did not want h.s.h. to be involved and would not put a budget in there, i suppose that's the kind of leverage they'd have, but it wouldn't be over hsoc in general. and i think that's about it. we're not closed off to the idea of a commission. think there's still some outstanding problems with the way that it's written, and i think it should be an ordinance rather than a chart amendment, but i agree that supervisor haney is working very hard. with that, i'm happy for the opportunity to speak and answer any questions if they come up. >> chair fewer: thank you very much, director kosinski. supervisor haney? >> supervisor haney: yeah,

thank you very much, director kosinski, and your staff. i think these mostly addressed the concerns. the question whether it should be an ordinance or in the charter, to be clear. all of the commissions are in the charter. if we would create this by charter, it wouldn't be a charter commission that has all the responsibilities and duties defined in the charter. so we think it's important that we have something that has.

i think this is in many ways recognizing that this department is here to stay. one of the reasons why this -- this department -- maybe the main reason why this department doesn't have a commission currently is because it's a new department. it's only been around a couple years, and the advisory structure that we have is here from a time when we didn't have a single department with the authority that your department has, had a single director and all of that. so i want to be clear that one of the things that we're doing here by having a charter commission is recognizing the critical importance of this department and its continued role that it's going to have in leading our response to homelessness, and for that reason, it should have the same

strong and clear and codified commission as any other department. >> chair fewer: thank you. and with that, we'll open up public comment. you'll have two minutes to do so, and mr. wright, do you want to start us off? >> you know, i object to all these programs. every time we turnaround, you've got another program. you oversupervise. you spend over $400 million on programs. you spend more money on programs than you do on permanent housing, apartment building complex to how's the people who you always campaign and act like you want to help. gavin newsom got upstaged last week by an apartment building

being built by a nonprofit developer. he tried to flex and counter by saying that developer doesn't produce. he's going to fine them $600,000. how you going to fine them when they're providing low-income -- affordable housing for very low-income and low-income people without going through the bullshit that this administration has been going through the same as the last two or three generations? you spend over $400 million a year and got shitty results. you only got 133 beds for people who's got mental disabilities, and it's been studied by professionals is the best way to serve the homeless problem is to built permanent housing and then services for them.

you've got 8,000 homeless people out on the street and only 2,000 shelter beds. but yet, you want to produce all these programs and pretend like you're helping me. it's disgusting. i came in and showed you ways to built two towers instead of a navigation center with $700 million leftover, and you ignored it. he's charging you $700,000 for nothing. when i finish my thesis, i'm going to charge you $600,000 for not helping anyone. you let other people speak past the two minutes. you let other people --

>> chair ronen: okay, i'm going to clarify -- michael, please. thank you, next speaker. >> you're insulting my god damn intelligence. like president yee last week. the color of your skin, the more time you get to speak. >> michael. >> it's mr. wright. >> good morning, committee. how are you? good morning -- and supervisors. h.s.h. has been in business two or three years. we run very well. have a wonderful director, very qualified director, but it's 2019. the most important issue in

this city and nationwide, but especially this city is homelessness. homeless people should be treated fairly, and being treated fairly is a commission so they can be treated like everyone else. people are -- unhoused citizens shouldn't be treated different than anyone else. i'm an e.d. of two different nonprofits. i'd rather do something else so i can get much more done. our citizens -- our homeless citizens i have a right to build influenced policy. they can't do it right now. i can share the local homeless board, and we -- i sit on the

local homeless board, and we can sit there and say yes, ma'am, yes, sir, but we can't do anything else. they brought us hsoc -- and i know we're going to do this. as we come to do this, we need to see where hsoc is going to fit. our homeless citizens, the only thing they see is hsoc pulling their tent down. so please do not lose the sight that this commission will have direct oversight over hsoc. that's the only thing, and thank you all. >> hi. my name is mallory, and i'm

speaking for san francisco housing action coalition? i think our only opposition is efficiency. we're a proud supporter of prop c, and we're very interested in delivering services to people experiencing homelessness, and we want to do that as quickly as possible? and also, we haven't seen the -- their -- the opportunities for additional public input would provide more opportunities to more time. that's an equitiable increase in opportunity. we think if we want to help solve these crises, we need to remove bureaucracy, we think

this oversight would do that. thank you. >> good morning, supervisors. my name is malia chavez, and i'm here as chiair person for the homeless advocacy organization. we are here in support of proposition c. i'm also here to represent that we support the commission as a way to balance power and for facilitating decision making around complex and difficult issues which should not be the purview of just a few. again, we've heard highlights around the policies that are impacted by these departments. a few examples that we've experienced as supervisors are pregnancy and the definition of families for access to coordinated entry and housing resources as well as policy for individuals fleeing domestic

violence. there's still a challenge as to individuals being able to access coordinated entry when staying at shelters. again, another polish to be addressed. budget priorities such that supervisor haney already mentioned around not having any input or oversight around what the departments are thinking in prioritizing. and another one is the definition of homelessness, which we've moved way. the more inclusive definition of homelessness families include those living in s.r.o.s or doubled up. the defense collaborative, they strongly support this, and martina couldn't be here today, but she wanted me to make sure

that you knew she was pulling for this, as well. thank you. >> good morning, supervisors. my name is natalia, and i am the director for homeless prenatal programs. several years ago, our organization invested in an evaluation department in order toen hans transparency and accountability of our work, and we as an organization wanted to make sure that we had real-time reflection of how we are serving our clients and to respond to their needs. and this was incredibly powerful because we were able to focus our efforts and strategically innovate and improve our services on a weekly basis, and this is exactly the commitment and investment that i ask that we as a city make, to create a commission that will enhance transparency and accountability for how we serve our homeless families. looking and reflecting at the

data of our clients that are coming to us for services over the past few years, i have noticed a disturbing trend. i have noticed that both the proportion and actual number of families that are living in horrendous conditions with their children such as outside or in a vehicle is on the rise. this is exactly the type of data that i would like to present and discuss with an oversight committee, and i look forward to the ability to do so. thank you. >> hello, supervisors. thank you so much for having us here. my name is jay cheng, and i'm representing the san francisco chamber of commerce. as you know, our 1,000 members are regularly impacted by homelessness every day. transparency and solutions are important when we're tackling

such an important problem as homelessness. first, we want to posit that committees can sometimes be a block to progress, as well. we're all familiar with the planning commission and how the planning commission schedule works and is impacted on a regular basis. and we're all familiar with d.b.i. and how the d.b.i. commission which has existed since eternity has spent several years trying to build a universal permit database and failed despite a very robust commission. commissions also come at their

own cost, and every dollar that we spend on a commission secretary is obviously money not being used on homeless services. we would ask you consider a chartered commission versus an ordinance commission. as supervisor haney brought up, the department of homelessness was just created in the last year or two. as we think about homelessness going forward, flexibility is best regarding jurisdiction. thank you. >> good morning. jordan davis here, a main member of san francisco chapter of d.s.a. which will be considering this should it go

on the ballot. as a matter of disclosure, i'm on the s.r.o. board. this is my first appearance since my 21-day hunger strike over h.s.h. housing, which may not have been necessary if h.s.h. had made sure the underlying issue got worked out. i want to thank supervisor haney for working on this issue and supervisors ronen and walton for helping out. last year, h.s.h. introduced a wellness check policy for housing that although there's a lot of different opinions on

that. the complaints by so many boot legers about this measure have no merit. on every other commission in this city, 90% of matters get approved, and the others have so many issues that will bite us in the ass later, the make

decisions really lie because of this network of different committees. from my perspective, we think with of an h.s.h.

commission. we think it makes a lot of sense that the our city, our home commission will be reporting to the commission the status of our unhoused neighbors, and the people who work closely with the department of homelessness. there is strong support, and while this will slow this down,

i think everybody can agree that the department is already quite slow. if you are pregnant and homeless, you should be considered high risk, any way? and it's taken three years for the department to include a high-risk policy and it still doesn't include a lot of the policy recommendations. so we think that this would speed up things more quickly, and that more things would happen in the span of three years, so thank you so much. >> hello, supervisors. my name is kelly cutler.

i'm an organizer at the coalition of homelessness, and she took my talking points this is an advisory board, and so just going over the last year and looking at the meeting notes, it's like yeah, there's an issue there. it was interesting that hsoc was brought up because this is the city's coordinated response to homelessness. for oversight, we're told to go to the police commission, that's an issue. that's a huge issue.

and so we were trying to write a letter and went to the board and were told to go to the police commission. basically done. i'm cracking up that the chamber of commerce is here, like, prop c, hello? okay. that's it. thanks. >> good morning, supervisors. joe wilson, executive director, hospitality house. we are proud to support the commission for the department of homelessness and supportive housing. at least a couple of points. a commitment to democracy carries a couple of risks. so it may be that things do get slowed down, and there are those of us in san francisco that have some recollection of the redevelopment agency in the 60's and 70's. the fillmore acted quickly and

without input, and we know the results there. i actually have a feasibility study that was done out of flint, michigan, and they said to act quickly and without input for people of color.

-- and with policies that don't get fixed, so we have an opportunity to fix that. and i am proud to support that, very gratified with your leadership on this, and i'm confident there are folks to do that. thank you so much. >> good morning, supervisors. thank you so much for the opportunity to speak on this topic. i'm here on behalf of the ed lee democratic club, and i'm here to speak on behalf of this measure. we're worried that this will create an unnecessary and costly commission. creating a costly bureaucracy

will eliminate an issue in providing services to the public. we encourage you to reconsider before moving towards the ballot. thank you. >> hi, supervisors. my name is jonna, and i'm with the coalition on homelessness, and i just wanted to come and add my support for creating this commission? i've been hearing a lot of concerns about efficiency which i think is really important to talk about as things are already moving slow and the problem of homelessness is not progressing, but the way i look at it is solving these solutions require multiple input, and it is more

inefficient to get plans that won't work and have to start over than do our due diligence on the front enter, crafting initiatives on the issue of homelessness and having to go back because we redid it wrong the first time? and i also think it's important to weigh the pros and cons. if slowing down things by a few weeks will help more people, i see those few weeks for community consideration and better outcomes as incredibly worth it. i don't think we need to see it as a negative for our community, i think it's a positive for making our efforts go forward. thank you so much for this issue. i hope we can pass it and change the way that we're doing homeless services in the city.

thank you. >> hi. i'm a district six resident, an s.r.o. resident and formerly homeless. i'm personally in support of the committee on homelessness. there's intersections with labor, health care, and community integration. i think it's really telling when my formerly homeless neighbors and people that i work with that are experiencing homelessness have solutions to the issues that aren't being trickled up to the decision-makers and so i see that it's essential that we have this homeless commission. thank you so much for your support. >> good morning, board members -- supervisors, i'm sorry. i'm here to support the legislation. we appreciate the work that's

been done by supervisor haney's office and the department and the collaboration that's happened to evolve this over time, and we look forward to the deeper work after this where we get to establish the bylaws and the processes that happen with the actual commission that gets seated. thank you. >> chair ronen: is there any other member of the public that would wish to speak, please come forward. >> i guess -- i think hopefully, you can add the s.r.o.s or something like this for the s.r.o.s. it's very possible that we have the worst s.r.o. stock in the country. now, the other situation is i'm in support of this legislation, but i feel like the cause about emergencies should be removed. you might have removed it

because somebody can just declare an emergency and override the rules and regulations. we're having a major problem where you will open a navigation center but call it a safe navigation center or call it something else, and right now, the san francisco administrative code 2400 is being violated basically across the board in that no one is monitoring it from the city and county of san francisco. the navigation centers, they're getting a free pass to violate the 2400 -- no one in the city is monitoring it. they shove it off on the shelter monitoring team committee, and they don't have enough authority or resources to investigate when we're getting abused. so it's a perfect storm. the contractors will hire felons and drug users, and then, they go work at the

shelter with no type of bedding. and then, when we go abused, we go to the shelter committee where they don't have enough abuse oversight authority. the controller, the city is continuously ignoring and pretty much going total opposite of what the comptroller is saying and what national people are saying about homelessness. we're going opposition, and you can't see it. we're spending millions of dollars, and the homeless is still going up. we're spending $300 million, and it's going up. >> clerk: speaker time has elapsed. >> chair ronen: thank you for your comments. any other members of the public wish to speak? seeing none, public comment is closed. [gavel].

>> chair ronen: supervisor haney? >> supervisor haney: i want to thank everybody that came out to speak. i want to thank the members of the advisory committees who do such important work. i realize this is an awkward thing to be coming out and speaking in support of oversight over a department that you work so regularly with. so i imagine that, you know, i just want to appreciate your courage and your partnership on this. i think it says a lot that the people who are on the front lines of serving our population that's experiencing homelessness believes strongly that there should be more accountability, transparency, and public input. i think that says a lot. yes, i talk a lot about speed, and i don't think this is going to slow things down, but there's nothing more wrong than getting it wrong and having to do it over and over and over

again. we have to listen to these folks not just at the beginning but throughout the process to make sure that we get it right. and when we deny them that opportunity, we are going to create so many delays throughout the process because we're going to have to spend money to fix our mistakes, we're going to have to repeat things over again. so fore the homeless providers -- for the hometiles providers and the people that work with them to support that, that says a lot because of the work that you're doing and it's important because people who have that expertise often live the experiences. so i want to appreciate you all for that. i do find it, as was said, a bit ironic that the same folks who oppose prop c would put us

in a position where we create this crisis are saying that they don't want this, they don't want this additional oversight. i find that incredibly ironic and unfortunate because in reality, what we're saying is there's value to accountability, and there's value to public oversite aght process. and in fact if we had this commission, prop c would have gotten the two-thirds that we needed, where they're coming in and saying they're on the other side. we should have flexibility, we should be able to do what we want here. we know if there's another opportunity to go forward for a funding measure, we are going to be attacked because there isn't accountability in play. so let's get ahead of this. let's create structures that

create the same level of oversight, public input, transparency as almost every other large department in our city, and let's say that we can do this better together. we can do this better when we listen to people who are impacted, we can do this better when people who are impacted are at the table, and yet, we agree accountability is important. so thank you -- thank you again, everyone, for coming, and i also want to recognize as has been said, my staff, courtney mcdonald, who has worked so hard on this and has led this process and worked very collaboratively with the mayor's office and the department of homelessness to put forward these amendments. >> chair ronen: thank you. supervisor mar? >> supervisor mar: yes. i just briefly wanted to thank supervisor haney for all of your work on this and your staff, as well, and express my support for this effort to create more public accountability and oversight to the department of homelessness and supportive housing. i also want to thank you for

your work with the mayor's office on this to ensure that as this moves forward and it's created, that it best incorporates our existing advi advisory bodies and we have a commission and oversight, and i would like to be added as a cosponsor. >> chair ronen: great. so if we can accept the amendments without objection, without objection, those amendments pass. [applause] >> chair ronen: well, we have to actually pass it now. >> supervisor haney: so my understanding is it has to be continued and come back next -- >> chair ronen: i did not realize that. thank you. that wasn't the case with the other measure. >> clerk: every amendment to a ballot measure requires an additional hearing in the same committee, even if it's a

nonsubstantive amendment. the item 1 on today's agenda was not amended, so you could pass that. >> chair ronen: got it. if i could make a motion to continue this item -- >> clerk: to july 15. >> chair ronen: thank you very much. without objection, that motion passes. [gavel]. >> chair ronen: mr. clerk, could you please read item 4. >> clerk: item 4 is an item withdrawing the item withdrawing free city college fund. >> chair ronen: take them together? oh, just 4 and 5. could you also read item number

5. [agenda item read]. >> chair ronen: supervisor mar? >> supervisor mar: thank you. colleagues actually, i just wanted to provider some framing and oversight to these items. also, there is an item coming up on this at the g.a.o. meeting on thursday. free city college has been a success story. it has broken-down education barriers for san francisco residents, rebuilt following the accreditation crisis, and served as a model across the country for tuition free and debt free education. free college was started in 2003 as a vision of supervisor

kim and an initial two-year funding allocation by mayor lee. this initial funding allocation for the free city pilot program ended in june with an extension covering the summer 2019 semester. additionally, due to the overwhelming success of the program, costs have actually exceeded the original funding allocation by $2 million to $3 million a year, costs which city college has had to absorb. since i joined the board in january, i've been working on a plan to ensure full funding for free city over the next decade and also to strengthen the program design and financial oversight reflecting learning from the pilot project space. despite some differences of perspective and priorities,

i've been very appreciative of all the parties' shared commitment to this program and to ensure that it's sustained for the next decade and beyond. after a very robust and, yes, complicated negotiation process, i'm pleased to say that we've come to agreement on a comprehensive framework and plan for the future of free city. besides funding free city for the next decade, it includes a number of amendments to place on the november ballot. notably, it would start the funding for free city this fall, a year earlier than under the charter amendment. this represents an additional $8.6 million funding for city college over the coming year.

the key terms of this agreement on the future of free city are outlined in a tentative agreement between the city and city college that was negotiated by the mayor's office and city college translore chancellor's office and was approved on june 27. in order to move this agreement forward, there are three items for the board to take action on. the first item is the motion to withdraw the free city charter amendment, which is item number 4 on today's rules committee agenda. the second item is the ordinance modifying the city college financial assistance fund and oversight committee to

align with the terms of the t.a. and the m.o.u., which is item 5 on today's rules committee agenda. the third item is a resolution directing dcyf to negotiate the fully executed ten-year m.o.u. with city college administration, which is scheduled to be heard in the g.a.o. committee special meeting on thursday, july 11. because all three items are interrelated and are in effect a package deal, i would -- would really like to have all three items to be voted on by the full board together on july 16. i would like to thank president yee and chair ronen's offices for helping to expedite the three free city college items through the board. i also want to acknowledge the mayor's office and the free city coalition for working with my office to draft amendments to the ordinance which you have in front of you and i'll be going over. with this motion today and the ordinance, as well as the resolution in the g.a.o. committee urging dcyf to negotiate a m.o.u. with city

college, we are on path to fund city college for the next decade. i'd like to quickly explain the amendments. on page 2, line 5, we've deleted the word may. and it allows the free city program to be expended in the future as has been proposed by a number of the parties. we also -- we added a new subparagraph f, on page 3, line 14 in order to allow the $2

million currently in the free city reserve fund to be moved into the newly constituted free city fund and free city reserve fund. on page 7', line 16, we adjusted the attendance requirements so that oversight committee members must not miss three meetings within nine months instead of six months. on page 8, line 7, we specified that the oversight committee can recommend potential expansion of the free city program in the future. on page 6, line 6 and line 7, i'm having students be appointed by city college associated students instead of -- and deleting appointed by the mayor and the board of supervisors, and that's per request from city college folks. on page 6, line 18, i'm amending the legislation so that the faculty representative is appointed by the academic

senate instead of the board of trustees. and finally, on page 6, i'm representing that i representative is appointed by the labor union, which represents the largest number of city college employees. so the third item is a resolution urging dcyf to negotiate the m.o.u. and that's to appear in the committee meeting on july 11. so in order to ensure that all three items are considered at the same board meeting on july 16, i would like to forgo the committee report for this ordinance and motion and simply recommend that this committee support the ordinance and motion, move forward to the july 16 board meeting. >> chair ronen: thank you so

much. supervisor walton? >> supervisor walton: i definitely support the motion, but i do have a question through the chair. as i look at page 6, 21, it talks about shall be held by a certified member of the staff of city college appointed -- and then, we have the amendment. going over to page 7, we make allowance to make sure that members of committee do not receive compensation, and i'm justified wondering, should we specify that in seat 11, as well, or did i miss that? >> supervisor mar: i believe that -- well, this is -- so you're -- on page 7.

>> supervisor walton: you just talk about no committee member receiving compensation except for seats 1, 5, 7, and 8 may receive their regular salaries for time spent on the committee because they're serving in an official capacity, and i'm wondering if we should also say the same for seat 11. >> supervisor mar: john, you want to respond? >> mr. givner: deputy city attorney jon givner. what you're referring to, supervisor walton, refers to only in their official capacity. city college can make a decision to pay the city college employee, but that's not something that we could mandate in this ordinance. >> supervisor walton: thank you. >> chair ronen: wonderful. so if we could open up this item for public comment. any member of the public that wishes to speak, if you could lineup to my left, your right, and mr. wright, please feel

free to start us off. >> any time somebody telling you something straight, they lying. it's like when it first happened, when jane kim came up with that idea, the first hearing that we had for jane kim for the budget, when you had $12 billion in your account, the highest amount of money ever in the history of san francisco, you had two executive females -- white females come up here and claim that it's a good program to have students go to college for free, but we're up here because we're $5 million in debt. it wasn't 2 or $3 million, it was $5 million in debt. and i pointed out when a supervisor comes up with an idea and it results in a negative cash flow, make the supervisor pay for it. make jane kim pay for it. talking about bernie god damn sanders. he's been in politics 40 years.

he don't have his state where he's have, vermont, going to college for free. now you've got kids here going to college for free and creating a negative cash flow just like you can with twitter and nine other companies. the chancellor sit up here and give a speech, talking about it's a good deal, and we're $11.5 million in. you're $32 million in debt and the year isn't even over. now you want to take money from the homeless, and give it to kids that are spoiled, living at home with mom and dad. you had an $88.2 million

negative cash flow when ed lee died, and the -- after he died, you still had that amount of money. now you're trying to spend all the money that you got from the president and give that to people in high income brackets. the people in welfare can't even go to college because they're on welfare. it's not fair. >> chair ronen: thank you, mr. wright. next speaker, please. >> thank you. my name is marcos. i'm a student organizer at city college, was going to come up here and talk about one of the amendments that just got talked about about students being able to choose their own representatives through associated students at city college, so i appreciate that the board is considering that already because yeah, we would like to represent ourselves fully in this committee in this oversight committee. you know, a lot of students are very interested in the free city program. we appreciate that our voices are going to be heard, that we will be able to appoint people ourselves. i just wanted to point out one

more thing about that, and that's our student trustee as it is right now doesn't have a voting seat in the oversight committee, and so i would just like the rules committee to consider an amendment to that and make that seat also a voting seat. again, he's an elected student trustee right now, so we would like that democratic position to have some power in this oversight committee, as well. again, just want to thank everybody that he's helped us. long time coming for a program like this, so we are appreciative. thank you very much. >> hello, supervisors. this is alex randolph. i'm the president of the board of trusties at city college, san francisco. on behalf of the board of trustees, i want to thank the

board of supervisors and the mayor for working with us to fund the program. so that end, the city board of trustees rad identified the summary points in our meeting on june 17 and look forward to having an m.o.u. in place, soon, as some other comments said earlier, this is a long-timlong time coming. this is exciting for us as it was one of the first programs created in the country to make city college free for all. i was one of those students who was not privileged, who was not lazy, who have a foster kid, who would not be here today without my start in city college. that's why i want to thank everybody who worked so hard on this program to make this possible for thousands and

thousands of students who come to college every single year to make a change in life after coming. there are some changes in amendments before you that we are supportive, specifically around the amendment that the board of trustees has voted on to support. there is one thing i would like to put your attention to. in regards to the vacancies, i would like to see it changed to any appointing authority because currently, the classified staff, associated students, and the academic senate do not make an appointment, there's no process in place to actually pull that so they can speak. the other thing is i would like to have the clerk of the board of trustees be informed if there is a vacancy, not just the clerk of the board of supervisors. thank you. >> supervisor mar: can i ask a question, alex, if you wouldn't mind. can you just repeat your -- your proposed changes to the vacant -- >> sure. on page 6, you -- changing the

appointing authority to the city college associated students to the city college senate and the labor organization. but on page 7, starting with line 5, you're only referencing the board of trustees, the president, the board of education. but now that there's three new appointing authorities, those vacancies would currently not be covered in the ordinance. and then, on-line 22, i would like to see the clerk of the board of trustees being added as part of the notification process in case there are any vacancies on the oversight committee, but other than that, we are supportive and thank you for your work. >> supervisor mar: thank you. >> hello. good afternoon, supervisors ronen, walton, and mar. i want to thank you for taking

up this ordinance. i'm jennie worley with a.f.t. 2121. we are just so appreciative of you taking up this ordinance. as supervisor mar said, it's part of a three-piece package. there's an ordinance, there's a motion, and there's a resolution. so it's part of a three-piece package, and we're really excited to see this go forward to support our students for another ten years. contrary to the first commentator, the first public comment, our students are certainly not the privileged children of san francisco's wealthy, living at home and off of dear old dad. as our board presidents, our students are coming out of foster care, some from incarceration. some of our students are second, third, fourth chancers. every year, at the beginning of my class, i do a little step forward, step back with

students so they can all see they're not alone. who's a single parent? and i ask who's fucked up and is taking a second chance? every one of them steps forward, so those are our students, and we are really so grateful to you for giving them this chance. we really support the amendment that supervisor mar proposed, and we just want to express particularly or gratitude for supervisor mar for carrying this through. i don't know if he knew what he was getting himself into with all the complications, but thank you so much. well done. thank you. >> hi. minoxil, organizer, community housing partnership. i just want to remind folks why we were involved in the houscoe

coalition. the reason we're here is because students quantity to feel that they're part of enhancing the community. i just want to encourage through each of these processes of approval that we maintain the structure and intent of providing free education for our most at-need residents in our community. thank you. >> supervisors, thank you again for taking this up. i'm elisa messer. i'm a faculty member at city college, but i also sit on the oversight committee. we fully support these amendments, and i'm glad to see the amends to the over sight committee. i just want to mention that we're working on the final report right now about the --

about the pilot that the program has been under. we've served -- in the first year of free serve college, we served more than 22,000 students, so i just -- it's nice to hear that number and understand what that means for our city, not just for our college and our students, but what that means for our city. there are some big changes in the oversight committee. there are -- definitely, it's changing the balance. there's one less faculty member. we don't like that so much, but we do like the additional students that are there, and look forward to continuing the work of that committee. i also wanted to mention that i've been doing recently, as part of the oversight committee, a deep dive into the literature about free college program, and ours continues to be unique and special. we are universal. we support low-income students, not just middle -- middle-income students. we support students of all ages, not just recent high school graduates, and we're

just doing a really -- we have a unique program that deserves more study and more work, but we're very excited to keep doing this work and for a ten-year program. so i want to thank supervisor mar, supervisor ronen, and supervisor walton. you have all played your parts, and we will need your continued vigilance to make sure that this program continues to do good work for our city overall. thank you. >> good afternoon, i guess, supervisors. my name is connie ford, and i'm here on behalf of the san francisco labor council and the labor movement in general. you know that the labor movement has supported the free city college in general for decades around the free city program. the labor movement was instrumental in helping with a resolution. and further, i also, like elisa, sit on the oversight

committee as the "community representative" so making sure all of those important programs continue. the labor movement is extremely interested and excited about the labor and community department of which we send many of our members to learn more about san francisco, the san francisco history, community organizing, etc. i also would like to thank supervisor mar for his diligence, his perseverance, and his patience, because this is one of those very difficult kinds of campaigns where you don't really know. we have the students, we have the labor movements, we have the chancellor's office, we have the trustees, we have dcyf, there's a lot of players, and to bring them together in this part of the world to support initiatives, we will all go forward. it's just been a great thing. i do want to mention that by

not having -- by eliminating one faculty of city college, it eliminates the option of having -- aside from the president and he or she should be on it, but one more person who understands the free city college program, and by putting that back on, which i might consider, you know? it's been, to be honest, elisa, as an a.f.t. person who's done a fabulous job, you're all going to be impressed with it -- and i serve on it, as well. >> chair ronen: thank you. is there any other member of the public that would like to speak? seeing none, public comment is closed. [gavel]. >> chair ronen: i, too, just wanted to thank supervisor mar for taking leadership and making sure that we see the crucial programs through. i know that you've worked really hard on it, and i just appreciate all that work.