i want to echo you, supervisor walton, as an extended member of the budget committee. i want to congratulate and thank supervisor fewer for running probably the best process that i've ever seen as city hall, and i've been here ten years, running through these processes. this is no small feat, and i want to also thank you for these changes. i want to tell you about the one that i think i'm most excited about and i think is goes to be more helpful that we in a two-month process have the herculesan task of submitting budgets to the board at the same time that they submit them to the mayor.

that will let people understand in detail before the budget gets to the board. it's something that i've often behind the scenes tried to request but haven't had very much success in and only requesting those from the departments that i'm focused on. we should be receiving those as a matter of course from all departments. i want to tell you how excited i am with that particular part of the legislation. with that, if there's no further comment from my colleagues, i'll open this up for public comment. anyone wishing to speak, please lineup to my right, your left, and anyone wishing to speak please start us off. debra? >> good morning, supervisors, and i share your excitement. i am debbie lehrman from the budget justice coalition, and

first i want to thank supervisors fewer and mar, chelsea and daisy, and all of the cosponsors who have signed on, along with the mayor's office and the budget office. the budget is the single-most important piece of legislation that this board takes on every year, and this will improve transparency and civic trust in government. the budget negotiations often happen behind closed doors. there are boards that don't hold meetings at all, and those that do, some of them don't have a meeting until late in the process, just before it goes to the mayor. it's hard to get budget information from departments. it's either buried on their websites or not on there at

all. this legislation addresses that through public hearings, and a centralized website where people can go to one website and find out about the budgets and about upcoming hearings. this will ensure that the budget reflects community values and priorities through a more open process, and i cannot express enough or appreciation for your support and your vote. thank you. >> chair ronen: thank you. mr. mornino. >> supervisors, matthi matthias mormino. we look through people's budget and annuals, and we find usual suspects like chelsea boillard,

who authored a piece around how we should reform our budget. i remember we were talking with supervisor fewer and supervisor mar and saying yeah, we might do that. but there has been a lot of fighting there. i think it's important that we increase transparency and access. too many times, we ask our constituents, our folks to come out to a hearing, stand in line for hours and hours to get two minutes to speak on something that they're passionate about. and then, as you sit there with them or as they leave the room, they're like what happened? what are they going to say? how is this question that i had a burning question for the police department's budget or the sheriff's department

budget, why is it not being answered? you know, i think with this legislation, we start seeing more information come to our constituents so that really the budget process is anchored in community, and so that people that want to get information about the budget process don't have to go through proxies like ourselves or the coalition but can actually find that information directly on the city's website, which seems a really simple task, but i know that our friends at the controller's office and the city attorney's office, that's not an easy task. so i want to thank everybody at the mayor's office, the budget office and staff, and everybody that helped. thank you. >> chair ronen: hello, again. >> good morning again. david elliott lewis. one of the great frustrations

in dealing with city hall at times is lack of opacity and transparency. i think this is a big step forward. the public hearings are immensely helpful, but the website especially will make it -- make the information useful. i think this should be a best practice for all city hall processes. i know you do it with commission hearings and minutes, but all processes should be as public and transparent as this, so thank you for considering it. thank you for your time. >> good morning, supervisors. i just wanted to echo what the other folks have said. the budget -- and i'm sarah shore with community housing partnership, and i'm with the budget housing coalition.

with the folks that i've been working with in coalition, folks who have masters degrees, and in some cases, doctorates, it is incredibly difficult to find out where the money is going. that's the most important piece of this is, where the money's going, and what are the funding priorities of the city? who's being left out and who's, you know, maybe being disproportionately served? we as advocates for folks who are the most vulnerable in the city deserve and need to know about those things, and we need to know the details so we can advocate in the right way. so i really appreciate this legislation. i think this is going to bring tremendous transparency to the process. the remember site is wonderful -- website is

wonderful, but also the fact that the board gets a lot of information and therefore a say in this process is incredibly important, and it actually helps power the district members, constituents, to be able to speak to that, as well. so we just wholeheartedly support this. i have to say that i was, back in the day, a member of what was called the people's budget, so that's just so thai that the community has been working on this for a very long time and has to put together whole big coalitions and long, lengthy processes just to do the work of understanding the budget and watchdogging it and getting that money going to the right groups, and it should -- [inaudible] >> chair ronen: thank you. are there any other speakers on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. [gavel]. >> chair ronen: supervisor fewer? >> supervisor fewer: yes.

i was remiss in saying that the inclusion of supervisor mandelman and supervisor stefani, that means the entire budget committee. i meant to say that supervisor mar and supervisor yee are sponsors. i want to thank chelsea boillard. i think she has a much deeper understanding of the budget than i do as the budget chair, so i just want to give her a thanks. she's been working on the budget as a community organizer for a really long time. i feel that we are so honored to be able to be in this position that as budget chair and on the budget committee to be able to drive these things, and thank you to my cosponsors. thanks. >> chair ronen: we are the lucky ones. is there a motion -- you want to do the honors, supervisor

mar? >> supervisor mar: i would like to move that we move this forward to the -- both items, items number 3 and 4, to the full board with a positive recommendation. >> clerk: committee report? >> chair ronen: as a committee report? >> supervisor mar: as a committee report. thanks. >> chair ronen: without objection, those motions pass. >> clerk: item number 3 and 4 will be recommended as a neigh.

the task force will identify the underlying causes of the increase in street-level drug dealing and implement immediately coordinated, evidence-based solutions to urgently tackle this problem. the task force will look at crime prevention, law enforcement, recidivism, long-term employment and alternatives to incarceration. it will have the power to solicit data and research best practices from around the country. the task force will prepare and submit to the board of supervisors and the mayor a plan which will contain a

review of the best practices. the goal of this task force is to start in the next couple of months. small businesses right now are suffering and residents are suffering and need a seat at the table where these critical decisions will be made about the future of their neighborhoods and their well-being. we need to come up with strategies beyond solely policing and incarcerated low level offenders. there needs to be a comprehensive and strategic approach. for those who have applied, if you are not selected to sit on this task force, i hope that you will continue your commitment to the community and will still engage in the task force by attending future hearings and meetings that the task force will have. thank you, and i'm looking forward to getting to work. thank you so much. >> chair ronen: thank you. do any of my other colleagues have any questions? okay. so we have 25 applicants for nine seats. i think it's testament to how important this -- this task

force is that we have so many applicants for -- for -- to play a role in fixing this long-standing entrenched problem in the neighborhood and in the district. so we're going to call one by one those applicants that's true here today. we're -- that are here today. we're going to ask that you hold your comments to two minutes so we can get out in a timely manner. i'm going to call three applicants at a time. feel free to come up in any order and lineup to my right, your left. so i will start with lindsey -- maria richard, lindsay lasalle, and benjamin ambrogi.

>> my name is lindsay lasalle. i am an attorney, and really, we work to remove drug use and drug sales to the maximum extent possible out of the criminal justice system and instead into the public health and other social services systems that can better address the harms of drug use and drug sales and also can better address the harms of criminalization. if we don't want people selling on the street then saddling them with a criminal conviction and a criminal record where they can't enter the employment market and only leave them to enter an illicit market is counter productive. our policies that we have, we intend to be based in science, compassion, health, and human rights. for my part, my portfolio largely focuses on crafting policy solutions in the space

of health and harm reduction. my expertise really lies in translating lived experience, international practice, and the research and science to come up with effective solutions, policy proposals, and programs that can be implemented at the local, state, and federal level. so in the context of drug use, this has looked like access to naloxone, access to medication treatment like buprenorphine. i'm very interested in translating those issues from drug usage and drug sales. we also have a broader report coming out on drug sales next week. for that, i interviewed dozens of people who sell drugs to try to remove the stigma and racism that largely informs who we think sells drugs, and that has

a whole host of policy solutions that i would love to bring to the task force and start exploring, so thank you so much. >> good morning. my name's maria richard, and i am very experienced at using a multifaceted approach to addressing negative behaviors such as the street drug dealing. i've worked for 20 years on the corner at turk and taylor, at 111 taylor as the director of a reentry program. we house over 100 men and women that are returning to the community from prison, and this is another alternative to prison. we have an 85% employment rate on individuals who have extensive criminal history. so i have an excellent relationship with our law enforcement family, with the sfpd, probation, state parole, federal probation, as well as

working with just a plethora of agencies to assist our returning citizens in umm canning back into the community. many of these individuals have had an extensive history of drug dealing charges. not all of them, but many of them have. we strongly believe in a restorative justice model with our program. we have several agencies that are really working on the street that are dealing with this population kind of in a different way. we have given offices to both civic, pit stop, and hunters point family to work out of taylor street so they can be right there. i have worked directly with formerly incarcerated individuals, their families, friend. although i have not personally been incarcerated, i have firsthand experience with the substance abuse issue as well as the arrests, so our main

focus is helping to assist through cognitive behavioral changes and making better choices. we obviously deal with this issue, being on the corner of turk and taylor. i've been doing this for 20 years, and i would apply the eight principles of evidence-based practice that any agency working with or any element working with the incarcerated should be using, and i would use my expertise to help educate other people, what behavioral changes, and what is the best practices to address this revolving door and just change. we definitely go by it takes a village and it takes relationships to address this issue. thank you. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. next speaker, and while benjamin's coming up, if michael brinkofski, pedro

florez, and david bercutt can lineup. >> good morning. the more time i spend in these communities, the more i think i can be a valuable contribution to these communities and to the task force because i've seen the street-level drug deal issues from both sides. a decade ago i know the tenderloin a different way because when i was 20, i was using drugs from the streets of the tenderloin, and it was a daily process, and i observed police strategies that would curb drug sales and use ageaged i saw policies that completely failed. although a lost a lot of my life, i am lucky that i was able to turned my life around and get an education. i work closely with a program

called second chance and specifically a professor mobley who taught me about restorative justice. we watched people turn their lives around using new and alternative programs and staying out of prison. today, i still work in education and also in the law. i'm usually working at a college on post and taylor or i'm working at u.c. hastings a few blocks away. this spring, i worked closely training pro bono attorneys and working with the homeless advocacy project, and i consider myself lucky not only have been able to turn my life around, but to be able to have these two lives and two different experiences that i think put me in a unique position to be able to understand a street level drug dealing task force. i'd like to be able to use that experience to help the community.

>> chair ronen: thank you so much. hello again. now's the right time. >> yeah. i tried four times. so my name's david bercutt, and rather than list -- take up too much time listing all the things i've done, i just would like to say that i've been involved in the drug world since i was a teenager, and i'm 66 now. since 1998, i've been clean with the help of buprenorphine, which is a miraculous substance that can help the city very much. i've been a salesman most of my life. i specialize in communications in helping people paint mental pictures of things, of helping people understand what is being attempted to accomplish, just

all forms of communication between the task force and the people on the street requires somebody that knows who they are, where they're from, has lived in their country as i have, that knows a lot of details that you people are probably not even aware of about the business on the street and how it's run, and where it's run, and where it works back to. it's all very surprising and not exactly what people think, but i believe there's somebody that can really mix with the people on the street who's not afraid of the people on the street and who has a lot of experience and expertise. there's a book i wrote. it's about 220 pages long. it's called drug realities. it's available on the internet, so i've done a lot of communications work, historical work, all kinds of work that are sort of in the background but they're very essential for

making a bridge between what you people are trying to initiate and what their realities are on the street, which are so different. there has to be somebody that knows the two things and is able through communication to bridge that gap. i could name a lot of other things that i've done, but i'm not going to take the time. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. >> okay. thank you. >> chair ronen: thank you. and i also wanted to call jessie james johnson, sam dennison, and portia diction sdiction -- dixson. >> hello. my name is pedro florez.

i've worked with the national council on alcoholism and i've led our prevention and diverse programs while working there, so working closely with many families in the tenderloin, which are immigrants and are forced to live there under the circumstances that we're trying to remedy with the task force. what i would like to do is offer my service, both my insights professionally and my experience in public health and my listed experience as a resident to help support this work. now i realize that this is coming from -- it's not coming from one of your districts, but i hope that this can be an invitation for partnership, because although the tenderloin is burdened with this problem, it is not just in the tenderloin, it is a problem for all of san francisco.

thank you. >> hi. my name is jessie james johnson. i'm a poet and a 20-year resident of the tenderloin. i believe i qualify for seats 1, 2, and 3 and/or 7 and 8. i have letters of support from several community-based organizations, a business owner, one from a property owner, and my landlord. they're included because it's not who i am that are important, but the people that are in my life. these are people who are part of my daily life, people who i have earned their trust and people who i work with. you might know that golden gate is the epicenter of the open air drug dealing. as different as we all are, we

are the different people we must come together to address the crisis we find ourselves in. i believe i can help in reaching a consensus. it's heartbreaking to see the people of the tenderloin working against each other. the visual is an obstacle. i believe that anyone, if asked and given a clear path to follow will step forward to be a part of the solution. some will be challenged to let go of our notion of being victims, and in being a victim, of having no responsibility tot larger community. we have a lot to work through. the solutions we seek will probably not be found in the deliberations of nine people. who matter who is selected today, this task force must engage everyone in this room to be successful. we need to see ourselves as a

community not just of people but with compassion to each other. only then can we work towards the solution. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. >> what he said. i'm sam dennison, and for the last nine months, i've been convening in my living room, a tenderloin committee dedicated to the harms of drug use in our community. submit today mr. haney's -- submitted to mr. haney's office some of the legislation that we're working on today. when i said what he said, i really mean it. i live in a place where one of the people that i treasure the most was shot in the back over a drug deal. somebody living next door to me was shot through a window with somebody who was playing with a gun. i've also seen people get out of jail trembling because

they've lost their home and everything. what we consistently do is the same thing over and over again, and i'm heartened to hear that there are a lot of people from the drug policy i lines group and -- policy alliance group and others who will bring to the table new ideas. i'd like to foster the conversation that there are people who a-- as you know, ths is a very complex issue, and the piece that i have to bring to the table is that community parallel process where we have been engaging with these issues very deeply and thoughtfully. so my hope is that if i am to be part of this task force, that i can bring that element of listening clearly, speaking thoughtfully and encouraging others to really bring their better self-s to tves to the t. thank you. >> chair ronen: and while

portia's coming up, i'll call carol shanks, philip sabbagh, and thomas wolf. >> hello. my name is portia dixson. i'm here -- good morning -- oh, dang. okay. i was a -- i was raised right here in the tenderloin on leavenworth. actually, i was one of the peoples -- i started selling drugs out on the street corners at 13 years old. by the age of 34, lucky i had the support i had. i stopped selling. now i started working for the gubio project. i work for hospitality house, i work for sort. now i save lives, and i also help people get off the streets and get jobs now, but i'm not coming with the extensive

background, but i'm one of the people, and i'm shy, i don't know what to say, oh, this is too much, whoa. >> chair ronen: you're doing great. just -- just tell us who you are and what you want to do and speak from your heart. >> i'm here to take people off the streets and not to jail because jail is not always the way. i'm one of the people, and jail didn't help me. it didn't make me stop. i kept going. what worked was the support from other people, so i've got to go. >> chair ronen: just so you know, you did really, really well. thank you so much. [applause] >> thank you, y'all. >> chair ronen: thank you. >> hi. my name is carol shanks.

i work with food justice, community leader, community organizer. i'm also a community activity, and i do a lot of work for different nonprofits in district 6. i'm a native san franciscan. i am a -- i have experience in incarceration. i have dealt drugs. i am an addict in recovery. i have been out there on the street using. i also have a very, very good rapport with the people on the street, with the drug dealers and the users, which is very, very important, that they have a voice in this process. it's a lot -- it's more complicated than -- than them just being out there, using drugs. it's much deeper, has to do with being homeless, mental

issues, and all those issues have to be addressed. it's not only devastating to the community owners, but it's also devastating to the people out there using and dealing drugs. i have been in meetings with sam in her living room for a few months now in dealing with solutions and helping with limth legislation for matt haney's office in this. i care. i really care, and i just would really, really like to have a seat and be a voice for the people, so i thank you. namaste. >> chair ronen: thank you. thank you.

[applause] >> good morning. my name is thomas wolf. i used to be a heroin addict and homeless. i got clean about 18 months ago. i work with homeless veterans, many of which are dealing with substance abuse. i used to be a drive -up buyer and then i was a walk up buyer. i know what's going on. i've been out there. now in recovery. what i've done is i've gotten some exposure on social media. i've been on the news several times. what i'd like to do is bring some new ideas and solutions to

the table for san francisco. i am a native san franciscan, and i do still live in san francisco, and i still live in the city, and i just want to help, so thank you very much. >> chair ronen: as philip comes up, if i could call janet ector, ibithaj hammond, and sew had a abdue agene, and -- soha abdu ajine and i'm sorry.

[inaudible] >> all of this being said, i'm not indifferent to the struggles that people face. i have been volunteering at healthright 360, tutoring in g.e.d. or in some cases, simply learning to read in the past four years, and i found that to be an incredibly rewarding experience. i believe people deserve sometimes second, third, fourth chances. at the same time, we can't enable people by turning a blind eye to their criminal activity. i'm not going to pretend that i have the answer, i'm simply here as a concerned citizen. i have a strong background in analysis. i have a master's degree in

business. i'm real esta i'm retired, and i'm simply hoping i can help this task force achieve its goals. thank you. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. >> good morning, and thank you for the opportunity to apply for a community on the task force. i have lived in san francisco since 1976, frequently as a resident of the tenderloin. i was born to and raised in the same marginalized condition that currently plague our tenderloin community. i went through my own chaotic drug use, including dealing, and subsequently went through treatment at walden house. as a result, i went onto work at walden house for eight years. i'm currently the manager of

the harm reduction programs at glide, providing services to people who are actively engaged in drug use. in my current role, i also manage the law enforcement diversion program, working in collaboration with the sfpd, the sheriff's office, b.a.r.t. police, the district attorney's office and several branchs of public health, so i have a lot of experience with the community and deep ties with the community, and i think i can bring a unique perspective to the task force that's grounded in the principles of harm reduction practices as well as being a voice for both reason and compassion. [please stand by]

a lot of people talk about who they are and what's going on. we have to understand who we are. if we understand who we are, we understand who they are. because it's not us versus them. i spent a year in jail, ms. richards is a great strong leader and i appreciate her.

the reason why i'm here today is because restorative justice for me has been the answer. we believe in respect, care, trust and empathy. i'm here to say change is possible. former gang member, sold drugs, dealt drugs, used drugs. family membered o. d.ed but change is possible and it comes through care and concern. it's not about whether we are going to be consistent, it's about who is speaking that language. it's not what i say, it's how i say it. i've seen the pictures of the young men and women that were arrested and put on the tenderloin website and most of them were friends. all i saw was trauma, victimization. so what's really needed for us is just for us all to come together as we have here and all these people here are stakeholders, just as they are in the streets, and i believe the empathy we are bringing will be the difference. what i would hope to bring, specifically to this agape love

that says no, this is the truth. the truth needs to be spoke. there's places in the city where it's not allowed. there are places you would not see this level of drug use. let's start there. let's take that model, let's bring that love and the resources that we have, the outreach would be the biggest difference. if we can provide a difference for them in their lives and the hope, lifestyle, addiction is reel. beliefs, habits and traditions have been handed out that makes us think this is the only way. that is another thing that has to be challenged. so i say thank you, whichever way you go, i'm glad you are going in that direction, and i will support you in any form. >> thank you. [applause] >> good morning, honorable supervisors. my name is rhiannon bailard. i'm the executive director of operations at uc hastings law and i serve as vice president of the board for the tenderloin community benefits district.

i'm here today applying for a seat as a business owner representative on the task force, because uc davis law wants to be part of the solution. we understand this is an incredibly complicated problem and one that can only be resolved by having a multidisciplinary, multiinstitutional holistic approach as you've heard from so many different perspectives that we have heard today. my background, among other functions, i oversee safety and security. so what that means is i'm responsible for 1500 people that live, work or study here in the city and specifically in the tenderloin. and 300 of those are student residents. i'm the one that's responsible for their feeling of a lack of safety. we have had others have commented increasing violence that we've seen, increasing frequency, increasing in the extremity of it.

we've had multiple homicides in and around the campus. we have had assaults in our parking garage. i think anybody here can speak to the amount of violence that we've seen. and i'm responsible for responding to my community. and i also know that the tenderloin has more children than any other neighborhood in san francisco. it's completely unacceptable in terms of what's happening right now. at the same time, i absolutely agree with the comments that have been provided by sam and others that it's not black and white of us versus them, victims versus perpetrators so we need this holistic approach. and what i bring in addition to having that safety and security background is someone who really focuses on consensus building, who focuses oncoming to compromise-type solutions to be able to hear all the voices that are attributing, seeking to resolve it. i appreciate your time today. thank you. >> as curtis comes up, is kim

diamond, teresa lynn friend, eric brizee >> my name is curtis bradford. i'm applying for seats 8 or 99. i'm in the tenderloin district. i've lived in my current s.r. o. for the last ten years. prior to that i've been homeless and using and couch surfing and room hopping and sometimes doorway sleeping and using and sometimes dealing in the tenderloin for many years prior to that as well. i got clean nine years ago through the storm wall project and through glides 90-day outpatient drug treatment program. after that i became a facilitator at the treatment program for eight years. i'm one of the founding members, along with jesse here and co-chair of the tenderloin people's congress which is a grassroots organization in the

tenderloin. i'm currently serving my third year as a board member of the tenderloin community benefit district. spent five years on the board at t.n.d.c.'s reportable housing developer. i'm a full-time employee as a community organizer in the tenderloin. as you can see tenderloin is in my dna. and i'm deeply engaged with the community, with the residents, the families, the seniors, the small business owners, nonprofits, with the staff. i have this broad spectrum of folks and that's what we need. we need somebody who can bring all these broad semi trust specm together. this is a challenging subject and it's going to require someone who has relationships and can build relationships throughout a spectrum of perspectives in the neighborhood.

and i believe that i bring that to this. i'm one of the members of the steering committee of for the masses. i think i have a lot to bring to this, and i hope you'll consider me. thank you. >> hello. good morning, supervisors. my name is kim diamond. and i'm a voice, just a human voice. all i bring to you today is life experience. this is what will be my first board appointment. i'm a resident of k.c.c. since 2012. i've been on the homeless route, i've used drugs to survive. i walk outside my door every day to drug deals being made. i want to be a point to help accomplish find real solutions for these problems on our

streets, just like many, many more of those beautiful voices before me and have spoken all of this too. i want my grandchildren to be able to visit me. i want them to be able to be safe. i was unsure that i was qualified for this position in the beginning but going through the process showed me some things. i already knew the tenderloin had given me my street experience and smarts and i was surprised by the awesome support letters i received. i didn't get started until just last thursday. i found the e-mail explaining the process so i sat down, sent out requests to everyone i could think of and i received good ones but there were a couple that threw me a little. they stated they couldn't support me, they had to support their people in their organization and that's one thing that really stood out that made me realize that i could hear my dad telling me to get my

head out outside clouds. i had only one thing in mind, to contact people who know me personally so i truly bring to this seat a representative of none and representative of all. i will listen to everyone and speak for all. inclusion is not just a word to me, it is a way of life. exclusion of any kind is a wall. i put your attention to remember the idea i put forth in my paperwork that i don't have time to go into. i don't care who gets credit for it, i just think it's a program that is worth it in our neighborhood. thank you for your time. >> thank you so much. >> good morning. my name is teresa friend. i'm the director and managing attorney of the homeless advocacy project of the justice university of the bar association. we provide social services to individuals and families who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in san francisco.

i've supervised it for over 25 years. it is located in the building we own at haight street in the tenderloin. we have 20 employees. we serve 1500 clients a year at that location. our block of haight street, 100 block, is the site of active drug dealing on a daily basis. you have excellent applicants. you can't go wrong. i will tell you why i would like to serve. but i can't say that i'm any more qualified than the number of people who have spoken. i believe i would be a good addition because first, the office is at ground zero of the issue so we have every incentive to find an answer that works. every day my staff and our clients have to navigate through a crowd of drug dealers to get and out of our building. in addition to other issues that have been mentioned, some drug dealers sometimes sexually harass our female staff members,

just on friday we had a dealer threaten our security guard, threaten to kill our guard because he asked them to move away from the front of our building. at the same time we represent a lot of clients who have serious addiction issues who liv on the street. our staff has been traumatized by watching police sweeps with people thrown on the ground and their things thrown away. so figuring out the most effective way to address the problem is a high priority for me and our organization. i also just want to say in addition to having been an attorney for 35 years i'm a certified mediator. it will be important for everyone to really listen to each other. and i think i can help facilitate some of that communication. so i thank you for your consideration, as i said. you can't go wrong. >> thank you. >> i'm also going to call up nicole richardson, tom whalen, max young. >> good morning.

my name is eric brizee. i'm operations manager for american conservatory theater. we operate on market street, a costume shop on market street and the theater on geary street. so we circle the entire district. i also chair a meeting, the 1100 block meeting. we work with health and safety issues on the mid-market corridor. we've been meeting for about a month with support from city, law enforcement, d.a.'s office, health and human services, et cetera. i have been educated a lot this past year on the different aspects of what's going on in our streets. i think that we can all say we are at ground zero. i tend to think of them as hot spots. we have a bad hot spot at seventh and market which really affects our patrons to the

theater, our actors, our staff, anybody in that area knows it can be cyclical and the intention on the task force is i'm an operations manager. i work with research, finding out what the problem is and supplementation. i previously managed -- i was executive officer to the citywide alcoholism advisory board, members appointed by the rules committee. i believe they still are. so i have a background in substance abuse. mostly treatment. what i hope to bring to the task force, and i agree you can't go wrong. you have so many qualified applicants that i don't have quite qualifications but i'm willing to serve as a voice, administratively, if not appointed i really do plan on attending and listening and having input. thank you very much.

>> hello. my name is nicole richardson. and i am a married mother of two boys under two years old. pray for me. i'm a woman of color who has lived in the tenderloin for four years at the intersection of turk and jones. i lived in the bay area for six years total. throughout that time i've lived in the other areas such as the mission district, the sunset district and east bay. i have a bachelor's degree in advertising and a master's degree in arts administration. i'm originally from flint, michigan, which is another community with its own issues. and i lived and worked all over the united states, such as detroit, michigan, atlanta, georgia, boston, massachusetts,

portland, oregon, and of course san francisco. since living in san francisco, i have only worked in the tenderloin. i started working at san francisco city impact, which is an organization that introduced me to the tenderloin. while working at this organization i developed relationships with residents, while being a resident myself, and i received access and inside look inside many of the s.r. o.s. my husband and i have become business owners of a marketing agency within the past two years. and we have had the pleasure of services businesses off of market street such as restaurants, and we are currently involved with the tenderloin community benefits district or the tlcb. throughout my time living here, i have witnessed many drug

interactions during the day. and it ranges from the obvious with the groups of drug dealers around a particular area to the not so obvious coordinated operation with cars and lookouts and things of that matter. this is something that affects me every day as a resident and most importantly as a mother. it is very traumatic for me and my children to constantly witness open air drug usage as a result of drug dealing. it's so bad i don't let my child walk on the sidewalk, due to the feces and the needles. there has been numerous times when i've seen needles on the sidewalk and i've had to teach my two-year-old it's something that is bad and is to never be touched. this is a huge problem. and i feel remiss to live in a city where i have to teach this to my child for his own safety.

within the past two months alone, i've been assaulted on the street of the police station and have come home to an open box of needles in front of my door where my family come in and out of with strollers. this makes me emotional to this day. i feel like i could offer solutions from my unique perspective and as someone who has lived in various areas. is that my time? >> it is. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> hi. good afternoon or good morning. i'm the last one. i am max young. i own a business and building on 34 seventh street and have been directly impacted by the drug dealing that's taken place. i've been in that location for 20 plus years. i'm a native san franciscan.

my grandfather had a shop on market. my great uncle lived in the tenderloin. i'm familiar with the neighborhood and the city. and i am pissed. i amex trimly frustrated with -- i am extremely frustrated with what's going on out there. we need a change. i've been yelling about this for five years. i've watched my neighborhood degrade. it was moving the right direction for a number of years and it seemed to slide back downhill. the previous speaker, i feel for her. i can't imagine what it would be like. i have two little girls. i don't take them to my neighborhood where i work. i can't. i don't feel it's safe for them. next door to me there's a ballet studio in the odd fellows building. i'm watching their students get out of the car and run up the street. i've watched their enrollment decline. it is not safe out there.

people cannot walk up and down the street. just recently we've had a police car parked in civic center plaza 24/7 with the lights flashing. that's the only thing that's made an impact but it's not sustainable. we need to make a change. i've been complaining about this the whole time and screaming and yelling so i need to throw my hat in the ring and say i can't just complain, i have to be able to do something. so if i can help, i'm in. we appreciate what you guys are doing. we are thrilled to see this task force take place. i think i can speak for everybody in this room that we are excited to see some change. so thank you. >> thank you so much. i just wanted to give one last chance to the five applicants that didn't yet speak. if any of them are here, michael michael, not here? i will open this item up for public comment.

anyone who wishes to speak on this item. i will ask applicants not to -- can applicants speak during public comment if they are speaking about other candidates or in general? >> i believe they can provide support for other applicants but they cannot speak on behalf of themselves >> okay. so if applicants want to speak in public comment on behalf of other applicants, feel free to do so. but please don't speak about your own candidacy. that time has come and gone. david, please start us off. thank you. >> good morning. holiday greetings. david eliott lewis. you have a tough job. 25 applied, 20 spoke. there's nine seats. and from the 20 that spoke, they all sound amazing. all of them. how do you choose? i have personal experience with about five of them.