have the last name and if you could do that on page 5 of minutes i think that would be good for the record. i'm all set. thank you on item 5. >> clerk: thank you very much. anyone else? >> i'm not see anything additional callers in the queue. >> clerk: all right. do we have to pause or are we good? >> clerk: no, i think that we are good. >> let's go to the next item please, katie. >> okay, we'll move to the next item which is agenda item 6, presentation and discussion on the department racial equity plan and the sponsor is the director and the speakers are cindy comoford, and the city government zero waste coordinator and the senior environmental justice

coordinator. and the document -- the plan story document is the department of the environment racial equity plan and this item is up for discussion. >> hi, i was muted. please take it away. >> thank you, president stevenson. so this presentation that you're getting tonight is our phase one racial equity action plan. and this is a draft plan. it is not the plan that's going to the board of supervisors at the end of the calendar year because we haven't heard from you. and we're also absorbing information from staff. but it is a very good draft and so, obviously, we're very proud and excited to share it with you. and i think that the most important thing for me to say right now is that my deep gratitude for the amount of work that is behind this draft that you're seeing and the office of

racial equity came in our world mid-stream. we had already worked on our phase one which is an internally focused phase for many months and they came in with a template that was a little bit overwhelming to us in its breadth. and the staff that you'll hear from were not daunted. they grabbed that bull by the horns and they wrestled it until they were able to focus and to elucidate the entirety of our phase one plan. so i'm incredibly, incredibly grateful. one of the things that i want to say in this is that this is -- this plan doesn't come out of thin air. the department and myself personally as director have been focused on equity for my career as well as for the department -- for as long as the department has been in existence. you have seen that in a lot of different ways. you have seen that in our focus

on saving money and improving quality of life using superior energy efficiency technologies and protecting custodians and nail salon workers and dry cleaners, painters and children and families from exposure to toxic chemicals. and providing services in public housing to achieve zero waste and save money and reduce illegal jumping. we have had a focus on equity in our work. it's been a very core part of who we are. but i have come to realize like the rest of my colleagues in the world, that that is not enough. and that there is a deeper level of evaluation that needs to go on if we are going to tackle systemic racism and understand what it means to be operating, especially in the environmental field from a place of white privilege. and so i start with myself. and i started with myself and my own journey, my own training on white fragility. my own training on the history

of racism. and i have supported through my actions, through my statements and through my resource allocations that all staff get trained starting with a few years ago to racial equity to having regular discussions to normalize conversations about race in every staff meeting at least once a month. it has become a very explicit part, it meaning equity and our role, in every conversation that we have in the department. so my commitment to this plan and i feel that it's really important to say this to you in public on the record, so you can hold me accountable and that everyone can hear how i look at this plan. so there are four -- i have four commitments that i want to state right now. the first is to elicit and to utilize input from a wide number of people from internal staff to our commission, to the office of

racial equity to what other departments are doing and to what our community partners are doing. so i am listening and i am soliciting and we will use that input. the second is to prioritize implementation, because i know that a plan is only as good as the actions involved. and that there are 90 actions that the office of racial equity is saying that need to be done. and we can't deny the actions immediately. so we have to prioritize and then to define our metrics of success and share those. and for my third commitment is to report back to you so that you will have an ongoing understanding of where we are and where our progress will start as well as our challenges. there is going to be without a doubt challenging to implementing some of this. and the fourth is to consider this a living document. that this is the first plan that we are doing as a department, and there's no doubt to me that

it will change and evolve and become more vibrant and more real as we progress. so we are going to submit this plan at the end of the calendar year. you are not voting on it right now because it is not in a form for you to vote on. it is a form for you to contemplate, to get back to us on and to ask us questions about. there are a lot of questions that have already been raised in the operations committee. some of them are legal in nature, whose authority is it to do what. and we asked to have an attorney here and the city's attorney office felt that it was not an appropriate venue to do that. having said that, the questions are appropriate. so he will be listening and writing down questions and he may even jump in for clarification or steering the conversation. but i have invited charles to very much to be the curator of our legal questions so that we

can get you answers you want. we also know that a lot of this requires partnership from a very important department -- the department of human resources. and so we have asked to come tonight, if there are questions and they don't have presentations, our very own adam, who is our representative at d.h.r. he 100% is our guy. and he's the one doing a lot of the work on our analyses of our hiring and looking at the barriers that we have to a diverse candidate pool. he's already immersed this that work. so he can speak to that if you have questions. and then we'll move to the deputy at the department of human resources. he is here if you have larger questions about where is d.h.r. going, what are the priorities, you know, he agreed to be here tonight if you've got questions. so with that i want to thank you for your input and the commentss

that came out of the operations committee were already key to shaping this document. very thoughtful and very helpful and i know that we'll get lots more. so with that i just want to say and that you are amazing people in our department and i turn it over to you now to walk us through this plan. thank you. >> great, thank you, debbie, for that introduction. and good evening, commission members, and the community listening to our presentation.

can i get confirmation that everyone can see the presentation in a larger view? thank you. so, thank you, everyone, for taking the time to engage with us on discussing racial equity. my name is cindy comer forford d i'm excited today for our racial equity leaders, from our environmental justice team. and from our zero waste team. to present on phase one of our racial equity plan. this plan will focus on our internal programs and policies and this plan is really meant to ensure the well-being of our staff. especially our staff of color. this plan is really an honest assessment of our past and the areas that we need to improve on, but what is most important about this plan is that it not only looks at the underlying

structural issues but it has actions and a clear path forward. this plan is really the beginning of a transparent roadmap of the work that we need to do as a department to dismantle structural racism. and while we have made some accomplishments, the completion of this plan will be a big milestone. we still know that there's a huge amount of work to do. and so i'd like to talk a little bit about what we'll be covering today. so we'll present an overview of our racial equity plan process. we'll briefly run through our timelines that was last presented to the full commission about a year ago. we'll discuss the new guidance that we received from the office of racial equity. we'll talk about the structure of our phase one plan. and a little bit about our staff engagement. and then, lastly, we'll move on to some of the content of the plan and then finally we'll share next steps on -- as to

what is being presented today is addressed. so i'm going to first turn it over to one of our racial equity leaders to start the presentation. thank you. >> okay. thank you, cindy. good evening, commissioners. i am with the zero waste program. and as debbie and cindy have alluded to, a lot has changed since we last came before you at the beginning of the year. in addition to the pandemic, which has resulted in a lot of staff being out, either due to being reassigned to service work, on leave due to school closures or challenges or other challenges, the other big change that occurred is the creation of the office of racial equity. they have hired some staff and have been convening with city agencies to ensure the work around various departments will also bring about systemic change that is needed. as a result of this, our

timeline and plan of action has shifted quite a bit. we received the framework and racial equity action plan phase one template from the office of racial equity and also completed a vulnerable populations assessment of our budget. we have been facilitating all staff engagement on the phase one of the plan. we have been completing the implementation matrix of the tempt late. template. and we have the input from the commission during the october meeting. we also reviewed the plan with the department of -- the office of racial equity. after today we'll be incorporating feedback and doing a final review with the leadership so that we can submit the plan to the office of racial equity and the board of supervisors, and the mayor on december 31st. and then of course after that in 2021, we will be working on phase two and, of course,

implementing phase one of our plan. next slide. as you recall, or may recall, we came up with 16 preferred actions within three main categories. these were hiring, first within s.f.'s purview and for staff understanding and then (indiscernible) advancement. next slide. and the template of phase one includes a set of actions that all departments must commit to and, unfortunately, the previous work that we did is not lost and i will talk about that a little bit later in our presentation. next slide. so the template that you have seen includes seven sections, hiring and recruitment and retention and promotion. discipline and operation. diverse and equitable leadership. mobility and professional development. the culture of inclusion.

and then the board room commission. and we have seven sections that are separated out into 18 strategies and these strategies have been put into 82 actions that must department must complete. there's an implementation template for each action which i will discuss in the next slide. so this is an example of the implementation template. each section allows the department to include department specific goals and actions as needed. it is important to note as debbie has said that this is a living department and that the departments will be working on the actions over a period of time. it's also important to note that some of these actions are part of our purview so we're working collaboratively with the resources and other city departments and the office of racial equity. the actions and samples

indicated were prepopulated by the department of racial equity and the department was to fill out the blank sections, including resources committed to the action, implementation steps, timeline for completion, and data completion (indiscernible) these indicated that will help to us track our progress, which we will have to refer to the office of racial equity annually. next slide. okay. as i mentioned earlier, all of the work that was provided before is not lost. we compared our 16 proposed actions that we had originally developed and with the racial equity template. the areas where there's little alignment is either because it

is an action that the office of racial equity has identified in phase one, but we had identified for phase two. or covid has made certain things a higher priority now versus when we had worked pre-covid. next slide. and the plan that was provided to you is -- has been separated into three parts. so part one sets the context for the plan. part two, includes the actions and the implementation template. and three include the appendissees that include our 16 actions and our (indiscernible) next slide. (please stand by)

we then held a they have a virtual move and again, we reviewed this with the office to talk more about the

priorities you apply the strategies with the most votes this includes one from hiring and recruitment. they will look at hiring strategies for diverse candidates for all levels of the department. the tension and promotion there are two strategies that ensure they meet industry standards also creating promotions that work well. next slide. the first one was diverse and equitible leadership that will foster inclusion and

belongings. finally, this will culture inclusion belongings i'll turn it over to my colleague to talk about the initial feedback received from racial equity and the content of the plan and next step. >> thank you so much. i'm with the environmental justice team with the department under our climate program, so, two days before thanksgiving four members of our racial equity team met with the director and staff and received very thoughtful feedback on the same plan that you received. while they were appreciative of the detailed context and

survey analysis included in the plan they felt that the overall command was muted and they encouraged f fe to determine goals for each section of the plan that are more specific and visionary and they also recommended that we include department specific actions and actions that help support city wide change beyond what was prescribed by ore. they suggested that we add grainlarty to the timeline to ensure accountability. loosely we can look inward how the existing department budget could support racial equity work. while we have yet to i corporate feedback provided by ore we have begun to think about changes that need to be made. for example, we tried to align goals with what was in our

draft's strategic plan. the strategic plan is a higher level document, excuse me. we are working with our student committee members to revise the goals so they are more specific to the needs of the department and with respect to the focus area of each section. we are trying to determine additional department actions that should be added to any of the sections. to add details about resources committed this is the type of consultant that would be needed. to add grainlarty in the timeline we'll include quarters rather than specify the year and action would be implemented. we might additional steps for particular actions.

for example. there might be steps to examine how we can work within our existing budget since the department doesn't receive general fund support. next slide. part two of the plan includes the implementation template. that was developed with data from our work force assessment as well as feedback from our meetings. i'll share a few examples of this, next slide. on march 10, 2020 the department of human resources published the first annual work force report for the city which included the democrat graphic come significance of all city and county san francisco departments and bay area develop demographics or ten bay area counties.

the first column is the demographic come significance. the second column is the demographic cop significance of all dcfs departments the last column shows the comparison with the work force. more than half of our staff are white and that percentage is greater than the average of all city departments. next slide. when we drill down to staff classifications you can see the limited term classifications that are 9920 and 9922 series are diverse. the managerial have left diversity. the series that includes the

5638 to 5644 classifications are predominantly white. in order to knotty dentfy individual employees in subsections demographic data regarding the come significance of specific job classes is displayed in the aggrouate. this is rather by referencing specific races or ethnicities. next slide. to address these work force finding we have identified implementation steps. a few examples include revising minimal qualifications and job announcements. standardizing recruitment and hiring practices. developing expanded recruitment for networks. completing a more detailed work force assessment for stages and hiring an assess

promotional appointments. also evaluating classifications with lack of employee diversity also with training for employees and achieving mobility into higher classifications. these are included in the template as part of part two of you're draft plan. we also reviewed feedback from staff from our staff survey and meetings and used data that as well what is notable here that many expressed the need for time and resources staff of color in leadership

at higher rates than white staff. it's also notable that more white staff indicated the need for staff of color they identified a variety of training need to help incorporating equity into technical work. to address the survey findings we identified implementation steps. the department institutionalized discussions of racial equity at senior staff meetings and team meetings. for each program area of the department and also as debby mentioned over the summer our senior staff attended white very vir guilty training.

we will have these trainings available to all staff. supervisors will work with staff to include racial equity and professional development in their performance planning. of course, we will measure success by comparing annual staff survey results in addition to the other indicators provided by the office of racial equity you see in the draft plan. next slide. so, what are the next steps. next slide, please. as mentioned earlier the draft racial equity action plan you received in your packets doesn't incorporate the recent feedback we received from racial equity and staff. we created a spreadsheet to track all of the feedback we have received and assessing where the comments should be

addressed and revisions to the plan. we will add any input received to our feedback tracking spreadsheet as well to make sure it's incorporated. once we incorporate the feedback we'll review and finalize the plan with leadership so it can be submitted on time with the mayor and board of supervisors by the december 31st deadline. next slide. thank you so much for all of your support commissioners and also for the feedback we received from colomission members with that let us know if you have any convocations. >> thank you you also much. i love hearing from you. i'm sorry, debby. you were jumping in.

did you have something to say. >> no, i wasn't jumping in. >> that was awesome as always. i love hearing from you guys. i appreciate the time going into this. i'm sure we have a lot of questions and comments. does anyone want to jump in? >> thank you president stevenson. i'd like to thank president raphael and leading the way for the department we have a lot of work to do to make sure that we are not just assuring diversity but trying to ensure career pathways for people who have committed a lot to the

movement. i'm glad to see we are doing a lot of work. not just data trends but why the data is what it is right now. i have initial questions and it's appropriate for dhr to get them to join in on the conversation. what around the job what can we do to help revise them. is there a best practice perhaps we should implait option rigs mullings -- of course recommending over all legal framework. also, recognizing perhaps the commission by the way doesn't have direct hiring authority

but what can we do to help improve diversity. we can stop there for now. >> so, if i could, those were three very different questions and they were the first one with minimum qualifications a if he has something to administrator globally. >> regarding minimal qualifications this is something we are looking at. there is a process in place to evaluate the minimal classifications. in this case we are looking at a classification series we are

looking at working with subject matter experts within the department to evaluate the minimum qualifications for revision braced on the conversation regarding racial equity the information we are getting we can evaluate and support minimum qualifications this is the first applicant pool that meets quality

indications. >> i'd like you to weigh-in on this this is something we flagged as a potential and very important focus for our department the 56 series which is what the technical staff are we created it almost 18 years ago. it's not trifoliate change so, when we decided we want to do this, there is a very detailed and intense process we are committed to we will give you updates on it give them a sense of steps involved. its is not something the city takes lightly when you change the minimum qualifications for a class. it's changed for every use of

that. we have to be, there are not very many uses and we are lucky in that and it's taken very seriously. adam, would you like to say anything about the length or process about how one changes the minimum. >> hi, good evening, commissioners and it's nice to see you and nice to see everybody. i'll just -- debpy hit the nail on the head. it's not an easy process to change these things. the only thing i'll add is just we are undergoing a review of the number of issues including the minimum qualifications. also testing the identification and discipline and so on and so forth.

make sure they are not creating make sure there aren't any barriers to employment. that's a review our new director of office and equity inclusion. there was a lot of departments and racial equity. we will have results on that. >> thank you, that's a person we love to bring above the commission to meet her and understand she had a conflict. i'm grateful. your second question had to do with recruitment i believe supervisor and what we can do on recruitment. so, that's an area that frankly, we have domestic dove into and died down.

that's an area within our control. we need to really get our arms around and institutionalize rather than have it up to the work of an individual program manager. it must go much more broadly and deeply. adam, would you like to talk about recruitment. you have thought about that with cloud i claudia. >> i think we can make a significant impact in terms of how we do recruitment and at veritize and put our announcements out into the community. we are building partnerships with diversity oriented organizes. basically the goal is to get our announcement in front of qualified diverse structure of candidates. it's a great place to work.

so, a big part of that is making sure they are aware of their positions when open. that's the first aspect as far as partnering and increasing the distribution of announcements in a strategic way. we think we'll have a big impact with that as far as getting more qualified candidates applying for our positions and moving farther along. >> i'd love to have you weigh-in on larger efforts to help departments with recruitments. i remember you allowed us or dhr allowed us to use a list you head for service. >> sure, so we have had it in mace for the last year and half diversity that has been

working so far so build-up some relationships in the community. they are also working to put together a diversity recruitment tool kits kit that we intend to share with departments very shortly. we'll have it out in the world it's just to provide some guidance on how to recruit. where to recruit. social media. it's a whole comprehensive tool kit. that's something we are working on. we have a number of strategies. we are working to get them more help. there are a number of projects

there was diverse recruitment. >> we are looking forward to getting the help. your third question i'd answer it related to your second question in terms of what is the role of the commission. so, i don't think the commission hr practices and asking us what is possible and pointing out areas where you think we as it city need to do better. i think at least initially, i can see a big help is in the recruitment aspect of your networks. we do a lot of letting people know. that's the first thing i'd say

right now in terms of the role of the commission. of course, the other role of the commission is sometimes when you are within the system i don't think about saying why. why are we doing it that way. so, you know, it's always great to have a fresh set of eyes. take a look and ask the question is there another way. asking questions and recruitment are short-term answers for you. i'd like to invite my colleagues who gave the presentation if they have any other things they would like to add in answer to the question? >> sure, thank you, debby. i'd like to add there is a boards and commission section of the racial equity action

plan. there are implementations that we have suggested. we did incorporate some of the ideas but be in the commission has feedback on additional ways they could support the efforts we would welcome your feedback. one of the sections -- one of the strategies that's in section seven is about mentorship and working with communities. that's an area i feel like we could explore more with the commission too. >> thank you. >> okay. >> i have a question as i go through and look at the draft plan, you know, i tend to be a technically focused person. i appreciate the project and

program and population and engagement and money and accomplishments. in some of the sections on the right where it says accomplishments there are specific data. five stakeholder meetings, you know, people with child care services. are there for everyone one of our pieces of the plan is there a goal or number that sits on the right hand column we are working towards to measure our effectiveness against it. if there is, if there isn't i recommend there is. if there isn't or if there is, is there -- does that permutate entire organize. if i'm not in charge of the entire peace of business of of the entire work we are doing and not on the committee then i know and internalize the

importance just as much as everybody else. my end of year review does it go to that level. >> let's tackle that in two parts. so, the first part i'd like to tackle are there metrics. if not what happens. so, there is an indicater column. that's how we will be measuring our progress. this is on each of the actions. that would be helpful and how do we know if anything

changed. the five meanings example you gave commissioner stevenson it's more of an output rather than an outcome. we'd like to know if anyone is better off. we'll continue to see if anything has changed. with respect to everyone owning some of the metrics around implementing the plan. one of the action items says that each individual, each staff persons performance -- debby you might have to help me with this. >> performance appraisal and review. the performance plan each

individual and racial equity goal that aligned with our action plan and personal goals as well. we put there out with all staff. we discuss this draft action plan it's an opportunity for staff to volunteer to help implement specific action and they they are passionate about it and the department efforts. we will be including volunteers for staff volunteers and helping us. >> i also think looking at the indicators when you start something new it's always very difficult to put a number to

something. it's always better. we established a baseline and it should be wanting to increase it by 10 % or 6 candidates. these are characteristics before we get to the interview process. putting the numbers against it makes a big difference makes it feel achievable. >> i couldn't agree more. that was beautifully put. that's what i mean by living document. you have to start with the baseline. how do you know you moved the needle. for many departments they struggle with the indicators metrics part. that would be a real

exploration part for us. >> are there any other comments? >> yeah, it's more like a small question. in the hiring of an action plan you classify each action by party impact and difficulties right. when i look at the hiring opportunity area. the high priority action item is the work of the union or not easy as all. i can see the difficulty level is very high. they have expanded recruitment efforts. i'm wondering the thought behind it?

>> i have another question. >> it's a great question and what i think you are raising is the first time we did our survey and second. so, whoever would like to answer this.

>> it terms of what we will do what you did point out and i think it's really important, so

we need to prioritize movement and thing where we have the control and then we need to commit and this is really important to the office of racial equity, that we're going to join in a city wide conversation about the things we don't have complete control over. that it's no longer ok for our department to say, well, you know what, d.h.r. told us to do that so we're stuck. that is how systemic racism stays because the parties feel like they have november agency. so we need to participate and they can talk about working groups that are happening and to try and tackle these things and so i'm sorry for the confusion with those different systems, we will get to you early next year, what our prioritization is so you will be able to see what we're committing to in 2021 in which quarter of 2021 and that doesn't exist yet in the document which is probably why your pointing that out.

>> since we have the staff here i would just like to ask if they will have any, rather than (inaudible) do they have a good model from other departments we can hear from you about, like what's the best practice for hiring especially also on the internal career advancementment they have been key for the success of any department and industries and we have been challenging and i think both are non-profit and it's what kind of recommendation that other department or other model that and we can see it as a best

practice. >> sure. >> they are the two area hiring and career advancement and the department. >> hiring, i think everybody knows takes a long time in the city. we are beholden to civil service in the merit and there are reason and we're trying to improve the process and trying to streamline the testing and so, when i came over to the d.h.r. a year ago from the mayor's office, i mean, these are the things that i wanted to work on.

and then of course covid hit and so, one of the we did a review and key areas and of course, i mentioned and they're doing a 2020 review of course and we'll be part of our racial equity action plan. there's the rule three scores for people that certification of test and we do usually recommend that departments expand that rule to 10. we see that that usually results in a better diversity of new hires and so that's one thing that i don't know, i guess i'll

just say we know it takes a long time to hire and we're just undergoing a process to figure out how we can address that. it's a big issue for us. >> (inaudible). >> sorry? >> talent management was the second thing that commissioner wong was asking. do you have examples of best practices on how we keep people and promote them and help -- i think that's what you were asking about. >> so, yeah. i guess i would say that retention so -- i hate to sort of keep saying that we're revealing it but that really is a lot of revealing.

we don't have good data on what turnover looks like in our city employment and we don't really do exit interviews like we should so those are things that we are beginning to collect and beginning to develop so we can understand people that are leaving, why are they leaving? because it because of their manager or because of the pay? we don't know yet. and turnover is a serious culture of the employment or organizations in general and so that is somewhere we're also looking into. >> adam, do you want to talk about the work we're doing to try and understand talent management in our department. >> yes, thank you. there's exit interviews we're

ahead of the curve on this one where we have an exit incompetent view process for and hopefully we'll result out of it and it will be useful and talent or talent retention and promotion and it's the size of the department and vacancies and when we're drilling down into the data to look at promotions and look at and ben in the distinctive issue for a while and our development strategies to dig into that and it may be sort of a qualitative interview and with folks who are in the same position and to pull data out of that so i'm looking at sort of the folks for limitations that we're trying to

develop strategies to work within and around and get better and see where there's room for improvement and to remove barriers. >> it looks like your arm is raised again. >> i have a great follow-up to commissioner juan's question. is there a city department we can emulate sorry there not enough data to answer that question. >> >> most with the exception of d.p.h. to some degree and hiring is a d.h.r. process and so, i mean, it's a process that we own and we work with the civil rules and yeah, it's a process that they own. >> commissioner. >> to your -- i'm sorry, adam, go ahead.

>> just to expand that what is and the best practices rules of procedures and city wide level so the challenges of what we're racial equity action plan is to work within the rules to again identify barriers and develop areas we can prove upon to expand on best practices and for instance the recruitment strategy where the work expanding on generally done to try to do a more target and strange i can and this is one of the areas where there's these are city wide working groups convened of people who different departments and labor leaders and together to talk about this and i think it is what they alluded to and that will

identify best practices and strategies that can be implemented currently and future focus. >> so i would love to ask them if you would just share, adam just brought this up and you participate in two ore with your colleagues and other even if there's not a blessed best strategy you talked to the planning department and you are always looking out can you just share how you are and your colleagues are sharing information to help our department do better. >> sure, there have been working groups that have been convened and the racial equity leaders and we just created a team groups so that it's a hub where all the racial equity leaders can share our best practices and we i know that for our plan we have been working closely with

planning so our racial equity action plan is kind of similar to planning in terms of best practices and we're looking at hire not and recruitment and to see what is out there and trying to work to put together where it's not just someone in our department anymore who is putting out those hiring -- putting out those recruitment strategies and having it be institutionalized and an outer department so it's streamline and automated and trying to find the forces and a lot of this is talk to go see where we can pull together insurance. >> thank you. >> commissioner chiu. >> hi, thank you for preparing such a rigorous and thorough plan. i'm curious in the interest of achieving impact quickly and

hanging fruit i understand the process to submit the plan and then get the feedback from all the stakeholders but i'm curious to staff and employees standpoint what is the most impactful that you want to come out of the plan what is the fastest thing that we can implement that and we will be able to increase the feeling of belonging amongst the employees. >> what do you think? >> >> just going back to our presentation, we did have staff identify five party areas and and the rest of the department to focus on so just to reiterate what those were it was hiring a recruitment which we talked a lot about today and even though the process is long we'll see some significant changes with within the next six moms and respects and promotion diverse and equitable leadership and

also operational culture and inclusion in the belonging so those are the areas that we're going to start on first and that were staff priorities and we have a lot of different actions that were undergoing and support from different departments and different people through out the city. >> and i would just, if i may, there do you have an idea thaw think is that thing that will increase the sense o of belongsn those five that would do it fastest and be most important? >> the reason i ask is to give context to my question, if i'm a department employee right now and i'm feeling under appreciated and under valued for some reason or another, if i see these five things and i i know that it's going to take a year for the hr folks and the leadership to come up with a

hiring and promotion guidelines and that just seems like it will take a long time, what is going to keep me from leaving or looking for another job and i might want to see more action quickly. >> thank you. >> yes, i think that our staff survey was really valuable in that regard because staff shared a lot of feedback about things they would like to see changed. on going education and training across the whole department is going to be really important continuing the difficult conversations about race many of just getting comfortable with being uncomfortable and having these discussions that team meetings and senior staff meetings and talking about these issues will make a difference

and then listening to staff and what there needs are and prioritizing our implementation based on staff needs so in the implementation templet, we did face our time the draft timeline according to what staff identified as their highest priority and we made those actions come first and they would be the ones we would focus on over the first couple of years of implementation. >> i'd like to add to that. also, being able to apply racial equity work that the actual work that we're doing. yes, it's great to be able to think about be self-aware and understand what our limitations are and our privilege is but people are going to tie us to the work that i'm doing and we can always work on ourselves but delay what we need to focus on

is how do we, yeah, how do we a ploy to the work we're doing so working with the team to keep implementing the racial tool that we have started creating and create different ones and really trying to start operationalizing in the work that we're doing how we bring that to community. >> yes. >> i'd like to add one last thing. when we presented internally to staff, on the racial equity plan we put a call out for anyone interested in participating that they're welcome to come and help and when i looked at the list of staff, people who were really passionate about certain areas and want to see it accelerate and so i any seeing people engage and able to participate hopefully will help inspiring them and result in change.

>> thank you. >> you have your hand raised. >> yes. >> thank you. first of all, thank you so much for the thoughtful work that goes into something like this. it's a huge undertaking and there are so many things to think about and i was wondering since we're all under covid-19, we're all working from home and we have not really seen co-workers in a very long time. i'm wondering, how we think the impact of reimmersing ourselves how it will impact the implementation of some of the these plans or do we, you know, there's isolationism, people are sort of in their own world a little bit and i was just wondering, how would the plan be impacted not just for our

department but for other h.r. office or other city departments and for that matter, they were distance working or working from home. >> i think distance is taking a toll on all of us and we tried in our senior staff meetings every week and we talk about what we are doing to keep people motivated and connected and feeling connected it's really hard and i think that when we come back together, which i'm saying when not if in our new place in 1155 market, hopefully july 1, that's my hope, i don't know. i think there will be -- it will make implementation easier because i think we'll be seeing each other and supporting each

other and i don't -- it's a very deep question and i'm not sure that i have an answer except to say that we have to pay attention and we have to see how people are feeling and ask them how they're feeling and have compassion that those are suffering with this isolation or from childcare duties when they're trying to do their work and i'm -- we've got a lot of staff who have young children and are really hurt to go do everything. so i don't know if my colleagues have something else they would want to commissioner point she's raising. >> i think i want to acknowledge what tremendous job that also goes and try to have done during covid so we made a lot of progress during this really challenging time and i think it just speaks to the leadership and strength in this area and i

know we will continue to do that and i want to mention that this is phase one of our racial equity plan.

on monday. i will move onto the next slide. current three there's a third thursday in january, april, july and october. we recommend we keep them in the third thursday in april and july and october but with you want to move the january operations meeting to the second monday of january and that gets close to the policy committee meeting in

january and they're close together and it will give us breathing room to really move the policy committee moving to starting to happen in february and the real reason we need to move the meeting in january to the beginning of the month is rain ordinance ta the board of supervisors passed last year and it calls for departments to hold public hearings on their budgets before they're submitted to the mayor's office. the good thing about our commission we are helding budget hearings at the appreciate committee and the full commission so it's not requiring us to do anything new really because we were already doing

this and there is one line where there must be 15 days between the meetings and so that is why we're moving it to the beginning of the month in january, to make sure we have 15 days before we get to the full commission. are there any questions so far. we get to the final slide. currently they're by monthly on the fourth tuesday. and we are recommending changing it to and there's a discrepancy in amendment i'm going to talk about and we want to move it to

march, may, july and september and the first monday of february and that allows us to step 15-daytime and the full commission and mandating the order and we're recommending the first tuesday of december and that gets us out of the hefty thanksgiving weekend into the first week december and i will note that we've gone back on the dates many times so actually in the resolution before you, the second tuesday and an amendment to make that the first tuesday of december. i'm going to pause again and see if there's anyone that has questions for that is actually the end of my presentation and the days we are recommending. and i'm going to unshare my

screen. >> thank you, charles. someone who is long been part of the thanksgiving lack of quorum kerfuffle. it seems simple but it takes time. very much in agreement with what we want to do here due to a typo i think in the resolution and i think that we should amend the resolution not just with the recommendations from staff that you mentioned charles but also in the current resolution you can see that there is -- it says beginning november 2004 which is old text that got left in we need to amend that to january of 2020 so i'm sorry, january 2021 and starting next year and regular commission should be held on the fourth tuesday of march, may, july and september.

>> we'll open it up to public comment at this time.

i will share the instruction for making a public comment. the instructions should be up on the screen. press star 3 in order to be added to the queue. and i do see we have one more caller in the queue. so, i will get my timer ready and i will go ahead and unmute our first caller now. >> caller: david pillpaw. i have you on sfgovtv on youtube and on webex.

you guys are everywhere. so popular. on item 7 the commission by-laws comments, i have no objection to the proposed changes. if staff could just confirm that the notice requirements were met in the by-law let's see, article 11 amendments and need to be posted and circulated at least 10 days prior to a meeting just to confirm that that was done if that was was done then you are fine and ok to do that tonight if not then, i don't know. and i would have to go through my mail and be sure that i got the correct notice and it was mailed out 10 days ago and i'm southern that i saw a notice on the web. >> in the future it's that to adopt a specific meeting calender or to make that known

with the specific dates. mondayish a fish used to do that and commissioner meeting it would be helpful if even if you are not doing that right now put out following tonight's meeting a specific calender with the dates for next year and i assume that you already checked about jewish holidays and other things that vary but just wanted to be sure on that and it's all i have on the by-laws and i have something on item 8. thank you. >> thank you for your comments. are there any other members of the comments. >> and i'm seeing no additional callers in the queue. >> we should take a roll call vote. or actually i need a motion to accept to change the by-laws as amended. >> yeah, i'm wondering if we can just procedurally do a roll call to accept the amendment and to a

roll call of being amended resolution so there's two roll calls just to be really procedurally there. >> we already had a motion and a second on the amendment so we do a vote, please, for that katie. >> yes, i will call the roll call vote on the amendments. [roll call vote] cathe motion passes. to i hear a motion to approve the resolution. >> so moved. >> all right. commissioner sullivan and is there a second. >> second. >> all right. i don't think we have to take public comment again on that item. so can we move to a vote,

please. [roll call vote] >> the motion passes, next item, please. >> we'll move on to item 8 many of directors report. updates on department the environment administrative and program attic operations relating to budget planning, strategic planning, clean air and transportation, climate, energy, public outreach and education and environmental justice, habitat restoration, grown building and zero waste and toxic production and urban forestry. and the speaker is debra rafael.

>> i won't go through that list of things. it's our last commission meeting for the year so i thought just sort of looking back on 2020 and thinking about, what a year it's been. the very first thing i would say in terms of looking back is the tremendous pivot and depth of response that we had because of the pandemic it's not over and we're in a surge right now as everyone knows. and we have been giving our top talent from the top of the organization all the way through into the emergency response directly. we have chris gigerr and we have gianna our school ed person helping reopen the schools and myself and working with department of public-health at the beginning to try and help them organize their response so on and on and on. translation, outreach, our staff

has been doing that throughout and we also have been working through our programs to pivot and we heard that all through the year and it's the grown business program offering pre baits and rebates and trying to help our small businesses and get back on their feet or the work we've been doing with emergency and all of our programs are asking themselves how we can pivot, what can we do? how can we lend our support and yet we've also managed to do some good environmental work as well and the reduce risk pesticide list we'll want to talk about this again and we were looking at weed layer and we were prized and rec and park staff were surprised how well it

worked because it was a bacteria and an end sim. we just found out, that they've been secretly putting round up into that product. as well as they have pulled it and they looked at that frack and it's just horrendous. it crushes me. now we have people trying to do the right thing. that's a side bar and we'll come back to that in a policy committee and talk about it more. we've also, as you know, passed the most aggressive natural gas ban and ordinance and oakland just passed one that is very aggressive as well and san jose is working on one so we're

looking at the leadership. you've heard about the work on construction and demolition and we have an ordinance that is really well crafted and it's not getting over the calender year but it's been work we work hard on and so i would say that we've moved the needle environmentally and we're getting ready for a climate action plan and we're getting ready for racial equity plan and all those are future-looking for 2021 and beyond. i'm very proud of our department in 2021. i'm very proud and appreciative of our commission and it's a partnership between all of you and us and other city agencies and communities organizations we can't do it alone, we all know that and 2020 has really shown the importance of working together. so that's my director's report.

are there any comments or questions? >> is there any public comment? >> so we'll open you it up for public comment and i'll put the instructions back up on the screen. just a reminder that comments will be relate today this item and you will have three minutes to have your comments and give me one second while i check our queue. and i do see we have one caller in the queue. so i will go ahead and our first caller and. >> can you hear me now? >> excellent. david again. on the director's office item 8, in the future, if we can please include again as you personnel

changes. it used to be in here and it disappeared a while back and it would be great that we're in here again. there's personnel changes during this time and so it will be helpful for that. in addition to the work that is listed, it leaves two things that are missing i understand, that staff has worked in fact a lot on the agreement with row to collect at committee at the board of supervisors went to the full board and back to the budget and finance committee and i think that's where it is now and also, and i think that was soco on perhaps others and soco and that staff including others worked to create the department response to the civil grand jury report on recycling and it found

in general that our materials until the blue bin are going to markets where markets exist and we can do a slightly better job in being transparent about where toes commodities are being sold and ways to both encourage people to put things in the right bin and discourage them from putting things in the wrong bin and the staff is working to implement those recommendations and sorry, back on the previous side of them i didn't hear a response on my comment about the 10-day notice requirement for a by-law change and i don't see a notice on the website and i believe that the charter section 4.104. a was required such 10-day notice so you may want to check with the city attorney as to whether the action that you just took to change was in fact properly before you. >> ok. >> that's all for me for tonight. thank you. >> thank you for your comments. >> thank you. >> all right.

seeing no more public comment in the queue. i don't think there is anyone else? >> no, i'm not seeing additional callers. >> public comment is now closed. next item, please. >> onto the next item which is agenda item 9, committee reports and this item is for discussion. >> can you give us a report pleasant last policy committee meeting. >> yes, on november 2nd, the policy committee had one meeting in place of the two previously scheduled meetings on october 26th and november 9th and there's a presentation from department staff on the proposed construction and demolition ordinance that we just heard today and the resolution and the policy committee voted to recommend the resolution to the full commission and of course we deferred that for our future time and then there was a presentation also from colin dental post with san francisco

county transportation authority on the congestion management initiative where we discussed congestion pricing that concludes my report. >> >> thank you, very much. >> all right, for operations on october 21st, we had our first virtual meeting since we met in-person in january and we had presentations from the department staff on the budget for next year as well as the move to the which is 1155 market street and we also had a preview presentation in chance to give feedback and a great discussion on certain pieces of the department draft racial equity plan that we just saw the fuller presentation for now. let's open up for public comment on that item. >> to make a comment on this agenda reports just a reminder that you'll have three minutes to take your public comment and

also remember to press star 3 and if you would like to be added to the queue. and i'm not seeing any callers in our queue but we'll take a brief pause in case anyone would like to call in at this time. >> i'm not seeing any callers in the queue. next item, please. >> all right. so we will move onto the next item. item 10 announcements and this item is for discussion.

fellow commissioners, do you have any announcements to make? >> any members of the public have any comments on this item? let me answer the instructions back up on the screen for making public comment related to this agenda item which is announcements. just a reminder you will have three minutes to make your comments. and i'm not currently seeing any callers in the queue but we'll take another brief pause in case anyone would like to call in at this time.

>> not seeing any callers in the queue. >> all right. public comment is now closed. next item, please. >> our next item is item 11 new business and future agenda items and new speakers charles chan public and policy and public affairs officer and this item is for discussion. thank you. >> i am still on mute. thank you, the next meeting of the policy meeting is december 14th and the next meeting for the new by-law of the full commission meeting is the first monday of february and this is the verify that and so it's correct so that is februare next meeting of the operations

committee is second monday of january and so that is his 11th of january. so, we have a number of topics we're going to discuss at all of these future meetings including budget season so we're talk about that at operations and the full commission meeting and we'll be having move updates at the operations committee and we'll be having officer elections at the upcoming commission meeting and the annual report and that is something that i neglected to mention in my previous presentation and the annual report we're propose tag go to the operations committing and that is the meeting in january and it's also related to commission outreach and so the operations committee will get that annual report in january and in advance of it going to the full commission in february

for approval as well and there's a few other topics that we're entertaining for the upcoming year so, it's going to be a busy start of the year and it's a good one real. >> any comments, commissioners? any public comment? >> so, the instructions for public comment back on the screen if you would like to make a public comment related to had agenda item you will have three minutes to make your comments and process star 3 in order to be added to the queue. and i'm not currently seeing any callers in the queue but we'll take a big pause in case anyone would like to call in at this time. >> public comment is now closed.

next item. >> next item is item 12 adjournment. and with that the time is 7:53p. mark. thank you for joining us. thank you, everybody.

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>> president yee: of the 26 neighborhoods we have in west portal, it's probably the most unique in terms of a small little town. you can walk around here, and it feels different from the rest of san francisco. people know each other. they shop here, they drink wine here. what makes it different is not only the people that live here, but the businesses, and without all these establishments, you wouldn't know one neighborhood from the other. el toreador is a unique restaurant. it's my favorite restaurant in san francisco, but when you look around, there's nowhere else that you'll see decorations like this, and it makes you feel like you're in a different world, which is very symbolic of west portal itself. >> well, the restaurant has been here since 1957, so we're

going on 63 years in the neighborhood. my family came into it in 1987, with me coming in in 1988. >> my husband was a designer, and he knew a lot about art, and he loved color, so that's what inspired him to do the decorati decorations. the few times we went to mexico, we tried to get as many things as we can, and we'd bring it in. even though we don't have no space, we try to make more space for everything else. >> president yee: juan of the reasons we came up with the legacy business concept, man eel businesses were closing down for a variety of reasons. it was a reaction to trying to keep our older businesses continuing in the city, and i

think we've had some success, and i think this restaurant itself is probably proof that it works. >> having the legacy business experience has helped us a lot, too because it makes it good for us because we have been in business so long and stayed here so long. >> we get to know people by name, and they bring their children, so we get to know them, also. it's a great experience to get to know them. supervisor yee comes to eat at the restaurant, so he's a wonderful customer, and he's very loyal to us. >> president yee: my favorite dish is the chile rellenos. i almost never from the same things. my owner's son comes out, you

want the same thing again? >> well, we are known for our mole, and we do three different types of mole. in the beginning, i wasn't too familiar with the whole legacy program, but san francisco, being committed to preserve a lot of the old-time businesses, it's important to preserve a lot of the old time flavor of these neighborhoods, and in that capacity, it was great to be recognized by the city and county of san francisco. >> i've been here 40 years, and i hope it will be another 40 year >> december 7, 2020. the meeting is called to order at 5:36 p.m.

and sfgov-tv, thank you for televising the meeting which can be viewed on sfgov-tv 2 or streamed to sfgov-tv.org. and all attendees and panelists at this moment could mute themselves, that would be much appreciated. members of the public calling in, the number is 1-(415)-655-0001. again, the number is 1-(415)-655-0001. and the access code is 146 431 5194. and pound and pound again. and that will add you to the speaker line. when you're connected you will hear the meeting in discussion but you will be muted and in listening mode only. when your item of interest comes up, dial star, 3, to be added the speaker line. if you dial star, 3 before the

comment period is called you will be added to the queue. mute the device that you're calling in to the meeting, and the best practices are to call from a quiet location and to speak clearly and slowly and turn down the device that you're listening to meeting on. anand an alarm will sound once e time is finished. the speakers are requested but not required to state their names. sfgov-tv please start with the business slide. >> the small business commission is the official public forum to voice your opinions and concerns about policies that affect the economic vitality of small businesses in san francisco. the office of small business is the best place to get answers about doing business in san francisco during the local emergency. if you need assistance with

small business matters, particularly at this time, you can find us online or via telephon.as always our servicese of charge. before item number 1 is called i thank media services and sfgov-tv for hosting this meeting and special thanks to jim smith for helping with the public comment line. i'd like to thank mayor london breed for today's announcement for small business support via a continued unified fee deferrals and for the shared spaces equity grants program which will be a big help to vulnerable populations in need of assistance with shared spaces. in light of the recent expansion of the state-wide shelter in place order, this undoubtedly will help but we know that small businesses need a lot more support from our state and federal government and we urge them to take action quickly.

dominica, please call item number 1. >> clerk: item 1, call to order and roll call. [roll call] mr. president, you have a quorum. >> president laguna: thank you. the presenter for agenda item number 2 is having technical difficulties. while we sort that out, we're going to try and fill in a little bit of time here. can you call item number 6 please. >> clerk: item number 6, approval of draft meeting minutes, from meeting july 2,

2020, action item. >> president laguna: would anyone in the public like to make comments from our draft meeting minutes? >> clerk: it doesn't appear that there's anyone in the queue. >> president laguna: okay. seeing none, public comment is closed. commissioners, do we have a motion? >> i motion that we approve both sets of minutes for the july small business commission meetings. >> second. >> clerk: approving both meeting minutes and seconded by commissioner dooley, and july 20, 2020. [roll call vote]