preventative measures is to have an active set of officers in patrol or on the beat which we do. so, next slide. here are some of our shoplifting strategies. obviously as i mentioned, foot beat and commercial corridors, consistent passing calls and i know this is off topic but we have been doing a lot of patrol at night in commercial corridors and everything from putting our lights flashing through and we're taking all aspects of theft there it's bug larry at night or the incidents in commercial corridors very seriously. we use. >> sandra: data-driven policin.

known on areas of shoplifting. marked patrol vehicles parked outside some storefronts and then we've already touched on 10-b. i'm going to let you talk about the investigative strategies but let me jump over to outreach we. we have a strong district level group of captains that meet with the merchants and their associations and their larger retail so if you take the supervisor mar, captain has excellent relationships with everybody from pops out on ter a bell to stones town which is clearly a large retail star and we try to keep those partnerships and those data exchanges together so that the captains of their stations know what is going on in their district and our safety walks and not just station personnel

and you see the i am flux of our community engagement and reaching out and we use a steady by wing wall officers and officers that know the community to get messages out because if there's anything that we can do the best way to stop this, if you stop is there's not a statistic to show it's not been stopped. that is i very costly proposition. if it's a cost-benefit analysis it's available to any business

in san francisco. i'll go ahead and turn this part over to the investigation side. >> great. i just want to, i'm just going to interrupt for a second. some of this presentation now feels -- not because of nueces anythingon your end but based oe information that we're provided, about how 85% of the theft is by organized crime. it seems to me like we should spend conversation talking about that a little bit. that requires more coordination between you and the stores and police and the district attorney and what are we actually doing to great up this organized crime, given the fact that it seems, based on the ta advertise statisticspresented today, we ar ahead of any other place. i understand for each passing calls and the other staff that

is more important, it sounds like the opportunistic shoplifter which is a smaller percentage of the shoplifting. certainly it's important and i think we're all working on those strategies. i've been asking for foot beats for the last four years and i haven't gotten them so, i would prefer to focus in on what your strategy to break up this organized crime that is happening in these stores that is impacting the entire city. >> yeah, absolutely. that's more on the investigative side so as stated, i'll use an example that was given. if a individual walked into store a and took less than $950, even if they were going onto the next store, that single incident is still a petty theft. so, we used to have, again, in this -- i know that prop 47 gets

knocked but it's one of the thought processes that needs to be really kind of maybe thought of as it goes to this organized retail theft. you can walk in, as described to a wall greens, a maceys, whatever area you would like, and there is no burglary charge like pre prop 47, if that amount is it under $950. so if i walk into wallgreens and i'm going to steal $700 worth of items but i have a bag that has foil inside or other security defeating mechanisms i've shown the intent, i'm going in there to steal. under prop 47, the change in the law does not come in until we reach that $950 mark. so, investigations even at that level, would have to put together that string. again, i'll leave that to that. as you know, in that earlier cvs

presentation, that's a regional effort. crime may be focused in san francisco but it's definitely regional. i think that's probably a good segway to turnover to d.c. to how we go after this -- >> before you do that, i just want to clarify. if someone does x amount in one store and the other store in one day, you can't aggregate that to a larger amount and you have video evidence of it? >> each one is a separate separe victim. i'll leave that if the d.a. wants to correct me. if you have the possession of all those items, could you go felony possession of stolen property over $950 so if you have two stores $1,000 each, now you are in possession of $2,000, i do know that you would have

stolen property over $950 which is a felony. >> right. that was my point of classification. yeah, d.c. -- >> good afternoon. so mine is acting deputy pointed i oversee investigations and within investigations i have the burglary unit and it's basically responsible for investigating shoplifting. there's also a specialty within the units of all 19 investigators that we have 19 general investigators that are all trained in shoplifting and crimes related to retail theft and crimes related to organize retail theft and in addition to that, we have two investigators whose full time it is to investigate organized retail theft and they work regionally

and just to go into kind of an idea of what our investigations focus, we focus on the serious repeat offenders. they're serious because they have multiple open cases and repeat offenders, they're serious because they've endured someone in this store and i can talk a little bit about how that goes into different crimes which is handled by our investigative units or they are violent. so, on the organized retail front, what kind of outreach we do. so these two specialized members, they're both sergeant. they do outreach with the store. they do educations with the different stores. they actually monitor the different stores and have regular meetings with some of their security personnel,

managers. they work with district stations. the captains of the district stations and some of the investigators that are assigned to different stations. they do lock for aggregate crime patterns. they work with a company under wall greens, they've worked with the alliance but even outside of that, they'll take multiple cases in different locations and look for the same person committing the crime, they'll look for data and it takes hours and hours of watching the video and getting the police reports together, looking at the history of the individuals, and putting a case together and bringing it to the district attorney. we actually have a specific meeting with the district attorney that we meet with to go over just retail theft and then on another level, organized retail theft and in addition

that, they are also members of the california organized retail crime association which looks at all california retail theft and they meet regularly with them to look for patterns and a lot of our stuff is connected to l.a. outside the area and some of it outside the country. they work with the security not just at the corporate level but each individual store and they troy to come up with ways that the store can physically change the environment to troy to reduce crime and they work with security that is hired by the store and go over protocol of best practices and the other thing they do is they try to get video from these different stores than in once they get patterns, they separate those cases into organized retail theft. so the one thing i wanted to talk about, i know listening to

cvs, waltgroans, mr. cunningham and duke and they're looking at the total loss as a profit loss and they are is a segment of organized retail theft that's associated with that and the thing that police department also has an obligation is for general public safety and communities so we do look at the individuals that are committing the crimes and we focus on the repeat offenders. they have multiple open cases with not just shoplifting, their committing auto burglary, residential and street robberies. wove had members within the store staff that have been stabbed, attacked, pepper sprayed, so those are the kind of things that they're looking at not all of that is organized retail theft so those are what

types of call for service and times of call for survey so we can relay that to patrol this is what we're seeing and pattern wise this is where foot beat officers need to be because that's what we're seeing and -- >> do you have statistics or are you just reading that to us? >> i can go into it in slide 4. let's go to slide 4. >> let's go to the statistics, that will be helpful.

right now we're looking and since you'll see in 2018-2019 as far as the arrest we've made 2,449 arrests over the three years and we have a law that helps us aggregate. repeat shoplifting offenders that are committing this in multiple stores and ex see thing that over the multiple stores. >> what law is that? >> 409.4 of the personal code. it's under ab10-65 and supposed to sunset and it's currently extended from january 2021 to

july of 2021 and we work closely ex our retail task force works with the state and we have a team that addresses the high level and rehave in our investigators that sit with their teams for high-level people taking this product. we've recovered millions of dollars of products including a semi truck of stolen proper stores in union squares and cvs, wallgreens and then if we can go to the next slide, that can give you an idea of the trend.

>> before the pandemic, you will see it so between that march, it's slowing down and then it stopped for a little. it was lower and starting to trend back up again. the one trend we are seeing is if they're stopped by security or store person and it escalates and it becomes a robbery and i'll go into what that is in a second. when it's basically a shop lifting that is elevated by use

of force or fear. it's actually based on a 1983 case that occurred. what that then does it makes it a violent crime and we charge them with felony robbery section. we see a lot of repeat is offenders. they have a guy that's been out on pa role, 2020 open cases and he has been charged several times. he has been charged under the prc as parole and currently he has throw or our fourth case in 2021. he is still out and he has open cases and we rarely see them going to state prison like they

were supposed to go under prc acts. >> why is that? >> >> i don't and i think a lot of it is because of the pandemic, a lot of the jails were prioritized for just very violent offenders. i think that's part of it and i just think just part of it is in the totality of so they take priority. >> what is prcs again? >> so it's post community row leaf and it's supervisor re lease what it did is it takes someone who is sentenced to

state prison instead of sending him to state prison they released him to the community on patrol but they're now the responsibility of the county and adult probation. >> we have adult probation coming up. anything else? >> i have a question, deputy chief. the slides around the trends around shoplifting over the last three years. i think the prior slides shows 2018, 2019, 2020. so basically it looks like there was a significant decline in incidents in 2020 and then if i look at the bars there was a decline in the percentage of this and that resulted in arrests in 2020.

there was a further decline compared to 2020 in accidents? >> ok. if you have further slides, even though there's a decline and we've seen a decline in shoplifting incidents which seems the staff seems to do a little story that was portrayed and described by cvs and wallgreens that there is the types of incidents have changed. >> we've heard from investigators and officers that a pretty significant number of it is not reported especially the lower level we're not just auking about wall greens and all

kinds of businesses so yao have a slide because the data was pulled so these robberies not reflected in this but we're seeing a decline that it's trending up and in so that usually where so that's not reflected in the slide. that's about what i'm hearing from my investigators and a lot of my and the cases are pickupel together and one of the cases we're looking at the person had -- they committed 15 robberies. they were all bundled into one. they were all wallgreens pharmacies in our city and the person got probation and two months later the person gets

another charge for robbing someone at bart. he gets adult, young adult court and then he gets probation and he has been released from custody since then. these are the robbery cases and we'll take priority on and then organized staff. we've had successes with the district attorney also we have a list of frequent offenders that will take to them on burglary on residential burglary but we also have them for organized retail thefts where we'll take this and say hey, this person is involved in these number of cases and we show connections with this group or that group and some of these groups are gangs within the city and some of them are from outside, either oakland, san --

>> go back to that slide. everybody thinks habitual and all kinds of and that's not just the shoplifting they're doing. they're telling me that is a high percentage. >> so when it says shoplifting incidents district these

arrests. >> i was having a few more questions, i'm sorry, supervisor mar. >> i think i'm good. it looks like supervisor stefani is in the cue for questions. >> ok, yeah. i'll come back. i just wanted to make sure that you guys, it would be good to see how many arrests were made related to shoplifting and theft and how many related to organized crime and repeat offenders. we can come back to that. supervisor stefani. >> thank you. i just have a question for deputy chief. with regard to repeat offenders have been individual has picked it up for theft and that individual is on parole or probation, are you keeping track

whether or not that individual is charged or received new charges or whether or not they're just referred to patrol or whether or not they're referred to probation to have their probation revoked. is anyone keeping track of those statistics? >> my retail left will probably be better able to answer that. i can tell you that a lot of the people they're making up have stayed orders and they're and they're on probation and just by our conversations i had a detailed conversation with them recently to see what patterns they were seeing and from both from the organized and just the general population and commit something of these violations. and also, just the feedback from the store is like want to know what union square, what the different corporate and?

of the ving mom and pop stores and the smaller businesses like what are they hearing from them because they have community meetings also. the main thing i hear is also that some of the stores, they have really hard timekeeping employees employed because they feel unsafe. [please stand by]

>> like what happens down the road, if it's being disbound to a some of them are committing other crimes so when you think of organized retail, it's just a group of people that know each other and they plan retail theft and they're very sophisticated. they bring in stolen cars, they change the plates and they'll

go get a store. we've had success with the stores. many times they know who some of these people are, they'll call us ahead of time we'll track them to other locations in the bay area. we'll track them and do cases on them. >> thank you. i don't really know what to say in terms of, i mean, i'll withhold my comments at this point. >> thank you supervisor stefani. i just want to see if you guys have statistics on the number of people that have been arrested related to this type of shoplifting and how many of those are repeat offender. if you don't have that today, you can follow up with us. we have adult and juvenile

probation. so is there something else you want to wrap up with. >> thank you, deputy chief. so just quickly, the slide that's in front of you is from 2019 and 2020. obviously, you can tell that with major timelines of san francisco being closed to retail and other things. and just so we are clear, what we are able to gather are basically camera stores, department stores, drug stores. grocery stores, liquor stores, and supermarkets. so if you have a business that falls out of that or listed in the police report because it doesn't fall into one of the major categories, that may not be captured in this slide. as you can see, i'll just use the central district because it has union square, so it's easy to end to notice. i mean, that's a huge drop

between 2019 and 2020 for shoplifting incidents for those districts. so this was just to kind of highlight that, you know, obviously there has been a significant drop in most of the areas with the exception of the three. you can see northern, mission, and angleside. next slide. and then, lastly, this is incidents and events just for the year 2020 for each district. and, again, just for that single year based on the stats. again, as you can see, those numbers going back, i'll just use central because it's the largest. one of the things to note depending on where an incident does happen, obviously, some areas have security versus other areas. for instance, if you took the

westfield mall, although not completely open during 2020, they have a lot of security that either detains or stops which also assists in arrests. they have much better video systems compared to like japantown. so like when we see or investigators see some of our officers on the street who are familiar with people, they're able to match up a lot of these incidents based on either vehicles, photos of video of the actual crimes and also obviously with the help of security from some of these areas. then, that next slide, i think we've taken a lot of your questions. we're happy to answer anymore in regards to that as it affects not only the patrol side, but the investigative

side if there's anymore? >> no. thank you, commander. we did see the number of arrests. i would like to see the number of repeat offenders i'd like to see how many of those are related to organized crimes. we're going to move to mr. david campos from the district attorney's office. thank you. mr. campos. >> thank you very much, supervisor stefani, char mar, vice chair stefani, supervisor haney, chief of staff for the san francisco district attorney's office. i have from our staff a kayla rebenowits who is going to run the slides so we can give her

access and she can share the presentation. >> mr. benowitz already has the access. >> great. so mckayla, go ahead. we are grateful that we're having this hearing, this discussion. i think it's really important for the citizens of san francisco to hear about what's happening and the work that's being done and we're especially proud of the relationship and the partnership that we have with the police department and with a number of the players that you heard from today who were all working very closely to address what's happening in the city. i'm going to begin with the next slide which is chair's information which we received from the san francisco police department. so if we can go to slide number

two. >> and if i can just real quickly jump in, if we can change the display settings for the slides to full screen. >> okay. so mckayla, if we can do that. >> sorry. it's showing full screen on my computer. >> it's been corrected on our end. thank you. >> okay. wonderful and, what i note is that obviously when this kind of theft happens, you feel that there has been an increase in the city. the reality is with that as noted, the number that the police department has on shoplifting and petty theft show a decrease about 1/3 decrease in the number of incidents that have been reported. whether or not that's actually a reflection of what's happening out there, it's not

entirely clear, but we wanted to note that to you. the one thing that's important to provide in terms of context and we know we worked closely with the police department to make sure that there are arrests, the number of arrests actually, you know, identifying a suspect is really critical for us to be able to do the work. and, unfortunately, here, as you can look at the numbers in the blue, only about 7% of petty theft incidents actually result in an arrest. so, for us we have a situation that most of these cases don't end up on our desk, if you will and, of course, with covid, there are challenged that come with arresting individuals and one of the things that we are doing to work with the police

department and our business partners on that front is to identify those frequent fliers, if you will and that's something that has been very useful especially since we created the community liaison that designs a team of prosecutors and staff to each supervisor district and we're finding that community liaison team works with the businesses, works with the police department to identify those frequent fliers, if you will and, in fact, has worked to make arrests in some of those cases. if we can go to the next slide. and, again, this shows the trend in, you know, what we saw in the prior slide that has been a decline in the number of arrests that have been

percented to our office and the two trends, its blue one basically our cases where petty theft is the most serious charge and as supervisor stefani noted, you know, there are other things that go when petty theft occurs including violence and so you can see in the orange the cases where there are other kinds of crimes or incidents that occur. if we can go to the next slide. and, this really goes to the crux of what i think has been discussed here today that even though we only see a small number of cases in terms of petty theft. what we have tried to focus or work on, supervisors is to figure out how we address the

organized crime and the networks that are behind the petty theft that is happening in the city. and this is a team-based approach that we have put together that includes prosecutors in our office, that includes crime analysts and also investigators. by investigators, we obviously mean police department investigators, but also our own investigators in the district attorney's office. normally, arrest warrants are issued by the police department, but as we have seen with a number of cases in i think the wallgreens representative noted that there are dozens of investigations that we are right now have undertaken in conjunction with the police department and the business partners and those investigations and those cases are the result of this team

effort. if we can go to the next slide. you look at in terms of your strategic hot spots, but it's very neighborhood specific and one of the benefits of having community liaisons is that it allows us to go in depth in a granular way about what's happening in every one of the stores and i'll take wallgreens as an example. as the wallgreens representative noted, they hired a consultant to assist in their efforts. we review cases and engage in data mining to see if we see trends in some of the incidents that have occurred throughout different stores in the city, we also look at in terms of

identifying suspects, we look at social media, we look at phone records and so a lot of different investigative work and tools are used to identify the people of interest in a given case. if we can go to the next slide and so one case study that i think has been used and it's essentially the model that we follow is that we having identified key players that are targeted retail and, in this case, it's the organized retail incident where we focused in the last couple of years on individuals that were targeting high-end retail and what we saw in different stores is that this theft in these areas, in these stores, these high end stores, the rate of theft was actually increasing if we can

go to the next slide. so we used different tools, as i noted, we worked closely with the police department. we used strategies where we look at where incidents are happening. a lot of times these individuals use social network tools to communicate with each other. we also partner with other agencies and i think you saw in the presentation from cbs some of the arrests that were made under george gascon and also chasa budine has been the same strategy that's guided this work. next slide. that's just some of the stories that we dealt with. and, as you can see, this isn't something that's just specific to san francisco. what's happening with these cases is actually a national problem and they're actually

regional trends that show that many of these individuals are actually coordinating their work. next slide. in that particular case, as you can see, there were a number of incident reports that we've reviewed. we interviewed a number of witnesses and the one tool that we are using which has been a limited tool because of covid is the grand jury which can serve as an investigative tool for purposes of getting an indictment. we are right now awaiting for the courts to impanel a new grand jury which we hope can be a useful tool with respect to the cases that are pending. and this is the final slide. something that supervisor safai noted is these charges. we are mindful, supervisor, in

every one of these cases what the limitations are, whether it's because of pop 47 or something else and we are actually strategically figuring out the best way to approach a case. i don't really want to get into the specifics of a case, but i will tell you that there was a recent set of robberies involving scooters in the city and county of san francisco and we worked with the police department, with our own investigators to eventually make an arrest in that case. and, again, that was an example where you had an individual that had been engaged in the theft of different units. if you focused only on one unit, that wouldn't meet the threshold, but if you actually aggregated the theft, it gave you more leverage in terms of what you can charge. so that's where we are. we very proud of this work. i think that we are i think at

this point working on multiple investigations. i think it's fair to say there are dozens of investigations and they're all focusing on organized crime and, you know, i think they mentioned 85% of their loss comes from that kind of activity. we're not sure if that's the right number, but we know that the people that we need to prioritize are the people that are essentially making a living doing this and that are targeting these stores and we're proud that we have taken the time to work with companies like wallgreens using their partners like alto to go into these stores and interview witnesses and i'm sorry to hear about the incident with supervisor stefani.

and we would be more than happy to follow up on that case. you know, we want to send a very clear message that we're taking this seriously and i'm proud of the work that we're doing to make sure that, you know, we target these individuals in the same way that they're targeting this industry. so i'll leave it at that and happy to take your questions. supervisor, i think you're muted. >> supervisor safai: okay. i just had this great speech and it got muted. i don't know if i'm supposed to call you supervisor campos, i'm glad you worked in the part on organized crime. my question is and i didn't see that, maybe i missed it in the slides, how many arrests have been made related to repeat how

many have been prougt and how many cases have been prosecuted in the last two years. i know we've seen a dip because of covid in terms of some types of and then the number of wallgreens shutting down has just been shocking and so just want to hear from you all and i'm glad to hear you're working in partnership and you're continuing some of the work that was done prior over the last couple of years, but i just, can you give us a better picture of how many people have been prosecuted and how you've been able to use the aggregated arrests to bring these people down. i know you showed the map of the united states where this is happening. or when walgreens shows chicago, new york, san

francisco, and l.a. and we're an outlier, something's different about here and we need to figure out a way to get to the bottom of it and can't just be prop 47 because l.a. has to deal with the same thing. >> i think i can tell you that we have dozens of cases that are ongoing right now. i can come back to you and give you a more specific number and what number involves repeat offenders. in stores, it's in fact some of the same players and the one thing that i think we have recognized is the sense of frustration that many workers have and this is something that our prosecutors and our investigators have reported to

me as they have gone to these stores to investigate people, you know, often times, they feel why report it because nothing has happened before and as frustrating as that is, the reality is the only way we're going to make an arrest is, in fact, it is reported and so you have to take the time to make sure that people understand that we're taking it seriously and that's one of the benefits of having our community liaison program is that we're trying to do that in ere one of the eleven teams and every district supervisor because every district even though it has some of the same challenges, the situation might be a little different and the players might be different and often times it takes having that personal relationship with the police department, with the district attorney for people to come forward. >> so, before i call on supervisor stefani, i'll just say the police just shows statistics on the number of arrests related to this type of

crime. it would be good to know from those arrests what the outcomes were. probation, so on and so forth because, again, supervisor stefani might of known this in her background, but i'm absolutely shocked to hear that 85% based on their estimates are organized crimes. that to me says it takes a much more coordinated effort between the police, the district attorney and potentially adult probation who's also going to speak here today because we have to figure out a way to break this up. and i too have witnessed it in my own store, you know, 15 juveniles came with garbage bags and one stood outside and within two minutes, they're all walking out with stuff in their hands robbing with impunity and this is something that's happening over and over again. it would be good to know how many people were arrested and

then we're going to follow up with the police and then we're going to also ask the district attorney to tell us and you all to give us numbers on how many people have actually been prosecuted and what is the outcome of that prosecution. so i'm glad that you were prepared to talk about the organized crime. >> if i may, supervisor, in terms of the prosecution, the one thing that i would note is that even though with have filed numerous cases, most of those cases, the prosecutions are still pending because the courts have not been allowing trials. in a typical year, the office has 250, 270 trials, i think we've had, you know, probably a little bit over 20 trials and those have focused on the more serious, you know, violent crimes and so, but the one thing to note is that, right now we actually have about 500

cases that are set for trial as soon as the courts open. so, as you can imagine, we're getting ready for that change. that's one of the reasons we're in negotiations with the mayor. that's the reason why we have the level of staffing. these are cases where if you don't have an expedited trial, that could lead to a dismissal and none of us want to see that. so we're getting ready top ramp up for that. >> supervisor safai: okay. we'll follow up so you guys can see what's happening. supervisor stefani. >> supervisor stefani: thank you, supervisor safai. and you forgot another one of david's titles which is "vice chair." >> thank you, supervisor. >> supervisor stefani: yeah. i had a question. you mentioned that 7% of the or

the police made arrests and 7% of the thefts and i'm wondering if you have an aggregate number of what that is do you know how many cases that is. >> i do. i do think i have that number and let me see if i can find the exact number, supervisor and maybe by staff -- >> it was 800, what we had on our end was 820 and 1380 in 2019. >> supervisor stefani: and so, out of those, this goes along

with -- do we know how many of those cases were actually charged. >> i don't think we have an exact number. i think that we would divide up the action into groups if you will. there is the cases that we would treat as individual cases where it is your typical sort of your kind of i don't know individual shoplifting incident, you know, homeless person or someone like that and then you have the other group which is the more serious one where it's organized crime, you know, and so we can get back to you with both. >> supervisor stefani: right. and i think that's good for us to have the data with regards to these 800 or 1,300 cases that the police are arresting

or are bringing to the d.a.'s office to understand what's being charged. what does that look like in terms of the charges filed? in terms of organized and repeat offenders or those that are, you know, you mentioned homeless and then what is happening to those cases that are charged? are they going to programs? are they being diverted? are they being let out? is there any time in custody? to get an understanding and to really understand the picture of the 7% that you mentioned and to understand the number, 800, 1,300 cases, whatever, what then is happening with that? and, also, we know a lot of those cases are the repeat people or the organized crime that we've been discussing, what is happening and i think to get a full sense of that is how many were pled and i know the courts and covid, we haven't had access to

courtrooms like we have had in the past, but how many of them are out on pre-trials. what is that universe look like? i think that would be helpful for everyone to get a clear picture of, you know, what's being dismissed, what's being diverted, who's out on pretrial. how many cases does somebody have and i think we can get a better idea on how to tackle this if we have a clear picture of what is actually going on. >> supervisor, happy to provide that and these are all misdemeanors by the way, so it's petty theft. we will get that to you and not just the charges, but also what the dispositions were and, you know, what individuals are going to programs and what the outcome is. >> supervisor stefani: okay. thank you. >> thank you. >> supervisor safai: and also

just to clarify that, how many of those are being prosecuted under aggregate charges? so people are creating theft at future am locations, it would be good to know how many of those you're looking at to bring up aggregate charges. >> okay. >> supervisor safai: okay. great. supervisor haney. >> supervisor haney: thank you. and thank you chief of staff campos. i'll just choose one of your titles and go with it there. i wanted to ask, we talked a lot about the organized crime and the importance of focuses on that and the investigations in collaboration. i wanted to know a little bit more about what you all do for the folks who are not part of organized crime. you know, i know that this is petty theft or misdemeanor.

what are some of the ways that, you know, you can help to get those folks whether effective consequences and/or other ways of addressing whatever it is that led them to be in that position. how are you dealing with the folks who are coming in who are maybe repeatedly on a regular basis engaging in this type of petty theft even for their own constant sort of survival in some ways? what does that look like from your perspective? [please stand by]

[please stand by]

can work collaboratively to help stop the spread of organized retail crime. so thank you for the opportunity to speak today. happy to answer any questions. but please know that we are willing to roll up our sleeves with each and every one of you to solve this problem. we have information and data we're happy to share. we're happy to bring in subject matter experts with other companies to talk about this issue who have stores in san francisco. and we really believe that together we can find solutions based on what we've already done as an industry, based on what we're continuing to advocate for as an industry and looking forward to future collaborations to combat organized retail crimes in san francisco and california. so, thank you.

>> supervisor safai, your microphone is muted. >> sorry. thank you, ms. michelin. i would ask you the same question i asked the other representative retailers. what do you think it is about san francisco that makes us very much an epicenter for retail organized crime? >> you know, obviously i'm not the expert as some of the other folks that you have present. but in looking at national statistics, california has three cities that are in the top 10 for organized retail crime. los angeles is at the top of the list. san francisco rates number five. and then sacramento is actually rated number 10. i think part of it is -- it's the geography of the city. i think that people look for easy ways to get in and out. i think you heard from law

enforcement that you have folks that are very sophisticated in what they do. and then what i'ves been hearing from our club from an organized retail crime side is that it does come down to they are finding folks who they can do the dirty work for them. and so when you're hearing juveniles being targeted and seeing homeless and people that need $100 that they might be paying someone to go into a store and steal things with a list that they need to steal, these larger cities are where you are seeing the most uptick in organized crime. >> thank you. colleagues, any questions for ms. michelin? all right. thank you. we'll follow up with you. what was the senate bill you said that was making its way through the legislature? >> so there is two. there is assembly bill 331.

that is to extend the funding for the organized retail crimes task force. and then also some of the statutes that were out of ab-1065 passed in 2018. and then senate bill 301, which is by senator nancy skinner. that bill is a two-year bill so we'll be debating that next year. that is specific to the online marketplace and organized retail crime. >> got it. >> thank you so much. now we'll hear from chief provision officer catie miller. are you here, ms. miller? >> i'm here. good afternoon. i will put my slides up myself. can you let me know when i have the ability to do that? >> you already have the [inaudible] right now.

can you see my screen? >> we can see it but it might be best if you can put it into presenter mode. there we go. >> does that work? oh. thank you, everybody. i will be actually quite quick with my presentation today and happy to answer any questions. we are very much a tiny part of our conversation that is happening and i just want to really echo what folks have said. this is a really important conversation, the information coming out and being shared is really critical. i'm going to share this small part of it that relates to our juvenile system and i'll start with just showing what our numbers have looked like in terms of juvenile arrest coming into the juvenile system over the last two years, from january 29 through april 2021. and i want to show you a couple of high points. high level points.

one is we have on the left with the orange line, what we would kind of consider our prepandemic average in terms of the number of cases being present every month for a combination of petty theft, shoplifting and organized retail staff. and then you can see starting in the march of 2020, what the average looked like from that window from then until now. you can obviously see the dramatic drop-off. this is not just related to these three charges. but these three types of activity that's [inaudible] in all the crimes coming to us. it's also very much reflected in these kinds of charges because they are associated with stores being open. and with people going into stores. so you can see the dramatic decrease. prior to the pandemic, we were seeing an average of eight

juvenile arrests or referrals into the juvenile system with organized retail theft and then you see it dropping off to an average of two cases per month coming to us. of all of these cases combined, 15% of them were for organized retail theft. the others are petty theft or shoplifting. i do want to just be transparent about two data limitations here. one is that we have very robust record stealing laws that govern our juvenile system for a number of reasons. but that means when a case is [inaudible], we don't have the ability to access that data and include it here. this does not necessarily expect the full universe of these cases as they come through in this time period. if we had cases sealed by the court which would generally happen at the end of probation or in the last appearance for that young person, those numbers wouldn't be carried into this analysis.

and then i also want to note that this does not include the robberies that the penal code 211 charges that was referenced earlier. if a young person is engaged that turns from a shoplift into a [inaudible] on a security guard, that is actually a robbery. it is not in these three categories. but when you see on this slide is the aggregate that characterize these behaviors. in terms of repeat referrals, we went through four other cases of that first slide. and looked at any instances where we saw a young person coming back. there was 150 rogers on that flag, representing 126 unique minors for that time period, of those charges. of all of those, we saw 11 young people coming back to us again.

there was a 9% return. for those young people, they had an average of two referrals. the highest number any of them had was three during this time per. coming back to these behaviors. and i want to talk briefly about that, interventions that the juvenile justice system offers for these kinds of offenses. in san francisco, most misdemeanors and also some of our lower-level felonies at the point of arrest, the police can bring a young person directly to carc, or community assessment and resource center. that has been the practice in san francisco for over 20 years so it's diversion [inaudible]. there is a probation officer on site at carc saols they are involved in the oversight and support of the young bhaoem go to carc but it is a young person arrested purely on a misdemeanor and brought to carc, they generally will stay there in between that probation officer and primarily the carc

case managers, they will support and determine the interventions for that youth. very rarely would a misdemeanor like that make it into juvenile court in san francisco. more even up to our central probation department to make a charge -- to forward to the d.a. if a young person comes in on a felony charge, they can still go to carc on their way in, if it is not an at least requires detention. but the case itself still gets forwarded to probation and then we still have an obligation to bring it to the d.a.'s office for charging. but from a lot of this behavior, you'll see that carc is that frontline intervention here in san francisco. generally if a young person is coming in for petty theft or shoplifting, then i will be a reflection essay and then going to the life skills course that they refer to through carc. we values in san francisco, juvenile system "make it right," which is a restorative justice program of the d.a.'s office. it was one of the people who helped start that program when i worked at the d.a.'s office

and it can take some of these cases, generally for low-level felony offenses but it is purely sort of justice. young person and harmed parties facilitated working outs a plan together. and it's really ideally for cases where there is an identifiable victim. generally where retail cases could come in would be for more mom and pop type stores where there is an identifiable kind of small business owner. there's not a lot of cases of this type that go through make it right, but i did it include

because it does take some of those thefts and make it viet a very heavily structured program. it is actually being evaluated by california labs and it is actually showing significantly positive results in terms of recitivism for kids who go through that. versus kids who go through the traditional system. so i want to highlight that. sometimes what feels like a step out of the system actually has better long-term results for our kids in terms of their ongoing behavior. obviously some kids who go through these arrests will come on to probation and will be supervised by probation. and the intervention attendees are the life skills program operated by huckleberry east program for us and for carc. what's called b.t. express, which is a program of the success center, nonprofit success center. takes kids through what's ro*fed with a community service and curriculum for this kind of activity and then a class that we use for some of our kids. for us, we tend to be relatively small number cases of kids coming in and don't see a whole lot of them coming back to us on subsequent cases. i'm happy to take any questions. >> thank you, ms. miller.

i think that the thing that the slide that jumped out the me the most is the small in number, but manageable number of youth that are involved in this and then those that would be being prayed on by organized crime to be involved in, you know, repeat activities and jeopardizing themselves. i would imagine that most of those youth are, you know, more lower income or indigent and being taken advantage of because of their financial situation. can you talk about that more and what you can do to rehabilitate, because we certainly don't want to incarcerate young people at that age. we really want to help rehabilitate them and get them. >> the cases that would end up likely in court and on probation and are with us

serving in that intervention and supervision role. it really would likely be more those robberies that was mentioned. generally if a young person is coming through and just to shoplift. if they're not stealing large quantities, large value of goods, right, or there is no kind of assaultive behavior, and rival a robbery, those cases likely will have a lighter hand for us. s so what you are talking action, do tend to be the cases where we see more of that behavior and they will much more likely wind up working with probation for the entirety of what they would write. that would be an in-depth assessment of someone's risks and needs and full case plan and full court report. it could be a whole range for them. but by and large, the things you see kids do in the city is shoplifting. it's hard to remember that most

kids who come through on something like this, we will never see again. and that is like the most important thing to remember about kids. they are coming through in a repeat way, for more serious behavior. it really is going to be the full weight of the way that the juvenile justice system starts kids, including ongoing court appearances and probation. in some cases for kids who have been engaged in repeat behavior and we need to have an intervene and winding up out of home placement for some period of time. it depends on each young person's particularly needs and risks.

>> what percentage do you think are taking advantage of organized crime? >> it's not something that we can look at specific cases and happy to follow up on that. i will say on the whole, i came to this department from the d.a.'s office. i feel like we saw a lot more of that for our youngest results than we did for our kids. but i'm happy to come back with them in more information. >> one of strategies that we're looking at is having more community-based organizations and not necessarily having police officers, but groups like urban alchemy be present to protect these and one of benefits of that is that very often, particularly when it comes to opportunity shoplifting [inaudible] situation with juveniles, these are members from the community so they identify and know these young people or know these individuals. and that in and of itself is a significant deterrent. did you want to comment on that?

>> those interventions can make a real difference. >> we had a similar situation particularly because we have two bart stations in our district where a lot of juveniles were stealing technology. smart phones. laptops. other things. and immediately they were able to identify a good majority of them. and more to reach out to them and their families and let them know that they are aware that this is happening to deter the crime. and i think when it comes to happening, that is the most

effective way to deter that behavior so we're -- we're definitely interested in increasing that investment in more community -- what we like to call community ambassadors or folks from the community like urban alchemy and street violence intervention that can be present and identify individuals from the community to deter that crime. >> absolutely. >> great. colleagues, any questions for chief juvenile probation officer miller? ok. thank you so much for being here today and we will follow up. lastly, we have chief probation officer fletcher. >> good afternoon, supervisor safai. thank you very much for the opportunity to provide some of our data around this very important topic.

the research director for adult probation is joining me and she will put up the slides for us. all right. anything -- tara is going to start off with providing the data that she was able to pull specifically regarding commercial petty theft and shoplifting adult probation clients. >> thank you, chief fletcher. good afternoon, chair mar, supervisors safai, haney and stefani. thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. as chief fletcher mentioned, i'm the director of research for adult probation. and we were asked to compile information on petty theft and shoplifting trends for 2019 and 2020. so, we're actually going to present data that we've compiled for a three-year

period of 2018 through 2020. and overall, we're going to be showing you data that represents sort of a picture of our client population as it relates to petty theft and shoplifting and then show you arrest events for theft and commercial shoplifting. and these are some of the projects that we included misdemeanors and felonies and talk about that more when we get to the second slide. the first i believe that you see on the left hand side of the screen, just gives you an idea what our three-year average population is. for adult probation so we have about 5500 clients for the three-year period as an average. to the right of that, you can see the percentage of our clients who have experienced one of these arrest events in each of the three calendar years.

>> i'd like to repeat the roll call. >> thank you, president. roll call. president. >> present. >> vice-president. >> present. >> commissioner -- >> here. [roll call]. >> we have quorum. >> call for agenda item no. 11. >> agenda couple no. 11 is review and approve blue shield

of california non-medicated hmo plans 2022 rates and contributions. this is an action item. >> i will screen share the presentation. this presentation is the blue shield of california -- plans. you'll see the content. i will go through the opening items very quickly. i'll be happy to entertain commissioner questions at the end of this presentation on this information. you'll see consistently outlined information in the rest of the

presentations today, just outlining the different funding methods, which particular plan applies the funding, how we do the rate setting process. this slide you saw earlier in the opening presentations that i made today with the increases proposed for each plan. you'll see a page in each presentation, how that orchestrates into the total cost rates proposed for 2022, and then some commentary about how the employer contributions worked first for active employees and then for early retirees based on city charter formulas. again, in the interests of time i won't go through those in detail, but i am happy to answer any commissioner questions you may have on these slides at the end of today's -- at the end of this presentation. as i mentioned earlier, fairly nominal increases for each of the plans. these are the staff recommendations that i'll come back to at the end of the

presentation. and we have commentary regarding -- active employee rate cards that are shown in the presentation are for the two most common employer contribution strategies, the 93, 93, 83 share and the other share noting the multiple contribution strategies across all employees of the health service system, so individual employees may have different contribution strategies than these two. and then the early retiree rate cards are shown for early retirees and own the full city contribution level based on length of hire and length of service with employer contributions determined by the city charter formulas. so you'll see here in this presentation are for access plus 30 plans. no plan design changes are being

planned. you see the increases for each plan, which in total combined to 1.2%, and you'll see listed at the bottom of this page all the elements that are included in the figures, the monthly wage that you'll see in the card shortly. and some commentary on these favorable increases, first the overall plan expenses for the blue shield hmos only increased 2% as i reviewed with you in the march meeting. medical claims actually decreased -- reimbursements in part because of plan suppression. prescription drug claims increased 10%, did not show evidence -- suppression, and both of these increases are well below what we're seeing for national cost trends at approximately 6%. favorability in these increases is helped by an increase in the

stabilization buy-down that will take effect for 2021 ratings relative to 2021, approximately double what it was for this plan year. so without these shifts in stabilization, increases would be 0.7% higher, and also as we reviewed in february, impacts, favorable impacts from the rfp, also helped maintain these increases to be relatively low increases. and the 1.2% overall increase for the two plans combined compares to 4.4% of the 2021 increase. here you will see the fixed cost comparison on a per-employee, per-month basis. most notably the decrease in the blue shield administration cost, and again we thank blue shield for that decrease resulting from the r.f.p. process. we're also seeing a lower increase in the large plan

folding rate than we've seen in the past. there was an 18% increase in that rate for to 21 based on large claim activity in the prior plan year. now we're seeing an increase of only 5%, and the large claim pooling fee. and just to note, the california managed care organization pack that sunseted effective june 2019, that it has now returned based on action by the california legislature. so with that, we'll review the change in contributions and rates from one year to the next. you will see most notably decreases in the monthly retiree contributions for the retiree-only and retiree plus one tiers for early retirees because the increase for the plans is less than the percentage increase in the county amal, and so as a result it will mean a lower

contribution required for retirees, and the retiree only and retiree plus one tier for the access plus plan in 2022. and you'll see the 0.8% that i talked about earlier across all of the active employee rate changes. and the same is true when we look at the 196-83 strategy. so these are the rate cards that will ask you to approve shortly for access plus, 93, 93, 83 and 100, 96, 83 and again with the favorable increase, 2% for tria. we will see a reduction in the monthly retiree -- for the retiree only tier for trio for 2022. and the rate cards for trio. so with that, staff recommends that the health service board approve number one that blue shield access plus plan renewal proposal for 0.8% rate increase

for 21 to 22. second, the blue shield trio plan renewal proposal for 2% rate increase from 2021 to 2022, and approval of the rate card contained in this presentation for the blue shield access plus and trio hmo plans. president, i'll turn it to you. >> thank you. these are really spectacular presentations for me in particular, because they are very clear. i want to thank you again for all this information, all of which is critical. i didn't mean to shortchange you, but i think this is really helpful. with that i'd like to open this up for comments or questions from board commissioners. >> i have one question. the reduction in the administration fee you said was part of the r.f.p.

how long is that reduction? how long will that last? >> the administrative fee is guaranteed for three years by blue shield, so it will last through the end of 2024. >> okay, thank you. >> thank you. other questions or comments? commissioner scott? >> yes. this is a question across, again, the general presentation. i know that we've been talking about premium suppression and utilization and so forth and so on. is there any forward-leaning indicator at this point as to how this might change and how people are thinking about this from both the plan provider standpoint as well as actuaries? are you guys getting any closer to a sense of how things might move in the coming months or trend in the next year? >> yeah, sure, commissioner scott.

so what we've generally seen across our client business, and this is true at the -- from the first calendar quarter of 2021 is still a continuation of lower medical claims expense than we may have expected with our underwriting early last year. we are starting to see some higher levels of medical claims in april, so that will likely present into cfo's presentation to the board on financials next month. at this point, we haven't seen a large surge increase in plan utilization. we are having many conversations within our aeon lead actuary team with lead actuaries from all of the national health plans to gauge what they are observing in changing of utilization based on what they are tracking for their books of business. and so there was still a belief

that we may see higher levels of plan utilization for medical care later in 2021, especially if you have members who perhaps have not been able to see a physician to address early signs of, let's say, a presenting issue, a chronic risk issue. however, we do strongly believe that telehealth has benefited members greatly to be able to engage their physicians in conversations about any health issues that could be presenting in lieu of members perhaps not being quite comfortable yet seeing their physicians in person. >> i would note that -- excuse me, i'm sorry. just to follow up to that, i recognize that, you know, we get through the rates and benefits cycle and we then move to open enrolment and we all go, foof,

they were all enrolled and so forth, and so i would like to request that we get some sort of periodic review of this over the next quarter or whatever would make sense. because what i am hoping doesn't happen, i think we are all holding our breath, is this looks great. these are moderating numbers. we know that there are some factors, some key factors that are driving these, but i don't want us to be hit in the next benefit cycle with a -- you know, an astounding wave, if you will, either pent-up demand or whatever, however it's attributable, as we go into the next cycle. so we need to monitor, have some mechanism to monitor this and report that in a very high level or summary fashion to us, just to keep our eye on this ball,

around what your expectations are so that we -- as we go into next february and march, you know, we -- if that is starting to happen, then we're kind of prepared for it and know that that will have an impact on premiums. so i would request that just as a generic issue for this board to be aware of. >> absolutely. fully noted. i'll be working very closely with cfo lou and his team as we track claim expense month to month. absolutely report back to the board on what we're observing. i will say for the presentations you'll see today, particularly on the blue shield hmo plan and particularly on the blue shield accolades plan, two things are helping the rate increases be relatively lower than perhaps you've seen in the past. one is the r.f.p. -- the benefit of the r.f.p. financially, and the second is because of the rate stabilization mechanism,

that helps capture some of the favorability in claims relative to forecast, and so that is benefiting the rates for 2022. >> abbey, did you want to maybe add a comment about how the measurement plan is generated and how responsive it is to these trends that commissioner scott is kind of alluding to, i think? >> yes. we meet yearly regarding utilization with all of the plans, and what we have been working towards is some uniformity amongst the particulars of those utilization reports so that it tells a clearer story about the population as a whole. and you know, it is very feasible. i don't have the schedule in front of me of when we get those reports, but we can look back -- we can look at that going forward and see what the best timing is to provide that

report. mike did mention and i'll be working with larry lu, and you will perhaps take a look back at your financial report where we do look at these month by month of revenue or expenses and are reported in the financial report, but as far as utilization reports, we would -- we'll consider what this timing -- you know, when we receive those reports and what the timing would be to bring them to the board. >> great. other comments or questions from commissioners? commissioner how, did you have your -- yes, go ahead, commissioner howe. >> thank you, mike, for that very thorough presentation. i just have some questions. i think it's your slide 13 where you note that the 2022 rate cards include the following cost components. the first two items projected 2022 medical and pharmacy claim

costs and projected 2022 captation charges, can you tell us how those breakdowns were or what those projections were? >> yeah, absolutely. so for overall medical expense for blue shield plans, approximately one third of projected medical expense is captation with the remaining two thirds being for services like hospital care and other services that are primarily not delivered by physicians but are other costs within the system. now as a preview for health net, actually most of the medical costs is capitated in that platform, and then pharmacy is pure claim as incurred based on member prescriptions, but then the rebates that slow to -- hss

from the pharmacy purchasing become an offset to those claim costs to come degree for pharmacies. and so, you know, overall approximate percentage distribution is medical about 80% between claims of capitation and pharmacies is approximately 20%. >> thank you. >> any other questions or comments from commissioners? seeing none, i think we'll go ahead and open this up for public comment. >> thank you, president. yes, i'll bring up our slide of instructions. so public comment will be available for each item on this agenda. each speaker will be allowed three minutes to comment in length unless the board president -- [reading slide].

>> holly, can i interrupt for a second? this is an action item, so i think i need a motion and a second regarding this item before we open it up. >> this is commissioner hao. i move that we accept the recommendation to increase the blue shield plans as noted on the slide that is up before us. >> second. >> okay, so move and seconded that we accept the staff recommendations for these two plans. any additional discussion? then i would like to go ahead and open -- now open this up for public discussion. i'm sorry about the timing of this. >> thank you, president. i'll pull up our slide.

so public comment will be available for each item on this agenda. [reading from slide]. when i welcome you on the call, you encourage you to state your name clearly although you can remain anonymous. remote viewing is available on sf gov tv.org and channel 2. opportunities to speak are in the public comment period are available by dialing the number on the screen. the dial-in number is 415-665-0001. when prompted use access code

187-087-3967. then press pound and pound again. you will then enter the meeting as an attendee on the public comment calling and dial *3 to be added to the queue. when the message says "your line has been unmuted" this is your time to speak. for those already on hold, please continue to wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted. sf gov tv has a standing 40 to 45 second dlie for those viewers watching our broadcast live online. we will take a pause to allow viewers to catch up and allow callers to dial in. our 45-second pause begins now.

>> the 45-second pause has ended. our moderator will notify us of any callers in the public queue. >> board secretary, we have four in the line, zero have entered the queue at this time. a reminder to all callers on the line, you must dial *3 now if you want to join public comment for this specific agenda item. we will wait five for seconds and then close public comment for this agenda item.

board secretary, there are still no public callers in the queue at this time. >> thank you. public comment is now closed. >> thank you very much. so moved and seconded that we approve the staff recommendations for rate increases for the blue shield, the california access plus and trio plans and corresponding -- >> [indiscernible]. >> corresponding rate -- [indiscernible]. i'm getting some feedback. anyway, rate plans. all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> any opposition? thank you. it carries unanimously. so we now can move to agenda item no. 12. >> thank you, president. agenda item no. 12, review and

approve health net canopy care medical rx flex funded non-medicare hmo plan 2022 rates and contributions. this is an action item. >> mark clarke from am. i will share the presentation. presenting the health net canopy care for the rates and contributions for initial year 2022. much of the background is the same as what i walked through before. of note, health net canopy care, like the blue shield hmos just presented is a flex funded plan.

and you'll see here where the rates will ultimately compare to blue shield access plus trio and the kaiser plan. the total rates will fall between trio and access plus for 2022. so our recommendation today is that the health service board approve the 2022 rate cards as i will present in this material. and similar information to what i reviewed in the blue shield, hmo about the information and the rate cards. from a rating summary standpoint, we received financial information from health net canopy care as part of their r.f.p. submission that is used to determine the 2022 monthly total cost rates that you'll see in this material. the plan designs for canopycare -- mirror the designs for the blue shield plans, and the rate cards include the medical and pharmacy costs, the

capitation charges, administrative fees, as well as other elements of the rate cards that were presented in the other plans. of note, this plan will be eligible for rate stabilization into the future, but because it is a new plan for 2022 and does not yet exist, there have not been that opportunity to have rate stabilization present to this point, and so you will see zeros for the rate stabilization line in the rate cards. the per-member per-month projections were provided, as well as the other financial elements, and so i worked with an actuary to utilize this information in comparison to the blue shield access plus and trio plans to develop the total cost rates, and also worked with the health net canopycare actuary to

review those projections. similar to the hmo blue shield plans on a flex funded basis, it does have a maximum liability financial target which does mean that if costs were to exceed 125% of expectation, which would be extremely rare, that would create a maximum exposure for us [indiscernible]. one notable difference in the flex funding approach for health net canopycare versus blue shield is there is no large claim pooling for this plan versus the 1 million large claim pooling in the other blue shield hmo plans. and so with that the rate cards are presented, and we use mathematical relationships at the rates across each dependence here and across active employees and early retirees to be the same as what exists for the blue shield hmo plans. so as i mentioned before, you see in the stabilization, no

entry there, but the medical figures along with the division and sustainability fee are present in the rate cards that you see for the 93, 93, 83 and the 100, 93 -- on the right side of the page. so with that staff recommends that the health service board approve this plan rate cards as presented in this material. >> i'll see if i can try and support you from the -- >> sorry about that.

i forgot to unmute myself. so again, thank you very much for this presentation. comprehensive but succinct, and so i'm going to open this up to board members. i would like to start with a question, and that is you noted that we're used to the large claim pooling, yeah, the $1 million, and that the liability for the financial target of 125% would be a rare event. can you give us some background in terms of blue shield if you were to take out the large claim claims that occurred in the last few years, what -- how big an impact does that have on the overall financial liability in at least blue shield? i know you can't really extrapolate to this, but maybe give us some sense of our risk. >> sure, we have six years of

funding claim data with blue shield as flex funding started in 2013. in six out of those eight years -- has paid a higher level of large claim pooling fee than the total amounts that were reimbursed back to the plan, and in two years there was claim experience that was reimbursed back to sfhss and the trust that was greater than the large claim pooling fees paid. now generally speaking, you know, a large claim pooling fee is an insurance mechanism, and so you would expect over the course of time that the fees paid for large claim pooling would exceed the reimbursements, which have happened over the eight-year period with blue shield. so i don't expect this to be a concern with health net canopycare, that there is no individual large claim pooling requirement in their flex

funding mechanism relative to the 1 million that blue shield does have as part of their insured filing for their flex funded plan. >> thank you. that's very helpful. so other commissioners have questions or comments? seeing none, i'll entertain a motion to -- regarding the staff recommendation for the health net canopycare hmo 2022. >> this is randy scott. i move that we accept the staff recommendation and the rate cards that are contained in the presentation. >> this is commissioner hao. i second. >> having been moved and seconded, any further discussion? if not, then we'll open this up for public comment. hearing none, we'll go ahead and open this up for public comment,

holly. thank you. >> thank you, president. public comment will be available on each item on this agenda. each speak will be allowed three minutes to comment in length until time limits in the meeting. all public comments to be ahead concerning the agenda item that has been presented. as a reminder, questions of the policy body but no obligation to answer or engage in dialogue with the caller. you can remain anonymous. when your three minutes have ended i will thank you for your comment. you will be placed back on mute. remote viewing is available on sf gov tv.org and channel 2. opportunities to speak during the public comment period are available by dialing the number on the screen. the dial-in number is 415-665-0001. when prompted, use access code

187-087-3967. again, 187-087-3967 then press pound and pound again. you will enter the meeting as ab attendee on the public comment call line and dial *3 to be added to the public comment queue. when the system says your line has been unmuted, this is your time to speak. sf gov tv has a standing 40 to 45-second delay for viewers watching our live broadcast online. we will take a 45-second pause to allow the system to catch up and the callers to dial in. our 45-second pause begins now.

45-second pause has ended. our moderator will notify us of any callers in the queue. zero callers have specifically entered the public comment queue at this time. a reminder to all callers on the line, you must dial *3 now if you want to join public comment for this specific agenda item. we will wait five more seconds and then close public comment for this agenda item.

>> thank you, moderator. hearing no further callers, public comment is now closed. >> thank you. so it's been moved and seconded that we approve the 2022 health net canopycare hmo plan rate cards as presented and all those in favor please signify by saying aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> any opposition? it carries unanimously. we move to agenda item no. 13. >> thank you, president. agenda item no. 13, review and approve blue shield of california ppo al co-laid plan medical rf non-funded 2022 rates and contributions. this is an action item.

>> mike clarke, i will share the presentation. so presenting the blue shield of california ppo rates and contributions for the 2022 plan year, highlighting very quickly in the process this is a self-funded plan, so all claims flow through the trust along with plan administrative fees to manage the plan. and i will outline those administrative fees during this presentation. so staff recommends the health service board approve blue shield of california ppo accolade and choice not available 2022 plan year monthly rate cards as presented in this material. and the resulting aggregate

overall rate increase from the 2021 plan to the accolade plan is 2.7%. of note, in the active employee rate card is the fact that the m.o.u. for employees specifies the employer contributions for the highest cost plan offered through sfhss, which is the blue shield of california ppo accolade plan, are set to equal the employer contributions for the second-highest cost plan which remains blue shield hmo access plus. so this guides how the employer contributions are set for the ppo plan in the active rate card that you will see in this presentation. for the employee-only tier, in the 196-83 strategy, employees pay no contributions for any hss

plan, including the ppo plan. the recommended rate increases are base on 2020 claims experience, 2022, along with the administrative fees, for the proposed -- the new administrator, blue shield of california accolade. the previously approved changes and rate stabilization that occurred in the march 2021 meeting. the medical claim experience that was utilized in the projection has been adjusted to reflect my best estimate for the normalization of ppo claims claim suppression that occurred during the pandemic. if you refer to the march 2021 experience presentation for this plan, you'll note while prescription drug did inflate at expected levels, there was a lower level of medical claims in

2020 versus 2019 due to pandemic influence reasons. no plan design changes are proposed for the ppo plan in the 2022 plan year, and we're moving from a -- where we have a buydown of the rate stabilization, that should actually be versus a 744,000 buyup in 2022. so rate stabilization is moving from deficit to surplus in this plan, which is helping to lower the rate increase. and again, you can see detail on the plan experience referencing the difference in the experience going back to our presentation in march. specifically for administrative fees, you'll see that the base administrative fee moving from the united health care to blue shield is lower, but in part due to the introduction of accolade

as well, and so there is an accolade core fee as well as fees for a couple programs that we'll talk about in the next several pages, as well as a one-time accolade implementation fee of $88,000, so the $3.93 is the representation of that on a per-employee per-month basis. you will also have shared savings fees as part of this program. similar to the united health care ppo plan today, and then so in total there will be a higher level of pepm expense, but in part because of added services that are being delivered through blue shield and accolade as part of this program, and then also just in consideration we expect a lower level of claims due to improved discounts from blue shield in this ppo program. so specifically in the fees that

you saw on the prior page, i won't read them all off, but you'll see these additional services that will be provided by blue shield as part of their administration of the ppo in 2022, and then on page 17 you'll see two added accolade programs beyond their base fee. one very much in line with mental health awareness month, a mental health integrated care program via an organization gender which will provide support to improve employee well-being and reduce health care costs through an integrated solution that is aimed to reduce depression and physical pain, improve overall quality of life, and deliver a return on investment, and this will include on-demand behavioral health coaches, therapists and psychiatrists. and also there is a

cost-of-supplier program through accolade that will give members access to a program which will provide digital support of musculoskeletal needs through live video consultations and video exercises. so two features of the accolade addition into the ppo that we anticipate will benefit members greatly in the area of mental health and musculoskeletal health. and just a refresher on the choice not available concept, participants who were assigned to the blue shield ppo accolade choice not available plan are those who live in a zip code where it may be the only available plan, the ppo, or not all other plans are available, you know, via kaiser or blue shield access plus. and so you'll see that most active employees in the p.p.o. plan do have access to all

plans, but there are 142 that do not, so 142 will have choice not available rating as in prior years, and you'll see for early retirees it's about a half-and-half split between those two live in the bay area and have access to the kaiser permanente and access plus plans in addition to the p.p.o. versus those who will be choice not available pricing for their early retiree rates. and the contribution for choice not available for active employees is particularly in the moccasin areas and early retirees who live outside of the bay area of northern california. so we'll see the choice not available for active employees are the same total rates, including all rate card elements as the blue shield access plus program offer early retirees same rates as the p.p.o., but

they lead to lower retiree contributions based on how the city charter employer contribution formulas are determined. so with that we'll show the rate cards, again with the recognition hah for the p.p.o. accolade plan the employer contributions for the m.o.u. are set to the second-highest cost plan, access plus. you'll see the percentage increases in total rates at the bottom of the page, employer contributions in the middle, and the resulting impact to the employee contributions on the left side for the 93/93/83 strategy, and for early retirees on the right side of the page, and then here for the 100/96/83 contribution strategy for employees. and these are the resulting rate cards for the blue shield p.p.o. accolade, and this is for the 100/96/83 card, and then for the

choice not available, you'll see the rating impact based on the alignment of rating to the access plus plan for the -- in here for the 100/96/83 employees as well as the early retirees, and the resulting rate cards. so with that, staff recommends the health service board approve the accolade plan and p.p.o. accolade choice not available 2022 plan year monthly rate card as presented in this material, which results in an overall rate increase of 2.7%. president? >> thank you very much for, again, a very complicated but concise presentation. so i'm going to open this up for comments and questions from board members. it looks on first blush, to me, i'll start, it seems like the blue shield accolade plan uses lots of vendors to help sort of

upgrade or maximize areas of concern that we have had as concern for quite a while. for those of us who participated in all-day off-site strategic planning when we listened to some vendors talk about -- and there's the whole expanding universe of them, particularly for those members who are in the choice not available, who may not have access to sort of the face-to-face providers in a lot of these areas. it seems like this is sort of a real upgrade. am i reading this right? i mean, it seems like it's a fairly modest increase in cost across the board but has a really high impact, and certain groups, including those who geographically are somewhat isolated and have, as you say, choice not available? >> yeah, i could agree. if i could ask the executive director yantz to speak to the process of considering these sorts of add-ons, because they are optional that the sfhss team

has thought through very carefully the consideration of what accolade can bring through partners like ginger and hinge health. >> thank you for the opportunity to speak to this, doctor, and thank you for recalling the innovation data we had to kick off the strategic planning process where we were introduced to a very few of the point-of-care start-ups that were -- are in the marketplace today, and i know at one point there was as many as 200,000 of these new start-ups a day in the u.s., and it was rather intimidating to think about how if we did subscribe to any of these how we would sort and monitor and we have the experience with one particular vendor that we found problematic in our ability to monitor and make changes. so it was a strategic recommendation at that time that should we consider these point-of-care solutions that

would be best to allow the plans to do that because they are in a much better position to do that. and so with this offering through the r.f.p. process, with this partnership of blue shield and accolade, that vision that we had several years ago has actually -- the opportunity has presented itself, and it does just make total sense, as mike has explained, within this p.p.o. population which has many unique characteristics, and we anticipate that these services with the decisions of accolade of helping connect the folks who need the services to the services will have a significant satisfaction and benefit to the health and well-being of those members. >> thank you. other questions and comments from board members? >> i'm very pleased that -- just

very quickly, i'm very pleased to see that this has come full circle as well during this particular benefit cycle, so it's been -- i know a lot of work, the staff and you going through the whole process to get us here, and i thank you for that, to you and your team. >> thank you. >> i'd like to add on to what the commissioner said and especially on behalf of our -- folks that have been struggling for so long and when i first got on the board many years ago, the first thing i had to do was take a trip up there and face that population and talk about their lack of options for affordable health care, and it looks like we're heading down a different path these days. so thank you very much. i think it's also very

interesting to see the additional vendors that are being involved and the additional services that are coming forward, and i'm hoping that what that means is better care and lower rates across the board for all of us. and i would also suggest to my colleagues on the board, one of the areas that i look at is the out-of-pocket for both the active as well as the early retirees, because one of the things that we often hear from early retirees is, oh, my god, what happened? it's like your contract doesn't cover you anymore. there's a whole new set of rates available for you to keep your health plan and your health coverage, and it can be shocking when people first retire, and until they reach that medicare

age, they are at a significant out-of-pocket rate, so thank you. all these rates so far look a lot more accommodating than we've had in the past, and i hope that that trend continues. so thank you. >> other comments from commissioners? if not, i'll entertain a motion. >> yeah, mr. president, this is christianing, and i move that we prove the presentation as was discussed with the slide in front of us, to approve the blue shield p.p.o. accolade plan as presented. >> i second the motion. >> it's been moved and seconded that we -- as outlined above that we approve the accolade planned and plan choice not available as well as the rate cards. so with that i would like to

open this up for public comment. >> thank you, president. i'll pulling up my slide momentarily. [reading slide].

>> board secretary, we have three callers on the phone line. two callers have specifically entered the public comment queue at this time. a reminder to all callers on the line, you must dial *3 now if you want to join public comment for this specific agenda item.

we will wait five seconds and then close public comment for this agenda item. board secretary, there are still no callers in the public comment queue at this time. >> thank you, moderator. public comment is now closed. >> okay. so it's been moved and seconded that we approve the blue shield p.p.o. accolade plan and choice not available. all those in favor please signify by saying aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> any opposition? hearing none, the motion passes unanimously. we can move to agenda item no. 14. >> agenda item no. 14, review and approve kaiser permanente california fully insured non-medical care non-rf 2022

rates and contributions. this is an action item. >> mike clarke, i will share the presentation. so presenting the kaiser permanente fully insured -- and prescription drug rates and contributions for 2022. and just to note the all kaiser hmo plans are fully insured with rates determined by the kaiser organization but with close scrutiny by myself as the plan -- as the actuary and the sfhss team. with -- as i mentioned earlier, a 4.96% increase, but as you also see on this page, it is

still the lowest rate from a dollar perspective. any total premium rate on the sfhss active employee and early retiree plan platform. so the recommendation today is a 4.96% insurance plan premium increase from 2021-22 for active employees and early retirees in california and -- kaiser permanente hmo plan based on the plan rates proposed by kaiser and the resulting rate cards that are presented in this presentation for active employees and early retirees. and similar to before, we present rate cards for the majority of active employees with the two plan sharing 93, 93, 83, 100, 96, 83, as well as

the early retirees based on formulas from the city charter. the status quo plan design, so no plan design changes proposed by kaiser for the 2022 plan year. the increase is 4.96% following a 5.86% rate increase that occurred for the 2021 plan year. the development that we've talked about with the other presentations is challenged by the pandemic-caused medical claim suppression, primarily in the march to june 2020 time frame as you saw in the presentation last month on kaiser hmo plan experience. the increase represents kaiser's best estimate for the proposed plan experience, plus associated administrative costs, and there is an appendix exhibit that shows the base of the rate increase. it is a group model plan, meaning that kaiser operates the health system and the health plan for numbers.

the utilization was lower in 2020 than 2019, but if you consider all of kaiser's business expenses to operate their health system in aggregate, they came close to expectations in 2020 but just as expense requirements shifted to the kaiser organization due to the pandemic. expenses related to the delivery of care were generally lower than expected given reductions in plan utilization by members. however, there were additional expenses related to addressing the unique needs of the pandemic for kaiser and the health system, including the direct costs of providing covid-19 testing and patient care as well as staffing costs needed to support the surges that occurred with the pandemic with intensive care needs of patients. this is publicly available information for kaiser for financial results for both 2019

and 2020, and you can see that overall the kp enterprise expenses growth was slightly higher than revenue growth. part of the revenue growth was an increase in membership of approximately 1%. that took place in 2019-2020, but due to the expense needs brought by the pandemic for the kaiser permanente enterprise organization, the operating income was less in 2020 than it was in 2019, so all told, this leads to kaiser forecasting typical increases in revenue. in other words, the insured premium rates for their customers from the 2021 to 2022 plan year. and so we built in all of the various elements into the rate cards, including the -- basic vision plan premiums and the sustainability fee. so when you look at the

comparison of contributions for members at the top of the page, the employer contributions and the total monthly rate, all growth by 4.9%, this is the early retirees in 93, 93, 83 strategy active employees and then this is the 100, 96, 83 strategy for active employees. and these are the resulting rate cards driven by the premiums quoted by kaiser as well as the vision basic and the sustainability fee expenses. with them the member contributions flowing through based on m.o.u.s for active employees and city charter formulas for early retirees. so with that, staff recommends the health service board approve a 4.96% insured plan premium increase from 2021-2022 for active employees and early retirees in california and -- in kaiser based on the fully insured plan rates proposed by kaiser for the 2022 plan year

and the resulting 2022 plan year rate cards contained in this presentation. president? >> okay, thank you very much, again, for a very detailed but succinct presentation. so i'd like to open this up for questions, comments from the board members. >> about consistency, we have very little change in membership year over year in our kaiser members throughout the system, and i hope that more recognition of that is given weight in the actuarial practice as you review the claims process. i appreciate your diligence on that point today.

thank you. >> we have looked at that, absolutely. >> can i just clarify exactly the point you're making, commissioner scott? because it seems to me that a lot of health care costs have to do with changes in providers, changes from one system to another, and this persistence should, in fact, work in the -- to the benefit of the health service system in terms of costs. >> yes. >> when i look at the increase in revenues between 2019 and 2020, we increased our contribution as a system but over 5%, yet the revenues only increased by 3.7%. i'm just sort of wondering if there's comparison to how we -- our rate increases as the health service system for our entities

compare to other contractors with kaiser. are we sharing equally in these increases from year to year? and if so -- if we're not, how come, given the comment that commissioner scott just made. >> yeah, what i'd like to do is ask a kaiser representative to speak to the approach that you have enterprise-wide to setting premiums, and then in particular, you know, how that leads to the underwriter approach for sfhss. >> hi, good afternoon. lorena sea defensive zone crist. a couple of things that i wanted to go ahead and comment on, the discussion about the membership changes and what we look at

there, and mike is correct. we all look at it very closely. we work very closely with mike and aeon in discussing some of those changes, and what we do see over time is that we have seen the population age. we also look at membership mixes as far as the average age, the gender profile, as well as the membership mix as far as single family mix as well, and that can also change really the overall risk population that we're looking at. the question about what we use as far as applying consistency, we have a methodology that we use which for groups the size of hss we will look at their

utilization and apply a number of rating factors that are based on the overall health plan demographics, so the trends, the pooling levels, the retention, all of those factors are applied consistently across all of our different customers, and so that results in our overall exempted expenses and our revenue targets to meet those expenses, and so what we look at is the rate setting component that mike talked a bit earlier and how we are looking at the overall program that we have and the expected cost of expenses for 2022, and then we determine what that resulting commercial average commercial rate increase

will need to be to meet those projected expenses. and we have been able to consistently over the past few years have -- or between 3 to 6% really on average closer to the 4 to 5%, but we've had a very consistent range of rate increases i would say even if you look back five, six, seven years, from 3 to 6%, and we have seen hss come within those ranges almost every year. >> thank you. i guess just to follow up the question, just to make sure i'm clear that i understand there are lots of issues and you have a huge database on which to look at underwriting issues. so if you had to maybe list the top three, it looks to me like maybe san francisco or hss, i should say, not san francisco, is at some disadvantage compared to some of your other groups of

contracting. do we always fall in the higher range of increases? and if so, is that because of our aging employees and demographics, other chronic conditions? does it have to do with local salaries, facility costs? i mean, can you give us some sense about -- maybe i'm wrong. maybe san francisco -- maybe hss does not fall towards the higher end of the increases year in and year out. can you tell us where we do fall, if it doesn't fall higher? >> do you want me to take that or do you want to -- >> yeah, i'll start, and then maybe if you could add to it. so actually with this renewal, five of the past six years the rate increase for sfhss on the kaiser plan has been approximately 5%. there was one year, 2019 i believe, i'd have to go back and

check. there was one year of a slight rate decrease of 0.3%, but otherwise the other five years of the most recent six, including the 2022 renewal, have come in generally around 5% increase. >> yes, and i would add to that, when we look at the overall average hss, their average increase over time has been very close to our health plan average increases. we have seen, as mike described, a few times where it's been a bit higher, and so that overall average has been creeping up a bit compared to what we see for our overall commercial book of business, and that really is, as you were just describing, is around the membership mix, and so we do see that the population

has been aging, and so when we look at new members that joined the plan, if they are older or if they have other, you know, health conditions that are contributing to somewhat higher utilization, then that will also provide some of that upward pressure to an increase that's slightly higher than what we see in our average. >> please go right ahead. >> i was going to say that as we're looking at our demographic studies and our risk factor studies -- we didn't do the risk factor last month. those, particularly the last [indiscernible] aging of our population, i am not entirely sure that that is as much of a factor as you might find in the rest of your book of business,

but i'll take you at your word at this point. just my recollection doesn't seem to square exactly with that last comment. >> commissioner hao, did you have a question or comment? >> i did. based on what i'm hearing now, it seems that the previous increases have been driven by utilization. this year's increase seems to be driven by a decrease in revenue and an increase in expenses for kaiser permanente, so that actually leaves me a little bit disturbed, for lack of a better description. >> vice-president of strategic accounts for kaiser permanente, and mike, you can, of course, add to this, but this is in -- it's utilization in comparison to the rest of our health plan, and so utilization did go down for the health plan, and we compare that to the utilization

and what happens with the utilization for hss. what's important to understand, and mike was referencing some of this, is within the integrated delivery system, not everything is captured. so not all of the costs are going to always be captured in that exact utilization, and that was compounded in a year of pandemic, and many expenses not being connected directly back to a specific group. so you know, you see on your screen right now the financial information that we have for our organization. our overall expenses for all of our groups actually went up, but we still rated exactly the way we were able to keep our average commercial rate increase exactly the same. and we're able to come into 2022 with a very low average commercial rate increase. keeping the same methodology that we've used in the past, where we actually compare the utilizations that your group has compared to the rest of the

utilization of the health plan. and so it's a comparison each year. every group is -- that's fully credible is rated exactly the same way, and that's how we account for that. and, mike, i don't know if you want to go back to any of the other slides or have anything to add to that. >> thank you, yeah. we looked at sfhss specific plan utilization for the 2020 plan year as was reviewed in april with the board. apologize for my barking dog in the background. and through utilization suppressed primarily in march through june. what is being projected here for 2022 is an expectation that that utilization will resume at more like pre-pandemic levels, you know, for instance, similar to what may have transpired in 2019.

>> commissioner, you're on mute. >> i'll try that again. so if i can make one comment, maybe -- when i looked at member co-pays for visits that several health plans have started to initiate co-pays for telemedicine encounters, and many times they are at the same level as an office visit co-pay, and to my knowledge, at least from what i can see from the presentations that we've had from kaiser is there have not been co-pays associated with the telephone or telemedicine encounters, and that has, you know, had some impact on revenue. just that you're not collecting the member co-pays at the point of service, increasing or at least maintaining a certain amount of level of service

through telemedicine, and so that may be affecting some of this as well. and i applaud the trend not to add co-pays to telemedicine visits, which can add up quickly, you know, from visit to visit in this setting. >> yeah, and thank you for that comment, and i know we've talked in previous meetings about the incredible increase in virtual care, and you're absolutely correct. there is no cost for any of the video or the televisits that members participate in. and likewise being the integrated delivery system that we are, there are many times during the pandemic that somebody would call in. they would be transferred immediately over to a physician and they would have a consult with the physician, and it's not necessarily all brought back to the utilization of the group. so there's a number of things at play with the expenses during a pandemic year, which is, you know, obviously nothing like any of us have ever seen. but you're absolutely correct, that there is no cost sharing at

all for members with the virtual visits. >> abbie, did you want to say something or entertain comments or -- >> no, kate just covered it. it's fine, thank you. >> okay. so i'd like to -- any other question or comments from board members? if not, i'll entertain a motion at this point. >> i move that we accept the staff recommendation as presented on the kaiser permanente non-medicare hmo 2022 weightings and as presented. >> i'll second that. this is commissioner zvanski. >> thank you. it's been moved and seconded that we accept the staff recommendations for the 4.96% premium increase in 2022 and the corresponding rate cards as outlined. i'd like to go ahead and open

this up for public comment. >> president, i will pull up the slide for comments. [reading slide] we will take a

45-second pause to allow the system to catch up and allow callers to dial in. our 45-second pause begins now.

the 45-second pause as ended. our moderator will notify us of callers in the queue. >> board secretary, we have three callers on the phone line. zero callers have specifically entered the public comment queue at this time. a reminder to all callers on the line, you must dial *3 now if you want to join public comment for this specific agenda item. we will wait five more seconds and then close public comment for this agenda item. board secretary, there is still

no callers in the public comment queue at this time. >> thank you, moderator. hearing no further callers, public comment is now closed. >> thank you very much. it has been moved and seconded that we approve the staff recommendations regarding the kaiser non-medicare hmo 2022 rating increase as well as the corresponding rate cards. all those in favor please signify by saying aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> any opposition? thank you. it carries unanimously. we can go to agenda item no. 15. >> review and approve active employee 2022 dental rates for self-funded dental p.p.o. plans, fully insured delta care u.s.a. and fully insured -- this is an action item. >> mike clarke again.

i will share my last presentation for today. presenting the active employees dental plan rate recommendations for 2022, including the self-funded delta dental -- ppl and the two fully insured plans, the hmo and the united health care dental hmo. you will see here on the chart the active p.p.o. is self-funded, unlike the retiree plan, which was presented last month as fully insured, and the hmos are fully insured. this is a reminder of who receives coverage for the sfhss

dental employee plans. the active employees of these employers, the city and county of san francisco, superior court and municipal executive employees have access to the dental coverage throughout the hss. we will not be presenting on employee contributions today, just the total rates, as the employee contributions are set by m.o.u. for the ccsfmea and mtamea employees as you see here on the screen. there are no contributions required for either of the two dental h.m.o.s and superior court and -- employees pay no contributions for any of the three available plans. the san francisco unified school district employees and the city college of san francisco employees do not elect to offer dental coverage for their active employees throughout the hss. they offer it through other mechanisms.

the summary of the rate change recommendations, along with the -- accounts are shown blow for the active employee dental p.p.o. you'll see a large decrease in the premium rates generated primarily by the high level of dental stabilization funds that were generated by 2020 experience and applied in 2022 ratings, and then the insured rate actions for each of the two dental h.m.o. plans, which i'll discuss in a bit. and so that leads to these rates, premium rates on a monthly basis, for 2022 that are recommended in comparison to the 2021 rates for each of these plans. so the recommendations i'll review briefly are no change administrative fees and a 14.4% decrease in the self-funded total cost rates for the delta dental active employee p.p.o. no change in insured rates for the delta care u.s.a. h.m.o. and

a 10% decrease in the insured rates for the united health care h.m.o. again, the 14.4% decrease is almost entirely based on the fact that a large stabilization balance developed in 2020 due to the large degree of claims suppression that incurred in the self-funded dental plans, and those details will review with the board at the march health service board meeting. that's resulting in a approval for two thirds of the existing rate stabilization reserve balance to be applied in 2022 rating, $12,229,000. just to note, this is a result of the suppression generated in 2020, but we would expect in 2023 the amount of buy-down will be sustainable less than 12 million, so we would expect a total rate increase to be likely next year when i present to you

on this plan for the 2023 plan year. the administrative fee was up for renewal, so a two-year renewal was presented by delta dental for the administrative fee for the p.p.o. plan at no change in the $4.62 per employee per month fee that's existed each of the past three years. and so you see the tremendous impact of the claims stabilization buy-down on the total premium rate that result in the recommended total rate action of -14.4%. for the delta dental h.m.o. and the united health care h.m.o., the rates are essentially as quoted by each of the plans. delta care was proposed for a two-year rate agreement, so proposed that the 2022 rates will also apply in 2023. we're asking for your approval

for 2022 today, and then for the u.h.c. dement h.m.o., a -- rates was presented by united health care. so with that today's recommendations are shown on this page to approve the rate and administrative fee actions for the delta dental active employee p.p.o., the h.m.o. and the united health care insured h.m.o. as presented on this page. president? >> thank you very much for, again, a very detailed presentation and analysis and recommendations. so i'll open it up for questions and discussion from board members. commissioner breslin? >> thank you. do we know how many of the active members are in categories of p.p.o. premier or -- off the top of

your head? do you know that? >> i don't have that off the top of my head. however, that is contained in the march experience presentation for the delta dental active employee p.p.o., so i would recommend review of the march materials with that information. >> okay. now is there a delta dental person here? delta dental person present, representative? >> yes, hi. national account manager with delta dental. >> okay, last week i -- last meeting i asked a question are all delta dentists eligible to go into the premier status, including new dentists, and i was told yes. but i've been told by a couple dentists that that is not allowed. so is it, in fact, allowed? >> yes. so the response for our general dentists, the provider would need to contract with both the

p.p.o. and premier contracts, and claims would be paid accordingly based on the member's plan type. and then for specialists, there actually is -- it's kind of twofold. you know, periodo nottists, oral surgeons, theth considered premier in our system, but the accepted fees for the claims would be based off the premier fee schedule, so the higher schedule, and any other specialty the provider would need to contract with both the p.p.o. and premier contract and claims would be paid accordingly. >> okay, so i would like that in writing, that the dentists are able to go into the option of the premier plan so that i can show this to these dentists, because it's a big issue. i mean, if that is actually happening, that would mean you're trying to eliminate the

premiers option. so i would like to see that in writing as soon as possible. >> i would ask that -- on that point, commissioner breslin, that we get a clarification from either abbie or -- because that looks like you're stepping into the contracting realm there, and i would strongly ask for some advice before that information is provided. >> well, somebody should be able to provide it. >> no, i understand. but i'm saying that they should be able to provide it, but to whom is the question. is the counsel on? eric, are you there? >> he had to step out. >> or abbie? >> yes, i'm here, and he did have to step off the call for a minute, and i will confer with him. we are working on a number of

educational issues with dental -- regarding dental coverage. but yeah, i'm a little hesitant to commit at this point that we would provide direct communication to providers who are contracted through delta. but i get your point, so it's not lost. so let me take that back as the consideration of how we can help delta deliver the message to their dentists, because there does seem to be some misinformation out there. >> absolutely, and one person saying one and the other is saying something else, and we need to know what is the truth. >> right, and i -- and i think that -- >> dentists and delta, we can't negotiate those things with the dentists directly. >> as president of the board, if i could just step in and say that this is a rates benefits discussion at this point. these are incredibly valid points, commissioner breslin, that you bring up, and your response, commissioner scott, is

equally valid. i'm not sure that it belongs in the rates and benefits discussion. but the points can't be lost, and i think the points are well made, and i think that the challenge is out there, but i hope that it doesn't affect our further discussion or open up new issues around delta dental per se as we discuss the rates for today. but the point is very well taken, and it is a hanging chat in what was brought up last month and needs to be followed up with. >> if i may -- >> thank you. >> if i may, this is the group vice-president of sales and marketing for delta dental. i do want to just comment that there is absolutely no scenario under which we are trying to do away with our premier network. so rest assured that is

absolutely not accurate, and no in way are we planning to do away with the premier network, so i a assure you of that. >> i can appreciate that, but i'd like not to continue this line of discussion, but i appreciate the reassurance, but the point is still to be re-evaluated and we'll get follow-up as a board as well. but i appreciate your comment, but i appreciate the fact that the issue is not settled as well. so any more comments from the board, questions from the board regarding the rates and benefits of the plan? >> well, i have another follow-up question. >> yes, commissioner? >> and i think maybe i didn't ask this but it was brought up before about delta allowing assignment of benefits to other network providers, and if not why not? because there wouldn't be any extra cost to you. you would just be sending a check to somebody else. it only makes it difficult for other network providers and for

members to be on the network. so i'm wondering why you don't agree to doing that. >> again, i'm going to step in, commissioner breslin, because i think this is again another important point that has been brought up before and is still also hanging. >> right. >> about assignment as in other health plans, like medicare, et cetera. but i'm not sure that it belongs in the rates and benefits discussion under consideration at the present time. but again, it needs to be followed up with, and so thank you again for bringing it up. >> okay. i'd like to know when we would follow up on it, though. >> president, there is a note in my director's report that states that we continue to meet regularly with delta dental to address network access, customer satisfaction and other administrative issues. we fully intend on keeping the board informed of the progress on these discussions.

>> so maybe at the next meeting these two specific issues that have been raised again today in the rates and benefits discussion, maybe you could, without revealing all your discussions, maybe you could sort of highlight the progress you're making in this regard around these two issues? even though it may be simply temporary -- not resolution, but just progress? >> yeah, we are working together with delta to have an action plan for the issues that we've identified. >> great. and these are two of the issues that you've -- that are on the table, is that correct? >> two of the issues. there are others. >> among others. >> yes. >> okay. so is that okay, commissioner breslin, if we -- >> yeah, that's fine. thank you. >> okay, so we will hear more in june around -- around these two issues and maybe some other follow-up, but at least on these two. so any other board comments or questions regarding the rates

and benefits proposal for delta dental, delta care, u.s.a. and united health care insured dental h.m.o.? commissioner scott? >> no other comment. i'm ready to make a motion. >> okay. any other comment? i don't see anyone else. okay. so okay, make your motion. >> i move that we accept the staff recommendation as presented for the delta dental rates for 2022 and the related rate cards. >> second. >> okay. moved and seconded. and -- >> question? >> sorry? >> question. does that also include the united health care? >> yes, i'm sorry, and united health care as well. >> delta dental and united health care h.m.o.? >> yeah. >> and i think there were no

rate cards because -- included in this. just the fees, right? >> that is correct. just the total rates because this is the total rates only presentation. >> right, correct. >> employee contributions are set by other means. >> right. so it does not include rate cards, but the three programs listed. okay, any further question or questions from the board? if not, we'll open this up for public discussion. or comment. public comment. >> thank you, president. i will pull up our screen. [reading slide].

our 45 seconds begins now. >> the 45-second pause has ended. our moderator will notify us of any public callers in the comment queue. >> board secretary, we have three callers on the phone line.

zero callers have specifically entered the public comment queue at this time. a reminder to all callers on the line. you must dial *3 now if you want to join public comment for this specific agenda item. we will wait five for seconds and then close comment for this public agenda item. board secretary, there are still no callers in the public comment queue at this time. >> thank you, moderator. hearing no public callers, public comment is now closed. >> thank you very much. it's been moved and seconded that we accept the staff recommendations regarding delta dental active employee p.p.o., the h.m.o. plan and the -- plan. all those in favor please signify by saying aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> opposed?

thank you. that carries unanimously. so if we could have the next agenda item. >> thank you, president. this is agenda item no. 16, reports and updates from contracted health plan representatives. this is a discussion item. >> okay, so we now open this up for plan representatives to provide any updates or additional information. >> good afternoon. again, this is paul brown from blue shield. i would like to take this opportunity to introduce a new member of our team. as you may know, shaun lovering who was the executive left at the end of march, and tiffany

chung on my team will now assume the responsibilities for sfhss, and i'd like to ask tiffany in just a moment to come on the camera and introduce herself, but i will say that she comes with a wealth of experience, decades of experience. she is a fellow in the international society of certified employee benefit specialists, and she's been on my team for the last eight years doing fantastic work, so tiffany, welcome to the team. >> thank you, paul. i'm really excited to join and help service you all from the blue shield perspective. i actually have been to some board meetings when paul and shaun haven't been able to attend in the past, i have attended in their stead. i actually live in san francisco, so super convenient

and fun for me to be working on -- with you all, and just very enthusiastic and looking forward to working with the san francisco health service system. thank you. >> thank you, ms. chung. thank you very much. any other comments from other health plan representatives? >> hi. this is sharon stannic-lowe with delta dental. i'm standing in for maryam while she's out of the office on a leave of absence. i did want to address two different statements throughout this presentation today. the first, to address richard rothman's statement during agenda item 4, the general public comment. emails have been exchanged between delta dental and mitchell grigs on mr. rothman's issue with a detailed explanation as to why

mr. rothman has received two eobs from delta dental. to reiterate, the executive director reports specific to delta dental being present during agenda item 6 during the director's report. i would like to express on behalf of delta dental we value sfhss as a client. to demonstrate this commitment today in partnering with sfhss to address the concerns from the commissioners and members, the following delta dental leadership is in attendance at this meeting: brian -- who is the director of national and special ed accounts, my boss. shelley walsh, director of markets enablement and operations; and you heard from mohammed navid, our group vice-president of sales and marketing. thank you. >> thank you. and we appreciate everyone's

attendance to kind of hear i think some of the tenor, some of the frustrations that we are getting through -- from our members regarding some of these issues, and the continued work with abbie yant and our staff to maybe help resolve or action plans to help communication and organization in the future. we appreciate everyone's listening in. appreciate the level of concern for the plan. thank you very much. any other comments from plan? >> i'd like to say something. i'd like to thank united health care medical advantage. i had a really good experiences with their customer service recently. people answered the phone very promptly, and they were sort of like talking to a friend.

i have to say they were very congenial and did the extra mile to answer your question and make other suggestions. so i just wanted to give that compliment to your customer service staff. i didn't get the name of the person, or maybe i did and might have forgotten it already, but the last two calls were excellent. thank you. >> any other comments or any other comments from health plan representatives? hearing none, we'll go ahead and open this up for public comment. >> do we need public comment on this item? >> i think we do. it's an agenda item. >> okay. >> on each agenda item, yes. we have to have public comment. >> yeah, and there has been quite a discussion.

if there had been no plan discussions then i would have said no public comment. but we've had several plan representatives actually speak, which is much appreciated, i think we should open it up for public comment. >> okay. >> but thank you, commissioner breslin, for raising the question. >> thank you, president. public comment will be available for each item on this agenda. each speak will be allowed three minutes to comment in length unless there are time limits during the meeting. all comments will be made concerning the agenda item that has been presented. as a reminder, there is no obligation to answer or engage in dialogue with the caller. when i welcome you on the call you are encouraged to state your name clearly although you may remain anonymous. i will thank you for your comment, placed back on mute and the moderator will unmute the next caller. remote viewing is available on sf gov tv. you can dial the number on the

screen, 415-665-0001. again, 415-665-0001. when prompted, use access code 187-087-3967. again, 187-087-3967. then press pound and pound again. you will enter the meeting as an attendee on the public comment call line and dial *3 to be added to the public comment queue. when the system message says you have been unmuted, this is your time to speak. for those already on hold, please wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted. sf gov tv has a standing 40 to 45 second delay for viewers watching our broadcast online. we will take a 45-second pause to allow the system to catch up and allow viewers to dial in. our 45-second pause begins now.

the 45-second pause has ended. the moderator will notify us of any public callers in the queue. >> thank you, board secretary. a quick reminder to commissioners and panellists, we have ensured that everyone is on mute to avoid some background noise that is currently coming through. we have two callers on the phone line. zero callers have specifically entered the public comment queue at this time. a reminder to all callers on the line, you must dial *3 now if you want to join public comment for this specific agenda item.

we will wait five more seconds and then close public comment on this agenda item. board secretary, there are still no callers in the public comment queue at this time. >> thank you, moderator. hearing no further callers, public comment is now closed. >> thank you. so that closes agenda item no. 16. so before we adjourn no. 1, i see no need for a may 27 meeting, so we will release that time. no. 2, i want to remind everyone about all the mental health programs that are available online through your departments and your champions. and thank you for the presentations today and thank you for your own participation, and please utilize this. if you haven't listened to mayor breed's brief videos yet, please do so as well. i think access is available as

outlined. i want to thank our email correspondence, our phone correspondence and all of our presenters, including mike clarke, for really concise and detailed presentations. we are adjourning ahead of schedule. i would like everyone to be safe, have a good night. meeting is adjourned. >> thank you. >> bye. >> thank you. >> thank you, president. ♪ ♪

>> clerk: good afternoon. this meeting will come to order. welcome to the may 10th 2021 land use and transportation committee of the san francisco board of supervisors. i'm supervisor melgar, chair of the committee, joined by supervisors preston and peskin. the clerk is erica major. madam clerk, do you have any announcements? >> clerk: thank you. to protect board members and the public, the chamber and room are closed. this per caution pursuant to the state wide stay at home order. committee members will attend through video conference and participate to the same extent as if they were physically present. public comment will be available

on each item on the agenda, channel 26, 78 or 99 are streaming the public call in number across the screen. each speaker will receive 2 minutes to speak. you can call the number on the screen, 415-655-0001, again, 415-655-0001. the meeting id is 187 462 8644. again it is 187 462 8644. then press pound and pound again. when connected you will hear the meeting discussions but will be muted and in listening mode only. when your item of interest comes up, dial star and then 3 to be added to the speaker line. best practices to call from a private location, speak clearly and slowly and turn down your

radio or tv. you can also e-mail myself with public comment at erica.major@sfgov.gov and written comments may be sent to city hall. items acted upon today are expected to hear at the board of supervisors meeting may 18th unless otherwise stated. >> supervisor melgar: thank you. please call item number one. >> clerk: clarifying the rights of landlords and tier 1

commercial tenants that employ fewer than 10 full time employees as of november 1st, 2020, following the tenants termination of the lease due to covid-19. members of the public who wish to comment on this item should call 415-655-0001. the meeting id is 187 462 8644. then press pound and pound again. if you have not done so already, please press star 3 to line up to speak. the system prompt will indicate you have raised your hand and confirmation. madam chair? >> supervisor melgar: thank you and thank you supervisor peskin for the item. would you like to share remarks? >> supervisor peskin: sure. thank you chair melgar for scheduling this and supervisor preston for your collaboration, long before we were colleagues on the land use committee, this

piece of legislation before us clarifies a key point in legislation that we passed earlier this year. that legislation created chapter 37-c of the administrative code that set forth some of the most significant and strongest protections for small businesses in the state during covid, which have since been emulated by other municipalities across the state. in one of the most significant parts of the legislation was to establish the right for a unilateral lease termination for the tenant for tier 1 tenants covered by the legislation, those who had under 10 employees and the amendments before us would clarify that such a termination would have the effect of relieving the small business of the obligation to continue paying rent under the remaining term of their lease if

they chose to terminate it. while i think that was the -- that's what i think we all intended and i certainly intended as the author of the law but these amendments make that abundantly clear. and combined with the commercial vacancy tax that the voters passed that we delayed for one year during covid, the idea here is enhancing the risk to refusing to negotiate with small businesses impacted by the pandemic, to ensure their longevity and stability and creating new consequences for maintaining long-term vacancies, we're effectively giving small businesses the tools that need greater leverage to bring landlords the the table. and that might sound harsh but let me be really clear, this only applies if landlords and

small businesses fail to reach mutually satisfactory agreements and i think all of us know many landlords, i certainly do who have shared losses over the past year in order to advance our collective recovery and retain tenants. unfortunately we also know stories and landlords that have remained -- how should i say, unrealistic about the current situation, a little detached from reality and communities like chinatown and japantown that have been strong supporters of the legislation. so in addition to thanking vice chair preston for his early collaboration on this, i want to thank legal outreach and allen lo and others and particularly

my staff for helping to shape our thinking around this legislation. i also want to note that we heard some really valuable recommendations for amending the legislation from the bar association of san francisco, while we're not legislating the changes in the ordinance, we will continue working with the mayor's office of housing to enhance this legislation through administrative guidance, through the rules you well know chair melgar that the department can promulgate. and if landlords and tenants are arriving at a satisfactory agreement, that goes above the terms of this. the bar associations conflict intervention service has been very helpful. if anyone wants to reach out to

our offices for referral, we're happy to provide it. and i want to express my gratitude to the lower polk landlord clinic, providing services to small businesses throughout the pandemic. they started on the residential side and quickly pivoted to include the commercial side and with that colleagues, i do have one small amendment that was distributed to all of you, page 2, lines 22 and 23 and that is to strike the words any actual damages that may result from. and actually insert the word an and delete the word the. and essentially what that does and after consulting with deputy city attorney, who i'd also like

to thank, is we have determined this language is redundant given the prior clause. and this would be a little confusing to call out one potential remedy without the mention of other possible remedies. landlords may still seek damages under state law but have the duty to mitigate those to help them recover from the pandemic and i think all parties have a shared interest in that outcome. with that colleagues, i would like to move the amendments after public comment and appreciate your support, especially during small business month to enhance the right of small businesses to recover. thank you. >> supervisor melgar: thank you supervisor peskins. colleagues if there's no other

questions or comments, madam clerk, let's take public comment please. >> clerk: we are checking to see if there are callers in the que. press star 3 for those who haven't already to be added to the que. we have zero callers, zero in the que madam chair. >> supervisor melgar: seeing no other callers, public comment on this item is closed. supervisor peskin did you make a motion? >> supervisor peskin: so moved to make that little amendment. >> supervisor melgar: great. madam clerk? >> clerk: (roll call)

you have three ayes. >> supervisor melgar: thank you madam clerk. is there a motion to pass this as amended please? >> supervisor peskin: i will make a motion to send item to the full board with positive recommendation. >> supervisor melgar: thank you. >> clerk: (roll call) you have three ayes. >> supervisor melgar: thank you. this motion passes with positive recommendation. madam clerk, are there any other items before us today? >> clerk: that completes the business for today madam chair. >> supervisor melgar: thank you so much. we are adjourned.

the celebration of our a.p.i. community goes on every day. but i'll say that a.p.i. heritage has become a bigger and better event effort each year. more partners, more appreciation and attention locally and nationally. and more recognition for the role asian americans and pacific islanders play in the life of this country in this very city. we're proud to welcome you to the museum to start the celebration. the asian art museum celebrates asian american culture, a place to explore, to discover and to be inspired by the power and the meaning of art and inspiration is the key to connection and connection is what this celebration is all

about. so i'm thrilled to introduce claud chen to tell you more about what's in store. claudian is a supporter of asian art culture and she has been the organizing force behind this celebration for 17 years. and she also serves on the board of the asian arts museum foundation. i'm so grateful and delighted to welcome to say a few words, introduce today's program to all of us. claudine. >> thank you. is it almost afternoon yet. thank you everyone for coming. every year, we would like to make sure the public learns about what we have planned for asian heritage month. this year, our theme is celebration theme is celebrate resilience, uplift voices. we all know the tremendous

challenges that the a.p.i. community has been facing this past year whether it's with covid-19 or with the anti-asian hate. however, it is the consensus of the community that we want the celebration of this month to be positive. we want to show the world that we are proud asian pacific americans and we are proud being americans. so, as you will see, throughout the month, we have many programs over 50 programs that show case the art and culture of asian pacific america. later on this morning, you will hear from the best museum of the world of asian art museum, the best public library in the country, the san francisco public library as well as the largest asian american film festival in the country. i was told also in the world. so what's different about this year? we want to be relevant.

we are very concerned about social justice issues that asian communities are facing with. so this year in addition to arts and culture so this year's program to talk about what it means, what racism means. how do we achieve equity. what does solidarity mean. so we and public safety, very important on everybody's mind. public safety. and, in addition to that, what's new this year. we are going to for the first time have a multi-cultural program. we live in a diverse society and a very multi-cultural society. so taking advantage of asian heritage month, we are putting together the first anti-asian

program that will be featuring artists from diverse programs to talk about cultural identities to talk about how they achieve social justice through art. there's some activities and programs for everyone to enjoy. we encourage everyone to find out what they can do in the month of may in san francisco. at this time, i would like to warmly welcome our mayor, mayor london breed. there's no other better champion that the a.p.i. community has found in this past year through the challenges that we have. we note that's one person we can count on who cares about us, making sure san francisco is the most multi-diverse city

in the country. so here's mayor breed. >> thank you so much claudine. it's a little windy out here today. i can't wait until we can get back indoors for these press conferences. i don't know about you. but it's now overdue with over 70% of san franciscans receiving their first dose of the vaccine so far. so san francisco is doing an incredible job with the vaccination process and, today, as we kick off asian pacific american heritage month in san francisco during the month of may, it just reminds us as to how far we've come as a city. last year, this celebration was held virtually. we didn't let this pandemic stop us from celebrating and uplift our asian pacific islander community in san francisco and i really want to take this opportunity to not only thank claudine chang for

founding the committee that founded a.p.i. heritage month in san francisco, but continuing to elevate the conversations that are so important to build the bridges between the a.p.i. community and others in our city. we know that this community has had a really challenging time over the past few months. with the xenophobia and discrimination ever since this pandemic began perpetrated by even leaders of this country that i am now happy are gone. it is up to us to make sure that we don't allow that to infect san francisco in a negative way. and so the work that claudine is doing to bridge that gap with communities not just in this moment, in this festival, but what she does year around is very much appreciated and very necessary in order to make

sure that we drive out the hatred that divides us and we bring forth our history and culture and all the things that unite us. just think about it. all of us want a safe place to raise your families and take care of our parents and live a good life and how do we talk about our differences and how do we talk about our similarities in a way that supports and uplifts one another. api heritage month is a time where we pause and we recognize the contributions of our asian pacific islander community here in san francisco. when we recognize how significant they are to building this city, to building this country. here in san francisco, we make it very clear that we will not tolerate the hate and division. we will do everything we can to make not just the right policy

changes and investments, but the right program attic things that are needed in order to bridge those gaps and so we all stand united putting forth a program that in some cases will be in person, but we will do so safely. but as we prepare for next year where we're really going to show case the performance or the events because yes, i don't mind the zoom and video stuff that you watch online. we adjusted to that, but now it's time to start opening the doors and come back together again and i can't be more excited to do that by kicking off api heritage month here in san francisco right across from city hall at this incredible asian art museum right next to the library. we have our city librarian michael lambert with us with

some amazing programatic plans for this month. if you haven't been to cam fest, you are missing out big time. make sure you take advantage of the programs and the events. so many great act its, so many ways in which we can celebrate and uplift our a.p.a. community here in san francisco and with that, i'd like to introduce our city administrator car men chiu. >> thank you very much, mayor, for the warm welcome to everybody who is here today and of course to claudine and jay for hosting this event today. my name is carmen chiu. we've all had a difficult year dealing with not only the pandemic on our hands, but some of the racial violence and challenges we've seen not on here locally, in the bay area and in san francisco, but across the country.

i think it's worthwhile to note especially someone who has grown up here as an asian american woman that xenophobia and some of the challenges we are facing in our community is not something that's new. it's not something that just came about because of the pandemic. but it's something we've seen embedded within our history here in the united states. whether it was the people who were discriminated against when they came to work on the railroads or the chinese exclusion act among all of the other different discriminatory acts that we've seen, we've seen this play out through many different ways whether through legal action or the subtle ways where people are excluded or treated or always as a perpetual immigrant in this society. i have to say i'm very excited to be here to kick off our apa heritage month and the reason is because this is an

opportunity for us to take all of those challenges and that pain and that hurt and to turn it into something that is different and positive. to begin to turn the leaf on what we think our country should be to live up the ideals of making sure we have an inclusive community and inclusive society. i want to thank claudine and all of the folks because it's an opportunity for all of us to engage to remind everyone that asian american history is american history. that when we start to open up the conversations, we start to make ourselves vulnerable to talk about our hurts, our pains, our experiences. we start to build those connections and bridges between our communities to make sure what we are advancing where we are. so, again, i'm very excited to be here for that reason because let's not forget that we've always been a community of resilience. my parents, many people before them who've immigrated with

nothing, we've been a resilient community. we're going to get through this together and the way we start is by uplifting our voices, making our voices be heard and sharing all of those experiences that help to bring our communities together. thank you very much. with that, claudine. >> thank you, city administrator. so the mayor just now talked about we will have a kickoff celebration in japantown on saturday. of course, the event will be in compliance of san francisco's public health guidelines. at that event, every year following our tradition, we will be honoring some exceptional organizations for the significant milestones. we will be honoring this year the 60th anniversary of the san francisco soul. we will be honoring the san francisco and also the national

japanese american historical society for 40 years of contributions. this year, because we always talk about we are the san francisco bay region. we are also -- we give special recognition to two special organizations that have brought bay area compact. the national japanese chamber of commerce of northern california for being around for seventy years and, of course, world journal, one of the premier newspapers in the country and of course in san francisco bay area providing news and information to our chinese american community congratulating them on their 45th anniversary. so, hopefully all of you will be there when we celebrate all these milestones and, now, i would like to invite our celebration partners to tell you the highlight maybe just one or two of what your organization is offering in the month of may, maybe