will be participating in today's meeting remotely. this precaution is taken pursuant to local, state and federal orders. commission members will attend through video conference and participate to the same extent as if they were physically present. please note today's meeting is live on sfgov tv and stream lined online live as well. once again streamed live at sfgovtv.org. public comment is available on each item of the agenda. each member of the public is allowed three minutes to speak. opportunities are via phone call calling 415-655-0001.

again the phone number is 415-655-0001. access 146 693 8503. again, 146 693 8503 mute the television, radio or computer and especially important if you are watching

the web link to prevent an echo when you speak. when the system says your line is unmuted, it is your time to speak. you will hear staff say "welcome caller." when you start speaking you'll have three minutes to provide public comment, six minutes online with an interpreter. you'll hear a bell when you have 30 seconds remaining. if you change your mind and want to withdraw yourself from the public comment line, press star 3 again. you will hear the system say you have lowered your hand. once three minutes is expired, staff will thank you and mute you. you will hear "your line has been muted." attendees who wish to speak during other public comment opportunities should stay online and enter their hands by pressing star 3 when the next item of interest comes up. public comment may be submitted in writing as well and will be shared with the commission after the meeting was concluded and be included as part of the official

meeting file. written comments sent to ethics.commission@sfgov.org. thank you madam chair. >> chair ambrose: thank you. can you call the roll please? >> clerk: commissioner bell? >> commissioner bell: here. >> clerk: commissioner bush.

>> commissioner bush: present. >> clerk: commissioner chiu. >> commissioner chiu: present. >> clerk: you have a quorum. >> chair ambrose: we're going to call public comment on matters appearing or not appearing on the agenda. members of the public who wish to speak, dial star 3 if you have not done so to be added to the public comment line. please proceed with public comment. >> clerk: agenda item number 2, each member of the public has up to three minutes to provide public comment. if you joined earlier to listen to the proceedings now is the time to get on to the line to speak. if you haven't done so, press star 3. it is important that you press star 3 only once to enter the

queue. once you are in the queue and standing by, the system will prompt you when it is your turn to speak. it is important to call from a quiet location. address your comment to the commission as a whole. madam chair, we are checking for callers. we have a caller in the queue. please stand by. your three minutes starts now. >> good morning commissioners. my name is ellen zhou. i am a public social worker.

i am a union delegate for government employees and member to remind all of you in san francisco to return to god. i have been coming to you ethics commission many, many times starting from 2016 and the last i spoke to you virtually over the phone was march 12th 2021. 2022, you all know san francisco, one party politicians authorize 5,000 a month for anyone come to san francisco sleeping inside a tent. people who have disability spend

$17,000 a month and for average homeless person, that is $8,000 a month. we, the city because of the lawless politicians, they spent 12.3 billion a year for a sink hole city, san francisco. you all remember 2020 we had more than 700 people die and pass away on the streets. right now we have 20% housing units available but lawless evil politicians talking about building affordable housing when we have 75,000 empty units available. san francisco politicians to murder our unborn babies by using our public money. they support illegal drugs by

continuing advocating to open illegal injection sites. they support drug dealers. i am here today to request ethic commission, you, all of you, to review the situation with the failed city with about 18 elected officials to return law and order to protect us, the people who pay taxes. who pay the price to live in a city, san francisco, we do not -- >> clerk: your three minutes have expired. >> thank you. >> chair ambrose: thank you caller. any further commenters in the

queue? >> clerk: please stand by. no further callers in the queue. >> chair ambrose: thank you. public comment is closed on item 2. i'm going to call item 3, the consent calendar, draft minutes to june 11th, 2021, regular meeting. does any member of the public intend to offer -- i think there's another -- sorry. there are two items on consent, right? the draft minutes and one of the stipulations. >> clerk: correct. >> chair ambrose: we can call them together if they're both on

consent. okay. so i'm going to call the consent calendar items 3 and 4 together with one roll call vote unless someone wants to take either the draft minutes or stipulation on yes on prop c versus universal childcare in san francisco and move it to regular calendar. seeing no request to do so, both of those items are being called together. is there any public comment on the consent calendar if you could please check mr. moderator. >> clerk: thank you. the ethics commission is receiving public comment on consent items 3 and 4 only in this meeting. each member of the public has up to three minutes to provide public comment. you will hear a bell when you

have 30 seconds remaining. if you have not done so, press star 3. it is important you press star 3 only once to enter the queue. pressing it again will move you back into listening mode. if you haven't done so, press star 3 to be added to the queue. for those on hold, continue to wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted. we have a caller in the queue. your three minutes begins now. >> thank you again ethics commissioners. i spoke in item 2 for a lawless

city officials that is running city hall. only 18 elected officials. you the ethics commission had a duty to protect government. i am so sad to see you who volunteer your time, some of them you get paid. only one me in the line for public comment. i remember when you open at city hall in person, you had more people go in and listen. but now you're running an ethics commission public hearings all by yourselves. that means the general public is not informed with anything you

talk about. i believe in my honest opinion. please do outreach to the people that you impact in the items you talk about, childcare, universal childcare, who are the beneficiaries? did you do outreach to parents? did you do any outreach to all who are planning to have families. you all know the entire unified schools is failing because we're not open.

there's no public comments. my name is ellen. i live in san francisco, i live in district number 9. i have seen a failing ethics commission fail to enforce law and order. at least i know that you today, there's only one me in here for public hearing. i don't know if you have public hearings, anyone spoke to you at all from the public the last 15 months other than march because i was here march 12, 2021. please reach out to people on the items that matter to san francisco. not just talk about amongst

yourself -- >> clerk: the three minutes have expired. >> thank you. god bless you. >> chair ambrose: thank you. any further callers in the queue? >> clerk: please stand by. no additional callers in the queue madam chair. >> chair ambrose: can i have a motion to approve items 3 and 4? commissioner bell moved. if you would call the roll on 3 and 4 on the consent calendar mr. moderator. >> clerk: a motion has been made and seconded to items 3 and 4. i will call the roll. (roll call)

the motion is approved. >> chair ambrose: thank you very much. i'm going to call item 5 on the regular calendar. this is proposed streamline stipulation decision and order in the matter of cammy blackstone complaint number 1920-010 and i'm going to ask jeff pierce to speak to this matter and while we're waiting for jeff, if any member of the public wants to enter public comment, they should enter in now. commissioners, if you have questions or comments for jeff that you want to discuss about this, please raise your hand.

>> thank you chair ambrose. i'll hand it over to senior investigator eric willett who administers the streamline program. >> chair ambrose: thank you. >> good morning chair ambrose and commissioners. i can field any questions you have about this. i see commissioner bush's hand up. go ahead. >> commissioner bush: thank you. i want to just by way of background, are these the first cases we've had involving lobbyists? >> yes, commissioner bush. these are the first provisions of law under the lobbyist ordinance we put forward to you. you are correct. >> commissioner bush: in this particular case, did the

lobbyist initially disclose there were no contacts? >> in this matter, no. ms. blackstone has reported all contacts but failed to include the payment she received from her employer which is in this matter, she's an employee of at&t and we contacted her to amend the filings and reflect a portion of her salary to cover the time it took to make those contacts. >> commissioner bush: so it did include who the contacts were? >> yes, that's correct. >> commissioner bush: does that account for the fact that the stipulation is at the level it is? >> can you expand upon that

commissioner bush? >> commissioner bush: the fact that those elements were disclose account for a lower stipulated penalty than it might have been otherwise? >> i see, so ms. blackstone took the corrected action to file the amendments and return the signed stipulated agreement within the first 30 days span, which reflects a tier 1 penalty calculation, in this matter, $500 plus 15% of all payments received. so it is an amount of $1112.

>> if i can offer a clarification. as described, this is not a shadow lobbying case. there was no instance of lobbying we could tell that went undisclosed. we saw it essentially as a paperwork case that the streamline program was designed to handle in this accelerated matter. there were no aggravating considerations here. and all of the calculations were within the thresholds and guidelines that the streamline program asserts. to your question about whether it would have been a different stipulation under different facts, certainly. and staff could have looked at this differently if there were different facts or aggravating factors. >> commissioner bush: thank you. that clarifies things for me on

this case. >> chair ambrose: thank you. any other comments? if not, i'm going to call for public comment. mr. moderator, can you please call for public comment? >> clerk: we are checking to see if there are callers in the queue. please continue to wait until the system indicating you have been unmuted. we are on public comment of item 5 in the matter of cammy blackstone. press star 3 to be added to the public comment queue. please stand by.

we have no callers in the queue. >> chair ambrose: public comment is closed on item 5. thank you commissioner bush for bringing out some of the background on the case. i appreciate it. i would like a motion to approve the stipulated settlement if there is one. commissioner chiu has moved. is there a second? thank you commissioner bush. can you please call the roll. >> clerk: (roll call)

the the motion is approved. >> chair ambrose: agenda item 6, another proposed streamline taken off the consent calendar, decision and order in the matter of jennifer stojkovic complaint 1920-011. i'm going to turn to mr. pierce again to lead us into the discussion. >> thank you chair ambrose. and i'll give it back to senior investigator eric willett. >> this case is very similar to the previous matter resolved in item 5.

the only difference here is that jennifer stojkovic upon reviewing her record noticed she failed to report one contact. in addition to amending her previously reported contacts, to reflect the payments received, there was one month she had added a contact not previously reported in addition to the payments not previously reported. >> chair ambrose: so i'm going to start. i guess maybe i didn't read it closely enough. my impression was there were multiple years when the contacts were not disclosed. is that -- did i read that wrong? >> on the language of the

stipulation, it says and or the payments she received from her employer. maybe there's details lacking there for how many months it was amended to reflect the payments received and how many included payments received and additional contact. the background on this one was one month there was additional contact not previously reported that was amended to reflect -- >> chair ambrose: how did that information about the missing contact come to light? >> it came through self disclosure when she was reviewing records to amend them to reflect the payments received, she noticed she had an additional contact and went ahead on her own and filed that amendment. >> chair ambrose: thank you for that. all right. commissioner bush.

your hand is up. i didn't know if you have comments on this or from the last time. you're muted. >> commissioner bush: thank you. as i read the stipulation, there were many months beginning i think in 2017 in which her reports were going to have to be amended. what were the amendments? >> the amendments were primarily to reflect payments she received from her employer. this is again similar to the previous matter, that is jennifer stojkovic is employed by city and had to amend to reflect the portion of her salary spent on making those contacts. so sarp has specific eligibility

requirements for inclusion in the program and because it was only a portion of salaries, they were still under the sarp provisions eligibility standards. she also took the action in the first 30 days and her penalty is $500 plus 15% of previously unreported payments. that is $431 in this matter. >> commissioner bush: for each of the months, did she disclose with whom she had contacts? >> yes, with whom and the matter she was attempting to influence.

>> commissioner bush: that didn't come through clearly in the stipulation. i would urge that in the future stipulations clarify what was and was not disclosed to the public as part of this process. i understand from looking at the web page, it is a nonprofit. is that correct? >> i believe so. >> commissioner bush: why is the nonprofit making disclosures as though it was a lobbyist? we exempt them from lobbyist disclosures. >> we do for certain types of fee. fee organizations and i believe

the city is a different type of fee organization that is not exempted from the reporting requirements under the lobbyist ordinance. >> commissioner bush: and on their web page it shows they provide to the public and to their members a list of recommendations including recommendations of endorsements and voting for members of the board of supervisors. it is my understanding that nonprofits are not permitted to endorse candidates for office. isn't that correct? >> if they're doing it through the different fee organization types, i think that's a way around prohibition. >> i might add quickly commissioner bush, if there are -- if a nonprofit in the city is engaged in conduct that might jeopardize their tax exempt

status, it would be beyond the scope of the commission's jurisdiction. >> chair ambrose: it's an important thing to know about. and it's important to know -- i didn't realize there was a differences between 501-c-3 that could engage in political conduct but i assume that's the basis of the different treatment under the lobbyist ordinance. is that -- a fair assumption? >> that's correct and -- >> if i may weigh in a bit. i'm not really a nonprofit expert, so maybe i'm entering into unknown ground but there's an exception for contacts made by c-3 or c-4 nonprofit organization. 501-c-3s can weigh in on ballot

measures but not endorse candidates. i'm not that familiar with the organization, city is a c-6. something like the chamber of commerce would be a c-6. they treat different classifications in different levels of political activity. >> commissioner bush: from looking at guide star, it does include them as nonprofit as a c-3. and it includes their filing with the form 990, done by 501-c-3s. and that lends to the question of if that's the kind of organization they are, why on their web page do they promote people to support or oppose

certain candidates running for the board of supervisors. >> and certainly, perhaps we're getting far from the settlement, if there's concern about what they are allowed to do under the tax credit, but as jeff missioned, outside the commission's jurisdiction. the irs would enforce such matters. >> commissioner bush: or the state tax agency as well, right? >> it's possible. i suppose you could reach out to the franchise tax board. >> chair ambrose: i do think -- i appreciate staff's work on

stipulated settlements, we are getting off of the agenda. i'm going to move us back to mr. moderator, can you ask if there's public comment on this particular item? >> clerk: we are checking to see if there are callers in the queue. those on hold, continue to wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted. we are currently on the public discussion on the motion of agenda item 6. in the matter of jennifer stojkovic complaint number 1920-011. if you have not done so, press star 3 to be added to the queue. you will have three minutes to provide comment. you will hear a bell with 30 seconds remaining.

>> while the moderator is looking for public comment, to commissioner bush's question about if nonprofits have to disclose contacts, it is our understanding that there is an -- c 3s and c 4s but only those who filed a 990-n or 990-ev. it is our understanding reviewing the filings those are available only to nonprofits below a certain revenue stream or operating budget but those who exceed file a 990 do not

qualify for the exemption in the definition of context. >> chair ambrose: thank you for that. i always appreciate learning something new. it is good to know as we probably hopefully see more of these. welcome commissioner lee to the meeting. i wish you were sitting on the lovely beach somewhere. i have to learn how to use the backdrops some day. back to the moderator. >> clerk: we have callers in the queue. >> chair ambrose: thank you. >> clerk: welcome caller. >> hi there. i wanted to point out that this type of behavior is the whole reason for the creation of the ethics commission. i really commend the board for taking the action but i want to know there are specific penalties for misreporting

including a $50 a day fee for each instance of not correcting the report. that would make the fine well into the six figures. this penalty seems very short of true justice. thank you so much and for doing what you do. it is so important to continuation of running the city. thanks. >> clerk: thank you caller. we have another caller in the queue. welcome caller. your three minutes begins now. >> good morning commissioners. greetings to those of you i haven't seen for a while. and my greeting to the new

commissioner who i have never met. i just wanted to speak on this matter just briefly to raise the question of whether it is right in the sense that with so many months and years of non disclosure, whether it would not be advise for them to make the recommendation on the stipulation before it comes before the commission. i think the public should see what is going oven and better transparency would be afforded if you required the filings to occur before the item is taken up by the commission. i think that's the case really for any lobbyist.

i don't know your current rules but if that's not the rule, it could be changed to be that way in my view or at least examined and detailed. that's all i wanted to say. again, good to see you all and i'm glad you survived the epidemic and i hope all of those you are close to and your friends also survived well. >> chair ambrose: on the point you raised, i want to take a minute to hear from staff. i noticed that as well. i understand that we want to acknowledge and reward behavior where compliance is within a certain time period and they signed the stipulation and we

can complete the enforcement action, but the question that he raised -- so if they sign and file the disclosure the missing piece, my impression is, we do get that before the commission meeting, right? that was set for june 30th or something like that? so we do have the completed packet. but it seemed like there were options where we could have an action on this but then they would pay more money to not give us the information until after the meeting. is that -- aren't there like three tiers if you don't pay until the end of july, then you owe more money but then we would

not have seen the information before acting on it. >> we wouldn't present a stipulated agreement to the commissioners without having verified the corrected action was taken. some of it is part of the calculation for the penalty amount. >> chair ambrose: so you have the information and it is an available to the public, okay, all right. >> yeah. and the different dates provided are if it takes longer than 30 days to take the corrective action, then it increases the penalty amount.

when it gets to your desk, action has been taken. >> chair ambrose: okay. all right. and i'm also going to assume that on the rightness issue, that there weren't actually undisclosed reports that we haven't seen. that it was just in that instance, it was the payment, the percentage of her salary, a payment but all of the contacts but one she later identified and came forward with were known. >> yes, that's correct.

>> chair ambrose: and the final point that the other commenter made, the $50 fee to not correct the report, yes, of course that would be a lot of money, but i think at least in my view and this instance, if it were to happen again with either of these individuals now that they have been put to notice that they must disclose a percentage of their salary then i would definitely want to look at the additional penalty. are there further commenters in the queue? >> clerk: yes, please stand by.

>> i don't have a horse in the race at all but i noticed people were talking about about exemptions for nonprofits. my understanding of the law and i just pulled it up, this comes up from time to time, any 501-c-3, a charity employee is exempted from the lobbying laws period, regardless of the tax filings they make with the irs and for c-4, social welfare organizations, their employees are exempted if the organizations themselves are quite small and file 990-ns ore z's meaning they have raised $200,000 or less in a year or have $500,000 in assets on the books at the time of the filing and tax returns, which are

generally very small c-4s that fit into that category. any c-4 larger than that, they have to file 990s with the irs, standard tax filings and they do have to comply with the lobbying laws. any other type of c organizations, they have to comply regardless of size. that's my $0.02. thank you for your service. >> chair ambrose: thank you and thank you for the information. are there further commenters in the queue?

>> clerk: thank you. madam chair, no further callers in the queue. >> chair ambrose: thank you. with that, public comment is closed. i do see commissioner chiu i think you had your hand up -- >> commissioner chiu: with regard to the $50 a day. i take from that, it's at the discretion? my clarifying question would be under the new framework that the commission has adopted for the streamline processing of these matters, is the $50 per day fine or penalty, is that at the discretion of the commission? >> yes. so we do include modifiers in addition to the percentage of previously unreported payments received. we also add $500 if they resolve within the first 30 days and that increases as well as the percentage taken for the length

of time that it takes for corrective action to be taken and the stipulated agreement to be signed off on. and the ordinance does still allow for discretion application of the $50. we try to reflect percentage and dollar amount in addition to the percentage amounts. in an effort to demonstrate the severity of -- >> chair ambrose: application of these factors can send a strong deterrent message that if you fail to file and there's a pattern in practice or huge number of incomplete or missing milings, there are consequences from that.

commissioner bush, your hand is up. >> commissioner bush: i want to make sure i understand, 501-c-3 regardless of size do not have to file as lobbyists? >> chair ambrose: i was thinking on that point, given it is highly technical and legal area of law, that we just give the staff some time to pin that down and just provide us with a response at the next meeting because we might be contributing to confusion and misinformation and i think it would be useful to know exactly who our lobbyist law applies to.

and he mentioned that any employee is exempt, which if they hire their lobbyists as employees, that's a whole other curiosity. with that, i really -- it's not on the agenda, i'm going to have staff get back to us with some clarity. >> commissioner bush: i recommend we push this over to the next meeting and not vote on it now. until this is resolved. it's a significant issue. >> chair ambrose: okay. i don't know that i see it ties to this particular stipulated settlement since this individual did file. but if that's your motion to continue this item, is there a

second? >> i'll second. >> chair ambrose, i apologize for interrupting, before you seek a vote on the motion, i want to clarify, as far as i can tell, sf is not a c-3, it's a c-6. >> commissioner bush: they file a form 990 and as a 501-c-3. if you go to guide star, you find it there. >> not as a c-6? >> commissioner bush: right. >> chair ambrose: can you please call the roll on the motion? >> clerk: a motion has been made

and seconded. i will call the roll. (roll call) >> chair ambrose: this is to move the item to next month's calendar. (roll call) four votes in the affirmative and one opposed, the motion is approved. >> chair ambrose: with that, just to make sure when you put it on the calendar, if we could have not all the federal regulations under the irs code but a quick summary of the different categories of nonprofits and which of those

are subject to our lobbying rules, that would be helpful. with that, i'm going to call agenda item 7. looking at the time, go ahead. discussion of possible action on statement of incompatible activities, so-called sia for the department of homelessness and supportive housing, shs. we're going to hear from pat ford about the sia. and mr. ford, when you start, if you can just -- we haven't seen action by the ethics commission adopting an sia since most -- we haven't had new departments in my tenure here, can you quickly explain what the role of the ethics commission is in reviewing and approving statement. >> definitely. thank you chair ambrose.

good morning commissioners. pat ford, senior policy and legislative affairs council. sia is statement of incompatible activities. a statement that each city department must adopt that sets out certain activities incompatible with duties of officials and employees within the department. as chair ambrose mentioned, when a new department is created, it must adopt a new statement of incompatible activities. and each time a new statement is created or existing statement is amended, approval of the ethics commission is required. additionally, the city must meet and confer with affected employee bargaining units and that has to happen before the commission votes to approve or amend sia. the department of homelessness and supportive housing was created in 2016.

this would be a new sia for that department. the department has worked with department of human resources to meet and confer with a number of employee unions. the unions were first notified on april 8th of the new sia and provided a draft of it and on may 5th meeting was held to talk about the sia with the unions and then on june 23rd, meet and confer process was closed out. so at this point, now the next step in the process is for the ethics commission to look at the sia and to vote to approve or not approve it. if it's approved at this point, the sia becomes operative and they can distribute to officers and employees. as you saw in the memo, this sia

essentially mirrors the exact same language in most other departments sia's. there are a few provisions that are unique or different for this particular department. i just called those out on the second page, there are three of them. one says that no employee or officer within the department can be a registered lobbyist. there's also language that clarifies that employees can engage in volunteer activities for nonprofits and that doesn't contradict the rule for participating in activities subject to review by the department. and then lastly, it says no employee or officer can serve as a member of the board of directors of a nonprofit that applies for funding, including grants or contracts that are

administered by the department. those are the provisions unique to this one. otherwise, it mirrors language in the other sia's. staff is recommending the commission approve this sia. and also melanie from the department is here and can provide comments she would like and answer questions you might have. i'll turn it over to melanie. >> chair ambrose: thank you. and welcome. i have a quick question. did i read in here that the employees of this new department are all subject to the form 700 level 3 reporting and if so, why is that? doesn't this department have a fairly substantial budget and

numerous contracts engagement. why would they be level 3 reporters? that's to you, pat? >> i need a second to look at the code to see what theirs are. >> chair ambrose: i think it was in the memo. i swear i didn't make it up. i'm pretty sure i read it somewhere. in any event, maybe melanie, you can explain, what is the department for the department of homeless for a year. >> good morning. i'm actually going to -- if emily is on, i don't have the number memorized. i think it's around 600 million

for this fiscal year but emily cowen is our deputy director of external affairs. i do want to state that not all of our employees are submitting form 700s. >> chair ambrose: we wouldn't expect all of them to submit, but the ones making decisions about the 600 million, i would have expected them to be at least a level 2 form 700 filer. >> chair ambrose, i looked that up. so, the executive director, deputy directors and finance and performance manager all disclose at category 1. the contracts manager, information technology director, personnel manager and homeless and supportive housing managers are category 2 to provide

supplies, materials, machinery to the department. >> chair ambrose: thank you. that makes me not worry about that then. thank you. commissioner chiu you had your hand up. >> commissioner chiu: i had a question for mr. ford. the provisions you highlighted, given the kind of ongoing and ever widening corruption scandal out of dpw, does this statement of incompatible activities capture those activities we think should be restricted or otherwise addressed in sia of this nature?

>> my approach in looking at this sia and any sia is to see if it's in line with other sia's. i think any new policies the commission would want to pursue, the sia is not the ideal vehicle for that. the ideal for new policies is to put it in the code or regulation so it applies uniformly across the board to all departments. unfortunately this is a shortcoming of the model itself. we have as many sia's as

department and changing one doesn't change of all the other departments. as far as new rules needed in light of what we have learned over the last 18 or so months, i think the code is really where i'm fixated. >> in an ideal world we would have rules and legislation applied equally across the

board. but given the allegations that have come out of the corruption scandal, there's an opportunity to address those. as i recall from some of the reports that came out, there was a statement incompatible activities and didn't touch on anything, now that we know about it, why wouldn't we apply these learnings in order to deter behavior that could lead to problems down the road? i fully appreciate that becomes a patchwork and in the absence of policy standpoint, there's legislation and rule making is obviously the most far reaching way to address it. but the moment we are in right now. i'm not suggesting that we have to go back at this point, but i

want to make the point, how do we as an ethics commission, the house is burning down and while it would be great to have a full slate of fire trucks but if we have a garden hose to apply to the fire, shouldn't we use that as well. >> i don't think i'm going too far off the agenda to say reviewing sia's is part of the larger ongoing conflict of interest project that will be a later phase of the project. right now we're looking at gift rules, that's the second phase and in the third phase, we'll look at a number of things and sia's are one of them, is there

a way to drive policy that overcomes that kind of patchwork issue you mentioned. so that's on the radar. not as part of this agenda temper say, but part of the larger policy project we're working on. >> commissioner chiu: right. i think there's -- it can be both and. it doesn't have to be mutually exclusive and i think there is an opportunity to have different sia's addressing different issues because the risks are different for different departments. those that do a lot with public contracting would have different exposures and opportunities for incompatible activity versus a

different type of organizations like the ethics commission where we don't have public contracting and don't deal a lot with these revenues. so i think it's -- more to discuss as we go forward. but, just wanted to make that point. thank you. >> chair ambrose: thank you. i'm going to have the moderator call for public comment on this item. if you want to make the announcement about public comment. >> clerk: we are checking for callers in the queue. for those on hold, wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted. we're on public discussion of agenda item 7.

we have no callers in the queue. >> chair ambrose: thank you. i saw your hand up commissioner bush. i wanted to find out if we had a number of public speakers on this. you had a comment, please. >> commissioner bush: two comments. first i associate myself with commissioner chiu's observations

that we don't want to be the enemy of the good and changing this would be good. i don't think we need to wait for the perfect. more specifically, when you get into the provisions, under activities subject to review by the department and under a, it refers to assistance and responding to city bids and so forth. no officer may provide selective assistance that is not generally available in the matter that confers a bidder or proposer, blah, blah, blah. but then it provides an exception. the exception is, when it's for a charitable organization.

if a city official or employee of this department is assisting a charitable organization in the fundraising opportunities. the definition is very broad and i think too broad for what we have in mind. for example when the mayor established the committee to have 100th anniversary of celebration of city hall, that was a charitable organization. in other cities like los angeles, what they have done is to narrow the definition from charitable organization to charitable organization providing services. so you are not cutting out the ability to assist organizations

that are helping low income people who are in need of assistance but no longer providing city staff or officials to assist an elected official with their particular issues. i would suggest that we take a deeper look at how we define charitable organizationses in this and all other cases. >> if i could chair ambrose. i want to make sure i understand what you're looking at commissioner bush. this is on page 4 of the sia talking about activities subject to review by the department, specifically assistance in responding to city bids, rfp's. you're looking at the bolded

language, is that right? no officer or employee may provide assistance to individuals or entities, including nonprofit charitable organizations. is that the language? >> commissioner bush: that's right. >> that's not an exception. >> commissioner bush: the issue is not just city contracts. you have charitable organizations seeking to influence the decision of who will be hired, who will be named to a commission. so they lobby the mayor over who will be the commissioners. or they lobby the department head as to who is going to be the enforcement actor. or they lobby over the policy of how it's going to be

interpreted. there's nothing new about all this. this is the way the world works in this city. >> chair ambrose: i need to bring this back to this particular department. i hear what you're saying about -- but specific -- the point you made, you thought there was an exception for an employee of the department of homelessness to be able to provide selective support to a charitable organization and i think i heard mr. ford say no, that's not how that reads. is that -- correct? >> that's correct. yes. this language actually is just clarifying that there's no exception. that even if you volunteer for a nonprofit, you still can't provide them with selective assistance. >> chair ambrose: which makes

sense to me. okay. >> commissioner bush: that's only assistance in cases of contracts. it's not assistance in lobbying for policy changes or appointments. if you have been around city hall, you know that's where -- >> chair ambrose: but we're talking about city employees, how to conduct themselves as city employees. the problem you are raising, which i hear you, has to do with the activities of charitable organizations engaged in city activities. but this sia is about -- the thing i'm concerned about is that right now we have a department of homelessness with a $600 million budget and ramping up and they don't have a statement of incompatible activities. bringing it back and we have a lot more items on the agenda today. so bringing it back to the

matter at hand, i agree with everything you all have been saying about how we need to better integrate the good government conduct code and regulations and sia's since it is the thing that everybody in the department gets a copy of every year. but that's not what we're doing right now. right now we're trying to provide the department of homeless and supportive housing with the guidance that is just the sort of fundamentals. to that end, i want to ask for a motion to move this sia and again, we can take up this larger issue as mr. ford was saying as part of the policy priority program. so thank you very much

commissioner lee. sorry. we might have to take a snack break. i can see my blood sugar is dropping. do i have a second to approve this sia? commissioner chiu. mr. moderator can you call the roll on the agenda item 7? >> clerk: (roll call) four votes in the affirmative and one opposed, the motion is approved.

>> chair ambrose: okay. with that, i'm going to -- it's 10:45. we could try to press forward with agenda item 8, but i think what i'm going to do, can we take a five minute break? would that be okay with everyone? and then come back and do -- we have the annual report and discussion of the performance audit on our return agenda. so five minutes. i'll see you back here at 10:50. thank you.

>> chair ambrose: i will call agenda item 8. i assume commissioner bush will be back on any second. there you are. agenda item 8, discussion and possible action on the revised draft of the fiscal year report. i'm going to turn it over to executive director pelham and thank her and her staff for the work they have done to bring this forward to us. with that, i jump in and open it up to comments. i see commissioner chiu, your hand is up. i don't know if that was prior

-- okay. all right. so go ahead director pelham if you wanted to just present the item. >> director pelham: thank you. good morning commissioners. following the last commission meeting where you provided feedback on the initial draft we had for the june meeting. we took that feedback and updated the draft report for your further consideration today. just as a general overview, what you see different in this draft than previous is that we tried to be responsive to categorizing the information in ways that were more in alignment with the goals we want to achieve. we added a table of contents you'll see and divides it to the three key areas we have been

focused on. strength in oversight and accountability and practice and continued to really strengthen our service through the department. there's a final section on looking ahead. we did go through an update of the year end with final numbers that we had based on the june 30th end of the fiscal year on page 5, you'll see a graphic that includes those highlights from the year at a glance. and then the report flows from there. we have organized summary of key highlights around program areas and then the group, the updates that are program and operational and policy according to the goal they're seeking to serve starting on page 9. so certainly hope you had a chance to review it. we recognize that maybe you have additional comments or feedback you would like to provide based

on this draft, happy to hear that from you today and see how you want to proceed towards ultimately finalizing the report to distribute to the public to reflect the work we have done as an agency over the past year. chair, i think you're muted. >> chair ambrose: thank you. i was saying thank you again and to your team for gathering all the information. commissioner chiu, i see your hand raised. >> commissioner chiu: yes. thank you chair ambrose and director pelham and the entire ethics commission staff. what a tremendous year really, congratulations and kudos for not only doing all this work but

doing it from home, from your kitchen juggling childcare and stress and overhanging of the pandemic. this is just tremendous. really proud to be part of this work. i think the only comments i have on the report relate to additional headers and formatting. for example on page 3, maybe right in the middle of the photo -- first paragraph, we could put a heading in there to break things up. the graphs by topic. i can send this off line afterwards. but with areas of focus or program focus and then at the end on page 4, i would love to

see under results like the major highlights, we have the highest percentage of public finance ever in the history of the program. we dispersed however many -- almost $3.5 million and closed out -- so pull some of those highlights into page 4 so at a glance, if the public only reads the first two pages, they will come away with key highlights of our accomplishments. and then starting page 7, same theme. instead of saying programs. i would suggest grouping the work under public finance or transparency, investigation and enforcement instead of having to read each bullet point to find

what they may be looking for, the eye is drawn to, i want to learn more about audits and i wouldn't lead with administration or operations. i would lead with whatever it is, the more hard hitting work that are the highlights in terms of what we have accomplished. not just doing our regular business. on page 7, i think we have done that. but i don't know if we would think of it as the biggest accomplishment this year. and then similarly under strengthening laws and heightening awareness, what about putting the tldr, just bullet points at the top of the paragraph so people don't have to read the whole thing. what are the key accomplishments under conflicts of interest code

so there's more detail down below but you can get the gist in a quick skim of the work we have done this year. i think some of the comments -- i know that not only is this a ton of work to produce the report and i think it's really incredibly valuable to encapsulated everything we have done in this year in particular, because this is an extraordinary year of the pandemic but it also serves as a one-stop resource for people who don't know that much about the ethics commission or do know something and want to understand, what have we been doing when we're not at our desks this past year and i think the exercise is well served to see what did we set out to do.

how did we meet the mark and importantly, celebrate the successes. >> chair ambrose: i appreciate all of your comments. there's so much information in there and yeah, each pass tried to bring more of it forward, but -- and shifting administration and operations down and pulling up the program work not to -- not acknowledge how hard all of the administrative and operations but in terms of reading public, they'll be more interested. i know you are a great editor. if you could provide it to the director, those are great suggestions. >> commissioner chiu:

absolutely. >> chair ambrose: commissioner bush. >> commissioner bush: i concur with the comments that the staff have done a heroic amount of work in a challenging year to make sure that we are meeting the public's needs for transparency and accountability. i have several observations. one is that the annual report, as it makes sense, focuses to such an extent on the ethics commission that it doesn't allow the public to see how we are

tied to other parts of the city government. for example, in the charter itself, we are required to coordinate with the city attorney's office and district attorney's office. we are required to coordinate with the controller over whistleblower complaints. so you also have to work with the sunshine task force on public documents. i think that we need to see ourselves as part of a whole when it comes to addressing ethical culture in san francisco. with that said, the preamble to the annual report refers to us returning to an ethical culture. and i think that's a goal but we

do not have an ethical culture we're returning to. in fact, san francisco lacks an ethical culture and has from its inception. the whole reason san francisco city lines are drawn the way they are is because people didn't want to be associated with the corruption in our city. as i'm sure those who know the city's history know, at one point, the entire board of supervisors was arrested and put in jail, along with the mayor. that was over corruptions taking bribes. the reason we have the 1932 charter is because of corruption. the reason we have ethics commission is because of corruption being addressed. i think if we say we are returning to an ethics culture, we are stating beyond the facts and what the public has come to

see about the city. i think we should say it's our goal and aim to establish a more fully ethical culture for san francisco. having said that, there are a number of points in this that i have outlined in e-mails with the executive director to explain my concerns and considerations. i would direct those too the attention of my fellow commissioners, which i will send separately to you. they are the basis for why i'm hesitate to endorse this as it is now. thank you. >> chair ambrose: any other comments from commissioners?

let's go to public comment. >> clerk: we are checking. if you just joined the meeting we are on agenda item number 8. if you have not done so, press star 3 to be added to the public comment queue. you'll have three minutes to provide public comment, six minutes if you're on with an interpreter. you will hear a bell at 30 seconds remaining. please stand by.

there are no callers in the queue. >> chair ambrose: public comment is closed. i'm hesitate to put this over again. it feels like we've already done that once at this meeting. i identify commissioner chiu's recommendations as more in the nature of the presentation of the existing material. with respect to commissioner bush's note, i could over a bottle of wine sit down and debate with you and my 35 years in city government the various times when ethical culture flourished and where and how and when it might have been dented. but if it's important to you, you can strike the word again

and then that sentence will be aspirational. i think there's -- first i want to second all of the good work of the staff. it is an impressive set of accomplishments for a very challenging year and yet we know there's so much more that needs to be done and we'll talk about that in the next agenda item, reflect upon the performance audit we got last year about this time and where we have been and where we're going. i actually want to move this draft forward with the deligation to the executive director to hear the comments and make improvements that can

reasonably be reflected, but for my own purposes, i would like to see if there's a motion to adopt it with the direction to the executive director to incorporate commissioner chiu's changes and commissioner bush's recommendations to the extent they can reasonably be affected. commissioner lee is seconding that motion. i don't know if there's further discussion on that or friendly amendments to my long motion. >> commissioner chiu: once the report has been advised, could we have an opportunity to review the revised version before it is

posted to the website? i'm not sure how that is done -- what the publication process is. if we could see the product before -- not necessarily to delay but simply have an opportunity to review it before it is given to the world. >> chair ambrose: yeah. i think that's perfectly reasonable. as anyone who has ever produced anything, the more editors, proofreaders the better. on the other hand, there's a point where have you to stop editing. but anyway, executive director pelham, did you want to speak to that? i don't see any reason why if we can turn around another draft before the agenda goes out for

the august meeting and make sure everybody gets a chance to see it and if there are some reason at that point for you to bring it back for further commission discussion, that would be an opportunity to do that. >> director pelham: thank you chair ambrose. i think what would be most helpful -- i appreciate and look forward to receiving commissioner chiu's feedback as well. i did forward to you just commissioner bush's mentioned feedback he provided. i shared that information with you all. you have that in your inboxes. i think what might be most helpful, to get a sense of direction from the commission. if you prefer to have this on agenda for action in august or prefer to just take a look at it and then assume we can finalize off line after having one last look on it.

just a clarity for planning purposes. >> chair ambrose: let me interject here. you just sent all the commissioners commissioner bush's comments and response, then you need to -- i don't know what we do remotely. put that up on the website. anything you share. andrew maybe you can help me, anything you share at the meeting with commissioners has to be something that all the public also has the benefit of seeing. we've already closed public comment on this item. so it's a little awkward. what do you think andrew? how do we make that available to everyone else? >> simply post it on the website and if somebody sees something, they can let us know.

>> chair ambrose: okay. great. >> commissioner bush: i would like to recommend posting it on the facebook page that ethics hasn't updated for several years now. it would be good to have today's agenda on the facebook page because we have hundreds of people who have said they are following us there. >> chair ambrose: that's a different topic and we can take up our outreach in general. but in terms of meeting the sunshine ordinance, whether it's -- the issue is meeting the sunshine ordinance, putting it on the web page is what we need to do. the other question about how we engage with the public on facebook or other social media is a whole other agenda item topic that should be taken up.

going back to your point director pelham, i was trying to make a motion to delegate to you the final authority what i'm hearing from commissioner bush and chiu, they want another look. i'll withdraw my motion and you can take it up on the august agenda. is that where we're going with this? that way i don't have to worry about the public seeing commissioner bush's comments. >> as an alternative, do you want to delegate commissioner bush and commissioner chiu to have one last look before it is posted? >> chair ambrose: if they

disagree, it kind of puts director pelham -- she either has the authority to finalize it based on what we have said here or has to bring it back. my motion is to delegate to the executive director to approve the final version with the comments we have received. but if you guys want to hear it again, then that's -- any other ideas about this? commissioner bush? do you -- i gather you are not ready to approve it in the form it's in. so, commissioner lee, i gather that you are ready to move forward and delegate the authority and i know that commissioner chiu, you want to

give your comments but you want to see it so that leaves commissioner bell. what are we going to do here? >> to clarify, i am fine delegating to executive director pelham to finalize. i just would like to see a final version before it gets posted. i don't feel the need to put it over to the august meeting. >> chair ambrose: okay. >> commissioner bush: i think the tone needs to be aspirational. we have come a long ways but we have a ways to go. we don't take note of the fact that we're getting credit for acting on behalf of behested payments but here we are in july and the board of supervisors has

yet to calendar a hearing on what we sent over there. so there are hiccups in the process that i think should be acknowledged if we're giving a report on the annual report. our annual report is, we did the job, and we're still waiting for the board of supervisors to get its job done. >> chair ambrose: we can send that message in a way to the board of supervisors with a letter of inquiry or something that is not going to be embedded in the annual report. i don't know if you recall, but last meeting when we had the draft, i asked you all if you had specific edits or recommendations for the looking forward section to be prepared to bring them forward and i tried to write an aspirational message in the final section.

so, yeah, i guess i'm acknowledging that there's a lot of information in there and how we bring it forward could use some improvement and sort of visual prop, but -- in terms of what i see a role of an annual report being, it's not -- anyway. i'm going to stop. the motion i made then i guess and commissioner lee seconded still stands with the caveat that before the executive director exercises her authority to finalize the document, she will circulate it to the

commission and that would have to be in a publicly available draft form so that if at that time there was a request to bring it back before the commission, that's something that could be considered or there are some other further improvement to be made. with that, i'm going to ask ronald to call the roll. i think the big substance we all want to get to is our performance audit and where we go from here in terms of action opposed to reporting. >> clerk: a motion has been made and seconded. i will call the roll. (roll call)

it is approved. >> chair ambrose: thank you for that. i'm going to call item 9 discussion and possible action on the staff report of status of implementation of recommendations of the august 2020 budget and legislative analyst report of the ethics commission. i'm going to turn it over to executive director pelham. thank you. >> director pelham: thank you. commissioners this is the item that provides a status report as of june 30th of the implementation so far regarding recommendations made in the performance audit issued last august by the budget and legislative analyst at the request of the board of supervisors. that audit was conducted february through august of last year. we have been reporting since the

issuance of the report in january this year on sort of the status of work at that point and now with this report on how things stood at the end of the fiscal year. on the report, you see there's a summary table to indicate where we were as of january of this calendar year and june 30th at the end of the fiscal year. at this point, as you recall, there were 16 recommendations in the performance report that we fully embraced and recognized all of those are strong foundations to continue to improve our impact as an organization and impact of our programs. and as of january earlier this year, we had 50% of the recommendations that were in progress or completed. 50% still in the planning stages. and only 13% had been completed

at that time. as the end of the year, as you see detailed on the chart, we have 37% of the recommendations completed and 37% in progress and only a quarter of them are in the planning stages. the report we have attached to this agenda item details each of the recommendations, each of the 16 recommendations that were included in the bla's report. it showed recorded in the audit. the due dates that they recommended and then the detailed information designed to

help us be accountable and for you to understand and the public to understand where we are in terms of implementing those recommendations. one of the things we're very aware of, we want to be as transparent as possible. we have identified key milestones as we have recorded them over the last six months and year as the recommendations were issued by the bla and the links to the specific report, you can see here an annual report or ethics training plan, a lobbying audit plan we have developed with our manager. so this is a summary of where we are. i'm happy to walk through any of the details with you. it's clear a number of the items are remaining in progress with either staffing we just hired this past few months, some other

work we'll be continuing once we have additional staffing expected to be onboarded this year once the city approves the budget we anticipate, leading to additional resources and so this is a work in progress. i think we wanted to be as clear as possible in the note section where things stood and what we accomplished in terms of specific deliverables to this point. there's a lot of information here. i'm happy to take the chair's direction as how to proceed. i'm happy to do whatever suits your interest at this point. >> chair ambrose: thank you for this. there's a lot of information, a lot of detail, a lot of work done and work to be done. and yes, getting the existing

staffing positions you have been able to achieve this year opens up the possibility for actually accomplishing all that the performance audit set out as necessary approvements. certainly if that budget is approved -- we won't know that until when? the fiscal year 2022 budget. >> director pelham: i think august. i know the board of supervisors goes on recess for the last part of august. before they recess. we should know next month. i believe. >> chair ambrose: okay. i think probably best to go

directly to commissioner comments and questions. so, commissioner chiu, you have your hand up. >> commissioner chiu: that was from the prior item. i'm just reviewing. i do want to say great progress in moving and converting those items from blue to yellow to green. i have one question relating to item 10. maybe in the nexen forcement investigation update, mr. pierce, maybe you and your team

could talk a little bit about what the goals are for completing investigations and interim milestones. like how are we measuring and what goals are we setting for ourselves to work through the backlog of cases and additional cases that come through. and how successful are we in achieving those goals. that would be very helpful. >> noted, thank you. >> chair ambrose: i'm going to have -- ronald, if you can see if there's any public comment on this item and then i'll wait to see if commissioner bush comes back. there you are. let's do public comment and then i'll come back to the

commissioners. >> clerk: we are checking. we are on agenda item 9. if you have not done so, please press star to be added to the public comment queue. you will have three minutes to provide public comment. you'll hear a bell when you have 30 seconds remaining. please stand by. >> commissioner chiu: if i may while we're waiting to see if

there are public commenters. director pelham with regard to staffing. i'm just curious on item number 4, it says ensure adequate staffing in the ethics commission. i can't recall what the recommendation was from the bla as to additional staff needed given the additional resources we have plus resources approved for the following, for the upcoming fiscal year, are we at or above the recommended staffing levels that came out in that report? >> director pelham: thank you for the question. the report at the time was based on the recommendations we made in the prior fiscal years budget. we required a position not funded last year. in short, the positions we just

filled this fiscal year bring us up to -- well, i think it's fair to say with the recommendations we are seeing potentially funded in the budget, we will have the adequate staffing to ensure. does that answer your question? >> commissioner chiu: yes, thank you. >> clerk: there are no caller in the queue. >> chair ambrose: thank you. public comment is closed. i wanted to suggest that the information contained in this chart, report, be apended into the annual report. i think it provides the -- not as expirations but certainly the

goals we are striving to accomplish and certainly a focal point or checklist for the work program for the year and it would fit in a report. so i don't know if anyone else sees that as something the public would appreciate. it's a much more detail-oriented focus on where we're at and where we think we're going. but with that -- go ahead. >> director pelham: we will make sure the link is live to the current report. if you are preferring an attachment, we can do that as well. i think you have a link to it but sounds like that is buried.

>> chair ambrose: it's an idea. i see a lot of hands. i'm going to go to commissioner bell and see what his thoughts are. >> commissioner bell: thank you chair ambrose. i have of course kind of set back as the newer person on this and respect the work that the staff has done in the annual report. as kind of the newest looking at it with outside eyes and not having the deep history i love hearing from commissioner bush when he educates us on what has been happening in san francisco. what isn't clear to me is the annual report supposed to be things that happened like in

june we did this and july we did that. or is it supposed to be more of a narrative about the ethics commission and what its intents are in terms of successes and failures. it reads to me like a -- i'm just commenting here. it reads to me more like what happened rather than a narrative that one in the public could grab on to. the charts in the audit, even though it is more detailed, looking at the charts you can immediately see progress in terms of things we're moving towards something. i just wanted to at that. it's not clear to me what the

purpose of the annual report is, because i'm not sure everybody understands. if it were a narrative, just something i put as something to think about for next year, it moot read a bit differently. so i just say all of that to support the notion of a chart that kind of shows what we have been doing and that kind of thing. >> chair ambrose: thank you for that. just so you know, historically, the limited history of the annual report has ut was just a list of accomplishments. then there was a break for five

years and then we were willed to do an annual report. this is a work in progress. this -- i do see in the recommendations, that the annual report would be better if it communicated goals and activities and outcomes and set metrics on performance. i think that this chart, which highlights actually on rkzs and is dissection of the things we have been striving to do, where we might be able to move forward

u.i appreciate it is a link and there are all the live links in the report, i actually think a visual going back to commissioner chiu and commissioner bush's point, if you pick it up -- some people would read it from core to cover but most people will just -- i think it presents the information in a way that is readily acceptable. commissioner bush, please. >> commissioner bush: i have to confess that my point of view is based on about three deckids of doing annual reports. sometimes for political office and sometimes for governmental officer. i understand the difference between the two.

in this case, it seems we're at a got governmental. the chair that director pelham created looking at the recommendations takes us in that direction. in that respect, one of the issues that is raised is our ability to close cases. the bla's review, they cited one

particular referral which we required by the charter to do sitting at the city attorney's office for 2.5 years, which is a long time to wait for something to come back. >> director pelham: if i might answer. thank you for the question commissioner bush. as you can see from recommendation 9. the bla recommended an annual case closure rate and goals of doing that, which we identified in the case closure plans. and to report on progress quarterly to the commission. based on that, our first report will be at the end of the first

quarter of this physical year. the referrals to the city's attorney or da office is something we would anticipate on a quarterly basis as recommended by the bla. >> commissioner bush: the other question i have, the charter requires city commissions to have a commission secretary. now that we're staffed up to 35 positions, up from 15 i believe it was when you came on board, director pelham, what are the plans for a commission secretary? >> we have not requested in our budget to date and i don't have that in the upcoming year. in my judgment, we have not been

able to achieve lacking the resources we have had has been a property in my view. whether the commission believes they need a commission secretary is something we can consider putting in a budget. i believe one of the functions that roll serves is done by program staff and executive director. >> commissioner bush: it's not up to the commission, it's not up to you, it's in the charter. it's not we would like to do it, it's we will do it. if we're going to hold people accountable for complying with the charter, we should start by doing it ourselves. i recall we brick it back to the commission, people are feeling they don't have direct as to to

the commission that a secretary is designed to do. i would ask that be concluded as we continue the update on staffing at the commission. thank you. >> chair ambrose: i don't know if there's any other comment from the commissioners. we don't need a motion to approve this. i think it's -- mostly we would leak to see this calendar regularly. particular i i would say after the budget goes through and you

know what your resources are going to be, recommending even with the new positions that are necessary, it will be months before you get the job amentment and another round of hiring but i think then you'll be in a better position to say how we might really be able to knock all of these things into the green category and setting new goals for the commission. this is a useful document. with that, i'm going to close this agenda item and move on to item number 10. >> sorry for interrupting chair ambrose. commissioner chiu and bell, did you have anything further you wanted to bring up. i notice that your hands are

raised. okay. >> chair ambrose: thank you. i made that assumption but thank you for checking. >> clerk: just in case. >> chair ambrose: discussion of the report since the last meeting. dr.er pelham. >> director pelham: this just gives highlights. the deputy director gaythri thaikkendiyil did appear before the board of superviors budget committee and presented the commission's budget and notice the full enforcement -- there

have been in changes in rnlgszs to our budget. if it moves forward as an tase peated, we should have a buzz of roughly 6.5 pillen. we're looking forward to getting the work mrshed. and ut has an ut date on the appointment ordinances. i know this has been ongoing, pending before the board of supervisors for some months. there's been no action to date. we know the budget season has consumed much of the board's attention but we are -- once the board vee sessions in august, it seems unlikely they would continue to take up tims

between now and then. we will be in communication with members of the board to seek the rules committee chaired by supervisor peskin to take up that issue as soon as possible this fall. yesterday afternoon i had an update from starve. the public portal we used to access the information and evaluate the information that's there. i reported last month we were integrating the new disclosure tool, api i believe is the lock word for it to have our data

updated and it has been updated. it's not something written in the report but reconfirmed yesterday that provides information for the public to have new ways to review lobbyist directories, disclose activities, all electronic registration since 2010. this provides a robust way for the public to access and review. one other note on hiring, we do have the two positions that were vacated this spring, they have moved into the an date application review face.

those positions are moving on expedited hiring practical. beo if the .2 last notes. commissioner bush asked for an update on the redistricting commission. we have looked at that. we know there were a number of city provisions that apply to individuals appointed to the commission working internally to put together information for the website that helps the public understand what the rules are that apply to the redistricting commission as city officials filing form 700s with the work

of the clerk's board overs. we can probably have that next month. we did not have further information to report on the racial equity plan. in terms of horted work, i hope to have that for you. and there's a lot of information i lifrnged from this report about the city's reopening. there's been a number of developments related to the city's ability to move forward with greater physical presence. i've attached those policies here. they are policies and developments we will be working to put together. part of this will look at how we manage in a post covid environment with our work in

terms of it is a hybrid online remote i think we're looking forward to applying the lessons we learned about how we with get working with each other and commission meetings for the past months and we look forked to keep the lessons in focus. i understand there may be develop to start physically and ascy rear r rear. but the mayor is having her first reunion of department heads next wednesday. we'll get more updates from the

this will be a significant part of our focus to make sure we do it quickly. i appreciate your patience and happy to answer any questions. >> chair ambrose: so the board is on recess until august and the mayor is not going to make recommendations about the emergency declaration and how to handle public hearings until september, is that correct? >> director pelham: i don't know if that the case or something issued in preparation of new changed use of city hall space. we haven't seen that yet. we know their office is working, spending a lot of time working to provide that guidance.

last we heard, it was roughly around september that boards and commissions would start meeting in physical spaces again in city hall. that's all i know at this point. >> chair ambrose: thank you for that. commissioner bush. >> commissioner bush: i would like to suggest a survey of staff for how many are receiving a bonus for foreign language facility and if they're not receiving a bonus, what are the language capacities at the commission so we can take note of that to do our outreach. thank you. >> chair ambrose: commissioner

chiu. >> commissioner chiu: thank you chair ambrose. i would like to associate myself with commissioner bush's observations and comments on that. i think that's really important information to know. i have one question. with regard to it stalling at the board of supervisors, do i take that it is unlikely it will be heard at the rules committee prior to the recess? >> director pelham: that is my estimate. pat ford is here if he has further information. last i heard we don't anticipate movement. >> yeah. thank you director pelham. through the chair, i did hear from supervisor haney's office today, they have requested that

supervisor peskin who chairs it will do that july 19th. we haven't gotten confirmation yet but that is what they requested. i'll keep you posted. >> commissioner chiu: please do and let me know if we as commissioners could be of any assistance in encouraging the rules committee hear this item as -- as commissioner bush pointed out, this was sent to them last year i believe. was it december of 2020? and if it's not taken up until september -- was it november? yeah. so this is -- to commissioner bell's point, what is the

narrative. people can interpret data and if it's not -- things get focused on and if it's not focused or acted upon and it's been sitting there for them to move forward, i think it says a lot about their priorities. so anything we can do to help expedite the process at the rules committee, please let us know. and then on the city reopening piece, i hope that the city will provide flexibility to departments to be able to adjust to the new reality. because i think just focusing on the ethics commission, 16 months of this pandemic has been about pivoting and adapting and demonstrating tremendous flexibility to be able to do the tremendous work that is captured

in the annual report. and when -- i hope it's not going to be a mandate. you must go back by date certain. i think there's a lot of learnings that will have come out of this pandemic experience i think it will be important to create a new kind of normal. i don't think it will go back to the way it was pre-pandemic. we have come through so much together. please let us know if there's anything we can do to help. (please stand by...) .

>> : to really make san

francisco government transparent and accountable and to catalyze and neuter and grow and mindset and culture here. which given the back drop of what we've been operating against is needed now more than ever. in these extraordinary moments, we have this extraordinary opportunity to meet this moment and make our mark. i would just ask director pellum and the higher ethics director team to look ahead an remember the work. what we're here for and as we navigate our way together and take the great things we learned

through the pandemic about collaboration and working together and without face-to-face, all of that creativity and collaboration that we demonstrated and perfected over time empower that with in person brainstorming and having coffee and eating doughnuts together. and how do we bring that together into a new normal. i, for one, believe that this change is going to knock it out of the ballpark. we can do great things, better things. it might not look like before and maybe it shouldn't look like

before. we can really shape this timely and critical mission. the board and people of san francisco are all counting on us and can't wait to see the amazing result. >> : yeah. keep us posted director so we know what's happening next after you have your mayor's department head meeting. with that i'm going to go ahead and call agenda item 11 which is discussion and. >> : did you want to do public comment on this item. >> : i did do public comment before this discussion, didn't i. someone who is taking notes

please check on that. >> : i am taking notes. i don't see that public comment was taken. >> : sorry. can you please let us know if there are any callers for item ten.

there are no callers in the queue. >> : thank you for that. public comment for item ten is closed. i'm going to call number eleven. does any member of the public intend to offer public comment. they should call in and dial star three now. membersis there anything you would like to have calendared for future meetings. >> : thank you. i would like to put on the agenda a mid year presentation by the director on the racial equity plan.

>> : okay. i think the executive director said that she was planning on doing that in october. i don't know if that's because that's when there's a review with the city's department of human resources work program. in any event, i will let you speak to that. >> : we have been plan to go have our first quarterly report for the fiscal year on the status of the implementation of our racial equity action plan after the first quarter. the commission would like more information sooner, it's likely to say we're working on a variety of things but we don't have a lot to describe in detail yet. if we can have something to report back to you on after the

first quarter and regularize that that would be most useful and productive. want to hear from the commission direction as to how you would like to proceed. >> : all right. >> : madam chair, if i may, the reason i wanted to have a discussion or get a published report next month is as wre we aregetting ready to hire more workers with the new budget and as the ethics works program is going to get into gear, it would be helpful for us to really look at the plan and see where we can really address some of the issues such as how we're going to reach out to some of the under served communities, not

under served but communities who have not been traditionally familiar with the commission. so i don't want to wait for a few months. i do want to look at where we are at so that we can address some of the potential pit falls we may have. it doesn't have to be a thorough presentation but just an update of where we are and we can move from there. >> : okay. thank you for that. commissioner bush. >> : thank you. yes. i think commissioner lee is exactly correct. i think the timing of doing it

in july also works well as the new school year gets started. some of these schools do take an opportunity to do their community participation in government. one of the things i think that needs to be clear to people is that participation translates into action in their communities. it's one of the reasons we have a deficit in some parts of the city, at the same time we have a deficit of participation in the city. they go together. i would like to add for an agenda item general public out reach not simply on equity issues including the use of social media and the purposes of commission secretary as part of our out reach and participation.

as part of that i would hope that the staff would bear a report for us on actual levels of human participation either in our commission meetings, they've called in or by submitting written comments which i've never seen on our commission calendar, or participating in ip meetings. any measure that they have that shows that we have engaged the public more directly. i think that they can break that down into under served communities versus assisted parties who have a professional reason to be present would be useful as part of an out reach to see where we are and where we need to go.

thank you. >> : thank you. any further recommendations for future action? seeing none. i'm going to call for public comment. mr. moderator could you please read the instructions. >> : we are checking to see if there are callers in the queue. please wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted. please stand by.

madam chair, we have no callers in the queue. >> : all right. public comment on agenda item 11 is closed. due to our goals we're going to ask if there are any public comment for commission by laws section two agenda item 12. could you please read the instructions and see if there are any commenters in the queue. >> : madam chair, we are checking to see if there are callers in the queue. we are currently on the public discussion on item number 12. matters appearing or not appearing on the agenda. if you have not already done so

please press star three to be added to the public comment queue. will you have three minutes for public comment. six minutes if you are on the line with an interpreter. you will hear a bell go off when thirty seconds is remaining. please stand by. as a friendly reminder to members of public. public comment may also be submitted in writing and will be included as part of the official meeting file. written comments should be sent to ethics dot commission at sfgov dot org. madam chair, we have no callers in the queue. >> : thank you for that public comment is close haded on agenda

item number 12. item 13 which is adjournment. i want to thank you all for participating today. we've decided we don't need a motion to adjourn. i'm just gavel down. you all have a wonderful month of july. take care. >> : thank you, everyone. >> : have a great weekend. >> : take care.

>> i try to start every day not looking at my phone by doing something that is grounding. that is usually meditation. i have a gym set up in my garage, and that is usually breathing and movement and putting my mind towards something else. surfing is my absolute favorite thing to do. it is the most cleansing thing that i'm able to do. i live near the beach, so whenever i can get out, i do. unfortunately, surfing isn't a daily practice for me, but i've been able to get out weekly, and it's something that i've

been incredibly grateful for. [♪♪♪] >> i started working for the city in 2005. at the time, my kids were pretty young but i think had started school. i was offered a temporarily position as an analyst to work on some of the programs that were funded through homeland security. i ultimately spent almost five years at the health department coordinating emergency programs. it was something that i really enjoyed and turned out i was pretty good at. thinking about glass ceiling, some of that is really related to being a mother and self-supposed in some ways that i did not feel that i could allow myself to pursue responsibility; that i accepted treading water in my career

when my kids were young. and as they got older, i felt more comfortable, i suppose, moving forward. in my career, i have been asked to step forward. i wish that i had earlier stepped forward myself, and i feel really strongly, like i am 100% the right person for this job. i cannot imagine a harder time to be in this role. i'm humbled and privileged but also very confident. so here at moscone center, this is the covid command center, or the c.c.c. here is what we calledun -- call unified command. this is where we have physically been since march, and then, in july, we developed this unified structure. so it's the department of emergency management, the department of public health, and our human services

hughesing partners, so primarily the department of homelessness and supportive housing and human services agency. so it's sort of a three-headed command in which we are coordinating and operating everything related to covid response. and now, of course, in this final phase, it's mass vaccination. the first year was before the pandemic was extremely busy. the fires, obviously, that both we were able to provide mutual support but also the impact of air quality. we had, in 2018, the worst air quality ten or 11 days here in the city. i'm sure you all remember it, and then, finally, the day the sun didn't come out in san francisco, which was in october. the orange skies, it felt

apocalyptic, super scary for people. you know, all of those things, people depend on government to say what's happening. are we safe? what do i do? and that's a lot of what department of emergency management's role is. public service is truly that. it is such an incredible and effective way that we can make change for the most vulnerable. i spend a lot of my day in problem solving mode, so there's a lot of conversations with people making connections, identifying gaps in resources or whatever it might be, and trying to adjust that. the pace of the pandemic has been nonstop for 11 months. it is unrelenting, long days, more than what we're used to, most of us. honestly, i'm not sure how we're getting through it.

this is beyond what any of us ever expected to experience in our lifetime. what we discover is how strong we are, and really, the depth of our resilience, and i say that for every single city employee that has been working around the clock for the last 11 months, and i also speak about myself. every day, i have to sort of have that moment of, like, okay, i'm really tired, i'm weary, but we've got to keep going. it is, i would say, the biggest challenge that i have had personally and professionally to be the best mom that i can be but also the best public certify chant in whatever role i'm in. i just wish that i, as my younger self, could have had someone tell me you can give it and to give a little more

nudge. so indirectly, people have helped me because they have seen something in me that i did not see in myself. there's clear data that women have lost their jobs and their income because they had to take care of their safety nets. all of those things that we depend on, schools and daycare and sharing, you know, being together with other kids isn't available. i've often thought oh, if my kids were younger, i couldn't do this job, but that's unacceptable. a person that's younger than me that has three children, we want them in leadership positions, so it shouldn't be limiting. women need to assume that they're more capable than they think they are. men will go for a job whether they're qualified or not. we tend to want to be 110% qualified before we tend to

step forward. i think we need to be a little more brave, a little more exploratory in stepping up for positions. the other thing is, when given an opportunity, really think twice before you put in front of you the reasons why you should not take that leadership position. we all need to step up so that we can show the person behind us that it's doable and so that we have the power to make the changes for other women that is going to make the possibility for their paths easier than ours. other women see me in it, and i hope that they see me, and they understand, like, if i can do it, they can do it because the higher you get, the more leadership you have, and power.

the more power and leadership we have that we can put out >> by the time the last show came, i was like whoa, whoa, whoa. i came in kicking and screaming and left out dancing. [♪♪♪] >> hello, friends. i'm the deputy superintendent of instruction at san francisco unified school district, but you can call me miss vickie. what you see over the next hour has been created and planned by our san francisco teachers for

our students. >> our premise came about for san francisco families that didn't have access to technology, and that's primarily children preschool to second grade. >> when we started doing this distance learning, everything was geared for third grade and up, and we work with the little once, and it's like how were they still processing the information? how were they supposed to keep learning? >> i thought about reaching the student who didn't have internet, who didn't have computers, and i wanted them to be able to see me on the t.v. and at least get some connection with my kids that way. >> thank you, friends. see you next time. >> hi, friend. >> today's tuesday, april 28, 2020.

it's me, teacher sharon, and i'm back again. >> i got an e-mail saying that i had an opportunity to be on a show. i'm, like, what? >> i actually got an e-mail from the early education department, saying they were saying of doing a t.v. show, and i was selected to be one of the people on it, if i was interested. i was scared, nervous. i don't like public speaking and all the above. but it worked out. >> talk into a camera, waiting for a response, pretending that oh, yeah, i hear you, it's so very weird. i'm used to having a classroom with 17 students sitting in front of me, where they're all

moving around and having to have them, like, oh, sit down, oh, can you hear them? let's listen. >> hi guys. >> i kind of have stage flight when i'm on t.v. because i'm normally quiet? >> she's never quiet. >> no, i'm not quiet. >> my sister was, like, i saw you on t.v. my teacher was, i saw you on youtube. it was exciting, how the community started watching. >> it was a lot of fun. it also pushed me outside of my comfort zone, having to make my own visuals and lesson plans so quickly that ended up being a lot of fun. >> i want to end today with a thank you. thank you for spending time

with us. it was a great pleasure, and see you all in the fall. >> i'm so happy to see you today. today is the last day of the school year, yea! >> it really helped me in my teaching. i'm excited to go back teaching my kids, yeah. >> we received a lot of amazing feedback from kiddos, who have seen their own personal teacher on television. >> when we would watch as a family, my younger son, kai, especially during the filipino episodes, like, wow, like, i'm proud to be a filipino. >> being able to connect with someone they know on television has been really, really powerful for them. and as a mom, i can tell you that's so important.

the social confidence development of our early learners. [♪♪♪] >> 7 and a half million renovation is part of the clean and safe neighbor's park fund which was on the ballot four years ago and look at how that public investment has transformed our neighborhood. >> the playground is unique in that it serves a number of age

groups, unlike many of the other properties, it serves small children with the children's play grounds and clubhouses that has basketball courts, it has an outdoor soccer field and so there were a lot of people that came to the table that had their wish list and we did our best to make sure that we kind of divided up spaces and made sure that we kept the old features of the playground but we were able to enhance all of those features. >> the playground and the soccer field and the tennis fields and it is such a key part of this neighborhood.

>> we want kids to be here. we want families to be here and we want people to have athletic opportunities. >> we are given a real responsibility to insure that the public's money is used appropriately and that something really special comes of these projects. we generally have about an opportunity every 50 years to redo these spaces. and it is really, really rewarding to see children and families benefit, you know, from the change of culture, at each one of these properties >> and as a result of, what you see behind us, more kids are playing on our soccer fields than ever before. we have more girls playing sports than we have ever had before. [ applause ] fp >> and we are sending a strong message that san francisco families are welcome and we want you to stay.

>> this park is open. ♪♪ >> my son and i was living in my car. we was in and out of shelters in san francisco for almost about 3.5 years. i would take my son to school. we would use a public rest room just for him to brush his teeth and do a quick little wipe-off so it seemed he could take a

shower every day. it was a very stressful time that i wish for no one. my name is mario, and i have lived in san francisco for almost 42 years. born here in hayes valley. i applied for the san francisco affordable housing lottery three times. my son and i were having to have a great -- happened to have a great lottery number because of the neighborhood preference. i moved into my home in 2014. the neighborhood preference goal was what really allowed me to stay in san francisco. my favorite thing is the view. on a clear day, i'm able to see

city hall, and on a really clear day, i can see salesforce tower. we just have a wonderful neighborhood that we enjoy living in. being back in the neighborhood that i grew up in, it's a wonderful, wonderful experience. now, we can hopefully reach our goals, not only single mothers, but single fathers, as well, who are living that. live your dream, live your san francisco is surrounded on three sides by water, the fire boat station is intergal to maritime rescue and preparedness, not only for san francisco, but for all of the bay area. [sirens] >> fire station 35 was

built in 1915. so it is over 100 years old. and helped it, we're going to build fire boat station 35. >> so the finished capital planning committee, i think about three years ago, issued a guidance that all city facilities must exist on sea level rise. >> the station 35, construction cost is approximately $30 million. and the schedule was complicated because of what you call a float. it is being fabricated in china, and will be brought to treasure island, where the building site efficient will be constructed on top of it, and then brought to pier 22 and a half for installation. >> we're looking at late 2020 for final completion of the fire boat float.

the historic firehouse will remain on the embarcadero, and we will still respond out of the historic firehouse with our fire engine, and respond to medical calls and other incidences in the district. >> this totally has to incorporate between three to six feet of sea level rise over the next 100 years. that's what the city's guidance is requiring. it is built on the float, that can move up and down as the water level rises, and sits on four fixed guide piles. so if the seas go up, it can move up and down with that. >> it does have a full range of travel, from low tide to high tide of about 16 feet. so that allows for current tidal movements and sea lisle rises in the coming decades. >> the fire boat station

float will also incorporate a ramp for ambulance deployment and access. >> the access ramp is rigidly connected to the land side, with more of a pivot or hinge connection, and then it is sliding over the top of the float. in that way the ramp can flex up and down like a hinge, and also allow for a slight few inches of lateral motion of the float. both the access ramps, which there is two, and the utility's only flexible connection connecting from the float to the back of the building. so electrical power, water, sewage, it all has flexible connection to the boat. >> high boat station number 35 will provide mooring for three fire boats and one rescue boat. >> currently we're staffed with seven members per day, but the fire department would like to establish a new dedicated

marine unit that would be able to respond to multiple incidences. looking into the future, we have not only at&t park, where we have a lot of kayakers, but we have a lot of developments in the southeast side, including the stadium, and we want to have the ability to respond to any marine or maritime incident along these new developments. >> there are very few designs for people sleeping on the water. we're looking at cruiseships, which are larger structures, several times the size of harbor station 35, but they're the only good reference point. we look to the cruiseship industry who has kind of an index for how much acceleration they were accommodate. >> it is very unique. i don't know that any other fire station built on the water is in the

united states. >> the fire boat is a regional asset that can be used for water rescue, but we also do environmental cleanup. we have special rigging that we carry that will contain oil spills until an environmental unit can come out. this is a job for us, but it is also a way of life and a lifestyle. we're proud to serve our community. and we're willing to help people in any way we can.

>> chairman: good morning. welcome to the thursday, july 8, meeting of the public safety & neighborhood services committee. i'm supervisor gordon mar, and i'm joined by supervisor stefani. matt haney is unable to join us today, so he will be excused. and we have a -- we received a presidential

action memo welcoming supervisor safai as a substitute for supervisor haney. >> thank you. >> chairman: i would like to thank john carroll carol and sfgovtv for staffing this meeting. mr. clerk, do you any announcements? >> clerk: the committee members who have participated in this video conference to the extent as if they are physically present. public access to city services is essential. first, public comment will be available on each item on today's agenda on cable channel 26, 78, or 79. we'll be screening the call-in number across the screen at this time. each public caller will be allowed two minutes to speak. your comments and opportunities to speak are available to you by phone

by calling 415-655-0001, i.d. number is 1462835668. following that, press the pound symbol twice. when you are connected, you will hear the meeting discussions, but you'll be muted and your phone will be in listening mode only. when your item of interest comes up, dial star, followed by three to be added to the speaker line. of best practices are to call from a al-qaeda quiet location, and to speak clearly and slowly, and turn down your streaming device two hear today's broadcast. you may submit public comment by e-mailing them, and my e-mail address is

john.carroll@sfgov.org. and our office is city hall, 1 carlton "b" goodlet place, san francisco, california, 94102. of course, any documents that you send to me commenting on any of today's files will be added to the file and will be transmitted to the members of the committee for their consideration. and items acted upon today are expected to appear on the board of supervisors' agenda of july 20th, 2021, unless otherwise stated. >> chairman: thank you, mr. clerk. >> chairman: actually, i wanted to remind all of the attendees here to keep your cameras off until we get to your item. we would appreciate that. please call item 1. >> clerk: agenda item 1 is a hearing to consider that the transfer of a

type 21 off-sale general beer, wine, and distilled liquor license (indiscernable) located at 1600 jackson, will serve the public convenience for the necessity of the city and account. members of the public who wish to provide public comment, call 415-655-0001, i.d. 1462835668, and press the pound symbol twice and then *3 to enter the queue to speak. please wait until the system indicates that you're line has been unmuted, and that will provide you your time to begin your comments. mr. chair? >> chairman: thank you, mr. clerk. so, first we're going to hear from the s.f.p.d. liaison units. we have officer salmonson here to present the report. >> good morning. okay.

albi co inc has applied for a 21 license, and it would allow them to operate off-sale. we have zero letters of protest. zero letters of support. they are elected in plot 28, considered high crime, and considered high saturation. the northern station has no opposition, and the license is approved with the following condition: that the petitioner will actively monitor the area under their control in an effort to prevent the loitering on their premises (indiscernable) and as of february 5th, they had agreed to the condition. conditions. >> chairman: thank you, officer salmonson. why don't we go to the applicant. i believe we have a representative from the applicant here who would like to present.

hi, mr. cafalin. >> thank you, supervisor mar. can you hear me? >> yes. >> john cafalin here on behalf of molly stones. it is a locally owned and operated grocery, and also i should mention the majority of its employees are union members. the p.c.n. request is related to molly stone's improvement and ultimate operation of a new full grocery store at 1600 jackson street. the request is for an off-sale liquor license, standard for all grocery stores in the city. the liquor license meets the public accessibility and convenience. it will be the only full grocery store with a liquor license in this track. there are other liquor licenses, but not at a full grocery store. so obviously meeting folks' convenience, for

one-stop shopping, for a variety of items, including alcohol. we have a member of molly stone's here, if there are any questions of molly stone's, and thank you for your consideration. >> chairman: thank you, mr. cafalin. colleagues, do you have any questions or comments? why don't we go to public comment. mr. clerk, are there any callers on the line? >> clerk: thank you, mr. chair. we're working with kaleena who is checking to see if we have any callers in the queue. for those who are watching our meeting on cable channel 26or elsewhere, if you wish to speak on this hearing item, please call in now, by following the instructions displaying on your screen. dial 415-655-0001 and enter meeting i.d. 1462835668, and press the

pound symbol twice and *3 to enter the queue to speak. for those already connected to our phone -- sorry, by those already connected, please press *3 if you wish to speak on this item. do we have any callers in the queue for this item? >> there are no callers in the queue. >> clerk: thank you. >> chairman: kimberly hunt. thank you, ms. mendoza. the public comment is closed. i will just say that it is really good to see this project finally moving forward in an independent, locally-owned and union grocery, moving into the former lombardi sports site on jackson street. and this liquor license transfer seems fairly straightforward. i understand that supervisor peskin is supportive of this license transfer. so given that, i would like to make a motion directing the clerk to prepare a resolution determining that this license will serve the

public convenience and necessity, and we send this resolution to the full board with positive recommendation. mr. clerk, can you please call roll. >> clerk: i can. just one quick question, mr. chair, before we take a roll call on this item. with supervisor haney absent from this meeting, can we get a quick motion to excuse supervisor haney. >> chairman: thank you for that reminder. i move. [roll call taken] >> clerk: mr. chair, supervisor haney is excused. now on your motion that a resolution be prepared and recommended to the board of supervisors who makes a determination that the transfer will serve the

public convenience or necessity? [roll call taken] >> clerk: mr. chair, there are three ayes. >> chairman: thank you. and thank you, again, officer salmonson, and mr. cafalin. mr. clerk, can you please call item 2. >> clerk: item 2is an ordinance amending the health code to first lower the threshold from $250,000 to $100,000 square feet (indiscernable) using specific alternate watering sources. second, exempt certain affordable housing projects and property uses from that requirement. third, require that certain categories of ni buildings use specific sources of non-portable water for specific purposes. fourth, modify certain

fees. fifth, prepare the payment of excess use charges and penalties for failing you're to use alternate water systems. [inaudible] >> clerk: mr. chair, due to a noticing error on my part, this ordinance is not actually eligible for a hearing today. the public safety & neighborhood services committee today may entertain a motion to continue this hearing either to the call of the chair or to a future later date, at which this ordinance item will appear and have been properly noticed so we can properly conduct the discussions. we can't have any substantive discussion about the form of this ordinance at today's meeting. i'm very sorry, mr. chair.

members of the public who wish to provide public comment on this will be restricted to only for the proposition to continue this to a later date. if they want to provide that public comment they can do so by dialing 415-655-0001. they should do that now. mr. chair? >> chairman: thank you, mr. clerk. so, colleagues, due to the -- ak explained, due to the oversight on noticing for this hearing, we're going to have to continue it to a future date, probably the next meeting. why don't we go to public comment on the motion to continue. >> clerk: thank you,

mr. chair. ms. mendoza, on the tech side, could you let us know if we have any callers in the queue who want to provide public comment specifically on continuing this ordinance? >> there are no callers in the queue. >> clerk: mr. chair, there are no callers. >> chairman: great. thank you. public comment is closed. so, colleagues, i would like to move that we continue this item for the call of the chair. >> clerk: hang on. we have a little bit of chatter coming from a line that i'm going to mute. hearing a motion offered by chair mar that this be continued to the call of the chair. [roll call taken] >> clerk: mr. chair, there are three ayes in the continuance. >> chairman: thank you, mr. clerk. can you please call the

next item? >> clerk: item 3 is an ordinance amending the health code to designate all certified and accredited paramedics to issue temporary psychiatric holds, subject to state law, procedures, and requirements, adopted by the county be behavioral department. (indiscernable) and that the paramedics receive all appropriate training. members of the public who wish to provide public comment, call 415-655-0001, i.d. number 146, 283, 15668. press the pound symbol twice to connect to the meeting, and press *3 to raise your hand to speak. >> chairman: thank you, supervisor safai for bringing this important legislation forward.

supervisor safai, the floor is yours. >> thank you, chair mar. supervisor stef is stefani, i'm happy to join you on this important topic. as you all know, we as leaders are involved in how we're re-imagining how policing and response for certain calls for service are being dealt with in our communities. in may of last year, you know, the mayor announced priorities to end police violence in our communities, along with a growing national movement of black lives matter that was really asking for a strong so many different ways to reimagine how we police our communities. and one of the responses in our city was the creation of the street crisis response team in november 2020. this was an outgrowth of our reforming how we're also specifically dealing

with mental health crisis. and those in our city that need responses from public health officials -- public health-trained officials on our streets. and many of the calls for service that the police respond to are people with mental health issues, are people that are dealing with psychiatric issues on our streets. and for us, it makes sense that those -- that the responders would be mental health-trained professionals. by april of 2021, the street crisis response team has responded to more than 700 calls for service, with an average response time of 15 minutes or less. the street crisis response team diverted about almost 20% of all mentally-disturbed persons calls from dispatch, demonstrating that our f.c. r.t. can be a clear alternative to law enforcement. 37% of the calls resulted

in clients being transported to the hospital or a social or behavioral provider. our firefighters specifically are e.m.t.s and paramedics within the fire department are usually the first on the scene when dealing with behavioral health issues, and it should be that way. they are public health trained officials. however, these same paramedics do not have the authority to initiate a mental health hold or a 5150hold, as a means of supporting individuals who are experiencing mental health crease sees that crisis a harm to themselves or others. this is a tool in our city, that has been solely reserved for our police force. in may, the mayor announced to create a

street wellness team to add on to the street crisis response team, to expand services for those in need, and expand the amount of individuals from our paramedics, firefighters, and others, and non-profit-trained individuals that would be responding to wellness calls. the teamworks in coordination with the street crisis response team, and is fully trained in how to deal with people that need help. these groups will focus on wellness checks and situations that require immediate attention, and currently the firefighter community, paramedics perform medical, behavioral, and social needs assessment, but do not have the ability to initiate 5150s when someone is in real crisis. so we believe that allowing the fire department, paramedics, and e.m.t.s to have this ability helps to introduce

an additional tool in the tool kit of the street crisis, the wellness, the paramedics that are out there, and the response team, so that they can provide compassionate and skilled health service to our communities and individuals on the street that are in need. i want to thank the leadership of chief nichols and her team from the san francisco fire department. i want to thank sean bauford and their team from local firefighters, local 798, along with the department of public health, dr. coones and her team, that supports the operation of each of the departments and that we believe will deliver the best service to our community and those in crisis. i want to thank each and every one of them for their response to our office, their engagement, along with our city attorneys that helped us draft this, and we believe that this is the right legislation and the right

direction to go in. today we're joined by individuals from the firefighters' local 798, from the fire department, deputy chief pang and team, and the department of public health. and we would like them to share their experience and expertise as first responders in these situations. so if it is okay with you, chair, i'm going to first call up adrian sims from local 798, and maybe she can briefly explain some of the experiences of her members outaouais on the out ons in responding to crisis, and why we believe this is an important tool to add to the tool kit for your paramedics. and then we'll call up department chief pang. is ms. sims on the line? >> i do not see adrienne

sims on the line, but we have a caller, and i haven't identified who that person is. >> why don't we go to -- i saw chief deputy simon pang. i'd like to welcome you, along with it looks like chief sandy tong from the fire department. if you can share your experiences and your expertise on how you think this will help to roll this out in our community, and then we'll see if adrienne is on the line after you share. thank you for your partnership and hip on this. >> thank you very much, supervisor safai. good morning, chair mar and vice chair stefani. currently law enforcement is the primary workforce charged with placing individuals on 5150 holds in our city. to reduce or eliminate the

need for law enforcement to do that, the fire department would like to train and authorize community paramedics and field rescue captains to assess and place these holds. for a bit of background, according to the august 17th -- >> hello? >> -- housing conservatorship report, the san francisco police department placed 3,053, 5150s, in the length of one year. although the ability to write an involuntary mental health hold sa tool that the law enforcement should maintain, they should not be able to evaluate them for the following reasons. the presence of law enforcement creates the image that someone with

mental illness has broken the law. and people with the history of mental illness can be triggered by the presence of law enforcement and by being detained by law enforcement. so our solution is to provide community paramedics. the community paramedic programs promote health and social equity among those with unmet mental health and social needs. by january 2022, there will be 26 community paramedics in service every day. rescue captains provide clinical supervision. there are four rescue captains in service at all times in our city. fire department personnel are the appropriate workforce for this because we are licensed health

care providers, uniformed public safety personnel. we're accustomed to working in emergency situations. we have the trust of the public. we work 24 hours, seven days a week, weekends and holidays. the street crisis response team has been doing very, very good work and will be still the go-to team for is someone having a behavioral crisis in open spaces. but the street crisis response team is currently -- we teams in service, and i believe we are getting funding for a seventh unit in this new budget. the street crisis response team just does not have the capacity to assume all the 3,000 plus 5150s that the san francisco police department do annually. by having the community paramedics and rescue captains at the fire

department do 5150s, it will provide us an opportunity to standardize the tracking of 5150s and provide continuous quality improvement for all of the 5150s that we place. we plan a continuous quality improvement program that will review 100% of the 5150s placed during the first year. part of this review will be determined if the hold is appropriate, review the documentation standards, track demographic data of those placed on a hold, and also to track outcomes. so i have a few examples of when and how we would use this, but i also just want to reiterate what we expect to do. this is, first of all, an alternative to law enforcement. this is replacements. we don't anticipate having more 5150s pleased simply because we are doing them. someone either meets the criteria for an involuntary hold or they don't, and we plan on

doing this in lieu of law enforcement. in fact, i do expect is that the number of 5150s will likely decrease annually. the reason for this is because the community paramedics have a deep understanding of all other resources the city has available. and it might be that we can find a setting or a placement or a program that someone can go to in lieu of putting them on the 5150. we also have medical records available in realtime, and we can make a determination if someone, indeed, has a history of mental illness, and an involuntary mental health hold is someone who is a risk to themselves or■ç others or are greatly disabled, but only as a primary result of mental illness. and we can make that determination, rather than putting someone on a hold is simply under the substances. and there are two other

jurisdictions that have place holds, one in santa barbara, and one in sant in san matteo, and both have a decrease. this is not only for people experiencing homelessness. an example would be an early morning call, 2:00 a.m., a 911 medical call for an elderly woman in a house. the first responders, the ambulance, and the fire engine and paramedics, assess the patient and determine if the patient is lonely and depressed and is stating that she wants to kill herself. and she has an actionable plan of overdosing on her prescription medication. currently we would have to call police to that scene, which adds further stigma to this person experiencing a mental health crisis. it would be far better if we would be able to call a rescue captain on e.m.s. 6 to place that hold.

and another example is something we're all acquainted with, someone who is experiencing homelessness on market street, and they're not wearing a shirt, and their pants are around their ankles, and we make a determination that this person is gravely disabled. this the opportunity to put e.m.s. 6 to use. this happened today's ago. a street crisis response team was asked to come by an ambulance, all crews were on assignment, there was no one to come, and the ambulance had to ask for police to respond. this is an example that, although doing great work, they just don't have the capacity to tackle all of the occasions of placing someone on an involuntary mental health hold in our city. that's all i've prepared for you. i'm happy to answer any questions. >> chairman: thank you,

chief pang. thank you, again, for your partnership. i'm happy you emphasize that other locals have done that. i was going to say a little bit about that in my closing remarks. initially we believed that this would be unique san francisco, but there are other locales in california. we understand that san ramone, santa barbara, san matteo, and nationally -- and i'm sure there are other places, is part of a larger movement of shifting response to people with mental health crisis away from solely being a policing function and more of a public health function. so i appreciate you giving us those examples in weighing that out. i think right now we'll go to the next responder -- excuse me -- responder

(laughing) -- and we'll come back and ask you some questions if we have them. i appreciate your response. mr. clerk, the caller is adrienne sims, and if you can unmute her and give her an opportunity to say a few words. >> clerk: the line is unmuted. >> chairman: okay. adrienne are you there? >> yes. can you hear me? >> chairman: yes. >> good morning, and thank you, again, supervisor safai. i am glad that chief pang spoke first. he is very thorough and correct in everything that he just said. and 798 wants to support this 100%. as someone who has grown up in san francisco, in hunter's point and lakeview, having someone in a uniform on site in p.b. can be very triggering for people of color. and mental health issues are stigmatized in our communities. and so to have someone

call the police or to have the police on scene can escalate a situation that can oftentimes be handled by our paramedics and e.m.t.s on the ambulances and the rescue captains that are onscene, without escalating within the family structure. we really feel this is an important movement, and we appreciate supervisor safai taking on this as the lead. it is very essential for our communities. i grew up here in san francisco, and this is very important to me, to not have p.d. response to these calls. we respect our p.d. counterpart when there is a violent scene, but a lot of times these scenes can get escalated when they don't need to be. again, 798 completely supports this, and we

appreciate the work being done together with supervisor safai's office and with the department. again, i can't follow chief pang's comment because he is very thorough and accurate, and, again, 798 supports this. >> thank you, adrienne. i will say we appreciate the partnership working with your front line members as we started to dive in on the work that the paramedics are doing, responding to all types of calls. we were able to do that through the budget committee, add some additional resources, along with the creation, with the mayor, for additional resources with regard to wellness and street crisis response. we think this is the right start to have these targeted paramedics both from street crisis response and the wellness team, to have this authority. and we think it is going to, as chief pang said,

reduce the number of people that ultimately end up in mental health holds. we appreciate the partnership of your members. >> thank you. i think the next person we will go to is dr. angelica amieda. she is a clinical; with the department of public health. >> good morning. >> i know covid maybe changed some of the numbers, but over the last two years, if you could talk about those numbers and what happens in that process, and the relationship between your department and the people

that are referring them into our system. >> of course, and i'll just say unfortunately we don't have data from the most recent fiscal year. we're working on collecting that. it is complicated data as individuals go to multiple hospitals, but i will share in fiscal year '19/'20, the data suggested there were 9,000 5150s placed. that's a duplicated number. some individuals, unfortunately have more than one 5150 in that fiscal year. in terms of our collaboration, i'll also note for the street crisis response team, we have a clinician in the vehicle who is able to initiate 5150 holds, and as chief pang noted, the district crisis response team is able to provide a lot of

support, but we know there is latent demand and appreciate the conversations on how we can reduce the risk of needing to call in law enforcement when not necessary. and we have been partnering very closely with the fire department to identify the best way to initiate this. of course, our behavioral health director will be overseeing the implementation of a training program to support the fire department in collaborating, and as chief pang noted, in collaboration with the department of public health, we would be working on quality management projects together to ensure that all 5150s that are initiated are done appropriately, and that this authority is appropriately utilized. >> great. do you think this is an important tool and expansion for our city, to have this ability for public health trained officials to be able to have this authority, versus solely police departments?

>> yes. and i'll just note, of course it is not just solely the police department. we have clinicians throughout our system of care who are able to provide 5150s, and who are also not first responders in the same way that the fire department and police are. while we don't oversee the training program or the program that the police have to initiate 5150s. and the more opportunities we have to divert situations requiring a call to law enforcement, i think the better. so i certainly support this and look forward to partnering further with the fire department on implementation. >> chairman: got it. thank you so much. i appreciate you being here and saying a few words. i think we're going to go back to deputy police

chief pang. thank you, doctor. >> of course. so i just wanted to talk a little bit about the rollout of this. i know the legislation gives the authority for all accredited paramedics by the fire department, but i know you're going to have to go through some initial training. i think the idea to initially focus the training on those paramedics that will be part of the wellness response teams and the street crisis response teams initially to begin to have a core group of people that since they are going to be responding to additional calls for service, that they'll have this additional training and this additional ability to place these mental health hold. i just want to give you an opportunity to talk about that. >> i believe the legislation states all accredited paramedics that the san francisco fire

department designates. and i believe that we intend on designating community paramedics and our rescue captains. so our community paramedics currently work on street crisis response teams and e.m.s. 6, and soon they'll be working on the overdose response team and the street wellness response team. so it will be a total of about 30 individuals, 30 f.t.e.s in service per day. on street crisis response team, as dr. almeda noted, there is a behavioral clinician on that team, and we would defer to the behavioral clinician about whether someone meets criteria or not. i could see one example of when the community paramedics that is on that team might write the hold in lieu of the behavioral commission, when perhaps the behavioral commission

has formed a therapeutic alliance with the individual and does not want to be seen as being the person writing the hold and placing someone on an involuntary hold. so perhaps there might be some circumstances where the community paramedic, after close consultation and in unison with the behavioral clinician, might write the hold themselves, but they would certainly defer to the behavioral clinician. >> is there a behavioral clinician that is part of the overdose response team, the street crisis response team, and the wellness response team -- is there a community clinician in all of those scenarios? >> no. >> chairman: so there will be scenarios where you won't have a community clinician, but you will have a paramedic that is part of those teams that is trained and has the ability to do this mental health hold, if necessary? >> that's correct.

and one reason why we feel it is important to have a field rescue captains is because a lot of calls -- you know, what happens is a 911 medical event will occur, and a truck will respond with an ambulance, and will get there and recognize that either the call was miscoded, or the real underlying problem is a mental health problem, and maybe someone is in their residence, gravely disabled, maybe they're suicidal. and at the moment it's not planned on calling the street crisis response team to that call. what if it is indoors and 2:00 a.m., and there is not one available, so it is better to have our own personnel who are acquainted with the law, able to write that, instead of having to call the police to somebody's house. >> chairman: uh-huh.

okay. so thank you for clarifying that. so it sounds like about 30 plus paramedics initially? >> that is correct. uh-huh. >> chairman: so we're really looking forward to this. i know one of the -- just before we have dr. almeda and dr. coones, and we talked about this, people say it is good that you're going to be able to expand this, but the real question is: are you going to have the beds? are you going to have the place to refer people to and have the recovery? and that's one of the biggest expansions that we're seeing under mental health s.f. that we're seeing in this budget that we just approved, that we are going to expand the community-based care and the community beds and the opportunity for people to be referred into places. so we're not just expanding this ability to expand the authority for mental health holds, but we are investing in this

budget, the infrastructure that we can refer people to to help them recover and get better. i don't know if you want to comment on that for a moment, dr. almeda? >> doctor: i appreciate that, supervisor. i completely agree with you that that is certainly part of our goal in mental health s.f., to expand capacity criteria our system. across our system. i think it also helps us make sure that the people who are in need are getting to the hospital appropriately. >> chairman: right. and i know that, unfortunately, under the older model, a lot of people -- a lot of people end up finally getting some of the mental health treatment that they need when they're incarcerated. and i think, as you said,

deputy chief pang and also ms. sims, that this provides an alternative. we're trying to intervene in a non-law enforcement way, in a public health way, to get people the help they need and the analysis they need earlier. i just wanted to underscore that point. i appreciate all of you answering questions. colleagues, i don't know if you have any questions for the folks here today, but i just would like to say right off the bat thank you to supervisor stefani, my co-sponsor. she has long advocated for increasing responses to mental health in our city. she has been a strong leader and voice on this. i really appreciate her co-sponsorship and leadership on this issue, along with supervisor walton, and ronen and melgar, for their support.

so supervisor stefani, i see you there, you have some questions, but thank you, again, for all of your support and leadership on this. >> thank you, supervisor safai, and thank you so much for sponsoring this. this is something that is long overdue. we have such an incredible fire department, to have them on these calls i think is just, like i said, long overdue. i just have a few quick questions for deputy chief pang. in terms of the experiences that i'm hearing from e.m.t.s, anecdotally, whether they're increasingly coming under unsafe circumstances -- i've heard about a few assaults, and whether or not that is concerning to you in any way. i only say that because i want to make sure we're providing protection for our e.m.t.s, but, obviously, we need to double our efforts on making sure that we are properly responding to those that are experiencing mental health crisis in the field.

but i just want to make sure, because, like i said, anecdotally, i've been hearing about an increase of assaults on e.m.t.s, and i don't know whether or not that is actually the case. >> good morning. thank you, supervisor stefani. yes -- this is sandy tong, the deputy chief of e.m.s. we are seeing an increasing number of our members getting assaulted by patients. anywhere from, you know, verbal assaults to physical assaults. every day i get reports -- injury reports of spokes folkswho have been punched or spat on and verbally abused. we're trying to get clarity on how we can intervene in some of those situations, how we can prevent some of the violence on our folks. we want to get more clarity on how we can help keep them safe and how we can provide them what they need to be reassured if

they do have to intervene, if they have to restrain a person, that they're well-protected as well, and they're not under any additional threats to their license in that kind of case. it is a significant concern for us, and something that we're working with the attorney cityattorney's office. >> thank you for that. i know there is that tension, because obviously we're doing this because we don't want police officers showing up to situations where they don't need to be, and where they could cause more -- not conflict, but where people are intimidated or feel -- you know, where it makes the situation even worse. but at the same time, if it was necessary, if the e.m.t.s felt like they needed to, that there was something -- like an understanding of how that actually occurs, so there

is not a feeling of, oh, gosh, we can't call them. i'm speaking about the hearing we just had on cart, and they were saying they were angry with the e.m.t.s for possibly calling the police, and when the e.m.t.s on scene didn't even call. it worries me that the e.m.t.s could be at risk. anyway, that is just -- and that came up for me after that cart hearing, and after deputy chief pang related to us a story in the field. it sounds like you're on that and you're working it out, so i don't need to go into that any further. i want to ask one more question about resources, because if we do this and we do this right, i think that more resources will be necessary in the future. and i am wondering if you foresee that as an issue? >> certainly we can always utilize more members in terms of being able to

increase our response, a more timely response to the crisis on the streets. yes, there is definitely a need for ambulance folks as our call volume starts to creep up again. we've certainly seen an increasing number of calls that have, you know -- since covid, we're seeing that level come back to pre-covid, and it may increase more than what we saw in 2019 and 2020. so, yes, i suspect that is something that we are trying to get more data on, trying to identify more specifically for all of you what it is that we're going to need in order to be able to better respond to all areas of the city because we also want to ensure there is equity across all of the outer parts of the city, where our response times seem to be a little longer because we don't always have all of the resources we need. >> okay. thank you. that's all i have. >> chairman: thank you, supervisor. chair mar, did you have

some questions or comments? >> chairman: yes. thanks, again, supervisor safai, for sponsoring this important legislation. and thank you to the fire department and local 789 for all of your work on this. this is an important step in part of our city, over all, shifting to more appropriate and affective responses to behavioral health incidents. i would love to be added as a co-sponsor as well. i did have a few questions, more around the scope of the problem and the impact that this change in allowing community paramedics to initiate 5150 holds would have. so, chief pang, you mentioned that there were

over 3,000 5150 holds in a particular year. and dr. almeda, i think you mentioned 9,000. i'm just trying to -- i want to make sure i understand the discrepancy there. >> i'm happy to clarify. there were roughly 9,000 5150s nationwide, and i think the chief was focusing on the ones initiated by police, which was roughly 3,000. ,000 of the 5150s. >> chairman: for the other ones not initiated by police, how were those initiated? >> so we don't have all of the information on that from private hospitals, but they could be initiated by clinicians, other providers who have authority through the department of public health to initiate 5150s, including our compressive crisis services team. there are other entities,

and other law enforcement entities, who may have initiated 5150s. unfortunately, there is limited information around that. >> chairman: got it. but it sounds like presumably most of those were initiated by a health care provider. is that correct? >> correct. >> chairman: okay. and now for this proposal to authorize community paramedics to initiate 5150 holds, is there any projection about how many -- yeah, how many -- how many incidents of 5150 holds that might result in, given the fairly limited capacity -- chief pang, you mentioned there would be about 30 f.t.e.s with the street response teams, and the e.m.s. 6 would be able to utilize this new tool? >> i -- my plan is to

reassess how we are doing as we go. so do plan study act. ultimately, my goal would be to do the majority, if not all of the 5150s that law enforcement places in the city. i presume we're not going to be -- i presume with the resources we have currently, we're not going to be able to do all of them right away. but once we begin this work and we can understand what the volume actually is, we can anticipate what we need in order to eventually cover all of the 5150s. >> and i'll just add, what we may end up seeing, because these are calls that the fire department are already on, and i know section chief pang referenced this, is that this allows for a more refined assessment of a need of a 5150, which also could lead to a reduction

in 5150s, but it means the people who need to go to the hospital and are the most vulnerable are getting there, and that we are otherwise able to support people in less restrictive settings, and reducing emergency room use, which is a priority across our system, and also for the street crisis response team. >> also, chair mar, i think it is my expectation that by having us do it, we'll be able to keep centralized records that we share with the health department. there are some individuals that cycle in and out of p.e. s. and hospitals and the street, that we've all endured. as dr. almed as has mentioned, it is very difficult get accurate data on the 5150s going on in our city because so

many different parties place them, and it is difficult to mind the data. i feel that those individuals that are on our streets and actually are gravely disabled and shouldn't be there, we will be able to very, very closely monitor and manage them. and if -- our community paramedics, i believe, will be able to write a more nuanced hold than your typical law enforcement officer, and we'll be able to provide the psychiatrist the proper information as to why we actually thought this person needed to be placed on the hold. if they get discharged from p.e.s. without a safe discharge plan, we're the ones that find out about it first, those of us responding to 911. i feel we'll be able to really help those most vulnerable people and hopefully stop the revolving door for those individuals in the way that the current system

doesn't allow. >> chairman: thank you for all of that. and so it is really helpful to understand that goal would be for community paramedics to replace police -- s.f.p.d. staff for most of the 3,000 plus 5150 holds. my question is: do you have any sense of what the staff capacity for community paramedicine would be in order to achieve that goal of close to full replacement of the law enforcement by community paramedics for 5150 hold initiations? >> chair mar, unfortunately i have not made that -- i have not come up with that figure.

i don't know. >> chairman: okay. but we're going to be taking some significant steps forward in this direction now and in the coming year with the expanded street response teams, now with this new legislation giving the new tool to the community paramedics -- again, i really appreciate all of your work on this. this is extremely important. and thanks again, supervisor safai, for bringing this forward. >> thank you, chair and for your co-sponsorship. i want to add on to one point supervisor stefani was saying. we did add additional 10 paramedics' crew, station 49. and we'll be working with the local 798, with the

fire department, and doing a full analysis with deputy chief pang for the overall need for paramedics in general. we know 10 was a start. we know their calls for service has gone up over 16% since 2016, and their numbers have stayed flat at 200. so now we've increased that to 210, and we'll be coming back and working with the budget committee and the mayor to have a final analysis on what that number is, with the chief. but i also know we're joined by chief nicholson, and i wanted to give her an opportunity to say a few words about this new tool in the tool kit for her paramedics. so thank you, chief, for joining us today and thank you for your partnership and great work of your team. >> thank you so much, supervisor safai, chair mar, supervisor stefani. adrienne from local 798,

dr. almeda, and, of course, simon and sandy over there at e.m.s. thank you very much forgiving me a moment. and, yes, this is an extremely important part of our puzzle that we are working on here. having been on the ambulance myself for many years, even back in 2003, '4, '5, i saw the revolving door of people. you take somebody to a hospital, you'd be sitting there writing your paperwork, and they'd be walking out, and you'd pick them up again a few hours later. this ability to 5150 folks that really do need it -- again, what chief pang said is perhaps we should be able to be a little more nuanced about those a 5150 holds. but, you know, we -- having that tool will

really help us also keep track of the folks that we see on the street. it is another tool for us to keep track of them. e.m.s. 6 is a wonderful tool. the street crisis response team sa wonderful tool. but this is really another important piece of it. and i really look forward to seeing what we can do. chair mar, just in terms of how much more in terms of resources we will need, again, we're just starting this up, and we -- you know, we're looking at the data from the street crisis response team. but this is all still very much in process. process from dispatch on down. we will continue to analyze what we need for paramedicine, as well as what supervisor safai said

for our need on the frontline ambulances. thank you so much for your support. we want to be part of the solution, and i really believe that we are here. >> thank you, chief nicholson. colleagues, i don't have any additional questions or comments, just to say thank you to all of the co-sponsors, to chief nicholson, deputy chief pang and dr. almeda for joining us today. thank you to local 798. we engaged with them very early on this issue, with the larger kind of global issue with regard to paramedics and how we're supporting them, how we're funding them, how they're responding, how they're being utilized, and this is an outgrowth of that conversation, shifting the oversight of the local emergency response back to the department of environment. so this is part of the global conversation that we have been leading to

really re-evaluate how our paramedics are utilized, supported, and deployed in san francisco. so i just want to thank 798 and adrienne for all of her partnership, along with deputy chief pang and tong. we think we're taking some good steps, we're headed in the right direction, and this overall conversation about shifting responsibility of calls for service to public health professionals we think is the right one, and we're happy to be leading it in the right way in san francisco. so thank you, everyone, for your great work. we look forward to looking at the data, looking at how it is implemented, and seeing how we can continue to support. >> chairman: thank you, supervisor safai. supervisor stefani, do you have any comments? >> thank you, supervisor safai and chair mar.

i just want to say one last thing. good to see you, chief nicholson, and to local 798as well. i just want to make sure we're very clear when we're asking our public safety partners to do more, that we provide them the resources they need and we listen to them. i find too often that is not always the case, especially with regard to this year and the police department, and listening to chief scott. i hope if we ask our fire department to do this, that we follow up with the resources that chief nicholson tells us she needs. and one last thing about 5150s. we are doing this because we care deeply about those suffering on our streets from mental health crisis. it is not just about 5150. there is also the welfare and institutions code, 5250, which happens when doctors recommend that patients stay in the hospital for an extra two weeks for evaluation. to do that, there has to be a hearing.

there are hearings held in s.f. general and at our private hospitals, and often many of these patients are released against medical advice. and i am -- and, dr. almed arks i think i would like to have a better understanding how often that is happening. because we talk about the revolving door, and what that does to people who have to live on the street, and the presence of people who are experiencing san francisco. so if we are serious about getting the help for people who are suffering, and we continue to take to the hospital on a 5150 hold, what is happening on the 5250 holds? and why are people being released against medical advice. i understand there is due process involved and the public defenders there with the patients, but if our doctors at s.f. general are recommending a two-week hold for special

evaluation, so people can either come off the meth they're on, or they can get the help they need to deal with whatever psychiatric crisis they're in, i need to know what is happening there? how many times are people being released against medical advice on a 5250 hold at s.f. general. if you can get me that information, i would greatly appreciate that because i think it plays into all of this. thank you again, supervisor safai, and thank you so much to our fire department, our firefighters, and e.m.t.s. i think we're having lucky to have such an incredible fire department in san francisco. thanks. >> chairman: great. thank you, vice chair stefani for the additional remarks. adrienne, did you have something you were go to say? >> i just was thanking supervisor stefani and acknowledging that we might need additional

f.t.e.s. it is something that is really important -- during the budget, supervisor safai strongly advocated, as did chairman mar, for additionalathathathathatjcu

. and i hope we can pass this out with a positive recommendation. and move that forward and get it implemented as quickly as possible. can you call roll on the motion. >> recommending this to the board of supervisors? is there a mover?

for the clarification, on the motion offered by member safai to offer the item to the board of supervisors. >> supervisor stefani: aye. >> supervisor safai: aye. >> supervisor mar: aye. >> there are three ayes. >> great, thank you. move forward to the full board with positive recommendation. thanks, again, everyone. can you call item 4. >> item 4 is hearing to discuss the city's plans and efforts to prepare for the wildfire season, including plans for indoor wildlife refuges, proactive measures to mitigate the impact of wildfire smoke. members of the public who wish to have public comment on the hearing should call the number, 1-415-655-0001.

today's meeting i.d. is 1462835668. press the pound symbol twice to connect to the meeting, press the star followed by 3 to enter the queue to speak. >> thank you, mr. clerk. as requested by supervisor haney, the sponsor of this hearing, would like to motion that we continue this item to the call of the chair. is there any public comment on this item? i'm sorry, on the motion? >> we are working with public comment callers who are interested in providing the public comment on this item. 146 913 8309 i understand we do have a call on the line flush flush call 1-415-655-0001, 146 283 5668. could you connect us to the public comment caller for this hearing?

>> there is no longer a caller in the queue. >> okay, thank you. >> okay. public comment is closed. mr. clerk, can you call roll on the motion to continue the item. >> the motion from chair mar to continue this hearing to the call of the chair. >> supervisor stefani: aye. >> supervisor safai: aye. >> supervisor mar: aye. >> mr. chair, there are three ayes. >> supervisor mar: thanks. mr. clerk, can you call item number 5. >> agenda item 5 is hearing regarding city processes and services as it relates to starting a small business in the city and to update on the implementation of proposition h. members who wish to provide public comment should call the

number, 1-415-655-0001. today's meeting i.d. is 146 283 5668. press the pound symbol twice to connect to the meeting and then press star followed by 3 to ebbett the queue to -- enter the queue to speak. mr. chair? >> chair haney: -- >> i would like to move that we continue this item to the call of the chair. mr. clerk, why don't we take public comment on this item. >> ms. mendoza, could you let us know if we have callers on the line or in the queue for this agenda item? >> there are no callers in the queue. >> mr. chair? >> thank you. public comment is closed. so, mr. clerk, can you call the -- continue the item to the call of the chair. >> on the motion to continue this hearing to the call of the chair. >> supervisor stefani: aye. >> supervisor safai: aye. >> supervisor mar: aye.

>> mr. chair, there are three ayes. >> thank you. this will be continued. is there any further business? >> there is no further business. >> okay, we are adjourned. have a good day everyone.

>> >> >> my name is jean alexander. i'm an attorney in the san francisco city attorney's office. i supervise the tax team, giving tax advice to the treasurer, tax collect or, drafting tax legislation. the thing i remember my mother telling me as a child is that you need to be prepared to take care of yourself and i knew that i wanted to be able to do something that i

enjoyed. i didn't expect anybody to give me anything because nobody ever gave her anything and i also i always saw her fighting for the things that she wanted in life for herself and for her children. >> my name is jasmine flores. i am working as an admin assistant in the city attorney's office. i have always enjoyed the tasks that i have been given. on the days i show up and work on my own is empowering. for me, happiness in being more involved in a person-to-person interaction. my dream jobs includes being a physician, paramedic, firefighter, working with animals with the public. on a personal level with self

improvement. my sister is the biggest influence in my life because she taught me to go forward with what makes you happy rather that what makes you the most money. >> i graduated from law school in 1972 at a time when there was a beginning to be an influx of women in the legal profession and tried criminal cases for about 10 years, treatment for delinquent operating programs, government budgets, analyzed fiscal legislation. i came to the san francisco city attorney's office and i have been here for about 12 years advising on tax matters. i did just about anything you can think of. some things that lawyers do and some things that lawyers don't do. >> i'm from the mission in san francisco. i have grown up there and i have lived there pretty much my whole life.

living there, i do see other women, some of them older, some of them look just like me like my age and a lot of them work nanny jobs, child care jobs, retail jobs. i don't know, it seems kind of like a reminder that you are kind of lucky to be where you are, i guess. just when you haven't gone so far at all. i want them to go on maybe go on an interview that's more challenging that they think that they can't get that job. you know, just to kind of challenge and surprise themselves when they get that job and feel better. >> there had been women

practicing law for many years, but there were so few of them that a lot of the issues hadn't really come into play and some of them worked out and some are still being resolved like equal pay and women in lawfirms and making sure women get fair assignments and in the decision making and working with law firms. i consider myself more of a beneficiary of all the women that fought really difficult battles along the way. >>

>> >> after my fire in my apartment and losing everything, the red cross gave us a list of agencies in the city to reach out to and i signed up for the below-market rate program. i got my certificate and started applying and won the housing lottery. [♪♪♪] >> the current lottery program began in 2016. but there have been lot rows that have happened for affordable housing in the city for much longer than that. it was -- there was no standard practice. for non-profit organizations that were providing affordable housing with low in the city, they all did their lotteries on their own. private developers that include

in their buildings affordable units, those are the city we've been monitoring for some time since 1992. we did it with something like this. where people were given circus tickets. we game into 291st century in 2016 and started doing electronic lotteries. at the same time, we started electronic applications systems. called dalia. the lottery is completely free. you can apply two ways. you can submit a paper application, which you can download from the listing itself. if you apply online, it will take five minutes. you can make it easier creating an account. to get to dalia, you log on to housing.sfgov.org. >> i have lived in san francisco

for almost 42 years. i was born here in the hayes valley. >> i applied for the san francisco affordable housing lottery three times. >> since 2016, we've had about 265 electronic lotteries and almost 2,000 people have got their home through the lottery system. if you go into the listing, you can actually just press lottery results and you put in your lottery number and it will tell you exactly how you ranked. >> for some people, signing up for it was going to be a challenge. there is a digital divide here and especially when you are trying to help low and very low income people. so we began providing digital assistance for folks to go in and get help. >> along with the income and the

residency requirements, we also required someone who is trying to buy the home to be a first time home buyer and there's also an educational component that consists of an orientation that they need to attend, a first-time home buyer workshop and a one-on-one counseling session with the housing councilor. >> sometimes we have to go through 10 applicants before they shouldn't be discouraged if they have a low lottery number. they still might get a value for an available, affordable housing unit. >> we have a variety of lottery programs. the four that you will most often see are what we call c.o.p., the certificate of preference program, the dthp which is the displaced penance housing preference program. the neighborhood resident housing program and the live

worth preference. >> i moved in my new home february 25th and 2019. the neighborhood preference program really helped me achieve that goal and that dream was with eventually wind up staying in san francisco. >> the next steps, after finding out how well you did in the lottery and especially if you ranked really well you will be contacted by the leasing agent. you have to submit those document and income and asset qualify and you have to pass the credit and rental screening and the background and when you qualify for the unit, you can chose the unit and hopefully sign that lease. all city sponsored affordable housing comes through the system and has an electronic lottery. every week there's a listing on dalia. something that people can apply for. >> it's a bit hard to predict

how long it will take for someone to be able to move into a unit. let's say the lottery has happened. several factors go into that and mainly how many units are in the project, right. and how well you ranked and what preference bucket you were in. >> this particular building was brand new and really this is the one that i wanted out of everything i applied for. in my mind, i was like how am i going to win this? i did and when you get that notice that you won, it's like at first, it's surreal and you don't believe it and it sinks in, yeah, it happened. >> some of our buildings are pretty spectacular. they have key less entry now. they have a court yard where they play movies during the weekends, they have another master kitchen and space where people can throw parties. >> mayor breed has a plan for

over 10,000 new units between now and 2025. we will start construction on about 2,000 new units just in 2020. >> we also have a very big portfolio like over 25,000 units across the city. and life happens to people. people move. so we have a very large number of rerentals and resales of units every year. >> best thing about working for the affordable housing program is that we know that we're making a difference and we actually see that difference on a day-to-day basis. >> being back in the neighborhood i grew up in, it's a wonderful experience. >> it's a long process to get through. well worth it when you get to the other side. i could not be happier. [♪♪♪]

[♪♪♪] >> i really believe that art should be available to people for free, and it should be part of our world, you shouldn't just be something in museums, and i love that the people can just go there and it is there for everyone. [♪♪♪] >> i would say i am a multidimensional artist. i came out of painting, but have also really enjoyed tactile properties of artwork and tile work. i always have an interest in

public art. i really believe that art should be available to people for free, and it should be part of our world. you shouldn't just be something in museums. i love that people can just go there, and it is there for everyone. public art is art with a job to do. it is a place where the architecture meets the public. where the artist takes the meaning of the site, and gives a voice to its. we commission culture, murals, mosaics, black pieces, cut to mental, different types of material. it is not just downtown, or the big sculptures you see, we are in the neighborhood. those are some of the most beloved kinds of projects that really give our libraries and recreation centers a sense of uniqueness, and being specific to that neighborhood. colette test on a number of

those projects for its. one of my favorites is the oceanview library, as well as several parks, and the steps. >> mosaics are created with tile that is either broken or cut in some way, and rearranged to make a pattern. you need to use a tool, nippers, as they are called, to actually shape the tiles of it so you can get them to fit incorrectly. i glued them to mash, and then they are taken, now usually installed by someone who is not to me, and they put cement on the wall, and they pick up the mash with the tiles attached to it, and they stick it to the wall, and then they groped it

afterwards. [♪♪♪] >> we had never really seen artwork done on a stairway of the kinds that we were thinking of because our idea was very just barely pictorial, and to have a picture broken up like that, we were not sure if it would visually work. so we just took paper that size and drew what our idea was, and cut it into strips, and took it down there and taped it to the steps, and stepped back and looked around, and walked up and down and figured out how it would really work visually. [♪♪♪] >> my theme was chinese heights because i find them very beautiful. and also because mosaic is such a heavy, dens, static medium, and i always like to try and

incorporate movement into its, and i work with the theme of water a lot, with wind, with clouds, just because i like movements and lightness, so i liked the contrast of making kites out of very heavy, hard material. so one side is a dragon kite, and then there are several different kites in the sky with the clouds, and a little girl below flying it. [♪♪♪] >> there are pieces that are particularly meaningful to me. during the time that we were working on it, my son was a disaffected, unhappy high school student. there was a day where i was on

the way to take them to school, and he was looking glum, as usual, and so halfway to school, i turned around and said, how about if i tell the school you are sick and you come make tiles with us, so there is a tile that he made to. it is a little bird. the relationship with a work of art is something that develops over time, and if you have memories connected with a place from when you are a child, and you come back and you see it again with the eyes of an adult, it is a different thing, and is just part of what makes the city an exciting place. [♪♪♪] >> hello, everyone. and welcome to the ribbon cutting ceremony for 490. i'm the deputy executive

director for mission housing development corporation and it is my honor to welcome you back isn't that exciting? we are back into our neighborhood. you know, after, what, more than a year of collectively fighting the covid-19 virus. thank you, mayor, london breed. and thank you supervisors and all of the community effort that allowed us to be here today in this outdoor space to be able to celebrate 490. and we would like to remind you though as we are so proud to be hosting you here today, we want to encourage you to kindly wear your masks as you enter the building, and to respect still the social distancing guidelines that 490 is basically asking from all of us. for our own safety. now it is my great pleasure to welcome today's guest to conduct the ceremony for us, we're very excited that she's here today. and a community-based organization that is going to be

headquartered here at 490. and we're very excited about that. [applause] they'll be located at the flex place at the corner of 16th and south van ness very, very shortly. basically what they do -- they provide immigrant families in the bay area with social services and emergency support for most cultural values and serve as a bridge between our community and consulates and the governments. so we are very pleased to have them come today to conduct a blessing to make sure that this building is blessed today. and i invite lydia to come up to the stage and begin that blessing ceremony. come on over. [applause] >> good morning to everyone. i am going toed in spanish and

she'll translate it, okay. [speaking spanish] (speaking foreign language) [speaking spanish] (speaking foreign language) [speaking spanish] (speaking foreign language)

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[speaking spanish] (speaking foreign language) [speaking spanish] (speaking foreign language)

[speaking spanish] (speaking foreign language) [speaking spanish]

(speaking foreign language) >> thank you very much. thank you. [applause] >> [speaking spanish] i just want to recap because we didn't have someone to translate in english what she just finished saying, but she wants to thank brim housing and mission housing, the mayor, all of the agencies, and anybody that had a contribution to make this building a possibility for the community. she wants to express her gratitude. she also talked a little bit about the journey for many -- you know, from yucatán. i am so sorry. and they came here to look for a better -- and just more positive opportunities. and i get a little choked up because i know what that trajectory looked like as an immigrant person and someone

that as myself, i know what that means. and she wanted to remind every member those that we lost during this pandemic. and so, again, she wants to have you all keep the good fight to make sure that we can continue to build affordable housing and she's looking upon all of you guys to be able to do that. mucho gracias. so, let's continue on. and let's talk about what is 490. it's an 80-unit affordable housing building that you're sitting here today that is located in the san francisco mission district. just a couple blocks from here we have the authentic 1950 mission that is another wonderful partnership with the partnership of bridge housing and ourselves that we were proud to do a groundbreaking very recently. what has that done for me, and for those that may be wondering what that word represents. we decided to name it for various reasons because it actually means to "move upward,

forward, and a desire to always advance." and we believe that it embodies the resilient spirit of this neighborhood, a neighborhood that fought and they were very vocal about what they needed. and so here together as a community, as a group, we're celebrating this amazing, amazing celebration for 490. so we continue to [speaking spanish] so we'll continue to move forward, right? right? yes! yes! yes! [applause] mission housing and bridge housing are proudly basically celebrating the -- what we consider to be such a great accomplishment. and so we just want to be sure that you celebrate along with us because this is actually a little piece of history that we are sharing with you today. we saw about 230 families that moved into their homes here. we actually have several -- several -- several -- looking -- several -- please wave to those

residents that moved in here, and i just want to welcome them to their new home. we're so excited. it really makes me get choked up because there's nothing to fight for something, deliver something, and then see the families moving in and this is what we're celebrating today. this is for you. so now it is my great pleasure to welcome someone that is an advocate for affordable housing and i know that she's been very, very vocal about it for many years and she continued to be a partner and a supporter of our organization and everyone here that is sitting here today -- our mayor -- our mayor of san francisco that has been extremely busy for the past year or so, and we're very thankful for her to have time to join us today. that being said, mayor london breed, would you please come up and share your thoughts. [applause] >> thank you, marcia. i've got to say today is definitely very special because it's been a long time coming, and i think that some of the folks that are joining us