>> the meeting will come to order. good afternoon everyone. welcome to the thursday, july 11th meeting of the government audit and oversight committee. i am supervisor gordon marjoined by supervisor brown and peskin. we are also joined by supervisor fewer who is here to speak on the first item today. thank you to the committee

clerk, john carroll and i would like to thank sfgovtv for staffing this meeting. those standing with no seat you need to go to the overflow room, the main board chambers across the hall. you can watch the meeting from there and also come over to speak when you have a opportunity to speak during public comment. it will be open in a few minutes. mr. clerk, do you have any announcements? >> clerk: mplease silence cell phones and have your speaker cards to the clerk. items today will be on the july 23rd meeting. we have over flow seating arranged for the board chamber

room 250. this room we may not have anyone standing and present in the room. if you are standing please move to the board chamber. >> chair mar: thank you. before we begin i want to thank the members of the public who have joined us today. we have four important items before us, and community members here to speak on each one of them. we also have a very limited window of time to move through these items. we lose quorum at 5:00 p.m. please keep time constraints in mind when giving comment. to ensure every item will be heard today we will enforce strict time limits. members of the public have one minute for comment on items today. mr. clerk, please call item 1. >> clerk: ordinance to create an

office of racial equity as division of the human rights commission with authority to create a city wide racial equity framework and action plans, analyze and report on the impact of ordinances and care reit out various other policy and reporting functions. to provide annual updates on the plans, to require city departments to designate employees as racial equity leaders and to require the department of human resources to produce an annual report concerning the racial equity in the city work force. >> supervisor brown. >> i am excited to address racial disparity in san francisco and move with the first ever office of racial equity. i want to thank my fellow sponsors super-is visor fewer

and her aid and my aid for your hard work and digging in the weeds to bring this forward. i thank the commission of human rights and the director davis for working with us every step of the way and thank you to the hr staff. we appreciate your work. our office has worked with dozens of community members, labor and nobod nonprofit to cop with a accountable way to address systematic racism. i want to thank the community special thanks to the community that have met with our offices, all three offices. myself, supervisor fewer, hrc office to really work with us to get this right. it is not easy. it wasn't easy, but we are here

today. i will start by making an important distinction to ground this conversation. equality means treating everyone the same. equity means ensuring everyone has what they need to be successful. here in san francisco, we need to fight for equity. for over two centuries our black, latin x and native american and asian and pacific island communities have not had what they needed to be successful. this is not accidental or mistake. this is a structural and institutional racism in housing, education, employment, healthcare, causing real racial

harm. by harm i just don't mean our feelings are hurt or trauma. i mean devastating impact on community of color. ongoing segregation and displacement, voter suppression and lack of representation, bad health outcomes and educational achievement gaps and mass incarceration. lastly, this inequity is deeply rooted in the land we stand on. this land we stand on. throughout this country and including california, it has had a violent history with native and indigenous community including genocide, loss of land. this history was made possible by the state's laws and polici policies.

this city was built on that history and those policies. for years, the city we have done reports, we have had working groups, commissions and policies to try to address this harm. we have made some strides. it really is not enough. we o an incredible -- owe a debt to the black, native american and asian and pacific island communities that built and sustained the city. no single policy is going to undo this harm. my hope is that we can work together to take the first step. now, i want to hand this off to supervisor fewer for her comments. we will also hear from the human

rights commissioner director cheryl davis as well and then i will read the amendments to the legislation before supervisor comment. >> supervisor fewer: i think this legislation establishing an office of racial equity in san francisco is one of the most important pieces of policy i have introduced. as a chinese american woman raised in san francisco i can attest to the discrimination. as director of organizing children and youth i bore witnesses to the painful experiences with interpersonal racism in the schools and housing market and justice system and health care system and more. these are emotionally painful and leading to barriers in ability for residents of color.

this country has a long history of racial injustice. beginning with enslavement of african-americans. ristor rick race -- historic discrimination like obstacles from chinese residents to own businesses and red lining and destruction of black neighborhoods in the name of urban renewal. now racial injustice is not ex clusnary but inaction of the government to correct past harms. it is more dangerous and harder to address. we now see incredible racial disparities in areas of life impacting the black residents of san francisco but la latin communities.

in 2016 the black income was 46 thousands for latin x it was 70,000 in comparison to $107,000 for white households. we see the children in san francisco in the over representation of children of color in poverty and african people homeless. we see it in the black city workers who come forwar forwardo eliminate the discrimination. we need to take responsibility for these disparities not only collect and analyze the day take but close the gaps and hold ourselves accountable. we know this is not a silver bullet. we know we will not be able to immediately address the racial disparities over the course of generations across san francisco. this is a critical step to take

and acknowledge the history and current communities to address those conditions. as legislator this is a tool to request a racial impact analysis before i vote on legislation is not only helpful and informative. it is imperative if you want everyone in san francisco to succeed. i thank supervisor brown and her aid and big thanks to human rights commission cheryl davis and hrc staff who were critical in the drafting process. supervisor brown and i have worked to make sure this legislation is real and not just in name only. to this end we center also worked on amendments that supervisor brown will review to ensure we have the feedback of the community as well as departments and city employees.

thanks to the stakeholders who e-mailed or called with feedback and thanks to members of the public today. i want to recognize my staff chelsea for her hard work. before i was even elected and while we were running this is a dream of both chelsea and mine to start this office. we have worked together. i was shocked when i came to city government when from wasn't a racial analysis given with other reports. race wasn't a factor in determining many decisions and primarily that was up to the board of supervisors. i think this is lacking in the city government. i think it is way beyond time we have done that. i am shocked that san francisco the self proclaimed most progressive city in the united states would not have an office of racial equity. thank you very much today for coming out. thank you to my partner here,

and now, i will hand it over to you. thank you. >> thank you. director davis could you please come up with the presentation. >> thank you for this opportunity. i am cheryl davis. i am the director of human rights commission. you know, as we go through the process there are a couple of things i want to say before i get to like my formal words. i am grateful for this, but to supervisor viewer's point a lot of people are working on this over the years. i think i would be remiss if i didn't acknowledge that i feel supervisor brown when you were alleging this is a conversation we had with supervisor breed. what is sad i don't think that

the two african-american women on the board would have been able to push this forward. i think that in some ways if they had led the initiative people would have seen it as self-serving and not able to hear what they were saying. i think that when we talk about racism and talk about disparities and the issues and challenges, it is hard to also admit i love to share the story i visited the lighthouse for the blind one-time with a group of young people. they asked one of the women what it was like to be blind. she said i have not been blind all my life, i have been black and black is harder. i just want as we do this to understand, yes, we are building this office of racial equity for everyone. to understand from the numbers and statistics that we see. we know there is one group worse

off. that is not to say we don't need to be and i don't want to say equal. we don't need to be fair in how we do this. i am grateful the office is created. i am grateful for the leadership that pushed this through and the conversation you have had that have been difficult to have. i am grateful for the opportunity to have it fit in the hrc. i am by no means perfect and am flawed as we all are as people. i am glad in the hrc in the three yea years i have been thet is the sense that i only care about black people which is not the case. the fact you would put it there without fear it is focused only on black people i am grateful. also, the knowledge that you

understand we know where the greatest disparities are and as we roll this out we have to go in this work with that lens. racism is a distinct form of discrimination that has lived daily and the experience across the nation. what i am grateful for is that this office signals san francisco is coming to the reality san francisco is not beyond racism. it lives and exists here. we need a mechanism to hold people accountable to that reality. decades of not only failing to address but i would argue in most instances worse senning social inequality through systems through leadership and it has resulted in disproportionate health outcomes and unnecessary interactions with justice systems and lower

wappings and homeless necessary for communities of colors. i see the goal a few key things. acknowledging the rolling that institutional racism has had on our city. i would drill down institutions are made of people. one of the things that we continue to believe that because san francisco is progressive is that it is not racist. i would argue it is far more racist than we see in southern states because we hide behind the shield of progressive and behind the shield of liberal and in many communities they believe liberal and progressive is the same as racist. i want to own and understand whether we believe that, the perception of that reality. this acknowledges that. i am happy reof w rewe are goino consider the city budget are contributing to disparities and

racism. collecting data where it is important as this legislation moves forward the board and mayor's office understanding the hrc does not have power or ability to do anything. if you do not stand by what gets put forward it will be the same. i do not want the hrc or staff responsible for sharing the policies or budgets are racist and you don't respond or react to them. the other piece is looking at the city as an employer. i think for me one of the challenges is the city as an employee and the folks who work for the city and county. the subcontracts the city has and folks are getting grants or doing work and perpetuating the disparities.

understanding the role the millions of dollars is city puts out contribute to and sometimes worsen those disparities. at the moment the city is going i am grateful for the bold leadership and political investment. i wonder if the folks moving this forward look differently if we have the same support and movement. this is not a silver bullet. there will be tough conversations and angry people all along the way. part of this is giving people that are angry and frustrated a space to say what they want to say and to be heard and not just to be heard but have it acted on. that is requiring we put money where our mouth is. the human rights commission is founded in 1964, 55 years ago. the same year the civil rights act was signed. in san francisco is hrc was founded to address

anti-blackness. i have been challenged by many people we have gotten away from that. that is still the heart and core of what we realize and see. we want to work on that. as the city has grown and challenges have changed. one fact is that anti-blackness is still felt strongly in the city. as we do this work, we acwilling the office of racial equity is meant to address racial inequities across the board. lastly, we have grown in mandate to fight discrimination in the many forms it takes. this office formizes some of the work we have been doing. remove the discretion of city departments and requiring they share plans for improvement. them sharing the plans alone is not enough without the will and power of the board and mayor's

office to hold people accountable. if there are instances where things keep happening that the board can make decisions to impact budges and play it out financially. grateful for the work. acknowledge it is difficult to move forward and hope we all recognize that there are pockets of people who have been impacted more often and higher levels than others. we can't sweep that under the rug. thank you. [applause.] >> thank you, director davis. what this legislation does, this ordinance will advance city wide agenda for racial equity through creation of office of racial equity within the human rights commission. for those interested, we provided copies of the

amendments for everyone's preview. i will review the amendments for generally. this legislation the following is the accomplishments. we have updated findings and definition section to be more inclusive about the history of structural racism and more data on the impact of this history. it will mandate racial equity action plans for city departments and annual reporting about both city workers and contracts. it mandates a report card every two years on how san francisco as a whole is doing with regards to indicators by race including housing, income, wealth, transit, health, environment and policing and criminal justice. the report card will be on the progress in city government and private sector. it creates a racial equity

policy analysis tool to be applied to legislation at the board of supervisors to illuminate the impact of policies on communities of color and force a public discussion about such impact. our amendments create greater accountability and transparent to make sure the city departments are providing for public access to any plans. it designates at least one staff person to seven as racial equity leader by department division to coordinate the racial equity strategy, action plan and program. we also clarify to make sure this responsibility is not in addition to existing duties without adjustments of work responsibility and added a clausclause to prevent be

retaliation. the board of supervisors can remember hiring freezes should certain amounts not be met. annual data by work force including hires, promotions, disciplinary action and complaints and if they investigated and more. it mandates reporting on data regarding the contracts by race. lastly, to mandate creation of racial equity to oversee the work and we clarified the role within the human rights commission. we amended the legislation to allow the controller to make independent review of this office in five years to determine its capacity for growth. i would love to go to public comment now.

>> chair mar: before public comment. do any of my other colleagues have questions or comments? i did want to express my thanks to supervisor few errand brown and the aids for the time, work and consideration you have put into this very thoughtful and impactful system. these are not artifacts of the past but live on with us today. i am impressed with the scope and substance of the proposal and happy to support it today. >> zoie had just a small presentation before public comment. >> good afternoon, supervisor. i am the department director and city wide lead for racial equity initiative. as you may know san francisco is

a proud participant. this is a national network of state governments working to achieve opportunities for all. the public utilities commission and planning commission we are now part of 150 cities and 30 30 states. we have worked with 25 city departments to recognize that racial inequity exists across all indicators, education, criminal justice, jobs, public infrastructure and health. hrc supports employees and implementation of action plans and advices departments how to address the racial equities. in addition we offer training on structural and institutional racism in the city. we have trained 500 city

employees. there is a city wide hunger to achieve racial equity. the history of this city the war on drugs, school expulsions, public art and foreclosure demand action. there is a strong need for institutional systems designed to disrupt the programs and practices. i am grateful to supervisors fewer and brown for creating the office. this puts in place for the work scaled up for the communities of color those include one integration. this requires departments to create action plans to ensure the equity is throughout the department. employees who consulted with the human rights commission have served as the need to support the work and this provides that.

infrastructure. we appreciate this needs the leader and support systems. this not only puts departments in the best place for areas and models the trend in the private sector. finally, uttil option utilizatif data. this will require the assessment on the communities of color. well-intentioned laws and policies have a detrimental impact. this will ensure the outcomes the community needs. thank you to director davis for ongoing support of this initiative. >> chair mar: we are going to move to public comment. i have 40 speaker cards. there is a lot of interest in speaking.

again, speakers i will call the speaker cards. when you hear your name, please step up to the side of the room. speakers have one minute. state first and last name and speak into the microphone. those presenting written statements are encouraged to leave a copy for inclusion in the official file. no applause or boos is permitted. avoid repetition. first group. cheryl shorn eve gus, larry, cr. please step up. get in line and do you want to be the first speaker?

>> hi. i am brenda barrels. i work at the san francisco general. i am so happy about this. i know it is not perfect. i know it is going to be a work in progress. i think it is progress. to attest to that, you know, our human resources director and me are both here to agree about this. we have done a lot of work at san francisco general. it has not gone all the way through the department of public health. i hope this will help us to move it even further. >> chair mar: next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, i am cheryl thornton. i work for the san francisco health department for 28 years. i witnessed many black co-workers being subject to retaliation. my co-workers complained to city

officials with no real relief. i appreciate this legislation. however, i don't think it goes far enough. i think we need more account ability. otherwise we will see what we have seen in the past the disparities to one particular group of people. >> chair mar: thank you. >> i will use this as an example. this is get fiction. this is based on geographical location. you do it in areas that are predominantly black, not white. this is a legal attorney with the same philosophy as myself. he is suing washington d c because of discrimination against black people for $1 billion. i want several billion for what

you did in the fillmore. about the justice system you have mario woods paying her $400,000 for her son being murdered and shot. this hispanic was shot 20 times here is a chance to show how fair you are to refer that back to the city attorney's office and get ms. woods paid $4.9 million just like the man shot 20 des moine 20 times by t. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon. debra gobell. i want to thank you for creating

this office. we think it is very important and very needed in our city. we did a survey of our membership. one in five local 21 members have felt discrimination in the workplace that is not acceptable in the country especially in san francisco. we need this office to work with our members and all union members to change the climate. i want to acknowledge the local 10 to 1 and 21 members on the steps of city hall protesting to bring this office about. with the best of intentions that wouldn't have happened without the public protest of the members who have sufficiented. i give a shout out to them. we are giving the shouts out. to those in the grassroots making this happen we need to acknowledge that, too. >> chair mar: next speaker, please. >> i am gus, president of i fp

local 21 speaking on behalf 65,000 members in the city and county of san francisco to urge you to move this forward. it is something that is long overdue. it may not be perfect but it is a start. i want to point out in my research i found the city of iowa and long beach and as youstin and see at and san antonio all have offices of racial inequality. as a proud san francisco native and city worker, i expect my city at the forefront. i think this will allow us to do that. thank you. >> chair mar: next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisor. i am larry griffin with local

21. i want to thank you forgetting to the point to set this up in the city. it is way, way overdue. i first started working for the city in 1976 and something like this would have been unheard of then. it is great that it is here. however we have to keep an eye on this. we have to monitor this. when you set up people to be representatives and departments make sure they can give a real percentage of their time to doing that and not be held to 10% on a by-weekly basis where they are able to monitor what is going on in the city departments. you need a prescribed percentage of time to be monitored closely. let's move forward with this but keep our eyes on it. thank you for setting it up. >> chair mar: i will read

additional speaker card names. gloria berry, april mcgill, lucy, chuck morris and lauren bell. >> i am crawford. i want to thank you for allowing us to get to this place. i am excited about this proposal. one of the frustrating things you have a lot of reports and data collected. in 1979 we had the agenda by the human rights commission and the report collected dust. i am excited this is about action and implementation. the racial equity framework allows the office to create a vision mission about how to deal with these issues. this allows this office to work with different departments to talk about implementation. we are going to analyze ordinances. city departments have to give

annual reports. we somewhere report cards. i am excited about bringing nonprofits together to deal with the issues. i am excited about this. >> chair mar: next speaker, please. >> good afternoon. i am tobias, an attorney at the lawyer's committee for civil rights. the lawyer's committee is in strong support to create the office of racial equity. we are focused on advancing racial justice in the employment and public contracting it is vital the city create the office to gather and publish data on the contracting and procurement practices. we support amendments to

specifically cover data collection for contracting and procurement for all departments. this is the first step towards dismantling the old boys and overcoming bias that continues to exist in the procurement process. >> chair mar: next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, supervisor. i represent the affirmative action in full support of the ordinance. we live in a time when the federal government is trying to roll back key civil rights initiatives. san francisco can do better t to enhance for immigrants, working class, our struggles are all

connected. we believe the increase in public accountability to ensure the laws are strengthening language access and immigrant rights provides an operation of racial equity through budget and oversight mechanisms. if you foster community engagement and include the stakeholders you will be successful. we need policies to pro actively address discrimination to protect the rights of the communities. >> chair mar: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon. i represent the economic development agency and the san francisco latino commission and i am a san francisco resident and immigrant. we all support this bill and want to add to everything said.

the accountability piece is really important. policies. it was mentioned people are behind institutions. people are behind racist policies. that means there are racist people we need to purge the city government policies and be more explicit about calling out the white culture that is thriving in the city to lead to violence particularly around black and brown and leading from housing to food instability to murders on the streets. >> i am gloria berry the only nonestablishment delgant. it is disgusting we are at allowed one minute to speak. perfect example of the problem.

example of racial equity and show what it looks like and allow black people two minutes to speak. thank you supervisor fewer for being behind the new office. i remember the hearing last year on the atrocities against black people presented and your reaction of concern and follow-through. i also appreciate your presentation to the dccc when addressing the black agenda. i would like to thank felicia jones. without her data presented we may not be standing here today. of course, whenever there is new legislation and new office there is more room to tighten it up. there is a new office, a glimmer of hope but i have concerns. >> chair mar: i will read additional names. felicia jones, kim lynch, chris

hansen. norma garcia and natalie. >> thank you supervisors for bringing this forward and for acknowledging our ancestors. we are visitors on the land. i work for indian health. i am a san francisco resident. it is important that we have a representation for the native community. i was asked to come in and support this. we have one of the richest cities and largest populations of native people represents over 500 nations in san francisco. we ask that you give us a voice. thank you. >> chair mar: next speaker. >> i am jeffrey. i am a graduate of the dare program. i want to explain the importance of the rights we have done.

i came in to represent adult probation and tara anderson is representing the district attorney's office. we were able to form the criminal justice equity statement where it was accepted at the reentry, community corrections partner ship as well as juvenile coordinating council and criminal justice equity statement and war group notes and steps for action. this work is needed. the council has been doing disparity work for five years. this will put more teeth in what we do as public safety. thank you. >> good afternoon. i am the director of the division with the san francisco adult probation department. i want to thank supervisors

brown, fewer and director davis for all of the work on this. i worked most of my life in juvenile justice and bear witness to over representation of brown and black. i want to work and live in the city that is more intentional about how we mitigate this. parallel to that i set in meetings with decision-makers and look around tables not diverse enough. we need to continue to change this so that all of our communities are represented. i think this office of racial equity is an amazing next step. i look forward to the focus to include criminal justice and help us take a deeper dive in the criminal justice system. thank you again.

>> chair mar: chris hansen. i yield my time to gloria berry. >> for clarity there is not a board rule to yield time to speakers who have spoken. ms. berry has used her minute. we will go to the next speak concern or the man yielding his time if he wants to come back. >> i would like her message to get out. i would like to thank is that where we are at. >> no, i'm sorry. >> this legislation touches on sf history of harming black people specific racist laws existed. nothing has been done. a report in 1993, 2009 and 2015 was done and no action. our concern is that the data

presented show black people could besicouldconsistently ares of racism. >> you can leave a written statement. >> chair mar: next speaker, please. >> good afternoon. i am norma garcia for the economic development agency. our staff works hard to retain the integrity and the dignity of the latino community in the san francisco mission district. too often it involves the impact of illinois applied city of san francisco epoll sees. we are excited about this. the policies are integral to life in the neighborhood.

an example of a policy gone wrong. they are destroying the economic vitality of the small mom and pop businesses. they are under mining the ability to resist displacement. these need scrutiniesed. if you were in place when this was conceived. thank you. >> next speaker, please. >> good afternoon. i am kim lynch, a member of 1021 at the urban hill center. i am not thanking anybody for anything until i see accountability. when i see netflix feature when they see us it hurt me to the core and reminds me of the city

of san francisco and the dent of public health is doing to us now. i will leave you with this. when they see us the misconceptions of black workers in the workplace. the unfair hiring practices of black workers. when they see us. mistreatment of black workers. when they see us. black workers released from employment on probation. when they see us. black workers in black positions. the institutional racism. long time turnaround. when they see us. >> chair mar: your minute is up. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon.

i am felicia jones. i am the founder of wealth and disparity in the black community justice for mario woods. i am a member of 1021. i am a leader in racism. we were responsible forgetting this legislation here now. i also want to thank supervisor fewer and chelsea who i worked with closely at the beginning of this legislation. however, it has no accountability. it has no account ability. we will process. three reports of 55 years and black folks are still in the same position. in fact, in appreciating the work that has gone into it you

don't need this office because everything is supposed to go to the human rights commission anyway. in 19464 iin 1946 . >> the speaker's time has expired. thank you. thank you. >> next speaker, please. thank you. ms. jones. thank you, ms. jones. next speaker, please. >> you know we can't tell you what we have been through. that is an example of it.

you know what i mean? >> thanthankthanthank you, mr. . >> i will read additional names. jessica malina, lewis dillon, amanda, ron, kevin and eddy. next speaker. >> am the youth organizer for the coleman advocates. i would like to echo everything the previous speaker said there is a racial disparity between the blacks and white could you tell uster parts and asian counterparts. in light of that i would like to say in each one of us there is a piece of humaneness which

orchestrates crisis. if we are to keep it from establishing a false hierarchy we must recognize that any attack is an attack against all of us. we recognize our interests are not served by the systems we support. thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisor. i am an organizer with sf rising. we are here to support this proposed legislation. thank you for introducing this legislation. as an organizer and educator at city college, we recognize that racial equity is driving much of our work in education and building electoral power in the city. recently we have seen native communities ask for removal of a

mural. we have seen a black youth killed in the mission. we need this office to monitor how we are addressing the issues that communities of color face including intimidation and discrimination. thank you for introducing this. how excellent you are monitoring this and monitoring hiring practices. we hope that will be it. >> chair mar: next speaker. >> good afternoon. department of public health human resources director. i want to say that the department supports anything that moves us towards racial justice in the city and our department. i appreciate the work you have done to get this accomplished. thank you.

>> good afternoon, supervisor. i am with bright line defense in support of this initiative. the fact there are offices of racial equity in cities across the country shows san francisco can do better to address the injustices communities face every day. we recognize this is not a definite solution, this is a step? the right direction. requiring action plans would be crucial to ensuring the city departments are accountable. thank you for having this important hearing today. >> hello. i am calalo. i am a youth leader. i believe did office of racial equity should be passed by the board to help with unjustice

toward people of color. we will pro actively protect people of color instead of acting retro actively. racism still exists. with the help of this project, we can hold those in power accountable. thank you. >> i am jessica mallena. i am a youth leader. i support the office of racial equity because of my educational work experience, and i have witnessed the racial disparities that still exist. the creation of this office will help close the racial

opportunity gap in education and that is very important. i believe we need to make that change. thank you. >> i will read additional names. barbara, wanda, wanda slaughter, alexis, king, claudia. >> i am kevin bogus political director at the children and youth. we are glad to see creation of the offers of racial equity in the human rights commission. our work centers around bringing racial equity to the schools and making sure the schools are equitable. we hope this is something the board will grow upon and figure out how to address racial equity in the city. looking beyond the things you have direct control over and

figuring how to impact the school district in the region to bring equity to the people who have been displaced from san francisco but still have roots here. thank you. >> i would like to thank the supervisors for their time. >> good afternoon. i am barbara. i am the director of community investments for the san francisco arts commission. i want to lend support for the creation of the office and applaud the effort. i am a member of the local american community and this is essential to ensure our d i