penthouse dominates the square footage. it eliminates backdoor space and i have to say the most important point here, if he was truly focused on social equity and affordable housing, why has he not he attempted to respond to prior advisement and revise the project to apply to code. compliance and affordable housing are not mutually exclusive. i would love to have more affordable housing in our neighborhood. i believe that any attempts to do that should at least try to adhere to zoning and the planning code. i urge you to disapprove this project. >> good evening supervisors. i live in district 5. corona heights is extremely

gentrified neighborhood. some are accumulated property value in the last decade. which is enormous. this is a great location to build subsidized photograp -- ae housing or rent control housing. consider corona heights has median income to $150,000 per person, that speaks to how corona heights is in great need

of more affordable housing. the fact that much of it is low density really speaks to neighborhood's history of exclusion which not be totally rectified by this project, it's a good step forward. if we're going to prioritize affordable housing city wide, we need to prioritize affordable housing in the backyard. >> my name is myra. live in the castro and i walk up 17th street. i'm calling to voice my opposition. i happen to know one of the neighbors who's lives will be impacted by this. as i listen to the arguments today, i understand the concern isn't in opposition to affordable housing. i believe the concern is it

entirely consumes the backyard open space of the existing structure. the proposed project leaves no open space for the inhabitants of the existing structure. given how much our lives changed, within the last year because of the pandemic, one thing as we've come to treasure in the city is access to open space. whether it's in our own backya backyards. the goal of adding affordable housing on this project is noble but in reality, the amount of square footage in the new structure is well below the scale of a new building. if the goal is to provide affordable housing, then 50% of this goal can be achieved with minimal impact if they focus on the current structure. i'm curious where this project sponsor hasn't made modification

to bring the project more in line with the neighborhood. thank you. >> my name is jessica. i live next door, i'm a renter in the yellow building. i'm pretty familiar with this project. in the summer of 2019 the developer hosted a pre-application meeting at his property. which i attended. other neighbors were there and we all opposed the project. mentioned would go back drawing board and make changes. i never heard from him. eventually, the sf planning department issued a plan check. the memo cited eight areas of concern. i feel like this project is not actually trying to solve san francisco's affordable housing crises, for someone who's riding

on current event to building luxury of the expense of the neighborhood. i strongly oppose that you reject this project. >> clerk: members of the public, last call for public testimony. you need to press star 3 to enter the queue. >> thank you so much for your time. i realize it's been a long day. i'll be quick. i'm a teacher and an artist. i live corona heights i care

deeply about affordable housing personally and i agree with lot of the sentiments that have been stressed -- expressed tonight. i'm concerned there's been misconception of this project. i think it's really important that we look at the small percentage of this project that would actually be affordable. i think it's been misrepresent misrepresented. i strongly urge you to oppose this project as it is currently. thank you. >> my name is joe. i'm a resident in noe valley. i like to support this project. i desperately need more housing in san francisco. it seem like a reasonable proposal.

with housing cost continuing to go up overall, only recently gone little bit down due to pandemic, we need more units in the city. obstructing sensible proposals like this one is part of the problem and frankly rampant homelessness. i appreciate your time. >> hi. i'm laura foot. i don't normally call in anymore, i miss you guys terribly. i wanted to point out, especially to people who spoken in opposition to this project. actually what has happen to this project where they've decided to add to affordable unit is the pressure that san francisco has been trying to put on people who

might be proposing luxury development. they are proposing something expensive new housing. san francisco says, we want to get something back from you. we're going to push you below market rate units. the fact that this project changed and added those units, is actually something that the planning commission should be quite happy about. i hope that we can -- this is the -- for me i like the rules to be the rules and all of us follow the rules. the incentive structure that san francisco set up is to make these long hearings the way we push people to add more affordable units. if we say no to this project, we're saying, even if you go above and beyond and add what i think sort of level of affordable housing to your

project, it's nice but it's not scalable. >> i'm calling to ask you to approve this project. i'm familiar with the neighborhood because i used to live up the hill. i know this is an area where there's not a lot of new housing getting built, especially not lot of affordable housing getting built. i think it's really cool that this project is managing to provide two out of four new homes as affordable. that's all, thank you.

>> clerk: final call for public comment. seeing no additional request to speak from members of the public. public comment is now closed. the matter is now before you. >> president koppel: zoning administrator, do you like to start off? >> sure. i like to consider that variances fundamental to be overall. i want to reiterate a point that mr. horn noted in the staff report in his presentation. which is the newly constructed building is proposed on the new lot, is propose to contain an a.d.u. on the ground floor.

if you will do new construction, that building has to be code compliant. just under the provision of the code today, we would not able to permit that a.d.u. there are people who are very supportive of a project because it adds more housing and maybe more affordable housing. we all agree there's housing crises and we all support more housing. especially affordable housing. for variance especially, they are intended for something specific, when you have a specific property that has something physical going on with that property and creates exceptional circumstance, that

results in hardship that you need to overcome in a reasonable way. that's where i think this proposal has a number of challenges based on the existing zoning structure that we have today. we're working with the rules that we have in place now. the project sponsor kind of called out that there were lot of situations where property are split. rear yard variance is granted and i agree that rear yard perspective, corner lots disconnected from the block open space are good candidates for

year yard variances as long as the proposal is designed contextually. the bigger challenge, you have a fairly standard rh2 property with existing residential and the option to do more residential under the a.d.u. program and the proposal is to create two substandard lots and build a building that is substandard in terms of rear yard and open space. such a case, you have couple of issues. one, hardship created by the applicant himself. there's germane of this property that creates any kind of exceptional circumstance or hardship to reasonable development of the property. the other issue is, planning code says, you can't grant a

variance that will effectively reclassify the zoning of a property. when you take a standard property like rh2 and you propose to divide it in two substandard lots for the purpose of maximize density, to some degree, it's a form of detack do rezoning of the property. that's a bit of a challenge. we actually get a lot split subdivision variances in the rh2 from time to time p.p.p. the. when we grant those, we condition them that they only be for single family homes plus permitted a.d.u.s on those lo lots to divide the lot to increase the density.

i want to raise those issues and clarify why it's challenging from a variance perspective to approve this project. lastly, this doesn't get discussed a lot in variance cases, especially under the covid context, i do think we are going to look at open space variances more closely and the need to make sure that dwelling unit have yet or minimal open space provided on the site. that's also another issue i think that's a bit of a challenge here, especially when it's new construction. we're not talking about trying to adapt to an existing building on a tough lot. this is new construction where the design can be done in a way that is appropriate and contex contextual. >> clerk: thank you.

>> commissioner tanner: you are here, if you can answer a few questions about the things you just discussed and make sure i understood them correctly. i talked about not being able to amend a.d.u. in the new building because new buildings must be code compliance for the a.d.u. is that under the current law that's in place today for a.d.u.s? >> yes, that's correct. for the a.d.u.s, they have to be within an existing building. if you have a legal noncompliant building, if off rear garage or some kind of accessory building that was legal nonconforming you want to convert that to an a.d.u., you can. you couldn't take an existing building and do a rear addition and get a variance to add all a.d.u. same thing for new construction. the code says, it has to be within the permitted envelope.

>> commissioner tanner: with this building is to have an a.d.u. in the new building. would that provision still apply to this case? >> do you mean the legislation to implement new state law around a.d.u.s? >> commissioner tanner: yes, that has any bearing on this construction? >> it does this is kind of our local program that's being used. we do require that it be permitted. , there's provision that would allow a rear yard cottage.

there will be an opportunity here to do a rear yard cottage a.d.u. a would potentially limit how many other a.d.u.s on the side. >> commissioner tanner: the applicant in his brief stated that if the lot -- it will be about roughly 42 square feet reduced from the required lot size. do you find that to be accurate amount? is that large difference or small difference between these code compliance lot size? >> we can look at the case record if do.doe-- -- i believe

it's more 200 to 300 square feet. the standard lot size requirement for rh2 district for most residential districts is 2500 square feet. if you're within a corner context, you can't go down to 1750. i believe these lots are more in the 1400 range. >> commissioner tanner: that's correct. than sounded right to me. i was curious, i can ask project sponsor how he did his math to get to that. that's my questions for you, thank you mr. teague. i have couple of questions for mr. horn if you're available. [please stand by]

>> director hillis: i think miss stacey is here -- yeah, miss stacey is here. >> good evening, planning commissioners. kate stacey from the city

attorney's office. i think mr. horn has articulated the difficult situation we have here. we have a project sponsor who has volunteered to designate units as affordable units, but there's no requirement in city code that those units be designated below market rate units. there is also a requirement that when the city provide or impose a condition on a project, that there is a connection or a nexus justifying the particular condition. here, i think commissioner tanner, what you're asking is if somebody offered these units to the city and said i would like to make these units below market rate units, and i would

like them to be part of mohcds program, we could figure out a way that the project sponsor could sort of offer those to mohcds program, and then mohcd would take them into the program. i'm not sure what kind of market rate or what condition they want to impose here, but the difficulty here is that it is voluntary, and so it is up to the project sponsor to figure out what -- what they would like to do with these units and what the city is, in turn, able to do with imposing a long-term requirement on those units. >> commissioner tanner: okay. that's a great question, miss stacey. thank you, miss stacey, and

thank you, mr. horn. just one thing to go over, jack, is the a.d.u. units [inaudible] to rent control, but the other a.d.u. would not be able to be eligible in that program. is that correct? >> correct. that is my understanding of how the a.d.u. within the existing building, instruction 1951, would be subject to rent control. >> director hillis: i believe it's when it's new construction. >> yeah. >> commissioner tanner: and then, i think the other unit that's already in the existing building would already be controlled as is. >> correct. the two existing units within 4300 17 street are rent

controlled units. >> commissioner tanner: great. thank you so much. and then, if i can speak with the project sponsor, if you're available. are you there and able to respond? >> clerk: no, i just needed to unmute him. >> can you hear me now? >> commissioner tanner: yes, we can. we're all in, like, a verizon commercial that never ends. okay. so thank you for bringing this project before us. can you talk a little bit about the collaboration or somehow suggested the lack there of between yourself and your neighbors in the community regarding the design and development of the project? what does that design and collaboration look like? >> sure, and thank you for that question. so when i moved in about 1.5

years ago, within a few weeks, i had a vision of what i wanted to do. i had 30 handwritten notes that i distributed to my neighbors. i put posts on next door. as a couple of people mentioned, i had a meeting here at my home, which i have the hosted. i didn't have the architect or anyone. i was the face to answer questions. i've tracked a lot of these projects. i'm a novice, but i've tried to be as engaging as possible with everyone, and frankly, you know, there's kind of two sets of folks. some had constructive feedback, which i took, so the railing got changed, there's a light on the left. made a whole bunch of changes, but just to be frankly honest, a lot of the people who called

in today never reached out to me even though they had my contact information to solicit information. >> commissioner tanner: no, that's cool for me to understand. that's very helpful. and then, you've got toen he h the conversation that we just had about the below market rate units. that's something that i want to see because that can be part of our housing crisis solution. i thi when it comes to a deed restriction or a notice of special restrictions, there's some other way to codify whether it's permanent whatever or a period of years, 25 years or whatever, is that something you'd be willing to entertain

that discussion, as willing to record this as a below market rate unit or something that could be withdrawn at any time? >> so the answer's yes, and again, this is in the slide. thank you for reading my brief. i put a lot of time into that, and i appreciate you getting into the weeds. when i started the project two years ago, i had two a.d.u.s. i started to learn a distinction, so i actually have e-mails to jeff horn last february, where i said jeff, could you introduce me to two members of your team that could speak to me about affordable housing, and they were fantastic. i reached out to the city attorney, and i filled out an application, what do i do? everywhere in my paperwork, i

put these would be deed restricted. my understanding is this would be 70 years. i have no problem putting deeds on both problems, with property restrictions keeping both of these in the program. one of the challenges, when i reached out, no one has ever seen this before, and folks have said, why do you want to do this? it's been a bit of a challenge trying to figure out. >> commissioner tanner: as a professional bureaucrat, we see that it can be a challenge, so thank you for thinking about it, and i know that perhaps with some time, the city can figure out what that looks like and how to potentially develop that into a new program. so i just want to make a few comments before hearing from my fellow commissioners. i spent a lot of time looking at this report and these briefs, and i looked at the

spac spaces of the property and in the rear regard. as i looked at what it would provide, for the specific location of this property on a corner lot, to me, this seems like an ideal location to use our variances and to allow a variance in order to facilitate this project. i think it is consistent with design and development we see in this neighborhood. i feel that it is consistent with past decisions that we've made, even though mr. teague doesn't feel quite the same way, but i feel it's certainly consistent with our general plan and the goals that we continue to set as a city and continue to talk about. we have a lot of rh-2 and rh-3

properties, and we need to help them reach their full potential, and i know that planning and mohcd can figure out how to make that work and make it manageable. managing these type of distributed units it be a challenge. it does take some time and some thought, which i still think needs to be put into this project, quite frankly, to meet the parameters that we have. and then lastly, figuring out how to do projects like this is what will allow san francisco to keep its vocal control and meet our housing needs on our terms. these are my thoughts and what i'm thinking about at this moment. i do think it needs some more work on how the housing affordable would work and how it's going to ensure in

perpetuity, and i'd be curiosoy comments, and i'm looking forward to what my fellow commissioners have to say. >> president koppel: commissioner imperial. >> commissioner imperial: thank you, and thank you, commissioner tanner, for those questions andme comments, as well. and for mr. teague's introduction, as i look into this development, as well, i'm -- you know -- and we've had this previous discussion when we're looking into the a.d.u. legislative proposal and how we all had a discussion in terms of the midblock open space. and i do find the findings of the planning department valid and in compliance with our general plan. again, when we talk about variance requirement and with

this particular project, it will impact the rezoning, which is not going to be a good process for us in terms of we're trying to look into community planning. i think that a rezoning will definitely need to have a different kind of planning process, as well. in terms of the, you know, the a.d.u. as being presented as affordable housing, again, that's something that, you know -- the a.d.u. program that we right now is appropriate, but this a.d.u. proposal that's being -- at the same time having to require variance, as well, again, it does not meet the compliance. i'm -- you know, i'm kind -- i do appreciate the project sponsor's application of

affordable housing. at the same time [inaudible] for me, for this particular project is the open space and the liveability of this. even if you put the a.d.u., it will still not be code compliant and liveable for the people that will be living here, so i do find -- so i am more leaning to -- more for the planning department's recommendation in this approval. >> president koppel: commissioner moore? >> vice president moore: thank you to staff, thank you to the public, and thank you to commissioner tanner for sharing her views.

i believe that there is an imbalance that's hard to accept in light of the fact that the project, given current conditions, does not meet the possibility for an a.d.u. on the substandard subdivided lot, and a.d.u.s on noncompliant lots will not be possible but further reduces any contribution of new affordable to the project at hand. what surprises me is if the applicant has worked with small, as i said, on [inaudible] issue, why nobody has helped him to understand the code provisions that apply to a corner lot in rh-2 together with a rear yard requirement. it's a long time between february and today, when those -- the understanding of those restrictions could have

easily brought this project in a redesign, which may be appro approvable if it would have been approached a different way. i am in support of all the provisions that the department has identified, from eliminating, completely eliminating rear yards to not being compliant with the [inaudible] to being not consistent with the general plan provisions to not being in compliance with residential design guidelines, so i am in support of the department's recommendation of denial, but i would be interested in pursuing the applicant to make a second tack at how to identify the project in a manner that meets

our current code requirements, and i'm also curious to support commissioner tanner to see us develop, not in response to a particular project, affordability and below market wages using the metrics for smaller residential projects below the number to which we're currently responding. sorry. i'm losing my voice. thank you. >> president koppel: commissioner diamond? >> commissioner diamond: so i -- i would like to comment both on the substantive and procedural aspects of this application. from a substantive perspective, i could see supporting the increased density on the west side of the city and in our

neighborhoods, and this project certainly does that, although perhaps a little too much of it, but it certainly does propose increased density, but i'm also not in favor of eliminating backyards entirely, especially when the market rate unit gets to have the upstairs deck, but the rest of the units end up having no outdoor space whatever. on a procedural level, even if we wanted to increase the density, i don't think this is the way we could do it, through multiple variances and a conditional use permit. i think we should be looking to increase density on corner lots through policy changes; that i don't like the idea of ad hoc one-off negotiations at what level of viability, how we're going to do the b.m.r.s and

have this be negotiation on every parcel that's brought to us. i think it makes a great deal of sense to think about increasing density and having affordable died together and doing it on corner lots, but at a policy level first so we can implement it with consistency and predictability so that neighbors know this could happen. i am interested in knowing from director hillis whether there is the kind of policy change that might already be in the works or that you're considering or if you would consider. if you could weigh-in on that, that would be great help. >> director hillis: yeah, and commissioners, thank you for the robust discussion because i think, like you, we spent a lot of time thinking about this because it does present some interesting opportunities like you talked about, like increasing densities on corner lots. we are definitely kicking

around -- it was a recommendation in the city's economic recovery task force. it provides b.m.r.s in smaller scale projects as commissioner imperial and moore talked about, which we haven't seen -- it would be to figure out a vehicle to do. i think we've seen historically that corner lots have been built out throughout the high with higher density. either taller buildings or projects like that which can expand on the facing front open space on a corner lot. so absolutely, this is kind of our look at future housing opportunities as we look to

develop effectively in the city and look to neighborhoods that we haven't especially developed in, especially affordable housing. >> commissioner diamond: that's true. well, i'm delighted to know that you're looking at the policy changes. i think they're important, and we should be adopting them as policy or legislation, so that it's not done on an ad hoc basis. i am also okay if the developer wants to continue to work with

the developer on a project that is more code compliant, retains more open space and tries to expand the density in a way that doesn't obtain the significant number of variances that this project would require. >> president koppel: i am leaning towards agreeing requewith commissioner diamond on this, along with agreeing with director hillis that corner lots can be more developed for visual appearance. i do want to see more units where we can have them, so i don't think this project is worth shooting down, and i do believe this -- with some more careful work with the department, we could maybe get somewhere that more people are comfortable with. commissioner moore? >> vice president moore: mr. teague, could you give us a

moment and guide us through what's in front of us is a c.u. would this project basically expand on its existing footprint, still kind of expanding on rear yard requirements, and expand if it would not require a c.u. is there neighborhood [inaudible] into a d.r., correct? >> i'm not sure i understood the question at the end. could you restate that? >> if the project would expand in its current envelope, it would not be a c.u., it would become, if neighbors object, a d.r., correct? >> potentially, yes. there's still triggers, but yes, if it stayed within the parameters of the code, it

would not trigger the site, and it would be open for discretionary review from the neighbors. >> vice president moore: the reason that i'm asking is because we would deny what's in front of us and have the project sponsor independently work on what he sees necessary for a compliant project and get more affordable units she decide that's the way to go forward. >> director hillis: just if i could add in the corona heights special use district, one thing that's tricky is the 3,000 square foot limit applies to any building, so it's kind of regardless of the units, so, you know, it applies to a single-family home or a three-unit building or a two-unit building with an a.d.u. so it would be difficult to

even do something on the existing building and not trigger that c.u. >> vice president moore: just because the existing already has that limit at 2960 square foot. >> director hillis: i believe so, yes. >> vice president moore: i think the only possibility we have with this project is to basically disapprove the project and send it on its way, whatever it tries to do in the future. >> president koppel: commissioner diamond? >> commissioner diamond: if we trim the project down, are there limitations on how long the project sponsor has to wait before submitting a different project? >> director hillis: i think it's a year. >> it's a year before they can come back with essentially the same project. there's no limit on the time for them to come back with a

project that is not essentially the same project. so if they come back with something that is substantially different, there would be no time limit. >> commissioner diamond: so if we turned it down, they could apply next week for a project that expanded the existing building, had a cottage in the back, went taller, basically, anything that would get increasing density? >> yeah, correct. >> director hillis: yeah, but i think that also, the case on that would be one, if they -- in essence, they need to split the lot to get -- you know, to go beyond what's, in essence, it's the rh-2 zoning. they could add an a.d.u. to the building and perhaps expand, but you couldn't get four units or more if you didn't do a variance on this lot, and it would also entail additional

noticing, so i think if we're interested in looking at a variation of the lot, it's best to continue. >> commissioner diamond: okay. so if he wanted to come back with a much smaller project compared to what he has now, we could do that either through a continuance or through another application? is that what i'm hearing? >> director hillis: correct, although i'd recommend if itwe continue it with direction. >> president koppel: commissioner tanner? >> commissioner tanner: i think the idea to continue it makes some sense. one of the things that i want thinking about, if there was a subdivision to get greater density, and they did build another building on the resulting subdivided lot that was compliant with rear yards,

i don't know if the sense -- if the 1200 square foot rear cottage still allows? would there be any time limitation between when the primary units are built and when that type of rear yard cottage could be applied for? >> if i'm understanding your question, if they were to propose this -- and i guess this could go for any project, but if you propose a project that includes a rear yard, at what point could you apply for the permitted rear cottage a.d.u., and that's a good question. >> commissioner tanner: right. >> i don't know that there would be a limit on that because it's already permitted within that context, so we'd have to look into that a little bit more to see if the specific level gets to that level of did he -- detail getts to that levl

or if it would be required to be constructed first. >> commissioner tanner: to some degree, it's not needed because that legislation still needs to go to the board and get passed, so it may not be 1200 square feet, it may be a different designation. but the scare is that could happen here. a lot is split, a new two-unit building is built, and sometime later, that rear yart goes away. so trying to work with the department on a building typology here that does add density without some of the negatives that this project brings, maybe there is more open space, useable open space in the property, whether it's a combination of roof decks or rear yards, to me, would be definitely desirable and certainly i'd like to see, but

i think a building would -- it would be a two-step thing where first there's a building and later on it's a cottage. i certainly would support a continuance if the department feels that there is work to be done to develop this proposal further. >> president koppel: commissioner imperial? >> commissioner imperial: thank you. i'm more -- for me, the continuance is, you know, for how long because it looks like he -- the project sponsor will have to come up with a new project in terms of this development. i'm -- i'm -- my hesitation is that it may take more time and, you know, if we are rushing it for a continuance, you know, what's the appropriate timeline

for this -- you know, for this kind of development? and again, the project sponsor will have to work with or have to do outreach with the community again, so that's my hesitation when it comes to continuance. i'd rather go through disapproval and have the project sponsor go through the application where the development or the project is actually better presented to us and has also work as well with the community and with our department. >> president koppel: commissioner diamond? >> clerk: commissioner diamond, you're muted? >> commissioner diamond: commissioner tanner raised a real point of concern for me,

and that is if we do approve a smaller building on this lot, whether or not the board of supervisors passes legislation the state has already indicated that, under state law, he could build a 1200 square foot a.d.u. in the back which would defy the issue which many of us are worried about, which is no backyard, no open space. so i am very worried about that, and i don't know that, in light of that, that a continuance is the right answer. i'm really struggling with that because that would completely negate what we're trying to accomplish here. >> president koppel: commissioner moore? >> vice president moore: mr. horn, i have a question for you. did i misread a statement in your report that the applicant was aware that the project

would need approval and additional work, but that she did not want to do that. is that correct? i cannot hear you clerk cle. >> clerk: yeah, you're muted. >> correct. in a plan check from the first kind of whole complete review of the project was issued last spring, and actually, this project went through a project review meeting in august 2019 with myself, david winslow, principal staff architect, and a member of the a.d.u. staff. at that plan check and meeting, these concerns about the plan checks, intensity of development and potential impact to rear yard of the adjacent property and rear yard open space have been provided to the project sponsor, which is part of the reason we're at today's hearing. with disapproval, we have given

alternatives that we feel that could work as a project at this site, and the sponsor, for his own reasons, has not found an alternative that works for the project that he would like to -- like to develop, which is why he requested to go forward with a hearing, knowing that the conversation between planning staff and the project sponsor was not going to evolve to a place where staff was in support of would be presented to us. >> vice president moore: i'd like to state to the commission that [inaudible] by us continuing it, we won't have to ask the project sponsor if what mr. horn just summarized from august 2019 and the position in

general is enough for the project sponsor to reconsider the guidance that we [inaudible] to approve a project that's not in front of us today. that's a question that i'd like to ask the applicant. is the applicant prepared to sit down and work out what is doable or is there basically a resistance to want to go down that path? >> can you hear me? >> vice president moore: yes, i can. >> so no resistance. so got the plan check letter in april and have spent the last six months, trying to figure something out. one set of designs has the top two floors pulled back 5 feet from the rear yard lot line. my most recent adjustment was

to get rid of the fourth floor. jeff and i worked closely over the last few months. ultimately, the planning department said i could move the building back five, 10 feet, and add the two a.d.u.s to the existing building. the problem i have is i cannot financially swing that, but i'm willing to go work with the planning department on something smaller. i just can't do the one that was in the letter, which is just the -- i think like the five-foot, ten-foot bump out, which jeff knows better than me. >> vice president moore: let me just say, the planning commission ultimately has the authority to provide a continuance on your project. the planning department is

pretty much following, with a lot of creativity, the rules that there are. i am prepared to support a continuance with the direction that you use every possible way on your end to work with what the planning department can and cannot do, and then, the project will still come back to the planning commission, but i still know there is enough banded wi bandwidth and creativity within that department to come back with something that we would approve. so that said, i'm prepared to continue this project with the provisions that there's a

constructive engagement with what the planning department can and cannot do. i don't know exactly all the details. 5 feet here, 5 feet there. that is the planning department's call, and i'd just send all of you on the merry journey that meets all of the requirements on affordable, social racial equity but also something that is approvable under the code constraints and rules that we have. that is a motion, a continuance with perhaps mr. ionin giving us a time frame or mr. horn giving us a timeline. >> clerk: commissioner moore,

it might be worth it to simply continue this matter indefinitely so that it does trigger another notice requirement for the neighborhood, but if you did want to continue it, i would suggest nothing less than three months. >> vice president moore: no, i am not willing to continue ththi this -- i am prepared to continue it in the good hands of mr. horn indefinitely and have him shape the process based on everything else that has to come together. >> clerk: very good. is that amenable to the seconder? >> commissioner tanner: that is, yes. >> clerk: excellent. i did see commissioner tanner and chan still wanting to chime in. >> commissioner tanner: everything i was going to bring up was what commissioner moore just brought up, which was the timing and how long for the continuance, and that was just

discussed. and the only other thing i was thinking is just an idea, and i'm sure that mr. horn and the planners could come up with something better with an existing design that may have a more open space on the lot that is split. i think the staff are very creative and can work with the applicant for these types of ideas. >> president koppel: commissioner chan? >> commissioner chan: i just wanted to make the point that i am in support of the indefinite continuance, but i want it to come back to us for a longer conversation of [inaudible]. >> vice president moore: yes. commissioner chan, i actually think that that could be an

ongoing discussion as we need to get into the weeds of that, any way, so i think that's a great idea. >> president koppel: anything else, zoning administrator teague? >> sure, thank you. i've laid out the rationale of why i think this is a challenging project as proposed for a variance. i'm happy to follow the commission's lead on a continuance, if that's the path you want to go down. i just want to point out the challenge here, which is the goal seems to be to increase the density, but it is a site of a certain size, and within a certain context, and a lot of the comments that we've heard and i have given, as well, is going to be very tight on this site to be able to provide a certain amount of density while meeting a number of other

requirements, whether it be design context, open space, a certain amount of rear yard, etc., so it's definitely possible so get somewhere with some kind of alternative, but you have this conflict between everything just trying to be achieved for this project. >> clerk: okay. commissioners. i think we've reached a conclusion. there is a motion that has been seconded to continue this matter indefinitely with a lot of direction to the project applicant. on that motion -- [roll call]

>> clerk: so moved, commissioners. that motion passes unanimously, 7-0 and concludes your hearing today. zoning administrator, what say you? >> i'll also continue the associated variance indefinitely. >> clerk: thank you, zoning administrator, and that is the end of your day today, commissioners. i congratulate you and wish you all a happy thanksgiving. >> president koppel: we're adjourn. >> vice president moore: thank you. thank you very much. >> director hillis: everybody have a zoom thanksgiving.

>> chair ronen: good morning. the meeting will come to order. welcome to the november 30th, 2020, meeting of the rules committee. i'm supervisor hillary ronen. with me on the video conference is vice chair supervisor catherine stefani and rules committee member supervisor gordon mar. our clerk today is victor young. i'd like to thank sfgov tv for staffing the meeting. mr. clerk, do you have any announcements? >> clerk: yes. due to the covid-19 health emergency and to protect board members and employees and the public, the board of supervisors committee room are closed. committee members will attend the meeting through video conferencing and participate to the same extent as if they are physically present. public comment will be available on each item on the agenda, both channel 26 and sfgovtv.org are

streaming the number across the screen. you can offer public comment by calling (415)655-0001. again that's (415)655-000 (415). the meeting i.d. is 146 045 2296. again that is 146 045 2296. then press pound and pound again. you will hear the meeting discussion and will be muted and in listening mode only. when the item of interest comes up, dial star 3 to be added to the speaker line. call from a quiet location, please clearly and slowly and turn your television or radio down. you may submit public comment via email to myself at victo

victor.young sfgog.org. that completes my initial announcements. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. i just wanted to mention that i'm very, very excited about the items on the agenda today. we have items that both acknowledge and bring some justice to two communities, the american indian community and the african-american community in san francisco, that it has been denied justice for a very long time. so i just wanted to recognize the historic importance of today's rules committee meeting. and with that, mr. clerk, can you please read item number 1. >> clerk: yes. item number 1 a motion amending the rules of order of board of supervisors by adding rule 4.7.1 to require the president to read a statement acknowledging the

ramaytush ohlone community. >> chair ronen: thank you very much. this is appear motion that i'm sponsoring that wool amend the rules of order, of the board of supervisors, by adding a new rule that would require the president of the board to read a statementing recognizing ramaytush ohlone. this is a time when we must not only celebrate the history and contributions of native people, but also engage in the critical work of recognizing and repairing the generations of harm caused to native communities at the hands of our own government institutions. it is undeniable that our own city of san francisco has been -- complicit in the marginalization of people -- to

systemic underfunding of american indian organizations. the board of supervisors has a duty to honor the first people of san francisco, ramaytush ohlone nation by recognizing their continued relationship to this land of which we are guests. this motion would require the inclusion of a land acknowledgment statement at every public board of supervisors meeting, as a way to recognize the presence and power of san francisco's american indian residents. and inspire others to take action in support of native communities. the proposed statement, which was authored and approved by members of the ramaytush ohlone community, reads as follows. the san francisco board of supervisors acknowledges that we are the unseated ancestral homeland of the ramaytush ohlone, the original nal inhabitants of the san francisco peninsula. in accordance with their tradition, the ramaytush ohlone have never seated, lost or

forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place. as well as for all people to reside in their traditional territory. as guests, we recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. we wish to pay respects by acknowledging the ancestors, elders and members of the ramaytush ohlone community and by affirming their sovereign rights as first peoples. in the coming weeks, we plan to expand upon these efforts by working with american indian community leaders to introduce a city ordinance that would require the use of the statement during the public meetings of all city, boards, committing and commissions. i would like to express my deepest expression to agrees of ramaytush ohlone and the american indian cultural district for developing the statement and their tireless advocacy on behalf of the san francisco's american indian community. i also want to give a special

acknowledgment and huge thanks to paul mohay from my office, who worked very, very closely with this community on this item, as well as the next item, the american indian cultural district. and with that i wanted to see if any of my colleagues had any remarks. we also have cheryl davis here from the -- the director of the human rights commission in case she wanted to say anything before opening this item up for public comment. anything? okay. i don't see anyone. supervisor -- oh, director davis, did you have any comments? >> i just wanted to thank you and your office for your leadership in bringing this forward. and also to recognize sharah and greg. they were amazing and have just been pushing through.

and i think coming off of thanksgiving, but false a day of remembrance and having all of these different emotions and feelings about how we engage and how we see people, i think this is really a new habit that i'm hoping will become so automatic, that we just, you know, realize that we haven't done it, so thank you for your leadership on this. >> chair ronen: thank you, director davis. supervisor walton, who has joined us in the committee. googood morning, supervisor wal. >> supervisor walton: good morning, chair ronen. i want to thank you for bringing this forward. this is something that we should be doing at our board meetings. and i appreciate you for taking that step to make sure that it's indoctrinated in our rules. so thank you. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. oh, supervisor mar. >> supervisor mar: yeah. thanks, chair ronen. i also just wanted to thank you for your leadership on this issue.

and for working -- and also for the leaders of the community for working with you on this. and i would love to be added as a co-sponsor. >> chair ronen: thank you, supervisor mar. supervisor stefani. >> supervisor stefani: i, too, want to thank you for your leadership on this. i think it's so important. and, you know, for the healing to begin over what happened is -- is actually that i think is required and i just appreciate it. i think it's really good to do. so thank you. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. and i'll just mention that i feel incredibly privileged to be bringing this forward, but this statement and this effort has been led by and created by the ramaytush ohlone community. and i feel almost like a vessel to bring it forward. but it's really their leadership that i feel so grateful for. so thank you for all of the acknowledgment. really all of the acknowledgment

goes to the incredible community of survivors and advocates. so thank you so much. and with that, if we could open this item up for public comment. >> clerk: oh, yes. members of the public who wish to provide public comment on this item should call (415)655-0001. sorry about that. i was just disconnected from my computer. i am on my phone right now. so i am on my phone right now. members of the public who wish to provide public comment on

this item, should call (415)655-0001. the meeting i.d. is 146 045 2296. then press pound and partnership -- pound again. please dial star 3 to line up to speak. a system prompt will indicate you have raised your hand. please wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted and you may begin your comment. mr. coup, do you have any members of the public for public comment at this time? >> yes, i do have three > callers on the queue. >> caller: hi, this is april mcgill. i'm the executive director of the american indian cultural center. and i just want to say thank you to everyone who has supported this. and all of the hard work that shariah has done and also to

greg castro. i think it's really important as we think about today being the last day of native american heritage month and thinking about all of the things that have happened in history and, you know, we think about all of the things that have happened in the year in 2020. and how we need to continue to be united and come together to really help each other. i think that acknowledging the ramaytush ohlone people and this land acknowledgment is so important. and i think that it follows a lot of the other -- what was discussed. i want to say thank you to everyone who has worked hard with supervisor ronen, cheryl davis and all of the other allies. the american indian community has been asking for this for a very long time, to support our relatives. i want to thank you for the support. >> clerk: thank you. can we have the next caller,

please. >> caller: good morning, everyone. my name is shariah. i'm the director for the american indian culture. i want to mimic the message april just said and thank supervisor ronen and really thank paul. i can't count the number of times he called me on the weekends or week nights or just text to really get this done. soy just want to appreciate him and director davis and the efforts of the human rights commission as well. you know, my brother greg for his excellent work. he's a board member with us and for getting this passed. i really hope that every time you read this, i know i've said this over and over again, this is a reminder that we're here and this is a reminder of those survivors, those few folks that came from the original thousands of the ramaytush ohlone. and that were alive and that folks still continue to talk about. i say this from the ramaytush ohlone acknowledgment. it's a start of acknowledging all of our people.

and so -- and i also want to acknowledge my sister april. this isn't just myself and the ramaytush ohlone folks. you know, when people like her and other people in our community have been pushing this for a really long time. this is just now gaining momentum. i want to put this on your plate. this isn't new. this isn't something that myself or greg came up with. it's been in the works for generations. and just today we're doing this. so just thank you, supervisor ronen, thank you, everyone. i hope this is a starting point to greater conversations that really, really need to be had as we leave this time of native american heritage month. it's not just for this month. it's for moving forward. >> clerk: thank you. can we have the next caller, please. >> caller: yes. hello. i'm a member of the california tribe. and i thank everybody around the table for acknowledging this and

i thank -- and i echo the voices of april mcgill and shariah souza. and also for the tireless work of greg castro for the land acknowledgment, for the ramaytush ohlone people. again this has been a long time coming. and bringing it forward now, during this time of this month of native american heritage month is most positive. and the most innovative way for us to open up those and to prepare -- repair those -- from old centuries up until today. this year has been a very crazy and very uncertainty year for all of us. so this is very good that this is going forward. and i also thank even behind the scenes of jonathan cordero, even though he hasn't been doing most of the work. but i think the ramaytush ohlone

people also allowing us to be, you know, cousins and ancestors to all here today. so i thank you for moving forward on this land acknowledgment. thank you. >> clerk: thank you. can i have the next caller, please. >> operator: madam chair, that completes the queue. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. public comment is closed. thank you so much. and i do want to also thank april mcgill, who has been serving your community and fighting for the justice you so much deserve for so long. and was so good to hear your voice. and very excited to move this forward. and so i would love to make the motion to move this item forward with positive recommendation. is that how we move forward

motions? i have never moved a motion forward in committee before? >> clerk: yes, it is. >> chair ronen: okay. >> clerk: a recommendation to the full board. >> chair ronen: perfect. if we can have a roll call vote. >> clerk: on that motion, supervisor stefani. >> supervisor stefani: aye. >> clerk: supervisor mar. >> supervisor mar: aye. >> clerk: chair ronen. >> chair ronen: aye. >> clerk: the motion passes without objection. >> chair ronen: all right. thank you so much. can you please read item number 2. >> clerk: item number 2 is an ordinance amending the administrative code to expand the boundaries of the american indian cultural district, and provide additional details regarding the cultural and historical significance of the district. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. and this is another one of my items that we'll seek to broaden the boundaries of san

francisco's american indian cultural district, which was established by the board in april of this year. cultural districts are one of the most important tools we have as a city to strengthen the cultural identities of neighborhoods and communities, that face the pressures of gentrification of displacement. few communities in the country that have experienced disappointing as profoundly as the american indian community. the recently formed district, which is situated within the mission district and mission dolores neighborhood, in an area that spans both districts 8 and 9, provides a recognized home base for the american indian community, to ensure the history or communications are not for gotten or overwritten. we've been working with supervisor mandelman and several stakeholders to propose slightly expanded boundaries for the cultural district, than what was included in the original version of the legislation that the board approved. due to covid and the urgent need to establish this cultural district, in order to channel city resources to the american

indian community as quickly as possible, we decided to approve with the original boundaries and revisit expanding the boundaries through an amendment, once things stabilized a bit more. now that most functions are back in operations, we're following through with the commitment to recognize the -- roughly bounded by 17th street, market street, dubois avenue and fulton street. at the november preliminary hearing, the historic preservation commission unanimously recommended approval of the expanded cultural district boundaries, with an additional mod physician to include mission dolores park as part of the american indian cultural district, which has the support of the american indian community leaders. so today i will be introducing an additional amendment to recognize dolores park as a part of the expanded cultural district boundaries, that have been proposed, which will require a continuance to next week's rules committee for a final committee action.

dolores park and 9 broader area are defined as part of the cultural district, hold a unique concentration of school resourceses and services and gathering spaces that of significant, present and historical importance to the american indian communities and the san francisco bay area. it is again my great honor to partner with many leaders to bring this important and historical cultural district to fruition, especially at a time when they're playing a critical role in connecting our communities to the resources and information they need to navigate the ongoing public health crisis. and again a special thanks to paul from my office, who has put his heart and soul into this cultural district from the moment he began working in my office. so thank you so much, paul, for your extraordinary work. and with that i'll call on supervisor stefani. >> supervisor stefani: thank

you, chair ronen. first of all, i just want to thank you for all of the work you've done on establishing cultural districts throughout san francisco and the underlying policy. i think this is obviously such a good thing to do for the reasons you mentioned. i would love to add my name as a co-sponsor. >> chair ronen: thank you so much, supervisor stefani. and with that, we can open up this item to public comment. >> clerk: yes. members of the public who wish to provide public comment on this item, should call (415)655-0001, the meeting i.d. is 146 045 2296. and then press pound and pound again. if you haven't already done so, please dial star 3 to line up to speak. a system prompt will indicate you have raised your hand. please wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted and may begin your comments. mr. coup, do we have any members

of the public for public comment? >> operator: yes, i have five callers in the queue. >> caller: good morning. my name is greg castro. i'm the principal consultant for the ramaytush ohlone. sorry my phone wasn't earlier, that i couldn't comment on the much-appreciated resolution for the land acknowledgment earlier. but this item is equally important to us, as ramaytush ohlone and members of the native american community herer in san francisco. as much as of the peninsula -- the dor es park has cultural sites on it, and other significant places that are very important to us. and so we would, you know, be very appreciative of the

expansion of the district into that area, so that we can give some special recognition and attention to that place, along with the other places within the clearly -- cultural district. on the behalf of the ramaytush ohlone, i want to thank the board of supervisors, supervisors ronen, davis and the others and plus their staff that have promoted both of these issues. and hopefully you'll move them forward and provide a more integrated welcoming place for the american indian community here in san francisco. thank you. >> clerk: thank you. can we have the next caller, please. >> caller: yeah. this is april mcgill. i'm the executive director of the american indian cultural center. i'm also a board member of the -- [indiscernible] tribe. i to want to acknowledge that

worked really hard on this expansion, which is paul and shariah, who really worked hard on the mapping. and mary jean roberts, debby santiago and the rest of the community, the american indian community that looked at the district. san francisco is home to the ohlone and we consider the whole city a sacred site, special places of our gathering places. so for this expansion, this is the original expansion that we had proposed. it's really a small expansion when you think about it. and being that today is the last day of november, which represents native american heritage month, i would hope that this would finally get approved. i also would just like to say that it's really important for those to always remember the first people here, when making

any decisions on land and giving back to communities. because american indians are the one who have the least here. we're fighting for our cultural center. we're the only community that doesn't have an american indian cultural center. cultural district is opening up so much for the american indian community. and i really want to say that and for all of you to think about, because as we're looking at budgets in the future and we're looking at that, we need to think about american indians first, because it's 2020. and we're just now having these. yes, these are great things that are happening. but it's our time. it's time for that. and so i just want to say thank you to all of the support from our black relatives, latinx communities, dolores park. folks who supported us. >> clerk: your time has elapsed. thank you very much. can we have the next caller,

please. >> caller: hello, everyone. this is shariah again, executive director for american indian cultural district. i want to give people a little bit of context on why we didn't necessarily expand this area initially, as we were doing our mapping. mention a couple of folks who have been really key to outlining our district area. and that's really because, you know, we wanted to have that approval and that green light from the ramaytush ohlone relatives, given the high, high sensitivity of this area in our cultural district. as you move forward and think about whether or not you want to pass this motion, just really think about the historical and cultural significance of the particular mission. you know, the average lifespan of ten years of slavery, you know, the removed relatives from the area that have passed away. the average lifespan and all of the things that are associated with the mission district and what we've done.

i know we're about to move on the conversation of reparations for another community. when you think about whose hand you're on, start here, too. think about the reparations for the communities, the people you currently sit on -- the land you've been living on and, you know, as part of the communities that you serve. so when you think of that, think of these expansions hopefully as a starting point. think of our sacred waterways. as april said, a lot of the city is sacred. think of the cultural sites that have been destroyed and developed on. think what you can do in your district as different supervisors, those reparations, our communities. while not just for native american heritage month, but as moving forward. so i just want to say thank you to ramaytush ohlone relatives for allowing the culture and take this on and letting folks know this is the ramaytush expansion. anything along the waterways, and honor those people as we should. thank you again, supervisor ronen and all of the other supervisors that have played a part in this.

i think i know supervisor peskin has offered to work with us as well and supervisor mandelman, of course, this is your area. thank you for your support on this. and we're excited to continue to build out this district for future generations. thank you. >> clerk: thank you. can we have the next caller, please. >> caller: good morning. my name is mary travis ellen. i was recently elected as the board president for the american indian cultural district. i want to thank everybody for your support today. what has just been passed and what we're anticipating will be supported going forward. san francisco was built on ramaytush land. like in all parts of this continent, as well as central and south american, the native people were on the land to begin

with. the land was taken. here in california, with the disguise of religion, it was taken from the people in the name of god. we need this cultural district to permanently recognize the original people and contain all of the things that revitalize and provide supports for our communities. the youth, families and elders. we respect all other communities that have had communities established. but we can seek -- when we speak of equality, you cannot speak of unless you recognize the original land keepers. thank you very much for doing this support. but again we need to start this monumental task and, mind you, san francisco with its cultural district, it will be the first in the nation for the american

indian people, who have been here all along. thank you. and i anticipate your support of this effort. >> clerk: thank you. can we have the next caller, please. >> caller: oh, yes. hello. this is debby santiago again. i'm also a native san francisco here. and part of the mission has always been a part of the mission. and our people have been here for a long time. and my grandmother has come here in relocation. and during the early '20s. and so being raised here, born and raised, and knowing that we had shared land and laid on the land of the ramaytush ohlone people. our relatives that were, you know, brought here and shared a lot of different cultures between us.

so again i do urge that you move forward in this land and allow the cultural district, so we can be a -- the mission can be a part of our mapping in this way to future generations here and work along with our communities that sound us. and also those who have lived on the land. to acknowledge all that has been before. thank you to the supervisors and everybody involved around the circle. i thank you for this. i urge you to move forward in making this a possibility for the cultural district. i thank you. >> clerk: thank you. can we hear from the next caller, please. >> caller: good morning, supervisors. my name is dr. monique lesar. i'm a resident here on sacred

ramaytush ohlone land in san francisco. and fully support the land acknowledgment and support all of our relatives. my native community is from the east coast. and so i feel very honored to be on this land here in san francisco. this is so long overdue. and just the beginning of an acknowledgment. i hope that san francisco can be the first. and it's just the very beginning of the recognition and restoration of the broken treaties, promises and genocide and deaths of native american indian land. so i want to really implore us to stay the course and really listen to what our relatives are saying. and put their voices first. thank you so much. >> clerk: thank you. if you have not already done, so please press star 3 to be added to the queue to speak.

i believe we have one additional speaker. mr. coup, can we have the next speaker, please. >> caller: hello. >> clerk: hi. please proceed with your comment. >> caller: hi. yeah. my name is -- i would like to thank my sisters for inviting me on, for this space that you have. first of all, acknowledgment to you all and for having this discussion. if you look at me, i am of african descent, although i have native american blood in me. so we do share the same space. i am a relative of native americans, of india indians and

african descent. and i am fighting for the same cause for reparations and everything, because we were here. we want to stay here. we're not going anywhere. so the first -- whatever the first is, i am in it for my people. >> clerk: thank you. we're waiting for you -- if you have any additional comments? if you're done with your comment, mr. coup, do we have any additional callers? >> caller: hi. i'm the executive director of the resources institute. and i just would like to

acknowledge as a -- actually a native descent myself. when you look at me, you see african-american. my grandmother is cherokee and my other grandmother is -- [indiscernible]. to bring this to the table now is a long time coming, considering that this was our brothers and sisters land many years ago, that was taken from them. [indiscernible] and so acknowledging this now and all aspects is a blessing. it's a long time coming. so i do stand beside my sisters and brothers of native american descent in honoring their request. i just want to tell you thank you for those who took the time to work really hard on getting this person brought to the forefront now. thank you. >> clerk: thank you. mr. coup, do we have any

additional callers? >> caller: hi, my name is julian. i was bon and raised in san francisco. i'd like to speak on behalf of the asian community in offering our support for this first step of acknowledgment. and hope that you'll be able to continue to put substantive reparations for the land that we're so fortunate to occupy for so long. i yield the rest of my time. >> clerk: thank you. are there any additional callers? >> operator: madam chair, that completes the queue. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. thanks for all of the beautiful public comment. i neglected to invite up shelley from the c.p.c. to speak. shelley, are you still here? >> yes, i am. hi. hello, board members. my name is shelley.

i'm a member of the cultural district staff with the planning department. i'll be very brief. i just wanted to reiterate the historic preservation commission's strong support for this amendment. in conversation with community, prior to the historic reservation commission's hearing, we wanted to include dolores park as part of the boundary and the commission felt that that was very promote. and made a friendly amendment, recommended a friendly amendment to the board. so very happy to see you include that as well. and we understand that the final action will be at your next meeting. but we're happy to see that. and we're available for questions if you have any. and thank you to all the community members who spoke today. and thank you to the leadership of director souza and her staff and also to paul mohay. he was amazing in coordinating all of the details on the boundary. so thank you.

>> chair ronen: thank you so much. and i just wanted to make a final comment before introducing the motion to include dolores park in the cultural district boundaries. the importance of the cultural districts are bringing resources to communities that have been left out and pushed out of the city and county of san francisco. and we know that acknowledgment is the first step to making sure that we keep people where they are and bring people back to the historic communities, where they want to live and continue to advance their history and culture in this city. but it's not enough to just acknowledge. we have to steer resources and make sure that these communities

own and control land in the city, in order to make this commitment real. and that is the ultimate purpose of cultural districts is to bring land and resources to community has have been pushed out of the city. and that's why i think bringing these two items together, both the land acknowledgment and the expanded boundaries of the cultural district are -- have to work hand-in-hand together. and that's why the reparations conversations, spearheaded by supervisor walton and director cheryl davis is so important, because we can't just acknowledge without resources, land and power behind that acknowledgment. and so i'm so glad that the

cultural district comes up, it has taken off so well in san francisco and this it is working to help increase the power and land of historically -- historic communities that have built this city and then been pushed out of it. so we're undoing that. and i feel incredibly proud of that work. some with that i will make a motion to introduce the amendments that i emailed -- that paul, who would be spearheading this work, emailed to all of you in this committee to add dolores park. thanks to the historic preservation committee for their recommendation and that friendly amendment. if we can have a roll call vote on that motion, i would appreciate it. thank you so much. >> clerk: on the motion to amend the ordinance to include dolores

park, supervisor stefani. >> supervisor stefani: aye. >> clerk: supervisor mar. >> supervisor mar: aye. >> clerk: chair ronen. >> chair ronen: aye. >> clerk: the motion passes without objection. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. and then i would like to make a motion to continue this item to the december 7th meeting of the rules committee. >> clerk: on the motion to continue to the december 7th meeting, as amended, supervisor. >> supervisor stefani:. stefani aye. >> clerk: supervisor mar. >> supervisor mar: aye. >> clerk: chair ronen. >> chair ronen: aye. >> clerk: the motion passes without objection. >> chair ronen: thank you. and i know i should have made this comment beforehand, just wanted to thank our clerk angela for joining us here today on these items. thanks for being here and enjoying your support. i want to thank our former colleague vallie brown who is a

member of the american indian community and so supportive throughout all of these processes. and with that, can you please read item number 3. >> clerk: oh, yes. item number 3 is the ordinance amending the administrative code to establish the reparation advisory committee. examines current structural discrimination within san francisco, and proposes institutional reforms to guard against the need for future redress. just to note, i have received a request for a committee report on this matter. >> chair ronen: perfect. thank you. supervisor walton, would you like to start us off? >> supervisor walton: thank you so much, chair ronen, and to my colleagues for hearing this legislation this morning. i do appreciate, chair ronen

said it earlier. this is a day of making sure that we right some of the wrongs of history and continue to work for true equity here in san francisco. as you know, earlier this year burg black history month, i introduced a resolution number 376-20 supporting a reparations plan and advisory committee that was unanimously sponsored and passed by this board of supervisors in august. so i want to thank all of my colleagues as well. african-americans were enslaved in the united states from 1619 to 1865, when slavery officially ended, with the pass of the 13th amendment. our african-american community was red lined and sent to the outskirts of the city, where they lived in isolation. the united states of america and san francisco has a history of inflicting trauma on communities of color and that trauma continues to exist in the black community.

this can be the san francisco that we need to correct. i'd like to acknowledge the work from the human rights commission with director cheryl davis and her chief of staff, human rights commissioner lewis jones and also portions of black wall street, reverend amos brown, the entire black community and the bette-- burns' institute and heg over the past few months, by holding community forums and space together input on what a reparations plan i don't look like. i would also like to thank deputy city attorney for helping us draft this legislation. as part of the reparations efforts, this ordinance will formally create and establish a reparations advisory committee to develop and implement a reparations plan for the black community here in san francisco. the reparations advisory committee will have 15 members

of various expertise and experiences working and live income the african-american -- living in the african-american community. to research and develop a plan for san francisco. this is 100% appropriate time to ensure reparations for black people here in san francisco. with the commitment of resources, for the investment in the black community, with the unanimous passage of a reparations resolution here in san francisco, with the commitment from all communities to improve outcomes for black people here in san francisco, and with the organized collaboration of black people here in san francisco, the dreams of equity can only be realized with a reparations plan, that allows for wealth accumulation, generational opportunities and true community ownership. and now if it's appropriate, chair ronen, i'd like to bring up director cheryl davis, who has been an amazing partner in our work to achieve equity.

>> chair ronen: absolutely. really quick before we do this, our colleague supervisor stefani has to leave for an emergency. i'm going to make a motion to excuse supervisor stefani. can we take a roll call on that motion, victor. victor? sorry. is victor or -- >> i was on mute. my apologies. >> chair ronen: okay. >> clerk: on the motion to excuse supervisor stefani for the remainder of the meeting. supervisor mar.

>> supervisor mar: aye. >> clerk: supervisor ronen. >> chair ronen: aye. >> clerk: i believe that supervisor stefani will be excused from this meeting. >> chair ronen: thank you very much. >> clerk: i believe that motion passes to excuse you, supervisor stefani, with supervisor stefani excused from that vote. >> chair ronen: thank you, victor. thank you so much. sorry. yes, of course. director davis. >> thank you so much. really grateful for this opportunity to share a little bit. thank you so much, supervisor walton, for your leadership and partnership. i'm going to share a couple of -- a little bit more than a couple. but i'm going to share my screen. i thought it was interesting and i thought i'd share with you all the idea and notion of reparations and this idea that the impact of slavery has like

far exceeded the duration of slavery itself. and when i saw this background, it made me think about brown paper bag test, which was something that was for years where -- even within the black community, certain folks would say if you didn't pass the brown paper bag test, if your skin was darking than a brown paper bag, you couldn't be part of a group. it made me think about the willie lynch letter and the system was rigged to actually have african-americans or slaves fighting against each other to continue the work of slavery. there's so much that is embedded, that's been kept going, that needs to be addressed as we try to think about and design a plan for reparations for black san franciscans. this quote.

if we think that the issues of slavery are the issues of the past, then we are sadly mistaken. today's inequities that are put out are not dependent on intentional racism. it's not based on our personal racism or racist acts. it is baked into the system, as i shared earlier. it is embedded. and seeing that's something that happened hundreds of years ago is not going to be the solution to address that. 40 acres and a mule is a story that we heard often times. and the truth that was it was about 40 acres, the mule was a gift that was a little bit extra. it was a promise that was never made happen. never came to fruition, because

after the assassination of president lincoln, the new president disregarded the promise and returned the land to the confederate owners. the question is what does that look like in san francisco? right. this isn't just about the 40 acres and the mule. if we think about redevelopment, specifically in the western addition, where people were imminent domain to people's properties, where businesses were closed down, the harlem of the west was destroyed. what does it look like in san francisco. so part of what we're hoping will happen with the reparations task force, the advisory committee, is that we start with the facts and put them in context. again starting with the facts and understanding what was lost, what was stolen, what was taken. we know that black people came here and they built the ships, they worked on the shipyards. they really built up in so many ways the industry and the economics of this city. but they did not get the benefits from it. and it just takes me to the

poem. i always think about the poem. it was turned into a play "a raisin in the sun." this dream deferred of having, right, this greater life, right. and go from slavery, you experience the middle passage in terms of the culture, in terms of the people. slave labor, segregation, jim crow, civil rights, housing policies, the new jim crow. all of these things continue to happen, keep dreaming and what happens. and i personally believe he talked about in his poem or does it explode, right. i think a lot of what we're seeing happening now, from black lives matter to protests, the explosion of this dream deferred. and we have the opportunity now to begin to help people realize the dreams that was taken and stolen from them. so community input. we had several meetings

pre-pandemic. city hall, the o.m.i. lake view, the western addition. we had two virtual meetings with policy link. and then we've and some of the questions will

have to really ask and answer where. where do we start? right. do you start at education, economic development, justice reform. there was a lot of discussion just in the community members, meetings around like what the priorities are. are we talking about the lack of the ability to inherit wealth. if folks had actually been given 40 acres, what would that impact have been on their wealth and their income. what about liveable wage. what do we know about who -- their employment practices and what those were and the ability for folks, even when imminent domain came in and people were forced out of their homes. could they take the money that they had and go buy another home. and a lot of places black folks weren't allowed to buy houses here in the city. fair employment, the credit to buy a home, wealth building and even just previous from harassment and racism that we know built the american psychology association and the american medical association all come out and have said that

racism is a health issue. that it impacts mental and physical health. the other question that comes up who. how long does someone have to live in san francisco. do they even have to live in san francisco. does it include people pushed out and displaced. is it open to all income levels. really those conversations need to be had. and then what does it look like, too, when we talk about this. who are we engaging. are the leaders engaged. the folks that can actually make this happen. is there buy-in, is there a sense of urgency and then what. what does it look like. is it giving money to everyone. is it paying off student debt. we hear a lot from folks talking about being able to just make sure that their students, their young people go to college and not having to pay for that. i think the most important thing that we want is not transactional change, not just that we get to have another policy or another piece of paper or more things that people have said. but that we actually want to transform, we want

transformational. we want to create change in the structure. people had mentioned previously what this might look like for indigenous people, like if we are able to really develop a formula and have some ideas and strategies. what does it look like to embed them, move beyond transactional chain and really transformational change. to pull that out, as we do this, what are we doing. these are just a few points that came from a study about what successful change looks like. what transformational change looks like. well, first and foremost, creating this advisory committee, a powerful guiding coalition, assembling a committee, a group of committed folks, who are diverse in their experiences and their access to resources and not just connecting with the usual suspects, how do we get to some of the voices of people who may have some amazing ideas, but have never been invited to be part of the discussion. just sit at the table.

the vision piece. we have a lot of directives and plans and programs. but what's the vision. what is it that we hope to achieve. what do we want to see happen. what's the chloroand compel -- clear and compelling statement. do we want to make sure that people are building wealth. what are those things that we want to build out. support and resources, short-term goals are going to be really important. we need to make sure that in the short-term, because this is going to have a long shelf life, what are we doing to encourage and support each other and to make sure that this doesn't get put on the shelf and forgotten about. and then, lastly, it is going to be impossible to do this without taking risks. i thank supervisor walton again for making this list. we'll have so make some sacrifices, but most importantly collaboration between communities, between our elected officials and department heads

to actualize this. and to actually have this to show for it. so i'm excited about the potential. i am grateful for the community. i have to say, it has been -- i hear this with supervisor walton in a couple of other folks. like these community conversations and engagements. like the last few months, over 60 of those. it has been a lot. but i would say it has definitely been the highlight of my year, just to be in company with people to hear the hopefulness and to hear that people are excited to, i think as our american indian brothers and sisters mentioned, just to be seen, to feel heard. and the promise of something actually happening. so i'm just really grateful to be a part of this movement. so thank you all so much. >> chair ronen: thank you so much, director davis.

this is -- this is just such profound work and your leadership -- both you and supervisor walton has just been guiding this with so much brilliance and love and respect for your community. and it's just been something really beautiful to be proud of our city for. it's really -- it's really transformational. and just can't thank you more for your work, both of you on this. if i could be added as a co-sponsor to the item, it would be an honor. so thank you so much. supervisor stefani also mentioned that she was so sad that she has to leave, taking her son to the e.r. he's fine. he fell off his skateboard and the doctor suggests he goes in. she just said she really wanted to be here to vote on this item, because it really -- it is so extremely exciting. so just wanted to mention that

on her behalf. >> sorry. i would be remiss, too, if i didn't acknowledge and thank mayor breed for her leadership in this as well. i know i can't remember, supervisor walton, when it was that, you know, she told me and asked to give a call to make sure we were working and collaborating. i just want to acknowledge her. she's been behind the scenes pushing for this as well. so i just want to acknowledge that. >> chair ronen: absolutely. thank you so much, mayor breed, for all of your incredible work as well on this. thank you. supervisor walton, did you want to say anything more before we open this up for public comment? >> supervisor walton: thank you, chair ronen. just want to -- i did want to say thank you to mayor breed, as we worked on investing the resources from the police department and making the investment to the book community. we saw this as first step towards reparations. i do want to thank the mayor's

office for all of her work on that. [ please stand by ]

( starting in progress) p. >> if you could just turn off your tv or your radio, it would be appreciated. > i'm having a hard time hearing you. >> is that any better? [inaudible]

[inaudible] >> thank you. >> hello? [inaudible] >> hello? >> yes, we can hear you. please proceed.

you can proceed with you call, ma'am. >> hello, this is gwendolyn brown. i'm executive director... >> yes, please proceed. [there is no audio] >> i'm here with my support for the formation of this advisory board that will be giving out policies and procedures for preparations in san francisco. my participation is on

behalf of black homeowners who held a lot of wealth and equity here into o.m.i., being homeowners. about 20 years ago, a huge part of our population was pushed out and, um, moved into housing to abstain violence, and so i'm part of this -- i'm here to advocate for those folks that were victims of red-lining and being pushed out by policies, etc. so on behalf of all of my residents -- and i'm here to pledge my full support. so i appreciate having that time, and i yield my time. thank you. >> thank you. can we have the next caller, please. >> caller: good morning, susupervisors.

i thank so much. my name is dr. monique kazar (indescernable). today i represent (indescernable). reparations are vitally important for black san franciscans as the city and county has harmed the black communities with anti-black practices, with red-lining the war on drugs, discrimination practices, employment and labor, and is decades overdue for housing. reparations are necessary to apply to the hundred years of freedom. the november journal of american medicine states there has not been a single year since the

founding of the united states when black people in this country have not been sicker and died younger than white mothers. black mothers are three times as more likely to die from pregnant-related causes than white mothers. and the rate of premature deaths is 30% higher among black americans than white americans. the "new york times" states that this is a racial health divide. blacks cannot close the racial wealth gap by changing their individual behavior or by assuming more personal responsibility or acquiring the portfolio management insight associated with financial literacy. moreover, the racial wealth gap is not from a lack of labor, but from a lack of financial capital. i support mayor breed and her incredible work, and the incredible work of

director david, in reparations and demand reparations; it is time. >> chairman: time. can we have the next caller, please? >> caller: thank you so much. and thank you so much. my name is arnold townsend, reverend arnold townsend. obviously, i'm happy to see the city approaching this issue of reparations, and the treatment of black people historically in this city. i do want to say that while i think reparations for slavery is a national issue, and there should be national solutions for it, i must say that san francisco has its own legacy, racist legacy, to

stand on, which gives it reason enough to consider reparations without even a discussion of what happened in slavery. the reality is going back from the times when black san franciscans left this city to move to canada and other places because of the whole racism that existed here, where they took our wealth. and people will say, well, they paid you for it. they took our wealth and gave us money, and it's not the same thing. and we need to know that. it is important, though, that we also use this opportunity, as cheryl was talking about, to transform attitudes towards the african-american community and put out penalties for people who still carry

those attitudes and make them part of their work, and even part of their city work. to be proud that we're doing this, i think is the wrong approach, madam chair. we should be ashamed, one, that it happened, and certainly that it has taken this long. and no had we not uniquely come into a tragic situation that gave us the mayor that we have, and gave us the supervisor that we have -- >> chairman: that's time. thank you. can we have the next caller, please. >> caller: hi, good morning, supervisors. my name is randy seragucci, and i'm the executive director of the academy, and we're a non-profit down in the bay view, and looking to place one african-american male teacher in the elementary schools in the city. i want to say we

wholeheartedly support the formation of this advisory committee. it is long past due. we applaud the leadership of supervisor walton, director davis, and mayor breed's commitment to this work. it is refreshing to see that this is something being taken seriously and at this level. we look forward to the work that this committee will do. i'll say tha that that as a non-san franciscan native, someone who moved to this city from the east coast, i always had this image of san francisco as a progressive beacon, a place where everybody was treated with respect and had the same opportunities. it was surprising to learn as much as i have learned in the last of five years in my role doing this work. obviously, there are atrocities we can talk about across the board from the school system to the criminal justice system, etc., etc., but as was said by reverend

townsend,this is transformational work we are seeking to find and do and invest in. i think when you talk about the destruction, the red-lining of the policies that were enacted and affected in communities, there has to be a radical disruption and turn around with resources that will right the wrong and right the ship for generations to come. and for this to be that place that i think everybody wishes for it to be. so i applaud the opportunity for this vote and encourage the vote for the formation and proper investment in the community that has long past needed it, deserves it, and should be here for hundreds of years while this thrives as the city that it is and can be. thank you. >> chairman: thank you. can we have the next caller, please. >> caller: hi, my name

is mr. crawford. i'm the executive director of the new community foundation. i want to thank supervisor walton for this commission, and reverend brown, and the naacp, as well as the rules committee. we left ji jim crowe's south, and we never got our 40 acres and a mule. but we built 40 acres and a mule for ourselves. we became known around the world with a thriving economic corridor and potential to be one of the premier communities in the world. it is the highest ownership of homes among black people. and through systematic

racism -- as we're building our community, san francisco, through systematic racism had red-lining, and highways in bay view that isolated or communities, and demolition of communities. while we didn't get the 40 acree built our own 40 acres and a mule, and san francisco systematically destroyed our 40 acres and a mule. i'm encouraging this committee to create this advisory board. what happens in san francisco spreads around the country. when san francisco implemented urban removal to systematically remove black back from the inner city, the rest of the country followed suit. now it is time for san francisco to help undo this damage. what you do here in san francisco will spread visit the country. if we undo the harm, and give black people

reparations, you will see other cities across the world taking these initiatives. i encourage this rules committee and this board of supervisors to be bold and take this bold step. >> chairman: thank you. can we have the next caller, please. >> caller: hello, caller, you may proceed. [inaudible] >> caller: hi, my name is suzanna, and i'm a resident of san francisco. and i wanted to call today

to thank the supervisors for putting forth this measure. i firmly support the formation of this advisory committee and in general, the american economy was built on the backs of slave and neither they nor their ancestors was ever compensated for it. 40 acres and a mule was talked about, but it was never implemented. i think in particular, the city of san francisco has intentionally disinvested and harmed the black community through many types of anti-black practices, such as red-lining, war on drugs, anti-black discrimination, and others, and, therefore, i think that reparations are definitely necessary for black americans in san francisco. thank you for allowing me to speak today. >> chairman: thank you. may we have the next caller, please.

>> caller: good morning. my name is virginia marshall, and i'm president of the san francisco alliance of blacks who are educators. i want to thank the wonderful suffolk walton, mayor lo london breed. it is absolutely time that san francisco repay the debt of the harm that was caused when so many of our brothers and sisters had to move out of san francisco. i wasn't here when you talked about the grace fi filmore center, but it sounded so wonderful, black-owned business and black-owned homeowners, who were not allowed in san francisco 40 years ago. [inaudible] none of my two children can afford to rent a home, no less buy a home in san francisco.

we're all entitled and overdue for our 40 acres and a mule. the question is: what does that look like in 2021 and 2022. this will give every african-american in this city to reinvest in this city, to purchase a home, to have a wonderful community center, to have jobs, to further educate our children. there are so many things we can do to make us whole. so thank you for this opportunity. i encourage each of you to vote yes on this advisory committee board, and in a few years the world will look at san francisco and say, they did not just talk about it -- and it will be in the history book -- they actually gave reparations to settle

somewhat the harms that have been caused to the african-americans in this city. and this is one of the richest cities in the world. >> chairman: thank you. can we have the next caller, please. >> caller: good morning. i am the co-founder the s.f. black wall street. i would like to begin by thanking supervisor walton, mayor breed, and the members of the board for their time and their work. i think it is critical at this moment in time that san francisco stand in front and show the rest of the world how to invest in a community that has been intentionally harmed and displaced through policy and procedures for years and years. i've heard a lot of my

community colleagues and family members come on it'on theline and mention 40 acs and a mule, and while i appreciate that was a gesture that the government wanted to make for the black community, we deserve much, much more. we are committed to continue to fight the economic injustice in san francisco, for a real stake and what our city looks like now and will in the future. we cannot do that if we're not parts of the decision-making and policy process. i want to thank you all for your time. i want to thank you all for your commitment. and we are committed to standing with you to see this across the finish line, and to be able to provide the practical examples of what it looks like when economic justice is given to a community to be able to build and heal. thank you. >> chairman: thank you. can we have the next caller, please.

>> thank you. i am a native san franciscan. and this is a long time coming. thank you, san francisco leaders, district supervisors, jamal walton, the mayor, and mr. davis, for all of the work you have initiated and put into this, and the words you have said. there is no need to piggyback because we all know what needs to be done. and it doesn't have to take a long time because it is already on the books, what we need to do. we just have to take action and do it. san francisco is a very rich city, and you find money for everything else and for everybody else.

let's find find the money to do this because it is a long time coming, and it needs to be done. thank you. >> chairman: thank you. can we have the next caller, please? >> hi. i ms. greene. and i'm the director of (indescernable), which is a non-profit that we create that that is based here in the public housing area. i also am a member of s.f. block, and s.f. wall street. and repration reparations are vy important to the african-american community. i've been here to for six generations now. and the systematic racism with the policies and procedures put in place in

san francisco has been those that have kept black people from not gaining the wealth and the economic standing that they so much deserve. so the american economy was actually built on the backs are enslaved people, and neither them nor their ancestors have ever been compensated for it. and these same systems are still in place. i wanted to commend director davis, supervisor walton, and above all, our mayor breed for putting this motion into affect and bringing this to the forefront. no longer can we say that the white man is keeping us down. we can now say it is the systems that have been keeping black people down for so long. and now coming together to establish this african-american advisory, reparations advisory committee, is something that is very, very important. don't go with the myth of people can't work together. it is for you to stand strong and say, no, you know what? this is long overdue and

this is something that needs to work in order to benefit those, especially our children that are coming up behind us. because we no longer want to have the same conversation 15, 20 years from now of saying we are now going to establish an african-american reparations advisory committee again. this is the time to do this now. we have been talking about this for a long time. i commend -- >> chairman: your time is up. thank you. can we have the next caller, please. >> hi. can you hear me. >> chairman: we can hear you. please proceed. >> hi, my name is dr. cederick jackson. i'm the president of the black leadership forum here in san francisco. i'd like to lend my voice

to supporting reparations for the african-american community in san francisco. i even suggest that the city redirect the money not only from the police department, but also other criminal justice departments that have historically been part of the punishment not the empowerment of the community. that money can go to the empowerment of our community through not only economic revitalization concepts in our major neighborhoods, but it can also go towards the healing. and we have to understand we are not in a post post-racial american. we are 73 million strong against what we're talking about now in america. not we, but there are 73 million people in america who don't agree with you.

that's a sizable amount. 47%, to be exact. we have to do what is right now to start the healing of our community. there is no such thing as post-traumatic when it comes to the black community. this is a traumatic stress syndrome that we experience every day. reparations are the only way we can stem this tide of destruction that is going on in our community. we need reparations to heal us and to make us whole again, and to give us back or dignity and determination. thank you. >> chairman: thank you. can we have the next caller, please. >> caller: hi, i'm tiffany, and i'm the co-founder of s.f. wall street. my grandparents came here

from the south to escape the racism of jim crowe. they worked ought the shipyard. i have witnessed my generation being pushed out of san francisco. i'm hoping that san francisco will lead in this formation, as we have lead in everything else. it is definitely something that i want to see. san francisco is the capital of america. i'm really hoping we can get this done. thank you. >> for those already on hold, please continue to wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted. we have approximately five additional callers online for public comment. can we have the next caller, please.

next caller, you may proceed. >> caller: hi, good morning. i am a 40 year resident of san francisco in district 10, and a fourth generation african-american descendent of my family, who has lived in san francisco since their migration from the south. i am a member of transformational miracles, and with two non-profit organizations that have been occurring. i want to express my gratitude to all of the people tirelessly working to see change happen. i'm in full support of

this advisory committee, and expect that the members of this rules committee will be honored to do the same. i thank you for allowing our community members a space to speak for our community. when we lift the black, all communities thrive. thank you, respectfully, and i yield the rest of my time. >> chairman: thank you. can we have the next caller, please. >> caller: hello. >> chairman: hi. yes, we can hear you. good morning. goo>> caller: good morning. this is reverend amos brown, and i'm president of the san francisco branch of naacp. i first want to share, as

an historian, some nuggets of history. that we must never forget. it has been rempse referenced that we dent didn't get didn't r 40 acres and a mule by several of the previous speakers. but the idea of 40 acres and a mule didn't come from the government. but the idea came from a

baptist preacher, named garrison, who on january 12, 1865, was asked by general sherman, after he burned down atlanta, what do you feel that the union owes these enslaved persons? it was that old revered clerk that looked at general sherman and said, sir, i can't speak for everybody in this meeting. >> chairman: the speaker's time has -- >> but at least we should have 40 acres and a mule. >> chairman: thank you. can we have the next caller, please.

>> caller: hello, my name is shevon hunter. i currently live in district 10, and i'm also executive director of peace international. i'm calling because the city and county of san francisco has intentionally disinvested and harmed the black community with explicit anti-black practices, around red-lining, the war on drugs, and they practices both unemployment in labor, and it has been decades of broken promises in rights for housing, jobs, health equity, just to name a few. the american economy was built on the back of enslaved people, and we're not asking for a handout. we're asking for what is

due. the descendents faced undescribeable violence that has been passed on from generation to generation to generation. here in san francisco, we are purposely dismissed, as if you don't see us or hear us. and we are just saying we want what is due to us so we can have equitable opportunities, and so that we don't continue to live in poverty. it really only takes one person to make a decision for those who are continued to be harmed, to move from poverty to prosperity. these people on this advisory board need to push the envelope forward. you can be responsible to help us move forward in these reparations. again, i just implore you to make that decision to help us help ourselves to do a better job.

in closing, i support mayor breed, supervisor walton, and drek director davis' work. and i demand reparations now -- >> chairman: your time is up. thank you. can we have the next caller, please. >> caller: hi. i find it somewhat distressing that one of the speakers earlier said that the effects of slavery has outlasted slavery itself considering that -- at least referencing slavery in the u.s., that started in the 1600s, so that is still a couple hundred years of slavery versus 150 years

post-slavery. so, yeah, i hope that at least that our advisory committee will have more accuracy. thank you. >> chairman: thank you. can i have the next caller, please. >> caller: yes. hi. i just want to thank the board for presenting this, supervisor walton and cheryl davis and also mayor london breed. myself is a contributor for having the african flags put over the bay view district, which has been spirited to the african-american culture district. i came and spoke on february 11th, 2020, around that time, but i was the representative of black lives matter movement. i'm sure some of you remember the mother of

yalani, who was murdered in san francisco, the san francisco quadruple homicide. so truly you know that the time is now for righteousness to be come to the african-american community. there is no question about what needs to be done. as far as i'm concerned, it is a long process in even having a committee. it is time to do right by the nation because we built this country. it is no nationality that would have entered on this land if it had not been for the indigenous nation, commonly called the blacks. i'm looking forward, sherm mosherman walton, and mayor breed, and i'm one of the persons to sit on this advisory committee because

i say what i mean and i mean what i say. the time is now to do right. and i'm going to end by saying, harriot tubman, with the underground railroad. and what did they say? go down to egypt and tell pharaoh, "let me people go." shalom. >> chairman: the speaker's time as elapsed. thank you. next speaker, please. >> caller: hello. i would like to say i agree with almost most of what has been said, so i don't need to repeat it. i would like to say what one person did say, that

it has been too long. but it is never too late to do the right thing. establishing an african-american reparation advisory committee is the right thing to do. i wholeheartedly support this. speaking of the negro spirit, "this little light of mine," this advisory committee will be a little light, and what i'm hoping is that it will grow and grow and grow until it shines all over the world. thank you, everyone who has been a part of this movement. thank you. >> chairman: than thank you. can we have the next caller, please. >> caller: hello, this is bob adams, jr., pastor of the providence baptist church of san francisco. and i want to begin by saying that there is a long history of the past, and it cannot continue

this way any longer. we must create this change and be the change. the reparations, along with this advisory committee, and along with our faith leaders, it is important that our voices are heard. and so i want to end by thanking supervisor walton, director davis, and the honorable mayor breed for taking this lead. it is time. it is past time to get it done. and with god's help, we will. thank you very much. >> chairman: thank you. can we have the next caller, please. >> caller: hi. my name is erica.

this affects housing, parenting, education, environmental injustices, even leading to (indescernable), it is evidence that debts need to be paid. it is pressing down on the direct community members. they must be the decision-makers. i hope finances can get funnelledefunnelled into educatn with the focus of the black residents. [inaudible] in support of black families who have lost loved ones. that is to say that the city must do what organizations do, like s.f. wall street, have been doing so far. if the city cannot do it in full measures, perhaps those organizations should be the ones to lead the way. thank you.

>> chairman: thank you. can we have the next caller, please. >> caller: good morning. reverend dr. sheralynne staff calling. >> chairman: if you don't mind, could you please turn off your radio. >> caller: you have the opportunity to do what is right in reparations and

reconciliation. and here in 2020, i would just ask, after all you've heard, that you continue to consider doing what is right. i'm grateful for our honorable mayor london breed, dr. davis, and supervisor walton, and all that are sitting in on his to make this great decision. thank you. >> chairman: can we have the next caller, please. >> caller: hello. can you hear me? >> chairman: we can hear you. please proceed. >> this is reverend brown. i was just giving my introduction earlier. if i could add some humor to this occasion. madam chair -- >> chairman: mr. brown -- >> i am proud -- madam

chair, i want to say thi this -- >> i'm sorry, dr. brown, but we have a board rule that only allows each person to make public comment once. so any additional information, if you want to provide it in writing, we will make sure to add it to the record. thank you so much. >> chairwoman: next speaker, please. >> caller: good morning. my name is felicia jones. i'm the founder of wealth and disparities in the black community. and i would like to make some points. of course i am in support of reparations, but i'm also in support of reparations now. there have been three reports in 55 years written on black people, studying black people. and as of today, we are worse off now than we were years ago. we need to address the san

francisco black workers who are right now, at this moment, experiencing unfair wages, no promotion. we also are looking at police accountability, where use of force, arrest, and racial profiling is highest in the black community. we are known -- san francisco is known as the golden city by the bay. but to black san franciscans, it is known as the racist city by the bay. we need to create change and end the structure of the board of supervisors who create policies -- we need accountability, and we need accountability now. these issues need to be addressed now instead of kicking the can down the road. we want accountability now. we need the advisory committee, yes. but, also, we need to address the issues of black san franciscans and how we are treated all across the board, from education, health, mass

incarcerations, economic in justices, etc. i'm urging everyone on the board to address the issues of black san franciscans now. thank you very much. >> chairman: thank you. can we have the next caller, please. >> caller: hello. i name is keith. i'm the founder of "welcome back." and i'm glad this advisory committee is being formed. i'm interested in occupying the seat to help brothers re-entering the community. thank you. and i'm yielding my time. >> thank you. >>.mr. core, are there any additional callers?

>> caller: yes, my name is reverend james, and i'm the secretary of the san francisco branch of the naacp. i would first like to thank mayor breed, supervisor walton, and director davis for your work. in the words of the poet, the african-american poet nicky giovanni, and she said, i really don't think life is about the i could have been; life is only about the i tried to do. i don't mind the failure, but i can't imagine that i could forgive myself if i didn't try." so we're grateful that we, as a city, we're going to try to do the right thing by the african-american community. and we're excited about the work ahead for the

advisement committee, to put actions in place, to create a more equitable san francisco. thank you. >> thank you. are there any additional callers? >> caller: hi, good morning. i am a co-found of s.f. black wall street, and also a san franciscan native. and i would just like to say that i am elated and enthusiastic about this new reparations convening, and i'd just like to say i'm really happy to here all of the callers calling in to not only talk about the damage that was done, but how do we repair that damage and how do we go forth together to ensure that, like one of the other callers said, we are reimbursed for the work that was already done on our backs and on the backs of our ancestors. and i would just like to say that i welcome you guys as well to ensure

that housing remains a priority, small business remains a priority, and that san francisco really goes back and actually makes due on its promise to include black san franciscans in every part of the economic development and the success of the city moving forward. thank you. >> thank you. can we have the next caller, please. >> that completes the cue. >> chairwoman: thank you so much. thanks for the tremendous amount of really knowledgeable and compelling public comment. supervisor mar? >> thank you, chair ronan. i also just wanted to thank all of the african-american community leaders and activists for sharing your powerful comments. and, of course, thank you

to supervisor walton, director davis, and mayor breed for your bold and thoughtful leadership on reparations for the african-american community and reinvestment and full support and equity for the african-american community looking ahead. so, yeah, i -- you know, as so many speakers noted, this is long overdue, but i'm really excited that, you know, we're -- we have a strong commitment here at city hall to move ahead with some bold initiatives to ensure equity and justice for the african-american community. thank you. >> chairwoman: supervisor walton? >> thank you so much, chair ronan, and supervisor mar. again, i just want to thank the entire community for stepping up and being heard. it is really important that we hear from you so that everyone knows and understands we are lock step on the same page with

the black community with regard to reparations. i want to thank, again, cheryl davis, as well as her team. i want to think natalie g. from our team, and she has worked closely on the legislation with everybody. thank you. we are working hard to achieve equity. the one thing i do want to say to my community, because i know that everyone wants to serve, and we only have opportunity for 15 members, but i want everyone to know we're going to be working hard, of course, to select the appropriate folks to do work on behalf of all of us. but i know everyone is going to want to serve. so there is going to be some hard work, as we work to get to the 15. but we will do that together with the community. thank you so much, chair ronan, supervisor mar, and i appreciate everyone for calling in and all of the work today. >> chairwoman: thank you. i'm happy to make a motion

to send this item forward as a committee report, with positive recommendation. can we have a role call vote. >> supervisor mar? >> yea. >> chair ronan? >> yea. >> the motion passes without objection, with supervisor stefani being excused. >> chairwoman: thank you so much. mr. clerk, can you please read item number four. >> an ordinance to modify the number and qualifications of numbers on the african-american arts and cultural district community and advisory committee to extend the date of the committee to january 2023, and to extend to july 2021, the report and recommendations from the city department describing the district and proposing and acknowledge and preserve

the cultural legacy of the district. we also have a request for a committee report on this matter. >> chairwoman: thank you. supervisor walton? >> thank you so much again, chair ronan, and supervisor mar. just for a little bit of history, in 2018, the board of supervisors established the african-american arts and cultural district in the bay view neighborhood, and i want to thank chair ronan for all of her work. it is very important work and we truly appreciate you. under that ordinance, several city departments must prepare to report to the mayor's office of housing and community development by july 2019, which was the date. the reports are to assess and look at the assets and needs in the district, and will recommend programs, policies, and funding and sources that can benefit the district and preserve its cultural legacy. after these reports are

completed, they will prepare a culture history housing and economic strategy report, the chess report includes the demographic and economic profile of the district, including past, present, and future trends, identify areas of concern that could inhibit the preservation of the district's unique culture and propose legislative, economic, and other solutions and strategies supported by the district. the ordinance today will extend the african-american arts and cultural district citizen advisory committee to january 2023, and extend the reporting of the recommendations to the city department. describing the attributes of the district and the proposing (indescernable). the amend amendments will change the size from 15 members

to 7 members. and to include an owner of a business located in the district, an employee of a non-profit organization in the district, a person with knowledge or expertise regarding the history or culture of the district. a youth between the ages of 14to 24, and three other at-large members. the african-american art and cultural district is critical in supporting african-american culture along third street in our community and across the community. i want to acknowledge my legislative staff, percy burke, for all of his work, john gibner, for working on the amendments, and larry, with the office of economic and workforce development, and evelyn, the director, and erica scott, the director of projects and programs for the cultural district, as well as all of the folks who worked hard to bring this into realization.

april, ms. eloise, oscar, our local historian, and everyone who played a major role in bringing the african-american arts and cultural district into fruition. thank you so much, chair ronan. >> chairwoman: thank you so much. and if none of my colleagues have any questions, we can open this item up for public comment. >> yes. members of the public who wish to provide public comment ton this item should call 415-655-0001. 0001. if you haven't already done so, please dial star 3 to line it up. please wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted and you may

begin your comments. mr. core, do we have any members of the public for public comment? >> yes. i have three callers in the cue. >> caller: good afternoon, rules committee. my name is evin glen. i'm the operations director of the african-american arts and cultural district. i'd like to thank supervisor walton for his leadership and support. the implication is the historic preservation (indescernable) in the black community, and this is a powerful step forward with this critical work. i yield my time. [sirens blaring] >> can we have the next caller, please? >> caller: hi. this is dr. cederick

jackson again. i'd like to thank all of the elected and all of the appointed officials for bringing all of this together. there are way too many to name. there is such a great effort going on with this. but it is imperative that this committee and this cultural district have the resources to go forward. we have some ideas that will not only enhance our district, but will enhance the city if we get the opportunity to do it. we have a wonderful culture,and this gives us an opportunity not only to educate, but also to entertain in a way that benefits us finally, and not everybody else. so please, with all of your might, put all of the resources and all of the commitments you can into finally giving the african-american community an opportunity to highlight itself in a positive instead of a negative way. thank you.

>> thank you. can we have the next caller, please. >> caller: good morning again, virginia marsh, the president of the san francisco alliance of blacks of educators. the african-american cultural district in the bay view is so wonderful. it supports our students. my school is right next due to the bayvie bay view hop pra house opera house. and they have been very supported to our students. she posts the students' art around the walls. we've had our band club there over the years. if you have never been to the christmas at the bay view opera house, please

come. when i stand in the window and look out and see cheering down the bay view, playing in the snow, it is something fantastic to see. they may not have the opportunity to go to lake tahoe, like you may take your children. last year we had a horse-drawn carriage, and i've been known to open studios. so i'm thankful that on third street we have all of these great systems that support our students' programs. the same in the filmore african-american art and cultural program. thank you so much. >> thank you. can we have the next caller, please.

>> caller: hi, this is fitiffany carter again. i want to say i definitely support the san francisco african-american culture traculturaland art district. i just want to say i fully support it and want to extend it to really show our place in san francisco. thank you. >> thank you. can we have the next dawrl. caller, please. >> [inaudible] i would like to say that we have to be very, very honest about what it truly means to be the african-american art and cultural district. first and foremost, it identifies with our nation of people, to who we are and where we extended from. it should not be connected

to the political realm, as far as the reputation. it must be a person that understands the thought patterns and the essence of truly who we are. we have to look into the opera house, as far as who is running the opera house, the african-american art and cultural district. we have to have the correct representation to empower our children to know we are capable of doing the work. we must also have something sent from africa and having an african embassy. this is not a joke, neither is it a game. >> we must give credit where credit is due. i have not been acknowledged working. if we are truly going to recognize the political

speakers, we must also recognize the community's cultural representatives. i think we need to be honest. if we want to embrace principles of what this means we must bring honesty and integrity to the table. thank you very much. >> thank you. next caller, please. >> good morning. sf black wall street. i am a san francisco native. i support the formation of advisory committee to empower our committee through the cultural district. our african-american arts and cultural district has been vital to the stabilization of black business especially during

covid-19. it has been expanding the cultural foot present especially as our black culture and space continues to be a struggle in our community and throughout the city. the work that the cultural district has done and the way they have gone about expanding membership and bringing diverse representation from the black community into the group has really been inspiring, and we would like that to continue and to continue i. we are in full support of this. we are looking forward to this item passing. thank you. >> next caller, please. >> good morning.

i support item 4, the african-american cultural district. we are not in the cultural district at this time, i am a member of black wall street, and the cultural district has been a great partner for us in the activities we have been doing to keep black businesses going during this pandemic. i implore the board of supervisors and this body to support this measure and push this item forward. thank you. >> thank you. next caller, please. >> good morning. i want to thank everyone here and thank the great leadership behind african-american arts and cultural district who have been doing an amazing job since they

hit the ground running in terms of engaging community, making sure they are open, inviting everyone to events happening and keep people appraised where the cultural district is at and what support they need moving forward. i totally support this action. i also would like to say that i would like to see extra resources put into the african-american cultural district because a lot of the foot present while designed specifically in the bayview hunters point neighborhood are providing a lot of support to black businesses and the black community throughout san francisco. i want to say thank you everyone. that is it. >> thank you. next caller, please. >> that completes the queue. >> do you have any closing

remarks, supervisor walton? >> i just want to thank the community for calling in and stressing the importance of african-american cultural district. i want to thank chair ronen for making sure the cultural district is brought up so we can keep and maintain our culture in our communities. i appreciate you, supervisor mar, for listening in committee today. thank you. >> thank you so much. i am happy to make a motion for this item as a committee report with positive recommendations. can we have a roll call vote. >> on that motion. >> supervisor mar. >> aye. >> chair ronen. >> aye. >> the motion passes with supervisor stefani excused. >> thanks for joining us this morning, supervisor walton. see you later.

mr. clerk, can you please read items 5, 6, 7 together. yes. item 5. motion approving rejects mayor's nomination for reappointment of bive tt brackett for term ending september 23, 2004. reappointment be of carelon ransom-scott for a term ending november 3, 2024. 7. a motion approving the mayor's nomination for adel to the commission. term ending november 3, 2024. first we will call them to speak about their appointments then

open up for public comment that anybody may have two minutes to speak about any or all of the candidates. just making sure supervisor mar doesn't have any opening comments. first we will hear from ms. brackett. >> good morning, supervisors. i just want to say i am honored this past year to have served on ocii with the other members. before i commissioned there has been many issues for us. i am just proud to be serving with other members who are equally focused and justice focused. you may have heard or have been

hearing. a lot of work is around making sure we are very intentional with how ocii handles items before us during cocoa individual. we are push -- during covid. we are pushing for more money to the community. last session we got concessions over and beyond what the community has expected to get. i just want to say i am proud to serve and also proud of the work our executive director has been doing as well on ocii. she will be leaving us tomorrow in our last commission meeting. we are very sad about that, but we are very hopeful and thankful of the entire team who has been really trying to push forth measures despite being in covid.

thank you. >> thank you. next we will hear from ms. ransom-scott. >> thank you, madam chair. san francisco native and i, too, am proud that the mayor would think enough of the time served to ask for four more years. my reason for coming back and believing i would be the person. i have served san francisco since 1969 working the communities, school system, helping with reading programs, projects, working in homes, helping families succeed, working with housing, jobs, jail, prison, juvenile and cbo organizations as well as the faith-based organizations serving as missionary over 30

years in san francisco. i understand the city. i understand the temperature right now during this covid. we have worked very hard to make sure things are kept as said. the deliverables are met. we worked very hard to make sure that compliances are in place and that the 50% sbe has promised is worked toward apthat has happened. i want you to know that just last year 17628 workers did work along with and around the assisted projects with ocii and over 4,426 were san francisco residents. 1,711 were from the

bayview-hunters point district 10. despite challenges, ocii and the city staff have worked closely together as well as our mayor's housing and development committee, pam and sonya. i have had her to speak before. over 100 pastors sharing about housing to make sure the community, pastors and leaders understand what is going on. i would like to stay aboard to ensure deliverables are met, ensure notices are clear and received in a timely manner, ensure good faith efforts through equity, quality, equality with justice works for all for a better city and more perfect union. thank you so much all of you for this time. god bless you and god bless our city. >> thank you so much for your willingness to continue to

serve. next we will hear from my friend miguel bustos. >> i want to thank the mayor for reappointing me. i was appointed when we were the redevelopment commission. i made a commitment as a native san franciscan we need to right the wrongs from redevelopment. i am proud of the fact that what we did then we are continuing now with ocii. working with the staff to make sure that community benefits are truly benefiting the community from not only 50% local hire which came out every development. that was the first city entity to require 50%. we got some push back but we are saying, wait, it is 100% city

resource. we are asking 50%. that is a pretty good deal. the developers got on board and hired a lot of our people. we also asked them to look at concession stands at the chase center. you will see the concession stands represent the various neighborhoods, not just national chains but bake sale betty. that was one thing we asked of them. in all buildings we asked higher local artists. hire people from the community, in particular bayview-hunters point. we are proud that is happening. you know, when we looked at how to build trust with the redevelopment of bayview hunters point in the shipyard, we are making sure the community benefits and the trust that was earned from the community to us that we did the right thing.

moving to the new building and do the domino style, so all that is to say we have done a great job. we are a matey team set -- a a mighty team and thousand we can work for the people. we have done a lot of affordable housing built by people from the community, and that benefits. for example certificate of preference is what we have been pushing to make sure people displaced get to come back home and that is why we also voted to make sure the grandchildren of people who were displaced to give them an opportunity to come back home. a lot of good has happened. i am honored to be the current chair of the commission. i don't do it alone. i do it with not only my fellow commissioners and incredible staff there at ocii, but also

with the community. our community advisory committee do a wonderful job of advising us and making sure that the needs of the community are met throughout the entire process. we would welcome and be honored to have your support. thank you. >> thank you for all of your work. i don't see any comments so we can open this up for public comment. every member of the public has two minutes to speak on each or all of the applicants. >> members of the public who wish to comment on these items call 415-655-0001. the meeting id1460452296. press pound pound. if you haven't done so dial star three to line up to speak.

a system prompt will indicate you raised you're hand. when you are unmuted you may begin your comment. do we have any members of the public for public comment? >> we have one caller. >> hi. i am calling in support of the reappointment. i have had the honor of working with her and i am inspired by her knowledge of san francisco. she is very well connected throughout the city and speaks truth to power in support. thank you. >> thank you. are there any additional calle callers? >> that is the last caller.

>> public comment is closed. i wanted to thank all three of you for your service thus far and willingness to continue to serve. my colleague is nodding his head. with that i will make the motion to strike the word rejecting from all three motions and approve the amended motion with recommendation to approve the mayoral reappointments of brackett, scott and bustos and for the motions to the full board with recommendations. >> on that motion, supervisor mar. >> aye. >> chair ronen. >> aye. >> the motion passes without objection with supervisor stefani excused. >> thanks everyone. have a great rest of your day.

please read item 8. >> motion approving or rejecting the president of the board of supervisors norman yee's nomination of tina chang for appointment to the board of appeals for a term ending july 1, 2022. >> are you still with us? >> i am. >> it was such a pleasure having the chance to meet and speak with you via zoom the other day and welcome. if you would like to share your experience and interest in this position. >> absolutely. thank you. i would like to thank supervisor yee and his staff for nominating me to serve in this position. they have been generous with their time and i am very grateful to them for all of their advice and just, you know,

thoughts and familiarizing me with my duties if appointed to this commission. public service is part of my career for the better part of the past decade, and i have been looking forward for an opportunity to serve the public again. i currently work for associate capital, a small but passionate team to lead the power station back. we are providing affordable housing and open space. i feel fortunate to work on ones in a lifetime project. before that i was a senior planner with the san francisco planning department in the planning division and master planner for the u.s. navy in d.c. and middle east. i think public service is

important. that is my main interest in serving on this commission to be able to serve the public and use my expertise and knowledge in a way to serve the public again. >> wonderful. thank you so much. i think president yee did a fabulous job in recommending your appointment. i am excited to support you. do you have any comments, supervisor mar? >> i just want to thank tina for the opportunity to meet her last week and learning of your history of public service and all that you could bring to the appeals board. thanks for your willingness to serve. >> thank you. >> can we please open this up

for public comment? >> members of the public who wish to comment should call 415-655-0001. the meeting id is (146)045-2296. press pound and pound again. if you haven't done so dial star three to speak. the prompt will indicate you raised your hand. wait until you are unmuted to begin your commented. do we have any members of the public for comment at this time? >> hi.

thanks for this hearing. i am john ram the former planning director i am glad to speak on tina's behalf today. she woulds a member of the planning department staff for several years. tina quickly learned the ropes of the planning department, understood the balance between development and community involvement and really has a great sense of the city, sense of public service. i really just would encourage you to support her position on the board of appeals. she has a great knowledge of the code. what is special is that she has a strong sense of public service while having experience in the public and private sectors. i would strongly support here position on the board of appeals

today and urge you to support. it is good to see all of you and i admire your willingness to spend hours and hours in front of your computers on behalf of the public in this crazy time we live in. thank you. >> are there any other speakers? >> hello. good afternoon. i am darryl honda, a boa commissioner since 2012 appointed recently by the board. i am calling to support the nomination of tina chang as commissioner to the board of appeals. i have had the pleasure of

working with ms. chang several years ago in the position as city planner. i was most impressed by her efficiency and attention to detail and response. the board of appeals lost a commissioner recently as rachael tanner is now a planning commissioner. the board of appeals primarily deals with city permits that have been appealed mostly pertaining to building and planning issues. our board would benefit by having a commissioner with tina's experience. i support her nomination as a board of appeals commissioner. thank you for spending so much time. i don't see how you guys do this. >> thank you. next caller, please.

>> this the assistant capital of the power station. i am proud to call tina chang my colleague. i worked with tina for the past three years. i strongly urge you to support her nomination. this is an individual with the utmost integrity character and work ethic and love for san francisco. following on what the former director said, she knows the code better than most land use lawyers and she is a delight to work with. she has made our organization better. she is absolutely wonderful at the public process and using her strong tradition of outreach and inclusion and i can't think of a better person for san francisco to have on this important board. i urge you to support here. she is the best san francisco could hope for. >> thank you. next caller, please.

>> good afternoon. i am amy wong. i have lived in san francisco for 14 years. i am calling to support tina chang. i am a close personal friend for over 20 years. it is my honor to share words. she is bright, compassionate high achieving professional, wife, mother, sister, friend and has the utmost outstanding character and integrity. she has always been engaged. her bachelor's degree in international studies and robust professional experience really speak directly to the passion and dedication of someone who aims to serve the public and enrich communities. after tina wasn't rolled in college she continued to volunteer for project literacy

where she bussed to serve under privileged students. she also volunteered at the local juvenile detention center to help incarcerated youth and it wasn't surprising she continued to dedicate time to these efforts more recently as member of the local chapter of the rebuild program. in her current role in developing a former power station to extension of dogpatch. i hear about the work with the local sf community along with nonprofit partners like ymca. she approaches all areas of life with open mind, compassion for others, notfulness and intense commitment. she would make a wonderful board of appeals commissioner.

i strong here urge you to support her as well. thank you very much. >> are there any additional callers? >> that completes the queue. >> thank you so much. again, thank you, tina, for being willing to serve in this capacity. i am amazed at the willingness to devote your time and energy in this volunteer capacity of all commissioners and especially on the commissions that take a lot of time and energy and

expertise. thank you for your willingness to serve. since i have made all of the motions i was wondering if supervisor mar wanted to do the honor for this one. >> i would be happy to. i would move we amend the motion to remove the word rejecting and send this to the full board with positive recommendation approving the appointment of tina chang to the board of appeals. >> on that motion, supervisor mar. >> aye. >> chair ronen. >> aye. >> the motion passes without objection with supervisor stefani being excused. >> thank you so much. we will see you very soon. mr. clerk, do we have any other item on the agenda? >> that completes the agenda for today. >> have a good day, everyone. the meeting is adjourned.

>> good-bye everyone.

>> good evening, everyone, welcome to the december 22,020th of the san francisco food commission. i'm going to ask everyone to put your hand over your heart for the pledge of allegiance.

i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. can you please call roll. [roll call] you are a quorum. we have chief will jump scott frowilliam scott.>> thank you. as always, i will remind the presenters, the commissioners, to keep yourselves on mute unless you would like to be heard so to reduce background

nice and same things for all of the callers, make sure all background devices are turned off and you are on mute unless speaking. the numbers to call the public comment is (415)655-0001. access code 146 348 0406. sergeant. >> let you finish there. for members of the public, this meeting is being televised by sfgovtv and if you are interested in making public comment dial (415)655-0001 and access code 146 348 0406. when public comment is announced for the line item or general line dial star 3 advising the moderator to add you to the queue. you have two minutes and this is your opportunity to provide public comment. when your two minutes have ended

you will move out of the queue back to a participant unless i decide to disconnect. members of the public may stay on the meeting line and in order to make public comment again by pressing star 3 to be added back into the queue. thank you. >> thank you, can you please call the first line item. >> adoption of minutes. action for the meeting of november 8th, 2020. >> thank you, do i have a motion. >> so moved. >> my apologies, i'm going to ask to make a correction to the minutes. >> ok. >> on page 2 of the minutes. it indicates that i requested that djo5.03 be calenders on december 16th and a update on daunte king investigation and i requested to hear from mr. king

directly so i would like to add that into my request. and then i'll second commissioner davis' motion. >> can we get another motion with that amendment? so we have a clean record. >> sure. so moved without amendment. >> second. >> second. >> all right. for members of the public that would like to make a public comment online item 1, you may press star 3 now or dial (415)655-0001 and direct access 146 804 06 and this is again for line item 1. we have no public comment. >> next item. sorry. please call roll for the vote. [roll call vote]

>> clerk: on the motion to accept the minutes with the amended. how do you vote [roll call vote] >> can i abstain since i wasn't present. >> yes. >> you have five yeses. >> great. next line item. >> line item 2, report to the commission discussion. 2a, weekly crime trends offenses occurring in san francisco and major significant incidents. provide a summary of planned activities and events. this will include a brief overview of unplanned events or activities occurring in san francisco having an impact on public safety. commissioner discussion on

unplanned events and activities will be limited whether to calender for a future commission meeting. status of department efforts to implement proposition staffing levels. >> ok, good evening, chief. can i ask everyone to mute themselves. i'm getting feedback. >> good evening, vice president taylor, commission, and executive director henderson. please, to let you know, i'm getting feedback so if you can't hear me let me know i was getting feedback when you were talking earlier. >> things are ok for me now. >> great. >> thank you. i'll start this week's chief's report with an update on the status of our crime picture, over all we are down 25% in part one crime and compared to last week we're down 26% and as i have stated in several commission meetings, we are

seeing a rise in burglar he'sied although we're flat this week in several of our district stations which is good news. the biggest issue we're seeing are our garage burglaries and typically bicycles and other small hand tools and things like that are the target of property and we have made some cigarses and that regard so hopefully that will put a little bit of a dent because we leave some of the folks that were arrested were serial offenders so we'll work on that and work with our surrounding jurisdictions and coordinate efforts in terms of identifying serial offenders who are in the city and county of san francisco but surrounding cities as well. one such incident was a bug larry that occurred this week in the northern district. video suspects was obtained for garage buggies that occurred on

august 18th. this particular incident, the subjects had several objects from the garage and officers determined that some of the items stolen were found discarded in the 2,200 block of north point. on november 11th. our northern stations investigation team forwarded images of the suspects to our burglary detail who quickly identified the suspects and also determined that they had been involved in several other cases. on november 25th, one of our suspects was arrested at a location. he actually was wearing an ankle monitor when he was arrested. and he was placed under arrest for his involvement in this burglary as well as others. he is a chronic offender and we hopefully his arrest will hopefully make a difference in slowing some of this down. i want to remind everybody that is watching, please have some

basic safety tips and make sure you see cure your garages and if we have bicycles, even if there's secured in your garage, it's a good idea to lock them and make it a little bit more difficult for people to take them. scooters are the same. that has been hot property as well. scooters, skate boards and the like. if you can, keep them secured in your residents if possible and not in your garage. we want to make it hard and make ourselves as resilient as possible. on the violent crime front. our homicides are above where they were total year to date last year. we're at 45 homicides year to date and that is a 32% increase from where we were this time last year. we ended 2019 with 41 homicides, which was a low, almost a 50-year low, however, this 45 numbers is alarming. it's on a larger scale, you all may be aware of this but it's not only san francisco that is

experiencing this problem, this is most major cities in the country are seeing increases in homicides and shootings and most of them are significantly higher than us if that's any good news. but still, we have a problem here that we want to correct and turn around. this time last year, december was a pretty difficult month in regards to homicides. we had seven for the month of december last year so we hope we can turn that tide around and slow things down. 71% of our homicides what we have 71% clearance rate year to dade so hopefully we can get closure to some of these cases for the victims and their families. we have single side going from two to eight. tenderloin has a 38% increase

going from eight last year to 11 this year and bayview has a 30% increase they went from 10 this time last year and 13 this year and out of the district stations, northern actually has a decrease, they went from four this time last year to one year to date and they had two this time last year they have one year to date and near to date, zero to zero. and they went from nine last year and nine last year and to 20 this year and tenderloin from 11 to 22 and bayview from 36 to 47, mission from 10 to 16. southern from eight to 10. there are, however, good news.

four district stations that are below where they were this time last year in shootings, that's central and it went from nine shooting incidents to three this year. they went from two-to-one and one to three to two and actually there's three out of the seven that went down. that's where we are on shootings. again, hopefully we can have a good month in december. we are doing everything that we can in terms of the deployment and putting our officers in the areas that have been hot with shootings. we did have a killing a couple weeks ago and it was a night of our last week's quick.

the first one was at 38th avenue at gar reand a vehicle was traveling west on gary approaching 38 when his volkswagen made contact with pedestrians and 68-year-old male. a victim was just crossing the street. the driver of the vehicle remained at the scene and that investigation has currently undergoing. the male, the 68-year-old male did not survive his injuries. at this point it does not appear to be a alcohol or under the

influence related incident and as i said, the driver remains a scene and was co-operative with the investigation and it's a really important event. unfortunately the vehicle did not stay at the scene. the vehicle fled and persuade by witnesses to the bayview district and the 900 block of kansas and that vehicle was abandoned and the vehicles fled on foot. our investigators are following up and we have good needs including the vehicle so we hope to bring that specification to closure and a resolution. sadly our victim did not survive his injuries and he was also

pronounced deceased on that incident. it was a bad night yesterday in terms of fatal traffic collisions. another update as many of you are probably aware our director of health, dr. grand coal fax announced and due to a rise in covid in our city and county and throughout the state. the city moved into the most restrictive tier based on the state guidelines for reopening and as a result beginning on sunday, november 29th, which was this past sunday for any counties in the purple tier and

this means indoor worship, indoor movie theaters, indoor gyms and fitness centers and indoor operations at museums, aquariums and zoos are to close. retail stores have to limit their capacity to 25% and outdoor dinning will continue in our city and county. for anyone interested in a complete list of operational impact and health orders they can be found on the city's department of public-health website and in addition to the roll back that will take place in our city, san francisco will implement, as i stated, the state at home order that requires non essential businesses to close and prohibits members of different households to gather indoors or outdoors between 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. and this will be in effect until december 21st. and many of us ask what is the role of the police department in this and city has done a really

good job of being very prudent about enforcement efforts. many other city entities involved in the educational process and including warnings when warnings are appropriate for those incidents that are malicious or grossly the ordinance and the health orders, then the police department may be asked to step in and enforce and we've been prudent about that and as you all know, i regularly reported on our enforcement efforts back in the spring when we first started going on the cold covid response and we'll take that city partners and education is still the key as these orders change

wash your hands and be informed with these changes. it is on the public-health website. the last issue in my report, i just want to give an update on the november 18th commission meeting, the commission asked for an update on the proposition e proposal that was passed and amended city charter section 4.1 to 7. and this was we were asked to

provide an update on our role in this and if there are questions about their clarity. at this time, i just want to give you background on what went into this and our staffing and deployment in improving our menthol gees and our ability to have systems in place to really be accurate and timely and our staffing and deployment has been a process that's been going on for really about three years and 2018, we introduced a staffing and deployment unit. we created a brand new unit which is centralized and was responsible to be basically the staffing and deployment tracking and the personnel assignments of tracking throughout the department. with this unit, we included sworn in and non sworn members including an analyst who we were very fortunate to have join our

department from the controller's office and this unit has completely automated our personnel tracking system and created a current and historical record of employees, the positions they work within in the department so it's very helpful and having that historical context in order to make future predictions about our staffing needs. with this new process in place, we also decided that the unit would be tasks with overseeing the development of the tools needed to determine adequate staffing levels which in this case, unit staff will be delayed on to metrics consulting who gave a presentation in front of the commission about their staffing analysis of the san francisco police department and i guess as a further reminder, matrix was a consulting group that was with the rp process to conduct a staffing analysis and this was an initiative led by

board of supervisors president norman yee, it came before the commission several years ago and it did get commission support and the department support so that led to a staffing task force. to really drill down on our staffing needs and give us a comprehensive staffing analysis. what is important to note here, is out of this process, matrix will help develop an interactive tool that will enable us, the police department, to comprehensively determine our staffing needs to every position and within the department on a dynamic and on going basis and that's the information based on that tool that will be brought

before the police commission on the odd number of years and in terms of our staffing recommendations. so, there's still work to be done in terms of that staffing analysis tool and we hope to have that work completed during the first quarter hopefully in 2021 and i think we're on task and scheduled to do that and then we will have the ability to do a lot of the staffing analysis on an ongoing basis from this point forward or from that point forward. so, that is really the update for proposition e and if there's any questions on this part of my report or any other part of my report, i'm happy to answer them. >> chief, earlier you mentioned an uptick in you used the term hot prowl. can you explain what tha explais for the members of the public. >> hot prowl burglaries are burglaries committed when the

resident is inside the structure of the house so if you are in your bed sleeping, even if it's your garage, you are in the dwelling while the burglary is taking place. and they are more dangerous because they can lead to confrontations and the like and violence and so those we take very seriously. so those have suffered an increase and it's something that we're very concerned with. hopefully we can identify some of the more prolific offenders and get them and solve some of these cases and we hope it slows us down some. >> commissioner cohen. >> all right. good evening, everyone. can you hear me? chief, thank you very much for your report. i have a couple questions, really, i'm interested in knowing, i see what the data is telling me as it relates to

shooting year to date by month. comparing 2019 to 2020. i was wondering if you could add some -- if you could quantify it but maybe you can qualify it. i guess i making asking you to speculate but could you add some context why these numbers are increasing? is there a connection to the pandemic? is there a connection to sheltering in place. i just want to understand a little bit more about, for example, the month of october and i want to understand those numbers on a deeper level. >> thank you, commissioner cohen. it's a really good question and i'm glad you asked it. one thing we can say for sure. i will get to the speculation of the pandemic. there's some speculation from, well, this part is not

speculation. a lot of the mental health professionals as cross the country including here think that there's been psychological impacts regarding the pandemic. and those have led to depression and we've seen -- we haven't really seen the uptick in domestic violence that we were anticipating and that's a good thing. there have been definitely psychological impacts. now how that impacted shootings and aggravated and assaults and those type of issues, i cannot make that connection i can only say that we know from our experts, our psychologists and psychiatrists and people who do this for a living, they've been impacted on the mind based on the pandemic. now there's a lot of speculation across the country including here. whether that's adding to this increase of violence crimes because many cities are experiencing this and many cities to a much worse degree than us.