>> i did, thank you so much, supervisor ronen. i just think, too, director simle's point, we have been engaging with quite a few partners and folks on the ground and one of the challenges we've seen just with outreach and engagement, especially in the latino community is a disconnect and we have to be intentional about outreach and engagement, where those trusted messengers are and where folks feel like they can trust the information they're getting is not a set-up for something. we have to be really intentional and we have some of those relationships. we have the ability to leverage that, and so, i wanted to drop that point in there, because we have seen so many challenges where some folks are skeptical and cynical about why someone is sharing information with them and so they need to be connected with folks that they trust and believe and understand that the

process is not going to be used against them. >> so i'm wondering if we can do some follow-up. i know that director arntz and simle will do follow-up. but i would be happy to be involved in the conversation and see how we can maybe get a few more organizations that have the trust and the relationships with the latin x and african-american communities in san francisco because for different reasons, those are the two communities that are underrepresented in their voting and to not have at least a number of organizations focused on those hardest-to-reach communities, i think, is a problem. and so, maybe we can figure this out and this can be some of our follow-up.

that would be great. well, thank you so much and if there's no other questions, or comments, thank you again for the excellent work and presentations. i look forward to this one point of follow-up and the more extensive follow-up that director simle will do to do race is equity analysis of the plan and looking forward to voting in the extremely important election of our lifetime. with that, i am happy to make a motion to file this hearing. i think if we have a new hearing on this issue, it will be focused on that, race and equity. i make a motion to file this hearing and we can have a role call vote. >> on that motion to file the matter --

(role call). >> the motion passes without objection. >> thanks again, everyone. >> any other item? >> that completes the agenda for today. >> the meeting is adjourned and have a good day, everyone. employee good afternoon. and welcome to the land use and

transportation committee of the san francisco board of supervisors for today, august 31st, 2020. i am the chair of the committee aaron peskin, joined by committee member supervisor dean preston and i think to be joined momentarily by vice chair supervisor ahsha safai. our clerk is miss erica major. ms. major, do you have any announcements? >> clerk: yes. due to the covid-19 health emergency, and to protect board members and employees in the public. the committee room are closed. however, members will be participating in the meeting remotely. all local, state and federal orders, declarations and directives. committee members will attend the meeting through video conference, participating as if physically present. public comment will be available on each item on this agenda both channel 26, 78 or 99 depending on your provider. and sfgovtv.org are streaming

the number across the screen. each speaker will be allowed two minutes to speak. comments are opportunities to speak. during the public comment period, are available by phone by calling (415)665-0001. again the number is (415)665-0001. the meeting i.d. is 146 466 4627. again that's 146 466 4627. press pound and pound again. when connected you'll hearing the meeting discussion and be muted and in listening mode only. when your item of interest comes up, please press star 3 to be added to the speaker line. best practices are to call from a quiet location, speak clearly and slowly and turn down your television or radio. alternatively you may submit public comment in either of the ways, to myself at erica.ma

erica.major@sfgov.org. you submit public comment via email, it will be forwarded to the supervisors and it will be included as part of the official file. finally items acted upon today will appear on the agenda on september 15th, unless otherwise stated. >> supervisor peskin: thank you, madam clerk. can you please read the first item. >> clerk: yes. item number 1, is the re-enactment of emergency for protections of occupants of residential hotels or s.r.o. residence during the covid-19 pandemic. >> supervisor peskin: thank you, madam clerk. colleagues, i want to thank my co-sponsors for the original ordinance. supervisors mainy , ronen, safai, fewer, preston, walton

and yee. that emergency ordinance, that as the clerk said, established protections for occupants of s.r.o. hotels in san francisco that include some 18,000 to 19,000 individuals in congregate settings, passed by the board of supervisors as an emergency matter and lasts for 80 days. that required the department of public health to offer a number of provisions, including testing and i.n.q. provisions, isolation and quarantine for individuals that had tested positive, as well as implicit notice for residents of those s.r.o.s. these are individuals who live in congregate settings, where they share bathrooms and they share kitchens, a highly

transmissive environment. and i want to thank the department of public health for not only taking that ordinance seriously, but already having done that job before we massed the emergency ordinance. and during the interim for starting to establish a dialogue with the residents of those communities that span the mission, into the tenderloin into chinatown into north beach, were the best of the rest of once were 40,000 or more s.r.o. hotels once existed. so i want to thank and acknowledge d.p.h. for that. this has been really an admonition to d.p.h. and the community to step up the game. i want to thank and acknowledge the department of public health that on friday at approximately

518 in the afternoon, actually put up a web tool that shows the number of cases in s.r.o.s and the numbers of deaths, which thankfully -- tragically four deaths over 500 cases. so those buildings have been handed superbly, some less so. and i really want to thank d.p.h., but more importantly the community for holding our feet to the fire as decision manned legislators and d.p.h.'s feet to the fire, as the front-line implementers under the pandemic. and with that i believe that we have dr. stephanie cohen. colleagues, if you have no comments, i would like to hand this over to the department of public health and dr. cohen. thank you, supervisor safai, for

joining to really present what's happened and fundamental, as i said in the newspaper the other way, i want to create the space for the department of public health to build trust amongst the s.r.o. population in those communities that are very, very different communities. some of them latinx communities, some of them chinese communities and predominantly cantonese amongo linguaamong -- mono lingl individuals. and those who reside in the arc that has s.r.o.s. with that i'll turn it over to dr. cohen. >> thank you very much. i'm going to share my screen and give a short update to what we discussed a couple of weeks ago.

are you able to see the presentation? >> supervisor peskin: yes, we are. >> okay. supervisor peskin, preston and safai, thank you for the opportunity to come back and speak to you again and update the committee on our ongoing work to prevent covid-19 in s.r.o.s and to protect the residents who reside in these buildings. we met a couple of weeks. my name is stephanie cohen. i'm an infectious disease physician and serving as the lead for the sscta covid-19 s.r.o. seeing none team since -- response team since april. as we discussed at the committee meeting on august 17th, we are committed to this population and we have a robust and proactive approach to prevention in these congregate settings. our robust approach has produced results preponderates of covid-19 testing among s.r.o. residents are actually higher than the rate of testing in san

franciscans overall. the proportion of s.r.o. residents who test positive for covid-19 is similar to that of non-s.r.o. residents who live in the same neighborhood. so a lot of what we're seeing in s.r.o.s reflects the community prevalence in the communities where the s.r.o.s are. and lastly the case fatality rate among s.r.o. residents is comparable to the overall case fatality rate at approximately .8%. and this is one of the lowest covid case fatality rates nationwide. as supervisor peskin mentioned, one of the provisions in the ordinance was to launch a publicly available data tracker. and after much hard and diligent work on the part of our advanced planning, data s.f. and surveillance groups, that dashboard went live on august 28th. it's available -- it's a u.r.l. that you see on the slide.

this is just a snapshot from the data tracker to show you what it looks like, as required by the ordinance. it shows the number of residents who tested positive, the number of buildings that have had a case, numbers of deaths and number of residents who have gone to an isolation and quarantine hotel. it also shows these figures here which show over time the total number of cases and the total number of deaths, as well as the daily new cases and the sffd rolling average, which gives us a sense of where we are on some of our important surge metrics. we also, since our last meeting, are working on community engagement. since the last meeting, we met with chinatown community leaders. we also have met with chinese hospital leadership and are excited to really move forward in a collaborative response with chinese hospitals to covid-19

cases in s.r.o.s in chinatown. and we're working on setting up recurring meetings with the s.r.o. collaboratives. and we want to hear their concerns. we also want to provide them information and updates and we want to strategize together how we can optimize covid-19 prevention for s.r.o.s residents and other disproportionately impacted by covid-19. we have an amazing team in our group of social workers, nurse practitioners, nurses, health workers who have been in the field in s.r.o.s every day since really the pandemic started, talking to residents. and we want to share the stories that we have heard, bus we know there are a lot of up stream factors and social determinants of health that are affecting these communities and we can only figure out how to address

them if we work together. we do want to continue to request that the committee reevaluate the provision in the legislation, that requires sfdph to test all residents in an s.r.o. within 48 hours of a single case. i would like to be clear that we are not asking to water-down the legislation or relax rules for s.r.o.s. our team, who exists to advocate and protect these residents, will continue to deploy on-site testing to a building, when there is concern for interbuilding transmission. and we do a lot of on-site testing in s.r.o.s. at the same time i want to try to explain again why this particular provision is just not an effective strategy. i know that testing is a hot-button topic. it's a politicized topic, unfortunately, at the national

level. and i really want to reiterate if we thought this particular testing strategy, testing all residents in a building after a single case, if we thought that would be effective at preventing outbreaks, we would be all for it. we are aligned in prioritizing and working to protect s.r.o. residents. the challenge, though, is that s.r.o.s are not closed settings, like a skilled nursing facility. in a closed environment, like a smith, you can implement -- we can implement routine surveillance testing of staff and identify staff cases before residents become infected. and, of course, this is especially critical in the smith context, because the case fatality rate is so high among those living in those conditions. but s.r.o.s, as you know are not like smith. they're open. residents come and go every day. they go to work, they go to the store, they go to visit their friends and family. and so a single case in a building, in a residence doesn't

mean that there's an outbreak in the building. we do test and quarantine close contacts of all cases, including cases among s.r.o. residents. then if their contacts, including their household members, then their next-door neighbor, whoever they hang out with in the building, if they test positive, we continue to test and expanding circles. in the worst-case scenario, and this has happened, an s.r.o. resident has covid, hasn't been tested and is symptomatic and has not been ice slating in the building. they think they have aler gees o-- allergies. by the time they get tested they may have exposed others in the building. at that point, though, testing is not prevention. testing doesn't prevent anyone from getting infected. they've already been exposed. but what it does do it allows to

us find cases. and we want to find those cases, because then we have the opportunity to intervene on those who are already infected. and so that's why we do deploy testing when we see multiple cases in a short period of time in a building. and so, you know, really i think to summarize here, what i'm trying to explain is that testing is important. it enables us to identify individuals who have covid when they're still in thin infectious period, then we can support them in isolating. we identify their close contacts and support those close contacts with testing and quarantine. but mass testing at a single point in time, triggered by a single case, does not in and of itself prevent covid-19. so in conclusion, building mas g

is not a strategy in line with our citywide testing strategy or with -- >> supervisor peskin: miss major, i think you may doctor orb someone may have hit a button that they shouldn't have hit? >> clerk: thank you, mr. chair. i'm checking with operations. it might be the bridge line. we will -- >> supervisor peskin: the bridge line has become the bain of our existence. go ahead. thank you, dr. cohen. my apologies. >> no problem. so really in summary, i think what i'm trying to make clear this particular strategy is not in line with cdph or c.d.c. guidance. it's not the best use of our testing resources. and our investigative tools can really help us predict when and where to test. we really have to continue to

push primary prevention approaches, the best way to protect everyone from covid. and that's, as you know, things like masking, social distancing and hand washing. those are the critical things for mitigating spread in all settings. thank you for giving me another opportunity to speak to you and for all of your work to protect these communities. >> supervisor peskin: thank you, dr. cohen. and when that -- when you release your screen, we'll all be able to look at each other over our respective computers. and, dr. cohen, i really want to thank you for your candor. and, indeed, this is an evolving situation. and i think collectively we are trying to, as nondoctors, address what we believe are the most vulnerable populations in

the most transmissive settings. and i know that you and your colleagues are committed to that as well. and as i said earlier, we know that you're resource-constrained, as we all are economically, human resource wise and relative to actual physical things that are reagents and swabs that are moving to hot spots in the united states of america, be it texas or florida. and, yes, this is an ordinance. and, yes, it is a law. but fundamentally and i have tried to communicate this to you and to the advocacy community. this is an admonition. and it is a short-termed a mow s going to last for another two months. and i for one, unless you make

-- not you personally, but the department is malfeasant and not going to go after you, so to speak, on. i think this is really trying to hold you to the highest standards for our most vulnerable populations. and this, too, shall evolve. ultimately i hope this becomes a permanent ordinance, which doesn't mean that we can't tweak it going forward. but i think the most important thing, and i've been very clear with you and the community and my former colleague, who has become a liaison between the board and your department, former supervisor katie tang, that i really want to create the space to build trust between the department of public health and the community. and the community has been

abundantly clear in the last several days and while i think -- i don't want to put words in their mouth, that they're thankful for the transparency that now comes with the additional tool on the tracker site. that trust is earned through hard work and relationships. and you are working now to build them. these were relationships that didn't exist before the pandemic, that have to be built very, very quickly. and i hope over the weeks and a couple months ahead, before this becomes a permanent, albeit flexible piece of legislation, that those relationships and that trust will start to be built. so i just wanted to share those thoughts some that you know where i'm coming from. as you know and as said in the paper 48 hours ago, i actually originally didn't want to have this debate. but i fundamentally have to

honor the community that is -- are in these s.r.o.s. and i think we all collectively, the people, the decision-makers and the department of public health really also have to delve down into and make very transparent what is confidential and why and what is not confidential and to whom and why or why not. and i think h hippa which is a huge privacy law, needs to be weighed and balanced for public health. i think we have to delve down into that, maybe in closed session, subject to attorney-client privilege advice. but ultimately in open session, where we can all ask those questions and understand where we balance privacy.

as i have said to the deputy city attorney, that is on this -- in this meeting and to counsel for d.p.h., it strikes me as odd that we can be transparent with a building owner or a building manager, that there's a covid case in a particular building with a particular address, but we cannot tell the rest of the tenants that one of their neighbors, that they share a kitchen or a bathroom with,s that covid. and i don't want to freak people out. i just want to make sure that they have the opportunities to be tested, to be isolated, to be quarantined, to be given a meal in a comfortable, confident way. that's what's driving this. this is not a, you know, board, you know, being you know demeaning to d.p.h. it's not at all. it's an evolving conversation. i know you understand that. so i appreciate that. are there -- and dr. cohen, if you have anything you want to

add or subtract from that, you're welcome to do so. >> no. thank you very much for your comments. and just for the opportunity to continue to have a dialogue. the science is evolving and the diagnostics are evolving. i know we'll continue to work to figure out the best way to do this. and really appreciate that we've gotten the chance over these months to try to think about that together. thank you. >> supervisor peskin: i really appreciate that you're taking this legislation seriously and that you are spending moments of your precious time, as you're triaging and stratifying, to actually engage with the board seriously. it would be easy enough for you to say, that's the thing, we're going to blow it off, because we're resource-constrained. so thank you for that. with that to my colleagues, hold on, let me press a button. either one of you have any

questions or comments? >> i did, chair peskin. thank you. and just concur with your -- the remarks you just made. i did have just a question from the d.p.h. perspective what does trigger, under the current understanding of the mass testing, in a particular building. i understand what you're saying, dr. cohen, about the difference between the setting and the s.r.o. congregate living situation. i'm curious. i understand from the perspective of the department at this point in time, some disagreement around whether one case should trigger that or not. and this legislation addresses that. but what is -- two cases in the site, what are the set of circumstances from your perspective? and i think to chair peskin's point, to me it's less relevant for what the community wants is

clear. but as chair peskin notes, i think we'll 30, 60, however many days be out once again looking at this issue. and it will be helpful from my perspective just to know from d.p.h.'s perspective what does, from your perspective, trigger mass testing in an s.r.o. context. >> well, the california department of public health definition of an outbreak in a congregate community setting is three cases in three separate households within 14 days. so we would always define that as an outbreak and report that as an outbreak in terms of not the specific address, not the privacy thing nourishments terms of how many outbreaks we have in s.r.o.s and we would test. the threshold is lower than that. our threshold is two cases in two separate households within 14 days. and some risk criteria for interbuilding transmission. when we have two cases in two separate households, we either

go on site. we may have already gone on site previously, which may give us a sense of what the building is like and whether there's risk. we haven't gone on site, we would go on site and there are things that contribute to that risk stratification. things like crowded households. is this a building with a lot of family or a lot of -- we see a lot of buildings ra there's multiple young men sharing one room, who are all front-line workers. we know in shows settings covid starts very quickly. did we learn that the case was actually infectious on site for more than seven days total, between the two cases. maybe one person was three days, one person was four days. that's concerning. that's a lot of days of potential spread. we know that there's certain communities that are disproportionately impacted in san francisco. are those folks highly represented in the building. and we also look at the risk of morbidity. are there a lot of elders in the building, people over the age of 60, a lot of co-morbidities.

so those are some of the criteria we do have the matrix that we use. but basically has to be two cases in two separate households in 14 days and at least two of those several criteria that i mentioned. supervisor preston, i really appreciate that comment. i think what dr. cohen just told us is that we, in this case d.p.h., can actually have higher standards than the state does, which say lute -- i salute and appreciate. everything that dr. cohen just said, relative to assessing risk is absolutely right. do you have higher co-morbidity factors. do you have, you know, folks who are living 10 to a room instead of two to a room. are they more likely to have to go to work than be retired or on a fixed income. all of those things could lead

to a spread. but i think where the rubber hits the road is, and i mean no professional offense to d.p.h. is how well do they know the residents in that building. how do they know what i have come to learn or have knowledge access to on and off in my 20 years, as to who lives in that building or what community members know then. i don't think that d.p.h. can figure that out in 24 hours, unless they start working with the community to quickly under then do triage. because you can't triage unless you know what the -- whether the victim is about to be in deep trouble or not. but this is very helpful conversation to me at least.

supervisor preston, do you have any more comments? >> supervisor preston: i don't. thank you, dr. cohen. i just want to echo really the point you made, chair peskin, really thank you for your leadership on this. proud to be co-sponsoring this this time, as well as last time. and i think that, you know, where we have really proactive and engaged communities representing and community groups representing some of the most vulnerable people in the city, i see this kind of legislation as really honoring their expertise around the community their serving. but also as you say, but facilitating and trying to deepen the conversation between d.p.h. and those community groups, so that as we -- sort of in some ways the beauty of having these emergency ordinances as ways to sort of temporarily deal with things, but not cement them permanently

and look forward to it sounds like ongoing discussions happening to arrive at whatever makes sense on a more permanent basis. it certainly resonates with me that where there's doubt, being more careful, preventative and, you know, we have for whatever reasons avoided certainly outbreaks that would have otherwise occurred through taking proactive steps. so certainly i appreciate that this, you know, we continue i hope to err on the side of over testing and overly taking precautions, rather than the opposite. but understanding that there's further conversation to figure out what that, you know, what should be in place on the longer-term basis. >> supervisor peskin: thank you, supervisor preston. supervisor safai, anything to add? >> supervisor safai: something

who is a city planner by training, you know, not many cities have this type of housing that remains. it is one of the things that makes san francisco unique, to have a single room occupancy hotel and being used obviously in a different way than they were originally built. you know, we have multiple families, multiple generations, many members of the same family sharing space. and some for me it makes sense, under these circumstances, that we would want to err on the side of extreme caution. because as we know and as we learn from the assisted living facilities, that was where this virus really began in the united states, in multiple cities. in new york, and in washington and all over. i don't want the same to happen. and i know supervisor peskin has been out in front of this. we had conversations in the very beginning of this pandemic about

individuals and their patterns of travel and their patterns of obtaining medicine and going actually in many ways to the heart of where this pandemic began in the world, into wuhan, china. and so that is no longer a risk. but the risk is this massive amount of people in these buildings living in very close settings. and so i'm proud to be a co-sponsor of this legislation. i think if it pushes sfdph to work aggressively with advocate communities, that is on the ground working with individuals in these settings, i think it's a positive thing. and in the end if we don't have an outbreak, good. and we put the resources in the right place. so i appreciate your leadership on this and being a part of this conversation, supervisor peskin, along with the advocates from the community. and thank you, ms. cohen, as

well. >> supervisor peskin: thank you, colleagues and co-sponsors. before we open this up to public comment, while this is a re-enactment of the emergency ordinance, i do have a couple of non-substantive tweaks perform before i open it up to public comment, i want colleagues to go through that. you're both in receipt of those, as is the clerk of this committee ms. major. on page 2, section 2, at line 22 insert and amend section 3 of such emergency ordinance to read as follows, even though both ordinance no. 84-20 and this re-enactment emergency ordinance are uncodified, for purposes of clarity, the respective fontses for additions and deletions of the municipal code as stated in the note that appears at the beginning of this ordinance are used to show the amendments to section 3 of ordinance number

84-20. that's the original source ordinance. in the tweaks to the original ordinance, in section 3, would be in subsection g to insert a new subsection 5. and that -- so let me just take you to the top of that subsection g, which is already in the existing law that we are re-enacting, upon confirming that an s.r.o. resident has tested positive for covid-19, d.p.h. shall to the extent consistent with state and federal laws governing the confidentiality of medical information and here's the new subsection 5. as soon as feasible, but not more than 12 hours after receiving such confirmation, promptly post in common areas of the residential hotel, where fire safety information is required to be posted, a notice to advise s.r.o. residents of their rights under this emergency ordinance to access

i/q, isolation/quarantine hotel rooms and face coverings. such notice shall include, but not be limited to, the number of the language accessible hotline for s.r.o. residents, that residents may call to access those resources. this is making the implicit notice requirements explicit. that was my insertion. and in sub l, under sub 2, the total number of confirmed positive covid-19 cases, this is under what data d.p.h. shall produce, the total number of confirmed positive covid-19 cases in san francisco insert residential hotels, delete at the rate of cases by population size in san francisco. so that the sentence now reads, the total number of confirmed positive covid-19 cases in san francisco residential hotels,

organized by zip code. so those are the amendments that i would like to make, subject to public comment. and with that, are there any members of the public who would like to comment on this item number 1? madam clerk. >> clerk: thank you. thank you, mr. chair. operations is checking to see if there are any callers in queue. noting that we have nine listeners. arthur, please let us know how many we have in queue. >> there are currently five callers in the queue. >> supervisor peskin: first speaker, please. >> caller: thank you so much to d.p.h. and the board for giving time and attention to this ordinance. my name is tria. i'm a tenant organizer with the mission s.r.o. collaborative of the dolores street. we want to address the land-use committee to shed light on the practices of d.p.h., in

accordance with the emergency ordinance that was adopted on may 19th. i'm here to ask that the land use and transportation committee renew the s.r.o. emergency ordinance and not dilute any of the protections. in san francisco, s.r.o.s provide homes for over 18,000 extremely low-income seniors and families, people of color, people with disabilities and formerly homeless people. many of the people we serve are also immigrants and some identify as undocumented. we believe that the impact of covid-19 should not only be measured in terms of the number of deaths, but the impacts that the virus has on income and mental health. from the time the emergency ordinance was enacted, d.p.h. has only implemented a portion of the elements and we call on them to recognize that the tenants have a right to receive a notice if there's a confirmed covid-19 case in their building, the right to full and accurate information about the rights to recovery program, that -- for tenants that test positive and the general location of i.n.q. housing available to them. we have worked directly with

tenants, for example, from tenants in the grand southern that in the last 50 days the legislation has been active, that health and sanitary measures have not been implemented, despite tenants contacting d.p.h. and she's been struggling with test problems and rats and cockroaches and ticks on top of the pandemic for the past 50 days, to the point to which she had to replace her own sink becausest inaction and unresponsiveness. and in another case, an s.r.o. tenant at the albert struggled with the affordability of the living situation, as he's unable to pay rent month-to-month. 23 latinx have tested positive for covid-19, including the grand southern -- >> clerk: thank you. next speaker, please. >> caller: hello.

>> clerk: hi. you're on the line. yes. you may speak. you have two minutes. >> caller: okay. my name is eric markoo. i'm a member of senior disability action in soma neighborhood residence council. i'm just saying that testing s.r.o.s should be made for the entire building in a place that's been infected. i heard other speakers in other days say that some of these rooms have, you know, self-containing bathrooms and kitchens. but the vast majority of them don't. and when -- if someone gets infected in these places, it could spread like wildfire, especially in crowded communities like the mission and tenderloin and chinatown. it just seems -- i mean, unimaginable to me that when we consider scaling this back at

this time, when we have such an epidemic. i mean, we need people that are infected or exposed to be put into hotel rooms, self-contained hotel rooms, not in a congregate area. thank you kindly. >> clerk: again you'll be notified if you have been unmuted and you can begin your comments. >> hi, my name is dana foot. i'm with the mission s.r.o. collaborative program for lotus community services. i wanted to first say that there's currently a demand for testing in san francisco. and through our outreach and education work, the need for the continuation of the s.r.o. emergency ordinance. testing allowing us to connect with services and to the programs that we have also asked. our main concerns is that

currently we're assessing the impact of this pandemic in the number of cumulative deaths. and that's not an accurate number of what we're hearing, tests in high levels of stress, depression, and general anxiety. we know that currently there's a timeline and challenges to the turnaround to access programs such as -- [indiscernible] we also know the importance of having transparent information about what are the services connections, community organizations on the ground can link people to. we know that there's a flu season approaching us and we cannot actually afford to water down any of the provisions of the legislation. we are committed, however, to continue to figure out how we support proactively testing communities and accurately investigate those possible thinks to spread. and understand the use of i.n.q.

thank you again for the time you've given this morning. >> supervisor peskin: thank you. next speaker, please. >> hello. this is anna stage. a member of san francisco tenants' union, an anti-displacement coalition. i really appreciate this conversation the supervisors had today, with d.p.h. and dr. cohen. i am encouraged with the doctor and the d.p.h. staff are going to kind of make some overtures and steps to work with the s.r.o. collaborative communities, that are in there doing the work with the tenants. it's the only way this program will work. and as previous speakers have said and supervisor peskin has said, not knowing that your

fellow residents have -- someone has a case of covid is really scary. so if there could be some information that tenants could have of where to go to get tested, and then what to do once they test positive, so that they're not afraid to go to the d.p.h. staff or to do what they have to do or to tell their worker that,. >> commissioner haney:, i -- hey, i got tested and i have covid. if dr. cohen can't do it or they don't have the resources to do it, these people need to be tested. thank you. >> supervisor peskin: thank you. next speaker, please. >> caller: supervisors, director of policy at the

community development center. i want to thank you for working on behalf of s.r.o. residents, not only in chinatown and district 3, but citywide. this is really important legislation. and while we are reassured by dr. cohen's words to reflect that they don't support a warting-down of the legislation, we do continue to insist on testing being a critical need. we have seen that testing, when it's done at the building, is effective. we have also seen in many neighborhoods when testing is offered off-site, it is less effective and people are less interested in being tested. we really want to frame this as a tenants' righ right-to-know perspective. this ordinance is about what the

tenant needs to know in terms of the city's covid response. and what the city -- and what the tenants, you know, has a right to know in terms of what is going on in their buildings. we have testimony a little bit later, that's going to show you that, of course, when d.p.h. comes around and does outreef and says that, you know, there's covid-wide testing, kind of sounds stupid. they know that that means that there's an outbreak or there are cases. so we hope that we can get behind, get beyond the concerns and really look at what is best to protect those communities and our s.r.o. residents. i look forward to working with d.p.h. in the coming weeks and months, you know, relationship that builds decades back when the s.r.o. collaborative was first funded by the department of public health. so we're looking forward to working together and continue to

strength our defense of our s.r.o. residents. thank you very much. >> supervisor peskin: thank you, mattias. any other members of the public who would like to testify on item number 1? >> yes. two additional callers. i'll unmute the next caller. >> supervisor peskin: next speaker, please. >> caller: hello. can you hear me? >> supervisor peskin: yes, i can. please proceed. >> oh. this is trudy. i'm calling from center city collaborative, part of the housing clinic. thank you, supervisor peskin, to extend this legislation for another 90 days or more. one thing i do agree with all the speakers who spoke in front of me -- before me about the

emphasis of testing and the outreach. one thing that i definitely felt that is terribly lacking and i'm hoping and willing to work with d.p.h. on it is like the reaching out to the community-based organizations that's already working with tenants in various buildings. because we bring the relationship, we bring the approach. so i'm hopingle this legislation will push d.p.h. to partner with many of us, so that we can make this legislation effective. thank you very much. >> supervisor peskin: thank you. next speaker. yes, please go ahead. >> hi. madam clerk, i'm a staff person with chinatown c.d.c. i have a recorded testimony by a witness speaking in cantonese

and i will be playing ard roing and then translating. this is a tenant who lives in the chinatown s.r.o. with the present outbreak. [speaking cantonese]

[caller speaking cantonese]

>> hello, i'm a chinatown s.r.o. tenant. we are among the affected families in the pandemic. recently my husband got the virus. at that time he developed a fever in the evening, after taking the pills and sweating all over his body. the fever got lowered. it was later that we found out that someone had been infected in our building. people in the building were not notified of this virus infection. everyone was kept in the dark and so the virus spread to others. this was frightening because our household included grandparents and children. thank you. madam clerk, i'll be submitting the written translated version of the entire statement for the

record. thank you. >> supervisor peskin: thank you. any other members of the public who would like to testify on this item? caller: i would like to thank the last speaker for providing that testimony. and i find it unfortunate that we seem to have so few actual s.r.o. residents speaking today. it seems very paternalistic to have these decisions made by people who, you know, don't actually live in s.r.o.s and, you know, some input from the people who are on various boards and stuff. so i'm wondering like, you know, was -- were s.r.o. residents notified that this meeting was being held? and there aren't any interpreters at the meeting, as far as i can tell.

so the residents of s.r.o.s are very linguistically diverse. there should have been more outreach to s.r.o. residents to get their input on these decisions, instead of the top-down manner. >> supervisor peskin: are there any other members of the public who would like to testify under public comment? >> yes, hello. this is theresa with senior disability action. i so appreciate all of your work on this, supervisor peskin. i also hope it will not be diluted. i am also thinking of a resident in an s.r.o. that i visited and the issuing about that he had only recently come home from the hospital, is having an

occupational therapist go in to visit him. and so when d.p.h. talks about, you know, people, indeed, do come and go out of s.r.o.s, that may be the difference. however, it is the difference that makes it even more important for people to be tested. people are going out and working and getting their groceries, et cetera. so they may not know that they have been exposed and they need to know that. they need to protect themselves. and protect the people outside that they may encounter. so i just want to support this. again he is a resident who could not speak today. and so i am speaking for him. thank you very much. >> supervisor peskin: thank you. are there any other members of the public who want to ite itemr 1?

>> hi, yes. my name is freddie. i'm with senior disability action as a housing organizer. and -- since covid broke out, i have been doing a lot of work with tenants that live in s.r.o.s and participating and facilitating several tenant groups and meetings within the community, within s.r.o. working groups and collaboratives. and there is a fear of the emergency protections being through the somehow and i appreciate and i'm glad of the fact that that doesn't appear to be happening. and supportive of these protections that are in place will be re-enacted fully. there is a fear amongst people that live in the s.r.o.s, that i have spoken with, that if they

don't know that someone is infected, that they wouldn't be able to adequately protect themselves. so just one person getting it has the potential to affect so many people. just, for example in the building i'm living in, it's not an s.r.o. building. it is partially subsidized. there was one tenant that was -- that came up positive and the entire building received notices on their doors. and for those that were nervous about being in just the hallways or the elevators, because we don't share public areas, other than the hallways and the lobby, there was several people that were able to get tested, because of that. had they not known and been exposed, there potentially could have been many more cases. so it is important to fully re-enact this and thank you for your support. >> supervisor peskin: thank you. next speaker, please. are there any more speakers? >> mr. chair, that completes the

queue. >> supervisor peskin: all right. public comment is closed. and to the speaker -- three speakers ago, let me say there's definitely a difference between dilution and delusion. every once in a while we get speakers on the land use committee meetings that don't identify themselves and they don't have to. [ please stand by ]

[roll call] . >> you have three ayes. >> commissioner: i'd like to make a motion to send the item as amended with recommendation as a committee report for a meeting with the bull board of supervisors tomorrow september 1. on that motion, madame clerk, roll call, please. [roll call] .

>> commissioner: the motion is auto -- approved. madame clerk call the next item. >> clerk: [reading item] members of the public who wish to comment call 1-415-655-0001 the meeting i.d. is 146 466 4627 and press #, #and then a system prompt will indicate you have raised your hand. when we get to public comment the system will indicate you have been unmuted. >> commissioner: i'd like to make a motion to continue this to september 14, 2020. is there any public comment on that continuance?

>> clerk: thank you, mr. chair. we're check forg callers in the -- checking for callers in the queue. >> there are no callers in the queue. >> commissioner: public comment is closed and on that motion, madame clerk, a roll call, please. >> clerk: the motion as state. [roll call] .d. [roll call] . >> commissioner: the item is continued to september 14. next item, please. >> clerk: the next is a conversion of certain limited restaurants to restaurants north beach neighborhood amending the planning code. for those wishing to provide public comment call

1-415-655-0001 and meeting i.d. 146 466 4627 and press pouve po pound to line up to speak. >> commissioner: this is a carefully crafted piece of legislation that will help up to a dozen defined in the code as limited restaurants in the corner of the city i represent that really in every way behave like full service restaurants but due to changes in the code that precede me that happened when i was off the board prohibited from applying for beer and wine licenses. and in short, it rendered uncompetitive before the pandemic and now is an imperative for them and these small businesses include outfits like family cafe, which is a

chance cafe and the portofino, not the old one the fbi raid 20 years ago but a new one which is a new one on grand avenue. masala which was originally i think in your district, supervisor peskin and may be the only west african restaurant in district 3. essentially, we are addressing a glitch in the code that evolved from complications from not when i was on this board which in fact made small business

regulations in some cases murkier and more complicated and in this particular instance pretty goofy. so i really want to thank the planning department staff and the planning commission for their unanimous recommendation of this ordinance and with that, i do have a series of, i believe, non-substantive amendments. first as to the short and long titles an amendment to clarify we are amending the special use district and on pages 4 and 5, i'm expanding eligibility by reducing the number of months a business must have been in operation from four to three months and page 5, lines 3 and 4 including businesses in operation in the eligibility window that have been in business a longer period of time, between november 1 and

september and moving the conditional using requirement for liquor licenses and page 5 lines 11 and 14 moving the section 3 and removing the line that made supervisor safai happy that is over the counter relief for eligible businesses. this has streamline the process and my thanks to the city attorney and my staff for the work on this and in fact, colleagues, if you have questions or comments i'd be attempt to answer them and if not we can go to public comment. >> it does make me happy and we did something very similar as you know in my district where

the change of use was facilitated quickly. the times necessitated this and an appreciate your hard work on this. >> supervisor safai and supervisor preston is nodding his head. madame clerk do we have members of public who wish to comment on item 3. >> i'll check if there's callers in the queue. arthur, let us know if there are callers ready. if you have not done so press 3 to line up to speak. you only need to do this one. >> commissioner: we'll go to public comment and then aaron starr in planning. >> mr. chair, there are no callers in the queue. >> commissioner: public comment is closed. mr. star. >> planning commission heard

this item last thursday and voted unanimously to approve it with modifications those applying and describe a prohibition on [indiscernible] in section of the ordnance do not place it in a codified ordinance language and the prohibition unlimited restaurants looking at former restaurant spaces and the north beach and north beach sud to allow the conversion of certain number of restaurants and increase the time from three months to six months and the application must be submitted to the planning department by the deadline and do not delete the provision from the code until at least one year after the effective date and to encourage the board to expand this program city wide through an amendment to the legislation ordinance. thank you, supervisor peskin for

considering these amendments. i'm also available for questions. >> thank you, mr. starr. >> commissioner: this is an appropriate comment i want to make for myself and you that starting tomorrow we can get our haircut on the sidewalk. >> you don't think i should keep it? looks great. >> i appreciate that. colleagues, i'd like to move the amendment on that item. madame clerk, roll call, please. [roll call] . >> clerk: you have three ayes. >> commissioner: i'd like to send this item to the full board with recommendation on that motion a roll call -- >> excuse me, if i may. i'm sorry but the amendment is

substantive. >> commissioner: never mind. madame clerk, i'll resend -- rescind that and continue it to the meeting september 14. on that motion roll call please. >> clerk: we don't need to rescind but i will take the roll call. [roll call] . >> commissioner: the motion has passed. we are adjourned.>> good mornin.

this is the august 262020 budget and appropriations meeting. assisted by several staff in the clerk's office. i would like sfgovtv for broad casting this meeting. to protect the employees and the public due to covid 19 the meeting in the chambers is closed. due to state and federal orders

and directives. you can participate in the meeting through video conference. comments are available through each item on this agenda. comments or opportunities to speak during public comment period will be available during. best practices are to call from a quiet location, speak clearly

and slowly. turn down your television and radio. you can make public comment in the following ways. provide public comments via e-mail, it will be forded to the supervisors and be included in part of the decision file. >> thank you very much. can you please call items one, two, and three together. >> sus spendin suspending the ct

policy and recurring expenditures. item number two all estimated receipts and expenditures of the city by july 31. item no. 3 annual salary ordinance and annual budget ordinance for the fiscal years ending 2021 and june 302022. if you wish to give public comment on these items police dial (415)655-0001 the meeting

i.d.1465718890-pound pound and press star three to be added to the speaker queue. >> madam secretary will you please open up public comment on these items. >> we have two caller ns in the queue. i will unmute the first caller. >> good morning supervisors. i hope i'm on the right item. i don't see the agenda.

i'm an african american native since the 40s. i'm standing in solid yairity witsolidarity toform a more perr domestic tranquility and asking you to pass the entire 120 which is a modest amount for the next two years for the black community. i'm asking that explicitly it would go to the black community for health emergency and when you direct fund frs from our poe department. we have to ensure police resources respond immediately- >> thank you for your comments. next speaker, please.

>> hi. i'm the executive director of- >> thank you for your comments. next speaker, please. >> madam chair, that completes the queue. >> thank you. public comment for items one, two, and three are now closed. welcome to the final day of the budget committee meeting.

this revised plan is our response to feedback from the public and colleagues this is not the final list. we're figuring out how to give feedback on more priorities. programs and services cut or reduced in the mayor's proposed budget. targeted investments in black communities and covid 19 response and food security. we have some business to get to this morning and we'll recess this meeting to finish doing our work to finalize the spending plan. this morning i would like to have a presentation to item number one. we h have some final work to don department of public health. we also have the ability to further reduce department's

budget without calling department's back to this committee. we will include those deliberations as we finalize the budget. with that, let me call our controller and also our mayor's budget director to discuss item number one. you have the floor. >> good morning, madam chair. the city has a number of financial policy that's have been adopted under procedure nz ths inthe charter. one time revenues should match one time uses in the budget. that policy was adopted eight years ago at this point. the budget that's before you though has three hundred thirty two million dollars of one time revenue resources and less than that in one time uses.

there's an imbalance between those as we talked it out earlier in previous weeks. that's permitted but it does require the board to suspend that financial policy for the upcoming period. that's what the legislation before you here today does. >> thank you very much. do you have anything else to add? >> no, madam chair, nothing to add. >> thank you very much. so, i think we'll help-any colleagues have any comments or questions about item number one? seeing none, let's go onto-oh, yes. go ahead. >> i just wanted to say that i'm very supportive of this item. i just wanted the public to know that while this is not normally a prudent budgetary strategy

we're in a very very unique and strange year where we have many revenue generating measures on the ballot that we hope will pass in november. that will make this one time use-make the use of one time funds for ongoing costs a prudent strategy right now to teal with crisis we have in the city. because we have potential new revenue coming in that could fulfill those needs in the future. i thought it was important to explain to the public why i'm going to be supportive of this resolution. we do have a plan for those on going costs in the future. if those crucial ballot measures didn't pass, which i hope will not be the case, we'll have to come back as a committee and

redo the whole budget any way. we'll take care of this issue. just to explain to the public what the thinking is behind this measure. it might appear financial irresponsible, it isn't. >> thank you for that clarification. i think it was very helpful. >> thank you supervisor for giving that explanation. since we're not going to be able to find out until after november, i doubt if this particular budget compli commitl be handling it but- >> yes. good luck to everyone. >> we can't do it without supervisors until we finish the

bummingebudget. >> okay. here we go. with that let's here from our departments. department of public health. first i wanted to make an announcement that we have asked also, we have two departments that we asked to come back. one was the fire department. we were able to come to a agreement with the fire department that we will not be bringing them back today. this committee would like to reject to cut the funds the department is able to identify six hundred fifty thousand dollars in cost savings in two years. is this committee in agreement with this plan. i think i see agreement. mr. controller- >> no. sorry. i have a question.

the only question i really have is the identified additional cuts. what are they? >> they found additional cuts in overtime and in the travel budget. >> overtime cut is how much of the cut is left? >> mr. controller, do you have those numbers? >> i do, madam chair. let me pull them up. it's three hundred ten thousand dollars in the first year of the two year budget. three hundred five thousand in the second year of the two year budget. all but a couple thousand

dollars of that is to overtime. that couple thousand dollars is the reduction to the travel budget that the chair mentioned. >> and what's left in that line item? are they cutting anything? >> they are eliminating the travel budget in year one with those reductions. the reduction to overtime does leave a remaining overtime budget for both years but it's reduced by those amounts. i could get you those amounts if that would be helpful. >> yeah. the only thing i'm worried about is all these fires. we're going to be extending these for mutual aid. i want to ensure that the budget will be able to cover that. >> through discussions with the fire department and the chief

and the financial officer. they recommended this cut from their overtime. it was their recommendation not the bla or our recommendation. >> they assumed they had enough then? >> okay. thank you. >> thank you very much. are we in agreement. let's give the controller the indication that we are. can you please note that there's a thumbs up. we accept the recommendations for cuts this department. thank you very much. i just want to say because i do have the floor and ability to that i have three fire fighters who are in my district and i want to wish them great health and be safe during this time of the fires and thank them for their service. now we go to the department of

public health. dr. ko colfax. i believe there were a few residual issues for us to address. can you give us an update that shows your existing budget. i personally would like to follow-up on a conversation on infant health investments. are we able to dedicate general funds money into these programs. i believe there's a question about testing capacity for the community hubs. dr. colfax you have the floor. >> thank you.

with regard to the three items that you mentioned. we will go in order and our budget director will provide further information to the conclusion for health sf and the other questions you had. i will turn it over to mr mr. wagner. we have a solution that appears to work from a technical and budgetary perspective to get us where we hope to be. essentially what this is is in the mayor's budget submission

there was an assumption that-i don't have the exact figure but eight point x million dollars was associated to the capital budget for mental health sf plan. we're able to fund that cost with a one time cost measure. that creates a surplus available for the first year in the two yeer budget. year budget. it allows us to expand the number of joint crisis teams to six which would provide 24/seven coverage to those teams. that budget balances over two years and then of course as we discussed that the previous

hearing, it does leave the issue in the third year, there's a deficit of eleven point four million dollars that would be unfunded and i understand there's conversation about the use of additional revenue it fill that gap. just that third year issue that this expansion would not be in this budget funded in the base for the third year. >> any comments o comments or q. >> no questions or comments with gratitude for all their scored nary work oscorednaryscorednart.

>> good morning supervisors. thank you, chair for giving me the opportunity to respond to the concerns you've raised that we've heard loud and clear. we're fully committed to addressing prenatal health disparities. up to this point we have really relied on state and federal

funds, grants and philanthropic gifts as you've noted to help health disparities. this new item in the budget this year is our first major investment to augmenting those funds most of which continue in building a sustainable cohesive coordinated program that-to bring those together into a coordinated set of programs all with the same population health

projects which are to reduce disparities due to preterm birth among african american birthing and low birth weight and moabith morbidity and mortality. address different silo ses and

address different points of this complex problem. we know many disparities in this determinants of health that impact pregnant women including depression, including poor access to prenatal care during the first trimester, including gestational hypertension. we know there are disparities. instead of the number of programs coming at it from different points our commitment with this new funding is to continue and augment some of the successful initiatives which have been started at the state and federal level building on the gifts that we have received to support this work.

we're excited about the direction we're going but we know what we've been doing up to this point is a thousand flowers blooming phenomenon. with a collective impact approach, we think we can do better. that's where we're going in the future. i hope to report back to you on what our targets are. how to track those targets, narrow disparities and really address this in a very meaningful way for our families in the scommin coming year. >> you mentioned there was a new investment? >> in this year's budget almost six thousand dollars of new funding for these programs. >> i think then-i understand what you're saying. i think it is in the right direction. as we sit on the legislative

branch. this could also be recommendations brought to this board around things like housing, food insecurity, and those types of safety nets that we need to get to actually before these women are pregnant. how do we support their children afterwards. i think that working in coordination and everyone, when you look at these health determinants it starts before then. before even pregnancy. how do we create a safety net around these women so when they do give birth and have children they are healthy and able to thrive. what i was really looking for was a general fund investment in this. i feel like san francisco need it put some skin in the game. it's not just enough to say philanthropy. in san francisco this is an important issue and we're going to dedicate our hard earned tax

dollars to this because this is what san francisco does. >> thank you so much for your attention to this major issue. you did draw out the number of investment which is 600k. is this for other programs to address infant mortality. >> yes. that budget item includes $200,000 for the dual access program which as you may know started up this year with seed money from san francisco health plan and bpm c. it also includes two hundred

thousand dollars for the abundance birth project and another almost two hundred thousand dollars which actual ri would blywould be in our officeh equity. that would provide staff which we hope will help us do this coordination work to bring together the different programs and see where we have synergies. really through this collective impact approach pull together all these programs with community input and make sure our dollars are used in a meaningful way where we see the health impact.

community and likely to be greater risk than there was earlier in these settings with children. it was also clear on the call this morning with the cadence of testing in these situations certainly there needs to be testing of those adults and children. the degree to which there's a optimal benefit is achieved is not clear. there obviously has to be balance of many of the testing

needs that we have-the science around how to do this the best is rapidly evolving.

>> in the context of where we are for covid 19 more resources for testing will allow us to do more. we're looking at having many of the people who would be engaged in this activity to have coverage through private insurers and have private insurers cover this. we're looking at all of the options on the table. our testing budget is substantial that's proposed and cad icandidly, i think had we n

the covid 19 spread, we've been clear that more resources may be needed to do everything as practically as possible. now having said that i just want to reiterate that there will be some risks in these contacts and in certain situations there will be out breaks even with mitigation. in the context of prevention activities the maps and cohorting of groups and good hygiene practices. there are differences in terms of transmission risks versus young children versus middle schoolers. i know you are focusing on the hubs right now. i think what we do to engage in the hubs just as we take the learning from the camps and day care for the hubs.

the hubs would help better inform what we do in other educational institutions as they reopen. unfortunately, i don't have a concrete number for you to tell you, this is absolutely enough. because this such an evolving-that's what i would say is in the context of where we are and where we're headed, certainly i think having additional resources in the budget would give us more ability to expand more testing. >> this is one of my top priorities in the budget. i think these hubs are the most essential way that we can help families get through this crisis and fight the achievement gap that has plagued our school system for a very long time.

we want parents to feel as comfortable as possible and we want the adults to be as safe as possible in there. i will fight for, i know my colleagues feel the same way. we'll fight for what you need and we're try to go come up with a figure that makes sense. the figure that we came up with is three point five million, and matching money so it would be seven million matching for the hubs. i know you can't say with certainly but does that say it's a fair estimation to greatly run the risks of the hubs? >> to appease every concern we

would test everybody everyday. but that's not feasible. this will certainly help and give us-i dpes m guess we havenn able to weigh in on this with the cadence and subject matter that our proposing here. if those resources were made available and we talked to subject matter experts at u c sf and there were a site modification or modification of that cadence of best evidence available at the time. i would say based on the current state guidelines as we currently reviewed them, this is more adoptive than what the state is recommending for schools at this time. once again san francisco would be lead inning our efforts to

mitigating the spread of the virus in these situations from a health perspective, we obviously want to focus on covid 19 but the educational component, the warning gap, we know this has direct health effects on kids and their developments. i want to emphasize this is a health development mitigating because learn sing can key to family's health. >> lastly, i just wanted to follow-up on the west side community health center, a main provider of public health.

>> i wanted to make sure that i restated the black community has been very vocal about not tieing up investmen investment in the k community. we would not like to put it for the black community on reserve. he did give us a blue print on how to ensure transparency through reports of proposed expenditures, this will eliminate the bureaucratic barriers and allow the black community along with the hr c to decide how these expenditures

are expended. this is the black community's request. >> we asked you to come back to us with-are you saying that you are suggesting what we did with director torres' recommendation to put this on reserve and replace it with a report back to the board on expenditures and spending plan; is that correct? >> correct. and actual expenditures, yes. >> okay. that's great. we have an agreement with our colleagues. president yee are you raising your hand? >> this actually has nothing to do with the department of public

health. i'll save my statement. >> thank you. i think we're in agreement then. one, to-mr. controller whatever we said here and also, i'm sorry. and also that we're rejecting the recommendation to put that money in reserves and instead what has been proposed to a proposed spending plan to the board so we can keep track of where these expenditures go and not put that money in reserves. okay. thank you department of public health. we greatly appreciate you are coming back. thank you for all your work. thank you for your investment in the black internal health. i want to have a conversation about attrition. we can have mr. rosen field come. we've asked the controller to do

an analysis for us on attrition saving trends over the last few years. we have the ability as a board to actually take more savings from the departments without the department's coming back to us. i think this is analysis is really important for us to look at because there may be money left on the table. having said that, could you please give us the report. >> certainly, i can give you an update. we're not yet completed with this work. as you said to review pattern ses of department spending o pah an eye towards reasonableness of the budgets towards years ahead. i hope to have a report for you later in the day. we're making progress with it

and should have it to you shortly. >> having said that. yes, president yee. >> this is going to be a random statement. i just didn't know where to interject this. >> just say it. >> just say it. this is related to the community hub, i know there's been some discussion around the risk factor of the people that are going to operate this. it will be operated by non-profit organizations that don't pay much. certainly less than a teacher would make. i don't know how far we've got wen the discussiowith the discud way with those workers. it's something that i'm

interested in pursuing if somehow we can find the funding for it. i don't really have a price tag because at this point we don't know how many people are going to be involved with the community hubs as they keep expanding. this realization that if we don't increase it at least during this time, this period, they are going to run out of people to actually work in these homes. i just want to put it out there that we should think about that. >> thank you. i think another consideration is existing contracts with the c bo and this extends beyond their contracts and compensation for that. thank you very much. >> i just really wanted to agree with both of you on that point and just, you know, maybe work

today. i'm happy to take on this task of working with maria to try to cost some of this out. in terms of equity during this time in this city, i can't think of anything more important than these hubs for families. i think we have to do them right. i just agree so much with both of you. i think we could do our best to cost that out today and make it a priority of this committee and would be happy to take the lead while supervisor is working non stop to try to get us to a global deal if that's something the committee would like me to do. >> i think that would be helpful. i think it would be helpful to bring to the committee meeting on friday too. if we are saying we'll open the

community hubs, what is the total real cost of hoping these community hubs. it will lead us to how many we can open. if we're going to open more, we should have a real budget that we can do this safely and very well. because these are our children's lives that we have at stake here. thank you very much. having said that. committee members, i would like to recess this meeting now until 3-o clock this afternoon. >> i'll just make a brief statement to the members of the public who is watching, public comment has already been satisfied today. >> thank you very much. thank you to everyone who offered public comment. we will recess until 3:00 p.m.

today. thank you ver >> we are reconvening the budget and appropriations committee meeting. we are recessing until 7:00 p.m. thank you very >> we are reconvening the budget and appropriations meeting and i'll call a recess until 9:00 tonight. thf existing living area that is in the planning code section

>> until 11:00 p.m. i will see you then. thank you, very much. >> good evening, or good morning, everyone. we are reconvening the budget and appropriations committee, and we are proud to say that at this time we will be passing hopefully our budget from our budget committee. so before we start though, i would like to have my colleagues on the committee, would they

like to say a few words before we actually go into a vote? so, colleagues, would you like to say anything? i'd like to give you an opportunity to comment if you would like to do so. supervisor mandelman? >> i just, madam chair, want to thank you and your office, particularly chelsea, for running an extraordinary process. and managing a really difficult budget. there were a lot of passions i think in the public and on the board, and i think that this was a really well-run process and, you know, i feel like, you know, no one is going to be happy with everything that has been done here, but it's a good product. and i am really grateful for the way that you led this process. so, thank you. >> chair fewer: thank you, supervisor. supervisor mandelman, i see you in the queue -- i mean, walton, i see you in the queue? >> supervisor walton: thank you, chair fewer, and i want to echo the sentiments of

supervisor mandelman and just say that you and chelsea and your entire office have been tremendous in leading us through this process. i want to thank you for all of your work. i know -- well, i don't know how hard it is for you, but i know that you've been working very hard on behalf of all of us on the board and for the city. so just wanted to say thank you. and i'm excited by this being to a point where we can move forward. everybody has been working hard to have these conversations and i feel good about where we are. so, thank you. >> chair fewer: thank you, supervisor. president yee? >> president yee: we went over everything. thank you -- i'm sorry, but, thank you, chair fewer. the processes -- i mean, i think that what made it hard was partially because there was one set of expectations coming into this budget process of thinking that, you know, where it's such

a big deficit that it's just no way that we'll be able to get out of it for this year. and then because of the stance we took on certain departments, it changed the whole dynamics basically. and then you have other issues, external issues, that generally happen this time of year. so i thought that it was handled pretty well by you and the staff and, you know, i have to hand it to chelsea, she hangs in there and i think that all of the staff of our offices were seeming -- quite a few were down there. so i want to thank all of them. but also my other comments when somebody is actually awake and listening, thank you very, very much.

and i'm really happy with all of the things. >> chair fewer: good. >> president yee: i think that there was a lot of -- a lot of things that we were able to fund. of course, you always want to fund more, but i'm -- i'm genuinely pretty happy that we were able to do as much as we were able to do. i wasn't expecting that to happen. so, thank you very much. >> chair fewer: thank you, president you're. supervisor ronen. >> supervisor ronen: yes, i want to echo all of the things to you and chelsea and particularly to my office who is there, and did a tremendous job. and really it's a tremendous outcome that we got together, you know, monthly under the leadership of chair fewer. and just a quick question -- if there's little tiny things that we have to, like, edit later, we can do that, right?

okay, great. that's all. that's my main question. >> chair fewer: sure. >> supervisor ronen: thank you so much, chair fewer. >> chair ronen: and thank you, supervisor ronen. it's now after 1:00 a.m. and after many hours and days outside of work, i'm so glad to gather now to pass this budget out of committee. this was a complex budget cycle as we struggled during a pandemic and an economic recession, and critical policy conversations about racial equity and the role of policing in public safety. this budget reflects the priorities of the board, to protect the most vulnerable, especially during this immense economic and health crisis. during this time we have leaned heavily on our city workers and on profits to take care of our communities and our most vulnerable and we are so grateful for their work. today's robust spending plan includes funding to restore cuts and to continue this critical work. i want to thank my budget committee for their hard work and diligence that got us here.

i want to give deep appreciation to the mayor's budget director, ashley gokenburger and controller ben rosenfeld and his staff, and the deep gratitude to the clerk's office and the staff of technology and sfgov-tv and especially i want to thank our budget analyst who also once again every year guides us through this budget crisis -- process. and this was a truly collaborative effort and it took all of us, the board of supervisors and the mayor's office and community advocates and more to have a comprehensive spending plan that makes the most impact and to improve the lives of vulnerable people. this spending plan now totals over $15 million in funding for rest raitionreveration of covidd approaches these allocations through a lens of equity. i'm so appreciative of the

committee for fighting for their needs and for this board for stepping up to answer the call. i think that the spending plan that we have in front of us today -- in front of you today is actually a very good plan. i think that it is -- it represents the hard work and thought that all of the committee members actually put into this budget with their hearts and souls. i want to thank my committee members for being such wonderful participants in this whole process, guiding me along also. and also i think supporting each other during this process. with that, i would like to make a motion to take the following actions. amend the appropriation ordinance and salary ordinance items 2 and 3 to reflect the committee member changes as indicated in the summary "board of supervisors budget spending plan." accepting mayor's technical adjustments as provided by the mayor's budget director. amend the administrative positions item number 2, and include them in attached to

those budget spending plans. authorize the controller to make adjustments necessary to implement the committee's actions and to balance accounts for items 1, 2 and 3 on today's agenda amended to the board of supervisors for the september 15th meeting with a positive recommendation. can i have a second, please. >> second. >> chair fewer: roll call vote, please. >> clerk: on that motion... supervisor walton. supervisor mandelman. mandelman aye. president yee. yee, aye. supervisor ronen. ronen, aye. chair fewer? aye. fewer aye. there are five ayes. >> chair fewer: any more business before us today? >> clerk: there's no further business. >> president yee: can we have a meeting tomorrow morning at 10:00? [laughter]. >> chair fewer: we are adjourned.

good night, everyone. >> good night.

>> mayor london breed: thank you, good morning everyone and thank you for joining us. i'm san francisco mayor london breed, and today i'm here with the director of the department of public health, dr. grant colfax, as well as our chair of the economic recovery task force, carmen chrks hui. as of today, sadly, we have lost 83 people because of covid, and we have 9,212 confirmed cases, and dr. colfax will provide more details as it relates to covid-19. before we get into details and possibly some good news, today, as a result, sadly, of the wildfires, the air quality is really terrible in san franci o francisco. in fact, we are in the red zone

which means we are asking people to stay indoors, to keep their windows closed, and i know that this has been confusing and really challenging because on the one hand because of covid we are expressing to the public that it's important to do things outdoors to avoid the -- to reduce the transmission of covid-19, and then on the other hand we're dealing with the wildfires and the air quality, which is also a real challenge, and sadly they contradict each other, but we know that the air quality will change based on the wildfires, and so as a result it's important that we are paying very close attention to that and we are adjusting. there's so much uncertainty, and i know there's so much frustration. we knew when covid hit that the possibility of dealing with other challenging events around air quality would be possible. we know that any other situation, any other emergency

could happen, and it's important that we adjust. it's important that we are prepared. so again, i know that it's been very confusing, but i want to express my appreciation for your cooperation and ultimately the goal is to protect public health, is to make sure that you're not impacted by covid, and it's also to make sure that you're not impacted by the air quality which, as i said, is at this time red. what the city has done on a regular basis through our alert sf is provide updates. if you want to sign up or if you want to call 311, we are trying to get the information out as soon as possible. we don't know when the winds are going to shift and when it's going to impact the city, but today i'm sure many of you woke up and you smelled fire, just like i did in my apartment, and i didn't have any windows open, which was odd, and so i do understand this is confusing and scary and uncertain, but we are

doing everything we can to make sure that the public is aware of what's going on. you know what's interesting is we've been living like this for the past six months, and one of the things that i made clear from the very beginning is we will do everything we can to make sure that we are communicating with the public as much as possible. it's been really challenging because there are times where we don't completely have all the information. there are times when there has been uncertainty, but whenever we've had ability to tell you whatever information we had, we did that. and one of the things that i know has been extremely frustrating is especially when we were doing really well in the beginning of this pandemic. it looked like things were going in the right direction and we made announcements about businesses and things that we

anticipated could reopen, i remember going to the zoo and feeding the giraffes and getting super excited about what was to come, not because i personally wanted to have those experiences, but it had everything to do with knowing the challenges that people are facing in this city, especially our small businesses, especially our parents, especially the elderly. when i think about the hundreds of businesses that have closed permanently in this city, or the hair salons or the nail salons or the people that have not been able to open, when i think about the kids who are having challenges because they don't have parents or maybe family members at the home that could help them with distance learning, so we are seeing them fall further and further behind, this is a real struggle for all of us. we have been living in this. we have been dealing with this, and the fact is because san

francisco has been through tough times in the past and gotten through them, we will get through this too. and so we want to thank all of you for your patience and understanding. six months. six months. so we're getting used to living in it, and now it's time for us to make some levels of transition. the good news is, as we came out before and we said there were challenges, and unfortunately we'd have to slow down our reopening efforts, we are here today to say that we expect the governor to hopefully make some good announcements this afternoon about our reopening process and the state watch list, and we'll see what happens at that time, and once we know exactly what that entails, we will come back to you next week with some additional announcements, but as of today we are really excited to announce that we are finally

able to allow some businesses to open to do outdoor services on september 1, so that's next week. this includes hair and nail salons, and it also includes outdoor gyms. so, look, i know when you talk about a woman, for example, and getting our hair done and doing it outside, it sounds crazy because if someone gets color or someone gets a blow dry, they need their hair washed beforehand, and this requires that we make some adjustments to not only if we want to get our hair done but of course if we want to support those businesses that have been closed for far too long. the fact is, it's an adjustment, and we are hopeful that as we see the number and the changes continue that we will be able to allow more. so hair salons, places -- barbershops, nail salons and outdoor gyms are allowed to move

forward, but unfortunately facials and tattoo places and things like that, we're going to have to put a pause on, and dr. colfax will go into more details about that. and the whole point of why we are able to do this is because in these particular instances people are able to wear a mask. public health will provide guidelines that will make sure that you know exactly what to do, because ultimately what we don't want to do is open up these places and then all of a sudden see a spike and then have to go backwards. and i also just want to say something about what this city has done for small businesses. look, i know it's not enough, and i know that we can do more, but we've already helped over a thousand small businesses with anywhere between 10 to $50,000 in grants and loans. we've raised over $29 million in

private money to help support so many of our struggling businesses in san francisco, but being closed for six months, we know, has had -- has taken its toll, and so we are doing everything we can to try and deal with the city's bureaucracies, to try to get rid of fees and delays and process and other things that are costly. our small businesses are hurting. they need us now more than ever, and so as we reopen, yes, resources and financial resources and forgivable expenses are going to be critical, but long term there's a lot more work that we're going to need to do to support our small business community, and i'm definitely committed to that. so what will happen if and once -- well, once we're off the watch list? it will provide us with an opportunity to do more. it will provide us with an

opportunity to allow more things to open, and i want to be clear that as more things open in san francisco, the possibility for spread goes up. so the last thing we want to do, as i said before, is to go backwards, and we also understand that families, especially with school starting and distance learning, i know parents are at their wit's end, and again, i also know that there are students who may not have parents or family members or other people in their household that can be of support as they are trying to learn their lessons. you know, it's sad to think of, you know, the challenges that many of these kids face. i remember -- i mean, i just think about when i was a kid and

how i drove my grandma crazy, and if we were in a similar situation at that time, and as you remember back then there was no technology and it would have been very difficult to have a whole distance learning through technology strategy, but my grandmother wasn't always able to help me with my lessons, and so having resources in the community like the community learning hub that we're proposing through the city are so important. they are especially important for kids whose parents can't afford to miss work. they are important for kids who may not have a family member who can assist them at home, so i know that so many of you want to take advantage of these opportunities, but we don't have enough spots for every child. so you are welcome to sign up, and we ask that you can considerate. if you are able to support and help your kid at home, then we want you to allow the opportunity for some of those other children who may not have

those same resources to be able to access these learning hubs. and as we move in a direction of getting off the watch list, our goal is to do everything we can to support our families by making sure that we not only have these learning hubs but we are hopeful that we will soon be able to provide some guidance as it relates to schools and reopening. we don't know what that is. we don't know what that entails. we don't know when that date might be, but i want you to know that we are keeping in mind the importance to make sure that we are supporting families. we are supporting kids and we are making them the priority as it relates to their need to learn in person, their need to come together with their friends and to play and to live and to enjoy life to the fullest. even now as we speak it pains me that there are parks, there are

playgrounds that are empty, that we don't hear the noise and the sounds of children playing in school yards and enjoying themselves and living their lives. it pains me, and i know that people who are parents, it pains them too. so as we move forward and as we try to push forward with allowing more businesses to open in san francisco, it's also going to be important that we prioritize families and we make access to opportunities for families, for children in particular the priority in this city. now i know so many of you parents are used to scheduling, soccer on thursdays, ballet on tuesdays, tutoring on wednesdays, like you have a whole system because it works for you because you have to work and you divide up the duties and you have a system, and covid has really disrupted that system. we all are living in a lot of uncertainty, but the good news is the city has adapted to this

challenging time. we have adapted and we have been a model for the rest of the country despite the challenges that we still face. so this is an interruption, of course, in our lives, but eventually we are going to get to a better place. eventually there will be a day when we can get together and not think about wearing a mask. eventually there will be a day where we will come together and we'll remember this time, but we'll remember what we did to contribute to getting through it. because when we talk about the fact that we are all in this together, we really are all in this together. and we all play a role in the success of the city. we all have a role to play in making sure that we see these cases continue to decline.

our livelihood depends on it. the future of our city depends on it. we're all looking forward to the day where we're not even thinking about walking out of the house with a mask on. that's where we're going to be one day, and so until then, let's continue to stay safe and healthy by doing our part. let's support one another and our neighbors and continue to do what we can to keep a positive attitude, despite the obstacles. we made adjustments in san francisco. i love seeing people use the safe streets program and walk in the middle of the block and just hang out, and kids riding their bikes with their siblings and the things that are happening because of the street closures, the restaurants that have taken their businesses outside and the people and the bustling and the fun and how folks are still able to go outside and come together.

san francisco is still alive and active and well. as we go through this very challenging time. so i really want to thank all of you for your work and your support and i want to make sure i haven't forgotten anything, and it doesn't look like i've forgotten anything. so the good news is you don't have to hear from me for the rest of the day. the weekend is upon us, and i'm asking, again, that you continue to avoid large gatherings. keep in mind and pay attention to the air quality so that especially those with underlying health conditions and respiratory issues that you are not outside, compromising your health, to do everything you all can to continue to help us fight this virus. we are able to move forward september 1 with very minimal

openings, but hopefully significant to so many of the people who have been closed for at least six months, maybe even longer. this is a huge step in the right direction, and hopefully next week we'll have even better news to get our city and the people of our city to a better place. so thank you all so much for joining us, and at this time i want to turn it over to the department of public health director, dr. grant colfax.

>> well, good morning. i'm dr. grant colfax, director of the public health department for the city and county of san francisco. thank you, mayor breed. it was almost exactly six months ago that we stood on this balcony as you declared a state of emergency for the city. because of your leadership, mayor breed, and thanks to the scientific expertise and the community wisdom that we are so fortunate to have here in san francisco, and through the tireless dedication of city workers and community members,

we are better off to do. we have been careful. we will continue to be careful. faced with a new highly infectious virus, we have taken a measured approach that protects the most vulnerable in san francisco and slows the spread of covid-19. we will continue to move forward with a thoughtful, incremental phased approach to reopening that will hopefully allow us to avert large outbreaks, keep our health care system at capacity, and mitigate even further damage to our economy and community. i want to provide an update on the covid-19 data in san francisco. as you know, these key health indicators help us monitor the spread of the virus in our communities and assess our ability to respond to the pandemic. and if you go to data tracker at

the city website, you can follow these key indicators as well. the rate of new cases of covid-19 which helps to show how quickly the virus is spreading unfortunately remains high. we are seeing about 75 new cases every day right now. that number has been coming down in the recent weeks, but it remains in the red zone. and i want to take a moment here to make a key point with regard to our cases in san francisco. over half of our covid-19 cases continue to be diagnosed in the latin community. while it is the case that the department has worked with key stakeholders in community to address this issue, and we have made progress, it is simply not enough. we must continue to do more.

here are some examples of what we will be doing in the immediate future to help address the ongoing latinex pandemic. the department will soon be establishing a $5 million grant program to help community-based organizations expand community health worker teams, outreach and education. we will continue to expand case investigation and contact tracing teams to a team of over 300 trained individuals and ensuring that at least half the team is fluent in spanish commensurate with the needs identified in the community. we will continue to expand access to testing for the latinex community. we must measure and hold ourselves accountable for increasing testing rates in the community most at risk for covid-19. this means this demand expanding

testing sites to new venues, potentially transportation hubs, making testing lower barrier and ensuring wraparound services are seamlessly coordinated to support people if they test positive and need isolation and quarantine support. our turnaround time for tests, city-based tests, has come down, and i'm happy to say at this time it is less than two days. we will increase our support of education and prevention activities, including ensuring that masks are widely available to those who need them most, and we will continue to ensure to strengthen our outreach and support so people know that regardless of immigration status, all will be welcomed and receive care in our public health care system. san francisco, after all, is a sanctuary city. now to continue with the

indicators, it is fortunate that our hospital system indicators currently remain green. this indicator is crucially important as it gauges our ability to handle a potential search of covid-19 patients. our other health indicators remain relatively solid. testing is green. we are testing about 3700 people a day, more than double our goal. contact tracing is in yellow and orange but continues to improve as our testing time turnaround has improved. we are reaching 81% of cases and 77% of contacts. our goal is to reach 90% of both. contact tracing is one of the most important ways we find and stop the virus before it spreads further. our p.p.e. supply within the department is at 100%, placing

us in the green zone. so as we follow these indicators, as we continue to gradually reopen our city, we are focused on equity and safety. this means opening areas with lower risk and helping those who are suffering dearly as a result shelter-in-place. while covid-19 is a public health priority, so is the development and learning of children. we know that education and particularly early education is a key public health intervention. we can simply not hit pause on our children's development. they must continue to learn and grow. we also know that prolonged school closures can exacerbate

the socio-economic disparities and amplify existing educational inequities in our city. classrooms, after-school programs, child care facilities and learning centers are all an important part of our community infrastructure. they provide safe, supportive learning environments for students, and enable parents, guardians and caregivers to work. they also provide critical services that help to mitigate health inequities, such as meal programs and social, physical and behavioural services. we know that returning children to learning in developmental environments are critically important, and yet it must be done cautiously in this

environment of ongoing covid-19 risk. we see the gradual reopening of schools as a significant step forward in our city's long path back to normalcy, helping jump start the struggling economy by allowing more parents to return to work and contributing to the long-term well-being of children. that is why moving board with learning centers, community hubs, classroom learning and child care facilities is a top priority of our phased reopening plan. however, these facilities must meet minimum standards, including providing detailed safety and protocol plans. and while the development of our children is a priority, so is

the safe reopening of our small businesses, the backbone of so many of our communities. and after six months of this covid-19 pandemic, we have learned a lot. we know that outdoor activities are the safest to avoid infection and, therefore, certain outdoor services and activities can occur with less risk of spreading the virus. as we increase outdoor activities, we must, we must continue to wear our mask, socially distance, and wash our hands frequently. our success is so dependent on each person doing their part. the gradual reopening of outdoor services and children's

activities will increase travel, and interaction throughout the city, which means we are at increased risk for more community spread of the virus. as people start to move around the city more and increase activities, we must, again, be so careful. i ask, wear a mask. we can reopen our city in a responsible, measured and phased approach that leads and must lead with equity. we can address health and safety alongside our children need to return to the classroom, and residents need to get back to work. in the absence of an imminent vaccine or effective treatment, we need to continue to monitor the virus, to continue to work

to flatten that curve and slowing the virus's spread in a manner that will not overwhelm our progress, our health care system, our economic system or continue to increase the inequities and the pandemic that i described earlier. we can only be as successful as our collective action is going forward. san francisco has led the nation and saved lives with our phased and measured approach. in order to preserve our hard-fought gains now, we must monitor the virus as we continue to move forward with children's activities and outdoor businesses. as we open, slowly, with caution, we want to sustain our

progress, and as long as san francisco continues to make progress in slowing the spread of the virus and state guidance allows the potential for more activities, we can get san francisco back on track. thank you. >> first off i must say i'm thrilled that dr. colfax helped to wipe down the podium in advance for me. thank you, dr. colfax, for your comments. good evening -- or good afternoon, everybody.

i want to say just how important it is to be here today and recognize all the challenges that i think so many families, businesses are facing at this moment. it's so important today that we continue to find ways to help businesses reopen, even if it means starting outdoor first. today's step recognizes a number of things. first, it recognizes the importance of education and the role of education for our children. families not only depend on our schools and educational opportunities to be able to actually go to work, but it also means a big deal in terms of our kids' ability to develop, to grow and to live fulfilled lives. i'm very thankful for the department of public health, for putting forward guidances and to create a process to enable that to happen. the second piece that this step recognizes is the importance of reopening and the reality and urgency that businesses are facing. i grew up a daughter of

restaurant owners. on weekends i would go to the restaurant, i would help to wait on tables and go and help wash dishes, and i know even before covid-19 it was so incredibly hard for businesses to succeed and to survive in the city. from thousands and thousands of people we heard the challenges they are facing economically through the economic recovery task force. i think as the mayor spoke about earlier, businesses have been closed for months, some up to six months and more. so many businesses are open at only a fraction of what they were before covid-19. we know that immediate lifeline programs, like the federal ppp program are coming to an end, and i think more than anything we recognize that people need to know more information in order to be able to make good decisions about what they do in the future. should they stay open and continue as they are? should they take out an additional loan?

do they need to close up their businesses? we know that opening outdoor services alone won't be an option for everyone, and it's not lost on us about some of the challenges outdoor services provide, including what we're doing with some of the air quality issues today. but we also recognize that every bit counts, especially now. what we know is that the virus has taught us that flexibility and creativity is incredibly important. we need to try and we need to adjust as best as we can. so far over a thousand businesses have applied to use outdoor spaces through the shared spaces program. we hope that this program or what is announced today will allow for more and more businesses to take advantage of this opportunity. we know that the coming months will be the warmest where outdoor operations could actually be impactful for businesses. we're also about to enter the high retail season, and we also need to recognize that we need to take every step that we can

to allow reopening to occur in a safe way. dr. colfax spoke earlier about where we are in terms of the health -- or public health perspective. we are still in a very challenging time, and though today's steps really acknowledges the need to reopen while balancing public health, i think it's really worth underscoring that there can be no possible long-term sustainable economic recovery without making sure that we're effectively managing and stopping the spread of this disease. workers need to continue to feel safe working and our customers need to feel confident and safe re-engaging in the economy for this to work. so i'll close my comments today by making two requests. the first: support local businesses if you can. it makes such a big difference when you do that takeout order, when you order from your local restaurant, when you buy that good or that product from a local store. it helps to get them through just one more month, one more week, one more day. and second, please continue to

wear a mask. please continue to avoid taking unnecessary risks. san francisco businesses and our workers are relying on all of us doing those two simple things that have been able to continue staying open and sustain the progress that we've made, and also to allow us to open further. thank you so much. i think the first question might be for me, so i'm going to stay up here. >> thank you. we will begin the q&a portion for you. your first question comes from sf business times. when san francisco is off the watch list, does it become the city's sole discretion to open indoor service for salons, gyms, et cetera, or will more restrictions from the state need to be rolled back before that can happen? >> thank you, alex, for that question. i think it's an important one. we understand that there is a lot of confusion about what can open and what cannot open.

people are seeing across different county lines that different activities are opening up in san francisco versus in other places, and they also hear sometimes conflicting or confusing information coming from different levels of government. so i think the answer is very well asked because it helps to clarify the process. there are two things really that we need to continue before we figure out what is next in terms of opening. the first i think is dr. colfax has mentioned is really paying very close attention to what the progression of the disease looks like in san francisco. do we see case counts rising? what do our hospitalization rates look like? what does that spread look like? are we able to reach the people who has been infected? are we able to effectively mitigate that spread? that's one really important component. so san francisco will be taking a look at those different data and statistics to be able to say what does it look like, can we move forward. the second piece that is also important is that the state also provides overlaying requirements

in terms of what local jurisdictions can do. in addition to putting a program in place for a watch list, they have also said state-wide certain types of activities can or cannot open, regardless of whether we're on watch list or not. so i think as the state continues to make additional changes, as they continue to adjust, we're going to be watching very, very closely to make sure that we're following what is required of us, but also making sure to communicate that as clearly as possible in terms of what it is that we are able to do and to open. thank you again for that question, alex. >> thank you, ms. chu. the next set of questions are for mayor breed. mayor breed, your first question comes from andrea borba with

kpix. what are your thoughts on lax mask wearing and social distancing seen at national events like the rnc and protests? >> mayor london breed: i was thoroughly disgusted that the leader of this country would allow such a thing to occur. it was just -- to sit there and to watch it and to see it, when we are in the midst of a global pandemic, where hundreds of thousands of americans have lost their lives, it was very unfortunate, but it doesn't change what we need to do here in san francisco because we follow data, we follow facts, and we use science in order to make good health decisions, and it's a poor example of what any leader should be doing at a time like this, and we need to do better. >> thank you, mayor breed.

the next question is from melanie woodrou with abc 7 news. anecdotally some san francisco teachers have shared that attendance is already low for distance learning. are you aware of any attendance numbers yet for the new school year from the san francisco unified school district? and can you speak to what, if anything, san francisco will do to address truancy? >> mayor london breed: well, i will say that i'm not aware of the attendance records of what's happening with the school district at this time, but this is why opening these learning hubs and providing opportunities for students to have places to go where they cannot only get help with their lesson and how to log in and to set up and to get the support that they need, but also so that they can get food, it's really unfortunate that we're in this situation and so many kids are not getting the resources and the support that they need. we couldn't sit back and wait

until this pandemic end. we couldn't sit back and wait on what decisions might happen and the uncertainty. these learning hubs that we have established are so critical to supporting our young people, especially if this is -- you know, early indications of what we can expect to see and the achievement gap, as we know, as a result of what just recently happened when distance learning took into effect, we saw that those kids who didn't get, for example, the free devices or needed additional internet, wi-fi, they continued to do well in school. meanwhile, even the kids we provided devices and support to through high-speed internet, they continued to not do so well. so we know that the achievement gap is widening, and it's important that we do everything we can to support our young people. >> thank you, madam mayor. the next set of questions are for dr. colfax.

dr. colfax, the question comes from abc 7 news. a group of san francisco gym owners are claiming the city received a waiver from calocia to open gyms at various city spaces, including the police department, public works and the coroner's office while private gyms are facing closure due to restrictions. can you confirm the city employee gyms are open, and what relief is possible for gym owners? >> i'm not aware of any waivers.

there are allowances in the order for government services to deem what is essential, so there is at least a theoretical possibility that gyms could be open. certainly this goes against public health advice. i certainly wouldn't recommend people working out inside enclosed quarters at this time. >> thank you, dr. colfax. there are no further questions at this time, and this concludes today's press conference. thank you, madam mayor, assessor chu and dr. colfax for your time, and thank you everyone for joining us. ♪ ♪ >> coping with covid-19 with

chris manning. >> hi. i'm chris manners, and you're watching coping with covid-19. my guest today is tanya peterson. she's the director of the san francisco zoo on sloat boulevard, and she's here today to talk about how the zoo's managing during the pandemic and how they're reopening. tanya, thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> i'm really pleased to hear that the zoo has reopened again. that's great news. can you tell us what changes you've made to make visitors to the zoo feel comfortable and safe when they're there. i understand now you have to make reservations, and there's only a limited number available each day. >> we were making changes before shelter in place. fortunately, because we work with animals, and we have a vet

hospital on-site, we have the safe coverings before the shelter in place. while we were closed, we made some internal and external changes. the first one, i guess, would be on-line reservations. you now need to make reservations to visit the zoo, just like your favorite dinner restaurant. that is an effort to slow down congestion. try to keep everything smooth, and we can control the number of families coming in over the course of time. >> that's great. what about the indoor exhibits and the playground. are those off limits now? >> well, they're not off limits, but the playground, we had -- we had started child care program for essential workers even when we were closed, and the playground is used exclusively by our child care programs. so if you can think of the zoo,

100 acres, about a good third of it right now is reserved for child care, so what we do is we have the -- we've got the children in their safe pods. they're with each other for three weeks. they're in a controlled environment, and in the morning, one pod has the playground, we disinfect, and in the afternoon, another pod comes. all indoor spaces were closed before the shelter in place. the one thing i'm asked most frequently about is the train. we have a 100-year-old train, and as soon as we can disinfect that, we'll get that open, because that's the number one question i guess, when is the train reopening. >> is there a map how you're supposed to walk around the zoo? >> yes.

in certain areas, we created a one-way path. we try to make it fun. they're generally in the shape of bear paws and colored -- you know, follow the blue bear paws, follow the red bear paws -- but we've tried to make it fun. when children have not been out for three months, they were climbing anything and everything. we didn't anticipate that, so we put coverings open water fountains, statue signs. kids had been cooped up, so they went crazy the first few days. more control in place. >> that sounds great. how did the zoo's residents respond to a lack of visitors. did you observe any behavioral

differences? >> absolutely. we have some shy residents, gorillas and orangs. we have a male orangutan, he would blow me kisses. the rhinos, they would come out when i would feed them. >> how does it feel to have the zoo open again to the general public, even if it's a limited fashion? >> it feels fantastic. i'm a mother, and i know it's been hard on kids. to be able to open safely outdoors -- we're one of the few zoos on an ocean, so you've got the coastal air coming through. we see families or self-ascribed pods coming through.

it's been great for our staff and for our visitors. it's been heart warming, all the true experiences the first few days. >> clearly. you have a lot of mouths to feed. how did you cope with the pandemic so far? were you able to get some financial assistance, and how can viewers contribute if they'd like to? >> well, thank you. we received some help, but we burned through that quickly, and we received some financial donations. we burned through a lot of our

funding, and we were really feeling it. all of the people who supported us and hung in there, i thank you. you can join as a member. it's a tax deduction. david attenborough said it best. if the zoo becomes extinction, we all do. in the wild, poachers are getting the best of the wild anima animals, but i think with the help of the zoo and the community, we can save the animals. >> where can i go if i want to donate? >> you can go to sfzoo.org. you can join, become a member or make a donation.

it takes about $30,000 a day to feed all of our 2,000 animals, so you can pick how you want to help. >> well, i appreciate you coming onto the show today, miss peterson. >> thank you. the animals and i thank you from the bottom of our hearts. >> you've been watching coping with covid-19. for sfgovtv, i'm chris manners. thanks for watching.

>> the meeting is being called to order at 5:31p.m. the small business commissioner thanks media service and sfgov tv for televising the meeting which can be viewed on sfgov tv2 or (inaudible). i'll remind all of the commissioners to please mute yourselves if you are not speaking at this time. members of the public who will be calling in, the number is (408)418-9388 again, that is (408)418-9388. the access code is 146 705 4896.