february, we basically fielded them. there's 50-plus -- 54, i believe, complaints or tips that we gathered. we provided the city attorney with all of the tips that were necessary for them to continue to provide more leads into their investigation. some of them that we fielded in the public integrity hotline were whistleblower complaints not only related to the nuru investigations. we'll get back to you on the other breakdown in terms of how much of that is public work. we're actually issuing our year-end annual report in the next few weeks. >> supervisor haney: and did it -- is it fair to say that there's a lot more

investigation and analysis that needs to be done on these topics? >> we're learning more information every day, supervisor. that's the important of the tip line as well as the public integrity tip line, and our report will give you a breakdown of the large departments, so happy to talk to you about that as soon as we publish it. >> supervisor haney: are there specific topics that you identified in this report or more broadly that your office has identified as a need for a lot further investigation? and with that, what are the next steps for your office? i mean, one of the concerns that i have -- and i understand that we have, you know, recently been through a pandemic, and i'm sure you all

are being pulled in all sorts of different directions. but it has been, i guess, about five months since this process first started, and there's a lot more that needs to be investigated and analyzed and reported on. what are the next steps for your office, and what topics are you going to be working on? how can you possibly do all of this? >> yeah. >> thanks a lot, supervisor. if i may, mark, we're learning a lot more every day. what we know so far is that the additional work product related to outside accounts and friends of organizations in particular, as well as what the ethical standards are for commission contract approval processes, including contracts at s.f.o. will be one of the next areas, as well as the awarding of

contracts through d.b.i. it is a great deal of work. we do have folks that are able to do much of this skilled work and investigation. some of this does include on-site review of materials. we take this very seriously, and this is part of our duty and our service to the city, and so thank you for all of your support, as well. >> and just quickly to add to that, the first two that todd mentioned that we're working on, the assessment as well as the airport, ethical standards surrounding commissions, we started the field work on those two way before covid, so those two are actually far along in terms of our report writing, and those are going to be upcoming and forthcoming in the

next few weeks, with the friend being the next one to be publicly available. >> supervisor haney: great. well, i do appreciate all of the work, and it's a huge amount. i want to underscore a large part of the reason why i think there's a couple of levels of additional oversight and investigation that is required to make sure we go through all this and correct all the loopholes and problems in how the systems work, you know, we are -- i put forward, with a number of others and supervisor mar around a special investigator to be able to really follow up and go deeper on some of these things that i think your office has really uncovered in really important ways, but we need to go further, and i do think that looking at what has come in front of us, this is really underscoring the need for that.

and also, the two proposals that are in front of us, which is a commission over at d.p.w., which obviously is a huge, glaring gap in oversight at this department. i think this is wonderful work that you're doing. it's way more than what we thought needed to be done. as i said, i've started the process on tuesday to address some of these things, including putting an investigation around the contractor pool and streamlining. and in addition, one other thing that didn't come up so much in this report but has come up in the last few

months -- oh, and also, the grant piece, which i think is particularly important with d.p.w., but also, the donations to, like, shell nonprofits that are really behested payments that are never reported, and then kickbacks with these required donations to -- to nonprofits, some of which are not even real nonprofits by contractors at the behest of bureaucrats is a huge problem. i hope when you look at the friends piece of it, that's also a piece of what you look at. it's not just that they're getting people to donate to friends of. they're actually getting people to donate to friends of, like the lefty o'doul charity, which then turns around and donates

to the department, as well. there are a nb umber of things that we can do to investigate better on our behalf, and we can put a number of things in place. >> supervisor mar: supervisor peskin? >> supervisor peskin: i assume we're going to have a presentation by the city attorney's office, as well? >> supervisor mar: yes. >> supervisor peskin: i'll hold my questions until after that. >> supervisor mar: why don't we go to the investigation by the city attorney's office. i'd like to welcome deputy city attorney ann pearson. i would like to note that unlike the structural review by the controller's office, the city attorney's office is looking for evidence for

potential crimes or charges, so because of that, they may not be able to be as forthcoming as we would like. with that, deputy city attorney ann pearson. >> thank you. i'm joined by deputy city attorney andrew shen, who would be happy to answer questions pertaining to ethics. [inaudible] >> -- a former commissioner of the immigrant rights commission, balmour fernandez,

and walter huang, who's a contract official. the law enforcement tools that are used to uncover these crimes included search warrants, secret grand jury subpoenas for bank records, and require taps that allowed the f.b.i. to listen in on conversations between

coconspirators. based on the allegations against mr. nuru, we interviewed tom hui, who's the former director of d.b.i. we reviewed his e-mails and report reported our findings to the mayor, who immediately recommended his removal. this took place before the shutdown in march. because of the pandemic, many of our interviews were delayed for about two months, but since the beginning of june, we've begun working with various departments to direct employees to participate in interviews by video. the city attorney has three priorities that i want to talk about. identify employee misconduct to support the removal of unethical employees and officials, and recovering illicit gains for the benefit

of taxpayers. now there are strict limits to what can be disclosed publicly about public individuals while charges are pending. there are things today that i cannot say. employees have privacy rights and personnel actions, and any compelled statements made by an employee as part of a personal investigation could jeopardize the integrity of any investigations by city officials. firs let me talk a little bit more about the three priorities that i outlined before. the first one being official misconduct and employee

investigations. criminal allegations are not evidence. criminal charges standing alone will not support terminations of an employee or termination of a contract for cause. the city attorney's office has begun the difficult and prolonged work of developing independent evidence to support the release of employees involved in misconduct. so to date, mohamed nuru resigned as he was about to be terminated. tom hui resigned as he was about to be terminated. linda creighton with the airport resigned, and florence kang has been removed. we are focusing our efforts on

gifts and bribes from improper sources and improper contracting positions. with the help of the controller's office, our office has reviewed every contractor grant with an entity implicated in the criminal allegations to see if there's a basis to terminate the contract or debar the contractor. the city's contract with nick bovis for toilets, for example, has been terminated. the p.u.c., with the city's help, has determined azulworks to be disbarred for a contract it is now seeking. az azulworks would be entitled to an appeal hearing. the city attorney is looking at the debarment process for a number of contractors, but absent a conviction, it can be

difficult for the city to show willfulness misconduct. our third priority is recovering illicit gains. in light of the announcement that walter huang is pleading guilty in his involvement with the city, we are reviewing every contract that he had a part of with the city and bar those entities from doing further business with the city. as part of this investigation, we are identifying areas in the

city's gift laws. we're looking at issues now, and we'll be reporting back to the board of supervisors on our findings after we have a better sense of where their rules might be best revised to strengthen improper contracts through gifts and favors. i'd also like to note in the midst of all this, our office's separate investigation into building and check fraud by former building commission and president rodrigo sanchtos ledo criminal charges against him. he was charged with multiple counts of bank fraud for stealing funds from clients intended to pay for city permits. these allegations, as well as

multiple allegations of permit fraud were included in a civil lawsuit that our office brought against mr. santos. so with that, i will conclude my remarks. i am available for questions, as is deputy city attorney shen. >> supervisor mar: thank you very much, deputy city attorney pearson. i just have, like, one question before i allow my colleagues to speak. i was wondering if you share more on the construction or process of the city work that you just described. many of the complaints coming to light now date back years or, in some cases decades? so my question is what could have found these out earlier or prevented them, and what steps of the county attorney's investigation? >> well, we unfortunately lack some of the investigation tools that the f.b.i. has.

we don't have the ability to listen in on conversations and get the wiretaps, but we do look into every complaint that's filed, either through the whistle blower's office or that's filed with our office, and we will continue to investigate every complaint that comes to our office. >> supervisor mar: so this -- basically, this -- the city attorney's investigatory work on this type of conduct are complaint driven? >> they are complaint driven. we lack some of the tools that i mentioned. we have the ability, though, to, through departments require employees to discuss with us what's gone on. we have subpoena authority, civil subpoena authority, but we lack some of the tools that assist the f.b.i. in this instance. >> supervisor mar: thank you. supervisor peskin? >> supervisor peskin: thank

you, chair mar. miss pearson touched on everything i was going to ask. but there is, within the city and county of san francisco, two agencies that have other authorities. one is the ethics commission, and the other is the district attorney's office. your office is a civil office and has certain duties and powers relative to the civil side, but on the criminal side, we do have a d.a.s office, and the city attorney has been within the bounds of what is legal and appropriate, been working with the u.s. attorney's office and federal bureau of investigation without compromising or releasing your internal investigations. in what circumstances does this

office report to the city attorney's office for this time of crime? >> i don >> i'd be happy to follow up with you on that information. >> supervisor peskin: and i was actually having this conversation with one of my colleagues the other day, and in this particular case, and in my 20 on and off years on the board, when wrongdoing is found that is either short of criminal wrongdoing or because we don't refer a case to a d.a. or the d.a. doesn't take the case or the case isn't strong enough or they don't charge the case, what happens is the wrong doer disappears into the night, and we never hear anything about it again. tom hui would be an example of that, although it was more public and covered in the press

and what-have-you. this committee meets in private closed session to settle lawsuits, and often in those closed sessions, one of us says, well, what happened to the city employee who had, unbeknownst to us -- we've got 35,000 employees and a few are bad apples -- unbeknownst to us had a long history of sexual harassment or workplace behaviors, and occasionally, the department head or city attorney says that individual no longer works for us. but there's never any -- i'll use the word, overt punishment

short of having at the top -- it let -- [inaudible] >> supervisor peskin: so at any rate -- and i realize all of these are protected and under personnel confidential matters that are covered under state, federal, and local law. >> supervisor mar: supervisor haney? >> supervisor haney: thank you, and can you, deputy city attorney pearson and all of the folks in your office who have been doing extraordinary work to investigate this even without some of the tools that obviously the federal government has. it's just been doing so much to unearth a lot of the issues

here. i -- you know, one of the things that i'm concerned about, and i want to know how you all approach this. when you have people that have engaged in conduct like this on the private side, there are often a string of victims who they have left behind that have lost some things, in some cases, irreparably. in these cases, would we go through and try to look back at each of these instances of wrongdoing as a way to look at what type of support or repairing or whatever it is could be done for the people

that were harmed, and in some cases, they were harmed potentially due to things we should have known, and i'll given a story here of rodrigo santos. there were hundreds of checks that people had written to him that were, in many cases, intended for d.b.i. or for others that he basically just pocketed, which means that there may be hundreds of small property owners, small businesses, and others who maybe lost their homes or lost their businesses because they gave a check to rodrigo that they thought was going to d.b.i., that they were in violation of some sort of repair that caused them to lose their home. i'm not saying that as a hypothetical, i think i actually know an elderly

filipino couple who lost their home because rodrigo somehow got involved in helping them with repairs, and they don't understand really what happened because they thought they handled everything and did everything they were supposed to, and rodrigo probably stole their money. they lost everything, so how do we actually investigate to help the people that were harmed, not just to hold the back folks accountable? >> supervisor haney, that's a great question, and it does not surprise me that the consequences of this behavior is felt far and wide, and that the damage is not just to the city but to provide individuals who may have lost money, who may have lost contracts, all those things.

we will follow these investigations where they take us. we represent the city and county, and we will act on behalf of the city and uncover money lost to the city and look into what action we can take on behalf of individuals in the city who have been harmed. >> supervisor haney: i appreciate that. i'm just concerned that we're sort of -- as you said, we're in kind of a tough place there because we're uncovering individuals who may have harmed people outside of the city which candidly, could create some liabilities for the city for not putting a stop to that. and connected to this, for d.b.i., hundreds of checks that were intended for d.b.i. that went into the pocket of somebody who was the most frequent flier at the d.b.i. office, and the fact that they

didn't know that is, like, hard to believe. so i think following it in terms of -- i'm sure you're following it in government, and even though they may not have liability, what sort of checks should be there to connect the sort of -- to be able to identify bad behavior as it's happening. if you've got 30 people who come into your office and say, well, i paid, and i did it through rodrigo, and now, i need repairs, you should be able to put a stop to it without it going this far, and that doesn't seem to have happened. the other thing i wanted to bring up, if you could clarify the process by which somebody forfeits their pension. i was shocked to find out that,

essentially, you have to be convicted of a crime of moral terpitude to forfeit your pension, and are there any other processes that we have to -- and it has to be related to your job. can you clarify what that is and what options the city has when it comes to somebody's pension for somebody who may have been stealing from the city? >> you're exactly right, supervisor haney. there are provisions in the charter that govern the circumstances under which someone is required to forfeit their pension, and those circumstances are very narrow and do require a conviction for a crime involving falsity that's committed in the course of your job. and once that conviction occurs, then, there are administrative procedures to

proceed for the forfeiture, but it is very narrow, and that exists in our charter. >> supervisor haney: and that's the only way. you have to be convicted, and then, we have to go and seek for it to be. okay. >> supervisor mar: supervisor haney, are you done? >> supervisor haney: i'm all done. thank you. >> supervisor mar: well, thank you, deputy city attorney pearson. thanks to mr. ridestrom and mr. de la rosa for engaging in the discussion and your really important work into the investigation into this widespread and pretty outrageous and disturbing misconduct and corruption here in the city, yeah. so this has been a helpful

hearing just to get an update on the investigation that we're doing here in the city to not only rid out the misconduct that's happened but take really bolder and proactive steps to keep this from happening again. why don't we go to public comment. mr. clerk, are there any callers in the queue? mr. qu, please let us know if there are any callers in the queue. for those in the queue, please wait until you're prompted to begin. the system will tell you your line has been unmuted. for those watching on cable

channel 26 or via streaming line or sfgovtv, please call in by following the instructions on your screen. dialing 408-418-9388, enter the meeting i.d. 1460991337. press the pound symbol twice, and then press star, followed by three to speak. mr. qu, do we have any callers who have connected to our meeting? >> operator: yes, there are currently four callers in the queue. >> clerk: caller, go ahead. >> supervisors, i'm very, very interested in the title of this hearing which said investigations into public interruption. i would like to bring to your

attention that any person here has access to some of the public avenues that they take. for some reason, our sunshine task force does not work, and if you look at the commission, you all can dive into it. it does not work, so the taxpayer goes to the controller's office, and you can do all the heavy lifting and provide it to the controller's office, and the controller's office works with the city attorney. and i say you can do all the heavy lifting, which i mean empirical data, and it takes years. and as one of you all's

supervisors stated, you could ask the district attorney, and in the past, we did not have a good district attorney. we've got a new district attorney now, and some of you are very familiar with him. [inaudible] >> clerk: thank you for your comments. do we have the next speaker,

please. >> hello. is it my turn? >> clerk: yes, it is. >> i'm calling to ask for a moratorium on ficus trees removal. >> clerk: could we pause the speaker's time for a moment. speaker, at the moment right here, the government audit and oversight committee is hearing a matter of public corruption in the city. it's the hearing on progress on an investigation into public corruption. that is what we're taking comment on right now. are you still there? >> yes, yes, i understand. that's what i'm talking about. >> clerk: okay. >> i'm talking about nuru, and the order for these ficus trees to be removed came from nuru.

it did not originate from the bureau of you aurban forestry, did not originate from the public. i've lived in this neighborhood for 14 years. we've had no problem with our ficus trees. this neighborhood is being ravaged. this directly contradicts the information from arbor pro, the city paid $500,000 to do an inventory from our tree and make a recommendation. they recommended for one ficus tree to be removed and the others to simply be groomed. right now, they're decimating our neighborhood, and it doesn't make any sense. buck is saying that these trees pose a danger, but i've lived here for 18 years. there has been no issues with the ficus trees, and these

trees are 40 years old. it takes 40 years to replace a 40-year-old tree, and the reasons they've given makes no sense whatsoever, and this came from nuru sometime in 2019, this order that thousands of ficus trees thoroughout the ciy needs to be removed. san francisco has one of the smallest tree canopies in the city, and we're losing massive amounts of our canopy on an order that came from nuru. we can't wait for an investigation because the trees will be gone. so i'm really urging you to look into this. there's no reason for these trees to be removed, and it is a huge loss. additionally, d.p.w. isn't following the proper notification processes. they're supposed to put notices

on the trees 30 days before removal. they're not doing that. when we objected earlier this week, they said nothing more would happen until late july -- >> clerk: thank you for your comments. mr. qu, can we be connected to the next speaker, please. >> hello. [inaudible] >> can you hear me? >> clerk: yes, we can hear you. your time begins now. >> okay. [inaudible] >> with regards to tree maintenance and right lane viet n nam -- removal, i'd like to know what sorts of experience arborists are required to have.

[inaudible] >> in last night's boathank yo.

mr. qu, could we have the next speaker, please. >> linda chapman. by the way, remember months ago, i warned you when our urban canopy which was planted by nob hill neighbors that was destroyed? that's not what i called about, nor did i call you to tell you about how i lost my home due to the corruption of d.b.i., my second home on nob hill, art deco home that i loved. any way, what i really called about was the appalling results of the hearing that you -- that

you held on april 30 of the contracts, the crazy contracting that was done with the hotels and that were then left empty. and, you know, again, i've said that i believe that the controller, the city attorney ought to be able to recover some of that money. i want to mention that, you know, what you could do is look at the way the federal government handles contracting, for example. you know, it's like hiring. the line managers and the program managers, like i was, we don't sign the contracts. i would go to hotels to make arrangements for contracts and so forth, but only the warranted contracting officers could do it. it's like human resources. they have to protect the civil service, similar to contractors protect contracting officers who were warranted, who are trained and did an apprenticeship and then are certified are allowed to do the contract. and, you know, just crazy

decisions were made on those hotels. you don't pay hotels to hold rooms open. >> clerk: thank you for your comment. mr. qu, do we have anymore speakers? >> hello? >> clerk: yes, your time begins now. >> hello, yes, can you hear me? >> clerk: yes, we can. >> yes, well, my name's stacey bullar, and first of all, i've been listening to you for a long time, and i don't know how you have the stamina to keep going. my mind is swimming. but any way, i'm calling because i, too, am concerned about the process that's involved in removing our street

trees, and in fact, this weekend, seven trees were cut down on market street and octavia street, and it was not really permitted behavior, and we need to know who was responsible for that. yes, ficus trees were pinpointed by mohamed nuru while ed lee was mayor.

it it's long documented about removing them because they say they're unsafe and they fall down on people, but when you look at the statistics, they are way down the list of dangerous. the ones more dangerous are even more numerous than the ficus trees, so i think it's a leftover crink that this order existed. i hope someone will look into it to have it desist. thank you for your work. it's good to have someone opening pages and looking at it. thank you for your attention. >> clerk: thank you for your comments. mr. qu, do we have anymore speakers? >> operator: mr. chair, that completes the queue. >> supervisor mar: thank you,

operations, and mr. clerk, hearing no further callers, public comment is now closed. colleagues, i just wanted to thank you, and also the representatives from the city attorney's office for this robust discussion about hearing about investigations into public corruption in our city. these investigations and public discussions are ongoing, but they've already led to some important actions, you know, both by mayor breed and the acting director of public works have taken steps to address the issues. even at the hearing today, committee members -- colleagues, you announced some legislation that you're working on or sponsoring, and then, there's the even bigger proposals for systemic and instructal changes, such as creating oversight, much needed

oversight to the department of public works and also on creating a new office of the public advocate that would address these actions more proactively and systemically. so i look forward to continuing these important discussions in the g.a.o. committee, especially as the controller's office released their zsh-their zs -- their subsequent reports. colleagues, do you have any more comments? >> supervisor peskin: thank you for bringing this report and thank you to the city attorney for their work during this unfortunate chapter. in addition, a piece of legislation that i asked the city attorney to draft and welcome supervisor haney's desire to work collaboratively on that. i also have requested legislation from the city attorney with regard to

rescinding the sanction that the board was asked to pass and indeed did pass with regard to code section 67.7 and 21-b. it's a pretty easy section to pass, and i hope that we do this tuesday. >> supervisor mar: thank you. with that, colleagues, i ask that we continue this to the call of the chair. on that motion, mr. clerk, call the roll. >> clerk: on the motion to continue the item to the call of the chair -- [roll call] >> clerk: mr. chair, there are three ayes. >> supervisor mar: thank you, mr. clerk. can you please call items 6 through 11 for closed session? >> clerk: items 6 through 11

are items, resolutions, and lawsuits on a closed session agenda. members of the public who wish to make public comment should call 408-418-9388, enter the meeting i.d. 1460991337. press pound twice and then star-three to enter the queue to speak. >> supervisor mar: mr. clerk, do we have any callers on the line? >> clerk: mr. qu, do we have any caller in the queue for this item on the agenda? >> operator: there are no callers in the queue. >> supervisor mar: so seeing no public comment, public comment is now closed.

mr. clerk, please call the roll. >> clerk: on the motion to go into closed session -- [roll call] >> clerk: mr. chair, there are three ayes. >> supervisor mar: thank you. we will now convene in closed session. >> clerk: thank you, mr. chair. the members will now be leaving this session to connect to closed session.

>> please type your name and your question exactly as you would like it to be read. submit before the last speaker is finished. we will read in the q&a portion. thank you for joining us. today we have doctor grant colfax, the director of the office of economic and work force development.

cheryl davis, james executive director of collective impact. member of the latino task force and stefani garcia. with that i will turn it over to dr. colfax. >> good morning everybody. thank you for joining us before this long weekend. i just have a brief statement to make with regard to where we are in the covid-19 pandemic. it is a public health message that is really that we need to send across the city, across the region, across various neighborhoods and communities. this fourth of july, th the saft thing to do is stay home. in san francisco we have had an alarming increase and

significant increase in covid-19 infections and hospitalizations of the over the past few weeks, our rates have soared. we are in a situation where we could we seeing early signs of a surge. our increases reflect across the region as increases across the state. as people know, we have put a pause on re-opening. it is vital that everyone take the steps that we know stop the spread of covid-19. slow the spread of covid-19. this means wearing a face covering, social distancing, good hygiene measures, and really limiting outings and staying home as much as possible. we know this works. we saw this work in the spring with our response in san francisco.

as we hit pause, we need to ensure we are doing everything we can to slow the virus' spread. this weekend stay at home if possible, celebrate with people in your household. use as much as possible a way to socialize virtually, socially distance, wear face coverings, keep your family and your neighborhood and community as safe as possible. thank you. >> thank you, dr. colfax. now we have the director from the office of economic and work force development. >> thank you so much, dr. colfax. i want to make a few brief comments about the importance of moving to this weekend. like many of the small

businesses and community members who were very much looking forward to a more aggressive re-opening. we are thankful for the leadership of the department of public health keeping our health interests real and grounded during this significant time we are in right now. i think we are excited about the long three day weekend and what benefit that may bring to our struggling small businesses doing everything they can to provide a healthy experience and safe experience for those who visit them and patronize them, which is very much needed right now. it is important to remember the virus doesn't take a holiday, it may force one upon us if we don't take responsibility as business owners and community members to ensure we are adhering to the public health guidelines. it is important the progress we

worked so hard to create in phased re-opening, through our office, mayor breed's leadership, we want to continue to see the progress being made. it is only possible if you, as the public and business owners, do your part to be responsible during this week end as we continue to mitigate the public health crisis we find ourselves in. we have been doing such an extraordinary job ensuring to get to this place of having many small businesses begin to see light at the end of a tunnel to enjoy a little activity and seeing liveliness come back to our neighborhoods and commercial corridors. it is only possible if we work together to take care of each other, practice social guidelines. it benefits our health and economic health. we need to keep an eye on that.

we all have a part to play in that. over 153,000 residents in san francisco sought unemployment. we have a rate of well over 12%. our job is to add here to these public health guidelines to continue to battle the economic crisis we want to successfully address. together with all of you, we know that we can do that. when it comes to the additional work to be provided, we have signage to be provided. make sure businesses know there is collateral to collect and gain access to to help them work together with their patronizers and those who come in and patronize their businesses retail or otherwise. we want to thank the public for being patient with business

owners trying to do their part to be successful in this environment. with that, i will take questions later on. i am looking forward to a safe july 4th weekend in san francisco an and across the bay area. for more information about resources or tools available to you, reach out to our web site. oewd.org. also if you are curious about the phasing going on and what plans we have, please visit sfgov re-opening and you will find the information there. thank you for the opportunity today. we look forward to working with you towards continued success and re-opening. >> thank you, director. our next speaker is cheryl davis, executive director of san

francisco human rights commission. >> thank you. you know, the director talked about the virus does not take a vacation or holiday. dr. colfax and i have been having conversations it is not equal where it is impacting communities and neighborhoods. we have seen the map where the virus is impacts greater numbers matches maps for red lining to highlight disparities in terms of economic and health issues and challenges. we realize in some ways we are battling two issues at this point in time. one is the pandemic and one is racism. these two things are very much closely connected. we are seeing a surge within

latin x communities. most recently the african-american community and challenges with folks in sunnydale with younger pops. we are trying to make sure folks are staying healthy, working with communities. the role of human rights is to engage with community and raise community concerns. we have heard from young and old people. there is a concern folks will come out this weekend and think everything is fine. they will be worse off as we go into next week. we encourage people to talk to their family and encourage them to stay home, healthy and be aware of the idea someone could have contracted the virus and not know it and be spreading it to others. as the human rights

commissioners we have been working with collective impact to distribute face coverings, pass out sanitizer and pass out collateral that says stay home, stay safe and remind people to get tested. i am grateful for the partners here today to share and encourage others. grateful for the work of the latino task force. we have to think about making the messagthe mess o the messag. those with health issues are more likely to contract the virus and have a harder experience or be harder impacted by that. we are trying to work with messaging around that so folks realize they are not mandated, we are encouraging people to stay home for safety of

themselves and their communities. >> our next speaker is a member of the latino task force. >> good morning everybody. i am with the latino task force. since the beginning of this pandemic we are working vigorously to ensure the latino community continues to thrive in the city. as director davis just indicated, there are a lot of challenges the latino community faces in san francisco that run parallel with covid. covid in many ways makes i would worse and highlights. one of the big pieces of advice to anybody that is listening out there, that is writing this

down, ensure if you have the ability to shelter-in-place this weekend, do that. if you have a need to go out because there is an essential thing you have to do, wear a face covering and face mask. as we saw in a mission study, we found 53% of the people who tested positive had no symptoms. people could have covid-19 and not understand that they do and be fine and not have symptoms. they could give it to somebody they love that could have an adverse effect. we are reminding our people in the community to ensure that you stay home if you can. if you have to go out, wear a face mask and ensure you are keeping social distance that is appropriate. if you are listening to this message, then you are an ambassador of this message to those that you love and you care

about. it is important for all of us to take ownership of this. it is only with all of us participating we will get out of this. if you are absolutely have to go out because it is essential, please use social distancing space or face mask. cover your face and enjoy this as safe as you possibly can. >> thank you. our next speaker is the executive director of collective impact. >> i am not sure if you can hear me. >> yes, we can hear you.

>> i am working at the community center. i want be the community to understand. i am in the community to tell everybody to come to my community and ask where is james, nobody would know who you comcome to. uncle stink they know who i am. i knew from day one when this pandemic started that we were opening the doors to the community. the resources were going to be hard for the community to get ahold of. we want our community to have a place to go, ppe, face mask, sanitizer and we did hot lunches here. i want to make sure the community knew that the door is open, they didn't have to go

look for anything, it was right here. i have been all over san francisco and hunters point, the mission, we are supporting everybody with ppe. i know everybody is feeling a little cramped up with the fourth of july coming up. keep your butts at home. please stay home. this pandemic and this covid-19 is for real. i don't want you to be the person that carries it home. i know a lot of us go home and we have family reunions to get together during the week and go do the fourth and do the fourth of july and you go home and you have a mom, grandparent at home.

you know, you don't know you are carrying the disease. really as young people, you are the carriers. it is like looking out for the people around you at the time. it is not about you. it is everybody else. it is bigger than me or you. it is protecting the elders and seniors and our family around us when we think about it as we go out. basically if you do have to go out wear a face mask. make sure you have sanitizer with you. i think about social distancing at all times. make it a habit that people keep their distance from you. make sure that you take it serious. this is serious. i am saying this because when you think about it is a lot we

don't know about this virus. to be safe just make sure you are taking care of your loved ones and your community. make sure that you actually let everybody know that i don't want to get sick, i don't want you to get sick. i will stay at home. i will not be part of that. we are going to recover from this. stay at home and be safe for this weekend. please stay home and be safe. the last thing we want to do is sacrifice your family. the last thing i want to do is go to another funeral. at the end of the day it is for us to look out for our community to make sure the community is safe at the end of the day. please, please, please, keep

your butts at home. stay home, you all. another fourth of july will come up. we will be there next year. this year, please stay at home. thank you. >> thank you. up next we have stefani garcia who is our final speaker, please submit your questions. >> good morning, everyone. i am here to talk to young people specifically. i have a message for young people in san francisco and around the nation. we the young people are intel get anchor -- intelligence and we can lead by example. i urge you to continue to practice social distancing and only go out for essentials, wear

facings and plastic good hygiene. covid-19 affects all of us, especially those we love. our moms, dads, grandparents, great grandparents and others with underlying conditions in our community. we as young people have the responsibility to act responsible and to leave our pleasures and fun behind. coronavirus is real. i have had relatives test positive and lose their life to covid. i know what testing positive does to the family financially. in some situations we live in multigenerational homes. we live with the elderly, parents and grandparents. as young people we must remember we are not spared from the

virus. we have seen how serious it could be fou for our loved peop. i urge you all to take action and practice social distancing, practice good hand hygiene and continue to wear face coverings. we all have the power to flatten the curve and stop the spread. thank you. >> thank you, stefani. we will begin our q and a. first question with rebecca. what percentage of cases tell contact tracers close contacts? has that changed over time. do they say why? that question is for dr. colfax. >> could you read me the question again. i didn't hear all of that.

>> the question is what percentage of cases tell contact tasers close contacts? has that changed over time. when they don't tell the investigators close contacts do they say why? >> contact tracing is >> clerk: thank you, mr. chair. while the commission was in closed session, they voted unanimously to recommend six matters for consideration. >> supervisor mar: thank you. i would like to make a motion to not disclose the matters in closed session. clerk, call the roll. >> clerk: on the motion not to disclose --

[roll call] >> clerk: mr. chair, there are three ayes. >> supervisor mar: thank you, mr. clerk. is there any further business today? >> clerk: mr. chair, that concludes the agenda. >> supervisor mar: we are adjourned. it.

>> shop & dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges resident to do their shop & dine in the 49 within the 49 square miles of san francisco by supporting local services in the neighborhood we help san francisco remain unique successful and vibrant so we're will you shop & dine in

the 49 chinatown has to be one the best unique shopping areas in san francisco that is color fulfill and safe each vegetation and seafood and find everything in chinatown the walk shop in chinatown welcome to jason dessert i'm the fifth generation of candy in san francisco still that serves 2000 district in the chinatown in the past it was the tradition and my family was the royal chef in the pot pals that's why we learned this stuff and moved from here to have dragon candy i want people to know that is art we will explain a walk and they

can't walk in and out it is different techniques from stir frying to smoking to steaming and they do show of. >> beer a royalty for the age berry up to now not people know that especially the toughest they think this is - i really appreciate they love this art. >> from the cantonese to the hypomania and we have hot pots we have all of the cuisines of china in our chinatown you don't have to go far. >> small business is important to our neighborhood because if we really make a lot of people lives better more people get a job here not just a big firm. >> you don't have to go anywhere else we have pocketed of great neighborhoods haul have

all have their own uniqueness. >> san francisco has to all >> the annual celebration of hardly strictly bluegrass is always a hit now completing itself 12 year of music in the incredible golden gate park. >> this is just the best park to come to. it's safe. it's wonderful and such a fun time of the year. there is every kind of music you can imagine and can wander around and go from one stage to another and just have fun. >> 81 bands and six stages and no admission. this is hardly strictly bluegrass. >> i love music and peace. >> i think it represents what is great about the bay area. >> everyone is here for the

music and the experience. this is why i live here. >> the culture out here is amazing. it's san francisco. >> this is a legacy of the old warren hel ment and receive necessary funding for ten years after his death. >> there is a legacy that started and it's cool and he's done something wonderful for the city and we're all grateful. hopefully we will keep this thing going on for years and years to come.

>> hi. i'm chris mathers with channel 19, and you're watching coping with covid-19. today, i'm going to be talking about exercising during the pandemic. first, i'm going to tell you what i've been doing, and then i'm going to be checking in with some friends and family. i've been riding my bike. all i take is a pair of gloves and a mask if i come into contact with anyone. i try to ride my bike during the time i'm sheltering in place. i try to ride for at least 30 minutes. surfing is my other regular outdoor activity. california state guidelines recommend you don't drive more than ten minutes for a spot to

exercise, and although i'm close to ocean beach, i'm a bit wary to go there, so i'm using the time to do some maintenance. filling in gouges and dings, and sanding it down. i'm also repairing holes in my suit. fellow sfgovtv producer chris took his first yoga lesson a couple of years ago and used to go to a class regularly before the lockdown. he and his wife set up a space in their garage for exercising. this routine is from an on-line class by power yoga.

deann and andy have been using the ping pong table that they bought off craigslist and set it up in their back yard. ellie has been using this home gym to stay fit. it has everything she needed. and lastly, if the weather is bad outside, you can exercise your mind by doing a puzzle, sudoku, or just by reading a good book. here's a quick recap. since i started this episode, the guidelines have changed. for instance, jack may be able to go golfing with some restrictions. go to sf.gov to get the most up-to-date valencia has been a constantly evolving roadway. the first bike lanes were striped in 1999, and today is

the major north and south bike route from the mission neighborhood extending from market to mission street. >> it is difficult to navigate lindsay on a daily basis, and more specifically, during the morning and evening commute hours. >> from 2012 to 2016, there were 260 collisions on valencia and 46 of those were between vehicles and bikes. the mayor shows great leadership and she knew of the long history of collisions and the real necessity for safety improvements on the streets, so she actually directed m.t.a. to put a pilot of protected bike lanes from market to 15th on valencia street within four months time. [♪] >> valencia is one of the most used north south bike routes in san francisco. it has over 2100 cyclists on an average weekday.

we promote bicycles for everyday transportation of the coalition. valencia is our mission -- fits our mission perfectly. our members fall 20 years ago to get the first bike lane stripes. whether you are going there for restaurants, nightlife, you know , people are commuting up and down every single day. >> i have been biking down the valencia street corridor for about a decade. during that time, i have seen the emergence of ridesharing companies. >> we have people on bikes, we have people on bike share, scooters, we have people delivering food and we have uber taking folks to concerts at night. one of the main goals of the project was to improve the overall safety of the corridor, will also looking for opportunities to upgrade the bikeway. >> the most common collision that happens on valencia is actually due to double parking in the bike lane, specifically

during, which is where a driver opens the door unexpectedly. >> we kept all the passengers -- the passenger levels out, which is the white crib that we see, we double the amount of commercial curbs that you see out here. >> most people aren't actually perking on valencia, they just need to get dropped off or pick something up. >> half of the commercial loading zones are actually after 6:00 p.m., so could be used for five-minute loading later into the evening to provide more opportunities or passenger and commercial loading. >> the five minute loading zone may help in this situation, but they are not along the corridor where we need them to be. >> one of the most unique aspects of the valencia pilot is on the block between 14th street. >> we worked with a pretty big mix of people on valencia. >> on this lot, there are a few schools. all these different groups had concerns about the safety of students crossing the protected

bikeway whether they are being dropped off or picked up in the morning or afternoon. to address those concerns, we installed concrete loading islands with railings -- railings that channel -- channeled a designated crossing plane. >> we had a lot of conversations around how do you load and unload kids in the mornings and the afternoons? >> i do like the visibility of some of the design, the safety aspects of the boarding pilot for the school. >> we have painted continental crosswalks, as well as a yield piece which indicates a cyclist to give the right-of-way so they can cross the roadway. this is probably one of the most unique features. >> during the planning phase, the m.t.a. came out with three alternatives for the long term project. one is parking protected, which we see with the pilot, they also imagined a valencia street where we have two bike lanes next to

one another against one side of the street. a two-way bikeway. the third option is a center running two-way bikeway, c. would have the two bike lanes running down the center with protection on either side. >> earlier, there weren't any enter lane designs in san francisco, but i think it will be a great opportunity for san francisco to take the lead on that do so the innovative and different, something that doesn't exist already. >> with all three concepts for valencia's long-term improvement , there's a number of trade-offs ranging from parking, or what needs to be done at the intersection for signal infrastructure. when he think about extending this pilot or this still -- this design, there's a lot of different design challenges, as well as challenges when it comes to doing outreach and making sure that you are reaching out to everyone in the community. >> the pilot is great. it is a no-brainer. it is also a teaser for us. once a pilot ends, we have thrown back into the chaos of

valencia street. >> what we're trying to do is incremental improvement along the corridor door. the pilot project is one of our first major improvements. we will do an initial valuation in the spring just to get a glimpse of what is happening out here on the roadway, and to make any adjustments to the pilot as needed. this fall, we will do a more robust evaluation. by spring of 2020, we will have recommendations about long-term improvements. >> i appreciate the pilot and how quickly it went in and was built, especially with the community workshops associated with it, i really appreciated that opportunity to give input. >> we want to see valencia become a really welcoming and comfortable neighborhood street for everyone, all ages and abilities. there's a lot of benefits to protected bike lanes on valencia , it is not just for cyclists. we will see way more people biking, more people walking, we are just going to create a really friendly neighborhood street. [♪]

[♪]

>> i am the supervisor of district one. i am sandra lee fewer. [♪] >> i moved to the richmond district in 1950 mine. i was two years old. i moved from chinatown and we were one of the first asian families to move out here. [♪] >> when my mother decided to buy that house, nobody knew where it was. it seems so far away. for a long time, we were the only chinese family there but we started to see the areas of growth to serve a larger chinese population. the stress was storage of the birthplace of that. my father would have to go to chinatown for dim sum and i remember one day he came home and said, there is one here now.

it just started to grow very organically. it is the same thing with the russian population, which is another very large ethnic group in the richmond district. as russia started to move in, we saw more russian stores. so parts of the richmond is very concentrated with the russian community and immigrant russian community, and also a chinese immigrant community. [♪] >> i think as living here in the richmond, we really appreciate the fact that we are surrounded three natural barriers. they are beautiful barriers. the presidio which gives us so many trails to walk through, ocean beach, for families to just go to the beach and be in the pacific ocean. we also also have a national park service. we boarded the golden gate

national recreation area so there is a lot of activity to do in the summer time you see people with bonfires. but really families enjoying the beach and the pacific ocean during the rest of the time of year. [♪] >> and golden gate park where we have so many of our treasures here. we have the tea garden, the museum and the academy of sciences. not to mention the wonderful playgrounds that we have here in richmond. this is why i say the richmond is a great place for families. the theatre is a treasure in our neighborhood. it has been around for a very long time. is one of our two neighborhood theatres that we have here. i moved here when i was 1959 when i was two years old. we would always go here. i love these neighborhood theatres. it is one of the places that has not only a landmark in the richmond district, but also in

san francisco. small theatres showing one or two films. a unique -- they are unique also to the neighborhood and san francisco. >> where we are today is the heart of the richmond district. with what is unique is that it is also small businesses. there is a different retail here it is mom and pop opening up businesses. and providing for the neighborhood. this is what we love about the streets. the cora door starts on clement street and goes all the way down to the end of clement where you will see small businesses even towards 32nd. at the core of it is right here between here and 20 -- tenth avenue. when we see this variety of stores offered here, it is very unique then of the -- any other part of san francisco. there is traditional irish music

which you don't get hardly anywhere in san francisco. some places have this long legacy of serving ice cream and being a hangout for families to have a sunday afternoon ice cream. and then also, we see grocery stores. and also these restaurants that are just new here, but also thriving. [♪] >> we are seeing restaurants being switched over by hand, new owners, but what we are seeing is a vibrancy of clement street still being recaptured within new businesses that are coming in. that is a really great thing to see. i don't know when i started to shop here, but it was probably a very, very long time ago. i like to cook a lot but i like to cook chinese food. the market is the place i like to come to once a year. once i like about the market as it is very affordable. it has fresh produce and fresh meat. also, seafood.

but they also offer a large selection of condiments and sauces and noodles. a variety of rice that they have is tremendous. i don't thank you can find a variety like that anywhere else. >> hi. i am kevin wong. i am the manager. in 1989 we move from chinatown to richmond district. we have opened for a bit, over 29 years. we carry products from thailand, japan, indonesia, vietnam, singapore and india. we try to keep everything fresh daily. so a customer can get the best out a bit. >> normally during crab season in november, this is the first place i hit. because they have really just really fresh crab. this is something my family really likes for me to make. also, from my traditional chinese food, i love to make a

kale soup. they cut it to the size they really want. i am probably here once a week. i'm very familiar with the aisles and they know everyone who is a cashier -- cashier here i know when people come into a market such as this, it looks like an asian supermarkets, which it is and sometimes it can be intimidating. we don't speak the language and many of the labels are in chinese, you may not know what to buy or if it is the proper ingredients for the recipe are trying to make. i do see a lot of people here with a recipe card or sometimes with a magazine and they are looking for specific items. the staff here is very helpful. i speak very little chinese here myself. thinks that i'm not sure about, i asked the clerk his and i say is this what i need? is this what i should be making? and they actually really helped me. they will bring me to the aisle and say this is battery. they are very knowledgeable. very friendly.

i think they are here to serve not only the asian community but to serve all communities in the richmond district and in san francisco. [♪] >> what is wonderful about living here is that even though our july is a very foggy and overcast, best neighborhood, the sleepy part outside on the west side is so rich with history, but also with all the amenities that are offered. >> he is a real leader that listens and knows how to bring people together.

brought this department together like never before. i am so excited to be swearing in the next chief of the san francisco fire department, ladies and gentlemen, let's welcome, jeanine nicholson. (applause). >> i grew up total tomboy, athlete. i loved a good crisis, a good challenge. i grew up across the street from the fire station. my dad used to take me there to vote. i never saw any female firefighters because there weren't any in the 1970s. i didn't know i could be a fire fighter. when i moved to san francisco in 1990, some things opened up.

i saw women doing things they hadn't been doing when i was growing up. one thing was firefighting. a woman recruited me at the gay-pride parade in 1991. it was a perfect fit. i liked using my brain, body, working as a team, figuring things out, troubleshooting and coming up with different ways to solve a problem. in terms of coming in after another female chief, i don't think anybody says that about men. you are coming in after another man, chief, what is that like. i understand why it is asked. it is unusual to have a woman in this position. i think san francisco is a trailblazer in that way in terms of showing the world what can happen and what other people who may not look like what you think the fire chief should look like

how they can be successful. be asked me about being the first lbgq i have an understands because there are little queer kids that see me. i worked my way up. i came in january of 1994. i built relationships over the years, and i spent 24 years in the field, as we call it. working out of firehouses. the fire department is a family. we live together, eat together, sleep in the same dorm together, go to crazy calls together, dangerous calls and we have to look out for one another. when i was burned in a fire years ago and i felt responsible, i felt awful. i didn't want to talk to any of my civilian friends. they couldn't understand what i was going through. the firefighters knew, they

understood. they had been there. it is a different relationship. we have to rely on one another. in terms of me being the chief of the department, i am really trying to maintain an open relationship with all of our members in the field so myself and my deputy chiefs, one of the priorities i had was for each of us to go around to different fire stations to make sure we hit all within the first three or four months to start a conversation. that hasn't been there for a while. part of the reason that i am getting along well with the field now is because i was there. i worked there. people know me and because i know what we need. i know what they need to be successful. >> i have known jeanine nicholson since we worked together at station 15.

i have always held her in the highest regard. since she is the chief she has infused the department with optimism. she is easy to approach and is concerned with the firefighters and paramedics. i appreciate that she is concerned with the issues relevant to the fire department today. >> there is a retired captain who started the cancer prevention foundation 10 years ago because he had cancer and he noticed fellow firefighters were getting cancer. he started looking into it. in 2012 i was diagnosed with breast canner, and some of my fellow firefighters noticed there are a lot of women in the san francisco fire department, premenopausal in their 40s getting breast cancer. it was a higher rate than the

general population. we were working with workers comp to make it flow more easily for our members so they didn't have to worry about the paper work when they go through chemo. the turnout gear was covered with suit. it was a badge to have that all over your coat and face and helmet. the dirtier you were the harder you worked. that is a cancer causeser. it -- casser. it is not -- cancer causer. there islassic everywhere. we had to reduce our exposure. we washed our gear more often, we didn't take gear where we were eating or sleeping. we started decontaminating ourselves at the fire scene after the fire was out.

going back to the fire station and then taking a shower. i have taught, worked on the decontamination policy to be sure that gets through. it is not if or when. it is who is the next person. it is like a cancer sniper out there. who is going to get it next. one of the things i love about the fire department. it is always a team effort. you are my family. i love the city and department and i love being of service. i vow to work hard -- to work hard to carry out the vision of the san francisco fire department and to move us forward in a positive way. if i were to give a little advice to women and queer kids,

find people to support you. keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep trying. you never know what door is going to open next. you really don't. [cheers and

>> please type your name and your question exactly as you would like it to be read. submit before the last speaker is finished. we will read in the q&a portion. thank you for joining us. today we have doctor grant colfax, the director of the office of economic and work force development. cheryl davis, james executive director of collective impact. member of the latino task force and stefani garcia. with that i will turn it over to dr. colfax. >> good morning everybody. thank you for joining us before this long weekend. i just have a brief statement to

make with regard to where we are in the covid-19 pandemic. it is a public health message that is really that we need to send across the city, across the region, across various neighborhoods and communities. this fourth of july, th the saft thing to do is stay home. in san francisco we have had an alarming increase and significant increase in covid-19 infections and hospitalizations of the over the past few weeks, our rates have soared. we are in a situation where we could we seeing early signs of a surge. our increases reflect across the region as increases across the state. as people know, we have put a pause on re-opening. it is vital that everyone take

the steps that we know stop the spread of covid-19. slow the spread of covid-19. this means wearing a face covering, social distancing, good hygiene measures, and really limiting outings and staying home as much as possible. we know this works. we saw this work in the spring with our response in san francisco. as we hit pause, we need to ensure we are doing everything we can to slow the virus' spread. this weekend stay at home if possible, celebrate with people in your household. use as much as possible a way to socialize virtually, socially distance, wear face coverings, keep your family and your

neighborhood and community as safe as possible. thank you. >> thank you, dr. colfax. now we have the director from the office of economic and work force development. >> thank you so much, dr. colfax. i want to make a few brief comments about the importance of moving to this weekend. like many of the small businesses and community members who were very much looking forward to a more aggressive re-opening. we are thankful for the leadership of the department of public health keeping our health interests real and grounded during this significant time we are in right now. i think we are excited about the long three day weekend and what benefit that may bring to our struggling small businesses

doing everything they can to provide a healthy experience and safe experience for those who visit them and patronize them, which is very much needed right now. it is important to remember the virus doesn't take a holiday, it may force one upon us if we don't take responsibility as business owners and community members to ensure we are adhering to the public health guidelines. it is important the progress we worked so hard to create in phased re-opening, through our office, mayor breed's leadership, we want to continue to see the progress being made. it is only possible if you, as the public and business owners, do your part to be responsible during this week end as we continue to mitigate the public health crisis we find ourselves in.

we have been doing such an extraordinary job ensuring to get to this place of having many small businesses begin to see light at the end of a tunnel to enjoy a little activity and seeing liveliness come back to our neighborhoods and commercial corridors. it is only possible if we work together to take care of each other, practice social guidelines. it benefits our health and economic health. we need to keep an eye on that. we all have a part to play in that. over 153,000 residents in san francisco sought unemployment. we have a rate of well over 12%. our job is to add here to these public health guidelines to continue to battle the economic crisis we want to successfully address. together with all of you, we know that we can do that.

when it comes to the additional work to be provided, we have signage to be provided. make sure businesses know there is collateral to collect and gain access to to help them work together with their patronizers and those who come in and patronize their businesses retail or otherwise. we want to thank the public for being patient with business owners trying to do their part to be successful in this environment. with that, i will take questions later on. i am looking forward to a safe july 4th weekend in san francisco an and across the bay area. for more information about resources or tools available to you, reach out to our web site.

oewd.org. also if you are curious about the phasing going on and what plans we have, please visit sfgov re-opening and you will find the information there. thank you for the opportunity today. we look forward to working with you towards continued success and re-opening. >> thank you, director. our next speaker is cheryl davis, executive director of san francisco human rights commission. >> thank you. you know, the director talked about the virus does not take a vacation or holiday. dr. colfax and i have been having conversations it is not equal where it is impacting communities and neighborhoods. we have seen the map where the virus is impacts greater numbers matches maps for red lining to

highlight disparities in terms of economic and health issues and challenges. we realize in some ways we are battling two issues at this point in time. one is the pandemic and one is racism. these two things are very much closely connected. we are seeing a surge within latin x communities. most recently the african-american community and challenges with folks in sunnydale with younger pops. we are trying to make sure folks are staying healthy, working with communities. the role of human rights is to engage with community and raise community concerns. we have heard from young and old

people. there is a concern folks will come out this weekend and think everything is fine. they will be worse off as we go into next week. we encourage people to talk to their family and encourage them to stay home, healthy and be aware of the idea someone could have contracted the virus and not know it and be spreading it to others. as the human rights commissioners we have been working with collective impact to distribute face coverings, pass out sanitizer and pass out collateral that says stay home, stay safe and remind people to get tested. i am grateful for the partners here today to share and encourage others. grateful for the work of the

latino task force. we have to think about making the messagthe mess o the messag. those with health issues are more likely to contract the virus and have a harder experience or be harder impacted by that. we are trying to work with messaging around that so folks realize they are not mandated, we are encouraging people to stay home for safety of themselves and their communities. >> our next speaker is a member of the latino task force. >> good morning everybody. i am with the latino task force. since the beginning of this pandemic we are working

vigorously to ensure the latino community continues to thrive in the city. as director davis just indicated, there are a lot of challenges the latino community faces in san francisco that run parallel with covid. covid in many ways makes i would worse and highlights. one of the big pieces of advice to anybody that is listening out there, that is writing this down, ensure if you have the ability to shelter-in-place this weekend, do that. if you have a need to go out because there is an essential thing you have to do, wear a face covering and face mask. as we saw in a mission study, we found 53% of the people who tested positive had no symptoms.

people could have covid-19 and not understand that they do and be fine and not have symptoms. they could give it to somebody they love that could have an adverse effect. we are reminding our people in the community to ensure that you stay home if you can. if you have to go out, wear a face mask and ensure you are keeping social distance that is appropriate. if you are listening to this message, then you are an ambassador of this message to those that you love and you care about. it is important for all of us to take ownership of this. it is only with all of us participating we will get out of this. if you are absolutely have to go out because it is essential, please use social distancing space or face mask. cover your face and enjoy this as safe as you possibly can. >> thank you.

our next speaker is the executive director of collective impact. >> i am not sure if you can hear me. >> yes, we can hear you. >> i am working at the community center. i want be the community to understand. i am in the community to tell everybody to come to my community and ask where is james, nobody would know who you comcome to. uncle stink they know who i am.

i knew from day one when this pandemic started that we were opening the doors to the community. the resources were going to be hard for the community to get ahold of. we want our community to have a place to go, ppe, face mask, sanitizer and we did hot lunches here. i want to make sure the community knew that the door is open, they didn't have to go look for anything, it was right here. i have been all over san francisco and hunters point, the mission, we are supporting everybody with ppe. i know everybody is feeling a little cramped up with the fourth of july coming up. keep your butts at home. please stay home. this pandemic and this covid-19

is for real. i don't want you to be the person that carries it home. i know a lot of us go home and we have family reunions to get together during the week and go do the fourth and do the fourth of july and you go home and you have a mom, grandparent at home. you know, you don't know you are carrying the disease. really as young people, you are the carriers. it is like looking out for the people around you at the time. it is not about you. it is everybody else. it is bigger than me or you. it is protecting the elders and seniors and our family around us when we think about it as we go out.

basically if you do have to go out wear a face mask. make sure you have sanitizer with you. i think about social distancing at all times. make it a habit that people keep their distance from you. make sure that you take it serious. this is serious. i am saying this because when you think about it is a lot we don't know about this virus. to be safe just make sure you are taking care of your loved ones and your community. make sure that you actually let everybody know that i don't want to get sick, i don't want you to get sick. i will stay at home. i will not be part of that. we are going to recover from

this. stay at home and be safe for this weekend. please stay home and be safe. the last thing we want to do is sacrifice your family. the last thing i want to do is go to another funeral. at the end of the day it is for us to look out for our community to make sure the community is safe at the end of the day. please, please, please, keep your butts at home. stay home, you all. another fourth of july will come up. we will be there next year. this year, please stay at home. thank you. >> thank you. up next we have stefani garcia who is our final speaker, please submit your questions.

>> good morning, everyone. i am here to talk to young people specifically. i have a message for young people in san francisco and around the nation. we the young people are intel get anchor -- intelligence and we can lead by example. i urge you to continue to practice social distancing and only go out for essentials, wear facings and plastic good hygiene. covid-19 affects all of us, especially those we love. our moms, dads, grandparents, great grandparents and others with underlying conditions in our community. we as young people have the responsibility to act responsible and to leave our pleasures and fun behind.

coronavirus is real. i have had relatives test positive and lose their life to covid. i know what testing positive does to the family financially. in some situations we live in multigenerational homes. we live with the elderly, parents and grandparents. as young people we must remember we are not spared from the virus. we have seen how serious it could be fou for our loved peop. i urge you all to take action and practice social distancing, practice good hand hygiene and continue to wear face coverings. we all have the power to flatten the curve and stop the spread. thank you. >> thank you, stefani.

we will begin our q and a. first question with rebecca. what percentage of cases tell contact tracers close contacts? has that changed over time. do they say why? that question is for dr. colfax. >> could you read me the question again. i didn't hear all of that. >> the question is what percentage of cases tell contact tasers close contacts? has that changed over time. when they don't tell the investigators close contacts do they say why? >> contact tracing is one of our key interventions that we employ

as a result of pandemic. we have 100 contact tasers in the field working with people diagnosed with covid-19. right now we are reaching 82% of cases. of the people that the cases report, we are reaching 88% of their contacts. we are doing relatively well there for our indicator in yellow there. the goal is to reach 90%. with regard as to why people do not necessarily tell people about their contacts or perhaps refuse with regard to engaging with a contact taser, we have qualitative information. there is understandable concerns about providing information and how that will be used. that is why we have worked very

much with multiple community partners to the train efforts by community-based organizations to function as trusted contact tracers. it is about the information that is given. it is also about providing support for people diagnosed with their contacts. across the city people are offered hotel rooms if they need to isolate and quarantine. families are offered social support services, food and other key things that help people if they are diagnosed with covid-19 if they are at risk and to help them get through the two week

period that is most acute with people diagnosed. the other thing to emphasize is the information gathered is 100% confidential. it is only used to get people tested during covid-19. >> the second question. how have moved to reopen san francisco complicated contract tracing efforts. >> we are working in a cultural appropriate way to engage people who are diagnosed with covid-19, to support them and their families, and to support the contacts they have had. it just emphasizes the need to continue to strengthen this work

across the city. >> next questions from ktsf for dr. colfax. how do we celebrate the fourth of july with our families safely? >> i think as i said at the beginning of the call and my partners also emphasized. best thing to do is stay home, celebrate with members of your household, and to be able to celebrate virtually with others. it is really a key right now we present the spread of covid-19. if people go out to emphasize wearing face coverings, maintain social distancing which i know it is hard for me to do, but we need to emphasize that.

as director about seized in the commenters, even if you feel okay that doesn't mean you don't have covid-19. if someone looks like they are not sick, up to half of the cases can initially be a symptomatic. we have got to continue to prevent the spread, wear face coverings, social distance and good hygiene. >> second question from angelina for dr. colfax. other counties allow social bubbles. what is your position on small gatherings of close family and friends? >> the safest thing to do is stay home with members of your immediate household. if there are times when people decide not to do that, it is very important for people to meet outside, wear face coverings, social distance,

hygiene measures that i talked about. be thoughtful how we engage outside of our immediate house old with people highest risk of dying from the disease, people older with chronic conditions. given what we are seeing in san francisco and across the state we are having increasing cases. san francisco knows how to do this. we did it and i am grateful for everyone's contributions. we did it in march, april, may. we can do it for the fourth of july. >> thank you. next questions from cathy novak with k cbs for dr. colfax. >> how willin how many patientsn quentin are treated in san

francisco hospitals? >> 18 patients transferred from san quentin to san francisco hospitals. >> second question for dr. colfax. are san francisco hospitals preparing to receive more patients from san quintin? is that going to affect hospital capacity. >> right now it is good for indicators. people can find it on data sf website if you want more detail. now the hospital capacity is green. we have a capacity to accept patients from other regions in the state. obviously, we will balance the ability to accept with what is happening locally. we certainly want to support regions where there is an acute

need and people are in dire need of care. we are in close contact with the state which is determining how patients from san quentin will be transferred to other counties. >> next questions from christian with ktvu for dr. colfax. can you speculate about what is leading to the recent increase in coronavirus transmission rates in san francisco? >> it is combination of factors. we don't have the precision to identify any one thing. this is not an outbreak in one specific facility or region. it is really what we know spreads the virus, which is people unfortunately in closer

contact with people who may be a symptommic but can transmit. covid-19 the people who choose not to wear facial coverings which we know dramatically decreases spread of diseases. then i think per the conversations and data from the past there are people who essential workers who need to work in settings. there is certainly a transmission risk in the workplaces even with proper precautions. the social distancing, stable coverings -- facial coverings, hygiene, access to testing, contact notification are all things to prevent further spread. we think over the last few weeks probably just a combination of

more activity in the city. the more we move about and the more interaction there is socially in gatherings, the more likely the virus will transmit. especially indoors if women don't -- if people don't take precautions we are talking about. >> second question. did we re-open too fast or too early. are we likely to see restrictions reimposed? >> as we re-opened in a very cautious and data-driven way. we followed the data and facts how to reopen gradually. we know the numbers would increase in our city and region. the goal is to slow the spread.

we packed because the rate started to increase dramatically. we talked about flattening the code. it is really about the rate. too early to tell whether we would need to potentially reverse any steps that have been taken with regard to reopening or taking a pause. we are looking at the data over the next few days and make a determination on next steps based on the data. >> thank you. we have the time two questions from joshua at sf examiner. question one. please discuss the latest data raising concerns inlooking exact number of cases on wednesday. >> most important data causing

concern are around the increase in hospitalization rates. and in the rate of case diagnosis. our goal for seven day average of new cases is 1.8 per 100,000 residents. we are now at a rate of over 6 per 100,000. that pushed us into the red zone. that is one of the key indicators. the other key indicat indianadis are to keep hospitalizations in the green -- hospitalizations in the green zone. it is now at 61% increase. the key piece is our hospitalization rates overall

for covid-19 are low in the city. thanks to the incredible efforts of san franciscans doing their best every day. the hospitalization remains relatively low, but that rate of increase means the curve is steep. we need to ensure we are doing everything we can to flatten the curve. as we saw this in china, italy and now in floridian arizona. once this virus takes off at a high rate, it is very aggressive. we need to take this pause now and as much as possible stay at home for the fourth of july to get the curve flat in san francisco and in our region. >> question two from joshua. can you provide any more

specifics what trends you are seeing in terms why there is increase of cases and hospitalizations. such as demographics location or other causes. >> i think it is a combination of factors. the data reinforce the continued and ongoing needed as others have spoken to on this call to focus in our approach to managing covid-19 to supporting communities where covid-19 is disproportionately affecting people, including latin and black african communities and we will do just that. >> thank you. this concludes our press conference. thank you to our speakers for joining us. a recording of this press

conference will be available shortly. thank you. >> mayor: i'm san francisco mayor london breed. i want to thank you all for joining us here today. i'm really excited about this small business forum that is so desperately needed for so many businesses in our city. this pandemic has had not only a tremendous impact on our overall

city and our public health, but it has also had a tremendous impact on our financial health, and especially many of our businesses in the city. the people who own these businesses, the work force of these businesses, it all will be very difficult as the few -- as the months to come, when we begin to look at ways in which we can open and provide new guidelines around opening businesses. we know that financially so many of our businesses are hurting now. they need support now, and also will need support in the future. some of the programs that we put forth here in the city, immediately, almost, was to defer the payment of business taxes until next year. we actually extended the deadline for fees, as well. we provided resources for paid sick leave so

businesses can extend paid sick leave payments to their employees. we provided grants and loan opportunities with no interest and flexible repayment schedules. we have also provided arts grants for so many of our artists who rely on performances and other events in order to take care of themselves. as someone who not only loves san francisco, but as someone who uses so many of our small businesses, whether it is the drycleaner that i have been going to since i could afford a drycleaner, or the person who does my hair or my nails or the musicians that play at the lounges and restaurants that i love to go to all over the city -- all of these very unique businesses are what matters to the people of this city. they are part of the fabric of our city. and i want to make sure that as we propose more funding and more support

on the local level, that we are connecting to the people who need these resources the most. and we are also making sure that federal and state resources are reaching all of you. so today we are here with the director of the department of the office of economic and work force development. joaquin torres, and if you want to look up some of the services we have, visit oewd.org. joaquin runs that department. and even before this pandemic, i have been really laser-focused on trying to eliminate fees that make it difficult for small businesses, in particular, to be in business in san francisco in the first place. so even though this pandemic is challenging, i am so hopeful it will be an opportunity to

provide some much-needed long-term relief for our businesses in san francisco. joaquin will be leading those efforts. we also have the president of the small business commission, cynthia huey, who will be moderating this discussion, and we have the director of the chamber of commerce here as well, native san franciscan rodney fong, who has been a business person pretty much his whole life. the wax museum -- i don't know about you, but i went to gallileo high school,and we used to sneak into the wax museum when i was a kid. so i owe you some ticket money, rodney. so between the wax museum, the restaurants and the hair and nail salons, the barber shops, the masseuse locations, all of these great things are really what make san francisco so special. and we know that the sad reality is that because of the pandemic and

because of the requirement around social distancing, it is not as simple as those institutions and those businesses can actually go back to work, number one. and, number two, when you go back to work, the likelihood that you're going to be able to make sufficient revenue to cover the expenses you haven't been able to cover for months is going to be challenging. so this is our opportunity to hear from businesses, to make sure that not only are we putting forth good options to support you, but they are affectively working to serve your businesses, and that we are doing everything we can to come up with the kinds of things that are going to help you in the long run. so with that, i want to turn it over to our director of the office of economic and work force development for a few words. and then rodney fong will say a few words, and then we'll get to cynthia, and she'll

moderate this discussion. thank you all for joining us here today. >> thank you so much, mayor breed, and thank you, again, for your leadership and the pressure you place on our office to make sure we're reaching the needs of our small business communities across the city and in our neighborhoods. and thank you for the idea of bringing us all together through this townhall so we can have an opportunity to hear from each other, and our answers about some of the most pressing questions facing small businesses, and the relief you have been driving us to deliver for our small business communities. whether we talked about grants or loan products or deferral of fees, it is all grounded in wanting to see our small businesses be successful here, not only with what the city can provide, but complementing the wrap-around efforts of the state and federal resources that both essential to our relief and recovery efforts. a few things before we jump in, we know generally, based on some conversations that we've

had, we've seen a 70% decrease city-wide. and certain areas and industries are hit even harder in terms of the sales that are out there. we know that we're already seeing 14,000 businesses being affected, 166,000 employees at this moment in time. we're expecting larger hits as time goes on. in addition to over 70,000 people that have already applied for unemployment in san francisco alone. we know that we are dealing with unprecedented challenges here in san francisco, but we, through our office of economic and work force development, and mayor breed, we're standing ready to support the small business community at this time, and especially with the partners we have joining us today and in our communities. both in the past and also in the present, and we're very much looking forward to the future. so looking forward to answering some questions here today. now, i'll pass it over to the president of the chamber of commerce rodney fong. >> thank you, joaquin

first of all, i want to say hello to everyone. we're in this together. we're all feeling the same things, we're all feeling the same frustration, the level of fear going on, but hopefully we'll get through this together and support our way through a great recovery. i want to thank mayor breed and all that her office has been doing, and joaquin has been working like a work horse over the last four, five weeks -- it seems like months, i'm sure -- but he and his staff are doing a great job. they have been working extremely hard. just a little bit of recap: over the last few weeks, the city and the mayor have deferred some of the business registration fees. and they deferred them until september. that adds up to about $49 million in cash flow to the city of san francisco. several fees that apply to storefront businesses have also been deferred until september, helping to preserve another $14 million in cash flow.

i want to be very clear that the mayor is clear about this, we are going to be looking at a significant deficit in the city of san francisco, the bay area, the state of california, and so we're talking about a million dollars out from the city that we won't have in revenue. we will have to all pitch in. we'll all have to figure out how we save and go back to san francisco in an even better way. if we want to start talking about recovery tomorrow, we've got to start planning it today. i'm happy and delighted to tell you that the recovery task force kicked off last friday. it is about an 80-person task force led by myself, carmen chu, jose gonzales and rudy representing labor. 80 seems like a lot of people, but when you look at all of the different sectors and industries and non-profits, it is a good representation of a lot of people who have shared interests. again, we're going to have to all work

together. it is not just one industry here in san francisco that is better than another. i want to also mention that we're going to have to rely on our public health department to lay out new guidelines. we are essentially reinventing ourselves in a great way, bringing in technology that might be able to help us in a better way and create a better san francisco. i want to touch on three points, though, if i can, pretty briefly. this is one where probably from a commerce perspective it doesn't emerlogicalseem logical. the public school system and private school system implementing guidelines to get kids and teachers safely back into the school affects the whole area. not until moms and dads feel safe, do we get a full workforce. it is important because a busy downtown san

francisco supports so many businesses as you know. all of the sandwiches get bought and kids get picked up at lunch, and it is important that somewhere e that wehave a busy . the second main point i want to make is small businesses will need to pivot. we'll have to reinvent ourselves, get creative, and we're going to have to be entrepreneurial problem-solvers that we naturally are. there is no greater test than this one to figure out how it will be different. restaurants may have to change their seating arrangements, going town to not a full house. here in san francisco and los angeles, it is very difficult to make money without a full-seated restaurant. and we're going to have to figure that out. that means takeout and maybe retail inside of a restaurant. maybe other clothing produced by someone related to the restaurant, creating a lifestyle. all of the pivots are going to require us, the city, government, and private sector to be flexible with our

permitting process. to look at permit streamlining, to allow change of use permits to occur. maybe temporarily, just as we get back up, and then we can tighten them back up, but we need to be in this all together and be flexible. the third thing i want to mention is public health. the mayor has disown such done agreat job in listenig to public health. and we'll rely on them to tell us what is best practices. i hope the departments listen to small business, and small business actually steps up and says, you know what? no one knows how to run this nightclub better than we do, and here are some suggestions we think we can voluntarily put down, something we can live with financially, operationally. we look at the changes and the way they're going to occur, they're very much operational. there is one piece that has been floated around, and that is an idea of a certifcate of healthy

places, voluntary standization, much like standization -- standardization, much as a food place has to have a safe handling permit. i, again, wanted to stress that creativity and ingenuity will get us largely out of this. and what will set one business apart from another is how safe and clean it is. if we can do that independently and collectively, san francisco can be a better city. so i'll stop there. >> mayor: all righ all right. thank you, rodney. commissioner huey, if you want to get some remarks, and then we can go right into the question and answer. >> sure. thank you very much. thank you, everybody, for logging in today. my name is cynthia huey, and i'm a small business owner in the city. and most recently, as a

commissioner on the small business commission. i just really want to express how grateful i am to be a san franciscan right now. i was just outside on saturday, singing with my neighbors, and it was an amazing feeling. so i'm incredibly appreciative of show everyone in our communities have come together to fight for and support the health of all san franciscans. you know, just a quick story i wanted to share. i was recently in a west portal merg merchant's meeting, with mayor breed as well -- you probably had no idea i was there. i was watching you during a meeting, and i could see you in your little zoom box, typing away. and i was just floored that this is our mayor. this is our mayor. you were in the chat to try to answer everybody's questions and connecting people. and i was so proud of the fact that i live in

a city where our mayor just digs in and is doing the work. and so i just wanted to say from the very bottom of my heart, thank you so much for trying to help us all through this. it is an incredibly challenging situation, time. i can't even imagine, but i know we're going to all get through this. and i believe in your leadership, and i really thank you. >> mayor: thank you, commissioner. >> so, i think, also, all of us have all of the programs and things memorized right now, all of the wonderful grants we can apply for and all of the loans and all of the different things that i think have been mentioned already, but i also wanted to highlight the work of the office of small businesses. they've been fielding hundreds and hundreds of phone calls and e-mails every week, trying to get business owners connected with resources, and really doing a lot of one-on-one counselling. so i wanted to thank them.

and thanking everybody on the panel. rodney, your expertise today, and also leading us into the recovery. and joaquin, i don't know how you do this. you're in every single meeting, and somehow you're in 20 places at once, but thank you very much. so at this point, let's -- i just want to move into the questions, if that's okay with everyone here? >> yes. >> great. just to give everyone some context about the questions, the vast majority of people who are c.p. for today's talk are also c.p.'d with a question. and these are questions that have been asked over and over again. starting with joaquin, what is the status of the city's grants and funding programs for small businesses impacted by covid? >> yes, thank you very much for the question. as the mayor said, for up to date realtime information, please go

to oewd.org, and click on covid covid-19, and it will list all of the resources available, and what is implemen complementary from the state and local levels, ready to reach out with you online, connect with you on the phone to guide you through the process and help you navigate this very difficult time. in addition to that, also private resources available, newly-announced grants that are accessible to you. please do frequently visit that site. it's where we try to put everything we have available. we started out with a million dollars before we had the shelter in place, to support small businesses with grants, up to $10,000. since that time we have doubled that grant pool so we could serve over 200 businesses through that effort, with grants up to $10,000. we also heard that some of the resources were not reaching some of the

soul proprietors. and we'll be publicizing that on our website. we have a little over 127 grants from that first allocation. and secondly, the mayor introduced the gift to s.f. fund here in san francisco, so we could coordinate, and, mayor, thank you so much for the leadership there. so we will have private resources available to support us with a loan program, a zero percent interest program. we have a partner surntlcurrently that accepted applications. we received over 4,000 businesses who submitted that application. we want to reinforce that the resources we have able right now, from a city's perspective, are greatly exceeded by the demand. which is why it is so important that today, if folks have not been

aware -- i'm sure everybody is in the small business community -- thae federal sba program -- those applications opened up this morning at 7:30 a.m again, go to our website for more information there. where you can learn about additional partners, financial institutions, who can also help you in getting those applications filled out. why is that important? because many banks are only working with their clients, and prioritizing them on a first come, first serve basis. there are billions of dollars being held for other smaller lenders, other smaller banks and cdcdfis, and making sure thethat the public knows they are there. please do take the initiative right now, reach out to our hotline, as you mentioned, cynthia, and

get realtime information from us, with any questions you may have, you will get a response and talk to a person when you reach out to us. so i think i'll leave it with that. as a final piece, the mayor also introduced a neighborhood mini grant program on friday afternoon. it is also meant as another fill the gap in some of the most underserved neighborhoods. given the fact we do have a financial crisis, we wanted to make sure we're finding those resources as we have them available, and delivering them where they are needed, again, focusing on those who may not be able to access other resources in other ways. and also ensuring that women entrepreneurs, from a city-wide perspective, had access to those grants as well. thank you so much. >> thank you. so many of the fees and fines that small businesses have been experiencing have been

deferred now, i think, until september, is what you mentioned? are there long-term plans for small businesses to be able to navigate those fees beyond that? since many of us were already struggling to pay those before this. >> mayor: definitely. thank you, cynthia, for the question. that is one of the areas that i'm laser-focused on. because the fact is some of the businesses that are being required to close under our ordinance are not generating any revenue. and the fact that we would expect businesses to pay these fees during times that they're not even open and able to generate revenue is not right. so we are working to figure out how we can deal with the fees

overall, and what it would mean to reduce, or to eliminate, certain fees for a time period, or what have you. we are definitely looking into that because as what was said by rodney, what we've seen, we're talking about somewhere around $49 million. the city is facing a significant budget deficit, but we also can't balance our budget on the backs of businesses that won't be able to reopen if we continue to burden them with even more city fees. so that is something that we're definitely focused on. it is something that i care about. i care about dealing with that, to try to remove that barrier. but i also want to be clear -- i think, first of all, we have so many businesses that are going to be struggling even after we begin to reopen. there are businesses that are having challenges now. they're going to have challenges after this. but then there might be

businesses that are okay. and we want to make sure that those businesses that are okay, that they continue to pay what they owe, if they can afford to do so. because there are going to be a lot of businesses that can't. we want to be fair because this impacts all of us. when the city is not able to generate sufficient revenue, it makes it more difficult for us to provide more resources to those businesses that are struggling the most. in fact, we mentioned gifts to s.f., where i'm actually raising private dollars to support small businesses. there are only three categories in our give to s.f. program, and one is food insecurity, one is for housing and to help with people that might be facing eviction, and the most important category here is small businesses, and making sure that we have more resources. we need to maximize the amount of resources we're able to provide in

order to help carry businesses that need it the most through this pandemic. so it is definitely something that i'm committed to addressing. and this is where i'm going to count on the business community as i try to propose legislative changes through the process. we're going to need people to be supportive of that. because it is really going to be -- it's going to hit our budget hard, but i think the benefits of supporting our small businesses outweigh the need for us to collect these fees from our already suffering businesses. >> thank you very much. this question, i think rodney would be the person to direct this to. along with the fines and fees, i think one of the things top of mind for small businesses is also commercial rent. so what programs are there, or what types of

resources do you have to help some of our small business owners with, to negotiate rent changes, rent relief, with their commercial landlords? >> that's a good question and it is a tough one because at the moment, there is not necessarily any relief for landlords. in san francisco, a very old city, many of our landlords are small businesses, too. they have mortgages, insurance, and their own obligations. so i think the battle is they want to not have vacancies. i don't know any land owner who wants to have a vacancy. if you're a tenant with a small business, you should begin a dialogue with your landlord, if possible, to see if there is any kind of deferment. i stress to you they are also under the same pressures, with mortgages and such. but there are private arrangements, and those kinds of conversations would be very helpful. >> okay. thank you. mayor breed, many small

business owners have not even heard back from the sba jet o yet on their loans. do have you an update on the federal assistance program? i know this morning there was new funding added to that, but do you know anything beyond, or how the city can help advocate some of the small business owners who haven't even had a chance to -- >> mayor: yeah. and joaquin can provide some insight into that. his office is working on trying to get access to that. >> absolutely. that is one of the biggest questions for us, in terms of where is accessibility happening. almost immediately we were on the phone with financial institutions when we were getting questions across the city about what does this program look like? everything was rolling out so quickly, everyone was scrambling to understand -- even their

own lenders, who they had a relationship with, would provide them guidance or even a response. what we're monitoring very closely now, both treasury sisnaros and the recorder, cameron chu, reached out to the financial institutions to ask, how are you communicating with your clients? what is the process by which you will be processing applications? what is important to know right now, is based on those conversations, the mayor asked us to make sure we were submitting those concerns from the general politics to the speaker's office, part of our federal advocacy. that's why we saw this funding that was reserved specifically for smaller lenders, so folks had many outlets to access though federal relief funds at the same time. so as we see that program roll out today, we'll be monitoring it in realtime to find out what the responses are like. the silver lining for us

that we're seeing right now, but we'll still be watching closely, is the fact that there are those dollars that are held for smaller institutions, and we can see what relief is provided to the small business owners that take that path, as they begin to work with their financial clients, the large banks and the sba around their own applications. i do encourage every small business owner that has an application to reach out to their lender with some followup questions, in terms what have will their process be? we'll also be feeding that back on our website at well. we'll have that additional information, too. but we're looking forward to monitoring this and seeing how this new version of p.p.p. is going to be administered, and what we'll need to provide. >> and just a followup question about the

p.p.p. how will small businesses reach the levels so that we're eligible to receive those loans from the federal government? >> mayor: and i will say that one of the reasons why i created the economic recovery task force is so that when we're able to provide a window of opportunity for a particular industry to open, we want to make sure that before that happens they know what the requirements are going to be. and so that they can get ready. so on day one, they know what to expect. we have been talking to the speaker about that particular requirement because when you think about it, with restaurants, if we're going to be looking at reopening restaurants and changing their capacity, then there is no way that they're going to not only be able to afford to bring back all of their employees, but the likelihood that they will even be able to afford their rent and other expenses is going to be really, really

challenging. and so i think that part of our goal with the economic recovery task force is to look at ways, working with the department of public health, to provide guidance for these industries, to help people to get ready, so on day one they know what they're going to be able to do. but the speaker has been absolutely incredible, and is aware that this could potentially be a challenge in light of the need to impose new restrictions on businesses that may make it difficult for them to be able to bring back their employees. the other thing that the economic recovery task force will do is also look at ways to ensure that our workforce adapts to what our new normal is. we have folks from the academic world who many of our institutions were asking them to look at their classes and what they have available, in

order to retrain people for maybe a new opportunity that they may not have thought was possible. because they're not able to return to their job. and so we're looking at other industries. we're looking at how many contact tracers we're going to need, because until a vaccine is found, there is a need to identify when someone has a virus, who have they been in contact with? not just in their immediate family at home, but others in other parts of the community, along with more testing. this is going to be necessary for us to open and to remain open so that we don't see a significant surge in the number of cases. so it's going to take a major effort to start thinking differently about things won't necessarily go back to the same. but i think that there is an adjustment that we can make, if we're prepared to make it, and our economic recovery task force is going to

play an important role in helping us do that. and i'm going to continue to advocate not just the speaker, but our senators as well, we have a great relationship with kamala harris and other. we have con tact contact with te mayors about what adjustments need to be made because we'll all be in the same boat. >> i'm going to kind of backtrack a little bit into a question that was asked many times. many small business owners are reporting seeing an increase intents and street, unsheltered homelessness in commercial corridors and other in other words. in otheother neighborhoods.whao help the homeless, who are at a greater risk of contracting coronavirus? >> mayor: if you own a

business, you know the challenges of homelessness don't go away because there is a pandemic. in fact, they've been worse for us. although we've been able to get close to a thousand people into hotel rooms, the ability to address homeless in the age of social distancing has been so difficult. and so what you're seeing is we are ramping up our hotels, but we also have to have staff and meals and cleaning and services and management of these hotels to ensure that staff and the folks who work there are safe, but also the people who are located in those hotel rooms are safe as well. it is a massive undertaking, requiring a significant increase in our capacity. and it is really taxing on our workforce. and when i say our workforce, is no it is not just people in the city and non-profits, all of

the employees that are disaster workers -- we've had to retrain librarians and rec and park staff and other people who have not hired to do these jobs, to work with this population in these capacities. we are not going to be able to place our entire homeless population into hotel rooms. but what we're trying to do is get creative around how we're able to provide them help and to find safe locations where we can divert the tents off of the sidewalks, off of the streets into larger areas and larger parking lots. specifically we're looking at everett middle school as an option, and we're working with supervisor mandelman on that. and we're looking at other locations in the bay view. we have trailers that we received from the state and that we also purchased, that we plan to place at pier 92, to move people out of tents and into the shelters,

people who are residents of the bay view. we're trying to get creative to try to get as many people off the streets as we possibly can. it is challenging and will continue to be challenging. but we're going to continue to do the very best that we can. and i cannot, you know, commit to seeing this major change around the removal of tents if we don't have places for people to go. we have to make sure that we have restrooms, wash stations, and other things when we take responsibility for any of the folks that are housed intents at this time. we're going to continue to get creative and provide informal locations and work with the department of public health and the department of homelessness to do just that. and i will say, as much as we've been able to do, not only providing meals to our shelters, meals to these hotels, and meals to people who

are in tents, and cleaning services and other support, it continues to be a challenge to ramp up to the number of staffing that we need in order to meet what we see a significant population of homeless people in our city. >> just to kind of start talking a little bit more -- to talk a little bit more about recovery and reopening, what do you think will the new standards look for operating a business in this city? we have different types of needs for different high-contact industries, such as restaurants, hair and nail salons, like you had mentioned, dental offices, things like that. what are your thoughts on that? >> mayor: so i'm glad you asked that question, because, again, part of our goal with our

economic recovery task force with a lot of the different industries, we want to work together to provide those guidelines. so, for example, most of what we see happening with the department of public health and the decisions that are being made are centered around what we need to do to protect public health. so it focuses on trying to keep people apart from one another in order to avoid getting the virus. and what we're experiencing with our economy, and what we're seeing with the numbers, they have real concerns about opening up too fast because we still see the number of hospitalizations have gone up. we still see, every day, an increase number in the number of people who are positive for covid-19, and we've had 23 deaths, over 1400 cases, and about 85 people who are hospitalized. so they are not comfortable we are out of the woods because

those numbers continue to rise you say flattening the curve, but it is pretty flat, relative to most other major cities, but it has not dropped. and what we've done today, for example, in extending the stay-at-home order for an additional month, during that time or goal is to not sit around and wait until direction is given from the department of public health. we are going to provide the guidance for how we can get back to opening up some of our businesses. so, for example, just think about it, the restaurants have delivery and pickup services. we have non-essential businesses that possibly, with the right kinds of guidelines, could potentially be open for the same pickup and delivery services as well. the place where i buy my candles, you know, where they have, you know, all these knick-knacks and

things that i like to buy. why not make sure that those small businesses that serve our communities have the pickup and drop-off service. and what we have to do, and what i'm hoping or economic recovery task force will do with these various industries, are what are some new guidelines for various industries? because i'm not going to wait around for the department of public health to say, okay, yes, it is okay to open our hair salons and our barber shops. what i want to do is get ready for that and provide for them the suggested guidelines, get them to agree and to allow some of these places to start to reopen. because that's where we are now. we have to start working on this now. so, for example, if we set up guidelines today, that three weeks from now, or four weeks from now, this is what a beauty salon needs to be doing in order to get

open, then they can get prepared for that. and they can start booking appointments and working with their costumers. if they can only have one person in the shop at a time -- what does that mean? i'm not suggesting that that is going to happen, because part of it is contingent upon what happens with our numbers. what happens with the number of people who are infected. and so we are open to suggestions from our business community. if you have a unique business and you don't necessarily interact with the public, but you have items that you sell and your not online, but there is a way you could provide pickup and delivery, what does that look like? i think we have to start having those discussions now, so that we can get people ready. if they're going to need to wear gloves and masks when they're doing certain services, we need to get people ready so they have the supplies that they need. that is a continued conversation i'm hoping we will focus this additional month of may

on those kinds of solutions because when we reopen, it will not be business as usual. things are going to be a lot different, especially in light of not having a vaccine. there are going to be some challenges with large-scale events. there are going to be challenges with nightclubs, with hair and nail salons, but it doesn't mean that we should not look at ways we can reopen and make sure that we're practicing certain techniques or requirements that will help limit the number of people that would be infected. >> this is our last question, maybe for rodney. how can small businesses and small business owners be leaders in the recovery efforts? >> yeah. i think the mayor spoke

well about creativity and ingenuity. we want everyone to figure out what they want to do next and how their business is going to shift. i will share that there is one website, where there is a public survey put out by the recovery task force. 1san francisco.org francisco.org/covid-19 recovery. we want to have more students foopportunities for pee to give structure. hopefully we'll have a playbook. there will not be an exact plan, but a whole list of plays that we can put into play, that she can pull from that will have a matrix of. as this changes, it is very different -- in fact, maybe an earthquake recovery would be somewhat easier than this recovery because it may have some

start and stops. we'll try to have as much information with regard to making opportunities from the public. >> thank you. i wanted to thank everybody for being on this panel today and sharing advice, encouragement, all of these things, for all of us because we need it right now. mayor breed, would you like to close this off today? >> mayor: yeah. first of all, thank you, commissioner huey, for your work with this. you mentioned in the beginning that you had a number of people who registered and provided questions. so i want to ask you to make sure that joaquin gets that list with the questions, and he and his team will respond to those questions to try to do what we can to make sure that we are answering them. you can also e-mail joaquin or e-mail me at

mayorlondonbreed mayorlondonbreed@sfgof.o rg. it is better if you reach out to me by e-mail, not on social media because i'm not allowed to get on official media because my staff, they are trying to -- they won't let me do stuff. [laughter] >> if you respond to me, we'll get back to you as quickly as we can with your questions. joaquin and his team have been great with providing resources for small businesses. i'm on the phone regularly, not only trying to raise private dollars to support our small businesses, but also trying to redirect funds and figuring out creative ways to support our small business community. i also just want to repeat one of the things i've said. as we start to propose policies that can help our small business

community, we're going to really need the small business community to rally around those policies because we know that it's a matter of whether or not you will be able to even reopen as we start to open our doors here in the city again. so it is important that we hear from you, that you, of course, are paying attention to what is happening around the policy discussions, that you're contacting your board of supervisors and making clear to them what is important to you. again, i know it is a real struggle. it is a real struggle. and what we want to do is make sure that we are helping to meet the needs of people who need help now. and we want to get to people, and we want to be as supportive as we possibly canment and we can. and we know that we are all going through it, whether it is our business or in our personal lives, as all of us are required to stay at home. i just really want to

express my appreciation to so many people in this city who have just followed the orders and have put us in a situation where our numbers, in comparison to other major cities, are absolutely remarkable. we're not out of the woods yet. we can't let up just yet, but what we can do is start to look at creative ways to get back on our feet again, to get back to opening businesses or industries with certain guidelines that are approved by the public health department. that's really where i want to get to. so send us your suggestions. send us your comments. send us your love. no complaints, please, because (laughing) -- you can send complaints, i'm just kidding. send us e-mails with what you suggest that we do to help make things better for you because

we really are in this together. and it is going to take a lot of hard work and a lot of patience to get through it. we appreciate you all being with us today. and hang in there. and, you know, make sure that you do everything you can to bring our businesses back to our city. and i'm going to do everything i can from the mayor's office to support you in doing that. >> thank you. thank you, mayor breed. >> mayor: thank you. -

>> shop & dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges resident to do their showing up and dining within the 49 square miles of san francisco by supporting local services within the neighborhood we help san francisco remain unique successful and vibrant so where will you shop & dine in the 49 san francisco owes must of the charm to the unique characterization of each corridor has a distinction permanent our neighbors are the economic engine of the city. >> if we could a afford the lot by these we'll not to have the kind of store in the future the

kids will eat from some restaurants chinatown has phobia one of the best the most unique neighborhood shopping areas of san francisco. >> chinatown is one of the oldest chinatown in the state we need to be able allergies the people and that's the reason chinatown is showing more of the people will the traditional thepg. >> north beach is i know one of the last little italian community. >> one of the last neighborhood that hadn't changed a whole lot and san francisco community so

strong and the sense of partnership with businesses as well and i just love north beach community old school italian comfort and love that is what italians are all about we need people to come here and shop here so we can keep this going not only us but, of course, everything else in the community i think local businesses the small ones and coffee shops are unique in their own way that is the characteristic of the neighborhood i peace officer prefer it is local character you have to support them. >> really notice the port this community we really need to kind of really shop locally and support the communityly live in

it is more economic for people to survive here. >> i came down to treasure island to look for a we've got a long ways to go. ring i just got married and didn't want something on line i've met artists and local business owners they need money to go out and shop this is important to short them i think you get better things. >> definitely supporting the local community always good is it interesting to find things i never knew existed or see that that way. >> i think that is really great that san francisco seize the vails of small business and creates the shop & dine in the 49 to support businesses make people all the residents and visitors realize had cool things are made and produced in san

listen, your story line, it makes for incredible tv drama. thing is, your drug use is too adult for the kids, so i'm going to have to block you. oh, man. yeah. [inhales] well, have a good one. you're a nice lady.

of essential workers and what's available. what we plan to have this summer and what people can do to either sign up or what other programs to do to prepare under the new guideline for the programs that they want to make available to people. so, let's get started. phil, you -- we hit the ball running, both you and maria su got together because we knew the schools were going to close. but we also knew that there was an essential workforce out there. people who were driving muni,

people who were working at hospitals. they had children. they needed child care. they were concerned about taking their children to their elderly parents. they couldn't leave them at home. tell us a little bit about the program that you established that is available currently and will potentially be extended once programming starts for june 15 during the summer. >> thank you, mayor. yeah. you asked us as soon as the schools closed to start thinking about our kids and working families, particularly our health care workers and first responders and people who were needed to help in the city's response. and so the department of children, youth and family and recreation park department are working closely together under the guidance of department of public health, set up an emergency child care system that is now in its 12th week. we, over time, served over 475 kids, 19,000 hours of child care offered during that time and we served over 4,000 meals

at over 25 different sites. the program runs between 6:30 in the morning and 7:30 p.m. and kids have been involved in distance learning and a little bit of recreation and it's really been, you know, wasn't what we were used to doing and we had to stand it up pretty quickly, but it has been an amazing experience and i'm really grateful for my partner in runing this thing, maria, and the department of youth and family who have been terrific. >> and i want to just add -- because i know that, you know, sadly, you had these kids and these pods with limited number of social distancing. these are kids coming together on a regular basis. something similar to what we're going to be doing this summer. and, unfortunately, there have been people who have made nasty comments or complained or even yelled at, you know, the kids. and so what i want to say to people is to back off and mind your own business and to leave kids alone.

because at the end of the day, these are kids whose family members are putting their lives on the line to help support this city. so, i can't reiterate enough that it's important that folks really just stay in their lane, mind your own business. we're providing essential service. and we want to extend this and make this available to more kids. so, let's talk a little bit about -- phil, can you just talk a little bit about june 15? >> sure. >> we're going start programming and we're going to extend the number of kids that we're able to serve. not just in our park system, but our overall summer program so i want you, phil, to touch on what will be available for our park system, both for our young people and our teenagers and then we're going to jump into maria su to talk about programming in general. >> sure. so, our child care operation -- it's summer, and child care was intended to operate while

during the school year while the school system -- when the school system was closed and what families and kids are used to during the summer is camp. you're right. the truth of the matter, it will look somewhat similar in that we're going to have pods of 12, but beginning june 15, rec and park -- between rec and park t private sector camp providers and our nonprofit providers we expect that there will be over 200 different camps available to kids can. we are going to prioritize. kids of parents who are working in essential businesses, who are part of the city's response, who are, you know, in allowable businesses and, frankly t kids who need us the most right now. many of our kids in the city have been without their coaches

and mentors for going on 10 weeks and we want to reengage and make sure that these kids, above all else, have something to do this summer. so, starting june 15, camp providers will be allowed to operate. they're going to need to certify that they're going to comply with the health order and guidance coming out of public health, which means kids still need to be in pods of 12 for older kids. the minimum session for camp providers will be three weeks and the boll rationale behind that is to keep kids from normally during a normal summer kids go to one week of this camp and one week of another camp and the health -- and our public health officials have asked us to keep kids together in a consistent pod. so we'll have three three-week sessions beginning june 15. at rec and park, we're planning over 25 different camps. we expect there to be another 40 to 50 private camp providers operating in our park system.

i believe that maria is estimating nearly 100 nonprofit camp providers will operate around the city and then there are some other muscle private providers that will be operating on, you know, nonpark property in different spaces. we're going to start working with camp providers as quickly as possible, right after we're done speaking with you. and for our camps, for rec and park camps, we'll begin priority registration on may 26 for all of the participants that are currently in our emergency child care program and our kids in our scholarship program who are a little bit more vulnerable and who really, really need us. we're going reach out to those populations first and then city-wide, registration for rec and park camps will begin on june 6. all of this information will be laid out on the department of children, youth and family's

website, dcyf/cares.org. and i'll turn it over to maria to talk about the other providers and program staffing. >> thank you, phil. thank you, mayor, for this opportunity to share with our residents of the work that we're doing right now. so, like the mayor shared, we are in the process of expanding the opportunities for families, particularly for summer. we're really excited about this because, as a parent myself who has two children, this is going to be great opportunity for our young -- our young people to go out there and engage with others and just really address the social isolation issues that we know is happening in our families right now. so dcyf is really excited to be partnering with rec and parks and the rest of our summer providers in the city to stand up all of these programs for

the dcyf-specific agencies, which are the nonprofit agencies, that our department provides supports to, we are going to be working with them to open up camps and programs that they will then be made available for all of our families. we are looking at around 100 programs that will be available for families starting june 15. we are asking all of our nonprofit agencies to follow health guidelines, which still has shared, restrictive groups of young people in consistent three-week programming at a minimum. we will also put on our website, dcyf.org/care. more information around the health order, around the

drexives and the guidelines, with how private camps are also fulfill all of those requirements and then document that they are going to open up. so look for that website to go live -- actually the website is live now. but look for the forms to go live soon. >> great. >> and over time, mayor, i think we're going to try to inventory -- try to provide parents with as much information as we can about all of the camp opportunities because we have to think about it as a network this summer because of the health guidelines. so, we hope to be able to have a list and some reference materials for not just rec and park camps, but all of the private camps happening around the city, too. >> yeah. and i want to touch a little bit because, you know, child care has been important because we have allowed that to

continue for essential workers. can you talk a little bit, maria, what we can expect as it relates to the 0 to 5 age group and what might be available during the summer? >> yes. so, we're really excited that this new health order that you have authorized with our health department to allow the expansion of child care services for more families. so, there are child care programs for children 0 to 5 right now that are providing services for our essential workers and other allowable businesses. under this new health order, we are now opening that opportunity for more families. we have hear that there are families out there who are working, who need care, who really, really need care for their children. and for children to need -- to need opportunities to be with their friends. so, this health order will allow more families to have

access to these slots, these child care slots. i do want to caution folks that we are still following health guidelines and so the slots are going to be limited. we are restricted to a smaller group of children per site. so i just want to set expectations for everyone that it's not just usual child care as we remember how it was a year ago. >> yeah. and i do think it's great that, you know, this is providing an opportunity for kids to come together. so we're talking about pods of 12 within the course of a summer camp or preschool or in other arenas so that not only can kids -- can parents get to work, but also it gives these children an tounlts interact with one another because i'm sure, especially if it is a child who doesn't have any siblings, to be able to play

with another kid was -- like i know everything for me as a kid and i just feel so awful that these kids can't go out there and enjoy one another. this is an opportunity and a great opportunity. but i also, sadly, know it is a very limited opportunity. but do want to touch on, you know, teenagers because i know one of things that happens often times they are always left out. so i am commited to making sure that opportunities for all is available so that we have paid internships for kids during the summer. and that we make that available, especially for our teenagers. because, you know, already they're missing their graduations and activities and events. and we want to make sure that they have a productive summer as well and they're not left out. so, maria, make you can touch on what might be happening with

opportunities for all and i know that with rec and park, we have a number of teens that are going to be working and helping with these camps during summer. let's talk a little bit about, you know, how kids who are teenagers can sign up for some of the programs. >> thank you, mayor. so actually a lot of our programs are doing a lot of connections to young people now but they're doing it remotely. they're doing a lot of wellness checks and follow-up on what academic support these young people need. so, once again with this health order, we're now allowed to have face-to-face and in-person connections with these young people. so, we're going to work closely with our nonprofit agencies to help young people connect to internship opportunities or actual job opportunities at some of these summer programs or at offices that are slowly opening up. so, there's great opportunities for private sector folks who

are now interested -- who are opening up and would be interested in being a mentor for a young person this summer. that would be amazing. however, if that is not available, our young people are actually engaging in project-based learning right now. so a lot of our young people in our workforce program will be doing small projects that are -- that is remote for the agencis that they're assigned to. there will be engagement but it is so much better if the engagement is in person and not remote. i do -- >> how do they sign up? like a teenager that wants to participate and have access to a paid internship? >> for now, we're directing everyone to go to dcyf.org/care

so they can find out what's available in the community and make sections there. i also do want to say that, for young people and for families who are struggling right now because there are young people and familis who are struggling right now we do have a website that is available and under the mayor's leadership, she wanted to prioritize mental health services for families and for our essential workers and other service providers. for those who are struggling and who need support, please go to fieldsan francisco.org to learn more about different resources for parents, for young people and for adults and service providers. >> and also can we call 3-1-1 and be referred if we don't have access to the internet? >> yes. we'll definitely make sure that that's possible. >> great. great. we want to make it as easy for people as possible because i know sometimes you jump on a website and trying to figure it

out or if you don't have internet access but want to ma you are that your friend knows that this might be available for their family. talk about what some of the teens are going to be doing in your program this summer. >> sure. for the last 607 years, san francisco has had a program called workreation, where we actually fund teenagers, kids between the ages of 14 and 17 to work in our camps. and because of your leadership and focus on getting these camps opened safely and getting kids an experience, we're hiring approximately 200 kid this is summer that will be counselors in the camps that we just talked about. i also think there is an amazing opportunity, mayor, for those private camp providers that want to operate this summer to hire teenagers. here's why. the health order and the health

guidance requires a minimum of two staff for every pod of 12 kids. and for private camp providers used to operating with a ton of kids and a few staff, you won't able to do that this year and staff won't be able to move around between pods during the camp session. for private camps to operate, they need to be very well-staffed and we highly, highly recommend that private camp providers hire teenagers to help and provide some support in making sure that your camps operate safely and smoothly and gives these kids a great experience and opportunity to make some money. >> i want to provide an example because, for example, we have been providing a camp at -- well, i guess it is called a camp, i don't know what it is called, but we have been providing support for young people whose families are essential workers at hamilton rec center.

so hamilton rec center has several rooms that could be used. so, i know that the plan is there is going to be probably two or three pods of 12. and each of those pods have their own rooms and their own activities around their rooms and they are also able to go outside and enjoy the field but not in the same pod, although they have their workers that are assigned to their pods. so, it provides for more opportunity to support more young people. so, the good news is even when they're in these situations, they're social distancing, but you know how it is when you're a kid and you're out playing, most likely you're going to somehow have some interaction where you might touch or be next to each other. so that is really why the importance of keeping these pods to what they are is significant in preventing the spread of the virus and giving these kids a chance to have their community of people to

hang out with. >> yeah. i think that is what we're going for. it is super important for kids to first of all get outside and reengage and, yes, there will be indoor spaces. but a lot more emphasis on being outside this summer for children. and as you know, mayor, for them to be together and hang out and a under the health guidance to your very early point for those who are concerned about the health of our children, under the health guidance, kids within the same pod can play sports. they can do certain activities. >> so, k they play basketball together? can they -- >> together, within the same pod. they can do those activities. and that is why this whole pod concept is very important. our public health officials have been focused on minimizing risk. it is impossible to eliminate it 100%. but minimizing it. and that is the whole premise of these long three-week

sessions and these pods of 12. depending upon which spaces a camp uses a camp may be able to have only one pod of 12 kids but may be able to have two pods or even three pods. as you know in hamilton or season seth rec center where the richmond or jolie, some of our buildings have multiple spaces, some schools where camps might operate have have multiple spaces. and then we've got the best park system in the country. so, we have plenty of outdoor spaces as well. for each pod, each pod requires a minimum of two staff people and staff cannot circulate between pods. so, again, for all you private camp providers out there, hire kids to help you this summer. >> all right. well thank you all so much for the insight. i'm sure a lot of parents are excited about this. i am hopeful that, you know, some of the -- in addition to the private -- the public camps that we'll provide with rec and park and a number of rec centers and nonprofit partners

will be able to provide a sufficient number of locations within the public sector and hopefully in combination with the private sector, many of our kids can have an enjoyable, effective, fun summer. so, we appreciate that and for more information, make sure that we reach out to department of children youth and families on the website or call 3-1-1 and before we wrap it up, i do want to talk a little bit about this weekend because it's memorial day weekend and typically everyone -- first of all, the weather in san francisco, even today, is gorgeous. and most of the time people want to go out and have barbecues and hang out with friends and family and i really like the idea of what you did in terms of circles in park to make it clear like you have to stay away from each other. we want to be next to each other so bad. but at the same time, we're doing so well. we still see the numbers of

infections going up. but we see the number of hospitalizations going down, the number of those who are in i.c.u. going down. san francisco is doing well. and the last thing we want to do is get too comfortable and all of a sudden go backwards so we still need people to keep their distance. we still need people to wear masks. we still need people to wash their hands regularly! wash your hands! but phil, tell us a little bit about what we can expect with the parks this weekend because we are, as much as we know people would want to use the parks, we'll be out in force regulating during memorial day weekend. again, we don't want to shut down any parks but if it comes down to that point where things are out of control and aren't following the guidelines, we won't have a choice. we really need people to be on their absolute best behavior. so, tell us about what we can expect with our parks this weekend. >> sure. i mean, mayor, you covered it

perfectly, which is that, look, our parks are super important right now. they are the one place where people can get outside, get some exercise, connect with nature and you have been amazing at making sure that these spaces are open and accessible. but for them to stay open and accessible, people need to do the right thing and over the last 10, 11 weeks, most people have been. but we need to focus and not ease up so you can be outside but you have to socially distance. we still recommend that you wear a mask. no partying, you know, no big events, no big picnics. just enjoy nature and enjoy a little time with your own immediate family or your own roommates. we will have park ranger, san francisco police department, police officers. we'll have sheriff's cadets, fire cadets, police cadets and the neighborhood emergency

response team, all doing education and outreach. there are over 1500 signs in all of our parks indicating what you can and can't do. just do the right thing so we don't put the mayor in a position where she needs to take more drastic action. it is amazing, mayor, in a lot of cities just threw their hands up and say, oh, parks closed because we don't want to deal with it. you haven't done that. you've kept parks open for people. so, you know, we're all asking the public to do the right thing this weekend. the weather will be nice. you will want to get outside. if you have to get in a car, it's too far. so go to your neighborhood park, enjoy it. but socially distance. if you're deloris or jackson or the marina green or washington square, we've offered a little bit of pop-up behavioral art to inspire you to claim your own space. that is the circles that are in some of the parks. and, you know, they're intended

to be joyous and inspirational, but intended to remind everyone that we need to be mindful as we continue to fight this virus. >> and i just want to say that please don't get offended if, you know, our park rangers or someone walks up to you and asks you, you know, are you guys in the same household just to, you know, make sure that people are following these orders. we have a responsibility. and the other thing is, if you're not the police, then please don't act like you're the police. we don't need you to walk and regulate and tell other people what to do because that creates more drama. it creates more tension. so we are doing the very best we can. we want to make this park and open space available to you because we know how challenging this has been. for the most part, san franciscans have followed the order and we are so fortunate that we have amazing residents in the city who are taking this seriously, even though not everyone is complying which has made life difficult in some

respects. but please let us deal with that. we're doing our very best to try and reduce this curve to the point of it being nonexistence because i know how badly we want to get back to being out there, to going to work and allowing kids to play. but the fact is coronavirus is with us for some time. it is not about getting back completely to normal. it's about adjusting to our new normal in a responsible way. it is going to take time. it's going to take ai, patience. we appreciate everyone for what you continue to do to help san francisco be a leader in this effort. thank you, phil ginsburg, thank you, maria su for your insight. for more information call 3-1-1. i know there might be a lot of questions also about the schools and other things. we're happy to continue these conversations based on your feedback. based on your questions. because many of us are doing

the very best we can. this is not like anything any of us have ever expected. so, we're all in this together. we're going to get through this together and that requires us to continue to be patient, get information to you as soon as it is available and just really try to come together, lift one another up, enjoy the memorial day weekend. and thank you all so much for your cooperation. have a great weekend and we'll see you next week.

>> supervisor mar: thank you to this committee's clerk, john carroll, and i'd also like to thank sfgtv for staffing this meeting. mr. clerk, do you have anything else? >> clerk: yes. committee members will attend this meeting through video conference and participate in the