know, that hazard. if i had a flat space and my trees are relatively spaced, is that a lesser hazard than in glenn canyon? absolutely. the slope of the hill, proximity of the trees, canopies, the ground, the fuel on the ground. yes, we can on a case to case with experience with what is already out there derm what is a greater hazard than other areas. i don't know if that answers your question. >> this is not one size fits alsoution. whe-- fits alsoution. when there is a sidewalk and houses. it is more than 30 feet. it seems to me everything is about a defensible perimeter. the question is the standard is 30 but do we want to impose a

larger perimeter, which would cut to denny's property, right? do we want to do a comprehensive assessment of all of our urban interfaces and derm these are places where 30 feet is right. these are places where we need a larger perimeter before the fire jumps. i assume glenn canyon the fire burns uphill. at the top it is crowned and moving. you are still going uphill. can it jump the street? >> doesn't have to jump the street? why? >> there are houses on the park side, too. >> to answer your question it is resources. fire department is willing to go out there and visit each and every site. we can do that. the other think we take into

account is our resources. the number of appar rat tuesday we get there in a timely matter and in the water supplies we take into account if i it is a reasonable risk or not? >> good afternoon. one of my roles is to coordinate mutual response from the fire department to the state. for the last seven years i was responding to fires up and down the state. we have special equipment in all of that where they are assigned. they train all of the time. you will see us every mayor beginning of june training within the park for the city. we prepare for that.

wwe prepare for that in the cit. >> if this and your department and other departments were interested. the question is if we want to to allocate financial resources for jurisdiction and planning and see what that yields? >> i agree with that statement you just made, yes. >> it is november getting to february when everybody submits the budget to the mayor. it is a conversation to have as the rest of the state is burni burning. >> i agree with that. i guess i was alluding to that. there is really a way to plan this and figure out what resources we need to make this happen, let us know. >> i would like to be crystal

clear. we do respond to these areas with other departments. if we need to clear areas, we will clear them. i am responding to your call about a comprehensive plan. i want to be sure we are crystal clear on that. >> to the earlier question that happens to be where i live and i say this to everybody, not only around issues of fire but every issue in this town except for when you get a parking ticket is complain driven. i get an e-mail that says people are camped out on his property. that is how i learn about it. he gets the call. -- gets the call. is this an instance where we need to be more proactive? >> i think so. >> thank you very much.

>> i will be quick. it sounds like there are two potential projects here. one requires greater partnership between the fire marshal and departments. one is making sure we do the things we think we are doing now. we think we are maintaining this 30-foot area. it would be really great for people in glenn canyon living on a house next to glenn canyon to have the reassurance the fire marshal has checked out that 30-foot area and given it his blessing that we are good. at least in so far as we are upholding the state standards, based upon what the state is telling us, nobody here should be worried. there may be a secondary project that may require more money.

does san francisco want its own standards. we are dense on top of each other with the memory of the 1906 earthquake. there is kind of two things in there. i do think and what i present to you is a immediate task of doing the checking to make sure in areas with special concern like glenn canyon that, yes, at least as far as our current standards, san francisco has got this right and we checked. you can be absured about that. >> i don't remember 1906, but i remember 1989. if there are no other presenters, let's open this up

to public comment. would you like to speak to item 3? thank you for spending your afternoon with us? >> coalition for san francisco neighborhoods. at the october general assembly meeting the coalition passed a resolution regarding emergency firefighting capabilities. besides the transit it includes water and sewer replacement, the water supply system. doing this would be consistent with the city policy. it is a shovel ready project. installing dedicated would provide direct firefighting coverage fo for the for police . it would contribute to the city's ability to prevent and

manage wildfires as to the owned property. >> thank you. mr. sig. >> jake sig. i have been leading volunteers working for the city for 29 years now. the last three weeks we have been working on mount davidson. it is very much on my mind. we got the natural management plan passed a couple years ago. nothing is done. the ivy crawling up the trees, they are full of dead leaves. they can easily start a fire from the ground up to the crown. i can see with the kind of weather we have been having with the cold, dry winds out of the

north, they fortunately did not last very long. sometimes like in the past they do. in october 1991 in oakland, that was exactly the kind of weather they had, and the combination of that and a spark, mount davidson could go. it is a frightening prospect even though it is not likely to happen, but what if it does? it appears it is mostly a matter of money. the risk of the city burning down for lack of money does not make any sense. i want to mention the fire department and cal fire came to a meeting about seven or eight years ago and explained the risk

of a fire happening. it is identical conditions on mount davidson, just different landowners. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> thank you. i am paul. i want to speak on this issue. regarding the wild land interface, the maps the state put out are based on relative humidity and the fact we normally have a higher humidity than most of the other wild land areas. there are times when the conditions are right we can have a catastrophic wildfire with loss to lives and property, and what the city doesn't have is unconventional firefighting

methods. while they are really good at doing code enforcement, defensible space, which is really important, they have conventional firefighting methods. what gets the upper hand on the firestorms which glen park canyon, mic chairren park and billy goat hill and others, we would need unconventional methods for the head of the fire which you can't fight with conventional methods, you need water drops. the city has helicopters. is it possible through the fire department -- no longer. okay. there is going to be a time when there aren't any aerial support because they are occupied somewhere else and timing is on the essence. what the city needs is

nonconventional firefighting with therel copter with aerial drops in the parklands, national parklands, state-owned properties and city properties. thank you. >> next speaker, please. i am betsy eddy president of diamond heights community foundation which has been meeting for 11 years to prepare the neighborhood for emergencies. i am encouraged by the hearing today and the questions by the supervisors, but we really do perceive a much more dangerous fire hazard than some of the people here today. it was just three years ago that diamond heights started to realize there is an urban wildfire hazard here in glenn

canyon park and in the five parks that surround diamond heights. on a very windy day, there is the potential for a fire started in a park to reach home. i want to give an example. our winds are so fierce they sometimes knock me over and some of the trees go at a slant because of the wind. there are windy areas of san francisco but the wind in diamond heights, green park would carry a fire up the canyon described together. 30-foot defensible space is not going to stop the fires from spreading. i could take a picture of every fire hazard in glenn canyon, the pictures of the dead trees and

dead logs and dried grass that could spread a fire really quickly. i hope the fire marshal and fire department will take a look at that themselves with their environmental crews. thank you very much. >> any other members of the public to testify? public comment is closed. president yee. >> thank you to all departments and u.c.s.f. and procedo land trust. there seems to be two areas to work with rec and park to look at the issues brought up by the public and also supervisor mandelman. i think glenn canyon we need to

look at more carefully. i would follow up with the current park to see what needs addressed in terms of the conditions in that area. again, i want to move beyond the immediate actions that you could take and look at a long term comprehensive plan for san francisco and see you how we can improve our situation. >> let's don't wait until something happens, let's prepare for it. >> thank you very much. >> thank you to each and every department for coming and the members of the public, supervisor mad delmen. do you want to continue or file this? >> we could file this and if we

have a policy to put together. i will take that without objection. we are adjourned. happy monday. >> he is a real leader that listens and knows how to bring people together. brought this department together like never before. i am so excited to be swearing in the next chief of the san francisco fire department, ladies and gentlemen, let's

welcome, jeanine nicholson. (applause). >> i grew up total tomboy, athlete. i loved a good crisis, a good challenge. i grew up across the street from the fire station. my dad used to take me there to vote. i never saw any female firefighters because there weren't any in the 1970s. i didn't know i could be a fire fighter. when i moved to san francisco in 1990, some things opened up. i saw women doing things they hadn't been doing when i was growing up. one thing was firefighting. a woman recruited me at the

gay-pride parade in 1991. it was a perfect fit. i liked using my brain, body, working as a team, figuring things out, troubleshooting and coming up with different ways to solve a problem. in terms of coming in after another female chief, i don't think anybody says that about men. you are coming in after another man, chief, what is that like. i understand why it is asked. it is unusual to have a woman in this position. i think san francisco is a trailblazer in that way in terms of showing the world what can happen and what other people who may not look like what you think the fire chief should look like how they can be successful. be asked me about being the first lbgq i have an understands

because there are little queer kids that see me. i worked my way up. i came in january of 1994. i built relationships over the years, and i spent 24 years in the field, as we call it. working out of firehouses. the fire department is a family. we live together, eat together, sleep in the same dorm together, go to crazy calls together, dangerous calls and we have to look out for one another. when i was burned in a fire years ago and i felt responsible, i felt awful. i didn't want to talk to any of my civilian friends. they couldn't understand what i was going through. the firefighters knew, they understood. they had been there. it is a different relationship. we have to rely on one another. in terms of me being the chief of the department, i am really

trying to maintain an open relationship with all of our members in the field so myself and my deputy chiefs, one of the priorities i had was for each of us to go around to different fire stations to make sure we hit all within the first three or four months to start a conversation. that hasn't been there for a while. part of the reason that i am getting along well with the field now is because i was there. i worked there. people know me and because i know what we need. i know what they need to be successful. >> i have known jeanine nicholson since we worked together at station 15. i have always held her in the highest regard. since she is the chief she has infused the department with

optimism. she is easy to approach and is concerned with the firefighters and paramedics. i appreciate that she is concerned with the issues relevant to the fire department today. >> there is a retired captain who started the cancer prevention foundation 10 years ago because he had cancer and he noticed fellow firefighters were getting cancer. he started looking into it. in 2012 i was diagnosed with breast canner, and some of my fellow firefighters noticed there are a lot of women in the san francisco fire department, premenopausal in their 40s getting breast cancer. it was a higher rate than the general population. we were working with workers comp to make it flow more easily for our members so they didn't have to worry about the paper

work when they go through chemo. the turnout gear was covered with suit. it was a badge to have that all over your coat and face and helmet. the dirtier you were the harder you worked. that is a cancer causeser. it -- casser. it is not -- cancer causer. there islassic everywhere. we had to reduce our exposure. we washed our gear more often, we didn't take gear where we were eating or sleeping. we started decontaminating ourselves at the fire scene after the fire was out. going back to the fire station and then taking a shower. i have taught, worked on the decontamination policy to be

sure that gets through. it is not if or when. it is who is the next person. it is like a cancer sniper out there. who is going to get it next. one of the things i love about the fire department. it is always a team effort. you are my family. i love the city and department and i love being of service. i vow to work hard -- to work hard to carry out the vision of the san francisco fire department and to move us forward in a positive way. if i were to give a little advice to women and queer kids, find people to support you. keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep trying. you never know what door is

going to open next. you really don't. [cheers and

>> hi, everybody. good morning and thank you for being here. thank you to the foundation for hosting us and i am pleased to be joined here with a number of our leaders including my partner in these initiatives, supervisor mandelman as well as our new district attorney. and members of the task force. i just want to thank all the members of the task force who participated in this process. i think supervisor mandelman and i had a conversation when he and i talked about this task force and what he wanted to do with it , and he said specifically to me, i don't want to do a task force that does a report that just sits on the shelf and that is really what i am excited about. and implementing the task force

this force this year, we have recommendations that we are not only working to implement, but we are going to see hopefully real results as a result of the amazing work that the task force has done. we know that in san francisco we have a serious problem with meth use. in 2018, over 126 people died of a meth overdose and the number of overdose deaths from meth rose over 500% in the last 10 years. meth use is a public health and a public safety issue in our city. we know that meth is not only providing substance use challenges in san francisco, but we need to make sure that we have a citywide approach to address the combined challenges of substance use, mental illness , and homelessness in particular. and that is why, along with the department of department health,

we announced a comprehensive plan for those who are most in need of mental healthcare and substance use treatment entitled "urgent care s.f.." with this, we include building a new system of care coordination, outreach, and lower barrier services, and harm reduction designed to meet the specific needs of the 4,000 people who we know our dual diagnosed. several of the meth task force recommendations are prioritized and urgent care s.f. in february this year, we combined this task force under the leadership of supervisor mandelman with three goals in mind. to decrease health risks for people under the influence of meth, to identify best practices for treatment and service options, and to reduce the negative medical and social impacts of matthews for all san franciscans. over the past six months, the

task force has met to understand the specific challenges that meth presents for our city and to develop recommendations that would help address this issue. and the report issued today details the findings as well as 17 recommendations. several of the recommendations go hand-in-hand with our goals around urgent care s.f., which include creating a meth sobering center, strengthening our mental health and substance use crisis response, increasing the availability of safe indoor spaces such as drop-in centers, shelters, and navigation centers , expanding case management and wraparound services, and expanding availability of treatment beds at multiple levels. some of these recommendations, it's meth sobering centers, are new efforts and we are working to implement those well several

build upon the work that is already underway. by creating a trauma informed sobering sight for people who are under the influence of meth, we will have a place where people can go or can be taken td where staff will be responsibly trained to help them. in addition to creating a safe place for people to sober up, the center will be a place where we can connect those individuals to services. the department of public health is currently exploring locations for the center and our plan is to have at least one of these centers open within the next three to six months. we have already taken action on a few of the recommendations that were mentioned are -- earlier. in september we announced a partnership with tipping point community to open up another 14 hummingbird psychiatric west -- respite beds. we also announced a plan to expand the hours of the

behavioral health access center, to increase the availability of safe indoor spaces and help those who need it get connected to care. we are also making progress on adding another 1,000 beds to our behavioral health treatment system. we have already funded 212 beds in the last year across the continuum of harm reduction treatment and recovery services. the issue of meth use also connects with our efforts on expanding conservatorship in san francisco because the new conservatorship allows us to extend the benefit of care to treatment, to people with mental illness and substance use disorder. we know that among people with at least psychiatric hold halls, nearly nine in the 10 are users of meth. and as we work to implement a successful conservatorship program, it is important we understand the overlap between

matthews and eligibility for conservatorship. we are making progress and we know that progress is not moving fast enough, but we need to be responsible in how we coordinate the right systems so it actually delivers the results we need to have an impact on what we see out on the streets every single day. it is one of the reasons why i hired the first ever mental health reform director this year to really analyse the system, to find out what the challenges are , and to work on solutions. there's not one solution that is going to get us to a place where we need, but we see the problem, we understand the challenges, we understand the data. the data is going to help to inform the decisions that we make so that we can get real results. we are making progress and one

of the recommendations of the task force was to strengthen our mental health and substance use crisis response. under urgent care s.f., we will add more behavioral health resources to accompany police on-call through our 311 system so that our police department is working hand-in-hand with one of our street medicine team workers so we can again provide people with care and get them into one of our sobering centers if necessary. we will take action on the recommendations to expand case management and wraparound services, specifically by reducing the patient to provide a ratio so that we can really get the kinds of results that we need, adding staff to handle the additional cases is also critical, and our next steps include taking action on these recommendations. my office will carefully review the other recommendations included in the report and determine which one will move

forward and which ones will be incorporated into the work we are already doing with urgent care s.f. i want to thank the members of the task force for dedicating so many hours to this work, this very critical work. the report and set of recommendations will be extremely helpful as we move forward to address meth use that is hurting so many people in this city. i now have the pleasure to introduce the person who has really been leading on this charge, supervisor mandelman is the person who came to me about this issue early on to talk about the challenges that existed. he knows that i care about opening safe injection sites and that has been a focus of my administration and i am really optimistic that we are closer than ever before to getting there, but he really highlighted the fact that we are seeing the

number of folks who are dying on our streets with methamphetamine increasing significantly, and so he has been the leader on shining the light on this issue and i am hopeful that because of his leadership in this work, we can take these recommendations to the next level so we can see a difference and we can help save lives. ladies and gentlemen, supervisor raphael mandelman. [applause] >> thank you, madame mayor. thank you for your commitment and persistence in making the changes in the city that everyone agrees need to be made, and for your fortitude and making those changes that are necessary, but not everyone agrees need to be made. san francisco has a meth problem i think we all know it. we all see it on our streets, in our hospital emergency rooms, in

our jails and too often in the growing list of san franciscans dying from overdoses. among homeless san franciscans who have died on our streets, methamphetamine was the most commonly present substance showing up in 47% of deaths. now this is not the first time san francisco has engaged on the issue of meth and its impacts in our communities. it was nearly 15 years ago that then then mayor newsom and supervisor dusty convened the city's first meth task force focused on its impacts in the queer community. i know there are some veterans of that effort here in the room, some of them were part of the task force. the task force, that task force didn't important work and helped lead innovations and modelled the response that our task force has studied and i think it's really appropriate that we are here in this aids foundation building. thank you for your work and thank you for giving us or a

thomas and make, where is make? there he is. laura is back there. okay. they made such important contributions to the task force but have been doing amazing work on drug policy and helping folks out for many decades, a couple decades. i will stop before i get in any more trouble. [laughter] this task force and the report we released today is not really the beginning of a conversation, and it's not certainly the end of the conversation. it can't be. i believe we have made important contributions to that conversation. today, meth addiction is still very much a queer issue in san francisco, but as me know, and as the report documents, it is also a public health crisis that threatens the safety and well-being of vulnerable residents across the city, in every community, and threatens

those communities. the report contains 17 recommendations and we can't go into each and every one of them here. i want to highlight a couple of them in particular. the first recommendation is to create a trauma informed sobering sight with integrated harm reduction services for people who are under the influence of methamphetamine. drug sobering centers were the task force's top recommendation. across a spectrum of participants, whether law enforcement, service providers, people with lived experience, everyone agreed that we need places that are not psychiatric emergency services, that are not emergency rooms, and that are not jails for people who are meth intoxicated or in a meth -induced psychosis. safe space for them to be and it leaves the communities from which they came safer. this is something we must do and i am so grateful to our mayor,

her team, and dr. colfax for their commitment to making this happen on an expedited timeline. the second recommendation of the task force, which also, i believe it was the second-highest recommended recommendation, was to strengthen the city's interdisciplinary behavioral health crisis response. i hear almost every day from constituents who are seeing folks in distress, folks in psychosis pretty much every day and they have no idea what to do , who to call, how to get a response. they call 311, it doesn't work. they feel nervous about calling the police, and so what the mayor recognizes and what has worked its way into urgent care s.f. and what will be moving forward are other responses so that san franciscans who are seeing neighbors and distress have a number they can call, and app they can dial, and they can get, in realtime, an appropriate response it isn't necessarily the police.

if you need a police officer, the police need to be there, but ideally, it is not the police. so that is something that i think will change lives, both for folks who are in crisis, and for the communities in which those folks are living. there's a third recommendation that is buried way down there. it is item number 17. it is actually really important and it is strength collaboration -- strengthen communities -- communication and collaboration among city agencies and providers. i want to highlight this because it is the reason that dr. bland exists. i want to thank mayor breed for creating this position, for recognizing the need to look across city agencies, to look to our nonprofit partners, to bring folks together to get out of the silos and to have us working together towards common destinations and towards getting care to the people who need it. we can do this. i don't want to steal dr. colfax 's thunder because i think he may say some similar things and i will -- i will say

again. we know we can do this because we have done it before. the san francisco model of h.i.v. care was innovated by a city that had been abandoned by the federal government to deal with really challenging public health crises here at the local level and although we were angry , and many of the folks here protested the federal government's inaction in the department of public health, and other city agencies, and in our nonprofit partners, we innovated and we created a san francisco model of care that has now resulted in new h.i.v. infections dropping below 200 for the first time. that is amazing. we will get to zero, but the fact we were able to do it there gives me hope we can do it here with our behavioral health services. and dr. bland will get us there. thank you, again, mayor breed for all of your work and all of these behavioral health issues. it can't be done in a day, but

you have not rested a day since you have started. i am grateful for that. i want to thank my cochair, i want to thank the d.p.h. staff who work so hard on running these all of the members to do such extraordinary work in your work lives and to go above and beyond every day but who gave us the wisdom, the expertise, the experience to come up with the report that i think really does make a useful contribution to the conversation. i am excited. thank you. [applause] >> i also want to take the opportunity to thank and recognize a commander who is joining us from the police department, as well as brent andrews from p.r.c. some amazing community partners. we have two more speakers and at

this time, i would like to ask dr. grant colfax, the director of the department of public health, to say a few words. >> thank you. i think before i started, you announced i was going to be cochairing the task force. [laughter] >> i am really pleased. it is great to be here with so many colleagues and friends and having worked on this issue for several decades, i think this is an amazing day as we move forward with recommendations. the health department, with so many did -- was only partners in the room, we do big things. this is one of the next big things that we are going to do. i want to thank mayor breed for her leadership in this and my cochair supervisor mandelman, and all the members of the task force, and the public health team that really helped move this forward. and i think very importantly, the people who are living or in

recovery with meth addiction because i think that their voices in the room, the courage they show to coming forward, ensuring what needs to be done in helping us come up with solutions is really, really key to us moving forward. i'm committed to ensuring that the recommendations of this report are implemented. we did that with h.i.v. and we will do it with this. we can get this done. i also think it is important that while we think of meth as a substance addiction and having very concerning health consequences as a result of that , including overdose, we also have to frame this in the broader context of health and wellness. that has had effects on strokes, it has effects on cardiovascular health. we know the documentation on the h.i.v. so providing a broader contextualized approach to how we address people who are using meth, meet their needs, and people who are at risk is really key. this is an evident --

evidence-based community informed report that will save lives. i think sometimes when we issue these reports it is really important to remind ourselves of that. it will save lives as we implement. it will also improve the quality of life for all san franciscans where -- we are all affected by the meth epidemic and today we're coming together to do something about it. i think i want -- one of the key things that stood out in the task force is that san francisco is a city of compassion and we are driven by the conviction that all individuals deserve an opportunity to achieve their health and wellness goals. we courageously demonstrated leadership on so many friends. i said we would do big things from our approach h.i.v. to implementing healthy san francisco, to implementing the affordable care act, our approach to hepatitis c, we can do this going forward.

we know that lives are being lost to meth today and the people struggle with this destructive substance -- half of them come voluntarily seeking help. they begin to provide summary and will free up valuable space and resources to treat more people in our city's emergency rooms. we can make changes to the system that will make a difference. we have operated a sobering center. we will build and what we have learned from that to implement this sobering center and others. we have heard stories of hope,

learned about promising treatment and dug into the data that talks about the problem. we will continue to do the work. we need the community and all of you to improve san francisco and take on this danger to our families, friends and neighbors. together, we can and will make a difference. >> thank you. now a few words from mike from the san francisco aids foundation. >> thank you. thank you very much. i'm a little bit nervous. i will read my statement here. i want to comment. i agree san francisco has been courageous. i'm very passionate about the work we do at this project and we have been working with meth users for over 15 years. i am a member of the task force and i was a member of the last task force years ago and the

director of the foundation. it was funded in 1997 by michael seaver and served by gay and trans men who have sex by men and some trans women who have substance use concerns, including challenges with the use of crystal meth. it was founded as one of the first programs and as a result of one of the first treatment on demand recommendations over 20 years ago. our program allows participants to enter at all levels of substance use, misuse, and/or dependence. for a first 10 years, the project's focused our work specifically on substance use services and treatment solely within the intersection of meth -- matthews and h.i.v.

transmission and infection. at its conception, we were seen as radically different than the care offered at most substance use counseling and treatment programs due to our harm reduction approach. thanks in large part of the funding of the san francisco department of health and the san francisco aids foundation, many donors and other funders, we remain strong and have expanded our substance use services including our low barrier and free harm reduction services offered through our innovative harm reduction center on sixth street and in san francisco's does san francisco soma district and other locations in the castro. we recently started our program to offer our evidence-based continued seat management that serves meth users beyond services for gay, by, and trans populations to nongay identified meth and other stimulant users. as it is called out in the task force recommendations, the san francisco aids foundation has

been working to expand all easy access services. we have been expanding our program in partnership with our other behavioral health efforts and other treatment in support -- and support providers throughout the city. we offer low barrier overdose prevention and substance use counseling and support injection and noninjection drug users in the streets and other drop-in services. i am proud of these recommendations. it they recognize what our vision has known all along. at the aids foundation, the substance use programs expect all methods to get help with meth concerns and other substance use concerns. we will continue to dig deep and innovate along with the city and other departments to effectively offer the type of low barrier and other support and treatment services and outreach recommended for enhancement and expansion at the task force recommendations. at the aids foundation, i

applaud mayor breed and for their support to support a task force. it was charged in larp -- large part to recommend ways to improve our system of care or substance use on our streets. the san francisco aids foundation and our c.e.o. look forward to partnering with the city to realize the vision of

the task force recommendations. i believe when we accept drug users without stigma, and in a state -- and in all states of health, mental health, and substance use and misuse, we have nothing to gain but vast improvements in serving all residents with substance use concerns to improve health and functioning. low barrier services like those recommended today offer particular improvements for community members not ready for more intensive or traditional treatment options for easy access service options, support, drop-in centers, case management , more accessible substance treatment and supportive policy on all levels of healthcare delivery. thank you and please join with us to support the recommendations put forth today. [applause] >> chair peskin: -- >> thank you. and another great partner in this effort he will say a few words is what andrews with

p.r.c. [applause] >> it is wonderful to be here. i am just looking down the line here. thank you for allowing me to be part of the analysis and the processes. you are my mayor and i support you fiercely. we have known each other for years. thank you for leadership. you and i has -- have to find a new place for dinner. when the man was speaking, i all i could think is don't say that don't say that because that is in my speech. he will just hear that one more time. [laughter] i want to thank the mayor and the supervisors for understanding the importance of convening the methamphetamine

task force. as we seek to address the critical issues of the day, homelessness, mental health, and substance use issues, we could not have achieved that successfully if we didn't fully address the growing crisis of meth and its effects that it is having on our community. over the past eight months, the task force came together with a shared goal of seeking to decrease health risks, identify best practices and reduce the negative social impacts that they are having on san francisco under the 17 recommendations, the creation of the sobering center is key among them. rather than being an opportunity to take someone to the psychiatric emergency services, the sobering center would provide an appropriate alternative, giving them access to outpatient services and other community-based mental health and substance use treatment

services. it understands the value of an effective program, as many of you know, in partnership with the city, thank you, mayor, we are in partnership with the city on hummingbird place. it is a low threshold barrier removal navigation center located on the campus of zuckerberg general. this innovative general program addresses the cross-section of substance use, mental health, and homelessness. with many people transitioning into one of our nine residential treatment sites. sometimes they have been there only for their very first time. they have been on the street this long. they have made the decision for themselves. this homelike environment when someone is off the streets and feeling safe, and supported with three meals a day and shower facilities, and a homelike environment and a beautiful -- i call it nature therapy. when you are able to be off the street and out of duress and finally make that decision for

yourself, that you want to show up for yourself and live a life of dignity. i know we can do that. one out of every four individuals that comes through comes into treatment. these programs are effective. it is clear that when we come together with our shared values leading the way, there is nothing that we cannot achieve. i'm pleased to be part of the process and look forward to partnering with the city and the limitation of many of these implementations from the task force. i want to thank the mayor, supervisor mandelman, dr. grant colfax. i am looking forward to partnering you. i want to acknowledge the many nonprofits who are in the room and across the community. it is across -- it is reason why we are able to apply this system of care. thank you. >> thank you. last but not least, i would like to say this is not a new challenge for our city.

when we think about even going back as far as 1960s, the heroin epidemic, into the 70s and the 80s with a crack at get -- epidemic all of the drugs sadly that have really destroyed lives and destroyed communities and destroyed families, we know that we can't just turn a blind eye. we have to think about ways in which we can make sure that providing help, providing support integrated into what we do in our medical system. it has to be something that is accessible to all people and not just those who couldn't afford treatment. i have been out in the community on a regular basis. when i talked about safe injection sites, it is interesting that whether it is a wealthy neighborhood, and in between or poor neighborhood, i always have someone who walks up to me and tells me about their child, about their friends,

about their family member, struggling with an addiction. none of us is immune to the struggle. it could be anyone of us. it could be any one of our family members or friends. i do think it is important that we have better access to treatment on demand. that we have better access to supportive wraparound services and they may not accept it on the first, second, or third time , but we have to make sure that regardless, it is available , it is accessible, it is easy to get to. and that is why we need to start looking at how we provide services for those struggling with substance use, for those who sadly are struggling with mental illness. we need to look at a new way of doing things so it is naturally integrated into our medical system in a more comprehensive, responsible way that has a tremendous impact on people's lives. that is the goal of what we are trying to accomplish.

using data, using medical experts, using nonprofit organizations, working together with the city to provide something that will effectively deliver so that we can see a difference and we can save lives that is the ultimate goal and i want to thank each and everyone of you for your work on the task force and all that you do to help us advance the goals of what we need to do to make san francisco a better city for each and every one of us. thank you all so much. [applause]

[gavel] >> good morning, everyone. the meeting will come to order. welcome to the november 4th, 2019, meeting of the rules committee. i'm supervisor hillary ronen, chair of the committee. we will be joined shortly by supervisor shamann walton, who is the vice chair and to my left is supervisor norman -- what is wrong with me, gordon mar. excuse me, gordon. our clerk is victor young. i'd like to thank matthew and michael at sfgov for staffing this meeting. mr. include, do you have any announcements? >> clerk: silence all cell phones and electronic devices. speaker cards and any documents to be included in the file should be submitted to the clerk. >> can you