constituents and the rest i have submit. >> clerk: thank you, supervisor. supervisor walton. >> thank you so much, colleagues, today i formally request legislation along with supervisors safai, main oh melgar and stefani, to expand chapter 12x and the city administrative code prohibiting city travel and contracting in states that allow discrimination to include voter suppression laws, such as the one that was passed in the state of georgia on march 25th. the current chapter 12 prohibits city travel and contracting in states that allow discrimination against lgbtq individuals and anti abortion laws. this legislation will expand that to include laws that

restrict vote fres exercising their voting rights. we try to make our elections as accessible and possible by opening early voting and at city hall and vote by mail ballot last year in the middle of a pandemic and providing drop off boxes in every district including all precincts on election day. georgia's new voting law is a clear attempt to make it harder for back people and people of color to exercise their rights to vote. throughout history, there's been efforts to restrict people of color from vote north this country and we have another example of that. this is a threat to democracy

and here are some of the restrictions, voters will have less time to request absentee ballots. there are strict new i.d. requirements for voting and residents when need a georgia-issued photo i.d. it is now illegal for election officials to mail in app ot applications for our vetters. they have to request it themselves. early voting sex pannedded in small coun tease and not in populous coun tease and offering food or water to voters wait north line is now a misdemeanor. if a voter goes to the wrong polling place, it will be even harder to vote. if election problems arise, which is a common occurrence,

it's difficult to extend voting hours. changes to vote counting procedures, and the secretary of state is now removed as a voting member of the state election board. the state legislature is empowered to suspend county election officials and hire and fire to their content. there's also less time between run off elections. as a city, we should not be putting cities first through travel and contracting to states that actively create laws to make it harder to vote. i'm looking forward to drafting this legislation with my colleagues and to take a stand with san francisco to protect our democracy against voter suppression. we are back in jim crow with the laws in the state of georgia and we have other states that will

are pushing for similar measures to keep people from having the opportunity to vote. the rest i submit. >> clerk: thank you mr. president. seeing no names on the roster, that's the end of new business. >> thank you so much, madam clerk. we are now at public comment. >> all right. at this time, the board members welcome your general comment. the telephone number is scrolling on your screen. entering the meeting i.d. press pound twice skull have joined the meeting. you will hear the discussion and muted in the listening queue. provide your comments press star 3 and you will hear this system prompt you and you have been unmuted and just begins speaking

your comments. if you are multi tasking when you are wait to provide comments, you may leave the line unattended and when we get to you, if it is silent, we troy to circle back but it's best that you are on the line when we troy to receive your public comment. each call ler have two minutes and i believe we have our interpreters with us and operations can we have the first caller, please. i understand we have 12 listeners and eight in the queue. >> welcome, caller. >> hello. >> welcome. >> is it my turn? >> yes, ma'am. >> hi. good afternoon, board of supervisors. my name is jennifer chung and on behalf of global alliance for preserving the history of world

war ii in asia, ga in short, i want to vis our strong support on the resolution denouncing the article contracting for sacks in the pacific ward written by jay mark from harvard law school when reunites the history of sexual i am placement of hundreds of thousands of women in the japan imperial army during the pacific war. in spite of testimony official court records and japanese documents proofing the comfort women's system was conceive, organized in demonstrated by the japan imperial army and the girls and women from china, korea, japan, the philippines and the dutch indes were deceived, coerced and forced to work at that place. professor played a shameful road in japanese governments game of denialism. this is not surprising in the view of the fact that professor

is a professor of japanese legal study at harvard law school. and he was the major japanese defense contracting during world war ii. they urged san francisco board of it uphold the 200,000 plus victims of the system and denounced the article contracting for sex in the pacific war written by jay mark ramsey in harvard law school. thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak up. >> clerk: thank you for your comments this evening. operations, do we have another caller in the queue, please? >> caller: linda chapman. well, if there's a hearing on public housing conditions i hope i hear about them. i was living in the poorest black neighborhood in buffalo, some of my friends lived in the

public house interesting and there and they hadbeautiful homn in the places maintained by buffalo erie county. later, about 20 some years ago, i attitudes go to hunters point to deal with discrimination complaints in e.o. and the 19 bus would go through the housing projects and i was in horror, you know, if you have never seen the conditions in which people in the city of san francisco were forced to live by the city, you know, it's indescribable. i can only say that i am seeing films of the backcountry of jamaica where the descendants of the maroons lived in isolation and where bob marley said his grandmother would tell him, if you are hungry just drink some water and go to sleep. i can't see anything there that looks as horrible as what was maintained by our city. so, i really thank you for considering having some hearings

on that subject.

>> and it's they have called me and prostitutes and (inaudible). >> however, supervisors at this time, customers in support of and the sign of -- >>

to move forward. >> it's another step they do not

want to address our issues with a sincere apology. >> it's been 30 years since we have struggled. >> thank you so much. >> clerk: thank you for your public comment. ok. operations, do we have another caller in the queue, please? perhaps the caller has left the line unattended. caller, are you there? >> caller: hello. i would like to support supervisor walton to introduce

this resolution. and i would like to say that it's astounding, it's outrageous, that the paper, which argues that a trafficked child is a self-interested theo reddick business contractor is somehow being -- that somehow, that there their supervisors were trying to water down this resolution and carry water for the denialists. i think it's absolutely important to pass the resolution in its totality. i do not believe it's eth cam, , moral or right to delete any part of the resolution. that would be carrying water for the denialers. thank you. >> clerk: thank you for your

comments. i understand we have 13 listeners and seven callers in the queue. let's welcome the next caller, please. >> good afternoon, president walton and supervisors. my name is brian and i am walk san francisco division zero and walk san francisco strongly supports the two state assembly bills ab43 and ab550 and these two resolutions coming up that address speed and dangerous driving behavior and we ask you do too. right now our transportation system is failing us. it's unfathomable that 30 people died in traffic crashes last year even more than the year before and we had many people out on the streets and many fewer people driving on our streets. we have five people walk hog lost their lives from 12-year-old in the bayview to a

26-year-old father going on a jog. these are all lives cut short and completely preventable and the number one pause of traffic crashes that kill or seriously, that injury san franciscans is speed. speed and drivers. it makes crashes much more likely and makes them much more dangerous when they do happen and we have tools within our reach but not yet in our toolbox. it would allow flexibility for how we set speed limits and businesses districts and speed limits could be based on safety not the speed of some of our fastest drivers. and ab550 would establish an equity and data driven process to allow cities that like san francisco to test out speed safety programs on our dangerous streets and the neighborhoods that see the highest number of traffic deaths. these are used in 100 communities across the nation and we know they can bring down

the number of severe crashes by 58%. we will continue to push for policies and tools to save lives and reach vision zero like these and supervisor chan for bringing those forward and next resolution and we ask your support before these resolutions to items 29 and 30. thank you. >> clerk: thank you for your comments. operations do we have another caller in the queue, please? >> hi, i'm a japanese american member of the san francisco barrie community who is lived attended schooled and work for many years in san francisco and community organization who has worked for many decades on unfinished business of reparations for world war ii violations as civil liberties and human rights. i serve on the executive

committee and the justice coalition in san francisco campaign and we have for japanese and latin americans and strong support of this resolution denouncing the article and i call on the board to pass this resolution in its entirety this resolution and danger presented by to deny and divert responsibility for japan's wartime atrocities and historians and game theorists have signed letters and attest to go the scholarship and conclusions which fly in the face of the historical research and testimony and i commend the sponsors of this resolution and for denialism and confronted with it and for taking action to expos to such fake expertise and this resolution also reaffirms

the commitment of this board of supervisors to the legacy established by the previous ward and to upholding the truth, dignity and justice for the world war ii comfort women and to defend our against all camps to diminish or destroy by individual group and action. the understanding and especially for the peoples of asia-pacific and america here in san francisco and if he with do not learn from our history we cannot have a peaceful future. i call on the board to pass this resolution in its entirety without the amendment today. thank you. >> thank you for your comments. operations, do we have another caller in the queue, please. >> hi, my name is judith and i'm

the president of the comfort women justice coalition. i want to thank the board of supervisors the present board and our past board for their leadership in the area and defense of the hundreds of thousands of women and girls who are sexually lived by the japanese imperial army during world war ii. you may not realize it but actually your actions have head for the comfort of women and this can be continued today with your resolution condemning the might you bue she at harrard university who wrote the paper that people have referred to and unfortunately, we're living in an era of rape denialism for history and real fake news and

this paper is one of those. it's essential for us to stop this trend and you can do so today and lead the country in actually condemning the paper and continuing the great commitment to ending gender violence in the past, the present and the future. >> thank you. >> thank you for your comments. we have 13 listeners and seven callers in the queue. operations, let's hear from the next caller, please. >> caller: good afternoon, i'm calling to ask this body to vote unanimously in support of ab 854 ellis reform.

i did look at the rent board reports on evictions qi have been filed over the past five years which totals 743 up through march of 2020 and that's about 2,300 people that have lost their homes and i also know that two of my -- 11 of my neighbors have received evictions and in june of last year as well as february of this year. these are all seniors. these are people who will lose their community, their homes and especially when they both need and depend on the services that are nearby and the friends that are nearby and this is during a pandemic. the owners of these buildings

had bought and given out the notices of eviction within six months in one case, one year in another case and it is not the mom and pop senior landlords that are doing this rather, it's speculators and it is a matter of in talking with a number of older italian north beach landlords who have been sold their buildings because they wanted to get out of the representatival business and wanted buy a small piece of land with a small house on it and they have felt detrade because they did ask the buyers of their buildings to make sure that they would not evict tenants and they now are feeling great remorse and that sense of betrayal and so we need to stop this -- >> i apologize if i'm cutting anyone off. we're setting the timer for two

minutes. so operations, can we hear if from the next caller, please. >> hello, i'm michael wong the vice president of the san francisco chapter of veterans for peace. and i'm calling to support the resolution condemning professor ramseyer for his thoughts, papers alleging that the comfort women of world war ii were pay prostitutes who were well paid and well treated and it's completely thought. they were sex slaves and 90% of them died in captivity because they were raped, tortured and murdered in some cases. this is a moral question. it's not a question of pleasing different constituents sees or political calculations or anything like that. it's a question of will you

oppose war crimes or will you not? i urge the board of supervisors to pass this resolution without delay and in its entirety. >> clerk: thank you for your comments. let's hear from the next caller, please. i believe we've five in the queue. >> if you want to -- >> caller: this is barrie toronto. i want to echo the concerns of president walton regarding access to golden gate park as well the concerns of the supervisor district 11. i am very much concerned and the access for tourists as a taxi driver i was in the north part and i was given a request to go to the academy of sciences and i did not have a way of accessing it from that side so i rejected

the call because after 20 minutes of trying to get there and find out the passengers left, would not be a very -- make me happy and a waste of my time because a few minutes later i got a call of 23 and california and got there in less than two minutes so i very much support the issues raised in the editorial and i would hope the other supervisors pass a resolution asking that they provide a better way of providing us a slow street in the park at the same time providing access to senior disabled and tourist who's cannot ride a bike across town or shouldn't be required to ride a bike across town or spend an hour and a half on a bus. i want to say that it's nice to tell you that lum barred street and stockton street in chinatown are very nicely paved streets now and you ought to check it

out as well. thank you very much for your time. >> thank you for your comments. we have four callers in the queue and we have 13 listening if you are one of the 13 and would you like to make public comment this evening, make sure you press star 3 and we may take this last grouping to the very end. next caller, please. >> caller: i already spoke. next caller, operations. welcome, caller.

>> hello, this is jay bain aim a resident calling into vis my support for the supervisors' resolutions for support of assembly bill 43 and assembly bill 550. this is the assembly bills are critical in saving lives on our streets and coming up with a new system for berman aging traffic and moving away from armed police and forcing for which we don't have enough resources and there's a pen den see towards bias and policeing and i hope that the supervisors will continue to share the cities concerns with the state and our city wide support for these bills. thank you, i'm done speaking. >> thank you for joining us this evening. thank you for your comments. operations, let's hear from the next caller, please.

>> thank you, am i on the line? >> clerk: yes, you are. >> let me con great late you for your forward positions on many issues on social justice and my name is mike honda and i'm calling in full support of the resolution item 35 and relative to the resolution to criticize and condemn the from on the east coast and i just wanted to add a couple of things in 2015, then the prime minister put into his federal budget 70 billion which

is $500 million to fight this issue in this country so that is the background of some of the issues that are emerging in this country where they're trying to change our position on asking for a legal apology from japanese government and so, i'm in great support of resolution and its entirety and not to eliminate any portion of that resolution and i portion of the resolution as to be omitted or been asked to be omitted is relative to the san francisco mayor of japan who threaten our mayor edwin lee and and asking him to not support the effort for a memorial in san francisco.

the mayor had ignored him also and now san francisco as a memorial and a position against sexual slavely and the san francisco is the largest city currently that has put themselves forward to ask the mandate. >> thank you for joining thus evening and for comments. apologies cutting you off, sir. we're sitting the timer for two minutes this evening. operations, i believe we have another caller in the queue. >> caller: hello. thank you. my name is lillian sing and i want to thank all of you for listening to all of us speak about the resolution and this resolution means so much to us.

my heart aches when i heard grandma lee speak. grandma lee is one of the few women who still are articulate enough to speak about what happened in the past and what is happening today and why it's so important to pass resolutions like this and i know that some board members are interested to know about why we are doing this. wore doing this for history and justice but i know our board has a big heart and i want to urge the board to pass the resolution in its entirety and not change or delete any portion of it and the way it is related to hash emo toe is important because the resolution passed by this beautiful city in 2013 and to believe that portion will be to deny san fan board of history.

the person that spoke earlier. michael honda. who offered house resolution 121 and urging congress to ask japan to apologize. he is a jam knees american and we as human beings, not japanese americans, chinese americans, white americans, women, men, all want to support this resolution and its entirety. please do not amend the resolution. pass it in this entirety and for grandma lee and for all those women. by the way, there were over hundreds of thousands of those women captured and enslaved and today, there are less than 50 in the world and they're waiting for you to give them justice in some way of hope that people

like a mark can often spread lies and deny the truth. thank you so much. >> thank you, judge singh. i believe we have 12 listeners and one caller in the cue. if you are one of the 12 and you expect to make public comment, you must press star 3 now otherwise we'll take this final caller to the end. operations, next caller, please. >> caller: hello, good evening, everyone, i live in district 1 and wow, that was my caller. i'm calling in regards to items 29 and 30 and ab43 freedman and ab550 with david chiu and both of huge and save lives and i hope in san francisco we can lead in northern california and especially to get ab550 passed.

thank you so much for the call and have a great night. >> operations do we have another call ner the queue, please. >> hello. >> caller: am i on? >> clerk: yes, ma'am, you are, welcome. >> my name is julie tan, i live in district 2. i wanted to thank supervisor walton for his courageous action to introduce this resolution and all the supervisors who co-sponsored it and supported in its entirety without any amendments. asia is facing unprecedented violence and hate. seven chinese and korean women were murdered three weeks ago because a man had a bad day and he also had sex problems. because these asian women worked in a massage spa they were den

greated and shamed and blamed. people like hash emo toe should not be protected by anyone to obvious for the cap knees office. we urge all to take a higher look and recognize the denialism and how it pervaiz even to this days and the fact that how we feel about asians and i urge you all to pass the resolution in its entirety and we need to condemn and ridiculous and of japan's world war ii and by deleting a graph passing a resolution condemning similar denial makes no sense and it's a naive notion to suggest such deletion would avoid asian division and this is a same tactic used by denialist and we tried to build a memorial and with dispute and encourage japan bashing and it turns out to be a complete farce because what happens when the asian unity,

among the larger chinese community and japanese community is stronger and firmer and after the san francisco enlist in strong. this is an esteemed form and we know you are going to do the right thing so this is a truly unique board as judith said, make history, it can make changes for the rest of the world and lead the world in ways that into other board in the united states can do. thank you supervisors, thank you each and every one of you. i urge you to support this resolution without any amendments. thank you so much. >> clerk: thank you, judge tang. ok. operations, do we have another caller in the queue, please? welcome, caller.

welcome, caller. we can hear you. you must turn down your television. we can hear and you it's your turn it provide your public comment. ma'am, now is your opportunity. it's your turn. welcome. >> caller: yes. is it my turn? >> clerk: yes, it is, welcome. >> caller: ok. thank you. so, thank you so much for this opportunity. my name is meho kim. i'm a u.s. citizen and 20 years in san francisco. however i was born and raised in

japan and to this day i have the rest of my entire family living in japan and one thing i want today respectfully request is that you unequivocally stand by this resolution from all history textbooks instead of one in japan. the prominent national political common tater has basically proclaimed the history world in

japan has been won. the next battleground for us is the united states. and i believe it's no coincidence from one of the most prestigious universities in the world the author has published an article that basically will tote the claims made by the japanese government, with regard to its wartime history. this really is a big step in legit mating their claims publicly and in defiance of basically a consensus tracked of historians around the world who have done the tireless work and listening to testimonies and if this history.

>> ma'am, i must interrupt you there. apologies. that was two minutes. we are setting the timer for two minutes. thank you for joining us this evening and providing. >> add ma'am clerk, that completes the queue. >> i'm not sure -- >> clerk: that concludes public comment. >> thank you so much, madam clerk. and seeing no more speakers from the public, public comment is now closed. madam clerk, would you please call the items for adoption without committee reference. items 29-36, we will be coming back to the closed session after we vote on item 36.

>> items 29 through 36 were produced for adoption and without leverage to committee a unanimous vote is required today and alternatively any members may require a resolution to go to committee. >> thank you, colleagues, would you like to sever any items? i see supervisors safai. >> can we officer item number 34, please. >> supervisor chan. >> i would like to sever item 29 and item -- i lost track. my apologies president walton. items 29 and 35 please.

>> thank you. supervisor mar. >> thank you. i just want to request a co-sponsor items 29-35 and apologize for doing this so late. i thought i co-sponsored some earlier. >> thank you, supervisor mar. madam clerk, please call the roll for items 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, and 36. >> clerk: i believe 34 was severed by supervisor safai. >> my apologies. >> clerk: so for items 30, 31, 32, 33 and 36. supervisor chan. >> aye. >> have haney. >> aye. >> supervisor mandelman. >> aye.

>> supervisor mar. >> aye. >> supervisor melgar. >> aye. >> supervisor peskin. >> aye. >> supervisor preston. >> aye. >> supervisor ronen. >> aye. >> supervisor safai. >> aye. >> supervisor stefani. >> aye. >> and supervisor walton. >> aye. >> there are 11 ayes. >> thank you, madam clerk. and the item has all of these resolutions are adopted unanimously. madam clerk, would you please call item number 29. >> item 29, a resolution to support item 43 by assembly member laura freeman and david chew and bill quirk and co author by assembly member tasha boner-horwath that would implement policy recommendations

from the california transportation agency and outlined in the zero traffic fayality onsetting speed limits on safety. >> thank you madam clerk. supervisor chan. >> thank you, president walton. i just want to make a brief comment and thank additional co-sponsors that is not listed on our agenda today. this bill authored by member state assembly member laura freed man is really critical allowing a local authority for us to implement speed limits. currently the state speed limits are set based on a decade-old process where traffic surveyors would measure the speed drivers and driving at and set the speed limit to what 85% drivers were driving at. we desperately need to be able

to really address this issue of vision zero in san francisco and one of the critical ways that we can do that is really to lower people limits on our streets, especially on the streets with high injuries and fatalities. so, i want to thank my co-sponsors supervisors preston, ronen, mandelman and haney and melgar in addition to what is listed on the agenda and thank you so much for your support on this resolution. >> please call the roll on item 29. [roll call vote]

>> clerk: which creates by imposing a five-year holding period before the ellis act can

be used. supervisor safai. >> thank you, colleagues and i don't think he need to explain the importance of this legislation to any of you. this is something put forward last year. it's extremely important. it's a very modest proposal. just for the record, 78% of all ellis act evictions occur within the first five years of ownership or someone purchasing the property. if we were to pass this at the state level, and i want to really appreciate some alex lee and our state delegation as co authored by assemblyman david chew, phil tinge, and it has the full support of senator scott wiener as well. i think this is a updated attempt and we've seen ellis act

it's just been extremely extremely impactful. 30% of those that are ellis acting are those that do it on a habitual access to buy property so by impose north five-year period we think it would be the right way to go and it has tremendous impact on seniors and those in the disabled community and all of whom have come forward and made this a top, top

priority. also i want to appreciate the co-sponsors. supervisor walton, mandelman, chan, peskin, haney, melgar, mar, ronen, preston, all for your support on and co-sponsorship of this important resolution and thank you and hopefully this time around, under the new circumstances, that so many of us have witnessed this will passat the e state level. >> president walton: thank you, supervisor melgar. >> thank you president walton. i wanted to be added as a co-sponsor and we've got it. thank you. >> president walton: thank you. supervisor preston. >> thank you press walton.

glad to see this back in sack ra men co and really wanted to recognize the really long track record of one of our other colleagues supervisor peskin, just around ellis act evictions trying to reign them in and just appreciating his decades of work on this when i was ellis act inconvictions and he was consist inly really incredible work at the state level by former senator mark leno and including

committee of san francisco and union and in particular, which sent huge numbers of tenants to sacramento and busloads of their members turned out and this was a major priority. also i want to acknowledge the wait mayor ed lee and jeff buckley who worked tirelessly to advance the first time around with senator leno and also the team at supervisor safai just mentioned and economic and were

involved in these efforts. part of the reason i bring up some of the history, this bill passes the california senate last time around in 2014 by one vote. it was deep into the evening hours and they were able to twist these arms necessary and to get the final it died by a single vote and the campaign against it was remarkably dis honeddist and we expect nothing different this time around and none of the facts really mattered in the assembly housing committee at that time where really fox were the argument argumentswere thrown out with wd

with republican to kill this bill in 2014 in the assembly housing committee, joined with the republican members and the real estate industry. one of those democrats, sharon quirk silva is on the assembly housing committee today and someone i hope will take a different view to this legislation this time around. and one other thing that's different is that assembly member chiu is now one of the co authors here and sharing that committee. i spent time defending against ellis act convictions. despite the industry propaganda, these are not about helping the landlord move no their property. it's allowed under any city

including san francisco and as an owner move in eviction and it has nothing to do with the ellis act. they're about circumventing locally conviction protections and these evictions are about replacing low income people with high-income people and making money for real estate speculators for their lawyers and for their real stores and i wanted to just emphasize one other thing n.2014, when we did this the first time, working with the anti eviction mapping process we had a research report, entitled the speculate or loophole. some of the data from that is what you hear cited and support of these efforts today. and i want to credit aaron mcllroy and jennifer fever who works in supervisor melgar's office including amy english for their work meticulously reviewing every eviction filings

and the gov anywhere and the state legislature have allowed ellis act evictions to continue unabated. we've been calling for the governor to issues a moratorium on ellis evictions which he has refused to do and some of you will recall, in this body, when the mayor was before us for my first question time, on the board of supervisors, i asked the mayor to join in pushing the governor to issue such a ban which he agreed to do. all local officials are in support of it but these evictions continue and sacramento is beholden to the real estate industry but one thank that changed, that the threat of ellis act eviction is no longer contained to a few

cities like it was in 2014. there's growing momentum with state ten at protections and grown local movements in cities across the state so the threat posed by ellis act abuse impacts more people which is going to impact and increase pressure on state representatives so i strongly support this resolution and i appreciate assembly members lee and chiu and tinge and bloom for taking this on and again, thank you supervisor safai and thank you to most importantly to the california tenant movement and the san francisco tenant movement as faster years and continues to organize around this crucial issue and let's hope this is the year that we went in sacramento. >> thank you, supervisor preston. madam clerk, please call the roll on item 34. >> clerk: on item 34 -- [roll call vote]

>> clerk: there are 11 ayes. >> president walton: thank you. this resolution is sa adopted unanimously. madam clerk, please call item 35. >> clerk: item 35 is the resolution to denounce the article contracting for sex in the pacific war, written by jay mark ramsayer of the japanese legal studies which denies sexual enslavement of the hundreds of thousands of women

by the japanese imperial army during the pacific war. >> president walton: thank you madam clerk. colleagues, i would just first of all like to thank the comfort women justice coalition retired judges lillian sing and tang for their advocacy on this important issue recognizing the history and trauma of the sexual enslavement of the hundreds of thousands of women by the japanese imperial army during the pacific war. i would also like to thank co-sponsors supervisors mill gar, peskin, safai, mandelman, ronen, haney and mar for supporting this resolution. this resolution is to condemn the article contracting for sex in the pacific war, written by jay mark ramseyer a professor from the japanese legal department at harvard law school which denies this history

despite it's acknowledged by the international community, historical records, historical research, and primary testimony from women who have experienced this trauma. mr. jay mark ramseyer is not backed by any historical facts in his article or creditable documentation and his article is a clear case of historical denial. it further ignores and minimizes the gap like the incidents of gender, sex trafficking and all increasing in the world today. this type of historical denialism makes it more difficult against women and deny survivors and sexual servitude and sexual violence and what they deserve and supervisor

chan. >> thank you so much president walton and i want to thank you for your leadership on this resolution. colleagues, i think this one is rather personal for me and i want to be able to share with you my personal story if you may indulge me to share with you about my comments on this resolution. i was born in hong kong and i grew up in kai wan where i have my elementary school education and with that background, some of you may understand that i, on a personal level, have experience and understand very much about the cruelty of world war 2 in relations to the

japanese occupation in china and in taiwan and those are the stories that i was told by just grand parents of my close friends and the stories that stay with me growing up and comfort women is one of those stories that stay with me as a young girl. growing up living in anxiety, fear and understanding of how women i. asian women, were treated and those types of treatment lingered and perpetuate through generations and even long after the war ended and therefore this is personal. when i learned about the.

>> aarti: cal, the anger that i experienced having someone else to tell us what our history is about and troy to erase the pain and the suffering of generations of asian women in asia and that action was despicable and i am a strong supporter of this resolution condemning the article. and at the same time, you know, we also are as asian-americans, in especially in recent months but i think for generations of asian americans because i now came here at first generation immigrants with when i was 13-years-old so, i spent most of my life here in the united

states and "grew up learning more and more about asian and -- well aapi americans' history in san francisco and state of california and the united states. i understand the pain and suffering together as a community. it doesn't matter whether we are chinese american, korean american or japanese american, we are viewed as asian and when there are hate on us, it doesn't matter. where our ancestors came from or which asian countries they came from. and with that, with that i understand that they were concerns about certain classes of this resolution and i wanted to hear all my constituents and while i am chinese american and first generation immigrant. i know and i'm fluent in chinese

speak particular well and deeply rooted in china towns and my chin he's american heritage. i also now one of the very few asian american elect inside san francisco. not only it's my responsibility that i represent chinese americans during this time, especially this time during pandemic, that hate against asians on the rise i represent all asian-americans in san francisco. and i bear that responsibility and i understand that responsibility is solely on me. with that, i heard, you know, probably some of you have seen the e-mails coming from a very long japanese american leader sandy more and i respect her a lot, not just because she's asian-american leader but really all the contributions that she's made in our community and i want to here her and her perspective and the japanese-american leaders that she may be representing as well.

that very point of view. with that said, i do understand again like i said, that burden is on me and me alone. and i have former supervisor eric mar, my pred assess to be reached out to me the clause that was a concern which is pointing to the resolution that was passed in 2019 -- 2013, related to the osaka mayor remarks. this resolution was authored by eric mar who reached out to me and i know this is a hard work that he has done. i want to be respectful of that and also of course, you know, you have heard the public comment including statements from former congressman mike honda and the judges who are partners of the women coalition. and with that, i do not ever

want to bring colleagues for you to share my version in that perspective therefore, i wanted to respect the resolution as is. however, respectfully, i know that it's listed me as a co-sponsor. i respectfully withdraw my co-sponsorship of this resolution and trust me, that this decision comes with very heavy hearts. and that is not easy for me but i do understand that what it means to represent not just chinese americans but asian americans and to understand that for us to move this forward, what that means, however, obviously i am with the spirit of this resolution, even though largely i have problems with the language really is the semantics of it that i will be supporting it wholeheartedly as this

resolution condemning ramseyer's article today. thank you and i appreciate colleagues, you giving me this time to speak on this resolution. >> president walton: thank you so much, supervisor chan. madam clerk, please call the roll on item number 36. >> clerk: on item 35, i believe, mr. president. on item 35 -- [roll call vote]

>> clerk: there are 11 ayes. >> president walton: thank you, this resolution is adopted unanimously. madam clerk, now that we have approved the motion to convene, would you please call closed session item number 28. >> clerk: item 28, is the board of supervisors in closed session convening for the purpose of con furring with or receiving advice from the city attorney regarding the existing litigation in which the city is defendant and appellant american beverage association california retailers association and california state outdoor advertising association, versus the city and county of san francisco. >> president walton: thank you so much, madam clerk.

and for members of the public still here with us, the board will be leaving this regular meeting and convening in closed session. we will return after our deliberations, thank you. [ closed session ]

>> chair haney:real returning back to open session for our regular people sick 2021 more don't supervisors meeting . may i have a motion from one of my colleagues that the board finds it is in the best interest of the public at the board elect not todisclose thi closed session . >> so moved . >> moved. >> moved by supervisor safai. seconded by supervisor peskin. madamclerk would you please call the role . [roll call vote]

>> there are 11 aye. >> we will not disclose our deliberations. we have no imperative agenda items . would you least read the n memorial. >> on behalf of supervisor mar, ronen and melgar for thomas

o'connor and on behalf of supervisors mandelman, peskin and stephanie, on behalf of supervisor melgar for the late patrick o'donoghue.on behalf of supervisor peskin for the late richard o kim and for the late ... on behalf of supervisor peskin for robert guillaume and on behalf of supervisor ronen or the late king lie. >> thank you madam clerk and this brings us to the end of our agenda. madam clerk, isthere any other business before us today ? >> that concludes the business for today. >> in our continuing focus on being united as a board of supervisors and as a city and as acounty and as a world i bring you these two brief quotes . unity is strength when thereis

teamwork and collaboration . wonderful things can be achieved by mattie stepanek. we must be united in heart and mind. one world, onepeople . being there is no further business, we are adjourned.

>> good afternoon. welcome to the april 6, 2021 regular meeting of the san francisco board of supervisors. madam clerk, will you please call the roll? >> thank you, mr. president. supervisor chan. >> present. >> supervisor haney. >> a present. >> haney, present. >> supervisor mandelman. >> present. >> mandelman, present. >> a supervisor mar. >> present. >> supervisor melgar? okay. supervisor peskin? >> present. >> peskin, present. >> supervisor preston? >> a present. >> preston, present. >> supervisor ronen? >> ronen, present. >> supervisor safai? >> present. >> safai, present. supervisor stefani? >> present.

>> stefani, present. supervisor walton? >> present. >> and melgar? melgar, not present. mr. president, you have a quorum. >> thank you so much, madam clerk. the san francisco board of supervisors acknowledges that we are on the unseated ancestral homeland of the original inhabitants of the san francisco peninsula. as indigenous stewards of this land and in accordance with their tradition, they have never ceded, lost, nor forgotten their responsibilities as the care takeers of this place as well as all peoples who preside in this traditional territory.

we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. we wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the ancestors, elders and relatives of the ramatoush aloni community and by affirming their sovereign rights as first peoples. colleagues, please place your hand on your heart and join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america. and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. on behalf of the board, i would like to acknowledge the staff at sfgov tv who record each of our meetings and make the transcripts available to the public online. madam clerk, are there any communications? >> clerk: yes, mr. president.

thank you. the minutes will reflect that board members participate in this remote meeting through video conference to the same extent as though physically present in their legislative chamber. the board recognizes that public access to city services is essential and invite public participation in the following ways. please send your written correspondence to be made a part of the appropriate legislative file. send by u.s. mail to the san francisco board of supervisors, 1 dr. karlton b. goodlett place, city hall, room 244, san francisco, california, 94102. you are also able to send us an email to bos@sfgov.org. the meeting is being live streamed at www.sfgovtv.org. on your television, you can watch sfgov tv's award winning

channel 26. and when you are ready to provide public comment, make sure to turn down your television and listen from your touch phone to avoid the signal delay. that way you will be in live sync to listen to the proceedings and to provide your public comment. the telephone number is streaming 415-655-0001. when you hear the prompt t meeting i.d. is (187) 347-6894. press pound twice and then you will have joined the meeting as a listener. once you are ready to provide public comment, you should press star 3. listen carefully for the prompt "you have been unmuted" and begin speaking your communities. that is meeting access 101. and now just a few words pertaining to the agenda content that is eligible for public comment. today we have a special order public hearing noticed to begin no earlier than 3:00 p.m. that

is the board's consideration of item 21. the appointment of a public health officer. item 27 is general public comment where you may comment on the items within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board but do not appear on the agenda. and two sets of agenda noticed minutes. you may also speak on items 29 through 36. to approve the items on the without reference to committee calendar. i want to specifically call out item 36. that is whether or not the board should enter into the closed session that is scheduled at the end of the meeting on existing litigation with the american beverage association, the california retailers association, and the california state outdoor advertising association regarding sugary drinks. all other agenda content on the agenda has had a public comment requirement satisfied in committee.

in special partnership with the office of civic engagement and immigrant affairs, we have caring interpreters with us today who know their craft and will jump in and assist speakers with their language interpretation needs. i will ask each interpreter to please introduce themselves and the service they provide. we have spanish, chinese, and filipino. welcome. [speaking in spanish]

>> clerk: thank you, all, for being with us today and for your service.

finally, mr. president, i want to let the public know if they are having any trouble connecting to the meeting remotely, we do have a live person standing by to assist them throughout the duration at 415-554-5184. thank you. that concludes this communication. >> thank you so much, madam clerk. i want to thank our interpreters for their support today and for all of our board of supervisors meetings. before we get started, just a friendly reminder, colleagues, please mute your microphones when you are not speaking in order for us to avoid aid audio feedback. we are at the approval of the minutes. today we are approving meeting minutes from february 23, 2021 and the march 12, 2021 regular board meetings. i don't see any changes or questions to the meeting minutes. seeing none, madam clerk, please

call for the roll. i apologize. could i have a motion to approve the minutes. >> so moved, mr. president. >> thank you, supervisor preston. i need a second. >> i see supervisor pes kin with his hand raised, mr. president. >> thank you, supervisor peskin. i wasn't able to see you. moved by supervisor preston and seconded by supervisor peskin to i a prove the minutes for both meetings. >>en o the minutes, supervisor chan. >> aye. >> chan, aye. [roll call on approval of agenda minutes]

without objection, the nibs minutes will be approved. please call the consent agenda items 1-9. clerk lr>> clerk: items 1-9 are on the consent agenda. >> thank you, colleagues. i don't see anyone wishing to sever any item. with that said, madam clerk, call the roll. [roll call on consent agenda]

there are 11 aye's. >> thank you. without objection, these ordinances are passed on first or final reading. and the resolution is adopting unanimously. madam clerk, please call item 10. item 10 is an ordinance to appropriate $15 million of property tax revenue to the department of children, youth, and their families for youth learning initiatives in fiscal

year 2020-2021. >> president: thank you, madam clerk. i don't see anyone on the roster. >> sorry, president walton. i didn't get here fast enough to put my name on. can i speak? >> president: of course, supervisor ronen. that is why i was talking slow. >> supervisor: thank you so much. i noticed that. i was wondering if we could continue this item for another 15 minutes. director maria sioux from the department of children and youth wanted to be here to answer any questions regarding this item, and she is not available until 2:30. >> thank you, supervisor ronen. madam clerk, let's continue item 10 to later in the meeting. >> clerk: that is fine, mr. president. >> president: thank you so much. let's go on to item 11. >> clerk: item 11 is an

ordinance to appropriate $89.9 million of property tax revenue to the office of economic and workforce development, general services agency, city administrator, the arts commission, children, youth and families, public health and general city responsibility to provide relief to small businesses including for small businesses impacted by property crime, grants for the arts, arts impact endowment, cultural center, cultural equity endowment, cultural districts, youth learning initiative, san francisco unified school district and city college, dual enrollment programs, overdose prevention and support for family relief struggling as a result of covid-19, de-appropriating $28.2 million of business fee revenue and place approximately $6.5 on reserve in fiscal year 2020-21. >> president: thank you so much, madam clerk. please call the roll on item 11. [roll call on item 11]

there are 11 aye. >> president: thank you, and without objection this, ordinance is finally passed unanimously. madam clerk, please call the next item. >> clerk: item 12 is an ordinance to amend the police code to create a right to employment for certain employees laid off due to the covid-19 pandemic if the employer seeks

to fill the same position previously held by the laid-off employee or a substantially similar position and to reasonably accommodate employee who is cannot work because of of family care hardship. >> please call the roll for item 12. [roll call on item 12] stefani, no. >> there are 10 aye's and one

no. >> president: thank you so much, madam clerk. this ordinance is passed by a 10-1 vote with supervisor stefani in the dissent. madam clerk, please call item 13. >> clerk: item 13 is a resolution to authorize the recreation and park department to accept and expend an in-kind grant valued at $204,000 from caboom for the design and construction of a nature playspace at heron's head park, to commence upon board approval. >> president: thank you so much. i do see supervisor chan. >> supervisor: thank you, president walton. i just want to make a really brief remark about this not really specifically about the in-kind grant, this particular project. but i want to talk about the

process in which rec and park is raising funds for playgrounds. i want to raise awareness that this is a way for our city departments like rec and park department to renovate our playgrounds. and that is including expanded legislation and directly getting funding and donations from donors to support our renovation. as some of you may be aware, most recently there was a letter sent to me by san francisco park alliance specifically targeting richmond playground. i wanted you to know, colleagues, i am getting to the bottom of this to make sure whether this action like that and a letter like that is appropriate. and i'm going to provide you more information once i find out more. i wanted to note this is a good example of what renovating a playground and raising fund for

it. thank you. >> president: thank you, supervisor chan. supervisor ronen? >> supervisor ronen: thank you, colleagues. i wanted to use this opportunity to publicly express my disappointment and my anger at the parks alliance for the way they treated our colleague supervisor chan. as someone who voted in the opposite way of supervisor chan on the vote that provoked the parks alliance to write that letter, i find it absolutely unacceptable and incredibly troubling that because they disagree with an action of a member of the board of supervisor, that is doing her job to oversee and ensure that departments and public dollars are spent wisely, to then threaten supervisor chan and threat on the retaliate against her and her district is so troubling and inappropriate. and i just wanted to use this

opportunity to express my solidarity with supervisor chan and to express my anger and disappointment with the parks alliance. thank you. >> president: thank you, supervisor ronen. and you can add my echo the sentiments of your statement. and just really want our partners to know and understand that we have a job to do, and we are going to do it. and there should never be a partner, nonprofit that threatens to withhold resources or money from a particular district because there is disagreement in how we move forward. so i want to appreciate you for your comments, supervisor ronen, as well as your comment, supervisor chan. seeing no other members on the roster -- >> clerk: mr. president, supervisor peskin is on the roster. >> president: thank you, supervisor peskin.

>> supervisor: before i concur with the statements of supervisors chan, ronen, and walton relative to the unacceptable behavior of the parks alliance and before i drill down into that, i do actually want to drill down into the actual accept and expend here which as far as i can tell kaboom is not being done through the parks alliance unless i am missing something. so if i could ask the chair of the budget and finance committee about the accept and expend from kaboom and what it is related to and how that came about. or if there's somebody here from the recreation and parks department who can explain why kaboom has generously donated $204,000 which i am delighted about. i would like to hear that either from chair haney or from a representative of rec and park. >> thank you, supervisor peskin. i do believe we have a representative from rec and

park. and i would just say that this is the least that they can do and to supervisor chan's point, this is the way you are supposed to provide support to our playgrounds. who do we have representing rpd today? >> the deputy mayor is indicating on the record as we speak. >> madam clerk, sorry, my computer is stuck. we have two members from rec and park and were inviteed. >> good afternoon. to answer your question, kaboom is a national nonprofit organization that works with

communities, nonprofits, governmental agencies and the mission is to transform underserved open spaces, parks and existing playgrounds into safe, fun, and beautiful spaces for their kids and families to recreate and gather. kaboom is a nonprofit organization that we partnered with on this project. >> thank you, supervisor peskin. >> supervisor: thank you. and so i want to thank and appreciate kaboom. and then inso far as this is an opportunity to speak about the behavior of parks alliance which is not associated directly with item 13, and more importantly, about the fact that the recreation and parks department and general manager ginsburg have enabled and aided and

abetted the parks alliance have not in any way denounce as many members of this board have just done, and i will say it -- the mafiaoso behavior by drew becker and the parks alliance which will be the subject of public hearings. i would like to add my voice to that. i have to say in 20 years i have never seen a nonprofit hold young children hostage. it is some of the most abhorrent behavior i have ever seen. and i do believe mr. becker should pack his bags and go back to philadelphia. thank you, mr. president. >> president: thank you, supervisor peskin. >> clerk: mr. president, may i request given that this letter has been brought up by three members that supervisor chan, that you forward a copy of that letter so we may place it into the file.

>> supervisor: i do want to say, mr. president, and madam clerk, that supervisor chan and i will be meeting with the president of recreation and parks commission and the general manager of said commission about this issue before the end of the month. >> president: thank you, supervisor peskin. thank you, madam clerk. with that aid, please call the roll for item 13. [roll call on item 13]

there are 11 aye's. >> president: this resolution is adopted unanimously. madam clerk, please call item 14. >> clerk: item 14 is a resolution to approve an agreement with creative bus sales to procure 30 32-foot low floor, diesel hybrid buses and related tools, training manuals and spare parts through a procurement by the state of georgia and not to exceed $26 million and for a term not to exceed six years. >> before i call on supervisor melgar, colleagues, i wanted to state that the item before us was passed with positive recommendation from the budget and finance committee on wednesday, march 24, 2021.

unfortunately, on thursday, march 25, 2021, the governor of the state of georgia signed a law that would further restrict the rights of voters particularly people of color and low income communities by requiring them to provide a georgia photo i.d., limiting vote by mail access, limiting local control over election processes through state intervention, shortening the period between the election, and any potential run-off elections and making it a misdemeanor to hand out food or water for voters rate waiting in line. in san francisco we pride ourselves in a fair and open democratic process in the elections to make the elections as accessible as possible by opening early voting at city hall, automatic vote by mail ballots last year in the middle of the pan dem inand providing

drop off boxes in every district including all precincts on election day. throughout history, there has been recurring efforts to restrict the black vote and the vote of people of color in this country. and this law that has just passed in georgia is no different. this is a threat to democracy as a whole. i initially thought this item was going into a procurement process with the state of georgia to acquire new diesel hybrid buses for the city. and obviously we would not be supporting $26 million going to the state of georgia. and i cannot in good conscience engage with the state of georgia with the recent developments. however, i do understand that this is a pass through for a california company who is making these transit vehicles for both san francisco and the state of georgia and i am going to hear from our supervisors and i know i do believe that we have director tumlin here to speak on

this for the record. supervisor melgar? >> supervisor: thank you very much, president walton. yes, i just wanted to explain what this is since i am sponsoring it. the issue is that the federal government allows transit agencies to basically piggyback on each other to take advantage of bulk purchases. and so the state of georgia is making a bulk purchase of a california manufacturerer and we are just kind of tagging along our small, 30 buses, in getting a discount because we are part of a larger purchase. so this is a no way providing funding or even transactional relationship with the state of georgia. we are just going into this purchase from a california

company so that we can get the discount because it is a much larger purchase than what we would make on our own. so i will just ask director tumlin to help explain a little bit what this is and just to also reiterate that i wholeheartedly support your effort to not engage in economic action with georgia and san francisco stands with the rights of voteers. and equity so that we can have a free and pair election everywhere in our country. director tumlin? >> supervisor melgar and president walton. >> president: just real quick, supervisor melgar. supervisor safai was on the roll and then director tumlin. >> thank you, supervisor melgar.

i was going to say that this was something we talked about in the budget committee. it did strike me as unusual, but so much of what we're trying to do is expedite the purchasing of these. i think supervisor melgar explained it very well. that is exactly what it is. it is not going to georgia but to an outside manufactureers and allows us to exthe ediet the process. so i, too, wanted to say this is prior them passing that heinous jim crow 2.0 in the state of georgia. appreciate the remarks of president walton and thank you for stating those things on the record. thank you, mr. president. >> thank you, supervisor safai. director tumlin? >> mr. president -- sorry. supervisor peskin, just -- >> my chat box is broken.

i have to use the raised hand. my chat box is going to be broken until john fixes it. why isn't there a path here wherein the aforementioned company with not divorce themselves from the entity in the state of georgia? >> president: director tumlin? >> president walton, supervisors, you have the technical details right. we are taking advantage of federal transit administration rule that allows us to piggyback on a very large purchase that the state of georgia is making and the contract is with creative bus services in california but allowing us to get a much better deal on our very small deal by piggybacking on the large order and also allows us to move more correctly. we could have a direct relationship with creative bus services, but that means a

procurement process for a small order which means the buses would be much more expensive, and we would get them much later. this is a significant time and money savings for us and would very much appreciate your support. we are also in full agreement with all of the values and statements that you have made here. >> president: supervisor peskin? >> supervisor: it seems like creative whatever can figure that out and we can figure that out, but i hear mr. tumlin and i will let this go and co-sponsor your measure. >> president: thank you, supervisor peskin. supervisor preston? >> supervisor: thank you, president walton. i wanted to follow up and hearing director tumlin just to clarify to understand how this works. does the state of georgia derive any benefit from having these piggybacking arrangements?

in other words, do they by having more people, i mean, the order larger based on the piggybacking arrangement, does that provide financial benefit to georgia? >> there is no financial benefit and they may not be aware. if we had placed a large order, the state of georgia could piggyback on our order and we would have noer the involvement in the relationship. this is an opportunity that federal government grants us that saves us time and money. >> supervisor: great. thank you for that clarification. appreciate it. >> president: thank you, supervisor preston. believe me, every question raised by you and supervisor peskin i had conversations with director tumlin about in detail. i don't see anyone else on the roster. thank you so much, director tumlin, for being here with us this afternoon. madam clerk, please call the roll on item 14.

[roll call on item 14] there are 11 aye's. >> president: without objection this, resolution is adopted unanimously. madam clerk, let's go back to item 10. >> clerk: i item 10 is

appropriation for property tax revenue in the amount of $15 million to the department of children, youth and families for the youth learning initiative for fiscal year 2020-2021. >> president: thank you. supervisor ronen. >> supervisor ronen: thank you so much. and thank you to director maria sioux of the department of children, youth and families for being with us today. of course, my computer is now not cooperating with me because that is how these things go in this covid world that we're in. sorry. let me just -- open up my notes that i prepared for this discussion. colleagues, okay. sorry about that. i really want to thank you, all, for giving me an extra week to

look into this item even though i was one of the sponsors of it. i really appreciate you all for that. as you all well know, our kids are suffering enormously while the school board is mired in political controversies and outrageous in-fighting. my aim in working with supervisors melgar, chan, haney, with director maria sioux and with the mayor has been to focus attention and resources and programming for kids without political interference or drama. so it gave me no pleasure whatsoever to delay by a week the $15 million for summer together that i co-sponsored, but our job as supervisors is to ensure that taxpayer dollars are used wisely and given all the politicizing around schools that is happening right now, i was

concerned that an organization that i had never heard of was heavily involved in a program that i helped to create. so once again, i want to thank you for giving me a week to have an opportunity to meet together with sf leaders and to ensure that the involvement in summer together was not improper or a tempt to push any political agenda. i am happy to say after supervisor melgar and i had a chance to meet the co-founder and regular volunteer at together sf yesterday, i feel comfortable moving ahead with the $15 million supplemental, and here's why specifically. together sf has applied to become a 501c3 organization. it is currently registered a z a 501c4, and that means as soon as the i.r.s. responds to the application, it won't legally be able to endorse or advocate on behalf of political candidate.

the organization is not recruiting hard to reach families to the program as they had previously advertised. that work is being done by nonprofits with a history of working with disadvantaged families and deep and long standing relationships with community of color. as a matter of fact, my office and i am hoping all of you and your office wills join in this effort to make sure that the families that need summer together even more than other families will help reach the families and make sure they know about this opportunity that is available to them. together sf will also become independent from civic labs, the organization that is spoon sorg it at the moment and hearsay media. i will have its own board of directtors and be a completely independent organization. the organization is also doing wonderful work right now helping

to bring volunteers to help with packaging food for seniors and those that are food insecure and creating book bags for the 50,000 plus kids that are students in sfusd for the summer. finally and perhaps most importantly, together sf will have no access to student or family data that is collected for the summer together program. that the registration platform will be owned by dcyf and not access to anyone outside of the city and sfusd. i could not be more excited about the work our city is doing to support the public school kids, to preview the presentation that we are hosting at friday's first on summer together and we have already with the incredible leadership of director maria sioux created

21,000 spots. obtained over 50usf to give them the in-person summer learning and recreation experiences they have been missing and deserve. this is simply an extraordinary accomplishment and is a bit of bright news for sfusd families after this bleak year. we are probably not stopping there. 21,000 spots is incredible. it is so many more than we have been able to offer in the past. all the spots are free with top notch programming. director sioux and her staff are working to increase that number every single day. if fig anything, that is an understood count, not an overcount. the exciting thing is the work

doesn't stop this summer. we created the recovery and thrive plan for the student and family rise program that supervisor melgar, commissioner bo gus and maria sioux and i created to maintain the work that summer together will start into the regular academic year. colleague, after a week's delay, i humbly ask that you support the $15 million supplemental today. thank profusely for your incredible support of children throughout this entire year and beyond. i have never been more proud of the city and county of san francisco, of this board of supervisors, of our mayor, for our extraordinary work that we've all done throughout this pandemic, and for always focussing on the people and the children in need rather than getting distracted by personal, political agendas throughout this crisis. i couldn't be more proud of all of us in this endeavor.

if you have any additional questions, i am here to answer those questions as is maria sioux and just an extra special thanks to supervisor connie chan who really sparked this summer together initiative and really started this off. thank you, supervisor chan. >> thank you, supervisor ronen. and supervisor peskin, and i know supervisor melgar has worked closely with supervisor ronen on this. and she is also wishing to speak. if you to don't mind, i will call on her first. >> happy to defer. i would have taken my name on list behind supervisor melgar. >> president: thank you. supervisor melgar? >> thank you so much. i just wanted to underscore our thanks to supervisor chan for having the foresight of

including the recreation and parks department in the summer initiative. we started fast and furious with rise and has nod included recreation and parks department with summer programming for thousands of kids in our city every year. but also i have to say how impressed i am by the interagency collaboration and how during crisis time no matter what else is going on, people have come together to support our kids. and it is definitely been one of the issues of all hand on deck. and i support supervisor ronen's desire to have this be sort of a politics free space. and the things that we are supposed to be supporting and kids and families thriving. that means also making sure that we can take help when it is offered without an agenda.

and take folks to be able to have all hands on deck to be covered. and this is a really, really tough year. we owe our kids and families and thank you thank you so much for pushing this forward. i am so glad to work with another mom. >> thank you, supervisor melgar. supervisor peskin. >> and look, we, let me underscore everything that was just said relative to the fundamental policy gol here that supervisor chan, ronen, and melgar undertook. we all support that. but i really want to thank supervisor ronen for having us take a one-week time-out relative to the potential politicizing and actually not of

these dollars but other dollars that were associated with these dollars. i think it was a healthy moment for reflection. the representations that supervisor ronen made relative to transparency, relative to data sharing are exactly what i think is the right public policy. but i want to hear those representations not from one of my colleagues but from the department. so i would like to have ms. sioux actually testify to this board and the public that indeed those things will be true. >> president: thank you, supervisor peskin. director sioux? >> thank you, president walton. thank you, supervisors, particularly ronen, melgar, chan. and just for this opportunity to speak. and in direct response to supervisor peskin's question,

you are absolutely correct. data that comes into this under this initiative will be held solely by dcyf. we will not share that data with any outside entity. we are also not going to be sharing any money with any entity using the dollars for political purposes. actually, we are mandated under the anti-lobbying rules of the city we can't do that anyway. and so you do have my assurances. all supervisors that we will not be using the dollars to support any organization for political purposes at all. >> thank you so much, director sioux. supervisor peskin. >> thank you. so thank you, supervisor ronen, for the last minute heads up last week. and look, having politically

based 501c4 with a political agenda has no place with putting our kids in competent settings,21,000 of them this summer, and now that that is clear, i will support this item. >> thank you, supervisor peskin. >> an i want to thank you for your diligence in the past week and also for what was i am sure a hard decision for all of us when we incubate an idea and move it forward, sponsor with colleagues and so forth, it is hard to be the one to raise concerns and be honest about concerns that we have on items that we're moving forward. i want to commend you for that. i did have -- i guess this is a clarifying question, though, through the president to director sue.

i am trying to understand how this happens. is there a policy in place for dcyf and i can ask this of other departments in other context, against partnering with a 501c4 on these kind of initiatives? i appreciate that supervisor ronen surfaced this last week. but i am a little concerned with why it was incumbent on a supervisor to have to uncover this. i am curious what the policy is regarding partnering c4. >> president: director su? >> thank you, so the chair, i don't know if there is any specific policies regarding partnering with a 501c4. dcyf relationship with together sf was purely in support for their administrative support for

us in making sure that we could move the efforts forward. as i shared last week when this issue came up, we asked crane star for additional support to build that relationship with the corporation and the private sector because i did not have the bandwidth or the staffing to do that. and this is where together sf was brought in to provide that support for us. we do have anti-lobbying restrictions for city funded programming. so for dcyf, our nonprofit agencies, have to follow strict guidelines around anti-lobbying partnerships and things like that. i am sure that the city attorney can go into more in-depth on that. >> just to follow-up or two on this. so do we know -- and supervisor ronen, you may have gotten to

this through your conversations with together sf, but i am curious their decisions to apply to become a 501c3, an independent 501c3, was that in the works or was that prompted by a week ago or couple weeks ago that you were raising the issue? do we know when that occurred? >> to the chair, i can take a stab at answering. and supervisor melgar, help me if my memory fails me. but i didn't ask that direct question to the co-founder griffin gaffey when i met with him, but my sense was that it was in response to me bringing this up. and what he explained when i asked why he decided to register together sf which really he explained had no intentions of doing advocacy or promoting

candidates. and he said the prime purpose of the organization and the work that they have been doing to date has been providing an extra pair of hands to other nonprofits that need help and don't have the bandwidth to deliver meals or prepare book bags, etc., that kind of work. and so i asked them why would you have registered as a 501c4? and he seemed to think to say that he was brand-new to this work and that he felt like that designation when he was reading the different possibilities made most sense. i didn't really get more detail from him other than he now feels having run the organization for a short period of time, having listened to my concerns and to kind to have collective concerns about together sf, that he now realizes it's really the 501c3 designation that is the proper designation for what they

actually do and for the organization. >> supervisor: thank you, supervisor ronen. i just want to say, both thing cans be true. my understanding is they were a fiscally sponsored by a 501c4, so can be entirely true that the entity doing the project together sf had only the intention of operating with charitable purposes like a 501c3, but what i am worried about is the parent group and the group that is potentially recruiting others to be under their umbrella who has as we talked about at the last meeting who do have political and lobbying plans an basically house other fiscally sponsored organizations beneath them to catch that. and i would be curious through the president and city attorney, is there a bar on partnerships

with 501c4 organizations or any special procedures to require these organizations to identify whether they are a 501c3 or 501c4 when entering into partnerships with our department? >> deputy city attorney, i believe you are here. >> i am. deputy city attorney john givener. good afternoon, supervisors. the administrative code as director suh mentioned, prohibits city contractors or recipients of city grants from using any funds from the city for political purposes including advocacy on ballot measures or for or against candidates. there is not a prohibition in city law on entering into agreements with 501c4 organizations. and sorry, supervisor preston,

response to your last piece of your question, whether there is a mechanism or requirement for disclosure of what your title i status is, i am not certain. i don't believe that there's a requirement in any city code. and there may be disclosure requirements for each department administratively. >> supervisor: great. thank you. and i will just wrap up by saying because i think it's beyond this measure and i am prepared to support this funding. i do think we need to take a look and i look forward to working with the city attorney's office about particularly as gao chair and find it concerning and if we don't have clear rules about when and if we can partner with these and the lines are not entirely bright. if you look in the private

sector with private foundations, and so this is strange to me and concerning if the city doesn't have in place some guidelines. [please stand by]

>> i'm not sure who the right respondent is. this city enjoys a very rich fabric of non-profits that have the capacity or can staff up to the capacity to serve virtually every need. so i'm -- as with supervisor ronen, i had never heard of together s.f. before our last meeting and did what everybody does, which is go on the internet, albeit they did ask me if i would join them down the street from my house in chinatown, which i thought was funny for a meeting or a

neighborhood visit next week, which i really don't need to do with a non-profit that is not a community-based non-profit in chinatown, but that was mildly entertaining. my question is: what is this organization? who are the founders? how long has it been around? why don't we go to extant community non-profits who have that capacity who are tried and true? i keep hearing the other name kick around crank start foundation. crank start is the way you started an old car, but who are they and what is all this? to the president. maybe, ms. soo, you're nodding up and down like you have the answers. i want to know. i don't mean to be ignorant. i know a well-known political operative is highly engaged with political s.f.

that part is clear and i'm sure that's what got supervisor ronen going because that individual is a known entity and is a political operative. >> crank start is the foundation that is providing opportunities for all of our children. crank start during the covid, during the pandemic, as actually invested almost $60 million to our non-profit agencies. they primarily fund non-profit agencies ranging from the ones providing healthcare and food programs and seniors programs. you can find their footprint at every single corner of our city. i would be happy to share with all members of the board the

annual write up of who they fund and you will recognize pretty much all of those on their list. for this particular partnership, crank start team particularly to us, primarily because they provided funding for the community hub initiative during the school year and they said that project went so well that they came to us and said what do we do for summer? they're all in for summer and our kids. when we initially came to them and said we could do the summer program and they literally said, we could do it bigger. what would it cost to go bigger? that's where we got this gift from them. providing this money to do this, they saw the benefit of having this big umbrella where we could

bring in the school partnerships and be able to serve more and leverage their dollars that way. that's how we partnered together. >> god bless that and through the president, ms. su, that was one part of the question. >> as presented to me, this is a volunteer organization that snowing the corporations and the private sector well. when we started talking to crank start about this, we had said during that time that we needed more access to school buildings. we didn't and part of the community hubs model was that we were going into neighborhood spaces. so we had said one of the big concerns that we had was to get

in. crank start started calling around to these companies working from home and saying, hey, the city needs your space, are you getting this from them. we started getting responses saying that they have this. i initially asked for some support, maybe some consulting support. they have provided griffin to say this will be your primary connector to these companies because you're familiar with them and they will move the conversation forward. >> together s.f. was created by crank start.

>> this is fielding the relationship on the corporate side. >> who is together s.f.? how long have they been around? how did you vet them? >> so together s.f. was started during the pandemic. there are a lot of caring people in the city who wanted to support and to deliver food to our vulnerable populations in the city. griffin said, let's be kind of more organized. that's how they came about.

>> i look forward to meeting this griffin. thank you. >> we are voting on the $50 million appropriation from the city. this is really damn hard to raise this money and i am grateful to maria for setting up the circumstances where somebody would have the base in the systems that we build and the outcomes that we have in terms of summer learning loss and the recruitment of hard-to-reach children and families, that they would give $25 million because

we are that good. thank you, maria, i appreciate that. i want to say that because the best estimate that we have for not just the s.t. f. fund is that we need $2.5 billion. that's what we need to provide recovery. mostly black and brown kids are behind for lots of reasons, but this very toxic covid year has just stressed families and youth to the breaking point. so we do need the resources. and i want to make sure that whatever issues we have structurally we address so that we can raise this funding and have both the funders have faith that we will do it in full

transparency, but that we will also do it in good faith ourselves as well. so i just want to thank supervisor ronen for doing her due diligence and also thank maria profusely for being open and flexible and for having built a really awesome infrastructure for our c.b.o.s to be able to do some more programming. thank you. >> not to beat a dead horse, but i do believe this conversation is so crucial and i again appreciate you all for really deeply engaging. the reason is because supervisor melgar and myself have sat together with director su this

extremely ambitious goal of raising a ridiculous amount of money to fund our chronically underfunded schools. we have decided to take this moment of absolute crisis where our students are not only suffering academically, but if you saw jill tucker's article in the chronicle yesterday, our suffering in ways that are quite frankly terrifying and are receive and statistically shocking the medical profession because they've never seen this level of mental illness, of eating disorders, of suicidal ideation, of chronic depression among youth. we have to not only turn that around, but we know that the pandemic has only deepened and highlighted the inequalities,

the deep inequalities, that are based on systemic racism and a system that has not served youth of color well for a decade. so we know, for example, that the achievement gap or others -- what others rightfully call the opportunities gap is not new. it has existed for decades. and not only that, but if you look at how this is analyzed on the academic loss data for fourth and fifth graders this year, they looked at test scores for black and brown youth based on how they expected those youth to do. they were already expecting black and brown youth to fail. they were already expecting black and brown youths to be of a low grade level. what they found was they were

below low, but doing 200 to 300 times worse than they already expected them to fail. that is unconscionable. our city departments are getting together and saying enough at a time when, quite frankly, the school board is imploding and we have so much controversy at sfusd and at the school board that the public at large isn't trusting our public system, where funders refuse to give money to the school district. as supervisor melgar said, thank goodness we have such a high-functions san francisco city government and department of children and youth and families and rec and parks department and oversight of a functional board of supervisors and mayoral department that they are coming and saying, how can

you help these kids? and we are stepping up to that call and challenge. however, as someone that wishes that we had a proper business tax system so that all the news that came out over the past week, that all of these billion dollar corporations haven't spent a penny, not a penny, on federal taxes, this is the systemic problem that makes our public school system chronically underfunded. because we don't have enough tax dollars to publicly fund our tax system to jump start the initiative, we have to ask the private sector to step up. i want to thank crank start for not only stepping up, but for stepping up and saying let's go bigger. that is unusual and welcome and appreciated beyond appreciated. but when we seek private funding

for a public system, there are inherent dangers in that and a lot of people that are skeptical, including myself, because we want to make sure that that money is separate from politics, that that money doesn't supplant the public system, that that doesn't take off the urgency on the part of city, state, and federal government, who are truly responsible for properly funding a public system to do so. so i want to start this out right which is why i spent so much time not only on this initiative, but also locking my own budget supplemental which is confusing to the public and many people. because i want to get this right and because i want to go to the private sector standing beside the other supervisors saying,

please help our children, we need it now more than ever, but at the same time saying this is going to end in 100% public funding because we are going to get from here in a five-year plan to a 100% properly funded public system which is what s.f. fry seeks to do. we have to be careful about how the private dollars come in, and make sure that they come in, in a way that doesn't alienate people like me that believe in our public system. we need a public school system that is a human right for every child and that system should be excellent. it should be so good that people with means choose to use it instead of the private system. we're only not there, but we

have lost more families from the system that drains funding from that public system than we have in a single year. those statistics are only getting worse, not better. we are doing this with excitement, energy, and optimism. we are going to invite everyone who wants to help in, but ask everyone who has politics to leave that at the door because the we are leaving our politics at the door. i am not besties with people i have been working side by side with on the initiative and the reason is we see what's happening to our kids and we care and love them and think it's unacceptable. we're saying, we haven't trusted them in the past, but this is more important than how we feel. we're going to put aside our skepticism and join forces because that is what adults do when kids are suffering.

that is what we're going to continue to do. i want to thank you for standing with us on this journey and for being patient with us, especially the public who's confused about how can you at one point ask private donors to donate billions of dollars to the public system and then criticize when they do. that's not what i'm doing, but i hope this brings up questions of how this will go forward and i hope you will support us in the process just like you have from day one. >> i wanted to thank supervisor ronen for delaying this so we

could have an honest conversation around how our public dollars are spent and our city dollars are structured. colleagues on this board have proposed the different taxes and tax reform, all those that you have put forward last year is really speaking volumes of your understanding of your need of tax reform because we understand that there are billionaires and corporations that have profited through this system. with that, they're still getting tax credit when they contribute to a donation in the name of

philanthropy. we also know that that also means at times that is really where they can defy access to our government. that is really a safeguarding of the integrity of our city government. this is the reason why we're having this conversation. i think that in some ways we are being very pragmatic about our ideology. we are working towards government tax reform, but at the same time we're working hard to safeguard our system while we are receiving these donations and supports. i think both can be true at the same time. we have built a lot of momentum and this conversation especially with our budget coming up, this

is a great starting point to think about how to prioritize our city services, who are we serving, what are we trying to do with the public dollars, and we're going to take down the system one day at a time and reform the system. i appreciate all your supports. i remember the conversation that i had with director su and i was like if we're going to do this programming, this is going to be a crazy amount. here we are and this is all of all your supports. even with the private supports that we're now moving this forward. that doesn't mean we don't need to continue to safeguard the integrity of our city government. i think we can continue to do so. that's really frankly our job and going to be an ongoing task. i just want to leave it like

that and to thank everybody involved. thank you, supervisor haney, who is our budget chair for your commitments and supporting this supplemental. thank you supervisor melgar for being on board and director su, you already have been running in this school district in the last year and now we're asking you to do more without any break. so we really appreciate you. thank you. >> thank you, supervisor chan, for your leadership on this and ronen and melgar. i really want to spend the rest of my comments speaking a little bit about director su and her

team. one of the things i said in the budget committee is that we deal with a lot of different public entities and agencies and departments. many of them have so many different layers of bureaucracy, it's difficult to get them to move and act quickly. one of the things i really want to appreciate about this and director su and her leadership is she has really been nimble. she has really been able to move quickly, to adjust, and to spend the time. i think we were talking about this, director su, in our conversations about our children, that none of us dedicated -- all of our elected officials, but many department heads never really had one day off over the past year because we've been working around the clock to resolve this. i want to honor the commitment that you've made and to really

say i truly believe that we would not have been able to serve as many children as we have and to be as effective as we have if you hadn't been able to really assert your department and work with rec and parks and work with the unified school districts and work with the different entities and non-profits. just to build on supervisor ronen's point, oftentimes in crisis we see people either rise to the occasion or they wilt. there's so much chaos and so much dysfunction in so many areas of city government, but i really want to highlight how well you have been able to do this and how quickly and how many kids have benefitted from this. we look forward to work with you, supervisor ronen, chan, melgar, and others who really continue to serve our students,

supervisor haney, to serve our students and to ensure that we're getting the right resources and support for them and the idea that 21,000 or more and growing would be served when just a few months ago we couldn't even agree on the timing, the number of how many places would be open and so on. you've truly risen to the occasion. i just want to really -- really wanted to overemphasize that and throw as many flowers at you as i could because you deserve it. thank you, mr. president, to this and also to crank start and their foundation. supervisor ronen knows this, recovery s.f. would not be thriving without their support. my district and their districts are two of the highest

beneficiaries of the right to recover and that's due to michael moore and crank start and here he is in their foundation again stepping up and showing support for the children and families. so thank you. >> i want to thank you, director su, for coming on this afternoon and really again thank the leaders of the budget committee for making sure that we made this supplemental available. i want to thank supervisor ronen, melgar, chan for their leadership on this and definitely i have to thank the crank start foundation that does support our youth and families very generously. it's important to say that. i am excited about the first meeting of this committee. it is exciting for me for us to

have a committee dedicated to this work. i want to thank supervisor ronen for her fight to make sure we have this committee, which is very important. with that said, madam clerk, would you please call the roll for item 10. [ roll call ]

>> this ordinance is passed on first reading unanimously. madam clerk, we are at our 3:00 special order. would you please call the special order. this is the board of supervisors sitting as a committee of the whole. this was rescheduled for the board to convene as a committee of the whole today on april 6, 3:00 p.m., to hold a public hearing to consider the appointment of a public health officer. >> chair: thank you so much, madam clerk. colleagues, i want to thank all of you for being accommodating in this hearing. as noted, this hearing is to consider the appointment of a

chief health officer. we originally called for this hearing in order to ensure we had the opportunity as the board of supervisors to exercise our authority to appoint our chief health officer here in san francisco, historically the director of public health has served as the chief health officer, until the case where dr. garcia was not a medical doctor and dr. arragon, a non-department head was appointed to serve in that capacity. none of us could have expected a pandemic of this magnitude during the time when chief public health officer is most important. we wanted to take the time to weigh in on the appointment of the next chief health officer. if there was anything we wanted to add. when dr. arragon left to fulfill his role with the state, he

appointed dr. susan philip to serve. she is doing a great job. i would like to bring up dr. colfax to speak and then we will have comments from the board and then public comments on the hearing. unless there are any objections, we will move forward in that manner. >> i don't have any objection to the format of the hearing. i was just going to say i don't think any of us have been through a pandemic before. i think very few of us knew that we were the appointing authority for the chief health officer as a matter of state law. i don't think that many,

including this officer, knew the powers and duties that that individual holds. i remember a number of late-night conversations that supervisor ronen and i had early on in the pandemic with then-chief health officer for the state dr. arragon. i want to note that my thinking has gone back and forth on this, which is to say that historically the director of the department of public health has always held that title, duty, and responsibility and that has been true as long as i've been around under dr. cats and ceased to be true when my college mate barbara garcia was not a doctor in the state of california and the chief public health officer has to be a doctor who's

licensed in the state. that's when the role became bifurcated. when dr. arragon assumed that position, no one had an idea that covid would hit. we're faced with -- and i don't think there's a right or wrong answer here, with the choice of bringing that responsibility delegated or not under the director of the department of public health or continuing with the bifurcated role. i am totally open to either i hold dr. philip or dr. colfax in high regard. i welcome the colleagues' advice as well. >> chair: thank you, supervisor peskin. i believe dr. colfax is here.

you have the floor. >> thank you, president walton, and good afternoon, board of supervisors. grant colfax, director of health. i want to thank you for your support and leadership during this unprecedented pandemic year, whether it is supporting the all-important masking that we know saves lives to help us ensure that as many vaccines are going into arms as quickly as possible, particularly in communities most at risk of covid-19. this is my gratitude to each of you and of course your constituents as we move through this really challenging year and these actions have saved hundreds of lives. i think we need to continue to move forward until we get the city vaccinated as quickly as possible. i highlighted the importance of public health and the key roles that the public health officer plays in times like this and

really reinforce the importance of health orders to protect the public. just to review, as you probably are aware, just a few key points about the health officer. the health officer is an agent of the state. the health officer exercises legal authority and leadership to protect and promote public health. must be a licensed physician and is vested with broad authority, especially with respect to communicable disease and acute hazards, as we've seen during this pandemic, but also times when there is no pandemic and other key public health issues such as disease outbreaks and so forth. in california every countied is required to have a physician, a local health officer. dr. arragon performed this role

for many years successfully in the health department. i want to express my opinion on the role of the team. dr. philips has been instrumental. those are my comments with regard to the current state. i'm happy to answer any questions and then dr. philip will say a few words at the pleasure of the board. thank you. >> chair: thank you so much, dr. colfax. if you don't mind, it would be great for us to hear from dr. philip now and if there are any comments or questions from colleagues, we can move forward with that.

>> thank you, president walton, and good afternoon, members of the board, and thank you for the invitation to say a few words i really want to acknowledge that this has been such a difficult year for all of us. i appreciate the partnership and the insights into how all of us have had our roles and trying to keep everyone alive and healthy in san francisco. i know that each of you have played a vital role and giving input and direction into this work and i have benefitted tremendously. it's been a great honor and a lot, but also a great honor to serve the city for the last 16 years and also this last year. i want to thank you for the opportunity to be here and

appreciate your leadership and guidance. this is because of the leadership and the willingness of you all as elected officials and of mayor breed that we've had the outcomes that we had in san francisco, combined with the expertise and the hard work and expectation of the medical and academic community leaders and the public. thank you. >> chair: thank you, dr. philip. colleagues, any comments or statements? >> thank you, doctors, for your extraordinary leadership in a challenging year. as you all have said, we should be proud of the way we not only responded, but the way we worked together and supported each other during this time. it is one of the reasons we are

together with the incredible sacrifices that our residents and small businesses have played and our healthcare workers to have. i have a question about the role of the public health officer and how you view it, dr. philip, and also dr. colfax may want to respond to this as well. this is a role that has taken on a level of importance and leadership that we wouldn't have imagined. now we do have some sense of the importance of this role and why it exists in state law. it seems like a role is to have

independence from elected officials and from even other agencies and departments and be able to make decisions based solely on what's best for residents and what the science and research and data is saying. so i have a couple of questions along those lines and how you view your relationship with others and sort of the different -- the way that you will maintain that independence. this is an unusual time and position generally, but i think in san francisco it's even more unusual because we are the only county that has an elected executive. so it's a different kind of structure. we have a mayor, who you're also responding to words. in most counties it would be appointed by the county board of supervisors and that would be who you're more directly accountable to. one of the things i wanted to

ask you is when you're making these decisions, how you're ensuring that there is a level of independence because you have the board of supervisors and the mayor and how you make sure you are making these decisions in a way that is independent. and particularly icht to know when decisions are made whose decision want to know when decisions are made whose decision it is for reopening and for certain vaccine eligibility. sometimes it has been unclear whether it's the public health officer's decision, whether it's the director of the public health decision, whether it's the mayor's decision. what are the decisions that are within your responsibility and how are you going to ensure that those decisions are made where appropriately independent from political influence.

>> i think your points resonate and what the role of the health officer is. i think when the health officer and director were the same role, my understanding was the health director really delegated the role to a deputy officer for all practical purposes. and i think during this pandemic the importance of having a health officer and having the independence of a health officer really came into strong relief than it has in the last 50 years of san francisco. dr. philip, the dynamics worked very well with the health department, the health director and health officer during this pandemic. it certainly worked well with dr. arragon and worked well with

dr. philip in that regard. i think it's important that the roles are aligned in terms of following the science, data, and facts, and that that certainly has been the case here. also the fact is the department is sufficiently large enough, has many roles and responsibilities. my recommendation would be that the health officer would be assigned to dr. philip. we defer to the board on that. from where i sit and the relationships and the dynamics that you talked about, i think there is an advantage there. that would be the recommendation with the emphasize that it's also important for the health officer roles to be aligned with the work and operations of the

health department. we think that dr. philip can add more here. to that historical arc, we have shown that this works well we would want the current structure to stay in place, but defer to the board for any questions. >> chair: thank you, dr. philip. >> i agree with what dr. colfax said. the primary authority of the health officer resides in the health orders and in those powers that are vested by the state. what we have seen in san francisco is that i work closely

with not only dr. colfax, but the entire leadership team, including the clinical leadership. all of us work closely together. so the health officer has a role to play. these aligned with the overall intent, that aligns with the intent of vaccinating the populations that are most impacted. so these are complementary ways of implementing this. in this particular instance in this pandemic, i have infectious disease training and a whole background to help understand the science and the data to use that in judgment. but i don't make decisions in complete isolation. i do want to include that with

this body and others who understand communities and understand the city and county. the decisions are not always popular, they are sometimes unprecedented. when dr. arragon and the department and the city decided to shelter in place along with the other counties, there are sometimes things that are very difficult to report on. having that independence to talk about that and make the decisions, but transparency is very important to talk through the reasoning and the science is critically important.

that is not a secondary part of the health officer role in my view. that is another primary role and keeping in mind the things that stakeholders and key leaders have and using that judgment and understanding and input to come to a decision which is the best one that we have at the time of the information we have. and of course information changes over time. people bring up the issue of masks all the time and the thinking evolves through a pandemic and it should because we have to keep utilizing the data that's available to us and the science as it evolves and work to incorporate it. >> i think if you are appointed

into the role of the health officer and i think all the points that you and dr. colfax made in terms of your qualifications and what you've done and ability to do this job are clear. there is a little bit of a different structure and because there isn't a mayor in the other counties, there isn't the same sort of different types of chains of command. in all the other counties, the board of supervisors has a very direct role with their health officer and as the director authority is very important. i want to first clarify that that's part of what i'm saying, that i hope we can have a direct relationship with you around that. and also you're in a different position because you also of course have the mayor and a

director, all of that makes it -- and of course most of the time, hopefully all of the time, everyone is going to be on the same page. in the scenarios where they're not under state law you're given an important independent role to speak truth to power, to follow the facts. even if it's in disagreement with dr. colfax or the mayor or anyone else. i don't imagine that would happen very often. as you're appointing the board of supervisors, i hope that other colleagues would speak for themselves and it's important for you to do that. and we're trusting you to do that and not only have a role in that.

this is an unusual structure, an incredibly powerful role, but it's even more complicated in san francisco because of the structure and i don't think the county health officer for the rest of the state as envisioned, there is always one county that's a little bit different and that's our city and county. thank you, president. >> thank you for your tremendous effort and work over the last year. i want to say for the record that i want aware of this position, having to interact before. i said this based on an

infectious disease that was exposed to some janitors in the workplace. so that was when i became aware of this position and what the county health officer did and what kind of authority they had. so i certainly fully appreciated that and i never would have imagined how important this role would have been. i want to say for the record that i take our appointing authority very seriously, believe that, similar to what supervisor haney said, the wisdom that was designed to allow the board of supervisors to have the appointing authority i think in this position was important. i think that the mayor is the one that nominates the head and recommends and usually is the one who chooses the director of the department of public health. i think that's how it should be. having the county health officer

being chosen and put forward by the board of supervisors i think provides that separation that's necessary if it were the same role. and i don't think that is something that was fully appreciate in the past because it was often delegated. i think it's important not to be the director of the department of public health. i think it makes sense to have a separate infectious disease trained doctor in that role. not that dr. colfax could not do that. i know that he performed tremendously well under previous times, especially under the aids pandemic. please don't take this as a admining of your role. i am talking about separation

and the lines of communication and authority. that is solely what i'm talking about. also, you don't have a chart or anything to present sounds like it's done more informally. in terms of the formal process of decision-making, as we consulted with dr. arragon over the past year and now yourself, dr. philip often says, i consult with a team of experts internally. we're working with a team of people to review the state, department of public health orders. you're getting your guidance from the state department of public health, the c.d.c., other entities. can you please talk a little bit more about the team of decision-makers that are on your staff and how you ultimately come to your decisions. one of the things that we've had to do and i think many of our

colleagues will say the same and say you need to do this or tell the health officer that. what we often come back with and say, these are not our ultimate decisions. this is not the decision of the mayor or the board of supervisors. it is solely the decision of the county health officer. we can't mandate that houses of worship open back up. we cannot mandate that playing fields open back up to children if it's not mandated. please talk a little bit about that decision-making and is that a formal or an internal process that you have as the county health officer?

>> i will speak about the process we have gone through. there is an entire team of people, of experts, who are comprised of some people from the department of public health, but other departments as well in expertise and research and in compiling data and in presenting concise summaries of public health and science. we regularly have these clinical policy meetings. i attend those and it's really a conversation for them to present in a formal way a slide presentation or a summary of the data. we'll often invite our colleagues and experts. we have the benefits of ucsf in close collaboration with ucsf in the state and elsewhere to also

weigh in on these decisions. as you said, a lot of times our guidance has to be constrained by the state. the health officer locally does have the opportunity to be more strict if the conditions require it in terms of what activities are allowed. we're not able to be looser than the state. we are learning the structures in place. this allows the tiers to allow certain activities to or to not be allowed. this is one of the requirements too. there are multiple inputs that have to be considered. there is a fantastic team of attorneys that have worked with dr. arragon and now me to help in creating the documents in issuing the orders and the

directors. we have a team of experts creating the guidance which is much more sensitive than other places have created for their residents in terms of what san francisco has offered. i am taking in what do all the different departments say. also looking at san francisco being an incredibly dense city. where are we with the vaccination rates? there are multiple facts that come into play. it could be a complex chart with a lot of factors. generally we err on the side of being health protective, really trying to say.

the balance is changing. there are many inputs. the relative weight of all of those inputs changes over time as we progress through this pandemic and hopefully we are getting into the last -- we can see the end in sight as vaccination rates increase. the same science and facts are evolving over time and the same local condition. we have input from all of these experts as well. i think community input is important as well to understand the context into which the decisions we are making are going. i understand that all of these decisions have profound impacts on people's lives, on their businesses, on all types of things. i take that responsibility very seriously as well. >> i guess what i -- thank you

very much for clarifying that on the record. i was very aware of that based on the work that we did with dr. arragon and now with yourself. i guess my very refined question would be, is that a formalized process? do you have a formalized team or is it something that's just evolved since the beginning of the -- it sounds like it's not formalized, but something that's evolved over time. the city attorneys seem constant. some d.p.h. employees seems constant. it sounds like there are outside departments and not a formalized time. is it specific to the issue and the area of concern? that's the thing i'm trying to get an answer on and something that would be helpful to understand. it sounds a bit amorphous, not

to say it's not correct or refined enough, but as an appointing body and the one that has the oversight in your position, it would be helpful to have a very clear idea of who is part of your team of decision-makers. that is not something you need to answer right now. i'm not going to belabor that point. going forward, it would be very helpful for this body to see that. i have two more quick questions and i know colleagues have more. one is the governor just announced that he is targeting june 15th as the date to reduce the color-coded system and to pretty much fully reopen the entire state now. obviously that is much less restrictive and also contingent on data and so on.

how do you think that impacts san francisco and your thoughts? >> it is contingent and we have a discussion with cpdh about this as well and they said it will depend on vaccine availability and on hospitalization rates. they are putting that caveat in. it reinforces what we were just saying. we are closer to the end than the beginning of this pandemic and the vaccine is why. that's a good thing. the role of the health officer is to be cautious and to prevent transmission. sometimes we lose that ability to have people see that we do have hope. the vaccines offer hope. this is the efforts of so many in d.p.h. and community organizations and individuals

have really put san francisco in a great position in terms of vaccine coverage with 50% of people who are eligible having received a vaccine. that puts us ahead of the standards for the state and for the country overall. so we're doing well. are we able to keep on this pace? supply remains the issue. if supply ramps up like we're told it will, then we should be in shape for that june 15 date, but there are always caveats around that. that is part of my role to consider and to think about what are the scenarios and what could we do safely. i think we're all public health experts now. they understand that outside is safer than inside. they understand that masked is safer than unmasked with this particular virus and thinking in

those frameworks. you had asked the question about who actually decides. well, the health officer has the final decision, the final authority doing that. the health officer is the one that has to sign the order. all the other inputs come in and have to be processed with the principles of equity of preserving by and health and thinking about the communities that are most impacted and what are the ways to mitigate harm and to enable a healthy life for the residents of san francisco. i hope that answers you. >> i think we've done a good job

in san francisco and there was a reference to the mental health of children with the closing of schools and schools being closed. i would really like you to state for the record how you think the county health officer has done as it relates to this debate about schools and how they have impacted the lives of children. because although we have done a tremendous job, if we're talking about preserving life and the spread of the disease, obviously there's been a lot of businesses that have been damaged and a lot of communities that have been damaged, but a lot of irremember rabble harm to small children and i just want to know what kind of job you think the county health officer has done in this debate about schools and school reopening and what role they have played. it seems to me that it has not been as aggressive as it has

been in other areas about asserting its opinion and i think that's to the detriment of our children, but i want to see what your thoughts are. >> thank you. and again, i know this body knows well that there is not a way that there could be a health order that would mandate that to happen, for schools to automatically reopen. i hope the supervisors see the statement i did issue when the c.d.c. recommended three-foot distancing because that had been i know a sticking point. supervisor, to your point and to other supervisors' points, it is a -- this is one of the tragic things that has happened during this pandemic.

i am committed to doings whatever needed to make sure kids get back to the classroom. i don't have an answer for you in terms of what could have happened differently and what i could do in this role to assist moving forward. >> i'm not saying that i knew for a fact that you could not order, that's not what i meant, about providing the flfings because there was so many disparateinformation because there was so many disparate sides of the debate. i saw you weigh in saying the c.d.c. came up with the guidance. but in terms of the health guidance as it related to the conversation about the debate, it seems as though unlike other

areas where the county health officer was very assertive, we were not as assertive on that debate surely about the science. >> then i think we have a very capable schools team as part of the covid command that was led by d.p.h. and had many groups, including director su's group. we have been working together through the pandemic to support schools. but i think your point is taken as coming out and talking more forcefully as the public health officer about the needs and reasons for children to be in schools. that is what that statement did. it used the setting of the announcement from the c.d.c. and really talk, as you said, the

importance and the benefits of in-person learning. i believe that was the type of forceful statement that you were speaking of. i understand that your point is could that have been happening all along. i think that now we also have accumulated a lot of data based on the schools that have been open to have more reassurance with the accumulation of data and science not just in san francisco but throughout the united states. the c.d.c. guidance as well to speak forcefully from this point forward. >> thank you, dr. philip. thank you, dr. colfax. thank you, president, i have no further questions. >> thank you, supervisor safai. superior melgar. >> thank you, president. first of all, i want to say, dr. philip, congratulations to you for having gotten to be in

that spot today in front of us in your career. it's quite an achievement. also, thank you for being willing to do this, it is a lot. my question is about the infrastructure to allow for this to happen because i am old enough to have lived in this town that most of the time i've lived here the public health officer has been the same person. under director cass. i also realized that our system is unique in that the person in your shoes, dr. colfax, runs one of the largest healthcare delivery systems in the region. it requires health system

management in addition to a whole bunch of other stuff, not necessarily that you be a doctor. dr. garcia was and that's how we had that structure. my question is suppose that -- we've been through this pandemic and now having had this, this can happen moment, i wonder if there is at any time a disagreement between how to proceed from the health officer? i'm divorcing it from the personalities because i think you're both lovely and competent people. i want to make sure that we have the h.r. structure to protect the health officer since she or he could be subordinate to the public health director. if there is a disagreement on how to proceed that is based

on -- i realize this is how we should proceed to protect public health and it is not the think that the public health director wants to do because of cost concerns or political or whatever. what is there in terms of our structure to protect the public health officer from any kind of other stuff that could happen in theory? i just want to make sure when we went that way with dr. arragon and dr. garcia that we implemented those things. i would like to hear from you on that. >> i'm sorry, supervisor, was that addressed to me first? >> either one of you can answer.

>> i don't want to talk too much. just with regard to -- i think your point is well taken and i think there is -- but i also look at the track record for where we've been for many years now. first the working relationship that director garcia had with dr. arragon and the working relationship that i had with dr. arragon including through the pandemic and the current work with dr. philip. i think that the fact that our culture in our system is to really rely on the science and the data and the fact that our departments and our health officers are not just regional or locally known experts, they're actually national experts and international experts in some areas. i think really making sure that we're deferring to the science

and facts and really investing and operationalizing and implementing based on the recommendations of the health officer. that's why i think when i brought forward from the department's perspective what i thought would be best that it is important that the health officer and the health director are aligned in our general principles in the work and that i and dr. arragon and dr. philip are. i think this risk that you're talking about would be there if there was some misalignment. i think the tension that you talk about is actually healthy, right, because it's a tension that helps us reach better decisions that helps us really not anchor in terms of our own perspectives.

it helps us strengthen the scientific and the query and the consideration of the community and other stakeholders in a much better way than if it were the department director acting as the health officer as well. i think having those multiple perspectives and those conversations are really key. >> i agree, dr. colfax. i think that type of tension is definitely good. my concern is looking at our history is not adequate for making decisions going forward. i think that is a recipe for trouble. i will support you, dr. philip, because i think you are awesome and i think, dr. colfax, you should have the leeway to structure your department in the

way that you see it is best. as the executive, that's what you should do and we're holding this hearing. i think it behooves us that if we're going to have the structure that could have this risk that we should write down the policies and procedures in case we have a point where people are not as awesome as yourself and that can lead us to something. i don't know if you want to add anything, dr. philip. i will support you. >> i wasn't going to speak, but i not only 100% agree with supervisor melgar, but that was just not my experience, the way that you're portraying the relationship. that it always went smoothly

with director gars and yourself. that was not my experience of what happened under either of your leadership. i know there was that healthy tension and that feeling of independence that existed. i think supervisor melgar is speaking about that healthy tension and i don't think we are all at the top of the healthy relationship of the person who has to answer to the person on top. i think clearly delineating those relationships and what happens and placing protections

in place so the health officer is truly independent is important. so i just wanted to speak up to agree with supervisor melgar on that and say i have a slightly different expensive than you, dr. colfax, than what happened in the past and that is even more important. i'm also very happy to be supporting you today, dr. philip. i think you've been a tremendous leader in this time and look forward to working with you not as an interim but as the permanent health officer. >> chair: thank you, supervisor ronen. i don't see anyone on the roster right now. with that said, madam clerk, we want to open this up to public comment. if you're here to comment on the public health officer, madam clerk will tell you how to do

that. >> clerk: thank you, mr. president. as stated by the president, it's time to provide your testimony on the board of supervisors' consideration of the appointment of the public health officer. the telephone number should be crawling on your screen. it is 415-655-0001. the meeting i.d. number is 187 347 6894. press pound twice. hopefully your location will be quiet and you will not miss the prompt. you have been unmuted. we are setting the timer for two minutes for each person to speak specifically on this item. general public comment will be called in a little while during this agenda. operations, do we have a caller in the queue, please?

>> i oppose the appointment of grant colfax for public health officer. >> clerk: operations, do we have another caller in the queue? >> operator: that completes the queue. >> clerk: mr. president. >> chair: thank you so much, madam clerk. public health measure is closed. i just want to say a couple of things. first of all, i just want to say it's very important that our public health officer is in-depth and makes decisions always on the basis of what's best for the health of our residents. i am happy to see a woman in that role and happy to hear the recommendations from dr. colfax. i just want to thank you for

making decisions based on science and politics, which is very hard and extremely difficult in that role. i want you to know i appreciate how difficult your role is and want to restate that we are in a pandemic and a situation where something like this happens maybe once in a lifetime and definitely not always in a lifetime. so i want to thank you for the role that you have played so far. with that, i saw supervisor peskin and supervisor safai's hand is up as well. >> thank you, president. i am more than happy at the outset to support the nomination or the confirmation of dr. philip. i am rising to a housekeeping

matter that there is an instrument at the rules committee, if my recollection serves me, dr. colfax's name can be amended at committee or a substitute introduced. i am happy to have that entered at the rules committee and have dr. philip forwarded to the committee as you see fit. this is a technical issue. >> chair: thank you so much, supervisor peskin. i believe you are absolutely correct. the resolution can be amended and we're also going to have to add a residency waiver well. that will be handled at the rules committee. >> you both answered my question. i just wanted to know the mechanism by which we could make a motion to support or put forward dr. philip's name for the county health officer.

that was it. thank you. >> chair: thank you so much. there will not be any motions made at this meeting. supervisor peskin, we will amend the resolution. with that said, i don't see any other colleagues. i want to thank dr. colfax and dr. philip for being here and for attending today's hearing. this hearing has been heard and is now filed. madam clerk, would you pleased call item number 15. >> clerk: the board has completed the committee of the whole and is now the board of

supervisors. item 15 is the ordinance amending the planning code to prohibit retail workspace in chinatown mixed-use districts; affirming the planning department's determination under the california environmental quality act; making findings of consistency with the general plan, and the eight priority policies of planning code, >> chair: please call the role for item 15. >> clerk: on 15. [ roll call ] >> clerk: there are 11 ayes.

>> chair: this ordinance is passed on the first reading unanimously. item 16. >> clerk: item 16 is ordinance amending the police code to require peace officers who request a temporary emergency gun violence restraining order to serve and file a copy with the court as specified and to apply the california penal code provision penalizing violations of different types of gun violence restraining orders under california law to persons who are subject to parallel gun violence restraining orders issued by an out-of-state jurisdiction. >> chair: thank you, madam clerk. supervisor stefani. >> thank you, president. the restraining order laws affect families, household members to petition a court to remove access to firearms before

they commit violence. in many of the shootings that have occurred in this country, many family members or friends noticed things that would have indicated danger. there was a disturbed and an angry young man who shot people in california before turning the gun on himself. we passed the first gun violence restraining law in march of 2020 in san francisco. that law allowed us to create this law. it allowed us to prosecution exhibit an individual from owning, purchasing, possessing a firearm or ammunition. when that person has an empty danger to themselves or others,

this law could not be more clear. we have seen this violence from right-wing supremacists. shootings are up more than 62% in san francisco in 2020 and the problems continue to get worse. shootings throughout more than 219% in the fourth quarter of 2020 in the same quarter. we've also seen that extended lockdowns have put incredible stress and strain on our residents' mental health and the calls to the crisis hot lines have increased. further, background checks for firearm sales reached a record high in march as the u.s. saw multiple mass shootings. the ordinance before you today takes advantage of recent changes in state laws that allows localities to restrict

the gun laws. previously gbros were required to file in a reasonable amount of time and now reasonable is no later than two days after issuance and these issues must be treated as if they're issues locally. i want to thank supervisors mar, handelman and haney. >> chair: thank you, supervisor stefani. i don't see any other colleagues on the roll. call the roll.

[ roll call ]. >> clerk: for 11 ayes. >> chair: this ordinance is passed without objection. please call 17 and 18 together.

>> clerk: items 17 and 18 are the resolution determining that the issuance of a type-42 on-sale beer and wine public premises liquor license to bar part time, llc, doing business as bar part time, located at 496-14 street (district 8), will serve the public convenience or necessity of the city and county of san francisco, in accordance with california business and professions code, section 23958.4; and requesting that the california department of alcoholic beverage control impose conditions on the issuance of the license.resolution determining that the transfer of a type-21 off-sale general beer, wine, and distilled spirits liquor license to bloomingdale's inc., doing business as bloomingdale's, located at 845 market street (district 6), will serve the public convenience or necessity of the city and county of san francisco, in accordance with california business and professions code, section 23958.4; and requesting that the california department of alcoholic beverage control impose conditions on the issuance of the license. >> chair: thank you so much. madam clerk, please call the roll for items 17 and 18. >> clerk: on items 17 and 18. [ roll call ]

>> clerk: there are 11 ayes. >> chair: without objection, these resolutions are adopted unanimously. please call item 19.

please call the role for 19. >> clerk: ordinance amending the administrative code and campaign and governmental conduct code to establish the position of executive director of the office of chief medical examiner, and to establish a division of responsibilities in that office between the executive director and the chief medical examiner. >> chair: call the roll. [ roll call ] [ please stand by ]

>> and seeing more appointments of treasure island residents in the future.

thank you. >> thank you supervisor haney. madam clerk, would you call the roll on item 20. >> clerk: on item 20, supervisor chan. >> aye. >> supervisor haney. >> aye. >> supervisor mandelman. >> aye. >> supervisor mar. >> aye. >> supervisor melgar. >> aye. >> supervisor peskin. >> aye. >> supervisor preston. >> aye. >> supervisor ronen. >> aye. >> supervisor safai. >> aye. >> supervisor stefani. >> aye. >> and supervisor walton. >> aye. >> clerk: there are 11 ayes. >> thank you. without objection this motion is passed unanimously. madam clerk, please call item 22.

>> clerk: to committee reports. items 22-24 were considered by the land use and transportation committee at a regular meeting on monday, april 5th. and were forwarded as committee reports for item 22, this is a resolution to extend for six months and modifying interim zoning controls enacted in resolution number 430-19 and 539-19 to require a conditional use authorization and specify findings for a proposed change of use from a residential care facility into a ceqa determination appropriate findings. >> please call the roll. >> clerk: supervisor chan. >> aye. >> supervisor haney. >> aye. >> supervisor mandelman. >> aye. >> supervisor mar. >> aye.

>> supervisor melgar. >> aye. >> thank you for the peskin. >> aye. >> supervisor preston. >> aye. >> supervisor ronen. >> aye. >> supervisor safai. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> and supervisor walton. >> aye. >> there are 11 ayes. >> without objection, this resolution is adopted unanimously. madam clerk, please call item 23. >> clerk: item 23 forwarded as a committee report. it did have additional sponsors added. since the committee we have a request from supervisor peskin, preston, chan and mandelman to be added. item 23 is a resolution to authorize eyes the placement of

the cruise plaques to be installed on the sidewalks at historic locations within and near the cultural district in the area bounded by brandon street, third street, mission street, 12th street, and division street and to initiate the process set fourth in the public's works code section 789. to provide for the creation of a program for and installation of commemorative plaques on the leather history cruise. >> thank you madam clerk. supervisor safai, did i see your hand? >> yes, just please add me as a co-sponsor as well. >> clerk: will do. >> thank you supervisor safai. madam clerk, please call the roll. >> clerk: on item 23, supervisor chan. >> aye. >> supervisor haney. >> aye. >> supervisor mandelman. >> aye. >> supervisor mar. >> aye. >> supervisor melgar. >> aye.

>> supervisor peskin. >> aye. >> supervisor preston. >> aye. >> supervisor ronen. >> aye. >> supervisor safai. >> aye. >> supervisor stefani. >> aye. >> and supervisor walton. >> aye. >> there are 11 ayes. >> without object sex this objection, this isadopted. please call item 24. >> clerk: it was recommended as amended with a new title. it also has new co-sponsors requesting to be added. we have here preston and peskin. the title reads the resolution to urge the mayor's office of housing and community development to prioritize small property owners and affordable housing providers in the

distribution of rent relief funds for the speedy review and approval time lines, technical assistance, high-quality customer service, and in language support to non english speakers and urging large corporate landlords to voluntarily reserve these funds for small property owners. and affordable housing providers. adding, this is the new part, anding a monthly report from the mayor's office of housing and community development on the amount of federal rent relief funds received by each landlord in san francisco. >> thank you, madam clerk. supervisor chan. >> thank you president walton. i'm excite today move this forward. we had a great conversation about this legislation at the land use and transportation committee yesterday. after a presentation from eric shower of the mayor's office of housing community development so i will keep me remarks brief today. this resolution is simply asking

other corporate landlords to do the right thing and come to the table with their tenants associations to negotiate their own rent relief agreement before dipping into a public dollars. which is very limited at this point to help all the tenants in need. i'm excited that we'll have $54 million in state and federal rent relief funds coming to san francisco so we know the need for rent relief is far greater than that and is that means the corp at landlords can provide direct relief to their tenants and that will be allow our public funds to receive rent for tenants of smaller landlords who don't have the ability to voluntarily offer more relief than they already have and we know in san francisco a lot of these small landlords are immigrants working families that

have been around for generations to buildup to acquire small properties as property landlords and this is really about serving all tenants and to do that, we need corporate landlords who have the resources to step up. working with their tenants and forgive their rents directly. i want to let you know that i met yesterday and the biggest landlord in san francisco and i hope that they will lead the way and set a good example for other corporate landlords in this town. i'd like to thank all my co-sponsors. ronen, mar, walton and pose. >> commissioner underwood: thank you and i hope to have your pes. thank you for your support. >> thank you i want to thank supervisor chan and her staff for their great on this. i absolutely support prioritizing the small landlords and really they're urging and pushing our larger landlords to

come to the table to provide rent relief for their tenants. i have a district that has larger buildings about half of my district live in building that's have 10 or more units and may live in some of these larger buildings and i know the intent of this resolution and the goals of it are to make sure that we don't leave anyone behind and we prioritize the limited funds that we have and i just want to put out there my commitment and i know supervisor chan has this commitment and supervisor preston and our board and to make sure that as we prioritize rent relief funds, and urge the larger landlords to come to the table themselves, we're not leaving behind the tenants who live in the larger building who's have a tremendous amount of debt and need our support and so, i am of course going to support this resolution and want

to make sure we prioritize our limited funds and i want to make sure we all work together and the many tenants, many are families and low income and larger who live this these larger buildings are also supported and we have our backs not only with some of the funds but as you said, with urging and ensuring that the landlords come to the table so i appreciate you supervisor chan and hearing our views and that we don't leave anybody behind and many people of course need our support. thank you. >> >> mr. president.

you are muted. >> thank you supervisor haney. supervisor melgar. >> thank you so much president walton. thank you so much supervisor chan for putting this on the table and for being part of the land use committee which approved this yesterday and i apologize for my absence. so i just had a question. i am the supervisor for district 7 that is almost the renters in my district live at park mer said which is the largest community under one landlord rest of the mississippi and i you know, i know that right now, things have been tough at park merced so i want clarification about how you see this going. i did read the resolution and it wasn't clear to me now with the

amendment. so, is it that once the tenants association is able to negotiate with a landlord for rent reduction that they can then tap into any available funds, and is the reporting requirement meant to also open that opportunity for others 23 there are still money that available after a certain threshold as been reached. can you explain sort of how you envision that? >> so, through the president and responding to the questions, the reality is, the mayor's office is still working on really the mechanism of the funds dis trib buying. right now as they currently exist is really to give to sf

and prioritizing tenants in most in need and to distribute the relief and we do recognize the fact that these actually payment will be made to the landlords and so, if they really actually have to have the agreement from the landlords, in order to receive and for this total $54 million come to sort of in two different ways because of sb91, $28 million about come through the states and others will come directionally through the city which is going to accept and expand legislation that is going to come before the budget committee this coming wednesday. meanwhile, the mayor's office of housing and community development is going to also have or is establishing an m.o.u. with the state to again

about how to go about distributing this fund so it's one of the reasons why we had a brief presentation yesterday and we know that there's still questions that is waiting to be answered and we know the fund is not going to start to be distributed until may and we just want to make sure that small property landlords who really lack the access and resources can know about the process of employing for these funds because we know other corporate landlords really are, like they're really. they actually know how to apply for these funds because of the resource that's they have and we don't know yet but it could really there will be and they have an application in the queue for the state funding of that $28 million. it's the reason we want and back from the mayor's office of housing and community development and so we can

understand how the fund is being distributed and it may be what mechanism we can put in in an ordinance to make sure that we have equity in the way the funds are being distributed. i hope that answers your question. thank you so much. >> thank you supervisor melgar. supervisor preston >> thank you president walton. i wanted to thank supervisor chan for her leadership on this and also just with the, as i mentioned, inland use committee when we heard this just a rapidly shifting landscape around federal funds, state administration, local funds, appreciate the attempt to tackle a lot of that in this resolution and work to address some of the issues you've raised like in

particular supervisor haney your comments around larger building and i think that's one of the reasons that we in committee around the data issue and really the amendments that you made around data collection and that we pushed on the committee is really important. it's our collective hope this is not the last time we are seeing rent relief money. we're hoping for an additional federal money and we are counting on additional money in the future and one of the most important things it's going to be how is the initial patch of money spent, who gets it and who is request for it are denied and safeguarding against the situation that i think really is the impotence for supervisor chan's resolution here which is the hording of those resources by the biggest players in the

industry, who we all know, right now are most of them in the least need but ready to be at front of the line to grab any and all so how do we balance that with the need to protect the big buildings so i just wanted today weigh in with my strong support but also just to reiterate the point we made that's in the resolution that we made in commit eye around capturing as much data as the legally allowable about the landlords and tenants who benefit from these funds so when we come back and do further policy work on this we know the experience with the initial funds. thank you. thank you supervisor president ton. i see no one else on the roster. please call the roll for item 24. >> clerk: on item 24, supervisor chan. >> aye. >> supervisor haney.

>> aye. >> supervisor mandelman. >> aye. >> supervisor mar. >> aye. supervisor melgar. >> aye. >> supervisor peskin. >> aye. supervisor preston. >> aye. >> supervisor ronen. >> aye. >> supervisor safai. >> aye. >> supervisor stefani. >> aye. >> and supervisor walton. >> walton. there are 11 ayes. >> without objection, this resolution is adopted unanimously. madam clerk, call item 25. >> item 25 considered by the rules committee at a regular meeting on monday april 5th, 2021 and amended to include the appointee names in the title. item 25 reads, motion to appoint

monica walters and sarah in terms ending may first, 2022 and patricia sullivan and june lynn ar low terms ending may first, 2023, all four as members to the office of early care and education citizens advisory committee. >> thank you. supervisor melgar. >> thank you so much president walton. i just wanted to say thank you very much for the rules committee and to chair peskin for expediting these appointments. it is really important that we pay attention to he will education and childcare issues. in our economy and the running of our city but also to our pandemic recovery so thank you so much for doing that. >> thank you, supervisor pel gar. seeing no one else on the

roster, supervisor peskin. >> thank you, president walton. i want to thank supervisor melgar for the generous stations and our collective resolutions notwithstanding we were actually going to consider this in the due course of business and actually would have considered it sooner but, we had an embarrassment of riches and i want to thank mayor breed for accommodating one individual through the mayor's appointment that we did not accommodate at rules committee and i want to thank my colleagues and chan for going through that process with some well qualified applicants. >> thank you supervisor peskin. >> please call the roll. >> clerk: supervisor chan.

>> aye. >> supervisor haney. >> aye. >> supervisor mandelman. >> aye. >> supervisor mar. >> aye. >> supervisor melgar. >> aye. >> peskin. >> aye. >> supervisor preston. >> aye. >> supervisor ronen. >> aye. >> supervisor safai. >> aye. >> supervisor stefani. >> aye. >> supervisor walton. >> aye. >> clerk: there are 11 ayes. >> without objection, this motion is passed. i believe we aral roll call. item 26. >> clerk: yes, mr. president. first up to introduce new business is supervisor chan. >> thank you, madam clerk. i will submit today. >> clerk: thank you, supervisor haney. >> submit.

>> clerk: thank you. supervisor mandelman. >> >> thank you, madam clerk. i have an inmemoriam today. i'm asking that we adjourn today's meeting in the memory of alvin h. balm junior who passed away at the age of 90 on sunday, march 28th. it's hard to know where to start in describing how life and contributions to san francisco. he was a philanthropist, activist, mentor to many. al described his own rule as gay jew and chief. he took turns over the long, full life, after growing up in chicago, he earned a law degree at harvard university and served before finding his way to san francisco in 1958 to practice law. he soon changed course to earn a graduate degree in city planning at u.c. berkeley while serving on the san francisco planning commission from 1962 to 1964. and began his career in public service at the newly formed bay

conservation and development commission helping to establish the legal and administrative framework for protecting the bay. later in life, in his 50s, he earned another degree from berkeley this time in social work and began a third career as a practicing psychotherapist for more than 20 years. all the while, it was through his prolific engagement in civic causes including lgbtq rights, the arts and civil liberties that al made an enduring mark. a generous donor himself, he also gave his time to organize others to give. he served owns the boards of many bay area organizations including jewish family and children services of san francisco and the fine arts museums of san francisco, the aclu of northern california, access institute for psychological services and the educational fund. he was a founding member of the new israel fund which civil society and advance in minority rights and in early and open

house which offers housing and services to our lgbt senior community in san francisco. during his time on the board of the jewish community, and he was also a long-time member of the pre queer synagogue. al stood up for equality in his personal life as well and early. in 1975, he came up publicly in an interview with the san francisco chronicle at a time when doing so was still very much a risk to his reputation and career. al was recognized with numerous honors and accolades and the human rights campaign and the community service award from the san francisco aids foundation and the community service awards from the san francisco lgbtq

community center and the jewish community federations robert finton award for distinguished leadership. he was honored as the lifetime achievement grand marshal of the san francisco pride parade. jewish tradition tells us at any given time, there are 36 righteous individuals who buy their goodness keep the world going. for several decades, he was such an indispensable human for san francisco and of course especially for our lgbtq and jewish communities. he was also a sweet, sweet man and a deer friend. i will miss our meals together and his wise council very much. i want to send our condolences to his husband and all who love him and mourn his loss. may his memory be for a blessing and the rest i submit. >> clerk: thank you, supervisor mandelman. supervisor mar. >> thank you, madam clerk.

colleagues, i have one resolution to introduce today and i also want inmemoriam. a resolution in support of sb37 with the waste and site clean up. san francisco and other california cities have recently granted certain ceqa exemptions to projects on the list and annually updated registry of waste sites in the state. in san francisco, contaminated gas stations, vehicle repair shops and parking lots and they have become prize development commodities in recent years and according to a chronicle article last year the planning department has granted or considered categorical and commonsense ceqa exemptions for a dozen projects and he over the past five years. state law mandates transparency and requires local governments to notify the public about potential hazards at a site before development begins. it allows the public to demand

health protection and additional levels of clean up and requires formal considerations of those the dangers of carrying out development for project are sights can be severe and without mitigation efforts designed to clean up or eliminate how the substances these projects can pose several health risk to the public and future occupants by exposing them to dangerous substances and in 1991, assembly members samuel farm pass aid bill that prohibits a project from being except under ceqa if it is located on a site. this law was passed in response to instances of construction

projects being carried out on the web sites and without thorough environment alanal sis due to exemptions and and it cannot be granted for projects under any condition however, for the web sites by granting commonsense exemptions and claiming these types of exemptions are not subject to the public resources care 21084. this is allowing entities to carry out a development project without notifying the public of the health risk to the project. it clarifies the state public code for all types of exemptions and common accepts exemptions cannot be granted to projects on the site. i would like to close today's meeting in memory of dean riley.

dean riley who passed away at age 94 was a accomplished jazz basis and in the jazz community since the 1950s and he was also a long time resident the sunset district where his apartment living room was his music room and all forms of instruments and that they played including his father's bee an owe and it also contains all the albums he played and tapes of his life shows he was born june 30th, 1926 in auburn washington and his father james riley was a pianist and leader of his band called thal bernias. he grew up in near in a farm town outside of see a lot where he played the trumpet in school bands. after graduating in high school in 1944 he joined the u.s. navy as a musician third class.

it was the daily playing of taps. and came in the summer of 1925 and placed him at the center of the wave of san francisco jazz that came out of north beach in the 1950s and his steadiest gig was the hungry eye a famous north beach nightclub in the 1950s and 60s and he had met guitarist by spotting a guy with the guitar case on the streets and following him home and they paired up with pianist vince and became the hungry eye trio and playing in a secondary room where people lined up to see the headliners. playing from 9:00 p.m. until 1:00 a.m. six nights a week they got good enough to change their name and became way more than a house band. it was unique it had no drums and he was the rhythm section. the group recorded the

self-title trio released in 1956 and flower is a lonesome thing in 1957. dean did not play on a charlie brown christmas. over a career that lasted 75 years, he played base with the larry trio and mike greenfield trio and the king ston trio in those were just the trios. he also played in quartets and he performed with many jazz legends including charlie parker, duke ellington and and paula west. and dean backed up country acts including frank sinatra, bb king and joan biaz. he performed regularly in his 90s including monthly gigs at

bird and bookstore in glen park in the 230 jas band and in the company of colleagues he is known for 50 years. comfortable in his role of side man, dean riley stood out. only as much as he needed to. he had a warmth to his playing and the warmth of his personality. survivors is his partner of 32 years kay, daughter aaron riley of phoenix and son ma mark riley of los angeles and jeff riley of petaluma and a musical memorial for dean will be planned after the pandemic. the rest i submit. >> clerk: thank you, supervisor mar. supervisor melgar. >> thank you, so much. madam clerk. i have two requests. we have lost two beloved in the san francisco irish community.

my first is for mr. patrick owe donahue who was well-known in the owner of the pub on monter a. he was born july 41,942nd in ireland and 'em greated to the united states to pursue a new life. he enlisted in the u.s. army and when was a sergeant at the age of 18. pat was always ready to sing the song, tell a story, and enjoy an occasional irish coffee. he was a carpenter foreman. he is survived of his wife of 58 years who reported she was a bar tending before women could even do that and also survived by his grandchildren kaylie, brittney, see era, hughie, keen and

eugene. siblings and family members in the u.s., ireland, england. to brigitte, his family and the community, we share our deepest condolences and remember the loving memory of pat. my next inmemoriam i am doing with supervisor ronen is for mr. also known as j.t. o'conner who was a pillar of the irish community in san francisco for many decades. he emigrated from ireland to california in 1958. when he met his wife iris and drafted in the u.s. army and stationed in germany. upon his return, he served the san francisco police department for eight years and in 1968, he and his wife purchased harrington brothers moving and storage and expanded the business to be the legacy as it is today and i will leave this

part for supervisor ronen comparing it's been a important fixture for district 9 for decades. and he tirelessly supported other immigrants and community organizations including the cultural center and the irish immigration center and he was not only a hard working tenacious and dedicated businessman but also was so generous and ensuring that other immigrants were able to achieve their american dreams just like he was able to. he is survived by his daughter, fiona, my good friend, his son, michael and shane, his grandchildren, mikaela, esa, pillar, claire, irish, deck land and his sister. his legacy lives through his wonderful children in grandchildren and the

longstanding presence of harrington galleries and i will refer this to supervisor ronen. the rest i submit. thank you. >> thank you, supervisor ronen. >> thank you for allowing me to add a few words specifically as the owner of harrington brothers moved it to its forever home on 17th street and which over the years, transitioned to harrington galleries focusing on state and consignment sales of use furniture and antiques. they were a fixture on valencia street for over 50 years and his daughter opportunities to run the business. i know that his family will miss him because i am friends with his son shane and my daughter is dear friends with shane's

children deck land and evelyn. and they've all told us beautiful stories about their dad and their grandfather and he will be deeply, deeply missed and loved but his memory will continue. >> thank you, supervisor ronen. >> thank you, madam clerk, colleagues, today with supervisor haney i'm calling for a hearing to receive information from the public as well as from the office of economic and workforce development and there are subsidiary office, the office of small business on their collective efforts around business relief since we finalized our last budget, obviously during the pandemic, and how we have begun to pivot grants to small businesses to support their recovery efforts and by way of background, my