>> i am calling the meeting to order at 5:36 p.m. hello and welcome to the tuesday, september 17, 2019 commission. if you are a member of the public there are speaker forms on the front table or come to the microphone. we do ask everyone turnoff cell phones or put them on silence. we want to thank sfgovtv and media services for sharing this meeting with the public. we will start with the roll call. (roll call). >> we have the first order of business public comment. this is for any public comment for items not listed on the agenda. seeing none, general public comment is closed.

next is 2. approval of minutes for august 20, 2019. i will ask for a motion for approval of the minutes. >> motion. second. any public comment. seeing number none, it is closed. (roll call). >> the minutes are approved. the agenda item report from executive director. >> thank you and good evening, commissioners on my topics to discuss with you this evening, i wanted to first apologize as i mississaugmiss reported somethiu at the last meeting regarding

streamlining. i think i said it had passed when in reality at that point it passed through first reading. my apologies. i will give you an update. it has passed now. that is great. on wednesday, september 11th mayor breed signed the legislation and it will go into effect on october 11 to enable retail businesses to diversify offerings to attract new business models to vacant storefronts and increase opportunities for retail and nightlife businesses to sell vacant storefronts. it will support live music by limiting doilycative inspections and will reduce the food service requirements for new and existing entertainment venues. it will clarify planning codes provisions around liquor license

types in order to bring consistency to the process. update on implementation. as we approach this effective date in october, the office of economic and work force development will meet with all departments impacted by the legislation including us and we will discuss implementation and outreach included in the package. our role in this, too, not only are we going to be educating ourselves as defendant staff on how -- department staff on how we will handle the permits differently. we will do an education campaign to definitely incorporate educating constituents in a newsletter as well as at the summit this year. moving right along, i want to give you all an update on the special events steering committee born out of the

mayor's executive directive supporting special events. a copy is in your binders. you can follow along if you want. you have seen it a couple times. this calls upon city departments to review the current permitting process and identify solutions to make the process more friendly, streamlined and efficient for event organizers as well as city employees and residents. the mayor convened the committee to handle the review and make recommendations to the mayor. she designated two co-chairs the city administrator as well as director torrez. all role in this. i am serving as a member of the committee. we are also assisting the co-chair in the mayor's office to provide research and support for the meetings.

we kicked off the first meeting at the end of august. this is going to run through the end of november. from her directive the mayor is asking departments to look at a few different buckets. we are looking at digital permitting, fees and ways to reduce fees, as well as organizational structure. i don't want to get too in the weeds with those because they are ongoing topics with in the committee. as we have drafts i want to share those with you so you are informed throughout the process. the group is engaging event organizers in the process which we did prior to this committee which was the impetus behind creating it in the first place. by way of focus groups and small interviews to continue to understand the pain points around the process as well as

ideas from their end on potential reforms. i will keep you informed. if you have questions along the way, i am available at any point. finally, we have an update for you. i think i mentioned this. i might not have mentioned this at the last hearing. it might not have happened at that point. we issued an administrative citation relative to a sound truck permit that was appealed. in that process the appeal goes to the controller's office, and they assign a hearing officer there. it is much different than appeals to the entertainment commission or by way of entertainment commission decision to the board of appeals. it is handled administratively. you will see the pre-hearing statement we developed to

support our citation and issuance of it as well as response to the appellant. we had the hearing last week. we are waiting on a decision from the controller. it is over a minor infraction of $100, but, you know, we will keep you appraised where that appeal process goes and whether or not we win. do you have any questions? okay. >> one comment on the previous item and just pointing out that in the executive directive from the mayor the actions are taken by the entertainment commission and staff. i just wanted to take some -- i want the entertainment commission taking credit for

moving forward and laying the groundwork for the special events work being done. i am glad you are representing us in that process, and i hope it makes things easier for all of our applicants and people looking for permits. i am glad you are involved. >> as we all know, our department as well as commission are a little bit biased. we support our constituents who are organizers. by nature of that we want to find where the holes are and where there are potential improvements so dillon's work is vital in all of that and it is great that we should always say thanks. we are looking at that work as part of the steering committee on how to improve it and how we can utilize that in potential future reforms.

>> i just want to sort of second that. i want to commend the mayor for assembling the steering committee. it is way overdue. it can do a lot of good to make small cultural event in the city more frequent. i also think it is fantastic we have a meaningful seat at the table that is a wonderful thing. i am happy that you are doing all of this extra work on it. thanks. i want to give a shout out to oawd forgetting the streamlined legislation passed. there is a long road. i know that ben is watching this and i am excited for him and everybody and i commend the mayor for signing this. the hard work paid off. >> is there any public comment on our director's report? seeing none, public comment is

closed. item 4 is report from the deputy director. >> thank you and abou good even. i will take you through the report on the highlighted sections. page 1 with club 26, you have seen this on your report for a few weeks now, and i want to let you know that we are responding to complaints that come in on the weekends. i have spoken with the head of security and it is about the outside dispersal at 2:00 a.m. they are in compliance with the security conditions on their permit. however, during the week that is when we receive the complaints. we don't have inspectors in the field on sunday through thursday at 2:00 a.m. i have asked the station to help us.

we are still working that out. i will say of the times we have responded on the weekend, they are in compliance so that is where that stands. if we go on page 3, looking at royal oak, just letting you know we have received 8 complaints since the last hearing about this location. they are not having live entertainment, it is streamed music they are playing with doors and windows open, and we have been receiving neighbor complaints. the inspector has responded and determined it is not live entertainment. i have spoken with the owners and let them know we are receiving these complaints. they are not eligible for appeal due to the zoning district unless they do conditional use authorization. they are willing to go for llp. the bulk of people come after

10:00 p.m. we will see where that gets us. i looped in northern station and asked for support on this as well. on page 7, just bringing to your attention there is a flea market on saturdays and sundays. we are receiving complaints about them, quite a few complaints. again daytime events unless we schedule an inspector for the daytime we are in the field at night. it is hard to respond to. now we received complaints two weekends in a row we will coordinate an inspector to determine if they need a permit for this and what has happened. inspector roberts is in contact with the complaints, and we are doing our best to respond when we have people in the field. moving on page 12. virgin hotel.

the inspector went to conduct a routine site inspection and this is a complaint i will let you know this came in on sunday after he responded -- excuse me. this came in on sunday after he conducted the routine site inspection on saturday night. we have been receiving complaints about this location specific to the rooftop bar. on saturday night when the inspector went to do the site inspection he did find the dj after 10:00 p.m. it was close to midnight. it only allows entertainment on the roof until 10:00 p.m. they were issued a notice of violation for this. financi want to bring to your attention there was an outdoor event that happened with quite a few complaints about it. we did contact the event producersers. we will set a sound limit for outdoor entertainment events

prior to the next event that they host. we were informed no more outdoor entertainment with music events happening until next summer. the rest of the year we will have and into the beginning of next year we are keeping that on the radar. that is all that i have highlighted for you. i am happy to answer any questions you may have. >> i am curious if they don't have a poe and they are playing their music just cranking it up, what do you tell them? they have no permit and no dj, not in our purview. they are disturbing the peace. what is the next recourse? >> royal oak? that is one example. anybody for my own information. >> what generally happens the inspector collects contact

information and then i reach out to the contact information, hopefully, the owner to follow up to say this is not permitted. you must have an entertainment license for this. sometimes that works. some people comply because they didn't know. in the event it is an out vitthat they are not wanting to get a permit, then we have to bring in pd. >> correct me if i am wrong. are you referring to places that don't host entertainment at all? >> if they can't get one and just play streaming music way up there without disregards we can't do anything about it, what is the next recourse. >> a venue that doesn't host entertainment we would take investigation in pursuing that. they don' don't want to pursue e would engage the police department to enforce. we are looking at code relative to this today. it is not that common where we

are dealing with a place that has no oversight from the police department to regulate. within police code, you have to be in compliance with the eight decibels. >> are we allowed to give them a ticket? >> that is where it is very odd. when we look at actual staff within the city that use sound meters and understand sound code, it really is us relative to entertainment or music. we could set a limit. it is not attached to an entertainment permit. we are trying to sort that out. we don't want to use staff hours on things we can't cost recover on through the permit application or license process. we want the neighbors to be able to enjoy. >> we don't want them to say, well -- i don't think that is

the issue. we reglate sound when somebody has a permit and the police regulate if there is no permit. in this case the applicant may be applying for limited live. in that case we will have the opportunity to talk. >> so say if they get an llp and do entertainment until 10:00. after 10:00 they stream music, if they want to go louder after 10:00 thanks is not acceptable. they have to be in compliance with the sound limit at all times. they can be regulated by us. if the place has sound complaints currently pd enforces that and says turn it down when they have the availability to do so. they are working on heavier things. >> the neighbors have a number evera numberof -- number of the.

>> you know you have local pd, local politicians, neighborhood groups. all of these things get together, trust me. i know. i have never been on that side of it. >> we have never had a problem. >> his all have permits. >> my personal feeling that is not -- we have laws around what it is we can and cannot do. >> we keep responding to the calls and we are not getting recovery from it. >> when we respond, we look to investigate on the entertainment front. i am not going to have my staff go out multiple times if we are not finding entertainment. at that point we have to send it to the police department.

we have a sound monitoring fee so we could cost recover on that if the police department wanted to utilize our services in setting limits and enforcing them in some way, shape or form. >> i think commissioner lee is bringing up an interesting conversation. i want to go back to where we started at the meeting with both executive director's comments. i am looking at the flea market right now. i certainly don't want to understate the frustration of the neighbors. i also think this could be exactly what we are talking about when we talk about small cultural events. maybe we could get in front of these things and see if we can get this to be an approved event because i think we are just so darn bureaucratic, it is a complex process. part of our charge is to promote entertainment.

this flea market could be a good fit. i know there are a lot of things to overcome. as we have said in the past. this flea market would be easier managed if they were actually permitted. what i am putting forth to you and your staff is seeing if we can license them at least in some capacity and actually turn this into a positive and make this to what president blieman was saying earlier, a real cultural event. i have no idea what the flea market is. it could be a asset and attract people. i think that is what we are all shooting for. instead of looking at these straight up violations, which it is, but if there is an opportunity to make good out of it and meet the mission that is put upon us to promote entertainment and bring about

these little events, this could be an easy one, and, hopefully, satisfy the concern of the neighbors. >> thank you very much for the report. any public comment on the report? seeing none, public comment is closed. moving along. we are on number five. police department comments and questions. i don't see any officers present. we are moving to number 6. the next item is hearing and possible action regarding applications for permits under the jurisdiction of the entertainment commission. deputy director please introduce the items on the consent agenda. >> the two permits on the agenda are accessory permits. they both received an outpouring of support. the police department had no added conditions and i am happy

to answer any questions you have about these. >> motion to approve. >> second. >> so there is a motion to approve the consent agenda. any public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. (roll call). >> all right. congratulations. your permits are approved. please follow up with the deputy director at your earliest convenience. the final agenda item number is number 7, commissioners comments and questions.

>> i just would like to propose we close tonight's meeting in the memory of a dear friend who passed away presently. he and his band mates were my introduction of the san francisco live music. i would like to dedicate the session tonight to the base player of native elements jamie durand, jimbo, may you rock on forever. >> anybody else have anything? i have a few things. first to congratulate commissioner coulcommissioner cg reappointed. i want to point out the three cultural institutions near the ballpark that closed this week. padros and pete's tavern

shuttered out of the blue. nobody saw it coming. it is an indication of the state of small business in the city right now. the costs and everything that is going on that is making it regard to do small business. i am just want to continue to think about ways, for example the streamlining legislation and steering commission to make small business easier to flourish. i want to say the 4:00 a.m. bill which became the 3:00 a.m. bill died in the assembly, never came out of the assembly. it is not on this calendar this year for legislation which is very sad and i think it will show us the rest of the state still views nightlife as a nuisance. in san francisco we see it as a economic and cultural driving force. it makes me proud to live here.

knowing senator wiener, it will be back. he is the energizer bunny. maybe the 12th time is the charm. any public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. we will close tonight in honor of jamie jimbo durant, and the meeting is over at 6:01 p.m. thank you. [♪]

>> i am the supervisor of district one. i am sandra lee fewer. [♪] >> i moved to the richmond district in 1950 mine. i was two years old. i moved from chinatown and we were one of the first asian families to move out here. [♪] >> when my mother decided to buy that house, nobody knew where it was. it seems so far away. for a long time, we were the only chinese family there but we started to see the areas of growth to serve a larger chinese population. the stress was storage of the

birthplace of that. my father would have to go to chinatown for dim sum and i remember one day he came home and said, there is one here now. it just started to grow very organically. it is the same thing with the russian population, which is another very large ethnic group in the richmond district. as russia started to move in, we saw more russian stores. so parts of the richmond is very concentrated with the russian community and immigrant russian community, and also a chinese immigrant community. [♪] >> i think as living here in the richmond, we really appreciate the fact that we are surrounded three natural barriers. they are beautiful barriers. the presidio which gives us so many trails to walk through, ocean beach, for families to just go to the beach and be in the pacific ocean.

we also also have a national park service. we boarded the golden gate national recreation area so there is a lot of activity to do in the summer time you see people with bonfires. but really families enjoying the beach and the pacific ocean during the rest of the time of year. [♪] >> and golden gate park where we have so many of our treasures here. we have the tea garden, the museum and the academy of sciences. not to mention the wonderful playgrounds that we have here in richmond. this is why i say the richmond is a great place for families. the theatre is a treasure in our neighborhood. it has been around for a very long time. is one of our two neighborhood theatres that we have here. i moved here when i was 1959 when i was two years old. we would always go here.

i love these neighborhood theatres. it is one of the places that has not only a landmark in the richmond district, but also in san francisco. small theatres showing one or two films. a unique -- they are unique also to the neighborhood and san francisco. >> where we are today is the heart of the richmond district. with what is unique is that it is also small businesses. there is a different retail here it is mom and pop opening up businesses. and providing for the neighborhood. this is what we love about the streets. the cora door starts on clement street and goes all the way down to the end of clement where you will see small businesses even towards 32nd. at the core of it is right here between here and 20 -- tenth avenue. when we see this variety of

stores offered here, it is very unique then of the -- any other part of san francisco. there is traditional irish music which you don't get hardly anywhere in san francisco. some places have this long legacy of serving ice cream and being a hangout for families to have a sunday afternoon ice cream. and then also, we see grocery stores. and also these restaurants that are just new here, but also thriving. [♪] >> we are seeing restaurants being switched over by hand, new owners, but what we are seeing is a vibrancy of clement street still being recaptured within new businesses that are coming in. that is a really great thing to see. i don't know when i started to shop here, but it was probably a very, very long time ago. i like to cook a lot but i like to cook chinese food. the market is the place i like to come to once a year.

once i like about the market as it is very affordable. it has fresh produce and fresh meat. also, seafood. but they also offer a large selection of condiments and sauces and noodles. a variety of rice that they have is tremendous. i don't thank you can find a variety like that anywhere else. >> hi. i am kevin wong. i am the manager. in 1989 we move from chinatown to richmond district. we have opened for a bit, over 29 years. we carry products from thailand, japan, indonesia, vietnam, singapore and india. we try to keep everything fresh daily. so a customer can get the best out a bit. >> normally during crab season in november, this is the first place i hit.

because they have really just really fresh crab. this is something my family really likes for me to make. also, from my traditional chinese food, i love to make a kale soup. they cut it to the size they really want. i am probably here once a week. i'm very familiar with the aisles and they know everyone who is a cashier -- cashier here i know when people come into a market such as this, it looks like an asian supermarkets, which it is and sometimes it can be intimidating. we don't speak the language and many of the labels are in chinese, you may not know what to buy or if it is the proper ingredients for the recipe are trying to make. i do see a lot of people here with a recipe card or sometimes with a magazine and they are looking for specific items. the staff here is very helpful. i speak very little chinese here myself. thinks that i'm not sure about, i asked the clerk his and i say is this what i need? is this what i should be making?

and they actually really helped me. they will bring me to the aisle and say this is battery. they are very knowledgeable. very friendly. i think they are here to serve not only the asian community but to serve all communities in the richmond district and in san francisco. [♪] >> what is wonderful about living here is that even though our july is a very foggy and overcast, best neighborhood, the sleepy part outside on the west side is so rich with history, but also with all the amenities that are offered. [♪] >> one more statement. we are the one.

that is our first single that we made. that is our opinion. >> i can't argue with you. >> you are responsible please do not know his exact. [♪] [♪] [♪] >> i had a break when i was on a major label for my musical career. i took a seven year break. and then i came back. i worked in the library for a long time. when i started working the san francisco history centre, i noticed they had the hippie collection. i thought, if they have a hippie collection, they really need to

have a punk collection as well. so i talked to the city archivist who is my boss. she was very interested. one of the things that i wanted to get to the library was the avengers collection. this is definitely a valuable poster. because it is petty bone. it has that weird look because it was framed. it had something acid on it and something not acid framing it. we had to bring all of this stuff that had been piling up in my life here and make sure that the important parts of it got archived. it wasn't a big stretch for them to start collecting in the area of punk. we have a lot of great photos and flyers from that area and that. that i could donate myself. from they're, i decided, you know, why not pursue other people and other bands and get them to donate as well? the historic moments in san

francisco, punk history, is the sex pistols concert which was at winterland. [♪] it brought all of the punks on the web -- west coast to san francisco to see this show. the sex pistols played the east coast and then they play texas and a few places in the south and then they came directly to san francisco. they skipped l.a. and they skipped most of the media centres. san francisco was really the biggest show for them pick it was their biggest show ever. their tour manager was interested in managing the adventures, my band. we were asked to open to support the pistols way to that show. and the nuns were also asked to open the show. it was certainly the biggest crowd that we had ever played to. it was kind of terrifying but it did bring people all the way from vancouver, tee seattle, portland, san diego, all up and down the coast, and l.a., obviously. to san francisco to see this show. there are a lot of people who

say that after they saw this show they thought they would start their own band. it was a great jumping off point for a lot of west coast punk. it was also, the pistols' last show. in a way, it was the end of one era of punk and the beginning of a new one. the city of san francisco didn't necessarily support punk rock. [♪] >> last, but certainly not least is a jell-o be opera. they are the punk rock candidate of the lead singer called the dead kennedys. >> if we are blaming anybody in san francisco, we will just blame the dead kennedys. >> there you go. >> we had situations where concerts were cancelled due to flyers, obscene flyers that the city was thought -- that he thought was obscene that had been put up. the city of san francisco has come around to embrace it's

musicians. when they have the centennial for city hall, they brought in all kinds of local musicians and i got to perform at that. that was, at -- in a way, and appreciation from the city of san francisco for the musical legends. i feel like a lot of people in san francisco don't realize what resources there are at the library. we had a film series, the s.f. punk film series that i put together. it was nearly sold out every single night. people were so appreciative that someone was bringing this for them. it is free. everything in the library is free. >> it it is also a film producer who has a film coming out. maybe in 2018 about crime. what is the title of it? >> it is called san francisco first and only rock 'n' roll movie. crime, 1978. [laughter] >> when i first went to the art institute before the adventures were formed in 77, i was going

to be a painter. i did not know i would turn into a punk singer. i got back into painting and i mostly do portraiture and figurative painting. one of the things about this job here is i discovered some great resources for images for my painting. i was looking through these mug shot books that we have here that are from the 1920s. i did a whole series of a mug shot paintings from those books. they are in the san francisco history centre's s.f. police department records. there are so many different things that the library provides for san franciscans that i feel like a lot of people are like, oh, i don't have a library card. i've never been there. they need to come down and check it out and find out what we have. the people who are hiding stuff in their sellers and wondering what to do with these old photos or old junk, whether it is hippie stuff or punk stuff, or

stuffestuff from their grandpar, if they bring it here to us, we can preserve it and archive it and make it available to the public in the future. [applause].he future. >> and so many incredible community leaders and friends who have gathered here today to support the signing of what i believe is important legislation that will hopefully make the changes in the city that are necessary to address what we know our inequalities and services, resources in general, and we know, as a city we have work to do. in fact, we can take this conversation back to two years ago. starting with the unfinished agenda under the san francisco redevelopment agency, recommendations back then of what should be done with the

disparities that exist in the african-american community. later on down the line, when gavin newsom served as mayor, he agreed to work with us and create a task force which produced a report that really highlighted the challenges that continue to persist in the african-american community despite changes, despite investments, the same problems that we are talking about today, were problems that were highlighted, yet there weren't significant changes made. in growing up in san francisco, i can't help but wonder, where did we go wrong? what worried the mistakes that we made, and how are we going to push forward the kinds of policies necessary to fix it? one such policy i'm really proud of that i helped to produce when i was on the board of supervisors, people try to fight is on it, people told us it

couldn't be done, but thanks to our late mayor ed lee, former supervisor melia cone, we were able to finally get neighborhood preference legislation passed. [cheers and applause] let me give you an example of what a difference that makes. we know the challenges that exist with access to affordable housing. time and time again we get asked if -- to support affordable housing in our community. but when the time comes to move into that housing, the people who grew up there, the folks so crowded up in their houses and living with their mamas and grand moments could not get access to those units. the first project where we were able to use neighborhood preference was the willie b. kennedy apartment. because of our efforts, 40% of the 98 units was the people who lived in the community --

community first. in fact, roughly 23 of those residents were african-americans from that community. [applause] we understand that it may seem like a small number, but in comparison to the number of african-americans who would get access to affordable housing, it is a big deal that we were able to accomplish this, but we know that there is so much more work to be done because when you look at the disparities that exist in san francisco, sadly the numbers are clear. high school dropouts, disproportionally african-americans are in the higher numbers of dropouts and suspensions, but less than 6% of the population. you look at the homeless population, you look at the challenges with mental health, disproportionately african-americans are impacted by that. you look at access to housing and a number of other issues.

the list goes on and on. i get that we are looking at an office of racial equity for the purposes of dealing with challenges that exist with minority communities, but let's face the facts. sadly, time and time again, we have seen, on many occasions, the african-american communities lose time and time and time again. we can't just keep talking about these statistics and saying that we care about what happens to this community, and then also criticize me when i deliberately put money and resources into supporting and targeting this community so that we can really provide the change that we need. we need action. we need consistency. we need a change like never before. the office of racial equity is

really about making that investment. it is about saying that we are tired of the reports, we are tired of the promises, and we need to start putting our money where our mouth is. on this issue and so many other issues. so i just want to take this opportunity to thank again supervisor sandy fewer and supervisor vallie brown for their courage. [cheers and applause] for their courage. for being leaders. for being unrelenting. for consistently talking about this, talking about the need to make real change. the african-american community may be less than 6% of the population of this city, but guess what? we are still here. we still matter. and it is time we come together and make real change.

[applause] it is time we come together and hold one another accountable, but also lift one another up. >> here is the opportunity to work with an office to provide that change. i went over my time, but i am excited about this. it is why we put money in the budget to make sure positions are funded. nobody debated whether or not it should be, and now it is time we continue to work with this office so that policy is brought forward, so that more investments are brought forward, and so that everyone in this city, and all city departments understand that when i say we are going to look at everything through a lens of equity and make the kinds of deliberate changes and investments to address what we know has been a problem, then that's exactly what we are going to do. [applause]

at this time, i would like to welcome up to provide remarks, supervisor sandra lee fewer. [applause] >> thank you, mayor breed. i'm so proud to stand here today with the mayor and supervisor brown, and also my colleague and all of you as we sign this legislation to create an office of actual -- racial equity into law. i'm a fourth generation san francisco and -- san franciscan and chinese-american. i remember growing up in a san francisco where there was more opportunity for everyone. i remember when we had an african-american population of over 15% here in san francisco. i remember the time when we had nader -- neighborhoods with small businesses that were owned by african-americans. this is a very important moments

today because, quite frankly, this is one of the reasons, the main reason that i ran for supervisor. i think that -- [applause] it is so delightful and refreshing that we have a mayor that actually impress it -- embraces this. we need an interruption and we need to interrupt what is happening and how can we get back to the san francisco values that we are all so proud of and we all love. when you come to san francisco, you expect to see diversity. when you come to san francisco, the self-proclaimed, most progressive city in the united states, you expect to see people of color thriving here and yet we are not seeing that. i would like to take a moment of appreciation to really think my legislative aide for doing this work. [cheers and applause]

and also district five legislative aide. [applause] and from the human rights commission thank you. this is the hard work of determined women that we will write this and we will write it good. historic race discrimination has manifested as exclusionary and destructive policies like creating obstacles for chinese residents from owning businesses the racial segregation to neighborhoods, and the internment of japanese americans and the destruction of historically black neighborhoods in the name of urban rule. now racial -- it is not disclosure neri policy, but rather in the inaction of

government to address and protect these past harms done. it is more insidious, and more harder to address. we see now incredible racial disparities in so many areas of life but also let specific islanders -- we see these disparities showing up in employment, our schools, housing , and the healthcare system and more. these disparities prevent people from color in our city from leading lives that are happy, healthy, and economically secure today, we are taking a stand in san francisco to say we will not stand for systemic racism. this legislation is a critical step in acknowledging the history and the current conditions of communities of color and making strong and concrete commitments to address those conditions.

>> thank you, supervisor fewer. at this time, the co-author of the legislation, supervisor vallie brown. [applause] >> thank you, mayor breed for your support and your kind words i want to thank supervisor fewer intimate -- director davis for your fierce advocacy and hard work on this, but i also really want to appreciate the people behind us. a lot of times we push them in front that have really got into the weeds to work on this. might aid, thank you -- my aid, thank you. i know supervisor fewer already thank you, but i have to thank you, too. you have to have a doublethink here. district 18, chelsea, and then

human rights commission, i want to thank brittany, raise your hand, brittany. thank you. everybody wants to know who she is. and other than the other h.r.c. stuff that worked really hard on this. they really went deep and really drafted some amazing legislation for us to move forward. i really want to thank all of you for joining us here today for this historic signing of this office of racial equity. this office where we will work -- we will build and work on the legacy of the human rights commission, and it is a powerful tool to break down years and years of structural and institutional racism. our work has just begun, though, but we can't do this alone, and that's why we are all here today

we need the support of each of you to repair past harms and work towards a brighter future. it's all about time, it's all about time. i am so proud to stand on this land that we are here on and organize on behalf of the board. when i think about the native american community in this city, the highest population of women that are murdered are american indians. think about that. when they say we are 1%, why? this is something that i know we will dive deep into because these are things that matter to our community, matter to the city, matter to the elected officials, and as the years when i was a legislative aide, we used to do policy, we used to do

funding, thinking we were really going to help a community, but we didn't know if it would work or not. for me, this office of racial equity will work with the community and bring things to us this is -- isn't that what we want? don't we want the community to bring the policy, bring the funding suggestions to us? they have to come from the community, not from us telling you what you need. i am just really proud to stand here today and be part of this. lastly, i want to make an important distinction. equality means treating everyone the same. equity means ensuring everyone has what they need to be successful. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you supervisor brown. now a few words from the director of the human rights commission in san francisco, cheryl davis. [cheers and applause]

>> this is quite an emotional day for a lot of different reasons. i want to first recognize the commissioners that are here. they are here from the human rights commission. this work, i was just telling someone, it is actually just the perfect storm in terms of how it came out. i remember when mayor breed was president of the board. we had a conversation with james bell from the burns institute in oakland about the needs of doing something around racial equity. she was committed then and we were really try to figure out what it is that we wanted to do. what did we need to do, how did we work to build allies to move this forward. when supervisor fewer came into office, one of the first thing she said to me is we need to do something around racial equity in the city and she specifically said, i want to know what we can

do to do better by african-americans and black people in san francisco. that was unusual, right? this idea that somebody who wasn't black was interested in doing right by black people was new for me. and then supervisor brown, they developed an equity program with the office of economic and workforce development for african-americans in the western addition, fillmore, to help them develop the way to have access to city help. put money for them to get paid to tell us what to do. when we talk about being committed to the work, i really have a little tolerance for people who just like to talk and i would like to say these three women have been committed to the idea and notion of racial equity and getting to the people who have been most harmed by the disparities and putting their money and their mouth where the work needs to be done.

[applause] and i say it is a perfect storm because when i look around and i think about felicia jones and dante and the folks who have been pushing on the inside to say that we need to make change, michelle and cheryl, the folks that have challenged us, but at the same time, i think about ruth and their work in the mission. and the work that is being done. this idea that we want to transform city hall is not about transforming the work that happens in this building, it is about understanding how the work that happens in this building impacts everybody outside. [applause] so they won't. i am so full right now because i know that there is not just the accountability and the demand to

make this happening from -- happen from communities, but these three women, coupled with the men over here from the board of supervisors, they will make it happen. nobody here is afraid to be told that it is being done wrong and that we need to redo it. if you want it to work right, you all need to make sure that we are held accountable. i am excited about what is to come and being held accountable and moving this thing forward, and as mayor breed said, bringing the change that we have been waiting for for 50, 60, 70, 100 years. thank you for being here today. [applause] >> thank you. as i said to all of you before, as someone who was born and raised here, i'm so honored to be the mayor and i still can't believe what an incredible opportunity this is, but i can't also help but think about the need to make sure that even

though there were mistakes that were made in the past, that change the dynamics of our city, in the past, we have an opportunity to make things better in the future. we have an opportunity not to repeat the mistakes of the past and no, i can't turn -- turn back the hands of time, but what i can do is make sure that the policies and the investments and the decisions that we make now have a better impact on future generations to come. today is an opportunity to do just that. ladies and gentlemen, let's get this legislation signed. [cheers and applause] are we ready?

[applause]