i've also been working on legislative changes that will make it easier for people to start businesses and keep them thriving, encouraging property owners to keep storefronts occupied is essential. in march, voters will be asked to vote on supervisor peskin's storefront vacancy tax, which i was happy to sponsor. we are introducing these planning code amendments today to ensure that if voters pass the measure, the m.c.d.s will be in place at the time of the alex so that the tax strategy will be applicable to the m.c.d.s as they are to the 30 named commercial districts throughout the city. i thoroughly thank the city staff who made this happen, planning staff, especially to amy binehart in my official, who hustled incredibly fast when we realized these

neighborhood commercial districts would not be part of the vacancy tax if it is passed by the voters, and the merchants of bernal and the portola who responded to quickly to confirm that they indeed do support this action, and the rest i submit. >> clerk: thank you, supervisor ronen. supervisor safai? >> supervisor safai: submit. >> clerk: thank you. supervisor stefani? thank you. supervisor walton? >> supervisor walton: thank you. i have three items that we will be introducing today. for the first, along with my cosponsors, supervisor mar and supervisor haney, i'm introducing a supplemental budget appropriation ordinance to help restore the 300 classes proposed to be cut for the spring 2020 semester. i know firsthand how important city college is -- [applause] [gavel]. >> supervisor walton: i know

firsthand how important city college is to san francisco. every year, thousands of district 10 residents and san franciscans across the city rely on city college and its various programs for jobs and skills training. i understand that city college has to make some hard decisions as it looks towards the future, but changes this drastic without community input or alternative solutions are incredibly worrying. i have several concerns about these proposed cuts. how do these cuts impact students of color, how are these cuts decided, and what students are most impacted? while i understand the importance of underlying class -- of on-line classes, i understand not everyone has on-line access. again, who are more impacted? i see that about 12 child development classes are being cut. we are always in a crisis for educators, and as we move to expand universal preschool and child care, these classes are crucial in keeping a qualified

workforce in place. it is also not lost on me that we are cutting classes while administrators received raises at city college. [applause] >> supervisor walton: anyone attending city college knows how quickly classes can fill up and how difficult getting class requirements can be. how much harder will these cuts make it for students who are awaiting class enrollments for a transfer or for a degree completion? we on the board of supervisors have a responsibility to represent the city and county of san francisco and to look out for our constituents, yet none of us were included in any discussions by city college leadership about the impacts these class closures would have on our city. this is a one-time supplemental that says we stand with access to education, and i know we need to have a more detailed conversation with the city and college leadership about how we can further support city college for the long-term.

i strongly believe in free, equitable access to higher education for everyone. these cuts don't allow for that equitable access, and because of that, i believe we on the board of supervisors need to do our part to protect our constituents from the hardships these cuts will cause. [applause] >> supervisor walton: secondly, i am introducing the ordinance to allow the director of property to abrequire and accept land from caltrans along a portion of highway 101 and the northeast corner of bayshore boulevard overcrossing the southeast intersection of third street and bay avenue to create a gateway to the neighborhood. this gateway will let you know you are entering the bayview community from the southeast part of san francisco. i'm also proposing legislation to help ensure we don't have another situation like juul as

a significant tenant on city property. the port entered into a long-term ground lease with horton development for restoration of historic buildings at port 70. juul managed to acquire sublease space and skirt the need for port consent. in circumstances like that, the city should have a lower threshold for consenting to subleases on its property, including port property, where those subleases can harm the city's interests. accordingly, i am asking the city attorney to draft an ordinance amending chapter 23 of the city's administrative code to provide that all commercial leases of city property with a term of at least 35 years must expressly require that the tenant obtain the city's consent before

entering into significant subleases. i believe significant subleases are subleases of 25,000 square feet or more. that requirement would apply to all city property, including port property. the ordinance imposing this consent requirement would apply to all new commercial leases of 35 years or more, including leases in the pipeline that have not yet been approved and executed by the city and also to amendments of existing commercial leases that would enter into and have a term of 35 years or more. the rest i submit. >> clerk: thank you, supervisor walton. president yee? >> president yee: submit. >> clerk: thank you. supervisor fewer? >> supervisor fewer: thank you.

we absolutely need bold action from washington, d.c. to keep our families together not only by immediately closing detention camps, which i know we all support, but also by allowing these parents to stay in the u.s. with their children and having an opportunity for a path to citizenship. instead, the action that we are seeing from the white house, the department of homeland security and immigration and customs reform is the opposite of what we need, and today's breaking news is that the u.s. officials -- that u. of the officials are creating -- u.s. officials are granting road blocks to people that request asylum. i appreciate the demands from community placed on us and our federal representatives to not only react to the white house's xenophobic agenda but boldly

instate actions for our immigrant community. i am introducing a resolution to call on congress to protect children providing a pathway to citizenship for their parents. thank you to my cosponsors for your support on this critical issue. i am happy to cosponsor supervisor walton's supplemental appropriation for city college, which is facing significant class reductions for the spring semester. i want to share a bit of my thinking on this issue. i think we can all agree that public education seriously and tragically underfunded in the state of california. our state has the fifth largest economy in the world, and we should be fully investing in our k through 14 system to support the development of the next generation, including community college students, and in san francisco, we invest significantly through tens of millions of dollars each year

into the san francisco unified school district or k through 12 public school system, but city college has been for years, excuse the expression, the step child in the education in san francisco. i personally am a graduate of the city college of san francisco. my father died when i was 14, and i was not a very good high school student, and so city college was the only option for me. i spent 3.5 years there, and from there, i transferred to a four-year university. and my husband is also a graduate, and also my three children attended the child development classes at city college, so we are a city college family. i recognize that the timeline for the supplemental funding is incredibly late and that registration for these classes has already begun. i do not know whether this funding will come in time to save these classes from the proposed cuts, but i do know that this is an institution that we need to support as a

city and county. city college is an institution of opportunity for students of color and working class people to better themselves and invest in their own futures, future city college is san francisco. i will say this is the beginning of many conversations about not only this funding but also what long-term support looks like for this critical institution. we know that city college needs to implement serious structural reform. the current structure is not sustainable, and we need city college not just to survive, but to thrive for the thousands of students that attend there each yes, sir, and i look forward to discussions with supervisor walton and mar as these situations progress. >> clerk: thank you, supervisor fewer. supervisor haney? >> supervisor haney: thank you. i have one resolution that i am introducing today which is in support of the community and

residents at san francisco general hospital. over a year ago both the internal medicine and family medicine departments at s.f. general made hospital administration aware of an impending crisis based on staffing issues that were creating unsafe conditions with patient census increases. to date, unsafe conditions have persisted. i am supporting the both the workers at san francisco general and the san francisco general patients who deserve better. the doctors and medical professionals at sf general signed a petition, 534 of them, calling on the hospital administration to act and prioritize patient care. general practitioners are expected to work in excess of 80 hours a week to compensate for the staff shortage. today, these front line medical practitioners are working

within the lines of their contract to establish effective systems that accommodate the staffing needs of emergency department and positively impact the patient services. in planning for the future of this hospital, these doctors are also fighting to ensure they have a voice to address the issues at lahand. by adopting these proposals, we can ensure that patients are receiving the best possible care and valuable resources like patient beds and staff time are being used proposely. especially with today's passing of mental health sf, we need our doctors more than ever, we need them supported, we need appropriate staff, and all of us rely on san francisco general hospital in particular to be there for residents of our respective districts and all across the city who are in need, so i hope that we can

support these interns and residents who are working upwards of 80 hours a week, and by supporting our doctors, we're supporting the patients. second, i just want to also say that i'm very proud to be in support as a cosponsor of the supplemental for city college. i think that, you know, we have to be clear that this isn't city college over here, the school district over here, the city over here, this is for all of our residents and all of our communities. we don't stand apart in any sort of way. i spent five years as the joint chair of the city and community college committee when i was a school board member, and thanks to the reestablishment of the committee by supervisor yee, i share a chair with them. and one thing we have been absolutely clear about between

the trustees, and -- the commissioners, and the supervisors is we're in this together. we have to be there when city college is in need, when the city is in need, when our facility are in need, and we want to get back and tran scend t -- transcend the needs of all of our residents. it's important for all of our folks who not just use city college as a pathway to other types of higher learning, it's critical that city college is there for all of our residents and maintains its support for city needs and lifelong learning. this is crucial to all of our residents, to their quality of life. i come across folks in my district all the time who say they rely on city college for english language programs, for technology, for art, for all sorts of ways that they can

reenter the workforce, enrich their lives, enrich their communities. and it's not a city college issue, it's our issue as a city. as our city's elected representatives, our duty is there, to step up and commit city college when it's in need and to have a responsibility to address the structural and long-term funding questions. i think this is a stopbat measure as we work with city college -- stopgap measure as we work with city college, and this relationship is one of thriving for our residents who rely on it and really expect it to be there as one of our city's most essential institutions. so thank you, supervisor walton, for your leadership and supervisor mar and supervisor fewer, and i'm proud to stand with you all on this and to see a path and to see us work together on the committee and

beyond to address the needs of city college. [applause] >> president yee: so are we done? >> clerk: mr. president, that concludes our roll call for introductions. >> president yee: okay. thank you. so why don't we go straight into public comment? >> clerk: at this time, the public may now address the entire board of supervisors for up to two minutes on items in the subject matter jurisdiction of the board to include the october 22 and 29 board meeting minutes, and the closed session. public comment is not allowed when an item has been previously subject to public comment on a board committee. direct your comments to the board as a whole, not to individual supervisors and not to the audience. speakers using interpretation assistance will be allowed twice the amount of time. if you would like to display your document on the overhead projector, please state such to

sfgovtv, and say when the camera should return to live coverage of the meeting. >> president yee: okay. i just want to remind when speakers make their comments to, we don't allow live audibles. if you approve, show your fingers, and if you don't, put your hands down, so we can hear what they're saying and move quickly through the line here so everybody's going to get an opportunity. okay. so first up. how you doing? >> thank you very much, president yee, members of the board of supervisors. greetings, and happy holidays. i am here today in terms of information. i'm a resident of san francisco. i'm the president of the san francisco fire commission for the last 25 years. before that, i was an art commissioner. i am also an executive director of the japantown task force.

i am here today as a public citizen. i am here to take the time to thank our supervisor, vallie brown, for all of your advocacy, all of your tireless work in terms of our endeavors. it's very, very important to have someone that knows the neighborhood, and i know you know the japanese neighborhood, our history, our culture, our challenges, as well. we sorely are going to miss you. i've got to be honest, i'm worried about our future. just as a point of information and transparency, and i do hope there's no retribution or any ill effects upon me or the japanese american community, but the supervisor elect who's coming into office, in the eight years of him trying to accomplish that endeavor, we've never been able to have a conversation with him. we ask you, members of the board of supervisors, to help us introduce ourselves to that supervisor, dean preston, but also, we're going to ask each one of you supervisors, who

knows us we will in or -- our japanese community of our traditions, of our endeavors, because we do not want to be a community that disappears, as well. we are going to be looking at our sister supervisor, stefani, in terms of our well-being. supervisor brown, we love you. thank you for all and good luc in all of your endeavors. >> president yee: thank you. next speaker. >> i am peter war field, and i am a student at city college in the adults program. i'd like to show you a letter from some of us who have formed a group called equity for older students, and this appears in the current edition of the guardsman, which is the city college newspaper. the -- there's a serious issue with respect to the process and the product of the huge cuts,

288 classes was the last that we heard in the week before thanksgiving in what some have called a midnight massacre, cuts made just a day before or the day of registration for spring semester. these cuts were done without any of the normal process, and they affected not only many areas, and in particular the arts, but constituted a 90% cut in the older adults program. again, there was no public process in advance of this. the chancellor has sent you a letter in which he says this is part of a long-standing process. well maybe in his mind, it is, but there hasn't been any discussion that i know of about these particular cuts at board of trustee meetings nor even on

thursday's meeting is there anything on the agenda with respect to specific class cuts. i appreciate the supervisors who have helped, who have already commented about their concerns and hope that you will be able to help fund, as supervisor haney said, an asset for everybody in this city, especially continuing education, ongoing learning. thank you. >> president yee: thank you. next speaker. >> mr. president, supervisors, i thank the supervisors for those who are listening to my comments, and i request that those who are not listening start listening. i come to you today for my brief public comment as a voice of san francisco past.

i have lived in this grand city for many decades. [please stand by]

suffering, including during this, yet another christmas season. please work harder. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is lisa. i'm a proud district 5 resident. and i'm here on behalf of my friends and neighbors and as a board member of the bay area housing advocacy coalition to thank supervisor brown for her wonderful service for district 5. she has always led with her heart and with her head as a pragmatic progressive. we are so thankful for everything she's done for our district, for district 5 and advocating for the people who are most vulnerable in securing affordable housing for those who need it and honestly, every weekend and weeknight, just picking up the trash and

cleaning up graffiti, talking with everybody and really making connections with everybody in our district. we are so appreciative. and we will really miss supervisor vallie brown. thank you for your service. >> thank you. next speaker. >> my, i'm kathy. i'm coming to talk about city college but first i would like to thank supervisor ronen for her legislation around the district, setting up districts for courtland street and portal areas. i think that's a really important piece of community development. so i finally retired from sfusd a year and a half ago, and i finally got to enroll in city college classes. and i found in the classes that i've taken, that there is an incredible diversity of people in san francisco taking these

classes. and my class was cut, even though there were 25 or 30 people in the class, and i understand a lot of the classes that have been cut have been very large. but i went to a meeting of people who were talking about the issue, and i found out something that's really alarming, and that is the classes in the trades, the building trades, the upholstering, the classes in trades that have been popular and allowing employment at a reasonable salary of people who actually live in san francisco, it seems ridiculous to be cutting those classes for economic reasons as well as all the other reasons. and i would just like to thank you all for your support. and it's so great to know that everybody is on the same side, at least the people that have spoken are on the same page. thank you. >> our mayor, in her absence, the chairman of the board, other

supervisors, i would like to take this opportunity to thank vallie brown for all the work she did in district 5. i'm a long time resident of district 5, i to california in 1947, and i watched all the things that have happened over the years. met anyone who cared so much to pick up the garbage, to pick up the people, try to find places for people to live, try to help all of us to develop new relationships and understanding here in our district. and i would like, again, to thank you so very much for what you have done. >> i want to say, i'm with you all on the city college. but i came here to talk about the reparations initiative. and i also came here to not necessarily talk about racism and those type of things, but to talk about acknowledgement and

being overlooked. most of the time when black people are hired, you know, except for franklin, most of the time when black people are -- it's about us struggling against something and fighting some oppression, but you never acknowledge this, and i understand the city, you never acknowledge this for our contribution. we actually contributed to the fabric of this city. alexander leesburg helped start the first school district, the first hotel, the first african-american bank in san francisco in the united states. mary ellen, first interfaith church. cecil williams opening doors for the lgbtq community. and our contribution is never acknowledged. so why would we he know want you to stay? we had a whole history here. so yeah, we need reparations.

and what i also want to say is i would like to congratulate vallie brown, because she's been my first advocate at city hall, ever. right? and you know what that means to a young black male? somebody i can bring my ideas to and she tell me what works and what doesn't work. that's what i need. i don't need the racism talk. show me what can work and what i can do. so she's more like a mentor, educating me on things and proper perspective. so i just came here to be solution-oriented. i see the seconds ticking and i want to say unite the city. >> thank you. next speaker. >> hi, my name is liba. i wear many hats. i am a parent, first and foremost. and resident of san francisco

for decades. thank you all for being here and doing the fabulous job that you are doing. i am today to speak on behalf of the reparations. and that is being put into place. it really hurts me in my heart to even have to come and speak on this. i think it's a hands down when we look at the history of the black people who have been in this country and the trauma and the atrocities that they have suffered as a people. i think that it is also really says something to the fact that when so many others have received reparations and these people, i'm speaking of the

black, commonly called african-american people here, are still being overlooked. i think that it is time that we stop overlooking these -- the african-american people. i think that it is time that we take these reparations and put them into place. and that we do justice, and that we give justice where justice is due. i think that it is time that we stop dividing the city and providing for some and deleting out others. this community has suffered so many murderings and killings and pushing-out and homelessness. it's time that reparation is given to these people for the hundreds of thousands. >> thank you. next speaker.

>> hello, supras. thank you for having us here. i want to let the ccfs people know, i am a former student as well as i know people there now and it's sad what they were doing, especially to the older generation. also thank you for the affordable housing. please keep in mind that many people need more than a three to four bedroom due to health conditions so they have reasonable accommodations, especially that people that have asthma and need companion pets so try to have four bedrooms. i'm here to speak on reparations because it's about time we get paid. i'm tired of sitting back watching our people being stepped on. everybody else gets rights from the shes to hers to hims the pronouns, animals, everybody gets rights, rosa parks didn't give up her seat so we could have a front row view. malcolm x would roll over in his

grave if he knew kids were going to a school with his namesake on toxic land. martin luther king junior dreamt of ending segregation but we are still segregated. you are selling our kids in school, it's totally sad. we have no sense of belonging. we don't even have a foreign language. what are we taking? we sit back and watch you guys build and build. and i'm not just saying you guys but i mean all around the world. we are humans too. and we deserve reparations. i don't care what you tax, get it tomorrow, take it from the chase center. i'm trying to get up out of here because the human rights commission has a meeting at the opera house at 5:00 that everybody needs to be there. because it is a human rights violation what they are doing to us. and it's sad. why are we being left behind? everybody else getting rights. and i appreciate you mr. walton, for speaking on behalf of city

college and everything. and i appreciate everybody that -- [off mic] >> thank you. next speaker. >> thank you, supervisors. i wanted to join others in taking a moment to thank supervisor vallie brown. it has been a privilege to work with her for quite some time now in getting the fillmore heritage center to the point where it's at. and she believed in a team with heart when nobody else did. and she has a lot of heart too. and so this friday, there will be an event -- i need to adjust that -- at the fillmore heritage center as one way to say thank you to supervisor brown.

it's not nearly what she deserves. it's not nearly the thank you that we want to give her. but it's what we are able to give her. so, again, thank you supervisor brown, and thank you to the board. >> thank you. next speaker. >> hi. my name is quinton sandburg. i'm a resident of district 5. in a world where who you know and what you do rules, i hope that's enough. i'm here to support a true leader of community in vallie brown. there's not much i can say that no one has heard or witnessed themselves as colleagues here at city hall. but i believe it's important to express my disgust for the results of the recent district 5 supervisor election. it's an injustice, plain and simple. how you may ask i get into a level of comfort to say injustice? i received a wide range of threats on a regular basis that included death threats. i heard people affiliated with

the campaign, including the candidate making insinuations that i'm being watched and followed and i met a guy named fig. that guy stalked me into a bar and introduced himself as the local neighborhood nazi leader. giving some explanation of his involvement in the election and threatened me if i didn't stop talking about politics. that right there assures me i'm on the side that's right, that's just. and yes, i said nazi. a group that's recognized as a terrorist group, that clearly liked the results of the election. i do hope that dean preston will be able to explain his income tense incompetence or lying. >> i know he's not here. one of the things we try to do is not name individuals as you are making your remarks and if you could respect that, i would really appreciate it. thank you. >> i do want to say one thing in

closing. sig, and to all those that support or are white supremacists, in my world and i'm not alone in this, your time is done. i clearly haven't stopped talking and will not, because i believe in being fearless, fighting and standing next to those that do the name. vallie, i stand with you now and will always, because i trust and believe in you based on your repeated actions of kindness and community activism and from the overwhelming outpouring of support from the district 5 and the city in general. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> behind every great woman is another great woman. and that's how we got to know vallie brown, working in our event supervisor, london breed. i want to thank you. i come here representing the merchants associations of many community members in our sunset for showing up for all those

meetings before when you were an aid and then as a supervisor to the commons and golden gate park, you were always there. we thank you so much for your support and your leadership. thank you so much. >> thank you. next speaker. >> i want to thank the supervisors that are in support of the $2.7 million to support t city college san francisco classes to be restored. and i want to encourage the rest to join in your support. you've been hearing a lot of reasons for the downsizing of city college. many of them are under the guys of fiscal responsibility or with the best intentions in mind for the san francisco residents. that's not true. one of the reasons you are hearing is about the classes that are being cut are underenrolled and that is causing a budgetary crisis to city college of san francisco. but many of these classes are fully enrolled, many are

overenrolled, and many have extensive wait lists, some up to 100 students waiting to get into the classes that they need. our chancellor is saying it's not because of financial necessity and we don't need the money. he is saying it's about restructuring to focus on those trying to transfer or graduate, but that's not true either. many san francisco residents are being forced to get the classes they need to transfer at community colleges outside of san francisco because of the same cuts. residents are unable to utilize the programs that they pay taxes for like free city. these cuts have no rime or reason. all they do is add insult to injury to those already being disenfranchised. please support $2.7 million in emergency funding to help stabilize the college while we wait for coming legislation and policies to be implemented that will restore city college to its

intended purpose of education for all. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> hello. my name is eva. i'm a student at ccfs. mayor breed opened this meeting discussing funding for mental health and protecting san francisco. i believe that part of that should include city college as well and the need to include the emergency bridge funding through our spring semester classes. at city college, programs like arts, culinary arts and hospitality are the first two-year hospitality program, culinary arts has been cut which means that consequently only morning classes are offered. so what does that mean for students who are unable to attend afternoon classes? what would happen to their schedule? there's also the older adult

learning program too. and i want to say over the weekend i celebrated my grandfather's 91st birthday and we celebrated at my aunt's house because she she wanted my grandparents to leave the house. for this program, a lot of older people are able to leave the house to attend city college because it's a way to help their mental health as well. as mental health is important to all, i have to say that city college classes have helped students not just learn but to cope as well. i know that for me, i struggled with severe social anxiety. i couldn't leave the house to get mail. i didn't talk to my high school friends for four years. my voice deteriorated and now i'm trying to talk to you all. it was hard for me to be around others and to be honest i still struggle with that to this day. but city college has helped me rebuild myself. it's my asian-american studies

helped me be more in touch with my community and be connected to my professor who got me involved in an art show. the women's and gender studies department helped me -- [off mic] >> thank you. next speaker. >> hello. my name is marco. i'm a student at city college. i want to thank the other students that have already spoken. i think that we really need this bridge funding to save the classes, because like many of you have already heard from the comments, city college is an institution that really helps with the physical, mental and emotional wellbeing of the residents in the city in every district. city college campuses are all over the city. it's relevant to every district. so i appreciate the support from

the supervisors that see this very clearly. to the other supervisors that have not signed on, i credible you to do so as well -- i encourage you to do so as well. the more we disenfranchise people from city college, the harder it will be to rebuild that trust and connection to our community. city college has that already and we should protect it. we should make city college thrive instead of cutting down and just allowing the state to dictate the type of education that the city should provide. san francisco has always fought to be a unique city that has its own values and follow its own path regardless of what the state wants to see. we all recognize san francisco as a city of trailblazing, a city that the entire nation looks at. and when we fail, the entire nation and the entire people that are trying to push the values that we have in san francisco fail as well. city college of san francisco is

an incredibly important institution, not just to san francisco but to the movement of education as a human right as something that we all deserve every day of our lives for the entire time we are alive. education is not about degrees. it is not about transfers. while those things are important, it is not the goal of education. and it shouldn't be on a human level. and i appreciate the supervisors who see that. i encourage you all to sign onto this so we can save our spring 2020 enrollment. >> thank you. next speaker. >> hi. my name is rick. i teach part time at city college. i'm speaking as a member of the higher education action team. and also as a powerless faculty member at a college of powerless students. at city college, the power rests with our rogue administration, led by chancellor, i believe

supervisor mandelman voted against hiring him. i said rogue because that's what recently happened and there's been other incidents where he sends a letter rejecting the emergency fund. what kind of leader would reject this funding to save the classes? less than a month ago, out of the blue, the administration announced all of a sudden a $13 million deficit that would require them to cut 300 classes. that resulted in utter chaos at the college and fewer educational opportunities for students. the printed schedules that finally came out in a timely manner for a change lists these 300 classes that have been cut. who are the students being harmed? they are working class students of color predominantly. they have generally suffered fewer opportunities throughout the history of this country but most egregious are the cuts to

the older adult program. some of the classes are classes in balancing. that is where older adults learn to prevent falls. when older adults fall they break bones and they harm their bodies. and so we are requesting the $3 million roughly to reverse these cuts. the question for all of you is are you in favor of denying educational opportunities and shortening the lives of older adults that will happen because they can't take these classes? or will you support the emergency funding for those of you who have not yet decided to support this funding? we are also calling on you to do an independent audit of the college to make sure the taxpayers money is being properly spent. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i'm marla night. i'm a retired city college teacher. i taught in both the credit and noncredit divisions.

my daughter attended city college before transferring to a four-year university. and i have taken classes while i was teaching. and i'm also taking classes in the older adult program, which as you heard, was cut 90 percent. and these are extremely vulnerable people. i have always been so proud of the mission of city college. and this has been a travesty what happened. it happened summarily. i really hope you support. and i'm happy to hear that so many of you are supporting emergency bridge funding to reinstated the spring classes. thank you so much. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon. it's a pleasure to be here and thank you for all your support for city college. my name is diane wallis. i've been an efl teacher since 1992 at city college. from the article in yesterday's chronicle, i saw the links that our chancellor had written you a

letter and said the situation is not an emergency and he and husband trustees will handle this difficult situation directly at the college. unfortunately many of us have lost confidence in this chancellor and in our board of trustees, and we are grateful to you for overseeing what's going on with these cuts. he said in the letter that the cuts were part of a long planned restructuring of the academic program but all the cuts came as a surprise. and he also said that the cuts were made to prioritize the high-demand students who need to graduate. but one of the classes being cut, which i found out from a colleague at john adams, is the healthcare information technology class 74, which is necessary for students to graduate and is only offered in the spring semester. that class has been cut, which means that students will not be able to graduate in spring 2020. another class that's being cut is welding 144a which will prevent one of our students from

continuing with his vocational needs. we would like to restore the full spectrum of classes to enrich the community, music art, older adult classes. we should be expanding our vision of san francisco community college. and the reason that many of us are here today is because we feel like there's a complete and repeated lack of communication among all the stakeholders at the college. we don't feel like we are being included in the process of how these cuts were made, and we feel like it's a very dangerous direction for the college to go in. and thank you again for all your support. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i'm jenny, english instructor at city college and also president of aft2121. i want to thank supervisor walton for introducing this request for supplemental funding and the others for cosponsoring.

thank you so much. a couple weeks ago we learned that 280 classes would be canceled from our spring schedule, the day before students began registering, students were understandably confused when they went to register for classes that no longer apeered on the schedule. we are asking for enough funding to restore these 280 spring semester classes as well as summer classes that are planned to be canceled. the classes that are being targeted are largely classes that are being devalued by the state of california as you heard supervisor mar explaining in regard to the proposal for community higher education funds. and we are asking you as the representatives of the people of san francisco to allocate these funds so that the college that those residents depend on can run the courses that our

residents have come to expect and which they deserve. i just wanted to say a couple of things about the specific classes that have been canceled. the older adults, you've seen that 52 out of 5658 older adults classes that have been canceled. those are classes that people are older adults, people are seniors engaged in the community, engaged with each other, some of them teaching them physical skills that prevent injury and hospitalization. we also saw the cancellation of 13 out of 14 sections of women's self defense, this is an incredibly popular course that's taught every semester at city college. so please allocate this funding. please support this measure. thank you very much. >> thank you. next speaker. >> my name is simon, long term instructor, former chair of women gender studies. it's been gratifying this week to visit your offices where we

encountered supervisors and aids moving the experience of city college, what we have come to call city college success stories, stories where the college, where the people continue to support in election after election has saved people's lives. the ways of the college threaten with destruction. and i'm not overly dramatic. i've been there for 45 years. it has kept alive this mission. civic engagement. did you notice the powerful student organizers who have spoken today and have lobbied you. lifelong learning, did you hear the way older adults remain productive and healthy? were you inspired to learn how ceramics and metal arts classes are sometimes the gateway for students afraid to enter college get their first taste of it and stay to graduate. as we lose last remaining women's history class at city

college, the last two remaining self-defense classes, which help domestic violence survivors escape from violence, countless art and music classes and pretty much all older adults, 40 percent of engineering as you have heard, city college will be unrecognizable. we thank those of you who support this ordinance. we ask supervisor walton to be our hero, and he has done a beautiful job. thank you so much. we thank supervisors mar and haney and fewer for joining on. to answer a question, we need eight cosponsors that will signal to our trustees, and we can talk to our trustees, they could then implement these -- restore these classes. i am not ashamed to implore you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> my name is ron richardson and i teach english and literature

at college of san francisco, college of san francisco, because we are going to have to slash community out of our name. if we continue to -- if we allow these deep cuts to happen for the second semester in a row, which is part of a movement to turn our community college into a junior college, focus on those who wish to transfer, which is an admirable goal, but that misses the point of a community college. when i talk to people in san francisco and tell them i teach at city college, they get so excited. so many of them say i've taken classes at city college. i think it's about one in five san franciscans asked, i've taken spanish which helped me to get my bachelor's degree, i drop out 18 years before and it allowed me to get that. that wouldn't have been recorded at the transfer level class. i've taken japanese, cooking and photography, all of which helped me to add to the culture and community of san francisco.

however, these cuts also hurt students who are trying to transfer. let me talk about one of my students. i've heard students talking about classes that have been cut and she said she's a student of color, she told me she had one more semester to go before she was able to transfer. and she said that that class, one of those classes got cut, so she would not be able to transfer. so she said i have choices. i can wait until fall. i can go to another school or i can drop out and beside i need to take care of my kids. but if she does drop out, those kids are less likely to go to school. i fully support reparations. we need to answer the historical injus i -- injustices in this community. and community college is one of the ways we answer that along with reparations. >> thank you, next speaker

>> i'm michael adams, i'm a student at city college and former administrator at two large universities, one in nebraska and one right here in san francisco. i'm here to thank you all who are cosponsoring this measure. and ask those who are still thinking about it to please consider the consequences that you are hearing about today. it is about students of color. it's about older students, it's about students who are caucasian and young. it's about this community of diverse citizens who use education to come together to be community. there have been frivolous talks about how frivolous some of the subjects are that have been cut, music, arts, metal work. i would appreciate giving you the opportunity to look at a couple of books. one is called this is your ring on music. and it talks about the interaction between music and

the development of the brain, including what some people call mental therapy. i won't boar you with the rest of the books. but the issue that you just discussed, item 38, about mental health, development of mental health process in this city belongs directly intersectionally with music, music therapy is something we hear about. my son lasted ten years longer than the doctors said he would because of music. if the board of trustees refuses under the influence of one man, and there was one smart man in the room when he was hired, and he is sitting over here, who said no. if they refuse, please allow us to accept the money. and we'll deal with the board of trustees. [laughter] >> thank you.

next speaker. >> my name is steve. i'm a member of public workers for action and support of the group that had the press conference in front. you know, it's interesting, 50 years ago there was a strike at san francisco state to set up ethnic studies program. and for preadmissions and now we are 50 years later, and basically the program at city college is going to be shut down, all the programs of ethnic studies. this is an outrage and it is tackling the working class. we are going back. now, i support getting rid of trump. he's a criminal gangster and a racist but what is going on in california? what is going on in california with the democratic governor newsom and democratic legislature including our legislators who support legislation that attack working class students and community colleges, that cut funding. don't they know what they are doing? aren't they aware of how working

class students and minorities are affected when they say you have to complete it in two years and most of the students have to work and can't complete college in two years. i support the ordinance for more money, but the other aspect is privatization, corporationization. it's not only the attack on the classes, the butchering of the college which has been supported by the board of trustees but also the privatization plan of the reservoir. the city spent millions of dollars for developers to take over the reservoir. working class students need to space to park. that's a working class issue. the city paid for the development of the profiteers who want high income residents in the condos and pushing out working class residents and students. so this issue of privatization, corporatization, when you have more billionaires in san francisco than almost any other city in the world and we are talking about attacking city college? why are we having this discussion and debate here?

it should be free for everyone. [cheering and applause] [off mic] >> thank you. next speaker. [cheering and applause] >> hi. i'm elizabeth. i'm also a city college student. i'm also wearing my university of professional and techal employees at ucsf. i'm a medical interpreter. i want to bring us more towards history and worldwide. i'm a chilean american. in '73 there was a coup against the president where a new model was instituted which privatetized everything in chile.

and now the people there are fighting to gain back what they lost. and what they lost, including education, because education become completely privatized. chile has become one of the highest levels of inequality in the world. and that's precisely due to the privatization of healthcare and water and a lot of issues like that. and san francisco should learn from the experience. in fact, the students in chile were the first to rise up. and then the teachers and the university teachers as well. the level of unions and social organizing that's been going on with the unity between labor and community, is really significant, and people should really take a look at this, because a lot of the political leaders of that country from the left as well as the right have