>> commissioner dejesus: sergean t youngblood please call the roll. [roll call] president cohen will join us in route. here with us tonight is chief william scott from the san francisco police department and director paul henderson from the department of police accountability. >> vice president elias: thank you, i will ask everyone to join me in the pledge of allegiance. please put your hand over your heart and say the pledge of allegiance.

[pledge of allegiance] thank you. >> everything okay commissioner elias? >> vice president elias: yes, i'm getting a delay i apologize. few logistical items. line item number 6 on the agenda is being moved to another date. we will have that agendize at a later date. secondly, before we call item number one, i'm going to ask that we open public comment for about half hour and take as many calls as we can and come back to it at the end of the agenda. please call the first item.

>> clerk: line item number. the public is welcome to address the commission for two minutes. under police rules of order during public comment neither police or d.p.a. personnel nor commissioners are required to respond to the questions presented by the public but may provide a brief importance. you can call by 415-655-0001 and enter access code 146 033 9858 you may submit public comment or written comments maybe sent poth public safety building located 1245 third street, san

francisco, california. if you like to make public comment, please press star 3. we have a number of public comments. good evening caller, you have two minutes. >> good afternoon commissioners. my name is aaron. i live and work in san francisco. i'm calling today just to ask the police commission to one, consider massively reducing their budget and to support allocating a small part of that reduction, $4.8 million, to fund cart.

the compassionate alternative response team. to move away from police response that led to death of too many people that experienced homelessness, the removal of homeless people where they are staying. implementing cart would take less than one-half of a percent of the police budget that has grown 58% from the last decade and begin to improve outcome for folks on the streets so we're able to work towards moving them off the streets permanently and address our housing crises with compassion. thank you. >> thank you, caller. good evening caller, you have two minutes. >> good evening commissioners. i'm calling today in support of

the cart proposal that is before you. i very strongly think that the police are the long instrument attempting to address homelessness and drug use and drug sales. each of those has individually proven themselves to be counterproductive. the brand of police, the respect for policing, the ability for police to function, the budget in our city both in the police and outside of it whether it's jails for the police to be addressing these issues. we seen recognition from groups like sf311 that the police shouldn't be addressing homelessness. i'm calling on the police commission to support redirecting its funds to use programs that will address

homelessness in the correct planner and reallocating the portions of the budget to address that towards cart that's a small allocation tonight. i would love to see less police in our system, less police in our society because the reality of our police is compared to other countries, they kill a greater portion of our civilians than any other first world country. tonight i'm calling for us to find a more peaceful solution and for san francisco to embrace the way of the future. this is being done elsewhere. thank you very much. >> good evening caller, you have two minutes. >> good evening. this is magic alderman. last year the people destroyed the myth that police are necessary. as well as the lie that people are here to protect the people.

the truth is, that we all know the police were created to enforce slavery and destroy unions. the rest of their community service is window dress and propaganda, to hide the murders and oppression of black and brown people, and daily intimidation on the streets of our community. the crime went up. defund the police, refund the community. that is what will happen, mark my word. the government definition of safety to protect the rich who are defined as other. others living on the edge lost homes and jobs and so many have lost love ones. we the people feel safe when we share principles with food, shelter and healthcare and

education. mayor breed feel safe, -- [indiscernible] the statutes that fallen, the flag torn down, the names of the oppressors are erased on the chalkboard at schools, anyone with forsight can see the system is broken. there's no reforming. it is working as intended to protect the oligarchs. you voted unanimously to -- [indiscernible] what do you plan to do differently to actually change and defund the police and refund the community? that's all. >> thank you, caller. good evening caller, you have two minutes.

>> good evening, i'm a lifelong district 1 resident. in january 2020, sfpd unanimously passed resolution to move away from police response to homelessness from the chief to sponsor stakeholder groups to design an alternative. one year later that a. has been developed called cart. the people homes are flown away. when i asked the resolution if items were bagged and tagged, i was told it was just trash. it proves that the operation center is not concerned about healthy streets. thank you. >> good evening, you have two minutes. >> my name is sarah, i live and

work san francisco. i'm asking police commission massive reduction in their fund. this will not eliminate jobs. the result of which will be more efficient effective and humane. thank you. >> thank you, caller. good evening, you have two minutes. >> thank you. last police commission meeting i called and during public comment about the asset work. this is a practice whereby law enforcement agencies, police departments and others

confiscate people's money when they're not charged with any crime. in respond to my comments that commissioner hamasaki asked the police chief whether the sfpd was doing this, chief said, it's not administered by us. he said sfpd was directly taking money but this will be federal government -- he said there's --i don't see on the agenda. i would like to hear chief scott say more about this. how much money are they getting from the feds? who is getting the money? who is being charged? what are they being charged with if anything? how much money has been taken,

what property has been taken? to what extent this is going on in san francisco. it is a nationwide practice. there's been billions of dollars stolen from the public in this manner. i think we should have transparency at the local level to see what's going on with this. there's a report that i encourage members to look at called policing for profits. they put out a third one. this is a direct question for police chief to respond to. i ask for a response and from the commission. thank you very much. >> you have two minutes. >> thanks. i live and work san francisco. i'm also here to ask you to fund the cart program. i've been working flow a little bit. everyone including the mayor has been talking about moving the

funds in the police department. it's really cool. i saw a lot more general talk about doing this kind of thing. there's a proposal for a real program that is designed to help the community. it not only address issues more humanely and efficiently it will help the community like not need to call the police as often. it's great in so many ways. it will be really cool to see what we can do for the community. please fund this program. it's a small percent of the budget. thank you. >> thank you. good evening, you have two minutes. >> yes, this is -- [indiscernible] i've become part of the cart working group that created this for the last year. ivy street with the one who came up with the acronym,

compassionate, alternative response team. it was created by a community process that took input a large swath of our community. i also have a relative who worked for it san francisco police department for five years, including in the homeless unit. he's no longer in that position, he would have loved having like c.a.r.t. to do this job while sending people to do work to unhouse people. other police officers i spoken to, they too do not want to do social work. i think there's support from this within your department. i want to say, i do recognize the role of police as part of the safety solution for our city. police should not be doing mental health and prevention or social work. that should be done by mental health professionals, consumers,

social workers by people commit to helping the community, c.a.r.t. is a very inexpensive and cost effective way to doing it. we're asking for $4.8 million. it's not expensive in terms of the overall goals and accomplishments. it's a good proposal. it will create jobs. i think it will make policing it safer as well as make the community safer. from the c.a.r.t committee, thank you very much. >> thank you, caller. good evening caller, you have two minutes. >> hi there, my name is carlos. i live and work in san francisco. i'm calling today to ask for the sfpd to cut their budget and recommend to the mayor that portion of that budget goes to funding c.a.r.t. last january, this body vote to

unanimously approve. i recommend we move away from police response to homelessness. that proposal c.a.r.t has been done. now it's been before us. asking the police commission to approve it. cut their budget and support c.a.r.t. thank you. >> you have two minutes. >> hello. i'm also a member of the c.a.r.t advisory team and worked on the c.a.r.t proposal. we have now issued a report for a community plan for a compassionate alternative response to policing homeless population. this is in response to a

resolution by sfpd. it passed unanimously to move away from police response to homelessness. it was supported by chief scott. the board of supervisors supported this as well. i'm calling to ask the police commission to please reduce sfpd budget, defund the police this year, at last and this time, you have a first alternative that can be funded that had some vast community support, that has a lot of research behind it. we would be very placed to be able to comment further because this is a true response that would move as a way from criminalizing populations that are already suffering, egregious human rights violations.

please support c.a.r.t by defunding the police. also specifically, the funding required for c.a.r.t is a very tiny portion of sfpd's budget. we ask that this amount be allocated to the creation of compassionate alternative response team that will take on calls from 911 and redirect it to an alternative service providers in the community. thank you. >> that is the end of public comment. >> vice president elias: great, thank you very much. call the next line item please. >> clerk: sorry, there's one more. then we're done. you have two minutes.

>> good evening commissioners. i'm carolyn gusen. i did want to also ask you to continue to shift resources from police to non-police responses. we can address the behavioral health and housing needs of the community and support c.a.r.t wholeheartedly. i want to bring up two things that the public defender has related to police accountability and transparency. i was shocked to learned that officer who resigned ongoing investigation of misconduct that the investigations suddenly end. this means there's never sustained d.p.a. complaint on their record. a police officer can go from one jurisdiction to another without any accountability. tonight under closed session, the commission was supposed to discuss disciplinary case. we understand that conveniently person resigns two months after the case opened.

we urge you to adjudicate these cases and create a policy stating such. finally, there's an open question about whether everything that is put in the closed session portion of the agenda needs to be there. the commission hasn't changed their closed session policy and procedures since the passage of 1421. the state law that enables monthly transparency. because of 1421, we believe the items are no longer confidential. this something we know commissioners, such as commissioner dejesus raised in the past. thank you so much. >> if i can clarify the last caller. >> commissioner dejesus: the new policy of the police commission with regards to officers

resaning or retiring with pending disciplinary cases, those cases remanded to the chief to make findings. we actually had a report on those findings a few meetings ago. now, those findings will allow the officer's file to be made public under 1421 and also that if they attempt to go to another jurisdiction with pending disciplinary cases, there will be a finding in their file of the policy violation and a another jurisdiction is .

we have clarified and moving it forward. >> vice president elias: is that all the callers? >> clerk: no, there are two more callers. you have two minutes. >> hello. good evening police commissioners. i work for the community partnership. i've been on the c.a.r.t work group. i'm also calling today to ask the police commission to do a massive reduction to the police budget and that the mayor allocate small -- part of that to fund c.a.r.t which will care for the homeless on our street rather than criminalize them. one more urgent thing, to remove the police from escorting d.p.w.

which can be done immediately and reduce sfpd costs. >> thank you. you have two minutes. >> hello, i live and work in san francisco. i'm calling to call for the police commission to identify radical reduction to the police budget as a part of a national reckoning on race and the need to move away from the over police and incarceration that has devastated black and brown communities. black and brown citizens of san francisco have disproportionately homeless in the city. i believe that supporting and funding the c.a.r.t initiative is one way that we can move towards these radical reductions. this is an ask to move away from p.r. politics to move away from making statements to save face

and to move into caring for the community in humane ways that support life, that supports justice, that support really just honoring every single citizen in our city. i like to reiterate what my fellow citizens shared before, something that we can do immediately is just remove police from escorting d.p.w. now. that will keep people safer. thank you. >> thank you, caller. good evening, caller, you have two minutes. >> hello. i live in san francisco. i'm asking the police commission to fund c.a.r.t for $4.8 million. i'm asking the commission disband and defund the police

department. c.a.r.t is a good way to start doing that. it's something that will move the city away from sending police response to homelessness. we've seen over the last five decades and possibly longer, homelessness in this city where police just move the homeless around. it's beyond past time that we get away from using the police to criminalize homelessness. i want to complete defunding of the sfpd. that's something that we need to prioritize. chief scott appeared in board of supervisors meeting last week and couldn't provide per capita data about use of force against people in the city. it's ridiculous because that data can be gotten just by going to the police dashboard and doing little bit of math. what that comes out to 40% of

use of force by the police to the city is against black people. additional 25% is against latinx people. regardless of what this commission has been doing, nothing has worked. defund and abolish and disband sfpd and fund c.a.r.t. thank you so much. >> thank you caller. that is the end of general public comment. >> vice president elias: thank you. i like to close out that line item and we have our wonderful leader back. i will hand it over to her. >> president cohen: good evening everyone. thank you very much commissioner elias. i appreciate you stepping in. all right, i'm back into the meeting. please call the next item.

>> clerk: line item 2, adoption of minutes, action for the meetings january 13, 20, 2021. >> president cohen: any comments or questions to the item? let's take public comment on this item. >> if you like make a comment on item 2 please press star now. president cohen, we have one caller. good evening, you have two minutes. >> yes, thank you commissioners. i spoke earlier, i also spoke during the last public comment. regarding the minutes, i wanted to say that i would like to see

my comments and the responses to our comments any other members of the public included in the minutes as close to verbatim as possible. unless they express they don't want their remarks included. public comment is an official part of the meeting. we want our comments to be heard and put in the public record. i think jay meeting showed there's no harming in that. that should be reflected in the record. i ask for a response to this comment. thank you. >> thank you, caller. good evening caller, you have two minutes. >> i'm raising my hand to support mr. star child. i do think that public comment should be a more official part of the record.

i note that it is still accessible that all these meetings are recorded. i would like to see the meeting minutes reflect the super majority of the public that is absolutely and completely dissatisfied with the brutalization by their militarized thuggery of a police force. yes, please, second on mr. starchild said. >> thank you, caller. president cohen, that is the end of public comment. >> president cohen: thank you very much. let's call the next item. >> item 3, reports to the commission, discussion. chief's report. weekly crime trends provide overview of offenses occurring in san francisco.

major significant incidents provide summary of planned activities and events. it will include a brief overview of activities occurring in san francisco. >> do we need to have a motion for the adoption of the minutes? >> president cohen: you're right. i will take that as a motion made by you and is there a second to adopt the minute? >> second. >> president cohen: seconded by mr. hamasaki. if we can take that without objection. that motion passes unanimously. mr. brookter and chief, you're up. welcome back to the commission. >> thank you president cohen.

i tart this -- i will start this week with the most significant events that happened. that was in term of crime. we had 205 last week, we had one homicide last week and one incident that turned into a homicide on monday and we had a homicide yesterday. this is concerning and alarming. the first two incidents were elderly individuals who were attacked and unprovoked attack. they both ended up succumbing to their wounds. both incidents turn to homicide. our first incident involve a 84-year-old man a victim. that was -- this incident arose after our individual who identified as a suspect, pushed

the victim and violated on the ground and unprovoked. the bottom line is, victim died from his injuries. very sad event, very sad change of events. senseless death to everybody's account. we were able to make significant progress on that case throughout the weekend. that did result in arrest in two individuals. the person that he was with, who was a female and also arrested for being part to not the actual assault but accessory after the fact. there were two arrests. other incident involving 76-year-old man, victim with a well known private investigator. he was out in his community taking a photograph when our

primary suspect got into a tussle over his camera and ended up knocking him to the ground. he also died as a result of those injuries. we also made a arrest. hats off to our team who workedk tirelessly through the weekend. lot of team work with the district attorney and his team keeping updated on the case. the result is we made arrests on both cases. the district attorney office is part of the case. our individual who are arrested are proven guilty in the court of law.

we want to bring all these cases to a conclusion. we had a rough week with homicides. where that leaves, it's the homicide of the year compare to three last year. that's the trend we want to desperately turn around. other crimes statistics are violent crimes. we were down this week overall by eight crimes. 16% decrease. year to date, we're down 20%.

we were down 28% compared to previous week, we were down 38% overall. we've seen alarming trends. biggest is burglaries which were up significantly compared to last year. it's not something we focus our attention on. the good news -- those are highlights on the crimes, as far as the district in terms of the shooting, we're in bayview seven compare to one. we're up in northern, three to compare to one last year. tenderloin five compared to two. rest of the districts are either down or up one or even. lastly, a brief update on the

side show event, we put together a drive-in response unit. this goes in line that the legislation board of supervisors passed to put more teeth into the consequences who come to our city to engage in these events. we had a number of events over the past few weekend. last weekend, significant response by officers to take lot of resources. we were able to shut down a number of events. we impounded 11 cars. this past weekend, we cited a number of individuals. this past weekend we had at least three or four incidents around the city.

we have a much better response. i want to thank the board for their coming out with that legislation. which i think sending the message that we don't want to have these events happen in our city. people have been hurt and killed. we have to put a handle on it and shut them down. one other thing, i know you asked for update on any type of domestic terrorism. we don't have anything to report. department homeland security put out bulletin to be on the lookout for violent extremist groups. describing groups that may have ideologies that may lead to

violence. it's a big deal in our country now. we don't have anything in our state that indicates that we have anything like that. we will advise if we do. that concludes my report. >> vice president elias: thank you. are there any questions. >> vice president elias: i i was hoping you can report on the status of it foot patrol and frontline officers receiving vaccinations. >> yes, i apologize, i had it written in big letters. i missed it. just update on that in terms of vaccinations. there's a lot going on with vaccinations and the issue for us in the city is under the state guidelines and system, the

group that we're included in, the first responders police, we are in tier 1b. san francisco has a very expansive healthcare system which have lead to community-based organizations that are included in that higher tier, 1a. the bottom line is, about 200,000 people that are tier 1. the city only received about little bit more than 100,000 vaccinations. remind you that the vaccinations you have to have two doses. our officers haven't been vaccinated. we're working hard to work with public health partners, mayor

office and try to give our officers the opportunity to be vaccinated. there are some officers that live outside the city and county that have been vaccinated in their county and that number is very limited. there is a plan now is for all of us to go through our private healthcare provider. they will be part of the vaccination plan. they're working with our public health officials and they are part of that plan. as it stands now, you can signed up through -- sign up through your health provider. let them know you want to be vaccinated and they will notify each individual when they get to us. it's really difficult right now. we're out there with the public.

we're not medical personnel we do engage in life saving measures quite often. >> vice president elias: is there anything we can do to give those officers interacting with the public on a daily basis? it seems those will be the most important group within the department to get vaccinated since they're interact with the public. my second question is, if you could provide may be weekly or biweekly updates to the rank and file officers at various stations to make sure they're apprised what's going on and the status of when they'll receive the vaccine from the city.

>> we made that known within the department. we are working with the police officer association on that messaging as well as getting the messaging out as to what steps to take to get registered for the vaccination. it's been a topic at our hands meeting and we're asking our captains to push that out to officers. our captains and management in the department to push that out to their members. we will continue to do that. that's a part of the frustration just the information changes, the state tier system changes. it might change again. we will continue to push. we appreciate the concern from the commission.

>> vice president elias: there maybe some movement. the state is the one setting the order as to who can be vaccinated. as you know, january 19th, the chief and the president of the p.o.a. wrote a letter that dr. colfax to prioritize our officers and i checked in with president of the p.o.a. to find out if he got a response. he hasn't got an response. i put in a call to the department of public health to let them know that the commission and the department and the p.o.a. and united and desired to see the officers get their vaccinations quickly.

i had a conversation with the mayor she's imploring that the governor release more vaccinations to the city. >> president cohen: we'll have more to report next week. any other questions that you have for the chief? >> vice president elias: to, that was it, thank you. >> president cohen: any other commissioners out there? >> i have couple of little

questions. for c.a.r.t, you and the mayor talked about cutting the budget and giving money to the community. do you have input in terms where -- are you in discussions with the mayor? does the department have an input where in money is going to go. do you have the ability to make recommendations such as this c.a.r.t program that was discussed little earlier? >> input in terms of the decision, no. definitely will make the recommendation. >> that's good to know. i had two more questions. about the burglaries, talking to me, most people saying they given up trying to lock their

garages. people are breaking in and getting in. i want to know if the burglaries include the home and garages? i assume they are both. i >> that's accurate commissioner. it does include the garages. it's a big problem. it's a real problem for us. we also working with san francisco safe. we're doing outreach across the city. sage is going to do outreach that provide locks that are harder to get into garages.

we have to do all of that. there's a group that's prolific. >> one woman said they broke into her garage twice. it seems to be a problem. good, i'm glad you're on that. last thing i wanted to come up for agenda item. it will be good if we put something on about the

forfeitures brought up twice. thank you. >> president cohen: thank you commissioner. does the police department provide a courtesy to do security audit for people personal home to make suggestions how to accuracy the -- safety of their home to prevent these break-ins? >> we do. we actually relay heavily on sf safe. that's what they are actually there for. they do a good job at it. we work collaboratively with safe executive order worthy and her team.

we do lot of that. i would highly recommend that the public take advantage of that. >> president cohen: to the members of the public, kyra is the executive director of safe. it's an organization that will help you show you the ropes, show you how to fortify your home and protect your personal belongs so you're not a victim of crime. they make various suggestions like cutting back shrubs and hedges and fortify certain locks, making recommendations on camera and technology you can use. all of this is to bring protection to the individual and it's pretty significant helping us capture crime as well.

any other questions for the chief? chief, i was wondering, i don't know if you said this in your report, i missed it in your crime report. i was wondering if there's any updates on the traffic attack on jack palladino? he was a journalist that was attacked on january 31st. >> yes, i did. i was repeat. i did mention and talk about that. that was the first item that i talked about. that was pretty brutal and horrific crime. we have made an arrest on it. we've been working with our newly formed community unit with mr. palladino's family to give them the support they need as

well as other victims of violent crimes on the side as well. we were able to quickly make an arrest on that throughout the weekend. really good teamwork between our internal team and with the district attorney office on that. >> president cohen: thank you very much. does that complete your report? >> yes. thank you. >> president cohen: thank you very much. next is d.p.a. report. >> d.p.a. report will be limited to drinks. commission discussion will be limit to determining whether to issues raise forked future commission meeting and presentation will be december 2020 monthly statistical report.

>> here's my update so far this year. we're up to 51 cases that have been open, at this time last year we were at 70 cases. we closed 51 cases not the same 51 cases. this time last year, we closed 115 cases. in terms of cases pending, we have 354 open cases. time last year, we had 384 open cases. we sustained five cases so far this year. this time last year we had sustained six cases. we have 36 cases that are still under investigation beyond the nine month mark. this time last year, we had 27 cases that were open at the same

time. we haven't mediated any cases this year nor we mediated case at this time last year. in terms of the volume and in terms of cases pending for discipline, we have 14 cases that are pending with the commission directly. we have 38 cases that are with the chief. in terms of -- i will fold in the monthly statistics as well. all of this information is online as well at the d.p.a.'s website. from january through december 2020, we received 799

new cases versus 773 cases 2019. that was an increase of 3%. talk about the outreach event that the office participated in. i want to explain about it because i keep getting questions about what the outreach has looked like. because we've shifted during the pandemic and many of our outreach events are virtual now. most of them can be found on the community calendar on the website so people can track them and attend if they are interested. they are posted on twitter, facebook t instagram and on the d.h.r., department of human resources as well. most of these events are live stream. can be watched at the spdpa

youtube channel as well. also, on the 21st, i spoke at jim's grills empowered motivated and strong agency focusing on young girls of color who are attending stem academies. on the 22nd d.p.a. 101 general

information about how it operates as well as our budget operation. the presentation was open to the community and organizations to learn more about our agency. we give this presentation pretty frequently with various stakeholders. on the 27th, we hosted a stakeholder engagement informational series partnership with be magic talking about the agency's upcoming event and community resources as well as information about how to make the planes and how the process works. we continue to coordinate, participate and be engaged with the mega black meeting. where we are invited to participate. discussing areas of collaboration between private organizations relate to black issues here in san francisco. on the 29th, we participated in reforming police through changing labor relations.

i did that all day in partnership with berkeley law school for police reform. this week, i spoke and had a lengthy meeting with wealth and disparities with the black community and sat down with falisha jones and her group addressing concerns they raised. those will be ongoing meeting. both the d.p.a. annual report were the main focus of those conversations from that meeting. we had couple of training for the past few weeks. on tuesday, all of the staff at

d.p.a. participated in the training. we participated in a virtual trans 101 training. two-part training. second session will take place on late friday. we have one case that i think is going to be forced resolution for the closed calendar for this evening. that completes my report for d.p.a. >> president cohen: thank you very much for that. let me see if there's callers that like to ask you some questions. any commissioners interested in asking director henderson few questions on his report? can you give a little context as

to why there's an increase of cases this year versus last year? i can understand five or ten years ago why there's a change, why this year? >> i think lot of folks, because it's easier now to make the complaint and because a lot of the outreach that we're doing is virtual. i think it's that much easier for communities to reach out. specifically communities that has difficulty accessing transportation found find services available, the focus that we've had in making sure that we fold it in a partnership with language access so that communities are able to access our services. people can make complaints anonymously on their phone or through their computer. it's a combination of all of

those things. commissioner elias reached out, i spoke with her this week, looking at, analyzing the complaints that are coming in with little bit of deeper dive. we're starting to look at that as well to see if there's more or better efficiencies we can have at the front end for people that are contacting our office. i should be able to give you a more thorough report. rather than just my speculation. i can tell you more exactly. will likely be able to tell you -- i'll be able to measure what that increase is based on the

complaints that are coming in. >> president cohen: thank you. i don't know what your data, what you have in front of you, there's a complaint 045363-20. it came under 2020. one of the complaints that interest me was that officers performed retaliatory reaction to the complaint. >> i'm not clever enough to be able to do that in the moment. i wrote that down. my directors, i have staff on the call or this at the commission now participating that we'll follow up directly. do you want us to reach out to you or both? >> president cohen: thank you, not the individual behind the complaint. as i dive in little bit more, i

went through the complaints. there are particular ones that spoke to me. these are really interesting complaints that we brush over because they are just numbers in the statistics. i'm trying to understand what you know and how you come to understand what these complaints are? >> i will reach out to you within the next 24 hours and give up an update. >> president cohen: i will

e-mail the complaint number. i'm curious to know where things are. >> i think it was before you jumped on, we were talking about the race and hiring thing. i think that got taken off the calendar. we're going to hear it february 10th, next week. thank you for your presentation. anyone has any follow-up questions for director henderson? >> continuing on with item 3. commission reports. commission reports will be limit to brief description of activities and announcements. commission discussion will be limit to determining whether to calendar any of the issues raised to future commission meetings.

>> president cohen: i want to speak directly to commissioner dejesus, you made a request to allow the youth commission come and join us.

>> commissioner cohen, i want to ask if we can agendize -- i got an opportunity to speak with the

officers for justice in lieu of of it being black history month, they've actually created masks with the kids they cloth. i love having them coming before the commission to present these masks. just have them come speak to us about the about black history month. that will be a great thing. >> president cohen: that will be a fantastic thing. good suggestion, thank you. commissioner dejesus? >> commissioner dejesus: [indisc ernible]

>> president cohen: it was hard for me to hear what you were saying. >> commissioner dejesus: what i said earlier, when we talked about -- there was a caller, second time it's been brought up, about forfeitures and seizures of property. people are asking how it works. it wouldn't hurt to have a small presentation how it works.

>> president cohen: commissioner hamasaki anything from you? please continue. >> at this time the public is welcome to make public comment on line item 3. members of the public like to make public comment please call 415-655-0001. enter access code. 146 033 9858 please press star 3 now if you like to make public comment. we have a number of callers. >> president cohen: let's begin. >> good evening, caller, you have two minutes. >> hi. can you hear me? >> yes. >> i was calling concerning my

son who was murdered august 14, 2006, to this day no capture of the person who murdered my son. i'm a mother who is calling every wednesday and speaking about my son everyday concerning his homicide. i don't care if it's been 14 years, it's been yesterday to me. i miss my son. i want justice for my son. i want to thank again dejesus for writing that letter. i want to thank chief david lazar for helping me and chief scott for piggy backing off dejesus letter. that will help out a lot. a little closure for me for people portraying our

african-american children as gang members in their death, while they are dead. i'm just still looking for justice for my son. his case number -- please, if you know anything about my son who was murdered, if you remember anything about my son's murder, please call in and let the homicide detectives know about what's going on or what has happen to my son.

thank you. >> thank you, ms. brown. good evening caller, you have two minutes. >> this is david elliott lewis. just to draw attention to some areases that have not been reported upon in these items. which is what's going on in the civic center and tenderloin where i live. the civic center we have a weekly wednesday farmers market that's in danger of closing. business is down because of the covid pandemic. now with the riot of b-line plaza violence, we might lose our community farmers market. which is a loss for the community. there's a need for policing here. in the tenderloin, there is off the hook increase street level drug dealing. you know about this. it continues to get worse under the

pandemic. we seek community solutions but we seek police solutions. it needs police presence on the street, to get to know the residents and forge connections and try to create a culture of safety. that's what i'm asking for. that's what i'm asking for reports on. reports on maybe more of a community policing approach to address these community safety needs. i support the police department i support alternatives to police like c.a.r.t. they are part of the safety solutions to make san francisco a safer place. thank you for your time and attention, david elliott lewis. >> thank you, caller. good evening caller, you have two minutes. >> thank you commissioners.

i was the caller who brought up the forfeiture that commissioner dejesus brought up. i appreciate her putting that on the agenda. i wanted to ask director and the d.p.a., mentioned that police oversight audit panel. i like to get the name and contact information for people on this panel and to know whether they are looking into asset forfeiture part of their audit. we don't have transparency. we don't know how much money being spent by the sfpd in cooperation with the feds and taking this money from people

and these assets. we don't know how much they are profiting from the distribution of the asset. we don't know who the victims are. have they been given sufficient opportunities to get their property back, especially if they are poor and they can't afford lawyers. they are not being charged a crime and having their stuff taken. i think this is real social injustice. i like to ask director henderson what information do you have on forfeiture. can you direct them to do so and can you give us for the record, the contact info for the people on that panel? thank you. >> thank you, caller. good evening, caller, you have two minutes.

president cohen, that is the end of public comment. >> president cohen: all right, thank you very much. i appreciate the public comment tonight. let's continue moving forward >> item 4, presentation of sfpd's 4th quarter 2020 safe streets for all report, discussion. >> president cohen: all right. good to see you. >> good evening president cohen. sergeant youngblood, can you put our presentation up on the screen please?

president cohen, vice president elias, police commissioners, chief scott, members of the public, i'm the command for the m.t.a. division of the san francisco police department. i'm responsible for the coordination of traffic safety department wide and city wide. i have a presentation on the results for safe streets for all 4th quarter of 2020. strategy included engineering, police department engages in public education to raise awareness, our commitment to vision zero focused on violations which has been found to be the primary cause of fatal and serious injuries.

those violations vehicle failure to yield, they fail to yield turning, speed and red light violations. san francisco police department works with our vision zero partners including walk sf. pedestrian advocacy stakeholder group in the city. this slade represents traffic violations for the 4th quarter. in comparison of the results between 2019 and 2024. total for 2020 is 1423

citations. although it's not on this screen the total for 2019 with 8899 citations. this slide offers a comparison of traffic violations, concentrates on the 4th quarter of 2019 and 2020. our department goals have 50% of our traffic violation focused on violations. this graph is for each of your ten district stations as well as the traffic violations. you can see in 2019, in -- 4th quarter we were above our goal.

this slide provides department total for the calendar year 2020 for traffic violations and vision zero sf focused on the five totals. all of our figures i should mention, clarified on this presentation. from january 2020 to december 2020, our total traffic violations were 13,995. 7320 were for people with violations. which was a percentage of 52% of our traffic violations. this slide represents for the 4th quarter, the individuals who suffered fatality or collision, the blue represents

2020 and green represents 2019. we have a modes of travel of transportation listed. standup powered device, probably referred to as a scooter -- [indiscernible] [please stand by]

>> next slide, please. >> this graph represents the

age groups of fatalities of persons in 2020, 0 to 29 years old, we have five individuals in that group. 30 to 39, there were six. in the 40 to 49 group, there were four. in the gray, that represents 50 to 59-year-olds. the tan represents the 60 to 65 years of age, and this represents the 66 to 80 years of age. further on this presentation, i've included the table on slide 13, which identifies each location and related collision data. all of these markers represent the different categories on the right and in the blue

[inaudible] above that, you can see the total each category represents in our fatalities. the exterior passenger is a passenger that was riding on the rear coupler outside of a muni rail vehicle. the vehicle negotiated a turn, the individual fell off of the l.r.t. and was fatally injured as a result. next slide, please. this is a map of all of the collisions, and i apologize. i know it looks very busy. the blue highlighted lines represent streets are high fatality corridors that have been identified by the san francisco department of public

works, department of public health, and san francisco police department. we had two collisions this year which occurred multiple victims. first, 25 at dakota, victims suffered injuries that were fatal, and then at 31st and mission, two pedestrians were killed after being struck by a vehicle. next slide, please. this slide is a representation of all of the collisions on the previous two maps. it includes the location where the collision occurred, the method of travel, and in the last box, the primary collision factor. so when any collision occurs, an investigation is conducts, and individuals who are trained to do so can determine the

first action or the primary action that was responsible for the collision. the next slide has all of the codes, which are vehicle codes, with the exception of the last one, which is the health and safety code. and that is the presentation, and we're happy to answer any questions. thank you. >> president cohen: commissioner hamasaki? >> commissioner hamasaki: thank

you, president cohen. you know, i think this issue of policing is a lot like some other ones that have been discussed in the sense that the problem that we're seeking to address is a problem that isn't necessarily one is that is solved by policing, right? and what i asked you before, i don't think it was last quarter, but is there any -- is there any actual evidence that any of these interventions lead to more positive outcomes, right? it seems that -- i would assume we spend a pretty significant amount of resources, you know, to have people out to do the enforcement actions in high injury corridors, but it seems to me all anecdotal or theory

if there's any impact on public safety. do you have anything else that might kind of fill in my concern? >> well, commissioner, thank you for your question. [inaudible] with serious injury collisions on strategy, engineering, education, and enforcement. those are, you know, three of the primary tenets of this strategy, and, you know, it's a complex issue. it requires a lot of study and analysis. i know you asked that before -- the question that you asked before is relevant. can we point to any data that would point that our officers at certain locations have had

an [inaudible] that have occurred more than three weeks ago? so we concentrate our efforts on that high corridor region because that data has been

developed. >> commander, can i ask, what is the staffing of the traffic division? >> we have had officers, a few who have been promoted to sergeant, and they left the unit. there are two of those, and we've had a lot of other officers who have retired over the last year, so our numbers are not what they once were. we're -- i don't want to give you a number that sounds like a guess or speculating, but i can tell you that we've had a reduction in our staffing just primarily due to the fact that people have left the police

department. >> commissioner hamasaki: i mean, you can't estimate how many -- like 10? 20? 50? >> oh, well, i'll give you the number, but part of that number is impacted by people who are out or on disability. we have a captain, three sergeants, and 26 officers on motorcycles. >> commissioner hamasaki: okay. and so those officers are -- do they do patrolling as well as general enforcement actions? basically, the guy that pulls up behind you and hits the lights, and we all flip out and get a ticket? >> so that is a large part of their responsibility. they are also called out when

large numbers of people take to the streets. there's events where they are required for crowd prevention, auto burglaries, that kind of thing. and over the past six or seven months, they have been part of the required response to [inaudible] in the city, so the majority of officers have volunteered to change their hours on the nights that they will be deployed, and we have on numerous nights. i'd rather not get into the specifics of that, but that is a large part of their responsibility. when they're out at night, the events that we encounter, we can have anywhere from 75 to 100 to 200 vehicles in the ingleside, the bayview, the mission, central as part of our strategy to address that, and

they are also the experts when it comes to vehicle code violation and collision investigation. and collision investigation is something that they can be called out to assist a traffic collision investigation unit. they're out there doing measurements, diagrams, interviews, collecting evidence because not every serious -- while every serious injury collision requires an investigation, it might not rise to the level where it would involve tciu, so that means that the traffic control officers are responsible for those investigations, and those investigations can be conducted citywide. >> commissioner hamasaki: one other valid point -- so when i'm looking at data, it's all fatalities, right, and that -- i know that we don't

necessarily track just, like, regular accidents caused by additional vehicle code violations, like, fender benders or even more serious ones. is that accurate? i've always been told just contact your insurance and take care of it that way. >> so part of our commitment to vision zero is the department has to be in this position andly anson with the m.t.a., department of public health, bicycle coalition. so whenever there's a serious injury collision, all of these things take place. so when there's a serious injury collision, we're looking at was this collision

preventible? one of the things that they offer with their expertise is being able to communicate with m.t.a., department of public health, to see at this intersection or this location, we see a possible issue to be addressed by public engineering that could prevent possible collisions in the future. that's part of what we address in prevention, and i think some of those things might be hard to quantify, but i'd have to look at it to get you a number. >> commissioner hamasaki: yes. but if we're looking at fatalities, shouldn't we be also looking at serious injuries to emergency room did the safety of our streets? is that not part of what we track as part of this -- >> i don't know that we track that specifically, but i know that we have that data because all of those investigations are done. and again, we have -- >> commissioner hamasaki: that might be interesting to see in

the future because that might help us to understand the difference between a serious injury and a fatality. a fatality might not be indicative of a certain problem, but if you see a number of serious accidents in an area, that might be helpful, as well. >> thank you, commissioner hamasaki. >> commissioner hamasaki, there are published articles out there on the impact of serious injuries that are close to home. i think it was published in fresno in 2010. national library of medicine did some research, and basically, it's dialed in on speed and the enforcement of speed violation on fatalities and speed reductions in

fatalities. the wagner school of public service, they listed about 200 municipalities on the east coast. i think that was published in 2015, i believe, but again, there were some correlations to enforcement, traffic enforcements and certain types of violations and fatalities. there were articles out there -- >> commissioner hamasaki: maybe you can send those to me, and i can take a look. i don't want to take up everybody's time on them. >> great. thank you. >> president cohen: thank you. commissioner brookter, i think i saw your name? >> commissioner brookter: yeah, thank you for that, president cohen. >> president cohen: you're welcome. >> commissioner brookter: i think a lot of my questions were similar to commissioner hamasaki, and some of them have been answered. one of the things, the

organizations that i don't see on here is the san francisco transportation authority, and then, as we always have this conversation around big data, i'm just wondering if we're having any conversations with autonomous driving in san francisco, and if they're seeing anything that they can share with the department that would assist us with our vision zero program? >> thank you, commissioner. prepandemic, i appeared before the c.t.a. with supervisor mandelman and supervisor stefani to point out our results that vision zero offers enforcement, and i keep them updated -- or the -- our effort internally is to keep all of the commissions apprised of all the serious injury collisions, fatalities that happen in their district, because we know

they're going to get asked those questions. so our reports are provided to the c.t.a. and then, in terms of companies -- are you speaking about companies like -- let me answer that in a better way. so cruze, wemo, and waze, we've been in conversation with the mayor's office and the sfmta as well as different members of the board of supervisors to discuss the impacts and also the testing and the safety of their vehicles and, like, you know, what -- we have a line of communication open with them so that we've been able to identify and provide training to officers in the police department and members of the fire department so that if we respond to a collision involving their vehicles, although the majority of them,

99%, probably greater than that, are being operated by human beings, there are some that are just like cruising and doing some limited testing in two very small areas of san francisco. so i've given that information out to the district captain and then the mayor's office and the m.t.a., as well. so i guess the short answer to your question is yes, we're having this communication so that can potentially have a -- it could very well have a growing impact on traffic in san francisco. >> commissioner brookter: got it. thank you very much, commander. >> thank you. >> president cohen: thank you, commander. i see no other questions in the queue. we appreciate your presentations. >> thank you. >> president cohen: yes. >> thank you, chief. >> president cohen: sergeant youngblood, what's next on the agenda? >> clerk: public comment on-line item number 4. at this time, public is welcome

to make public comment on the presentation of safe streets. for those on the line, please press star, three now. good evening, caller. you have two minutes. >> thank you. this is david elliott lewis, long time tenderloin resident, who continues to have my fellow neighbors suffer from really unsafe streets due to what i believe is insufficient enforcement. anyone who hangs out for any amount of time in this area will see egregious traffic violations that go unpunished, and it's really made the streets very treacherous since many of the buses or bus lines aren't running adequately. so i understand that engineering, m.t.a., we need

all of those solutions, but it really feels like our neighbor continues to be underserved in all of those areas. the problem persists, and i hope you can look at the problems in these neighborhoods. this is david, and thank you for your time and attention. >> clerk: thank you, caller. >> president cohen: thank you, mr. lewis. next speaker. >> clerk: and president cohen, that is the end of public comment. >> president cohen: okay. i appreciate that. thank you. i see no other names in the chat, so let's continue moving forward. >> clerk: line item 5, discussion and possible action to approve department budget for fiscal year 2022-2023, discussion and action.

>> president cohen: all right. thank you. c.j., commissioner brookter, would you like to kick this one off? >> commissioner brookter: yeah, no. >> president cohen: say a few opening remarks? >> commissioner brookter: yeah. and i kind of gave the update in the commissioner's reports, but i really want to thank the commission for allowing us to sit down and dive into the process, the budget process, and also now beginning to do a deep dive into the proposed budget itself. there was a lot of callers that called in today, speaking about this budget, and i wanted to make sure that, as the commission, we had some teeth around what was going on with the budget and to ensure when we have presentations that it was much more palatable, that

we can see much more of the numbers. i think we are definitely headed in that direction. i've heard from some of my colleagues that today's presentation seems much more accountable, so i just want to turn it over to president cohen and director mcguire in the fiscal division to briefly take us through this. >> president cohen: thank you. i just wanted to say that i enjoyed an opportunity to get up close and somewhat personal with the budget as it begins to take shape. we've actually got a talents team of folks that are helping us shape this budget and reenvision what it's going to look like. i'm grateful for the public

that are adding their voice to this public process. i doubt that we're going to be taking any action tonight. this is just a discussion to bring forth to the public what we have been discussing with the department in terms of budget, budget priorities, more importantly, where the budget needs are so that we are all on the same page when it comes to advocating and supporting the sfpds budget. so with that, i will pivot and go to director mcguire. good to see you, and let you take it away. >> thank you, president cohen, vice president elias, director henderson, and chief. i have very little to say. i'm going to defer to patrick leung, who is our c.f.o., for

the rest of it. >> president cohen: all right. mr. leon, you're up. >> patrick, i believe you're on mute. >> sorry. can you hear me? >> clerk: yes. >> okay. good evening, president cohen, vice president elias, commissioners, chief scott, director henderson, members of the public. my name is patrick leung, and i am the chief financial officer for the police department.

tonight, we will be going over our proposed budget for fiscal year 22 and 23. and next slide, please. i want to begin with the agenda. tonight, we will be covering the following areas: the department needs for the upcoming budget cycle, a review of budget reductions from the last budget cycle, the base details for our fiscal year 22 budget, and the mayor's requested department reduction. next slide, please. i want to begin by following up on several questions from our first presentation, questions on our technology needs, the revenue breakdown, the impact of cultural diversity. these questions are answered later in the presentation. with respect to the question, what's the budget allocation for litigation expenditure, there's no specific allocation for department lawsuits. it would be part of the

litigation expenditures that's managed by the city attorney's office. next slide, please. in the last presentation, we also discussed the strategic priorities for fiscal year 22 and fiscal year 23. they are gun violence response, improving efficiency through technology, and [inaudible] included are some examples of these projects in each of these areas. next slide, please. department budgetary needs. we recognize that the city is facing financial difficulties, and with the on going pandemic and recession, budgetary resources are constrained, but we do want to highlight what the department needs are, and even though they're not

included, it's important to acknowledge them. these are academy classes, civilian positions to move positions to the field. in addition, there will be some requests that we will be adding as enhancement requests. these include technology funding to advance i.d. initiatives. next slide, please. some of our technology needs are tied to reform recommendations, and this graphic helps show examples of i.t. projects with anticipated implementation timeline to help us address some gaps that exist

in our i.t. capablities. next slide, please. and this slide represents reductions from our budget cycle that were approved last year. these improve cutting all vacant positions, cutting all funding for replacement vehicles, cutting amounts of significant overtime, no funding for capital or improvement projects, and cutting three out of the four academy classes that would have replaced retiring officers. next slide, please. in this slide, we provide a comparison between what the base budget is for fiscal year 22 and fiscal year 23 as compared to the current budget year. next slide, please. if we take a closer look at the general fund comparison, the existing cuts for fiscal year 22 total $17 million. these include items such as

cuts to your academy classes and cuts to overtime. the $21 million increase that you see in the fiscal year 23 base is attributable to cost of living adjustments that take an effect in fiscal year 23 that's defined within the revised m.o.u. agreement that the city has with the police officers association and that was approved by the city last year. next slide, please. in this graph, we show the different sources of funding. as shown, we're mostly dependent on general fund sources. next slide, please. here, we see the different uses of funding. as shown, personnel costs represent the vast majority of expenditures. next slide, please. we've shown this chart in the past, and it includes the total sworn and civilian budgeted

positioned. next slide, please. this chart provides a breakdown of four positions by group. attrition numbers reduce the total number of budget positions, and it's not tied to any specific class. and as important note it for the fiscal year # 2 base budget, it already includes a reduction of 55 positions. next slide, please. in this chart, we provide a similar breakdown for civilian positions by group. next slide, please. in this chart, we're providing a comparison of overtime actuals to our budget. the overtime budget was reduced by $8 million in fiscal year 21, and we're facing an additional $4.6 million reduction for fiscal year 22. with the $7.8 million overtime budget for fiscal year 22, the amount of reduction is significant, and we're going to do everything we can to help

manage the overtime budget that we've been provided, but we do have to acknowledge that the reductions will have an impact on the services that we're able to provide. next slide, please. here, we provide a historical view of our vehicle replacement. we didn't receive any funding for vehicle replacement in fiscal year 2021, and we don't expect much support for vehicles in the upcoming budget cycle. next slide, please. the mayor's budget reduction request for this department is to reduce general fund support by $37 million, plus an additional $12.3 million for contingency purposes. we've already described the reductions from the fiscal year 21-fiscal year 22 budget cycle, and that totals $17 million. the $37 million reduction is on top of that and results in a

great impact to the department. next slide, please. the vast majority of our budget is personnel, approximately 85%. the amount of services set in other departments is set, and we don't have much say in changing those figures. the rest of the figures are necessary and result in keeping the department operational. in a comparison of agencies of similar size, our department ranks near the bottom for budgetary support of nonpersonnel categories. and with that, the $37 million reduction target, what this chart shows is it's going to greatly impact personnel. next slide, please. the $37 million reduction target will equate to over 200 officers or 250 civilian

positions or a variation of those two. the 12.3 contingency target would equate to an additional 67 officers or 83 civilian positions. next slide, please. much of the support that we have for racial equity and inclusion is tied to our personnel. our goal is to have a representation of the community that we serve. we've made significant changes to our policies and recruitment strategies, and we've made changes such as adopting a continuous testing exam process, changes to the requirement to the physical assessment test, expanding the outreach engagement events that focus on people of color and female candidates, increasing the resources to our staffing and deployment unit, and we've recently committed our racial equity and inclusion action plan to the office of racial equity.

we've seen the positive effects of these investments over the past four years, and what we see is that 70% of the academy recruits that have been coming in have been people of color, and these recommendations have been set forth by the commission of recommended reform. all these recruits have been participating in these changes. if layoffs are implemented based on civil service rules, separation, 70% of that group will be comprised of people of color, and those reductions would have a great impact on our diversity, it would have a

great impact on the services we provide, and it would have a great impact on our responsiveness. it would be a set back on the progress that we've been able to make over the past couple of years. next slide, please. next steps and key dates. we do expect to have a follow up to this budget presentation. our department budget submission is due february 22. in march and april, we will submit an estimate request to the mayor's budget office, and the remaining key dates are shown within this slide. next slide, and that is the end of our slide presentation. if there are any questions from the commissioners, i would be happy to try and answer them. >> president cohen: all right. colleagues. all right. commissioner hamasaki? >> commissioner hamasaki: elias was first.

>> president cohen: okay. i can't see her name, but that's fine. commissioner elias? >> commissioner hamasaki: c.e. is cindy elias. >> president cohen: thank you. what would we do without john, right? thank you. >> vice president elias: thank you. first off, i would like to thank commissioner brookter and president cohen for really taking the time to meet on the budget and incorporating our questions and erin cans. it's refreshing to see that, so thank you. i know it's probably very time-consuming. there were just a couple of questions i had. i know you [inaudible].

>> [inaudible] our budget for litigation purposes, but for any type of litigation expenses, it would be part of the overall city's operating expenses. >> vice president elias: i guess i'm not understanding. when you say 1.6 budget, and then, it was removed, was that -- >> so the present budget that we have no longer has those items. there's no budget allocation for litigation expenses for department or officer-type lawsuits. >> vice president elias: i guess the question is why was it removed? who removed it?

i don't understand that. >> so i'm going to chime in here. the mayor shifted those budgets over to the city attorney in order to reflect who better controls that budget, so the city attorney has always only been -- has always only controlled that portion of the budget. only they have access to it, so only they have access to it. it made sense to align those funds over to the city important, and also, just to reflect -- and just allows the [inaudible]. >> so we had 1.6 in our budget, and i believe they did spend all of it, and patrick would

know better, but we don't know if there's additional budget elsewhere in the city managed by the controller's office to settle litigation. >> vice president elias: so if we would like to know the total amount being paid out for these lawsuits by the department -- if it's no longer in our budget, that doesn't matter. i think we still need to know what that total number is, and then, my second question is where does that money come from? where does it come from when we're paying these people that are suing the department? >> yeah, the city has a litigation reserve is my understanding, but yeah, i'll follow up on that. [inaudible]. >> president cohen: tax payer dollars. >> vice president elias: right. so if you could get us that number, i think that's something i still would like to see about how much the city is paying in these lawsuits.

it's very important because it is important when we look at training and discipline and all of these acts that could affect that number, so i think having a definite number is important. >> we'd have to reach out to the city attorney for that, but we can follow up with that. >> vice president elias, could you specify what type of litigation numbers you're looking for because the city has a number of cases that it handles on behalf of sfpd. are we talking a service agree

with the real estate to provide funding for the rent and leases, we have another agreement with central shops to help maintain our vehicles and to provide fuel. we have another service agreement with d.h.r. and workers' compensation.

they're really agreements that we have with city departments to provide services on behalf of the police department. >> vice president elias: thank you. and then, the other question i had -- one other thing, i'm so sorry, miss cabrera, i'm looking at the 1993 litigation, as well as the fourth amendment stuff, but if we can get an itemization of those lawsuits as well as the fourth amendment lawsuits, that would be helpful. >> absolutely. i'll reach out to you, and you can let me know if that suffices. >> vice president elias: thank you. my final question was on page 20, the gender breakdown of the department, and the number of female officers, am i

correct -- i want to make sure that my math is right, so c.j. and patrick, you can -- is this 60 -- am i correct, that 16% are women, in the department? >> so this graph represents -- based on civil service rules, based on the policies for separation, this -- this graph represents the members who will be at risk if the 100% of the layoffs were -- were applied to sworn positions. >> vice president elias: oh, okay. >> so it's not the portrayal of the total demographics of all of our sworn members, it's the subset. >> vice president elias: okay, because i was nervous. instead of 16 -- if there's 16%

of women, we need to do something about this to increase the number of women on our force. so thank you for the presentation, and thank you, commissioner brookter and president cohen, for taking the time to do the work and present it to the department. appreciate it. >> president cohen: thank you. we'll work on getting that information for you, as well. colleagues, any other questions? okay. seeing none, sergeant youngblood, let's go to public comment. >> clerk: president cohen, i think commissioner hamasaki -- >> president cohen: oh, i didn't see you. go ahead, commissioner. >> commissioner hamasaki: thank you. mr. leung, did you go away? >> president cohen: no, i see him on my screen.

>> commissioner hamasaki: can you tell me, maybe i missed this -- what is the increased expenditure from 21 to 22, director mcguire, as well, whoever is the best person to answer this, based on the p.o.a., the raises from last year? are they -- yeah, that you mentioned? >> so -- oh, for the increase. so the city renegotiated the m.o.u. agreement with the police officers' association, and that defers the cost of living increases to fiscal year 23, and so on slide -- on slide 9, approximately 21 -- approximately $21 million, that increase is attributable to

those cost of living adjustments defined by that -- the m.o.u. agreement. >> commissioner hamasaki: okay. so the raises for what year increased the budget by $21 million? >> it takes in effect fiscal year 23 is when those increases would apply. >> commissioner hamasaki: okay. so those are deferred until 2023, and they come in at 6% across the board raises. is that accurate? >> i believe so. >> commissioner hamasaki: okay. and, you know, one of the bigger questions that i wanted to ask was about, you know, the discussions and the actions that have happened over the past year with transferring police response to

homelessness, behavioral health, mental health, other crisis to the mayor's office, set up a program -- other individuals from the community called in about various programs. does the department have a plan for what it's going to do -- and i understand this is a work in progress and the initial response teams that have been going out are not able to take on the bulk of the calls at this point, but does the department have a plan -- what is the department going to do when the department no longer has all of these well-being checked for older people, elderly people, the things that aren't criminal in nature? how is the department going to

adjust to all of the free time? >> so a lot of those discussions really have to be had with all of the partnering that's involved, and part of -- i think something that has to be recognized is before all those calls for service can be transferred to those other agencies, the capacity building has to be done first. because if those calls for service, if there's a gap in who's able to respond, let's say for fire department -- i forget what the name of the unit is -- but if they're unable to respond, there's the demand for the police department, and it's important that those calls don't get left

by the wayside, so a lot of those -- >> commissioner hamasaki: to not belabor the point, i guess i'm trying to ask from a budgetary capacity. this is coming from the mayor's office, and also from the board. i understand it's going to take some time to roll out, but i is -- the department should be responding to the time it's going to take to do this. we have [inaudible] i don't know how many last time. it was around like 50 officers, and i rode out with them, and they're not doing [inaudible] calls. so how are they making that transition, and has it started to be prepared for?

i think it's underlying that it's trying to allocate resources in a way that it serves our county, our city, in the best possible way. >> yeah, commissioner, i'll jump in on that. you're absolutely right, and that is an issue that we are looking at right now. but our reality is we don't have enough officers. hsoc has been cutting officers. they had over 40 at one point, and if we had to make that cut, we struggle to just keep up with our radio calls for service load, and in addition to that, there's been several calls tonight that have mentioned they'd like to see more foot beat presence, community policing, and in order to do that, we have to have enough officers. so in the best case scenario, to answer your question,

whatever personnel savings we get, when we make that transition, a lot of those officers have already been spoken for because there's a need we can't fill right now. as you'll recall from the matrix study, we are about 265 officers short from where we should be from the matrix consulting firm, according to their analysis. but i can tell you, our priority c calls, which are the lowest priorities on the scale, our response time is not where we should be, because we struggle just to get to the priority a and b calls. so really, we want to improve that serve so when somebody calls the police, they're not waiting 1.5 hours, but that takes staffing to do that. >> commissioner hamasaki: are we having a problem responding -- i assume we tracked the amount of time it takes to respond to a prior a and prior b calls, right? >> we do. >> commissioner hamasaki: i understand priority c. i spent a lot of time with the

c.a.r.t. folks when they were working on this and getting into the codes. >> yeah. >> commissioner hamasaki: it's all pretty complicated. >> so we are -- that's definite, and we hope this works, and we hope we can make this transition, and it might alleviate the city having to hire additional officers. if we have officers that now we can reassign to makeup for the shortages that we already have, so that's the first plan, is let's fill the gap that we already have with whatever savings we can get. >> commissioner hamasaki: and one last question, and the chief might be the appropriate one for this, which is -- you know, i think we raise this just about every time, that we get the complaint that the department is top heavy, and we have a lot of expenditures at the top of the department. is that something that can be changed in any way? >> well, that's one thing i was

to dispel is the consultants came in and said this department is not comparable to other departments in terms of command staff. that notion that we're top heavy, i understand where that may have come from, but it's not true. we have the appropriate manpower and size for this department. i've worked in departments that have a lot more command staff than we. we did take a look at that, and that's an issue, and i think we answered that resoundingly that this department is not that top heavy. >> commissioner hamasaki: okay. thank you. thanks, everybody. >> president cohen: okay. thank you. let's continue moving forward, seeing that there are no further names in the chat,

let's call the next line item. >> clerk: public comment. >> president cohen: public comment. >> clerk: public comment regarding line item 5, the department's budget. members of the public who wish to make public comment, please press star, three to raise your hand. all right. good evening, caller. you have two minutes. >> [inaudible] and ultimate plans to respond to wellness calls. there's one thing that is responding well and should not be cut, and that is the crisis intervention team. i've been involved as both a trainer and the civilian work

group that advises that. when it comes to a crisis call where a weapon is involved, somebody is holding a bladed weapon or a firearm, the police department c.i.t. team is still the best response. you need officers to respond to people with weapons, and this team has done really well in the last few years in handling weapons incidents without anybody getting hurt, which is why they're getting recognition for that. i hope those positions will be refilled. it's run by lieutenant mario molina, and i hope that your department will not cut this team but will continue to support it as well as support the implementation of c.a.r.t. and the s.c.r. team run out of the department of public health. this is david lewis.

>> president cohen: thank you. sergeant youngblood, is there another speaker? >> clerk: yes, president cohen. good evening, caller. you have two minutes. >> hi. good evening, commissioners. my name is kevin carroll, and i'm the president of the san francisco hotel association, and we have over 24,000 employees that work in our hotels. i'm also a resident of san francisco. i live in the sunnyside district and have for many years. i'm calling tonight regarding the safety of our employees and the residents of san francisco and the visitors that come to our city. it's incredibly important to me and to our organization, as well. i want to thank chief scott and the sfpd for delivering the reforms that are required and also working with our industry to protect our employees. many of our employees do not feel safe coming to work. our streets are becoming more

violent, and they're feeling that violence on the streets. i'm calling to ask that you, the commission and department, to continue to support street staffing levels to be in our streets and neighborhoods to really protect our residents, our employees, from acts of violence that are happening. we do hear from our employees. many of them have concerns about coming to work or making decisions not to come to work because of the safety that they are not experiencing on our streets. in addition, we'd like to ask for the additional support that the sfpd is asking to upgrade their technology and really address the current gaps that they have in their funding levels. so again, just want to ask to support protecting staff levels, especially for beat officers, and to upgrade the technology. i appreciate all of your time and service on this commission. thank you so much. >> president cohen: thank you,

mr. carroll. are there any other speakers? >> clerk: yes, president cohen. good evening, caller. you have two minutes. >> good evening, commissioners. my name is terry lewis, and i'm the complex general manager of the hilton square park 65 hotel. i'm also a resident of san francisco, and i would like to begin by thanking chief scott and the sfpd for the significant work that they've done to deliver on police reforms. we really appreciate that. above all things, the safety of my 1500 employees, the residents of san francisco, and our visitors is of the utmost importance. accordingly, i am asking this commission to protect police staffing levels and specifically programs that allow for additional beat officers on our streets and in our neighborhood. while the covid-19 pandemic has had an outsized in fact on all

of us over the past year, and hope is emerging in the form of vaccines, the impacts from our street safety has gone on. we need to get this cleaned up. as individual tourism and business travel begin returning to a semblance of new normal, we cannot forget the indispensable roll that safety will -- role that safety will play in this request. please do not forget about funding for beat officers. this will vitally improve our neighborhoods, our hotels, and our guests. thank you so much for your time. >> president cohen: thank you, caller. sergeant youngblood, next speaker. >> clerk: good evening, caller. you have two minutes. >> good evening, commissioners and police commission. my comment tonight is to say that there was a vote that

addressed police staffing and provided to the supervisors for a good reason. there have been thousands of people on the street for good reason. the answer is police don't keep us safe. budgeting more here doesn't keep us safe. we as a commission need to examine what would keep us safe and find these allocations. i agree that c.a.r.t. is a wonderful allocation. we can have someone other than armed thugs addressing these issues. i really do believe that they can't be helpfully addressed by the armed thugs. i call on the hotel staff and ask what about having people armed wandering around shooting people like mario woods is safe? it certainly doesn't feel safe to me. certainly doesn't feel safe to

have one of the higher expenditures on policing per capita in the world. doesn't feel safe to me. doesn't feel safe to me to have a huge number of people getting shot by the police every year. unheard of in any other first world country. doesn't feel safe to me. a budget is a statement of our values, and our system is broken fundamentally. we should look at this budget and figure out how we can spend money on things that aren't so controversial. armed people wandering our streets, clearly going to be controversial. the amount of violence that sfpd is doing to protesters is -- for supporting white nationalists, for shooting

people -- >> clerk: good evening, caller. you have two minutes. >> good evening, commissioners. this is starchild, chair of the libertarian party. i think it's outrageous when police officers are sued successfully because they committed offenses in violation of the constitution and department policy, etc., that taxpayers have to pay for this, and i think there's an easy way to fix it, which is to require police officers to buy their own legal liability insurance. therefore, if an officer committed an abuse and the city was sued as a result and there's a payment, then there are premiums would go up because their insurance would have to cover the costs instead of the tax payers covering that cost. i also wanted to address the caller about proposition e,

which 70 or 80% of san franciscans voted to remove the minimum number of police officers required to be on staff, and to clearly, the public wants less police. we want better priorities, though. oregon -- the state of oregon just voted to decriminalize all drugs. ending criminalization of drugs will dramatically decrease violence. police are directed not to enforce victimless drug crimes, victimless prostitution crimes. i'd like to see the amount of money that they're spending. as of a couple of years ago, there was sting operations set up to try to entrap people for prostitution. there is no community consensus that prostitution should even be criminalized. in 2008, 42% of voters voteden inventorily to decriminal jiegs -- voters voted entirely

to decriminalize prostitution in san francisco -- >> clerk: good evening, caller. you have two minutes. >> hi. my name's tony rome, and i'm a hotel manager, but i'm also a third generation resident, and while i had a canned response that i wanted to put out there, listening to the previous callers, i want to talk a bit more from my heart. i know we're well below the amount of law enforcement officers listed in our charter, and we talk about cutting a budget, that makes no sense to me. when we talk about police bias, we should invest in training and invest in the community. i don't know how many of the last two previous callers have walked through union square, have seen the vacancy rates,

seen the crime. i live in the parkside. our car window has been broken into twice. i've been chased down the street on powell street at work by a drug addict. this city is really out of control. we need to support our police, we need to give chief scott all the resources he possibly has and make our residents safe. if we don't do that, we don't have the tax dollars coming in, our businesses keep leaving. we see yelp leave today, we see oracle leaving the city. if we don't start supporting our businesses and making our residents safe, our city keeps going down a deeper hole, and it is just extremely sad, as someone who's been here for 40 years. thank you so much.

>> good evening, commissioners. my name is stephen rude, and i'm the manager for the hotel zoe in san francisco. -- in fisherman's wharf. i am a resident of san francisco. the safety of our residents and san francisco is incredibly important to me, and i'd like to thank chief scott and the sfpd for the work that they've been doing for delivering the police requirements of them. unfortunately, many of my residents, employees, and hotel guests don't feel safe on the streets, and i'm asking you to protect policing levels, specifically the programming that allows additional beat officers on our streets and in our businesses.

several of my employees have been assaulted on the way to work, and the most well known, my former night auditor being beaten on fisherman's wharf. still unsolved, and still undergoing therapy as of this moment. please support the sfpds request to protect staffing levels for beat officers, and upgrade technology. thank you for your time. i appreciate it. >> clerk: good evening, caller. you have two minutes. >> so my name is francisco decosta, and i've been listening to what you commissioners have been deliberating, and the majority of the callers have told you that the quality of life issues

in san francisco have been compromised, so stop, you know, beating around the bush. some of the things that you're discussing and waste our time can be done offline. at ground zero, things are pathetic, whether you like it or not, and some of you should accompany the police in their cars and go around and see what's really happening, because you all seem to be living on another planet. you are not living in san francisco. and you way y'all talk, some of you y'all yawning, not paying

attention, please take the police commission's job seriously. you don't like when somebody writes about y'all, but really? y'all are pathetic. do you know what the hotel industry said? if that goes on, no visitors will come to san francisco. you all know that, but you don't know that because y'all don't know how to do a needs assessment. yawning, talking around and beating around the bush. stop that nonsense. >> clerk: that is the end of public comment. >> president cohen: thank you very much.

sergeant youngblood, let's continue with the agenda, calling the next item. >> clerk: line item 7, public comment on all matters pertaining to item 9 below, closed session, including public comment on item 8, vote whether to vote item 9 in closed session. at this time, the public is welcome to make public comment on item 8, vote on whether to hold item 9 in closed session. press star, three now. good evening, caller. you have two minutes. >> i find it disturbing the quantity of private and closed conversations about the management of our city's police forces and their abuse of locality. now whether that is the p.o.a. contract that was so obvious what was being discussed behind closed doors or this conversation tonight, again,

the terms of our city's continues abuse of our colored neighbors and our city's continued abuse of everybody, to be quite frank, is to be discussed in quiet. now what we've seen from the federal government's use of the fisa on down is the worst abuse of having the conversations on down. so whether it is the practice of the government to have the conversations quietly, it is not in the interest of people. given the implementation of a brutal police force, it is my opinion that all of the administration surrounding that should be discussed in an open and honest way so that feedback can be correctly delivered and we can all be having the same conversation. thank you.

>> clerk: good evening, caller. you have two minutes. >> thank you. this is starchild, chair of the libertarian party of san francisco. i want to remind commissioners of the woman who called from the public defender's office earlier this evening and spoke in public comment and raised the issue that policies regarding closed session have not been reevaluated since the passage of ab-1421, which makes clear that a lot of the things being discussed in secret probably don't legally need to be discussed in secret, and before going into this particular public session, i would urge one of the commissioners to raise this point, and if it's not addressed, if it hasn't been addressed, then to vote against going into secret meeting, to not go into secret meeting until this issue has been resolved.

i think the previous caller makes an excellent point, that these things can be discussed about police abuse, and this allocation of police resources needs to be addressed in public. i think the last comment from the hotel personnel is we need police committed to fighting aggressive and violent crimes, not people who are protesting, not people who are committing prostitution or selling drugs or other victimless crimes, but actual assaults, car break-ins, garage break-ins. that's what the public wants, and we're not getting that from the police department. and just throwing more money at the department or reducing staff, the police officers association, a very powerful union, people behind closed doors negotiate for their

members. people scratch each other's backs between the police commission and the union, and so we want more accountability. thank you. >> clerk: president cohen, that is the end of public comment. >> president cohen: all right. thank you. sergeant youngblood, let's continue moving forward. next line site. >> clerk: line item 8, vote on whether to hold item 9 in closed session, san francisco administrative code section 67.10, action. >> vice president elias: i make the motion. >> commissioner brookter: second. >> president cohen: okay. we have a motion by vice president elias,

>> clerk: public comment for line item 10. for members of the public who wish to provide public comment on-line item 10, press star, three now, and there is no public comment, commissioner. >> president cohen: oh, okay. >> clerk: line item 11, adjournment. action item. >> president cohen: oh, that's a good idea. any objections? we're adjourned, ladies and gentlemen. good night.

>> good morning, welcome. i'm michael lambert, your city librarian. on behalf of the library commission, we're so delighted that you could join us today for this important announcement. i would like to acknowledge our library commissioners that are present, teresa, tanya, pete, john, and dr. lopez. thank you all for being here. madam mayor, welcome. we are so honored that you could participate in this event. we appreciate your leadership of

our city and we are super excited about your announcement today. with that, i will invite you to get us started. maybe i was premature on that. oh, there she is. [laughter] >> did we start already? [laughter] >> i was just welcoming you and thanking you for honoring us with your presence and your leadership. we're super excited about your announcement today. with that, i invite you to get us started. >> all right thank you michael. i appreciate that. good morning everyone. i'm really excited to share some incredible news. as you may know, before i was mayor and even before i was on the board of supervisors, i served as the executive director

in the western edition. i saw how deeply important arts are and in creating a vibrant and diverse community. believe it or not, i used to sing in a choir, dance, and perform, but i was not the best at it. however, the arts connects us to one another. it bridges the gap in our culture by helping us understand each other. they are how we express ourselves during our brightest and happiest moments, and sometimes some of our darkest ones. for people of all ages, arts and culture can help us navigate a world that can be confusing and strange. they can also provide opportunity not only for jobs and income, but for people who are in under served communities to find their voices and to make sure they are heard. that includes the role of our city's poet laureate. since lauren was made our first

poet laureate in 1998, this prestigious honor has showcased san francisco's finest poets from many diverse backgrounds. their work has reminded us how it means to be a san franciscan, it reminus -- reminds us of our diversity and calls attention to our most pressing issues and inspires us to create a more equitable and just society. it inspires young people to search for their voice in a way that may not have -- that they may not have thought was possible before. it opens doors of opportunities for them to pursue their dreams. that is why i'm so excited today to announce our eighth poet laureate. before we get to the big announcement, i would like to thank and recognize our outgoing

poet laureate kim shuck for her imcredible service for our city. she represented our city beautifully through her work and has given her time over the past few years to serve our community. whether teaching at the local colleges, universiies and public schools or helping the library launch their first ever american indian initiative, kim on behalf of the city and county of san francisco, thank you for your service and we would be honored if you close out your tenure with one last reading as poet laureate. >> thank you mayor breed. there we are. i do have a poem. it's called san francisco has a new poet laureate. pick any bench, stoop, any fourth star in this city or over it. sit quietly, you'll hear the

water of time. keys rattling, heart and innovation, war and colonization that only grows on the south side of that mountain right there. you'll hear the poetry of place, popsicle sticks scratching on the curb, jump rope songs, chess moves and love curses. every night in some back room, the future and past in autopsied words, gorilla words shouted at unsuspecting somewhere in north beach. the skyline mutters poems that have been and poems to come. if you stand at the cafe's door too long, you will hear what they choose to call in this moment a poem. old wives tales along valencia, you can hear the purring of fog as they pass through, the

paintings comment quietly on every new show and if your hearing is very good, ambrose's dictionary runs on a certain bar on a certain bar stool and the faint laughter from one of sam's jokes will still grind breath. victims in more languages that you can see, and the unbound seat 3. there are songs of varying and unbaring to found all over the richmond, every bench, every head stone under the sand. paula talks stories at state, at tables and cafes that turned to bars. john's words rattled justice and the voices of those taken in captain jack's war has made them into their own songs too. there is an eighth poet laureat of san francisco and with the title comes more wealth and

words than all the great libraries that have ever been. i would like to add that you will hear a lot about honor and responsibility. there are a couple of tricky things. one of them is that people will steal your pens. i had some pens printed up. i'm not going to say what they say and i don't think they will prevent your pens from being stolen, but they will raise the value of their resale on ebay. i'm going to share with you just very briefly what dr. jose said to me a couple of days after i was named the seventh poet laureate. he said that everything you have done up until this point got you here and none of that will matter. what matters now is what comes next. have a great time and you do know where my kitchen table is when you want to hide. take care. >> thank you so much kim for that amazing poem.

thank you for representing san francisco so well over the past few years. we look forward to seeing what comes next for you. now, it is my great honor to announce our eighth poet laureat. i had the privilege of knowing this individual for many years as he worked and volunteered at the african american art and culture complex. he has mentored men young men and women that came through our doors and taught them how to find their own vote and make themselves heard. his poems are just one of the many ways he fights for racial justice, equity, and human rights. he has shown our community what it means to be a successful poet, as a black man from san francisco. we are incredibly proud of the work he has done so far, especially his commitment to inspiring black men and boys and providing support for young people in our community. he will continue the work that

our ancestors did as they fought for their own voices to be heard. i am beyond excited to see what he accomplishes as the san francisco's eighth poet laureate. i am happy to present tongo martin, the eighth poet laureate. >> thank you madam mayor for this incredible, incredible honor. i prepared some words that i hope i make it through. i'm already filled with tears. >> i'm going to let you have the floor, it's so great to have you. thank you for all the magic you created over the years. as i said earlier, when we work

together at the complex, there were a lot of challenges, especially with our boys and we had unfortunately a lot of violence in the community and just seeing you as this literary figure and inspiring these young people to look at other ways besides, you know, being out in the streets and doing stuff that was happening then, focusing on how poetry, how music is poetry, and how they can really shift their voices to tell their own stories. you brought that to their lives and i know they continue to carry it with them today. so, you have been an inspiration for so many years, directed at so many generations of people. i'm so grateful that you accepted this honor so now i want to turn the floor over to you so that people can know who you are. if they don't know, now they know. we're looking forward to the work that we know you're going

to do to make san francisco proud. so the floor is yours tongo. >> thank you. thank you very much. incredibly humbled and honored. also, deep appreciation to the selection committee. i want to send love to my mother and brother as i am only an extension of their love, imagination, and revolutionary commitment, love to my two powerful sisters and the whirlwind that has nothing on us, love to my family above mud and lava, love to my father and the rest of the village that is not here in the physical form. i would also like to thank kim

shuck for being a leader of poets and beautiful force of the people. a poet of any station is secondary to the people. a poet of any use, that belongs to the energy and consciousness of the people, one of arts most important incarnation is that expression of mass resistance but really what art teaches us with its dominantable energy, the indominantable energy of an idea is evident that it is oppressors themselves who are in the position of resistance. it's bigger than any imperialistic, cognitively

reflected in any generation. the power is ours and it is oppressors who are resisting us, resisting humanity, resisting us pretty well. it's resisting our right to determine our reality, resisting a coming epoch of liberation. mass participation in art is what is always created in san francisco, futurism. san francisco has legend too fearless for me to count myself as one of them. i am from this legendary collection of thousands and thousands of participants, revolutionary history and culture. i'm proud to be one of the anonymous thousands in san francisco who have road these buses all night, who has been raised in marcus's bookstore,

who wants justice for mario woods and alex, who wants freedom. what the people taught me is that unity is the only thing and taught me that individualism, as it is practiced and codified, romanticized in this society is not really about your adventure through life but at its core, unfortunately, individualism is about practicing the selective humanization. other people are only human beings when it suits individual interest. civilism of sorts, that is deeply connected to slavery, both from what the society evolved from and process that addicts you to and power struggle that alienates ourselves, and at no point do we

find the dehumanization of other people, the deanimation of people acceptable, are let alone necessary for an individual journey. so as much as i would love to assign the rest of my days to an individual invention, that time is over. history is heightening, showing us more and more everyday that we're part of people, a people beyond systemic description, and we need the entire pallet of protecting human rights and nurture human curiosity. the madness we see today shouldn't be surprising. these apartheid nativity scenes come home to roast and a capitalism in crisis, what is mixed in with the parole papers and the environmental racism and

program deliverables and passivism. we're in a time of epochal shift where this is opening its arms if we don't open the historical process more critically. where do we go from here? what is our revolutionary practice or more conveniently, it begins with cultural work. it transforms the way that we relate to each other, transforms the way we relate to the earth, to a way that is conducive to liberation. a poet belongs to the energy and consciousness of the people, respecting their spirit. my only aim as poet laureate is to join with that energy, join

with that consciousness in order to create vehicles of unity. events, workshops, readings, publications, these are all just vehicles of unity. i will never tire in building as many as the city can handle. so, meet me at the library. [laughter] >> if you can't make it, i will for sure meet you wherever you are. let me now say rest in power to cure junior and diane, and i will conclude with this poem titled faithless. a tour guide, through the robbery, he also is.

cigarette stand, look at what i did. ransom water and box spring gold, this decade is only for accent grooming, i guess. ransom water and box spring gold to corner store, war gangs, all these rummage junk. you know, the start of mass destruction begins and ends in restaurant bathrooms as some people use and other people clean. are you telling me there is a rag in the sky waiting for you? yes. we should have fit in. warehouse jobs are for communists and now the whistling is less playful and if it is not a city, it is a prison. it has a prison. it's a prison, not a city. when a courtyard talks on behalf of the military issue, all walk takes place outside the body. a medieval painting to your right, none of this makes an

impression. you have five minutes to learn. when a man goes sideways barb wire becomes the roof. did you know they killed the world for the sake of giving everyone the same back story? watching indiana, fight yourself into the sky, oh penny for when. it goes up and over your headache, marking all aspirations, the first newspaper i ever read and the storefront, they left us down where the holy spirit favors the bathroom. for those in the situation offer 100 ways to remain a loser. watching those clock, what are we talking about again? the narrater at the graveyard, 10 minute flat. the funeral only took 10 minutes. you're going to pin the 90s on me, all 30 years of them? why should i know the difference between sleeping and the pyramid of corner stores on our head. we die right away.

that building wants to jump off other buildings, those are down tone decisions. what evaporated on earth that we can be sent back down? thank you all again, much love. i want to give the whole roll call right now but that's too many. much love to all my family and thank you again madam mayor. thank you. san francisco for better for worse, which you are raised, you know? >> thank you so much tongo. just so you know, the chat is blowing up. there is so much love and excitement for what you will bring to san francisco and i just want to thank you so much. thank you for the incredible poem and your inspiration and

just everything that you continue to do. i look forward to what you will accomplish as our city's poet laureate. i can't wait. it's going to be exciting, especially when we open up. when you talk about meet me at the library, it's like that's your slogan now. [laughter] >> so we're going to take it to another level. that's your slogan, meet me at the library. hitting all the libraries all over san francisco. >> that's right. >> just inviting the people in and really bringing it back to some of the basics. you know, with the way technology is nowadays, sometimes we get away from just picking up a book or picking out a book or looking through an index card. i guess we don't look through index cards to find books anymore. sitting there and having discussions, i'm looking forward to what you're going to bring and really excited about that. i really want to thank the people that nominated you.

you know, there was a really compelling, you know, letter of support that you know, went into all the details about your work. you have a lot of fans out there. i want to thank the selection committee, the people who served and had to go through all of those applications because i got to tell you, it was a hard decision and i was so excited that so many people in san francisco, you know, really embraced and support poets in such an incredible way. there are so many wonderful nominees. i'm looking forward to you connecting with all of them as well and really the outgoing poet laureate kim shuck, thank you for that poem and your commitment to san francisco and the role you have played over the years. thank you to san francisco public library and the commissioners who are joining us here today and our librarian, michael lambert. so many amazing people and i think that based on your

comments today, meet me at the library, that's going to be a new part of the campaign to really bring people together, to inspire and to really you know, set things off on a whole other level. thank you tongo for your work and commitment. we're so honored that you will be san francisco's eighth poet laureate and if there is anything left to say, you're welcome to have the floor. if not, we can turn it back over to michael lambert. >> i just want to say much love and appreciation. >> great. >> thank you so much madam mayor. my heart is full, #meetmeatthelibrary. congratulations tongoo. i want to thank all of you for joining us this morning. our public affairs office is happy to help facilitate any interviews with our new poet lawyer -- laureate, thank you

all and have a great day. [♪♪♪] [♪♪♪] >> mayor london breed: good afternoon, i'm san francisco mayor london breed. and thank you so much for joining us here today to provide some good news for a change as it relates to just the rough

year that we've been having as a result of this global pandemic. as of today in san francisco, our case rate is at 261 cases per day, and that's down from a high of 372 cases per day. our hospitalizations are at 194, and, sadly, 293 people in our city have lost their lives due to covid. our infection rate is below 1. we're at .95, and our i.c.u. capacity is stable at about 26%. the good news is that we are in a better place than we've been in a long time. and today we got some even better news from our governor who announced the lifting of the stay-at-home order in the bay area. and in the state of california -- but more

importantly in the bay area, because that pertains to us -- we anticipate that tomorrow we will be told that we will be in the purple tier, which provides us an opportunity to do so much more than we have been doing. the fact is that we got here because after the thanksgiving day holiday, we saw the numbers begin to creep up aggressively. and we shut down early because we were very concerned as to what this would do to our i.c.u. capacity in the city. if we had continued along the pace that we were going and did absolutely nothing, at this time the end of january we would be out of i.c.u. beds. and because we acted quickly, and because i followed the health care orders that were provided by the department of public health, we did so early, even before the state required us to do so. because we did that in san francisco, we are in a better

place. but we're still in the midst of this pandemic. we still have a responsibility. yes, this is good news that we are finally seeing a difference with our numbers. but there's still work to be done. it still means that we have to wear masks and we have to socially distance ourselves from one another. you have to just use common sense and continue to just accept that we are going to be living with this for some time, even as we see the numbers decline, even as we reopen, and even as we start to administer even more of the vaccine than we already have. so what does this mean? what does this mean in terms of our reopening? well, as i said, it's good news. so outdoor dining can resume. personal services can resume as long as you can wear a mask. so you can get your hair done, you can get your nails done. a number of things with personal

services, as long as you're able to wear a mask. this will start on thursday. outdoor museums and zoos -- outdoor entertainment, like skate parks and mini-golf, indoor fitness limited to one-on-one. indoor funerals for up to 12 people. so these are things that were not happening before, and they will be in effect as of this thursday again, thanks to all of the hard work that we have all been doing to stay safe. we'll also see capacity increases in our grocery stores and in retail. and in outdoor fitness and outdoor religious and political events. outdoor recreation and some low contact youth sports can continue as well. and golf and tennis with people outside of your household, and small gatherings of up to three people, no more than three households per group, and what we're saying, again, because we

remember not this past weekend but the weekend before, we saw so many people at the delores park and at alamo square park and at parks across san francisco. and we saw them gathered with large groups. there were, of course, a lot of people who were just following the rules and keeping their distance. but we did have some real challenges. today is a beautiful day. yes, it's cold outside, but the sun is out. just keep in mind that this is just not an open door for us to all of a sudden to let our hair down and to do whatever we want to do. let's keep doing what we're doing. let's keep being smart about wearing our masks and who we interact with. let's limit the number of people that we interact with so that we can make sure that we don't see another surge and see this virus continue to get out of control. today is, of course, a day of celebration but it's also a day to just remind ourselves of the importance of how much more work we have to do to get to a better

place. now i want to talk a little bit about the vaccine. we in the city have developed a capacity to ramp up to up to 10,000 doses a day. now, of course, we want to do more than 10,000 doses a day if we have the vaccine. this past friday, i was at city college, where they first started to administer the doses there and they've been able to administer over 1,600 doses so far and that site alone has the capacity to deliver up to 3,000 doses per day. we also have a site that we're opening up at musconi and in community where there's large sites in partnership with our private health care providers so that we can get to people sooner rather than later. our goal is to also to make sure that we're doing pop-up sites in neighborhoods and communities that have been most impacted by the virus. we want to meet people where they are. we want them to feel comfortable

when they get the vaccine. so as soon as we get the number of doses that we need to start to administer, we will do just that. i will say that there's been a lot of misinformation, there's been a lot of criticism that has surfaced over the course of the rollout of delivering the vaccine to people. and i just want to take a moment to talk a little bit about what we've been doing here in san francisco. in fact, when we first found out about what we would need to administer the vaccine, including the freezers and all of the other technical stuff, we learned that information back in august. and we instantly prepared for that because we knew that in a place like san francisco, with the number of people that we have both living and working here, that we would need to make sure that we had the capacity so that when the vaccine was delivered to us that we had the refrigeration necessary to

basically to keep those vaccines ready to go for people before they were distributed. the work that went into the infrastructure, working with our private health care providers, and just understanding what needed to be done in terms of traffic coordination, in terms of distribution, in terms of checking information, it is a process. in fact, when i was at the site at city college this past friday, one of the conversations that i had with a doctor is that these vaccines, they have to stay refrigerated at least until the hour before they're actually used. so just imagine the coordination that goes into that alone. this is a complicated process. and i want to be clear -- that had we waited to start more recently, like some people had said that we did, we wouldn't be where we are now -- opening up large sites. opening up and setting up pop-up sites and distributing the vaccine at some of our community

clinics where many of our elderly live and are able to walk to. we wouldn't be in this position had we waited to start. we started last year in the summer as information came, and we adjusted. and we stepped up to the challenge to meet the need. in fact, the department of public health specifically based on the number of vaccines that we have received, we've already have distributed over two-thirds of those vaccines to individuals and the remaining batch that we have are mostly for people for their second dose and are scheduled to be given to others for their first. those vaccines are coming in the door and they're going out the door as quickly as we can make that possible. so i want to be clear that it is complicated, it is challenging. but this same department of public health is the department of public health that had advised me as the mayor in the beginning of this pandemic that

we had to shut this city down so that we could save lives. it's the same department of public health that led the efforts during the aids crisis where san francisco was left on its own. it's the same department of public health that i am working with to roll out the vaccine distribution. because not only do they know and understand the importance of what this means to save lives in san francisco, i understand the importance of what this means to save the lives in san francisco, to get our city reopened, and to get our economy going again. nothing is more important. i trust and support and work closely with the department of public health to make the hard decisions to get this vaccine out to the public as quickly as possible. so i want you to understand that we are in a better place, we are not where i want us to be, because we don't have sufficient

supply of vaccines to distribute to the public. but i will guarantee you that as soon as we get them, they will be out on the streets in someone's arm so that we can get things rolling again. and i appreciate the patience and the understanding of so many san franciscans as we go through this process. keep in mind san francisco has done an amazing job through this pandemic. i know that we're tired of being indoors. i know that we're tired of the schools being closed and not being able to connect with our friends and family. i'm tired of this too. i understand how important it is to get back to our lives. i understand that more than anyone, because i feel the responsibility, the weight of this entire city, and every single resident. i feel that on my shoulders every single day. but i'm asking for more patience and understanding and trust that

we will continue to do everything that we can to get these vaccines out the door. in fact, tomorrow i'll be having a conversation at 1:15 online with dr. susan philip and dr. naveena baba, who are two incredible women who have helped to lead this effort from the beginning so that we can ask questions about some of the concerns that i've been seeing from people who are wondering, well, why is this happening and that's not happening. why is this going on and that not going on. well, tomorrow your questions about the vaccine will be answered. and i hope that it will instill just really an understanding and also a clear guide for what we are doing here in san francisco and what we need to continue to do to get the vaccines out as quickly as possible. and i am excited today. i'm excited today because the

vaccine rollout -- i'm excited today because many of our small businesses will begin to open. i'm excited because i know that people in san francisco, although this is a great day, they realize the importance of still following safety guidelines around covid and understanding that the virus is still out there and that we still have more work to do. but today still is a day of celebration. and i'm, again, grateful for all of you for everything that you've done to get us to this point. now, the last thing they want to touch upon is we have a new president. i love saying that -- we have a new president, we have a new vice president. and one of the first announcements that the president made last week is the fact that our shelter-in-place hotels that have been provided to many of our homeless people who are a part of this vulnerable

population, that they would not only just reimburse the 75% that they agreed to reimburse at the beginning of this pandemic, but this president has committed fema to reimbursing us at 100%. what that does for our budget is incredible. we're still facing a significant deficit, we still have a lot of financial challenges, but what this means is that we have a level of certainty. no, this is not going to be forever, but it will be long enough that as we start to transition some of the people that we have in hotels in san francisco into permanent housing situations we can now backfill those hotel rooms with people who fit the guidelines under the fema requirements for reimbursement. that is really great news. and i'm excited to continue to work towards trying to get our most vulnerable off the streets. but i want to be clear about

something. if you were not on our list to receive support and care in our homeless system as of april last year, and you basically came to san francisco thinking that there's an opportunity for you to get help in some capacity, unfortunately, we will not be able to help you. and the people that we'll be able to serve are people who were part of our system of care before april of 2020. they're already on the list, they're already waiting. they're sleeping outside. they're sleeping in tents. and we are not going to jump the line for someone who just decided to come to san francisco yesterday. there are people who are waiting and they will be prioritized and they are the only people that we can help at this time. so i want to make that clear that that is what is going to happen moving forward, with the good news of receiving reimbursement 100% from fema. so i want to thank each and

every one of you again. today is a good day. today is not a day to go outside and to throw up your mask in the air and to celebrate in that way. you can go out and celebrate and throw your hands in the air and just keep your mask on. make sure that you're continuing to comply with this health order and doing everything that you can. when you go to restaurants, just be mindful. when you visit friends or family, just follow the health orders. we're not out of this partner p, but we're better today than we have been in a very long time. it gives me hope that we are finally getting to a better place -- the place that we continue to talk about. the place where we say that we're the light at the end of the tunnel. well, we're seeing a crack of that light come through bright. and that's because of your work and your efforts and everything that you've done. so, thank you. and the better our numbers get, the more we will be able to

open, the more that we will be able to get back to a place where we can see one another in person again. thank you again. and now i'm happy to open it up to questions. >> thank you, mayor breed, for your remarks. before we begin, the question and the answer portion, we're going to take a moment to allow reporters to submit any final questions they may have on webex. thank you, mayor breed. at this time we'll start with dr. colfax. >> mayor london breed: okay. thank you again. dr. colfax, i'll let you do the white gown.

>> good afternoon. >> thank you for your patience. dr. colfax, your first question comes from various media outlets. why are people from out of the county getting vaccinated at city college? >> thank you so much for the

question. i think that city college has been a great partnership with ucsff, and if we had enough vaccine we could get you 3,000 vaccines there a day easily right now. but i think that key issues to understand right now is that for the vaccine, the focus has been eligibility for vaccine has been for health care providers and for people 65 and over. many health care providers work in san francisco, but outside of san francisco. so many of the health care providers will be vaccinated here because it's a place of work. similarly, people who are 65 and over who are eligible for the vaccine, they may live in oakland but they may have their health care provider here in san francisco. so they would be getting vaccinated here. vice versa, if you live in san francisco but you have a health care provider in oakland, you could go to oakland to get vaccinated. the issue is that the bay area is porous and we're all interconnected and we need to get vaccines into arms as

quickly as possible. >> thank you, dr. colfax. your next question comes from various media outlets. why are we reopening with new virus variants circulating? how will the city deal with new variants and avoid shutdowns? >> so we are opening at a high level of case diagnosis. we're at about 30 per 100,000 right now, which as the mayor mentioned, is substantially lower than we were just a few weeks ago. so this is very good news. we know that the rate of the virus spread in the city is slowing right now, which is also good news. we will continue to monitor the rate of spread and hopefully that will continue to go down. with regard to the variants, we are concerned about that. but there's no reason to panic. we know that wearing masks, social distancing, and using the good hygiene practices, we believe that it's also effective

with regard to reducing the variant's spread. so right now, even with this relatively high rate of cases, because things are moving in the right direction, because our hospital capacity -- even through this third surge -- remained relatively good in san francisco, compared to other jurisdictions, and the fact that san franciscans had now beaten back three surges -- look, we have been in this for nearly a year right now. it's time for to us take this approach of gradually reopening and we're reopening, and let's see where we are and do the right thing so that we could even get to that next step and open up more. >> thank you, dr. colfax. your next question comes from heather knight, san francisco "chronicle." how many vaccine doses has san francisco received and how many has it given to people? >> so right now, heather, we have received as a city 127,000

vaccines. that's across the whole city. that's across the health care systems, across the city. and we've administered as a city, we estimate just over 59,000 vaccines have been administered. at the health department, we've received 34,500 vaccines to date. and we've vaccinated more than 23,000 people. now in those numbers i want to stress a couple of things -- we are ready to go with mass vaccine sites right now. we need to get to 10,000 vaccines a day. the numbers that i gave you alst with regard to the vaccine that is remaining that those vaccines have been scheduled for second doses or appointments that have been made for first doses for most part. and with the d.p.h. supply, even with the 10,000, our total that we'll get this week, we will be

scheduled to basically to exhaust our vaccine supply by as early as wednesday or thursday. we need more vaccine right now so that we can get those shots into arms. >> thank you, dr. colfax. the next set of questions come from alex fererria, san francisco business times. in what ways will the restrictions in place in san francisco be on thursday differ from what the state is allowing in the purple tier counties? or, is the county reopening to the full extent of the purple tier? >> so just to be clear right nod that the counties are coming out as the shelter-in-place order, we will be told what tier we're in tomorrow. we'll look at that very carefully. and with regard to the orders, those will be -- be released accordingly. and that those will be released

on thursday at this time. >> thank you, dr. colfax. your next question comes from holly striker of kqed. what amount is the expected next shipment of vaccine in san francisco? >> so, remember, we have visibility only to the vaccine that the health department will be getting because the other health care systems in the county, the kaiser and the sutter and the dignity, they get pulled from their regional counterparts what vaccine they'll be getting. what i can tell you right now because this is what we have insay the into -- is that the health department is scheduled to get 10,575 doses this week. that number could change. and we will know that number when they tell us that that number has actually been shipped to us. but, again, that's ready to go out the door right now. we need more vaccine. >> thank you, dr. colfax. the next question comes from eve

batty theatre s.f. can we hear more about the thinking behind the decision to leave the 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. stay-at-home order in place? >> so, what we're doing right now is working to gradually to reopen the city. we're taking the initial steps in a situation where the rate of the virus is still relatively high. we want to see that number continue to go down before we release that 10:00 to 5:00 order. so let's just give us a little more time and see how those numbers do to ensure that we don't have to reverse again. nobody wants to go backwards again, so let's take the first step. we have beaten back three surges. let's prevent a fourth surge as much as possible. >> thank you. the next question comes from christian kaftan, channel 2

news. how will this work county-by-county, when the entire bay area was covered under the state's previous order? could there be surges in other counties that could impact san francisco? >> well, i think that has been really great about the local county collaboration -- actually, a year now -- is that the bay area health officers have been coordinating and working together. and for the most part the region has been well coordinated. so, again, we will see what tier the counties are assigned to by the state tomorrow. and i expect that in general that the county orders will be aligned for the most part. >> thank you, dr. colfax. your next set of questions come from dan curman. who is getting vaccinated at city college? those in the san francisco

health network? those in the ucsff health network? or anyone over 65? >> so people who are eligible for vaccine right now are health care workers and people over the age of 65. right now that site -- those patients -- are ucsff patients who by the most case meet the 65 and over criteria, and, again, once we get more vaccine we're ready to go and give up to 3,000 vaccines at that site alone. >> and a poll question, do you feel as if the feds are sending less vaccine to the bay area region compared to southern california due to the massive outbreak there? >> i'm not going to speculate on what the feds may or may not be doing. i think that the bottom line is that across the state regionally and locally we need more vaccine as soon as possible. san francisco is ready for the

vaccine. our goal is to be able to inoculate at least 10,000 people a day. as you just heard, the health department is getting just over 10,000 doses this week. so we need to get that vaccine here so that we can get it into arms as quickly as possible. >> thank you, dr. colfax. and we will now continue questions with mayor breed. >> mayor london breed: all right. >> mayor breed, your first set of question comes from nbc bay

area. what do you say to landlords who feel that they're being taken advantage of by tenants who continue to pay zero dollars in rent and intend to continue living rent-free during the eviction moratorium? >> mayor london breed: well, i appreciate the question. and, you know, san francisco since the beginning of this pandemic, through not only the rental subsidies that we had through the city and county of san francisco, that try to provide some additional rental assistance to make sure that when this is over that people are still responsible for that rent and will need to pay it. we just found out from the federal government that san francisco will be given $26 million in stimulus money to help with rental assistance. this will be significant. we know that it's not just the people who are struggling to pay their rent, but some of the small property owners and others who might be struggling because

they're not receiving that additional income. there is hope with this new $26 million and i'm excited to see what that does to help to address some of the challenges that exist. because what we don't want to happen is that we don't want -- after this pandemic is over, we don't want to see a lot of people getting evicted and we also don't want to see a situation where so many small property owners who rely on this income to help to cover the expenses of maybe their in-home support services work, or the repairs on their home, we don't want to see them in a bad situation either. so right now, great announcement, $26 million in rental subsidies. that's a start. we know that there's more to do. but i think that we're going to continue to work towards the goal of trying to make people as whole as we possibly can. >> thank you. and a follow-up question, should the future stimulus checks include a requirement that a portion of those funds go towards a person's rent? how can smaller landlords afford

to keep allowing renters to live for free? >> mayor london breed: i think that something of that nature might be somewhat difficult to manage. i know that, for example, we have the ability through the resources that we provide for rent subsidy to make direct payments which ensures that these resource goes directly to cover the rent. on a federal level, i have no control over that, but i do think that it's important for us to do everything that we can to make sure that we get direct payments into the hands of landlords, to make sure that we avoid the evictions that could occur if these rents are not paid. >> thank you, mayor breed. your next question comes from ron lynn of the "los angeles times." some restaurant owners have been very upset at the outdoor dining ban and have opposed the government orders to shut them down. do you think that san francisco's latest success vindicates your efforts to impose an outdoor dining ban and to implement stay-at-home

orders, even ahead of the state's timeline? >> mayor london breed: well, i truly believe -- yes. if -- you've gotta understand that to close down a major city like san francisco, and then also when you see the numbers surging and to have to go backwards, those are some of the hardest decisions i've ever had to make, because i know what it means -- not just for the people who are supporting these restaurants -- i know what it means for the workers and the food and all of the things that these restaurants have to do to be open in the first place. but the fact is that we had to prioritize saving lives in every decision that we made. and what we're seeing are the impacts of those decisions because our case rates, the deaths that have -- are the lowest death rates in the country of any major city in san francisco, the i.c.u. rates, i think that all of the numbers that we're seeing in san francisco demonstrate that we made the right decision and now that we are reopening outdoor

dining, we want to continue to make sure that we are being very careful. because we don't want to go backwards. >> thank you, mayor breed. your final question comes from kathleen novak of kcbs. with the extra funding from the federal government, will san francisco be able to open up more hotel rooms to people who might not qualify for fema reimbursement and cover the costs out of the city's budget? >> mayor london breed: well, we are not certain that that's going to be possible because our goal is to provide permanent housing, not temporary housing. and what these hotels and these safe sleeps sites that we opened up during this pandemic have done is provided temporary shelter for the people who, unfortunately, are homeless. and we're being reimbursed for that purpose. but our resources, the money that we have in available to assist with our homeless

population need to be used for permanent housing options. and that's where our priority will be. >> thank you, mayor breed. there are no additional questions. >> mayor london breed: thank you. >> this concludes today's press conference. thank you, mayor breed and dr. colfax for your time. (♪♪♪) >> good morning, welcome. i'm michael lambert, your city librarian. on behalf of the library commission, we're so delighted

that you could join us today for this important announcement. i would like to acknowledge our library commissioners that are present, teresa, tanya, pete, john, and dr. lopez. thank you all for being here. madam mayor, welcome. we are so honored that you could participate in this event. we appreciate your leadership of our city and we are super excited about your announcement today. with that, i will invite you to get us started. maybe i was premature on that. oh, there she is. [laughter] >> did we start already? [laughter] >> i was just welcoming you and

thanking you for honoring us with your presence and your leadership. we're super excited about your announcement today. with that, i invite you to get us started. >> all right thank you michael. i appreciate that. good morning everyone. i'm really excited to share some incredible news. as you may know, before i was mayor and even before i was on the board of supervisors, i served as the executive director in the western edition. i saw how deeply important arts are and in creating a vibrant and diverse community. believe it or not, i used to sing in a choir, dance, and perform, but i was not the best at it. however, the arts connects us to one another. it bridges the gap in our culture by helping us understand each other. they are how we express ourselves during our brightest and happiest moments, and

sometimes some of our darkest ones. for people of all ages, arts and culture can help us navigate a world that can be confusing and strange. they can also provide opportunity not only for jobs and income, but for people who are in under served communities to find their voices and to make sure they are heard. that includes the role of our city's poet laureate. since lauren was made our first poet laureate in 1998, this prestigious honor has showcased san francisco's finest poets from many diverse backgrounds. their work has reminded us how it means to be a san franciscan, it reminus -- reminds us of our diversity and calls attention to our most pressing issues and inspires us to create a more

equitable and just society. it inspires young people to search for their voice in a way that may not have -- that they may not have thought was possible before. it opens doors of opportunities for them to pursue their dreams. that is why i'm so excited today to announce our eighth poet laureate. before we get to the big announcement, i would like to thank and recognize our outgoing poet laureate kim shuck for her imcredible service for our city. she represented our city beautifully through her work and has given her time over the past few years to serve our community. whether teaching at the local colleges, universiies and public schools or helping the library launch their first ever american indian initiative, kim on behalf of the city and county of san francisco, thank you for your service and we would be

honored if you close out your tenure with one last reading as poet laureate. >> thank you mayor breed. there we are. i do have a poem. it's called san francisco has a new poet laureate. pick any bench, stoop, any fourth star in this city or over it. sit quietly, you'll hear the water of time. keys rattling, heart and innovation, war and colonization that only grows on the south side of that mountain right there. you'll hear the poetry of place, popsicle sticks scratching on the curb, jump rope songs, chess moves and love curses. every night in some back room, the future and past in autopsied

words, gorilla words shouted at unsuspecting somewhere in north beach. the skyline mutters poems that have been and poems to come. if you stand at the cafe's door too long, you will hear what they choose to call in this moment a poem. old wives tales along valencia, you can hear the purring of fog as they pass through, the paintings comment quietly on every new show and if your hearing is very good, ambrose's dictionary runs on a certain bar on a certain bar stool and the faint laughter from one of sam's jokes will still grind breath. victims in more languages that you can see, and the unbound seat 3. there are songs of varying and unbaring to found all over the

richmond, every bench, every head stone under the sand. paula talks stories at state, at tables and cafes that turned to bars. john's words rattled justice and the voices of those taken in captain jack's war has made them into their own songs too. there is an eighth poet laureat of san francisco and with the title comes more wealth and words than all the great libraries that have ever been. i would like to add that you will hear a lot about honor and responsibility. there are a couple of tricky things. one of them is that people will steal your pens. i had some pens printed up. i'm not going to say what they say and i don't think they will prevent your pens from being stolen, but they will raise the value of their resale on ebay. i'm going to share with you just very briefly what dr. jose said

to me a couple of days after i was named the seventh poet laureate. he said that everything you have done up until this point got you here and none of that will matter. what matters now is what comes next. have a great time and you do know where my kitchen table is when you want to hide. take care. >> thank you so much kim for that amazing poem. thank you for representing san francisco so well over the past few years. we look forward to seeing what comes next for you. now, it is my great honor to announce our eighth poet laureat. i had the privilege of knowing this individual for many years as he worked and volunteered at the african american art and culture complex. he has mentored men young men and women that came through our doors and taught them how to find their own vote and make

themselves heard. his poems are just one of the many ways he fights for racial justice, equity, and human rights. he has shown our community what it means to be a successful poet, as a black man from san francisco. we are incredibly proud of the work he has done so far, especially his commitment to inspiring black men and boys and providing support for young people in our community. he will continue the work that our ancestors did as they fought for their own voices to be heard. i am beyond excited to see what he accomplishes as the san francisco's eighth poet laureate. i am happy to present tongo martin, the eighth poet laureate. >> thank you madam mayor for

this incredible, incredible honor. i prepared some words that i hope i make it through. i'm already filled with tears. >> i'm going to let you have the floor, it's so great to have you. thank you for all the magic you created over the years. as i said earlier, when we work together at the complex, there were a lot of challenges, especially with our boys and we had unfortunately a lot of violence in the community and just seeing you as this literary figure and inspiring these young people to look at other ways besides, you know, being out in the streets and doing stuff that was happening then, focusing on how poetry, how music is poetry, and how they can really shift

their voices to tell their own stories. you brought that to their lives and i know they continue to carry it with them today. so, you have been an inspiration for so many years, directed at so many generations of people. i'm so grateful that you accepted this honor so now i want to turn the floor over to you so that people can know who you are. if they don't know, now they know. we're looking forward to the work that we know you're going to do to make san francisco proud. so the floor is yours tongo. >> thank you. thank you very much. incredibly humbled and honored. also, deep appreciation to the selection committee. i want to send love to my mother and brother as i am only an extension of their love,

imagination, and revolutionary commitment, love to my two powerful sisters and the whirlwind that has nothing on us, love to my family above mud and lava, love to my father and the rest of the village that is not here in the physical form. i would also like to thank kim shuck for being a leader of poets and beautiful force of the people. a poet of any station is secondary to the people. a poet of any use, that belongs to the energy and consciousness of the people, one of arts most important incarnation is that expression of mass resistance

but really what art teaches us with its dominantable energy, the indominantable energy of an idea is evident that it is oppressors themselves who are in the position of resistance. it's bigger than any imperialistic, cognitively reflected in any generation. the power is ours and it is oppressors who are resisting us, resisting humanity, resisting us pretty well. it's resisting our right to determine our reality, resisting a coming epoch of liberation. mass participation in art is what is always created in san francisco, futurism. san francisco has legend too

fearless for me to count myself as one of them. i am from this legendary collection of thousands and thousands of participants, revolutionary history and culture. i'm proud to be one of the anonymous thousands in san francisco who have road these buses all night, who has been raised in marcus's bookstore, who wants justice for mario woods and alex, who wants freedom. what the people taught me is that unity is the only thing and taught me that individualism, as it is practiced and codified, romanticized in this society is not really about your adventure through life but at its core, unfortunately, individualism is

about practicing the selective humanization. other people are only human beings when it suits individual interest. civilism of sorts, that is deeply connected to slavery, both from what the society evolved from and process that addicts you to and power struggle that alienates ourselves, and at no point do we find the dehumanization of other people, the deanimation of people acceptable, are let alone necessary for an individual journey. so as much as i would love to assign the rest of my days to an individual invention, that time is over. history is heightening, showing us more and more everyday that we're part of people, a people beyond systemic description, and

we need the entire pallet of protecting human rights and nurture human curiosity. the madness we see today shouldn't be surprising. these apartheid nativity scenes come home to roast and a capitalism in crisis, what is mixed in with the parole papers and the environmental racism and program deliverables and passivism. we're in a time of epochal shift where this is opening its arms if we don't open the historical process more critically. where do we go from here? what is our revolutionary practice or more conveniently, it begins with cultural work.

it transforms the way that we relate to each other, transforms the way we relate to the earth, to a way that is conducive to liberation. a poet belongs to the energy and consciousness of the people, respecting their spirit. my only aim as poet laureate is to join with that energy, join with that consciousness in order to create vehicles of unity. events, workshops, readings, publications, these are all just vehicles of unity. i will never tire in building as many as the city can handle. so, meet me at the library. [laughter] >> if you can't make it, i will for sure meet you wherever you

are. let me now say rest in power to cure junior and diane, and i will conclude with this poem titled faithless. a tour guide, through the robbery, he also is. cigarette stand, look at what i did. ransom water and box spring gold, this decade is only for accent grooming, i guess. ransom water and box spring gold to corner store, war gangs, all these rummage junk. you know, the start of mass destruction begins and ends in restaurant bathrooms as some people use and other people clean. are you telling me there is a rag in the sky waiting for you? yes. we should have fit in.

warehouse jobs are for communists and now the whistling is less playful and if it is not a city, it is a prison. it has a prison. it's a prison, not a city. when a courtyard talks on behalf of the military issue, all walk takes place outside the body. a medieval painting to your right, none of this makes an impression. you have five minutes to learn. when a man goes sideways barb wire becomes the roof. did you know they killed the world for the sake of giving everyone the same back story? watching indiana, fight yourself into the sky, oh penny for when. it goes up and over your headache, marking all aspirations, the first newspaper i ever read and the storefront,

they left us down where the holy spirit favors the bathroom. for those in the situation offer 100 ways to remain a loser. watching those clock, what are we talking about again? the narrater at the graveyard, 10 minute flat. the funeral only took 10 minutes. you're going to pin the 90s on me, all 30 years of them? why should i know the difference between sleeping and the pyramid of corner stores on our head. we die right away. that building wants to jump off other buildings, those are down tone decisions. what evaporated on earth that we can be sent back down? thank you all again, much love. i want to give the whole roll call right now but that's too many. much love to all my family and thank you again madam mayor.

thank you. san francisco for better for worse, which you are raised, you know? >> thank you so much tongo. just so you know, the chat is blowing up. there is so much love and excitement for what you will bring to san francisco and i just want to thank you so much. thank you for the incredible poem and your inspiration and just everything that you continue to do. i look forward to what you will accomplish as our city's poet laureate. i can't wait. it's going to be exciting, especially when we open up. when you talk about meet me at the library, it's like that's your slogan now. [laughter] >> so we're going to take it to another level. that's your slogan, meet me at the library. hitting all the libraries all over san francisco. >> that's right. >> just inviting the people in

and really bringing it back to some of the basics. you know, with the way technology is nowadays, sometimes we get away from just picking up a book or picking out a book or looking through an index card. i guess we don't look through index cards to find books anymore. sitting there and having discussions, i'm looking forward to what you're going to bring and really excited about that. i really want to thank the people that nominated you. you know, there was a really compelling, you know, letter of support that you know, went into all the details about your work. you have a lot of fans out there. i want to thank the selection committee, the people who served and had to go through all of those applications because i got to tell you, it was a hard decision and i was so excited that so many people in san francisco, you know, really embraced and support poets in such an incredible way.

there are so many wonderful nominees. i'm looking forward to you connecting with all of them as well and really the outgoing poet laureate kim shuck, thank you for that poem and your commitment to san francisco and the role you have played over the years. thank you to san francisco public library and the commissioners who are joining us here today and our librarian, michael lambert. so many amazing people and i think that based on your comments today, meet me at the library, that's going to be a new part of the campaign to really bring people together, to inspire and to really you know, set things off on a whole other level. thank you tongo for your work and commitment. we're so honored that you will be san francisco's eighth poet laureate and if there is anything left to say, you're welcome to have the floor. if not, we can turn it back over to michael lambert. >> i just want to say much love

and appreciation. >> great. >> thank you so much madam mayor. my heart is full, #meetmeatthelibrary. congratulations tongoo. i want to thank all of you for joining us this morning. our public affairs office is happy to help facilitate any interviews with our new poet lawyer -- laureate, thank you all and have a great day. [♪♪♪] [♪♪♪]

>> mayor london breed: twice before we have gathered in late january -- first at the national lgbtq center for the arts, then last year in the rotunda of city hall -- so i could share with you my view of the state of our city. as we gather virtually today, you don't really need me to tell you the state of our city. we are anxious. we're frustrated. we're impatient. and we are lonely. i know it because i feel it myself. and i know, in many cases, folks are hurting even more than that. but if i can impart anything to you today, it is that we deserve -- we need -- to feel two more things: pride and hope.