tv Mayors Press Availability SFGTV June 20, 2022 9:00am-1:01pm PDT
9:00 am
of 30, but we really want to hear from everyone. please be aware that we're looking for feedback from everyone, but especially from these groups. later on in july, we will have a deaf focus group specifically to collect feedback from the deaf community around these same issues, and communication reasons, and because the level of detail that the interviewer's getting to, we thought it would be good to
9:01 am
have it in sign language or interpreters. we anticipate that being in the last week of july, either the 25 or 26, right in time for the anniversary of the americans with disabilities act, so that's good timing at least in that regard. so if you need more information or want to take the survey, you can go to sfhsa.org/survey. that's all the information i wanted to present today regarding this topic, so i'm
9:02 am
not sure what's next, if we're going to public comment next or council questions. >> this is orkid here. there are a few things before we move on. public comment and then council members and then staff comments, so just for everyone who's confused, we will let you know the protocol. for public comment, you can either type your comment or let us know in some other way that you'd like to be unmuted, and you'll have up to three minutes. do we have any public comment? >> i would like to remind the public that you can make public comment by dialing star, nine to be recognized over the phone or by using the raised hand
9:03 am
icon within the zoom platform. at this time, i do not see anyone indicating that they want to make public comment. >> great. and i don't see any typing in the chat room, either. do you, iman? >> i do not see any comments or questions that were typed in the q&a box. >> okay. then we'll move onto council members. any council member who would like to make a comment or ask a question, please raise your hand. okay. i'm not hearing any. this is orkid here. i actually have a comment to make. director vaughn, this is great, and -- director bohn, this is great, and i'm actually looking forward to the community
9:04 am
housing forum. often, those with housing situation -- those agencies that provide housing help often don't know how to accommodate a deaf person or how to get an interpreter or so on, so the last week of july sounds wonderful. i'll be entrenched with you, and thank you, director bohn, for that wonderful overview. any other comments or questions before we move onto staff comments or questions? >> may i just say that we will be definitely touching base with you and folks in the deaf services center. i really need every single council member's help in getting in on the opportunity
9:05 am
to get out the word about feedback needed on affordable housing in san francisco. it's going to form what we do for the next three years, so i really -- i can't emphasize enough that we really get the word out and spread the word to folks with disabilities about their experiences so we can identify those gaps and make those improvements. >> yes. definitely, definitely. any other staff commentary -- debbie, did you want to comment? >> no comment. >> oh, i think your computer
9:06 am
made a noise. any other council comments? last chance. all right. >> okay. >> on number 8, and thank you, again, director bohn, for that report. oh, i see debbie. item 8. debbie, is there any correspondence since the last meeting that we need to discuss or address? >> and the answer is no, there is no correspondence to report. >> okay. great. thank you very much. moving on, item number 9, general public comment. are there any public comments for topics that were not on our agenda today but within the purview of the council?
9:07 am
iman, would you like to start? >> umm, okay. as a reminder to the public, you can indicate that you want to make public comment by dialing star, nine over the phone to be recognized or by using the raise hand icon within the zoom platform. as orkid mentioned, at this time, members of the public may address the council on items of interest to the public that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the council that are not on this meeting agenda. i do not see any members of the public indicating they want to make public comment. i also don't see any comments within the q&a box.
9:08 am
>> okay. so hearing no additional comments or questions at this time, next on the agenda is item number 10, discussion item. comments, announcements from council members. any announcements from council members? i do have one, but i wanted to give you the first opportunity. this is your chance, council members. okay. it's summer. things are different, i guess -- oh, tiffany says nothing from her. okay. so i'm hoping that everyone has a wonderful summer, and that we'll see you again in july, and we will have a staff retreat in july, so if you're wondering where we are, we're not off the grid, we've gone into retreat, so we will be doing that in july.
9:09 am
>> august, actually, orkid. >> i'm sorry. maybe that was an interpreter mistake. can you say it again? sorry. that was an interpreter error. the retreat will be in august, so -- the staff retreat will be in august, so if you're wondering where we are, we will be doing some training with the staff. the council and staff are doing some training and working on our work internally. so we're not off on vacation, we're doing work. so if you have any comments, again, please contact m.d.c. at
9:10 am
mod@sfgov.org. thank you to all the council, staff, and the presenters for making today happen. we're thankful for you and hope to see you all again in july, and have a great summer. so do we now move on, i believe, to item number 11, adjournment. >> go ahead, orkid. >> all right. well, thank you all. all right. meeting adjourned.
9:11 am
>> once i got the hang of it a little bit, you know, like the first time, i never left the court. i just fell in love with it and any opportunity i had to get out there, you know, they didn't have to ask twice. you can always find me on the court. [♪♪♪] >> we have been able to participate in 12 athletics wheelchairs. they provide what is an
9:12 am
expensive tool to facilitate basketball specifically. behind me are the amazing golden state road warriors, which are one of the most competitive adaptive basketball teams in the state led by its captain, chuck hill, who was a national paralympic and, and is now an assistant coach on the national big team. >> it is great to have this opportunity here in san francisco. we are the main hub of the bay area, which, you know, we should definitely have resources here. now that that is happening, you know, i i'm looking forward to that growing and spreading and helping spread the word that needs -- that these people are here for everyone. i think it is important for people with disabilities, as well as able-bodied, to be able to see and to try different sports, and to appreciate trying different things. >> people can come and check out
9:13 am
this chairs and use them. but then also friday evening, from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m., it will be wheelchair basketball we will make sure it is available, and that way people can no that people will be coming to play at the same time. >> we offer a wide variety of adaptive and inclusion programming, but this is the first time we have had our own equipment. [♪♪♪] >> growing up in san francisco
9:14 am
has been way safer than growing up other places we we have that bubble, and it's still that bubble that it's okay to be whatever you want to. you can let your free flag fry -- fly here. as an adult with autism, i'm here to challenge people's idea of what autism is. my journey is not everyone's journey because every autistic child is different, but there's hope. my background has heavy roots in the bay area. i was born in san diego and adopted out to san francisco when i was about 17 years old. i bounced around a little bit here in high school, but i've always been here in the bay.
9:15 am
we are an inclusive preschool, which means that we cater to emp. we don't turn anyone away. we take every child regardless of race, creed, religious or ability. the most common thing i hear in my adult life is oh, you don't seem like you have autism. you seem so normal. yeah. that's 26 years of really, really, really hard work and i think thises that i still do. i was one of the first open adoptions for an lgbt couple. they split up when i was about four. one of them is partnered, and one of them is not, and then my biological mother, who is also a lesbian. very queer family. growing up in the 90's with a queer family was odd, i had the bubble to protect me, and here, i felt safe. i was bullied relatively
9:16 am
infrequently. but i never really felt isolated or alone. i have known for virtually my entire life i was not suspended, but kindly asked to not ever bring it up again in first grade, my desire to have a sex change. the school that i went to really had no idea how to handle one. one of my parents is a little bit gender nonconforming, so they know what it's about, but my parents wanted my life to be safe. when i have all the neurological issues to manage, that was just one more to add to it. i was a weird kid. i had my core group of, like, very tight, like, three friends. when we look at autism, we characterize it by, like, lack of eye contact, what i do now is when i'm looking away from the camera, it's for my own comfort. faces are confusing.
9:17 am
it's a lack of mirror neurons in your brain working properly to allow you to experience empathy, to realize where somebody is coming from, or to realize that body language means that. at its core, autism is a social disorder, it's a neurological disorder that people are born with, and it's a big, big spectrum. it wasn't until i was a teenager that i heard autism in relation to myself, and i rejected it. i was very loud, i took up a lot of space, and it was because mostly taking up space let everybody else know where i existed in the world. i didn't like to talk to people really, and then, when i did, i overshared. i was very difficult to be around. but the friends that i have are very close. i click with our atypical
9:18 am
kiddos than other people do. in experience, i remember when i was five years old and not wanting people to touch me because it hurt. i remember throwing chairs because i could not regulate my own emotions, and it did not mean that i was a bad kid, it meant that i couldn't cope. i grew up in a family of behavioral psychologists, and i got development cal -- developmental psychology from all sides. i recognize that my experience is just a very small picture of that, and not everybody's in a position to have a family that's as supportive, but there's also a community that's incredible helpful and wonderful and open and there for you in your moments of need. it was like two or three years of conversations before i was like you know what? i'm just going to do this, and i went out and got my prescription for hormones and started transitioning
9:19 am
medically, even though i had already been living as a male. i have a two-year-old. the person who i'm now married to is my husband for about two years, and then started gaining weight and wasn't sure, so i went and talked with the doctor at my clinic, and he said well, testosterone is basically birth control, so there's no way you can be pregnant. i found out i was pregnant at 6.5 months. my whole mission is to kind of normalize adults like me. i think i've finally found my calling in early intervention, which is here, kind of what we do. i think the access to care for parents is intentionally confusing. when i did the prospective
9:20 am
search for autism for my own child, it was confusing. we have a place where children can be children, but it's very confusing. i always out myself as an adult with autism. i think it's helpful when you know where can your child go. how i'm choosing to help is to give children that would normally not be allowed to have children in the same respect, kids that have three times as much work to do as their peers or kids who do odd things, like, beach therapy. how do -- speech therapy. how do you explain that to the rest of their class? i want that to be a normal experience. i was working on a certificate and kind of getting think early childhood credits before i started working here, and we did a section on transgender inclusion, inclusion, which is a big issue here in san francisco because we attract lots of queer families, and the
9:21 am
teacher approached me and said i don't really feel comfortable or qualified to talk about this from, like, a cisgendered straight person's perspective, would you mind talking a little bit with your own experience, and i'm like absolutely. so i'm now one of the guest speakers in that particular class at city college. i love growing up here. i love what san francisco represents. the idea of leaving has never occurred to me. but it's a place that i need to fight for to bring it back to what it used to be, to allow all of those little kids that come from really unsafe environments to move somewhere safe. what i've done with my life is work to make all of those situations better, to bring a little bit of light to all those kind of issues that we're still having, hoping to expand into a little bit more of a resource center, and this resource center would be more those new parents who have gotten that diagnosis, and we want to be this one centralized place that allows parents to
9:22 am
breathe for a second. i would love to empower from the bottom up, from the kid level, and from the top down, from the teacher level. so many things that i would love to do that are all about changing people's minds about certain chunts, like the transgender community or the autistic community. i would like my daughter to know there's no wrong way to go through life. everybody experiences pain and grief and sadness, and that all of those things are temporary.
9:23 am
9:24 am
francisco, continue blocks down the street they're going to fall into the pacific ocean. two blocks over you're going to have golden gate park. there is japanese, chinese, hamburgers, italian, you don't have to cook. you can just walk up and down the street and you can get your cheese. i love it. but the a very multicultural place with people from everywhere. it's just a wonderful environment. i love the richmond district. >> and my wife and i own a café we have specialty coffee drinks, your typical lattes and mochas and cappuccinos, and for lunches, sandwiches and soup and salad. made fresh to order. we have something for everybody >> my shop is in a very cool part of the city but that's one of the reasons why we provide
9:25 am
such warm and generous treats, both physically and emotionally (♪♪) >> it's an old-fashioned general store. they have coffee. other than that what we sell is fishing equipment. go out and have a good time. >> one of my customers that has been coming here for years has always said this is my favorite store. when i get married i'm coming in your store. and then he in his wedding outfit and she in a beautiful dress came in here in between getting married at lands end and to the reception, unbelievable. (♪♪)
9:26 am
>> the new public health order that we're announcing will require san franciscans to remain at home with exceptions only for essential outings. >> when the pandemic first hit we kind of saw the writing on the walls that potentially the city is going to shut all businesses down. >> it was scary because it was such an unknown of how things were going to pan out. i honestly thought that this might be the end of our business. we're just a small business and we still need daily customers. >> i think that everybody was on edge. nobody was untouched. it was very silent. >> as a business owner, you know, things don't just stop,
9:27 am
right? you've still got your rent, and all of the overhead, it's still there. >> there's this underlying constant sense of dread and anxiety. it doesn't prevent you from going to work and doing your job, it doesn't stop you from doing your normal routine. what it does is just make you feel extra exhausted. >> so we began to reopen one year later, and we will emerge stronger, we will emerge better as a city, because we are still here and we stand in solidarity with one another. >> this place has definitely been an anchor for us, it's home for us, and, again, we are part of this community and the community is part of us. >> one of the things that we strived for is making everyone in the community feel welcome and we have a sign that says "you're welcome." no matter who you are, no matter
9:28 am
9:30 am
my name is steve adomi and i'm the director of the adult probation department. i do want to thank our partners from the department of public health with community services we've opened 300 units in the individual justice system trying to live drug and alcohol-free. so, before i begin, i actually want to thank destiny pledge and victoria west brook who --
9:31 am
they're my staff and one of the advantages of this project is the city spent no money remodelling this building. the ownership took on the remodel and it's 75 units. it will be an opportunity for 75 adults to mitigate the barriers and provide real-time access for people in jail that need to get support in the community and not in custody. so i want to say thank you to destiny and victoria for all your leadership on this project. now, i have the honor of introducing our incredible mayor london breed.
9:32 am
[ applause ] >> first of all, i'm glad to be here. i love what you're doing and i love seeing my people do well in san francisco. let me tell you, it's been a hard time for so many folks who are part of this community over the years. in fact, there have been a lot of conversations happening around criminal justice reforms and this whole d.a. recall and it's a set back to supposedly a set back to criminal justice reform. and, what i reject as the mayor of this city is the need to choose between justice and reforms. we can have both. both exist. it exists for the moms whose children were gunned down in the street who deserve justice. it exists for the people who have been falsely accused of crimes that they did not commit. it exists for people who suffer
9:33 am
from addiction of various things who want to turn their lives around and when they come home want to re-enter society and have the dignity of having a roof over their heads. it exists when we make it a priority. we don't have to choose. we have to invest in it all. we have to invest in people in this city. and, part of that includes supporting folks who are re-entering society who want a second chance. i can't even list the number of people that i grew up with who paid their debt to society and some others that paid somebody else's debt to society and they would come home looking for help. and maybe their mom or their
9:34 am
grandma was displaced from the place they grew up in. and they were rejected time and time again for employment opportunities to make a decent living to be able to have money to pay rent. and so, what happens is -- what happens when everyone is slamming the door in your face. what happens when everyone is telling you no. what happens is when you're trying to figure out where you're going to sleep. that's why this is so important. it's important for people to have dignity. the for people to have a foundation. for people to truly get the second chance that they deserve in life and to have stable housing at the center of all that. but also what steve has created is more than just housing and
9:35 am
abstinence based programs. who uplift 1 another and in turn, all of the folks who are part of this incredible family, they're going to try and continue to help other people, other people who are struggling with some of the similar issues that unfortunately they've had to endure and they are living examples of when it's done right. they are living examples of when redemption happens, when second chances happen, when opportunity happens. this is more than just a building when it's being remodeled and beautiful artwork and nice paint. it's more than that. it's what we are, what we represent in san francisco. and what we have to continue to
9:36 am
invest in. we can't keep saying that we believe in it, but not make the investments to change it. and, so that's why we're here today. and, i couldn't be more proud because seeing people that you know who've been through challenges and seeing them here doing this great work, gaining a little weight. now, some people are like i don't want to gain weight, but trust me, this is the good kind of weight. the good kind of weight. and so i'm so proud to be here. and i'm so happy for what this is going to do for not just the folks who are part of this family, this community, but what it's going to do to turn around peoples' lives. so congratulations. i guess we're cutting the ribbon. i guess we're almost full.
9:37 am
we're going to get full soon. but, steve, i've got to say, are i'm so happy that you are really spearheading many of these projects because i know they'll get done and they'll get done right and every single dollar that the city provides will be invested in the people to make this kind of difference. thank you for your work. thank you for your commitment. and, let me take this opportunity to introduce the next speaker. can i do that? so i want to introduce the next speaker because you know a lot of you know where i grew up. sadly, addiction was not only common, but involvement in the criminal justice system was common and getting access to programs and opportunities was definitely not really an option and many instances. and, so when i was trying to make a decision about who would serve on the board of
9:38 am
supervisors for district six, the reason why matt dorsey is a person that i picked had a lot to do with his compelling story having very similar experiences to so many people i know and so many people in this community. someone who has unfortunately suffered through an addiction, has been through rehab, has been through resources to get through help. and he and i had a very in-depth conversation and i'll tell you this is really important to me because we know it's hard and we know there are people who aren't with us because of their addiction including my sister. you know, waldon house tried to help, but we need more.
9:39 am
and we don't need people who've not experienced things in the same way that you have experienced making decisions about what should happen. part of what i'm here to do is not only listen to what you're struggling with and provide it necessary but also making sure we have representatives, policy makers able to help me on the board of supervisors instead of against me to help me to get the resources necessary to turn things around for so many people in this city. and the person who is definitely going to be a leader in helping all of those efforts because of his own personal story is the supervisor of district six matt dorsey.
9:40 am
[applause] >> thanks everybody. my name is matt and i'm an addict and alcoholic. [cheers and applause] it was the convergence of a public health crisis in accidental drug overdose deaths in the last couple of years. in my own personal journey in drug addiction that moved me to ask mayor breed to consider this vacancy. it was the collective toll of being on a monthly call with the office of the chief examiner and the officials of the department of public health. and it was the heroic championship of mayor london breed in the tender loin initiative and the hard fight that was and if there was a moment that moved me to say to think in my heart. i want to be an ally on this. i believe in the promise of
9:41 am
recovery. and i believe that the city has an essential role to fulfill that promise. and i am inspired by the stories of my brothers and sisters in recovery. i'm inspired by the people, i go to meetings. as part of this journey, i was prepared to talk about how i was going to tell my personal story publicly. but it was interesting when i was sworn in and announced, i hadn't prepared for what i was going to talk about publicly. in a meeting of crystal meth anonymous or some of the meetings i'm apart of where they knew i'm interviewing for a job and people were supportive of me but they didn't know i was going to be on the board. i didn't know.
9:42 am
we've been through a journey together. we've seen hell and back and to hear from them hey matt, now we've got a seat at the table. it is terrifying to have that expectation on my shoulders, but it is an honor. it is the inspiration of my career to have this opportunity to work for my neighbors and my city on the issues that i care about. people that i love and people that i want to support. the real lesson of recovery i think is that we help each other. it is something that i know for a fact what i have learned in recovery and i've had some setbacks over the years and what i've learned again and again in recovery is when i help others, it's 100% effective in keeping me sober and if everybody can internalize that, we're here for each other. that's the work that steve adomi is doing and that's the kind of work that i'm really
9:43 am
excited to be supporting on the board of supervisors. so, thank you everybody. thank you, matt. >> thank you, mayor, and thank you, supervisor dorsey. >> you know, when programs like this move into neighborhoods, neighbors usually lock their doors and i got a letter from a neighbor who was concerned. i want to welcome a couple of our neighbors here today because they're no longer concerned, they're excited and happy and we welcomed them into our family. they all live on this block in this neighborhood and are part of this energy and they're making this project happen. i want to say thank you for welcomed them. >> you know, sometimes collaborations are complicated, but they're not complicated when peoples' visions, missions, and values are
9:44 am
aligned. in march, the adult proand we didn't have any funds for it. and our next speaker made this happen and i'm so grateful to partner with the san francisco department of public health who stepped up and made this dream a reality. so dr. colfax. [applause] >> thank you mayor breed. thank you supervisors. and thank you, steve. i really appreciate everything you do for the community. you know, i get a lot of e-mails. i always read yours because they're so informative and they're also really inspirational. they're very meaningful. so thank you. and i just want to take a moment to thank everyone in this endeavor. this is a shared collaborative effort. a wonderful example of when departments come together. we can solve things with
9:45 am
community, with the neighborhood and most importantly with the people who we are serving and i really want to take a moment to thank the dph team that works so hard on this. dr. hillary our director of behavioral health. dr. payting from behavioral health. and she's in the back a little bit right now but she's amazing. we are so fortunate to have dr. lisa pratt our director of jail health. that's jail health director in the country if not the world. i just want to put that out there. >> so i'm so pleased to be out here. we all know the story, right. people coming out of incarceration having complex needs, experiencing homelessness, substance use, behavioral health crisis. many experience stigma and
9:46 am
discrimination. and, for many people and for many systems, the culmination of these challenges at first may seem insurmountable. and we know what happens when people are not supported. the cycles of incarceration, of homelessness, of mental health crisis. we see people landing back in jail. landing back in the e.r. and back in the psychiatric emergency facilities. well, this is going to break that cycle. this is going to break that cycle meeting people where they are and supporting them on their journey to recovery. 75 people will be able to access these services offering stability of housing. we know it takes whatever it takes. every door's the right door to get people to support them with their behavioral health and
9:47 am
other life needs. now we call this lots of bureaucracy here. our goal is for people to make lasting changes in their lives and transition to independent living and i know this program's going to be successful and i'm so thrilling to be working collaboratively. >> hello everyone. this is really an amazing day. it is a continuation of the work that adult preservation does to help restore their lives. at adult prevation we're a
9:48 am
small department but we lead with passion and commitment. we believe that building therapeutic pathways for people is what works. we believe that recovery works. the minna project reflects a lot of pain and experience that people experience, but more than that, it reflects hope and promise that comes with the opportunity to transform your life. we are so grateful to the mayor's office. andrus powers, sean elburn. and you, mayor. thank you so much for this support. [applause] we are so grateful to be in partnership with dph and west side community services,
9:49 am
positive directions equals change [cheers and applause] we are -- that's right. we are very grateful for the support we receive from the board. supervisor safai, supervisor dorsey. supervisor stefani, and supervisor mandelman. at the adult probation department our revision is led by steve adomi. [applause] and destiny pledge, victoria westbrook, devonna smith and daniel amaringa. [applause] this is their vision and they put their heart and soul into
9:50 am
making sure that this is a right environment for change. we are so honored and feel so much responsibility for making sure that this works. there are endless possibilities for anyone that will come through these doors and we're really grateful for this opportunity. thank you. [applause] >> you know, a couple years ago, 2019, we kind of set out on this mission with one of my then staff joffreya morris who then went to work for supervisor safai. then we created a portfolio and we had no money at the time and we started to try to figure things out and there was about 50 of us that have been to prison.
9:51 am
went back to school. got our liveses together and felt obligated to share our lives with others to ensure everybody had the same opportunity we had. and one of the leading voices of our cause is going to come up and speak next. for 30 years, this guy was behind the scenes doing the work for this partner in crime, craig johnson. [cheers and applause] if you have ever spent any time with cedric, his phone does not stop ringing, you can't get him alone and he is working day and night. he manages nine programs for us. he also is dealing with the courts. dealing with clients. i've never seen anybody do so much at one moment. i want to bring up my peer, my
9:52 am
friend, my colleague, cedric. [cheers and applause] >> all right. [cheers and applause] >> all right. good afternoon everyone. >> good afternoon cedric. >> so once again, the community has spoken, and once again, the mayor has listened. the reason why this happened today because the name of this project is called the minna project and we were trying to figure out a name until i looked it up and found the arabic meaning of minna and it says, god will provide. [cheers and applause]
9:53 am
so that has to be the name. so the first thing, i again, i just want to first thank mayor london breed for all her support and for all her love. i want to thank supervisor safai also for all of his support. this is the time in san francisco right now. we all have our differences. we all see ways of how we think this should happen. but this is a time for us to come together. i'm serious. it's time for us to come together no matter what walk of life we come from. everybody is scared to talk about recovery when it comes to substance abuse, prison life and addiction. all you've got to do is look out on that street and see there's a whole lot of recovery that needs to happen and take place. we need to work with the people that live on this block. we need to take it block by
9:54 am
block and we have to start within our own hearts. don't blame nobody else if you ain't doing nothing, but we have to start within ourselves to be able to make this work. i ain't going to hold you long because i appreciate everybody for supporting and coming out. don't just come today. i want to see you here tomorrow the next day the next day and come out and support this situation. so, right now, thank you all for coming. i appreciate you guys. love you. and -- [cheers and applause] yeah. and i want to bring supervisor safai to the table, please. >> supervisor safai: i don't know if i want to follow him. let me just start by saying god is good ya'll. all the time. all the time.
9:55 am
so let me say this and he hit on it and mayor breed said it right. the best elected officials, the best public servants listen because we don't have all the answers. and a few years ago, the black community got together, the recorpse led by the black recovery community got together and said the city is not listening to us. they're not providing the services that we need. they're not giving us the opportunity to go into an abstinence-based environment. but let's at least offer that service. so they came and i had the good fortune of having jwithoffrea morris on my staff. we connect wednesday apd and they had things sitting on the shelf. i heard from public leadership and they said how did this
9:56 am
happen so quickly. first when we did the therapeutic community over there in knob hill. i went into the mayor's office, it literally took one minute. i said it to her and she said absolutely. we're going to do that. we're going to make that happen. and we did it. and then here we are again when she declared her state of emergency and i teased her. i called her "scrooge" because we had to work on christmas eve. and she said, "asha, do your job" and i said okay madam mayor but i'm going to ask for one thing, the minna project. and it took one more minute to convince her this was the right thing to do. so i want to thank mayor breed and andres for putting in the hours. i know you gave a big round of applause let's give it up for
9:57 am
positive direction for change. [cheers and applause] that's right. we have to recognize when leadership is happening in the black community in this way and it's okay to say black. it's okay. thank you everyone. let's cut the ribbon. >> so if everybody on the stairs can clear a pathway for the mayor, dr. colfax, supervisor safai. we're going to cut it here. oh, sorry. thought we were cutting it outside. sorry.
10:00 am
. >> chair ronen: good morning, everyone. the meeting will come to order. this is the june 17, 2022 budget and appropriations committee meeting. the entire committee is glowing because we are champions. that was amazing. but all the departments that are going today are very lucky because you've got a happy committee. just a little shoutout to those
10:01 am
warriors. our clerk is the amazing brent jalipa, who is working like you wouldn't believe, and we appreciate and love him very much, and i would like to thank james at sfgovtv for broadcasting this meeting. mr. clerk, do you have any announcements? >> clerk: yes, madam chair. with the return to the chambers, just a reminder to silence all cell phones and electronic devices. the board recognizes that equitable public access is essential and will be taking public comment as follows. first, public comment will be taken for each item on this agenda. first public comment from those attending in person, and then
10:02 am
10:03 am
speak. wait until the system indicates your line has been unmuted before you begin your comments. alternatively, you may submit public comment via e-mail to me, b-r-e-n-t-j-a-l-i-p-a@sfgov.org . or you may send it to city hall, room 204, 1 dr. carlton b. goodlett place, san francisco, california, 94102. madam chair?
10:04 am
>> chair ronen: thank you. i sent each of you a message. this is a difficult budget year. i have never seen about the amount of asks and add backs for the budget. we have $1.3 billion in add backs, so therefore, i've asked the b.l.a. to be very aggressive. i don't want to sound harsh, but i'm going to be harsh
10:05 am
because you would rather deal with them than us. we're looking at your line item rather than the horror that's happening in our streets and/or communities, whereas the budget and legislative analyst is looking at it from purely a government standpoint, so i would urge you to come to an agreement with the b.l.a., because those of you who don't, you'll be taken last next week. each department has ten minutes to present, and next week, the b.l.a. with their recommendations. next week, we'll have public
10:06 am
comment on all items, and we will have public comment only on an item that i will make a motion to continue to next week. we're going to have a designated break probably around 1:00 today, and with that, let's get started, mr. clerk, can you please read items number 1 and 2 together. >> clerk: thank you. items 1 and 2 comprise the mayor's budget for departments fiscal years 2022-2023 and 2023-2024. item one is the budget and appropriation ordinance appropriating all estimated receipts and all estimated expenditures for departments of the city and county of san francisco as of june is, 2022
10:07 am
for the fiscal years ending june 30, 2023 and june 30, 2024. and item 2 is the annual salary ordinance enumerating positions in the annual budget and appropriation ordinance for the fiscal years ending june 30, 2023, and june 30, 2024, continuing, creating, or establishing these positions, enumerating and including there are in all positions created by charter or state law for which compensations are paid from city and county funds and appropriated in the annual appropriation ordinance, authorizing appointments or continuation of appointments there to, specifying and fixing the compensations and work schedules thereof, and authorizing appointments to temporary positions and fixing compensations therefore. madam chair? >> chair ronen: thank you. so first, we have j.p. with the
10:08 am
incredible director katie miller. good morning. >> [indiscernible] good morning. maria's going to be chairing -- is it up? is this up? while it's coming up, i'm just going to say thank you to the team at sfpd for all their work, and also want to thank the probation commission for unanimously voting, and thank the b.l.a. who have been working with us towards agreement. next slide, maria. so we always start by just putting up our vision and priorities. i'm not going to read them to you, but we share them with
10:09 am
you, but we want to make sure they're known, and really, just our commitment to effective and legitimate government in the service of our families and our young people. next slide, maria. and then, we always want to leave with our race equity goals, because again, i really think they align with the way that we're working inside the department but also with our children, family, and communities. i'm going to move into a set of slides that respond to the questions that chair ronen provided to us as we headed into the chamber.
10:10 am
as of may 2020, we had 30 vacant positions, lowest number in the past four years. when i first came into the role that year, we had 54 positions in the department. since fiscal year 18-19, we've eliminated 37 f.t.e.s from our department, and we're proposing another five this year, which will bring us to 42 positions during that time period. nearly half of our positions became vacant this year, and i'll show you more data on that on the next slide, and more than three-quarters in the last two years. we're filling positioned with expected hiring dates between now and september, but we wanted to be really transparent and give you the vacancy breakdown. so we're proposing 12 out of
10:11 am
30. there's four that we'll be proposing reclassification. six contribute to our f.t.e. that require our attrition savings, and then, we have five positions that are technically required to remain vacant. they are log cabin ranch positions that remain vacant as long as the people that transferred stay at the department. they can't be erased until they leave the department. with that, this is what we need for our work to be staffed in the coming year. so this just gives you the data breakdown i was speaking about.
10:12 am
you can see in the chart on the left the breakdown of positions in the most recent year. we took out the five log cabin positions from the slide because they're almost technical on our books, but we have 29 compared to 35 the year before that, 55, the year before that. you can see them going down by time, and we broke them down by division, as well. and then, the next slide is to show you the path to next year. we also wanted to include a slide on overtime. i know, president walton, this was a big question for you last year. juvenile overtime is drawn by a number of things. it's not by the number of kids, it's by the number of units
10:13 am
that we have open at any given time. we have new commitments given to us by the state. we also often rely heavily on overtime when we have young people at san francisco general. we actually had a young person there for six weeks straight this spring, so you can imagine the impact. 23 of those days, we were also operating four units just to give an illustration of our need to be nimble, and then, we also have to rely on overtime when we take our staff out for training, which is really critical as we learn to serve young adults and improve our work. i think the thing to be taken away is the blue line on the
10:14 am
graph represents positions that need to be fill. for the staff, it leads to exhaustion and programmatic situations for young people. so we have brought to you our most transparent ask for the department. we've included for you in that kind of dotted box a key, giving you the nature of each position, whether they're filled, whether they're filled by an acting position, whether they're substituted. we have one individual on loan from another department, so we've really tried to give you the full scale of every one of those positions. i do want to know that there's two corrects to this slide from what you have in front of you. it's the number of positions in probation hall.
10:15 am
the number should be changed from 15 to 14, and probation services, from three to four. so slight change, but i didn't want to be mysterious about that. next slide. so this information is from our positions. since i came in, we've reduced our staffing and f.t.e.s by 34% and in juvenile hall by 21%. finally, i wanted to just note something about our caseloads. they come up a lot.
10:16 am
people ask, as the number of positions come down in the hall, what our caseload looks like? since 2012, there has been a 61% decline in the number of cases, but we've also had a 62% decrease in staff. during this time, the staff caseloads have remained relatively consistent, with an average in medium of 17 cases per p.o., we are social worker, today, they range from 31 down to nine with one of our p.o.s, so it really depends on the range. moving onto our budget framework and proposal for the
10:17 am
next coming year, next slide, please, so in terms of our framework, this is how we approached our budget. we're continuing to do work to cleanup the budget and finances at j.p.d. there are a lot of things that we needed to do to cleanup our places, make sure we understood. it's an on going process. we are doing really good on that. we also understand that covid is not going away, and it's not going away in the way that we run our department. last year, you saw the lowest budget since 2014-15, and the lowest f.t.e. in decades. this year, we're anticipating
10:18 am
several changes. we continue our commitment to expand our reinvestment of justice funds into the community and into services for young people and their families, and i'll talk about that in a little bit, but it's really an important philosophy and practice for us. so just quickly, a number of you have heard me talk about this many times, but i do want you to be aware that we have the closing of d.j.j. at the state level. in january 2020, our governor signed the order to close our juvenile prisons. with that, we have some new functions. we're committed to the security of youth committed to confinement at our juvenile facility here in san francisco,
10:19 am
and we have the responsibility to implement a whole new set of strategy and services for young people in those situations. next slide. super quickly, i've just put in here our language from the capital planning budget because it's very important to our work and juvenile hall work. we requested 500,000 for a design consultant to help us imagine a new place of detention for young people. just want to believe that all of you believe and can see that it's necessary for our work. next slide. the orange line is derived from the fact that we're still
10:20 am
paying down the juvenile hall, so $2.4 million for nonpersonnel services is that debt payment. we often get questions about that. the yellow line, services to departments, that's really where our justice reinvestment lines. and then, the bottom line, you'll see shifts from last year to this year. we've taken the time to cleanup our budget to reflect where we're spending money and where we're not. i also want to note that this budget is $9.9 million less than where we are right now,
10:21 am
and the bulk of that money will be going through us to dcyf. just a couple of quick ones. want to talk about justice reinvestment, and chair ronen, this goes to what you were talking about, poverty on the streets and communities. we are committed to making sure that we are funding programs for our young people. the column on the right is the proposed reinvestment going through us to primarily dcyf to fund new programs. some of that we get as a result of d.j.j. closing at the state. some of that is owed to the line, and some of it is the remaining $7 million that we committed to dcyf a few years ago during the pandemic.
10:22 am
there's a lot of work necessary to get that last batch of work through. it probably won't look quite as high next year, but we're proud of this slide and proud of what it's going for. i want to be explicit that some of that money is going to be funding basic needs for money for our families, and we're putting an r.f.p. out for that right now. finally, our last slide, i want to talk about our right structuring and our right sizing. we're proposing converting a supervising probation officer to a supervising social worker. we want to -- we are proposing
10:23 am
to convert another position to be our race equity manager in our department. we have tried really hard to do that work on top of our duties, but we need a person to anchor that work and lead it forward. we are also training a person to make sure that we have a person that happen can do that. finally, we are converting a deputy probation officer to a senior youth justice transformation coordinator, and we want to make sure we can make that paradigm shift the
10:24 am
way it needs to be done. we're proposing to eliminate another food service worker, another cook, and three department probation officer positions, so all of that is our right sizing program for the coming year. and i can pause for questions. >> chair ronen: thank you. supervisor walton? >> president walton: thank you so much, chair ronen, and thank you, director miller. do have a few questions. number one, just for clarity, the budget increase this year is due to the state funding, due to governor newsom's d.j.j. shift, but also going to dcyf programming? >> yes, and most of the money from the d.j.j. shift is also going to dcyf programming. we decided to use almost all of
10:25 am
that money from the state, so it's not going to, for example, the staff on the unit in that secure setting. >> president walton: but then, i look at the next year, and the budget is going down. so does that mean that the state is not giving us resources anymore? >> no, no, no. there are some things that are hard to predict. we have money going through our budget through to dcyf in the past that's taking time to get through the process. and the other reason is we don't know from year to year what our state apportionments will be for the coming year. we generally every year get an
10:26 am
apportionment and then get a growth on top of that. we can't tell you with confidence what next year's state money will look like. >> president walton: and according to my calculations, it's about $1.3 million increase to the juvenile hall budget, and why is that the average -- >> of the increase of the juvenile hall budget? >> president walton: yeah. >> one of the reasons was we had money allocated to the ranch, counselors working in the hall, but because they were traditional allocations, it was noted as ranch money. they've been at the hall, but it was allocated for the ranch. we're really trying to clean this up how we spend the money
10:27 am
and where. we're not winding down hall operations. it's whatever it needs it to be. the one place where you see an ask related to that is that money related to a design consultant, but at this time, we have the obligation of running the hall, and i will add that that additional, and something i know that you and i have talked about, but that additional mandate to the state to provide that long-term secure setting for young people convicted of serious crimes is something that we will be working toward as we work toward any replacement of the
10:28 am
hall. >> president walton: can you just describe the family replacement strategies and what is the plan there? >> so that's the money that you're seeing for dcyf. some of that money is just coming right through probation, it's going right through dcyf. we were hoping to do it in june. it will be july 1, instead, but it will be an r.f.p. going out to community providers to fund a variety of services for families. everything from parenting support, services for young people, some of whom are parents themselves, so a whole range of services that we're going to be putting out for providers to do. >> president walton: one last
10:29 am
question. [indiscernible]. >> and that's why being able to do things like that is critical. next week, we have a two-day window, the staff going through a training on engaging young adults. we're also working on bringing some external training in on how to do our best with the young adults that we're working with. almost all of the young adults that we're working with, we knew they were when they were young people. that is an incredible need and an incredible time for young people, and we want to make sure they have the services
10:30 am
they need. >> chair ronen: thank you, supervisor walton. supervisor chan? >> supervisor chan: thank you, chair ronen. i've never seen anyone work as hard as director miller trim down the budget for juvenile hall. can you help me understand if there are new obligation coming in from the state? but really, our goal is to close the hall, and how do we then make that transition and what does the timeline look like? >> sure. like, the timeline is all ready, right? so the governor signed this legislation in 2020, saying by 2023, the state will no longer run its youth prisons, so juvenile hall. last year, the courts could no longer send juveniles to the state. so as the courts made decisions
10:31 am
in high profile cases, mainly homicide cases, they have moved them to what's called a local secure youth treatment facility. some counties will contract with other counties because we don't even have juvenile halls. some counties are using their juvenile halls for this purpose, not because that's ideal, but we had a difficult
10:32 am
time. we have a very different obligation, not to think what does a comfortable welcoming space look like for them but how do we build a set of services for them so that they can come into adult hood in a way that they deserve? every county is grappling with it, and i think that's been a struggle across the state. >> supervisor chan: and that's happening right now? >> right now. so we're operating one unit like that right now.
10:33 am
>> supervisor chan: thank you, chair ronen. >> chair ronen: director miller, you are one of the people that i've had the pleasure of working with. i'm just so proud of the work that you're doing, and the dedication and our leading. i can't tell you the calm that i feel for the first time. i'm looking at your whole team because the team that you've brought along is also extraordinary. i just feel so proud of this work. i can't believe i'm saying this to the chief probation officer
10:34 am
for juvenile hall. thank you, thank you for your transparency. you are one of the most transparent department heads in the city, and i really can't express my thanks for your work. >> thank you. that is the nicest thing that's ever happened to me in the budget process. >> chair ronen: absolutely, and we're done with questions, so we'll see you next week. >> thank you. >> chair ronen: thank you. supervisor safai is making fun of me because i'm in a really good mood today. >> supervisor safai: you are lucky because you got to go first, versus yesterday before the end of the game.
10:35 am
>> chair ronen: next is adult probation, and it's really good to see you here, chief. >> thank you. good morning. my name is crystal, and i am the chief of adult probation. this is my first presentation to you since being appointed the chief probation officer. i'm joined today with my c.f.o. adult probation -- slide two, please?
10:36 am
adult probation is the work between social justice and law enforcement. our duty is to protect and serve the community, further justice, inspire change, and prioritize racial equity so that all people can thrive. we are guided by the services of equity, service, respect, validation, and ethics. next slide, please. please go to slide two. back one.
10:37 am
10:38 am
our task, our community assessment service center is the opportunity to gain -- next slide -- to gain access to our supports and services. so in this current fiscal year, the department launched two innovative reentry programs. the trpo academy is a culturally responsible transitional housing program. the program is a partnership between adult probation and west side community services. the minna raj is a partnership between the san francisco adult probation department,
10:39 am
department of public health, west side community services, positive directions equals change. slide five. so our three major budget priorities, first is to invest in our workforce. adult probation have worked to adopt our services during covid. similar to other departments, the last two years have been impacted by covid. we'll preserve investments in community partners who provide essential direct services.
10:40 am
as discussed earlier, adult probation has established partnerships with several community based organizations, and we want to continue to strengthen these partnerships. finally, a strategic plan and implement our racial equity plan. as employee of adult probation for over 20 years, i'm well aware of the criminal justice changes that have taken place. we have continues to adopt, however, we need to take a holistic look at the department and make needed adjustments. i am particularly interested in strengthening our staff functions, including having an equity policy officer.
10:41 am
next slide, six. we are a small department, but we work collaboratively to reach our goals. our revenues for fiscal year 23 through a.b. 109 increased by 3.9 million and will increase by 1.9 million in fiscal year 24. our major expenditure changes include -- next slide, please. our major increase is in
10:42 am
salaries due to colas, 3.9 increase in the city projects, primarily in minna, and increase in programmatics for the t.r.p. and dream keepers initiative. this is mayor breed's initiative, as you know. adult probation department's participation is a partnership with d.p.h. and west side, and we're funding 450,000 in a navigation center at the billie
10:43 am
holiday center. this is a chart that reflects our filled and vacant positions. next slide, please. so over the past three years, our department vacancies have increased to 23. our current vacancy rate is 14.8%. this is due to retirements as well as resignations. adult protection has also lost staff to other departments and jurisdictions. this is a major reason that we are focusing on supporting and investing in our workforce. our primary ways of doing so is an aggressive recruitment and hiring strategy. while we continue to deliver quality services, these have had an impact on workloads. our priority recruitments for
10:44 am
the first quarter of fiscal 23 include probation officers, an h.r. manager, and a policy director. the policy director will be a critical position because it will ensure that -- that we're complying with state mandates, and that our operations are being guided properly. and that's it. thank you very much. and if there's any questions, please ask. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. supervisor safai? >> supervisor safai: thank you. now i get to talk about my favor department. chief, you did great. thank you so much. it's been such a tremendous pleasure to work with you even before you were chief on great
10:45 am
programs for our population, and i think these are ground breaking programs that are certainly worthy of praise but also worthy of duplication, so i want to congratulate you on your leadership and also steve adami. couple of things on opening the community t.r.p., which is abstinence based, and i understand there's a proposed reduction. is that what was proposed as
10:46 am
that is just for this year. director, i know that we talked about this, but i just wanted to get it on the record. i know that this t.r.p. was funded for last year, and it's funded for this upcoming year, but the intent for this is to be an on going program -- that's not the area? it's under general fund?
10:47 am
>> i'm the mayor's budget director. it was funded as a two-year pilot last year, and next fiscal year, not the following fiscal year, i think we'll look forward to working with you whether the pilot was effective and make a decision whether or not to include on going funding for that program. >> supervisor safai: great. and chief, how many individuals are served there currently? >> at t.r.p., i don't have -- >> supervisor safai: around 80? >> it could serve up to 80. >> supervisor safai: and how many -- it's led by positive directions equals change. how many staff are there? how many people are working on-site? >> supervisor, i don't have that answer in front of me, but i will definitely get it back to you. >> supervisor safai: okay. the second question i had was two initiatives from fiscal
10:48 am
year 22-23. one was another abstinence based program called our house, and another one at the cass. are these two projects funded in your upcoming budget? >> no, they're not. >> supervisor safai: and was the request to fund those in the upcoming budget? >> not her house. >> supervisor safai: her house was not on the list. >> it's one of the projects that we want to expand. >> supervisor safai: and what about the expansion of clinical services at the cass? >> yes. we want to expand clinical services at the cass, but right now, we are more concerned with immediate services in our budget. >> supervisor safai: and do you have an estimate of what the expansion of clinical services would be -- or the expansion of services there? >> yes, we're at $3.6 mill.
10:49 am
>> supervisor safai: for clinical services at the cass? >> well, to help fill that gap. specifically for the case management services, i would need to get that to you. >> supervisor safai: but that's what you have in your budget is 3.6 million in terms of what you need. that would be good, if you could get that to us in terms of what that would be for an expansion number. and thank you again. this focused on a hard to serve community, and one of the things that i appreciated was working with your department to understand the overlap between addiction, mental health, and recidivism, and having the opportunity to have housing and services provided, so we really appreciate the minna project
10:50 am
that you've been doing. thank you, madam chair. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. supervisor chan? >> supervisor chan: thank you, madam chair. i look forward to working with you and your service. my question though, here, is seeing that in one of your slides, you mentions that staffing has been very limited with probation officers. what is your existing caseload just on average per probation officer? >> so our caseloads range in part dependent on the structure? for instance, we have, with our population that's released from
10:51 am
the prison, from prison, in our prcf population, our mental health cases are staffed 20 to 25 to one, and then, caseloads could go up from there. >> supervisor chan: wow. what would you say is, like, the heaviest caseload or the most, like, largest ratio? >> yeah. actually, you can have that 2020 caseload because the needs of the officer is so need. they spend that time addressing structure and helping stabilize the client. so what we look at the workload, we're driven by what is the need of the client, not so much the number.
10:52 am
>> supervisor chan: would you say, though -- how would you compare to other counties? how are we doing, i guess, like, is what i'm trying to ask? are we actually meeting, like, a save standard -- i wouldn't say save, but just meeting the standard that you see, how much do you think, in terms of staff, would you need? this is ratio to caseload? >> right. what we're doing right now is because we have so many gaps in staffing at every level. everyone is kind of working multiple types of assignment. i have a lot of line staff officers who are working in a supervisor role which means there's been gaps in other caseloads, and that's
10:53 am
throughout every level, myself included. i'm carrying multiple hats right now until we can address other staffing issues. as i stated, it's due to staff retiring and going to other jurisdictions, but it's also because we have other leadership, and as the chief was leaving, we did not do any hiring at all, so we need to focus on having an aggressive hiring strategy, and hiring an h.r. manager is really high on the list. we can't even facilitate it because we don't have one right now. >> supervisor chan: thank you.
10:54 am
>> chair ronen: supervisor walton? >> president walton: are there any cuts to any -- proposed cuts to any facilities that you run currently? >> we are still working with the budget office to try to work with some of our concern in the budget gaps. >> president walton: director, are there any cuts to any housing or residential facilities that a.p.d. operates in this budget?
10:55 am
>> president walton, cuts to housing programs, is that what you asked? >> president walton: correct, or residential programs. >> we're working with the department to address that, and we're hoping to address it before you conclude your process. >> president walton: thank you. thank you. >> chair ronen: supervisor mar? >> supervisor mar: thank you, chief, for stepping into this very important role in our city, and i just had a few
10:56 am
questions on following up on supervisor chan's questions around the caseload. i was wondering if you could talk about how the caseload for j.p.d. has changed in recent years. has it been increasing or decreasing? >> so at adult probation, our caseloads have been changing in part to some legislation, so yes, there have been some reductions from that perspective, but at the same time, we're also losing staff, so there's still some gaps there. >> supervisor mar: got it. in terms of the total number of clients that a.p.d. serves, the court ordered formal
10:57 am
supervision and diverse programs, and then for the reentry services, has those numbers sort of tracked in recent years? >> right. so we have purview of 5,000 individuals that are in various statuses, and that's how -- and everything else falls from there. >> supervisor mar: and would you say that number -- was that sort of changed in recent -- has that sort of changed in recent years? >> yeah, the number has changed, but it's also an opportunity to right size and look at our supervision strategies because all of our strategies have been built on us having a little bit more time with our clients, and that's exactly why we need a director in policy because the way that our policy is structured as far as our case
10:58 am
management structure, it's built on our case management with our clients, and so because of that, everything is out of whack. so what we want to do is take this opportunity while we're having this correction in our population to really look at our supervision strategies to make sure that we are in alignment with evidence and that they're effective and that they're really well matched with our reentry strategies. >> supervisor mar: great. thank you, chief. >> chair ronen: thank you. just wanted to say thank you for all the effort that you're
10:59 am
putting into this, and we look forward to seeing you next week. >> thank you. >> next, we have the superior court. >> good morning. [indiscernible] with the superior court. allow me to share my presentation with you. okay. supervisors, as you know, all of the court's operational funding comes from the state, but we do receive funding from the city for two programs. the first of these programs is the civil grand jury. the jury's function is to look into and review matters of county government for effectiveness and efficiency, and by statute, this is a county responsibility, but here in san francisco, the court
11:00 am
performs it on behalf of the city and county. we staff the jury, and we act as its fiscal agent for expenses, and the total budget for this program is $250,000. the other program that is funded by the city is indigent offense -- defense administration or i.d.a. for short. all persons in our system are innocent until proven guilty, and they are provided representation. the total budget for this is $10.1 million. on this slide, you see a year over year comparison for the
11:01 am
fiscal year that is about to end. we received a total of about $10.3 million for these two programs, and it is a status quo that we are asking for for this coming fiscal year, also $10.3 million. also, i want to share a couple of initiatives that are new that we've been doing this past year. i.d.a. began putting in place a systematic program in place for complex cases where a public defender is appointed. social workers and case managers address a variety of issues, including trauma, mental health, and other impairments, with the ultimate goal of developing release plans to help clients
11:02 am
transition back into the community. and then, the other new initiative that began this past year is i.d.a. has developed a post-conviction unit, and this unit basically works with the public defender to review convictions for relief. this work complies with long overdue legislation that was enacted on the state level to rectify a number of convictions. those that are homicide related and involve youthful offenders, and to basically assist those eligible for resentencing and reentry into the community with the support really needed for success. both of these initiatives are important to us because they seek to address the other vital issues that are really part and parcel to justice and public safety, so we are quite excited about these two new initiatives. with that, supervisors, that concludes my presentation, and i'm happy to answer any questions you may have.
11:03 am
>> chair ronen: thank you. president walton? >> president walton: thank you, supervisor ronen. can you give me an example of where i.d.a. would have to step in and p.d. couldn't represent? >> sure. president walton, there are attorney ethics that you need to follow, and when there is an ethical conflict, then said attorney would have to step aside, and a conflict attorney would have to be appointed. a second would be multiple defendants. in that case, the public defender, assuming there's no conflict, can only represent one defendant, and then, all the other defendants would need to be represented by a conflict attorney. >> chair ronen: and can i just -- so there's $10 million
11:04 am
set aside for this purpose. >> that's correct. >> chair ronen: and what is your annual spending on this priority? >> so annually, the $10 million is completely spent, and basically goes to the attorneys that are appointed to represent these defendants. >> chair ronen: and what if the cost is over $10 million? what happens then? >> if the cost is over $10 million, that's when we come back to you to seek a supplemental. >> chair ronen: so this role is entirely paid for by the city? >> that's correct, by code. representation of indigent defendants is a responsibility of the city. >> chair ronen: okay. and the grand jury, that's also by law? >> that's correct. >> chair ronen: and can you just let us now, this is a little bit outside of the budget realm, but something
11:05 am
that's been very important to my office and my constituents. are all of the courts at 850 bryant now open to be holding trial snz. >> -- trials? >> yes, supervisor. all of the halls are open. whether they go to trial is dependent on the parties, but every week, scores of cases are called to go to trial in those courtrooms. >> chair ronen: okay. not so long ago, we held a hearing that showed that so many defendants were spending an incredible amount of time in jail because there was such a delay in their right to due
11:06 am
process and given their day in court. as a result, many people are found innocent but have spent over a year in jail, often ruining their lives in the process. is that still happening? >> so supervisor, i'm certainly sympathetic to that concern of yours. i also want to be very careful here. one of the reasons why the court was unable to attend that hearing that you held, and we are sympathetic to you bringing attention, but there is litigation against the court concerning that very issue. i will say that this is a public meeting. that particular litigation could potentially still be live. there is time for the parties in that litigation to either make appeals or do other things
11:07 am
in the court process, in the judicial review process. so i certainly want to be careful of what i say, be it that this is a public meeting, and our attorneys have certainly advised us to not comment on issues of active litigation, certainly where we are an active party, but i can assure you that courtrooms at the hall of justice are open for trial. we frankly also are doing criminal trials at the civic center courthouse, but i will reity -- reiterate what i just said a moment ago, that sometimes parties are not ready to go. sometimes, we don't have trials, but that's due to issues that are out of the court's control. >> chair ronen: well, i will say that, yes, you finally started holding out-of-custody
11:08 am
trials at krisk center court. i will say that was after my office incident -- civic center court. i will say that was after my office intervened, but, you know, i -- i just have to say this. i am disappointed that you didn't attend that hearing. i think hiding behind a lawsuit is hiding behind a lawsuit, and you should have been there with the facts, but this is a little off topic. >> and supervisor, if i may, i do want to thank you for your leadership. one of the reasons why we were able to finally hold
11:09 am
out-of-custody criminal trials at the civic center courthouse was the work that you did to bring in the sheriff and ensure that the sheriff had the resources necessary to be able to provide the security to do so, so thank you for that. >> chair ronen: thank you. supervisor safai? >> supervisor safai: i'm just a little -- just to build on supervisor ronen's point, and maybe you're not the person we should be asking, but it feels like in general, when it comes to working with the superior court, it doesn't feel like there's a sense or a desire to work in collaboration with local government here. can you comment on that a bit? >> well, i will say that the
11:10 am
comment that i just made about supervisor ronen's work is contrary to what you just stated. you also have to understand that, from our perspective, there was open litigation, and open litigation basically means that we have attorneys advising us on what should and should not be stated in a public forum, and that frankly was the reason why we did not attend that hearing, and frankly the reason why i have to be careful what other comments that i state here that are certainly unrelated to the budget, as well. >> supervisor safai: well, i'm not even talking about that hearing. i'm talking about in general, when we've tried to have attempted about serial individuals that are involved
11:11 am
in defacing property. you know, i led an effort, and our chief just came into the room, organized retail theft working group, every working group from the chief to the sheriff, every participated, and we made multiple attempts. i just have to tell you -- i don't know about supervisor ronen's particular instance. i remember her talking about wanting to have more collaboration, but just in general, there is a general basis for whatever we reach out to the spreerkt, try to invite them to participate, try to have them in advance and up front thinking about policy solutions, thinking about how
11:12 am
justice is applied in san francisco, we hit a brick wall. i think people in -- when we participate with people in your division, we hit a brick wall. >> and supervisor, i don't know who you reached out to in my office. if there truly was no response from the court, i'm disappointed that that was the case. i would certainly offer to you if you ever have the need to invite the court to anything in the future, to reach out to me. i can make sure that we are
11:13 am
there. we've participated with other supervisors before on issues as recently as this year. we did engage with supervisor mandelman to discuss issues on electronic supervision. as the court, we are not charged with any policy responsibilities. that's one of the things where there are judicial canons of ethics that prevent us from creating policy, so that's always a fine line that we have to be mindful of, as well, that we want to make sure that we're upholding our responsibility of government and certainly upholding the canons of ethics that we are found by, as well.
11:14 am
11:15 am
don't know. i'm losing terms right now. >> the presiding judge. >> supervisor safai: yeah, the presiding judge. i think it would be good to have a conversation with the presiding judge on these issues and follow up with these issues on-line. >> chair ronen: i could not agree more yourself, supervisor safai. we understand how important the independence of the judiciary is, but not being willing to participate in the conversation with the rest of the teams that are involved in public safety is a cop-out when you're hiding behind the scenes of the judiciary. that needs to happen. thanks for being here, and we will see you again next week. thank you.
11:16 am
bye. next, we will have the police department. >> clerk: madam chair, is item number 3 associated? >> chair ronen: sorry. thank you. >> clerk: madam chair, is item 3 associated? >> chair ronen: yes. sorry. we were having sidebars can you please read item number 3? >> clerk: yes. item number 3 is an ordinance amending the administrative code to increase the surcharge
11:17 am
on vehicles registered to a san francisco address in accordance with california state law. >> okay. good morning. >> chair ronen: good morning, chief. >> okay. we have a powerpoint. if i could get that up and get it started. i'm going to read very fast, so i know we'll be available for questions after that. >> chair ronen: just waiting for the powerpoint. is that what's happening? >> chief scott: we're trying to get our powerpoint loaded. >> chair ronen: okay. >> clerk: one moment. we will see if we can pull that up on your behalf.
11:18 am
11:19 am
sorry for our technical difficulties. this slide represents the top five budget priorities. staffing our department to meet the workload demand is the current top priority as our department is understaffed by 586 positions as required by proposition e. management and analytical support and civilianization are also at the top of the priorities of our staffing shortages and will allow us to
11:20 am
permanently enhance our staffing priorities. this next slide depicts a direct impact of an understaffed police department. increased response times all across all of our priority calls, a, b, and c. a calls have eclipsed our priority time of eight minutes and are now 9%. b calls are now around the 20-minute call. c calls are right around 90 minutes, while our target is 60 minutes.
11:21 am
our total dispatch calls volume in 2021 was 300,698, which was approximately 6,000 calls above where we were in 2020. of those calls, 47,242 were crisis intervention team related calls. next slide, please. one of the factors driving our staffing shortage is attrition. since 2020, 121 officers separated from the police department before they were eligible for a service retirement. 68 of those officers are known to have lateraled to other law enforcement agencies. although this is a national trend for large police departments, it has hit our department particularly hard. next slide, please. this next slide depicts the staffing shortage at our district stations. staffing was increased to
11:22 am
address open air drug dealing and usage that we believe is impacting the fentanyl overdose emergency in our city. another component of our staffing shortage is a shrinking candidate pool which has resulted in far fewer numbers of recruits entering our academy than in past years. with the limited pools of applicants, a strategy of few you are academy -- fewer academies with a higher number of recruits puts us at a
11:23 am
disadvantage to compete with other departments. we must have a larger number of academies with smaller numbers of recruits. i cannot stress this enough. departments have taken advantage of hiring candidates who have applied to sfpd but are unwilling to pass up an officer from a competing department and not have to wait to start. next slide. as you can see from this slide, since 2017, approximately 70% of our recruits have been people of color. this affords us tremendous opportunities to improve language access to our diverse communities and is in line with reform recommendation 89.1, which required the department
11:24 am
to develop its first ever strategic plan aimed at hiring a diverse workforce. next slide, please. in fall 2020, the police officers association and the n.e.a. police agreed to amend m.o.u. agreements and raises in order to save the city $13.8 million over the course of two years. so makeup for these defer -- to makeup for these deferments actually shows most of our budget increase. next, i want to speak about our budget enhance and retention. enhance includes the necessary funds to propose a recruitment
11:25 am
form contractor that understanding the relationship between a diverse workforce and equity in policing both internally and externally. it will also enable the department to have the necessary funding to secure and leverage technology tools to allow us to be more efficient with tools and platforms as we track progress of candidates as they move through the hiring progress. this is help us -- this will help us be more competitive in the recruitment process with other law enforcement agencies. next slide. our vehicle budget over the past years has been inconsistent and underfunded, which has led to a fleet which
11:26 am
is over 50% ten years or older, and 30% of our fleet has over 100,000 miles. our lack of support has caused higher maintenance cost, higher fuel consumption, and has hampered our goal to meet zero and low emission goals. the purchase of 27 zero emission vehicles will help improve morale and help improve our competitiveness. overtime is needed to help supplement staffing needs due to significant shortages of officers. simply put, the overtime is necessary to help meet workload and crime sprechx demands. our over time use for fiscal year 23 is 26.8 million. this will be no net increase to the general fund as this will
11:27 am
be a realignment of the budget. when overtime allocation budgets are not sufficient to meet our need, it creates an imbalance and budgetary deficit. it's impacted academy start times and causes delays in defer critical services or supplies that support operations to the communities we serve. local andd hoc public safety programs are also affected by this. we are seeking funding for an additional 12 staff members subsequent to senate bill 1421 and senate bill 16.
11:28 am
professional staff is crucial to meeting this requirement. the department received a $5.4 million federal grant to start the transition, but the 4.9 million budgetary ask is needed to complete this project. additionally, a $555,000 technology funding request will allow us to replace our outdated human resources management software which is no longer supported by the vendor. it will enhance our ability to
11:29 am
more adequately track and enhance our tracking of personnel. the last item is thanks to supervisor ronen. our department command staff was reorganized upon by appointment in 2017. important factors for the reorganization focused onic maing professional staff a more -- on making professional staff a more permanent part of the command staff, and that is to support and reform our civilianization goals and to support a healthy civilianization plan. that concludes my presentation, and i and my staff are happy to answer any questions that you have. >> chair ronen: wow. thank you for keeping within the ten minutes. that's amazing that you did that. supervisor walton? >> president walton: thank you so much, supervisor ronen, and thank you so much, chief. i appreciate your time, as well.
11:30 am
as you know, we've had several conversations. one of the things that i want to ask about, i do want to look at the data in the police budget. i know you champion the study that says we don't have enough officers, but are you aware of studies that say that we have more officers per capita than any city in the state of california with populations over 100,000. >> chief scott: i am aware of the study, and i've taken a look at that. yes. >> president walton: so what do you say when you're trying to increase the budget by $50 million because you're asking for a larger staff, when you look at larger cities, we have more officers per capita. >> chief scott: i don't think
11:31 am
it takes into consideration our uniqueness. we are the most dense city in the state by far. it's a different type of policing in an urban environment. we rely heavily, as you all know, on foot beats and, really, since 2019, i've been able to sustain the way we need to sustain it. just look at our response time and our call load, and you can see with that density, we have an eight-minute response time goal for a priority calls. some of that takes a while to get from place to place just because of the traffic. the other needs that aren't captured are the needs of the city. i just spoke about the needs of the tenderloin. that's a very heavy resource investment. in order to really impact this problem, what we found is it is very resource heavy from the
11:32 am
presence needed to deter the open air drug uses and drug sales to the operational piece of that. our violent crime initiative, we have focused on reducing incarceration at the same time as -- you know, you worked on this with us, but that community policing effort really calls for officers having the time to engage, and not just the community engagement officers, but the officers who are working sector cars and patrol. if they're running from call to call to call and emergency to emergency, they don't have the time to engage like we need them to. the other thing is training. training is at the pinnacle of our reform efforts, and it takes personnel hours off of the streets out of the investigations to complete the required training. c.i.t. training is a good example. that's 60 hours of training, so for every officer, that's basically 1.5 weeks out of the
11:33 am
field to complete that training, and you stack on top of that all the other trains that we've implemented over the last years to get better as what we do, you have to have a balance to that training. no offense, and taking nothing away from that report, we can't use that to determine our need for per capita officers. it doesn't address how we need to staff our police department. >> president walton: as we talk about flaws in study or things that may be missed, i also understand your study doesn't take into account that you may also include officers that are at the airport or officers that are at the airport that could
11:34 am
be deployed to be out on the street. you know, and i've brought this up in hearings before, but i got arrested at the airport for protesting with labor and, you know, one of the things, when i look around me, 30 police officers around me, and only two of them writing citations. and i asked the officer, i said, you know, it's so many police officers down here. what happens if there's a crime at the airport, and his response was, we have so many different agencies that work at the airport, we have so many staff numbers and stuff, we would be fine. so we were down there with all of these other officers, watching us get citations. my question would be more about deployment. you know, i talk to you about this all the time. not necessarily an officer number here in san francisco, but most certainly a deployment issue and how we deploy officers.
11:35 am
you talk about the tenderloin crisis and all the officers that we have down there. you know how i feel about the protection of property and stores, versus my district, who has the highest number of homicides. so we are prioritizing nonlife and nonhuman crimes in cases over the -- the issue that exists in areas across the city that are very vital and important to human life, so i think it's 100% about deployment. officers have been taken from precincts in my district to guard retail, to respond to the crisis in the tender lane, and at the end of the day, you know, we're not looking after protection of human life, which i'm going to say is 100% necessary, even if nobody else does.
11:36 am
when we say that officers are deployed -- and the other thing you'll find when you look at the budget is increases for academies, we don't get filled. overtime, we can talk about whether or not that makes sense, but most certainly, deployment is the problem, and that's why we see certain things happening in certain areas. can you talk about why we would put more officers when these other organizations can provide their own security, particularly when it comes to loss of life? >> chief scott: thank you for that. i know that you and i have had conversations about this. you put the highest value on human life, as do i. we have to do everything --
11:37 am
this city has never had this many homicides. in past years, it would take several years to get to that number of deaths, so i think it's the number of staffing to investigator these things. life is life. a human life is a human life, and i totally agree with you, but we have to address that issue. in terms of the property crime issue and that piece of it, we dwoent put one over the other -- don't put one over the other. if you heard me speak to the present, violent crime is always going to be the priority. but we can't ignore the property crime, and we don't want to be put in a position where it's a zero-sum game. i realize that we have to prioritize our resources, but when we have retail theft and
11:38 am
organized retail theft that has driven crime in our city for decades, we cannot ignore or neglect that. because although they don't lead to deaths, although there have been cases when robberies have gone bad, there are people that have given their lives and sweat to build their business, and people can just run up and take what they want. that's a serious thing, and we have to address that. we don't want to prioritize one over the other, but we will always address human life at the top of that, but we have to address other crimes, and that's been used to supplement the other needs of our city. we appreciate that we've gotten this car, but we can't continue
11:39 am
to lose staffing and not use overtime to meet our service needs. there's no greater value than human life. if you look at the money that we spend to investigate, there's still retail crimes. somebody invades somebody's space, their home when they're there, that's not a good thing. home invasion robberies that we've had, fortunately, we've been able to drive that down this year. but it doesn't minimize human life. i'm just trying to say, though, that we can't minimize property crime. >> president walton: let me just say, i do support retention bonuses for officers,
11:40 am
i do support higher wages for new officers. we do need to be able to recruit officers in our communities and do it in a way that the community respects. it's interesting because we talk about the number of overdoses, and we talk about the increase in police to address that, i would love to know how police officers are stopping overdoses, because that's not even -- that's not even a police function. so explain to me how more police stop overdoses. >> chief scott: well, one thing, i want to be clear to your question -- i'm not saying that the police department or law enforcement is the only answer. i think it's one part of what is necessary. this department has seized more fentanyl in the last two years -- and the way we're going this year, we're going to
11:41 am
eclipse last year in our fentanyl seizures. it's the street-level fentanyl, the nickel and dime dealers, and we have to make it uncomfortable for people to come in our city and deal drugs in that manner, and we have to continue to put that pressure on them. what that will be overtime, the research and academy studies will show, but i'm convinced if we don't address that, there will be even more deaths in the city. the other thing is i've witnessed this, i've seen it, with 33 years of policing
11:42 am
experience, i've lived it. when officers are out there to disrupt open air drug markets, we tend to be effective in allowing people to buy, and it's not going to solve the problem because with the amount of money that's out there, people are always going to take the risk to sell narcotics. but we can't let that go unabated, we have to disrupt it, and the tenderloin is the epicenter. drugs are sold in other parts of the city, but research shows just from the death -- when you track the zip codes, it's happening in the tenderloin in rates far greater that i nn where else in the -- far greater than anywhere else in the state. so we're not the, but we're part of the solution. >> president walton: no, i understand that you're part of the solution. even though we have places like urban alchemy providing
11:43 am
services and presenting overdoses, everything is not a police response, right? if we have more police crisis response teams, everyone is responding to certain types of calls, it does take the burden off of the police department. it takes all of our work to prevent these overdoses, but other types of crimes and other types of nuisances, and that's what i want people to be clear on. we have to invest in those alternatives to policing, and i feel we have never made the investments to those alternatives to policing, as well, and that's why i feel it's important to do that, and you just said it publicly. only time will tell if turning the t.o. into a police force.
11:44 am
we've never seen how successful our alternatives can be, and we need to let those things happen so we can yield our results. as we go through this budget process, i'm going to push for addressing issues holistically. but i do want to be clear, as we're having these conversations with the public and everybody, that these conversations should be based in real facts that talk about comparatively, they're real facts that talk about the number of officers that we have at the airport per se and who are not responding and working on -- on the beats, etc., so there's data that supports, you know, the fact that we can deploy differently and do thipgs differently as a
11:45 am
department, as well, and i want to make sure that everyone knows and understanding that because it's not just let's hire a whole bunch more police officers, and things will change dramatically over night because that's not ever been true even if we look at data from san francisco or across the country. >> chief scott: thank you. >> president walton: thank you, chief. >> chair ronen: thank you, supervisor walton, for those comments. i could not agree more with you, and i think you just displayed why we made you president of the board of supervisors. supervisor safai? >> supervisor safai: i don't know. we might have needed to take our break for lunch for this, but it's too late now. thank you, chief, for being here. for most departments, i've asked a lot of questions, but before i started today my
11:46 am
questions for the police department, i wanted to make a statement so we understand what's at stake. in the 90s, san francisco adopted a minimum staffing of 1971 officers. in 2004, voters asked president norman yee to cancel that. now we're relying on staffing analysis updated from march 7, 2022 that supports more staff, and i think that's something that president yee said openly that if we eliminate that minimum staffing number, there might be times when that number goes down, and there might be
11:47 am
times when it goes up. under the workload base analysis put forward by the controller and other experts, sector patrol officers would spend their time doing a specific amount of work in specific categories. so 30% of their time would be, we would hope, be involved in community engagement to build trust with the communities that they serve. 35 to 45% of their time would be to respond to calls for service, and hopefully in a timely manner. we can talk about that later, and the balance of their time, 25 to 35%, would be spent in administrative and following up on reports and working with their captains and other officers and ensuring that they're doing mandated trainings and so forth. specifically, the independent report that we had is asking
11:48 am
for at least 258 more officers -- sworn officers across the metro and golden gate divisions. supervisor mar, a colleague on this body, has proposed an ordinance that i support that provides additional foot patrol into these communities. i'm supportive of that, but to do that, we need more officers. the disclosure of records connected to police misconduct, that needs more staff to process those records and requests, and the police commission applied the code of conduct to all employees, not just sworn employees. civilian employees are represented by ten different unions, seiu, local 21, and others. the labor office, as i understand, needs more staff to implement these changes that are required. i know my colleagues in every
11:49 am
single department and that work with all the departments in this body are invested in trying to find savings in each department, and you will find that with this department. you will not come out with exactly what you proposed, and i think you understand that. but we have to keep in mind that our residents expect and deserve public safety, and if anything from our last public election showed us, this is a top priority. you referenced a time, chief, when we had homicides in the triple digits. i was on the frontlines, working with previous mayors and previous chiefs, and it was
11:50 am
horrifying. the protection of human life should be first and foremost, but many citizens that i talk to on a daily basis are seeing organized retail and retail theft, are seeing their car broken into, their home broken into in very, very violent and scary ways. and this is why i think we need to have a real honest discussion in this chamber about the staffing levels and what that means and what it means for the citizens of san francisco. but at the same time, we have to be mindful of if we do reduce staff and we do reduce officers, response times are affected, and the first thing we hear about is how long it takes for an officer, when they're called, how long for a call for service or how long it takes to get to a scene. also, the obama reform measures
11:51 am
and our reform measures, we are committed to that. i said before, we can be committed to justice reform and committed to justice. there is no contradiction in those two terms, in my opinion. others might disagree, and at the same time, a diversity within your department. i think you have a historic opportunity here with the proposal to hire more officers to build on some of the things that we talked about. i have a number of questions that i'm going to lead into. one is, and i'll start with the commitment to justice reform and commitment to diversity and hiring. can you talk about the work and investment that this budget reflects in the commitment to a diversity hiring and diverse staff that you intend to fill with the positions that you propose? >> chief scott: yes, thank you for the opportunity to go into more detail. >> supervisor safai: and i
11:52 am
11:53 am
are requesting and we are really living in an era gone by as to just our ability to do that and get on social media platforms and track it. and the automation that we can put in place with the right technology. the other thing is this. when you look at the chart that we have in the diversity slide, our hiring has been more diverse over the past several years than it has been in this department. we want to continue part of discussions and hearings about our diversity and we talked an't the strategic plan, the first ever, by the way. we have laid out a road map to continue the diverse hiring, retaining the people that we hire and having opportunities for people once they become a member of this department to go as high as they can go as the abilities allow them to go. that takes going back to the
11:54 am
training piece. it takes professional development. it takes all these things to really make that work in a healthy way. we don't want to just hire people and then throw it up a demographic and say x percent black, x percent hispanic, x percent white. it is what we do with that diversity and that will make us a better police department. and this will help us be a more effective, trusted police department in this city. it is important that we are able to fund the things we need to get there. >> i just would add -- thank you, chief. i would add having gone through that process with one of the former colleagues, latina, there are fit palls along the way. making the process of your recruitment more culturally
11:55 am
competent would be helpful and i am hoping that firm would be look at all the pressure points along the way. to have highlight -- you don't need to respond it to, but having retired officers be part of the interview process that is not necessarily from the same communities, not to bag on retired officers, but the same people they are interviewing, there might be culturally differences that immediately cancel out candidates. i know you think about that and we've talked about that. i wanted to put thatten o the record. the next thing that i wanted to say in a segue to diversity in hiring, we have seen a surge in hate crimes. i don't think anyone would disagree specifically to the asian-american members and the
11:56 am
numbers went up and to build on how the department in response to that specifically hiring new officers with community and language skills that can help with and be understanding to the targeted crime happening within the a.p.i. community. >> yes. and it's something i didn't say in the last question, but the diversity also gives us the ability to enhance our language access. not this class, but the class prior we had a high proportion of chinese recruits in our academy. multiple languages spoken, and that is what we look for. to get candidates who speak languages to give our public access is really, really important. to acquire candidates and recruits who understand the cultures because they are
11:57 am
diverse, that is really important. and it pays off in terms of our access and building trust and people engaging in a way with us that we would like to engage, not afraid to talk to an officer and report crimes that have haunted us in our past and policing's past. that is what diversity brings to the table. we have good policies in place and have tried to enhance that through the last contract that the board put together to have bow buses and to start with bringing candidates in the door. >> the last thing is you helped
11:58 am
to co-chair the working crime and i want the public and for the public and for the record, the impact that that has and items being taken, we are talking about frontline workers being assaulted with ongoing violence. and that place is on the brink of shutting down according to the head of security. their staff are fearful to show up for work because of the violence that they have been subject to. the theft is impacting that retail center in union square. the violent nature on frontline workers being impacted as an economy on people feeling comfortable working in the city and can you talk a little bit
11:59 am
about that and in the conversation i just want to respond to i know you are spread all over the city. i know there is conversations about the staffing of assassinations and how you have to draw from stations to reallocate resources based on the statistics and i wanted to hear the response on the brazen nature of the crime and the impact of frontline retail workers and service sector workers. >> yes, and so i can say personally that i walked and talked to merchant associations from large and small across the city, and not just the big retail chains, but it impacts the entire city. they have trouble recruiting people to work in the stores and people who live here may not
12:00 pm
want to work here. and really outwardly express their safety and that is an issue. that is a problem. that is something that we have to care about and to do better at and staffing plays a role with that and many of the board have had these discussions and have to address those issues and access people to go to work and get off the train and you name the place -- 24th and mission or here at center city center plaza. and they are getting accosted by drug dealers and stepping over needles. and out of the blue somebody hit them on the back of the heads, they are chasing the work force away. and we need people to do it.
12:01 pm
i don't want to sit here and tell you that deployment is the only solution because we have to work and do the right thing with the people that we are given. but that has to be a priority. i will go back to no higher priority than the value of human life. so when piem are afraid of what will happen to them, that is nowhere to live. we are not allow our city to live to be that place. >> we have received information from those in the hotel sector, frontline hotel workers, front line entertainment industry workers, union workers, longtime and many immigrant and many mono lingual and many of them lem live in my drikt and i hear from them all the time.
12:02 pm
they do not want to be scared and fearful of harm and the janitors union work in the downtown core and they're fearful. so very fearful. >> i want to transition from the report that sfpd will need more support to account for the ridening full day officer level and the recommended full duty staffing level. and the city of department of human resources oversees the public safety testing and us is tended for police officer job application where is we issued our shelter in place to prevent
12:03 pm
community spread of covid and suspended in line with the board of supervisors resolution to review hiring and promotion for law enforcement classes. can you discuss how the findings and the independent report and what strategies there are to reverse this trend? >> 2020 had a lot to do with it. after the chaos of 2020 and after george floyd's murder, we saw nationally and locally an increase in retirements, increase in many big city departments, officers, are laterally to smaller departments. sometimes it is closer to home. sometimes it is because of what
12:04 pm
incentives and one of the common things is closer to home. more support from the community they are going to. and it is not easy in the big city and san francisco has a unique set of challenges. and some officers have opted to leave that behind and go to places where life might be a little easier and where their children work, and that is their choice. we need to make our department a desirable department to work for and let's not neglect the branding of the police department. like any other entity, if you
12:05 pm
want to make your company attractive, and it is not all about the money and we want people to work for this department over our competing departments. and equipment, training, career development, opportunities, welcoming people and creating the environment to welcome them, some of those enhancements speak to that. also, one of some of what we found in our survey is that because we are so short staffed, it leads to burnout. officers can only work so much to at least match the attrition which this budget is asking for, we will continue to burn people
12:06 pm
out. >> the decline was a 7% decline from a little over 1,000 to mid 900s. in term of commitment to prioritize district stations k you comment on the impact in terms of the community response and with the presence and foot patrols and how it impacts the community. >> being able to meet the service demands and yoif have had many conversations about the need for foot beats in parts of your district. in 2018 we significantly increased the foot beats. there is resources and supervisor walton and the board appreciates evidence-based.
12:07 pm
we had the goldman school of public policy come in and do research. i'll be brief on this. the research showed it made a difference. it reduced death. it reduced aggravated assault or was a part of that reduction. and that is what the research and evidence showed. we have not been able to sustain it as we are short staff and we have mitigated that with overtime and all over the city we have officers working the tourist areas and engagement, visibility, and we don't want to have people robbed when they are here visiting our city. that goad well either. and patrols and police cars, foot beats and fixed post in some locations. those things can't be sustained if we don't get the people through the doors in the front
12:08 pm
end. we have to keep the academies going and adapted and smaller, nimble, and more frequency and as much frequency as necessary. that is the only way to compete. we can't compete on the models of two academy classes or three or 50 because we're losing candidates. they're not going to wait on us. there are other police departments offering them jobs and those are the modifications we will want to make. >> i'm sorry. i will end with this. do you have more confident with smaller academies and more academies to -- >> i would like captain tom harvey and commander nicole jones to say a few words about that. >> good morning. i wanted to speak to the point that we are 100% confident that
12:09 pm
we can run four academy classes a year, whenever number there will be. we have done this in the past and done it to a much larger scale. so in many years past we have run multiple academy classes for five, sometimes even six. i think the most we have ever done is seven. and all of those classes had 50 people. so there are three classes and that amounts to about 52 people. we are confident to have those resources keep going and the staff is in place. and we will be able to keep cycling those people through. >> anything additional? >> no. nothing additional to add to that unless there is something specific you wanted to ask about the academy. >> no, in the past we have had this debate in the chamber about the number of positions allocated? are you able to fill the
12:10 pm
positions? do you feel confident you will be able to get the recruits? and is having smaller numbers more frequently the right strategy? >> i would agree it is 100% because we are losing people to other agencies because we're not getting them in fast enough. right now the market is that everybody is hiring and not sfpd. people don't have to wait. they can be as picky and choosy as they want to be about these things. another thing that i would add is that academy classes equate to # 50 people and that hasn't been the trend for the last couple of years. so we know because we've done it the last couple of years that we can get these classes through. >> thank you. >> thank you, chief. i am just going to end with this statement. i want to underscore the last point and one of the points that i made regarding front line service workers and organized
12:11 pm
labor as someone that came from the labor movement, i can tell you i never remember a time when the hotel council, local two representing the frontline service workers, the stagehands, the building trades -- ever came together to say we need more police. and we need more police presence. that happened last year. we're going to receive a letter again -- i mean, i have spoke on the those individuals and we will receive another joint letter again asking for that and if this body is truly to be treated in the work place, we have to take that seriously. that is a serious request that i can say is unprecedented.
12:12 pm
>> you have made incredibly good points. and chief, you, too, made really good points. i want to say that this is going to be our longest hearing of the budget, and i just appreciate your patience, but i think we're having one of the best conversations we have ever had about this topic. i think it's worth all after our time. >> i agree with former president yee's approach to determine the staffing level, let's be data driven. i appreciate the data. i also have voted in support of the m.o.u. seeing that especially some of the m.o.u. for police officers and seeing some of the part of the m.o.u. includes longevity, bonus,
12:13 pm
seeing that ways to incentivize diversity within the force. but at the same time i am seeking a balance between the quantity of officers as well as the quality of the officers that truly meet the standard and the vision of you, chief, that you have for san francisco police department. that kind of leads to my specific question and also close to $1.3 million for recruitment and strategies including recruitment firm contractors and recruitment tools and to professional staff and recruitment strategist. i am in support of those in a sense, though, i would lover for you to explain your matrix of success for the contractors or the recruitment tools.
12:14 pm
is there a goal of either by number or by diversity level or what is your vision? what is your vision for the recruitment that you deem that this contractor or these investments actually have a good rate of return? >> that is a really, really excellent question. thank you for asking it. first and foremost, i mention increasing or continuing on our path to be a diverse police department. and i think we made some strides there and we want to continue that. but something that you mention about what types of recruits we are looking for to become san francisco police officers, first of all, there is a process they try to determine whether they qualify and have the heart for the job. it is not all strictly -- some of it is subjective depending on
12:15 pm
the interviews and the history has been. i say that to say this. ideally we want to redouse the washout rate. there is about a 25% washout rate across the state. that is the last fact that i was given by the california department of justice. >> could you explain what is washout? >> when we lose recruits who don't make it through the academy and the provisionary period. it is about 25% the last that i check and we have been at times higher and at times lower. wen't to reduce that that is a significant investment to hire them through several months of the academy and we have to release them and they can't pass the driving test or can't pass a handcuff test or can't pass the firearm qualififycations and so
12:16 pm
some of that when you recruit the right candidates, some of it is the things we are doing as well and modifying the vehicle modifications to give the recruits more time because some of the recruits, people don't drive like they used to. some people are inexperienced drivers. we want to recruit the right people and things to improve upon to give them opportunities to practice and train and more opportunities before they have to take the final test. we want to reduce the washout rate. second thing, retention.
12:17 pm
what can we do internally to make the department, as i said earlier, to brand our department and make our department the place people want to be because that is important. it is really important. we want to get people that are going to stay here and that will have long careers. it is a different work force and what research has shown is that many of our and we get the
12:18 pm
12:19 pm
and totally ready toens a that question. so to go to the that you have and correct me if i am wrong. so currently exist and 428 f.t.e.s for civilian positions. >> and request you can -- because, again, i am asking this as a layperson and trying to understand what those categories means so what is the 21.5 ftes for management? what does that mean? in the civilian world.
12:20 pm
>> the management classification covers several categories. within the city's civil service classifications, there is manager categories and also classifications that don't necessarily have a manager in the title, but are all covered under that. >> what would their jobs be within sfpd? what kind of work do that i do? >> so that there will be a manager in h.r. and i am responsible for finance. within many of the department
12:21 pm
units -- >> i see now. >> where there is a large enough capacity, there is a managerial staff. >> i am seeing a chart that is provided and that is page 18 from what you provided. just in case you need a reference. with 38 positions and administrative, is that how it is breaking down? so that with a manager that is within the i.d. bureauened a that the fingerprinting and the
12:22 pm
12:23 pm
addition to the airport, wif police service aids and they sit at the counter and the police service aid category is multi-function and do a variety of different things. one of the main things that is helpful for us is to alleviate the sworn and sworn can be on the experience as well and not working the front desk at a station and taking a police report when they don't have to
12:24 pm
12:25 pm
funding for san francisco safe which is a nonprofit that you have partnership with to conduct outreach. and i think this is for to take this upon myself and not just doing this with the department and is that to think about what the vice chair has said earlier. so no department is going to come in with the budget you ask and to walk out with that. and to think about the civilian positions that you currently have at a total of 428 and that all of them have been very
12:26 pm
critical as with the 12 professional civilian positions for the professional year. are there overlapping roles? can we we frig your out an and i have a co-supervisor to supervisor mar's legislation for foot patrol, beat patrol. i do believe that we would like to see the presence. i agree with you that if the job is to intervene when a crime is occurring and is life threatening, it is also important for some of the folks
12:27 pm
to feel safe whether they're going grocery shopping, whether they're going to church or to different places in our community. i think there is a presence for the sfpd and to note the thinking. i look forward to continuing this conversation until next week. >> i have a few follow to go to community policing and the department is the proactive
12:28 pm
12:29 pm
important to that. and as a part of the reform initiative in 2017, we stood up our community engagement division and commander, captain and two lieutenants and with the school resource program and with a significant part of that to the collaborative effort with other city can want dpts. so the unit has to reassign almost all of those officers back to patrol. and in the meantime, the a.p.i. hate crimes that kind of exploded that with the e
12:30 pm
sergeant and three officers. and part of that response was to create a resource and community liaison unit and investigating the crime and reaching out to victims and families. with the and we would like to that found it is a valuable service. so with the hate crimes and families of homicides and with
12:31 pm
the so with everything you mention with the strategic plan and the general order that requires certain administrative functions from the to do that and we have to be able to do that and is all sworn and to make sure that the assistant who will be in community engagement and to include the ordinance that goes hand on hand to talk about to get those things done required by the planning and most covid, we really were hurting so to reassign to do the
12:32 pm
12:33 pm
ability to implement those plans. >> we will have to move things in place and now that we have the staffing analysis tool, we will have a better determination of exactly what is needed. so often times when new programs are implemented, we think we know what it takes but you don't know until you have to put it into action. and we will have a better assessment. >> thank you. for each district station, what is the community staffing? >> each station has a captain staff. those officers, sergeant, do a
12:34 pm
lot of the planning for the community events and the like. and in the ideal situation this, goes back to supervisor safai's question. 35% or 35% of the time can be spent with community gaugement type activities by our officers. that is ideal. it calls for a tight tracking of what the district stations need to do and that will be driven by the captain and the captain's staff and pushed out to the patrol sergeants and all that to be a part of that is. it is hard to do that from call to call and the infrastructure and the oversite and the planning with that will be done
12:35 pm
by the captain and the captain's staff with the current m.o.u., and the p ka tans have -- the captains have a little more mobility, but there are limitations to how big it can be for the m.o.u. >> got it. thank you. look forward to working with you on the implementation level over the coming year. i had just a few questions also around language access and the department and as my colleagues have said, this is an issue that with the a.p.i. community and other immigrant communities.
12:36 pm
and i thank you for responding to my letter of inquiry last fall that my questions around the data they are tracking and highlighted that the department has not been consistently tracking number of certified staff district wide and in each station. it reflects at least to me a lack of a prioritization of the issue and a real strategy and plan. i appreciate how other aspects of diversity is at the forefront of the recruitment process. race and gender and even others.
12:37 pm
and there really doesn't seem to be a plan to address the language access with how to increase the number of bilingual staff in the department. >> a couple of things on that. and we do track officers that speak the language but they are not certified. part of our goal and challenge is to encourage those officers who speak it and whether they read or write the language to apply to be certified. i can not tell you why an officer, some officers don't want to do it. the fact is that some don't. we really have to have room to improve there. to try to make it attractive for officers to do that so they can function in the field because they speak a variety of languages. if they are not certified, it
12:38 pm
doesn't help in the long run with the reports and translation and things that are needed to have that certification be applied to court cases. it is something that we are working to improve. we know there is a number of officers that speak a variety of languages and for whatever reason they have chosen not to get certified. the other piece of that is once they get certified, there is a recertification process and it is a perishable skill. that is in place to enhance the language access. going back to the real problem is we have officers that can speak a variety of languages and we have to encourage them to get certified.
12:39 pm
this is a work in progress. we will keep you updated on the front end, the diversity does help with the candidate pools that we have and the people we are bringing into the academy, particularly the last class an increase in officers that speak a variety of languages and get them certified early on in the careers, that helps us frequently as well. >> i would say that -- sure. you had more to add? >> good morning, supervisor. one other thing we wanted to note is that we are in the process of developing a recruitment strategic plan and language access is going to be a big component of that. and so we are in the process of
12:40 pm
developing that document to help outline immediate strategies that we are doing but what we have upcoming for the future and how to track success and working with dhr on trying to streamline the process to open that up more to get as many people in as possible. who have language skills. that sounds great. i noticed in the response to the letter of inquiry, you mention that d.h.r. has permitted the department to do your own proctoring for certification. are you planning to do that in the upcoming academies? >> not so much the procter & gambletors and being able to -- yes, could we absolutely proctor our own? i believe so. but also accepting other
12:41 pm
agencies to increase it so not everybody is waiting for it to happen and is just more available as it goes. >> great. thanks for your efforts on this. i think the academy classes are a great opportunity for the department to address this need of certified bilingual officers so thank you. >> thank you again and i want to thank the committee for letting us go and to try articulate for a moment what we're facing as a
12:42 pm
city during this time in history proximate cause the press gets it wrong most of the time. i think the problem is that we have several realities happening at the same time that bump heads. one of the realities and this is a theme of this budget process and is the need in the city is intense. the amount of poverty and suffering and the inequality in the city. and inequality that is greater than most cities in the world, not just in the country. in the world. it has created a crisis that we're all dealing with right
12:43 pm
now. the amount of intense poverty is real and is getting worse. that intervening with everything that we are doing. the second reality is the street situation and you talked about this, chief. the conditions are unacceptable. we have the illegal vending markets and tent encampments everywhere. and public drug use. and i mean, the conditions in the streets of san francisco are unacceptable. so they are unacceptable for everyone, for the people living in the streets and that are selling stolen goods and addicted to life destroying drugs. and it is unacceptable for the
12:44 pm
people trying to run their businesses and live in their homes. it is just not okay. that is a second reality that is not related to your department. there are hundred of amazing officers in your police department. i work with you every day and the officers i know in your department care as much as i do about the city. you care as much as i do about the community.
12:45 pm
you go into the community without intending to harm them. but there is a fourth reality that is equally true and that is that the police department in america is linked to violence against black people. the recent history of the legacy is also violence against brown people and violence against the lgbtqi community, right? as a nation for the first time a couple of years ago, with that horrific murder that we all witnessed and broke us and broke this nation for a moment, we are confronting that history.
12:46 pm
we are trying to figure out how to move forward while never ignoring it again. right? and we are trying to feg your out how to keep our community safe without targeting black and brown people and even today lgbtqq people. with so much violence and poor people and mentally ill. so for the media, it's the -- we know this, and the mayor's office know this, it's the frickin media. stop reporting on this in a simplistic and inaccurate way. this is complicated. and we are all doing our best to
12:47 pm
figure this out and get it right. it is not going to happen overnight. and this conversation that we're having at this committee is one of the more sophisticated conversations i have ever seen on this issue and this topic. and report it right -- i'm not going to swear. report it right. sorry. i just wanted to start with that because i think about it all the time. and i think about the fact that all these reality cans exist at the same time. we don't have to deny one reality to face the other. so forgive me but i had to get it out. now i have a few questions. sorry.
12:48 pm
let's see. to the page six and the topic is district station, sworn staffing levels. >> that one. so how do you determine the staffing at each of the stations? i am looking at it and i don't understand it. >> the staffing analysis basically is some of the methodologies include a workload analysis and i will ask xhnder jones to come up here because she actually is in charge of staffing and deployment. some of our staffing analysis is based on a workload and the necessity of footbeats and the necessity of specialized units
12:49 pm
that can be done at the station level. like a plain clothes unit and the like. and then you have your basic sector cars which each station has assigned sector cars and you need at least four in a 10-hour shift because you have to get time off. and then you add captain staff and until just recently we had investigative components at the district stations and make that a general crimes unit that is an investigation bureau effort rather than at the district station level. that was a factor of short staffing. so those are some of the ways that we have the some of the
12:50 pm
stations overnight we have sometimes two sector cars working overnight. and if one of the cars is highed up at the significant incident and which is really not a good thing. and we have to balance all that with the reality of what we have. so that is how we determine our current staffing analysis based
12:51 pm
on prop e and what the board mandated and calls for a work analysis rather than an arbitrary number and that is some of the ingredients of how the calculus is done. >> the chief did a really good job to cover how we arrive to that number. the input is for patrol staffing and that is request for service generated by the public. so that is not including things that officers take their initiative to do. that is the core basic, 911 is called, officers are dispatched. what are they dispatched to? how many officers is it going to take? how long did it take? so their actuals on the workload for that specific district and just to the chief's point, because some of the districts
12:52 pm
are a little bit smaller, i don't want to call them sleepier because no one is ever sleepily in the city, there is a safety component of that where we need to have a koor minimum number of officers. any of the extra assignments like foot beats, housing homeless outreach teams and those are really we consider them with a certain number of demand that doesn't scale to the workload and the role is different and there is a community component of that as well. that is how the numb pers were generated and the levels for the stations. awe thank you. that was helpful. i can't help but echo what
12:53 pm
president walton said. the vast majority of homicides are in the bayview and they are one of the smallest staffed stations. i don't understand that. >> yes, so the bayview definitely is a busy station. and to go to page 6, it is definitely a busy station. if you look at the workload analysis and what is available and based on the factors that we laid out. so i say this earlier and also, part of this is a development model and the certain percentage of time to respond to calls and types of efforts and a person percentage of time for administrative function
12:54 pm
functions. we have administrative functions in today's policing that we didn't have even five years ago. so that also adds to the demand of the staffing analysis. violent crime is a part of that. as you look at the district station, there is a higher level as well. >> to add to that, supervisor walton, you and i have had this conversation before about people who don't call 911 and how important it is to get people who aren't calling in the crimes
12:55 pm
as they see it. that generates less calls for service which equates to less workload. we are trying to offset that by building in this community engagement time and the proactivity so that we can have officers out there as a visible presence. so this speaks to equity and the fact that to respond to that need and that data to have this from another end, there are so
12:56 pm
focuses in supervisor walton's district and he has been important in attacking the violent crime and the murders in the bayview. as of today and as far as homicides, we are doing better than we did last year. and we have six months to ago, and i say that to say that the community violence that is community friendly and they do work other cases and other parts of the city, but the majority of
12:57 pm
the time is spent in the bay view. those are the tapes of strategy to focus on a specific issue. one more question related to that and the admin work and i aguy completely the admin has increased substantially from police reform staff and so that is easier to do that work. so in patrol, there are nuances
12:58 pm
with the baddy worn technology to make it more more efficient, there is technology to talk into the cameras and dictate the report and what they are seeing and to make us more efficient. and on the professional staff side, we had in our written directives which right now we have one professional staff and there is a need to have more professional staff so we don't have as many sworn fulfilling that function. with collaborative reform, we had at least seven officers that we re-assigned to just work and
12:59 pm
things of that nature. the question is absolutely yes. that is a part of asking for 12 and those types of things are transparency and the 1421 and we really can't afford to have sworn personnel doing that. body camera review. right now we have sworn persons doing that. it is not in the budget, but at some point we like to civilianize that function. it is crucial. >> thank you for that. so i wanted to thank deanna for getting me the data for academy classes that are smaller than you have done in the past and
1:00 pm
more frequent. i want to understand this because i want to get it right. and how much does each academy class cost? so the director has that information for you. >> for each academy class, if it was a full year, it would cost $4.9 million that will cover from that about about $4.1 million is salaries and $40 # 0,000 for overtime training and instructors at the academy. and f.t.o. preem youm pay is about $50,000. there is tech rare salaries and services related to -- temporary al
50 Views
IN COLLECTIONS
SFGTV: San Francisco Government TelevisionUploaded by TV Archive on
![](http://athena.archive.org/0.gif?kind=track_js&track_js_case=control&cache_bust=2106105369)