good evening, everyone. welcome to the june 25, 2020 special meeting of the rules committee. i'm supervisor hillary ronen, chair over the committee. with me on the video conference is vice chair supervisor catherine stefani and rules member gordon mar. i'd like to thank sfgovtv for the meeting. mr. clerk, any announcements? looks like you're on mute. >> apologies. due to the covid-19 health emergency and to protect board members, city employees and the public, the board of supervisors chamber and committee room are closed. however, members will be participating in a meeting remotely. many members will attend a

meeting through video conference and attend to the meeting to the same extent as if they were physically present. public comment is available on each item on the agenda. we're streaming the number across the screen. each speaker will be allowed two minutes to speak. again, that is (415) 655-0001. the meeting i.d. is 145, 418, 2406. again, that is 1454192406 and then press pound and pound again. when connected, you'll hear the meeting discussion, but you will be muted and in listening mode only. when the issue comes up, dial 3.

best practices are to call from a quiet location. speak clearly and slowly and turn down your radio or television. you may submit public comment in either of the following ways. e-mail to myself, the clerk. submit public comment via e-mail, it will be included as part of the official file. finally, items acted upon today are expected to appear on the board of supervisors' agenda of july 7th unless otherwise stated. >> supervisor ronen: thank you. could you state number one. >> charter amendment to amend the charter of city and county of san francisco to provide the future annual adjustments in baseline if funding for the following charter mandated funds will not take into account changes in the ballot.

the municipal transportation fund, the park, recreation and open space fund, the children youth fund, the library preservation fund, the housing trust fund, the dignity fund and the street tree maintenance fund at an election to be held on november 3, 2020. >> supervisor ronen: thank you. our controller is here with us today. do any of my colleagues have any statements before we turn it over to the controller? nope. mr. rosenfeld. good morning. [laughter] >> good morning and thank you for having me here today. i have a short presentation to talk through this proposal. and i should say that we do have amendments to suggest here today, which i can talk through that substantially limit versus what you have in front of you.

so, in background here, the charter measure with the amendments will ask for your consideration of today, are intended to address the unique challenge we have in two of the tax measures that are pending in front of the board of supervisors. one introduced by the mayor. the other introduced by president yee with supervisors haney, fewer and peskin. both are larger scale changes. i'll talk through the specific challenge we're trying to address with these measures with the charter measure. i should say if the charter measure is amended and does move forward, i think the intent at the end of the day would be to merge it with the other measures on the ballot. the goal would be at the end of the board process, they would be merged.

i should start with talking about a key feature of the two ballot measures. the two taxes. as you know, the city is in the midst of litigation regarding both dedicated taxes adopted by the voters in 2018. the city has been challenged on those. and the goal here of a feature in both of those tax measures is to unlock and basically make the money we're collecting today expendable. we do that as creating a backstop tax. that is one feature that should the city lose that litigation would opt into place.

those new backstop taxes would look in many ways like big and baby c in their tax structure and they would generate a like amount of tax. they're effectively insurance against that possibility of a legal loss. what that does in terms of money that we're collecting today, my office is impounding the funds we collect today. should we be ordered by the court to pay refunds. so we're collecting $450 million a year roughly on these two taxes that we'll have to refund if the courts strike down -- if the courts rule against the city. if the backstop tax is adopted that's been proposed on these two measures this november, our office would have a different means of repaying those refunds should the city lose. rather than having to use money that we're collecting to make the repayments, we would look to

that new ongoing backstop tax to make the payments. since we would have another means of repaying the refund should we lose, the money that we're collecting today would become immediately spendable and that's really the policy we're after with this tax feature. the policy challenge we have that results, though, is that currently big and baby c are dedicated taxes. that means that they've been earmarked by the voters for a specific purpose and that means that -- the revenue collected under those measures is not discretionary and therefore does not contribute to the voter docket baseline. so all $450 million we're currently collecting is dedic e dedicated for only those two purposes. the backstop feature, though, in the proposed measures. the one feature is a general tax. it will require 50% plus one vote to adopt.

that tax is discretionary. and so of the approximately $450 million in annual taxes we're collecting, approximately $100 million of that 450 would be allocated to various baseline purposes absent this proposed charter measure as amended. that would mean that the value of the backstop tax that is available to pay for refunds, should we need to, and the revenue available to support ongoing child care and homeless service programs that we have created in the shorter term, would be limited by the $100 million. that's the policy challenge. that takes us to the purpose of the charter measure. the charter measure in front of you was very broad. it was applied to the entirety of the tax measure on the november ballot and excludes the value of all the taxes from

baseline. that is not our intent here. so we have an amendment we would consider today that would limit this charter measure to only apply specifically to the backstop tax that i talked about a few minutes ago. that would exclude the value of the backstop tax should it go into effect from baseline calculations. in doing so, it preserved the value of the tax to pay for quarter of refunds in child care and services. if it's adopted, both by the board and then to the voters, it would leave the baseline allocations in the same places they are today. no better, no worse. big and baby c are not subject to allocations and if this charter measure is adopted by the voters, the backstop tax would also not be subject to baseline compensations. as amended, the charter measure would not apply to any other taxes on the ballot or other

features of these tax measures. so any additional revenue measured by these tax measures on the ballot would still contribute its share to the baseline purposes. i would be happy to answer any questions. in you shall flush >> i appreciate all of the work that has gone into this. supervisor stefani, any comments? okay. any member of the public who wishes to speak will have two minutes to speak. >> thank you. members of the public who wish to provide public comment on

this item should call (415) 655-0001. the meeting i.d. is 1454192406. and press #8080 -- pound and pound again. a system prompt will indicate you have raised your hand when you press star 3. do we have any members of the public for public comment at the time? >> there are no callers in the queue. >> supervisor ronen: okay. public comment is closed. and i understand that supervisor stefani might introduce officially the amendment? no? >> supervisor stefani: that's fine, yes. i would like to move the amendments mentioned by mr.

rosenfield. >> supervisor ronen: thank you very much. can we take a roll call on the amendment? >> on the motion to adopt the amendments stefani aye. mar aye. chair ronen aye. motion passes without objection. >> supervisor ronen: and then on the underlying measure as amended? that's right. if we can continue this item to the call of the chair, can we take a roll call on that motion to continue? and so the public is a charter amendment is amended, then it has to sit in committee and be heard once again before we can officially move it. >> on the motion to continue the call of the chair, stefani aye,

mar aye, ronen aye. the motion passes. this matter is continued to the call of the chair with -- [inaudible] >> supervisor ronen: thank you. thank you, ben, take care. please read item number 2. >> item 2 is a charter amendment to amend the charter of the city and county of san francisco to establish that workforce education and recovery fund to provide financial support to city college of san francisco for workforce and professional development programs, student support and wraparound services supporting student retention and life long learning, enrichment and social justice classes and to require an annual appropriation in designated amounts to the fund, election to be held on november 3, 2020. >> supervisor ronen: thank you. since this is supervisor mar's measure, did you have any comments, supervisor mar? >> yeah. thank you: >> supervisor mar: i would like

to hold off on hearing and considering action on this item today. i'm currently working with city college stakeholders, labor and others to explore the best way to ensure that the more than 140,000 unemployed residents in our city have access to needed workforce education and training so they can upgrade their skills and get back to work and economic security as soon as possible. we're considering creating the workforce education recovery fund as a two-year pilot program through legislation and the pilot project that would support the recovery to happen sooner than the proposed charter amendment. i would like to request that we continue this item to the call of the chair? >> supervisor ronen: no problem, but before we do that, i will open up for public comment? mr. clerk? >> yes. members of the public who wish

to provide public comment should call (415) 655-0001. the meeting i.d. is 1454192406. then press pound and pound again. if you haven't done so, please dial star 3 to line up to speak. and wait until you hear the indicator that you have been unmuted and you may begin your comments. mr. caller, any members of the public to speak online at this time? >> madame chair, there are no callers in the queue. >> supervisor ronen: okay. public comment is closed. can you make a motion -- did you. >> supervisor mar: i move that we continue the item to the call of the chair. >> supervisor ronen: if we can have a roll call. >> roll call on the matter to continue to the call of the chair. stefani aye. mar aye. chair ronen aye.

that motion passes to continue the matter to the call of the chair without objection. >> supervisor ronen: thank you so much. mr. clerk, any other items? >> that completes the agenda for today. >> supervisor ronen: thank you, colleagues, for holding a special. we thought it would be longer, but we're trying to space out all the measures on the ballot and make sure we have enough time for everyone. enjoy a little free time in your calendars now. see you soon. take care. bye.

>> president caen is excused from the