were grateful to appear before, the vision zero task force, and many, many more. the project team has also hosted community presentations with the mission, sf interface council and walk sf, which has conducted its own study and will be presenting results in the bayview, tenderloin and client at our vision zero committee on september 29. please stay tuned for that. finally turning to project delivery. lots to report. caltrain has nominated a bicycle safety project on 13th street to receive funds under a new complete streets program. this is $100 million statewide program that ctc has approved and is ultimately selected the section between valencia and fulsome, right there it is hairy and the entrance areas will be

improved. we look forward to getting confirmation of this, but it's very good news. if so, we have long-term improvements, lane reductions, protected bikeways and upgrades. with that, i'm happy to take any questions to conclude my report. >> supervisor peskin: thank you, ms. chang. any questions for our executive director? seeing none, thank you for that thorough update. are there any members of the public who would like to testify on the executive director's report? >> yes, there is public comment. >> first, speaker, please. >> good morning, caller, your two minutes begins now. >> good morning, can you hear me? >> supervisor peskin: yes, we can. >> good morning, it's david pilpel. very extensive report, very comprehensive. just wanted to mention i didn't actually hear it on the better

market street project. i understand that a finding of significant impact was issued in the last couple of weeks on that which i think is significant. also the better market street project. i also noted since last week's board meeting ran long and you weren't able to hear the federal and state legislation update, i'm wondering in is any important federal or state legislation that the board or the public should be aware of, particularly sacramento, given that the governor has until the end of the month to sign the bills from this session? that's all for now. >> supervisor peskin: thank you for public comment. any other speakers? >> yes, there is, hold on, please. >> good morning, supervisors.

roland. through the chair, a very quick question. given that this report was so extensive, i was wondering if it would be possible in the future for the director to post the report at the start of the meeting so that the members of the public can review it. >> supervisor peskin: thank you. any other speakers for public comment on the executive director's report? >> there is no more public comment. >> supervisor peskin: public comment is closed. and director chang will post her comments, so mr. lebrun -- >> it should be posted every month. if folks can check the website. >> supervisor peskin: there you go. thank you, madame executive director. to the previous speaker, as mr. pilpel is quite aware, pursuant to the law this is not a

dialogue, but his comments have been noted w. that, can you read the consent agenda? >> friendly reminder to keep the camera off, because it causes technical glitches if there is more than nine on. item 4 is the concept agenda. 5 through 11 were approved and now are before the board for final approval. staff is not planning to present, but is available for questions. >> supervisor peskin: is there any public comment on the approval of the minutes from september 15. >> there is public comment. >> supervisor peskin: first speaker, please. >> hello, colleagues. >> can you hear me now? >> we can hear you, mr. pilpel. this is with regard to the approval of the minutes. >> that's correct. it's actually on the minutes. page 11 on public comment from

last week, the third line should read be discussed in addition -- not in additional. about four lines down, the first day of the restart of rail service, looks like there is an extra space in there. the next line after that, all of the overhead lights should be singular, not plural. on page 11, there are references to jamie parks, the director with sfmta, which are fine. i see at the bottom of page 11 it refers to mr. parks as jamie and perhaps that should be consistently read as mr. parks and not jamie. those are my suggested changes to the draft minutes from last week. thanks very much. >> supervisor peskin: thank you. any additional public comments on the approval of the minutes from september 15. >> there are no more callers.

>> supervisor peskin: okay, public comment is closed. colleagues, i would like to -- and thank you to the speaker -- make the correction to change additional to in addition and remove said space. we will remain with the colloquial jamie instead of mr. parks. on that motion, is there a second? >> second, mandelman. >> supervisor peskin: seconded by vice chair mandelman and on that, a roll call, please. >> on the consent agenda, commissioner fewer? >> aye. >> commissioner haney? >> aye. commissioner mandelman? aye. >> commissioner mar? >> aye. commissioner peskin? >> reluctantly, aye.

>> preston aye. ronen aye. safai aye. stefani aye. walton aye. yee aye. >> there are 11 ayes. consent agenda has final approval. >> supervisor peskin: no, no, the item number 4 is amended and now we will take item 4 as amended and the balance of the consent agenda. i making that motion. is there a second on that motion? >> second, mandelman. >> supervisor peskin: seconded by voice chair mandelman. on item 4 as amended and the balance of the consent agenda, a roll call, please. >> yes. item as amended. >> supervisor fewer: aye. >> supervisor haney: aye. >> supervisor mandelman: aye.

>> supervisor mar: aye. >> supervisor peskin: aye. >> supervisor ronen: aye. >> supervisor safai: aye. >> supervisor preston: aye. >> supervisor stefani: aye. >> supervisor walton: aye. >> president yee: aye. >> the consent agenda as amended has approval. >> supervisor peskin: those items are approved. could you read item number 12? >> item 12, van ness bus rapid transit update. this is an information item. >> supervisor peskin: thank you, madame clerk. i believe that all of us, because so many districts come together along van ness from supervisor haney's district to supervisor stefani's district to

supervisor preston's district to the district that i represent, and i think many of us traverse that corridor whether on public transit or other means of transportation and have seen the evolution, albeit a little behind schedule, of the bus rapid transit project that was fishes initially -- first initiated by then executive director of sfcta moscovitch some 20 years ago and now together with a lot of work that nobody can see, because it is below ground, has been moving forward with massive lane changes in recent days. and with that, i will turn it over to sfmta who has a present for us. good morning and thank you for joining us. and thank you for slogging through what i know is a very, very difficult project and i

promise to keep my expressions of frustration to a minimum. >> good morning, chair peskin and commissioners, thank you for the opportunity to present. let me pull up the presentation. can everybody see that? >> yes. >> okay, i'll move forward. okay. the van ness improvement project is working along one of the city's premiere boulevards. it's a critical street for civic affairs and for regional transportation. it's part of highway 101. we are building the first bus rapid transit system within the

city of san francisco as well as doing complete infrastructure upgrade from property line to property line along van ness avenue. at the completion of this project, we expect to have significant improvements in travel time and reliability. we have dealt with the covid crisis. we expect our ridership to increase by up to 35%, all of this with these improvements, will lead to actual cost savings on a per-passenger basis. so we'll be carrying more people for less costs. more quickly and efficiently along van ness avenue. for those who are not entirely familiar with bus rapid transit, the most obvious feature is the red lanes, but in addition to the red lanes, less obvious

feature is distinguish it from exclusive transit lanes are transit signal priority and dedicated boarding islands which will increase the efficiency of the buses moving up and down the corridor. these lanes will be exclusively used for the form of transportation in the form of muni buses and transit buses connecting downtown san francisco with the north. there will also be available emergency vehicles, which will actually have the ability to use traffic signal preemptoion to gt a clear run through van ness avenue for their work. in addition to that, we are

putting in new bus shelters, new pedestrian crossings, signals, signage and striping to generally improve pedestrian safety along the corridor and brand new street-lighting which will improve the visibility and pedestrian safety at night. this cross section shows what we've been focusing on. the areas in blue are primarily the underground work that chair peskin referred to. we have found that 15, 20 feet underground and with the installation of the new streetlights going up 25 feet in the air, we're putting in new sidewalks and new roadways, so we're going from property line to property line along the length of the corridor. i'm happy to say we're wrapping up the utility work and moving into the actual transit portion of the project. the portion in the middle of the road, which is the running ways

and new boarding islands and shelters, new overhead lines and planted median. to date, the project is approximately 57% complete. we've laid just over 25,000 linear feet. we are just short of 25,000 linear feet of the water work. we upgraded the emergency auxiliary supply system for use in fire-fighting along the length of the corridor. and have installed just short of 12,000 linear feet of power, communications, lines for the sfmta and other city departments as well. all of this has been going on along a very busy corridor, right in front of city hall,

which every effort to coordinate with. and not only city hall, but the opera house and the symphony and the other major civic venues along van ness avenue. currently, as i said, we're moving into the center lanes. we're starting to build the red transit only lanes. we're bringing in the new planted medians. the boarding islands and new transit shelters. we've taken advantage of some of the drops in traffic caused by the covid-19 crisis and moved as much work as possible to daytime hours. right now i believe the only night work that we have on the schedule is the last of the water work, which should be

wrapping up. that is done because we don't want to interrupt people's water service in the middle of the day. the largest challenge -- and we've been working closely with our contractor to maintain social distancing and make sure everyone has proper safety equipment, but to date with covid, the challenge has been a shortage of type 2 cement used for roadway work. this is a problem in the supply chain that affects california as a whole. we're working with a contractor to prevent this from having significant impact on the schedule, but it's affecting all major projects in the state right now. i'll go through this first slide relatively quickly. this is a history where we were working alongside the outside of the roadway. the areas in orange and red show

places where we have active construction going on. that work is finishing now and moving into what we're calling phase 2, where we're transitioning from the outside of the roadway to the middle. you can see we'll be taking up large sections of the median. we have to take parking lanes on the outside of those median construction zones so that we can continue to move traffic down the corridor. but as soon as the work is wrapped up, we're putting those lanes back, including the traffic, and it will be its final configuration after the construction of the project. again, sewer and water work and the duct bank work is finished.

there is a fair amount of sidewalk work that is left to be done along the corridor. but that work can go on in conjunction with the median travel lane work that is going on. and will be wrapped up in the near future. to keep everybody abreast of some of the challenges of the project. we had a total of seven claims from the contractor totalling just under $10 million in value. we've negotiated for the first three -- >> supervisor peskin: peter, wasn't there an early claim about $20 million in size relative to sewer work? >> so those are claims 1 and 2. the original claim was around $20 million in -- >> hey, guys. how you doing?

>> all right, >> what is going on. >> sasha. yes, put yourself on mute. >> sorry about that, sir. >> the first claim -- the first two claims are $20 million in total value. the final settlement was 4.8 and change. and so that claim has been settled and the contract has been written and signed. >> supervisor peskin: so about 25 cents on the dollar. >> yes. that's correct. there was initial -- third claim for additional potholing work because of the conflicts we were encountering. i forget what the original claim was, but the settled amount was $1.7 million. claim number 4 is for additional pedestrian monitoring to help

control the volume of pedestrians around the construction site and keep people from wandering into our construction site. >> supervisor peskin: the 2.6 is the face value of the claim? >> that is -- i've got it listed as pending because we haven't written and signed the final contract mod, but that is the settled amount. >> supervisor peskin: got it. okay. >> we've agreed between -- and, yeah, this was a discussion what value we should put down, but i went with 2.6 because between walsh and city, we greed on $2.6 million, that is all the pedestrian monitoring for about 1.5 and then $1.1 million that is moving forward to get us to the end of construction. >> supervisor peskin: peter, was that not in the original budget? we did not have a line item for

pedestrian monitoring after our experiences on third street and other places, central subway, where we've had pedestrian monitoring, that was not in the original scope? >> so, a peek behind the occur taken. when walsh was first brought on board and we were negotiating -- because this was a cmgc construction manager general contractor contract negotiated the construction amount with walsh. pedestrian monitors were discussed in negotiations. however, the various parties involved felt that we could do the work with just the flaggers that were required. in the end, we were mistaken on

that and it was determined that we needed to put in additional support for those flaggers. so, yes, it should have been accounted for. >> supervisor peskin: you would have think we would have learned that off third street, off central subway, unconscionable, but whatever, it would have been a larger number in the beginning, but, okay. next item. >> the next three items are still in negotiation. we're not close to it. third party utility coordination is kind of compromised of the conflicts we had. there was some question as to sewer cleaning and whether that was required in the contract or not required. and finally, $9,000 claim for having to adjust man holes.

so those are -- >> supervisor peskin: those are the face values of the claims? >> those are the face values of the claims. >> supervisor peskin: got it. so the 2.6 is real. the other half million dollars well be no more than that, but potentially less than that depending on the settlements. and are there any potential future claims that you are aware of? >> there are no -- we have a change order request in our hands from a contractor that covers the balance of days in delay that we have. you can see from the time extension days, we've already agreed on extending the contract by 279 days. >> supervisor peskin: without no lds? >> with no lds. the city has agreed to the overhead, that's part of the

$4.8 million and 149 -- yeah, 149, the contractor has agreed to extended time with no extended overhead. and we've waived the right to ld on those days. the contractor has put in a change-order request for the balance of the days. >> supervisor peskin: the 149? >> correct. no, not the 149. those are settled. the balance -- because right now with the -- >> supervisor peskin: 135? >> with the 279-day extension we should have finished the construction in july of this year. so this is for -- from july of this year to when we have substantial completion on the project. so they put in -- part of the reason that isn't up here and we haven't -- i don't have a value to give you on that right now is

since we haven't actually reached substantial completion, we don't know what that total number of days is. walsh has requested change order -- has put in a change record request asking us to extend the contract to substantial completion. we said let's get the substantial completion and see what the days are and figure out responsibility. i'm hoping it does not become a claim. they have submitted scheduling information. we requested additional scheduling information as well as information on the extended overhead. the two parties are now negotiating what they think a fair settlement for that is. >> supervisor peskin: thank you, peter. >> so, on business support. we have -- first of all, i want

to thank the members of our advisory committee. van ness set up a business advisory committee in addition to a citizens advisory committee that is made up of various businesses on the corridor, those businesses with concerns about the project to come in and talk directly to business owners and representatives as well as project staff to see if we can address their concerns. so we've been meeting regularly with them. we've also been working closely with the office of economic and workforce development to provide support services to our local businesses. and have hosted some meetings where businesses can come in and find out about the services,

early w.d. offers. and the direct business support program that was started with central subway has been extended to include van ness improvement project. my information is that small businesses request compensation of 5,000 or $10,000, have their applications in by october 31st. >> supervisor peskin: i apologize. as you know, in the case of the central subway when then mayor lee and i agreed that for the first time in the city's history we would do relatively small amounts of cash compensation in addition to the technical

assistance with businesses. my understanding is that in the case of van ness brt project, not a single one of these grants has been distributed by oewd. and we have a lot of very frustrated people hanging on by a thread. so i'd really like to drill down into the status of that. this project has been going on now for years. and my understanding is that not a single amount of relief or dollars of relief have actually been forth coming from oewd. do you have any additional information on that? >> i'm sorry to say i don't. i'll be happy to go back and talk to the people at oewd and talk to the outreach people about what businesses have

contacted us to participate in this. >> supervisor peskin: i know several businesses that applied many, many months ago and have not seen any response from oewd, sfmta or the city and county of san francisco and it is very frustrating. and i will suggest at the end of this hearing that we continue this hearing to get a presentation on exactly this issue at our october meeting. but the money is there. we appropriated the money. but not a penny of it has been distributed to the van ness brt-eligible businesses. >> yes. the person heading the outreach effort is telling me she has additional information on this, if she could step in. >> supervisor peskin: that would be great.

fantastic. >> hi, everyone. hello, commissioners. thanks for pulling me in, peter. i wanted to share that we only just opened the application process for the van ness directive business support program. >> supervisor peskin: are you new with oewd? >> i am with sfmta. i work closely with oewd on the program and i'm the lead outreach person for the bsp. we have the application process open now. we're doing serious outreach to businesses now to let them now they can apply, but the project needed to be delayed enough and we needed to set up the application process in order for them to be able to apply. and we were still wrapping things up with central subway and with covid-19 it took

additional time to make it happen. but businesses now have until the end of october to apply and we made it a relatively short application period based on what we learned from central subway that it needs to be enough time for folks to sort of like make it happen if we extend it too long applications drop off because people forget about it. >> supervisor peskin: and can you, for all 11 of us and members of the public who are watching, tell us how a business on the van ness b.r.t. impacted corridor can apply between now and the end of october. >> we have information on the oewd website and today we'll have information on the sfmta website to direct folks to the oewd website. i believe it is

oewd.org/constructionmitigation and i believe that owed.org/vannecessary. there is supporting business documentation that should not be hard for folks to pull together. >> supervisor peskin: thank you very much. that was super helpful and important. back to you, sir. >> thank you. so she has been helping -- got a lot of things on her plate, including the ongoing outreach process. we're publishing a forecast to help people know what construction will be close to them and what work is going on. >> supervisor peskin: if i can say, peter, on that, i read those every friday afternoon

religiously. but the one thing it doesn't have in that e-mail is what you're actually presenting here which is the final substantial completion is estimated to be the fall of 2021 and that -- it's good insofar as it tells people along the corridor what to expect next week and the week after, but it would be helpful -- i think i said this in other hearings -- if that e-mail could also say, by the way, you know, if you can slog through for one more year, we will be done-done and you'll have a beautiful new b.r.t., so just a friendly suggestion on that. >> okay, we'll take that into account in the upcoming announcements. the 72-hour notice for night work. >> supervisor peskin: night work is just about over? >> i'm not going to say it's

finished-finished because there is intersection paving work that needs to be done. i'm hoping that can be done during the day, but it all depends on when traffic levels go back up. we'll make every effort to minimize it. we have a citizens advisory committee as well as a business advisory committee. people have concerns and they want to talk to private staff, those are great opportunities to attend and let us know what is going on. regular briefings such as. this and our quarterly newsletter. and that's the end of my presentation. if you have any other questions, i'd be happy to answer them. >> supervisor peskin: thank you. and just relative to site cleanliness, which i had heard a number of complaints about and

is also mentioned in the staff document, can you tell us how we're doing on site cleanliness during construction? >> yes. it has been a challenge. it's a long corridor. it's been getting better. our construction management staff specifically -- our new construction manager lance jackson and engineer hubert wong are walking the corridor regularly and have been working closely with the contractor. i think it's gotten better. it's not perfect. we have to keep working at it. but we're making improvements. and, again, people working on the corridor have specific concerns about areas, i encourage them to reach out to

our public information. >> supervisor peskin: kate mccarthy. >> it's now -- kate is away handling covid-related information, service change information. so she is temporarily reassigned and she has taken over the work. >> got it. that is helpful. look, today is the equinox and we're a year out, so anything and everything you can do to keep that entire corridor clean, as clean as possible during construction would be greatly appreciated by me and my fellow commissioners and their constituents along the corridor. with that, colleagues or staff,

any questions or comments? seeing none, is there any public comment on this information item number 12? >> yes, chair, there are two callers. i'll move to caller number one. >> supervisor peskin: before we do that -- actually, let's hear from the public and then i'll go to commissioners fewer and haney. >> thank you, caller, your two minutes begins now. >> can you hear me now? >> yes, mr. pilpel we can hear you. >> excellent. five points starting on slide 6. the reference to awss i believe is the auxiliary water supply system. not the alternate water service system. on slide 11, claim 7, i believe that is man hole adjustments. i think there is a letter missing. based on the discussion with

chair peskin, it would be great if this slide in the future could include the initial claim amounts that you were discussing. that would be a great addition or additional column. item 3 on slide 12 and 13, business support. if those represent models that other large mta or city projects could use, then it would be great to document those efforts on this project so that those other city projects currently or more so in the future could use the models or adapt them as appropriate because i think we developed and honed some ideas -- good ideas there in business support and outreach for large and complicated projects. item 4, i still note the unfortunate choice to not replace the historic concrete overhead support poles.

i think that was a bad choice, but perhaps that can be rectified in the future. maybe there will be leftover project funds we could do that with. and finally, peter and nahama are doing great work on this project and thank you for their great work on that extremely complicated and delayed project. thank you very much. >> supervisor peskin: next speaker, please. >> caller, your two minutes begins now. >> one important fact about a senior citizen. in the past was we've had this project be the third street, the central subway, other projects. we have not made it a point to

include our seniors and what their needs are so that they have input. also on van ness. so if you are a senior and you have obstacles, it makes it very difficult. if you're a senior, and you have to carry something with you three or four blocks, it makes it very difficult for them. so let's not bypass our seniors. when it comes to contractors and ongoing issue of change orders, we see it in a very nonchalant manner. and then you're having a talk here as if you're having a

fireside chat. where is the accountability and where is the transparency? and do we really need the f.b.i. to be involved with van ness rapid transit process? it hasn't been a good one. and, you know, was part of it. ed was part of it, no more part of it. soon harland kelly -- >> thank you, caller, your two minutes are over. >> thank you. >> supervisor peskin: two minutes up. any other members of the public on item number 12? >> no, chair, there are no more callers. >> supervisor peskin: public comment is closed. commissioner fewer. >> supervisor fewer: thank you, chair peskin. i just wanted to also express my

disappointment and frustration about the funds not getting out to the stores and small businesses along the corridor. we've had the discussion at t.a. over a year ago. yeah, and i just want to say it is very frustrating considering the economic crisis that they're facing also and they've been, you know, double and triple whammied, i think not only by covid, but then this project that has extended far beyond what they actually, i think, thought was going to happen. so just very disappointed. i think this is something that the commission has really taken to heart and i think that it was unanimous that we allocate these funds to these small businesses. i just wanted to say how disappointing it is that we haven't been able to offer relief to the small businesses along this very impacted corridor. thank you.

>> supervisor peskin: thank you, commissioner fewer for the comments and backing me up on my similar frustration. indeed, this conversation has been going on for a long time. what i would like to drill down to, our october meeting, is how quickly after the october 31st date these funds will actually be distributed? and if these businesses are out of business, there is not going to be anybody to give it to. and this really, as you just said, should have happened a long time ago. it's unconscionable. with that, commissioner haney? >> supervisor haney: thank you, chair peskin. i was just going to back you up on that, too. i hope that we can learn from this experience, because when we do these larger projects, which obviously are needed and required, we want to be able to say confidently we're going to be able to support the small businesses and residents impacted. and if we've failed to do that

here, even when money has been allocated, it's incredibly concerning and it puts into question whether we can honestly tell folks in the future that we're going to be able to, you know, ensure their protection and their support as required considering the impact. i would like to know, not just kind of who is getting the grants when they come back -- hopefully they'll have start to have been issued -- but also if there have been surveys done of businesses and residents in terms of their needs, what the impacts are. i believe it has been -- >> supervisor peskin: that has been done and maybe we can hear from staff as to the results of that on the ground yacht outreach. there have been businesses and some of them high-profile in the media that have gone under very

early on in the van ness b.r.t., but can you respond to commissioner haney's question? >> hey, everyone. we have been trying to figure out how to best do outreach considering covid-19 restrictions and not really being able to engage in person with businesses in the way that we have before. we have conducted a lot of outreach to businesses online, the phone and we've done a couple of things doing social distancing and wearing masks. we are canvassing businesses over the next two weeks to get them information about the grant and to find out how they're doing. >> supervisor peskin: right, but i think what commissioner haney is saying, and i believe this to be true, we have a lot of

pre-covid pre-march 16 data. so i think when he hear this at our first meeting in october, it would be very helpful if the sfmta and oewd can present what the pre-covid data is, as well as the results that you've been getting on the phone through electronic sources and in your on-the-ground social distanced survey you're doing over the next couple of weeks. we look forward to seeing that at our first meeting in october. commissioner haney, back to you? >> supervisor haney: that was all. i appreciate that. and i think a lot of the questions have to do with the business focus and residents and how to improve this in the future. so i was done, thank you. >> supervisor peskin: thank you. are there any other members of the commission who have any comments. seeing none, i would -- i won't make a motion to continue this. i'm just going to ask staff to agendize the hearing that we all

want for our next meeting. that is an information item. any introduction of new items? seeing none, is there any general public comment? >> yes, commissioner, there is. there are two callers. >> first speaker, please. >> so, again, commissioners, this pandemic, as you can see, very few people want to participate in any of these major projects. so we leave it to you, our representatives, to do due diligence based on third street, which is a mess, the central subway, we are waiting for the opening, the van ness bus rapid

transit, the businesses that needed to be helped have gone. and we haven't learned anything what happened on market street before. we always don't seem to learn something from the past projects and we don't seem to have a checklist. we just live it to become project managers, who are not really project managers, because they can't do a needs assessment. and then we love to have our fire chats, the public comment period, where we allow them a couple of minutes and you don't seem to be paying attention to us. it's going to come to bite you all in the back.

>> supervisor peskin: next speaker, please. >> thank you, caller. your two minutes begins now. >> thank you. supervisors. i apologize, what i'm going to say. the first thing i would like to do is thank you about some of the downtown -- [inaudible] -- from the meeting and the new improved -- [inaudible] classification is appreciated. the thing i do want to bring to your attention. on the one hand, we have the c.a.c. moving along and potentially a general engineering services contractor meeting for the proposed.

you have a parallel track between caltrain and high speed rail on this alignment. i would like to bring to your attention, there is a high probability that this analysis will essentially make it impossible for caltrain to -- rail yard potentially however. so i would suggest moving forward, you do something to delay the award of the contract, because -- [inaudible] problems and capacity, that's -- we can have on the line fort person have to take it from there. thank you very much. >> thank you, caller. >> supervisor peskin: any other members of the public for general public comment for today's meeting ?

seeing none, public comment is closed and we're adjourned. >> thank you, chair. please remember to remain on team. sfgovtv and producers, getting ready for timm

welcome, city attorney herrera. >> good morning. thank you to mayor breed, chief scott, supervisors peskin and haney for joining me this morning to highlight our collective commitment to combating an all too familiar problem. open air drug dealing in the tenderloin. we're all created to solutions to make sure we combat this epidemic that is taking control of the tenderloin neighborhood. this morning, my office sued 28 known drug dealers, file. they do not live in the tenderloin, but sell deadly drugs there. the drugs that are fueling the drug crisis in our streets. this is to stop the brazen drug-dealing that has plagued

this neighborhood. last year alone 441 people died from drug overdoses in the city and the tenderloin had the highest overdose mortality rate of any neighborhood in the city. enough is enough. these injunctions are carefully crafted to simultaneously safeguard a defendant's due process while targeting with precision, the problem of drug dealers coming from outside the area to prey on tenderloin residents, housed and unhoused. this prevents the 28 named defendants from entering the tenderloin and part of the adjacent south of market neighborhood. roughly from van ness to ellis and geary to mission. the tenderloin would become a protected zone and these defendants, none of whom live in the tenderloin, would be allowed to go there unless they had a lawful legitimate reason to be

there. we're focused on the predatory repeat dealers selling the most dangerous drugs, including those leading to the most deaths. we have rigorous criteria. he or she was arrested at least twice for drug sales or possession of drugs for the purpose of sales in the tenderloin in the past year and a half. one of those arrests must have been in the last nine months. both of the arrests must have led to either criminal charges by the district attorney or a motion to revoke probation. the drugs involved were fentanyl, heroin, cocaine or methamphetamine. and the defendant is not a tenderloin resident. has been given the opportunity to present their defense in court at a hearing and the court finds there is sufficient evidence to warrant the injunction. in other words, an injunction is

issued if the need for it is proven in a court of law. demographics or group affiliations were not considered when putting together these lawsuits. violations of the injunctions will have civil and criminal consequences. violations carry civil penalties of up to $6,000 per violation. perhaps just as important, violations can also be pursued as misdemeanor crimes and subject to the defendant's immediate arrest. an arrest leads to the search and confiscation of drugs or contraband a person has in his or her possession. these actions are aimed slowly at criminals coming to prey on the people of the tenderloin. we know who the predators are and we will not allow them to victimize tenderloin residents. our message to these dealers is simple. if you come to the tenderloin,

you'll be arrested and your drugs will be confiscated. this is not a silver bullet. more needs to be done, including drug treatment options, expanded mental health and a focus on major narcotics suppliers, but this gives one more tool to the law enforcement to help keep the tenderloin residents safe. we need to stop this neighborhood from being used as the open air drug market. our goal is to keep the dealers out of the tenderloin. the kids, the parents, the seniors, the workers, the business owners of this neighborhood have suffered enough and deserve nothing less. the tenderloin has the highest concentration of children in the city. it also has the highest number of overdose deaths and that is not acceptable. once the pandemic improves, the kids of the pandemic deserve to be able to go to the school,

playground, go see a friend without being caught in the middle of a drug deal or a person overdosing on the sidewalk. this won't solve the problem, but it's a step work taking. i hadn't to thank the hard-working men and women in the san francisco police department. their diligence laid the ground work to put together this creative approach to public safety. i want to thank the team in my office that worked hard to come up with a way that will deal with a longstanding problem. i also want to thank our mayor for her tremendous support and leadership during this incredibly challenging time for our city, as well as supervisors peskin and haney, for their commitment to combating this problem. with that, i would like to introduce our mayor, london breed.

>> mayor breed: good morning, everyone. thank you, all, so much for being here today. i want to begin by thanking dennis has rare kerrera and the attorney office to deal with one of the biggest challenges in the tenderloin community. not so long ago we set down a path to address what we saw as a significant increase in homelessness and tent encampments in the t.l. and we made a lot of progress. over 400 tents removed with over 600 people. we're now down to less than 30 tents. and we drive around the tenderloin, we walk around the tenderloin, and you would think that nothing has ever happened there. that no progress has been made. you see hundreds of people on blocks throughout the t.l. who

are dealing drugs openly, in broad daylight. you see people pushing strollers, mothers, who have to go out on the streets to go around the drug dealing and the drug using and the challenges that exist there. i grew up in this city. i grew up not too far from the tenderloin in the western edition. and the tenderloin has always had its challenges, but it has never been worse. it has never been worse. and we can't do this work alone. we need to make sure that, yes, we address the challenges that exist with people who struggle with addiction. this is why i'm fighting so hard to get safe injection sites open. why i'm fighting to get expanded mental health support, because those of you who have family members who suffer with

addicti addiction, you know how challenging it is to get them on the right path. we have to do more as a city to provide alternatives. and then we know the challenges that exist. the people who are being trafficked to sell drugs on our streets from other countries. the folks who are coming from other bay area cities because they know san francisco is a place where they can make a lot of money. san francisco has become the place to go to sell drugs. it is known widely. and that has got to stop, because there has to be consequences. look, i understand there might be financial challenges, but the fact is, we can't tolerate what we see happening in the tenderloin or any other neighborhood in our city. people have got to be held accountable for the destruction they are causing to these communities. and when we talk about destruction, we're talking about

the people who are dying in record numbers from drug overdoses right in the tenderloin. this is a commonsense solution to a very, very complex problem. and i really want to, again, express my appreciation to our city attorney, dennis herrera, for not only putting together a unique plan, but for caring about this issue in the first place. and i want to thank him for working with the san francisco police department to actually use data to inform this decision. we know that there is a lot of work to do. and we can't continue to let the tenderloin be the breeding ground for all that is problematic and challenging in our city. it's going to take helping with

homelessness. it's going to take drug treatment. it's going to take supporting low-income families and people who live in that community. and, yes, it's going to take holding the people who are holding this community hostage with the rampant drug-dealing that is completely devastated this neighborhood. we have to do better and we will do better. this is a step in the right direction. and i'm looking forward to seeing the results of this work. and i want to thank all those who have been involved and supportive of this issue. and we have got to get the job done and that's what this is about. with that, i want to introduce the police chief of san francisco, chief scott. >> good morning. thank you, mayor breed. first, i want to start off by thanking our mayor london breed

for her relentless leadership when it comes to this issue. as the mayor stated, this problem is pervasive and i also want to thank our city attorney dennis herrera for an innovative strategy that really gives us a much better opportunity to turn the corner on the drug dealing in the tenderloin. i would like to thank supervisors peskin and haney for their support and leadership on this issue. you'll hear from them as well in a second. the men and women of the san francisco police department and those say sign -- assigned to the tenderloin, have been working very, very hard to address the rampant drug-dealing in the tenderloin. during a recent three-month operation to focus on narcotics dealers, the tenderloin officers and the narcotics detail officers arrested over 267

individuals for drug sales. 267. and although that number may sound high, it's just a drop in the bucket. our officers seized over $144,000 in u.s. currency and a combination of over 7,000 grams of cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, fentanyl and other drugs. 210 of those arrests had prior arrests in san francisco and 55 of the 267 arrests were in violation of court-issued stay away orders where they were prohibited from the area where they were selling drugs. 58 of those arrested live outside of the city of san francisco. now our efforts to combine or

combat narc sales in the tenderloin are ongoing as of today. and today's announcement of injunctions filed by our city attorney will help us address the concerns and complaints of tenderloin residents and merchants. and those complaints come pouring in daily. these dealers prey on a vulnerable population and contribute to the drug degradation of the quality of life who work and live in the tenderloin. these injunctions give law enforcement officers another tool in our tool kit. violators face up to a $6,000 fine, misdemeanor arrest and officers can potentially seize money and drugs along with other contraband. with the combined efforts in the drug treatment and other public health strategies, we hope to have a positive effect on the

quality of life in the tenderloin area. as was stated by the mayor -- i can't emphasize this enough -- we have to do more, we have do better and we will do better. we cannot and will not further tolerate drug dealers coming into the tenderloin from wherever they're coming from throughout the bay area to ruin our community. the injunctions will make coming back to the tenderloin have more serious consequences. and, drug dealers, if you're out there watching this news conference, know that your actions will not and cannot be tolerated any longer in the city and county of san francisco. with that, i'd like to turn the mic over to supervisor aaron peskin. thank you. >> supervisor peskin: chief, thank you, city attorney herrera, mayor breed, for what is truly a creative solution.

this is not a silver bullet. it must be coupled with mental health services, with drug treatment, with the addition of sorely needed affordable housing in and around the tenderloin. a year ago supervisor haney and i went to a meeting together just up the street in the tenderloin wherein we witnessed an individual who was literally dying of a fentanyl overdose. we were able to locate some narcan and that individual is alive today, but that should not be happening on our streets. this is not only a creative solution, but it is one where city attorney herrera has crafted it very carefully in conjunction with my office. has done so in a way that honors the civil rights of individuals in our community. it is structured fairly and will be supported by the board of

supervisors. i want to thank the city attorney. we're going to make a difference in the tenderloin. and if this works, this is a model that be exported to other parts of san francisco because when you look at those 441 deaths, it is true a disproportionate number of them are in the tenderloin, but those individuals who are preying on weak individuals in our community are not just operating in the tenderloin. and if this is a success, i look forward to working with the city attorney office, the chief of police and mayor to export this model to the rest of the city and county of san francisco. we are available for questions and comments. thank you, supervisor peskin.

we'll begin with the q&a portion with city attorney herrera. the first set of questions are from kate wolf. the aclu and other community groups have said injunctions like gang injunctions used in the past don't address root problems and violate people's civil liberties. can you address how these injunctions will be different from those? >> one thing you heard uniformly, both from the mayor, from supervisor peskin and from the chief of police, this is part of a -- has to be part of a comprehensive approach that focuses on drug rehab, mental health and the like. so there is no doubt that we need to also get the root causes which are contributing to our problem. however, this is different from gang injunctions. this is not based on affiliation or status, it is based on going

after individuals who have been known to engage in criminal conduct that has been charged by the district attorney and arrests by the police department for known activity that has occurred in the tenderloin. the fact of the matter is, we carefully crafted this to make sure it was based on conduct, not on status or affiliation. and there is also the opportunity for if people have a legitimate reason to be in the 50-square block area, the protected zone, courts, city hall, have all been exempted from the limitation of movement. so this is very different from gang injunctions. i think it is something people need to be aware of. this is based on conduct, not status. and demonstrable conduct from individuals who don't even live in the tenderloin and 27 of the 28 don't even live in the city and county of san francisco. >> thank you, city attorney. the next question is from joe

with bay city news. why would civil injunctions be used instead of criminal actions if the city knows who the dealers are? >> it's another tool in the tool kit. certainly, there are criminal penalties that can accrue, but the fact of the matter is, if someone is going to suffer a financial penalty of a significant dollar amount, that is something that dissuades individuals from engaging. with respect to these injunctions, you have two tools, a criminal sanction as well as a civil sanction which did not occur previously. this encompasses the whole tenderloin, where something that the chief referred to earlier, the stay-away orders in other criminal cases were designed to be with respect to one particular corner or block. it was not nearly as

comprehensive as what we're seeking here today. >> thank you, city attorney. that concludes today's press conference. thank you, everyone, for joining us. >> hi, i'm chris mattis and you're watching coping with covid-19. today i'm going to the dentist. [♪] when you confirm your

appointment with your dentist, ask about the safety protocols they put in place to make sure you are comfortable visiting. my dentist has been very proactive letting patients know exactly what to expect when they arrive, explaining their safety procedures and setting up a detail e-mailed reminder shortly before appointments. before i left i put on a mask and took the smallest number of items i would need including my insurance card. generally i try to book medical appointments earlier in the day. it seemed like i have less weight time and i'm in and out of the office faster. one of the protocols my dentist has implemented is for patients to call the office from their car to let them know they have arrived. they argue -- they are in their waiting room right now. if they are not ready, they will call you back to let you know when you can enter the practice. as i walked into the office, the receptionist asked me to use a hand sanitizer. i was taken back into the room where i would receive my treatment. everyone in the office was using

p.p.e. gowns, masks, gloves, and face shields. after entered the treatment room , i gargled with sanitizing mouth -- mouthwash and we reviewed my chart and x-rays. then we would talk about what steps i would make in my visit. we started my treatment. the procedure was fast and painless. after everything was complete, i was able to make a follow-up appointment without having to interact with reception. i replaced my mask, was taken back through the office where i used more hand sanitizer before going back to my car as i drove home, i was careful not to touch my face. as soon as i got through the front door, i washed my hands for over 20 seconds. here's a quick recap. [♪] i have seen anecdotal reports

that suggest some people are forgoing important medical or dental care because they're worried about catching the virus even during normal times, offices are extremely hygienic and sanitary and during the pandemic, they are taking extra precautions to make sure everyone is safe. go ahead and make that appointment and visit your dentist and get the care you need to. thanks forororororororororororor

>> good morning, everyone. the meeting will come to order. this is september 24, 2020, regular meeting, the public safety and neighborhood services committee. i am supervisor rafael mandelman. we are joined by our vice chair, catherine stefani, and shaman walton. ia