that there have

been internal administrative structural attempts to discuss disparities which tip most of the discussion tonight in the police reports. but i want to address two very important incident consistencies. one, as usual, the concept of stakeholder was brought up. when was the last time any of these stakeholders were shot by the san francisco police, beaten by the san francisco police? the fact of the matter is as a member of the rapidly declining less than 4% of san francisco that is a black man, who is disproportionately targeted by police activities, i have a valid interest as do all my brethren, as to all other people of the city and county of san francisco regardless of race, sexual orientation, etc.,

in the matter, despite not necessarily being considered a stakeholder, so we can get rid of the stakeholder. second off, the healthy streets center and processes that are targeting homeless people represented a violation of human rights. this was pointed out and stipulated in september 2018, and i want to highlight the report of the special repertoire, specifically pushing for the right for human beings to live where they are without being molested -- >> president hirsch: thank you. any other public comment on the items we've addressed so far? good evening. >> i'm sorry. the explicit bias about the police shootings of people of

color, and i was bringing up -- i wanted to bring up, one neighbor, he was talking about counting blacks and whites and hispanics, but hispanics are considered, and when you count them, you consider them as white. and they was talking about ten to 20 hours of training. most of the police officers that are out there, they're counselors themselves, so when they come to people, they're trying to solve the problem. and then, i'm thinking that the shootings and why they're targeting people of color because they're having counter transference themselves. they're not therapists, but then, they have the unconscious counter transference that they're having themselves outside of their control. so i'm thinking that some of

this is contributing to the killing of people of color. so -- and that's what i wanted to say. so when they do the training, think about those things that i just said about the counter transference and even though they're not therapists, the counter transference and the transference and the unconscious bias, also. so that'll be it. >> president hirsch: thank you. any other public comment? good evening. >> hello. i was curious about the choice for academic institutions to work with. how do you decide what academic institutions you're going to work with in order to do research? are the academics reflective of a broad demographic, african

americans, latino, etc. or are the demographics white men? there's just a lot of questions i have regarding that, and maybe you all could address that at a later meeting? >> president hirsch: actually, chief, can you answer that just right now how we pick the institutions we pick? >> so part of the decision is the level of expertise with the subject at-hand. for instance, the center for policing equities, before we partnered with them, we did our own research, and they worked with a number of like-sized cities across the country on this issue, and they actually have started a national database with the information that they're collecting. it's aanonymous, and basically on a national scale, it'll help to answer some of these questions on a national scale, as well. so we figured -- or we believe

that they had the expertise, really, to accomplish what we needed in that regard. california policy labs, likewise, same things. a number of meets with them, and in terms of the work that we wanted to get done at that time, we felt that they had the expertise to do it. stanford, although we just started this agreement with stanford, a lot of research that we're talking about came from their spark program. that's what drives the decision. also, the expertise, who they have working for them. i think we saw with one of the academics, when people moved on, we discussed it in the commission recently. people left, moved on, and quit and really delayed the process. we look at a number of factors, and most of these institutions have diversity in thought, diversity in opinion, diversity

in gender and all of those issues, to answer that question. but really, it's about what do they offer the department, and if there is a contractual, we have to go through that process. if there's an r.f.p. that's required by our contractual rules and policies, then that's something, as well. but a lot of these academic researchers, it's about finding the right institution and then getting with the attorneys to establish the data sharing agreements, and what's important to us is how is the data going to be used? who owns the research? you know, in some regards, data has to be identified. the academic institutions that are willing to meet our needs and our demands, and they have the expertise that we demand, that's how we decide.

the doctor has a team of very talented people in our opinion that work alongside her, so it's definitely a -- we're very fortunate to have them in our back yard. >> president hirsch: okay. any other public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. next line item, please. [agenda item read]. >> good evening. >> good evening president hirsch, vice president taylor, members of the commission, chief scott, and director henderson. good evening. my name's bob moser. i'm deputy chief of administration. and i'm here to present the first of two bulletins that call for modification to the

uniform and equipment. the first is a pride patch of homeless youth in san francisco. the pride patch project is similar to the pink patch project that we did a number of months ago to support breast cancer. for the pride patch project, the department is partnering with the s.f. police officer's pride alliance, and the pride alliance has developed a patch for officers and members of the department to wear during the month of june to show support and the inclusiveness of the sfpd to the lgbtq communities. with me tonight are several members of pride alliance in the audience, and i would like to call up the president of pride alliance, sergeant nick buckley, and the treasurer, who are going to tell you a little bit more about the project, talk about the charitiable piece and actually show you the patches themselves. >> president hirsch: thank you.

good evening to both of you. >> good evening. thank you very much for listening to us. i'm going to pass it over to michael. he's the one that put this together. >> good evening, president hirsch, esteemed members of the police commission, chief scott, and director henderson. i'm the chairman of the san francisco lgbtq committee. with me is nick buckley, sergeant of the san francisco police officer's pride alliance. this evening, i would like to discuss with you the proposal of what we are deeming the pride patch project and to show you all the many benefits this project will have within our community. through this project we as a department will not only be increasing awareness and incluesivity within the lgbt community but within the

department. we hope that our efforts in wearing the pride patches during the month of june each year will encourage positive conversations with the communities about the purpose behind the patch and encourage other agencies throughout the nation to follow suit and partner with their own local charities that have exponential positive impacts within the lgbtq community. with our development of the pride patch project, we will be working with a local 501-c-3 organization, the larkin street youth services. during the month of june, we hope that officers, should they choose to do so, be permitted to wear patches on their uniforms or buy them as keep sakes. through this, we can strike up many positive conversations about provide services to

homeless youth. all of the proceeds of this project will be donated to the larkin street youth services so that they may continue their valiant mission of changing the lives of thousands of homeless youth throughout the city. what prompted this is let me

just -- [please stand by] . >> and his reaction was son, why haven't you done this sooner? so i also have known people who have battled with homelessness as a youth, and they found programs like the larkin street youth services, and they attribute their services to their success in leaving homelessness and finding stability in their health, employment and housing situations. the lgbtq communities in san francisco is one of the largest and most prominent lgbtq

communities in the entire world. the san francisco police department is the 14th largest police department in the nation, and we have a duty to reduce the number of lgbtq youth sleeping on the streets each night. june is lgbtq pride month, with a celebration of how far this movement has come around the world. san francisco police department are dedicated to excellence in law enforcement and to treatment of people of diversities and ethnicities around the city. i ask for your favorable declaration of approval in our request. for you, i have a copy of the patch, so go on here as well as

a mock up shirt of what it would look like when it goes on everyone's uniform. >> may i congratulate you for your -- your creativity and your willingness to move forward on issues like this. this is great. are we being asked for an action here? we have to take action in order to modify -- >> clerk: we need a motion and a second, correct. >> i'll make a motion. >> i second. >> president hirsch: all right. any comment from commissioners on the motion? >> commissioner dejesus: i -- i'm sorry. >> president hirsch: commissioner mazzucco? >> commissioner mazzucco: thank you. you're right, you are a third generation with your dad serving at mission station. your grandfather was my dad's partner. i'm proud of you, i'm proud of the strength you brought forward as you entered this department. you're a brilliant young man and you represent this department well. i want to thank you and all the members of the pride alliance

and this is something that we can really be proud of. thank you. >> thank you. >> president hirsch: and commissioner dejesus. >> commissioner dejesus: and i agree with the previous statements. it's a positive thing for the lgbtq community and i just want to say thank you for the pride alliance to come up with this, and i'm looking forward to supporting this motion. >> thank you, commissioner. >> president hirsch: vice president taylor? >> vice president taylor: yeah. i want to thank you, as well. no one can say pride patch project three times fast, but it's a fantastic project, and thank you for your work. >> president hirsch: director henderson? >> yeah. it's about time. i was surprised when you were talking that we haven't seen this already, but my question was a practical one. how much is the patch? >> $10. >> did i miss that part? did he say that already?

>> we are going to be selling the patches for $20 a set. >> well, make sure you hit up all the commissioners. commissioner brookter? >> commissioner brookter: yeah, i want to go along with all of my commissioners. i'm glad to see we're working with larkin, and i think it also shows this department's wherewithal understanding that homelessness is a big issue here in the city, but we're going to focus on this young people to make sure they do have housing, so they can get off the streets and when they grow up, they have this interaction with the police and make it that much stronger. >> president hirsch: commissioner ham -- hamasaki?

>> commissioner hamasaki: yeah. i'm going to sound like a broken record. there's been some things over the last few years, actions by officers in the department. i think officers that wear these and show to the rest of the city, to the other members, to our visitors, that we are an inclusive environment, that we are a supportive environment, and this department supports all members regardless of any background or orientation is really important. i think it's important not just for the department to see, but for young people that you're describing might have negative pressures of law enforcement based upon what they see in the media. i think actions like this are not just symbolic, but they can help change how people feel about the department, so i

think it's overall an excellent plan, and i look forward to seeing officers wearing these on the street. >> thank you, commissioner. >> president hirsch: thank you. i think we now need public comment on this before we vote, correct? >> clerk: correct, commissioner. >> president hirsch: okay. i'm getting good at this. okay. we're asking for public comment on this motion only. any public comment? seeing none, it's closed. can we have the vote, please. >> clerk: on the motion presented by commissioner elias and seconded by commissioner mazzucco, all in favor of passing the pride patch project motion? any opposed? the motion passes unanimously. >> president hirsch: okay. thank you. thank you, all. yes, sir? i think we need to make $20

donations. >> president hirsch: thank you very much. >> commissioner elias: thank you. >> commissioner dejesus: thank you. >> president hirsch: okay, chief, i think you have another item. >> clerk: we'll move onto line

item four. [agenda item read]. >> good evening. the department is excited to announce the issuance of much needed and highly anticipated piece of safety equipment, the ballistic helmet. the ballistic helmet is basically a replacement of our riot helmet. we've had the same helmet that we've issued officers as protective head wear for approximately 30-plus years now. the ballistic helmet changes that piece of safety equipment with one important aspect, and that is it now will have ballistic capablities to protect an officer from gunfire. it changes or slightly amends three separate department general orders.

it's department general order 10.01, 10.02, and 10.03. specifically for 10.01, it would simply alter the uniform for a class d, which is basically like a tactical crowd control type of a uniform. that particular general order identifies the helmet that's issues as a riot helmet. this would be a ballistic he helmet which would be taking the place of that. 10.02, the change for this general order would be the department bulletin calls for officers that are assigned to uniform sector patrol to have their helmets readily available with them and then all other officers to have their helmets available as is practical. and then, finally for

department general 10.03, the change would be in regards to helmet identification. 10.03 talks about numbering of officer's star numbers on the side of the helmets to be readily identifiable, and it specifically calls for gold numbers on the side of the helmets. our helmets and what we've requested in the department general order would be silver for officers and sergeants and gold for commissioned officers, and the purpose for this is to have commissioned officers more readily available in either crowd control situations or critical incidents that you can look at the helmets and readily identify who's a lieutenant or captain or member of the command staff as opposed to officers or sergeants. and with that, questions? >> president hirsch: the only question i have is assuming we approve this, do the general

orders actually then get amended in your office and do we see the amendment? how does the mechanic of that work? >> so the amendment would be via the department bulletin, and then, eventually, the department general orders would be amended as they would come up through the process to amend all the general orders. >> president hirsch: all right. i just want to make sure we don't lose track of that because some of these general orders may not come up for three years. >> and commissioner, they get reissued. if that general order is like in year three or four, this bulletin would get reissued down the line until that order gets amended. >> president hirsch: okay. may i have a motion to amend those three orders? >> motion. >> second. >> president hirsch: okay. questions from commissioners? okay. we need public comment. is there any public comment on this motion? seeing none, public comment is

closed. we are ready for a vote. >> clerk: for the vote, all in favor? any opposed? the ayes pass, 7-0. >> president hirsch: okay. thank you. thank you. >> clerk: line item five, general public comment. [agenda item read]. >> president hirsch: thank you. any general public comment?

>> just wanted to end the day and talk about my son, as i do every wednesday when i come here, and i'd like to use the overhead. and my son, aubrey aberkasen, who was murdered august 6. they just had a meeting yesterday with the mothers -- with some mothers about unsolved homicides. our homicides are still not solved. seemed like we were creating the table, creating the same thing over and over again, talking about our lost loved ones and still no justice, still no solved homicide for our children. we're just coming to meetings

and another meeting for bringing up these feelings when something should be done. there's nothing being done not fast enough. i keep bringing these names of the persons that shot my son, and one of them's deceased. i also want to put here, i bring this because i want to read it, my son's birth. it says, my son. i close my eyes for but a moment, and suddenly, a man stood where a boy used to be. i may not carry you in my arms anymore but i will always carry you in my heart. you are -- you have given me so many reasons to be proud of you, to be proud of the man you've become. but the proudest moment for me

is telling others that you are my son. love, mom, and happy birthday. this is his birthday card, when he was alive or he isn't. >> president hirsch: thank you. again, the tip line is 415-575-4444. any other public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. we're ready for the next item. >> clerk: line six, public comment on all matters pertaining to eight below, closed session including public comment on closed session. public comment on closed session. >> president hirsch: any public comment on closed session? i see none. it's closed. >> clerk: item seven, closed

session. >> so moved. >> >> clerk: on-line item seven, all in favor? any opposed? the motion passes 7-0. >> president hirsch: okay. and thank you all. we're going into closed session. uxz gsz. >> clerk: okay. commissioner, we are back in open session. line item nine, vote to whether to disclose on any or all discussion held in closed session, action. >> president hirsch: all right. i think hang on, we have to note that commissioner mazzucco is no longer here, we have a quorum, is that correct? >> so moved. >> president hirsch: is there a second?

>> second. >> clerk: all in favor? opposed? the motion passes 6-0. line item ten, adjournment, action item. >> motion to adjourn. >> second. >> clerk: all in favor? opposed? i' >> i'll oppose. >> clerk: the motion passes 6-0. thank you.

. >> welcome, everyone. hi. my name is clara filey,and i'm the director of the office of trans initiatives, and i'm so proud to work for a mayor that supports lgbt initiatives in the city of san francisco. [applause] >> today san francisco is launching, open to all, a national campaign to build understanding and discussion about the importance of protecting all people from discrimination. as a federal administration continues to attack our diverse communities, it is important that we stand by our values as being open for all, and call on other cities to follow suit. san francisco is a beacon of hope for the rest of the country, with some of

the strongest policies and programs here in san francisco. we make sure that until the work is done, until all of our communities are safe, we continue to do the great work. because what happens in san francisco happens in the rest of the country. so as we go through our daily lives, from going to the gym or going to the school or hanging out with friends, no one should have to worry about being discriminated because of who they love, because of their race, ethnicity, gender identity, expression, disabilities, or religious beliefs. but sadly our president continues to divide us. but in san francisco, we will continue to share the love. so here in san francisco our diverse communities and our small businesses are the bedrock of our cities. here i go. and despite all of these bias attacks, san francisco will continue to open our doors to all.

so today, as we know, we are on the eve of the equality act being introduced in the senate, in the house. now, more than ever, we need protections. and, like i said, what happens in san francisco happens throughout the country. so now it is my honor to introduce a champion for lgbt rights and diversitiy for all, our mayor, london breed. >> thank you, claire. it is really great to be here with so many incredible leaders, to really launch something that we shouldn't have to launch. you would think after what happened, especially with the history of our country during the civil rights movement, where african-americans were discriminated against, asian-americans were discriminated against, and so many folks were not welcome to do something as

simple as eat at a lunch counter, you would think that in 2019 anyone would be able to go any place that is a public business and be able to get just a basic service that they request. and we know that it is windy out here. [laughter] >> and this campaign -- shoot, my hair is in my eyes. this campaign stems from two -- stems from two men who wanted a wedding cake, who wanted to share their love. and on the day that was supposed to be one of the best days of their lives, picking out a wedding cake, it turned into just really a very serious challenge with being refused that basic option. here in san francisco, we know that we won't tolerate that kind of

behavior in anyone who owns a business. if your business is open and available, and you're a public business, then you either are open to all, or you should find another city to do business in because we won't tolerate that here in san francisco. [applause] >> you know, we still have, as we know, a number of challenges, including, sadly, people, two african-americans who were receiveed in a starbucks. we all remember that. we remember the gay couple who was put out of a ride share. we remember some of the situations that continue to occur all over this country. and today, now more than ever, we need to come together. we need to continue to push and support good business practices because we know that throughout the united states there are still over half of the

cities in this country still discriminating against our lgbt community. we won't do business with those states. we won't tolerate discrimination, and here in san francisco, we will continue to be open to all. so as we launch this incredible campaign that signifies all our great values and what we stand for, we acknowledge so many incredible people who have made this possible. i first want to acknowledge molly, who is with the movement advancement project for spearheading this campaign to advance the conversation, the policy work and collaborations on this subject all over the world. the haas junior fund who funded this campaign. we are going to encourage people to put up these signs and to bring awareness to this very challenging issue. thank you.

thank you, the wind is blowing in my eye. i can't even see. i want to thank each and every one of you for being here today. and on behalf of the city and county of san francisco, at this time, molly, i want to ask you to come up so i can present this proclamation to you, thanking you for your commitment and your work. oh, buried back there. [applause] >> thank you. >> and with that, i'd like to turn it over to supervisor rafael mandelman for some remarks. he represents this amazing district. and i'm always happy to be here. i see all of the incredible businesses and the merchants. this is a beautiful community, and the sun is shining, so we're going to have a good time today. thank you, everyone, for being here. [applause] >> thank you, mayor breed. thank you for your commitment to this community and this neighborhood, the best neighborhood in the world.

one of the places where the lgbt civil rights movement began just two blocks down at harvey milk's camera shop. this is a very appropriate place, of course, to be doing this for people in search of acceptance, refuge, or opportunity, san francisco has long provided a safe place to be who you are. from young queers fleeing violence, to families who immigrate here to create a better life, san francisco welcomes and celebrates our diversitiy. unfortunately, as the mayor noted, in more than half the country, discrimination is still protected under the law. only 20 states provide full legal protection from discrimination in employment and housing. hate-fueled attacks are also on the rise, with the f.b.i. reporting a 17% increase in hate crimes in 2018. even right here in the castro, we continue to see

homophobic and sometimes violent attacks on members of our community. as we in san francisco resist a president who works to divide the nation, it is more important than ever that we lead by example in the fight against hate. by becoming the first city to join the national "open to all" campaign, we can send a strong message that hate will not be tolerated here. today we have the support of 200 national and state organizations committed to civil rights, racial justice, lgbt equality and civil rights. the mayor and i are putting forward legislation that make san francisco open to all. i want to thank claire farley, marianne thomson, who is hiding behind the

sign, but is amazing. [applause] >> not to say that any of the other five public servants up here are not amazing, but marianne is amazing. adrina, at the office of small business, thank you. tom tamprano, also amazing in my all of my office. and we have a number of elected queer and non-queer elected officials here, but i'm super excited we have my predecessor bevin dusty is here. thank you, bevin. i'm going to introduce some more of our electives in a second. i want to thank daniel and the castro association for your great help in kicking off this campaign, and, of course, the staff of "open to all." with that, i'll be introducing our next speakers, two of these amazing public servants. we are so lucky that the people taking care --

collecting and taking care of our money and figuring out how much we have to pay each year are so talented and wonderful. we have our treasurer, jose, and our assessor, carman chu. please come on up. >> hello, everyone, i'm jose, the san francisco treasurer, and i'm happy to stand here with carman chu. both of our offices work very hard to not only provide funding and the vital income of cash to the city to make its work possible, but between our offices, we actually support hundreds of thousands plus businesses in this city every year. and we do that no matter what kind of businesses they. entrepreneurs come to us and set up their businesses, open their properties, begin to become successes here in

san francisco, and we step up and make sure they can be a success right here in san francisco. i'm proud of the work we do in our office. and i stand by the "open to all" program. [applause] >> good morning, everybody. i think jose and i love getting up together because we're like peanut butter and jelly. a money sandwich partnership over here. but we're all really happy to be here to support the "open to all" campaign. my parents used to have a small business, and my parents were immigrants to the united states many, many years ago, and they, too, faced discrimination. you never knew sometimes if you walked in the door, if you couldn't speak english, what kind of service you'd get. i think a campaign like this is so important because when you see that sign on a window, when you see that sign on a doorfront, you know that people in that store recognize the importance of diversitiy and inclusion. i couldn't be more proud of san francisco for being, i believe, the

first city to be doing this. congratulations to molly and claire and to everybody who has been part of this wonderful project. we're really happy to be part of it. [applause] >> and speaking of all of those incredible businesses here in san francisco that are opening their doors to everybody in our community, i would like to introduce linda o'hara. >> thank you. thank you, mayor breed, for being our hometown girl made good. the mayor of our amazing city, she grew up around japan town, and that is where our family business. my name is linda mihara, and i'm a owner of paper tree. the business was started in 1958 by my mother and father, who are actually here today. [applause] >> we have recently become

a san francisco legacy business. we're very proud to be that. to be a legacy business, you have to be in business at least 35 years, and we're entering our 51st year in business, and we're happy to do so. thank you. san francisco is an amazing city. we are a world class city. we have always been the example of how being -- no matter what your background is, your religion, your sexual orientation, everybody has been welcomed. and we make it work here in the city. we're a world class city because of our world class people. i believe one of the key things that makes san francisco so unique not only are the people, but are the different neighborhoods. so we have our little identities, but we still get together and we mingle and respect each other. we work together and we open our doors to the world. and as a business, having your business in san francisco, you know, we've always run our paper tree

as open to all. our family goes back 100 years. through those 100 years, we've experienced, you know, establishing life here in the states. we've experienced intermment during the war. my dad was actually interned at hart mountain, wyoming. and i know a lot of different levels of discrimination. iinterment is just one example. there are those who discriminate based on who they see in front of you, and i think that's really wrong. everyone has had at least some experience of some type of discrimination. and i think for our family, having lived through that, also coming back to reestablish a business in san francisco, san francisco's japan town, has been a great -- you know, we kind of live

by example. you open your doors to the world. and it is amazing what you see. growing up in the business, i had a front-row seat to all those that came to san francisco because san francisco is such a great city. you know, of course we have those beautiful landmarks. we've got the goldengate bridge and all of those, but it is getting into the neighborhoods and getting to meet the people is really what makes san francisco unique. having us be the first city to jump on board with the "open to all" campaign reminds everybody, yes, as a business owner, you need to be open to all. there is no room for discrimination. there is no room for any of that negativity. we are, as business owners, examples of how it can work and respecting everyone that walks through the door and everyone that comes to visit this wonderful city. we pledged already, "open to all," and so all of the business owners that are here today, i definitely encourage you to think in

the same way. go ahead and register, and let's continue to make san francisco the living example of how it should be. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you so much. so are we ready to be open to all? >> yes. >> as you can see, we've had our electives already sign this, and the mayor has signed the pledge as well, and as she said, we will not allow businesses in our city that are not open for all because everyone deserves fairness and equality. we're asking other cities to join san francisco's lead to becoming open to all cities across the country. we're asking you to reach out to your favorite businesses and ask them to join this pledge because where we shop and where we spend money, we want to make sure that that is our san francisco values. and, finally, please ask your elected leaders -- so

many of them have already signed the pledge, but we're asking leaders to join us today. so with that, thank you, all, and welcome to "open for all" day. shop and dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges residents to do their shopping and dining within the 49 square miles of san

francisco. by supporting local services within our neighborhoods, we help san francisco remain unique, successful, and vibrant. so where will you shop and dine in the 49? >> my name is ray behr. i am the owner of chief plus. it's a destination specialty foods store, and it's also a corner grocery store, as well. we call it cheese plus because there's a lot of additions in addition to cheese here. from fresh flowers, to wine, past a, chocolate, our dining area and espresso bar. you can have a casual meeting if you want to. it's a real community gathering place. what makes little polk unique, i think, first of all, it's a great pedestrian street. there's people out and about all day, meeting this neighbor and coming out and supporting the

businesses. the businesses here are almost all exclusively independent owned small businesses. it harkens back to supporting local. polk street doesn't look like anywhere u.s.a. it has its own businesses and personality. we have clothing stores to gallerys, to personal service stores, where you can get your hsus repaired, luggage repaired. there's a music studio across the street. it's raily a diverse and unique offering on this really great street. i think san franciscans should shop local as much as they can because they can discover things that they may not be familiar with. again, the marketplace is changing, and, you know, you look at a screen, and you click a mouse, and you order something, and it shows up, but to have a tangible experience, to be able to come in to taste

things, to see things, to smell things, all those things, it's very important that you do so. >> meeting will come to order. welcome to the thursday, april 4th meeting of the government audit and oversight committee. supervisor gordon mar, the chair of the committee, joined by supervisors brown and