>> council on this friday, january 15, 2021, this is a virtual meeting. this meeting is broadcast to the public on sfgovtv. it is open captioned and sign languaged interpreted. the mayor's disability council holds nine public meetings yearly. they are generally held on the third friday of every month. please call the mayor's office on disability for further information or to request accommodations at (415)554-6789

for voicemail or by e-mail at m odsfgov. org. next meeting will be on friday, february 19th, 2021 from 1:00 to 4:00. it will be broadcast on sfgovtv. i also want to let our audience know today we will be foregoing the co-chair report and mod director's report due to the importance of this topic that we are addressing, and to provide us with more time. if there are issues related to outreach to mod or to the couldd -- co-chairs.

reach us at sfgovtv. we thank you for joining us. can you please give the roll call, debbie. >> council member madrid. >> here. >> senha. >> present. >> yu. >> present. ples man. >> present. sasue new. >> present. >> molinsky. >> present. kate williams. i think we will e-mail kate and see if she will be joining us.

we did receive an e-mail from veavea who is not present today. had a conflict with family responsibilities. alex locust. >> present. >> okay. that is the roll call. >> debbie. this is denise. i just saw an e-mail from kate due to illness she won't be on the call today. sore refor the inter -- sorry for the interruption. >> okay, madam chair. that is the roll call. >> may we have the agenda for today, please. >> yes. we started with welcome and roll

call. as helen mentioned the agenda is shifted to accommodate our speakers at the beginning of the meeting who are able to be here until 2:00. we have shifted the usual items of the co-chair report and the mayor's office on disability director's report until later in the agenda after the break. the next item on the agenda is a information agenda item. how san francisco covid command center is elevating the needs of people with disabilities during the pandemic and how san

francisco's vaccine prioritization approach relates to the state vaccine prioritization guidelines. prebters will be adrian bechelli, deputy director of san francisco department of emergency management and katy tang director of public and government affairs for the department of public health. public comment is welcome on that agenda item right after it. the next agenda item. 4. presentation about disability representation on the california vaccine community advisory committee.

sylvia yee and danny chan with justice in aging. public comment will be taken about that agenda item immediately after it. then there will be a 15 minute break. followed by information item 5. co-chair report. information item 6. report from the mayor's office on disability and the director's will feature a summary of overall sf covid response actions and emerging issues impacting residents with disabilities. after that item 7. we had posted for proposed changes to the mdc by-laws. at the request of the chair

smolinski we postponed that. 8 is general public comment. at that time we will take public comment on items not on today's agenda but generally within the jurisdiction of the mdv. after that correspondence. after that. item 10. council member comments announcements. then adjournment. >> my understanding is we are not going to do co-chair reports because of the time to devote to the issue. as co-chair i have nothing to present. alex, do you have anything to present? >> i am not hearing from alex.

>> not at this time. >> thank you, alex. >> at this point i want to confirm with nicole that you will be presenting the mod from the director's presentation on this topic. is that correct? >> yes. this is a special report directly related to today's agenda. >> i wanted to rocket that from what i -- the correct that from what i mentioned earlier. i guess we are ready for the first presentation which would be adrian bechelli, director of department of emergency management and katy tang director of public affairs for

the department of public health. welcome to you both. >> thank you very much. who is speaking, please. >> adrian bechelli. >> and katie. great. thank you. please continue. >> thank you very much. good afternoon everyone. as i mentioned. i am adrian bechelli deputy director of the san francisco department of emergency management. i have served in leadership roles in the san francisco covid 19 response since the local declaration in february, last february of 2020. i really appreciate being invited to this meeting today. as you have heard, i will share

some overview information on our covid command center in terms how we incorporate the needs of access and functional needs community into the covid response. i am sure that many if not all of your questions are regarding vaccine and vaccinations. i am very fortunate to have katy tang with me to present after me. i will kick us off with some overview information on how we have been responding to the pandemic thus far. san francisco's response to covid-19 is modeled after what we call the incident command system, which is a best practice emergency management organizational structure. we have three joint functions together that coordinate the

response from the very top. those include public health, homelessness, and human services, and emergency management. early on we learned that this pandemic was going to exacerbate existing inequalities and inequities in san francisco as well as throughout the world. we created an equity officer in our leadership team, which since then has grown over the last few months into an equity and neighborhood advisory group. we have incorporated the mayor's office on disability through nicole into this group as well to help advice our leadership team in our response to covid-19. we have five major areas that

organize our emergency response. that includes operations and planning, logistics, finance and joint information. the most important ones to our external stakeholders, like all of you, are operations where we get everything done, and joint information, which is where we share information to stakeholders and to the public. you may know that the mayor may still be currently conducting a press conference that is announcing a network of vaccine sites that we are standing up to get ready to go throughout the city. when this meeting is over, i definitely encourage you to check on the latest information on vaccine, and katy will speak

to that as well as part of the joint information process. full joint information team is focused on ensuring that information is accessible and also understandable for everyone. this means all materials are translated into all of our threshold languages in san francisco but also additional languages. our press conferences include american sign language interpreters, we have videos created like how to properly wear a mask, and other key messages like that one. we also use multiple platforms to get the word out to as many people as we can. not just through social media but more traditional methods, radio, tv, local newspaper, as well as public service

announcements and pushing information through our board of supervisors and community connections becauseway know that trusted community partnerships and messengers are the best way to get critical information to where it needs to go. our joint information team is also responsible for developing that information and disseminating it to all in san francisco using the methods i described. specifically, our virtual events include closed captioning when requested by the host, and these events include stakeholders like the mayor's office on disability and other essential community groups. i want to highlight some recent operations of how we have aligned with vulnerable populations, especially the

functional needs community into our operations. i want to especially highlight our outbreak management group, which supports covid 19 outbreaks across the cities specially include everything congress gat living sites that house older adults and also house individuals with developmental disabilities or behavioral health diagnosis, dementia, physical disabilities that require assistance with activities of daily living as well as people experiencing homelessness. both our outbreak management group as well as our community branch of our operations do a lot of outreach to incorporate these communities and ensure they are linked to resources we have available to us in the city for covid response. these resources include contact

investigation. we conduct education and outreach to these communities. we arrange for specific testing especially for the homebound and cannot get out to testing sites. we have field testing teams we arrange to bring testing to them as well as disclosing results approviding advice on what to do if you receive a positive covid test in ways that you understand. to ensure all communities share information that may beings sense to them and not just the way someone may be presenting that information. i want to highlight partnerships between san francisco public cools and nonprofit called food connect. this partnership will increase the number of meals delivered to low income and home bound

students between 200 and 800 meals. food connect will help connect restaurants that want to reopen with food insecure families. i am happy to provide information on that program. in addition, the great place program has been extended through february 6th. we hope it will be extended beyond then. it is a federal program. this is meal delivery for seniors 65 and over as well as those with health risks. it has been a great opportunity for those home bound to get food delivered to them. this is really a national best practice. there are tons more operations. i would be happy to tell you about that. we do generate a daily situational report that we send

out to community stakeholder groups. that report has been redesigned to support screen reading software. hopefully, if you do not already receive this report, please let us know so we can add you to the distribution list. that is a quick overview on some of the operations to get more into the health information and the vaccine information i am going to kick it over to my colleague katy tank. >> thank you. >> keep in mind the vaccine situation is constantly evolving. what i am sharing is what i know as of today. we will try to get you more

updated information as time goes on and the situation changes. currently as you probably know, there are two approved vaccines that we are using in the united states. pfizer and moderna. in terms of a vaccine i have received a lot of questions so i wanted to share that some people asked whether the vaccine involves injecting the covid-19 virus into your body. we wanted to clarify that the vaccine does not include any live virus. it actually has synthetic version of the genetic code and teaches our body's immune system to recognize and newtralize the virus. another thing we have heard about is the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine be.

they have shown 94 to 95% effective against a person becoming ill with covid-19 based on large clinical trials that are extraordinary narrowly effective at protecting people from getting covid-19. it is quite incredible did he theeffective rate. >> how safe can it be when the vaccines were gop developed so quickly. it has been studied for many years. they didn't start from scratch. it had gone through every study, phase, trial that is required by the fda. it has not skipped any processes. we feel confident about the vaccines and the serious side

effects are extremely rare. we are excited the vaccines are out because it is a critical tool to slow the spread of covid-19 and end the pandemic. we wanted to point out that most people will receive a vaccine from their healthcare or insurance provider. this is because most of the vaccines are being distributed to healthcare systems such as kaiser, and san francisco as dph only received a small portion of the vaccines. our priority is to search the most vulnerable populations that do not have access to health insurance. i want be to point that out. we are not trying to deflect distribution of vaccines. the vast majority are distributed to the healthcare system. at this time we anticipate the general population will likely

have access to the vaccine later in 2021, later this year. currently, covid-19 vaccines are not recommendedded for children. i believe that pfizer allows ages 16 and up. moderna ages 18 and up. covid-19 vaccines are free. they are covered by insurance. one thing to note is that even after you receive the vaccine you still need to wear your mask and physically distance and wash your hands. although the vaccines protect you from getting covid-19, you could actually still transmit the virus to other people. in terms of how the vaccines are being allocated and which populations are being prioritized.

sfdph does not decide who gets vaccinated first. we are required to follow the national and state guidelines for priority and al location of the vaccines. we are responsible for administering the vaccines delivered to san francisco. just to explain a little bit of the framework. the federal government purchases the vaccine. they distribute it in three main ways. one, they allocate to the states. second, they enter into partnerships with certain pharmacies such as walgreens and cvs. thirdly they directly allocate to the va. the san francisco va gets them directly from the federal government. once it goes to the states. they allocate to the multi county entities.

those are many the keysser, dignity hospitals. these systems span multiple counties. they are called multi-county programs. then the state also distributed to lomhealth departments. such as san francisco department of public health. we get an allocation and distribute to the health network, sf general hospital and other healthcare facilities not part of the multi county entity program. one medical, chinese hospital, northeast medical services. those are the ones that don't span multiple counties. some do but they are not officially part of the multi county entity program. that i hope gives you a little sense of just how the vaccine ends up in san francisco and where they get distributed to.

in terms of the faces of the vaccine rollout we are required to follow the state allocation plan. currently we are under what is called phase 1a including healthcare workers. for example workers in acute, psychat tree and correctional facility hospitals. paramedics, e.m.t., home healthcare, community health workers, public health field staff, dental health clinics. i am not going through the entire list. that is a flavor of the different occupations and priority groups as part of the state's phase 1a. under 1a there are three different tiers. we are moving through all of those tiers in 1a.

in terms of the next upcoming tiers. the state has released information about phase 1b and 1c. they have broken them up into different categories. i will share this with nicole so she can share with you. it is too much to read off right now. also this week it was announced that people who are ages 65 and older are eligible to receive vaccine at this time. however, i want to caution that this means they are eligible to receive it. it does not mean that we necessarily have enough supply of vaccines to administer that. i have heard that various health systems such as kaiser and our own cities we don't have enough

vaccines to completely begin administering vaccines for 65 ands older. when we do, we are able to move forward with that population. the state said this is very important, this age group. once we make the concerted effort to move through vaccination of 1a, still a priority. the state has prioritized those populations. then you can move to 65 and above. i don't have a timeframe for you on any of this. every we are unsure of the supply of vaccines we will get as a did the county. it is hard to plan week to week or month-to-month at this point. this week we thought we were getting 10,000 doses and we got 2000 doses of vaccine. i don't have a timeframe. that gives you a general sense of the priority phasing the

state has fallen under. in terms of what the covid command center's goal. we will fill the gap in vaccine access. if you don't have health insurance or part of the health network, that is a priority to help you get access to vaccine. we provide technical assistance to clinical providers so they can become administrators of the vaccine. the more entities we can get to roll out the vaccines, the quicker we can distribute to the general population. of course, we are here to help develop communications and public education campaigns around vaccine bees. in terms of how we are deploying vaccines in the community, the mayor shared information which adrien went over a community network of vaccines so that we

can get it out more quickly and to the communities that need it the most. you will we seeing that in the planning phase. it will be online as more vaccine is available. where we are right now. we are women underway to protect the medically vulnerable population. as of january 10th, over 18,000 san francisco residents have been vaccinated. of those, over 1,000 -- almost 2000 received the second dose. all residents of laguna hospital have received it. the nursing homes were offered the vaccine. the remainder are to be completed this week. to share those are the successes. we still have a few challenges. there isn't a unified federal or state system for vaccine

delivery. as i mentioned earlier it is unclear how much vaccine is allotted and when to deliver to us. we do not have the ability on vaccine in healthcare systems. we don't know how much vaccine is administered. we only know how much we administered at dph and to whom we administered the vaccine. all reporting is left to the states. the state is getting the data management together. one other thing is that counties are and will move at different speeds. you might say, well, how come someone in santa clara county are moving to phase 1b and these groups of people get to get vaccine first and we can't do

that in san francisco? that is because we have different population sizes. in phase 1a alone we estimate there might be over 80,000 to 100,000 people in that phase alone. we also cover the people who live in san francisco. we also cover those who are healthcare workers here. we will move at different speeds. i wanted to stress the expectations why and help you understand that it is not because we are trying to hold back the vaccines on are anything like that. those are some of the challenges, but we are very hopeful that we have a vaccine in place right now. happy to answer any questions you have. i know there are questions how the community can be involved. there is a task force being

formed to involve a variety of different communities. of course, i have been talking with nicole about that. it is not final yet but please know that we very much want to hear from you any observations you have, questions, concerns, issues, anything that we can be doing better to serve this community. with that. thank you so much for your time. >> i will start off with two questions and then open it up to the council members. you kind of took away my first question which was to find out how we can support you in your efforts and how we can help elevate the work that -- good work nicole and you are doing

but specifically in terms of informing you on what the disability community needs. aside from putting together a working group what shall we do now? there is urgency. the second question was with the change of administration are you anticipating a children in the way the vaccine is rolled out and the relationship between the federal government and the state and hopefully an improved and more efficient effort to get these vaccines into arms? i will mute and wait for your response. >> for your first question, talking to you in settings like

this or informally you can start now and let us know what you are hear from the community. what are you observing yourself as to challenges to the vaccine access? please don't feel that you have to wait for any sort of formal task force or forum. if you want to e-mail me directly i would gather that. i work with the vaccine team to share your feedback and incorporate into operations and planning. that is in terms of immediate needs. second question we are hopeful. we can't anticipate how much things will change but we are hopeful that the new administration will bring in more efficiencies and clarity. we can't say at this moment. >> thank you so much. will you make sure to provide your contact information for those of us who want to continue this conversation?

i guess to follow up is there anything in particular that you are looking at right now that addresses our community that you would like to hear back from us about? >> i think right now we are just struggling with the supply of vaccine to prioritize all of those individuals that fall under phase 1a. we are really trying to ramp-up while dealing with the supply shortage. at the same time planning when we do get more vaccines available how we can distribute them more easily within the communities. if you want to think through what that might look like in

terms of the network of community vaccine sites. we are partnering with many organizations and communities out there helping out with testing efforts, for example. if you want to think through those, that would be great. if you are hearing challenges with access in the community. >> i will follow up with you afterwards. thank you so much. i learned a lot, and i know you are doing everything that you can. i can understand how frustrating bureaucracy can be. especially with what we are dealing with right now. we are on your side. >> thank you so much for

listening. we hope to continue this dialogue. thank you. >> thanks. >> do we want to hear from other council members? >> i have a question, helen, if that is okay. >> hi, katy and adrian. thank you for all your good work. it is not easy. quick question from what i have been reading and based on your presentation if someone qualifies in a priority group like 1a and they are not -- they don't have the sf health network insurance, how do they get the vaccine? is it just up to them to find a private provider or to go to another county? it sounded based on what i read.

it is a lot of contipping get of the part of the sf health network even if they are in the priority 1a group. >> i am sorry if that is how it came off as. that health network is for those not insured who are most vulnerable. the health network is a safety net. most people, based on the statistics we have, most people in san francisco are covered by some sort of private insurance. for the small number of people that don't have any coverage or access, maybe there are issues with residency status. they can be covered under those health networks. >> it is the city health insurance? >> well, it is a city program.

this is not what you are thinking of. it is healthy sf. basically, most people are covered by a private provider, by private insurance. that is why most of us will likely go to our primary care doctor to receive the vaccine. there is a small group of people who for whatever reason may not have access to insurance, issues of residency status and they can be covered by our health network. >> again, i am sorry. for clarification for everyone. if you are in a priority group like 1a but not with san francisco health network, you go to your own provider and ask for the vaccine? >> yes. >> thank you. >> excuse me for interrupting.

we have a request for accessibility to call on council members one by one so that we can spotlight the speaker. helen p. with your permission i will read off names. >> okay. i sent a memo to everybody indicating that. if you want to make the call. i had indicated that alex our other co-chair would be next for his question. >> i will read off the names. >> read off the members. >> thank you.

possibly by now one question is do you know the disability are not required to wear a mask. how do your department try to educate the small businesses and public that some disability or disabled population are not required to wear a mask? how do you find that excuse the

abuse or just word of mouth? that is one question. i don't. [indiscernable] the people with disabilities and others in tier 1c. i know that it is based on our

disability. how do. [indiscernable] that and how is the plan? what are you doing because of the ability of the vaccine or what? >> hi, alex. thank you for your questions. i will answer first one about mask requirements especially for those not able to wear them and how businesses know that and how businesses or there might be some people taking advantage of that and not wearing it. we have community education response team. whenever there is a individual,

maybe yourself or someone else, who has a complaint against a business they say, well, i can't wear my mask because this business is refusing service to me. they send that team out to the businesses and we inform them and educate them about this exception. it is also this information contained in the guidance we send to the businesses so they are aware. alternatively if there are complaints about abuse, our community education response team can go out. it is hard to catch some situations. it has to be in that moment. of course, you are always welcome to contact whether through 311. that is easiest to remember. then we can send out our team to provide that education and awareness to the businesses.

second question. it is now about availability of the vaccine. >> i just want to remind people if you are not talking, please mute yourself. >> the whole reason why the federal and state governments came up with this phasing and tiers is because there is limited supply. if we didn't have to worry about supply, we wouldn't do this whole criteria the way it is now. we wish everyone could get it at once. this is the situation we find ourselves in right now.

>> people who are in home support services do they get notified if the vaccine is ready or do they need to contact their primary care doctors? >> it is going to be a combination of things. the city has been notifying the in home support services workers about their eligibility for vaccines. for the majority of us like myself. i will be contacted by my primary care doctor when i am eligible to receive it. most people will receive that note from the system when there is availability and they are ready to go for that.

>> thank you. >> denise, do you have a question? >> i got a notification from denise she doesn't have any questions. >> tiffany. >> hi, this is tiffany. thank you for the presentation and the information. i had two questions. one is around just better understanding. it doesn't sound like we as county have much agency around influencing how much of the vaccine we receive. a lot of it is coming from the state. then it is distributed to private healthcare providers. i am getting nervous about

leaving those decisions up to people -- other people to decide who is worthy of a vaccine or not. i want to avoid care rationing situations that we had early on in covid and likely still and determining whose lives are more worthy than others. my question is i would love to better understand what advocacy san francisco is undertaking to try to ensure either to the state and encourage the state t to reo inbe deindicate how it io be distributed to private institutions. >> that is a really gate question. there are a lot of conversations between the san francisco health officials and the state. a lot of advocacy.

we were glad to hear about the 65 and older individuals eligible. that is something that was broken down into two different tiers under 1b. san francisco based on data that we have seen, we know in terms of covid deaths they occur mostly in people ages 60 and older. i know that doctor colfax wanted to push forward on administering vaccines to that age population because of the data that we have seen. i notice there is a lot of advocacy between the county officers. that did happen this week. that caused confusion. the state had rolled out the framework. the other thing is that the state has a community advisory board as well taking community

input as they have been making these decisions. i am not as close to that group but i know that exists. that might be a route to look to as well. happy to hear of any -- i have heard a lot of concerns how the tiers have been put together. it is a work in progress. let's say that. i wouldn't be be surprised if the state next week said something different how they are phasing things. >> it seems like we get different news by the hour. my other question. i heard adrien mention access and functional needs and medically vulnerable. is there a place around more specifics who fits into that category? there is a lot of confusion. disability is a broad range of

different conditions. >> what we get in terms of how to allocate is very vague and broad. it is almost we have been telling people if you feel like you fall into a category, then we are not sure to police you. we don't want to. we want more people to get vaccines. perhaps maybe you fall into the age range category but yet you do have an underlying health condition and more medically vulnerable but could fit in another category. >> i am trying to pull that up. i want to make sure i have that

right. right now the state has again specific language they are using underlying health condition or disability under phase 1c. then the age range for 1c is people age 16-49 years of age for that category. they don't have any mention of that in the earlier phases but we do hope that at least with the opening up of the age of 65 and older that could address some of the higher risk where we have seen data that shows that you are more subject to potentially passing away from covid. i don't have a good answer. this is the framework we are operating within. we appreciate any advocacy you

might have with the state directly. not only us but to the state. >> katy. this is one of the interpreters. i missed the last part you were talking about age 16-49. those few sentences could you repeat please. >> currently, the state has under phase 1c people who are 16-49 years of age and have an underlying health condition or disability which increases risk of severe covid-19. >> katy if you don't mind me jumping in. something i wanted to add is what we have determinedded from

the local public health level wherever possible to better define what is listed in the state phases is to look at previously existing and pre-defined definitions essentially of those types of communities and groupings. under phase 1c, as katie mentioned, for all intense and purposes we would be pointing to the state's definition of access and functional needs under ab23-11. that would include the broad scope of access and functional needs populations consisting of individuals with developmental or intellectual disabilities or physical disabilities or chronic conditions or injuries, limited english proficiency.

very likely we would point to pre-existing definition to make that locally a definition pointing to the what the state is saying. would he would use the state pre-existing definition. >> the next questioner. >> hello. i have some concerns with the timeline. i have heard in two different scenarios that deaf people in

nursing home will be given vaccine immediately, but accessibility is an issue. that creates a barrier to receive it. a lot of that feedback has been -- i think there is a missed opportunity of scheduling for the timeline. i know a individual 88 for the vaccine in the nursing home. the insurance issues have concern about her being called in. she is waiting to receive the vaccine. i think that this is when we are talking about recipients in a timeline, there are various

issues with when they are going to receive the vaccine. keep those of us who have had perhaps an illness for a period of time. there are other variables that create a situation which can cause issues with receiving it from the state. i think right now -- just a moment. sorry. there are some challenges within the community, the deaf

community as well as deaf-blind individuals receiving information on where they are on the list. i don't know if san francisco city and county has created some ideas of how to navigate these challenges. i don't know if the entire bay area addressed this. there are a group of deaf people with private insurance that are combating this. for folks on state assistance or federal assistance, medical, medicaid there are concerns for the deaf and deaf-blind community. there are concerns where people are in the timeline, and how we can balance people out of the city and county of san francisco and especially those under state

assistance. i think there are issues with fairness as far as where folks are in the timeline of receiving the vaccines. this is a small community i am discussing. there are several concerns with how people are being notified, put on to the list, receiving them and those that are when they are eligible, how they are able to administer the vaccines. those are my concerns. >> i would love to hear your ideas or understand your ideas how we can better get messages across to those individuals who are deaf and blind. please do share those with us. if you see examples how it is being done we would like to do that. we are fortunate to have a great mayor and facilities who does

give us great advice. we would love to understand more from you. >> this is helen, co-chair. it is time we call our break. our 2:00 p.m. break. i guess i am going to have to ask. do you want to finish with questions for this particular portion of our meeting or do you guys want a break? >> we need to go to staff on this item. there are people due for public comment. we are not quite ready for break yet. >> let's continue. >> the break is not until after the seconded panel. >> second panel?

>> yes. >> okay. >> we also, one last council member is alex locust. i don't know if he has questions. >> thank you for your presentations. i want to echo a lot of the sentiments of other council members, particularly dovetailing with what tiffany and the orchid were communicating. thes are being -- the tiers are without the equity at the center. following --

>> you are muted. >> we lost your audio. >> i think katy's e-mail is in the chat. i will send an e-mail to katy. >> i want to follow up on alex's comment quickly. how are or is there protocol for verifying individuals claims that they are at greater risk as part of how you are positioned in the list of getting -- the list of priority? is therenivaldation or verification -- is there validation or verification required to put you there?

>> i am trying to think. how to verify or validate the level of risk? it is based on categories of your line of work or what you are engaged in or your age. at least from san francisco department of public health we are not there to police people, especially when you go to the private health provider and you say you are a healthcare worker and you qualify for 1a and you should receive the vaccine. as a county we don't have i sight into that and we don't police that. for our own workers we look at your job classification and job scope. that is how we notify people to go. they are eligible for the vaccine. our goal is to get as many vaccines into people as quickly as possible. we don't want to sort of police

this to slow it all down. i just have to reiterate we are not the enforcing or regulatory agency where most people will we getting the vaccine from private systems. >> a follow up. i understand. [indiscernable] somehow people with disability are identified or you have disability? i know there was a discussion of

how to manage that aspect. i know you mentioned it is up to the providers to do that, but there is confusion among the disability how you are considered disabled enough to qualify to get a vaccine in time. >> that is really a conversation between patients and private providers. they should have your medical record and so when you call in for an appointment for vaccine,

once you get to that tier or the phase that has opened up, they should have access to your records to have that discussion with you about whether you can get the vaccine. i really hope from a few months we won't be in the same situation where we have limited supply. i am hopeful. maybe in a couple months we won't need to be worrying about the phases and tiers. that is me being hopeful. not saying that is going to happen. alex, that is a conversation you would have with your private provider. >> i think they should take a note and try to iron that out. people with disability are

considered as disabled. >> thank you, alex. i want to help honor katy's time. thank you. adrian had to -- h op off. for the council members to know. i did forward all of your questions that you had on this issue that you raised as concerns. katy as access. i think those are excellent issues that we can continue to work on at covid command. i want to echo that one of the really key things i heard today that we really need to be

working on targeted communication for disability communities, deaf and disability communities. there are things to do to really do a better job. provide information in asl, there are different ways to use the networks to reach people when it is going to be critic lieu he important top continue to do that. there is a lot of confusion around the tiering. i am excited and hopeful for the day when we can get past the tiering conversation. one of the other confusions is it is very clear in the guidelines that folks who use supportive services, their caregivers are eligible. that only accounts for a portion of our folks who use the support. if you are not eligible it is not clear that you can have your caregiver be vaccinated.

we want to work on that. also, i think as we think through the distribution sites themselves, making sure that we are providing the distribution in the most accessible and equitable way possible. the physical access but also the communication access that needs to go along with that when we have our sites. those are just a few of the things i know we will continue to work on. one of the things i suggested already to our co-chairs is that immediately following this meeting next week we chat to wring back -- bring back recommendations to you on the vaccine to help move these critical issues forward. i really want to thank you, katy, for your time and for being here to listen and hear

from all of us. i appreciate it. >> thank you. >> are there members outstanding from council members? clerk, are there any public comments or questions at this presentation? >> yes. i believe we have people in queue. i will read one comment that has come in by e-mail. from bob. he says people who use crutches, canes, walkers, braces, walking sticks cannot stand in line for a long time. staff at vaccination sites need to look for us and bring us forward no matter where in the

line we are. fatigue from standing might precipitate a fall and injury. it is also helpful to have chairs. i would like to turn to sfgovtv staff to see whether there are people holding to make public comments over the phone line. >> we have one person in queue. >> please go ahead. >> i am lilly buyers. i just had a comment i want to make in the interest of trying to reach as many people as possible. i understand the state is in charge of making the rules who gets the vaccine when.

earlier this week the cdc guidance changed to include people who have documented co-morbidities, underlying conditions to be vaccinated right away along with individuals 65 years and older starting now. i have never understood why young adults who have conditions that increase risk of serious illness and death such as two of my adult children were never placed at the top with older adults. i have one daughter 28 with down's syndrome. it increases your risk by 10. i have another daughter in early 30s with pots. she already has the tom's what we call -- the symptoms long haulers have. she is living with these symptoms over five years. she faces the possibility of

those being worse and this is the rest of her life. i will continue to do what i can to advocate at all level, local, state, federal. i am trying to put my ideas in another set of brains here. thank you very much. >> thank you. i appreciate your comments. >> anyone else on the phone? >> no more in the queue. >> one more in queue. they are unmuted now. >> it is if you have -- it is muffled. >> i am community organizer. no one is staying to press star 3 to come up in the queue. there are atrocious

accessibility problems with this meeting right now. the agenda changed 48 hours ago. accident it moved the public comment an hour and a half in the meeting. on medication it is really hard. there is no one staffing the phone that can answer questions of accessibility. i have been asking about these questions for over an hour now. there is nobody listening at all. before covid there used to be staff to answer questions for accessibility. i sept an e-mail 40 minutes ago. no one replied. this is awful. how can you expect to have a public meeting this way? no chat, no video function. you are forced to dial as multi digit password and have to press different keys to join. this is one of the worst accessibility meetings i have

attended ever. with mayor's office with disability. i don't understand. it is horrible. usually we are given a chance for public comment twice on the mayor's office for disability minutes not once after a break an hour and a half later. that is not public access. there is no commitment to hear our voice and have our input. as far as the presentation. >> is there a question that you having zack? >> the three minutes time period. >> we are allowed questions or comments. make that clear to the public. yes, i have a comment. the things discussed is medical triage. we should name it as such. this is not like the other words

people are using. medical triage is problematic and affects people of color primarily, some of whom have died because they have not received timely treatment. may 12th town hall meeting with the mayor's office with disabilities they refused to mention medical triage and the necessity of getting p.p.e. to people of color. the majority of covid positive patients in san francisco right now. i wish i could show you that meeting. the mayor's office on disability deleted it. i hope this office can correct some of these failures and recognize the importance of medical triage to make sure communities of color have access to covid treatment. >> i think you are up on time. we did not have a meeting on may

main 2020. due to covid we started holding public meetings in the fall. that may be the reason why you can't find it. i guess that is one of the ass to your question. if there are other issues related to accessibility we are doing our best. we were hoping the zoom platform would be a lot easier and accessible. if there are specific issues that you are having feel free to e-mail us and we will try to address them. thank you. we are moving along here to our second presentation. >> there is one more in queue. >> okay. >> hi. i am william railing.

i am making this on behalf of accessible san francisco. a non-profit association. first echoing the previous speaker. i have had issues with the agenda. today's agenda i had trouble with. i don't know if it was my computer or not. also, i do agree that the more you can do to repeat the star three-inchstruction, that would be beneficial. it is on the agenda and instructions today. in november i wanted to comment and i was on the phone and somehow missed the whole star three-inchstruction. i am sure it was partly my fault. appreciate you are doing what you can to facilitate public parties soace. thank you for today's

presentation. it is great to see the city focused on the emergency at hand. job one of getting people vaccinated. it is great to see former supervisor katy tank. hard to believe it is two years since she left the board of supervisors. it is what most of the commissioners and staff and disability community knows, supervisor tang was essential in getting the accessible business entrance program going. that is much appreciated. that segways to my last remark which is that as much as i am so happy to see us focus on the health emergency, before we know it, we will be back to

reopening. as recently as december 22 the board of supervisors had hours and hours of testimony from the business community to reopen outdoor dining. i appreciated that in november on the accessibility at the outdoor dining areas and just want to sort of put in a last little reminder that is an ongoing process. there were a lot of accessibility problems without door dining areas previously approved. hopefully some of them are rectified during the closure. i look forward to further discussions on improving accessibility when the dining areas start to reopen which will hopefully be before you know it. thank you very much.

>> we are communicating with those involved without door dining. the discussion around making them permanent parts of the city. again, please let us know if there are specific issues you would like to share with them by contacting us through the mdc and mod websites. i appreciate your kind comments. thank you very much. >> that concludes the public comment on this item. >> thank you. we are now ready to move to the second topic which is presentation about disability representation on the california vaccine community advisory

committee. sylvia yee, senior staff attorney for the disability rights, education and defence fund and danny cha in, who is a member or representative from justice in aging will be presenting. i am sorry i don't have the specific title for danny chan. apologies. we welcome you both. thank you for coming and joining us today. i am hoping that you are somehow on the platform. >> yes. thank you for inviting me. we are pleased to be here. i am speaking for my organization. thank you for inviting us.

let me go through some remarks, debbie spoke to us the kinds of things we can bring to the meeting. the primary purpose of being here as representatives on the california vaccination advisory council, cvac for short. it is easier for me. we are going to give a minimal amount of presentation information and preserve as much time as possible for your questions. we hope to provide additional information that way. on the cvac, selection for the committee began in mid-november when the communications went out. cvac is something that the state has working in conjunction with

another work group. california grafting guidelines work group. before that california along with nevada, oregon and washington put together a governor's scientific safety review. that one is doctors and scientists who are trying to figure out and go over again the safety information of the vaccines approved by the federal government. of the two, cvac, the committee and drafting guidelines work group. they work together. they draft guidelines work group is responsible for formulating the vaccination priorities. the committee was an important part of that. we are to be there to help represent the community to achieve equity in the vaccination process. today there are close to 80

organizations represented in the cvac. there were 39. these span advocacy on a range of individuals and groups. disability, aging, vessel rights, low income persons, healthcare, immigrant, indigenous, people of color, lbgq plus, labor and employment, children and so forth. there are some state departments and agencies that work specifically in these areas who are also represented. there is some county representation as well. it is not all counties. i think there are usually a couple of representatives from the drafting guidelines work group on the cvac meetings.

i don't think the reverse is true. the guidelines work group makes the vaccine priority recommendations. they are listening in. we are to provide input and feedback on planning efforts. to raise and solve barriers of equitable vaccine decision making. i have to say that personally i am impressed with the cvac groups represented on the call. i think each one is important and have thoughtful things to share. they may being points about how equity applies to the groups they represent when it comes to vaccine distribution. as time has gone by, there were weekly meetings before the holidays then bi-weekly meetings after. there is a genuine willingness to engage with one another in respectful ways as we go over

the hard questions. at the same time, there are 80 of us. if you need to be heard in the forum to one another because of size of the group we use the chat, we raise our hands, we are called upon. when one person makes a good point you are going through a lineup. other people are chatting. it is very hard to have a real back and forth conversation between members. it is clear the vaccine is allocated equitably involves multiple aspects. how population groups got prioritize the. outreach, communication and considerations that try to balance enough details that the counties and the hospitals and

universities who get the vaccine are able to provide distribution that doesn't put a burden on individual's shoulders to establish where they fall in the priority group. at the same time there has to be enough discretion to ensure that individual vaccines aren't spoiled or wasted. the moderna and pfizer vaccines are particularly hard on that front because they spoil so quickly once they get out of ultracold store rage. as you heard from the first speakers who were excellent, the logistics are extremely important. the districts shouldn't district prioritization or equity. they can get in the way of achieving equity. one of the most difficult questions is how to distribute

to people in their homes, member vaccination clinics. that has to be planned for now even though we don't have vaccine to be used in that way. in terms of disability and aging representatives, we also have christina mills, we have the disability rights california and aaron from the state council on disabilities. we have a number of aging representatives. danny is before you today. i think many of us voice that we have a stronger voice when we speak together. we share common concerns. for example, the need to prioritize vaccination for a

specific population such as older and disabled adults with disabilities receiving home and community-based services. it is hard to stay out of institutions. i think these individuals and their families are thankful they are not in the long-term care facilities where the pandemic has raged and taken so many lives. at the same time they and their caregivers need the vaccinations for the same ropes the long-term care is prioritized. i will turn it over to danny to talk about the current state of the priority and how the aging communities and disability communities have presented a common front. >> thank you so much. thanks for the overview.

i am danny chan. thank you for having me today. sylvia gave you good information. i will walk you through from the high level what the vaccine rollout has been like in california, what the different phases from the high level should look like. areas that we have tried to put on a unified front. i should remind everyone we are on the advisory committee, as much as we want to have power to make decisions. we do not make decisions. we provide input to the clinicians drafting the guidebine ever lines to the state. in terms of process those get sent to individual county and city health departments to implement. we are one part of a sometimes

well oiled machine in this vaccination rollout. if you think how we have been approaching the vaccine allocation so far, california like almost all other states is approaching with a phased approach because there is not enough supply and not enough -- too much demand and not enough supply. now woven have two -- we only have two vaccines approved. in california we track a little bit different in the recommendations of the cdc expert group. california's is tracking that. we have some discretion to really change the allocation framework to one that works with our state. right now all states are -- all

counties in california, to my knowledge, public health departments are in the 1a phase. very initial phase which started at the beginning -- the end of december when both vaccines were approved for emergency use authorization. 1a focuses on medical workers and residents long-term care. that is a large group of people. we are in the middle of getting the vaccine out to those individuals. there is further sub priority. how do you figure out between the front line medical worker and resident long-term care facility. who gets it? there is further sub priority based on the type of medical facility, other risk factors. one big piece of the cvac is how

to implement vaccine allocation eckwebly. that is -- equitably. how do you have an equitable rollout. you can focus on risk factors that may being you more at risk including social vulnerable index. the motion where you live in the community might impact how at risk you are of getting covid-19. this is a big part in 1a which is that the federal government before 1a started announced a partnership with cvs and walgreens, large pharmacies to assist in the vaccination in

long-term care facilities. that is not across the board. each facility had the option to sign up for the federal partnership. i think what i last saw was 80% of the facilities signed up. within that the federal partnership is prioritizing skilled nursing facilities first and then long-term care or assisted living for the elderly after that. in california we are still in that 1a transitioning between skilled nursing facilities and rcfd or assisted living as the seconded part. there are a lot of issues in 1a. a lot of things like paperwork. a lot of administrative issues, scheduling the clinics when

walgreens go to the facilities to administer the vaccine. i have also heard different things around concept and whether people are able to meaningfully give concept and whether consent is communicated to them in a way they understand whether that is due to disability and/or having limited english proficient. i think someone said earlier they hope in a couple months we aren't dealing with the phases. i want to make sure you understand what they are. 1a medical workers and residents long-term care facilities. as we are finishing with that, the state does not expect a clean stop between phases. as we wrap up we move to the next phase 1m. 1b has been changed.

it is changed earlier this week to 1b. 1b, my understanding, is that it is going to be 65 and up. certain front line workers. that would be in california we are using the sector-based approach to make things more complicated. you have to look at what sector. in 1a, -- 1b, sorry. tier it is 65 years and older and then food agriculture, education and first responders. there are other sectors in tier 2. it is not until 1c we get to individuals who are 50 and older and individuals who are 16-49 with under lying medical conditions and disabilities. sylvia and i and partners have

pressed on a couple couple of things. how are counties to define underlying medical conditions? as people were asking before we started the presentation how do you show that without creating a huge burden on people getting the vaccines they need? overall recommendations on really lifting up in 1b people who use home and community-based services. sylvia and i have done the math. that suggests it is not a huge group. the state was concerned if that would blow up 1b. it is a small enough population and definitely a population that is at super-high risk. as we think about an equitable approach, it may beings sense because a lot of these people

who are on home and community-based services programs are low income. also, they have given up a lot in day-to-day lifestyle because of covid, because of how high risk they are. we made that recommendation multiple times in different ways, anyway someone will listen to us. we hope that as the state finalizes what 1b looks like we might prioritize home and community-based services recipients. christina mills said why are we letting the ihs workers in 1a to get the shot and those people they are giving the services to have to wait to 1c? that is a good point. as far as i know where we are in the process 1a, b, c overview. there is no health department

that i think is at 1b yet. long beach in southern california announced they are starting 1b later this month. we are getting to the point to transition. i will say a lot of what sylvia and i talk about at the meetings is the how. sylvia talks about mobile vaccination clinics. i should add that some of the storage requirements make that challenging. we are trying to think outside the box. we know not everyone will be able to go to drive through center. that is not going to work for people in the communities whether older adults or people with disabilities. how do we reach those sheltering in place since march who are at high risk? i will say this stuff really is

changing all of the time. just when you think you understand the allocation framework and lodgegistics you learn something else or they announce something to blow everything up. that is the information we know today. as we are talking, you know, the grafting guidelines, the work group is meeting today. they are deciding some of this as we are meeting today. also, i saw in the news that president-elect biden announced more detail on the vaccine rollout plan when he takes office next week. he announced working with federal qualified health centers, focus onramping up mobile clinics. it was interesting. i didn't see the announcement how he gets around the cold chain storage issues with pfizer in particular, but pfizer and

moderna. that is changing rapidly. we will get more news and sylvia and i will come back at any point to give more updated information. that is from a general overview how the phases are to work, who at this point we know is in what phase, things we have tried to advocate on, and kind of recognizing that this is changing a lot. that people have very understandable questions. literally all of this is great information. when will i get the vaccine? given the patchwork approach that we have taken in this country and state to rolling this out, it is sometimes difficult to answer those specific understandable questions and really figure out who the right sometimes the county is not the right person. i would say, too, earlier one

comment before questions. i want to hear from you. i think earlier i did catch a question how do you certify you have a condition to put you into 1c? that was the gist of the question. the response was you have to work with your medical providers. that is one response, one approach and one way to do it. if you think how the different ways people will get the vaccine, it is not always through primary care, not always through someone who has access to your medical records or will have access easily when they show up at your door. those are really important questions to keep asking local health departments and people in charge of the rollout. one thing i should say is that

the cvac meetings we it is on are public. there is a web page for the link. you can listen in. we get before every meeting very lengthy public comments that are submitted as cvac members. there are weighs in which you can make your voice heard and the questions you have which are important questions. you should ten to ask them as we move from 1a, b, this. those are all important questions. the more you ask the more we are able to lift those up in the spaces we are in as well. i hope that wasn't too much detail. i am excited to hear the questions and comments you have and engage with sylvia. we talk about this all of the time. it will be fun. >> thank you.

to our participants looking at this or using zoom, i just realized i am not identified as co-chair. i am co-chair and i am chairing this meeting today. alex madrid is the other co-chair. you answered a couple of my questions. i was thinking how do we make our voice and perspectives and needs a higher priority or impactful, with all of the presentations today, my take away is this is anincreedbly fluid situation and it will hopefully improve next week where there is more delibberative and struck sturred. rollouts or directions that are

being given by the federal government. let's hope. is there a way. you are asking for our support or input and our advocacy. we are getting a lot of opportunities to do that, but it is a lot. is there a more streamlined approach for the disabled community to be advising or asking questions of those individuals who are representing our interests in this emerging process? i was the one who asked how do you certify whether or not you have co-morbidities. i imagine people here know those who have gotten the shot. i know a number of people that received the vaccine. the guidance i have gotten is it

is more age directed at this point as opposed to at risk. i am wondering from some guidance. how can we make our voices impactful and heard in this process? what is your recommendation aside from sending an e-mail or listening to a meeting. what would you recommend? >> i can start. sylvia chime in on what you think. you know, so much is going to fall on local health officials to do the rollout. i think the people you had on previously are the right people to continue that conversation with, the specifics on the how. the state is going to set up a framework and tackle who should get it first and set guidance

for it. they are on to other things. the problem with the local health departments are the same people responding to the virus. their ability to do a complete and thorough job, as much as we want them to, is compromised because they are handling the high fatality and infection rates across the state. that is where the rubber meads the load with lomhealth jurisdictions to engage on these issues. i think it is hard. if anything what covid has shown us in the past since march for almost the past year is that there are so many cracks in our system even before covid. it takes, unfortunately, a

global pandemic to shine an augustly light how -- ugly light on the how fractured our medical system is. in terms of practical advice what makes the most sense. i am curious to hear your thoughts, but the rollout and when we think about the devil in the details. that will be on the county level, local, city, cot level. those are the people you want to engage with on the questions of the how, who. there is a lot of details there. even if they are not optimally situated because of the pandemic they are best situated to hear the concerns. sylvia. >> i agree with what you are saying. there are a couple opportunities that those of us on the cvap

community tried to make available and dropped it in the early letter to make a december to the committee. it is possible to fine on the you wish. it is on the drc site. you can read it to see if you agree. it was an attempt to get people with disabilities specifically on the prioritization list. people with disabilities of various ages to get on the list and to separate it a little bit to say these are the people with disabilities that are most if you are get need. as opposed to the cdc list of commore bid conditions.

they think there are 15 million people with conditions. they can't all be on tier 1b suddenly. that is one way. another practical way, yes, because of the way that the implementation is happening and filtering down to the local level, it means everyone has work to go to the local level. to the degree that people with disabilities can get together and form a network in each county and divide the work a little bit that can be helpful. someone can really work on an idea like watch how we get providers to put forth names in the first place to try to indicate these are the people that are really in need, these are the people that have urgent care needs for surgery or for whatever. these are the people that i know

with community based services. someone can work on the idea that knows it is not going to be fail safe but people will fall through the cracks. what can the local authority can accept? let's try to take the burden off individuals. if you have an individual that comes forth, can they go with their caregiver or care assistant? can that care assistant establish i have my shot. i provide care for this person. they should get a shot, too. find ways to assist the state to figure out, okay, here you go. rather than having a whole bunch of formal requirements. those are kinds of ideas that people with disabilities in a county are best equipped to figure out. we do have to nag, too. nag in different counties who is

a public health officer? what is the committee on vaccinations? different counties are in different places on that. >> thank you, sylvia. as follow-up, when you are talking about advocacy and you are talking about distribution. i still am confused about who is the role of dph and they are responsible for their own world. those that are receiving our medical care through other institutions or through our insurer, we are kind of at their mercy for their criteria. it just seems a little -- it is very confusing.

dph follows one set of standards and they are the county. this is specific to san francisco. for those who are u.c.s.f. patients like myself, we have received basically no guidance how they are planning to distribute. i don't know who to nag or bug or how to crack the system. i am speaking for myself, but i hope i am voicing some concerns that other members of the council and the public have. i don't like being in a position waiting to get an e-mail or phone call to let me know that i can be vaccinated. i feel like everybody else has the map to get there and i

don't. i am asking what aside from talking to those responsible for the public programs. how do we influence those who are responsible for administering within the san francisco system? >> well, it is just quite a fine line. i think you can certainly try to push on any one who has distributed the vaccine, u.c.s.f., the hospital or uc berkeley can push i want more transparency. you need to be more clear. early information is better. i think a lot of facilities are reluctant until 1b is reached or on the tiers that are reached. they are reluctant to put out

concrete information because something could change. the feds or the state could decide on something else. they don't want to raise hopes, i think, without knowing for sure. we are here. we are in this phase, let's go. they are reluctant. that may beings it very anxiety-inducing for everyone waiting. at the same time while these facilities and hospitals have some degree of discretion, they are probably trying to be careful about making it seem like they can be influenced by outside pressure because people with disabilities can bring pressure. also, wealthy directors could bring pressure. those with more political power could bring pressure. there is a reluctance, a need to look like we are following the

framework that the state set out and we are not -- we don't want to go to details beyond that. that is something i am sort of sensing. it is a hard balance between that to be transparent and open and be clearly impartial. >> i was going to say that i think sylvia's point about some of the road map to getting the vaccine, u.c.s.f. might not know it quite yet. that is one reason why you as a patient may not have seen that clearly. it might folk like people that don't have that road map. the other thing i want to say is more clarification. i didn't mean in my remarks to

make it sound like wild west. [please stand by]

health department or a private system will largely fall into the state framewoamework. i hope that's helpful in terms of clarifying. >> thank you. we do need to move to council questions and we have public comment in the que. so i would like to recommend that we move to --

>> any questions from the council? we're not hearing you alex. not hearing you. >> let's move on and come back to alex. >> denise, do you have questions? >> thank you, no, i don't have any questions at this time. >> tiffany, do you? >> hi, this is tiffany. thank you so much for your presentation. i am glad to see there is disability representation. i think you mentioned the names

of about five people who were kind of representing different disability organizations and so it looks like we have about 6% disability representation. we have 25-26% disabled people across the u.s. i just wanted to point that out. i did have a question which is around -- i had two questions. one question is i know this is an advisory committee, so i'm curious if there is disability representation on that group that is actually drafting the guidelines, that was question number one. my question number two, i took a look at the disability rights california site to see if i could take a look at the letter, i do agree, i think there's more power in coming together, we have more power, influence as a community if we come together. i would love to know what the

high level advocacy points are for those of us of mdc if we want to draft a letter or have connections to other disability organizations to make sure we're aligned in our messaging. >> i'll start on the easy one. which is the list of people on the drafting guidelines work group is public and i'm sending in the chat the list, a link to the list on the chat. it's a list of clinicians. i don't know if any of them identify having a disability personally. that's a starting point to give you a better sense of who is on the committee and i don't have the letter in front of me -- i can get it in front of me if you can do a high level summary of the points of the letter. >> sure.

i'm happy to do that and i'll put in a link as well so everyone can look at it. the points that i think we have tried to speak around are giving the drafting group a way to move forward with recognizing people with disabilities at the most urgent need of vaccinations. we focused on people home based services and low income services. there's a lot of colleagues -- it's not through medi-cal but recognizing who are the individuals for whom there are a number of equity concerns and recognizing that disability

crosses a whole bunch of boundaries. we advocate for individuals with disabilities or preexisting conditions who have urgent need of care, who have been foregoing needed therapies and treatments for nine months because of concerns about covid. and who are clearly at risk of losing functional capacity of being institutionalized and having their lives ended because they can't get -- we are trying to push that as pay attention,

this is not adding 15 million, this is a group that is in urgent need and needs to be recognized on its own. we do run into stereotypes here, everyone with disabilities is in nursing homes, if we do them we're fine or everyone with disabilities is older, if we catch people who are older, we're fine. i think we're pushing against the stereotypes and trying to catch some individuals who have fallen through the cracks. does that help? >> thank you. i recognize in the chat that there are hard stop times coming. what is the best way -- i know there are more questions that -- i'm not sure we'll be able to get to all of them with you here, what is the best way to move forward with you, we deeply appreciate the time you have spent with us so far.

what is your preference? >> i put my e-mail in the chat. sylvia, not to speak for you. if folks have questions we won't get to. we're both open to getting e-mail and you can include both of us on the same e-mail and i always appreciate hearing from her and hearing her thoughts. i have to hop off in about two minutes but i'm happy to get e-mails and continue the conversation off line for questions we don't get to. >> thank you very much. am i muted? nope, i'm not on mute. thank you both very much. obviously there's still a lot of questions and we're hoping the coming days will bring us more clarity and consistency in how we're going to get vaccinated. we both appreciate your time and your work. now, we finally have our 15

minute break everyone. >> public comment. >> i'm sorry. my mistake. >> there was one that came in by e-mail. i think you answered it, the question was what is the state agency for the guidelines. >> it's the california department of public health. if we weren't clear already, that's the state agency that is tasked with putting the guidelines together, putting together our work group and the drafting guidelines work group. >> thank you. okay. do we have people in que to make comments? >> one person -- we have one person in que. >> this comment and then we'll take a break. >> i think alex -- do you want

to ask a question as well? >> yeah. are we stopping council member questions? >> people have to leave. >> i did suggest that we consolidate the rest of our questions because they both have to leave by 3:15. danny has already left unfortunately. there is someone waiting in public comment on this item. >> alex, is it possible for you to put it in writing or is it something you feel -- it is something you would like to ask right now? >> no. i can wait, thank you. >> all right. so we were waiting on a public

comment. correct? >> yes. >> one person. >> okay. please go ahead. >> hi, i'll be quick. i commented earlier. i wanted to let them know that i have circulated that letter that they were -- two of the co-authors of to the drafting guidelines work group and i'm happy to know they still want it to be circulated and will keep it going. i forgot to say earlier, i think the cdc this week included people with underlining conditions to be vaccinated now but california didn't adopt that. they adopted the 65 and over but not the underlining conditions portion. i don't know if there's something that the group can do to push that along. and just for your information, i happen to know from personal experience that kaiser in san

francisco is letting people 65 and older make an appointment for vaccinations. i made appointments yesterday for my husband and myself but couldn't for my young adult children. that's what i know about the status of kaiser. thank you for letting me talk. >> thank you. okay. again, sylvia, anybody else? >> that concludes public comment on this item. >> okay. i think we're finally ready for our break. thank you again sylvia and we will reconvene in 15 minutes. is . >> our executive director nicole bohn featuring a summary of covid issues impacting people with disabilities. the floor is yours nicole.

>> excellent. hello everyone. i'm nicole bohn, the director of the mayor's office of disability. what i'm going to focus on today is a very brief overview of activities from march 2020 to present. i covered many of these in meetings and correspondence and all of this will be published next week following the meeting. monday is a holiday, so it will likely be tuesday that we have posted to the public. you can also call our main line number and receive this information if you do not have access to the internet. focus the majority of my report on today is really what we're seeing and hearing from you as members of the public and people with disabilities as emerging needs that are coming out of

covid. that we haven't spent as much time on with this group yet. i'll begin with saying in terms of the general categories of response, many activities, again and they're listed in the report has hyperlinks to the resources that will be available. i just wanted to highlight broadly with really expanded city resources and services in terms of resource hubs, food access, transportation options for people with disabilities, specific information, we worked very hard to improve access to information generally, both in terms of communication access and access for folks who may not have access to the internet. we've also made really great improvements on better accessibility of our website itself which is exciting. we have done a lot of work with

safety testing and supplies. and that work is listed -- will be listed in the report. we're doing a lot of work in terms of referrals, reasonable accommodations and civic engagement. i wanted to highlight, been doing good things to improve the way we coordinate referrals between disability access needs and medical discharge facilities and their covid response. i'm very proud of that. we've also helped our covid placement hotel sites for those covid positive, understand their obligation around reasonable accommodation and support and civic engagement able to do some really good things with the accessibility advisory committee as well. we've done some specific work as you heard about last month and

learned about last month, the economic recovery task force and the shared spaces program, so i won't review it again here, except to highlight that please, if there are concerns or oversights you're seeing related to the disability access, we really need your help as disability members and members of the public to call it in and report it to 311 to take care of it. i just want to encourage that we have a process for that and we want to be responsive and as soon as we know about it, we are responding but we need to know where the issues are. please do let us know when those are occurring and you're seeing those out in our community. i want to focus on the majority of the rest of my report on though is really a list of what we're hearing, again, like i

said earlier, primary concerns as we move forward from here. we've got a lot more we have to continue to do. and as we recover, from the pandemic. so i'm going to just list a lot of these things and not go into a great degree of detail but i would like to encourage the council as you do your planning for the next sessions, to be thinking about which of the items and how you would like to move forward with advocacy. i think as you learned through the last set of speakers, we really do need additional advocacy support at the local level and i think there are really good ways to do that, but we do need your help and you really have the -- the ability

to help us and i know you will. one of the challenges we have in terms of how people with disabilities are being addressed in the vaccine efforts are specifics around the data collection. one of the things we know is that a matter of equity. so if we're not collecting data about people with disabilities, it is difficult to then figure out where our gaps are. one of the places where we can really used an advocacy is

around this issue. the other things around priorzation and targeted communications i have spoken to.

as we know, we have a robust transit program, not a lot of people with disabilities use transit. so transportation access is going to continue to be important. technology access is a huge issue that we're learning is significant and we knew this already but now the pandemic has

really forced us to truly look at what technology does the disability community have and what do we need. we're undergoing in the very early stages of a needs assessment that is going to look at technology access with emphasis specifically on how people with disabilities access technology is impacting their healthcare access specifically related to virtual -- although technology is used for so many other things that are critical amount, social engagement and isolation as well. specific to healthcare access, we're starting to think about how are we meeting non covid medical and behavioral health needs. what i mean by that, people with disabilities who do not have covid have other medical and

health concerns that they need to be paying attention to. masks and gloves remain an issue for many. one of the things we heard through the covid recovery task force, financial and employment sustainability and housing security moving on is another one.

happily i report that there will be a needs assessment legislation that was put forward by exiting supervisor yee that will be asking the city -- the department of disability and aging services and mayor's office on disability and department of planning and mayor's office of community development to really do a true needs assessment survey to look at is our housing availability adequate and affordable. it's very exciting and long time coming and we're looking forward to getting started on that. one of things we heard again through the covid response work specific to families with kids with disabilities, a continued need for adequate education support for families, especially in the remote learning

environment. we're hearing social isolation. we have been in the pandemic for really a year now and actually in city terms, i have been activated, almost my four year anniversary since this started for us. we're up to a year of this. i think a lot of people are tired and it's impacting their mental health.

i'm preaching to the choir on that one. it is a significant issue we need to address. i think finally as we have heard loud and clear and know clearly, elevating the voice of disability communities is exceptionally important right now. there's a lot of great work being done. but it can be hard to cut through and really elevate. and again, i do the think there are ways we can do that but i need your continued help to continue with that conversation. and then finally, we know that there are in terms of equity, intersections in terms of disability and race and they are very important and i have seen the proposed topics for future mayor's disability council meetings and i'm thrilled that this particular topic is one that is of interest to the council. it is going to be one that will

need continued attention. so those are just some -- some issues that we need to be continuing to look at and i'm sure my list for this report is not exhaustive, but please do feel free to take a look at this. i'll send it forward to you. and again, this report for the public, it posts on the home page following the meeting. if you have questions or comments or would like to provide feedback on the items. please contact us. you can do it two ways, via phone at 415-554-6789. leave a message and we'll get back to you. or e-mail us. you can also go to our website and subscribe to our news feed and get updates that way.

with that, that concludes my report for this afternoon. >> thank you nicole. in relation to your -- i guess call for additional voices and advocacy, is there a way that we can or are there existing facilitators, sites -- that we can share with our audience right now and sort of be streamlined and efficient in the manner in which we're trying to make sure our interests are represented? >> sure. so i think there are a couple of ways to think about that. one way is there are especially through covid command, all the things i mentioned in my report being handled in some form either through some sort of city

effort or through covid command, in that regard, i think there are definite avenues we can take together to help elevate these issues within the city. and i also think there are other organizations like the community alliance of disability advocates where if mayor's disability council wants to talk with that leadership and really put forward an agenda, i think that would be another excellent way to go. many and most of the disability organizations are represented on that group and they're working through how to be most impactful right now. there are other suggestions and i would be happy to talk through more with folks too. >> that would be great and if you can post these organizations on the website so our audience

and the public can access that information as well, that would be great. and thank you. it sounds incredibly demanding and the work you're doing is heroic. council members, do you have questions for nicole? >> i think we can move on to the next item. >> all right. okay. so, clerk, or whomever is in charge of the phones. could you let us know if there's still people waiting to comment? >> let me just -- if i can interrupt, if you're holding and want to make comments, you need

to dial star 3 to be added to the list of people wanting to speak. thank you. >> i would like to remind everybody that it's two minute limit. please keep that in mind. >> we have one person. >> great. >> this is general public comment for items not on the agenda just to clarify. >> thank you nicole. >> go ahead speaker. they dropped off. hang on, they just came on

again. >> hello, i'm mike. i'm calling to announce that this is the 10th year of a state holiday for ed roberts who was a quad for 14 years and this is the 10th year of a state holiday, introducing the same bill before the house of representatives in washington d.c. and the vote was 386-8. of course the senate was controlled by the republicans so it didn't go any further than there. but if you don't know anything about ed robertson, you really don't know about disability. the other thing is california disability rights took a

lawsuit, chambers and won proving disability discrimination and age discrimination. it's the biggest nursing home in the united states. and it's a horrible, horrible place. it's a sacred cow so everybody is looking the other way. there's not a lot of disability advocacy. ed roberts, called the martin luther king of disability, outside of the usa, martin luther king isn't that well known. he was called the -- he trained 28,000 disabled people under partners in policy making in 30

day training. nothing like that exists in california because ed was on the nixon enemy list and all of the republican politicians up to governor -- >> just a heads-up, you have about 30 seconds left please caller. thank you. >> okay. ed had to sue u.c. berkeley in 1962. unemployment for disabled people was 100%. he ran the largest disability organization in the world for

jerry brown for eight years. then he was inductive into the california hall of fame, once of nancy pelosi's greatest heros. >> i hate to interrupt -- i'm sorry, sir, could you conclude because your time is up. he sounds like an amazing gentleman. thank you for sharing his history with us. is there anything you would like to add? >> he was a real advocate, there's never been anyone like that. i took his wheelchair to the smithsonian, a one of a kind 1978 and they listed him as a great reformer. there's never been a reformer in san francisco. it's been nothing but rubber stamp. >> thank you so much for your

comments. we appreciate them. is there anybody else in our que for public comment? pardon me? >> no more public comment. >> okay. that concludes the public comment item on the agenda. >> debbie, are you reading correspondence or is somebody else? >> there is no correspondence. >> okay. council members, any questions or comments you would like to share? or announcements? okay. then i call the adjournment of this meeting. does anyone -- anyone have anything before we adjourn --

tiffany, did you have something you wanted to say? i just saw the note. >> this is tiffany, i don't have a comment. >> i motion to adjourn the meeting >> okay. or second. >> this is denise, my apologies, i had problems with my phone and couldn't get back in. i just got back in now. my apologies. i understand the meeting is over but that's how long it took me to get back in. i'm sorry. it was my phone, not you guys. >> thank you denise. so all in favor of adjournment? aye. there we go. any nays? all right. we are adjourned until

february 19th i believe. thank you everybody for your participation. >> by the time the last show came, i was like whoa, whoa, whoa. i came in kicking and screaming and left out dancing. [♪♪♪]

>> hello, friends. i'm the deputy superintendent of instruction at san francisco unified school district, but you can call me miss vickie. what you see over the next hour has been created and planned by our san francisco teachers for our students. >> our premise came about for san francisco families that didn't have access to technology, and that's primarily children preschool to second grade. >> when we started doing this distance learning, everything was geared for third grade and up, and we work with the little once, and it's like how were they still processing the information? how were they supposed to keep learning? >> i thought about reaching the

student who didn't have internet, who didn't have computers, and i wanted them to be able to see me on the t.v. and at least get some connection with my kids that way. >> thank you, friends. see you next time. >> hi, friend. >> today's tuesday, april 28, 2020. it's me, teacher sharon, and i'm back again. >> i got an e-mail saying that i had an opportunity to be on a show. i'm, like, what? >> i actually got an e-mail from the early education department, saying they were saying of doing a t.v. show, and i was selected to be one of the people on it, if i was interested. i was scared, nervous. i don't like public speaking and all the above.

but it worked out. >> talk into a camera, waiting for a response, pretending that oh, yeah, i hear you, it's so very weird. i'm used to having a classroom with 17 students sitting in front of me, where they're all moving around and having to have them, like, oh, sit down, oh, can you hear them? let's listen. >> hi guys. >> i kind of have stage flight when i'm on t.v. because i'm normally quiet? >> she's never quiet. >> no, i'm not quiet. >> my sister was, like, i saw you on t.v. my teacher was, i saw you on youtube. it was exciting, how the community started watching.

>> it was a lot of fun. it also pushed me outside of my comfort zone, having to make my own visuals and lesson plans so quickly that ended up being a lot of fun. >> i want to end today with a thank you. thank you for spending time with us. it was a great pleasure, and see you all in the fall. >> i'm so happy to see you today. today is the last day of the school year, yea! >> it really helped me in my teaching. i'm excited to go back teaching my kids, yeah. >> we received a lot of amazing feedback from kiddos, who have seen their own personal teacher on television. >> when we would watch as a family, my younger son, kai, especially during the filipino

episodes, like, wow, like, i'm proud to be a filipino. >> being able to connect with someone they know on television has been really, really powerful for them. and as a mom, i can tell you that's so important. the social confidence development of our early learners. [♪♪♪] >> good morning and welcome to the newly reconstituted rules committee of the san francisco board of supervisions for the first committee meeting of the new board. my name is aaron peskin,

joined by new vice chair supervisor rafael mandelman and newly elected member of the board of supervisions and member of this rules committee, supervisor connie chan for today's meeting of monday, january 11, . mr. young, do you have any announcements? >> clerk: hi, due to the covid-19 emergency, the board by the legislative chamber and committee room are closed. our members will be participating in the meeting remotely. committee members will attend the meeting through a video conference and participate in the meeting to the same extent as if they are physically present. public comment will be available on each item, but on channel 26 and

sfgov tv.org, or you can call 415-655-0001. again, that is 415-655-0001. the meeting i.d. is 1466830064. and then press pound and pound again. when connected, you will hear the meeting discussions, but you will be muted. and in listening mode only. when your item of interest comes up, press star 3 to be added to the speaker line. speak clearly and slowly, and turn down your television or radio. you may submit public comment by e-mail at eicgoh.yog@sfgov.org.

that completes my opening comments. >> chairman: thank you, clerk young. and before i ask you to call the first item, let me just start out by saying as the new chair of the rules committee, which i take seriously, and i know the two other members of this committee take very seriously, i wanted to ask deputy city attorney pearson to regal us a little bit with the duties of this committee, and specifically to walk us through charter section 4.101, which is something that we need to take into account with all appointments to all committees, which is only a portion of this job. this is a committee that also deals with charter

amendments and ballot measures when there is a pending election, which there won't be until the middle of 2022. ms. pearson if you could just briefly walk us through our responsibilities pursuant to the charter as the rules committee, where we have to weigh and consider diversity on each and every one of our appointments. >> good morning. deputy city attorney ann pearson. chair peskin, you referred to 4.101 of the charter, which governors the composition of all advisory boards and commissions. all such boards should be broadly representative of the communities of interest, neighbors, in ethnicity, race, age, and sexual orientation, and types of disabilities in the city and county. that provision, as i said, applies to all boards and commissions. and sections of the

administrative code or other sections of the municipal code that establish advisory committees will sometimes build on that, and add additional things that the board should look to and consider when making appointments. but this is an overriding requirement, this consideration of diversity. >> chairman: thank you, ms. pearson. are there any other duties or responsibilities that are set out in the charter or the board rules that you think are important on this newly reconstituted committee's first day? >> um...well, i think each advisory body, as i said, has its own requirements and qualifications, which i think the committee will look to when making these appointments, to confirm that every individual -- every individual who has been nominated individually meets the qualifications, and that the advisory body or commission as a whole has

a composition that fulfills the requirements for that body. >> chairman: thank you, ms. pearson. why don't we go to our very accomplished clerk, who i think has been around as long as i've been around and as long as -- on supervisors chan or mandelman has been around. mr. young, just as the clerk of this committee, i note that -- maybe you can just tell us what you do, how you send out vacancy notices, how that words, how the madi records works, and i'm sorry to put you on the spot, but if you can give us a really quick, or as long as you want, a synopsis of that, i think that would be a good way to start off.

>> i'll start off with the madi act, which was just recently published. it is a lifting of all of the current boards and bodies maintained by the board of supervisors, and the current seats and vacant seats. one thing to note is we only track vacancies that are appointed by the board of supervisors. we do not track other body appointments, such as the mayor's office and their individual appointments. vacancy notices are published as soon as i know there is a vacancy. it must be published at least 10 days prior to any meeting or action by a federal rules committee. i can accept applications at any time for any of the bodies and seats. i will maintain them for one year. at that point they are -- they have expired, and the parties will need to resubmit application forms. i work closely with the chair to determine which items are scheduled for meeting on any specific

meeting date. and that's about all i can think of at the moment. >> chairman: that is really helpful. and, mr. young, if you can just let potential applicants to any bodies, commissions, advisory bodies, that they know how to contact you to submit if they are interested in applying. if you could just reiterate that now that we've had that conversation. >> clerk: yes. applicants can go to our website at sfgov.org, and there is dropdown for vacancy notices, where we list all of the vacancy notices, all of the open seats, and there is a shrink to the application forms and instructions, as well as any other forms that may be needed for a specific body. >> chairman: thank you. and i will, tomorrow, at the board of supervisors, call for a hearing and i will do my own independent

investigation into places where we have vacancies from time to time. this board of supervisors has chosen to subset bodies that have no longer been needed or affective. many of them accumulate in the code, and they discharge their duties and they don't have a sunset date, so that is something that i will pursue as the chair of this committee. and then let me, before i ask the clerk to read the first item, note that i think all three members of this committee all realize that this committee meeting was affective immediately. and that for me, it happened at 6:30 last evening. and i want us all to discharge our duties to the fullest of our ability. so in the case of the second item, which has not been read, where there is

many individuals for a limited number of seats, don't be surprised if that item is continued, but we want to hear from everybody. and with that, mr. clerk, could you please read the first item. >> clerk: yes. item number one is a hearing appointing one member, term ending november 19th, 2022, to the vice advisory committee. >> chairman: thank you. this is -- and we'll hear on behalf of the applicant momentarily. this is one seat for one body, the bicycle advisory committee. and before we hear about it, this is set forth under adman code section 5.130. and in that particular provision, in sub-section "b," the advisory committee consists of 11

voting members, appointed by each district supervisor of the board. and there are many ways that people get appointed to bodies like this and to commissions. and there are some instances where an individual supervisor or board president or mayor can appoint somebody without a rules committee hearing. i think this may be one that rises to that level. and before we hear from this applicant, or on behalf of this applicant, madam deputy city attorney, if it does not conflict with the charter, i hereby what like to ask the city attorney's office to draft legislation wherein appointments to the bicycle advisory committee would not

require a rules committee hearing or board of supervisors approval, but could be done by each and every one of the 11 supervisors in his or her own individual capacity. >> we're happy to work with you on that legislation. >> chairman: okay. with that, can we hear from the applicant, or a representative thereof? >> hi, chair peskin and supervisor chan, and thank you clerk young. unfortunately, miss melissa mendoza way unable to be here today. she has lived in district 5, and has been the district 5 bicycle advisory committee member since 2016. since 2017, she served as

the bicycle supervisor secretary. she is a strong advocate for monies of color, and our unhoused individuals in the bike space. it was started to help show people how to move around the city in a fun and safe way. melissa has worked with the s.f. bike coalition before joining the b.a. c., and started advocating for the impeach street bikeway, and has helped to host community meetings and other meetings. i want to thank you for your consideration of melissa to our bicycle committee. and that's all i have to say. >> chairman: thank you. given that the applicant is not here, why don't we open this up to public comment. are there any members of the public who would like to testify on this item number one? >> yes. members of the public who

wish to comment on this item should call 415-655-0001. the meeting i.d. is 146, 6830064. press pound and pound again. please press star 3. please wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted and you may begin your comments. mr. phillips, do we have any members of the public for public comment today? >> there are no phone callers in the cue. >> chairman: okay. public comment is closed. and are there any comments or questions from vice chair mandelman or member chan?

>> not at this time. thank you. >> chairman: i should probably put my little chat box up just to see whether or not -- i see nothing from vice chair mandelman. before i make a motion, i would like to differentiate this item from the next one that has not been called. not only is there one applicant for one seat, but that this is, in essence, pursuant to section 5.130 of the administrative code, the appointment of an individual supervisor, which supervisor hopefully has heeded the requirements of charter section 4.101, and the diversity admonitions therein. this is very different than item number two. so i would, given our newness, be willing to make a motion to send this

item, probably the last time one of these bicycle advisory committee appointments will be heard at the rules committee, if i am successful in amending section 5.130, will be heard by the rules committee. with that i will move to send this item to the full board with recommendation, and on that motion, mr. clerk, a roll call, please. >> clerk: this is a recommendation to appoint melissa mendoza to seat five. on that motion, supervisor mandelman? >> yea. >> clerk: supervisor chan? >> yea. >> clerk: chair peskin? >> yea. >> clerk: the motion passes without objection. >> chairman: thank you, mr. young. next item, please. >> clerk: item number two is a hearing to

consider appoint to members, term ending april 27, e sunshine ordinance task force. >> chairman: thank you, mr. young. and before we get started, my suggestion, colleagues, is that we hear from all of the applicants, and given the fact that many of them contacted us in the middle of the night, in the crack of dawn, that after we hear from them, we continue this item to our next regularly scheduled meeting and make our decisions then, given the fact that we have a number of applicants for a limited number of seats. i note that there is no applicant for seat three, and i also note that one individual has withdrawn. and, mr. clerk, can you

remind us of the name of that individual? >> clerk: yes. i believe that jason roland has withdrawn his application. >> chairman: that is correct. so in essence, we have really 10 individuals vying for seven seats. colleagues, if there is no objection, why don't we hear from those 10 ap applicants, or those that are present. i see a couple of them on the screen. why don't we start, in no particular order, with chris hyland. mr. hyland, if you will unmute and turn your camera on, we would like to hear from you for two minutes. i understand that you're a member of the sunshine ordinance task force, and the floor is yours. >> thank you, supervisor peskin and supervisors chan and mandelman.

yes, i have served on this task force for eight years. and if, given the honor to serve again, i would be the longest consecutively serving member on this task force. and i've enjoyed the work and continue to enjoy the work, that i do here. one of the things that we're working on right now, and i hope to continue to do that, is an intake form for the s.f. t.f., and that is something -- i think the whole process of obtaining information from a city department can be quite scary to the lay person or the first-timer. so we're working to come up with something a little more user-friendly, and i would really like to see that through its completion. one of the other things that we have worked on, and are still working on, is to develop a data base of all of our orders of

determination and all of the precedents that we have been through in the last 20, 21years that this task force has been in place. that has not yet happened. we're hoping to get that done in the next term, in the next two years. but until that does happen, i think it is important to have members who have been on board for a long time, to go back into their memory and say, i remember this from four years ago, or there was a case like this, and at least know where to start the process to start searching. hopefully i can keep doing that. that on this commission. and lastly, i just wanted to emphasize that i am from a pretties diverse background, both nationally and racially. my dad was an ambassador to the u.n., and i lived overseas for many years in my youth, and i think it has helped me deal with and interact with people who come to this

commission. can you let me know when i have 30 seconds left? well, i'll just end by saying i'm very proud of the institutional capital that i've helped to build over the last eight years, and i hope to continue to do that. thank you very much. >> chairman: thank you, mr. hyland. you and i share longevity dynamic. and can you just quickly, given that seat nine, succeeding yourself, that the seat requirement is demonstrated interest and/or experience in citizen access and participation in local government. i would imagine that that eight years certainly qualifies you for that. so, actually, i will not ask the question. and thank you for your service. and if my colleagues agree, we will make our recommendations at our next meeting.

so thank you. i see matthew yankee for seat -- who is currently in seat number 10. and i believe he eligible for seats six through 11. mr. yankee, the floor is yours. >> my name is matt yankee, and i've been serving on the sunshine board and task force since november of 2018. i'm a member of the lgbtq community and currently live in the sunset parkside of san francisco with my husband. having devoted over 15 years in public services, with a high degree of public contact, large nbc of public records and government accessibility. i would be thrilled to continue my satisfaction on the task force. my day job is serving as the chief of the county clerk's office for alameda county. and i manage the official

custodian for public records and serves over 100,000 costumers ever year. i have been experimental in extending our office hours, upgrading our satellite, and all efforts to improve accessibility. i've been on the front lines of assuring continued access to essential public records and government services during the current pandemic. we were recently recognized with an award for comprehensive online programs. during my time, i'm administered many things. all of these needed to be accomplished with the utmost transparency to

ensure accuracy in our democratic election. as chair of this information technology committee, i led several important hearings regarding the disclosure of meta data. and i served on the rules committee and the education outreach and entertainment committee. i have attended every scheduled meeting of the task force throughout my tenure there. in the position i've served, i've been a passionate advocate for open government. i believe that government works for the people and it should be as transparent has possible. i'd be happy to answer any questions that you have for me. thank you for this opportunity. >> chairman: thank you, mr. yankee, and i have no questions. and i neglected for the first applicant to ask my colleagues. i apologize, if they had any questions or comments. so before we let mr. hyland go,

supervisions mandelman and chan, if you have any questions for either applicants, just feel free to chime in at any time. you can just always jump in or put your name on the roster. but if you have any questions for mr. hyland or mr. yankee, please go ahead. and if not, we will go on to the next one i see on the screen, and i don't see you guys jumping in, so i see nora stein in the center of the screen. ms. stein, please proceed. >> okay. can you see me? >> chairman: yes. >> hello supervisors peskin, mandelman, and chan. i am a resident of san francisco (indiscernable). i volunteer at most schools and i'm a representative at one, and am the head of the school site council of the other.

and i've served on a leadership council of the (indiscernable). i've worked for two decades as a professor of education at the university of texas and the university of san francisco, and my work has been focused on issues of democratic communications, community communication, communication law and policy. my entire career has been motivated by concerns for who has access for information and communication resources necessary to self-governors and self-development. and i believe that good governance en enables them to make informed decisions about their own life. as a professor, i taught and wrote about information policy i-, [inaudible]

policy(indiscernable). one that is widely recognized as being one of the strongest in the world. and i looked at citizen groups to address local and national issues, ranging from human rights, poverty, and livelihood. so i have a deep knowledge about access to information laws in the u.s., as well as internationally. and i have a reviewed san francisco's sun shine ordinance, and the index mandated by it. so i think i have a good understanding of the purposes and processes and the uses of this law. my law would be to ensure that the law is implemented, to review petitions on the public status of records, and to advice the board of supervisors and other departments on implementation when

needed, and to also consider whether the annual reports indicate any barriers for information accession or a need for amendments to the law. it could be very useful to produce a more detailed reports about how the act has been used over time, potentially using the annual reports as primary sources. so san francisco, i think, has a strong access to information and open meetings laws, and i would be honored to contribute my experience and expertise to ensure they remain strong and affective. thank you for your time. >> chairman: thank you, ms. stein. any questions from members? seeing none, why don't we move on to kia forrest. what? [inaudible] >> i'm sorry.

just jump in. supervisor chan? >> well, thank you, chair peskin. i think, you know, seeing that this is an applicant for seat eight, that was resigned by former member of this task force, frank tanatta, i do agree with your earlier comment that given, regrettably, that we receive our assignments late in the evening, i actually believe that the task force is critical to transparency and accountability to our city government. i would like to really have these conversations and meetings with these applicants before moving forward on this petition. while i do not, right now, have a question for ms. stein, i do think that -- io gather more information about these applicants before we make the

decision. >> chairman: thank you, supervisor chan. and let me also say that i did, actually late last night, read the department on the status of women's report that is part of this file. i do note that unlike the city-wide average, this very important body has a derth female representation, which is not the only reason to appoint ms. stein to seat number eight, but certainly is a reason, together with her interests and qualifications, which are quite impressive, but we will leave that, hopefully, if you two agree, to our next meeting. so ms. stein, you look like a good fit for seat number eight. >> thank you. [laughter] >> chairman: with that, why don't we go on to kai

forrest. go ahead. >> good morning, can you all see me? >> chairman: not yet. but we can hear you. >> okay. >> chairman: and i do want to know, before kai comes on, we did receive in the chat box, a message from bruce wolf that says this webcam isn't compatible, but it sounds like he will be able to do this verbally, which will absolutely suffice. kai, go ahead. >> mkay. i have mine turned on, but it doesn't seem like you guys can see me right now. so i will just move forward. i'm kai forrestly, and i've lived in san francisco for 12 years. i'm from illinois. i work in the field of diaper distribution, but i am a trained librarian. i have worked for the city and county of san francisco at the library,

as well as the department of environment. i have worked for a local federal government. i've been a volunteer and a neighborhood course ad adjudicator with the d.a.'s office, and i served and investigated, i guess you could say, and i was a member of the civil grand jury, the 2013/2014 civil grand jury. specifically for this task force, i was a member of a community benefit district, and i'm sure you guys are familiar with community benefit districts. but i don't know if i should explain -- i was a member of the community of a district about eight years ago, and the work that i was doing on the community benefit district actually raised some concerns that i had regarding access to information documents, and

generally open government, so i actually filed my concerns with the sunshine ordinance task force, and my case actually set a precedent for community benefit districts in san francisco actually being subject to the sunshine ordinance. so i'm really familiar with how chapter 67 works. i had to do all of the research myself, i independently did the research, and i presented the research to the committee. i guess i should say thank you to some of the current people on this call right now because they actually voted in my favor, and i was able to get the documents that i thought should be of public access -- oc accessibility. i guess my -- as a trained information scientist, what i want to do is positively support the work of the committee. i feel like they have been doing good work. i feel like new energy is always welcomed, and continuity is also important. and i feel that, for me,

what i can contribute, i've been a secretary on many boards, non-profit boards, as well as the community district board, and so my commitment can be continuity of information, absent of people, which is really important, i believe. succession planning is really important. i also believe that various types of people should have access to various bases, which is why i applied to this committee. i felt like the sunshine ordinance task force was really unique to something that i was going through. and they kind of came through for me, as well as the community at large. and i'm also really good with information just in general, and organization of information. and i think that's what i can offer to the committee. and just my background, in general, i've always been

an advocate of open government and open accountability measures, whether it be in private practice or public practice. i think just working in a setting with other people is always important to have accountability factors in place. and that's what i have brought to each of the positions that i've worked with, and that's why i actually applied for this one, because i had, like, a personal connection. >> chairman: thank you so much for your testimony. i don't see any questions. but i do have a question for the clerk, mr. young. or this may be the deputy city attorney pearson, because we might have an embarrassment of riches for seat number eight. although i believe that the forrestly and stein -- and there are a number of applicants for seat number eight. is it within the purview of this committee, given that the qualifications of

seats eight, nine, 10, and 11 are the same, do we have the latitude, even if the individual only applied to seat eight, to appoint them to one of the other seats that have the same qualifications requirements? mr. young? >> clerk: yes. you're able to appoint any of the members on the agenda to any of the seats that they are qualified to sit in. so they can be any of the seats they're qualified, not just eight through 11, but they qualify for six and seven, and they can also be appointed to those seats. >> chairman: got it. and six is consumer advocacy, whatever that means, and seven is consumer advocacy, whatever that means, and four is narrowly defined and has to be a nominee from the society of professional journalistss. and we don't have an

applicant for seat number three. thank you for that answer. i see that mr. wolf has been able to access his webcam. mr. wolf, please proceed. >> hello, how are you today? my name is bruce wolf. thank you, chair peskin, and supervisors, for this opportunity. i'm a member of the lgbtq community, and a person with a mobility disability, living almost 30 years in san francisco, in the same place, in the ashbury neighborhood with my service dog and cat. i have served, more recently, since 2016, and enjoyed it immensely, and appreciate your confidence in my contribution and

service to the city and the people of san francisco. a couple of things you may want to consider: institutional history is essential for the sunshine ordinance task force. my extensive knowledge base of this body and its work i feel is important for its continuity. our disability member, fiona hensley was elected to the board, and while there is no conflict of holding both seats, they felt the workload is too much and has decided to step down. we honor her service to the task force, and the people of san francisco wish her well in her new position. we are in the midst of some significant projects that i'm integral to and feel my continued presence is essential for. and due to my expertise as a technology professional, i would lend this and

other subject knowledge to the task force freely and have been helpful over the years. i think my presence is still beneficial. there is a lot of confusion over the new electronic and online tools that are hart of a complaint and can cause inadvertent decisions to be made to the detriment of the general public. and having good technical background for this position is important. i'll stop there. i would enjoy the opportunity to continue my service. >> chairman: thank you, mr. wolf, and thank you for your service. i'm glad that you were able to connect. i don't see any requests from my colleagues to ask questions or speak. so why don't we move on to the next guest, jipad

ammanapan for seat mr. four? i'm sorry, i just misspoke. that is not seat number four -- yes, it is seat number four. >> good morning, and thank you, chair peskin, supervisor mandelman and supervisor chan. my name is jia. and thank you for considering my nomination by the northern california chapter of the society of professional journalists to serve on the sunshine ordinance task force. i'm an immigrant from india. and i spent close to 32 years in the bay area. i arrived with a degree in psychology and a bachelor and master's in computer science. i taught myself what i needed to know in order to launch my career as a writer, journalist, and editor.

landing a job with a bay area company that had a monthly print communication. a few years ago i left my job, though i still serve on the indian foundation board (indiscernable), and seeing that i am deeply invested in the growth and investment of ethnic commune publications. in 2015, i met michael harrison, the editor of san francisco is examiner, and convinced him to take me on. writing about communities of color in san francisco. and i'm also the director of programs for ethnic media services and ethnic news enabling entity, started by the veteran journalist andy close. he is a dear friend and mentor and i continue to

gain tremendous information from him through our continued association. and i'm also part of the san francisco writers' club. and i teach a yearly class on writing columns for san francisco writers of color. so while i don't live in san francisco, my work is situated almost entirely in this city. so what do i bring to the sunshine ordinance task force? i bring my enthusiasm and dedication to serve the city, the city that has opened numerous doors for me personally. i bring a commitment to ensure and protect public access toc5n

pronouncing your name correctly at the beginning. i do believe that i am the author of the tweak to change the appointing authorities to seat number four. and i'm a huge fan of andy close, and you are the only applicant for this, so i think this is what we call a no-brainer, if you will. and i look forward to your appointment, but don't want to, in any way, pre-judge the matter as my colleagues have not yet weighed in. i think we'll be voting on this at our next meeting. but thank you for applying and for your column in the examiner, which i read when i can find that

paper. >> thank you. >> all right. with that, why don't we go to lori jones neighbors. >> hello. thank you sir peskin, supervisor mandelman and supervisor chan, for allowing me the opportunity to speak on behalf of my application as a long-term district eight san francisco resident and renter. i'm thrilled to be talking to you today about the commission and my potential role. i also excel at policy-driven decision-making for equitable outcome. ensuring that people have a say in those decisions has been the focus of my work for some time. in 2008 i implemented the board and commissions leadership for urban habitat, one of our nation's oldest environment organizations. this highly successful,

nationally replicated program, ensures that low income people and people of color in the bay are trained and supported for service on local board commissions, including the preparation of operating within policies, such as the brown act, the california public records act, and the madi act. i continued to promote similar programs around the state. now as an evaluation consultant, i support other organizations in strengthening and democtizing programs. if appointed to the task force, i would welcome the opportunity to apply my experience and skill, to increase understanding of the ordinance internally, and to increase understanding of the

commission's work among community groups and the general public. good work is work that (indiscernable). as a member of the task force, my lived experiences would focus on strengthening and supporting the people's government. we're fortunate in san francisco to have a voter mandated sunshine ordinance, and our supervisors should protect and clarify this policy in the name of good government. and we're fortunate to have a task force with dedicated volunteers, who dedicate service and are committed to applying this policy fairly to the benefit of the people of san francisco. i hope you will agree with me that i am well-equipped to join them. thank you again for this time, and i'm happy to answer any questions that you have. >> chairman: thank you so much, ms. neighbors.

are there any questions from members of this panel? seeing none, thank you, and we will, again, as i've said eight times now, most likely continue this item and bring it up at our next meeting. so given the newness and the fact that we've all been members of this commitment for about 14 hours, and should really do our due diligence properly. with that, is kevin frasier available? >> mr. frazier may be on another -- he had a previous engagement he informed us of. he was here for the first half hour of the meeting. i believe he may have left. >> chairman: he will have another opportunity. is david coppel available? >> i am. can you hear me now? >> chairman: we can hear you now. >> regarding the task force, i think having over

100 complaints is totally unacceptable. the task forces needs to reduce that separate the important comaibts from complaim the others. we need to rebuild the task force's credibility. that will take time and effort. i would focus on education, outreach and training issues, and less on complaints. i think right now the task force should meet twice a month, with its committees meeting as needed. i would eliminate anonymous complaints and limit complainants to only one new complaint every 30 days, if that is possible. i believe the task force should broadly apply a general rule of reason to its discussions and decisions. i know the ordinance very well and have a deep understanding of our complex city government, as i think you all know. i have advocated for rate-payers and others, and can fulfill a general

advocacy or public seat. i'm a straight, white, jewish person, and i won't pretend to be anything else. but i can listen to all perspectives. not everyone has access to the same technology and tools, including e-mail and things like we cameras. i would reappoint chris hyland and matthew yankee, but i don't know the other applicants generally. i have heard concerns about me being too verbose at meetings. i intend to be more concise, period. task force members who would make good choices would serve us well. i think i can help here. and city decisions made every day have less scrutiny right now, so sunshine is more important than ever. with that, i'm happy to take your questions now or any time. thanks. >> chairman: are there any questions?

seeing none, why don't we move on to -- i believe the only remaining applicant, ryan cojusti, and if i mispronounced that, my apologies. and although it says a residency waiver would be required, that is no longer true. and ryan lives in district one. ryan, are you there? well, ryan will have an opportunity to present at the next meeting, if that is the will of the committee. are there any members of the public who would like to testify on this item number two? >> yes, members of the public who wish to provide public comments should call 415-655-0001, and the meeting i.d. is

1466830064. and then press pound and pound again. if you haven't already done so, please dial star 3. a system prompter will indicate you have raised your hand. please wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted and you may begin your comments. mr. phillips, do we have any members of the public for public comment at this time? >> we have seven callers in the cue. >> chairman: first speaker, please. >> good evening, if you can hear me. good evening, and thank you chair. i'm an anonymous -- >> chairman: it is morning an anonymous. >> good morning. i would urge this committee to make a full appointment to all seats. i am not going to make any comment about any particular issue or any particular pprson in support or against them. i do think, however, that

you can -- because i'm a party on the task force, i think you can immediately appoint seat four, though. this task force only has six people, i believe with a member leaving for other ventures, and so right now members of the public made a unanimous ruling, i believe -- six out of six -- in order to have their rights protected. i would strongly urge you to continue with the recommendation for seat four, and then do your due diligence for the other competing seats whenever you have the time. i think you need to consider a few things. when you talk about diversity, one thing that isn't considered is age. i'm a young person myself, and there are very few young people in government. including an understanding of more modern technology.

but i do think you have a great representation for technology expertise. you don't have such a great representation for journalists, though. i think you need to find people to fill seat three, or just the other seats, because people who have that experience on trying to get the tough things for government, it is really necessary for this task force as well. i urge you to immediately recommend seat four, think about the rest of the ones, and then fill all seats when you have the ability to. thank you very much. >> chairman: thank you. next speaker, please. >> my name is christine putter, and i'm providing comments to appoint lori jones neighbors to the sunshine ordinance task force. i served as executive director of long beach forward, a community-based organization helping to create a healthy long

beach by building community knowledge, leadership, and power. i first met lori in 2014, when she helped adapt the commissioners leadership institute that she developed at urban habitat in the long beach context. since then, we've run three boards in long beach, and helped to seat and support dozens of commissioners, especially those from underrepresented groups, along the way. lori has supported us in this over the years, and her work has undoubtedly helped to make long beach a place where those typically left out of decision-making have more of a voice and more access to their government, something that lori is very passionate about. lori has a deep understanding of the historical and current significance of board's commissions and task forces, such as this one. she has a strong commitment to democracy and ethnicity, and i know she would serve the task

force well if given the opportunity. if you're not familiar with lori, i encourage you to get to know her before moving forward with your decision. thank you very much for your time and consideration. >> chairman: thank you. next speaker. >> good morning, chair peskin, supervisor mandelman and supervisor chan. my name is christine peak. i'm one of two co-chairs of the society of professional journalists freedom of information committee. and i'm calling this morning to speak in support of jia pedaodman, who is the nominee for seat four on the task force. i understand her appointment would require a residency waiver, and we urge the committee members and the full board to grant that waiver. she is a highly qualified candidate with a commitment and passion for the work of the task forces. she has strong ties to san francisco as her work as

director of programs at ethnic media services, a san francisco-based non-profit. as many of you know quite well, seat four has some specific requirements, and she meets them with ease. she is highly qualified for this seat in particular, and as she states in her application, and as you've heard from his this morning, she

her interview and i was impressed. she's really well versed in the applicable laws and procedures of the task force and clearly did substantial research in preparations for nomination and we can expect her to be a strong advocate for transparency and open government. >> supervisor peskin: next speaker. >> i'm a member of the society of professional journalists and

reporter with the west side observer. i'd like to voice my support for jaya padmanabhan for her knowledge, journalistic experience and good judgment. also, mr. bruce wolfe for his wisdom, dedication to sunshine and institutional memory. thank you very much. >> supervisor peskin: thank you. mr. clerk. next speaker. >> good morning supervisors, i'm the co-chair of the society of professional journalists committee dedicated to freedom of information. it is exciting to see so many strong candidates to get the task force up to capacity here. i'm here to speak in support of jaya padmanabhan's candidacy. our committee had searched for

candidates this past full and jaya emerged as the clear choice from the process. our committee was impressed by her knowledge of the sunshine ordinance and professionalism and enthusiasm of serving the public and the rare computer scientist who made a career change to become an award winning journalist and well positioned to consider the technological and transparency issues that come up in the task force cases. we believe she would be a fair for the cases that come before you. >> supervisor peskin: are there any other members of the public or public comment on item number 2? >> clerk: we have two more callers. >> supervisor peskin: next speaker, please.

>> hello, i'm program director at a nonprofit based here in san francisco that uses technology to ensure government services can be delivered to those who need them the most and support volunteers across the country working on projects for transparency and open government. i'm here in my personal capacity today as a member of supervisor roman's district. thank you forgiving me the opportunity to speak. i first met laurie about a decade ago at urban habitat and recently completed a masters degree and i started out hopeful but became cynical because a lot of public participation processes were more theater than anything else and laurie showed me that meaningful public

participation was possible. her deep nerdiness about processes and focus on training and mentoring others who effectively make decisions and really her dedication to and track record for social justice nationwide makes her an excellent candidate for the task force. i have worked closely with her in multiple capacities and witnessed many skills that would make her a strong part of the task force. you've heard today, but i want to emphasize how the institute became a national model for impacted residents to serve and really be able to ensure their voices would not only be heard but they would be decision makers empowered with critical skills like deep understanding of rules of order, why it makes sense to get on the budget

commissions and how to get the information you need to make good decisions on behalf of your community. she teaches people how to engage in government. >> clerk: that's your time. >> supervisor peskin: thank you. you can testify again at the next meeting. next speaker please. >> good morning this is patrick. congratulations to each of the supervisors who have been appointed to the rules committee. i am speaking in support of bruce wolfe's application to be reappointed. he has served extremely well. i would like to draw your attention to the written testimony i submitted opposing david pilpel's nomination.

there's 10 good reasons in my written testimony why he should not be reappointed to the task force including he was not reappointed by the full board of supervisors in 2016. then supervisor tang was responsible for blocking his reappointment to the mta citizens advisory council and puc's citizen advisory committee due to many complaints from members and the mta staff about his disruptiveness during meetings. i really ask you to read my written testimony for your

continuation meeting where you'll take up the agenda item again. david pilpel must not be reappointed to the task force. thank you. >> supervisor peskin: thank you. and your two letters are a part of the file and the supervisor has reviewed them and i see supervisor chan nodding that she has reviewed them. any other members of the public on this item? >> clerk: no more callers in the que. >> supervisor peskin: public comment is closed. colleagues, i do think that the speakers of public comment made a compelling argument relative to jaya padmanabhan for seat number 4. relative to the fact that a, that seat is uncontested and

pursuant to the legislation that i passed from the northern california society of professional journalists and if there is no objection, i would like to -- i see no objection from either one of you, i would like to, despite my continuing the balance of this calendar, make an exception for that seat, particularly given that it would allow -- given the number of vacancies at this time, allow the sunshine task force to meet more effectively. mr. young, does that require a separate motion. it has been a while since i have been on this committee. >> clerk: it can be included as one motion. a motion to recommend that appointment to seat 4 with residency waiver. >> supervisor peskin: okay.

colleagues, i would like to make a motion to recommend to the full board, jaya padmanabhan for seat number 4 with a residency waiver. mr. clerk, could you please call the roll on that motion. i'm sorry. chan just popped up. >> supervisor chan: i was going to make that comment about seat 4 just having the experience working in my previous career and work and i absolutely agree the importance of having representation and most importantly also the fact that jaya padmanabhan -- i don't want to butcher her name. and i was going to make that

suggestion anyway. please move forward with the motion. >> supervisor peskin: please call the roll. >> clerk: on that motion... (roll call) the motion passes without objection. >> supervisor peskin: and i would like to make a motion to continue the balance of this item to our next regularly scheduled meeting and on that motion mr. clerk, a roll call please. >> clerk: (roll call). the motion passes without objection. the remainder of the seats for the sunshine ordinance task force will be continued for a hearing at the next meeting of

the rules committee. >> supervisor peskin: thank you clerk young and thank you vice chair mandelman and supervior chan on our voyage of the rules committee and we are adjourned. ♪♪♪ >> this is a remote meeting via

video and tele conferencing. the below links and telephone numbers will get you into the meeting. during the covid 19 emergency the fire commissioners regular meeting room is