them and allowing our members to be able to learn how to become advocates for themselves and their families. i want to start by saying i am most chilling conflicted on come on behalf of our members i want to be able to planted out there. we are not asking you to adopt the recommendations on jttf. our city and our local governments should be working to be able to shield marginalized communities and are finding more opportunities to communities. it was really refreshing to hear the gentle may give his report, to talk about that even in cities that have adopted these types of programs they were not able to prevent tragedies from happening. this is only an example. however i want to be able to give you a perspective that the grand jury is very disconnected from the reality and conditions that immigrants live in on a daily basis. there are a shootings against mexicans, immigrants, women, muslims throughout the country. i would hope that this

commission will allow us, you as supervisors, will allow us to continue to protect the families that we are responsible for. >> thank you. >> any other members of the public that wish to speak on this item? seeing then. public comment is closed. i would like to thank all of the community advocates on the community members for sharing your perspective and highlighting the very important, and continuing need to protect civil liberties and the rights of the muslim community and immigrant communities here in the city. i did want to add that in getting briefed on this issue, you know, i did learn in 2017, the f.b.i. shared a white paper with travertine chief scott

which provides f.b.i. perspective on the impact of san francisco's law and policies on sfpd's prior and potential participation in the joint terrorist task force. the very topic of this hearing. i understand that the f.b.i.'s position is that the white paper can only be released through a public foia request and there is pending litigation on this. as a member of this legislative body, i can formally request a copy of the white paper from the f.b.i. special agent in charge, john f bennett, but i have yet to receive a response. if san francisco is to make decisions on its joint activities with federal agencies, it is crucial to first access information in the contents of this document about how the f.b.i. understands our local laws. i would like to add this letter to the public record to express the need for transparency on matters of the joint terrorism task force. with the committee clerk, adaline in the minutes regarding

my submission of this letter, and added to the public file. >> of course. >> thank you. since ms. miranda was making a request to the committee, i did want to ask um deputy city attorney john gartner to um clarify what the obligation and responsibility of the board action on this item is. >> deputy city attorney john gartner. when the -- report includes a list of the findings and regulations and designates a city departments to respond to each finding a niche recommendation. many civil grand jury reports require the board of supervisors to provide responses to findings or recommendations. this report is not. the board is not obligated to respond to any of the specific findings or recommendations in this report. the board could, and a supervisor introduce a resolution at any meeting

regarding the joint terrorism task force. we have an ordinance regarding the city's participation, as well. which the board could further legislate. >> thank you, mr. gartner. um again i want to thank the civil grand jury members on the committee members that were focused on this particular report, for all of your work in investigating these really important issues um, you know, how we can balance public safety and the need to really protect our city from terrorist threats. um with also protecting civil liberties and -- immigrant communities. um i think as everybody spoke today, these are very important um issues today in 2019. they're also very complex and complicated issues. um, you know, i think you report

um really helped promote some really important discussions that will continue here, at city hall, and in our city um. colleagues, do you have any comments? thanks again everyone for being here and sharing your perspectives. um, um, i guess, colleagues, he filed his hearing without objection? thank you. thanks everyone. mr. clark, please call item number five. >> a hearing to receive the office of the chief medical examiner's annual report on accreditation updates as required by admin code section 2a.30. >> thank you. >> supervisor peskin, the floor is yours.

>> thank you, chair mar as supervisor brown. as i indicated at the meeting before last, when folks were not able to testify great as long as i have been kicking around this building, the issue of medical examiner has come and gone, and come again. i think in 1999, 2,000, the civil grand jury issued a repo report, um, about some of the infirmities and the medical examiner's office. um to the city and county of san francisco has invested i believe $80 million in a new medical examiner's facility um, there are still issues out there. i highlighted some of them when we briefly spoke about this. i wanted to um have a

constructive hearing about how this very important little-known function, in government, can be made the best it can be. i think we have that opportunity as we are in the process of recruiting a new medical examiner. this function of government falls under the city administrator. i thought it would be helpful, particularly as the city administrator to make it very public that the board of supervisors is here to help. that we understand how important this function in government is, how it can be improved. there can be a number of issues that the city administrator can help on. laws are accreditation under the association of medical examiners which is being corrected.

reacquaint numbers of the board with all of the complex functions of this $11 million per year department, or functi function. with that, with your indulgence, mr. chairman, ask of the and give us a brief presentation about the medical examiner's office on what our goals are and what some of the challenges are. >> good morning, supervisors. naomi kelley, city administrator. today i have with me deputy city administrator and the doctor amy hart who is the active chief medical examiner.

we provide forensic services to san francisco. they investigate sudden, unexpected and violent deaths. they provide critical information to help attract community health. and they perform direct screening. we are constantly working with the staff to strive with compassion as they interact with families that one of the most difficult times in their lives. required by law to determine the cause and manner of death for cases under its legal jurisdictions such as suspected homicides, or suicides, deaths following an accident or injury, death that may have occurred due to a criminal act. deaths of unidentified and incarcerated persons. as supervisor peskin noted, it's an 11 million-dollar budget, it is a 24/7 operation. we have currently 36 full-time

employees for that department. there is the investigative unit, that investigates investigations and family notifications. there is a medical division which are for our forensic pathologist doctors. there is a forensic laboratory. and then there is administration. a few of the reports that come from our annual reports i thought it would share with you. you can see this is our caseload over the last five years. you can see there are death

investigations, in the dark blue, and then there are toxicology cases in the great. you can see where they are compared over the last five years, since 18-19, the statistics are preliminary and still we need to review to finalize them for our annual report which will be published later this year. i should note 18-19 there has been a spike in death investigations and toxicology cases do to increasing deaths related to fentanyl and methamphetamine. increased testing for sexual assault cases, too. the next report is cause and manner of death. you can see how many deaths have been through natural causes, accidents, suicide, homicide, and summers undetermined. and some are undetermined. the manner and cause cannot be definitively identified. example in such cases include

times when the remains are too badly decomposed to analyze, or when evidence in the case is not clearly allow determination between the accident, suicide or homicide. >> ms. kelly, maybe you can go back to that slide? there is a market spike in the currents, not yet finalized year of both natural causes, as well as accidents, although thankfully a decrease in suicides. what do you attribute that to? are death by overdose are those accidents or natural causes? >> i am going to let the deputy city administrator answer that. >> i will start by answering if any of the professionals behind me disagree, they can jump up. deputy city administrator, good morning, supervisors. the overdoses would fall typically under accidents. natural causes would be other.

part of what we want to emphasize is that these numbers are preliminary, it is particularly unusual increase in 418 for natural causes, one of the things we are looking at, there may be additional cases that we have taken under our investigation. we receive over 2,000 cases per year, referred to the medical examiner's office. there is only a set of those cases that we are determined to fall under our and investigate. then they become part of that number typically that number of cases is 1100-1200 per year. this spike closer to 1400 is a bit unusual. that is something we are going to be looking in much more detail and as the city administrator said, when we release our annual report later this calendar year we will have detail in their analyzing what we think are the reasons for that spike.

under the accidents, definitely one of the major contributors there is an increase in drug related deaths. >> that is also a good segue to talk about how we collaborate with departments and other agencies. the department of public health being one of them. we do do regular information sharing particularly around drug related fatalities. also around wellness checks, as i had mentioned, undetermined designation where bodies are so mummified where the wellness checks happening and there has been a lot of work with the medical examiner and public health to start addressing these issues. their quarterly interdepartmental meetings. there is a death review that happens quarterly. the elder death review, the child death review and the domestic violence and death review. additionally, daily, there is daily notifications in deaths involving children, elderly, homeless or individuals on

public assistance, fire related deaths and pedestrian vehicle related deaths. they do consult of work with the state, national and international researchers and forensic before i move onto the next slide on accomplishments. i should address the administrative challenges that we are dealing with and have for some time. even though they are challenges that i'm about to go through, we are starting to roll up our sleeves and address them not only at the city administrative offers but on the chief medical examiner's office. one is communication protocols with our law enforcement agencies. making sure they are consistently providing the same information to everyone in a timely manner. as you know we are actively recruiting a chief medical examiner, and we are recruiting other positions in the administrative office division. the name accreditation, the name

as the national association of medical examiners association, voluntary occur accreditation but it's when we take pride in. unfortunately that lapsed during this last year. i would probably say primarily sell because we were doing a major move from the hall of justice to one new hall. and that move, such as moving people and files all all of our toxicology machines that do a lot of the work and validating all of the instruments that the medical examiners and the toxicologists use in their day-to-day job. nonetheless, it's not an excuse, and it should not of happened and we are we need to build trust with the public and community at large. that is something that is a challenge and we are working on that actively right now. i would be remiss to not say there is a lot of great work that happens at the medical examiner's office. i feel a need to talk about some of the accomplishments.

we did relocate from the hall of justice to a new state-of-the-art facility and forensic lab at one newhall. we did renew a regulatory requirement, the american board of talks i'll just accreditation for the forensic lab. we implemented a new case management system with a new laboratory information. with new laboratory information management systems under development. and, thanks to doctor rowe improved our protocols for sexual assault investigations. we have partnered with other agencies to respond to increasing deaths. for fiscal year 20, our number one goal which we are actively doing and are actively interviewing right now is recruiting a new chief medical examiner. we will renew name accreditation for the office of the chief medical examiner. launch a new management including instrument integra geisha as services and

information available to the public via the website. improve communications with law enforcement agencies, continue to work on protocols for sexual assault investigations and improve communications and services with family members. that is my presentation. if you have any questions we are all here to answer. >> thank you. relative to the 36 physicians. you know how many of those are vacant and how many are filled. just by way of background. one thing we all agree on is that there has been chronic understaffing. >> there are currently, aside from the chief physician in the medical division it is filled, so we have all of our forensic positions filled. the toxicology toxicology forensic lab division recently had two vacancies which we are in the process of filling.

administrative there, there is a position which is vacant that a person will start next month. technically, right now, we have chief position and to toxicology positions vacant. >> thank you. one thing the city administrator did not touch on. sorry for taking you by surprise, relative to backlogs, how long it takes to produce, i mean, this happens at the worst time, you know, family or friends life, how long does it take to produce the reports as a cause of death. as our backlog in the area? there are two different things that are important and what the office does in terms of reports. there is a death certificate itself which of the office it did change protocols under doctor hunter, the prior chief medical examiner. the death certificate itself,

the cause and manner of death is issued very quickly, typically within the first ten days. and then the actual final report which often times may be pending further toxicology testing, or may additional investigation. that has taken a longer period of time. the name standard is to issued the final determination and report, 90% within 90 days. our goal continues to reach that. we have particularly difficult time doing that in 2018, after the department move to the new location. all of our forensic laboratory equipment was being recertified. we fell very behind in that part of it. during the last two quarters of the last fiscal year we are now regularly the average of completing a toxicology testing is down to 71 days. that has enabled us to be much closer to issuing that report

within the 90 day window. we haven't finalized all of that to give you a concrete exact where we are as a last quarter. that is part of what we're doing now. all of which is to say, we are much closer during the past 12 months to being at the 90%. i would anticipate when we look at the data we would be somewhere in the 80% hike 90% range within the 90 day period. >> well we've got you up, there was an issue for a while that i heard about, this is the annual reports were not available on the internet, and now they are? can you speak to that a little bit? >> yes. the department did have prior annual reports available online, but we did not have annual reports for the prior two-year timeframe. that was rectified i believe in may, or june, of this year. currently the department has annual reports up through 17-18

available online with various statistics of department review. >> somebody mentioned that some of them were longer when they were first posted and they became more truncated later, can you speak to that? >> the department did previously with the review back in 11-12, the way the department previously did their annual reports where they were much more extensive, but they also took approximately 18-24 months to complete. if you look back in history at the departments annual report, technically included data for 11-12. it was much longer. so we are looking out for version we are doing now is to find more of a sweet spot in between that has a series of grass and basic data and information and additional narrative and something that is complete within six months of the fiscal year.

but doesn't take a major thesis to do. >> what is the diffidence between -- what is the difference between a corner and a medical examiner? >> i am probably not the best one to answer that question. a coroner is under a sheriff, and other jurisdictions in the country. it could be anybody who runs for office and has absolutely no training. the medical examiner system is set up to bring a level of professionalism to death investigations and how death investigation should be properly handled. our office and many other major jurisdictions in california are set up in the medical examiner system. >> thank you. supervisor brown? >> thank you. i wanted to talk up a little bit about the timing of these reports, because, i know i have talked to mayor mccallie,

administrator. this is really tough for families when they are waiting for this report. i went through an experience with the jessica alba family. they were waiting for the death certificate to be um released because they felt it was a homicide and not suicide. um and, you know, the entire native american community came out and said this was a cover-up. i just filled that, and we have talked about this that the communications has to be a lot better with families um because as we know families are in um there worst times of their lives when they are dealing with this, the death of a loved one. we need to be able to communicate with them what is happening, what the process is,

why it is taking as long as it does. um because, what i have found, the board of supervisors to get that information. we are the in between um. so, i really appreciate that you're looking at this, and even having really skilled, qualified people to help with the families. i think that is so important because um, you know, it is a real issue when we are dealing with those families that are waiting for them. >> supervisor, i could not agree you more. being able to communicate with families at the time of a tragic loss is very key. this is information we are using to help with our recruitment efforts and some of the vacant positions we have. with the jessica alba situation, you know, after talking to you i went back and looked at the timing, and the report came out

52 days -- after the ten day determination out and then the final report came 52 days later. had there been better trust and better communications the family would not feel this way right now. >> especially with a community that does not have trust of this government. >> exactly. >> when you say pending, does that mean there is a draft report that is available for people to review and then later on a final that may or may not be the same? >> yes. what doctor hunter did, instead of waiting for everyone, and i think this was right for determination to happen once you have the final report which could be 52 days, 90 days, that is a long time not to know. he waited call quickly and just say pending, pending toxicology reports. >> those were available? >> the toxicology reports were not done yet when we did the pending.

>> right, but the pending determination was available to the families? >> yes. that is why if we build trust a better communications we would be in a much better situation. >> thank you so much. thank you supervisor peskin for calling for this hearing. >> thank you. >> um are there any members of the public that was to comment on this item? seeing none. public comment is closed. can we file this hearing without objection? great. >> mr. clerk is there any further business? >> there is no further business. >> we are adjourned. thank you.

>> good morning and welcome to the street scape project and muni project. i certainly as the public work's director for the city and county here and i want to thank you for all coming out to celebrate this very exciting project that will improve the lives of the many people who use this inner sunset corridor. the project which spans all the way from aguelo to 19th avenue will improve the quality of life and transit services of this

diverse neighborhood, which serves families, students, merchants and tourists alike president the street scape improvement is a collaborative project with the ms works and the utility's commission. for the past two years, they've been working together to make crucial improvements to the inner sunset street scape and nearby transit services that not only make the area more vibrant and more accessible, safe and reliable. when you look around the surrounding streets, you see the vibrant landscapes that add to the neighborhood's charm, improve seating, as you can see, visitor striving, new street trees. all of this creates a healthy environment and a great carbon footprint.

what many do not see are the upgraded traffic signals, the repaved roads and all of the help to improve thed safety and transit service. there's many components to this project that has not been seen. we have improvements to the underground sewer line and improvements to our water lines, our firefightings were upgraded or replaced, all to increase capacity and to minimize any destructions that will provide more reliable service to the community. also, as a part of this project, there's more than 3,000 feet of pipe that was installed for the department of technology for

future fiber optic cables and this is a great partnership. as we do many projects on patrero we're installing pipe and we'll have the pipes electric in and, of course, less destruction to the neighbor while the projects happen. with all of that said, it brings me great joy to see the work that all of these agencies are doing together and how we come together to improve the quality of life of this diverse neighborhood in san francisco. san francisco. i want to thank john thomas and our project manager, johnny farm, harlin kelly and his team from the puc and mr. maguire and, of course, our contractor, who was out here everyday making sure that we got this job done. and now, the person who helps to make all of these projects

happen, the person who makes our neighborhoods better for everyone, the person looking out for the future of san francisco, without future delay, let me introduce our mayor, london breed. [cheers and applause] >> it's so good to be back. i remember when we first set on the path to do this project for this neighborhood, andrea, i just noticed you were over there and it's great to see you and martha and so many folks from the community. you all did the work because you wanted something better for this community. we have kids everywhere and these kids from stepping stone preschool are joining us today. and you'll get your snacks in just a minute, so don't worry. [cheers and applause] >> we have kids, we have families, seniors, people who, basically, love this community and so many amazing restaurants, so many amazing places to shop. this is like really a jewel in

san francisco and, in fact, when improve was supervisor, i came to this community a lot to hideout and relax. and it was great. what was so important was to make it a lot offer annua and dl with safety and public infrastructure improvements. one of the things that i spent time with some of the neighbors doing is standing on the corner of ninth and irving and many of you know the familiar sound of some of the onl old muni trains which still come through this way, how loud and heavy they are. remember i said the new trains will be much quieter. did you just hear how much quieter the new trains are? a loa lot of the promises to ths community are finally happening and it was because of your patience. we know that it was very challenging to come in and the construction and the loss of

parking and tearing up the streets and digging in and you all, through this whole challenge, you were very patient and we really appreciate that, because now we are here realizing just really a dream for community, an improvement to the sidewalks, an improvement to the infrastructure and an improvement to our water pressure system so that when there is a fire or emergency, the pressure -- i know this is not probably that interesting, but it makes all the difference when dealing with any emergency that water suppression and our equipment and the systems actually work when we need it the most. the fiber optic cables, improvements to the sidewalks, all of the amazing things that will make this community not just safer but more boost and sobeautiful.i want to thank thet park neighbors, at the time of

the leadership of andrea yaguin, that you pushed us to give some attention to this community and shine a light on the challenges that exist here is why we're here, as well as the inner sunset merchant's association. the merchants here who serve the community, this is really not just a place where so many neighbors enjoy and eat and go to the hardware stores and pick up glasses. people from ucfs spend a lot of time here during lunch and people from the park spend a lot of time here and this community has come together as a force to make amazing projects like this happen. so i'm really excited. looking forward to doing even more, because i have not forgotten about the wires over on ninth and irving and what we need to do to underground those wires. i know that's important and

we're talking about right down the street, the gateway on gaten lincoln and ninth and to really transform this community because it's a jewel in our community. thank you to the department of public works, to mta, all of the contractors, all of incredible workers who basically not only worked in this community but spent money at the restaurants and this was definitely a great effort and took time and here we are, a celebration of just really an amazing project that is going to change the quality of life for the residents who live here. so enjoy it and next up, i want to take the opportunity to introduce your supervisor, valley brown, who as you remember was out here on a

regular basis working with you all to move this project forward. she drove me a little crazy because she was running out of patience with the city bureaucracy and trying to get it done. and now she gets to enjoy the fruits of her labor. ladies and gentlemen, your supervisor, valley brown! [cheers and applause] >> you know what they say what doesn't kill us makes us stronger and that's how i feel about this project. i want to say i'm sorry to everyone. it was her fault. she started it and then i had to come in and finish it, right? [ laughter ] >> yeah, i'm not going go over everything we've done because i know mohamed nurue gave you all of the sexy details. but what i see is this neighborhood coming together and saying, ok, this is painful and

especially the merchants, but we know once it's finished, it will be amazing and $21 million later, yeah, it looks pretty amazing, i'd say. i want to thank people and i have to read this because i always forget one person and then i get in trouble after wars. afterwards. so thank you, mayor, breed for starting it, city administrator, naomi kelly and mohamed nurue from public works. i mean, this is something i have to say was -- he really jumped in and said, let's make this happen and let's make it as less painful as we can. acting director for sfmta, tom mcguire and san francisco's puc. i would call everyone on this list and said if there was a pile of dirt and they couldn't park their car at 7:00 at night. so the responsiveness of their

teams were amazing. i want to thank all of their teams because every week we had an issue, whether it was the veterinarian or people getting dirt in their driveway and couldn't park their car. park driveway, this is all things that they really stepped up. i put 75k into budget so we could do a pilot programme called curb management. and this something i would think about because barbara, i don't know where barbara is from the neighborhood, she would tell me everyday when i walked by her

house how we had people parking in her driveway or double-parking to run in and get the ubers and stuff to get the food from the merchants. we said, how can we solve these issues? they said, parking is so horrible here. i heard that, no -- [ laughter ] with these parking, so really having to look at creatively looking at curb management, so we're in the process of right now of actually having a

community engagement of this curb management and how do we make it easier for people to park and easier for businesses to have people be able to come in and get what they need and get out so they're not parked there for hours. how do we, you know, get the uber eats and all of the other deliveries, where they have a place to park and can get in and out so they're not parking in barbara's driveway? so this is actually happening now and once again, the inner sunset park neighbor and merchants are at the tables saying we'll work with you and this is the only way i like to work because i came as a neighbor activist and i didn't like it when people did things in my naked an neighborhood andt when i walked out the door that it was done. so thank you to everyone for being here today. i'm really excited for all of the work that's done. it's amazing. and should i bring up naomi?

naomi! so now i would like to introduce naomi kelly, a city administrator. this was her baby to manage, all of the different people to make sure it was done right. and so naomi. >> thank you. [cheers and applause] >> thank you, supervisor brown and mayor breed and director of public works. this project has more meaning to me because i live in the neighborhood. i spend so much time here on these corners, going to amazing fantasy with my kids, burn sf, jamba juice, you name it, so i live through the construction and understand the merchants and the pain you went through. but boy, did this turn out beautiful! i've been to many scape improvements in different commercial corridor and i have to say these seats and planters are some of the best i've seen in all of san francisco.

so you all did a great job on that. [cheers and applause] >> again, i want to thank mohamed nurue and john thomas is completing this project because it was done on time. public works delivers many key construction projects throughout the city and having it done on time so we're not disrupting the merchants for longer than we should is very important. you heard this specific project was $21.3 million and it's connect the to residents and we're more resilient. as chair of the ten-year capital plan committee, we have done a lot to make sure that we have coordinating our projects.

it was putting in our new sewer lines and water line and that's important for someone who lives in this neighborhood because i can tell you where every sinkhole was. i was drawing diagrams and handing it to the sf puc saying these are the most important parts to touch in the sunset. underground, we've put in more than 4,000 -- the mayor is right. that was the large effort budget item at 7.$3 million. , along for the water and sewer line to appreciate upgraded protection for this community in case of a potential earthquake.

also groun underground, we put n municipal fiber providing secure signals to this community. at the street level, pedestrian and muni riders will see improvements as you can see with the curb ramps and that was approximately $5.7 million. but not just here in the inner sunset aisles, but public works have resurfaced 644 blocks across the city this year and we work together as one city, connected, and i'm pleased to introduce tom maguire, the interim director of transportation. [cheers and applause] >> it's great to be here and celebrate the puc, public works, city administrator and the elected officials who helped get the funds together and get the

wills together to make this happen and the street scape is basically but when i look at it, i don't just see beautiful planters and trees but safety. i see muni riders getting on and off trains going by and we see them getting off on a nice, safe sidewalk. they're not getting off into traffic like they do elsewhere in the city and this is the experience we want. we know this is the lifeline of the sunset, one of the busiest corridors and the streets in this area are some of the streets that are high injury vision zero and we want to make sure transit riders are safe, not just on their journey on the trains but when we get on and off on beautiful street scape. so thank you to the community for your patience as we have been working with our fell let's agenciefellowagencies to get thd thank you to everyone who fought for the funding and fought for the design to get this project done. thank you.

>> now after listening to all of us, after i'm sure you're bored, i want to bring up andrea jabli to give her viewpoints of this project as a neighbor, thank you. >> to the people who live here and work here and the merchants who come here, we didn't just do this as a photo-op. we did it because there are two important reason for people in this neighborhood to have this happening and one is the muni, the end juda will be faster. you'll get to work faster and home faster and anyone who does that everyday understands how important that is. it's also going to be safer for you. now you're not going to be hit by cars trying to squeeze in between the boarding ramps. most importantly, ninth avenue and irving is an intersection

that is painful for people who walk around this neighborhood on a frequent basis. you're sometimes stopped at a light for up to two and a half minutes while waiting for trains to come and go and bikes, muni, all that stuff. now that the stops have been reconfigured so that the buses get through the light before they have to stop, that intersection will be so much more pleasant for all of us to experience. so that's why we're here and why we did it and everyone who has put up with the noise and all of that, give yourself a round of applause. [cheers and applause] >> thank you, let's give the project is big hand. this is a great improvement. our mayor is challenging us to continue do more projects like this and public works and the partnership with all of the agencies will continue to deliver for you. so with that said, we will cut the ribbon and so, where is the ribbon-cutting team here? we have behind us.

>> and would the folks like martha, barbara and other community members feel free to come up and cut this rib bin. ribbon. this is for your community and we want to make sure you're a part of it. are we ready? >> yes! >> we sure? 5-4-3 -- you're not even counting. are we ready? >> yes clam 5-4-3-2-1!