good morning and welcome to the rules committee of the san francisco board of supervisors for today, september 13th, 2021. our first meeting back after our summer recess. i am the chair of the rules committee aaron peskin joined by vice chair supervisor rafael

mandelman joined by connie chan, and our clerk mr. young. mr. young, do you have any announcements. >> clerk: yes. city and public, the board of supervisors legislative chamber and committee room are closed. committee members will attend the meeting through the video conference and participate to the meeting to the same extent as if they were physically present. public comment will be available on each item in this agenda. comments or opportunities to speak during public comment period are available via phone by calling (415) 655-0001. the meeting id is 24866130377 then press pound and pound again. when connecting, you will hear the meeting discussions, but you will be muted and in listening mode only.

when your item of interest comes up, dial star three to be added to the speaker line. best be practices are to call from a quiet location, speak clearly and slowly and turn down your television or radio. you may smith public comment to me, myself at victoryoung@sfgov.org. that completes my initial comment. >> chairman: thank you, mr. young. can you please read the first item. >> clerk: yes. item number one is an around amending the campaign and government conduct code to expand the definition of interested party to include city contractors and persons seeking to influence city officers and employees to prohibit appointed department heads, commissions, and designated combes from soliciting behested payments from interested parties.

>> chairman: thank you, colleagues. we are joined by supervisor matt haney who is introducing this item in the revelations that former head of public works muhammad nuru turned the public works department into a says pool. and so -- >> anita. you have got to turn your microphone off. your item comes up later in today's meeting and i will proceed. thank you ms. louie. so as an admonition if you're not speaking please [inaudible] put your computer on mute.

thank you. so on -- about a year ago right now in the middle of covid, our controller ben rosenfield and his team issued a report that suggested this legislation to supervisor haney. proceeded with this, i have a number of questions but want to appreciate supervisor haney for getting into this in the middle of covid because we're having a public health emergency does not mean that we cannot work to clean up the culture of corruption that continues to permeate san francisco government embarrassingly so. with thanks, i know we are joined by pat forbe from the sf commission. i do have a number of questions as to whether or not this legislation goes far enough.

but let me start by turning it over to supervisor haney. >> supervisor haney: thank you, chair peskin and thank you supervisors chan and mandelman. first of all, let me thank you supervisor peskin. as we're in the middle of a pandemic the issues and allegations have pay to play contracting of course, exist far before that and this is an opportunity for us to put in protections and controls that really ensure that we eliminate that conflict of interest and protect the public dollar and restore the public trust. currently, there is no conflict of interest rule that prohibits city officials and employees

from soliciting behested payments from interested parties. the absence of a conflict of interest rule for behested payments prohibits a city that has long with pay to play contracting. the issue of behested payments as you noted, chair peskin, was a specific recommendation of the controller's report which related to public integrity in the wake of the corruption allegations related to director nuru. over the past year, i have worked with the san francisco ethics commission to come up with more key proposals to preserve some key fundraising activities that rely on philanthropy. today, we have patrick ford from the san francisco ethics economist to discuss these recommendations and discuss why the commission unanimously supports the enactment of a new

city ordinance that prohibits officials and designated employees from asking interested parties to make behested payments. i want to thank you mr. ford for his work on this legislation and also andrew chen for his assistance and, finally, as i said, for your support chair peskin and supervisor chan. i am open to questions. i think mr. ford will be able to get into the specifics and answer many of those question withes and he's prepared to do so and i'm also open to ways to improve on this legislation from you all if there are ideas to do that. so, with that, i will turn it over to mr. ford. >> chairman: mr. ford, good morning. >> good morning, chair peskin. thank you for having me. i want to thank supervisor haney and his staff for being such good partners on this legislation and thank you, of course, to supervisor peskin

and chan as well for partnering on this. supervisor haney already touched on some of the high level points here, why this legislation exists. we as a city must respond to bha we've learned over the last two years about what's going on in our department especially the department of public works and this is a big moment for us to step up and try to regain the public's trust, to try to reset the tone at the top that we know has gone so wrong for a number of reasons and one of them is what we have before us today which is behested payments. a behested payment is when a government officials and somebody to make a payment to a third party. this could be a supervisor asking you to give money to a nonprofit. in the case of muhammad nuru he

asked colleagues to give money to a number of nonprofits. last week, we see this continuing to unfold with yet another settlement, you nosey a $36 million penalty that -- >> chairman: it's actually $29 million. the feds gave recology the city settled with them it's really $29 million. >> thanks for that clarification. so i think it underscores the gravity of what happened. this legislation would directly respond to that fact pattern where you have a government official asking a person or

organization that has official business before them to make a behested payment. that's the crux of this issue. you've also seen it recently with the federal government arresting a senior building inspector and an engineer for a substantially similar scheme where the engineer, rodrigo santos was allegedly asking his clients to make payments to a nonprofit organization that was associated with the building inspector bernard caran and you see him approving inspections without actually carrying out the inspections. so this indicates a pattern. behested payments are something folks have been using as a work around to get around long standing ethics rule like the restricted source rule which prevents government officials from soliciting or accepting gifts directly to them from people who have business before them. likewise, we also have state and local rules about political

contributions. you can't accept or solicit political contributions from contractors or people who are parties to proceedings before you as a government official. the behested payments are somewhat of a loophole. this legislation today is hoping to bridge that gap. as supervisor haney mentioned, unanimously support this legislation and we're very excited to see it here today and glad to answer any questions you may have. >> chairman: thank you. and, we'll hear from my colleagues. i do have a few questions and i referenced this earlier. one, the way i am reading this legislation is if there is a solicitation by a department head to a noninterested party as defined, there does not

appear to be unless i'm not reading this correctly, a requirement that the department file a behested report for the solicitation for that non interested party to find. am i reading that correctly? >> that is correct. the he bested payments only apply when the person making the vested party isn't the interested party, visa vie that official. >> chairman: right. as i read it, that is prohibited. so on page 4 section 3.605 subsection a that's an absolute prohibition to solicit from the interested party as it should be. correct? >> correct in terms of appointed officials and employees who file the form 700. this legislation as written would not apply the prohibition

to elected officials. so elected officials would be filing a report. >> chairman: i understand that. i'm asking or maybe suggesting that if an appointed department head such as muhammad nuru who when this legislation passes would be prohibited as a matter of law from that they be subject to a duty to report the behested payment. what does mr. ford think about that? >> yeah. it's not something that we've looked at to date. i think this existing behested payment reporting system basically goes back to 2016

when our offices partnered together to set this up and at the time, this was the focus where the instances where appointed officials were asking interested parties to make behested payments and i think that it was hard because those are the most problematic. >> chairman: well, those are the most problem -- frankly, those should have been illegal and quite frankly, you know, it's almost absurd that we have to legislate this. i mean, this is common sense that you don't go and hustle somebody who's doing business with your department, but, you know, it wasn't on the books and now weave got to put it on the books because muhammad nuru turned out to be a crook allegedly. but the filing requirement for an elected is my understanding is an elected has to report a behest from anybody; is that

correct? >> if it's $5,000 or more. between $1,000 and $5,000. >> chairman: and $5,000 has to be an interested party. the effective legislation is we're never going to hear from department heads who are out there soliciting donations because this legislation prohibits their solicitation from interested parties, doesn't require reporting from non interested parties. defines interested parties quite narrowly and let's get to that, which is, listen, a department head may well know and the community of potentially interested party its may well know that a contract is going to come up or a license is going to come up,

but by the strict reading of this law, the prohibition doesn't actually kick in and an officially interested party is not official until a proposal is actually submitted. so i can actually go out as a department head and put a r.f.p. out on the street and go talk to the xyx company and the lmnop company and the abc company and i can solicit behested payments from them and the definition in this legislation does not turn them into an interested party until they actually submit the

proposal. and then, it terminates at the end of the contract term either six months following the date on which a find decision is rendered. well, six months isn't a long time. ki do a little wink and a nod and i certainly now knowing what i now know about muhammad nuru and ask for a payment six months and there's no reporting requirement. so the public can't even put together the fact that mr. nuru as by way of example went and hustled these people at six months and one day which is legal under this legislation, but there's no way to know he did that because there's no subsequent reporting requirement. so i'm happy with this legislation because it is definitely a step in the right direction, but it could be a much larger step and i think

and maybe we can fine tune it and i realize it's subject to meet and confer that number one, we can require reporting by department heads of behested from non interested parties and you can see that he went to the x.y.z. corporation when the r.f.p. was out. i think at a minimum, we should do that. i also think that we can elongate these periods. six months is a really short period of time. it literally means that, you know, by march, i could do something right now by march or april, i can go and solicit a

behested. it still is dirty, it's still as much pay to play, it's still the kind of behavior we want to limit. so, anyway, i want to throw that out and with that i'll defer to my sponsor and my colleagues. >> supervisor haney: can i just jump in real quickly? >> chairman: sure. >> supervisor haney: i think those are great and we want to work on those changes together. we'd be very open to that. i wonder, mr. ford, if you could speak to each of them. i know that the reporting requirements is something that we considered. it does seem to me that for the purposes of how folks might want to get around this, you know, however we set the timeline that it would make sense to have some sort of reporting requirement similar to what's in place for elected officials at the least. is there a reason why, you know, what's your view on that? are there challenges with that

logistically or objections to that or is that something that we could put into this? >> i think we certainly could. we could definitely explore it for sure. i think the point of broadening the definition of interested party and the time window, i think that ultimately would probably be more impactful to try to really target what we consider to be problematic and make the prohibition as strong as possible. our experience has definitely been in the ethics territory as opposed to the finance territory. strong prohibitions are much more impactful than disclosures. disclosures can be a good secondary tool but i think really focusing energy on making the prohibition as broad as it needs to be to be effective, that's going to center a lot more return on investment, for sure.

>> chairman: well, if we want to to broaden donations, why don't we do what l.a. has done and create a non profit to support city initiatives. take department heads fully out of that they should just money on the side. there's a bright line. i mean, the problem with this is if you have somebody who as mr. nuru, they're just not going to report and you have no way of knowing that they're doing this because there's a rule that says that they can't do it. that parentally none of this stuff should begin with. i mean, it's interesting that require and indeed the existing

law that donors have to file a behested. that's good because then you can see that the person who's requesting the behested is being kept honest because of the fact the donor has to file a behested. the donor reports but the dehester does not report and then you can find that you you've got a crooked department head. so i would actually also say that the donee should be added as a report. mr. nuru and. as a matter of fact, they didn't report those publicly

either. they are participating in the behested game. wrong criminal activity. society went after and, in this case, you've got two, you've got the parks alliance and you've got mr. nuru. well the parks alliance has been held here these are ways we can figure this. i think this is a really good start.

the more i realize that it can be beefed up quite a bit. supervisor chan. >> supervisor chan: thank you, chair peskin. i am a proud co-sponsor of this legislation and thank you for your initiative. i'm ready to support if there's an amendment on the floor to extend the filing period, you know, for the contractor that's submitting applications. instead knowing to see be that the permitting or just the contract process in the city. typically, it's way longer than six months. i think that it would be helpful to extend that time period. i agree that we could broaden the definition and extend the

time period, but at the same time, i also recognize when there's an element for those of us who hold office or are running for office, we know that, you know, you have to make the commitment to do reporting. you have to make the commitment and say there's just certain dollars that you won't take even far beyond what is required of us and i think that the bottom line here is that with our appointed levels of trust are broken. the level of trust just is not there to believe that our point to officers will hold themselves accountable and there will do whatever they can

to by not just the minimum required, but beyond. so i think that the question is back to all of us here at the committee, but also supervisor haney is, you know, but how do we bridge that. are we here to do what is the minimum or are we going to try to in hire. i'm hope because this is just one bite of the apple. this is just one piece of the puzzle. there's just so much that we need to do. i think we're thinking about many ways we're continuing to hold our city government accountable and there's many ways to go at it. i just want you to know that i'm open and i'm supportive however way we can make it better. thank you.

>> chairman: thank you. vice chairmandelman, any comments. >> supervisor mandelman: nope. i think you all are working through good potential expansion of this which i support. >> chairman: and, by the way, we can do, i think something in this case is better than nothing we can consider legislation. i don't know and i would defer the city attorney as to what can be done quickly. i mean, if we were to continue this a week in committee, are these things that would have to, a, be subject to additional meet and confer or are these things that would have to be re-referred to the ethics commission because they are part of the campaign governmental conduct code. while we're listening to public comment, we can have the city attorney think of those things. with that, mr. young, why don't

we open item number one up to public comment unless, mr. ford, there's anything you want to add. >> thank you, chair peskin. i think the one thing i'll add is where the ethics commission seeks to expand this is to apply elected officials. that was apart of the ethics commission's recommendation and it's something the ethics commission still feels pretty strongly should be apart of this. >> chairman: fine by me. >> clerk: yes, chair peskin, i believe we may need to take a quick technical recess. i was wondering if we can confirm that we need to do that. >> chairman: on the question as to whether or not we are having technical difficulties

with the bridge? >> clerk: i believe we do need to take a quick recess. >> chair pes kin, this is john. we are having slight issues, so we need to re-establish the bridge. >> chairman: is 5 minutes enough? >> 5 minutes should be enough. thank you. >> chairman: okay. it is now 10:36. we will recess until 10:41.

>> chairman: the rules committee of the board of supervisors is reconvened as our technical difficulties have been resolved. mr. clerk, could you please open this item number one for public comment. >> clerk: yes. members of the public who wish to provide public comment on this item should call (415) 655-0001. the meeting i.d. is 24836130377 then press pound and pound again. if you haven't already done so, please press star 3 to line up to speak. a system prompt will indicate

you have raised your hand. please wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted and you may begin your comments. i believe we have four callers in line to speak at this time. >> chairman: first speaker, please. >> i'm the president of sunset parkside education and action committee speaking on my own behalf in strong support with the amendments proposed by the committee chair. thank you. >> chairman: thank you. next speaker, please. >> hello. >> chairman: good morning. go ahead. >> this is paul planthold. i'm a former ethics commissioner and also a member of an advocacy group called friends of ethics. i support the draft measure.

i also support any attempt that's successful today to make an amendment, a technical amendment that does not delay passing this along to the full board. i know this is not complete. it's not thorough, it's a start and like any journey, it begins with a first step. so please move ahead with this item and with any technical amendments that are allowable. thank you. >> chairman: thank you, mr. planthold. next speaker, please. >> can you hear me now? >> chairman: we can hear you, mr. pillpell. go ahead. >> good morning, david pillpell. so i heard part of the discussion. i think that additional legislation should probably just very clearly prohibit entities that are friends of city departments. i think we're past the time of understanding whether it's, you

know, the good people at the friends and foundation that supports the library or parks alliance or the friends of city planning that these entities really don't serve the useful purpose that they were set up to do, but instead are doing these other things. if people want to contribute to the city, they should be encouraged to do so and to contribute to the city, we've got, you know, type five funds or other ways to accept a gift to the city from individuals and organizations and i'm not at all convinced that these friends of groups are needed and i think legislation that just clearly puts them out of business and sunsets them. it's the direction we should go. nevertheless, i support the legislation today and the further amendments and ideas that were talked about and,

finally, it's not clear to me from the current legislation that speaks to elected officials and their reporting requirements and prohibitions what restrictions and reporting requirements would exist for non elected appointed board and commission members in which we have several hundred in the city that could and in some cases may or do behest payments to organizations for or not for favorable treatment before their board or commission. so looking for clarification on that in the future. thank you to all for your work on this. >> clerk: thank you. i believe we have one more caller. >> chairman: last speaker, please.

>> good morning, supervisors. my name is teresa foglio ramirez for local 261. we want to thank you for bringing up behest payments and trying to address the issue. ment our membership has suffered through our essential workers for years behind these behest payments. we believe the legislation is a good first step, but it doesn't go quite far enough. there are too many loopholes for electives and for the directors and gms of these departments and it doesn't go far enough to address these issues. so please consider making it a little stronger. thank you so much. >> chairman: thank you. are there any other members of the public who would like to testify on this item number one? >> clerk: i believe that completes our queue for public speakers at this time. >> chairman: okay. public comment is closed. why don't we go to the city

attorney and ask whether there are changes that we can make here on the spot or what has to go back to ethics and what has to go back to meet and confer. i think some easy ones might be to change in section 3.605 subsection a1b 6 months to 12 months. that would be easy. deputy city attorney pearson would we have to make that recommendation? >> good morning supervisors. we have not prepared any amendments today. we're not prepared to approve any, but we're happy to approve any for introduction next week. the legislation would not require re-referral to the

ethics commission. it was sent to them for their input, but the referral's not legally required. as you noted, supervisor peskin, this legislation was subject to meet and confer. any amendments might also trigger notice but that's a decision ultimately for d.h.r. to make. but my understanding is that the process earlier was very short. >> chairman: that's the way it appeared in the file which makes sense. i don't think the m.e.a. wants to stand up for corruption by the department heads, do they? okay. thank you for that legal advice, counselor. colleagues, i they we have a number of ways we can proceed. i personally am fine with subjecting elected officials to the same requirements, obviously, those amendments are not prepared, but could be prepared in the intervening week and certainly would not be subject to meet and confer.

they'd just be subjected to the vote of elected officials and would not need to go back to ethics as ms. pearson stated. i am interested in adding the donee requirement. we could either do that with an amendment next week or with legislation. i quite frankly and this would be subject to meet and confer would prefer just a full on prohibition from department heads soliciting anybody for behested payments. period. if the parks alliance wants to go knock on peoples' doors, god bless themes, but i don't think department heads should be referring donors to them or telling donors to contribute to them or similar organizations which ever folks are friends of organizations that are and there it is by way of comprehensive list in the controller's report from september of last year, but i personally would just ban the

practice all together. short of that, we i do believe should have reporting of behested payments of quote unquote non-interested parties as defined and i think we should strengthen those definitions. it sounds like the city attorney is not prepared to do that today, although i certainly would make the following i think easy amendments to 3.605 whether it's next week or at the floor of the board, we obviously could duplicate the file and keep one in committee, but that would be that in subsection a1b to elongate that six months to at least a year and in a2 change it from submission to the issuance of a request for proposals or similar city solicitation. so i think those would be easy

ways to strengthen that, but in any event, i think we should require behested reporting by department heads from non-interested parties as defined, but i defer to chief sponsor haney and i think this is a proud cosponsor as to whether or not we should duplicate and send the file as is to the full board or continue it one week and see if we can make some changes in committee or see if we can make changes at the full board in a week. mr. haney. >> supervisor haney: i am open. i think most of the things you said i would agree to and i think would strangen the legislation. i think if we can maybe i would ask our deputy city attorney about what the best way to do this is. if we send it to the board, we

can make the amendments there. if there's a question of that, we could keep it here. i'm open. what's the best way to do this? >> chairman: deputy city pearson will respond and then we'll go to supervisor haney and supervisor chan. >> deputy city attorney, my recommendation would be to keep it in committee for one week. we're happy to work with you and see if we can draft the ones you've requested and see if any others come up during that time. it's just one week delay. >> chairman: okay. it can wait one more week. supervisor chan. >> supervisor chan: thank you, chair peskin, and i am definitely in support to extend this prohibition to elected officials. i think that, you know, we're holding the department and appointed officers to that then

we ought to be aligned with them as well and i am also in support of prohibiting behest payments of all together frankly, i think that makes the relationship just that much cleaner and easier for nonprofits or foundations or anyone really, anybody who wants to donate to the city. they can donate directly to us and a donation should just be philanthropic and that means we should check them more. but that's a side conversation, a different conversation. so i'm ready to support for us to wait one week. i'm also ready to duplicate a file to move something forward, but i see perhaps waiting for one week to have the clarifying

language is probably the best way to go at this moment. thank you. >> chairman: thank you, supervisor chan. yeah. i concur with the advice that we have received from counsel. that's probably the smoothest, best way to do this is in committee. i will work with the chief sponsor supervisor haney to perhaps schedule committee report and it would land at the board at the same time, but we can take that conversation off line. so clerk young, on the motion to continue this item one week to our meeting of september 20th, a roll call, please. >> clerk: yes. on that motion, [roll call] the motion to continue the matter one week passed out objection. >> chairman: all right. next item please. >> supervisor haney: see you

next week. thank you. >> clerk: next on the agenda is item number two. hearing to consider appointing three members to the shelter monitoring committee. >> chairman: thank you, mr. young. colleagues, as you'll recall, we extended the sunset date of this body which is a unique body to july of 2022, which is coming up quickly, and, we have angie david from the department of public health and i'll let her go into a little bit more detail about the admission of this body in our continuum of care network. it's the only body charged with actually monitoring conditions in our congregate shelter

settings. you will note that we actually in this particular instance have four applicants for six seats. usually as chair of the rules committee, i wait until we have applicants for all of the vacant seats, but given that the sunset date of this body is next summer, i want to make sure that there is a quorum on this body so that they can get to work and do that work, so that's why i've come to you colleagues with a partial list of four individuals for the six seats and we will hear from them after we get a brief presentation from ms. david. i want to thank the four applicants. we've still got a bunch of stuff on our agenda and with that, ms. david, welcome to

your committee and to your new job. go ahead. >> thank you so much. good morning. hope you can see me. good morning, supervisor peskin, supervisor mandelman, and supervisor chan. as supervisor peskin mentioned, my name is angie david. i am one of the staffers for monitoring committee. we provide the mayor, the board of supervisors local homeless coordinating boards, other agencies of interest and, of course, the public with accurate information about the conditions in an operation of congregate shelters to improve the health and safety and treatment of residents, clients, staff and of course, our homeless committee. the committee seeks to ensure general and permanent in the condition in shelters and empower residents to have a voice. we conduct regularly monthly announced and unannounced

visits. we have a voicemail where folks can leave their concerns and we do our best to investigate every concern. we also have an e-mail that's provided to the public and both voicemail and e-mail are monitored daily. the committee's mission is to recognize individual human rights and promote universal standard of care for congregate shelters in the city and county of san francisco. s.m.c. consists of formerly homeless individuals, advocate, service providers, and representatives of the city agency. we have the capacity for 13 members. currently, we have three renewals up today and one new member for appointment. this will put us at 11 and continued efforts are being made to fill our last two seats. we are not above covid-19 pandemic causing delays. we are so thankful that we were given an extension until july 2022. now the committee is so robust.

one of the tasks will be to go ahead extended for a 5-year term and, of course, we'll be hoping for your full support. thank you. >> chairman: thank you, ms. david. are there any questions or comments from committee members? i see nobody up on the roster. so, mr. young, why don't we go to the four applicants for the four seats starting with cris plunkett for seat number two. >> yeah. sure. hi everyone. it's a pleasure to meet you all. i've prepared a written statement. i'm more than happy to read that aloud if you'd like or we can talk more. whatever your preference. >> chairman: i think some of us remember you in your time on the youth commission and go ahead and read your statement. >> okay. when i was 16, i became homeless for the first time.

rooted in an unstable and volatile household. i still recall those feelings of deep seeded anguish that came to me for the first time. i was cold, crying, and alone. homelessness and its implications have been part of my life and it's something i've been in and out of for quite a few number of difficult years. at this time, i am homeless and it's definitely not something fun to deal with, but during these times, my already existent yet present struggles. depression syndrome continued to be exacerbated. i developed post to a mat inc. stress disorder from the many times experience and on numerous indications can reach debilitating scenarios. it has made me deeply receptive to the inequalities that exist

in our system and. especially from those that struggle for mental disabilities, trauma. our shelters must be able to accommodate. numerous individuals who have experienced their own difficulties, i've been provided with the fantastic insight that i hope would make. my direct experience in my life as a homeless youth paired with the is my sincere hope that would make a good addition to the health committee and assist members goals. this is something i'm passionate about and would love to be part of a committee that helps our city shelters. >> chairman: thank you, cris. we appreciate that and good luck to you. with that, why don't we go on

to gabriela avalos. >> good morning everyone. this is the second firm that i'm going for in the committee. so, working with individuals who have an extensive history of homelessness and that have used various san francisco shelter programs. the shelter monitoring committee will allow me to present benefits and concerns in the shelter that are existing right now. i work with a lot of people in and out of homelessness. i work with the challenges with individuals as well as families, as well as seniors. i would love the opportunity to continue with this committee. i am a san francisco native.

i'm a resident. i'm a mother. and, improving the health and safety of the homeless community is really important to me. i more than ever especially with the pandemic think that it's really important for this committee to continue and support the city of san francisco with help and support. i hope i am elected to this committee to continue learning, to continue maintaining and improve the atmosphere of all of the shelters. there's been a lot of new shelters since i came on board and so i'm just really eager to see what we can do to continue

helping improve these shelters. for whatever it's worth, i also assisted a shelter monitoring team when i came on with two different transitions. i was actually present when angela david came on. forming just a policies. anyhow, i think more than ever, we need a strong committee and i would be really happy to be on it. >> chairman: thank you for your service and thank you for your statement. and, with that, we will go on to the next applicant diana almanza who requires a residency waiver. ms. almanza, the floor is

yours. >> good morning. and, thank you for allowing me to re-apply. i've been on the shelter monitoring committee and i feel like i can contribute. i have over 30 years of experience in administration in working with the homeless directly and as a volunteer. i've been a member of fema board, a community action agency and what i can say to you during my volunteer work and working with folks, it's been the most rewarding experience of my life and i hope to continue to contribute as a member of the shelter monitoring committee. >> chairman: thank you so much. and thank you for your past and future service. and, with that, we'll go on to traci watson. >> good morning board of

supervisors. my name is tracy watson. >> chairman: good morning. >> good morning board of supervisors and my san francisco family and friends. >> chairman: ms. watson, you are frozen. you need to get to a better cell spot. that's a little better. you've got to get closer to a good spot. >> clerk: in addition to that, we suggest that you stop walking to allow -- >> to counsel. >> clerk: we lost you for a little bit due to technical issues. we suggest that you stop moving because that's causing a bit of delay and we'll start your time over once you get settled.

you are on mute, ms. watson. >> is that better? >> chairman: that's better. >> okay. cool. awesome. so, thank you. sorry about that. sorry for that. so, again, my name is traci watson. i am a native of san francisco and i am a former seat six holder of the shelter monitor and committee and i've served i guess for the past four years and minus last year. so that would actually be three. and, i would like to be considered for another year because of my past service and my passion for the homeless community. i started off working in the

shelter system with united counsel. i worked with the family shelter, the women's shelter. i also worked over at united counsel shelter. i also worked at a woman's place, brockman shelter and also the transitional housing at 1138 howard and then i went to 2211 13th street and that's where i first got the passion of working in the homeless -- working on wanting to serve on the shelter monitor committee as an employee over at c.a.t.s. and working with my co-workers and when the s.m.c. council came in and did a walk through and my concern why i wanted to get on the board is because of the staff that they were hiring

and lack of empathy and just the de-escalation, the lack of i want to say training for de-escalation working with the homeless community and the importance of that. i am a former recovering addict for 11 years. i just celebrated 11 years clean from crack cocaine myself. i've never been homeless, but i did choose to like, you know, to go to be on the streets and to hang out in tents or we hung in campers and stuff like that. so i'm very familiar with that lifestyle. go ahead. >> clerk: we have -- we were trying to keep the comments down to two minutes. your two minutes has elapsed. >> thank you. >> chairman: thank you, ms.

watson and thank you for your past and i suspect future service on this body. why don't we open this up to general public comment. are there any individuals who would like to comment on this item number two? >> clerk: yes. members of the public call (415) 655-0001. the meeting i.d. is 24836130377. then press pound and pound again. if you haven't already done so, please dial star 3 to line up to speak. a system prompt will indicate you have raised your hand. please wait until your system has indicated you have been unmuted and you may begin to speak. at this time, we have no callers in the queue. >> chairman: going once, going twice, any individuals who would like to testify on this item? seeing none. public comment is closed.

and, seeing no comments from committee members. oh, supervisor chan. >> supervisor chan: thank you, chair peskin. i want to say thank you to all the applicants. it's really a challenging job to be on the committee, but most importantly, thank you so much for all of you sharing your personal stories. it is very challenging and hard to put yourself out there and tell your stories and be more about but i just want to express my thanks to all of them today. >> chairman: thank you. and let me associate myself as they say with supervisor chan's comments and appreciation and, with that, why don't we forward these four individuals with recommendation to the full board of supervisors. mr. young, on that motion, a roll call please. >> clerk: chair peskin, i believe that ms. almanza will need a residency waiver. >> chairman: with a

residencyware for said individual for said seat as has been granted in the past. >> clerk: yes. on motion to appoint cris plunkett to seat two, gabriela avalos to seat three, diana almanza to seat four with a residency waiver recommendation and traci watson to seat six. on that motion, [roll call] the motion passes without objection. >> chairman: thank you, mr. young. could you please read item three and four together. and, ms. david, congratulations on your first time out and we will look forward to your quarterly reports and have a good productive week. all right. mr. young. >> clerk: yes. item number three is a motion approving the mayor's

nomination for appointment of vanita louie to the recreation and park commission for term ending june 27, 2025. and item number four is a motion for approving/rejecting the mayor's nomination for appointment of laurence griffin to the recreation and park commission for term ending june 27, 2025. >> chairman: thank you, mr. young. a seven member body which pursuant to the charter of the city and county of san francisco are all appointed by the mayor and pursuant to section 3.100 of the charter are subject to review and indeed rejection by a majority of the board of supervisors. i don't think that is going to happen in the case of these two

individuals, but it is really an opportunity for this body and the board of supervisors to get to know these individuals, to talk about the issues of the day at rec and park and to have the public be able to see that and express themselves as well. i know both of the applicants. mr. griffin, who is the subject of item number four for many years. and, ms. louie in the last number of years most recently as she retired from business and gotten totally involved in community things of all stripes. much of it in the community that i have the honor of representing in the northeast corner of san francisco our beloved chinatown. so thank you for joining us this morning and congratulations on your appointments to the recreation and parks department or

commission. i would be remiss if i did not also say that there has as if you were around for item number one, around for item number one, the issue of behested payments that a number i don't know if they have official firms of the group. although, they've got some slippery friends to what we now know of the tragic cespool and i'm not saying that their 1800 workers are in any way guilty directly or by association with what their former department

head did but it has been a tragedy of the city and county of san francisco that we are still digging out of and implicated in the midst of that, it wasn't the public works alliance, it was the parks alliance which has led to increasing sensitivity around the relationship between recreation and parks department and the parks alliance and we've heard no shortage of problematic stories including, let's be frank, i had the pleasure of meeting ms. louie on friday and she was very forthright about it, the public harassment of elected officials by the parks alliance. so i think it is important that we have this conversation not only for this panel and our colleagues to get to see you and talk to you and the public to witness that, but also given

the relationship between rec and park and really the important role that the commission can and should play as a governmental oversight body in ensuring that these sensitivities and concerns are appropriately addressed, i think we can say today is well timed. i have some questions, but let me before we hear a statement from ms. louie and i have same questions i'll ask the two candidates. let me defer to my colleagues. vice chairman mandelman, do you have anything you want to add or say. >> supervisor mandelman: only that iknown mr. griffin for a

very long time. i've gotten to know ms. louie a little more recently and have heard many good things about both of them, but i'll leave it at that for now. >> chairman: supervisor chan. >> supervisor chan: thank you, chair peskin. i think i want to first thank really the former commissioners both commissioner allen lowe and commissioner eric mcdonald for their service on the commission. they have represented communities that really have been most underserved in san francisco's parks system historically and for far too long and i think that they fought a good fight and they tried really hard to represent and so it's good to also see that, you know, mayor breed has appointed, you know,

respectively both ms. louie and mr. griffin to the seats for representation. i do have questions actually the same questions for both as well, but i do have a very specific one for ms. louie whenever chair peskin deems it appropriate for me to ask; but i do agree and share the sentiment with chair peskin that ultimately my question for both is the accountability and transparency of how the city department in this case really rec and park makes those decisions by the services that they provide to our communities and particularly for those who we identify to be in equity zone. that's including chinatown or bayview and just obviously i

represent the west side of the city. but in my case, in the district, richmond playground. i just really want to make sure we serve our communities equitably and whether it's that pay to play culture should have nothing to do with our park system. knowing that it is the most funded park system in the nation that was reported by bloomberg and supported by the data that provided by trust for public land and, yet, when it comes to equity that means social economic and racial equity in our parks system, san francisco doesn't even make top ten. i've said that before and i'm going to repeat this information point today to emphasize why i think that, you know, your appointments are critical at this point for the

city department and for the city park system to make sure that even as we recover from the pandemic that we invest our dollars, but invest our services for those most vulnerable and in need. so thank you. >> chairman: thank you, supervisor chan. we may well have the same similar questions for the two appointees. as much as i wanted to call you over the weekend and ask you what you were going to ask, i did not want to have a meeting of a quorum of this committee and in any way violate the sunshine or brown act, so i'll start with i have -- we could spend the rest of the day on this, but relative to the various issues that are out there, i think you just touched on an important and profound

one around equity and resources. i've got three and, supervisor chan, i think you're very familiar, probably more familiar with any other member of the board of supervisors given your history as a long time member of the recs and parks staff a number of years back. so i know you're familiar with this. but, i just wanted to touch on the tension a little bit less in recent years, but certainly, it's still out there around the issue of privatization, use of clubhouses by third parties. controversy around the botanical garden and membership, the issue the fact

that certain facilities are free for san franciscans, but are not free for non-san franciscos, the notion that the board just grappled with in this budget of surge pricing if you will to certain facilities like the tea garden and koit tower and i just wanted to, but we'll start, but i just wanted to give you a heads up of where i was going to go, ms. louie. we'll start with your opening statement. but i also wanted to get your position on nonprofit staffing versus city staffing on park facilities and how rec and parks can ensure that programming is community based and culturally competent and affordable if not free to all. but with that, ms. louie, i will start by welcoming you. thank you for taking the time to reach out to me on friday.

i saw you at chinatown night out last wednesday. i see you in the community all the time. and thank you for your good community work. with that, ms. louie, the floor is yours. >> well, thank you and good morning chair peskin and supervisor chan, supervisor mandelman and larry. so i want to thank you for giving me this opportunity because it is truly an honor and privilege to serve the city of san francisco. i learned firsthand about service from my mother who served as a social worker in the city. had a city job for 17 years. she was a case manager and she made regular home visits to low income residents and families who lived in the tenderloin. she would come home every day and say, "oh, what a hard day." but for 17 years, i would

frequently hear her say "i love my job." i was born at chinese hospital like bruce lee was and lived in the richmond district and went to public schools and then we went to anta vista when i was in high school. i want to just say i was raised in the community by the community and chinatown and the rec center were like our baby sitters and this is where i learned to swim, play guitar, and made life long friends, learned to socialize attending all those rec camps and these programs basically kept us chinatown kids out of trouble. and, having two grown daughters lindsey and julie, i put them through the same programs. i would fight every summer for cooking culinary camp and so on and so forth. so we need to make sure and ensure these programs continue to be available for all

families and youth and seniors throughout the city and i really want to focus on keeping these programs affordable and reasonable and it was especially highlighted through this poignantly covid pandemic. i hope to continue the work of commissioner allen lowe, the champion especially in our chinatown and um, portsmith square, he leaded along with supervisor peskin and supervisor chan and many of the other supervisors along with the chinatown leaders and leadership team and so i want very much to become part of this team and i want to listen and learn from them and from you. so speaking on building on that, i need to commend supervisor chan for the work and leadership that you have

given through your service and work through the rec and park and you continue to do so in district one, continue to serve the underserved and you know i want to continue that work and build on it. so when it comes to mind after this wonderful weekend of the autumn festival, i think that betty ann transformed into this beautiful facility for all families and it's very deserving. i know betty would be proud. it certainly does not look like the same recreation that i went to all summer, so it's projects like this that i am really excited to be apart of and, having said that, there are projects down the pipeline, very important projects, you

know, the rec center, the port smith square, the japanese tea garden are places that i grew up going to and together with the leadership team, with the supervisors, i want to lead with my heart and i want to sit down with each members of the board of supervisors to see what parks and concerns and things they have to share with me and through that, i thank you very much for this time. >> chairman: thank you, ms. louie. so i just want to follow up on my first question about regarding staffing by whether nonprofits at our clubhouses or by city staff what your position is on that and your position on ensuring that

programming is community based and i think you just touched on that a little bit and affordable if not free to everybody residents and non-residents alike. where you're at on that. >> i will do whatever it takes to have equity fairness. i think it's very important that we look at our own residents as far as hiring and, you know, given many people are out of work, it's very important that they are given the opportunity to serve and to be a part of this beautiful city. so, through the nonprofits, i know there's a lot of workforce programs out there and so i would love to see that they would hire and treat jobs with fairness and in this way, it will help to provide a lot of

economic struggles that a lot of people are going through. >> chairman: thank you. and, then, we touched on this a little bit when we visited friday morning last friday and, of course, the parks throughout the city, but the one that i represent and chinatown lies in is obviously the densest part of the city with among the least amount of open space per capita, but the parks that we do have are as we know, you know, remarkably precious assets whether washington square and willy woohoo wong playground that you cited in your statement that in our committee packet and, of course, the living room of chinatown and the northeast corner the port smith square which thank you to the voters of san francisco on the eve of a long needed and much awaited

renovation, but those precious assets that serve everybody from low income seniors to folks living in, you know, very cramped conditions have been protected by a voter approved ordinance, proposition k the shadow ban around that offered 35 years ago put on the ballot and, today, there are many developers particularly in the downtown area and some of their political supporters who want to repeal that ordinance, but, meanwhile, it is the law, voter-approved law and i think polling has shown that the voters are in no mood to repeal it which is why developers have not managed to get it on a ballot because a repeal would lose. but some of those parks have indeed gotten additional shadow even though they are deemed to

be 0 tolerance parks because the commission has voted to increase the shadow distance for those parks. so i want to know what you think about that and how you'll represent the people throughout the city, but particularly people in the northeast corner are subject to potential shadow because high-rises are more likely to be built in and around the downtown. although, there have been shadow impacts in other parts of the city. so how will you represent that >> i just have to be truth ful

with you. i am not up to speed on all the shadow over the parks. i know prop k was adopted a long time ago and it was critical at that time. and, you know, to prevent degradation of our parks, i would like to make personal site inspections and be informed of all the technical analysis and look at all that. but as a commissioner in reviewing these projects, asia doe does and would impact many projects and as the city grows taller and above and if additional shadows casted on shadows that already exist, that would be a concern for me.

so it would impact us sitting in the park. take, for example, the willy woohoo wong, as i mentioned to you, supervisor peskin. i sit there with a cup of coffee, you know, java, i sit the boys play basketball around 3:00 p.m. or 4:00 p.m. and i noticed on my own without the shadow top inc. coming up that the existing buildings already cast a pretty dark shadow. it's hard to see the ball. there's a tennis court there. so i noticed that on my own, but so, you know, as things -- san francisco, i'm not against redevelopment. it would certainly be a case to case examination of the project, but i am willing to listen and learn and i'm very excited to be apart of all that. >> chairman: all right.

thank you for that answer. and then, as i referenced earlier around the dynamic tension between this board, members of this board, the department, and the parks alliance which has been under increased scrutiny and as set forth in the controller's report operated as a piggy bank for the departments where department heads have basically instructed them how to spend money that they've directed to these shadow accounts. would you be in support of the requirement that would subject the parks alliance and other similarly situated nonprofits and the rec and park department wherein the commission would have to approve the expenditure

by the parks alliance in excess of $10,000? do you have any thoughts on that given the current dynamic that we are situated in? >> yes. so i want to say the philanthropic partnerships are vital but where two rivers never meet is never calm. the situation that i learn about reading about the things that are going on and the misfunneling of money and donors, i'm very concerned and i liked what i heard from item number one, the suggestion of a donee reporting.

so with the very recent memo random of understanding the page that's structured for the rec and park and the parks alliance, i know that document is not binding at all, but it's very important to see how the stakeholders are held accountable. procedures and reporting and requirements, know what the -- let the right hand know what the left hand is doing i think is very -- it will be very beneficial. so as a commissioner, you know, we ultimately are accountable for to the public and it's nice that we have a framework whereby we can keep all the stakeholders accountable to make disclosures, to file reports, you know, auditing. so i particularly like i

mentioned to supervisor chan on our zoom call, i particularly as a resident and what i learned did not appreciate the tone of the letter that she received. i believe that there are -- my technique would have been to have the parties come together and hear things out, but not send a written letter like that. you know, it was like a ransom note, you know. so i really seriously can appreciate that. it was not what san francisco is about and not a way of how we should communicate with others. so i -- there was one section exhibit a, section c where it talked about, you know, the way that the two parties would fund something, but i didn't see any language in there like it was

suggested in recommended from item number one. so it would be nice to see who some of the donors are that are donating. i think we should see. i myself, write a check, my name appears on a donor list. so i would like to see that maybe adopted into the m.l.u. although it's only a one-year document. i would not want to extend it without adding some kind of language in there to make the donor kind of accountable for so that we can avoid uncomfortable situations. >> chairman: all right. supervisor chan. >> supervisor chan: thank you, chair peskin. ms. louie, i think my two questions for you and one, the first one is going to be the same for both is that how do

you -- knowing that for the commission, obviously, you're one of the seven that but nonetheless, you're sitting on the daius, how do you approach making sure and holding the city department accountable both in the recreational programming or just decision making. which park or playground or recreation facility for renovation and so just kind of want to understand your approach for holding rec and park accountable and making sure the process is transparent in terms of decision making. >> so, supervisor chan, are you speaking about a specific project or how i would approach

-- >> supervisor chan: yeah. i think just in general how would the approach, you know, holding rec and park accountable, what is their approach? i think the second question that i have for you is actually specifically about port smith square knowing that it wasn't in the most recently proposed bond. port smith square wasn't part of the proposed bond, it took the community to come forward to actually fight for it to be part of the bond even though the community went through a million dollars in outreach and a lot of effort in it including the conversation around the bridge, including the conversation about what they would like to see in the clubhouse and the playground. everybody knows it's the living room of chinatown. everybody cares about it.

it's where everybody gathers through all the chinese holidays, especially chinese new year parade. so the first part of the question is, how do you hold the city department accountable and transparent? in that, a good example is the port smith square that it was not on the part of the bond. the community actually had to come out and fight for it and thanks to the support of supervisor peskin and my predecessor and norman yee that really put together the support for the community in order for it to include port smith square. how would you approach a situation like that in holding the city department accountable so we don't lead to this effort that the community feels like they have to fend for themselves? >> so i would just pay attention to the facts. get to know the project, approach each project with

honesty. hold, you know, whoever's involved accountable. keep everything transparent. work with the community leaders. work with the community, go out there and see the project and i know that our beloved port smith square was not on the first list, but thank god it's on the second list. and so things take time. i want to judge and approach each one with fairness, work along keep my close touch with the rec and park. get to know phil ginsburg. i know to see these things through, every case will be different, but i would wholeheartedly hold each project wholeheartedly go out, meet the community, see what they have to say, bring this information back.

so that's how i would approach each issue. and, as far as port smith square, yes, we all agree supervisor peskin as well as yourself and commissioner allen lowe as well as the other community heads in chinatown. i attended one of the meetings and i was very impressed with how a vision was made, how commissioner lowe help bid with, you know, the departments and even with our mayor to get port smith square on the list. so i'm coming in at a real good time because a lot of the hard work has already been done, but i'm looking forward to putting my small feet in commissioner lowe's big shoes and see this through and together with the

community continue to do the work that and the motivation and the excitement about making port smith square our center stage, our crown jewel and a long overdue awaiting renovation. i'm happy to see it make fruition in my lifetime and it's very vital for all the 15,000 plus residents that live in around i know we have a small number of parks and, you know, there's just not very many parks in open space and even during pandemic, you know, you've got to get out of your little four walls and they have nowhere to go but their open space. it's vital and essential. health and recreation keeping the recreational programs

affordable for everywhere. you know, my brothers and sisters in the bayview, it's very essential for, you know, equity and cultural awareness. >> supervisor chan: thank you, ms. louie. i think i want to say that i had a chance to express my commitment to port smith square renovation and really the support for the chinatown community. i know that it's not the district i represent, but it's really where my heart has always been. it's where i grew up, but, you know, i think, yeah it's just the overall equity for all communities across san francisco, but chinatown and port smith square, i had the impression and the commitment from mayor breed, you know, and

she recognized my commitment to it and the fact that and shared that commitment with me and she committed to the port smith square renovation and making sure we make improvements and i really appreciate that support from the mayor as well. you know, i just want to give a last shout-out all across a.a.p.i. communities in san francisco just not that i don't or won't urge all commissioners to recognize that. and i'm going to share that burden with you, ms. louie, you know, when you come to the table, you bring that perspective. and that's a burden we share and i want to give a shout-out to the japantown community and they have suffered with the renovation of the japantown

peace plaza. the japantown community also has suffered greatly during this pandemic not just for merchants, but for the residents as well in that there is a leak that has been ongoing in that parking garage that the city actually had a settlement with. we really need rec and park to step up to the plate and commit and fix the leak in the garage and making sure that the peace plaza is maintained well for the community. that is key critical to the vitalization of the japantown community as well. so i'm going to stop there, but i probably will turn to mr. griffin for his questions very same thing is just really about how the whole city department like rec and park accountable, making sure that the decision process is transparent. we know that bayview in this valley say former legislative

aid to sofie maxwell. we know it's in need of clean up in district 10 as well, but just also making sure that buchananal in western addition continue to push forward with that, and again, japanese -- japantown, peace plaza and even the japanese tea garden in golden gate park. those are all in dyer need of repair, they somehow have been neglected, but i think that's because communities of color need to come to the table and representation and need to continue to push forward in our system. thank you. >> chairman: thank you, supervisor chan. supervisor mandelman, any questions or comments? >> supervisor mandelman: not especially. i would like to i think echo your question concerns about shadows in parks.

that's something that i am also concerned about and i do think there could be a slow sort of gradual project by project minor change here and minor expansion shadow there and pretty soon you've gone deep into taking away a public benefit and i also share, you know, the concerns that chair peskin raised around privatization. i do think it's a tricky balance of finding ways to get additional revenue for this department and i think the department has been excellent at that and also ensuring that the public benefit is for the public. i'm curious, the chair doesn't have to answer this for me now and it has come up before. intuitively to me, i'm not sure given how much san franciscans pay in taxes and the heavy

burdens that they often bear that it's a terrible ask of visitors that to our great public spaces, but we don't have to talk about that now. i'm just sort of curious. >> chairman: some of that and this is maybe a conversation for another place and time but some of that actually was discussed by the board during the budget as it related to the surge pricing proposal which i think the board understood and addressed. i mean, the reality is san francisco's general fund is

actually quite generous with rec and park. it's always struck me as a traveler when you go to many places and i can name many of them where the traveler is treated different. it's always a less appeal i think a city can actually make its parks referral. then again, i'm the guy who didn't think that our shared spaces should be boarded up at night because they're on public right of way. i've certainly held beliefs about the public comments, but probably a conversation for another place and time we will, after we talk to mr. griffin public comment on both items. mr. griffin, seeing no other

questions for ms. louie. please make an opening statement and i think supervisor chan will ask you the same questions. the floor is yours? >> thank you, chair peskin and supervisor mandelman and chan. it's great to see all of you. my name is laurence griffin, however, most people know me as larry. more specifically golden gate park with my neighborhood park being the. some michigan favorite childhood members took place in those parks. first, in the lower hate eight

that's where i was born and then from when i was eight years old until now in the western addition also known as the nopa neighborhood. my family was not able to pack the car and drive up to russian river. our recreation was in our city parks as it is for so many families facing the constraints and limitations of the covid-19 pandemic. my background has consisted of years of public service and many years as a union representative. my public service consisted of working for the human rights commission, then several years with project safe, i then worked through the district attorney's office in the support bureau also known as child support and then transferred over to the criminal division. from there, once i left there,

i began my own labor career and i say that to distinguish that of my father who was a long respected labor leader with the local 1100. i went to work for local 250, hospital health care workers union where i started as a business representative and later became the political director. for local 250 i went to work for local 21 as a staff person organizing mid level professionals in oakland. i then worked for the city and again until my retirement in june of last year right in the middle of the pandemic. that's not the ideal time to retire, but i did it.

some of my civic activity include serving on the board of the booker t.2021. six years as president on the board while we completed a $35 million rebuild of the center which included 50 units of housing 25 which were designated for k transitional age youth aging out of foster care and that gave them a place to land in 24 units of below market rate housing. i would like to add that booker t. celebrated our 100th anniversary last year. i also served as an assembly member for j.c.r.c., the jewish community relations council. and my nomination be confirmed, i will always strive for transparency and also give the voices of the public's concern on issues the highest priority.

i've heard just recently on the issue in speaking with you last week, chair peskin, the issue of the shadows and some of the parks in chinatown. i would like to really delve into that and take a look at that and learn more about the issue. every book i've read on the history of san francisco, is always has a huge part of port smith square in it going back to when the city was founded. so it is the heart of the chinatown community now, but i think it's the heart of san francisco actually and it should be protected that way. i thank you for your time and i'm sure you have questions for me. >> chairman: thank you, mr. griffin. well, you just answered one of mine. you kind of answered two of mine. why don't i go directly to the

-- i mean, insofaras the parks alliance has, inessence, been the alter ego of the department. would you support a requirement subjecting the parks alliance and giving the commission authority over approving expenditures in excess of $10,000 and how would you curb the problematic intermingling of resources and the government between the parks alliance? >> i would really like to take a real close look at this m.o.u. that has just been done and also take a real look, i mean all of this came together real quick for me. i also want to read the

controller's report. i want to delve into it. i have concerns about the parks alliance, however, they fulfill a very important philanthropic role in helping to keep the parks beautiful i think there were some things that got out of hand, but hopefully that has been remedied in going back to the issues with mr. nuru and also what supervisor chan was subjected to was outrageous and i -- it's something that really needs to be looked at. i understand the concerns of people. i understand, aaron.

i'm sorry, supervisor peskin. >> chairman: that's okay, larry. >> with the $10,000 limit, however, i'm not opposed to it, but i'd really like to take a look at it. both vanita and i are looking at this from the outside. we were not apart of that commission yet. we don't have the authority to call phil ginsburg and ask him about some of these issues. i'm sure, as i'm going through this process, but not as a sitting commissioner. as a sitting commissioner, i think it gives you a different type of authority. and, i'd like to work along with the president of the commission. i know he's got a lot of experience. he's been there a long time. i know him. i respect him and i want to delve in. >> chairman: thank you,

mr. griffin, or larry if i may as i usually do when i get to see you at lunch outside of the city hall. and appreciate your comments. and just do want to say to a great extent, the parks alliance is basically an off chute of the department. it is the 22 employees who, by the way -- actually, it's more than that. 24 or 25 or 26 employees that the parks alliance have are living off the fat of your land. so as far as i'm concerned, they are, in essence, employees of the rec and park departments for all intensive purposes. we will deal with that on another day, but thank you for your opens with that. and with that, i'll turn it over to supervisor chan. >> supervisor chan: thank you, chair peskin. and, mr. griffin, i heard so many great things about you and

i've heard so much about you as well. i do have the same question that i had for ms. louie really is what is your approach to hold. i think you already answered some of that but when you are on that dayus in just kind of feeling with the staff and their presentation, presenting facts and which park to renovate and all that, what is your approach to hold them accountable and how do you make sure that their decision making process is transparent to you and to the public? >> by asking questions and getting to the bottom of those questions and getting a real answer, not the answer they may think i want to hear. i want to hear the facts. and that's the only way i believe i can hold people

accountable. i've been on the commission before. i was also on the fire commission before. i think that our role is civilian oversight. well, this isn't civilian. i'm going back to the fire commission, but it is civilian oversight. we're there to protect the public. one thing that i really need to get into and look at is the strategic plan i've seen referred to a couple of times. i haven't seen it yet and i want to read that strategic plan. i think that would give me a lot of insight into where the department has said it's going. hopefully it's going in that direction and if it's deviating somewhere, the questions again. and i hope that answers your question, supervisor. i don't know another way to hold them accountable. sit in a corner and no computer for a week.

i don't know. >> supervisor chan: thank you. i think that is essentially the job of the members of the board as well at the board of supervisors that we cannot ask for more than just keep on asking questions. i do agree with that approach. i think all too often the problem stems from not asking the questions at all and just stance in projects and programming not just for rec and park but just across from city departments. so i appreciate that approach. from where i stand today, i am in support of your both of your appointments. i think that given where we're at, both of your experience,

both of you, your experiences and your just i think they -- the interest to serve bodes well for you and i look forward to seeing your appointments through and look forward to working with you and asking rec and park questions. so, thank you so much. thank you, chair peskin. >> thank you very much, supervisor. >> chairman: thank you, mr. griffin, a.k.a. "larry" and thank you supervisor chan. why don't we go to public comment. are there any members of the public who would like to comment on items three and/or four? >> clerk: yes. members of the public who wish to provide public comment on these items should call (415) 655-0001. the meeting i.d. is 24836130377, then press pound and pound again.

if you haven't already done so, please dial star three to line up to speak. a system prompt will indicate you have raised your hand. please wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted and you may begin your comments. we currently have six callers on the line for public comment. >> chairman: first speaker, please. >> good morning. and, with respect to supervisor peskin, chan, and mandelman. my name is harry all. brother of betty ann ah. i have sent in an e-mail of my letter of support for ms. louie. i urge you to advance and approve mayor london breed's appointment of vanita louie to the san francisco recreation and park commission. vanita would be a tremendous

addition to the commission and their governing and maintaining the parks and recreation facilities. thank you. >> chairman: thank you. and, sorry for your loss 20 years ago. next speaker, please. >> hi. yes. to chairman peskin and supervisor chan and supervisor mandelman, my name is richard swat and i am a retired nurse from san francisco general for 40 years and after retirement, i became president of the chinatown rotary. so i'm here to speak. i have known vanita for a number of years, over eight years and i just wanted to say that she would be an incredible person to be on that board. i've seen her up close. her passion for san francisco

for community and specifically for the chinatown community and she is just, well, she's incredibly committed. she's hardworking and i want to emphasize hardworking and very innovative. she has a thirst for fairness and i've seen her up close her eagerness to meet and to learn and to find resolutions. she's a person that really wants to focus on cooperation and transparency. and, especially, that's brought up in the many months about port smith square and japantown peace center and the tea garden and all that's going on there and she really is one that sees the public benefit and that's the focus she's with. she's all about renovation and alliance and cooperation and transparency and i really think that she would be an incredible addition and i'm here to

support her and thank you for your time. >> chairman: thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi, supervisors. my name is irene riley. i'm calling to support ms. -- so sorry. -- vanita louie's appointment to rec and park commission. she will be a great candidate to be a great commissioner for the rec and park. >> chairman: thank you, ms. riley. and i saw you the other day and hope you're well. next speaker, please.

>> my name is faye tam. i live in district one. i live in district one and i'm 72 years old. >> chairman: ms. tam, can you turn down your -- >> i thank you for the new goldman center. >> chairman: ms. tam, can you turn down your computer. if you turn that down, we want have the reverberations. >> oh, i'm sorry. >> chairman: thank you so much. >> okay. and -- >> chairman: turn down your computer, ms.tam.

go ahead, ms.tam. go ahead. >> okay. she believes vanita is a pickle ball player and i'm a tennis player. >> chairman: vanita is a yoga practice player and a pickle ball player, these are true facts. >> and she believes in fitness and she will be wonderful as a great support for the need for port smith square project and i'm in favor and so are the members of the rotary club of san francisco chinatown. thank you. >> chairman: thank you. next speaker, please. >> can you hear me now? >> chairman: we can hear you, mr. pillpell. >> david pillpell again.

thank you. so this is on items three and four taken together? is that correct? >> chairman: that is correct. >> i do not know ms. louie yet, but i think she did a fine job in answering questions and it sounds like she has a wealth of experience she would bring to the commission. i just had a couple of notes in general. i would hope that both appointees and for that matter, all members of the rec and park commission would note the requirements and responsibilities under charter sections 4.113, 16.107, and admin code section 2a 117 and the rec and park code which is not that big or long, for example, the 4.113 requirement about structures in parks and use of park property and all that since that came up recently in connection with the

ferris wheel project. i think it would be useful to rotate the commission officers. mark buhl has been president of that commission for a long time and i think it would be useful to have other members serve as president and vice president, no offense intended to mr. buhl. also, the board of supervisors is amend administrative code section 10 high pressure 103 contributions or gifts to a public vote and adjust the thresholds there for donations, gifts, etc. and, finally, on item four, i strongly support this appointment. i too have known larry griffin for many years and his city and political experience and history would serve us well and i look forward to him and for that matter, both individuals serving on the rec and park

commission. thank you for listening. >> chairman: thank you, mr. pillpell. next speaker, please. >> hi. good morning. good morning. this is gloria chan and i am a long time friend of ms. louie. and in my professional career and in my personal life. i've known her to be a very strong community advocate, you know, participating and supporting community in many neighborhoods including chinatown, richmond, and sunset. you know, i've always known ms. louie to be, you know, a person of great integrity and she is always thought to voice her concerns on issues that she -- that are close to her heart and she takes a great value in supporting the asian immigrant

community. but i also know that she's somebody who will support equity issues because that's very important to her and she's very inclusive of our san francisco community and i'm really just excited that she's given this opportunity to continue to serve in the city of san francisco. so i definitely wish our two appointments all the best, you know, and i'm very excited. i look forward to being able to work with them. thank you. >> chairman: thank you, gloria. good to hear from you. next speaker, please. >> good morning, chair peskin, supervisor chan and supervisor mandelman. i'm a resident in district six and i'm calling in to support vanita louie's appointment to the recreation and parks commission. i know vanita very we're a

nonprofit organization that works in the fight against hepatitis b and liver cancer and vanita served as a board member and utilizes her skills. it's important because one in twelve asian american and pacific islander adults are chronically infected with hepatitis b and it's also known as the silent killer. if left untreated, it can create liver cancer. and vanita is great and is a hard worker and knows how to mobilize against a disease that affects the a.p.i. community and i believe her past trend in the community will benefit the community as a whole. and i'm excited to see her serve in that capacity and i am excited to see the continued representation of the a.a.p.i. community here in san francisco. thank you. >> chairman: thank you. are there any other members of the public who would like to

testify on items three or four? >> clerk: i believe we have three additional speakers at this time. >> chairman: next speaker, please. >> hello, this is eva lee from the chinatown merchant association. i would like to strongly recommend vanita louie. i've known her for many years. she's creative and hardworking and resourceful. and supervisor, i just saw you the other day at the autumn moon festival and we really need the revitalization of our area and i certainly look forward to the renovation of port smith square and i know vanita would do a good job in helping in that effort. she's very passionate about her community and i can't say enough about her. as you know, doing the festival

it's a lot of hard work going through all these years and i'm sure that i know vanita will be the type of person like me that really is committed to the community. so i really hope that you will support this recommendation and place vanita on the park and rec. she'll do a fantastic job for you guys. thank you. >> chairman: thank you, eva. and thank you for yet another successful autumn moon festival. next speaker, please. >> hello supervisors. supervisor chair peskin, supervisor chan, mandelman. i'm also on boards of many things. but anyway i want to post my support for vanita louie. i think everybody who's known

her for such a long time. people who know vanita, she's a problem solver and as a commissioner and i believe also a strong business and now what it's like not to get a paycheck every two weeks and i think knowing that a commissioner is with the people and out with the people like vanita is at all these events and board meetings that i've seen her at. i truly support vanita louie to be one of the park commissioners on the park and rec. thank you very much and thank you, vanita, and larry for volunteering to be a public servant. thank you. >> chairman: thank you,

steven, i mean commissioner lee. next speaker, please. >> good morning chair peskin and supervisor chan and supervisor mandelman. i'm in full support of vanita louie. i've known vanita for the past several years. we both have strong commitments too. the newly immigrating young children in chinatown. and she continued to volunteer with the young children with reading sessions to enhance their learning of english and enabled the schools to require laptops and books. enhanced their learning experiences. her love of children continues with the work of the children in residence and day care for women in transition from abuse, sexual assault and

homelessness. vanita has provided a lot of fun loving arts and crafts for the young children in transition throughout these recent years. much of her volunteer commitments are consistent with the major component of the mission of the rec and parks department. and as mick o'zario was testifying she was a leader on the hepatitis board for the bay area, as the former chair of that board, i want to emphasize that her leadership and her ability to bring people together and to help educate the larger community about the consequences of hepatitis b and liver disease that results if it's not taken care of. vanita has also for many years contributed in the chinatown rotary club as places like community and during the past 18 months of this pandemic, she has assisted with the

distribution of foods ppp spleeus. as you heard from her presentation, she is a native san franciscan and comes from a family of leaders in chinatown. >> chairman: thank you for your testimony. you've reached your time limit. are there any other members of the public who would like to testify on these two items? >> clerk: we are just double checking. there is one more caller. >> chairman: next speaker, please. >> yes, hi, my name is stuart wong. i'm a community health advocate. i fully support and endorse vanita's recommendation to the park and rec commission. she's had active participation and communication in many programs. i recently recruited vanita. she's a very active member in

the api community ask is involved in many organizations and as a san francisco native will bring her knowledge and experience to the park and rec commission. she understands the balance and the needs of the residents and visitors in using our parks. she's keenly aware of the responsibilities of the commission and maintains rec and park for residents and users. i'm proud and wholeheartedly ready to support vanita's appointment to the park and rec commission. thank you. >> chairman: thank you. are there any other members of the public? going once. >> clerk: we have one more call that just popped up. >> chairman: all right. >> this is larry. thank you very much. my name is larry yee. chair peskin, vice chair

mandelman and to member connie chan. i'm the president of the chinese company. i grew up here in chinatown and also was born in chinese hospital. i played throughout the parks here when i was young and i continued into my young adult so i know what vanita has done and i've known their family for over 20 years and they're a hardworking and i have known vanita's family and her husband and i truly support her no, ma'am nomination as the rec and park commissioner and we continue to break the glass ceilings for women.

i'm very proud of her and very proud to be here to say. i am speaking to the rules committee that please voter in and we're looking forward to working with her in the community and this coming four years, actually. so on item number three, on item number four, larry griffin, i have worked with him as a union member for over twelve years. we have sat side by side fighting for the working class, the economic injustice that happened so, he's an excellent choice as well. so you have two great nominees. i hope you vote them in in this coming full board meeting. thank you very much. >> chairman: thank you. are there any other members of

the public after commissioner yee on items three and four? >> clerk: there are no more callers in line to speak at this time. >> chairman: all right. public comment is closed. thank you to the members of the public who testified and to the two appointees. good to see you both again and look forward to working with you in your tenure has members of rec and parks commission and every once in awhile i do associate myself with the words of the member of the public david pillpell who i think admonitions were good in this instance. so heed those admonitions please and, colleagues, i would suggest that inso far as based on the proceedings today and pursuant to charter section 300

subsection 18 that this committee and the board do not want to exercise their authority to reject these appointments that we table these two items. i would like to make a motion to table items three and four, on that motion, mr. clerk, a roll call, please. >> clerk: yes. on the motion to table item numbers three and four, [roll call] the motion to table the matters is adopted without objection. >> chairman: we are adjourned. thank you all. welcome back.

shop and dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges residents to do their shopping and dining within the 49 square miles of san francisco. by supporting local services within our neighborhoods, we help san francisco remain unique, successful, and vibrant. so where will you shop and dine in the 49? >> my name is ray behr. i am the owner of chief plus. it's a destination specialty foods store, and it's also a corner grocery store, as well. we call it cheese plus because there's a lot of additions in addition to cheese here. from fresh flowers, to wine, past a, chocolate, our dining area and espresso bar.

you can have a casual meeting if you want to. it's a real community gathering place. what makes little polk unique, i think, first of all, it's a great pedestrian street. there's people out and about all day, meeting this neighbor and coming out and supporting the businesses. the businesses here are almost all exclusively independent owned small businesses. it harkens back to supporting local. polk street doesn't look like anywhere u.s.a. it has its own businesses and personality. we have clothing stores to gallerys, to personal service stores, where you can get your hsus repaired, luggage repaired. there's a music studio across the street. it's raily a diverse and unique offering on this really great street. i think san franciscans should

shop local as much as they can because they can discover things that they may not be familiar with. again, the marketplace is changing, and, you know, you look at a screen, and you click a mouse, and you order something, and it shows up, but to have a tangible experience, to be able to come in to taste things, to see things, to smell things, all those things, it's very important that you do so.

>> we have private and public gardens throughout the garden tour. all of the gardens are volunteers. the only requirement is you're willing to show your garden for a day. so we have gardens that vary

from all stages of development and all gardens, family gardens, private gardens, some of them as small as postage stamps and others pretty expansive. it's a variety -- all of the world is represented in our gardens here in the portola. >> i have been coming to the portola garden tour for the past seven or eight years ever since i learned about it because it is the most important event of the neighborhood, and the reason it is so important is because it links this neighborhood back to its history. in the early 1800s the portola was farmland. the region's flowers were grown in this neighborhood. if you wanted flowers anywhere future bay area, you would come to this area to get them.

in the past decade, the area has tried to reclaim its roots as the garden district. one of the ways it has done that is through the portola garden tour, where neighbors open their gardens open their gardens to people of san francisco so they can share that history. >> when i started meeting with the neighbors and seeing their gardens, i came up with this idea that it would be a great idea to fundraise. we started doing this as a fund-raiser. since we established it, we awarded 23 scholarships and six work projects for the students. >> the scholarship programs that we have developed in association with the portola is just a win-win-win situation all around. >> the scholarship program is

important because it helps people to be able to tin in their situation and afford to take classes. >> i was not sure how i would stay in san francisco. it is so expensive here. i prayed so i would receive enough so i could stay in san francisco and finish my school, which is fantastic, because i don't know where else i would have gone to finish. >> the scholarships make the difference between students being able to stay here in the city and take classes and having to go somewhere else. [♪♪♪] [♪♪♪] >> you come into someone's home and it's they're private and personal space. it's all about them and really their garden and in the city and urban environment, the garden is the extension of their indoor environment, their outdoor living room. >> why are you here at this

garden core? it's amazing and i volunteer here every year. this is fantastic. it's a beautiful day. you walk around and look at gardens. you meet people that love gardens. it's fantastic. >> the portola garden tour is the last saturday in september every year. mark your calendars every year. you can see us on the website >> we worked very hard with the san francisco venue coalition, the independent venue alliance to advocate for venues. put this issue on the radar of

the supervisors and obviously mayor breed. the entertainment commission and the office of small business and we went to meetings and showed up and did public comment and it was a concerted effort between 50 venues in the city and they are kind of traditional like live performance venues and we all made a concerted effort to get out there and sound the alarm and to her credit, maybe breed really stepped up, worked with matt haney, who is a supervisor haney was a huge champion for us and they got this done and they got $3 million into the sf venue recovery fund. >> we have represented about 40 independent venues in san

francisco. basically, all the venues closed on march 13th, 2020. we were the first to close and we will be the last to reopen and we've had all the of the overhead costs are rent, mortgage, payroll, utilities and insurance with zero revenue. so many of these venues have been burning $1,000 a day just to stay closed. >> we have a huge music history here in san francisco and the part of our cultural fab lick but it's also an economic driver. we produce $7 billion annual' here in san francisco and it's formidable. >> we've been very fortunate here. we've had the department of emergency management and ems division and using part of our building since last april and aside from being proud to i

can't tell you how important to have some cost recovery coming in and income to keep the doors open. >> typically we'll have, three to 400 people working behind the teens to support the show and that is everything from the teamsters and security staff and usualers, ticket takers, the folks that do our medical and the bar tenders and the people in the kitchen preparing food for backstage and concession and the people that sell key shirts and it's a pretty staggering amount of people that are out of work as a result of this one verne you going tarkanian. it doesn't work to open at reduced capacity. when we get past june 15th,

out of the into the blue print for our economy we can open it it 100% and look at the festival in full capacity in october and we're just so grateful for the leadership of the mavor and dr. coal fax to make us the safest ♪ america and this is been hard for everybody in san francisco and the world but our leadership has kept us safe and i trust them that they will let us know when it's safe to do that. >> a lot of people know about america is military stuff, bullying stuff, corporate stuff. when people like me and my friends go to these foreign country and play music, we're giving them an american cultural experience. it's important.

the same way they can bring that here. it sounds comfy buyia, you know, we're a punk band and we're nasty and we were never much for peace and love and everything but that's the fertilizer that grows the big stuff that some day goes to bill graham's place and takes everybody's money but you have to start with us and so my hope is that allel groups and people make music and get together because without out, hanging together we'll hang separately, you know. >> other venues like this, all over the place, not just in the san francisco bay area need to exist in order for communities to thrive and i'm not just talking about the arts communities, even if you are here to see a chuckle bucket comedy show and you are still experiencing humanity and in specific ways being able to gather with people and experience something together. and especially coming out of the

pandemic, the loss of that in-person human connection recovering that in good ways is going to be vital for our entire society. >> it's a family club. most our staff has been working with us for 10 years so we feel like a family. >> what people think of when they think of bottom of the hill and i get a lot of this is first of all, the first place i met my husband or where we had our first date and i love that and we love doing weddings and i expect there to be a wedding season post 2021 of all the make up we haddings and i hope that many people do that because we have had so many rock ep role weddings. >> i told my girlfriend, make

sure you stand at the front of the stage and i can give you a kiss at midnight. at this got down on one knee at the stroke of midnight. it wasn't a public thing, i got down on one knee and said will you marry me and is he she had are you [beep] kidding me and i said no, i'm dead serious and she said yes. we were any time homicideel of the show. we just paused for new year's eve and that was where i proposed to my wife. this is more than just a professional relationship it's more than just a relationship from a love of arts, it's where my family started. we'll always have a special place in my heart. >> venues, you know, represent so much. they are cultural beckons of a

city. neighbors can learn and celebrate and mourn and dance together. venues and arts and culture are characterized as second responders to crisis and they provide a mental health outlet and a community center for people to come together at and it's the shared history of our city and these spaces is where we all come together and can celebrate. >> art often music opens up people to understanding the fellow man and i mean, taz always necessary and if anything, it's going to be even more necessary as we come out of this to reach out and connect with people. >> we can sustain with food, water and shelter is accurate and does anybody have a good time over the last year? no. >> san francisco is a great down. i've been here many years and i love it here and it's a beautiful, beautiful, place to

be music and art is key to that. drama, acting, movies, everything, everything that makes life worth living and that's what we've got to mow proteasome no san francisco and that's what is important now. [♪♪♪]today. >> (clapping.) >> i've been working in restaurants forever as a blood alcohol small business you have a lot of requests for donations if someone calls you and say we want to documents for our school or nonprofit i've been in a position with my previous employment i had to say no all the time.

>> my name is art the owner and chief at straw combinations of street food and festival food and carnival food i realize that people try to find this you don't want to wait 365 day if you make that brick-and-mortar it is really about making you feel special and feel like a kid again everything we've done to celebrate that. >> so nonprofit monday is a program that straw runs to make sure that no matter is going on with our business giving back is

treated just the is that you as paying any other bill in addition to the money we impose their cause to the greater bayview it is a great way for straw to sort of build communicated and to introduce people who might not normally get to be exposed to one nonprofit or another and i know that they do a different nonprofit every most of the year. >> people are mroent surprised the restaurant it giving back i see some people from the nonprofit why been part of nonprofit monday sort of give back to the program as well answer. >> inform people that be regular aprons at straw they get

imposed to 10 or 12 nonprofits. >> i love nonprofits great for a local restaurant to give back to community that's so wonderful i wish more restrictive places did that that is really cool. >> it is a 6 of nonprofit that is supporting adults with autism and down syndrome we i do not involved one the wonderful members reached out to straw and saw a headline about, about their nonprofit mondays and she applied for a grant back in january of 2016 and we were notified late in the spring we would be the recipient of straw if you have any questions, we'll be happy to answer thems in the month of genuine we were able to organize with straw for the monday and at the end of the month we were the recipient of 10 percent of precedes on mondays the contribution from nonprofit monday from stray went into our

post group if you have any questions, we'll be happy to answer theming fund with our arts coaching for chinese and classes and we have a really great vibrate arts program. >> we we say thank you to the customers like always but say 0 one more thing just so you know you've made a donation to x nonprofit which does why i think that is a very special thing. >> it is good to know the owner takes responsibility to know your money is going to good cause also. >> it is really nice to have a restaurant that is very community focused they do it all month long for nonprofits not just one day all

four mondays. >> we have a wall of thank you letters in the office it seems like you know we were able to gas up the 10 passenger minivan we were innovate expected to do. >> when those people working at the nonprofits their predictive and thank what straw is giving that in and of itself it making an impact with the nonprofit through the consumers that are coming here is just as important it is important for the grill cheese kitchen the more restrictive i learn about what is going on in the community more restrictive people are doing this stuff with 4 thousand restaurant in san francisco we're doing an average of $6,000 a year in donations and multiply that by one thousand that's a

lot to

good afternoon and thank you all so much for joining us. i want to begin by thanking our attorney general rob bonta for coming here to the visitation valley community. it's really great to have you here in san francisco, but especially in this particular community and thank you for cohosting this round table discussion that was so important to talk about the challenges that exist around hate crimes in this city and in this state. especially as we have seen an uptick in violent hate crimes against so many of our communities in san francisco and the bay area and across the state and nation. in just a few short months on the job, he's already taken

action on a number of initiatives related to criminal justice reform and racial justice which are issues that we all care about deeply in san francisco. thanks to the commitment of the community leaders that are joining us here today, so many folks who have been really on the ground addressing these issues for decades, our police chief bill scott who is with us as well. we just had a very productive discussion on how we can continue to combat hate crimes by working together. we know that there's no short cut to this work and finding the root cause and solutions will require a continuous work in these and continuous conversations of sharing of ideas not just when something happens, but also proactively when something isn't happening. to address hate crimes at their

core, we need buy-in from local community support from law enforcement and a commitment from all levels of government here in san francisco. we're steadfast in ensuring that every community is heard and protected. whether it is work around violence, prevention, and racial justice, our partners have experience and have worked tirelessly and collaboratively with 1 another to combat these issues. today, as i said, we are in visitation valley because we remember when grandma wang as she was brutally attacked almost two years just a block away from here at the visitation valley playground. grandma wang was doing her morning exercise when that tragic incident happened and sadly, she struggled for a year before passing away earlier this year. none of this should of happened

and we want to send a clear message, an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. we will continue to stand in solidarity and here in san francisco, we will do everything we can to bring perpetrators of crimes of this nature to justice. leaders here are taking action and banning together and partnering and we're doing so because we know how important this is. an example of this work can be found in our expansion of the street violence intervention program with community youth center and self-help for the elderly and members of the street violence intervention program and i want to thank sarah wang for really taking aggressive action and working with the community to make sure that people know that we're going to have eyes and ears on the streets, but we're also going to make sure that we support and look out for our

seniors. part of this expansion, includes patrolling neighborhoods in the city and responding to hate crimes against our asian community. another part of the program provides seniors with escorts to go with them while buying groceries and seeing doctors so they can feel safe when running their errands. our goals with these two programs are to build the trust of these diverse communities and increase public safety for everyone in san francisco. just over a month ago, i was tagging along with sarah wang and the members of the street violence prevention program as they were engaging with merchants and customers along this commercial corridor or leeland avenue. a lot of times merchants feel left out right here, but often times i had a chance to talk with merchants from the restaurants and coffee shops, they felt hopeful to see this effort and this partnership and they asked that we stay

consistent, especially the community engagement from c.y.c. and svip. it's offered the support to those members to use the restroom or have a place to relax and i'm sure many of these great places to eat along leeland avenue have been some of their favorites. it takes a village and we know how to do this in san francisco. this really gives me hope because we're making a difference and residents and merchants are feeling the difference. we're committed to addressing xenophobia and we're here to support the visitation valley community and all of our partners in san francisco. and, i look forward to continuing this great work with attorney general bonnta who knows how critical these issues are in san francisco. before i bring the attorney general up, i just want to recognize him and his efforts in listening to communities

across the state. as leaders, it's easy for us to sit in the offices and go about our work and the fact that attorney general bonta is committed to not only doing the round table here in san francisco, but throughout the state in all of the major cities is so key to turning things around and keeping people safe. he's not waiting for the attacks to occur, he is being here, being proactive so that we can make a difference. he's here to listen and to take action and we will be working together hand in hand on policy changes, on investments and on whatever needs to be done so no one has to be a victim of a crime in any part of our city or our state. and, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome attorney general rob bonta.

>> well, thank you all for being here today and thank you mayor breed for your very kind remarks. thank you for your leadership, for seeing and valuing and fighting for all of the beautifully diverse communities right here in san francisco as we talked about inside. san francisco has been a leader, a model, has often and so consistently demonstrated policies and approaches that lift people up and make our community stronger and has often been a place where the state of california has scaled up those policies that have started right here in san francisco. so i'm thankful and proudtor here in san francisco today with mayor breed, chief scott, and all of the great community leaders that you'll hear from today, that you'll hear from momentarily. and to talk about how we move forward and i was very inspired and i'm leaving very hopeful and optimistic about our shared

future, our common future and our common commitment to addressing the epidemic of hate crimes. that spike in hate incidents that have impacted so many communities. no community is immune as we know. we certainly are well aware of the huge increases in anti-api violence. our black community, our sikh community, our lgbtq community, our disability community have all suffered and our conversation today was a good reminder that we're all in this together, that we're going to move forward together or not at all and we can move forward when we have conversation when

we listen, when we communicate as we just did. today's very important because this is the launch of thir teen of these round tables i'll be doing across the state where we sit in community, where we join a common circle and talk about our challenges and how to move forward and it was very appropriate that we started in san francisco today. given san francisco's historical and consistent leadership. and how it has always demonstrated that we celebrate our diversity and our diversity is our strength and so i appreciate the opportunity to be here and over the next few weeks, i'll be in different places all over the state having similar conversations to uplift best practices to highlight and illuminate our solutions so that we can prevent and heal as we address this epidemic of hate throughout our state and throughout our nation.

as california's attorney general, i see myself as being the people's attorney and it's important for me to see and value and protect every community and for so many of our communities, for too many of our communities right now we are in a full on state of crisis. a full state of emergency when it comes to hate and, you know, the statistics are alarming and they're shocking. we know that across california, hate crime events increased 31% across the board last year. anti-asian hate crimes in particular increased an alarming 107% and right here in san francisco, home to the lgbtq rights movement, anti-gay hate crimes accounted for over 25% of all hate crimes in the last decade. and, of course, statistics can illuminate and they tell a story but they don't tell the full story and so i was very

thankful and grateful for the opportunity to hear directly from community members and impact from community members who shared their own stories. personal stories, painful stories about themselves. about the communities they fight for and they're trying to uplift and i appreciated that conversation today and, you know, it's going to take all of us to do this work. and, there's no you know there's no cure all, but there are many ways to make progress and we heard about many of those ways today being victim centered cross racial healing circles. the list went on and on for how we can make progress and when we can make progress, we should. when we can take a step forward together, we must and so we

identify many pathways to improve our work going forward. and in a few weeks, i'll be in my fifth month in office and since the day i swore in i've been addressing the epidemic of hate recognizing that too many of us for too long in this state have felt the sting of hate. tomb communities, you know, myself included. this is personal work for me as well. we got to work on day one taking on the forces of hate and that's why i've established the racial justice bureau to help tackle the rise of hate that's why i've issued new guidance to better understand hate crimes in california. it's why we've launched the office of community awareness and response to directly engage with and respond to the needs of communities and it's why i've pledged to keep working to do more, to lean in, and to

continue this fight and doing that working with our local communities like right here in san francisco. because we know that we must protect those hurt by the forces of hate and hold accountable those who perpetrate hate violence against our neighbors. and, you know, it didn't always seem like this, but it's like this now. for many of us, everyday life has come with an additional worry. whether it's going to the grocery store, picking up your children from school, riding a bus going for a morning walk. in these moments, too many of us right now are asking ourselves, could i be next? and the stakes are too high to sit back as mentioned by the mayor, we're only blocks away from where an 89-year-old grandmother was senselessly assaulted and left to die. and, hate and prejudice cannot and will not be tolerated, plain and simple.

as your attorney general with the full weight of the law and the california constitution behind me, let me say this, there is no place for hate in california or anywhere, any time period. full stop, end of story. and, across our different cultures and identities, today, we came together to affirm this fundamental truth. across our differences, we are united in making sure that our neighborhoods and our cities are safe and healthy and prosperous for all. nothing is most important. let me close by saying this. my parents are social justice champions. i grew up as a young child. i had the blessing and the privilege of growing up in la paz. from a young age, i've worked

with my parents. while they worked alongside iconic leaders and phillip veracruz that when you see injustice, you need to fight to correct it and injustice against one is injustice against all. today, we reaffirm the us, not the me that we're all in this together and that we will rise together or not at all and as i take on injustice in many forms, as the people's attorney, we are very laser focused on taking on hate incidents and hate crimes as the people's attorney, i thank you. next, we'll be hearing from sarah wong, the executive director of the community youth center. >> thank you, mayor breed. and thank you for all the brothers and sisters behind me.

today's round tame is truly inspiring, but it's also emotional to me. i think especially the asian communities are going through a lot of pain. even it runt one community doesn't feel safe or community doesn't feel safe and today when we have our own discussion, we talk about sharing a lot of similarities across different communities that we're dealing with anti-immigrant hate, anti-muslim hate. anti-lgbt hate, all kind of hates that we see right now is a crisis. at the same time, because of this round table that we're here across the board, but also

how we're going to coordinate together to really move forward to combat this kind of hate and violence. for everyone i really feel hopeful. we did talk about the challenge that we're facing including underreporting, language barriers. victim services. the lack of cultural competency services across the board. but we also talk about how important it is to really have violence prevention strategies. how will one make sure that we don't only respond when there is a crisis. so, that we don't always have to rely on gofundme and things like that when something happens, when tragedy happens. so i really feel very hopeful and i'm really looking forward to work together from the state and also the city level to ensure the safety of all

communities. thank you. >> i'm a member of the st. gregory arminian church of san francisco. after this meeting, we feel more secure knowing that the attorney general, the mayor, the chief of police, they've made it crystal clear that hate will not be tolerated at all on any level and that there are consequences to it. division is a source of -- it's a disease and it spreads through society and it's, we cannot have a civil functions society with hate and there will be consequences and 0 tolerance and san francisco's at the forefront of it and we

need to set an example not just in our city, but in had our state and for the entire country that hate be not be tolerated at all. thank you. >> thank you. happy to answer any questions if you have any. >> so in 2021, we've had 83 reported hate crimes. let me say this, that does not tell the whole story and 59% of those were against asian, people from the aapi community. and let me just point out one thing of those 59% which is 49 hate crimes, 30 of those was committed by one person who is now in custody and has been filed on by our district attorney. as was said repeatedly by all the speakers, we will not

tolerate it. there's no place in our city and there's no place for it in our state and we want to hold those accountable. >> can you talk more specifically about the arrests for hate crimes and that you understand the percentage of being prosecuted. >> like i said, 30 of the 83 is one person and so those 30 are cleared and we have solved other crimes. we have not solved others. we're still working on that case and we need the public's help on these things. these are very difficult situations because in addition to the reported hate crimes that meet the statutory evidence of what constitutes a hate crime, we know the incidents are happening day in and day out and i want to take this as an opportunity to

encourage everybody to report these types of incidents. report crime. there are no areas to report in crime. so we solve many of them. we don't solve all of them, but we need to work with our community members and the people standing behind me to support this effort to make sure we don't have those events in our city and if we do, people are held accountable swiftly with all the might of the world behind it. thank you. >> reporter: [inaudible] >> yeah. we did put out a press release. i do have that information. so we can get it to you. >> reporter: and then for an individual like that, [inaudible] ? >> like everybody else, he has the right to it a fair trial. he's in jail right now. so that's important as well. we'll see what the outcome in, but he is in jail right now.

okay. thank you. >> one last question. >> reporter: [inaudible] so i wanted to ask people usually meant a hate crime is usually closely in line from the [inaudible] but the hate [inaudible] what kind of behavior? >> thank you for your question, the question is about hate crimes versus hate incidents and what qualifies as a hate crime for something that might still be a hate incident which does not necessarily qualify as a hate crime. there are specific definitions under the law and the facts must meet the threshold of that law to qualify as a hate crime. i encourage us to use that hate crime statute. that's a tool that we have to

do what chief scott and some of our speakers were talking about earlier to make sure that people know that there is no room for hate, not here, not anywhere not know, not ever and so that's what they're there for. as far as hate incidents, i know there's debate, dialog, and discussion right now about maybe potentially changing some of those definitions, but might still be a hate based incident. and as tools, if they come online, they should be utilized as well. it's encumbent on all of us. and there's multiple dimensions to this. we need to make sure we're focusing on prevention as well from occurring in the first place and there's been some great work being done right

here in san francisco, having some of our seniors who might be vulnerable so that a hate crime can be supported as well. so critical and so important and even if they're a victim of a hate incident, they're support so i think that's an ongoing debate about what we can do to address nonhate crimes, but it's encumbent upon us to use every tool in the tool box and that hate is unacceptable. period. end of story.

>> reporter: [inaudible] >> yes, they did. >> reporter: [inaudible] >> no it does not. >> reporter: [inaudible] >> yeah. i'm happy to respond to that. san francisco is a major city, it's a city that has challenges of a major city and what we have tried to do is to put policies in place to combat those challenges. that when they see the amazing golden gate bridge and they see this beautiful home and this

library you feel good when you walk through the door. there's a lot of beauty, but within that beauty, there's a lot of diversity and here in san francisco, what we do is we talk about that diversity as a strength of our city. how amazing it is that you could be in visitation valley and then you can just go right over the hill and be in the bayview hunter's point. you can go to chinatown. you can go to little italy. all these different neighborhoods and have a completely different experience. so i think that san francisco we should be celebrating and highlighting the beauty, the uniqueness although as one of the densest cities in the country but most importantly, that should not take away from

the beauty of this city and how amazing it is. thank you all so much for joining us.

>> supervisor melgar: welcome to the september 13, 2021 meeting of the land use an