>> president cohen: okay. good evening, ladies and gentlemen. i want to welcome you back to the regularly scheduled police commission meeting. today is wednesday, march 17th. it is 5:39 and i'd like the meeting to beginment sergeant young blood, could you please call the roll? >> clerk: yes, ma'am.

[roll call] >> clerk: president cohen, you have a quorum. we have the chief of staff sarah hawkins from it the police accountability. >> president cohen: excellent. ladies and gentlemen, would you join me in saying the pledge of allegiance. please put your right hand over your heart. stand up and pledge. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america. and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible with liberty and just for all. thank you very much. before we begin, i just wanted to acknowledge the eight souls that were lost yesterday in atlanta and i just want to publicly affirm that we as members of the police commission stand firmly with all members of the community,

but in this particular instance, in this particular evening, we're standing with our community members asian and a.p.i. community members that are feeling victimized and maybe feeling alone. so i just wanted to open up our police commission meeting with those remarks and acknowledgement. is there anyone else that would like to acknowledge? >> commissioner: yeah. i want to thank you for doing that. especially given the riots and attacks on the asian american community. >> president cohen: thank you. absolutely. i think it's appropriate as we fight for justice for everyone. all right. with that said, let's go ahead. sergeant, please call the first item. >> clerk: line item one. general public comment. the public is now welcome to address the commission regarding items that do not

appear on tonight's agenda. and the police commission rules of order neither police nor commissioners are required to respond to questions by the public, but may provide a brief response. comments or opportunities to speak during public comment period are available via phone by calling (41) 565-5001. access code 1870423486. press star 3. e-mail the secretary of the police commission at sfpd.commission@sfgov.org. at this time, if you would like to make public comment, please press star 3. president cohen, we have a number of callers.

>> president cohen: thank you. >> clerk: good evening, caller. you have two minutes. >> hello. my name is david aaronson. i'm a resident of district 1. i'm also with the team of wealth and disparity in the black community led by felicia jones. last week on violence in san francisco which disproportionately affects black citizens. i quote, sf has already achieved significant reductions in violence. we will seek to understand why and continue to make progress. yet the systemic issues and gentrification around the black san franciscan community contradict this claim. a whopping 54% of the homicide victims since 2017 have been black. on a per capita basis, racial

and this is based on the sfpd's own data. also heavily focused on gang related violence. sfpd and sf officials criminalizing people based on where they live. cpsc also characterizes on gang affiliation. the neglect san francisco community has had to endure and the basic lack of quality of life for services. sfpd recently district 10 service gaps include a lack of educational advancement, lack of training and employment abilities, lack in housing. these gaps and services are contributing factors to the violence experienced by d10 residents. as felicia jones says black san franciscans have been studied

for 55 years. the cpsc report seems to be another report merely studying the black community. especially when the sfpd is under the racial reform. >> clerk: thank you, caller. good evening, caller. you have two minutes. >> hello, my name is kit hodge and i also volunteer at fe licia jones black disparity service. several areas are in need of reform including a lack of community policing. say sfpd does not conduct community policing. for example, the sfpd recently [inaudible] as if sfpd occupied the community. this approach is [inaudible] of the community in the police

approach. we thank those of you who came to our event last friday in the bayview. even in the terms of the very definition that sfpd seems to be having a community policing versus what the community itself is community policing is and should be. the high level sfpd officers at the event stated strongly that community policing was a state of mind achievable by any officer. community members on the other hand were adamant that the community policing must be structural. good vibes are not enough. community members want officers to know and understand the people they're serving and that level of understanding can only come from living side by side with people. anti-violence training is simply not enough. so what is the sfpd doing for this definition of community policing and make community

policing come true in these neighborhoods. thank you. >> thank you, caller. good evening, caller. you have two minutes. >> hello, my name is susan buffman and i live in district 5 and i am also with the corps team of wealth and disparity in the black community led by felicia jones consistent hooe since two thousand eighteen, black residents are over six times more likely to be stopped than white residents. since 2016, black residents have arranged between sixteen and 12 times more likely to have force used upon them by police.

black residents were ten times more likely to be arrested than white residents. in two thousand twenty, that has increased to twelve times more likely. between 2016 and 2020, black residents have averaged around eleven times more likely to be searched than white residents. these are appalling statistics on sfpd's ongoing racial disparity in policing. a recent national news story using mappingpolice.org data calls out san francisco as the third worst u.s. cities for anti-blackness and arrests. at the same time, the real needs of the community are not being met including real community policing. workforce development and investment in black businesses. black san franciscans experience dot rates of unemployment. there are also unmet needs

around mental health, education and homelessness. black san franciscans are underserved and overpoliced. thank you. >> clerk: thank you, caller. good evening, caller. you have two minutes. >> good evening police commissioners. i'm deputy public defender brian cox. as you may recall in 2016, a federal judge determined that sfpd officer in a federal gun case was entirely contradicted by surveillance video. the judge stated that the worst thing is the conviction of an innocent person based on testimony. the charges were dismissed based on the fourth amendment violation result. despite this dismissal and the settlement the victim paid, sfpd has no records of this sustained finding against officer buckly. that's based on a recent response to our 1422 request.

that's more honesty claim than sworn testimony contradicted by video evidence. the public has known about buckly as well. buckly is back on sfpatrol. seeing this play out as it happens with little transparency or apparent accountability further erodes the public's confidence to hold off who's accountable. if there's a gap in the system, we need to fix it. the policies created will fix it. and the public's fear as much as possible in closed session and otherwise. thank you. >> clerk: thank you, caller. good evening, caller. you have two minutes. >> good evening, commissioners. my name is paul. i'm a district 10 resident and i'm calling today to ask my commissioners to please allow

music in my city. i'm frustrated by the reality that we dispatch armed militarized thugs to disburse the communities of color and the communities that aren't efficiently well off as to be able to bribe the local commissioners to be able to get permits to exist. and in so doing, we've exterminated and eliminated the culture for all but the most wealthy to be honest and to me, that's on the police as they've continued to disburse and abuse these communities. and so i'm calling for a change in that and i'm calling for a reduction in the response that our police do today. we should defund the police and fund other services in our city that are relevant especially in this time where we're seeing covid and there's so little budget to be spent. that's what i have to say.

>> clerk: thank you, caller. good evening, ms. brown. you have two minutes. >> yes. hi, good evening. i'm calling concerning my son who was murdered august 14th, 2006. to this day, his case is still a cold case and the people that murdered my son are alleged murdered my son, six of them. thomas hannibal, paris moppet, jason thomas, anthony hunter and marcus carter. these are names down at homicide in the folder of the perpetrators that were going to shoot someone else and shot my son. and, i'm also calling because they're alleging after ten years my son has been gone for 15 years going on now or maybe more that they recently found out allegedly he was a gang member.

how would you do that when he was murdered? there was none of that. so i was wondering, why is this going on? what can we do about this historical bias and stereotyping of african american men and young people of color? what do we do about that? i need them to recant what they said about my child because it isn't true and they're saying the police said it but i'm talking to the police and they all say he wasn't. so who's fighting against each other the feds and the police? it's not fair to me as a mother. i'm still suffering from my son being murdered shot 30 times and i'm still suffering and mothers like myself are suffering. we talk about gun violence. we talk about gang violence. because my son lived in a good neighborhood, a pretty good neighborhood. they want to accuse my son of being a gang member.

how is that? my son went to school st. dominic's. he had a mother and father. two parents. how is that. i'm a no nonsense mom and i didn't allow my son to stand on the corner. >> clerk: thank you, ms. brown. memberses of the public that have information regarding the murder, you can call the anonymous tip line. you have two minutes. >> yes. this is yolanda williams, president of the offices for justice. i am a native san franciscan. a resident of d10 for over 60 years. i'm speaking from a level of cultural competency. i've been a police officer for over thirty years and i was one of the first officers trained in community policing. what d10 needs right now is what d10 has at that time.

we need to have [inaudible] working on the 3rd street corridor monday through friday and, of course, on the weekends. and, i think if we do that and get to know the young people and other people who are out in the area, we can make the change. i don't think that defunding the police is going to be the answer and the end-all. what we need to do is start trying to work hand-in-hand together and stop placing blame on one another. if we work together, we can be successful. thank you. >> clerk: good evening, caller. you have two minutes. good evening, caller. you have two minutes. >> good evening.

[inaudible] >> clerk: caller, are you there? >> yes. good evening. my name is cheryl barton and i'm a community member of san francisco and what i would like to say is i want to echo what captain williams said about community policing and that she was one of the first officers. i think after the dissent decree they hired officers in san francisco from the community such as captain williams, such as melvin thornton who worked in the community. and, the community actually can wekt with these officers. the officers that are serving today in district 10 are not connected to our community and they don't [inaudible] like our community and they don't even have our experienced institutional racism, systemic racism, trauma. i agree, we need officers that are from these communities like

jimmy lewis, melvin thornton, yolanda williams. these are the people we need working in district 10. thank you. >> clerk: thank you, caller. and, president cohen, that is the end of public comment. >> president cohen: thank you, very much. i appreciate that. thank you to the members of the public that called in and that are actively participating in this public discussion. sergeant youngblood, could you please call item two. >> clerk: line item two, consent calendar. receive and file action. sfpd/dpa protocol report. sfpd monthly sb1421 report. dpa monthly sb1421 report. and cri monthly update. if any commissioners would like to discuss any of the items under the consent calendar, please advise president cohen that you would like to place

the item on a future agenda. tonight, there will be no discussion or presentation on these items. >> president cohen: thank you. colleagues, i think this is pretty clear and self-explanatory. if i can have a motion for the item. excuse me. i'm sorry. sergeant youngblood, i believe we need to take public comment on the calendar. >> clerk: yes, ma'am. >> president cohen: all right. we'll take public comment and if there are members, i think commissioner elias has something to say, we'll circle back. >> clerk: members of the public that would like to make a comment, please press star 3 now to comment on item 3. good evening, caller. you have two minutes. >> hi, yes. i called earlier. [inaudible] i'm looking at this and surprised to see that the d.o.j. monthly report is on the

consent calendar. it's not the final month of the effort should we understand [inaudible] all 72 items, recommendations in the report. that's all i have to say. thank you. >> clerk: good evening, caller. you have two minutes. >> good evening, again. commissioners, chief scott, and director henderson. this is brian cox from the public defender's office. sb1421 became law 896 days ago. we weren't anywhere near full compliance. 10% to 15% by last estimates. as the public waits for years in the last decades, knew more about the officers who policed them. it's also fair to wonder if the current pace can keep up with the pace in which new records are created. so we're not working to the

presentation tonight, which is fine and sort of separately an issue, but looking at the presentation and what they have to say, i'd like to ask the commission if it believes the pace of records production is acceptable? if it's not, then the commission to mandate compliance this year. this is year it's been in effect. we can't wait 10 years and whether this is a priority for dpa or sfpd. and the public defender's office has made its voice heard on this office again and again. i'm asking you to put a plan in place to comply with the law by the end of the year. i asked the commission to acquire the authority and the sfpd to follow the law. thank you. >> clerk: and, president cohen, that is the end of public comment. >> president cohen: all right. thank you, very much. commissioner elias, was there

something that you wanted to comment on the consent agenda? >> i wanted to make the motion, but i also wanted to thank the officers for justice for sending us a mask. i think it's beautiful and i really appreciate it. so thank you. >> president cohen: so, commissioner elias has made a motion to accept the consent calendar. do i have a second? was that you commissioner lee? >> oh, no. that was d.j.. >> president cohen: got it. sorry d.j. >> all right. that seconded was made by commissioner brookter. i think we need to no major

injuries and that was just the force and that was really the highlight of the that particular protest. as far as strategies, i would go back to the bayview. the strategies we have been discussing are ongoing in the bayview and one of them was mentioned with one of the callers. it is a strategy that we have employed. so we do have foot beat patrols on 3rd street between mckinnen and oakvale.

on 3rd street between mckinnen and revere. those will be in place until further notice. those officers are posted on those corridors and they are there until relieved by the event commander. so they are in place. we have found that to be at this point a successful strategy. at least we believe it's successful. those officers are given specific instructions to engage with the community. this is not about enforcement, this is about community engagement and letting the community know that we're out there, willing to work with them. at the same time, we do have a job. when people do shoot to investigate and hold them to account and that is happening as well. i mentioned in terms of the robberies, the strategies are increased in those corridors. we also have increased our visibility in china town and

some of our areas of town where we have i.a.a.p.i. populations as we have seen with news across the country with these horrific crimes that have happened to our a.a.p.i. community and thank you president cohen for the opening gesture to the a.a.p.i. community and we'll do everything we can to prevent these crimes from it happening to them. and, the last thing i'll report, we have conducted with that our community walks and our community liaison officers, we conduct walks in the bayview and ingleside. there were about 50 to 60 people that participated. we handed out informational pamphlets, crime prevention information as well as stressing the importance to report crimes if they do occur.

it's really important that the public reports them when they do occur. thank you, commissioner yeah for participating in that. several commissioners voiced that they wanted to get out with me and our officers. so we are in the process of scheduling those walks with you, president cohen, as well as commissioner hamasaki and others. as of today 442 officers responded to the survey. out of those 442 officers, 336 have received their first vaccine and most of the others who have not received a vaccine reported that they do plan to be vaccinated. we asked if anybody was having issues whether they signed up and couldn't get the vaccination. out of those surveys, there

were 23 that said they had issues, the reasons were not out of the 400 individuals who responded to that particular question, 377 reported that they had no issues and were able to get signed up. so that concludes my report for this week and thank you. >> president cohen: thank you, very much. if i can just say a couple comments. i really want to thank you for hearing my concerns about the bayview strategy. i think we've been consistently talking about this strategy for almost four weeks straight now. we had a phenomenal rally last week. thank you to felicia jones and the wealth of organizing. specifically, i wanted to call out acknowledging your detailing where the foot beats are in the bayview. that actually means a lot to me. i made some notes. so when people ask me, where are they?

i can respond. >> thank you. >> president cohen: yes. anything else for the chief? none. we can continue with the presentations. or with the reports. go ahead, stacy. >> clerk: continuing with line item 3. dpa director's report. d.p.a.'s report will be limited to a brief description of d.p.a. activities and announcements. determining whether to calendar any of the issues raised for a future commission meeting. january 2021. >> i'm unmuted. okay. thank you. good evening thank you all. i'm going to run through our statistics. we are at 165 cases that had been opened so far this year and that's compared to 181 that had been opened at the same

time last year. we've closed 145 this time last year we closed 254. in terms of cases pending, we're at about the same number where we have 334 cases that are open and pending. this time last year, we were at 389. some of the differences that you're seeing in these numbers in terms of cases closed and pending are the volume from last year of cases that are being closed out now. it's 334 cases remaining. so far, this year, we sustained 12 cases. this time last year we sustained 11. and cases whose investigations have gone beyond the 9-month mark, there were 37 last year. this year there's 29. this is just an indicator of cases that have taken longer than nine months to close . we have not had any of the cases lose or miss their deadlines for a 33.04

compliance. i will continue to watch those numbers. of those 37 cases, 19 of those cases are cold meaning they have criminal or civil charges that are ongoing related to those cases. so far this year, we've mediated nine cases. the volume of the cases we have pending with the commission itself is thirteen, and there are currently 33 cases that are pending with the chief. our complaints, the monthly statistic report is already in the reports that we've just acknowledged as well as the 1421 records. those are all on the consent calendar. in terms of outreach over the past week, again, as a reminder, all of these events can be found on the community calendar and on the website.

on march 10th, our outreach team finished our design and worked with the know your rights trifold youth yellow card and that's a card we've been working on for awhile to develop and familiarize campaigns. the cards will now be available for youth online with availability to print after the know your rights presentations and workshops that we do and that's in a lot of the school districts here in the city. on march 11th, we participated, d.p.a. participated in the megablack overall presentation. that was actually also with police commissioner brookter. on march 15th, the d.p.a. hosted a access panel. to increase the language access

of services and the panelists were different leaders providing services to bay area community members specifically immigrant community agencies and immigrant communities. language line director sal shulman was there as well as director adrian pawn. the other activity that we participated in was the wealth and disparities community meeting and representative from d.p.a. was there and felicia jones was also there and several commissioners were there again. thank you for joining us and inviting us president malia. >> president cohen: and vice president cindy elias. i invite one of the senior investigators to end the police commission every single week in

case callers call in with specific needs that need to be addressed on this evening. if people don't feel comfortable either reaching out to the website or contacting our office directly at 24 hours phone conversation. 415271-7711. there was a number of things coming on the rest of the calendar including our report from local progress and there are two cases i believe that are on the closed sessions calendar as well this evening as well. but i will be available for all of that moving forward as well. that concludes my presentation. >> president cohen: thank you for that presentation. i believe commissioner elias has something for you, a

question, is that right. >> vice president elias: thank you, president cohen. director henderson and i want to make sure i got it right, the know your rights, you said card that you had or the flyer, that's the juvenile one that sam or marion had worked on. >> that's exactly it. we're trying to repackage it and present it so that more people can use it for readily and easily and one of the suggestions that we came up with in working with the youth commission was to provide folks instead of having the foldover binder, a smaller card that they can put in their pocket or in a purse or something like that. it was a good idea. they wanted it to be yellow. we did it as collaboratively as we could. that is just now finished and so now along with the presentations that we regularly make into the community, people can go online and just download it, cut it out themselves and carry it in addition to making

the regular packets available. so we didn't replace it, we just expanded it. >> vice president elias: great. can you also provide a copy to the commission office so we can provide it on our correspondence as well? >> absolutely. i want to make sure it's available on our website as well. i will do both. >> vice president elias: great. thank you. >> president cohen: commissioner brookter? >> commissioner brookter: yes. thank you president cohen. and i really wanted to thank paul and his office for ensuring we get the stats. in the past we get them on the day of the meetings. thank you for that and i really want to thank paul, the commission staff. i think sergeant renolds. sergeant youngblood. sergeant killshaw. just the amount of communication and the e-mails that we receive whether it be the documents or the e-mails coming to us in person and

ensuring that we get this documentation so we're prepared. i definitely want to make sure that never gets lost because these folks are corresponding with us on a daily basis and i just want to say thank you to folks for that. >> commissioner: thank you. >> president cohen: i just want to acknowledge something that the chief said in his report. pardon me, paul, for just a second, that, chief, one of the things that's always been important to me was the vaccination rates for your officers. and it looks like it's about 75% of the officer that is responded to the survey have had their first dose. so that is wonderful and promising and my comments to you, director henderson, good job untackling those cases. fantastic work. your numbers look good. i know it's not easy, but kudos to your entire team for

stepping up and in quite honestly what has been a difficult year. you guys have done an excellent job. >> thank you. it really is my staff. we have similar challenges as every other department with the pandemic. my staff has really buckled down to try and make sure they stay on top of their numbers especially knowing that every week i have to report when the numbers start drifting towards large numbers for cases that haven't been completed and investigations because behind those investigations are real people making real complaints and need to be addressed. so it really is my staff. but they are working very hard and diligently. >> president cohen: well, please send my compliments to your staff. with that said, is there anything else that the commission can do to help you? access to information in a more timely fashion? i understand sometimes there may be some obstruction and let me know if there's something you need us to take care of or

bolster in your behalf. >> yeah. there's always little things that need to be tweaked. i'm trying to institutionalize solutions so we can just fix it rather than create it i mean, turn it into a problem. i raise those issues as they come up. i'll take you up on that invitation and make fuller or broader invitations about what those are so we can solve it more collaboratively. >> president cohen: of course. let's keep moving on the agenda. sergeant youngblood, could you call the next item. >> clerk: yes, ma'am. >> president cohen: thank you. >> clerk: continuing on with line item three. reports to the commission. commission reports. xhis igs reports will be limited to a brief description of activities and announcements. commission discussion will be limited to determining if it

will lead to any future meeting. commissioner announcements and scheduling of items identified for a consideration of a future commission meetings. action. >> president cohen: let's see, i would like to acknowledge commissioner elias at this time. >> vice president elias: thank you, president cohen. my issues are request to agendize items. i've asked in the past and i was hoping, chief, to get an e.t.a. on when that is. i think that there's so many times that myself and i believe other commissioners and we see it on the callers that call in regarding their understanding of how the discipline process

works with internal affairs and d.p.a. and the conversations that occur between the chief and director henderson when cases are filed or charges are brought. so i was hoping that we could in addition to having the i.a. presentation before the commission also have d.p.a. present as well with respect to the process that happens when d.p.a. files charges with the commission or what type of conversations or communications are happening between him and the chief. i'm sorry. chief, go ahead. >> i was going to -- april 7th is the i.a. presentation. i think it's already scheduled for the april 7th agenda. >> vice president elias: okay. great. i'm hopeful that director henderson, you can also provide information to the public, a

brief synopsis of how charges come about. there is a conversation or meeting that happens between you and the chief to see whether or not the department would like to join in on these charges or disagrees or what exactly happened. i think the public really needs to know the process and there's a lot of misinformation out there. so i think if we can dedicate april 7th to understanding and really having a very clear presentation of how the discipline process works because i've even had questions from officers on how it works. you know, i think we all could benefit from that. >> i'd be happy to. and, a lot of that stuff is what we talked about with the data sharing was the d.p.a. focus in terms of how the efficiencies internalize about how we share our information about developing information from the public and translating that into open investigations

and sharing information for the police department. so this presentation is super timely and will shine a light on the entirety of the process on how the information is shared back and forth between the agencies and what's still left for us to focus on in terms of data sharing. >> vice president elias: exactly. and it also coincides with the fact we just passed the discipline matrix. >> exactly. right. >> vice president elias: and, i also wanted to apologize that i wasn't able to attend friday's wealth and disparities event. i saw and heard amazing things. i really wish i could have been there, but congratulations on the event and the turn-out and the messaging that came from it. >> president cohen: i couldn't agree more with you. i want to recognize commissioner hamasaki.

>> commissioner hamasaki: thank you, president cohen. i just wanted to follow up on president cohen's opening remarks and thank her for a strong statement of support for the asian american community and also from the department and the chief i saw some comments during the week. i think this has been, you know, especially the last 24 hours have been really, you know, hopefully a wake-up call about the level of bias and hatred that's directed towards asian americans in this country. you know, i think that was probably one of the reasons i moved here was to get away from that and, you know, when we're seeing it's kind of spread throughout the country and the increasing violence involved, you know, i think it calls out for all of us to be involved and speak out and i'm grateful

for all of the leaders that have done so in the city and the department and the commission. and, i do know and also to commissioner yeah for being upfront and present with the community, but i do think that to some degree that we can, i know we received an e-mail at the commission this last week from an asian american community member asking us to be more visible on these issues. so i would like to find a way for us to do that. i'm going to coordinate with commissioner yeah and president cohen about the best ways and the department about the best ways to do that. you know, i think a lot of people are feeling very vulnerable right now. so anything that we can do to help, we should. >> president cohen:

absolutely. commissioner yee. >> commissioner yee: thank you madam president. i want to thank you for inviting me to friday's event. the wealth and disparity event in the bayview. it's like welcome back home. i started my first, you know, my career there in the bayview area and it felt like home. great crowd, great people. hope to see more of that and also thank the team for and the staff for sending me the invite to i guess on the zoom call for the station. i was able to join ingleside, captain, i think nelson on there. so, going forward tomorrow, we're having a little public safety meeting in chinatown.

we're having commander fong and also sf safe [inaudible] and also the new captain julian ing. so, at that time, i'd just like to say to the commissioner john hamasaki or whoever wants to join. we're going to be talking about the new strategies and sharing with the community leaders, i guess, public strategies that won't be coming out of the police department. so i just want to share that and let you know it's 11:00 a.m. at the chinese company. so we're looking forward to working with everybody in the police department and, you know, just let me know ahead of time because we're in covid-19, it's limited. send me a text.

i'll send you my phone number. you can call me if you wish to do so. thank you, madam president. >> president cohen: great. thank you for that announcement. 11:00 a.m. in chinatown. do you have the physical address? >> commissioner yee: the address is 843 stockton street. so, you know, it's going to be hearing what people feel and then just hear the heart beat of what they're saying. there's probably other strategies that i probably in the future will be working with the chief and everybody else. we can make it safe for everybody and i believe in the next few months as that american relief plan comes about, help is on the way for all of us. so i'm looking forward to that. >> president cohen: good. thank you. that's good stuff. i appreciate hearing that.

pretty robust report back from commissioners. i myself have just had a series of meetings. i too attended the rally, had an opportunity to speak. want to note that mayor breed was present as well as supervisors safai, melgar, a whole host of community members. a small nonprofit workers. also, all present to denounce crime and i am proud that we came together and rallied. i am hopeful that wealth and disparities and the folks that organized last week's event will be able to rally and provide support and alliship for the asian american community in san francisco that is suffering. one thing that is very clear is

that we all suffer under white ishpemingist rule and that we should be working collectively to denounce hatred, crime, violence, particularly the violence that we are seeing now. i just wanted the record to reflect that as of this year, there's been 3,800 crimes against asian americans this year alone. and as we begin to wrap up women's history month, i want to call out the intersectionality of the asian women specifically being targeted. we've just got to be better, folks. as far as i'm concerned any violence against any woman should not be tolerated and i'm just here to publicly denounce the hate. period. the hate within i guess the

anti-asian hate we're seeing. the hate in the lgbtq community. the african american community. this really needs to serve as a wake-up call and that we are all vulnerable if we do not stand united together. with that, i'll close out my comments and, sergeant youngblood, could you please call the next item. >> clerk: yes, ma'am. at this time, the public is allowed to make public comment. if you would like to make public comment please press star 3 now. and, president cohen, it does not appear we have any public comment. >> president cohen: that's a surprise. no problem. let's continue moving forward. what's the next item.

>> clerk: line item four. presentation of the department of police accountability local progress reform transform results and civilian oversight updates. discussion. >> sorry. i was muted. >> sergeant youngblood, will you be pulling up the presentation? >> clerk: yes. >> clerk: sorry. that is not the right one. >> great. thank you. good evening president cohen, vice president elias, chief scott, members of the public. tonight's presentation is an

overview of local progress and an update on what steps other jurisdictions are taking to strengthen civilian oversight systems. next slide, please. a quick overview, the local project is a center. the mission of progress is to learn from experiences, share policy ideas and model legislation. local progress evaluated twelve jurisdictions based on a set of policy criteria developed in their reform/transform tool kit. local progress evaluated jurisdictions based on how successfully the authorizing legislation and other written policies governing the oversight review boards to fill these criteria. local progress evaluation began in august 2018 and results were released in december 2019.

d.p.a. was not aware of the involvement but assessed in 2020. to ensure that d.p.a. was identifying and adopting best practices as part of our continuous improvement efforts. local progress vaulted san francisco and found that san francisco was one of two jurisdictions that were on track to a strong, independent, oversight policy. the study found one area, transparency where improvement was needed. there were two areas funding and community connection where local progress found there was significant room for improvement. tonight's presentation will focus on transparency and funding and what dpa is doing to address the findings. the community connection criteria asserts commission membership and will not be part of the next presentation. next slide, please. so this slide provides an overview of areas where local progress found that san francisco is on track to a strong policy. to be placed in this category,

a jurisdiction must conduct investigations independently of the police department, have independent disciplinary authority, offer public access and allows individuals to file complaints through a variety of methods and multiple languages during nonbusiness hours and have investigations police policies and practices and issue or recommend policy changes. next slide, please. so in the context of this evaluation, transparency speaks to how san francisco reports to the public. local progress base their evaluation on three sub questions which are listed above. the evaluation noted that san francisco charter requires that d.p.a. publish public reports but note that the charter does not require the d.p.a. include demographics in these reports. we evaluated our practice against the local progress criteria. and makes weekly presentations

on investigative activities and department operations at police commission meetings. d.p.a. does note that our public reporting during the assessment period complainant outcomes were included starting in the 2018 annual report and the demographic was included in the annual reports starting in 2019. next slide, please. the transform reform tool kit recognizes that sufficient resources are needed to be able to complete timely investigations of complainant allegations. the benchmarks for specific oversight funding, staffing, and investigative timeline. being cognizant of the city's budget d.p.a. will provide this for future budget discussions. regarding the investigation closure time lines, the investigation of complaints to the police department within nine months of receipt by

d.p.a.. d.p.a. recognizes that long closure times believe that their issues have not been taken seriously. to keep the public comprised, director henderson in his 270 days of the weekly update as well as the causes for these complaints aging greater than 9 months. i met with log progress in october 2020 to review the evaluation results and see if they can incorporate d.p.a. into this operation. with that, i will hand the presentation over to paul who will update you on oversight changes occurring on some other jurisdictions. next slide, please. >> is this me? >> if you want. >> yeah. okay. so here is some of the stuff just to follow up on some of the things that have been happening since then.

these are some of the legislation that had been patting. some of the things that we do at d.p.a. is try and watch and monitor to see what's happening in other jurisdictions especially as it relates to civilian oversight. and so as glorious as it was and reaffirming as it was to have this recognition from an independent agency recognizing us at a high level of transparency for the work that d.p.a. does, obviously, there's still more work to do and we also want to make sure that d.p.a. doesn't fall behind any of the advances that are being made in other counties and states for folks concerned about civilian oversight as well. what i wanted to present here was some of the things that we saw in the last legislative -- in the last election cycle where jurisdictions have put civilian oversight on their ballot and some of what those

initiatives are so that we know what's going on. so here we have just across the bay in oakland where they have staffing that was increased. in portland, they have advances related to funding where they've tied their civilian oversight to represent 5% of what the police budget is. and investigation power, they've had expansion. in california, sonoma. it's all listed here. i won't read from the chart because you see it in front of you. but these have added subpoena power to their investigations and specifically in oakland, they have finally opened up direct access to internal affairs -- eternal affairs files to make sure that investigations are concurrent and timely as well as independent without having the

lag from having top request delay or not have access to information for investigations related to internal affairs. so the other thing that i think is a big deal and certainly i've edited just to pull out the low hanging fruit of things that are big events the access to independent legal council which is now going to take place in oakland and san diego and in philadelphia. i will point out that much of the leadership taking place in oakland that we're seeing is coming from john aldon who was with d.p.a. for many years and is now at the forefront of many of these progressive decisions and solutions that are expanding civilian oversight. so i just wanted folks to have that and to remind everyone in case people missed some of the slides that it will be posted on the d.p.a. website as well

as well as the commissions website in terms of the documents that have already been presented in preparation for tonight's meeting. so this is just a big deal for d.p.a. and we're actually because of we've been working so hard to make sure we do as much as this transparency work as possible, it's reaffirming to see that independent agencies are recognizing the work that we're doing and certainly there's more work to be done, but it's affirming to know that an independent agency has recognized that d.p.a. is at the top of their evaluation for their transparency work and the things that we do in terms of civilian oversight and police accountability. so, thank you, very much. i really appreciate the hard work that went into this from our audit team and i appreciate everyone's attention and paying

attention to this. i also didn't put in here that miami as well. i don't see it on the list, but i know that miami has independent legal counsel as well. and so these are all ideas and seeds and inspiration for us all to continue doing the work that we do and i believe this is an opportunity for the community groups that support this work as well as our local leaders to be inspired by other work that can be done to supplement and expand the work that's being done at d.p.a.. so thank you all so much for your time and attention and both steve and myself are happy to answer any questions that any of you may have. >> president cohen: thank you very much and bravo to the audit team for bringing this to us . you guys have come a long way in a short period of time. i'm very pleased that the audit demonstrates that overall that

we're making significant progress towards reform and sometimes it seems slow and what's most important is that it is deliberate and that is exactly the sense that i'm getting as a result of this audit. i do want to highlight i have a concern in two areas of the audit. funding. right. and, community connections. now, the audit found that there was significant room for improvement in this area and we understand that the funding for the department of police accountability is determined on an annual basis and the level of funding is not provided. so director henderson, i am hopeful that as you go through these budgeting discussions that you take this audit and bring it to the members of the board of supervisors and you bring it to your budget department representatives and you start just having these

really serious conversations that you make the case to increase the budget. and, we understand -- you know, i just want to say given that we understand that funding of department of police accountability is coming from the general fund, understanding that we are in the midst of a pandemic. i understand that part. i also would like to drill down on one of the audit conclusions. it's found on slide 2 that it highlights that there is significant need for improvement in the area of community connection and i think in your presentation you mentioned that that's more in the area for the police department if i heard that correctly. >> it's not the police department. it's the commission, the police commission itself. so in the civilian agent --

civilian oversight agencies, it's their considered best practices that that agency play a role in who sits on the police commission, what we call a police commission. since that is the role of both the board of supervisors in san francisco and for the mayor's office in san francisco, that's one of their -- that's what their -- that's their criticism. i believe they made that process because they wanted there to be an informed body that makes those nominations and approvals for sitting on the police commission. but that's what they were referencing. >> president cohen: okay. with that said, just i want to remind the commission that last week we received presentations regarding how increasing community outreach can be a major factor in reducing violence and building trust between officers and residents. and, for me, that kind of shifts the narrative. we are always hearing

connections on the police side. foot patrol is that we're always here. and we heard the chief and now it looks like it's almost an intro specktive meaning that we have a mission to build that community trust and community outreach is a vital tool for any agency such as d.p.a. such as the police commission such as the police department to help foster confidence from community members. confidence in knowing that their voices have been heard in particular. and in this case with d.p.a., their voice has been heard when they wish to file a complaint and i certainly believe that

building trust could be one of the positive by-products of community policing. and that's critical. i want to make sure that d.p.a. is not -- i'm not suggesting that there is a perception but i want to ensure that that never happens. i think you guys are hands-on and on the ground and present. so, with that in mind, i'd like to continue to explore the audit meaning that more community connection is needed and i want to see if the chief has anything that he'd like to weigh in on this part of the discussion? if not, chief, no pressure. but if you have some thoughts, i would like to hear them. >>. >> president cohen: >> president cohen, before the chief speaks, it was inferred. part of the transparency

analysis included the review and i think part of why we were selected was because of the deeper dive and the more complete dive that the agency now plays in terms of officer involved shootings. that's typically at the forefront of the analysis in these things and so what was referenced was the post charter amendment was the period that they reviewed and the reason that i bring that up is because before the charter amendment that you directly play a role in d.p.a. only reviewed 25% of officer-involved shootings and 25% independent review is not transparency. so since the amendment that you had worked on is involved in 100% of the officer-involved shootings. i think those numbers are really important and critical in terms of reviewing or evaluating civilian oversight agency and because you played a direct role in it, i didn't

want it lost in the slides that were being presented. that it's almost full circle to have you back at the table in recognition of the work from the seeds that you planted years ago both when you made the charter amendment and when i came to the agency. so that was part of what the review was and i just wanted to acknowledge that and to thank you for that and then to proceed. >> president cohen: all right. let me take a stab at a few more questions. did the analysis that you're presenting focus on just d.p.a. capabilities or the department of police accountability and the commission? >> steve, you can take that one. >> yeah. both. >> president cohen: okay. thank you. so, in other words, it did drill down and begin to examine the components, different components, the parts of the system? >> yeah. the primary basis for the

analysis was the language in the charter regarding civilian oversight in san francisco to the extent it is applied to the police commission and in that community connection piece. i would say the rest of the evaluation focused on the department of police accountability. >> president cohen: all right. so based on the analysis, how do we get better? how do we better our best? i mean, you know. i just want to make sure i'm clear on it. transparency seems like -- you know, it seems like d.p.a. meets the local progress standards so i'm wondering why -- >> it does. i think that's a big deal and i think the fact that we're meeting it because so often times in a lot of these meetings, we focus how we can do better and we can. but we also have to recognize in some areas we are doing a good job. and in terms of civilian oversight agencies that are

providing transparency, to have this recognition that that evaluation is for at the very top for d.p.a. is a big deal, but to answer your question that i think you're asking is what are the next steps and specifically, how can we do better? the recommendations from this report were in those two areas. were increasing the community involvement in the ways that we talked about and i believe that that was just a misunderstanding of how we do the community involvement regarding that police commission reflecting the community and in the funding issues in terms of their recommendation in terms about what funding they believe is necessary for civilian oversight agency to be the most effective and certainly, we will take your comments into consideration and they are part of the ongoing conversations that we are already having with the budget office, the budget team, and the board of supervisors. i will point out that i think

that i think are the long standing commitments that we have with 1421 and the evolving commitments related to 1421 that are somewhat independent but also related to defining transparency. >> president cohen: towards the end of your presentation, you mentioned that miami, i think it was miami, you said they had their own independent legal counsel. do you have a suggestion or a strategy or a suggested pathway to move forward to have access to independent legal counsel? >> it's funny you should mention that. the national organization of civilian oversight does. civilian oversight agencies have independent counsel siding a conflict an inherent conflict

of interest with local supervision or input and it's similar to the input the bar association has taken. in similar presentations and i know presentations we have scheduled for the future as well. i think it's interesting now in watching the legislative evolution in oversight and see the number of jurisdictions that are following that recommendation in particular as they evolve their civilian oversight agencies especially as it's starting to happen right across the bay here in oakland because it just happened and so that's the direction that they are taking their civilian oversight agency as well. >> president cohen: i know. i kind of feel like john aldon is stealing some of our ideas and implementing them over in oakland. john aldon, we see what you're doing. >> we don't want to get too far behind. and, again, a lot of these suggestions for us and some of the bigger problems that we've

all dealt with in the past like access to information on the computers, these are things that are charter amendments, but some of them can be local amendments as well. so there are opportunities not just for d.p.a., not just for the police commission, but for the board of supervisors, the mayor's office and the governor's office to lean into some of this work to create efficiency for us to continue growing and doing a better job on behalf of the community we're trying to serve. >> president cohen: all right. i don't want to dominate the conversation anymore. but i'm going to see if there's anyone in the chat. let's see. is that you, commissioner hamasaki? i think you're next. >> commissioner hamasaki: yeah. thank you, president cohen, for leading that off. you touched into some of the areas that i found were interesting. you know, at the outset i think that it raises -- and i didn't realize that was directed at

the commission regarding our community role and i think that's something that, you know, we can always do better on. what i would suggest and like to see is if the commission office could maintain a calendar and coordinate with d.p.a. if there's community events or opportunities where we might have the chance to attend and actually get out and meet the community, i think that would be great. i know a lot of us like to, you know, when we have the time and now that it looks like things are getting better with covid and, you know, some of us are vaccinated, it seems like it's a time where we can actually begin to do that beyond zoom which i think we all know has its limitations.

so we can really coordinate that better, like the invitation from commissioner yeah tonight, i think we want to all try to make those appearances whenever possible. the other question i have and that was just a follow-up on president cohen's last point was so right now, d.p.a. is -- has the same basic access of shared legal counsel with the police department. and, to me, that strikes me as an inherent conflict because you are a civilian complaint agency and so you represent or mediate or prosecute against the department. it would seem, you know, just from a basic law school 101 conflict perspective that having the same legal advice as

the person you're prosecuting is a clear conflict.

i've seen legislation from the national organization addressing this issue. it is all related. >> will this be a legislation by the board of supervisors and who would be the independent council? where would that -- how does that come into play? >> by both. i think it is different, every jurisdiction does it how they do it depending on the charter limitations of the individual agency and or in addition to state restrictions about what that looks like. every city manages and handles it differently. san francisco would have to look at and evaluate its own specific pathway and i think there's folks who have identified this as an issue that have been volunteering and trying to work

on it on their own independently of the commission, independently of dpa identifying this is a problem that needs to be solved and not reflective of best practices and those models and their suggestions are a good starting point to evaluate so you don't have to reinvent the wheel and that's before you even start looking at what other cities have done. they have done a deep dive in evaluations based on other concerns that they've had and not in small part, part of the evaluation from the civil tracks from ongoing lawsuits related to civil rights violations and so that has been a lot of the motivation about the conversation. >> so who becomes the independent council then? >> i think someone -- the short answer is i'm not sure.

the longer answer is -- the longer -- i don't have anyone to identify a name. i think the bigger issue is if the city attorney is not the counsel for either the police commission or dpa or just one of the two agencies, then who it is, i don't know. i'm not sure how it works. i would imagine another agency that does -- maybe even the ag's office. i'm just making it up. don't quote me on that. >> since i came on the commission, i have heard and i know it has been raised by previous commissions and commission presidents and so we've been talking about it for three years. it would be great to see something change on this. >> i would imagine the question might have been answered in some of the memos but i don't recall right now or have the

suggestion. >> please keep us updated from your end. i think it's an important issue. >> absolutely and we'll be able to watch it closely as oakland evolves -- they have to follow the steps now. >> oakland beating us, not a good look for us. thank you. >> i just received information that i believe other cities in california get to pick from a list that are approved from agencies that are from law firms approved to represent city agencies. i don't know if that's the answer but it's an answer. >> the answers will come to us. >> president cohen: if only the money would come to us the way the answers come. sounds like we'll have to circle back to explore it.

i don't want anybody getting nervous. commissioner elias you're next. >> vice president elias: so this presentation, i apologize, i think i misunderstood it. this is recognition of how your agency compared to other agencies throughout the country when it comes to independent oversight, is that -- >> that is correct. >> vice president elias: and is there a full report aside from the slides that perhaps we could look at? i think it's important to see how we compare against the other -- how many other cities were there? >> 12. >> vice president elias: to see how we compare. i assume we're at the top of the list. >> yes. >> vice president elias: and it

would be interesting to see if other cities are also having issues that we have as well and -- >> that's exactly why we closed with the leap other cities are making in terms of what they are that meet or exceed some of the oversight for police accountability measures we have in san francisco. that's why i ended with that to see what the other cities were doing. >> vice president elias: the other thing i was looking at in your presentation, something about subpoena powers that enable unfetterred access. i assume you have subpoena powers or administrate powers to obtain information that you need. is that -- true or not true. >> it is correct but they're not direct. many agencies didn't have that. it's a big deal for a lot of the other agencies and part of why i included some of the aspects to

show san francisco all of our audiences what some of the tools we have that other agencies are catching up with that they did not have. >> vice president elias: when you use your powers, is it through the agency or city attorney? >> we have to go through an outside agency to exercise the powers and authorities. >> vice president elias: that seems a little cumbersome. >> i don't disagree, but that doesn't mean that we don't have it. but it's one of the areas where we could make an improvement or change if it was more direct and we had less hoops to jump through. >> vice president elias: i think it would be beneficial to eliminate the barriers and hoops you have to jump through in order to utilize this tool.

>> vice president elias: you mentioned something about files and maybe you can supplement my understanding, the reason your agency would need access to the files would be to comply with the discipline matrix which talks about factors in aggravation and mitigation that we as a disciplinary body have to make determinations on discipline. why is it important for your agency to have access to this

information? >> like you said, that is not a small reason having access to understand issues and aggravation or mitigation. it absolutely affects our deadlines as well. part of my calling out every week on the deadlines is a flag for everyone to know down to the specific numbers how many cases where i have investigations that are going beyond nine months and even though i haven't missed any of my deadlines, part of the challenges related to delays are having to go through the hoops that we were referencing back and forth for me to make a request to whomever and wait for

them to get back to us, if they do, about information we're requesting from internal affairs. the fact that other agencies have unfetterred and direct access to that information is an efficiency that san francisco should have as well. that is why it's on the list in terms of solutions i think we should have. the first step will be broader data sharing but the next step and best practices is to have unfetterred and direct access. absolutely. >> vice president elias: what are things that may be helpful director henderson and maybe you could tell us at the next meeting, perhaps you could delineate which ones are being held up because of the lack of information that you're not receiving or maybe give more analysis or reasons or details as to why there are 37 cases that you have that are at the nine month.

i know that -- >> i can do that but it might be an off line conversation, but just so you know, those cases are enumerated by case with a summary of exactly that every week. even though behind the scenes with the specific cases and the case numbers, i'm meeting and talking to those investigators and having them summarize what the problem is now. a lot of times, if some of the stuff you are referencing but sometimes it is information that needs to be obtained because they're juvenile records or records from an outside agency that is taking longer or witnesses have been unavailable or on vacation for periods of time. there's any number of reasons and i'm happy to go over them with you as well. it would be difficult to make a public presentation about them. >> vice president elias: i'm just saying when you present the 37 it would be helpful to say

out of the 37, commission, 10 are being held up because we don't have records from sfpd, 10 are held up because of witness availability or what have you. >> and the only reason i don't do that now is that sometimes those reasons are so -- it doesn't bear mentioning the person is on vacation or has been moved from the police department and we haven't figured out who the person is now assigned that is supposed to get us the information and going back and forth causing the delay. there's a lot of stuff that is like that. but, again, to your first point, if we had direct access to records, it would solve a lot of these problems, even though they are understandable delays, they add a block to the efficiency and timeliness but it also raises the issue of having

access that is an ongoing problem. having access to internal affairs records is also part of the problem that has a role to play in our agency or dpa being more efficient. >> vice president elias: and mou presented a few weeks ago, is that something that can be -- i thought it was included but if it isn't, can it be so we can get rid of some of the hurdles and barricades. >> probably. i think some of it is access. people move around so frequently, that is always a big deal. who is it being sent to this week. who is responsible for it now. how did it change? every time something comes up, are they aware there's outstanding requests being made and if not, how do we reengage. it is a big ship to turn.

but i think those conversations are taking place now, and literally every week it becomes more efficient. so, you know, if we really want to address it and make it be most complete and follow the best practices, these are some of the conversations that we're having right now about the efficiencies are the biggest and broadest solutions that would make the biggest change, access to files and body worn cameras, those are three of the top things that influence the majority of the delays that go on in our investigations. >> vice president elias: and then chief i wanted to give you an opportunity to respond to president cohen's invitation to speak and also too, chief, i'm hoping i can get your assurances that you or the staff will have conversations with dpa so we can do away with any barriers in the

exchange of information so both agencies can become efficient and a well-oiled machine. >> thank you commissioner. you do have my assurances on that and those conversations as director henderson said is happening and gets better as he described by the week. my comment on that, i think one of the reasons for that is the structure director henderson has put in place with dpa and it speaks to the founding issues. this work is expensive and often times when particularly budgets get tight, we tend to start throwing things overboard. i would say this, i can say during my time here, the structure in place now has really contributed to forward progress at quicker pace than it

ever has in my time here. i would just say, by way of support, dpa's effectiveness impacts the legitimacy of policing in the city and the more effective they are, i think people are seeing policing. and so my hats off to director henderson and his team. that structure has led to the executive level at each of the departments to working together more efficiently and i know funding was one of the issues weren't probably where they need to be in terms of the funding and i think some of that speaks to dpa's ability to keep in place a structure they have created and really support that and help nurture that. >> vice president elias: i also think it is going to be helpful to have consistency when it

comes to discipline. i think by having the exchange of information between you and dpa really does provide that level of consistency that i think is needed. and also, the whole point of the matrix was to get officers information as to what to expect if these kind of violations occur. i think it also benefits the officer by providing consistency amongst both agencies. i'm very happy to hear that and again, director henderson, congratulations to you and your team. >> thank you so much. >> president cohen: i'm going to keep the conversation moving forward. director henderson, thank you for your presentation. sergeant youngblood?

>> clerk: yes, ma'am. members of the public who would like to make public comment regarding line item 4, please press star 3 now. i see no public comment. >> president cohen: please call the next item. >> clerk: line item 5, intervention and resource program. meet and confer draft approved january 6th, 2021. discussion and possible action. >> reviewed and approve this

meet and confer, unless there's discussion, i would make a motion to approve it now. >> president cohen: motion made by commissioner hamasaki is there a second? >> second. >> president cohen: okay, i have to get used to your voice. second motion made by commissioner yee. and we'll take a roll call vote on that. sorry, do we need public comment? >> clerk: yes, ma'am. for members of the public who would like to make public comment for the general order 11-11 press star 3 now.

>> president cohen: let's do a roll call vote. >> clerk: (roll call) you have six yes's. >> president cohen: motion passes. next item, please. >> clerk: line item 6, public comment related to closed session including item 7, whether to hold item 8 in closed session. for members of the public who would like to make public comment online item 6, press star 3.

looks like we have one public comment. you have two minutes. >> i'm paying careful attention to the remarks made after each item. public comment is -- i have noticed in the past that after somebody makes a public comment, people make remarks. and we can make remarks, too. but we have to maintain some decency. not all the issues that you all discuss are important to us.

it doesn't take a lot of back and forth detailed questioning off line. the argument of two minutes or three minutes to speak, you all should limit your comments to maybe a minute. you all make it boring in the middle of this pandemic. so, often times i'm just listening to you all and i'm monitoring you all. you all make these meetings boring. thank you very much. >> clerk: thank you caller. president cohen, that's the end of public comment. >> president cohen: thank you. let's keep moving forward. next item? >> clerk: line item 7, vote on whether to hold item 8 in closed

section, 67.10 action. >> so moved. >> president cohen: second? >> commissioner brookter, he's always our second. >> i have to unmute myself. >> president cohen: okay. motion made by hamasaki and seconded by brookter. roll call vote? >> clerk: (roll call). you have six yes's. >> president cohen: we're going to go into closed session at

this time. thank you very much. stacy youngblood, are we dismissing any commissioners? >> clerk: we're in closed . >> president cohen: sergeant youngblood, could you call the next item. i think it's item eight. >> clerk: yam. we have -- i'm sorry. line item nine open session. vote to disclose whether any or all discussion out on 8. section administrative code section 1.2a. >> vote for disclosure. >> president cohen: is there a second. motion made by commissioner hamasaki. roll call vote. >> clerk:

[roll call] >> clerk: you have five yeses. >> president cohen: motion passes unanimously. sergeant [inaudible] do we need to take public comment on that? >> clerk: yes, ma'am. >> president cohen: all right. so we should resend the vote and take public comment. >> president cohen: motion to remove the vote. all right. let's go to public comment and then we will take the vote again. >> clerk: for members of the public that would like to make public comment, please press star 3 to raise your hand now.

>> clerk: president cohen, we have no public comment. >> president cohen: thank you. so is there a motion. >> clerk: motion not to disclose. >> president cohen: let's again to the roll call vote. >> clerk: on the motion not to disclose [roll call] >> clerk: you have five yeses. >> president cohen: all right. motion passes. next item. >> clerk: line item 10. adjournment. action item. >> president cohen: all right. any comments? see you then. good night folks. adjourned. happy st. patty's day.

>> bye thank you. >> there has been an acknowledgement of the special places around san francisco bay. well, there is something sort of innate in human beings, i

think, that tend to recognize a good spot when you see it, a spot that takes your breath away. this is one of them. >> an icon of the new deal. >> we stood here a week ago and we heard all of these dignitaries talk about the symbol that coit tower is for san francisco. it's interesting for those of us in the pioneer park project is trying to make the point that not only the tower, not only this man-built edifice here is a symbol of the city but also the green space on which it sits and the hill to which is rests. to understand them, you have to understand the topography of san francisco. early days of the city, the city grows up in what is the financial district on the edge of chinatown. everything they rely on for existence is the golden gate. it's of massive importance to the people what comes in and out of san francisco bay. they can't see it where they are. they get the idea to build a

giant wooden structure. the years that it was up here, it gave the name telegraph hill. it survived although the structure is long gone. come to the 1870's and the city has growed up remarkably. it's fueled with money from the nevada silver mines and the gold rush. it's trying to be the paris of the west. now the beach is the suburbs, the we will their people lived on the bottom and the poorest people lived on the top because it was very hard getting to the top of telegraph hill. it was mostly lean-to sharks and bits of pieces of houses up here in the beginning. and a group of 20 businessmen decided that it would be better if the top of the hill remained for the public. so they put their money down and they bought four lots at the top of the hill and they gave them to the city. lily hitchcock coit died without leaving a specific use

for her bequest. she left a third of her estate for the beautify indication of the city. arthur brown, noted architect in the city, wanted for a while to build a tower. he had become very interested in persian towers. it was the 1930's. it was all about machinery and sort of this amazing architecture, very powerful architecture. he convinced the rec park commission that building a tower in her memory would be the thing to do with her money. >> it was going to be a wonderful observation place because it was one of the highest hills in the city anywhere and that that was the whole reason why it was built that high and had the elevator access immediately from the beginning as part of its features. >> my fear's studio was just down the street steps. we were in a very small apartment and that was our backyard.

when they were preparing the site for the coit tower, there was always a lot of harping and griping about how awful progress was and why they would choose this beautiful pristine area to do them in was a big question. as soon as the coit tower was getting finished and someone put in the idea that it should be used for art, then, all of a sudden, he was excited about the coit tower. it became almost like a daily destination for him to enjoy the atmosphere no matter what the politics, that wasn't the point. as long as they fit in and did their work and did their own creative expression, that was all that was required. they turned in their drawings.

the drawings were accepted. if they snuck something in, well, there weren't going to be any stoolies around. they made such careful little diagrams of every possible little thing about it as though that was just so important and that they were just the big frog. and, actually, no one ever felt that way about them and they weren't considered something like that. in later life when people would approach me and say, well, what did you know about it? we were with him almost every day and his children, we grew up together and we didn't think of him as a commie and also the same with the other. he was just a family man doing normal things. no one thought anything of what he was doing.

some of them were much more highly trained. it shows, in my estimation, in the murals. this was one of the masterpieces. families at home was a lot more close to the life that i can remember that we lived. murals on the upper floors like the children playing on the swings and i think the little deer in the forest where you could come and see them in the woods and the sports that were always available, i think it did express the best part of our lives. things that weren't costing money to do, you would go to a picnic on the beach or you would do something in the woods. my favorite of all is in the staircase. it's almost a miracle

masterpiece how he could manage to not only fit everyone, of course, a lot of them i recognized from my childhood -- it's how he juxtaposed and managed to kind of climb up that stairway on either side very much like you are walking down a street. it was incredible to do that and to me, that is what depicted the life of the times in san francisco. i even like the ones that show the industrial areas, the once with the workers showing them in the cannery and i can remember going in there and seeing these women with the caps, with the nets shuffling these cans through. my parents had a ranch in santa rosa and we went there all summer. i could see these people leaning over and checking. it looked exactly like the

beautiful things about the ranch. i think he was pretty much in the never look back philosophy about the coit. i don't think he ever went to visit again after we moved from telegraph hill, which was only five or six years later. i don't think he ever had to see it when the initials are scratched into everything and people had literally destroyed the lower half of everything. >> well, in my view, the tower had been pretty much neglected from the 1930's up until the 1980's. it wasn't until then that really enough people began to be alarmed about the condition of the murals, the tower was leaking. some of the murals suffered wear damage. we really began to organize getting funding through the arts commission and various other sources to restore the

murals. they don't have that connection or thread or maintain that connection to your history and your past, what do you have? that's one of the major elements of what makes quality of life in san francisco so incredible. when people ask me, and they ask me all the time, how do you get to coit tower, i say you walk. that's the best way to experience the gradual elevation coming up above the hustle and bustle of the city and finding this sort of oasis, if you will, at the top of the hill. when i walk through this park, i look at these brick walls and this lawn, i look at the railings around the murals. i look at the restoration and i think, yeah, i had something to do with that. learning the lessons, thank

you, landmarks meet landmarks. the current situation at pioneer park and coit tower is really based in public and private partnership. it was the citizens who came together to buy the land to keep it from being developed. it was lily hitchcock coit to give money to the city to beautify the city she loved of the park project worked to develop this south side and still that's the basis of our future project to address the north side. light for our city streets illuminating our ideas and values starting in 2016 the san francisco public utilities commission is xhoefl that light with new led with the did i audits for better light for

streets and pedestrian and they're even better for this vitally lasting longer and consuming up to 50 percent less energy upgrading takes thirty minutes remove the old street light and repeat 18 thousand 5 hundred times while our street lights will be improving the clean energy will remain the same every san francisco street light is powder by 100 percent godfathers hetch hetchy power in one simple word serious as day turns

. >> mark, would you please take the roll? >> clerk: sure. [roll call] >> all right. >> next item is the approval of the minutes of the health commission meeting of march 2, 2021. mark, before we go forward, do we have any information to share? >> yes. commissioner christian has asked for several revisions. on page 10,