>> welcome to the april 6, 2020 meeting of the rules committee.

i'm supervisor hillary ronen, chair of the committee. i'm joined on this video conference with rules committee vice chair supervisor katherine stefani. our clerk today is victor young and i'd like to thank sfgovtv for staffing this meeting. do you have any announcements? >> yes. due to the covid-19 healthy emergency and to protect board members, city employees and the public, the board of supervisors litingive chamber and committee room are closed. however, members will be participating in the meeting remotedly as in the same extent as if they were physically comment. -- physically present. we are streaming numbers across the screen. each speaker will be allowed two minutes to speak. commentses or opportunities to speak during the public comment period are available via phone,

by calling 888-204-5984. access code 3501008 and then press pound and dial one again. press 0 and 1 to be added to the queue. you will be lined up in the system in order you dial 1 and 0 while you are waiting t system will be silent. the system will notify you when you are in line and waiting. all callers will remain on mute until the line is open. everyone must account for the time delay and speaking discrepancies between live coverage and streaming. al term actively, you may submit public comment, e-mail me at victor.young@sfgov.org. if you submit via e-mail, it will be included in the file as part of the matter. comments may be sent to city

hall, 1 dr. carlton b. goodlett place, san francisco, california. that completes my comments. >> thank you so much, mr. clerk. can you please read item number one? >> item number one is an emergency ordinance to temporarily require private employers with 500 or more employees to provide public health emergency leave during the public health emergency related to covid-19. >> thank you so much. this is supervisor mar's item. would you like to introduce the item, supervisor mar? >> yes. thank you so much, chair ronen, for allowing us to hear this item today. an emergency ordinance before us is in response to a true emergency. the lack of sufficient paid leave for workers to follow our public health order to weather this crisis. while there is no silver bullet to our health and humanitarian

emergency, this measure will give an additional two-week paid leave to hundreds of thousands of san franciscans and make a meaningful difference to countless people trying to take care of themselves and their family and make ends meet. congress took action to expand paid leave for workers but they left out more than 50% of our workforce by excepting the largest employer. this is inexcusable. so, where our federal government is falling short, i'm taking immediate emergency action to close the gap here in san francisco. with this emergency measure, employees of private companies will be able to immediately access additional weeks of paid leave, closing the major loophole in the federal legislation in making sure that in health emergencies, workers are able to take time off -- take the time off that they need for themselves and their families. when sick people have to choose

between their livelihoods or incomes, we are all worse off. when parents have to choose between a paycheck or staying home with their kids whose school is closed, we're all worse off. san francisco led the nation when we adopted our paid sick leave ordinance in 2006. in this time of crisis, san francisco must lead again in supporting our workers. over the last two week, my office has worked with labor leaders and business stakeholders to strengthen this proposal. around today i'll be proposing a series of amendments for clarity and to ensure this measure is as inclusive and impactful as possible. i wanded to briefly go over what the ordinance is right now and summarize the key provision. first, what the ordinance does. it won't immediately give an additional two weeks of paid leave to any san francisco employee of a private company with 500 or more employees. who it covers -- every single

s.f. employee of a private company with 500-plus employees. even if you're furloughed and even if you are the employee in san francisco, even if you started working a month before shelter in place, even if you are a temp worker, even if you don't live in san francisco, but you work here. employers and health care providers are allowed to opt out. however, we're amending it to especially sure health care providers are given additional paid leave if they get sick or have to get quarantined. and all workers are presumed to be employees and covered until and unless then their employer demonstrates they are an independent contractor. now who this emergency ordinance does not cover -- people who are unemployed, public employees and they're covered bier our executive action, private employees of companies with fewer than 500 employees and they're covered by the federal law, people who

do not work in san francisco and independent contractors. and when employees can use their immediate leave. if you can't work because there's shelter in place, if you have to stay home to take care of a family member, if it's replaced with work and a you can't work remotely, if you are a member of a vulnerable population, if you're showing symptoms and if your doctor recommends you not work. so, again, i presented -- or today i'm presenting some set of amendments and there are seven different amendments and they're probably -- i believe you received a copy of the amended emergency ordinance and i'm going to summarize this up in amendments right now. number one, provide public health emergency leave to health care providers when they're subject to quarantine or sick or otherwise do not

meet c.d.c. return-to-work guidelines. in number two, ex. -- expand uses of the leave for vulnerable populations including 60 or older. number three that benefits like health care can't be taken away while employees are on leave. number four, require employer notice in english, spanish, chinese and any other language spoken by 5% or more of the workforce. number five, as information on local, state and federal resources to the notice language that they'll draft. number six, matches the health care provider definition to provider regulation. and number seven, additional paid leave voluntarily provided during the emergency toward this new requirement if the composition offered meets the standard. you know, i would like to request that deputy city

attorney anne pearson provide her assessment of these amendments and whether any of these are substantive and would require continuance before the committee takes action. >> good morning. can you all hear me? >> yes. >> thanks. so i've had a chance to review all of the amendments that supervisor mar just described and the first one on his list is one that is substantive and that is the amendment that would require health care -- employers of health care providers to provide them with leave under some limited circumstances. the other ones are not substantive and would not require a continuance today. >> thank you. >> supervisor mar, do you want to split the file and move forward the portion that's not substantive and we can continue the other just to get this moving as quickly as possible or just move them all at the same time? >> yeah. thank you. thank you, deputy city attorney

pearson and chair ronen. yes, i -- in answer to your question, chair, i would like to -- i will be making a motion to duplicate the file so we can move the nonsubstantive amendments forward as the committee records to the full board hopefully for vote and adoption tomorrow and then we can move the substantive amendment forward -- or continue it as we will need to but then move that forward hopefully a week later. i would say we want to ensure that our health care providers working on the frontlines have paid leave. so, that's important. but we don't want to hold that -- the overall important provisions of the ordinance while we have to continue that

amendment. >> that makes perfect sense. i just wanted to thank you so much for bringing this forward, supervisor mar. it's pretty outrageous that the congress left out of the law the employers that most can afford to provide this benefit. they are the biggest employers making the most money in this society and perhaps their donors to the congress members who left them out and that is why they got a break when the smaller employers didn't. we are all in this together. we are all sacrificing. we have to all sacrifice to make sure that everyone [inaudible] and i'm so grateful for you bringing this forward and if i could be added as a sponsor, i would appreciate that. supervisor stefani, do you have any comments? >> yes, thank you, supervisor

ronen and i want to associate myself with your comments. i do agree on the importance and i want to thank supervisor mar for bringing this legislation forward to address the members of our workforce struggling during these difficult times. it is so important that we do everything that we can to protect the working people who faced this crisis. and just, you know, when we think about what happened over a month ago, mayor breed directed our residents to shelter in place earlier than almost any other municipality in the united states. i'm grateful to her and our neighboring bay area counties for taking decisive action to save lives. and in doing so, when that order went into place, a number of businesses stepped up to provide extra paid time off and income security to their employees. really recognizing that there were challenging times ahead and i want to thank them and system of them are employers that had more than 500 employees so as this situation

involves and this legislation has come to us quickly, which again we're reacting quickly and i thank you again for that, supervisor mar, i want to make sure we're not being punitive to those companies that have gone above and beyond to support their workers and my hope is that, as we implement this law, wi don't punish those -- and i know that is not your intention, supervisor mar, i just want to call out the fact that there are precise steps in this ordinance and the legislation has specific requirements to add sick leave that may add up with some of the things that employers with 500 or more have done. for example, when an employer created a fund to pay employees who aren't working. i just want to make sure that we don't punish those who have stood up for their employees and even if the actions they have taken don't exactly fit the legislation today.

i do plan to be supportive, of course, of this legislation. but just wanted to call that out. and make sure as we move forward, we don't punish those good actors because thankfully there are some because it does restore our faith in humanity when we see companies taking care of their employees, as they should. thank you again and i do plan to support this today. >> supervisor? >> we will now open up this item to public comment. >> members of public online, please press 1 and then 0 to be added to the queue to speak.

>> you have four questions remaining. >> hello, i'm an organizer with sviu, united service workers west. we are an organization of almost 10,000 essential workers in san francisco. our members help to carry essential operations, including drugstores and banks and the san francisco international airport. workers should not be forced to come to work sick, ever. especially at this time. we support the emergency paid sick leave for workers and we also encourage the board to use its authority to ensure that

they pass this immediately and introduce language to cover s.f.o. airport workers next. work ers should not have to choose between taking care of themselves, getting a paycheck and protecting their families. thank you. >> you have four questions remaining. >> thank you. next speaker. >> caller: yes. i'm a member of the california faculty association at san francisco state and i'm very appreciative of this legislation. i want to say that i'm inundated we mails from students who are really, really desperate so this is essential to students. thank you. >> thank you so much. next speaker? >> you have two questions remaining.

>> caller: ok. [inaudible]. sorry. are you still there on the phone? now you're able to speak. >> caller: right now? >> yes. >> caller: i can speak now? >> yes. >> caller: they can hear me now? >> yes. >> caller: ok. i work for a retail store and i would like the see if you can help us out with the bill so we can afford it to stay as [inaudible] and we can get paid when we're not working. because we have a lot of needs, medical and that is why we

really should not be working outside. and people who are sick, too. i am 63 years old and have diabetes and i'm high risk to be working. because i work in the retail. and i work with the public. with the customer. [inaudible]. i feel like we don't have to [inaudible] help us out. thank you. my number is 415-800-[inaudible] 0008. thank you. >> thank you so much. next speaker, please.

>> you have two questions remaining. >> caller: hi, this is collan, i'm the executive director at the [inaudible] of justice and this is really one of the defining workers rights issues of our time which is that we see, you know, our workers' health is impacting all of us and, you know, we've had the leadership of being the first city in the country to pass paid sick leave and it is our time to lead again bypassing this health emergency leave and really rising to this moment. so much of you as supervisors really helped us, you know, take incredible action to stop this pandemic and being the first county to be in shelter in place. it's so important. and now we have another chance, i think that is key to preserve

the public health by having a public health emergency leave. some of these difficult moments that people are testing, too. but one thing that i do take away as a bit of hope is that folks are realising how much of our health is linked with others around us. we're only as healthy as our neighbor, as our neighbor's neighbor. afternoon some of the people have come together to take care of each other in this moment. and this public health emergency we're taking care of some of the most vulnerable workers who are actually serving the public every day. it is an important step. i hope you take that tomorrow. thanks. >> thank you so much. any other speakers? >> you have two questions remaining. >> next speaker, please. >> caller: this is emily abraham. from the san francisco chamber of commerce. on behalf of the san francisco chamber of commerce, i would like to note that we are proudly supportive of this resolution.

we sincerely thank supervisor mar to work with his efforts to work with the san francisco chamber of commerce and offering clarifications on specifics of the ordinance and we thank supervisor stefani for her support and we appreciate the clarity around the hours and voluntary paid leave credit [inaudible] mandate. and also clarification that [inaudible] will not occur and compensation for companies that however unlimited leave qualify. thank you for your support and efforts during this public health crisis. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> you have one question remaining. >> hello, my name is chris wright. i'm the executive director of the committee on jobs and association that represent the city's largest private sector

employers. much of [inaudible] has been focused on our city's small businesses who are struggling. that said, every employer is suffering in this global catastrophe and each face serious threats of [inaudible]. since the mayor's stay in place order, many of our members have been closed to outright stop operations many of our own members are covered by government mandate and subsidy [inaudible]. the city clearly recognized that additional employee benefits are credited to their obligations under this new measure. prohibiting businesses from offsetting existing benefits would effectively penalizing employers with general policis in place. additionally the requirement

for changing pay stubbs [inaudible] in light of the leave of this ordinance. and prior to the alleged [inaudible] of reasonable, timely and likely more effective notice, including electronic notice to their eligible employees. i want to echo the other concerns raised by the chamber of commerce letter come friday afternoon. the main issues are complex and they deal with multilayers. as such, we respectfully act for an additional week to review the language and to improve the [inaudible] clarity. we're commited to the goals of the legislation to working with the sponsors to achieve that, which is why we'd like to make sure that it is done right. thank you for your time and consideration. >> thank you very much. any other speaker? >> you have one question remaining. >> caller: hi. good morning.

my name is angelica. i'm with [inaudible] south of community action network. we want to thank supervisor mar for moving forward with this legislation and really hope that the committee will move this forward. it's a very important legislation. as we take care of all the workers in san francisco this legislation this cover 200,000 workers in san francisco and we really think this legislation is much needed. thank you. >> thank you. again, other speakers? >> you have zero questions remaining. >> thank you for all the public speakers and if there are no other speakers in line, we will close public comment. >> i'm making sure there are no other speakers.

>> ok. thank you. mr. clerk, can you please have a role -- roll call vote. supervisor mar made a motion to look at the file. i believe there's no objection to that motion. is that true? >> actually, i'm sorry, chair ronen. i actually had -- it is a little complicated what i'm proposing to do here. there's actually five motions that i want to make. >> got it. sorry. go ahead. >> ok. actually, before i do that t i did want to acknowledge the comment by supervisor stefani and also that were reinforced by chris wright from the committee on [inaudible]. acknowledging the fact that many employers in san francisco have already stepped up and voluntarily provided additional

paid leave to their employees in this time of crisis. so that certainly has happened. and we definitely dome want to penalize employers that have already stepped up so that is why one of the amendments that is included today is making sure that those employers get credit for the additional paid leave that they've already voluntarily provided towards the 80 hours that is required under the ordinance, as long as the paid leave that has been provided is comparable to what's specified in the ordinance and i wanted to acknowledge the different folks we've worked on in this important legislation. starting with deputy city attorney matt pearson and matt goldberg as well as our early

co-sponsor, supervisor haney, jobs of justice san francisco, the san francisco labor council, sieu, united service workers west and legal aid network and san francisco chamber of commerce. again, i have a series of motions that i'd like to make that will allow us to move the nonsubstantive amendments to ward as soon as possible and then also come deal with the would be substantive amendment regarding allowing health care providers to ask that public health emergency leave, when they're quarantined or sick. so, the first motion is -- i'd like to move that to adopt the amendment before us, except for references to 5b included therein.

>> can you please take a roll call vote on that motion? >> on the motion to amend? supervisor stefani. >> aye. >> stefani, aye. supervisor mar? >> aye. >> mar, aye. >> chair ronen. >> aye. >> motion passs to amend the ordinance. >> and i move to duplicate the file as amended. >> i need to send the original file as amended as a committee

report to the april 7 meeting of the board. >> roll call? >> on the motion to refer to the board of committee report? supervisor stefani. >> aye. >> stefani, aye. supervisor mar. chair ronen. >> aye. >> the motion passes. >> and next, i would like to move to amend the duplicated file with the remaining amendments that references to 5c. >> we need a role call for that. >> yes. that motion to amend. supervisor stefani. [roll call] the motion to amend has passed. >> and then finally i move to

continue the duplicated file as further amended to the monday, april 13 meeting of the rules committee. >> roll call. >> on that motion, supervisor stefani. >> aye. [roll call] >> those are the five motions you wanted to make, correct? >> correct. >> thank you so much. so mr. cook, are there any other items on today's agenda? >> before i state, i'd like to summarize that the original motion has been amended and refered to the board as a committee report. the duplicated file has been continued to the april 13 meeting and that completes the agenda for today. >> thank you so much. then the meeting is adjourned. thank you, guys. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> take care.

>> thanks.

>> people of san francisco. i am proud to introduce the honorable mayor of san francisco, london breed. >> mayor breed: all right. first of all, thank you all for coming out here. as you know, thousands of people take caltrain in and out of san francisco every day. since 2009 we have seen ridership increase by 76%. we know that this is the location where we have at least eight municipalny lines that frequent this neighborhood. as people move around this an effort to get to their train,

their bus, hospital on the bike, walk around, move around, we have to continue to develop safe transportation networks so people are able to move around safely in san francisco. the improvements here today we are excited about do just that. it allows for people to get around safely, which is clearly what we care about the most. as our city grows, as more people are working in san francisco who are coming from all parts of the bay area, we know that we are going to have more crowded city. making sure that people could use different modes of transportation to get around safely is critical, whether by bicycle, jogging, scooter, or vehicle or what have you. our ultimate goal is safety. that is why we are committed to moving forward the changes to

our infrastructure that will ultimately lead to what the goals are about, no fatalities on our streets. we know in 2019 we had about 29 people who died on the san francisco streets. in fact, this year we have already had two deaths. that is two deaths too many this year. we have to do more. last year i set a goal of doing 20 miles of bike lanes throughout the city. so far we are at 7.5 miles of those dedicated bike lanes. we are on the way to meeting that goal. this is not about pleasing one group over another. this is about public safety. it is about making sure no matter how you are trying to move around san francisco you know you can do it safely. san francisco is changing. we want to make sure that people

are moving around in a way that provides an opportunity for us to feel safe and secure. i am excited about this project. it looks great down here. the streets are clean and smooth and paved. your bus ride won't we bumpy in this section of townsend. i want to thank s.f.m.t.a., san francisco public works for the work they have done to move this project forward quickly along with other projects in san francisco that we have seen improvements on. i want to thank walk sf and the bicycle coalition and the folks who advocated for improvements that are going to lead to a better experience for all of us here in san francisco, and also ultimately saving countless lives. that you also much for being here today. [applause] >> i would like to introduce the

acting director of the san francisco department of public works. >> thank you, jeff. thank you, mayor breed. it is great to be here this morning. it is a beautiful day. as i stand here, this is an amazing project. it shows we as a city can do. this is a city that has traveled with folks off buses, bicycles and skateboards. it takes it all to come together to make this happen. it was public works and urban foresty that constructed this

island we are on right now. they built the bus pad and loading zones. overall, and the workers and 1300-tons of asphalt on this project along with 750 cubic yards of concrete. keep in mind, this was a project not done by just public works. it was a collaboration with m.t.a., san francisco bike coalition along with walk sf. again, i want to say thank you all. after being here today, public works is happy to be part of this celebration. thank you all.

[applause] >> next is the partner at the san francisco bicycle coalition. >> good morning. i am claia. i am the organizer for the bicycle coalition. for the last five years i worked on advocacy in district six. you grew up in the tenderloin and live in the south of market. traffic is superimportant to me. i know what it is like to bike, skateboards and bike on streets without the proper infrastructure. it is not safe. town send is one of the important streets in soma for biking, walking and transit with bus lines connecting. town send is a critical connection to get through soma and beyond. when this project was under threat of a year's long delay we made sure the city didn't drop the ball. we are thrilled today we get to

celebrate these improvements we won together. before the changes people were walking in the streets because there was no physical sidewalk in place. people biking had to compete with buses, uber and lyfts. now there are dedicated, safe and welcoming spaces for people to bike and block. a block long boarding island separates the chaos. this is smart design to make the street so much more inviting and will encourage more people to walk, bike and take transit in one of the busiest neighborhoods in san francisco. when we set the bar high for city planners they can rise to the challenge and deliver. we want to thank the hardworking staff at the s.f.m.t.a. and matt haney to see this through to construction.

setting a high bar we want to thank mayor london breed for pushing the s.f.m.t.a. to deliver 20 miles of new bike lanes within the next two years. we will work with you all and the city departments and our membership to make streets safer for pedestrians and people on bikes. i would like to introduce jody, executive director for walk san francisco. thank you. >> good morning. thank you, mayor breed, berrum m director and our partners of the san francisco bicycle coalition. i am the walk san francisco executive director. this is one of the places in san francisco where there are huge numbers of people walking every single day. for so long it is dangerous for

pedestrians. no sidewalks, mixing with cars and unable to get to the caltrain service where we heard of the buses and trains and people moving about the bay area. today town send is making a step towards safety for thousands of people every day. i want to give the s.f.m.t.a. a big thank you for doing this very quick league. we encourage them to keep it up. how can we do this more often? there is no time to waste in ending fatal traffic clashes. we have a goal to end all fatalities and serious injuries in the next five years. there are so many more areas where thousands are walking every day need to be made safe asap. we need to create streets that put people and safety first. this is reality for san

francisco. thank you to the staff at the s.f.m.t.a., department of public works, mayor's on the supervisor's office who are part of the important project to keep us all safer. thank you so much. [applause] >> i am jeffrey tumlin, director of transportation for the san francisco municipal transportation agency. i am so proud of my entire agency and the san francisco department of public works who collaborated together. the planners, engineers, work crews representing a dozen different trades, concrete, asphalt, signs, striping. they all worked to advance the quick build project which for the first time is designed to accommodate every mode of transportation. i am very proud of the spring

design decisions they have made. for example right here, the curb work to allow us to save $5 million and two years of delay required to move the utility polls. this is quick build. we moved quickly. everyone worked and we delivered this is a city family to serve thousands in san francisco in a part of the transportation network where every mode comes together. caltrain, public and private buses, light rail, pedestrians, bikes, scooters and the entrance to the central subway observing a year and a half from now. this is amazing work. i hope this is considered the pilot for another five years worth of intensive quick build work that we owe deep gratitudes

to the staff of both agencies but the leadership of the board of supervisorboardof supervisor. i would like you to join us to cut this ribbon. mayor, would you like to lead us. >> five, four, three, two, one. there we go. [applause]

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♪ celebrating the wow. turnout this is our third annual to celebrate pride we notice we didn't have community event for pride. we actual had 19 we had godzilla and are you ball weird names i think its unique we're able to have special event we're all women that relax and have fun you know everything is friendly and kind we're all equal i'm >> still a lot of people wonder since the trees have a lot of issues, why did we plant them in the first place?

>> trees are widely planted in san francisco. with good reason. they are workhorses when it comes to urban forestry. we have begun to see our ficustrees are too big and dangerous in san francisco. we have a lot of tree failures with this species in particular. this is a perfect example of the challenges with the structure of the ficustrees. you can see four very large stems that are all coming from the same main truck. you can see the two branches attached to one another at a really sharp angle. in between you can't it is a lot of strong wood. they are attached so sharply together. this is a much weaker union of a branch than if you had a wide angel. this is what it looks like after

the fi c.u. resolution s limb . >> we see decline. you can see the patches where there aren't any leaves at all. that is a sign the tree is in decline. the other big challenge is the root system of the tree are aggressive and can impact nearby utilities, and we can fix the sidewalk around the tree in many cases. we don't want to cuts the roots too severely because we can destabilize the tree. >> in a city like san francisco our walks are not that wide. we have had to clear the branches away from the properties. most of th the can canopy is one street side and that is heavyweight on those branches out over the street. that can be a factor in tree

limb failures. a lot of people wonder since these trees have a lot of issues. why did we plant them in the first place? they provided the city with benefits for decades. they are big and provide storage for carbon which is important to fight climate change and they provide shade and really i think many people think they are a beautiful asset. >> when we identify trees like this for removal and people protest our decision, we really understand where they are coming from. i got into this job because i love trees. it just breaks my heart to cut down trees, particularly if they are healthy and the issue is a structural flaw. i have also seen first hand what happens when we have failures. we have had a couple of injuries due to tree failures.

that is something we can't live with either. it is a challenging situation. we hate to lose mature trees, but public safety has to always. >> the meeting has started.ways. >> the meeting will come to order. this is the april 8th meeting of budget and finance committee. i am calling it to order at 10:00 a.m. it