t and welcome to the san francisco planning commission regular hearing for thursday, november 21, 2019. i would like to remind members of the public the commission does not tolerate any disruption or outburst of any kind. please silence your mobile devices for these proceedings. and when speaking before the commission if you care to, state your name for the record. i would like to take roll at this time. [roll call] we expect commissioners fung and moore to be absent. first up is item 1 case 2019-014348pca exemption from density limits for affordable and unauthorized units. planning code amendment is proposed for continuance to december 5 2019. 1100 van ness avenue, allocation revocation

is proposed for continuance. items 3a and b for case numbers 2018-007725var the variance at 244 douglass street is proposed for continuance december 5, 2019 for the variance agenda. further, commissioners, item 17 for case number 2018-012337 saturn street, conditional use authorization proposed for continuance to december 19. i'm pleased to inform you on your discretionary review calendar at 1299 sanchez street discretionary review has been withdrawn. i apologize welcome commissioner diamond. >> that's what i was going to say. we really welcome you, commissioner

diamond. i think we are going to do really good work on this commission. does any member of the public have comment on the items for the items proposed for continuance? if you do, please give public comment now. public comment is closed. >> do i hear a motion? >> move to continue >> second. >> thank you commissioners, on that motion to continue items as positive proposed. [roll call vote] so moved. that motion passes unanimously 5-0. if the zoning administrator would be so kind to condition item 3b. >> we'll continue item 3b to december 5. >> thank you. >> commissioner, under your consent calendar. all matters listed constitute a consent

calendar, are considered to be routine by the planning commission and may be acted upon by a single roll call vote of the commission. there will be no separate discussion of these items unless a member of the commission the public or staff so requests, in which event the matter shall be removed from the calendar and considered as a separate item at this oar future hearing. 333 dolores street, conditional use authorization, case 2019-015224cuu, 279 columbus avenue. 350 pacific avenue and item 7 case 20196419 at 3234 washington street, condominium conversion subdivision. i have no speaker cards. >> do members of the public wish to pull an item off the consent calendar or any of my fell lower commissioners? with that, public comment is closed. commissioner richards. >> move to approve.

>> second. >> thank you, commissioners. on that motion to approve items 4 5, 6 and 7 under your consent calendar. [roll call vote] that motion passes unanimously 5. zero placing us under item 8 consideration of adoption draft minutes for november 7, 2019 and your closed session of november 14, 2019. >> do any members of the public wish to comment on the draft minutes? okay. public comment is closed. commissioner pop he will. >> -- commissioner cop pell.>> thank you on that motion to adopt the minutes. [roll call vote]

that motion passes unanimously. item 9 commission comments and questions. >> commissioner richards. >> just one quick one. we had a couple weeks ago a dr on a falafel store in the castro, 463 castro. i wanted to update everybody. all that hearing, i walked by the storefront the other day and it's released again so the flying falafel will not be doing in where we did not approve the project. >> if there's nothing further, we can move onto department matters item 10 director's announcements >> thank you. good afternoon. first on behalf of the department, welcome to commissioner diamond. it's great to having you hear. even though our i'm together will be short, i have about three months, i will forward to that. >> thank you. >> secondly, i wanted to call to your

attention the memo in your packet from me regarding the excelsior. this came up a couple weeks ago. the commission asked about planning efforts. i wanted to call that out and remind you of that memo and actually also remind you that we are coming up on the budget project. so if there are specific ideas and requests you have we will be bringing the budget to you in january and february. i think as typically required the budget goes to the mayor, i think the third week in february. so we will be bringing that budget process to you in the next few weeks and we can think about this work in the context of that process. thirdly, i'm very pleased to announce that my colleague jeff sitting next to me has been given an award by the local aia, that is a very nice award. jeff is receiving the local government

award in the 2019 san francisco community alliance awards program. it recognizes an elected or appointed organizational or individual who establishes and contributes to the development of laws and policies that promote excellence in architecture. jeff has been working diligently with the local a ia on our procedures and programs to streamline the process and have more transparency and i'm grateful to see the aia is recognizing his work. so we congratulate him. >> congrats jeff. >> if there are no questions we can move onto item 11 review of past events at the board of supervisors board of appeals and historic preservation commission. >> good afternoon. manager of legislative affairs. canceled last week for veteran's day and also this week so there's nothing to report on that. and then at this week's committee

the committee voted to forward the mayor's planning commission appointment sue diamond, ruining the surprise there. to the board without a recommendation, passed with a 2-1 vote with walton against the motion because he wanted to recommend approval to the board. last week the temporary cannabis business permit to your extension passed its first read. and also last week the supervisors considered the ordinances allowing for the development at 3332 alaska street as well as the cu and ceqa appeal. the proposed project is a mixed use project with 744 dwelling units 3500 square feet of he retail and childcare. the planning commission certified on september 5, 2019. while the appellant raised 18 concerns the main item was the claim they failed to review potential design modifications to

decrease it's hoss toric use impact. they assert one of the alternatives should be approved instead of the project. the department maintained the community alternatives were considerably like the alternatives discussed and the alternatives could not be built and would not achieve the units desired. public comment during the hearing centered around concerns of the tree removal at the project site and its impact on climate changes and concerns over the type of retail use permitted and the allowable hours of operation. proponents supported a community alternative endorsed by the laurel heights improvement association. regarding the tree removal and how that would exacerbate climate change staff and project sponsored noted the project overall would not increase greenhouse gas emissions. it was certified by the governor as an environmental leadership project with

net zero greenhouse gas emissions. the project is a development located in proximity to frequent transit service and thus will have lower vehicle miles traveled and supports the state's ambitious climate goals. the climate change benefits would far out weigh the loss of carbon sequestering trees. the board voted to deny the appeal with the unanimous vote of supervisor peskin absent. the board voted to approve the entitlements for the project. this appeal provided an opportunity for the department to explain how projects like 3332 california are consistent with the state's strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. there's hope this will help decision makers and the public to be more informed about climate change developments while ensuring the environmental impact of traffic, which is noise air pollution and safety concerns continue to be properly addressed and mitigated through

the california environmental quality act. at this week's board hearing both 3333 california street and the extension for the canvas permits passed their second read. commissioner diamond was appointed to the planning commission. and the board is also meeting today for a special hearing to consider an issue of ordinance for the march 3 elections that would place a taxon -- tax -- on vacant commercial properties. 4767 mission street, the first step in the landmark designation process for board sponsored landmark designations. that concludes my report. >> thank you very much. commissioner richards. >> mr. star, what is 4768 mission street? >> i'm not entirely sure. do you know? >> okay. thanks. >> there are no other questions. the board of appeals did meet but

had nothing of interest for the planning commission. the historic preservation commission did meet yesterday. they did adopt recommendations for approvals. they adopted ceqa findings and approved a master certificate of appropriateness and a master major permit to alter for the academy of art university which you will be taking up today. and their action enables you to take up that matter today. >> did the community music center -- >> it did. >> is it coming in front of us? >> they did inneed >> thank you. >> there's nothing further we can move onto general public comment. i have no speaker cards. >> the folks who would like to come up for general public comment come up now. if you could line up on the left side of the room, that would be great. thank you.

if you would like to speak a public comment please sign up and you can come up when your turn is called. >> this is general public comment for items that do not appear on your agenda. [off mic] >> wait until we get there. thank you. go ahead. >> my name is jerry with the san francisco land use coalition. four illegal demolition cases came before us in a single day. can you hand out the -- to see dbi problems. some members asked for an investigation. i support this recommendation. i believe the root cause of the problem is low financial penalties for unpermitted work. i reviewed 1,517 building permits issued by dbi over the last four years. you have a summary of my analysis.

the average financial penalty issued over the four years was $1,171. not much of a deterrent when the average san francisco home costs $1.3 million. 39 percent of the financial penalty issued are below $295. i reviewed the penalty's dbi issued on some of the more egregious projects that have come before the commission and was shocked to see low penalties or no penalties. dbi assessed the penalty of $718 to illegal demolition of 49 hopkins a home designed by world-renowned architect richard. overhead, please. dbi did not assess a penalty to the demolition of a 900 square foot home on alvarado street that was to be replaced by a five-story

home. the demolition damaged both homes on either side of the house at 655 alvarado. san francisco is experiencing an emdemocratic of unpermitted work and the -- an emdemocratic of the planning issue did not issue a notice of enforcement for hopkins or alvarado and the program at the planning department does not assess financial penalties. the only example where the planning department issued an noe is 25 17th avenue where the developer received a penalty of $254. for unpermitted demolition of a three-story bay and deck parking structure. this is less than the cost of a parking ticket in a bus stop. can the planning commission justify a code enforcement process that lacks financial

penalties? i hope the planning commission will take steps to ensure that building and planning code enforcement will be half as effective as the city's parking code enforcement. you are responsible for land use in the in the city of san francisco. thank you very much. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, president melgar and commissioners. i'm sarah hoffman. the owner of 2471 green street. this is a discretionary review hearing that's been scheduled to be heard by the planning commission since february of 2018. and it's been continued at least seven times since february of 2018. environmental review, which was a

separate parallel issue was completed in june of this year. we had no choice but to file a writ petition in superior court to compel a hearing take place so this project can move on to the next stage of the permit process. even with a lawsuit pending it's now been continued again without a vote by the commission to january 9, 2020. we understand that last week's meeting was canceled. so all the matters scheduled had to be continued. but green street had already been put on the continuance calendar. and we don't know why that happened. so the meeting cancellation wasn't the issue. and the other hearings from last week's agenda were continued to much sooner dates, as soon as this week or early december. so all this to say this is an important due process issue. our client has been waiting for a hearing for two years on this discretionary review matter. and we respectfully request a sooner

hearing occur without further delay. thank you. >> thank you ms. hoffman. next speaker, please. >> going high-tech this time. good afternoon, president melgar and commissioners. my name is carolyn kennedy from the dolores heights improvement club. i'm here with a request for your consideration today to please ask staff to conduct impact analysis on the newly-enacted senate bill 330 the housing accountability act. i made this request on september 19 in public comment and your response was let's wait until the bill is enacted into law. it's now been signed. and i think it's critical to conduct an impact analysis for our city. senate bill 330 mandates many elements of the planning process including timelines, processes and penalties. it forces administrative approval for many projects. it's a top-down, one size fits all

approach to processes in over 300 jurisdictions in california. in my experience top down change doesn't go well. my question for you is what impact will this law have on san francisco's planning and entitlement process. i'm specifically concerned about demolition control appeal processes protection of existing and therefore more affordable housing along with rent controlled housing and historic buildings. i'll offer an example of potential impact from mimy neighborhood. the ways in which i think this law can slow dun the process and cause more. we have an acting plan use committee. we review all projects proposed for our neighborhood and attend meetings, discussions with project sponsors and neighbors. we seek to identify discuss and resolve concerns and issues. this activity doesn't slow down the process on the contrary it surfaces issues early on so they could be resolved before they come before this body or even the court.

and that was the intent when the process was put in place by san francisco planning, to have a collaborative process. what's happened in my neighborhood in the last three years i've found that we've worked to resolve three to four projects annually, and we are a small area, 24 blocks. that's four avoided discretionary reviews before this body. multiply our track record by the over 200 neighborhood groups on the planning department's project notifications contact list. and it can be a big number. so what will happen if it aboll hirschs this process. my neighborhood -- abolishes this process? my neighborhood is ground zero. it will stop high net worth individuals -- it will not stop having attorneys litigate. it won't stop my organization from opposing egregious projects that we think have a negative impact on our overall neighborhood

ultimately san francisco. so we stakeholders will not stop participating in the process and opposing projects just because senators oppose appeals. please provide an update on how senate bill 330 impacts san francisco and how it will be implemented. it will help all stakeholders remain engaged in the process. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> sue. planning staff, including commission secretary, speak into the microphone whenever you speak. you have a tendency to speak among yourselves up there. and you turn your heads, secretary and the planning director as well. and please, if the microphone isn't pointed to your mouth pointed to your shoulder if it's pointed to your ear people will assure

you. today i'm here -- a case i've been waiting for for 15 years. and it's not -- what happens in the academy of art, shame on you because i will start yelling speak louder all the time. i shouldn't have to do that. please do that yourself. correct yourselves. adjust your microphones if the microphones need some work, let your commission secretary know and he can deal with the people who manage this room. please -- a grading record on this. i will continue to push. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon commissioners.

my i'm registered for a proposed cannabis dispensary at 312 columbus street. as i've mentioned before i'm in the number two position to be a pending applicant for a cannabis dispensary at grant avenue. i'm here today to ask you to inform the planning department the cannabis dispensary at 1335 grant avenue isn't suitable for the neighborhood of north beach. while grant avenue is already a congested avenue with narrow sidewalks columbus street has one of the widest sidewalks in san francisco. it supports the volume of patient. it has minimal issues with traffic congestion because it's two lanes of traffic going either direction. our location at 312 columbus street has 2,000 square feet for retail and 2,000 square

feet for storage space. also by having a cannabis dispensary at columbus street you will replace the last club on columbus which is a live nude 18 and up establishment here by our business. we will have a greater appeal toward the neighboring community. the equity program was created to benefit those who are disproportionately affected by the war on drugs. i grew up in north beach in subsidized housing. because we had stable housing i was able to be the first in my family to attend college and merced. and now i'm hoping to use a career in cannabis to make my community a better place. i would ask you all to really examine each equity applicant that comes before you. they truly embody the goals and the spirit of the program or are they just lucky enough to be able to check enough boxes to qualify?

i believe i do both. thank you. >> thank you. any other public comment? with that public comment is closed. >> very good, commissioners. >> i'm sorry commissioner richards, did you have a comment on the public comment? >> yes two quick things first looking at the enforcement numbers i'm questioning the whole way we actually enforce it. encouraging bad behavior and paying tiny bits of money later on with this abatement process continuing to not have any fines. so i actually question the whole philosophy on that. secondly any idea we are on the update on 330? >> yeah, we are working on that right now. we are working both on a complementation process as well as an analysis of what will be entailed with 330. because it is now law we have to implement that law and we have to change some of our procedures

as a result. so we are working on both of those things. we hope to present them to you early next year. >> thank you. >> if there's nothing further, we can move onto item 12 case 2016-003351cwp for the racial and social equity action plan. phase 1 adoption. >> okay. so i will beg my fellow commissioner's patience in that we decided to do things a little bit differently for this item. usually a staff presents and then we let the public comment and then we make our comments. but for this item i requested to present myself, since this was something that we all except for commissioner diamond, because you weren't on yet but we all participated in. and i wanted to just tell the public from our perspective what we did and how we went through it and what decisions -- and how it

colored the decisions that we made going forward in terms of guiding staff through this very important work. so for the public the planning commission along with the historic preservation commission, went through a day-long training on racial equity as it relates to planning land use and preservation. so it was led by planning staff. and claudia flores and miriam will come up to present after we talk. but also we were joined by staff from the human rights commission folks who have been leading the racial equity work, as well as a consultant that specializes in this kind of work. and it led to a very robust discussion. and it was a very good discussion. i think that we bonded as humans.

we also got into a space where it was okay to be uncomfortable. i think in our society issues of race and racial equity oftentimes make some folks uncomfortable. and having the space to be uncomfortable and still talk about policy issues and make decisions together with the historic preservation commission was very good. so the bulk of the training was an exploration of the historic cal federal financing policy issues that have led to racial segregation of communities across america and how today we are making planning decisions based on the framework that was designed to be racially exclusionary. and that is exacerbating those patterns. and that in order to undo them we need to take

proactive action on a bunch of different things. and so i'm just going to go down some of the things that we decided to do. and i would really like it if other commissioners who were in this training could talk about what they are experiences were and if they want to add to the list that i have. because we may have missed some. so at the end of the day what we decided we wanted to see in terms of the guidance we provided to the staff, was a policy statement in the general plan or something else, that would have objective standards and criteria related to this work that would help guide our decisions. we often talk about individual projects or even area plans without a lot of the historical context about racial equity or access to planning information or resources from communities that have been excluded

in economically and racially disadvantaged. so that was the first thing we wanted is some clear policy statement. then we also wanted to have some framework to give project sponsors information about this policy guidance early. so that they would know what we are thinking about how we are looking at their projects and what will be required depending on the demographics and the historical data for that given project. we wanted both the planning commission and the historic preservation commission to have some tools in terms of community access, community outreach and representation of voices in these conversations that we have about projects and plans so that folks would have a clear

understanding about who are the winners and who are the losers when we are debating these issues and whose voices are heard the loudest and why. we wanted to know why the worst is prioritized in the department, given this set of criteria. why is it that we spend time and resources on some neighborhoods and not others and what is the criteria as compared to this policy statement that we have decided on. let's see. we wanted to make sure that resources are available to do this work. and i heard you director, about our budget discussion coming up pretty soon. and i want to let the public know that we are keeping that in mind. and we also want to understand the constraints, you know, in terms of other regulatory

infrastructures, both at the state and federal level, in terms of advancing these issues and to have that also be part of the discussion when staff comes to us with these things. and then also pertinent to the closed session that we had this morning we would like to see an internal work plan in the department to advance equity issues among our staff. and so while our staff is incredibly diverse and gender-balanced, i think the farther up you go in the chain of command, that becomes less so. so we would like to have an intentional and proactive work plan that includes professional development and training advancement opportunities and intentionality when it comes to giving folks the opportunity to pick up leadership and decision-making positions that reflect racial equity lens.

and lastly, we would like to see continuing education and more opportunities for everyone to advance this work. and that also includes us. and the historic preservation commission. i must say that i think since i've been on the commission it was the first time that we had a joint meeting with the historic preservation commission and we really appreciated having that and just breaking bread together and getting into deep discussions in small groups that also as an entire group of folks, there's a lot of things that we do that are common projects that come to them and come to us. but we don't often get a chance to meet together. so that was also a desire. and so with that i'm going to open it up to my fellow commissioners before i let ms. flores and

ms. jones come up, and to get your comments on what we went through and how we are proceeding with this work. commissioner richards. >> do we get a chance to speak after public comment? >> yes. also. >> okay. i'll wait. >> oh, okay. >> i'll wait until public comment is over. >> okay. sounds good. all right. ms. flores, come on up. >> investor know what you might see. i'm not left-handed. good afternoon commission president, department staff. thank you for the introduction. i'm very thrilled to be bringing the combination of three years of our work before you for consideration for adoption. it's been a significant lift for us to do this. because it's not just a plan with tasks but it's about culture change process change and a serious health assessment as an organization to see where we are doing well and where there's work to do. before i jump into the presentation,

i want to thank each of you for your support and direction direction. i want to thank secretary jonas for the joint section we had two months ago. director of ad administration santo for leading this undertaking. our plans and lessons learned are already a model for other agencies. i would like to thank the steering committee which has been providing guidance to the work. and i would like to thank the staff with whom this work would not be possible and shows the internal commitment to action. also rogers and chun for their advice and support and especially the core team would like to thank our director john ram for supporting the initiative and standing firmly behind it. excuse me. he did a lot of hard work. don't always get this excited but -- okay. we want to tell you that we wouldn't

be at this milestone without your engagement and leadership and i also want to thank the commission for the support and technical assistance. so i'm going to give a little bit of background during the presentation for the benefit of members of the public who are tuning in for the first time and just go over high-level components of the initiative and how we are tackling implementation and then go into next steps. so president melgar alluded to this but why is the department tackling racial and social equity? we know disparityies are increasing or stagnant and the housing crisis has made this worse for a lot of folks. city staff could be more diverse and better represent our communities particularly in management. and we also know that government and the planning in particular have a history with significant racial and social inequity. for these reasons and because we are public

servants, we have a responsibility to advance racial and social equity but also to ensure we are not exacerbating disparityies. i want to read this definition into the record because i hadn't noticed until two days ago that the legislation updated their definition. but the city family has been using. what is racial equity? the systemic and fair treatment along races while recognizing the historical context and harm done to specific racial groups. so we will update this definition in the plan. and we used the prior definition in your resolution. our initiative is fulfilling citywide mandates to advance equity. late mayor lee developed this. under mayor breed's leadership the the city's five-year financial plan includes

an investment strategy to advance his vision and generate greater accountability and equitable outcomes in city services. most recently the mayor and the board of supervisors approved legislation this last august creating a new office of racial equity under the human rights commission. this requires all departments to do exactly what we are doing create racial equity action plans. i would like to also highlight bullets 2 and 3 which is racial equity report card and create a budget equity assessment tool. commissioner melgar you referred to our budget. we hope to be able to practice with this tool very soon in the next few weeks. the responsibilities of city departments are to complete the plans by december of 2020 and as well as present publicly update every three years give annual progress reports and designate racial equity leaders. we are supposed to submit a staffing

plan so make sure we are staffing appropriately. there's also a non-retaliation language in the legislation. and we know the department has already been advising this kind of work going back to two decades. the action plan will help us do it for comprehensively in our internal as well as external work. so what are the key components of the initiative? phase 1, which is what is in front of you today for adoption deals with our internal operations and has actions, strategies and objectives in its inclusive of racial and social equity. we completed our staff training initial staff training baseline survey and rolled out a social and racial equity tool for staff to begin using on applicable projects as well as an implementation road map. phase 2 is already also underway for our external operations.

we have begun doing individual interviews in the community, starting focus groups, doing brainstorms with staff. and there's all the ongoing work of integrating and implementing and monitoring what we are doing. these are the initial five goals. the first four are hiring capacity building budget procurement contracting. and the fifth one points to the work that we need to do as part of phase ii. at the informational hearing earlier this year, the matrix was still a blank slate. we were still thinking about how to go about doing this. since then, we have developed on the first slide are some draft key indicators for us to track and be accountable. is anyone better off? how can we measure what we are doing? our proposal is to work with the new office of racial equity once it's up and running fully to coordinate with the racial equity report card

they have to produce to make sure we are tracking the right indicators and performance measures and that the work is alive across the city. similarly when we last presented, all the columns to the right of the actions on this slide were empty. since then we've come up with draft performance measures, the specific timeline for when we want to accomplish each of the actions as well as the due date and the lead. and again, we want to refine this with the office of racial equity, particularly the performance measure so we are tracking meaningful things and that we are consistent with how they want to -- the policy direction that they will set for us. so almost all of actions that are under goals 2 and 3 are pretty much underway for us. but we chose kind of these areas of priority for the remaining of the fiscal year for

implementation. training is not a one-time sort of we train everyone and everyone gets equity. we have to have ongoing learning. so we are prioritizing advanced training for managers fairness training, implicit bias. we want to create enhanced outreach and recruitment lists for hiring as well as contracting, so making sure potential contractors and organizations out there know of opportunities of our other work opportunities. and we also want to develop guidelines or criteria for hiring so managers, reviewers interview panelists are aware of issues around not just bias but other racial and social equity skills we might be looking for cultural competency for certain positions. contractors are an extension of our work. they need to be aware of these values and criteria.

so we want to develop some scoring criteria as well for them. and lastly, we already mentioned since the legislation requires that we analyze the budget the budget assessment tool will be a priority in the next few weeks. we included an interim assessment tool in the first phase and staff have already been having practice and applying this. so we can work with each other to help identify strategies for racial and social equity and to identify burden or unintended consequences on projects. i would like to sort of for example give an example, connect the staff has been very

proactive. not only do they have equity as one of the values but they have a comprehensive work plan which the rows are all the different tasks of the project. i know they are hard to read but i'll explain the last two columns. they identify specific racial and social equity activities for each of the tasks and actually associated a step of the tool that's most relevant or most important. so they've been very comprehensive about this. at the request of commissioner johnson, we are working with the market octavia team to apply the tool to the project. it's a project that's already pretty far into its life. so we have been working with the team to also work through this process. and then a project that will be in front of you today, also very proactive about coming up with equity goals and looking at unintended consequences and burdens. so what are our next steps?

as i said phase 2 focuses on the external or the department operation areas, everything from how we do our community outreach and engagement to our community development, data analysis, preservation, enforcement and monitoring. we have already begun doing brainstorms as well as the community process. president melgar summarized the direction they provided at the joint session and about half of these things can fold into phase ii of this process. i would say the first two bullets on this slide can be part of our budget process in the next few weeks and then the third bullet related to hiring is already encompassessed in phase i of this work. so this is where we are in the timeline, 2019 is the big box on this chart. some of the key highlights that are coming up we already at the historic preservation for adoption in two weeks december 4. and we will be -- the steering committee

is meeting next week and we are going to practice applying a budget tool with the steering committee so we can inform the rest of the city the challenges or the needs for how we should shape this tool. and then 2020 we hope to be back here in the spring with a draft of the phase ii plan and bring a draft for adoption in late fall. and of course continue our ongoing implementation and monitoring. so the proposed commission actions today adopt a resolution to adopt the phase i of the plain inclusive of the vision direct the staff to implement the plan and finalize the implementation matrix and performance metrics develop phase ii with community members, office of racial equity and city agencies work to ensure that historically underserved communities have act witable access to funding and services.

in the spring we'll come back with proposed plan amendments to incorporate racial and social equity. one department alone can't can't influence racial disparities. we have to work as a city to make a difference and advance a more equitable and inclusive city. it is an honor this being native american history work, to bring this work forward for your consideration. thank you. >> thank you ms. flores. we will now take a public comment on this item. i have two speaker cards. cynthia gomez and alex lanceberg. anyone else who wishes to provide public comment on this item please do so now. >> good afternoon commissioners. welcome, commissioner diamond. you've seen me many times. thank you for taking on the task of

this plan. the challenge is enormous and is not news to any of you, it's daunting because all of us are operating within a larger framework that is still designed to perpetrate and reinforce inequities. i would quote the wonderful toni morrison when she says the soil is bad for certain kinds of flowers. certain seeds will not nurture certain fruit it will not air and when the land kills we acquiesce and say the victim had no right to live. her we are wrong, of course. i applaud you for making that same determination and for using the tools that you do have and taking a leadership role and not simply taking a reactive role. i'm looking forward to hearing more details, of course, but to take that role is a very important first step. there are specific tools, there's

a lot i still need to understand but i'm very proud to understand with a union that is largely immigrants, women of color particularly recent immigrants a lot of new speakers of english. and we all of us fight like hell to make the job a dignified job to allow people a chance to work -- to live with dignity here and to have a voice and play a leadership role. the benefit of joining a union for the bottom 20 percent of income earners is it's basically more pronounced the farther down you go the income earnings the greater the benefit of joining a union. for earners in the bottom 20 percent the benefit of joining a union is something like a 20 percent bump. so you'll hear me talk every time i come here and ask you to think about all kinds of issues of equity who gets the park and open space and who has to contend with the crumbs? who gets an atmosphere of openness

with public resources and who has to deal with locked gates and limited hours? who gets the attention and who doesn't? we'll continue to talk about those things. i want to urge you to think about issues of labor when it comes to questions of equity, the particular tool of looking at community benefits is a great tool to look at that and i urge you to really use that and to think about all the different ways that each project comes before you can either exacerbate the inequity that nobody wants to see exacerbated or can chip away at it piece by piece. thanks very much. i look forward to hearing more. >> thanks, ms. gomez. next speaker please. [please stand by]

today, however, the labor movement, as cynthia said before me, at work for people for race, gender, national origin. plain an simple, unions raise workers' wages, give working people a voice in our democracy.

and they are how our general, racial and social equity concern become material realities in people's lives. what does this mean in practice with the construction trades, who i work with? apprenticeship programs are the first step in the construction career ladder, with wages that allow workers and their families to thrive, not just merely live. we're proud that nearly 70% of apprenticeship enrollees pretty much statewide since the recession, have been non-white. even for higher-paid mechanical crafts, non-whites make up half of the enrollees. what all of this really comes together is calling on you to take these equity considerations seriously in your work and to take the question of work seriously in your decisions. look at the project sponsors first hiring forms like actually in-depth to see if the contractors reflect those values in their labor relations. ask if development agreements negotiated by the mayor's office

of economic development, further equity goals in projects, construction and operation. ensure local hiring from the top of the -- from the bottom of the hole to the top of the building and in operations. [bell dings] and make sure that these commitments aren't just taken on faith but strictly enforced. i look forward to the ongoing dialogue. >> next speaker, please. >> commissioners, connie ford, san francisco labor council. first chairman melgar your leadership here has been extraordinary, that you bring up this issue. i haven't read the whole thing i have to be honest. but it's right here. the first thing that stood out to me is that you have in this document a definition of structural racism. i don't think i've ever read a government document that was 75 pages long talking about racism, that included the definition of

structural racism. so i know that everybody is digging deep. this is a big -- this is a big hurdle and a big job to cast. by coworks alex and cynthia took away a lot of my points i wanted to emphasize. however -- however i think the issue of jobs and work have to be -- and i've been up here many times talking about i read d.d.a.s, i have read the community benefit agreements. they always talks about jobs sometimes but enthusiastic never talk about the quality of jobs. a good job as you know has a living wage and benefits a part of it. and it's structural and it's important. and we shouldn't gust jib developers a write on perform -- if they say we're going to produce 4,000 jobs. we should be asking what kind of jobs and who will they serve. that's important. that's a structural thing. we talked before about maybe

having a worksheet where people can check it off. this -- you know, to know our first system is all set up. it's a good system. but guess what it's not enforceable. it's like if you want to do it, you can. if you don't want to do it, you can. we need to hold these developers and hold these people accountable. because in the end just like alex said and cynthia, it's these jobs that's going to address the racial inequity situation in our city. we all know that the wage disparities, economic disparities in our city are larger than practically anywhere else in the world. we have an opportunity -- we have an opportunity to really show our oomph and change the system to some degree. i support doing your internal work the internal department work has got to be done in every department in every city, and in every department. that's true. but let's look at the broader.

[bell dings] let's look at the broader. thank you very much for this position. thank you very much for giving me some nighttime reading and i look forward to working with you on this. >> thank you miss ford. next public comment please. >> good afternoon commissioners. my name is sabrina hernandez. and any time there's an opportunity to speak up for racial equality and diversity i'm there. so that's why i'm here today. i'm a member of i.b.w. local 6 in fact, a 32-year member. i.b.w. local 6 i started out as an apprentice. and it's -- it's something i celebrate, but something that always brings me a lot of pain. in my second year as an apprentice, i bought my first house. i bought my first house as an apprentice. this was 30 years ago. it's something i feel blessed by, but something that's painful to me. as we all know, cost of living here in san francisco is very high. represents are very high.

developments are very expensive. and there are a lot of people that are unable to continue living in this city. i.b.w. local 6 has been my professional home for a while. i carried tools for about half of my career and for half of my career i've been a business representative. and whether it was carrying tools or as a business representative i have always, always carried the experience of women of color at the forefront and people of color at the forefront. and people coming from disadvantaged backgrounds at the forefront. because that's who i am. that's where i came from. and as a lot of the speakers said before me, unions offer one of the great opportunities, as they did to me, to be able to continue living in this town. but i want to share a reality with you. you know i go and see the apprentices every tuesday, i stop into their classes just to provide a connection to the local union answer any

questions. the reality for the average apprentice coming in, big picture numbers are going up in terms of women participating in our program. in terms of people from disadvantaged zip codes in freelance being accepted into our program. very strong relationship with city build, providing a flood of great candidates to come into our apprentice program with the promise of high pay high-skilled jobs. but the challenge is still there. and a woman like me who may be in her early 20s in her second year of apprenticeship in the premiere local in the united states for unionized electrical workers cannot afford a house in san francisco. cannot get that down payment together. so while i applaud your efforts to put together this new initiative i just want to please ask you to keep in mind those folks who are considered high-paid high-wage high-skill

in your evaluations of the granting developments. and just don't forget us. thank you very much. >> thank you. any other public comment on this item? come on up. if there's any other public comment please line up on the left, so that we don't lose time. come on up. >> my name istariy jones. i'm a san francisco native. father son here. but i'm also a verified equity applicant. in a nutshell, you know i listened to everything that's being said today and it really hits close to home. it's something that hits me passionately, because it's something that affected me personally. not just me personally but my community my city and probably even the nation when we're talking about candidates. and i don't want to take this the wrong way. but when it comes when we're talking about equity, i want to make sure that equity is not

being tokenized when we're talking about the african-american community, brown communities and yellows. i want to make sure that everything is incorporated right. when we look at this topic, this is something that we're in a position to be leading for the nation when we're talking about san francisco. and as much as we're able to talk about union, different aspects of interests when it comes to equity, because we're talking business here at the end of the day, we're also talking about restorative justice, because there are those who are locked up, dead in the grave, that probably can't come back. and sometimes when it's white, it's right. when it's black it's black. we talk about this with cannabis. this is one of the legislations we can do. as the lady spoke about restorative justice is in paper what this legislation. i just hope you take an important example that you guys are going to be leading when we're