>> working with kids, they keep you young. they keep you on your tones -- on your toes. >> teaching them, at the same time, us learning from them, everything is fulfilling. >> ready? go. [♪♪♪] >> we really wanted to find a

way to support women entrepreneurs in particular in san francisco. it was very important for the mayor, as well as the safety support the dreams that people want to realize, and provide them with an opportunity to receive funding to support improvements for their business so they could grow and thrive in their neighborhoods and in their industry. >> three, two, one! >> because i am one of the consultants for two nonprofits here for entrepreneurship, i knew about the grand through the renaissance entrepreneur center, and through the small business development center. i thought they were going to be perfect candidate because of their strong values in the community. they really give back to the neighborhood. they are from this neighborhood, and they care about the kids in the community here. >> when molly -- molly first told us about the grant because she works with small businesses. she has been a tremendous help for us here. she brought us to the attention of the grand just because a lot of things here were outdated,

and need to be up-to-date and redone totally. >> hands in front. recite the creed. >> my oldest is jt, he is seven, and my youngest is ryan, he is almost six. it instills discipline and the boys, but they show a lot of care. we think it is great. the moves are fantastic. the women both are great teachers. >> what is the next one? >> my son goes to fd k. he has been attending for about two years now. they also have a summer program, and last summer was our first year participating in it. they took the kids everywhere around san francisco. this year, owner talking about placing them in summer camps, all he wanted to do was spend the entire summer with them. >> he has strong women in his

life, so he really appreciates it. i think that carries through and i appreciate the fact that there are more strong women in the world like that. >> i met d'andrea 25 years ago, and we met through our interest in karate. our professor started on cortland years ago, so we grew up here at this location, we out -- he outgrew the space and he moved ten years later. he decided to reopen this location after he moved. initially, i came back to say, hey, because it might have been 15 years since i even put on a uniform. my business partner was here basically by herself, and the person she was supposed to run the studio with said great, you are here, i started new -- nursing school so you can take over. and she said wait, that is not what i am here for i was by myself before -- for a month before she came through.

she was technically here as a secretary, but we insisted, just put on the uniform, and help her teach. i was struggling a little bit. and she has been here. one thing led to another and now we are co-owners. you think a lot more about safety after having children and i wanted to not live in fear so much, and so i just took advantage of the opportunity, and i found it very powerful to hit something, to get some relief, but also having the knowledge one you might be in a situation of how to take care of yourself. >> the self-defence class is a new thing that we are doing. we started with a group of women last year as a trial run to see how it felt. there's a difference between self-defence and doing a karate class. we didn't want them to do an actual karate class. we wanted to learn the

fundamentals of how to defend yourself versus, you know, going through all the forms and techniques that we teaching a karate class and how to break that down. then i was approached by my old high school. one -- once a semester, the kids get to pick an extra curricular activity to take outside of the school walls. my old biology teacher is now the principle. she approached us into doing a self-defence class. the girls have been really proactive and really sweet. they step out of of the comfort zone, but they have been willing to step out and that hasn't been any pushback. it is really great. >> it is respect. you have to learn it. when we first came in, they knew us as those girls. they didn't know who we were. finally, we came enough for them to realize, okay, they are in the business now. it took a while for us to gain that respect from our peers, our male peers. >> since receiving the grant, it has ignited us even more, and

put a fire underneath our butts even more. >> we were doing our summer camp and we are in a movie theatre, and we just finished watching a film and she stepped out to receive a phone call. she came in and she screamed, hey, we got the grant. and i said what? >> martial arts is a passion for us. it is passion driven. there are days where we are dead tired and the kids come and they have the biggest smiles on their faces and it is contagious. >> we have been operating this program for a little over a year all women entrepreneurs. it is an extraordinary benefit for us. we have had the mayor's office investing in our program so we can continue doing this work. it has been so impactful across a diversity of communities throughout the city. >> we hope that we are making some type of impact in these kids' lives outside of just learning karate. having self-confidence, having discipline, learning to know when it's okay to stand up for

yourself versus you just being a bully in school. these are the values we want the kids to take away from this. not just, i learned how to kick and i learned how to punch. we want the kids to have more values when they walk outside of these doors. [♪♪♪] >> when i first started painting it was difficult to get my foot in the door and contractors and mostly men would have a bad attitude towards me or not want to answer my questions or not include me and after you prove yourself, which i have done, i don't face that obstacle as much

anymore. ♪♪♪ my name is nita riccardi, i'm a painter for the city of san francisco and i have my own business as a painting contractor since 1994 called winning colors. my mother was kind of resistant. none of my brothers were painter. i went to college to be a chiropractor and i couldn't imagine being in an office all day. i dropped out of college to become a painter. >> we have been friends for about 15-20 years. we both decided that maybe i could work for her and so she hired me as a painter. she was always very kind. i wasn't actually a painter when she hired me and that was pretty cool but gave me an opportunity to learn the trade with her

company. i went on to different job opportunities but we stayed friends. the division that i work for with san francisco was looking for a painter and so i suggested to my supervisor maybe we can give nita a shot. >> the painting i do for the city is primarily maintenance painting and i take care of anything from pipes on the roof to maintaining the walls and beautifying the bathrooms and graffiti removal. the work i do for myself is different because i'm not actually a painter. i'm a painting contractor which is a little different. during the construction boom in the late 80s i started doing new construction and then when i moved to san francisco, i went to san francisco state and became fascinated with the architecture and got my contractor's licence and started painting victorians and kind of

gravitated towards them. my first project that i did was a 92 room here in the mission. it was the first sro. i'm proud of that and it was challenging because it was occupied and i got interior and exterior and i thought it would take about six weeks to do it and it took me a whole year. >> nita makes the city more beautiful and one of the things that makes her such a great contractor, she has a magical touch around looking at a project and bringing it to its fullest fruition. sometimes her ideas to me might seem a little whacky. i might be like that is a little crazy. but if you just let her do her thing, she is going to do something incredible, something amazing and that will have a lot of pop in it. and she's really talented at

that. >> ultimately it depends on what the customer wants. sometimes they just want to be understated or blend in and other times they let me decide and then all the doors are open and they want me to create. they hire me to do something beautiful and i do. and that's when work is really fun. i get to be creative and express what i want. paint a really happy house or something elegant or dignified. >> it's really cool to watch what she does. not only that, coming up as a woman, you know what i mean, and we're going back to the 80s with it. where the world wasn't so liberal. it was tough, especially being lgbtq, right, she had a lot of friction amongst trades and a lot of people weren't nice to her, a lot of people didn't give her her due respect. and one of the things amazing about nita, she would never

quit. >> after you prove yourself, which i have done, i don't face that obstacle as much anymore. i'd like to be a mentor to other women also. i have always wanted to do that. they may not want to go to school but there's other options. there's trades. i encourage women to apply for my company, i'd be willing to train and happy to do that. there's a shortage of other women painters. for any women who want to get into a trade or painting career, just start with an apprenticeship or if you want to do your own business, you have to get involved and find a mentor and surround yourself with other people that are going to encourage you to move forward and inspire you and support you and you can't give up. >> we've had a lot of history, nita and i.

we've been friends and we have been enemies and we've had conflicts and we always gravitate towards each other with a sense of loyalty that maybe family would have. we just care about each other. >> many of the street corners in all the districts in san francisco, there will be a painting job i have completed and it will be a beautiful paint job. it will be smooth and gold leaf and just wow. and you can't put it down. when i first started, it was hard to get employees to listen to me and go along -- but now, >> he is a real leader that listens and knows how to bring

people together. brought this department together like never before. i am so excited to be swearing in the next chief of the san francisco fire department, ladies and gentlemen, let's welcome, jeanine nicholson. (applause). >> i grew up total tomboy, athlete. i loved a good crisis, a good challenge. i grew up across the street from the fire station. my dad used to take me there to vote. i never saw any female firefighters because there weren't any in the 1970s. i didn't know i could be a fire fighter. when i moved to san francisco in

1990, some things opened up. i saw women doing things they hadn't been doing when i was growing up. one thing was firefighting. a woman recruited me at the gay-pride parade in 1991. it was a perfect fit. i liked using my brain, body, working as a team, figuring things out, troubleshooting and coming up with different ways to solve a problem. in terms of coming in after another female chief, i don't think anybody says that about men. you are coming in after another man, chief, what is that like. i understand why it is asked. it is unusual to have a woman in this position. i think san francisco is a trailblazer in that way in terms of showing the world what can happen and what other people who may not look like what you think

the fire chief should look like how they can be successful. be asked me about being the first lbgq i have an understands because there are little queer kids that see me. i worked my way up. i came in january of 1994. i built relationships over the years, and i spent 24 years in the field, as we call it. working out of firehouses. the fire department is a family. we live together, eat together, sleep in the same dorm together, go to crazy calls together, dangerous calls and we have to look out for one another. when i was burned in a fire years ago and i felt responsible, i felt awful. i didn't want to talk to any of my civilian friends. they couldn't understand what i was going through.

the firefighters knew, they understood. they had been there. it is a different relationship. we have to rely on one another. in terms of me being the chief of the department, i am really trying to maintain an open relationship with all of our members in the field so myself and my deputy chiefs, one of the priorities i had was for each of us to go around to different fire stations to make sure we hit all within the first three or four months to start a conversation. that hasn't been there for a while. part of the reason that i am getting along well with the field now is because i was there. i worked there. people know me and because i know what we need. i know what they need to be successful. >> i have known jeanine nicholson since we worked together at station 15.

i have always held her in the highest regard. since she is the chief she has infused the department with optimism. she is easy to approach and is concerned with the firefighters and paramedics. i appreciate that she is concerned with the issues relevant to the fire department today. >> there is a retired captain who started the cancer prevention foundation 10 years ago because he had cancer and he noticed fellow firefighters were getting cancer. he started looking into it. in 2012 i was diagnosed with breast canner, and some of my fellow firefighters noticed there are a lot of women in the san francisco fire department, premenopausal in their 40s getting breast cancer. it was a higher rate than the

general population. we were working with workers comp to make it flow more easily for our members so they didn't have to worry about the paper work when they go through chemo. the turnout gear was covered with suit. it was a badge to have that all over your coat and face and helmet. the dirtier you were the harder you worked. that is a cancer causeser. it -- casser. it is not -- cancer causer. there islassic everywhere. we had to reduce our exposure. we washed our gear more often, we didn't take gear where we were eating or sleeping. we started decontaminating ourselves at the fire scene

after the fire was out. going back to the fire station and then taking a shower. i have taught, worked on the decontamination policy to be sure that gets through. it is not if or when. it is who is the next person. it is like a cancer sniper out there. who is going to get it next. one of the things i love about the fire department. it is always a team effort. you are my family. i love the city and department and i love being of service. i vow to work hard -- to work hard to carry out the vision of the san francisco fire department and to move us forward in a positive way. if i were to give a little advice to women and queer kids,

find people to support you. keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep trying. you never know what door is going to open next. you really don't. you really don't. >> the city has undertaken a pilot program to hook up private privately -- owned hotels. >> the community members say this is helpful for them especially for the seniors and families with kids from seniors being able to connect with the family during the pandemic and

too watch the news has been really helpful during this time where they are stuck inside and are not able to go outside. for families it is important to stay connected to go to school, to get connected so they can submit resumes to find jobs during the pandemic. [speaking foreign language] >> challenges that might seem for the fiber in chinatown is pretty congested. the fiber team found ways around that. they would have to do things such as overnight work in the manholes to get across through busy intersections, and i think

the last challenge is a lot of buildings we worked on were built in the early 1900s and they are not fitted with the typical infrastructure you would put in a new building. we overcame that with creative ideas, and we continue to connect more sites like this. >> high-speed internet has become a lifesaver in the modern era. i am delighted that we completed three buildings or in the process of completing two more. i want to thank our department of technology that has done this by themselves. it is not contracted out. it is done by city employees. i am proud and i want to take a moment to celebrate what we are doing.

>> if i could have your attention. thank you. the look around the room, it is wonderful to see your faces. it is really a pleasure to see wisdom, strength, bravery and leadership. all of the great attributes for the year of the tiger. [applause] >> thank you for being here. on behalf of the heritage foundation, thank you so much for coming to this afternoon's lunar celebration. i am the board chair of the foundation. the foundation's mission is to promote awareness of the asian pacific cultural heritage and great opportunities for

community collaboration. the main event is a celebration of the apa heritage month in may. you will learn more about that later this afternoon. this seven's event will not be possible without all committee members and volunteers. we also are thank full to the reception sponsor amazon. let's give them all a warm round of applause. thank you so much. [applause] now to start our program i have the great pleasure to introduce san francisco's city administrator carmen chu. i really don't have to say more than that, right? carmen chu. how much more do i need to say? i have a list.

a career in public service. mayor's office of public policy finance. elected to serve as district 4 supervisor for two terms. following which she was elected to serve as city assessor. last february carmen was appointed by may or london breed to be the san francisco city administrator overseeing 25 city agendas. please welcome carmen chu. [applause] >> good evening everybody. i am carmen chu, san francisco city administrator. as you can tell from the buzz of conversation the happy faces that we have here that we are so excited to be back in person to celebrate the lunar new year. [applause] on behalf of the city and county, on behalf of mayor

london breed, board of supervisors and elected officials and department heads today we want to wish all of you a very, very happy year of the tiger. (applause). cheers. come on. [cheers and applause.] i want to give a shout out and thank you to jj and claudine who have worked tirelessly to organize this event to make sure we start the year of the tiger off right. claudine, please come on up. yes, you. [applause] here is the certificate of honor on behalf of the san francisco city administrator's office. thank you. [applause] >> i saw on your script it was five more minutes.

co-chairs, please join me. we need to welcome former mayor. thank you for being here. let's start with celebrating lunar new year. trying to connect everybody with this celebration. this is february 7th. it is a prize if you can explain why we chose that day and what is special about this date february 7th. anyone? what? i can't hear you. it is right. commissioner louie. in the lunar calendar, the seventh day of the new year as

long as everybody's birthday. happy birthday everyone. [applause] lunar new year is about gathering of families. we have all done that. looking around the room a number of you are not asian pacific americans. today you are because we appreciate you being here to celebrate with us. in the last year or year and a half in the asian communities we have been encouraging each other to speak up, stand up because of anti-asian hate at the san francisco human rights commission. we also have talked a lot about standing together. we shouldn't stand together and support each other, connect this event today. not only as we kickoff the whole year of cultural celebrations in the city, but we want all of you

to have an opportunity to connect a number of you just told me earlier this afternoon this was the first time you were in city hall in two years. isn't that great? i want to thank you mayor for allowing us to do this. this afternoon is about celebrating families, celebrating communities by first communities coming together. we are thinking this is part of every year in may we have the celebration of asian pacific heritage month. we were thinking what is our theme this year. anti-asian hate, standing together. what we need is to continue to create opportunities for more community bonding. i think what we need is keep on having those opportunities that we can meet each other, learn a lot more about each other and be

friends. it is true. if you know somebody, we are all different. we all come from different places. we get to spend some time together. get to know each other. that can how we appreciate differences. the celebration of apa heritage month in may we are going to be talking about community bonds. that is what we are about. that is what this afternoon is about. i want to thank all of you for taking time to be here. i want be to specifically thank former mayor willie brown for being here. he hasn't missed too many occasions in our community.

[applause]. we are a small organization but very, very blessed with a large community that consists of representatives of from over 10 to 12 different ethnic groups. at the head of it we have very, very fortunate to have three co-chairs working together. thomas lee and everyone bringing a lot. [applause]. to make it all work. this is by invitation only. the reason we invited you because we appreciate you and we want to thank you. unfortunately so many have done so much we cannot introduce every one of you. we have special acknowledgments to make. when i say your name, please

stand. the president of the board of supervisors. supervisor walton for district 10. district 1 connie chan. district three peskin representing chinatown. district four gordon mar. district five preston filmore. >> haney soma. melgar. district eight mandelman representing castro. district nine ronen thenition. district 11 supervisor safai. >> thank you. in paddition to the board of supervisors we would like to welcome the city-wide elected

officials. no particular order. city attorney david chu. [indiscernable] district attorney, public defender har. board member lee and city college trustee allen wong. thank you all for joining us this afternoon. >> last but not least i would like to acknowledge the members of the heritage foundation board. different directors today. the foundation is a small nonprofit with individuals from diverse backgrounds. jj laura.

[indiscernable] steve wilson. irene riley. [indiscernable] scott adams. in the audience are members of the apa heritage celebration committee. in the interest of time we cannot introduce all of you. please note we are so very much appreciative of your participation and service on the committee. thank you so much. [applause] >> really we appreciate the support of the city's family. at this time i would like to introduce our mayor. i don't know how many of you were at chinatown when we kicked off a week ago.

lunar new year is a new beginning, reset for communities, and we are so proud of being in the city where it is one of the safest cities in the country. the mayor has taken tough measures to make sure we are safe and healthy. mayor london breed. [applause]. >> mayor breed: thank you. let me say i can't believe that we are all able to get together again like this. it is absolutely amazing. claudine, the people who work in city hall and our elected officials come to the event because we love coming to the event. not just because the food is so amazing. i don't know if we have food this year. i remember the days on the board

of supervisors. this was a good meal after a long day's work. we are here to support the apa heritage foundation for all of the work they continue to do. not just during lunar new year but year around. to really highlight the importance of the api community in san francisco. one of the things claudine mentioned that is really impactful to me is, sadly, when we started to experience a lot of the hate and the deviciveness and the attacks on the community. the heritage foundation started to build bridges with a number of cross cultural events. they have embedded the work around cross-cultural relationships in their programming year around. i want to thank claudine for leadership and work and advocacy of bringing our communities together to understand one

another, to learn about one another's culture and uplift and appreciate one another. i remember when i was in high school. we always had all kinds of assemblies about the taiwan or chinese or black community just to understand and see just our cultures on full display sparked interest and discussion and understanding. it also sparked togetherness. today we are joined by some of our asian countries. council generals. i want you all to stand when i announce the council general from korea, japan, philippines, indonesia, singapore, mongolia and vietnam. .applause.

and china. building relationships with not just the communities in san francisco but all over the world is very important to us. we are grateful for the partnership with the various council generals who continue to work with us every day. today as we unveil this new stand. it is not about a collector's item. will say to our postmaster general in almost every instance they are so beautiful and fascinating you can't help but want to collect them. we know it is about signifying a new day, new opportunity, every lunar new year is about an opportunity for us to reset and to come together and to just really appreciate life as we know it, especially after dealing with a very challenging

time during this global pandemic. we are grateful to celebrate the year of the tiger, which signifies courage and strength. i know as a tiger myself where i get it from. [laughter] but the truth is i couldn't wait until we got to the year of the tiger. i couldn't wait to this year where we could see all that it will entail, the various events, lunches, performances, gatherings, parade in person for the first time in over two years. [applause]. i want to thank each and every one of you for coming to the celebration, helping to uplift our community. all of the things you have done that have been seen and unseen to have an impact. by just being here today it

demonstrates your commitment and support for the api community in san francisco and this stamp is really another incredible thing that we are able to really show and support and as a matter of fact in honor of lunar new year, maybe we can start writing physical letters and using stamps to mail them other than just mailing bills with those stamps. with that i want to thank you all for coming and looking forward to seeing this incredible stamp. we will hear from our postmaster general before we move to the unveiling so we can get on with the festivities. thank you all so much. [applause] >> thank you, mayor breed. before we go into that i want to acknowledge our reception

sponsor amazon. i would like to invite sally to say happy new year to everyone. >> thank you. you know what they say never stand before a party when there is stamp unveiling. based on what we learn tonight. thank you for coming to my birthday celebration. it is all of our birthdays. thank you for the apa heritage foundation for including amazon and inviting us to sponsor this event. over the last two years amazon is investing in san francisco. looking around the room so many partners we have worked with and to be inspired by. thank you for that. i am told the water tiger is a symbol of courage and action. i want to let you know as amazon continues to invest in the city

we will serve the needs of the community and celebration. thank you for being here tonight. thank you for allowing amazon to be part of it. thank you. >> every year we have been unveiling stamps in san francisco since 1992. i was reminded by my good friends this is the 13th anniversary of the historic announcement of the issue of set of stamps honoring chinese and asian-american cultural heritage in december of 1992. this year's unveiling has special meaning. we hope next year that the national birthday of issue will be in san francisco. it is 30 years of history. something we are proud of. it is a very tiny stamp.

a stamp is an instrument of communication. it represents so many more people to learn about the lunar calendar, what it means, whether they agree or don't agree, what to do on a particular day. there is a lot of history on the lunar calendar. we are happy to have the second postmaster with us today. the acting postmaster of san francisco starting in postal service as letter carrier. over the years he has been operational managers and customer service. after that the postmaster of oakland. now we are happy to have you as the acting postmaster of san francisco. we are having stamp sales outside. after the event feel free to go and if you haven't purchased your stamps, please do to so.

let's welcome the acting postmaster. [applause]. good evening, everyone. thank you for the kind introduction. i am postmaster of san francisco. i am happy to be here on behalf of the post office for the year of the tiger stamp. i would like to thank our speakers, mayor breed, commissioner chang. board president walton and customers and leaders for joining us today. i want to take this opportunity to thank the national organization oca and several local organizations for continued support. in china the tradition of celebrating new year's began thousands of years ago.

the crops and livestock the villages were on the night before the new year. in some versions of the story the brave old man decided to put up red paper around the village and fireworks. frightened by the loud noise and red peeper left without eating the crops. i love this. it symbolizes the human experience and fighting spirit in protecting and caring for our families. since that time the lunar year evolved and the customs are loved throughout the world. the celebration is squarely within the cultural traditions. time to prepare for a fresh start while honoring the past. families come together for delicious food an occasion for good luck and prosperity. this year more than 1.5 billion

people around the world mark the beginning of the year of the tiger. strong, gave, confident and well liked. we could all benefit from the tiger's qualities in the year ahead. let's work together across the globe with confidence better days lie ahead. to the stamp. year of the tiger is created by chu after the director. the lunar year stamp. you will agree the result of the coloration and design that captures the beauty and strength of the tiger and fresh. the design is comtemporarily take and.

[indiscernable] lion or dragon dances performed during the new year parades. it is symbolic meanings of blue, orange and gray. the tiger's head purple to reflect the chinese zodiac. this is from the third series of new years. 1993-2004 and 2020 to present. this event is for celebrating the 30th anniversary announcement of the stamps honoring the chinese asian contribution to this country. announcement was first made at the national convention in august of 1992. former and vailing of year of the rooster in the same year. add to your collection or mail

your new year's greetings. it is our hope it brings you pros pair be, peace, -- prosperity, peace, good luck and much joy. the mayor will join me in unveiling the stamp. (applause). [ muit.

>> shop & dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges resident to do their shop & dine in the 49 within the 49 square miles of san francisco by supporting local services in the neighborhood we help san francisco remain unique successful and vibrant so we're will you shop & dine in the 49 chinatown has to be one the best unique shopping areas in san francisco that is color fulfill

and safe each vegetation and seafood and find everything in chinatown the walk shop in chinatown welcome to jason dessert i'm the fifth generation of candy in san francisco still that serves 2000 district in the chinatown in the past it was the tradition and my family was the royal chef in the pot pals that's why we learned this stuff and moved from here to have dragon candy i want people to know that is art we will explain a walk and they can't walk in and out it is different techniques from stir frying to smoking to steaming

and they do show of. >> beer a royalty for the age berry up to now not people know that especially the toughest they think this is - i really appreciate they love this art. >> from the cantonese to the hypomania and we have hot pots we have all of the cuisines of china in our chinatown you don't have to go far. >> small business is important to our neighborhood because if we really make a lot of people lives better more people get a job here not just a big firm. >> you don't have to go anywhere else we have pocketed of great neighborhoods haul have all have their own uniqueness.

>> this is a huge catalyst for change. >> it will be over 530,000 gross square feet plus two levels of basement. >> now the departments are across so many locations it is hard for them to work together and collaborate and hard for the customers to figure out the different locations and hours of operation. >> one of the main drivers is a one stopper mitt center for --

permit center. >> special events. we are a one stop shop for those three things. >> this has many different uses throughout if years. >> in 1940s it was coca-cola and the flagship as part of the construction project we are retaining the clock tower. the permit center is little working closely with the digital services team on how can we modernize and move away from the paper we use right now to move to a more digital world. >> the digital services team was created in 2017. it is 2.5 years. our job is to make it possible to get things done with the city online. >> one of the reasons permitting is so difficult in this city and county is really about the scale. we have 58 different department in the city and 18 of them involve permitting. >> we are expecting the

residents to understand how the departments are structured to navigate through the permitting processes. it is difficult and we have heard that from many people we interviewed. our goal is you don't have to know the department. you are dealing with the city. >> now if you are trying to get construction or special events permit you might go to 13 locations to get the permit. here we are taking 13 locations into one floor of one location which is a huge improvement for the customer and staff trying to work together to make it easy to comply with the rules. >> there are more than 300 permitting processes in the city. there is a huge to do list that we are possessing digital. the first project is allowing people to apply online for the a.d.u. it is an accessory dwelling unit, away for people to add

extra living space to their home, to convert a garage or add something to the back of the house. it is a very complicated permit. you have to speak to different departments to get it approved. we are trying to consolidate to one easy to due process. some of the next ones are windows and roofing. those are high volume permits. they are simple to issue. another one is restaurant permitting. while the overall volume is lower it is long and complicated business process. people struggle to open restaurants because the permitting process is hard to navigate. >> the city is going to roll out a digital curing system one that is being tested. >> when people arrive they canshay what they are here to. it helps them workout which cue

they neat to be in. if they rant to run anker rapid she can do that. we say you are next in line make sure you are back ready for your appointment. >> we want it all-in-one location across the many departments involved. it is clear where customers go to play. >> on june 5, 2019 the ceremony was held to celebrate the placement of the last beam on top of the structures. six months later construction is complete. >> we will be moving next summer. >> the flu building -- the new building will be building. it was designed with light in mind. employees will appreciate these amenities. >> solar panels on the roof, electric vehicle chargers in the basement levels, benefiting from gray watery use and secured bicycle parking for 300 bicycles. when you are on the higher floors of the building you might

catch the tip of the golden gate bridge on a clear day and good view of soma. >> it is so exciting for the team. it is a fiscal manifestation what we are trying to do. it is allowing the different departments to come together to issue permits to the residents. we hope people can digitally come to one website for permits. we are trying to make it digital so when they come into the center they have a high-quality interaction with experts to guide then rather than filling in forms. they will have good conversations with our staff.

>> good morning and welcome to the february 3rd, 2022, regular meeting of the government audit and oversight committee. i'm supervisor dean preston joined by supervisor mandelman and vice chair chan will be joining us later in the meeting. the committee clerk is john carroll and we want to say thank you to sfgov tv for staffing the

meeting. do we have announcements? >> clerk: the minutes will reflect committee members are participating through video conference to the same extent they were physically present in the board's committee room. the board recognizes public access is essential and invites public participation in the following ways. first, public comment will be available on each item on the agenda. cable channel 26 and sfgov tv are streaming the public call in number at this time. each speaker is allowed up to two minutes to speak. the opportunity to speak will be via phone by dialling 415-655-0001 and the meeting id for today is 2480 575 0296. after you have entered the id, press the pound symbol twice to be connected to the meeting.

your phone line will be muted but you can listen in. when your item comes up on the agenda, dial star 3 to be added to the speaker line. best practices, call from a quiet location, speak clearly and slowly and turn down your television and radio and streaming device to access today's proceedings. also you can submit in writing. you can do so by e-mailing your comments to me, the government audit oversight, john.carroll@sfgov.gov. or you can send to the clerk's office in writing. all this contact information is printed on the front page of any

of the committee agendas, you can consult it there if i go over it too quickly. i'll repeat the access instructions before we go to public input items. >> supervisor preston: thank you mr. clerk. and we are going to at the request of the sponsor of item 1, we are going to hear that after item 2. mr. clerk, if you could please call item 2 out of order. >> clerk: item 2, a hearing on the 2019-2020 civil grand jury report entitled a recycling reality check, what actually happens to things we put in our blue recycling bins. members of the public who wish to provide public comment on this hearing should call

415-655-0001. enter the meeting id of 2480 575 0296. press pound twice and then star 3 to be entered into the queue to speak. you will hear a system prompt that your hand has been raised and then wait to hear you are unmuted and then you can start your comments. mr. chair. >> supervisor preston: thank you mr. clerk. we will first be hearing from supervisor mar's office. i believe we have edward wright, legislative aide for supervisor mar here to present on the item. welcome and the floor is yours. >> thank you chair preston. i appreciate you making time to hear this item. i'm here to offer brief context before turning it over to the department of environment. when it was last before the committee, we were not able to

give final responses and we are able to do that today. our office has prepared a motion updating the responses that we have distributed by e-mail to you all as committee members and we ask you to consider this motion but first, we have the department of the environment here to share specifics on how the three recommendations to the board of supervisors from the civil board have been implemented. >> supervisor preston: thank you mr. wright. welcome. the floor is yours, up to 10 minutes. >> great. let me take a moment to share my screen. thank you supervisors, i'm from the department of the environment and i'm here to share how we implemented the grand jury's recycling education and outreach recommendations.

there we go. before i launch into that, i want to say that i'm very proud that san francisco is leading by example and we're leading the nation in recycling and composting and we're very proud of that. in 2020, the civil -- after examining our program, the civil grand jury commended us on our success, which was amazing. we can attribute this much to our robust community outreach and engagement program. the outreach team provides school education, goes door to door visiting residences and has communication tools like sfrecycles.org and you can make a custom sign for your home or place of business. but there's always room to improve. the civil grand jury asked us to expand the public messaging.

they specifically asked us to share with the public where materials go after collection and processing, specifically on our respective websites. and on the mobile app. they also asked us to provide information on what doesn't belong in the blue bin, primarily to decrease contamination and improve the quality of our recycling stream overall. the department of the environment agreed to implement the recommendations of the jury by july 1, 2021, and update this information every six months. here you can see an example of how the department -- i'll move a little bit so you can see. here you can see how the department implemented recommendation number one. the pie chart shows the total composition of recycling stream and broken up by material types and where it ends up after

processed. this information is also available on our website in spanish and chinese and then embedded translation on their website. for recommendation number two, asked to integrate the same information, where recyclables go after processing on their app. you can see they have added a link on their website. if you visit the website, you would see very much the same thing, the pie chart showing where the materials go. finally, recommendation number three was to share with people what doesn't belong in the blue bin, to decrease contamination overall and clean up the recycling chain. here's an example of showing commonly misplaced materials. we chose to focus on the most

common materials, a simpler message to the public and very problematic, you can see items like surprisingly garden hoses are often ending up in the recycling stream and single use plastic bags and cell phones, batteries, etc cetera. that's just a few things. the department also has this information on their website. and again, this is in multiple languages. some more information if you would like to dig in deeper to the new recycling resources, here's some information and the url's where you can visit the pages. you could also download the app if you are interested to learn more. that's the end of my presentation. thank you so much and i'm open to questions.

>> supervisor preston: thank you, i appreciate the department's work on this. i don't know if mr. wright, if you had additional comments or questions? or supervisor mandelman? if not, seeing shaking heads, i will -- let's open up public comment on this item mr. clerk. >> clerk: thank you. we're checking to see if we have callers in queue to provide public comment on item 2, called out of order. for those watching on cable channel 26 or online or elsewhere, if you wish to speak on the item, call in by dialling 415-655-0001. then enter the meeting id of 2480 575 0296. then press the pound symbol twice to reach us. and then star 3 to enter into the queue to speak. we're delaying for a moment to see if we have callers.

>> there are no callers on the line. >> clerk: thank you. we have no callers. >> supervisor preston: thank you. with no callers on the item, public comment is now closed. i want to reiterate my thanks to supervisor mar and you mr. wright for the follow-through on these. we deal with the civil grand jury recommendations in this committee and did so under supervisor mar's leadership previously and including this item and it is important to follow through on these. so appreciate all your work. based on the information that we have received and i think consistent with what mr. wright has circulated to members, i would like to first move that we prepare a motion responding to

the civil grand jury's request to provide a status update with the following responses. i'm going to read those into the record. as to recommendation number one, the following response, r1 has been implemented as follows. reclolgy and the department of environment launched new web pages for the blue bins available in english, spanish and chinese languages. r2, update of mobile application on july 1st, 2021, to provide information summarizing the recent disposition of blue bin material, key trends identified by graphic elements and as to

r3, has been implemented as follows... launching new web pages addressing what not to put in the blue bin on july 1st, 2021, and continue to provide multi lingual virtual and in person outreach and education about proper separation of waste, compost and recyclables. so, i will first pause and make sure no concerns from clerk, colleagues or bla on those. seeing none, let's call the roll on the preparation of the motion. >> clerk: on the motion for status update on the recommendations in this report, vice chair chan is absent.

member mandelman? >> supervisor mandelman: aye. >> supervisor preston: aye. thank you mr. clerk. i would like to make a motion that we recommend the motion, so prepared to the board of supervisors. >> clerk: on the motion offered by chair preston, that the motion be recommended to the board of supervisors. >> supervisor mandelman: aye. >> clerk: mandelman, aye. chair preston? >> supervisor preston: aye. >> clerk: there are two ayes noting that chan is still absent. >> supervisor preston: thank you mr. clerk and thank you for your work on this, the motion passes and we'll call the first item on the agenda. item 1. >> clerk: agenda item 1 is a hearing to report on hiring time frames, vacancies and ongoing staffing issues for the operation division of public works and how it affects their ability to respond to calls for service.

members of the public who wish to provide public comment on this hearing should call 415-655-0001. today's meeting id is 2480 575 0296. press pound twice and then star 3 to enter the queue to speak. the system prompt will indicate you have raised your hand. wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted and then you can start your comments. mr. chair. >> supervisor preston: thank you mr. clerk. and supervisor safai is the sponsor of this item and appreciate him bringing this before us. before we hear his opening remarks, i want to welcome the various representatives who are present from department of public works, office of city administrator and city resources department and representative of labor local 261. any presenters have up to 10

minutes each. i'll turn it over to supervisor safai, the floor is yours. >> clerk: i do note supervisor safai is connected to the call. >> supervisor preston: are you present and muted or not yet supervisor safai? i'm receiving word that

supervisor safai is not able to join us until 10:30. we are going to go ahead and accommodate that. so with apologies to the public and our presenters, we will go ahead and recess for approximately 10 minutes and be back at >> supervisor preston: welcome back and thank you for your patience. mr. clerk, let's go ahead and call the first item again. >> clerk: item 1 is a hearing to report on hiring timelines and staffing issues for operation division of public works and how it affects their ability to respond to calls of service. members of the public who wish to provide public comment should call 415-655-0001 and enter the meeting id, 2480 575 0296.

press the pound symbol twice and then the star key followed by number 3 to enter to speak. please wait until the system indicates you are unmuted and then you can start your comments. mr. chair. >> supervisor preston: thank you mr. clerk. and as i mentioned before, supervisor safai is the sponsor of this item. i want to thank him for bringing this forward and looking forward to the presentations here. before he gives opening remarks, i want to welcome the various representatives present from department of public works, office of city administrator, city resources department and local 261. thank you for being here and a reminder that any presenters have up to 10 minutes and i will turn it over to supervisor safai for opening remarks and to

introduce the presenters on this item. >> supervisor safai: there's a larger ongoing conversation about vacancies in the city but we're going to keep it to public works today. the first day we announced two years ago when we announced the first case of covid in our city we were having a similar hearing regarding nursing shortages, number of nurses we had in our system, the amount of time, amount of vacancies, the amount of time it took to hire those

nurses. it took about nine months for a nurse to be hired, nine times out of 10 usually they have taken another job. similarly, fast forward to today, there's a lot of conversation about the reorganization of public works. we went through a ballot initiative, i was one of the sponsors of that initiative, i believe it is moving in the right direction. one of the things we have heard from the operations division and department overall, they have a significant number of vacancies. i wanted to bring us back here today to talk about how many vacancies were in public works with a special emphasis on the operations division to examine their ability and how it impacts their ability to respond to calls for service and how it

impacts the issues that public works addresses that many of our districts, all of our districts face when it comes to street cleanliness, illegal dumping, all of the things that public works street tree maintenance, repair, all the things we call on that help our residents know that we're responding but also that we are ensuring we have clean, well kept neighborhoods and that is really important. i know the staff at department of public works, leadership take a lot of pride. the front line workers take a lot of pride. if there's so many vacancies and then the amount of time it takes to fill those vacancies, we're going to have this consistent problem over and over again. not to mention with covid, the amount of people that are out,

the amount of people's positions that have been impacted, all of this led me to call for this hearing today. as our city continues to recover, as we zero in on this focus of wanting to make our city shine and be a more clean and more pride in general for our city, i thought it was important to bring the department of public works here today, we'll also have labor local 261, want to hear if there are any ideas out there. one thing i will tell you and it did end well with the nurse's situation, we have been able to and i think we have talked about this chair preston and others, the time now is less than 90 days to hire a nurse in our

system. we can't use bureaucracy to get in the way of delivering services to our city. i think that's the problem. with that, i'm going to turn it over to bruce robertson, deputy director of financial management from public works. actually we have interim director with us. great. so director short, i'll hand it over to you first to present. we have asked everyone to keep it around seven minutes or so.

thank you interim director short for joining us today. >> i will be brief and hand it to my colleagues. i want to say thank you for calling the hearing and highlighting the importance of hiring at public works. as you know, many of our employees have been working in the field throughout the pandemic, cleaning streets, setting up covid facilities and ensuring that the city has continued to function. they have been doing an incredible job under very difficult circumstances, particularly street cleaning crews who get called to clean the same location over and over again. when i'm out with the field crews, i see what a transformational impact they can have when they respond to address a request for service. supervisor safai, as you noted, i discussed the need to assist our efforts during one of our

clean corridor events and i'm glad to say we have made good progress and you'll hear that from my colleagues. but we are continuing to work on hiring additional staff. i want to note in addition to need to hire laborers, we have many other important vacant positions we need to work on hiring across the board. you noted the need to hire arborists for the pruning program but even our colleagues are underresourced to address the city's needs for hiring. in addition to improving the outcomes and responding to requests for service, getting the additional staff will help reduce the pressure on our current existing staff, who are incredibly hard working. i want to recognize their efforts. many of them have had to work extra shifts and under more pressure than ever with limited resources. i want to thank everyone here

today for your leadership in trying to help address this challenge. unfortunately, public works has one of the highest vacancy rates in the city. this is nothing new. part of that is driven by our need to have project-based funded positions. we need flexibility to hire based on the scope of work. so, we have some positions that are intentionally left vacant to allow for that flexibility. for example, if we receive additional paving program money, then those positions are already existing and we can staff up to address that project based need. another example that we have seen during covid, the need to staff up on steam fitters because there was an increased need for h-vac systems. we appreciate shining the light on the vacancy rates and trying

to make progress in filling those critical positions. but i want to sort of paint the picture that it may be -- the rate is maybe a little bit higher by design, so we have the flexibility when we have a temporary funded project and we need to have that position available. with that, i'll hand it over to my colleagues, bruce robertson from public works, deputy director for finance and administration. >> we'll try to remain within the 7-10 minute time frame.

you have seen this before, just

want to reiterate the large nature of public works and complexity of public works. here's our full time equivalency budget. as you can see, almost 1700 employees budgeted with a slight change in our budget from previous year into the current year. we're still finalizing our budgets for fiscal year 23. in particular, third from the bottom, street environmental services has about 350 fte, which a large majority of those are general laborers which we'll discuss in detail. really wanted to spend a moment on this slide to talk about some of the unique aspects of hiring at public works. there really are unique aspects that make public works a little different. one is the sheer complexity. public works has over 177 different job classifications

represented by 21 different labor unions. that is a lot. we do all appointment types. we do permanent, temporary, seasonal, a large number of project appointments that the director was talking about. we have a high number of project-based positions because we have so many projects on the position and so much project work that varies year to year. our vacancies in many ways are tied to the nature of the work. we have over 200 engineers for instance and many of those, we don't have funding to fill those positions because the client work is not there. during the parks and rec bond,

we needed more landscape architects. we also use a lot of temporary funding to support projects. one of the examples that the director mentioned, the commercial corridor program. the 9916 classification in the budget is only funded through temporary salaries. you see a lot of use of temporary salaries for the filling of those positions because they're not budgeted with a specific budget and annual salary limit. there's only funding in the annual appropriation. that makes public works a little unique as well. and finally, a quick snapshot of where the vacancies are. this is a little dated at this point. we have done some hiring but you can get a sense here of overall vacancy rate is. it is usually around 30-32%. you can see as of december, it

was a little higher at 35.1%. we did run a report earlier this week in preparation for this hearing. that number is just under 30%. i believe 29.8 to be exact. we have made some strides in terms of reducing the overall backlog, including hiring of general laborers, truck drivers and other positions out there on the front line. that's a very quick background and overview. i'll turn it over to the city administrator's office. >> good morning supervisors. so second half of the presentation, i'll speak to first kind of going over the new appointments and employee exits and kind of the trend set we saw and have seen over the last few years and what we hope to address and discuss more about

what our future facing, what it is going to look like. similar to many colleagues throughout the city in fy-20/21, we saw a decline in employee exits and we hope it has bottomed out in fy-21 and starting to hire up. i anticipate we'll continue to see employee exits sort of follow that trend and increase overtime as well. next slide please. as the hearing is focusing on operations, we wanted to take a moment and relay -- take a look at the key positions related to and support the street cleaning. our truck drivers, general laborers and as bruce mentioned, the public service aides. we wanted to show for you all kind of the staffing levels that

we've had for the last several fiscal years and where we are right now. and then there are a number of key measures here and things i just wanted to highlight for you. i think as bruce mentioned, we did hire 19 permanent laborers in january of 2022. we have -- that was considered our first cohort of general laborers. we have a second and probably third and fourth cohorts of general laborers we are currently working on in addition to the permanent general laborers we are hiring, we are hiring as-needed exempt laborers. we have 15 of those and we are actively recruiting for 40 corridor workers right now. there's a lot -- we are focusing a lot of efforts on filling these critical roles. next slide please.

here are some pictures of our amazing employees at work. next slide. so, i have a few slides really on the hiring impacts on public works. the first slide i don't think is is unique to public works but something important to spend a few minutes talking through. covid-19 had an extraordinary impact on us all. what we saw within our department is that really at the beginning of the pandemic, there was pretty much a freeze to hiring in the city because of budget concerns. we were talking about and were concerned about layoffs at that time, positions were not being approved. we were not being asked to fill the majority of our positions. the exception to that, the street cleaning positions and other critical essential workers. as you saw in the numbers overtime, that is an area where we did continue to focus efforts and push to hire as much as we

could. that being said, hiring delays were and still exist. many of our hr processes are in person and paper based and very quickly, hr teams had to convert things digitally. there were delays because of pre-employment processing happens in person. our fingerprinting and medical appointments were and are administered by department of human resources and dph who were very busy during this time. and then finally, i'll talk about the vaccination policy, implementation has continued to have an impact on public works, so it is all of our departments in particular, the operations yard and as well as our return to work place efforts. next slide please. >> supervisor safai: that was the seven minute presentation bell i should mention. >> supervisor preston: three

more minutes is fine, thank you. >> this is the second to last slide. recruitment and retention issues. earlier mentioned, this work is challenging and difficult work. i think in addition, there are staff concerns around the future of public works related to prop implementation and increased scrutiny over the department's work, hiring system changes created some additional work and delays on our side in filling positions and then a shift in the labor market, due to covid-19. and then our final slide, which i think is where i'm hoping we can spend more time on today during the hearing. i appreciate you bringing this up earlier supervisor safai, thinking about strategies. we have public works has graciously funded additional staff working to fill. we have been working and trying to do as much work as i can with

my team to schedule and work on processes, concurrently, thus reducing time to hire. i have reached out to my colleagues at dph and i appreciate you mentioning the nurse hiring. i wanted to make sure any lessons learned on that end, we could possibly implement on the public works side, we would consider those. i am continuing to have those conversations with hr at dph and department of human resources. and then there are some new kind of ideas and things we are looking to around how do we have alternative testing approaches for civil service hires and then potentially just thinking through how we can get the high priority recruitments through in terms of approvals to move to fill. and with that, that concludes our slide deck and we are available to answer any

questions. thank you very much. >> supervisor preston: thank you and supervisor safai before the next presenter, i want to welcome our vice chair supervisor chan to the hearing today. >> supervisor safai: thank you. one of the things that jumped out at me that is pretty shocking is that you have about 500 plus positions in your department that are vacant but over 300 plus of them are in the operations division. that's over 60% of your vacancies in operations. and so, we feel the most heat -- we field the most calls and

pressure for everyone involved in public works around operations as it relates to the conditions of our streets and city in general. and when we're operating at a 300 plus shortage of staff in that area, it is no wonder that i hear things like we're spread very thin, we can't respond to all calls as quickly as we want to. so one of the real key questions and this was not answered in the presentation, what is the average time it takes to hire staff in your department? this whole hearing was spurred from being out in the streets with your operations division and hearing from them they had over 70 positions in one specific area that were vacant and they had been waiting for a considerable amount of time to hire those positions. i think the first basic question is what is the average amount of time? we use the example of the nurses. they were starting out at nine

months to hire. the reality is what i hear from talking to people that have gone through the process, it usually takes about a year. and at the end of the day, by the time you come back to someone after a year, a lot of times they have gone on to another job. they have had to take another job and then you're left with a pool of candidates that are predominantly internal so you are just shuffling the deck. i really want to hear what is the average time it takes to hire and two, what are some of the -- i heard at the end some of the strategies to change that process and then three, i would like to hear either you or the interim director respond to the impact of having 60 plus percent of vacancies in the operation division. that is significant to the delivery of service in our city.

>> i might respond back to the timed hire question supervisor safai. i think we have focused on the laborers and this is information that i'm willing and happy to share. with our civil service laborers, that process that brought us the eligible list we are hiring off of took about nine months to put together. this, again, was during covid times and we had to reschedule in person examination due to safety concerns. that presented a two month delay in our process. we have established safety protocols and we -- i can't foresee the future in terms of new variations of covid-19, but i do believe that was kind of -- i don't think it's out of the ordinary in terms of time it takes to put together a large city wide exam. we have an people who have to

go through the lists. the process is long. now the process goes much quicker. so we can canvas the list and start doing the pre-employment work, which kind of greatly diminishes the time to hire. i think it very much depends -- the other ways and means and strategies we used to fill the position, we hire exempt to fill positions and make sure operational needs are taken care of. exempt hires can move quickly. those can move quickly and with the caveat that individual case by case may take longer depending on conviction history, program or other issues. we can -- i think we can build through and provide more details on other classifications as that might be helpful. >> supervisor safai: so you're

saying about nine months. that's a significant amount of time. second thing is, really like you to respond to nine months to get the civil service and then three months to get in. that is about a year. >> for recruitment, yes. >> supervisor safai: that is pretty unbelievable based on where we are in the city right now. secondly, want to talk about how 60 plus percent of the vacancies are in the operations division and how it impacts service in the city. we approach the nursing situation as somewhat of an emergency because we were coming into covid and because it is dealing with crisis in our city. i wouldn't say that the cleanliness of our street is crisis or emergency level, but it is significant in terms of how we have talked about this over years.

i want to say, i know the men and women of public works are doing everything they can to make our city shine and do the best job they can. i love the photos you showed with them out in the street. i see them all the time. they're doing the best they can. but if they're operating constantly short staffed, how are they going to address the real issues in the city. i mean, in my office, in our district, we have constantly gone out two or three times a week to alert and inform and work in partnership with public works and a lot of times, we just keep hearing we don't have enough staff to respond to these levels of concern. what can you do now -- does it mean you might need to get human resources involved to give you additional support? over 300 plus vacancies in operation is significant. >> if i may supervisor -- i

would like to caveat my comment around the time to hire in terms of establishing the permanent eligible list. for city wide eligible -- our goal is always to have an available eligible list to hire off of knowing it takes time and significant time to put through an eligible list, our goal is always to start the process to create a new eligible list so there's not a gap so departments always have an eligible list to hire off of. there might be a break in when the eligible lists are available, because the timeline is there, we try to start the process early so there's one expired and we have a new one to hire off of. >> supervisor safai: the other thing i want to ask you, 30%

vacancy within a department seems phenomenal. i mean, when we were talking about the nurses, when we started the conversation, it was around 11%. we have gotten that down to 4%. 30%, again, it is eye-opening. i don't understand how you can functionally operate a major department that is one of probably the most crucial departments in the city with 30% vacancy. it makes no sense to me. i don't understand how we're even functioning right now quite frankly. isn't that -- shouldn't that send up tremendous red flags in the hr department and within the city? shouldn't we be doing a massive effort to get the number down below 15 or 10%? it doesn't seem like that is a functional number for a major city like san francisco. >> supervisor, if i could chime

in again and sort of explain -- that percentage is very high, but, again, there are a number of positions that are designed to be vacant -- until something is -- >> supervisor safai: i got that, project based. if we took the project based positions out, what is the number? it is still above 20%. maybe even above 25%. i wouldn't imagine that 10% of your positions are project-based funding. i don't know. that would be good information to have. it still seems to me if you take those out, you have a tremendous amount of vacancies in the city for a significant department that we all rely -- it is literally, it is the backbone of how our city operates. i had no idea coming in today, this would be the number we would be presented with and i'm shocked to be honest with you. now i understand why you're under so much stress and the

workers are under so much stress, there's not enough staff to support the work that needs to be done. but the positions are there and i understand the funding and availability is there, so something is impeding our ability to get these positions filled and operate this division and this department in a functional manner. how many positions out of the 30% are project-based? >> i would have to defer -- bruce, do you have the number? >> i'm doing quick analysis as we are talking. i don't have the number at my fingertips. i can provide it right after this meeting -- >> supervisor safai: you have been deputy director of operations, you have seen the different aspects of public

works. how does it impact your ability to actually operate this important department and have 30% of your workforce vacant? >> it's a challenge. that's why we're having the hearing. we are under enormous pressure. it is important to recognize that our staff are working very hard. we need to recognize that there are new challenges that have made things more difficult during covid, which includes some of the increased presence on the street of folks who otherwise may have been in a congregate shelter setting for example. i think we are even more -- under even more difficult circumstances than we have been and it is important to recognize, the laborers exam was

delayed at least twice that i know of because they do a practical exam. general laborers have a very tough job and they have to be able to lift 50 pounds, they demonstrate their abilities through practical exams. because of covid, that was delayed several times. so -- >> supervisor safai: not to interrupt but it seems to me as though deputy director robertson's presentation, he showed a snapshot overtime and pre-dated covid and still -- it was even higher. it got to 35% under covid. now you have pressed since we had the conversations over the last two months, you have moved but still, it is still hovering around -- this is a consistent number. so this is not -- the only thing related to covid i saw in the numbers, the numbers went up because of what you're

describing. but functionally, it seems this has been a consistent short fall within this department. i would just say this, if our fire department was operating at 30% shortfall or police department or mta or any of the other -- literally, the city would fall apart. to say money and positions are there but they're not filled, and then to see there's additional requests for nonprofits and other groups out there doing different things the kind of help supplement some of the things being asked for, it is actually pretty shocking and i understand now better than i ever have why this department is under so much pressure. we need to come up with a strategy to get that number down significantly.

and it needs the be all hands on deck effort. i just -- i'm pretty shocked here today. director, would -- did you have something else you wanted to say? >> i think bruce wanted to chime in. >> supervisor safai: okay, before i have him chime in, has there been -- this is one of the things we did with the nursing situation, public health has its own hr, the main human resource department supplemented and gave support and made it a high priority to hire nurses. have you had additional support from the department of human resources to do hiring? >> i think we've had continual conversations with the department of human resources about ways and ideas to help expedite hiring. one of the more recent conversations was around their support and some of the city

wide examinations. we -- our department or my staff administered the city-wide exam for the laborers. it's a huge list and takes our efforts away and we have to prioritize from other hires. to the extent we can have support in examination work and other efforts in terms of scheduling, that does help. in terms of innovative ideas and things to that nature along the lines of what happened at dph, i've had consistent conversations around how we do expedite hiring, hiring in a day where a candidate comes in and we can process them on site. that is something we would like to pilot with the 9916s to help expedite and move some of the positions as quickly as possible. i am in constant dialogue with the department of human resources and they have been extraordinarily helpful to us. i think we can always improve on

what we're doing and what we continue to discuss with them. >> supervisor safai: thank you. did you want to say something? >> yeah, i was able to crunch some numbers real quick. overall, based on the report -- as of this morning, i see 257 vacant positions operations bureau. of which, 45% of those are project-funded. 116 of those are vacant. i can provide you all of the information. that 257 number is 33.8% of all operations positions. so certainly, completely agree with you, higher than we would like. the one caveat i would want to highlight, during the presentation, we mentioned all of our temporary hiring and commercial corridor program. we currently have 77, 9916s on

payroll as of friday last week. those hires are not included in any of the numbers that we're talking about here. so -- why i want to highlight those, those are additional bodies on the street and more importantly, time it takes away to fill the positions from hiring managers and operation and city administrator hr and dhr. i want to make sure we don't lose sight of the positions. while not included in the numbers, those are bodies on the street doing critical work to keep the city clean.

>> supervisor preston: i see vice chair chan -- go ahead vice chair chan. >> supervisor chan: thank you and supervisor safai, i appreciate you bringing this to our attention. i agree with you, i wasn't aware of the type -- the lack that we're experiencing. it is alarming and i always think that throughout our city, there's always understaffing, short-staffing or a lack of hiring that we see every where. as i have been told by the city administrator, the great resignation across the city departments is real during pandemic, but then again, today's presentation helps to understand this goes back to 2017 before even the pandemic that we're experiencing this. i have a brief question and my apologies for jumping on late,

maybe this was discussed during the presentation. but could you help me understand a little bit about the working relationship and partnership of a possible apprenticeship program that would help us to build a pipeline, a pathway of hiring that is a bit more efficient and really help develop a pool of candidates that really can help us. i agree, if you're just shoveling people from units to units, we tend to burn some of the folks and it could be challenging to retain them. it really doesn't solve your problem for the long-term to provide local services that people in san francisco deserve, especially when you do have funding available to you. i understand that today is not like we're lacking of the funding, it's more like how do we build the pipeline. could you help me better

understand if that exists and how we could improve on that if it exists. >> sure. thank you supervisor chan and thank you for bringing up an important program we are eager to reimplement. we have several apprenticeship programs throughout the public works department. but there are a few that are part of -- partnership with the laborers union, including our gardener apprenticeship and arbourer program. as you noted, we feel those are really great opportunities to create a pipeline of candidates. i'll just take a moment to talk about one of the biggest challenges we've had and we have a very high vacancy rate in the arbourer unit, for that program, we have available funding through the street tree sf program but we don't have candidates. every time we have done an exam,

there's a small number of people who actually complete and pass the exam and demonstrate practical ability and then we have three city departments competing for the same candidates and we have only managed to hire three or four individuals at a time. if we were to -- i want to note that we -- with the support from the dhr apprenticeship coordinator and working with local 261, we are hopeful to relaunch those programs. there was a desire to restructure how basically the oversight committees were working for us. we're eager to get that back up and running. we do see that we need a strong pipeline of qualified candidates for all of these positions. that is a really high priority and we would love to get that moving again. i think everybody is working together to try to advance that.

but it is clearly a need we have. >> supervisor chan: thank you. if i may, i want to -- i know you are trying the best and as fast as you can. but what is the timeline? i wanted to drill down a bit more of a commitment in terms of timeline. >> well, i think, you know, there are several parties involved. i can't commit to a timeline unilaterally. if i could, i would put a very advanced and aggressive timeline together. but there's work that has been done and continues to need to be done to ensure we're doing this well and that we're correcting some of the challenges we've had in the past to make sure it is a successful program.

>> supervisor mandelman: this is troubling and thank you for the hearing and giving us the opportunity to hear about the hiring challenges and staffing challenges at public works. it doesn't feel to me like public works. this is extraordinary and a problem clearly for the city, it doesn't feel like public works is completely isolated in this. we have seen it at dph and other departments. i guess i'm wondering and maybe this is -- i'm not sure this is a question anyone can answer.

it just seems -- it seems like you're going to be playing catch-up. from the moment you are actually adequately staffed up, you'll be falling behind. it is just going to be always playing this game of catch-up and then the pandemic or bad budget year or something happens and you're never caught up. or am i misinterpreting. >> i think you are bringing up something that is very -- there are many conversations right now. i think many departments are seeing backlogs in hiring, right? people stopped hiring and then the flood gates opened and we're behind and really behind. every single position is a priority to fill. i know a number of discussions

are happening across the board around the hiring process in the city, civil servants and dhr are key parties in these discussions. my world is very much like you described, the moment a position hits and there's a vacancy, there are a thousand steps we have to take. and should there be a better way to hire faster? i sure hope there is. and i think it is right and i've had this discussion, our system wasn't built to be fast, it was built to be merit-based meant to be fair to give applicants an opportunity on multiple occasions to show they meet qualifications and they're interested and those elements take time. should it take this much time? i welcome any conversations we could have to help expedite. but the closest i get in my space, trying to do things in

tandem because that alone can help. i see it is from my point, going around the edges and really not getting to the core. i think of what i have been hearing. i know we have dhr here and this is a conversation that is really based upon our merit system and policies and civil service commission. so, you know -- >> supervisor mandelman: i would encourage the city administrator's office and hr and mayor's office to look at these bigger questions as they apply to public works and as they apply to other departments. this is just no way to run the city. and it is impacting the quality of life of our residents and businesses and it is impacting -- it is impacting the quality of life of the workers who are there doing the really challenging work and not having

the support they need. i really hope this can be -- it is a priority for supervisor safai and all of us, i know it's a priority and we have to breakthrough and figure this out. the other question i have -- how does the imminent establishment of a new department of streets and sanitation fit into this conversation. how is this hiring working going forward over the next year as we stand up these two new departments? >> supervisor safai: is that directed to director short or anyone who wants to answer? >> supervisor mandelman: anyone who thinks they have an answer but someone needs the come up

with an answer because it seems to be happening. >> i'll give a brief response and maybe bruce wants to chime in as well. i think certainly we are planning for -- we're not hitting pause on anything while we're marching towards the establishment of the new department and we -- as you know, there are shared administrative services envisioned for the establishment of the new department. we're basically proceeding with those positions that will be in the new department. we're still focused on hiring as well as the positions that will remain within public works and using that shared administrative services function to ensure that we are keeping the ball moving well, while the departments are splitting up. that's the brief answer. and bruce -- just supervisor mandelman, as you know, we are -- we have a lot to try to

think through as we get towards that date, but we are absolutely planning out with the help of the city administrator's office, what are the key decision points, what do we need to do to advance this, so we have as seamless transition as possible and the whole team is working on that. bruce, if you wanted to add -- >> thank you. through the chair, supervisor mandelman, as you know, february 3rd we have just under three weeks to finalize the budget and director short is correct, hr is considered shared services, part of the administration budget that will apply services for streets and sanitation and public works. right now what we're doing working with the city administrator's office is identifying all of the hr requirements for the split both in terms of making sure streets and sanitation, public works and city administrator's office are fully supported with the hr needs. once we submit the budget, we

can certainly provide background and specifications in terms of what we're thinking. but right now, i don't have an answer in terms of what it is going to look like. it is still very much under development as we prepare our budget submittal. >> supervisor preston: thank you. supervisor safai. >> supervisor safai: i wanted to add, thank you supervisor chan for asking that question. the next presentation is from labor local 261. then to add on to the last piece, prop b specifically talks about the creation of back office and administrative support. i think that will in many ways help move the ball a bit. it will add additional staffing and additional support that will be super focused.

one of the things i heard, the laborers, that position process, that hiring is cumbersome and takes a lot of time and draws away from other areas she has to work on. now having a focused human resources department for department of public works could help move the ball forward. i would like to move to the next presenter. we have laborers local 261 to present some ideas and give insight from their perspective. theresa, are you there? >> i am. hi. good morning supervisors. we do not have a powerpoint presentation. we didn't have the data and we just received it today. but we assume because it was operation, it was primarily local 261 and other building trade affiliates with the vacant

positions. so, i'm the public business representative. long ago, the american federation of labor became a power in the country and generally was able to uphold a high standard of living for workers organized in its unions. our city charter and recognition of the union assigned responsibilities to various trade unions in town and those union officials elected by the leaders speak and negotiate on behalf of the workers with various employers. often times the union leaders advocate not just for their own membership but unorganized workers and in this instant community workforce neither exploited nor left behind. the laborers see that all impacted by the high vacancy rates and classifications should be collaborated with by whatever means necessary in order to

achieve labor peace, sustainable skilled and trained workforce and ensure the important work the department is responsible for is completed on budget and on time for the citizens we all serve. the building trade unions in san francisco have for over 125 years provided skilled and trained workings through agreements to over a thousand different employers to build the hospitals, schools, buildings and infrastructure our communities depend on and use daily. until the 1970s, the san francisco construction and building trades council affiliates were providing through the union hiring halls. providing lifetime liveable wages to support workers and their families. speaking for my union, local 261

has been in the city and county for over 100 years and boasts a strong localized diverse membership. prior to this election of the district council, a business man for local 261 and under him who serves on local 261 executive board, the union worked for years with the city leadership at their request to launch multiple first of its kind state of california certified career pathway programming to meet community workforce objectives. back in 2004, dozens of community workforce leaders were dissatisfied with the fact they were ineligible to work on industry projects, specifically the third street light rail taking place in their own communities. young worker from the southeast were being told they lacked the skill sets and minimum qualifications to perform tasks

necessary to gain employment on the projects. in response, they organized with abu leading the way and approached mayor newsom with the dilemma. promoting local hire in city built concepts already offered specifically. they recognized that such an effort would meet the needs of community workforce, department, unions by scaling up local individuals for sustainable careers in public and private sectors in our industry. he had curriculum and certified department of public works labor apprenticeship program in 2004. abu well respected community workforce leader was the official advisor for the program pursuant to the agreement with the city and assigned to the union. this was a hugely complicated time consuming and extraordinary

effort in attempting to create a hybrid of the highly successful apprenticeship programs in the public sector. it is an understatement to say there were growing pains with public works, with learning for the first time in the early 2000s learning what the programming was. the committee not management would be responsible for onboarding, certification, disciplinary procedures and compliance with state procedures, etc cetera. public works had the tendency to be loose with the role of supervision and oversight. they sought opportunities in the private sector. furthermore, the department was challenged with providing verifiable work experience and on the job training components were concerned. (please stand by...)

>> so thank you, supervisors, for calling this hearing, and thank you always for hearing from us. >> thank you. supervisor safai, do you have questions or issues that you want to address before public comment? >> supervisor safai: yes, i do. >> okay. >> supervisor safai: so thank you, theresa, for joining us today. one of the things that i heard was building a merit-based workforce and coming at us with some new ideas today.

we talked a little bit about the potential for coming in today for some new ideas, collaborative ways that would result in quicker hiring, and a dispatch agreement. can you tell me about that? >> so a dispatch agreement is something that we execute with our signatory contractors. when they're getting ready to build a stadium, build a bridge, whatever the case may be, they know they can call down to the --

>> supervisor safai: these are two people that we worked with on the hiring and expedited process, so i know you don't have any specific presentation, but one of the things that i have, it seems to me that kind of a merit based, there's a list system also, but -- [indiscernible] that this was nine months to create a list --

>> -- to find strategies to reduce the time it takes to hire. that is one of our department's top goals, and so we are

constantly looking at the rule, the civil service rules that exist, and so we'll get with our civil service commission for ways that we can truncate some of the rules that have been in place for many decades, and so i'll pass it off to anna to talk about it. >> good morning, supervisors. first and foremost, we just want to start off that the permanent civil service appointments are governed through the civil service commission rules, so there are a lot of steps, and they dictate some timelines throughout the process, as well. and what chanda described for

you is under civil service. we've started discussions, we've had discussions in the past. for this last general laborers exam, i can tell you that i was there when we kind of -- the exam was scheduled, and it was told -- we were told to shutdown city, for people from coming in, and that's caused the recent delays, but -- but, you know, there are methods like what we do with our end. we are discussing potential continuous testing, so there is always an eligible list available, and because there is a practical exam to demonstrate their skills and abilities, we are talking about scheduling them periodically, whether it's every three months, etc., etc., to add people onto the list so there's always somebody available, even for their exempt position, so there's a

pool that they can canvas. there are other ways, as well. like chanda mentioned earlier, starting the exam early, before the first list dies, so that there is always an eligible list. nursing, we did continuous testing, and it's a little bit easier for nurses to hire nurses often eligible because the state tests for them for their essential functions just to become a nurse by getting an r.n. license. with general laborers, for example, like d.p.w. stated earlier, we need to know that they can lift 50 pounds -- >> supervisor safai: no, i got that, and we have public comments. >> okay. >> supervisor safai: but just one of the things that -- and

we don't need to go into too much detail, but yes, i understand you have your civil service process, but many labor unions have negotiated memorandum of understanding and civil service process, and i understand there's a significant number of steps. we don't need to get into that. those same steps exist for nurses. we were able to take a nine-month average process and condense it down to 90 days or less, so it seems to me you can still follow a lot of those steps. a lot of those steps are required. we're not asking to do anyone about that, and i don't think we're getting into a conversation about civil service reform, but one of the things that heard about the union is they're interested in having a conversation around a dispatch agreement. sounds like that would require a negotiated memorandum of understanding between the

department and the human resources department. you can respond to that, or anna, you can respond to that, but i know that different representative labor groups have memorandums of understanding, and that affects the process. can you respond to that? >> so while there's the dispatch or whatever that the union has, the civil service rules are specific on the process being open and competitive process to all. so we would need to engage with civil service, obviously, to be able to even consider permanent appointments through a designation by the union. normally, i mean, what we can do, i'm just thinking off the top of my head, we post the announcement and, you know, contact the unions and have their members apply or

whatever, but because of the civil service rules requiring an open-ended process, we can't use that contract to hire employees permanently using that method. >> supervisor safai: and go ahead. >> thank you. today is the first time we're seeing that proposal dispatch, so we can take that back and review it further and compare it against our existing processes and get back to you. >> supervisor safai: okay. great. what i think is we might be headed toward a conversation of a similar model that we did to put together a working group with representatives.

i know that they work with representative labor, they work with management, they work with trades, so i think that a model exists, and we should further that conversation because the idea of taking a year to fill a position for such an important department that is already spread thin, whose members are doing tremendous work out on the street but just don't have the actual support that they need, i think it impacts all of us. if you can hang around, we'll come back after public comment, and maybe we can ask a few questions. chair, if you want to go to public comment, we can come back, unless anyone has any questions. >> supervisor preston: thank you so much, supervisor safai. mr. clerk, let's go ahead and check to see if there is any

public comment. >> clerk: thank you, mr. chair. kalina is checking to see if we have any callers in the queue. for those watching on cable channel 78 or 26 or streaming on-line, calling 415-655-0001, then enter the meeting i.d. 2485-575-0296. then press pound and pound again, and press star, three to enter the queue. we have three hands raised to speak. kalina, could you connect us to the first of those callers. >> hello?

>> clerk: please begin. >> hello. my name is sean [indiscernible] and i am speaking to the d.p.w. and supervisors of san francisco. question i have is right now, i'm involved with local 9916, and i've been waiting onto get on the 7514 program, general labor, for quite sometime. i heard that this program was defunct. during this time, i'm waiting to undergo a physical or some type of testing. but until then, what opportunities do i have within the 9916 platform? with no disrespect to caller

short -- i just read about her yesterday being the new director for 994, d.p.w. it doesn't take any skill to push a broom. it doesn't take any experience to clean the streets. so what opportunities do you have after you've been there for a year? what city opportunities can we have also to advance into d.p.w.? i'm a skilled tradesman. i work for local 510 down at the moscone center as a trade show installer, but when covid hit, my whole job was defunct. so in order for me to keep my family going, in order to have some type of income, i've had to let that job go and come over here, and i don't earn

even a third of the money that i was making at my other job, so it's real hard to support my family. >> clerk: thank you, mr. smith, for sharing your comments with our committee. i'm sorry to cut you off. speakers are restricted to two minutes for their comments, but thank you for your discussion. could we get the next caller, please. >> so supervisors, there are five people hearing this meeting, and there were three people waiting to talk, and you give us two minutes. this is -- this meeting, this entire meeting is b.s., and i'll tell you why. first and foremost, we have over 33,000 city employees. during the pandemic, we had a

shortage of nurses, and as much as we tried to protest outside the mayor's office, y'all wouldn't help the nurses until you realized that it took nine months to hire the nurses, but there was a way out because you could hire per diem nurses and travel nurses. i know because i give thousands of people vaccinations, unlike you supervisors. so what you are doing is you are bringing these people, mostly women, mostly women. the mayor's hiring mostly women, and they want to run the city, and they're totally screwing it up. you can do nothing about it until you totally revamp the civil service system. willie brown, when he first became the mayor, he hired 2,000 so-called administrative assistants, he himself, okay? so why can't y'all.

he did himself, so why can't y'all? you can't because you're inept. you don't want to do anything. you want to have these long meetings that don't go anywhere. thank you very much. >> clerk: thank you, mr. da costa, for your comments. next caller, please. >> it's strange that we would allow the department to hire positions for salaries of $200,000 when the majority of voters approved prop b and they're in the process of breaking the department up. lastly, why is the acting director who's not qualified for the role making this decision before a full time director is announced? i hope the committee can

address these decisions, and thank you for everything you do. >> clerk: thank you for sharing your comments with the committee. can we get the next caller, please. >> can you hear me okay? >> clerk: please begin. >> great, and a 30-second warning, please. david pillpel. there are some d.p.w.-specific hiring issues here, but i think some are about h.r. and projects citywide. speaking of citywide, i just looked in the a.a.o. and the a.s.o. the a.a.o. has 32,000 f.t.e., and the a.s.o. has 39,000 positions. not all are funded, and some are attrition, it is assumed. the f.t.e. number has always been inflated and does not represent the actual department need because of attrition

factors. some issues involve covid, peoplesoft and f.s.p., classification issues, and the hiring process, which has been changed several times over the years and is now on-line and less paper based, for example. grants and projects fund positions -- fund those positions differently than what were a.a.a. positions in the a.s.o. and may skew the position vacancies. there are a number of grant, particularly project funded positions that appear to be vacant so the departments have flexibility in hiring, and if you look at [indiscernible] -- thanks. if you look at b.d.c. and i.d.c., i suspect they might have a different number of vacancies than might exist. i would have a broader hearing with d.h.r. to talk about the

hiring process citywide. and finally, a good question here is the amount of turnover in d.p.w. laborer-type classes, 7514s and others, and how to manage that and other entry level. thanks very much. >> clerk: thank you for sharing your comments with the committee. do we have any further callers in the queue? >> operator: there are no more callers. >> clerk: mr. chair, i hear that there are no further callers. >> supervisor preston: thank you, mr. chair. with no further callers, public comment on this item is now closed, and i will turn it back over to supervisor safai for any closing thoughts or questions before we wrap up. >> supervisor safai: thank you, chair. is -- i really appreciate everyone presenting today and their forthrightness in getting us the information so that we can have a real honest

conversation. today's not about finger pointing, today's just about looking at the facts and how it impacts our city. we started these conversations out in the field, as you heard interim director short say, while we were meeting to talk about some of issues out in the streets. it became about vacant positions, but now to hear that there is something functionally dysfunctional in the department, a consistent shortfall of 30%, it just doesn't seem fair to this department. maybe in a biased manner, i worked there, and i have so much love for all the members there, but i have to say i don't feel like this department is being treated fairly. this is such a significant department. so much requests go to this

department. so many expectations are put on this department, so many demands are put on this department, and to operate at 30% or more vacancy, it's just not sustainable, it's not functional. so what i'm going to do, and i appreciate representative labor coming as well as h.r., both in the city administrator and our main department, human resources, i'm going to be putting together a working group to tackle this issue, very similar to the way we did with the nurses. we're going to look at the hiring process, we're going to look at the time that it takes. we're going to explore this idea that was presented today that we need to know more about in terms of a dispatch agreement. seems as though what was done at the san francisco housing authority could be a model of being replicated, particularly when it comes to those that are under the classification of apprenticeships, so definitely, definitely appreciate this hearing today.

thank you, colleagues, for all of your additional questions, but this is very similar to the way we tackled our nursing, very similar to the way we tackled our budget shortfalls. this is not about additional money necessarily, it's about improving the process and ensuring we can fill those positions in a timely manner and partnership with both the h.r. department, representative labor, and the department itself, and we'll ask them to come to the table. maybe, chair, we can continue this to the call of the chair,

and maybe we can come back in three or four months and see what progress we've been able to make and to present to this body. that would be my request. >> supervisor preston: thank you, supervisor safai. let me just say, my questions have been asked by my colleagues and by supervisor safai, so i don't have additional questions to ask, but i share the frustrations of my colleagues of having a 30% vacancy rate in such an essential department, and to elevate the strain that it puts on everyone in the department, all laborers that are trying to respond to the same level of demands on services, with 30% of the positions funded but unfilled. it's absolutely a crisis, and i appreciate you elevating this and look forward to working

with you, and certainly happy to have this back in committee, as you suggest, when the time is right, to see what kind of progress has been made, so thank you for your leadership on this, supervisor safai, and i would like to move to continue this to the call of the chair. mr. clerk? >> clerk: on the motion offered by chair preston that this hearing be continued to the call of the chair -- [roll call] >> clerk: mr. chair, there are two ayes, noting that member mandelman is absent. >> chair preston: thank you, mr. clerk. thank you, everyone, for your presentations and work. mr. clerk, any further business before the committee? >> clerk: noting that the items were called out of order and that agenda item number 2 has

already been handled, there is no further business before the committee. >> chair preston: thank you, mr. clerk. we are adjourned.

>> what we're trying to approach is bringing more diversity to our food. it's not just the old european style food. we are seeing a lot of influences, and all of this is because of our students. all we ask is make it

flavorful. [♪♪♪] >> we are the first two-year culinary hospitality school in the united states. the first year was 1936, and it was started by two graduates from cornell. i'm a graduate of this program, and very proud of that. so students can expect to learn under the three degrees. culinary arts management degree, food service management degree, and hotel management degree. we're not a cooking school. even though we're not teaching you how to cook, we're teaching you how to manage, how to supervise employees, how to manage a hotel, and plus you're getting an associate of science

degree. >> my name is vince, and i'm a faculty member of the hospitality arts and culinary school here in san francisco. this is my 11th year. the program is very, very rich in what this industry demands. cooking, health, safety, and sanitation issues are included in it. it's quite a complete program to prepare them for what's happening out in the real world. >> the first time i heard about this program, i was working in a restaurant, and the sous chef had graduated from this program. he was very young to be a sous chef, and i want to be like him, basically, in the future. this program, it's awesome. >> it's another world when

you're here. it's another world. you get to be who you are, a person get to be who they are. you get to explore different things, and then, you get to explore and they encourage you to bring your background to the kitchen, too. >> i've been in the program for about a year. two-year program, and i'm about halfway through. before, i was studying behavioral genetics and dance. i had few injuries, and i couldn't pursue the things that i needed to to dance, so i pursued my other passion, cooking. when i stopped dance, i was deprived of my creative outlet, and cooking has been that for me, specifically pastry. >> the good thing is we have students everywhere from places

like the ritz to -- >> we have kids from every area. >> facebook and google. >> kids from everywhere. >> they are all over the bay area, and they're thriving. >> my name is jeff, and i'm a coowner of nopa restaurant, nopalito restaurant in san francisco. i attended city college of san francisco, the culinary arts program, where it was called hotel and restaurant back then in the early 90's. nopalito on broderick street, it's based on no specific region in mexico. all our masa is hand made. we cook our own corn in house. everything is pretty much hand made on a daily basis, so day and night, we're making hand

made tortillas, carnitas, salsas. a lot of love put into this. [♪♪♪] >> used to be very easy to define casual dining, fine dining, quick service. now, it's shades of gray, and we're trying to define that experience through that spectrum of service. fine dining calls into white table cloths. the cafeteria is large production kitchen, understanding vast production kitchens, the googles and the facebooks of the world that have those types of kitchens. and the ideas that change every year, again, it's the notion and the venue. >> one of the things i love about vince is one of our outlets is a concept restaurant, and he changes the

concept every year to show students how to do a startup restaurant. it's been a pizzeria, a taco bar. it's been a mediterranean bar, it's been a noodle bar. people choose ccsf over other hospitality programs because the industry recognizes that we instill the work ethic. we, again, serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. other culinary hospitality programs may open two days a week for breakfast service. we're open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner five days a week. >> the menu's always interesting. they change it every semester, maybe more. there's always a good variety of foods. the preparation is always

beautiful. the students are really sincere, and they work so hard here, and they're so proud of their work. >> i've had people coming in to town, and i, like, bring them here for a special treat, so it's more, like, not so much every day, but as often as i can for a special treat. >> when i have my interns in their final semester of the program go out in the industry, 80 to 90% of the students get hired in the industry, well above the industry average in the culinary program. >> we do have internals continually coming into our restaurants from city college of san francisco, and most of the time that people doing internships with us realize this is what they want to do for a living.

we hired many interns into employees from our restaurants. my partner is also a graduate of city college. >> so my goal is actually to travel and try to do some pastry in maybe italy or france, along those lines. i actually have developed a few connections through this program in italy, which i am excited to support. >> i'm thinking about going to go work on a cruise ship for about two, three year so i can save some money and then hopefully venture out on my own. >> yeah, i want to go back to china. i want to bring something that i learned here, the french cooking, the western system, back to china. >> so we want them to have a full toolkit. we're trying to make them ready for the world out there. -

>> shop & dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges resident to do their showing up and dining within the 49 square miles of san francisco by supporting local services within the neighborhood we help san francisco remain unique successful and vibrant so where will you shop & dine in the 49 san francisco owes must of the charm to the unique characterization of each corridor has a distinction permanent our neighbors are the economic engine of the city. >> if we could a afford the lot by these we'll not to have the kind of store in the future the kids will eat from some

restaurants chinatown has phobia one of the best the most unique neighborhood shopping areas of san francisco. >> chinatown is one of the oldest chinatown in the state we need to be able allergies the people and that's the reason chinatown is showing more of the people will the traditional thepg. >> north beach is i know one of the last little italian community. >> one of the last neighborhood that hadn't changed a whole lot and san francisco community so strong and the sense of partnership with businesses as well and i just love north beach

community old school italian comfort and love that is what italians are all about we need people to come here and shop here so we can keep this going not only us but, of course, everything else in the community i think local businesses the small ones and coffee shops are unique in their own way that is the characteristic of the neighborhood i peace officer prefer it is local character you have to support them. >> really notice the port this community we really need to kind of really shop locally and support the communityly live in it is more economic for people to survive here.

>> i came down to treasure island to look for a we've got a long ways to go. ring i just got married and didn't want something on line i've met artists and local business owners they need money to go out and shop this is important to short them i think you get better things. >> definitely supporting the local community always good is it interesting to find things i never knew existed or see that that way. >> i think that is really great that san francisco seize the vails of small business and creates the shop & dine in the 49 to support businesses make people all the residents and visitors realize had cool things are made and produced in san

>> welcome to the february 15 meeting of the transportation county authority. and the chair of the board and the vice chair is peskin. the clerk is angela sow. commissioner haney has a conflict in scheduling and cannot attend today's meeting so i am excusing him. and i understand that a couple of our commissioners are going to be absent between 10:30 and 1 is:00 and i will excuse commissioners melgar and ronen for that period. >> motion to require a vote to

take without objection if nobody objects. >> is that correct? >> a you may take it without objection if no one objects to the vote. >> great. thank you. so i will move we excuse commissioner haney and melgar and ronen so long as they need to be absent and will take that without objection. will you please call the roll? [roll call] commissioner chan? >> present.

commissioner mar. >> present. >> commissioner melgar. >> present. commissioner preston? >> present. >> commissioner peskin? >> a present. >> commissioner ronen? >> present. president safai. commissioner walton? >> a present. >> we have quorum. >> thank you, madam clerk. i will make a motion to excuse commissioner haney for the meeting and commissioners ronen and melgar so long as they need

to be absent. we will take that without objection. i think you have some announcements. >> public comment will be available for each item on this agenda via telephone by calling 415-655-0001. when two minutes are up, you will be able to move on to the next caller. we will move on to the next caller. calls will be taken in the order in which they are received. best practices are to speak

slowly, clearly and turn down the volume of any televisions or radios around you. if you wish to comment during the meeting, it is best to listen to the public comment line to the delay of the meeting. >> please call item 2. >> chair support. this is an information item. >> all right, thank you, madam clerk. colleagues, i want to begin this meeting by remembering a d-8 resident bob planthold who died earlier this month and was a longtime advocate for seniors, pedestrians and people with disabilities and for all of us to have access to safe, affordable and reliable transportation. bob was an early lead we are the senior action network and volunteered on numerous advisory committees and task forces throughout the city and the region. just to mention a few, he served on the sfmta paratransit council, mayor's disability

council and mtc policy advisory committee as well as on the housing methodology committee and most recently on the tjpa cac. and in these roles he urged attention from curb cuts and potholes to major transportation and land use funding and policies. we owe him a great debt for making streets and transit better for everyone. i would lightning to close our meet -- i would like to close our meeting today in his memory. next up, i want to thank and congratulate commissioner ronen and tjpa downtown rail extension project recently at the metropolitan commission. and the commission endorsed the projects for state transit funds and to advocate for the bay area transportation priorities including cal-tran and bart core capacity.

finally, i want to thank the staff, mayor's department and city departments to join the executive roundtable to kick off the delivery study last month. vice chair peskin and i called for a study to improve project delivery outcomes for transportation projects in san francisco. we have a robust discussion of the barriers to the stuff capital project delivery and identified the initial strategies, policies and practices that can produce better results with large, complex, infrastructure projects in the city. and many of these are underway. and others will need more time and refinement to develop. but i am hopeful that through the study and the resulting findings and recommendations that we can find ways to raise the bar significantly on multi-agency collaboration and accountability in the transportation sector. with that i conclude my remarks.

let's open for public comment. >> there is no public comment. >> public comment is called. >> item 3 is an executive director's report. there is an information item. >> director chang? >> good morning, mr. president. good morning, commissioners. this will start with a few public events and making good progress in the start with the cal-tran director bouchard and other officials to celebrate a major project milestone with the completion of the overhead contact system. this entailed the installation of 3100 foundations for the

project. and to use the cal-tran staff anticipates energizing this segment which will allow running pedestrian trains on the portion from santa clara to san jose. and in april, just in a few mu months. and on the vehicle side with the testing of eight cars and with the first train set to caltran is expected in the coming months as well. we are happy to here that project is moving along as well. in addition, we had an event with bart and the station is

well underway supported with prop k and reopened bathrooms after two decades of being closed. we congratulate the director and senator waner and our cheep deputy represented us. this was to celebrate the reopening of the restrooms at the powell station. and several more will be opening in the east bay and part of a larger station modernization project which includes installing new lighting and equipment. with the barriers on the metal barrier to replace that fencing. and another event from senator weaner to announce the new bill to extend the sb-288 which was a

ceqa streamlining bill that otherwise might expire and to allow for exemptions subject to have proper outreach and with the existing rights of way and the bicycle pedestrian, light rail, and other p projects. and to reduce congestion. and celebrated with the community and highlighted the evidence avenue area. this is to extend and make permanent the prior legislation known as sb-922.

to replace david kim, the the critical time for the state and with the chair for state funding and california able to maximize our partnership and with the infrastructure bill and number of agencies and with that high-speed bail and the department of motorcycles and highway patrol. another partnership has opened new express lanes and nine miles from santa clara county to

whipple avenue and so we mention this because there is a larger three-county partnership to develop car poolings and they are ahead of us in the express lanes to redwood city. this is already working on the expansion of the network from redwood city to the airport. that will be a set of express lanes. that is a study ongoing with caltrans. this is a partnership with the mtc and almeda so the base

skyway can include a multi-use path from west oakland to the yerba buena segment and to don't treasure island and where traveller cans use the clean fairy to come across to san francisco and eventually phase two is the west span bicycle and bay bridge itself. that is a that is grateful for regional cal-trans and ultimately successful in winning a large state grant from the state. there is a lot of funding in this update and there is a new urban forestry project and this is the california natural

resources agency which is accepting proposal through the urban greening grant program through march 28. there is $47.5 million statewide that is available. that is from the projects and with the greenhouse gas emissions and the program does give priority consideration to to look on the website at resources.ca.gov. slash grant slash urban greening. and the shore view park renovation project and from the

pedestrian rec and park department to coordinate applications as well. the pilot program with a federal grant for this program and additionally awarded $828,000 from mtc and that is going through i think approvals now with the program to extend the federal pilot to understand technical and public views on how the pilot performed in the first phase and hopefully to extend partnerships with work force development groups and the economic type initiatives to bring small businesses and other local community programs into the mix including the education to benefit sfusd or other groups

and we can start learning and transferring knowledge about this emerging industry to the workforce and the next generation of student leader. turning to ocean avenue, i wanted to mention outreach coming up on tomorrow that is improvement of safety and multiple sustainable efforts in that corridor. and there will be more opportunities for outreach after this meeting where the current agenda will be to focus on goals and official project concepts that reflect a lot of past planning and the whole idea to move through the planning process to the implementation

efforts. we have a promotion at our agency. rachel hyatt has been promoted to the deply director for planning and -- the deputy director for planning and wach el has been with the agency for almost two decades to do the neighborhood training plan and the eir work. i better go ahead and close. the internet might not be working very well. thank you very much. >> thank you, madam executive director. we heard everything, although you did start breaking up towards the end. let's open this item to public comment.

>> madam clerk, please call item 4. >> item 4 approve the minutes of february 8, 2022 meeting. this is an action item. >> there is no public comment. >> public comment on item 4 is closed. is there a motion to approve item 4. is there a second? >> madment a clerk, please call the role. >> commissioner chan? [roll call on item 4]

we have 10 ayes. the minutes are approved. >> thank you, madam clerk. please call the consent agenda, items 5-8. >> sure. items 5-8 are the consent agenda. they are before the board with final approval. staff is not planning to present but is available for questions.

>> all right. is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> so moved. >> thank you, commissioner preston. is there a second? >> second, chan. >> thank you, commissioner chan. madam clerk, please call the roll on the consent agenda. [roll call on consent agenda]

we have 10 ayes. the consent agenda has the final -- is approved. >> thank you, madam clerk. please call item 9. >> item 9. internal accounting report, investment report and debt expenditure report for the six months ending december 31, 2021. this is an information item. >> a good morning, commissioners. cynthia fong, can everyone hear me? >> great. thank you. this is a quick update from $62.3 million in revenues including $46.5 million in sales tax revenue. $2.4 million in vehicle

registration fees and $11.1 million in total revenues and incurred $70.2 million of expenditures including $70.3 million with the the total expenditures which are on target and within the budget. approximately 55% of the assets fit with the treasury and this provides us sufficient liquidity to meet the expenditures. >> and the bond remains at $239 million, the same as last quarter. with that, i am happy to take any questions from you all.

>> let's open to public comment. >> i think that was, there is no public comment. >> we will close public comment. this is an information item. >> we have a report. >> director tumlin, did you want

to say any opening remarks or should i launch in? >> you can launch in. this is our muny general manager, director of transit. >> go ahead. jeff, can you pull up the power point? >> thank you, all, for the opportunity to brief you today about the recent progress and also the challenges. jeff, it is not showing the full picture. it is showing the speaker view with the next slide and the regular slide.

this is the briefing and it is helpful for us to have an opportunity to share this work and also to get guidance from the board of supervisors, so we really appreciate you taking the time. it's very much been a challenging two years for us. and before i launch into the details, i do want to thank all of the sfmta staff that are out there today and every day. keeping the city moving. and helping us work through this very scary time. the pandemic keeps throwing us curveballs and i am going to share some of the recent challenges. they have responded with compassion and incredible

resilience and that i hoped that we were through the worst of omicron and that is not where we are today and in recent weeks, longer wait times for muny and more crowded vehicles and continuing to strugg will the high number of employee absences with omicron and experiencing the training delays. and when we combine this challenge that we're having with the pre-existing staffing shortages, we're really seeing a tough time for the system. even within these constraints, we are still trying to lead with the agency to commitment value and are focussing on for the month of february and putting extra attention on chinatown and

the travel and celebration associated with the lunar new year. when it comes to hiring and bus operators in particular, too, have been hitting the headlines. and we did not have a lot of cushion. with a smaller class size and we intended to start 84 new trainees and only started 51. fortunately, the human eare sources team as early as december started to see these challenges and have revamped how we're doing the operator hiring

including going straight to a survey rather than the traditional lift format. which means that the march and april classes are filling up. so i am confident that we will get to larger classes, but we do need time to graduate additional classes in order to deliver the service and the public is expecting. and other key groups like the transit planning group has been doing all this work to reshape the system. and we are not alone in this. and the controller's office is reporting all-time vacancy rates city wide. next slide.

we are missing 20-25% of the service and this graph shows it fluctuates from day-to-day. the gaps are unpredictable. which makes them particularly hard to manage, so we are hearing from customers that are frustrated about long waits and crowding. more staff at sfmta have gotten covid in the first six weeks in 2022 than in all of 2021. so we are really experiencing the spike which has related elements like school getting cancelled or taking care of a loved one.

and we are committed to restoring service and using equity as the guiding principle. next slide. this is the right slide. sorry. and we have been doing that throughout. this graph here shows the core network of 17 that we had to strip back to in april of 2020.

introduced new routes that are providing connections. we're also seeing stronger ridership on the weekends than on the weekdays, which i think is really pointing to the impact that the slowed down time recovery is having on us system wide. next slide. and i wanted to share this because i don't think i have done so in previous presentations. we have also used the pandemic

as an opportunity to enhance our tools for evaluating equity. and this is a mapping system that's now available on the sfmta website. and it allows us from different neighborhoods to see how much of the city you can cover and in 30 minutes, 45 minutes, and 60 minutes. and it is also helping us do a much deeper level of equity analytics. when we introduce the 15 third express, we were able to document the job access for bayview residents increased four fold in a 30-minute commute. and nine fold within a 45-minute commute. moving forward, we are on track to implement on february 19 the next set of rail changes and are relatively resource neutral. we will be matching bart and

giving us seven day week with the j line into the subway and continuing to experiment with the right level of shuttle service in the subway between embarcadero. and the service we intended to implement in march needs to be spread over a kind of two periods and in mid april, we will be implementing a schedule change and mostly focused on reducing service or codifying the ax and bx which are relatively resource neutral and strong priorities for people and

fizzation valley traveling to and from downtown and chinatown. there is a cost neutral but important connection that the 56 will make to the burton high school. and then as i said, the rest of the changes are either cancelling rounds and a small frequency reduction on the 9 rapid where we're not seeing as much demand. next slide. in june we would be re-introducing the bulk of what we intended to introduce in march including the two, townsend, and 21 hayes with the modified routing. we would also be extending the 23 back to ocean beach and the 43 into the marina.

and the 28 line would connect along north point and providing a single travel option for people going from fisherman's what are to have the bridge. and then the 57 line would go to west portal and the 58 line would go onto brotherhood way. so those are the changes that we are planning and we will continue to monitor service if the operator availability improves and that may allow us to do more in june than we are currently projecting. but we're going to continue to take kind of a conservative approach to make sure we're not where we are now which is not delivering what we said we were going to deliver. next slide. i also wanted to take a few minutes to let you know in addition to focussing on the

service frequency, we are also continuing to make investments to make the service safe and reliable. in quicker and during covid we had a temporary emergency transit lane program which represented the fastest expansion of transit lanes in the sfmta history. it also allowed us for the first time to really experiment in a deep way with pilot. it shows us a couple of things. one, pilots are reversible. and they can be modified. and through that i think we were able to do things quicker than we have been able to do in the past. and we're seeing tremendous results. to date, we are serving 30% of the customers and are all

online. and with the >> over next year we have an ambitious planning process planned. and with the north-south connections like the 29 subset and this is in anticipation of getting to real estate source point where we are able to introduce the 29 rapid and we don't currently have the staffinger to resources to do that, but it is a very much high

priority for our agency and for our community partners. we also going to be working extensively on our rail system over the next year. we're partnering with the transportation authority on is t ocean avenue project that was referenced earlier to inform designs for the k line and also also starting ambitious projects with three-car trains and the complexities there.

and that is added back to the map and brings in the experts and to try to understand how to optimize and improvement reliability along third street and meet the intent of that corridor. and with that, i will wrap up.

i appreciate your time and your commitment to service and being on the journey with us. and i look forward to answering your questions. see if colleagues have questions or comment. commissioner preston? >> thank, chair mandelman. yes, i will jump in and thank you for keeping public transit running right now with the challenges that you have outlined. i think this is much a comment or -- maybe moreover a comment as a question but i would like to hear a response. and i think that we right now

are really in the middle of public transportation crisis in the city. and each day right now we're getting the with m.t.a. leadership and staff to look at further delays of the restoration plan.

with the rest of the dispute and the real crisis in staff morale. and i don't want to suggest that is all there is, but more of a comment, i do not sense from and

people are left at the curb right now. i mean, just -- i use muni every day and a lot of constituents do and despite a lot of heroic work that is happening by individuals who are showing up and by folks and director kirschbaum and others who are trying to do with the limited resources what we need in the city. and without devaluing any of the efforts, the reality is for transit riders right now, it is not a system anywhere near meeting the needs of people that we have. i feel strongly that if we face this in so many other aspects of the city, there would be an emergency response and everyone would be at the table. we would be told as the ta and the board of supervisors exactly what we can do to help support the agency and address that.

if we lack the firefighters and the head of m.t.a. board, everyone will be at the table. and viewing that as a crisis. we wouldn't pick up the garbage in the city, it would be a crisis. and i just -- the reason in my mind is not being treated that way and is not framed with all due respect to city leaders because they are not riding public transportation and stop picking up the garbage and people would notice it more. and i guess my question, and i will get off the rant and the sharing of frustration here. i would like to know from

director tumlin, what is being done at a leadership level? is there an emergency convening of the mayor and chair mandelman and president walton and the head of the operators union and sitting down and figuring out and the minimum challenges. and figuring out what we do and what we ask of the board of supervisors of the mayor and everyone to move us. and three months out and are now two years into that. ed department showing up and

speaking about the crisis that we are facing. we are fortunate and prevented 1200 from the federal relief funding. and we have been screaming at the top of our lungs for two years. we are completely dependent upon the voters who need to vote by 2/3 to bolster our existing funding streams. and we are challenged because we have the opportunity to partner with the board of supervisors and i will allow other members of the board and particularly to

allow people with the mobility choices and to have mobility not be an impossible barrier opportunity. and we welcome partnership with the supervisors and not to strategy work with the times. director tumlin and to restore service. your entire response is about funding, and yet funding is not the obstacle.

and you could have a billion dollars extra tomorrow, i think, and the 21 line still wouldn't be running. and the number 5 would be delayed and people would be standing at the curve. clearly the board understands and understand there is a role on the funding side and we're obviously talking about the go bond and other funding strategies. but i am asking for -- to me this is part of a problem for almost two years. the constant refrain is we're in a fiscal crisis, a fiscal crisis, a fiscal crisis, and we have debated that that the extent of the crisis, is it overstated, is it not, but it is not actually the barrier right now. and that's the part that -- >> pardon me, sir, but it is, in fact, the primary barrier. the pace of restoration is related to our ability to hire and train. and for that, we are in collaboration with the city's department of human resources on

new tools to allow us to accelerate and hiring and training. that is a key obstacle that merely impacts the pace of restoration, not the actual ability to restore which is entirely a result of the funding crisis, which is indeed a -- remains a crisis and despite the temporary relief of federal assistance that has bought us more time to be able to solve the crisis without layoffs. >> and you will have to explain this then. we had a plan to bring in certain service and march and not back to june and frankly, i am not -- i wish i could be confident that it would be delivered in june. none to that has anything to do with finances. that is omicron, staffing, and that is a number of issues that director kirschbaum has outlined and none of that has anything to

do with staffing. >> the pace of the restoration is about hiring and about omicron. the level of restoration is almost entirely an as a result and there are two factors that are interrelateed. omicron has wiped us out at the moment. as stated, we have had more covid positive cases this year than in the last six weeks than in the previous year. that has impacted the pace right now. that has exacerbated the existing hiring and training ability with the 20 to 25% reduction with the delays of service and i am asking what is

being done and to protect the health and safety of the work force and the customers. that is what is being done. >> what is being done at the leadership issue in the city to have the support to treat that emergency and the additional three months of delay with the complete unreliability of the system to get people around. is there any convening of leaders and what is the ask of the board of supervisors, the mayor, the ta in how we can atis to minimize? and get more buses rolling and not have in the short term the omicron crisis in the short term, while we have regular convenings with the partners in the mayor's office and the department of public health and sfmta board and labor and

leadership help us get through the omicron crisis. that is the public health crisis. and adjusting to get back on the feet again and there is not another covid wave. and we will reset our ability for service and pick up the plan where is we left off. where we need the board of supervisors is to find a path for ongoing and sustained service restoration which is entirely about funding. commissioner preston? >> i don't want to be a broken record, so i will not reiterate

except to say that i would love to see the ask from the agency of the stakeholders that we can support and bringing all aspects of government and just appreciate the updates and the transparency and around a lot of the problems. and i experience it myself and we are solutions offered to the short term and ways with additional bonuses to get people doing more shifts out there and what is the -- what is -- you have addressed what you view is the plan. i am not seeing anything

proposed and in the weeks and months. and i just think if we are a transit first city and are serious about people using public transportation, i just -- there has to be -- we have to not have this level of acceptance of the short term. i am not saying that directly and director tumlin and that is across the board in the city and city leadership and i will say this. i don't want to get into the discussion we have had quite a bit around who people's visions of what transit fares should be and so forth and free transit and all that, but i will say when you are less than 25% of already depleted service, and muni should absolutely be free right now. absolutely. so if there is lost fares, cover it. and at this point it is insulting to be charging full fare to people who can't rely on the public transit systems in san francisco.

>> thank you, commissioner preston. commissioner chan? >> thank you, chair mandelman, and thank you commissioner preston for the line of questioning. i think that i understand and share the sentiment frustrated and i agree with him and him being the daily transit rider and i on the other hand am not, but to be honest, even if i want to be, i find there is limited option. so actually, what really is speaking volume to the situation is for those who depend on it cannot actually have access to it. for those who have options but would like to at least see if

they can support limited options and that puts us in a situation that we want to support public transit, we are not in a space where we have the daily life and can depend on it and use it and can actually just be able to support it. so that is my frustration as sort of the being able to have multiple options person but would like to ride transit. but it's frustrating when you wake up and there is either a tweet or announcement telling you that, hey, you can expect some serious delays. in your options are limited in the route that you can pick. i wanted to share that and concur with the symptoms and frustration and totally understand why the commissioner is actually saying that we need to have a sense of urgency.

we should and i agree with the analogy if this is -- if we treat it as what we should depend on with the daily life with the way with trash pickup, it would be noticeable and i have a lot of thoughts about the geobond which i will talk more in a different setting and later today at the board meeting. but right now i think it's been an ongoing conversation for quite some time since i think that the director has mentioned the last 18 months and there was applied to office as well. so this is disappointed to hear that we're not going to have -- we will have a further delay to june.

i do understand challenges that we face, but again, i also get that it's unprecedented public health crisis. and i also think that there are things that already in place that we are actually much better off than 2020. we have the vaccine and all the other stuff. we are also by february of this year and we are also in a better place than we were in 2021. and i look forward to seeing you come back to have some more information and data. and right now it is tough to say good job sfmta and we want to see more information. thank you. thank you, commissioner chan. let's open this item to public comment.

>> there is no public comment. >> all right. public comment on item 10 is closed. >> thank you so our presenters and we will move on to item 11. madam clerk, please call item 11. >> item 11, introduction of new items. this is an information item. >> and i am looking to see if anybody has new business. and i don't see any. so madam clerk, please call item 12. >> item 12, general public comment. >> let's open public comment on item 12. >> members of the public, if you are interested in speaking, please press pound 3. >> there is no public comment, chair. >> all right. >> item -- public comment on item 12 is closed.

>> madam clerk, please call item 13. >> item 13, adjournment. >> thank you. we are adjourned now in memory of bob planthold. thanks, everybody.

>> the bicycle coalition was giving away 33 bicycles so i applied. i was happy to receive one of them. >> the community bike build program is the san francisco coalition's way of spreading the joy of biking and freedom of biking to residents who may not have access to affordable transportation. the city has an ordinance that we worked with them on back in 2014 that requires city agency goes to give organizations like the san francisco bicycle organization a chance to take

bicycles abandoned and put them to good use or find new homes for them. the partnerships with organizations generally with organizations that are working with low income individuals or families or people who are transportation dependent. we ask them to identify individuals who would greatly benefit from a bicycle. we make a list of people and their heights to match them to a bicycle that would suit their lifestyle and age and height. >> bicycle i received has impacted my life so greatly. it is not only a form of recreation. it is also a means of getting connected with the community through bike rides and it is also just a feeling of freedom. i really appreciate it. i am very thankful.

>> we teach a class. they have to attend a one hour class. things like how to change lanes, how to make a left turn, right turn, how to ride around cars. after that class, then we would give everyone a test chance -- chance to test ride. >> we are giving them as a way to get around the city. >> just the joy of like seeing people test drive the bicycles in the small area, there is no real word. i guess enjoyable is a word i could use. that doesn't describe the kind of warm feelings you feel in your heart giving someone that sense of freedom and maybe they haven't ridden a bike in years. these folks are older than the normal crowd of people we give bicycles away to. take my picture on my bike.

that was a great experience. there were smiles all around. the recipients, myself, supervisor, everyone was happy to be a part of this joyous occasion. at the end we normally do a group ride to see people ride off with these huge smiles on their faces is a great experience. >> if someone is interested in volunteering, we have a special section on the website sf bike.org/volunteer you can sign up for both events. we have given away 855 bicycles, 376 last year. we are growing each and every year. i hope to top that 376 this year. we frequently do events in bayview. the spaces are for people to

come and work on their own bikes or learn skills and give them access to something that they may not have had access to. >> for me this is a fun way to get outside and be active. most of the time the kids will be in the house. this is a fun way to do something. >> you get fresh air and you don't just stay in the house all day. it is a good way to exercise. >> the bicycle coalition has a bicycle program for every community in san francisco. it is connecting the young, older community. it is a wonderful outlet for the community to come together to have some good clean fun. it has opened to many doors to the young people that will usually might not have a bicycle. i have seen them and they are

thankful and i am thankful for this program. 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.

you're watching san francisco rising with chris manors. today's special guest is dr. steven zutnick. >> hello. the show is focused on restarting, rebuilding, and reimagining our city. the director of the therapy center of san francisco and he's a professor in counseling psychology at usf. he's here today to talk to us

about resocializing, and returning to the office. welcome to the show. >>. >> thanks, chris. good to be back. >> as we re-open, people are having different reactions. some are embracing the recent shifts while others are having a hard time readjusting. >> yes. i think it's an excellent question. my basic bias on this i think to give you a general overview is we ought to be following cdc suggestions and requirements, what they say, because that's where a lot of the things come. should i wear a mask. should i not wear a mask. my answer is, yes, absolutely. i think we should wear a mask. i think we should social distance. it not only makes an impact on covid, it makes an impact on other diseases as well.

as you and i were chatting, the deaths from flu usually average 30,000 a year. we've had 2,500 deaths from the flu so far this year, but at the very least, you need to be vaccinated. >> going back to the office is also an issue. there are some people are thrilled returning to work, others are nervous about it and there's a group of people who've been working onsite all along. let's start with those who are worried about returning to the office. what can be done to relieve their concerns? >> i think identifying a cohort of colleagues, fellow workers who you can just talk to and share experiences with. you know, when you look at the advantages of groups, the major one is when we sit and talk to other people, we suddenly discover, oh, this isn't just me, i'm not some strange guy here. so everybody else i'm talking to is worried about the same

thing. i think that will raise awareness among people. to say, oh, i don't know, what are we going to do? do we have fresh air in here? can we open some windows? does the boss care if i wear a mask? >> how about those who've been going to work all along. possibly the most traumatized. how would you talk to them about managing the possible stress and resentment they may have been feeling. >> the most at-risk population is the essential worker who because they are also one of the lowest paid populations, have taken the biggest hits and the most risks. they're still at high risk. so they're dealing with a lot. they're dealing with depression, anxiety, insomnia

quite a bit. and you've got a lot of ptsd by the way one last point on the health care workers. that's the tip of the iceberg. these are also the people who often have the least access to therapy. so we've got all these people out of there who've been in the trenches the entire time, never had a break, suffering a lot of trauma, and there are no services available for them. >> lastly, let's talk about management. with varying attitudes towards the lifting of restrictions, there may be some struggles in the work place. how would you advise management to ease the transition? >> management can encourage vaccination or require it. they can keep masks, physical distance, hand washing, all of these things. and hopefully management will be responsive. i think, you know, given the title that the series, this is all new.

we're all just moving in to a whole new phase. we haven't begun to see the research that's going to come out of what we've just been through. we've been through a terrible pandemic. there's been a huge toll and i don't think we've seen the tip of the iceberg on the impact. >> do you have any final thoughts to share? >> yeah. i think this pandemic has highlighted a lot of things. for me, certainly, is mental health professional and a behavioral scientist. it's clear to me, we need to educate people about science. this is not unknowable to people. the basic of science is constant questioning. when you ask a question in research, you get one answer and about five new questions. things evolve continuously. so, yeah, when the cdc first

came out a year and a half ago, they said, no, we don't need masks and then they said oh, we do and then everybody went crazy. oh, look how bad the sciencetists are. that's exactly what science does. we thought we didn't need it. then we discovered it was air born. i think we're seeing we have huge holes in the health care system and conversely, i think we're finding with the vaccination, what it means for everyone to have access to health care without worrying about how am i going to pay for it. so i think this is really forcing us to look at everything. it's been a very difficult time. it's going to continue to be a difficult time for people, but i think that's also getting us to look at some really critical issues in health care. >> well, thank you so much for coming on the show dr. zlotnick.

well, thanks again. we'll be back with another episode of san francisco rising shortly. for sfgov tv i'm chris manors. thanks for watching.

>> there is a lot of unique characteristics about visitation valley. it is a unique part of the city. >> we are off in a corner of the city against the san francisco county line 101 on one side. vis station valley is still one of the last blue color neighborhoods in san francisco. a lot of working class families out here. it is unusual. not a lot of apartment buildings. a lot of single family homes. >> great business corridor. so much traffic coming through here and stopping off to grab coffee or sandwich or pick up food before going home. >> a lot of customers are from the neighborhood. they are painters or mechanics. they are like blue color

workers, a lot of them. >> the community is lovely. multi-racial and hopefully we can look out for each other. >> there is a variety of businesses on the block. you think of buffalo kitchen, chinese food, pork buns, sandwich. library, bank of america with a parking lot. the market where you can grab anything. amazing food choices, nail salons. basically everything you need is here. >> a lot of these businesses up and down leland are family owned. people running them are family. when you come here and you have an uncle and nephew and go across the street and have the guy and his dad. lisa and her daughter in the dog parlor and pam. it is very cool. >> is small businesses make the neighborhood unique. >> new businesses coming.

in mission blue, gourmet chocolate manufacturing. the corridor has changed and is continuing to change. we hope to see more businesses coming in the near future. >> this is what is needed. first, stay home. unless it is absoluteliness scary. social distancing is the most important step right now to limit spread of virus. cancel all nonessential gather everythings. >> when the pandemic litly land avenue suffered like other corridors. a few nail salons couldn't operate. they shut down. restaurants that had to adapt to more of a take out model.

they haven't totally brought back indoor seating. >> it is heartbreaking to see the businesses that have closed down and shut because of the pandemic. >> when the pandemic first hit it got really slow. we had to change our hours. we never had to close, which is a blessing. thank god. we stayed open the whole time. >> we were kind of nervous and anxious to see what was going to come next hoping we will not have to close down. >> during covid we would go outside and look on both sides of the street. it looked like old western town. nobody on the street. no cars. >> it was a hard eight or nine months. when they opened up half the people couldn't afford a haircut. >> during that time we kept saying the coffee shop was the living room of the valley.

people would come to make sure they were okay. >> we checked on each other and patronized each other. i would get a cup of coffee, shirt, they would get a haircut. >> this is a generous and kind community. people would be like i am getting the toffee for the guy behind me and some days it went on and on. it was amazing to watch. we saw a perfect picture of community. we are all in this together. >> since we began to reopen one year later, we will emerge stronger. we will emerge better as a city because we are still here and we stand in solidarity with one another. >> when we opened up august 1st. i will not say it was all good. we are still struggling due to covid. it affected a lot of people.

>> we are still in the pandemic right now. things are opening up a little bit. it is great to have space to come together. i did a three painting series of visitation valley and the businesses on leland. it felt good to drop off the paintings and hung them. >> my business is picking up. the city is opening up. we have mask requirements. i check temperatures. i ask for vaccination card and/or recent test. the older folks they want to feel safe here. >> i feel like there is a sense of unity happening. >> what got us through the pandemic was our customers. their dogs needed groomed, we have to cut their nails so they don't over grow. >> this is only going to push us forward. i sense a spirit of community and just belief in one another. >> we are trying to see if we

can help all small businesses around here. there is a cannabis club lounge next to the dog parlor to bring foot traffic. my business is not going to work if the business across the street is not getting help. >> in hit us hard. i see a bright future to get the storefronts full. >> once people come here i think they really like it. >> if you are from san francisco visit visitation valley to see how this side of the city is the same but different.

>> if i could have your attention. thank you. the look around the room, it is

wonderful to see your faces. it is really a pleasure to see wisdom, strength, bravery and leadership. all of the great attributes for the year of the tiger. [applause] >> thank you for being here. on behalf of the heritage foundation, thank you so much for coming to this afternoon's lunar celebration. i am the board chair of the foundation. the foundation's mission is to promote awareness of the asian pacific cultural heritage and great opportunities for community collaboration. the main event is a celebration of the apa heritage month in may.

you will learn more about that later this afternoon. this seven's event will not be possible without all committee members and volunteers. we also are thank full to the reception sponsor amazon. let's give them all a warm round of applause. thank you so much. [applause] now to start our program i have the great pleasure to introduce san francisco's city administrator carmen chu. i really don't have to say more than that, right? carmen chu. how much more do i need to say? i have a list. a career in public service. mayor's office of public policy finance. elected to serve as district 4

supervisor for two terms. following which she was elected to serve as city assessor. last february carmen was appointed by may or london breed to be the san francisco city administrator overseeing 25 city agendas. please welcome carmen chu. [applause] >> good evening everybody. i am carmen chu, san francisco city administrator. as you can tell from the buzz of conversation the happy faces that we have here that we are so excited to be back in person to celebrate the lunar new year. [applause] on behalf of the city and county, on behalf of mayor london breed, board of supervisors and elected officials and department heads today we want to wish all of you a very, very happy year of the

tiger. (applause). cheers. come on. [cheers and applause.] i want to give a shout out and thank you to jj and claudine who have worked tirelessly to organize this event to make sure we start the year of the tiger off right. claudine, please come on up. yes, you. [applause] here is the certificate of honor on behalf of the san francisco city administrator's office. thank you. [applause] >> i saw on your script it was five more minutes. co-chairs, please join me.

we need to welcome former mayor. thank you for being here. let's start with celebrating lunar new year. trying to connect everybody with this celebration. this is february 7th. it is a prize if you can explain why we chose that day and what is special about this date february 7th. anyone? what? i can't hear you. it is right. commissioner louie. in the lunar calendar, the seventh day of the new year as long as everybody's birthday. happy birthday everyone.

[applause] lunar new year is about gathering of families. we have all done that. looking around the room a number of you are not asian pacific americans. today you are because we appreciate you being here to celebrate with us. in the last year or year and a half in the asian communities we have been encouraging each other to speak up, stand up because of anti-asian hate at the san francisco human rights commission. we also have talked a lot about standing together. we shouldn't stand together and support each other, connect this event today. not only as we kickoff the whole year of cultural celebrations in the city, but we want all of you to have an opportunity to connect a number of you just told me earlier this afternoon this was the first time you were in city hall in two years.

isn't that great? i want to thank you mayor for allowing us to do this. this afternoon is about celebrating families, celebrating communities by first communities coming together. we are thinking this is part of every year in may we have the celebration of asian pacific heritage month. we were thinking what is our theme this year. anti-asian hate, standing together. what we need is to continue to create opportunities for more community bonding. i think what we need is keep on having those opportunities that we can meet each other, learn a lot more about each other and be friends. it is true. if you know somebody, we are all different.

we all come from different places. we get to spend some time together. get to know each other. that can how we appreciate differences. the celebration of apa heritage month in may we are going to be talking about community bonds. that is what we are about. that is what this afternoon is about. i want to thank all of you for taking time to be here. i want be to specifically thank former mayor willie brown for being here. he hasn't missed too many occasions in our community. [applause]. we are a small organization but very, very blessed with a large community that consists of representatives of from over 10

to 12 different ethnic groups. at the head of it we have very, very fortunate to have three co-chairs working together. thomas lee and everyone bringing a lot. [applause]. to make it all work. this is by invitation only. the reason we invited you because we appreciate you and we want to thank you. unfortunately so many have done so much we cannot introduce every one of you. we have special acknowledgments to make. when i say your name, please stand. the president of the board of supervisors. supervisor walton for district 10. district 1 connie chan.

district three peskin representing chinatown. district four gordon mar. district five preston filmore. >> haney soma. melgar. district eight mandelman representing castro. district nine ronen thenition. district 11 supervisor safai. >> thank you. in paddition to the board of supervisors we would like to welcome the city-wide elected officials. no particular order. city attorney david chu.

[indiscernable] district attorney, public defender har. board member lee and city college trustee allen wong. thank you all for joining us this afternoon. >> last but not least i would like to acknowledge the members of the heritage foundation board. different directors today. the foundation is a small nonprofit with individuals from diverse backgrounds. jj laura. [indiscernable] steve wilson. irene riley.

[indiscernable] scott adams. in the audience are members of the apa heritage celebration committee. in the interest of time we cannot introduce all of you. please note we are so very much appreciative of your participation and service on the committee. thank you so much. [applause] >> really we appreciate the support of the city's family. at this time i would like to introduce our mayor. i don't know how many of you were at chinatown when we kicked off a week ago. lunar new year is a new beginning, reset for

communities, and we are so proud of being in the city where it is one of the safest cities in the country. the mayor has taken tough measures to make sure we are safe and healthy. mayor london breed. [applause]. >> mayor breed: thank you. let me say i can't believe that we are all able to get together again like this. it is absolutely amazing. claudine, the people who work in city hall and our elected officials come to the event because we love coming to the event. not just because the food is so amazing. i don't know if we have food this year. i remember the days on the board of supervisors. this was a good meal after a long day's work. we are here to support the apa heritage foundation for all of the work they continue to do.

not just during lunar new year but year around. to really highlight the importance of the api community in san francisco. one of the things claudine mentioned that is really impactful to me is, sadly, when we started to experience a lot of the hate and the deviciveness and the attacks on the community. the heritage foundation started to build bridges with a number of cross cultural events. they have embedded the work around cross-cultural relationships in their programming year around. i want to thank claudine for leadership and work and advocacy of bringing our communities together to understand one another, to learn about one another's culture and uplift and appreciate one another. i remember when i was in high school. we always had all kinds of

assemblies about the taiwan or chinese or black community just to understand and see just our cultures on full display sparked interest and discussion and understanding. it also sparked togetherness. today we are joined by some of our asian countries. council generals. i want you all to stand when i announce the council general from korea, japan, philippines, indonesia, singapore, mongolia and vietnam. .applause. and china. building relationships with not just the communities in san

francisco but all over the world is very important to us. we are grateful for the partnership with the various council generals who continue to work with us every day. today as we unveil this new stand. it is not about a collector's item. will say to our postmaster general in almost every instance they are so beautiful and fascinating you can't help but want to collect them. we know it is about signifying a new day, new opportunity, every lunar new year is about an opportunity for us to reset and to come together and to just really appreciate life as we know it, especially after dealing with a very challenging time during this global pandemic. we are grateful to celebrate the year of the tiger, which

signifies courage and strength. i know as a tiger myself where i get it from. [laughter] but the truth is i couldn't wait until we got to the year of the tiger. i couldn't wait to this year where we could see all that it will entail, the various events, lunches, performances, gatherings, parade in person for the first time in over two years. [applause]. i want to thank each and every one of you for coming to the celebration, helping to uplift our community. all of the things you have done that have been seen and unseen to have an impact. by just being here today it demonstrates your commitment and support for the api community in san francisco and this stamp is really another incredible thing

that we are able to really show and support and as a matter of fact in honor of lunar new year, maybe we can start writing physical letters and using stamps to mail them other than just mailing bills with those stamps. with that i want to thank you all for coming and looking forward to seeing this incredible stamp. we will hear from our postmaster general before we move to the unveiling so we can get on with the festivities. thank you all so much. [applause] >> thank you, mayor breed. before we go into that i want to acknowledge our reception sponsor amazon. i would like to invite sally to say happy new year to everyone. >> thank you.

you know what they say never stand before a party when there is stamp unveiling. based on what we learn tonight. thank you for coming to my birthday celebration. it is all of our birthdays. thank you for the apa heritage foundation for including amazon and inviting us to sponsor this event. over the last two years amazon is investing in san francisco. looking around the room so many partners we have worked with and to be inspired by. thank you for that. i am told the water tiger is a symbol of courage and action. i want to let you know as amazon continues to invest in the city we will serve the needs of the community and celebration. thank you for being here tonight. thank you for allowing amazon to be part of it.

thank you. >> every year we have been unveiling stamps in san francisco since 1992. i was reminded by my good friends this is the 13th anniversary of the historic announcement of the issue of set of stamps honoring chinese and asian-american cultural heritage in december of 1992. this year's unveiling has special meaning. we hope next year that the national birthday of issue will be in san francisco. it is 30 years of history. something we are proud of. it is a very tiny stamp. a stamp is an instrument of communication. it represents so many more people to learn about the lunar calendar, what it means, whether

they agree or don't agree, what to do on a particular day. there is a lot of history on the lunar calendar. we are happy to have the second postmaster with us today. the acting postmaster of san francisco starting in postal service as letter carrier. over the years he has been operational managers and customer service. after that the postmaster of oakland. now we are happy to have you as the acting postmaster of san francisco. we are having stamp sales outside. after the event feel free to go and if you haven't purchased your stamps, please do to so. let's welcome the acting postmaster.

[applause]. good evening, everyone. thank you for the kind introduction. i am postmaster of san francisco. i am happy to be here on behalf of the post office for the year of the tiger stamp. i would like to thank our speakers, mayor breed, commissioner chang. board president walton and customers and leaders for joining us today. i want to take this opportunity to thank the national organization oca and several local organizations for continued support. in china the tradition of celebrating new year's began thousands of years ago. the crops and livestock the villages were on the night before the new year. in some versions of the story

the brave old man decided to put up red paper around the village and fireworks. frightened by the loud noise and red peeper left without eating the crops. i love this. it symbolizes the human experience and fighting spirit in protecting and caring for our families. since that time the lunar year evolved and the customs are loved throughout the world. the celebration is squarely within the cultural traditions. time to prepare for a fresh start while honoring the past. families come together for delicious food an occasion for good luck and prosperity. this year more than 1.5 billion people around the world mark the beginning of the year of the tiger.

strong, gave, confident and well liked. we could all benefit from the tiger's qualities in the year ahead. let's work together across the globe with confidence better days lie ahead. to the stamp. year of the tiger is created by chu after the director. the lunar year stamp. you will agree the result of the coloration and design that captures the beauty and strength of the tiger and fresh. the design is comtemporarily take and. [indiscernable] lion or dragon dances performed during the new year parades. it is symbolic meanings of blue,

orange and gray. the tiger's head purple to reflect the chinese zodiac. this is from the third series of new years. 1993-2004 and 2020 to present. this event is for celebrating the 30th anniversary announcement of the stamps honoring the chinese asian contribution to this country. announcement was first made at the national convention in august of 1992. former and vailing of year of the rooster in the same year. add to your collection or mail your new year's greetings. it is our hope it brings you pros pair be, peace, -- prosperity, peace, good luck and

much joy. the mayor will join me in unveiling the stamp. (applause). [ music ]

>> 5, 4, 3, 2 , 1. cut.

>> we are here to celebrate the opening of this community garden. a place that used to look a lot darker and today is sun is shining and it's beautiful and it's been completely redone and been a gathering place for this community. >> i have been waiting for this garden for 3 decades. that is not a joke. i live in an apartment building three floors up and i have potted plants and have dreamt the whole time i have lived there to have some ability to build this dirt. >> let me tell you handout you -- how to build a community garden. you start with a really good idea and add community support from echo

media and levis and take management and water and sun and this is what we have. this is great. it's about environment and stewardship. it's also for the -- we implemented several practices in our successes of the site. that is made up of the pockets like wool but they are made of recycled plastic bottles. i don't know how they do it. >> there is acres and acres of parkland throughout golden gate park, but not necessarily through golden community garden. we have it right in the middle of

>> thank you jason. i would make note of when vice chair mandelman joins the

meeting.