>> we're adjourned. evening. we are now called to order. roll col, please. [roll call] >> thank you.

>> section a general information. there's number one is accessibility information for the public. two propose changes to the agenda tonight. on february 25th, 2020, the mayor london breed declared a local emergency to prepare for a possible outbreak. the san francisco department of public-health has subsequently announced recommendations to reduce the spread of covid-19 in that san francisco the city has blocked all non essential public gathering at city-owned facility and recommended that large conferences and gatherings be minimized for the next two weeks. accordingly i have proposed a revised agenda for the march 10th, 2020 board of education meeting. which we will follow tonight. all information at presentation and community advisory committee reports will be postponed to the future meeting. section b, opening items, approval of board minutes of the

regular meeting of february 25th, 2020. we node a motion and a second. >> so moved. >> second. >> any corrections? >> roll call. [roll call] that's that's four ayes. >> thank you. speaker cards for the regular agenda and closed sessio sessiou wish to residents a the board of education. they can complete a speaker card prior to the item being called and present it to the executive assistant to my right. members of the public have two minutes to address the board and or the time as set by the president. importantly, according to board rules and procedures, speaker cards will not be accepted for an item that is already before the board. so we have a number of speakers. signed up to speak so i call your name, please approach the

podium. you have one minute for each speaker. i'm going to say it as one because we're trying to truncate this meeting in order to avoid being in public. >> council. >> is that a permissable change of the rules? >> yes, president. >> we'll see michelle, anna dials, and tina morrer owe, christina sandoval tegis smith and jackie williams and rosemary

sims. lori whiteside. eloise patten, don whiteside, fatima patten, and i can't read the first name, last name looks like patterson. >> hello. >> is i start? >> ok. hi, i'm wolfy tobiason a junior in high school. i played chess since i was young and from it have reaped many benefits. chess teaches you to think a few moves ahead many of this is an important life skill. the ability to think logically, strategically has tremendous value. since i was in kindergarten i was able to play chess at school. i wish everyone could have this opportunity. i have a few requests for the school board. one, i would the school board to

voice support for the schools and this could be in the form of a resolution for this initiative. three, as a service i would like to in a member of the usd classrooms as we can and starting with the elementary schools. thank you for considering my offer. it would be my pleasure to combine my love of chess with helping students in my hometown. the report was from the agenda this evening so i'm reading a statement from the pack members and in addition i'm making the announcement the pack meeting scheduled for tomorrow night is canceled. pack members wanted to be present to make this statement but with the report removed from the agenda and no childcare provided it was not reasonable for them to attend. we, the members of the parent

advisory council, support the voices of parents, students and staff in requesting that there be no cuts or layoffs that will negatively impact the experience of our students in the classrooms and at school sites. we support making financial decisions that will protect our most vulnerable students and including but not limited to our foster youth, our homeless, our lgbt youth, newcomer students and our students who identify as members of the historically oppressed communities who have already experienced the systemic discrimination and we urge the board and the district to support efforts to secure funding from the city and resolution supported by supervisor gordon mar to dedicate 90 million-dollar yun in funding to sfusd. thank you. >> thank you. >> good evening, all guest present tonight. as the mother of two alumni of kip academy, bayview kip academy

of san francisco i can say from the bot many of my heart how happy i am the fact that they have the opportunity to attend kip school here in san francisco. the academics are excellent and the students are disciplined and school a very close to home. i'm over all very glad that kip in san francisco because the kids will be able to the greatness of kip education from such a young age than middle school. i believe that keeping the school here in san francisco will offer even more opportunities for kids in public schools, public housing, and like how bayview kip academy has done for my children. thank you. thank you. >> good afternoon.

school board. i have a letter for superintendent dr. vincent matthews from the kip h elementy parent board. i am a resident of bayview and have five grandchildren and graduate from malcolm x academy. it was designed to hold 450 students at best. now enrolled is 129 perhaps 130. do you think moving kip to treasure island will increase malcolm x's enrollment? why once again is the school district trying to set us up for failure. it's very disappointing, very disappointing. and i know that you know that treasure island is too far for our children and for our parents as well. if there's an emergency, if the child needs an epipen or to see a doctor, i don't know how

they're going to do that of the please consider not doing this. thank you. who do i give this letter to? >> good evening, ladies and gentlemen, my name is jaclyn williams. and i'm here to speak on keeping the kip school in hunters point because there might be relatives there that the kids could do to if their parents are working late or what have you. or aunts, cousins, whatever, they know the area and they can get to the respective place to go. the school should stay there. and i thank you very much.

>> my name is christina santa val and i'm appalled and really pissed off at the fact that you guys are choosing to move kids to treasure island. i advise you to come to bayview hunters point, never see none of you gis ther guys there in my l. you node to come and see all the kids that group together to walk to school together on the school bus. it's called a walking school bus that we do every morning to get our kids to school safely. they travel together. how are we going to ship our kids across town to treasure island when it takes us two to three buses to get off the hill? as me as a mother that already is been a resident of bayview hunters point, i totally disagree with this action that you guys are doing and i feel like i'm playing another victim

of what i've already been immune to in bayview. you guys already have taken enough from us. do not take kip from us either. good evening, everyone. my name is rose marie sims and i'm a bayview hunters point residents. i've lived there most of my life and raised my four children and now have seven grandchildren. most of my nieces and nephews have attended malcolm x. so, malcolm ex attendance and enrollment has been so low over the years and if it wasn't for kip coming in the school we wouldn't have our malcolm x there. i think it would be three detrimental to the parents and children because parents would have to bring their kids to treasure island. we have to think about the children and what it might not do to them. to not have their family in case something happens on the school

grounds. i think children node to be considered before anything else. >> thank you. >> greeting president and all board members and communities who are present. my name is deddra smith. i'm a proud resident of san francisco and i lick to share what i heard that it's a plan to transfer our babies to treasure island. i thought this is b.s. here we go again. who thought of this b.s.? why would -- i thought of this as b.s. and again here we go again. why would anyone think it's ok to bus babies to an island when it's an emergency that occurs you can't get on the island because of an accident or the traffic. this sounds lick a set up for a parent in our kids. if they're late too many times,

there will be penalties. also, maybe be an expelled then you will be talking about taking our kids as in c.p.s. getting involved. the island is under construction for the next several years to come. and some of the kids already have asthma, this is not about what is best for our kids, this is sounds like it's a hidden agenda for failure for our parents and children. we are not going to accept this. we are asking your support to please, not let this happen. keep our babies there in their communities. thank you. >> good evening, i'm a disgusted disturbed san francisco native. you have already taken my people, my culture, and now you are trying to take my education out of my community. by moving these kids from bayview hunters point which is a beautiful neighborhood and community to go to school at a

construction site is totally unacceptable. there's too many trials and tribulations and hazardous things going on out there. give our children a chance to realize what we have left as a community. let our kids grow up in the community that we grew up in. do take that from them that you have taken from us. i'm done with that one. >> hello. my name is jan butler and i'm against moving schoolchildren to treasure island from 94124 bayview. a lot of parents have been never been to the island before. it's presently under construction and there are two ways in and one way out from case of emergency, children would be separated from their families. this could be traumatic

experience. my question is why are you constantly attempting to make us move out of district 10. >> hi, my name is fatima patten. i have two grandchildren that go to kip bayview academy and it would be detrimental to them and me. it's much easier for me to get my grandkids to school and i refuse, listen to me, i refuse to let them go to treasure island. it always comes to -- i'm wondering if the majority of kids that was going to kip was caucasian would they be moved? thank you. >> how are you doing today. i'm a resident of bayview.

basically, when i first heard that kip was getting moved, i thought the same thing was b.s. you know what i'm saying. what we can agree on, two things, in the morning it's about timing and it's about kids don't taking up in the morning. it comes to the shower and the food and then you have to get them there on time and some sing mothers don't have course so it's the whole bus thing. going to kip is extra stress and they have to worry about their kid getting back. you know what i'm saying. i'm totally against it it don't make sense. me growing up, going to school it was like an escape from my neighborhood. you know what i'm saying. you sitting in class and you don't worried about getting shouted at so we want our kids to be able to make it to school on time and make it to school period. just like my mom said, when it

comes to tardiness and absences, that's what gets c.p.s. involved and everything and they're going to be ready to take them. the first thing we want our kids to have in life is education. you know what i'm saying. kids are our future and we can all agree. so, thank you. >> we're trying to keep public comment to a minimum because we have more than 50 people in the audience. turn the microphone back on. >> ok. >> good evening. hello to everyone. my name is ta leash a patterson and we're actually ex residents of san francisco because of this thing being gentrified and moved out. my children get up sometimes between 4:00 and 4:15 in the morning sometimes 5:00 to get to san francisco kip bay academy.

and i drive from va laio, california to san francisco. in that traffic there in the carat minimum, probably an hour and 25 minutes coming to san francisco and they have to stay here all day. it's ridiculous. to troy to get them on that island it's too much traffic and chaokay owes andchaos is you wor the tragedy so rethink your options. >> good evening supervisors. the board. my name is don whiteside and i have concerns about treasure island itself. i've been to kip academy and i've spent time there and i see what they're doing for our children. not just black children. i've seen latino children, i've seen other races, samoans, i've seen children. when you takeaway hope from a family that has no hope and i lived in san francisco all my life. i lived in great neighborhoods. i have seen great schools.

but what you -- [please stand by] [please stand by]

>> the other issue that i wanted to bring up and ask at some point is nobody is going to give you a building, so i would think that you're going to have to pay a rent. if this board already has budget deficits, what sense does it make to rent facilities and all of the costs associated to bus us once again? i say no more. stop it today. thank you.

[applause] [names read] >> we're limiting public comment to one minute. >> section d, advisory committee reports, there are none tonight. e, consent calendar. we need a motion and a second on the consent calendar. >> so moved. >> second. >> items removed and/or corrected from the superintendent? >> first withdrawal is travel from wallenberg high school. second is a correction to the sex code to read

0107940-2020-1110-2100-5803-513 . >> thank you. any items for first reading on the board? any items for sever, vote, and discussion tonight? thank you. roll call. [roll call] >> clerk: six ayes. >> thank you. g, proposals for action, there are none tonight. h, special order of business. superintendent matthews? >> tonight, we will be presenting the second interim fiscal year 2019. presenting will be megan wallace, our chief financial

officer and deputy superintendent, i'm not sure if you wanted any opening -- >> on this item, can we get a motion and a second? >> so moved. >> second. >> thank you.

>> i apologize for the wait. thank you. good evening, commissioners. i'm megan wallace, chief financial officer for the school district, and this evening, i'm going to present on the second interim report for fiscal year 2019-20. so first, as you know, the fiscal year 2019-20 began on july 1, 2019. the california department of education requires local education agencies, school districts, and county offices of education to provide two updates over the course of the fiscal year. in december, i came before you

with the first interim report, and here i am today, presenting on the second interim report that identifies changes to the budget based upon adjusted fund balance, expenditures and revenues, and any other balancing adjustments. before you is a resolution that identifies the positive certification stating that san francisco unified san francisco and school office will be able to meet its financial agreements of the year. as in the first report, there have been identified structural imbalances in our current year budget as well as fiscal year 20-21 and 21-22. however, i have developed a revenue outlook, and the district is currently underway with the process balancing our

20-21 and anticipated 21-22 fiscal year budget. first, i want to revisit what's going on in our budget. sfusd has been operating on a deficit since 2016-17. we carried a healthy reserve in blue that helped allow the district to balance its budget with minimal impacts on its services. however, this fiscal year, we did run out of reserves and therefore are not able to absorb the growing costs of special education services, leaves for our employees, and other costs of keeping our district operating at our current or required levels of

service. additionally, it's critical to acknowledge that in fiscal year 21-22, the district will no longer have in its reserve the money to cover the living wages for educators act covered by prop g but subsequently is under litigation. this table is to help show the changes in our budget between the -- [inaudible] >> -- beginning fund balance, our required reserve, and our anticipated year end, and as you can see, we began this fiscal year anticipating a

10.8 million deficit. the relative good news that i have to share is that the current year forecast has improved that deficit? the overall deficit has been reduced by 9.2 million. now we're anticipating a 22.6 million budget shortfall this fiscal year. the projected shortfall for 2021-22 continues to be around $95 million. this table is intended to help illustrate the changes both between the current budget, the

second -- first and second interim budgets compared to the improved budgets as well as the transition, changes between the first interim and second interim. [inaudible] >> -- this is based on p-1 reporting of our average daily attendance within our district. additionally, by looking at the city's projections for sales tax, we were able to update our own forecast for sales tax by $3.8 million. however, that improvement in revenues was offset by growth overall in our expenditure

forecast, and here, you can say that it's broken out in expenditures related to special education and other uses. first to focus on special education, you can see that in the first interim, i had reported up to 25.4 million in additional expenditures related to special education services. however, now, i'm anticipating a $12.6 million increase, and that's through a combination of an improved outlook in terms of our staffing, and when i say improved, i just mean that it has a lower fiscal impact in the current year. in reality, due to the timing of hiring, we're seeing that the level of staffing -- the level of staffing that we're trying to achieve this year is slower. it just takes time to hire people, so we're anticipating that the overall cost this year is closer to $7.2 million, so

that's a $7.8 million lower impact than had been anticipated. the other really good news, however, in this picture is new revenues for special education funding for -- associated with pre-k students. this is a one-time funding source from the state. we are hoping to see some level of continuation in future years, but this is a higher investment than what we're expecting into the future. i do want to highlight some of the details of other uses. our leaves and substitutes costs are coming in at a higher level than what i had reflected in the first interim. staff took time to look at the costs of hiring substitute teacher to allow family and

staff to go other leave and had increased the ask by $6 million for families to go on leave. there are other increases. utilities and nursing contracts are two other significant areas that are newly identified in the second area, and we are identifying weakness in our recoveries for service related to medi-cal, that we are anticipating contributing to our medi-cal program when in fact we budgeted to fully offset those costs through revenues. i do want to highlight that with the -- with covid-19 becoming a high impact within our school district, let alone

the city, state, and nation, that it is -- there are impacts that we may need to anticipate to our average daily attendance, so we are working with acfs, and sales tax may be impacted as a result of people choosing to stay home rather than going out and spending their money in the city. so when it comes to balancing, you can see that this table creates that it's going to be now 22.6 million. overall, the solutions on the table have increased by 2.1 million, and you can see the current year balancing

relies heavily on our ability to shift revenues onto one-time sources, and there's generally restricted sources such as p and dcyf. another new item to lean upon is i have been savings on our reserve. we're required as a district to have 2% of our budget go towards maintenance costs. we are seeing some savings in that reserve, and we do have eligible expenses that i anticipate we'll be able to move onto that reserve, particularly for custodial services. it's important to highlight our multi-year outlook, so as i noted at the beginning of the presentation, we are anticipating 57$57.2 and

$97.2 million of deficits in the coming year, so this illustrates the balancing plan that i illustrated for you in the previous slide. and the next two fiscal years, you can see that we're anticipating $26 million coming from central services. we're currently working to determine how that will be split across the district, and also really thinking that there will be solutions that will come from cutting services at a particular site. you can see special education revenues, looking at options for early education are

critical to looking at the district wide piece of this puzzle. we do have 11.9 million in this part of the equation, and for us to finalize our budget in fiscal year 20-21, we will need to find solutions. i just wanted to make sure that we can share this calendar ahead, to show that in march 10, we're in the stages of school and school office

budgeting. we will be back to talk about solution trends and there's a lot of work to be done between now and june 9, which will be the timing of the first reading to the board of education in anticipation of the budget approval on june 23. so i ask this board to review the resolution, which states a positive certification, that san francisco unified school district and the county office of education will be able to meet its financial educations. as i've stated, we do have a budget imbalance this fiscal year, however, we've been working diligently to find solutions to help close our current year shortfall, and we're underway with developing

a balancing plan for the future fiscal years, so thank you. >> thank you so much. we have a number of folks who are signed up for speaking on this item. when i call your name, please come to the podium. you'll have one minute each. [names read] >> good evening. i'm susan solomon, president of united educators of san francisco. i don't understand how the board can vote on this. this is not the second interim budget, this is a report on the second interim budget. it's hard to know exactly what

expenditures are and what the figures are. there are at least seven unions at the bargaining table right now. we do not have that report, and it's not on-line, either. it's not on-line, it's not out there, so we don't know what you're talking about. we have concern about the last sentence. thank you.

>> good evening, superintendent, board. i'm also concerned that you would make a positive recommendation. that means that you're able to meet your budget. i've been to several different meetings and i've seen different numbers. i'm not sure what you're getting at. we need to see the actual budget report. $22.6 million actual budget deficit? last month, it was $26 million. you're asking the school sites to cut their budget. that's money that goes to the educators, to the students. and the schools haven't sent their budgets in yet. i heard it wasn't sent in until march 20.

$9.2 million? where is that money? i'm very confused. please do not pass this resolution. [applause] >> if i could just educate what the educators union president and other officers have said. i'm representing seiu field representatives, our custodians, our student service workers, we can all read a budget, but we haven't had an opportunity to do so. this is a presentation of the budget, but nothing that we can actually discern where the money is at, and you know that's where we want to know. we can justify those decisions as well as you can. please postpone this vote. please postpone this vote

because it's not the transparency that's needed in the public arena, and you are public officials. we'd like you to be that. this is due diligence on your part. remember that. please postpone the vote so all of us can have an opportunity to look at the budget. thank you. [applause] >> i am speaking to you today on behalf of the students at dr. cobb elementary school and other socially economically disadvantaged students within our current cohort. our teachers, staff, parent dos, and students are devastated by the current cuts. we are in danger of losing multiple teachers and staff. one of the well publicized sfusd priorities is to promote

african american students and other diverse learners, yet -- a majority of our students and parents are overwhelmed just to get by day-to-day. 75% of our families fit the definition of s.e.s. our families are at a disadvantage and cannot at this time raise the money to fund our own support positions as many sfusd with strong p.t.a.s are able to do. please, the mtss -- okay. i'll stop. i have a full copy of the letters for each of the board members and dr. matthews. >> thank you.

[applause] >> hi. i am here on behalf of another cobb elementary teacher. here is what she wrote. at the beginning of the year, some students came in reading below grade level, and some students were reading at below pre-a. our rtip told me about the reading recovery program that she was going to implement with the group of my students that had the most need in reading and writing. through the reading recovery program, those students found their stride and ran with it. at the beginning of the year, they didn't know their letters, sounds, and their ability to read and write and confidence level. now they're reading and writing at or above grade level, and they're reading so fast.

without that funding, i fear what next year will look like without that current position, so please help. [applause] >> good evening. my name is crystal, and i'm a mother of three children currently in the sfusd system with a four-year-old on the way. i've been with my children in the system almost 16 years, and i think that with each year, the budget deficit increases, and it's ridiculous. like the lady before spoke, where is the money going? all we want is the transparency, and i think that it's ludicrous that the first thing that you guys decide to take away from is from the schools. the children are our future, so i would advise each and every one of you to go back to your core values where the first sentence of that core value says we put our students first. in which way in this situation are they being put first?

they're not. i don't understand how a city who has almost 900,000 residents who pay taxes cannot afford a budget in our schools. maybe the thing to do would be to forfeit your bonuses or the extra that you receive to ensure our children have a bright future. thank you. [applause] >> good evening. my name is crystal. i'm a fourth grader at dr. william l. cobb. i would like to speak to you about how the $26 million that might be cut from san francisco unified schools. it seems like you don't have the heart to donate money when you see we are struggling. students need all these teachers and support teachers and without them, we wouldn't be in the place we are in math, writing, and reading. also, i feel really

disappointed and sad because i feel like you aren't even thinking where we will be without all these teachers. i've jumped so many levels in my reading, my writes, and my math, because of all these teachers, i wouldn't be where i am now. so please don't take them away because they can help many other kids out who need them. that's why we need $26 million that you're trying to cut and don't take it away from san francisco unified schools. [applause] >> my name's azia. i'm a fifth grader at dr. william l. cobb, and i strongly disagree that you guys should cut $26 million from our schools. i know by losing some of our teachers and support staff, all of these teachers have helped me when i was down. they have taken their lunch break off to help me if i did

not understand work. also every one of these teachers have worked hard to teach us. how do you know what they're going through already? can i ask you, if i took something really important from you, how would you feel? so i agree that taking money from our schools is a real tragedy. [applause] >> good evening. my name is andrea. i go to cobb school. i am a fourth grader. i am upset because 26 million might be cut from our san francisco schools, and we might lose support from teachers who help us read, write, and do math. how would you be where you are today without your teachers? we care about our teachers, and i bet you cared about the teachers that cared about you. maybe you could ask large businesses to give money to our

schools. [applause] >> hello. my name is nadia, and i'm in fifth grade. i go to dr. cobb elementary school. if the district is voting to cut 26 million from schools, and if that happens, the kids won't learn. we need our teachers, we love our teachers. for example, when you were a kid, imagine one of your favorite teachers had to leave your school. how would that make you feel? also, how would that affect your future? we are the future of san francisco. also, just because you don't have enough money, you guys didn't take our teachers away from us. since san francisco is one of the richest cities, can't you find the money somewhere else, and thank you, guys, for coming out today. [applause]

>> good evening. my name is gregory, and i am a teacher in the district. i would like to help the district and the board to come up with solutions as opposed to budget cuts for the teachers. i do not believe that cuts are the solutions. i believe that we do live in the healthiest city in the world, and with that being said, i believe that we should find solutions to tax the wealthy. i just want to bring some practical solutions from other parts of the country. did you know that in cambridge, massachusetts, they spend $30,000 for their students, yet their homeowners pay 40% less property tax. cambridge taxes their biotech companies to educate their children. facebook could open up their checkbook and wipe this $26 million deficit out. i say don't vote tonight, please. postpone this and let's be aggressive in going after the

tech industry, and let's go to court and ask gavin newsom to release those funds from the soda. thank you. [applause] >> thank you very much. board members, anybody want to speak to this item? commissioner cook? >> i just want to thank everyone for coming out and speaking on the item, and especially students at cobb. i appreciate your comments tonight. can we just talk about the timeline and what -- in response to what voting tonight or postponing tonight would mean for the -- our legal obligations? >> i'm going to have deputy superintendent lee address

this. >> so superintendents, this is one of two things that's required in each fiscal year, so the first interim report is based on the first four months and submitted in december. the second interim report is through, i believe, january of each year and submitted in march. i'm not aware of any specific consequences for submitting past the deadline, but we typically do submit by deadline as it's march 17.

>> >> givokay. so in terms of the other reports that we're looking to get back from schools, is there something related to us internally looking to get the budgets back for the school year? can you speak to the timelines around our fiscal planning? go ahead. >> yeah. so we are in budget development

phase, that -- [inaudible] >> -- and how we'll be developing those solutions. >> okay. that was -- sorry. that was my understanding, as well. so to close out this fiscal year, we're not making any midyear cuts.

we found enough to finish 19-20, and the deficit that we're looking for some court of cost reductions is in the upcoming fiscal year? >> that's correct. there is an item of tbd items for fiscal year 20-21. this is an area where we do need to continue to explore spend rates and i'm seeing some items on nonpersonnel general expenses that can help us balance that year. >> for the current fiscal year, is there any staffing at sites that we can -- the final thing

that we have in our budget on our desk, is this now available to the public? are we making copies to give to people? >> i'm happy to post that on our website. that is a draft. my understanding is that has not been historically posted on the website. i'm happy to do so-so that folks can review it, and i would encourage us through the upcoming budget and business services committee meetings to do some budget 101 really looking at our different types of expenditures, doing some analysis around trends and really having those conversations that are detailed in the budget. a lot of my presentations have

been very high level. this is the problem, this is how we're going to solve for them. i would love to engage on looking more in the weeds and having the public engage on that level. >> so i just saw mr. steel and miss casco go to the back, i would assume, to make copies, so this draft budget that we're talking about for the coming year will be available to you. nau [inaudible] >> okay. excuse me. i misspoke. >> commissioner? >> thank you for the clarifications to the questions. i do want to dive deeper around understanding the specific trends, line items, and projections for the coming two years. i'm comfortable with this

year's analysis and in doing the one-time shift and balancing strategy, but i have so many questions related to the upcoming subsequent two years, so i'm curious, you know, to -- given that we're -- there's no negative or we don't know what the impact is around -- if we were to decide or -- i'm comfortable with our budget remaining for the fiscal year 19-20, but i do have some major questions as we fulfill our duty on the board in the coming three months to look at the coming two years. >> so similar to what my colleagues have shared, i want to get a better understanding

of what i'm voting on. so -- i mean, it's not clear to me, and it's not clear to the public, so making that as transparent as possible is really important? i'm gathering that the vote will be for this -- the remainder of this fiscal year. is that correct? >> to be clear, the second interim report does include multiyear projections, so the primary focus is on the current year, which we have a strong balancing plan. for the following two fiscal years, those are -- we are -- the resolution will be certifying that we, in effect, believe that we can close these gaps, so i want to be frank that this --

>> i want to be sure on this before i vote on it. we've had lengthy discussions on different solutions and how we can ensure the least amount of impact at school sites. i'm hearing different things from different schools about their budgeting process. i -- there's still a possibility of us getting funding from the city, which we have to push for, and that could change the projection. i need the plan to be shared,

or i need something in order for me to vote on this. even though there's a chance for a change in the next couple of years or a chance positifor amendment, i would want to hear a plan before. >> maybe honing in on the central services and school sites solutions, central services, that our divisions currently have our budgets. we've worked very diligently as staff to develop and meet those plans for how divisions are going to meet their specific targets. we're trying to figure

outweighs of using peak dollars, using opportunities for savings, so the items for district wide solutions, the main categories i always like to lean on are shifting cost to prioritized sources. limiting supplies and vendor spending, just trying to find savings where we can look at trends and say hey, we actually budget more than we need in a given year, just trying to find ways on how much we hold back for budget on particular expenses. and then, there's, of course, finding more money to put on the table. and that's where special education revenue, early education are some really great examples that i believe will have tangible results in

helping us balance. but i can't skip over that other t.b.d. that my staff and everybody in budget services are working to figure out how we can do things differently in order to find that additional $11 million in savings. so i think the summary of all of that is is we're well in the thick of it. we're well underway in our budget development, so i don't have a plan to share with you that that would come forward in the proposed budget, but we have a couple of months of work ahead of us where i think the budget and services meetings will be that opportunity to make sure that people understand what is within our budget, and my assumption on those forecasts, so kicking the tires, so to speak, not only on the projections and this deficit outlook, but also talking about prioritization on

expenditures. >> can i just add onto that, commissioners? so i just want to sort of reinforce the point that chief wallace made that these interim reports, including the second interim report, which is submitted in march, the focus is really on the current year, updating the assumptions at a broad level, especially for the current year. and with respect to the current year and upcoming years, it's not that the county and l.e.a. and another district or county would have all the detail to represent a proposed budget. it's mostly at a broad level to

certify that the district and the governing board feel confident that we can meet the obligations to avoid a loss of local control. so even though there are a lot of decisions that me and you and the community are wrestling with, that we will have options to control our fiscal destiny rather than having -- looking to the state to provide, like, an emergency loan or point or overseer, so that's really the key certification for these fiscal reports, not the detailed, line-by-line budgets for the coming year. >> commissioner moliga?

>> thank you for the presentation. there is a lot of questions i do have, also, and as i'm looking at the budget that you guys just handed us -- and i do understand the timeline that we're on, right? and so -- but if there is an opportunity for us to be able to move this back so that we can get a clear understanding of what we're looking at, i think that would be the recommendation from me. and then -- i did have a couple questions. so there's a -- so if i'm looking at this, so we're all on the same page, okay? so that's the san francisco unified second interim budget for fiscal year 2019-20. and so, you know, as we start to break these numbers down, i'm really curious about -- i'm looking at page -- it's --

there's a section that says services and other operating expenditures, and there's a line item for professional/consulting services and operating expenditures, and correct me if i am wrong, are we spending about $18 million there. >> i apologize. which page -- can you clarify which page you're on. >> these pages aren't numbered. >> got it. and actually, just to confirm, there are two reports before you. one is for the county education and one is for the unified school district. and it's in the first header. >> so this would be one, two, three -- on the county one, not the school district. >> okay. thank you. >> this would be the third page, i guess paper number

four, actually -- no, not page. it'll be on the left side. >> great. >> okay. >> yep. >> and so -- so yeah, so if this is what we're sending in, i i i'm curious to get a better understanding of current operating and expenditures for 18 million -- is that right? roughly $18 million? >> so just wondering what all that includes? >> yeah. >> so let me see, actually. i could really dig in if you'd like. i think just a summary of it might be -- actually, a quick walk-through of this document, you'll see at the header that it said 2019-20 general fund

unrestricted. and as you make your way through the document, it'll show the unrestricted portions of the budget. and then, towards the end, it combines. so this section is focusing on unrestricted. it includes all of central services, it includes student sites, so weighted student funding, mtss. so that budget then includes all the expenditures within central service department, and what are the costs of things like various contracts. i hesitate because some big contracts that we might see might be, like, excel, so for after school programs. i believe another portion of this would sit in here. another portion might sit in unrestricted because we get special ed finding.

>> that's fine. is there a place we can go to find that? >> i think we need to dive into that level in our budget discretions, but i think the main take away that i just really want you to have is this is both central services and school sites, so it's all of our schools, any services that are contracted out are represented in this line item, and central services certainly has a fair amount of contracts. any projects may be -- yeah, so i'm happy to share that in future reporting just because it is a particularly large line item. i think one main thing that we see in this budget, as you look at the different categories, is that it's mostly staff, and that when you make your way down into an area of professional services and see a big line item like that, i can understand why it would pop out, and i think that's a good one to elaborate on.

>> okay. and then, i had the same question around just right on the right side, the next page. >> mm-hmm. >> all other transfers, and then, total other outgo, excluding transfers and direct costs. >> yeah. so this represents the transfers primarily to special education, so -- so you're under the major header of other outgo, i believe, where the total is $44.3 million was the original budget, and $54.9 million was the board approved operating budget, so that's what's being represented in the second interim report. so you can see that there's a line item, all other transfers, it's object 72-281 through --

[inaudible] >> we just want to make sure that everybody knows both the district and the county interim reports are on-line, on google docs and boarddocs. >> and then, all copies are out? >> they're being made right now. >> they're being made right now.

okay. so there's been some suggestions postponing the vote, and i think particularly around -- because people hadn't been able to see this, even though it's a draft. so if we did postpone it, that would be the fallout, if any? you did address this earlier. >> so i -- we're not totally clear, to be honest, about whether there are consequences. i don't think there are, you know, specific consequences for submitting -- for submitting these interim reports to go past this deadline, but i want to confirm that with c.d.e. and the deadline is -- the official deadline is march 17,

so with -- we have another meeting that's scheduled for next tuesday, but if we learn something to suggest that that -- that passing it on the 24th would be problematic, then, it seems like that would might present an option, but -- but we -- we would want to confirm it, either way, with t.d.e. thank you. commission commission commissioner lam? >> what is the distinction between a positive certification and a qualified certification, and the level of impact is would have as far as, again, this report is submitted to the state of california and the state department of public institution? just wondering, again, what those are? >> i think it's just a difference in the language.

positive certification states the district will be able to meet its financial obligations. a qualified certification states that we may or may not be able to meet our obligations, and a negative is an outright we know that we will not. and in terms of implications, my understanding is even starting with a qualified certification, that the state may need to intervene and provide additional guidance to help close our deficit. >> and when we talk about guidance from the state, is that around governance or what type of support -- essentially, what type of path would this put us towards? >> we can team up on this, commissioners, chief wallace and i. but there are -- there are a range of -- of different

actions that are -- that come into play when the district or county files other than a positive fiscal certification. so i'll just mention a few, that if the district is qualified or positive, then typically, it would be a county office. in our case, it would be c.d.e. directly -- california department of education, would assign an expert to review the managing teacher's workforce, would require a report of cash flow expenditures and estimates, would review any post collective bargaining agreements, would approve any

issue of debt. [please stand by] >> don't they charge us for that too? >> yeah >> it's not cheap too. i would agree with the characterization that qualified

certification is something to be avoided at all costs. we want to maintain control with our community of our budget. >> so if there's no objection, let's postpone, and then we will find out if there's any penalty and if we need to have a special meeting to address this, we can do that. all right. thank you. >> thank you. >> all right. discussion of other educational issues, none tonight. j, discussion and vote on consent calendar items removed at a previous meetingsing, none tonight, k introduction of proposals and assignments to committee. public and board comment will take place following the introduction. i don't think we have any comment tonight. board policy 500, accountability, board policy 4033, lactation accommodation, 3600, consultants, board policy 5022, student and family privacy rights. the emotion second for first

reading for the policy. >> so moved. >> second. >> thank you. >> any board comment on these first readings? unless i hear otherwise from legal council, i'm referring the policies to the rules committee. section l, proposals for immediate action suspension of the rules, there are none tonight. m, board members reports. calendar of committee meetings. budget and business services wednesday april 1, 6:00 p.m., buildings grounds and services monday, march 23, 6:00 p.m., curriculum and program monday april 13th, 5:00 p.m., rules policies and legislation april 6, 5:00 p.m. ad hoc committee on personnel matters wednesday april 15, 6:00 p.m. ad hoc committee on student assignment, monday, april 20th. yeah. >> [off mic] >> sorry.

april 20th, 6:00 p.m. and joint city school district and city college select committee, friday, march 13, 10 a.m. that meeting is at city hall legislative chamber. >> yeah. mr. chairman, student assignment is meeting march 16th. >> all right. >> that was the plan. is there -- are we canceling committee meetings because of the -- >> no, no, i don't think so, not at this point. >> there will be an ad hoc meeting on monday, march 16 at 6:00 p.m. >> thank you. >> section n, other information item, one, initial proposal from international brotherhood of electrical engineers, local 6 to san francisco unified school district, 2, initial proposal from common crafts to san francisco unified school district. three, initial proposal from services employeesber national union, local 1021 to san francisco unified school

district. four, initial proposal from union of operating engineer, local 39. five, quarterly report. section o is memorial adjournment. we have none tonight. at this time we will take public comment for those who have submitted speaker cards. i don't think we have any. so we are going into recess. >> reconvening open session. number one, vote on student expulsion agreement. i vote on the expulsion of one student for the remainder of spring semester of 2020 and fall semester 2020. do i have a second? >> yes, second >> roll call. >> thank you. [roll call vote]

thank you. >> number two, vote on employment contracts from chief executive employees. none tonight. three, report from closed session. in five matters of anticipated litigation, the board by a vote of i guess 6, one absent, provided direction to general counsel in the matter of george washington high school alumni association the california public benefit corporation v. >> [off mic] >> forget i said that. >> [off mic] >> the board by a vote of six ayes one absent approved a

contract of two principals. the board by a vote of six ayes one absent approved a contract of one program administrator. this meeting is adjourned. [please stand by]

>> chair mar: good morning, everyone. the meeting will come to order. welcome to the thursday, february 20 meeting of the government audit and oversight committee. i am supervisor gordon mar, the chair of this committee, and i'm joined by committee member supervisor matt haney and supervisor raphael mandelman, who is substituting for supervisor peskin, who are unable to be here. i'd like to thank john carroll, our clerk, and sfgovtv. mr. clerk, do we have any announcements? >> clerk: yes, thank you, mr. chair. please make sure you silence your cell phones and electronic

devices. copies of documents and completed speaker cards should be submitted to the clerk. items acted upon today will appear on the board of supervisors february 26 agenda. >> chair mar: thank you. mr. clerk, please call item 1. [agenda item read].

>> chair mar: this item was continued from the last g.a.o. meeting on february 6 and is sponsored by supervisor matt haney. supervisor haney, the floor is yours. >> supervisor haney: thank you, chair mar. before i address a set of amendments that we're going to be putting forward today, i want to say a few things about what this proposal is and also what a navigation center is. san francisco piloted its first navigation center in 2015. the model was dubbed "more than

a shelter" and was carefully crafted to be ta shelter for people seeking housing. the idea for a central lobby for front line city agencies to bring individuals to shelters and housing has been circulating in city hall since supervisors toured a navigation center in philadelphia. they viewed as a way to address a critical gap in san francisco's shelter system. that is, everyone refusing to use shelters. not only looks or feels the same, but there have been pros

that make them successful like on-site services, 24-7 access, allowing pets, partners, and possessions and focuses on getting individuals experiencing homelessness permanent housing. on-site services include those offered on a roving basis typically involve mental health care, substance use care, assistance with housing, employment, and other services. other dedicated areas include space for possessions, pets, and storage. within a week, they are identified with a care plan and services on-site, and they get the help they need. 52% of clients exiting

navigation centers from october 2016 to october 2019 had a successful exit to permanent housing, temporary housing or being united with family or friends through home ward bound. over 5,000 clients were served by navigation centers in 2019. the first navigation center served 212 unique clients in its first six months. a vast majority, 94%, had been continuously homeless for more than a year prior to the stay. 76% of recent clients had no recent shelter history. since the first pilot, nine navigation centers have served thousands of san franciscans not previously accessing

shelters and services. people in navigation centers are often the first in line because they have been assessed and are in process. we need more to serve the 5,000 experiencing unsheltered homelessness every night. despite the success, the city has only built shelters in a limited number of neighborhoods, concentrated in districts 6, 9, and 10. from unhoused san franciscans who clearly are lining up for these navigation centers and access their services. an astounding 82% of san franciscans support navigation centers in this parts and other parts of the city.

i've visited all of the current facilities, and here's what i've heard and learned. one, they are good for everyone, for people accessing services and neighborhoods, and we need more. many of my colleagues have been trying hard to identify a site in their district for a navigation center, and in many cases, they've been told no or received little support. the department and mayor should be working closely with every supervisor to meet the needs of homeless individuals citywide. often the navigation centers come with little transparency to neighbors citywide, even the district supervisor, and that has to change. i've heard concern whether november gas station centers of certain sizes might -- navigation centers of certain

sizes might affect districts. in response, i have amendments today that allow for greater flexibility in meeting the needs of specific districts, if a navigation center is not adequate, another transition center that houses at least 30 beds will meet this commitment. i believe this will meet the commitment to end street homelessness and getting people in services and shelter that they desperately need. i want to be clear about this legislation in particular. this is not about fixing the entire homelessness response system. that is not what this legislation is. it is about setting a clear

commitment and responsibility for each of us, for each of our districts for citywide temporary shelter and for clear citywide transparency. it is not to establish homelessnesses because that should already be the plan. while we work on mayor breed's goal on 2,000 new shelter beds in the next few years, i hope we can agree that homeless shelters and navigation centers need to be placed in every district. existing shelter beds in san francisco simply do not meet

the growing need. while we ramp up the work of growing needs, we must be equally efficient about finding safe places for people who sleep on the streets now. i want to read these amendments and just say one last thing in closing. first, the -- and my colleagues have copies of these. this will change the 72 hours requirement for a comprehensive assessment to five days, and will clarify the storage be for active residents, changes the frequency to frequent on-site services and activities, clarifies that nav centers provide access to transportation, rather than directly responsible for physically transporting clients, changes requirements to daily activities.

it strikes a requirement for operator to maintain contact for 60 days after exit. clarifies that cities and community-based organizations can make referrals to navigation centers. adds a requirement that h.s.h. develop guidelines for community-bases organizations to send clients. it changes the reference to that hot team to outreach teams associated with h.s.h. it adds an options, as i mentioned, for temporary shelters, including transitional housing, and stablization less than two years. it requires that the city departments submit a list of sites that can support shelters in 60 days, and a funding plan

in 120 days. this is a commitment, and it is something that this supervisor and this board of supervisors collectively commits to. all of us every day are contacted by our residents about challenges related to homelessness. each of us are constantly call h.s.h., constantly calling 311. i've heard each of my colleagues talk about this in different ways, and it is critical in that context that we have available shelters to get people on a pathway to housing in our city. homelessness is not concentrated in districts 6, 9, and 10, but we will continue to step up to fulfill our

commitment to our poor unhoused neighbors. we did not have a system where someone calls 311 in the castro and the haight, that the only opportunity we have to get that person in a shelter is to tell them to go to the other side of town in soma to get shelter. that's unsustainable, it's not fair, and it is not treating this as the true citywide crisis that it is. we can do better, and we must do better, and i think we can if we step up to provide access to services and of course housing, as well, all over the city. so with that, i'll turn it back over to you, supervisor mar. i know that supervisors ronen and preston also have representatives who wanted to provide comment. >> chair mar: thank you,

supervisor haney. supervisor mandelman, do you have any open -- [inaudible] >> chair mar: okay. so i guess i wanted to invite, i guess, representatives from supervisor peskin's office to share remarks. gener general -- jen schneider. >> thank you. i'm jen schneider from supervisor peskin's office. we cannot agree more that permanent supportive and deeply affordable housing is the solution to the homelessness crisis. it's obvious, but it's worth emphasizing. nothing solves homelessness like a home. we want as much affordable housing in district five as possible, but right now, we have an emergency. thousands of people are sleeping unsheltered every night with nowhere to go. and even assuming that we

aal alall alall all unite behind a plan, it's still going to take years. supervisors, an unknown man died in our district just the other day. he was found, and the paper didn't write a story about it. a lieutenant told us about it. he was a well-known man, he was 44 years old. that the ground patrol found him there on the ground.

that the death wasn't suspicious, that it wasn't an o.d. we're new to this building, and i don't think i'm naive, but i hope we don't get to the point where someone homeless dies in a city and no one will care. on sunday, we are hosting a meeting to talk to our district 5 residents about a navigation center. folks really want one in our district. the lieutenant who told us about the death are coming, as well as the police captains and more. people want a short-term solution and a long-term solution, not one or the other. it's tragic to witness the homeless crisis for all of us. we in supervisor peskin's office support the proposal, and we are proud to sponsor the

legislation. thank you so much. >> chair mar: thank you. is there anyone else from our colleagues' offices who wish to make some remarks? none? okay. well, i just -- well, i -- i -- i guess -- yeah, i'll just share my remarks, and i guess i'll just share my thoughts, as well. i agree that homeless people in all neighborhoods should have access to dignified services and an access point to provide services and permanent housing. i want to thank supervisor haney for pushing this much needed legislation to the citywide strategy on housing.

over the past year, i have been working actively with the sunset community, including both housed and unhoused residents to develop solutions to homelessness in our district. last month, we partnered in -- [inaudible] >> chair mar: -- to identify potential sites for a navigation center, as well as a comprehensive plan to create new transitional housing, behavioral health services and permanent housing for those experiencing homelessness in district 4. as discussed in the last g.a.o. meeting, i am introduced amendments today to strengthen the department's ability to

abdecisiv -- act decisive in every district right now, including adding permanent housing options for formerly homeless persons with flexibility for piloting new models of care. number two, requiring the department to conduct a faezibility analysis as part of establishing the fair share siteing criteria. number three, allowing the department to offer another type of housing facility. i would like to add my own amendments, as well, adding

some districts may not have parcels to accommodate navigation centers but may have sites feasible for shelters or transition facilities. a policy can establish vision, but a successful policy should allow us to achieve that vision. i believe with my amendments, we can pass legislation that is both bold and achievable. the unhoused residents of my district have asked for flexibility. in my house, constituents who support bringing homeless services to the sunset have asked for flexibility. at the same time, they are asking for accountability for the department of homelessness and supportive housing. since we are considering two sets of complex legislation today, i ask that we hear from

supervisors, the department, if they so choose, and then public comment. it would be my intention to entertain motions to amend section by sex. i believe that the amendments that are being introduced today by supervisor haney and myself if adopted would be substantive, and for that reason, i anticipate this ordinance will be continued to the next g.a.o. meeting. for members of the public, that means there will be another opportunity to weigh-in on the legislation and any amendments that we accept today. so unless there are objections from my colleagues, i would like to welcome nick minard from the b.l.a. office. you presented at the last

meeting, correct? >> that's correct, but i'm happy to answer any questions about our report. >> chair mar: well, thank you for being here. and i would also now like to invite julie boyer from the department of homelessness and supporting housing to make a statement. >>. >> good morning, members of the government audit and the oversight committee. i am here today to read a statement into record on behalf of director kositsky. as h.s.a. has informed committee members both verbally and in writing, i was unable to attend the committee today as i am speaking at the national alliance to end homelessness's annual conference. h.s.a.s senior management are also attending the conference to share san francisco's best practices in learning with our

national partners and colleagues. we understand chair mar's scheduling for today, and i apologize that neither myself nor an appropriate representative was able to attend to provide comments and answer the committee's questions. we share with the committee our concerns with this proposes ordinance as it's currently written in the hearing on thursday, february 6, and we look forward to continue working with the supervisors on this amendment. we appreciate chair mar's amendments, but we know there is more work to be done. h.s.a. looks forward to attending the next meeting. thank you. >> chair mar: thank you, miss boyer. is there a representative from the mayor's office or any other offices that would like to make remarks? no? great. before we go to public comment,

are there any further comments or questions from my colleagues? so why don't we move to public comment. i have two speaker cards submitted. shelley carroll and francisco decosta. other members of the public are invited to speak. please lineup on the right side of the room. mr. decosta, you have two minutes. >> yeah, i have two minutes. so i represent the first people, the ohlone. the spokesperson came up here and spoke to all the supervisors and told what she needs from all the supervisors, that's empathy and compassion. now even before you make the amendments, they must be available to the public, not read to us at the last moment because at san francisco, we have astute and stellar

constituent taxpayers who understand amendments. now, you may say we have 5,000, 6,000 homeless in san francisco, we really have over 12,000, and navigation centers in every neighborhood is not the way to go. putting people in small boxes is not the way to go. now supervisors, you all know about the academy of art university having thousands of units that it stole from us, rental units. why don't we go over there, since we won the case? we need human beings to live in buildings with wraparound services. we don't need to have one single human being or our elders die on the streets of san francisco. we do not know that. the legalese, he is a

representative of somebody who came here who said oh, i was a representative of a committee, and i can't be here, san francisco is corrupt. san francisco has lost its soul, so much so that the f.b.i. is now involved in so many things, bringing up things that are hidden. you all -- >> clerk: thank you. next speaker, please. >> chair mar: thank you. next speaker, please. >> hello, supervisors. my name is shelley carroll. i live in district 6, two blocks away from the navigation center on the embarcadero. i agree that supportive housing is what we need, but in the interim, i support navigation centers in general, and navigation centers all over the

city. thank you. >> chair mar: thank you. next speaker. >> good morning, supervisors. calvin click from the san francisco youth commission. we oppose this legislation unless amended to reinstate the hard need for a t.a.y. navigation center. i just want to reiterate that we are supportive of this broaden intent of this legislation to expand the model across this city, and we definitely appreciate supervisor haney's and supervisor preston's remarks. we agree it does not reflect well on the city's values if we remove the current mandate for a t.a.y. navigation center to be operated by the city, and there is good reason for the city being committed to address youth homelessness as a priority. i large -- a disproportionate

number of people experiencing homelessness in the t.a.y. range, so if we support homelessness in that age range, we will be easing the burden on the alternate system and developing tools to better serve the population experiencing homelessness at large, so we believe we should not be backing off on our hard commitment to operating a t.a.y. navigation while such a navigation center still does not exist and will not for at least the rest of this year. we thank you for your consideration. thank you. >> chair mar: thank you. >> supervisors, brian everett from district 5, for the coalition to end homelessness.

we are in support of navigation centers as well as r.v. centers. we are also in support of other transitional housing stopgaps to bridge when we actually have housing for folks. i do want to stay the navigation centers often end up being used for reasons of enforcement around them. i'm always cautious when i see these things come up, because it gets promised to the residents, well, we'll create a clear zone or something like that, and it's promising to your constituents that you can't deliver. the city does sweep people every single day and every single night, and they come back. it may not be the same people, but there's no place to go.

there's thousands of people that are caught outside the shelter system. so we support navigation centers, we support other transitional facilities, but we also want to make sure that this does not get used to promise housed people that their complaints will be responded to regarding unhoused people. >> chair mar: thank you. next speaker. >> my name is jordan, and let's talk about homeless shelters. i've been in a conventional shelter in philly, and it was like a mini prison. i home that navigation center replace shelters, so that's good. we're a housing first city, and i think we need to go further and that there should be housing for the formerly

homeless in every district in the city, and they need to be in apartments not s.r.o.s, where people are treated like adults, not poverty pimps. height restrictions should not matter in this regard. if the city wants to build a homeless shelter in lake merced or the marina, i think it should meet with approval, and no one should be able to cry boohoo and about how we lower property values in that neighborhood. we need to not focus on the interim things, but instead the

permanent solutions. >> chair mar: thank you. next speaker. >> hi. i'm with community housing partnership, and we are very supportive of navigation centers in every district. it's important that, like jordan just said, that we also realize that if we don't have housing exits for people in the navigation centers, then we're just kind of spinning people's wheels. if there was an earthquake now, we wouldn't have people to set up in each of the neighborhoods. the financial crisis and the gentrification crisis have affected our city, and we need to set up appropriately.

>> chair mar: thank you. next speaker. >> hello. my name is shirley, and i've been homelessness. i just left, denver, colorado, and buried my sister and her son. her baby boy is married to a woman that runs a homeless connection place. what they have is they have bought apartments, not this navigation system. it will not work. i'm going to say it again. i lived in a tent. i was homeless for two years. that was almost 15 years. i'm still struggling. what's behind a navigation, that does not work. the place she works, they have bought apartment complexes, houses, homes, and they put them in there. they have social workers, everything. it's been 100% guaranteed, it

works. they help people get jobs, they help people get on their feet, and they move on out. they're there for a period of time, and then, they move out. the money you're using for this, you can use it for homes and get the people in, and give them a certain amount of time, and i guarantee you it will work, but this is a waste of money. you can make some navigation systems for them to get from point a to point b, but this is not going to work. it's a waste of money. >> chair mar: thank you. next speaker. >> hello. i'm here to let you know that the town's nice and all of that, but there's a lot of things that go into this that would help also. social workers, doctors, nurses, people who are there to help them find housing, get stable jobs, all those things are great things that should go

into that if you should actually do it right because if you don't do it right, you'll have the same problem next year and the year after that, and the year after that. so i'm thinking that if you consider our neighbors who are homeless, as mr. haney has mentioned, we don't know what it's like to be homeless. we don't know what it's like to be trapped in a situation they can't get out, and every time you look around, they're getti getting harrassed. you have thousands of people living on the streets.

you have left them hopeless out there on the street. it's a nice sound when you say you're going to have navigation centers all over the city, but if you don't have the way to set up properly, you're not going to have any solutions. let's put people out there to help our people. thank you. >> chair mar: thank you. next speaker. >> hi, good morning. supervisors. my name is dale seymour. i now chair the local homeless board for the city of san francisco, so i'm not talking to you off wikipedia or google. i actually spent time in their life. this is the city of st. francis. aren't we our brother's

keepers? aren't we required to do something for folks on the street? most people in this room cannot last two hours on the streets, but we have people that have been there 10, 15 years and somehow managing, so it is our responsibility as a decent city and a people of love that we talk to san francisco -- we love everyone and we're so liberal and we're so get down, and yet, we're fighting compassionate service for folks on the street. spend one night out there, and you'll know what i'm talking about. at least we can -- and i am not a shelter person. i don't believe we can shelter our way out of this crisis, but in the meantime, we've got to think of tyrone, we've got to think of sheela, who's out there tonight while we go to our warm homes, they're out there. we've got to do this on a citywide basis. this is not a south of market problem, this is not a

tenderloin problem, this is a san francisco problem. no one can say, they're not in my district. what the hell you saying, not in my district? everyone's got to cue on this because we've got a crisis outside that we have not figured out how to do it, so in the meantime, we need these manufacture gas station centers. -- we need these navigation centers. please navigate for these, and find these other supervisors, and i'll go to them door by door and say -- [applause] >> chair mar: thank you. next speaker. >> good morning, supervisors. my name is lorenzo, and i am a community organizer with dndc in the tenderloin, people's congress. homelessness issue is in a crisis situation. we know that thousands of people are out there in the

streets every night, every day, without -- you know, without housing. so -- so we also know that over the past three years, over 400 people died on our streets. so we need a comprehensive citywi citywide solution to address this problem because obviously, the previous solutions didn't work. we know that this is wrong. this is wrong, and it is embarrassingly wrong for a city that is, like, one of the wealthiest cities in the world to let these things happen to our neighbors. so i urge all of you to please support this, and especially the mayor, to build more housing citywide. because this is urgent, and this is -- this should have

been done years ago. we should not also stop on that, we should also think about providing services to them, because this is how they will be sustainable and build more housing citywide, as well. thank you. >> chair mar: thank you. do we have any other people who would like to speak on this? step forward. >> my name is liza. i'm for navigation centers. the problem is we don't have people to help them. i went inside navigation centers and shelters, and they' they're deplorable. to walk in a shelter and watch

70 men of color watching t.v. hurts my heart. it's like why aren't we doing a group? why aren't we doing housing applications? why aren't we doing proactive things? we have 60 people waiting for beds, and we have 25 beds and two case managers. when are we going to realize that in order to help these people, we need to provide proper resources for proper growth so they can incorporate back into society. we need to differentiate between mental health and homelessness. instead of building temporary places, why aren't we investing in long-term housing for low-income? thank you. [applause] >> chair mar: thank you. is there anyone else that would

like to speak on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. [gavel]. >> chair mar: supervisor mandelman? >> supervisor mandelman: thank you, chair mar. and i will be brief. i'm just visiting the committee. i'm glad to be here today because i want to hear more about this proposal, and i did watch the prior hearing. you know, i think that if i were the district 6 supervisor, i would absolutely be putting geographic equity in homeless services as among my very top priorities because there is not geographic equity in the city right now, and if i were a resident of the tenderloin or soma, i would be very frustrated about that. as the district 8 supervisor, i see the problem from a different perspective, which is

we do have unhoused on our streets, and so far, it has been cost prohibitive and nearly impossible to find spaces in the castro that would be feasible in getting people off the streets. i'm glad we were able to find the hummingbird site. my concern about this particular legislation, and i appreciate the amendments that have been brought forward, is that it centers navigation centers as the solution to homelessness, and as i think about homelessness and how it impacts housed and unhoused people in san francisco, if you're an unhoused person in san francisco, the solution is a home. it is a way to get into an s.r.o., permanent supportive

housing, coop, something that permanently gets you off of the street and into a best space. if you are a housed person, frustrated about the encampments that are outside your home, you want the fastest, cheapest way to get a safe, humane alternative for the people who are being forced to camp in your neighborhood. and although i believe that navigation centers are important, and particularly important for people who are reluctant to come indoors, there are a lot of people who are not reluctant to come indoors, and we are leaving those folks by the hundreds and even thousands some nights without a place to go. and although i take the point about this, you know, not addressing the whole panoply of things, i am concerned that it will displace resources from

permanent supportive housing on the one hand and from more immediate and cost effective ways to get people shelter on the other hand. so where i'm looking for faster and more cost effective than what we've been doing over the last few years, i fear this is going to be slower and more expensive. to that end, i think the amendments that are being discussed will improve this and help the legislation be less impactful in a negative regard. but i remain concerned that tasking the department of homelessness and supportive housing to tackle these goals in a six-month time frame when i've seen them tackle almost nothing in six months is unrealistic. second, i think what constitutes the nav center is going to make it harder, more expensive, and slower to get

these facilities up and running. so these are the concerns that i currently have. i will support the amendments today, but look forward to the conversation continuing. >> chair mar: thank you, supervisor mandelman. supervisor haney? >> clerk: just a reminder in today's proceedings, please refrain from hissing, booing, or applauding so we can keep on track. thank you very much. >> supervisor haney: thank you. i just want to thank everybody from the public who came out and for your thoughtful comments. i just want to respond to a couple of things that have been said. first, with the timeline, we're going to meet the timeline with the hummingbird site and the

site in district 3, and the other districts would have 36 months to build the remaining sites. i want to say something about permanent supportive housing. we absolutely need permanent supportive housing. we need it, and we need it fast. we just passed a $600 million housing bond. we passed an increase to the office development fee, which is going to bring in another $500 million, with a dedicated source of funding for homeless. we hopefully very soon are going to get money from prop c, which is another few hundred million dollars. we have thousands of units in the pipeline, and they absolutely need to come faster. if anybody wants to work together to ensure that there's a citywide commitment for that housing in every district, i will be the first to sign up to work on that with you. so let's do that. we need that, we need those exits, but let's be clear about

what this is. this is also something we absolutely essentially need right now tonight. many of the people who are going to be going into those housing exits, to that supportive housing, first need to be transitioned in a housing navigation center. they need to be in there tonight. some of those folks will be able to qualify for housing in a certain amount of time, and right now, it takes a certain number of months for people to wait to be placed in housing. other folks have other types of housing exits. in any case, our shelters are way over capacity to address the need that we have tonight, so i do find it hard to stomach that we have a situation where -- and i know, hopefully, supervisor mandelman, that your constituents are concerned about people -- housed constituents are concerned about people who are living in their doorsteps and on the commercial corridors, and you're call hsoc, and you're

calling 311. what do you think is happening to those folks right now? they -- if we have opportunities for them to go anywhere, they're going to shelters and navigation centers almost entirely in my district, district 9. so we do have a demonstrated clear urgent need for more supportive housing, and we have a clear need tight for more transitional shelter. and this proposal would fit perfectly with a proposal that also requires more permanent supportive housing citywide in every district, and i would support that entirely, but that's not what we're doing here with this laemegislation. if we made this about permanent supportive housing, and we built, let's say, in district 1, where i know there's also challenging around homelessness in district 1, a 50-unit permanent housing site, that's absolutely needed and required, and we should do that, but it

doesn't allow us on an ongoing basis to address the urgent needs of getting people off the streets into temporary shelter, transitional shelter immediately. that would still leave district 1 without any transitional shelters tonight for people who need them, and i think that's a broken homelessness response system with massive gaps in it that will continue to leave so many people on the streets without a place to go. so i -- you know, i definitely support permanent supportive housing. i hear everyone, that's a critical essential support of the response system that needs to grow, but so is this, and that's why it was written as it is. and i think that for district 6 and 9 and 10, you know, i've built -- we're building another two in district 6. the idea that other parts of the city -- i should say other elected officials in other

parts of the city would continue to rely on sending folks solely to our district rather than stepping up and having that clear responsibility and mandate i think is very unfortunate and ineffective, especially when we know from what residents are saying and what polls have said that the neighborhoods themselves and the residents themselves want these services, want these transitional shelters in the neighborhood. they want them, so it's really this building that's unfortunately behind the ball when it comes to stepping up and taking the responsibility to meet the demands of this crisis on our streets. so i -- i will -- i'm sure we're going to go amendment by amendment, word by word, but i -- i support the amendments, and i appreciate the amendments that you've put forward, supervisor mar, but i -- i do not want to turn this into a -- a piece of legislation that requires permanent supportive housing in each district, though i would support that,

too. so if you want to make this an and, or if you want to make a different set of legislation for that, i would complete to that, but i am also aware from the other coauthors that they feel very strongly that this needs to maintain the commitment to transitional, immediate shelters to transitional services on-site in the navigation center model. lastly -- and this was said in the last meeting. you could have a parking lot in a district that is for 30 cars or r.v.s. they can be specifically focused on veterans or seniors or transitional age youth. they can be a hummingbird site for folks experiencing mental health or addiction. with these amendments, we've actually expanded it a lot more. so i think there's sufficient flexibility in here, and i would support the amendments you put forward, and i

appreciate the work that you've put into these, supervisor mar, but with the exception of the piece around permanent supportive housing. >> chair mar: thank you, supervisor haney. actually, just -- i wanted to see if we can just clarify one point that both you and supervisor mandelman, i think, referred to around the six-month time frame to create the first two navigation centers in districts without one. i think the b.l.a. analysis, mr. menard, you sort of looked at that and is six months a feasible -- >> yeah. nick menard from the budget and legislative analyst's office. we two have two navigation centers that are scheduled to open in the fall of this year,

so assuming that timeline remains intact, they would meet the six-month requirement in the ordinance. >> chair mar: great. thank you. that sounds good. and then, supervisor haney, one of your amendments is to extend, for the other nav centers to be opened, from 30 months, to 36 months. that sounds good. so yeah, i -- well, i -- actually, i'd like to move into the discussion about the proposed amendments. and again, supervisor haney and myself both introduced some proposed amendments today that i -- i guess are not necessarily -- i think a lot of them are complimentary and fine, and so -- but i would like to maybe -- i think process wise, it's good to start with the section -- the amendments that are proposed for section 106.3-1, requirement to open new navigation centers, because i

think that's the section where there -- there -- there's some, like, sort of misalignment with the amendments we're proposing. and i would -- actually, maybe i would just start off by saying that i support all of the amendments that you're proposing in the section with the exception of one, and that's in your new subsection d, other temporary shelters. so -- you know, so i appreciate the intent of that by allowing other types of shelters, you know, to be considered in fulfilling this -- you know, the nav center in every district. and so my -- the amendments that i've submitted, you know, are more -- are more descriptive of the other types of shelter and services that

could be provided for the homeless -- homeless residents in every district. and -- and -- and i guess, you know -- so in -- i think we're in agreement that other types of shelters if a navigation center are not feasible in a district, just that my amendments provide more description about what those alternative shelter services -- and services could be. the one significant difference that you highlighted is my amendments. i'm also proposing that in addition to other types of transitional housing facilities, we also allow

additional housing solutions, permanent housing to be considered in fulfilling the requirements of this legislation. and i -- i -- you know, i hear your points about how we need both, and the intent -- your original intent of this legislation with the focus on navigation centers and shelters and transitional housing to get folks living on the streets or unsheltered off the streets versus creating permanent supportive housing, but i think as -- you know, i -- i would -- i tend to agree with supervisor mandelman. and i think also what we heard from the department, from representatives at the last -- previous hearing and many of the speakers and the public that we have to kind of look at all -- you know, all of these -- these different strategies, and -- and -- and we need all of them kind of at the same time.

and i think more -- more specifically, for some districts, like the sunset or district 4, you know, the built environment in the sense with its vacant homes and the more vacant parcels, it would be easy to find homes than a traditional navigation center. so i would like to start -- i would like to sort of propose for this section that we would accept all of the amendments that supervisor haney put forward except for the proposed new subsection d, in the section, "other temporary

shelters," and then accept all the amendments that i put forward for this section, which i think are -- would be complementary or work well with supervisor haney's amendments. deputy city attorney pearson, do you have any -- >> deputy city attorney ann pearson. it might be simpler to take those two things one at a time and accept the amendments that have been introduced by supervisor haney with the exception of those made to section d, and following those, make a motion to accept the ones that you have suggested. >> chair mar: okay. >> supervisor haney: no, you can't -- >> clerk: supervisor haney? >> supervisor haney: maybe my question might answer the

public's question. so what we are going to do is take all of the amendments that i have proposed, except for the amendment that relates really to the type of shelters that would qualify, which would be 10 -- can you read the section that we're -- and what -- we'll read it for the public. >> the motion that i heard articulated was limited to amendments that have been introduced to section 106.3-1, and i understood the amendment to be a motion to accept the amendments that you have made, supervisor haney, to that section, with the exception of those amendments introduced to subsection d as an initial motion. >> clerk: just as -- for additional clarity, so we can

make sure, there will be other later amendments proposed as we continue to go through this section 106.1 through 106.1-3, but for an initial point, i'm hearing the haney amendments, excepting for that subsection d, that first motion, from supervisor mar. is that correct? >> supervisor haney: i thought you said be accepting them except for the ones in subsection d. >> clerk: that's right. >> supervisor haney: so that's different. can we clarify which amendments that we're talking about? >> supervisor mar: so i did think process wise, it would be good to start with section 106.1 -- 106.3-1, and then, after that, we can go to the other substantive section, which is 106.2, the operational requirement. but for now, i just think it would be helpful to focus on

the -- the -- the proposed amendments to 106.3-1, and i can -- am interested in making a motion to accept all of your amendments in this section, 106.3-1, except for subsection d, because i think that -- the amendments that i introduced sort of expand on that. okay. supervisor mandelman? >> supervisor mandelman: well, i'm trying to figure out the overlay of the two amendments, because i think both supervisors have proposed to add flexibility, and i appreciate the additional flexibility that both are offering. i think that supervisor haney's legislation or amendment contemplates the possibility that a hummingbird could meet

the requirements of this legislation by having the 30-bed limit, and i'm not sure that i saw something like that in supervisor mar's amendments, which i could be missing. we're quick reading up here, so i'm not sure. but if another temporary shelter includes something that has at least 30 individuals, i'm not -- i'm not sure if that was specifically done for, like, a hummingbird or something that catered to people with individual heightened needs. and i'm not sure -- a new homeless facility is defined as a nav center, which i'm not sure includes a hummingbird. it needs to have 150 beds or something like that. there's some minimum that needs

to be met to fit the definition of a nav center. so if we aren't seaccepting supervisor haney's d, i would like to have some way to acknowledge shelters that are smaller for particularly good reason, like i think, you know, nav centers are, would be -- or hummingbirds are, would be included in the definition. >> just a point of clarification in the process, and i'll look to the clerk to correct me if i'm wrong. a motion has not been made with respect to subsection d, so if the committee were to vote to approve all of the amendments that are proposed to subsections a through c, it could move on and someone could make a motion as to the

proposed amendments in subsection d. >> chair mar: yeah, thank you. i don't believe i made a motion, i just expressed an interest to make a motion. this is sort of complicated process wise. >> supervisor haney: well, i will move the amendment that i proposed to section 106.3-1 with everything, with the exception of section d. >> clerk: everything on your text with a amendments that you presented on that section with the exception of subsection d? >> supervisor haney: yes. >> clerk: and moved by supervisor haney as a member of the committee. >> chair mar: great, and i'll second that. >> clerk: okay. would you like me to take a roll call vote on that or --

>> chair mar: okay, yeah. i think we can do that -- can we take that without objection? okay. [gavel]. >> clerk: so the motion is made to anticipate the amendments by supervisor haney to accept the textual amendments to subsection 1. >> chair mar: i then would like to make a motion to accept the amendments that i've introduced to section 106.3-1 but with -- i think we can -- [inaudible] >> okay. yeah but i would like to make sure that we address the point that supervisor mandelman brought up about acknowledging that the hummingbird place --

facility would serve this, as well, as a -- i think in my amendments it would be considered -- i think in my amendments, it would fall in a transitional housing facility with amendments. >> i think you -- >> supervisor mandelman: mr. chair, i think you could add other temporary shelters to the list of things that count as -- whatever the defined term is, list of homelessness facilities, and then have a definition of temporary shelter that basically mirrors -- yeah, i think that includes supervisor haney's language from d, i think. >> chair mar: mm-hmm. is it mainly the 30-individual? >> supervisor mandelman: yeah, it's an alternate type of temporary shelter that serves

at least 30, but not limited to transitional housing or stablizati stabilization beds. that bill piece of d that has -- that would become part of new homeless facilities. let's do your -- yours first, and then -- >> chair mar: okay. >> clerk: can you restate your motion, please. >> chair mar: so i move that we accept the motions that we've introduced to 106.3-1. >> clerk: would these override the amendments proposed by

supervisor haney? >> chair mar: no, i'm proposing we do both, the ones that i and supervisor haney set, and then, my amendments in the entirety, i think they could go together. >> clerk: okay. you going to take a roll call vote on that? >> chair mar: yes. >> clerk: okay. roll call vote on the amendments to 106.3-1 as offered by supervisor mar. [roll call] >> clerk: chair mar, there are two ayes and one no, with supervisor haney in the dissent. the motion prevails. [gavel]. >> clerk: thank you. >> supervisor mandelman: so it's simple to do this now, so we can do this now or come back later. so the hummingbird solution, is

to add a division of other temporary shelters that defines it as an alternative type of temporary shelter including but not limited to transitional housing, temporary, or shelter beds, and then, to add other temporary shelters to the definition in b-1 of what is collectively new homeless facilities, so i would move that we do that. >> chair mar: i think that's good. can i just ask a question. why couldn't we include that under transitional housing facility? so you're proposing to add it as a new -- under definition as

a fourth -- i'm sorry. i guess i'm just trying to understand why because under transitional housing facilities, i think that was meant meant -- >> supervisor mandelman: i don't think hummingbird is a transitional shelter. it's a good model that helps people, but i don't think it's good transitional housing. in a residential facility -- i don't think it's a residential facility for behavioral health treatment, it's a shelter with behavioral health treatment, so i think it does need to be separately called out. if there's discomfort with this, i'm also happy to work with -- work with the chair and to have somebody bring in the amendments next time we're at

the board or something, so either way. >> chair mar: okay. i think that sounds good. >> supervisor mandelman: okay. then i rescind my motion. >> clerk: thank you. >> chair mar: all right. and then, maybe we can go to the other substantive section, that's 106.2, operational requirements for navigation centers. i -- i would just move that we accept the amendments to this section, that supervisor manny has introduced in their entirety. >> clerk: do you have a second to that? >> supervisor haney: oh, second, yes, thank you. >> clerk: i'm hearing supervisor mar moving the textual amendments proposed by supervisor haney in their entirety. do we need to take a roll call

vote on that? >> chair mar: can we take that without objection? okay. [gavel]. >> clerk: okay. without objection. >> chair mar: are there any other amendments that -- >> i believe there's one amendment to the findings that hasn't been addressed yet. >> chair mar: oh, right. so that -- yeah, i did have one amendment to the findings stating that in districts that may not have applicable building, safety, or height requirements that meet the admin codes, there may be exceptions to transitional housing for persons experiencing homelessness. so -- so i would move that we accept that amendment.

>> supervisor haney: can we take a vote? >> clerk: so on the motion to insert in the findings a new subsection i as offered by supervisor mar in his textual amendments, supervis amendments -- [roll call] >> clerk: chair mar, there are two ayes and one no, with supervisor haney in the dissent. >> chair mar: thank you. >> clerk: the motion prevails. [gavel]. >> clerk: just a moment while i catch up. >> chair mar: and deputy city attorney pearson, correct me if i am wrong, but we've dealt with all the amendments that have been introduced, and you can just deal with the other language -- >> that's right. i think you've proposed all the

amendments, and we can work with your office to approve all the amendments that were proposed today and changes to the title, as well. >> chair mar: so again, thank you so much, supervisor haney, for sponsoring this important legislation and for pushing this discussion about expanding our services for the homeless population citywide to address the crisis on a citywide level. >> supervisor haney: thank you, yeah. >> chair mar: so we'll -- this'll be continued to the next -- i would -- i would like to move that we continue to the next g.a. on to. meeting. >> clerk: the next regular g.a.o. meeting will be march 5, 2020. >> chair mar: okay. actually, since we're considering scheduling a special g.a.o. meeting that week because of the number of items, maybe we could continue this to the call of the chair

so that we could schedule it -- >> clerk: is that your motion? >> chair mar: yeah, so i would move that we schedule that to the call of the chair. can we take that without objection? [gavel]. >> chair mar: thank you. mr. clerk, please call item number 2 -- oh, actually, there was a request to take one item out of order. supervisor fewer requested that we take item 6, so mr. clerk, please call item number 6. >> clerk: agenda item number 6 is a hearing on the city's preparation for the 2020 census. >> chair mar: great. >> hello, supervisors. good morning. my name is chelsea boylar from supervisor fewer's office. we will be brief because i know that there are a lot of people

here for item number 2. we didn't want to delay this hearing because census outreach is about to begin next month and is launching. but the intention of today's hearing on the 2020 census is to highlight the planning for the intensive undertaking for the census. happens every ten years in san francisco. we have a goal of counting all of our residents, especially those residents that are identified as hard to count for many reasons. to be counted is to have voice and power in our country. we rely on the census to define who we are. it ensures representative government at all levels. it is used to define congressional districts and provides the most complete data fosh research and policy planning in the public and

sectors. as we head into the 2020 census, supervisor fewer is particularly concerned about how to ensure counting of children, noncitizens, limited english speaking people, unhoused people, folks in public housing and more. we know there's a lot of work going into making this happen, so i am appreciative of you all taking the time to have this hearing today and appreciative for director of the civic engagement immigrant affairs, adrian tan, who is here to make a presentation, and then two community presenters, but hopefully, this item will be short, and thank you very much. >> chair mar: thank you. supervisor tan? >> good morning, supervisors, chair mar.

adrian pan, and i'm joined by my colleagues on the team, and we will breeze right through this presentation. a year ago we shared our initial thinking on the 2020 census and overcoming the many challenges to making sure that every san francisco resident was accurately, fairly, and completely counted by the u.s. census bureau during the 2020 census. we are asked today to -- we were asked today to provide an update on what's been done so far. so first of all, i want to thank you for your leadership on the board, and for president yee and supervisor fewer for keeping the focus on the 2020 census. there's a lot going on in the city, but question need to get this -- but we need to get this done. just the quickest recap on the census, census 101 is a count of everybody, and it happens

every ten years. and why the census matters is about power, voice, and funding, as chelsea said. but more important, every person counted in san francisco is worth about $2,000 in federal funding and resources each year for the next ten years, so the census will also impact our redistricting, our congressional representation, and the political voice. but if you think about just the money alone, that's about over the next decade, $17.7 billion coming to our city, and we need that for all the essential services for our people. so i think that you are aware of the many, many challenges. we're not going to go through all of them. the census has been politicized, it's been abused. everything that you've heard,

there's historic undercount, there's a lot of fear under our immigrant population, whether you're a long time immigrant or undocumented, all of the talk about adding the citizenship question has already done its harm and damage in making our people even more scared, and then, there are accessibility issues. it's the first digital census, so we have language barriers. we're not sure if this is going to pose some risk or cybersecurity risk. there's declining trust in government, especially in the last three years. i don't need to tell you that. you're well aware of that. with every danger comes opportunity, so we look at this as an opportunity to mobilize the people of san francisco. it's a call to action. we've got to standup to hate and intimidation. we've got to energyize the next generation, test the field for

mass mobilization, and there are census jobs available that pay $30 an hour if we can get our people in the pipeline as quickly as possible. so now, i'm going to give you just an overview of the san francisco effort. it's s.f. counts for the 2020 census. and we say that every counts and needs to be counted. despite what you hear from wilbur ross or the president or other people, yeah, our people count, and our focus is going to be on hard-to-reach areas of the city. so what is s.f. count? so this is a coordinated grassroots effort with a broad network of community arts, civic, education, labor, and faith-based organizations, to make sure that everyone in san francisco is accurately counted

in the census. our goals are real simple. increase the access, remove the barriers, foster trust because they've got to at least trust us, and then motivate our residents, and there are different ways to motivate them. san francisco is the only county in the 2010 census to hit its goal of 73% in self-response, and that's our goal again this time. it's system bishs, and we have -- it's ambitious, and we've got our work cut out this time around, but we're not alone. we're doing outreach in every single neighborhood, doing relevant messages from trusted voices, boots on the ground operations, real grassroots community based organizations.

and i have to give a shout out out, many of our community bases organizations are in the room -- based organizations are here in the room. they may be here for other items on the agenda. but we couldn't do the work without them, and you will hear from two of those organizations in a while, and making sure there are locations throughout the city, and making this a creative, inclusive arts based campaign. i hope it's not going to be a representative -- not going to be representative of the u.s. census-based effort, but complementary. we're right in the middle of community outreach and education, and our community partners have been busy doing this since july of last year. the census goes live in march, and census day is april 1.

but in between then, you know, people can jump on-line as early as march 12 to fill out their forms, which is what we hope most people will do, whether they need language assistance or need access to computer, we're going to make that happen. on march 9, people can participate by telephone. they don't want to go on-line, there are other ways to participate. so finally, we did launch our san francisco effort, s.f. counts, with speaker pelosi and mayor breed on january 17. that was attended by hundreds of community members. most of the 57 members of the san francisco complete count committee, community leaders, grantees, labor and faith-based

organizations, so it is game on for s.f. counts, and i'm going to turn it over to robert clinton, our director of services. >> good morning, supervisors. thank you for having us. just going to talk briefly about the things that we've done to make sure that our residents are being heard in the 2020 census. children 0-5 were the most

undercounted group in the 2010 census. we're making sure that everybody who is touched by this office is aware of the 2020 census. people experiencing homelessness are particularly vulnerable, especially in this first digital census. we're working with the department of homelessness to distribute information, saying anyone can do the census and everyone should do the census. the lgbtq community, working with the office of transgender initiatives, working with the department of aging services. this is one of our outreach events, we have one of our superstar supervisors who's on screen there, also in front of us. this was an event at the commonwealth club that talked about the relationship between the lgbtq community and the

2020 census that went pretty well. had some representation from our immigrant rights commission, from our leg aide. we had someone from the youth commission, as well. we are funding 30-plus nonprofits who are doing census outreach and education work in their communities. they are doing work in language, they are doing work where people are at different community events, they're creating bespoke census events, as well, and they're spreading word about the census actively since last july. with the office of early care and education, they have child care provider roundtables. we've been at the last one, and the next one is on friday, providing information about the census in language to all child care providers who are touched by this office. they all have received our census materials, they all understand how to help people to do the census, as well, so

that is a really successful pard partnership. with h.s.h., making sure they have bespoke materials, they are reaching out to people experiencing homelessness to let them know that the census is available to them, as well. o.t.i., we are partnering with them in a number of days. they have a fellowship program, and their fellows are all being trained to give census assistance in spanish to people who are part of the lgbtq community. h.s.a. has been one of our most important partners, and then

with department of aging and adult services, we had a meeting last week that talked about the importance of our census for our aging and people with disabilities. we have a really robust complete count committee. our census community partners are doing really fantastic work in the communities that they serve to tell people about the census, as well. our arts based campaign is live. you've seen some of the kiosks on market street that say come to your census, and they're encouraging people to get excited about the census by using art. the interfaith partners have been great, and a lot of other partners, too. we've done events in all of your districts, as well. we launched s.f. counts, a soft launch, last autumn in the civic center commons. we're going to be at the lunar

new year event this coming weekend. supervisor mandelman was at the event we threw for the lgbtq community. we want to be out in the community wherever we can to tell people that the census is coming, 18 days away, and that they should shall be really excited -- they should be really excited to participate. my colleague, jamie, is going to talk about our communications. >> good morning, supervisors. i'm jamie richardson. rober robert touched on this, but we've been focused on funding a hyperlocal campaign.

the slogan is come to your census. it's provocative, it's multilingual, and it's funny, and the second phase of that will be multilingual bus shelters, bill boards, and more, including partnerships with local artists. here's an example of some of these local kiosks. they're in chinese, spanish, filipino, and english, and all of the art on these kiosks are from local artists that are included in this active action.

not only are we doing outreach that's informational, but also provocative and gets people excited about doing the census. our s.f. counts communication strategy started back in the summer where we've informed people what is the census, why we do it, and so on. the toolkits are available to all of our nonprofit organizations, and anywhere we go, we make these available, with inclusive languages. they're available in spanish, russian, chinese, and filipino. we're on the second round of our outreach collateral to motivate people to action and participate in the census, and those will be in a lot more languages than the ones listed here? i want to share some digital

tools that we've been building around the census. the first is working with the digital services team from the city and county doing census page, sf.gov/census. this is fully accessible, and it's written at a fifth grade level, so it's accessible to all of our residents. we've also made an s.f. counts website, sfcounts.org. all of our census centers, and all organizations that have opted into this are providing census help starting in march where anyone in san francisco can come to these organizations and say hey, i need help either accessing a computer to do my census or i need help in language doing my census or i

just need some wifi, and i can do it on my phone right now. so all of these are available on our site. people can select the language that they need, and also by special needs, so there's a help for folks in the lgbtq community, for people that are unhoused, as well as a.d.a. ak accessible locations. and there's an f.a.q. listed in spanish, chinese, and filipino. and we've been sharing all of our census outreach on-line in our social media counts which are listed there, and i'm going to kick it back to director pan. >> so supervisors in closing, we wanted to show this image and share why we chose to use an arts-based campaign for the

people of san francisco. this is different than other cities and counties, but we hope, you know, that they will adopt this too. so this gentleman's chamber is charlie, and he is a san francisco resident. he was unhoused. there are thousands of charlies in san francisco, and they all need to be counted and participate. and how we get charlie to come to a site and fill out a form that is only nine questions, but sometimes difficult for people to fill out is really the challenge to us. so we are using art to build the first-ever san francisco coalition for civic participation across arts, technology, philanthropy, and

faith-based communities. we need every san franciscan to jump on-line march 12 and fill out their census form. we're going to provide the help they need, but they've got to be motivated. we need to do it for our city, our family, our friends, our neighbors, and our communities. thank you very much for your support, and we look forward to creating individual p.s.a.s with you and activating events out in your districts. i also want to give a shoutout to our community partners, and you will hear from two of them after you ask questions, or if there aren't any questions, they'll be on desk. you've heard hong may, and

happy to answer questions or we can move to our community partners. >> chair mar: thank you so much. i think we can move to hearing from the community partners. >> thank you. >> thank you, director pan. good morning. my name is hong may, and i represent chinese for affirmative action. thank you so much for your leadership, and i want to thank president yee and supervisor fewer for calling the meeting on 2020 census implementation and inviting me to chair our work on census 2020. as you heard, we are in t-minus 18 mode, going live on march 9. chinese for affirmative action, c.a.a., we've been working to tackle the appropriations for

one of the most challenging federal census yet. we now know that there are three ways to fill out the census between march 12 and april 30. on-line, by phone, and on paper, with language assistance depending on which method community members decide to employ. there will be a late submission, also known as the late response period, up to july 31, but we are working to make sure that all community members, hard to count or not, are filling out the nine-question survey between march 12 and april 30 to make sure that our count is up and accurate. the nine questions on the survey does not include a citizenship question. it will not inquire about sensitive information such as bank account, citizenship, and

employment efforts. i want to thank c.a.a.s staff members who have spear headed train the trainer workshops to train over 500 staff in the many neighborhoods to deliver 2020 2020 census messages. on that front, c.a.a. has also set up a technical assistance

hotline to troubleshoot during the implementation. the attitudinal barriers that arise from certain populations cannot be understated, some borne out of misinformation felt by people of color, immigrants, and marginalized communities. untangling these from the access barriers, c.a.a. has zeroed in on messages that first confronts confidentiality and privacy concern by reiterating that the census is safe and easy. second, we are instituting a fraud and scam mechanism by provide accurate information so nobody falls prey to bad actors misusing the information. by completing the census, our communities can get a fair share in the coming ten years

and help our democracy work again. c.a.a. has partnered with s.f. media services and we have received vibrant coverage since july 2019. we have also partnered with office of city engagement and office of immigrant affairs to put out census materials in traditional chinese script. c.a.a. will publish accurate in-language and culturally competent content -- [inaudible] >> while march is right around the corner, and census 2020 quickly approaching, our work with local partners can help remove barriers can ensure that hard to count communities can

participate in the census. we will be participating in s.f. risings feed canvassing operations to inform and motivate hard to count communities and geographies to participate and offer mobile assistance in large scale events so that we are able to help hard to count communities complete the census on tablets on the spot. we look forward to working with you and collectively demonstrate our political courage to say we are here, we're not going anywhere, and we count. i'd like to invite my colleague, marian, to share her work. >> thank you, hong may, for sharing your information. my name is marian elaine myers, and i am the civic engagement

coordinat coordinator for s.f. rising. we provide comprehensive census outreach and education to yu undercounted communities across san francisco. we're trying to educate them and by focusing our outreach activity in those hard to count tracts, which include many neighborhoods in the southeast quadrant, including the bayview, excelsior, mission, o.m.i., viz valley, and we'll also be spending operations to chinatown and the tenderloin. we spend last year planning our

outreach activities and educating the community to dispel any concerns about privacy, the citizenship question, and many other concerns that they have. this march, we'll be sending over 50 canvassers throughout the city to make sure that residents are counting themselves in. our outreach will take place in spanish, english, chinese, arabic, and filipino, among others. as you all know, this census has been politicized with the current administration, and it is the first on-line census. we want to make sure we close the digital gap by making sure that folks know how to access it on-line and also folks know what the exact questions being asked are, and that their information is secure. this is also our first-ever time performing a comprehensive

outreach using a voter data platform called p.d.i., which will now give us information about all residents so we will be able to target all addresses and focus those addresses in the hard to count districts. we want to thank our partnership organizations for a complete count, and we look forward to working with you to make sure all san franciscans are counted. thank you. >> chair mar: thank you so much. so that's the presentation? great. well, thanks -- thank you so much, director pan, and the ocaa team and all the community partners for leading this effort. thank you, supervisor fewer, for calling the hearing and continuing to make this a priority here at city hall. maybe we can go to public comment. are there any members of the

public who wish to speak on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. so thanks again, everyone. colleagues, can we file this hearing without objection? [gavel]. >> chair mar: thank you. mr. clerk, please call item number 2. >> clerk: agenda item number 2, resolution authorizing the department of public health to award a one time limited term grant to edgewood center for children and families for the purpose of maintaining the fiscal solvency of edgewood, in an amount not to exceed 350,000

for a period not to exceed 90 days, to commence following board approval. >> chair mar: the c.s.u. is an unlocked 24-hour mental health facility serving youth ages 5-17 with a team comprised of counselors, nurses, clinical administrators, and a psychiatrist available 24 hours a day. when children are referred to an age appropriate facility like c.s.u., hospitalizations decrease. children and families can access appropriate services from the c.s.u., including acute intensive services provided on-site at edgewood. i am deeply concerned -- [inaudible] >> chair mar: -- no matter their ability to pay. without the c.s.u., we are

leaving many medi-cal recipients without the specialty mental health services they are entitled to. i want to acknowledge the staff misconduct and why the department stopped placing children at edgewood last year, which has led us to this point. at the time, i supported the department's decision to end referrals upon the surfacing of the sexual abuse allegations. i welcome and encourage transparen transparency on this issue in our conversations today. we must put our children first and problem solve together for their future. i have been working with d.p.h. and edgewood on corrective actions so that the facility meets our high standards of care and rebuilds the public trust so we can begin placing youth there again. despite corrective actions and referrals from other entities that have deemed edgewood as safe, edgewood's action plan has not been approved.

the agency is experiencing cash flow challenges due to lack of referrals and help from the city. edgewood needs to remain solvent to complete the community action process. the one-time funding gives us an opportunity to save our one and last crisis stabilization facility for minors. today, we will hear from the department, edgewood, the third party consultant working on the corrective action plan, and the b.l.a. before i begin with the presentations, would either of my colleagues like to make any remarks? great. so we have four presentations today, and i would like to suggest we listen to all the presentations before we ask

questions of the presenters and go into discussion as a committee. first, i would like to welcome greg wagner, chief financial officer from the department of public health. >> thank you, chair mar, members of the committee. greg wagner, d.p.h. as you mentioned 234 your remarks, edgewood has -- mentioned in your remarks, edgewood has been a community partner, and we request $350,000 to keep edgewood financially sustainable while we go through this process that you've referred to. as you mentioned, beginning in summer 2019, the city became aware of allegations of staff abuse of children at edgewood, and needless to say, that created significant concern by the city partners, d.p.h., and

h.s.a., who use edgewood services. we, in response to these allegations, also, as you mentioned, in august 2019, froze placements collectively as a city in edgewood's residential programs and went into the process of working with edgewood on a corrective action plan that would remediation the safety issues and get us back into a place where we felt that it was safe and responsible to continue placements at edgewood. so in the intervening months, we, as a city, have been working closely with edgewood to talk through the issues and develop a court of action, and we agreed on a scope of a corrective action plan and are moving forward today with the request for this grant which would allow a period of time for edgewood, in consultation

with the city as needed, to take those actions and also working with the city going forward on a long-term financial sustainability model so that we can work ourselves into a position where the financial concerns will not recur. as you pointed out, supervisor mar, separately and apart from the allegations that caused the cease in placements, we have been aware sometime in working with edgewood that there are financial concerns, and the fact that the city has frozen placements and therefore a reduction of funds to edgewood, edgewood has exacerbated that and put them in a difficult financial situation. we clearly want to get ourselves to a place where we

can resolve the issues and continue placements, and we support fully this course of action. in terms of the mechanics of this action, the department of health does have the authority to enter into a professional services contract where we purchase services from edgewood, and we use that contract for our normal course of business, we do not have e the -- and that's the reason that we have requested and that you have brought forward this resolution, which would give us that authority to make the grant. the grant would include, as you also mentioned, a set of deliverables, including the collective action plan, a financial business plan, and would be paid over milestones

as set forth in the grant agreement. so we are very hopeful about this process. i think both the city and edgewood are very committed to getting ourselves back into a place where any remaining issues are corrected, and we have a comfort level that we can resume services and also that we put ourselves in a position where we have a model that is financially sustainable for the city and for edgewood going forward. so we have our team here to answer any questions that you should have when you get to that point. thank you. >> chair mar: thank you so much, mr. wagner, and thank you to all the work that d.p.h., h.s.a., and the city attorney's office have put into working this important issue. next, i'd like to welcome lynn dulce, who is the c.e.o. of edgewood. >> i was going to say good morning, but good afternoon.

i'm truly grateful for your support on behalf of the children and families we serve. you know, i know you know in san francisco, nonprofits can't do our work alone and truly depend on the board of supervisors to make fair and measures decisions on behalf of your constituents. so as the chief executive officer for edgewood center for children and families, i am also a therapist, and i have served for 30 years in one way or another children and families in san francisco. prior to this position, i was the director of public health for san francisco county. i cofounded the san francisco department of public health trauma transformed trauma care curriculum that is considered a national model for organizational change, and previously, i worked to advance and develop an a.p.a., american

psychological association approved multicu approved multicultural program. i developed and oversaw outpatient mental health services and all services in the community. you may know that edgewood is the oldest nonprofit in san francisco. we have served children and families in san francisco since the gold rush. through the world wars, san francisco's coming of age in of 60s and 70s, crack, the racial crisis, and the challenges that are growing right now in our community. 90% of edgewood's work are done

in the communities over the last 20 years, edgewood has served as the training facility for 1% of all child psychiatrists nationwide. our partnership with ucsf extends beyond the school of medicine and into the school of nursing where we train nurse practitioner students who are interested in providing psychiatric health in under served communities. we have provided intergenerational family cancered care through our kinship support services, the very first support services for grandparents taking care of their grandchildren before the state developed any care for these families. we keep children with their families in loving homes. when i learned about the devastating misconduct by two employees who cleared background checks and who were approved by the state to work in edgewood's residential treatment facilities, i fired

them. i immediately set to work to fully understand the conditions at edgewood that led to egregious safety 3wr5e egregious breaches in the communities we serve. in order to ensure the safety of children in edgewood, we have made structural and procedural changes. two months ago, in december d the california state licensing board closed all complaints against edgewood and issued our permanent operating license, something they definitely would not have done if they were at all concerned about the safety of children in our care. for over six months, my dedicated, talented and diverse team and i have worked with san francisco county human service agency as well as the department of public health on a corrective action plan to ensure the safety and well-being of children in our care. the independent consulting team

we hired per the county's mandate has submitted over 400 pages of documentation that addresses the county's concern for safety at edgewood center, and still, our publicly ensured youth and our families who are disproportionate lie african american and latinx have been denied to our services. prior, children have had no disruption in services or treatment at edgewood. specifically, without the crisis stabilization service which is often the gate way to short-term treatment, children as young as five and ad old as 17 are back to waiting for assessments in emergency rooms or being locked in units.

i witnessed firsthand children waiting for mental health assessments in the emergency room and in the hallway in between the emergency room and the adult psychiatric emergency services, no place for children experiencing a psychiatric crisis. i think we all agree on that. my experience working with sfusd schools for children with suicidal ideation wait for hours in school offices for someone with decision making power to come to assess them, someone who will tell them what the next step will be and where they will go. they are terrified, and their waiting increases their agitation as well as hopelessness. six years ago, edgewood's crisis stabilization unit opened its doors.

led by director liz scilliado, it has been a place for children. it's a stand-alone unlocked pediatric setting where children and families receive immediate safety assessments and support by a highly skilled diverse multilingual team of professionals 24 hours a day, seven days a week. i'm going to leave us with four takeaways today. the immediate safe concerns at edgewood have been addressed. there was no abuse alleged or reported in the crisis stabilization unit. the edgewood crisis stabilization unit funding needs to be secured today and into the future. the needs of our community's most vulnerable children and families should always come

first. the choice you make today will have a lasting impact on many, many young people and their families and in our community. our prisons are filled with those who were once children left yun served, please do not fund the only c.s.u. for san francisco youth. let's put some focus on the need to build a sustainable system for children and families. i look forward to any and all conversations with the city and county and organizations who want to work with edgewood now and in the future. in times of crisis, we must come together to under the complexity of trauma and to collaborate, understanding what trauma entails, so that organizations like edgewood can prioritize education and healing for families. on behalf of the children and families we serve, thank you very much for your consideration today, and i look forward to questions later. >> chair mar: thank you so much, miss dolce. next, i'd like to welcome john

steinfirst with a third party consultant working on a corrective action plan. >> good afternoon. my name is john steinfirst, and a long-time resident of san francisco, and by way of background, i began my career as a residential counselor, social worker, therapist, clinical supervisor, manager, a director, and c.e.o., and interim of several agencies since my so-called retirement about ten years ago. for 20 years, i was the c.e.o. of fred pinch youth center based in oakland with

residential and community based services in california and as far south as san diego. i have a model consultancy practice with nonprofits and do expert witness work with attorneys, equally representing plaintiffs and defendants. fred finch and edgewood are very similar in our mission and services, both beginning as orphan ages orphanages in the 19 century and emerging as family and children centers in the 21 century. i founded the cypress group several years. carol schroeder, the retired executive director of the california children and family

alliance services. we contracted with edgewood in late september 2019 in response to the city's request to begin to look and assure by our study and assessment that youth who are referred to the residential programs at edgewood will be safe and who are served on the edgewood's vicente campus. we work closely and collaboratively with edgewood, the department of health and health services agency to complete a comprehensive top to bottom assessment of edgewood. today, we are focused on edgewood's crisis stabilization unit known, as you know, as the c.s.u. to the best of our knowledge, based upon scores of interviews

with staff and board members, after reviewing hundreds, maybe thousands of pages of documents, we have no evidence of any abuse or personal rights towards the children and youth served at the c.s.u. c.s.u. has a rich staffing ratio, three staff to one child for 24 hours a day. because of the acuity and behavioral health issues of those placed at the c.s.u., ensuring the highest level of intense services. despite a thorough review, no findings have been identified related at the present time to c.s.u. c.s.u. leadership and oversight is strong, and the structure of the c.s.u. facility is such that youth are visible to multiple staff -- excuse me --

at all times. in our february 10 meeting with city officials, the interim behavioral health services director emphasized how valuable their services are. the steinfirst group is a group of highly comfortable individuals saying that edgewood serves the most vulnerable in san francisco, and that the c.s.u. is needed by the city to serve those children and their families. say with respect to you as the board of supervisors and to our city officials, we hope you will consider our thoughts and comments in your deliberations. thank you very much. >> chair mar: thank you, mr. steinfirst. next, we've -- i just wanted to

ask nick menard from the budget and legislative analyst's office to share kind of highlights from your analysis on this item. >> sure. thank you, chair mar. so the proposed resolution states that it would authorize the department of public health to provide a grant of $350,000 to edgewood center for children and family services for a 90-day period so that the organization may continue to operate. the grant moneys will be sourced from prior appropriations from the city's contract with edgewood, and as the presentation stated, they have sought board approval to issue this grant because the board doesn't issue grants for this purpose, so for that reason, we consider this to be a policy issue for the board. >> chair mar: colleagues, before we go to public comment, would either of you have any questions or remarks? okay. why don't we go to public

comment. so i have a number of speaker cards that have been submitted. if you hear your name called, please step up to the right side of the room and step up to the microphone. jessica anderson, kerrie kirby, chris bigs, chris rivers, michelle mcgriff, and nate lennox. first speaker, please. >> hi. my name is jessica anderson. i'm a resident of district 8 in noe valley. i have spent much of my life in san francisco. i spent 25 years living in noe valley, and i have been working in san francisco since the 70s. i'm a banker, now retired. i urge you to allow for access for the c.s.u. for children who

are relying on government funding for payment. this is absolutely critical. i also urge you to look at the delays that have been done in terms of ongoing financing, and also, the construction oriented financing that the department of public health is asking for, sort of pay as you submit. it's extremely difficult for any company, and as a lender, i know this to be true, for any company to survive, and for a nonprofit that's living on the edge all the time, it would make much more sense for everyone to get this resolved. it sounds like the state of california has given them a clean bill of health. let's move forward. thank you. >> chair mar: thank you. next speaker. >> for give me. i'm dr. stewart butlare, and i

was asked to go to the front of the line. i'm regional director for mental health for kaiser permanen permanente. we have a long-standing relationship with edgewood. we've continued to support the facility through its travails, primarily because of the transparency, the excellent care that they provide, as well as their plan of correction, which was very detailed. we continue to provide very substantial case management to assure ourselves of the safety of our patients and checked with the families of each of the patients that were there and discharged. about 20% of the patients who go to the crisis stabilization unit are kaiser kids.

there are very few inpatient psychiatric beds in northern california. to give you a sense of it, from the oregon border to san luis obispo, there's about 20 patient beds, so these units are essential to provide crisis stabilization. they prevent suicides, which is the second leading cause, the second leading cause of death for kids ages 10 to 20. it's very crucial to have this type of support for children. there is no facility that provides crisis stabilization for ages 5 to 12 in the bay area, aside from this facility, and it is really a crucial program. i just wanted to point out that

ooc oft oftentimes suicide is not the result of a psychosis -- >> chair mar: thank you, doctor. [inaudible] >> chair mar: yeah. >> clerk: next speaker, please. >> chair mar: thank you. next speaker, please. >> my name is brandon carter. i had the privilege of being a resident at edgewood center for children and families for two years, from 1998 to about 2000, and also had the privilege of being able to work at edgewood as a team leader and residential counselor as well as in the school-based service program that edgewood provides. i've also had the privilege to staff youth within the c.s.u. for brief moments of time. i'm here to kind of just piggyback on the need for edgewood, what edgewood did for

me, and why i feel like you don't take something off the board that is relevant and prevalent in the moment, and it's something that we need. it's something that's ongoing. as i've heard many times, it's one of the only services in the city that provides that acute services to the youth of san francisco. i've seen firsthand the work that is done there. i have -- i was at edgewood for three to four years, working as a staff member. i've seen a lot, but we'll leave that out. i hate to hear that doors are being closed on youth or youth are being sent miles and miles away because we don't provide a

certain service. i hope this pulls through, and i hope that edgewood is here for many years, and many youth are given the opportunity there, as well. >> chair mar: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon. my name is dawn stickle, and i'm cochair of the juvenile justice youth association. nancy rubin was the former chair of edgewood, until 2017 and has held a number of high level positions dealing with psychiatric services in the bay area. edgewood as an agency has never backed away from the challenges. rather, they have embraced the needs of the children and families unlike many such

agencies in the state. edgewood has never changed its mission or taken the easy way out. when faced with the current challenges of sexual allegations, edgewood did not back away. they immediately fired the employees, notified over 3,000 families and professional partners of the allegations, complied with all investigations, enhanced security practices over and above those required by the state, enhanced review and quality and on and on, like you've heard today. i'm summarizing. i think it's important to say san francisco has not continued to work as a willing partner through this whole thing. as a former county health and human services director and a long time county manager, this is a surprise. stri san francisco worked with laguna honda and a number of

other places, and we strongly urge you to work with edgewood in all the ways that matter. maybe someone can read the rest of this letter. >> clerk: we will go to the next speaker who is in line for their two minutes. thank you. we'll start a new two minutes now. >> yet the city has suspended admission since august 2019 to both the residential program and the crisis stabilization unit. not only has this placed the agency under tremendous financial strain, but most importantly this policy by the city has deprived children and families of edgewood services. children have been sent all over california and out of state. they are placed in adult hospital psychiatric facilities during crises. the city has created another crisis for our citizens, particularly those without means, by depriving them of

edgewood services. edgewood has been a loyal, steadfast partner for over 160 years. as new creative programming is being birthed for locking children up at juvenile haul, edgewood could play a key and pivotal role in developing new programming. i stand with my colleagues, imploring you to resolve this situation immediately. your action to provide this bridge money is a first step in reopening the facility. this is an important next step. it must be done. thank you. >> chair mar: thank you. next speaker. >> my name is margaret broadkin. i have been an advocate for children since 1978. edgewood is a treasure to this community. there's maybe a handful of

cities in the whole country that has a facility like edgewood with the resources it has, that it's licensed, that is right in the city. they need to be our partners. we need to plan with them, we need to reopen the c.s.u., we need to start referrals immediately, and it's not going to stop there. this is a stopgap thing. we need to start a collaborative, respectful planning process with them, with h.s.a., with d.p.h., and with j.p.d. we think we're going to plan alternatives for kids in the juvenile hall, most of whom have mental issues? how are we going to do that if we're strangling organizations that have issues? i've heard people say that oh, they can't manage their money. the amount that residential care providers get compared to what it really costs to do this is not reasonable.

they have been amazing, that they have stayed in place, and they've done it because of the generosity of their board and the amount of private dollars they've raised. in the time i've been doing this work, i have watched residential care after residential care after residential care for kids close. we do not want to let edgewood close. it's a resource to us, it's a treasure, and we need to collaborate together. and i want to say, we're here because we're frustrated. i feel like the city's been on a maybe well meaning but totally misguided crusade to make this -- to put crazy and bureaucratic demands -- i'm an lcsw in addition to being a child advocate -- >> chair mar: thank you. thank you so much. >> clerk: before we go to the

next speaker, once again, for folks who have come in from the public for today's proceedings, please refrain from interrupting the proceedings by applauding, booing, hissing, or any other audible sounds that get us off track. thank you. >> good afternoon. since 1851, edgewood has represented the best qualities of san francisco, of a compassionate and nurturing response to the most vulnerable children and families in the community who have the least resources. today at a time when the crisis stabilization unit is at risk, and most importantly, the children are unable to come to the crisis stabilization unit. i respectfully request that you approve this grant request so that we can continue the

services that are so urgently needed. thank you. >> hello. thank you for putting -- doing this -- taking this item under consideration today. my name is chris rivers. i work with greg on staff at edgewood. i've been there three years, and i work with our foundation partners to fund additional services and needs in the organization. and over those three years, i've watched a rising tide of statistics, alarming statistics about teen suicide, those who faced untreated mental health in our country, and the c.s.u. has continued to be a beacon of light for many children and their families. the work that i do works because it's a public private partnership. i have many partners who want to continue to step up and provide tens of thousands of dollars to support the c.s.u.

and the work that they do, but they can do it without your leadership. they can't do it without you standing up and saying you care about this facility because of what it does for the community. so i just want to thank you again for considering this, and i strongly encourage you to pass this $350,000 support for edgewood to allow us to continue to provide these crucial services. thank you. >> chair mar: next services, please. >> hello. my name is michelle mcgriff, and i'm a family partner at c.s.u., and i've been at edgewood for 12 years now. before the c.s.u., there was the -- i worked in residential until the c.s.u. opened, and so i've been there since it opened, and i just wanted to -- as a family partner, i wanted to touch on being a voice for the family. since we don't have many families here, i'd like to be

their voice, and i hope that you guys can find some empathy and compassion for the families that we serve. i have -- i came to the edgewood for being a client myself. the services there have helped -- i wasn't able to do it without them, so i know what the families receive at the c.s.u., all of edgewood. i also work at the schools and in the wellness centers, and i've been told that because of us not being able to receive medi-cal kids, the wellness centers now have to make appointments for the children, where that didn't happen before. and i hope that you guys will look at this and know that we are really needed in the community throughout the city. thank you. >> chair mar: thank you. next speaker.

>> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is yolanda jackson. i'm the director and general council of the bar association of san francisco, and i'm here representing our 7500-plus members. we handle juvenile and dependency cases in san francisco, and therefore, there's a legal matter that this all impacts, as well, which i'm here to talk to you about. so children and family and juvenile and delinquency and dependency court, the cases have to go through the court. their advocates cannot effectively advocate for their clients unless families participate in these services. children and families are denied due process of the law and their constitutional right to family if they do not have adequate access to services.

edgewood has been a pillar in san francisco mental health since 1851, as you've heard, and their treatment are often an essential component of court ordered services. san francisco has had a foster home for many, many years, with 65% of our youth being placed outside of san francisco. it is now common for our foster youth to be placed in fresno, stanislaus, and other counties, away from their families. i encourage san francisco to seriously consider the bridge funding that's being requested and to continue to provide the critical funding for the services needed to go forward.

we are unique in san francisco that we have these services, but most importantly, we're not -- >> chair mar: thank you. >> thank you. >> chair mar: next speaker. >> thank you for having us here today, and considering this. my name's carrie kirby. i've been a member of the edgewood community for 12 years as an employee and have had the opportunity to work with clients both before, during, and after the c.s.u. before the c.s.u. existed in san francisco, i spent hours with children in e.r.s. i waited hours of time with children in crisis while we waited for mobile services as an alternative. i've had hospitals say our patients are too acute, no thank you. without these services, our kids have nowhere to go, and i hope you consider this budget bridge. thank you. >> chair mar: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon. my name is nate lennox.

i also work at edgewood. i've been there about 15 years. like kerrie, i work directly with youth and families in crisis before the c.s.u., and i worked with them during the c.s.u., and it would break my heart, not be too dramatic, to go back to how it used to be. i've sat with kids for days in the e.r., i've sat with them while they're strapped to a bed. then i see the c.s.u., and i see the amount of compatission and the amount of kindness and the amount of care they get, so the thought of losing that is a bummer. >> chair mar: thank you. next speaker? >> i'm lisa neves. i'm the current clinical manager of the c.s.u. and i've been with edgewood for about

ten years. prior to edgewood, i worked in so many different facilities, agencies in the mental health field. as a manager, as you can imagine, we tend to get a ton of phone calls, and a lot of them not so happy from parents that are complaining about the services, not happy with the way things have gone with their children, whatever. and i can honestly say in my entire time being manager of the c.s.u., i have received a ton of phone call from parents, but not one has been in any negative whatever. i've sat with parents just for a very long time, and so i just am hoping that this can go through because, you know, in a nutshell, it does save the lives of people in san francisco, and i just hope that we can reopen and continue.

thank you. >> chair mar: thank you. next speaker. >> hi. my name is natasha levine. we work with parents and youth and families across the city. one of the first supports i always mention to parents in crisis is the crisis stabilization unit, and it's highly utilized in our community and an extremely valuable resource. there are many parents here from our community. many more couldn't come and sent in stories, so i would like to share some of them.

our family uses their services multiple times when our daughter tried to take her own life. the staff communicated kindly, were transparent about their process, had a highly skilled social worker to meet with us and made what is a horribly traumatic experience feel actually safe. the c.s.u. saved our daughter's life. please consider saving it and expanding it so more can be saved. the c.s.u. was the only place that the ucsf worker had to send my daughter while she was experiencing an issue. within a couple of hours with the staff there, my daughter was smiling, telling them stories. she seem infused with enough hope to get through the night and begin healing. the last place any family with children want to end up is the emergency room.

>> thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. thank you for having us here today. my name is martha ryan. i'm the executive director and founder of the homeless prenatal program here in san francisco. we've been in operations for 30 years. and i would say that 100% of the families that we serve, and we serve over 3500 families a year live on a budget of under 20,000 a year. they're all dependent on services from the city. but our kids, who've witnessed extreme trauma through their short lives cannot get into the c.s.u. now because of the closure. i can't express more how important it is to provide this

bridge funding, to provide a sanctuary and a safe place for kids to be and to get regulated and supported. under the leadership of lynn dolce, i guarantee you, she'll make it work. she did what she was supposed to do from the very beginning, and her very committed and illustrious career in san francisco tells you she will, and it needs to work. on behalf of the most vulnerable families and children here in san francisco, i urge you to provide the c.s.u. the bridge funding. >> good afternoon, speakers. i'm speaking here on my

personal experience as a social worker. many of our school social workers are constantly consulted with our special team about students having suicidal ideation or thoughts of self-harming. the closure of the c.s.u. has had a major impact on our most vulnerable students and families. the limited resources for youth who are having suicidal thoughts of suicide and self-harm. our families end upbringing their child to emergency rooms, where the wait times are lengthy and staff are not always trained to work with our youth. the staff at the c.s.u. are trained to work with our youth and families. for minors who don't qualify for involuntary hold, the c.s.u. provides a safe place for our youth who are in crisis

to stablize and to get support and resources they need to return home and back to school. i'm asking you today to consider funding the c.s.u. as soon as possible for the safety and well-being of our students. thank you. >> chair mar: thank you. >> good afternoon. my name is christina garcia, and i'm the regional director for edgewood center for children and families. i'm here to read a letter sent by dr. ken epstein, since he could not be here. i'm writing in support of the continued funding for edgewood center for children and families. i've been working with children and families in san francisco for over three decades. during that time, i've seen great advances and great losses to our children, youth and

family care. while appropriate focus has been placed on the well-being, safety, and sheltering of homeless adults, relatively little has been focused on building a sustainable system for children, youth, and families. the loss of edgewood would be another vital loss in this system. having worked as a leader in both the public and nonprofit mental health system, drk -- i that san francisco can effectively provide oversight to edgewood and can support the safety net services they provide to san francisco children, youth, and families. the defunding of edgewood

c.s.u., the only one in san francisco city and county, would continue a sad tradition of choosing politics over children and breaches the county's obligation to meet the needs of children, youth and families in crisis. please continue to fund the edgewood crisis stabilization unit. thank you. >> chair mar: thank you. next speaker. >> hello. my name is melic tota, and i'm the chief of finance and administration at edgewood. i've been here five years. so i want to say, and it's already been said, edgewood is one of the few surviving treatment facilities in san francisco. this is in spite of the fact that residential programming is a money loser from an economic standpoint. edgewood must maintain a 24-7 staffing for a full capacity program. while we are paid only for the

clients there. this means a low economic risk for the client count. besides the community benefits, the c.s.u. was an opportunity to reduce our economic risk through a model that provided funds to cover the majority of our fixed costs despite the number of clients seen. similar to an emergency room, we need to maintain the staffing to ensure that we can provide the appropriate service at any point in time. in the short-term, this -- we need this bridge money of 350. however, please understand that the bridge funding will not be retroactive to january and february, which is when we lost our contract for the c.s.u. we also won't have access to all this 350,000 for up to 120

days. that means we now have to absorb these losses. we have been strapped for funding for years when we had to fund program gaps instead of funding for contingencies. thank you. >> chair mar: thank you. next speaker. >> hi. i'm cheryl. i'm one of the nurses at the c.s.u., and i just -- and i've been there over four years. kind of what somebody else said, like, the nurses, we make less than half of a nursing job somewhere else, but we're there because of the mission and what the c.s.u. does. it's like i'm a two-spirit native person who -- mixed blood who had been praying for years, and when i went into the c.s.u. and saw what we -- what

we do there with the families and environment and the care -- we work with children and families who fear that they're going to be separated from their parents and are suicidal. there's a lot of kids of color we work with, and because of the gentrification in the city, they're getting bullied or they're very poor, and it's a really safe place to stay and show up, and yeah, i've never worked as a place where the staff is so committed and cares about the kids. and it's sad that the c.s.u. right now is closed, and i'm hoping you guys hear all these people. all right. thank you. >> chair mar: thank you. next speaker.

>> it's lit cthese services ar. the district sfusd is trying to figure out how to fund and support mental health care services, and we're in a budget crisis on the other side of the street. what can we do here to help support this is a great first step? thank you. let's move beyond this, as well. >> chair mar: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon. my name is diana. i'm a licensed clinical social worker. i've been working in san francisco for the last 30 years. for the last 20 years in home health care and social work and hospital settings, but in some settings with teen who had

mental health issues. i understand the role that c.s.u.s play in teens with mental health challenges. if any of edgewood's programs were to be defunded, it would be a huge loss not only to san francisco's children and families, but to san francisco itself. i'm a more to a daughter who a little over a year ago went through a mental health crisis of her own and edgewood was there for us. the hospital and the c.s.u. program were quite literally life safers. without those two programs, my daughter would have bounced in and out of hospitals and 5150s. she would have most likely

committed suicide. she wants to go back to edgewood, and that says everything. thank you. >> chair mar: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon. my name is alan stewart. i'm here to urge you to authorize this grant for edgewood so they can maintain the services for youth experiencing mental health challenges in the city. i speak to you as a resident of san francisco with a teenager who is diagnosed with mental health issues, and i know firsthand that even with all of the provision at edgewood in place, already, there's a shortfall between the provision and the need. there's already more demand than the capacity can support, and so we're actually heading in the wrong direction. if we can strangle edgewood, we're actually reducing the provision. we need to travel the opposite

direction. i understand that the reason we're in this situation is due to harm that was identified occurring to children at edgewood, but now, i would ask you to consider what is the greater harm? because if you eliminate edgewood as a resource, you're imposing harm on hundreds of families in this city in the future. so what does that look like? you're actually harming the child, so the child experiencing mental health issues, but you're actually affecting the entire family. it's everyone in the household, and so it's siblings, it's parents, it's the entire household. the funding, i know, has been

reduced to medi-cal and other families, but if you defund edgewood, people who need edgewood will have nowhere to go to. thank you. >> chair mar: thank you. next speaker. >> hello. my name is dr. kelly little and i've trained and worked as a community mental health provider in san francisco for the last six years, including six months of training in a rotation with a d.p.h. comprehensive crisis services. i'm also a trauma representative for my current employer, and i'm here to voice my support for the funding of the crisis stabilization unit at edgewood. it's a mental health clinician who has firsthand experience of utilizing and witnessing the invaluable service edgewood provides to children and adolescents in crisis.

the c.s.u. is set up to provide services to children and families in a manner that promotes safety and stablt during a ti-- and stablity durg a time of stress. their team is culturally diverse and able to offer multilingual services. furthermore, in my experience training with mobile crisis, i witness the importance of a firmly established relationship between the mobile crisis team and the edgewood c.s.u. staff, and time and time again, their staff provided a collaborative trauma informed care and consultation. the working relationship between these crisis teams enabled a calming and dependable process to aid kids in crisis to get the support they need, and i believe that

edgewood's well established c.s.u. provides an unparalleled crisis service to the community at large, and it would be a gross disserve to defund this. thank you. >> chair mar: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is patrick mahoney. between 2000 and 2013, i served on the san francisco superior court. seven of those years, i spent dealing with juvenile and family issues, and so the significance of behavioral health services and the challenges that any judicial officer faced were first and foremost through my experience. through that, i became ak

waited wi acquainted with edgewood. everything you've heard today in terms of the services, the care with which they're delivered to children, the financial issues, are absolutely true. i'd like to turn to something else in my experience. for eight years, i served as the chief trial deputy for the city of san francisco. in that position, i viewed my role as a problem solver. after leaving the court, i'm presently associated with a national mediation firm. what you've heard from margaret broadkin about what has transpired since these incidents reported, frankly, i join in her comments. i find how the city has preceded with this unbelievable, incomprehensible. what i would urge you to do is

direct the departments to begin in a meaningful, clabstive process that brings the people around the -- collaborative process that brings the people around the table so that services are provided to the children asap. thank you. >> chair mar: thank you. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon. i'm julie tran. i work with the bar association of san francisco. i'm here to speak on behalf of those attorneys and also on paf of patty l -- behalf of patty lee, and she asked me to address you in her capacity as the chair of the working group to close the youth guidance center.

i share everything that judge mahoney just said to you. there's a reason you have so many c.b.o.s and stakeholders today, because of our frustration of the experience. i want to thank supervisor mar and mayor breed for coming to the rescue. the advocacy that we've undertaken in the last month or more have not been well served. i agree we need to solve this. the kind of transparency that edgewood has exhibited to every stakeholder in this room should be commended. we would kill for this kind of remediation, oversight, and accountability. they are to be commended, and as we move forward, we must support agencies like this so that we don't continue to use

the criminal justice system as a dumping ground for all the failed social programs and mental health programs. this is how it happens. when we start closing places like edgewood, we will fill our juvenile halls. so thank you, thank you for operating quickly at this point, and i really encourage you to adopt what judge mahoney said and bring everybody to the table. this has got to be solved. >> chair mar: thank you. next speaker. >> hi. my name'sus teen king, and i'm a -- justine king, and i'm a clinical supervisor at edgewood. when a client heard about the c.s.u. closing, she reached outaouai of concern to herself and others -- reached out of concern to herself and others that could be in this program.

i'm a 16-year-old foster kid. before foster care, i was in a long-term resident on edgewood, and i utilized the c.s.u. on two different occasions. sadly, at 16, i've learned the harshness of the system very well. despite this, i've been inqu inquisitive of the people and services they provide. coming from a person that's been hospitalized, a person who at times did not have a warm place to sleep, a person who didn't have two loving parents picking me up and talking about my trauma with me, i know the difference between a safe and an unsafe place. [please stand by]

>> i'm here today to offer unconditional support to the c.s.u. in edgewood. my jeblagency is partnered clos with the c.s.u. i can't stress this enough, they have been a critical and vital part of the safety net in this community for some of the most vulnerable young people and without it, our young people are less safe today. they offered tremendous support to our agency and our clients by providing the much needed stabilization services, the

assessments, the treatment recommendations, and the referral to other services in this community. i would like to note this is an alternative. c.s. ument performs an alternative. i urge you to offer the support to the c.s.u. today. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker. >> hello supervisors. my name is patrick, i'm the program director of huckleberry house. what we focus on is really family crisis, reunifying kids who have run away, who have been kicked out of their homes and working through a family crisis. we were relieved at huckleberry house for seven years and we were relieved when the c.s.u. was created because it closed this hole in services between the shelter like ours and can be

traumatizing for a lot of reasons. we're relieved they were closing this whole huckleberry house, and we are not a facility for young people experiencing acute psychiatric emergencies. so what we're finding is that as was before the c.s.u. was created, in the interim, we are becoming the safety net for these kids and we're not equip to do it. we're a great program but we're not designed, staffed, and we don't have nurses for kids who are in acute psychiatric emergencies. so i seen first hand what happens to young people and their families when they're falling through this hole in services and i think we would be remised if we didn't identify that these kids are predominately kids who are of low income backgrounds, black and brown kids in our community that are not getting services they so desperately need. thank you for supporting and

creating this funding. >> thank you, next speaker please. >> my name is shelly and court appointed special advocate and is nima here with me. i'm with the board of directors of huckleberry youth programs. i had two youths that have lived at edgewood and i also had to travel as far as iowa to visit the youths i have been assigned to and i've been a caseworker for. we have to do all we can to keep our children in san francisco, their city of origin. c.s.u. in san francisco is crucial to our youth. there is a foster home in san francisco and to begin their relationship with the department of h.s.a., we arrive to a temporary shelter, which does not bode well for our city or children. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker.

>> my name is cory, i'm a representative with teamsters 856. i'm here to thank supervisor mar and mayor breed for introducing this funding to offer the crucial services to the children of our community here in san francisco. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker. >> good afternoon, i'm a coordinator working for support for families with children with disabilities. she couldn't be here, she's taking classes at the college, so she couldn't miss her classes, but she wrote a statement i want to share. i'm here as an old client from edgewood. i don't know why they're deciding to shut down this facility, but i'm here to tell you why you should take this into consideration. i was severely diagnosed with

major depression at the age of 11. from then on, i was diagnosed with ptsd. edgewood was a place that helped me understand all of my diagnoses. i also found the skills to manage my symptoms. i was in and out of the hospital for eight years, and edgewood was one of the many and first places that i was hospitalized in yet every time i was at edgewood, it didn't feel like a hospital. it just felt like a place where i could rest and heal. that's what edgewood was and i hope still is, a place to heal, a place where children and teens in emotional pain and distress can go to get help. to be completely honest with you, i hated going to edgewood, but it was because i didn't want to get better. after i was there, it was a different history.

it was comforting to know that so many wonderful people wanted to help me. edgewood was always a place for me. she really wants to get the support for other children and my child would not be alive if it wasn't for places like edgewood. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, i'm the reverend christopher chase and i'm a co director, cofounder of brave mission here in the city. we recruit and train volunteer mentors, mostly young tech workers to build community of mentors around youths who have spent time in foster care.

i'm here to talk about the heritage handed down. when edgewood was founded, it was founded of people of faith who felt a mandate from their god that they should seek the lost in their community, the most vulnerable, they should find the lost sheep, those who live in the margins and the church responded in a healthy way to that call and edgewood was founded and that mission of seeking those lost sheep, seeking those who are vulnerable, those who live in the margins has been continued over the 168 years in and through the work of edgewood. while edgewood is now just affiliated from the church, we are proud. i'm a priest at the apis cal diocese here, to live out the mission of those founders to

seek those vulnerable regardless of their faith or belief and tradition and i implore you to remember the heritage that was brought down and continue to built funding for a viable future for edgewood into the future. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker. >> hello, i'm a t.b.s. coach at edgewood. i worked there for six years. i'm one of the few people in here who still work directly with the families and the clients. i wanted to make two points. i think the pull out of the c.s.u. closing, i felt it firsthand. it's disheartening and it doesn't feel good when you have to tell a family. it's just the crisis that happens after that as far as safety planning. we're dealing with acute families. i just want to reiterate about

re-opening the doors as soon as possible, and second i want to share a story without going into too much detail. i had a client two years ago, we worked at the homes with the clients. he told me i had a dream last night that i shot at my school. so that to me brought up all these red flags, so at that point, i worked with his therapist and we were able to get him the help he needed. i come to find out this kid had the intentions, the manifesto, and he was an angry child and very sick. so edgewood was able to stop that and we were able to work with the san francisco school district to get him the help he needed. i think unfortunately, that will not make the news, the guy who decided not to shoot up his school. so, the fact that edgewood is doing really good work and please let us continue to do so. thanks for your time. >> thank you, next speaker. >> hi, my name is anastasia. i'm a c.s.u. clinician.

i've been with edgewood for over five years. i work with the hospital diversion program and the kinship program. i really wasn't planning on speaking so thank you for having us here. of course, i decided to come up here and i've been in the united states for 20 years. 17 of those years, i've been working in the mental health field. i try not to call myself an immigrant. i'm more of a citizen of the world. everyone i had worked with in edgewood is an exceptional person, has been a personal hero of mine. i wanted to say, from the face of the c.s.u. team, while being shut down so rapidly, we were in a personal crisis of our own while holding the crisis of the clients that still continue to

come through the door. this is something we do on a daily basis. the amount of secondary trauma that staff experiences is tremendous. that's why they are my personal heroes. they don't do this for the money, right? so again to be faced with the c.s.u. closure was so devastating for the population we serve and the staff. you have to understand that once you break down the team, the team is so unique that you will have a hard time putting this team together. so i'm just representing the c.s.u. team, the hospital diversion team and edgewood and the amount of good the organization does is disproportionate with the scrutiny that has been happening. so, i just want to be the voice of the c.s.u. and say this is a very exceptional place and just commend everyone that i work with. >> thank you.

>> supervisors, i'm dan, the executive director of juvenile and criminal justice. i've been working in san francisco. we worked with edgewood for that entire time period and as i can tell you, it's one of the finest organizations in california. they do great work. it's not perfect, sometimes we all make mistakes, but they are well run organization, they serve a need. they fill a vital gap within the service delivery system in san francisco. lynn is a fine executive. i don't know why we're here today to be honest with you. my suggestion, i have a feeling that the problem doesn't rest with edgewood and the problem may rest with the city bureaucracy. i think you need to do a deeper dive here to find out what happened and why we're here today and it's going to cost the

city money in order to make up this gap that shouldn't exist. so, i support what you're doing and i also urge that we keep edgewood as the necessary part of our service continuum and keep them funded. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker. >> good afternoon everyone. my name is graham thomas, i'm a program director for larkin street services. we're been here since the mid '80s. we're always served youths and family facing trauma and i want to give 100% support to edgewood and the crisis stabilization unit. one of the things i had the privilege of working on is underage shelter. we partner with edgewood and the c.s.u. regularly for all of the

reasons you heard today so young people don't have to sit in hospitals that are designed for adults. they can go to edgewood and receive care that is family focused in a safe and stable environment. to close for today, i would say the beginning of your agenda today spoke about the navigation centers and addressing the needs of homeless services. >> chair, i'm going to pause the speaker's time for a moment. the committee has acted on agenda 1 and taken public comment on that item, so we will not take public comment on agenda one. >> if you want to reduce homelessness, you have to look at that at a youth focus. so many people homeless as adults start being homeless as youths. so to defund the c.s.u., to defund the work of edgewood means you are aiding to the public problem of homelessness, right? so again, highly encouraging you to fund the c.s.u., to do this for families in san francisco

and keep this program running because it's absolutely, 100% needed. >> thank you, next speaker. >> hello, good afternoon. my name is julia and i am a nurse at edgewood c.s.u. i am also somebody as a youth that was hospitalized during a time of mental health crisis. that's what makes me so passionate about this work. i believe it is a human right for everyone to have the least restrictive treatment during times of mental health crisis, otherwise people are further traumatized and it creates a negative cycle. right now with the c.s.u. closed, this is not happening. that is not okay. it is something that has to be changed before kids get more traumatized in hospitals. in fact, since the c.s.u. opened in 2014, the number of cases of kids who have needed to have in-patient hospitalization has gone down by 50%. so, that is something huge and something we need to focus on. thank you for having us here

today. >> thank you, next speaker. >> hello, thank you supervisor mar and mayor breed for introducing this. my name is jill and i'm the dependency of our program manag manager. i was also a court appointed dependency for 15 years and i had the benefit of knowing lynn for some time in this capacity and also when she was the director of foster care mental health. i have absolute confidence in her leadership. the court appointed attorneys in san francisco are absolutely supportive of edgewood and because they're out there doing the work, they asked me to make some statements on their behalf. this is from, who has been doing dependency work for 16 years and before that was a deputy public defender. she said i had a child client that was first placed in a

different residential setting. he ran outside and kicked in 17 windows, yelling and screaming and someone in the neighborhood called the police. then she writes, bad results. i later learned that a deli delinquency was filed. he was later placed in edgewood. during a similar episode, a counsellor remained at his side, engaged in deescalation strategies. this is just one example of how edgewood has helped my 13-year-old emotionally disturbed client from escalating into the criminal justice system. i urge you to not only pass the bridge funding but create a financially sustainable solution for edgewood so they continue to fill this critical need in our community. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker.

>> hi, my name is may. i am a clinician. i work the night shift and i have been with edgewood for the past year. so i worked in the behavioral health field for several years and the c.s.u. has been the most meaningful and impactful for me. not only are we a receiving center for children in crisis, we help stabilized them and helped stabilize them, develop safety plans so they don't cause further impairments. some of the things we do include links to community resources so they have ongoing support, facilitating conversations between children and parents who -- a lot of times children come to us and they are experiencing issues that they're not telling their parents. we are the first person they tell, whether it's gender

identity, sexual orientation, whatever it is. we help with that conversation between children and their parents so it helps reduce their mental health symptoms. i'm surprised with what we can do within a 24-hour period another the c.s. u. i hope you consider that bridge funding to help us re-open. without the resource, it's a loss for the community. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker. >> good afternoon supervisors, thank you for having us and thank you for taking the time for this. i'm dr. robin randall and i worked at edgewood for the last 20 years. today, i've been asked to reexcerpts from a letter from nancy, a former employee of edgewood. she writes, i'm writing today as

i am not in town for the hearing. i served at edgewood from 2001 to 2010 and then 2015 to 2017. i'm also serving for 17 years as a senior manager at the department of public health. the vital services provided by edgewood will be heard at the hearing. 7 years ago, they opened the city's first and only emergency pediatric room to keep children out of adult psychiatric rooms. this serves children insured and uninsured. there is no other such resource in the city. when faced with challenges of misconduct by two employees, edgewood did not back away. they notified over 3,000 families and professionals about the allegations.

the licensing body, child care licensing has fully cleared the agency. the neighboring counties and outside insurance agencies have reviewed all the corrective actions and continue placement in all of their programs. edgewood has been a royal steadfast partner for over 160 years as knew creative programming is being birthed for a replacement of locking up children in juvenile hall, edgewood plays a key role in developing the programming, stopping all admissions, as well as depriving citizens of their services has been a travesty. i stand with my colleagues in imploring you to resolve this situation. >> thank you, next speaker please. >> thank you supervisors for having us here today. i'm a 32 resident of san francisco, with two children raised in the city. i have been a long time

volunteer at edgewood and i'm on the board of directors. edgewood center for children and families had an open door to the most desperate children for 170 years. two of the earliest children advocates founded edgewood in 1851. it has a remarkable history of caring, counseling, housing, and saving the lives of our city's youths. edgewood has not missed one day in 170 years of open arms for san francisco's needest children. 170 christmases, 170 mother's day, and 170 years of no days off. we invite you to visit the edgewood campus and walk through the children's cot ttagcottages we encourage you to see the caring units, the emergency facility for youths in the city and county of san francisco.

they have provided this specialized care to our most vulnerable youths with acute mental health issues. why would you take that away? they had the foresight and compassion to open edgewood's doors in a time of need. please do not shut the doors in a time of greater need. refer children in need to edgewood. edgewood is a treasure to san francisco and our children. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> supervisors today you heard many people come here and speak on topics very hard for you to listen to. now, the skyline of san francisco has changed

drastically. well it's the people that bide the skyscrapers, we need community benefit set aside, just like you give 2% to the arts commission. 2% or 3% of the billions so that we can take care of our children and our you'll youths and those organizations that cater to the children and the youths. we don't need to be rocket scientists. now the controllers office monitors all the non-profits. we have to have a mechanism where we have a leeway, where we have a commission or a committee that looks into situations like

this where an organization that is well-known falls on bad times and is given a helping hand. so, i know a lot about edgewood. they do good work, but also you all know, all of us know these times are difficult times. if you can help them, that would be a nice thing. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> hi i'm the director to the crisis stabilization unit. i was hiding in the back. i just wanted to say thank you to everybody that showed up today. when we started in 2014, we were this idea and we wanted to reach as many people we could and the community and beyond. today that shows me it happened.

>> please direct your remarks to the panel. >> thank you. thank you for your attention to this. we appreciate it. >> thank you. is there any other members of the public that would like to speak on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. [gavel] >> i just really want to thank all the diverse community folks who came out to speak today in support of our children and in support of these critical services at edgewood. you know, i have to say, supervisor haney commented to me, we were surprised how many people turned out to speak at this hearing. we expected this resolution to move forward and be adopted by the board, but i think all of your comments were extremely powerful and helpful in helping us to understand these issues and more importantly, the

critical importance and unique role these services play, the crisis stabilization unit and the other programs at edge one anothered -- edgewood, and for me as a parent of a teenager and someone who has had a family member that received critical treatment and services at edgewood recently, i understand the importance of this on a personal level. i think just hearing all the testimony today and also working with lynn and the edgewood staff and also the i think just heari testimony today and also working with lynn and the edgewood staff and also the d.p.h. staff has helped me to understand these critical issues much, much better. i know that the funding that is allocated to edgewood through this resolution is very important on a short-term level just to allow the crisis stabilization unit to be re-opened and allow edgewood the time that is needed to

finalalize the corrective action plan to the satisfaction of the city. i also think from all of the testimony today, you know, clearly there's a lot more work that needs to be done to strengthen the partnership between the city and edgewood and to insure that edgewood is suppo supported and to be able to stabilize its programs for so many youth and children in our city that are facing mental health, acute mental health issues. so i'm very committed to continuing to work with all of you to ensure that we really stabilize these programs for the children and youths that have high needs in our city. >> i want to echo that and thank everybody for coming out. i got to know edgewood in some ways when i was a member of the school board and to absolutely

essential institution for our city and so i understand and appreciate why you are all here and came out and i'm glad we're able to provide some short-term stabilization. obviously the long-term sustainability and health and support of this institution cannot be more important and it's great to see all the people that came out and shared the stories on how it has impacted your life and the work you seen and all the work you do. thank you and of course i'll be supporting this. >> thank you supervisor haney. so i like to move that we send this item as a committee report with positive recommendation to be heard by the full board on february 25th, without objection. [gavel] >> thank you again everyone. mr. clerk, please call item

number 3. agenda item number 3, approving a lease m.p.u. incorporated for the united states old 88 fifth street requiring a tenant to be responsible for all utilities and services, requiring them to be -- sorry, requiring them to be responsible for all utility and services, and 50% of rental fees, and $2,500 for ticketed events upon approval by the boa board of supervisors and mayor, with one year option to extend, adopting findings and making findings of the proposed transaction is in conformance with the general plan. >> i like to pass it to supervisor haney. >> thank you chair mar.

this proposed lease is a critical component of the city's overall work with the ultimate goal of fully restoring the landmark building. the lease agreement will help keep this important city-owned building maintained and active, and the work related to them as ultimate restoration continues. under the terms of the proposed lease, it will be made available for a wide range of activities, includi ? >> clerk: we are now back in session for the government audit and oversight committee. and the committee moved to

forward all items to the board with a positive recommendation. >> chair mar: great. do i have a motion not to disclose the proceedings held in closed session? great. we can take that without objection. [gavel]. >> chair mar: and mr. clerk, do we have any further business? >> clerk: we have no further business. >> chair mar: great. we are adjourned. .

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it professionals make guilty or innocent available and support the house/senate regional wear-out system your our employees joy excessive salaries but working for the city and county of san francisco give us employees the unities to contribute their ideas and energy and commitment to shape the city's future but for considering a career with the >> shop and dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges residents to do their business in the 49 square files of san francisco. we help san francisco remain unique, successful and right vi. so where will you shop and dine in the 49? >> i'm one of three owners here

in san francisco and we provide mostly live music entertainment and we have food, the type of food that we have a mexican food and it's not a big menu, but we did it with love. like ribeye tacos and quesadillas and fries. for latinos, it brings families together and if we can bring that family to your business, you're gold. tonight we have russelling for e community. >> we have a ten-person limb elimination match. we have a full-size ring with barside food and drink. we ended up getting wrestling here with puoillo del mar.

we're hope og get families to join us. we've done a drag queen bingo and we're trying to be a diverse kind of club, trying different things. this is a great part of town and there's a bunch of shops, a variety of stores and ethnic restaurants. there's a popular little shop that all of the kids like to hanhang out at. we have a great breakfast spot call brick fast at tiffanies. some of the older businesses are refurbished and newer businesses are coming in and it's exciting. >> we even have our own brewery for fdr, ferment, drink repeat. it's in the san francisco garden district and four beautiful muellermixer ura alsomurals. >> it's important to shop local because it's kind of like a

circle of life, if you will. we hire local people. local people spend their money at our businesses and those local mean that wor people willr money as well. i hope people shop locally.

>> good morning everyone. the meeting will come to order this. is the march 11, to 20 regular meeting. i am chair of the finance