>> go ahead. >> hello good afternoon. getting myself situated here, all right. hello good afternoon. and welcome to the mayor's disability council. this friday today is friday july 15th, 2022.

and we are hosting a virtual meeting today. this meet being is broadcast to the public on sfgovtv. it is open captions and sign language interpreted. and you can click on your zoom screen to make sure that you can see the interpreters. typically, we have nine public meetings per year. and they are generally held on the third friday of the month. please call the mayor's office on disability for further information or so request accommodations and the foern

number is 415-554-6789. this is a voice line that you can email us at m.o. d @ sfgov.org. our next public meeting will be not friday september 16th, 2022 from 1:00 to 4 p.m. as co-chair, i could like to address the topic of stability during mdc meetings. disagreement will always play a role in government. however, the key is to focus on strength and weaknesses of proposed solutions to community problems, not to engage in-person al attacks against

those who favor different solutions. we welcome all points of view on these issues that are faced with people with disabilities. and we encourage ideas rather than hostile verbal assault. we want to listen to your feedback and we want to engage with your community. the mdc members pledge to treat each other and members of the public with respect and we expect the same from the public. a reminder to everyone joining us, we ask that you please speak clearly, please speak slowly to help facilitate the interpretation and captioning of the meeting. also, please be aware that

during this meeting, mdc members and m.o. d staff will turn off their videos if they are not speaking in order for the interpretation process to work successfully. so if you don't see people's videos, the reason being for accessibility for interpreter and speakers can be spotlighted. it can be distracted to have videos going off and on. so we want to make sure that people are able to view points of this meeting as needed. the next item on the agenda is for the clerk to call to do roll call, so iman will you please administer the roll call. >> all right, for roll call, we have alex madrid, orchid

sasutni. >> i believe he'll be showing later this afternoon. so if you can bear alex will be joining shortly. or kid sisuni. >> i am prept. >> cherry al betser. >> i am present. >> denise sehal? >> i am present. helen molenski. >> present. la sean lewis woods. anaya? >> great, thank you iman. now we're going to read and approve the agenda. would you mind reading today's agenda please? and and that would also bring

iman reading agenda. >> for today's agenda, we have item number 1 which is welcome and roll call. item number 2 is an action item which is reading an approval of the agenda. item number 3 is general public comment. item number 4 is information item which is a co-chair report. item 5 is a report on mayor's office on disability. item 6 is a discussion item which is better market street accessibility improvements update that is presented by christina olea from the department of public works. item 7 is discussion item to report and listening session, or the city county of access

priorities. item 8 is information item which is correspondence. item 9 is general public comment. item 10 is information comment councilmember comments and announcements. and item 11 is adjournment. >> great, thank you so much iman for reading the a agenda and i wonder if any of the councilmembers have any comments or comments about the agenda. if not, we can approve the meeting, move to approve the meeting. move to approve the agenda, rather. >> i move that.

>> this is denise, i second it. >> wonderful, so it's been councilmembers have moved to approve the agenda and seconded so that are there any public comments at this time? iman will you please open the meeting to public comments at this time, this is a general public comment opportunity. >> yes, so we welcome the public's participation during the public comment. there will be an opportunity for public comment at the beginning and end of the meeting as well as after specific items on mdc agendas. each comment is limit today 3 minutes although comments may be limited to 2 minutes when there is a long queue of people waiting to make comments. at the end of the comment period, we'll move on to the next commenter. if you want the councilmember

to respond, please provide your email information. with mdc comments reply request. you may also provide additional comments by email to this address or by calling 415-554-67-89. members of the public with join as a participant and will be able to make public comment during the public comment periods. you can join the webinar by using the zoom link, you can also join by phone by dialing 669-900-6833 the webinar id 85419550368.

if you joifn the webinar using your computer or tablet or smart phone zoom ap, click on the three dot and then click on the raised hand icon and you'll be recognized when it's your turn. you can also use the q & a feature to be recognized or make a comment. if you wish to be recognized type into the box that you would like to make a comment and hit send. you can also type your comment into the q & a box and the clerk will read it for you. if you joined by phone, press star-9 when you want to be recognized. we welcome suggestions on how to make the meetings more accessible, please send an email. if you need assistance accessing the meeting, during

the meeting, please call 415-919-9562. or send an email to mdc @ sfgov -- ~>> can you mute please. >> iman can you back up and read. >> i'll repeat. >> if you need assistance accessing the meeting during the meeting, please call 415-919-9562. or send an email to mdc @ sfgov.org. so at this time people may address the council on items that are not on this meeting

agenda. for agenda items you'll have an opportunity to address the council when that item is reached during the meeting. the brown act forbids the council from taking action or discussing any items not appearing on the posted agenda including those items raised by public comment. so at this time, i do see one member from the public that indicated that they want to make public comment. one moment please. all right, william you've been permitted to unmute. >> speaker: hello, this is will railing and i'm speaking on

accessible san francisco, accessible san francisco is an unincorporated nonprofit association. i would like to make this general public comment about an issue that is reducing the amount of accessibility that is required in bathrooms which businesses provide to us both when there is new construction and when there are renovations of existing businesses. i'm sure we're all in favor of the trend towards jend neutral bathrooms and general this is progress, in society. and protection for people from discriminatory things that are going on in other states, for example. however there is an accessibility issue that needs to be addressed. what happens is that in many instances converting bathrooms to jend neutral has results in accessibility.

let me explain, all but the tiniest businesses had to have two bathrooms one for men and one for women and both had to be fully accessibility. now beginning a few years ago when the trend of gender neutral bathrooms began, the result was instead of both bathrooms being fully accessibility only one of them has to be fully accessibility. the reason is when you have two identical bathrooms it's okay if only one is fully accessible. it's called having a cluster, that is a cluster then you only have to make one accessible, so imagine waiting in line to use the restrooms and there is two of them, currently you can wait for whichever one opens up first but you know what is happening more and more is only one of the two bathrooms is accessible and you have to wait for that one only. so our suggestion, is that san

francisco consider making building a plumbing code adjustments which would restore the accessibility that was formerly required. by the way this issue is becoming an even bigger deal because the next step in gender neutrality is to have large multi user bathroom become gender neutral. this is add measurable trend and effort but there needs to be some attention paid in the plumbing codes to make sure that this does not result in a reduction in the availability of accessibility features for people who need them. thank you very much. >> thank you, thank you so much for your comment. >> at this time, i see no other members of the public who indicated they want to make

public comment. >> wonderful, thank you so much. i appreciate the public comment and now we'll go ahead to approval of the agenda we're going to switch interrupters right now for a moment. >> okay, we're waiting for the switch, okay, perfect. all right, so now we're looking at item number 4. informations, the information item and co-chair report. now since the month of june, the mdc meeting represented the mdc at board supervisors budget meeting. in support of a list of, so the things that they asked for was fussing for a map that shows

accessibility information. accessibility information for both park. the second was accessibility improvement to the conservatory of flowers at golden gate. the next one was a accessibility improvement, since the conservatory of flowers and they were talking about breaking enhancing replacing the sro elevator. the next one is enhanced it communication and infrastructure for san francisco government to enable, both virtual and accessible government meetings and activity. last additional staffing for public work sidewalks inspect ors. sidewalk inspector. so there is a need for that. also, the mdc has been correspond ending to the

director of the board of mt a in support of reinstating the mask mandate. and this is for public transportation. and they will continue to support this and they were in favor of this issue and hope to meet the mta's representatives and disability advocates, they will be getting together. moving on, item number 5. an information item that is a report from the mayor's office on disability m.o. d, and regards to this report please refer to item number 7. and you can see listening session for the report. it's council disability access for 2022-2023 year.

so please notice that the director's report to the ndc can be found on the mod website and this is a new area that you need to know. and then once you go there, you can find it, it's new information. now item number 6, it's a discussion item. and this is a market street access improvement update. and the presenter for this is going to be christina olea. department of public works. sorry, dpw, that's the acronym for that. and we want to ask if there are any public comments at this time?

and if you do, please raise your hand and we will recognize you. but it has to be specific to this topic. >> excuse me, orchid, the public comments will come after the presentation. >> okay, so after the presentation is over, then you may raise your hand for public comments. so christina, if you can please get started with your presentation. my screen was covered. if you go with review, you'll be able to see. okay, christina. >> good afternoon, my name is christina olea and i'm with san francisco public works. and the project manager for

better market street. and i'm joined today by brit tanner, senior engineer with the san francisco municipal transportation agency. or sfmta. the last time, we presented, at mdc was march 20 19. and a lot has happened since then. the basis of better market street remains the same.

the full project is 2.2 miles. from stewart to aktavia. it is a joint effort, including public works mta, san francisco puc,; the transportation authority, and the planning department. our goals is to create a sense of place improving mobility and safety.

and helping support economic development. along the corridor. the project started in 2010 since then, we've had six rounds of community out reach. we held focus groups hosted by lighthouse for the blind and m.o. d. we gave update with the senior ax, our community working group, our community working group meets every other month

and includes representatives from throughout the corridor. we are also creating a business working group. to include local businesses. in january of 2020, a quick build project that made market street, car free. it went into affect just 6 weeks before covid.

since then, our focus has been mid-market between 5th and 8th street which is the location of our first construction project. >> through the chair, christina, this is nicole speaking, if you speak at about this pace, we'll be fine with the interpreting, so you can speak a little bit faster. >> thanks, nicole. >> i've been watching and this is orchid, just speak at a normal rate. >> i've been watching you, so sorry. >> it's okay, we really appreciate your sensitivity, but you can speak a little faster. >> okay, this slide is showing

the map of our first phase between 5th and mcallister, skipping the f-loop and then moving to 7th and 8th between 7th and 8th streets. this first phase of construction, includes 5 traffic signal upgrades, repaving of the curb lane and intersections, widening the sidewalk at hide and market, 6th and market, and market mason and turk to shorten crossing distances and improve safety. the project also includes street escape improvements, new trees, benches and bike racks. we're also improving drainage near 6th street and there will

be minimum work to the overhead contact system, sewers, sub sidewalk basements and one fire hydrant that needs to move. this work is triggered by the rest of the work in the project. it's important to note that the sidewalk level bike way that was part of the project early on, has been eliminated from this segment. and i know that was a concern for many people. i wanted to highlight the accessibility improvement that are part of the project. for the first phase of construction, between 5th and 8th streets, will be repaving the crosswalk which are in poor condition. all of the crossings will have accessibility pedestrian signals. will be constructing a d.a.

compliant curb ramp that are twice as wide as the ones today. we'll be replacing sidewalks at the corner with pavers that meet our a d.a. guidelines. with increase slip resistance and minimized vibration for wheelchair users. we're also opening the sidewalk at market and hide from bart and orfeum to the main library. a high priority for the city is also constructing new center boarding islands that are fully accessible for people boarding the f-line street cars or buses. our departments are working close together to develop a funding plan, and schedule for the boarding islands. this slide is showing the new

trees that will be planted, the signature street along market street is the london plain tree, we'll continue to plant that as well as some chinese elm, and brisbane box. if you've been been to the new trinity building near 8th and market , they have already planted all these and they're thriving. this slide shows a picture of the concrete pavers. they're wider and longer and will be in a stack pattern which will be easier to navigate. and then the bike racks will be the city standard bike rack.

we will be installing a number of benches and they will provide wheelchair access areas for companion seating. this slide is showing an example of where the seating will be in front of trinity, near 8th and market. there is one long bench, parallel to the street. >> just a moment christina, we have an issue with the interpreters, we're waiting for the interpreter to be spotlighted correctly, wrong interpreter is let. >> thank you, so in this diagram there is one parallel and two seats facing each other near by.

and there is a second, set of benches, further down closer to 1155 market. my last slide shows our construction schedule for phase 1. we awarded the construction contract in may of this year this summer will be issuing the notice to proceed to contractor. they will start to mobilize for construction, and will also be conducting public out reach. letting everyone know what to expect through construction. actual ground breaking, is expected to happen later this year in fall or winter. construction contract is for 20 months from the notice to proceed.

to completion. but actual construction on the street, we expect to take 16 months. so a little under a year and a half. and we look forward to working with you and letting everyone know what our construction activities will be and what you can expect during construction. brit and i are available to answer any questions you have. >> wonderful, wonderful, thank you so much, christina. that's great. so now we can open it up for public comments first. on this topic and then we will ask councilmembers to make a comments as well.

so we'll look for people's hands up first so if you're interested, public members to make a comment, raise your hand and the clerk will recognize you. >> as a reminder to the public, if you're using zoom platform, you can raise your hand by clicking on raise hand icon. and if you're calling by phone, you can dial star-9 to raise your hand. right now, i see one member of the public interested in making public comment. will you've been permitted to unmute. >> speaker: hi, this is will railing again for accessible san francisco an incorporated nonprofit association. thank you for the great presentation. i would like to single everyone involved out for raise on the out reach that was done.

it's generally sounds like you made every effort to cult with many relevant groups with the focus with the users that will benefit with the extra accessibility. often and city projects or city policies, there is you hear the word stakeholders used,ier consulting with the stakeholders and it turns out the stakeholders are the businesses and contractors but not the people who benefit from these improvement or would benefit. so here you clearly did that, and i want today say thank you. on the substance of all the different accessibility, you're providing, accessible pedestrians signals to and everything else, getting a firm impression that you're--the city is going beyond minimum requirements and that's wonderful. that's always good to see and

it shows a philosophy of, universal design and access rather than complying with the minimum. and, going forward, this is major construction. and i think compared to other cities, san francisco typically does better on the issue of maintaining accessible routes during construction. ful there are certainly things that i noticed that the city does which is excellent. for example, around ska folding. however it's a challenge, right? and i just want to communicate to the members and the public that anyone encountering a temporary rerouting that is not accessible, please report that right away.

because i'm sure that is not the intention and that steps will be taken to fix that. thank you. >> thank you so much, well for the comment there, are there any other public comments at this time? please raise your hand, if so. >> i do not see any other public commenters at this time. >> okay, great. so moving forward now we want to see if there is moving from public comment rather excuse me, here. we want to direct it to the councilmembers. are there any comments from the councilmembers at this time? anybody have their hand raised? i see denise, i recognize you

as being able to speak at this time. >> thank you very much, i also want to commend the presenter on the presentation, taking you back with what the gentleman said during public comment on your efforts of out reach and again all the improvements that you're doing, not only to the pavement but also signals, you know, current brands, all the improvements it sounds like like you're looking from the accessible issue from people to enjoy the public streets like everyone else. so i thank you for your efforts. >> in deed, great comment. denise are there any comments from councilmembers? please raise your hand at this time and we'll recognize you. >> helen, do you have a comment

as well? >> nothing, thank you. >> thank you, helen. let me see, sherri are there any other councilmembers or anybody else that has anything to add. >> yes, can you hear me? >> uh-huh. please continue. go ahead. >> hold on. >> go ahead. >> i'm sorry, am i inhaouted? --unmuted. >> yes, this is nicole speaking, go ahead. >> you just muted again, sherri unfortunately. sorry guys, i'm having problems. today. i just want to thank because they reached out to lighthouse

and we had a preliminary meeting to discuss the new plan for the better market street project and so i had a chance to discuss what what was going to be happening in the neighborhood, this is my neighborhood. between 5th and 8th basically. that is where lighthouse is located. so i really needed to know what was going to be happening, how this was going to be affecting our staff especially our students. so i do want to say i very much appreciate it that. and i sent a heads-up report to brian and scott and i was able to provide them with that information. and i just very much appreciate it the contact and i think this is going to be, it is going to workout nicely.

and looking forward to the out reach as the plan goes along the plan. so thank you. >> great. thank you so much, councilmember sherri. and i wonder, this is councilmember orchid, just offering my two cents. first, i think excellent job on the plan. i think it's a big project and there are a few things that i'm considering as your presenting. i'm wondering if sf public works has set up we're near the library where i work here, is very near the construction site. i wonder if there is been coordination with people with disabilities here and i'm wondering about that this area and if that's being included in consideration of the project,

might be a way to do so. but one of the concerns i'm also thinking about is the comfort space of the sidewalk, i think that's been an issue for pedestrians at this time, this sidewalks have not been as wide and i'm thinking about, that possibility it being included as well. the possibility of sidewalk, excuse me the bike racks rather. i noticed that there are, the electric skaolter the one that have extra components, there seems to be an issue with the parking them on the sidewalks. people leave them just everywhere and they create hazards for pedestrians and people walking. for my comments, i want to add

that that's a hazard and if that should be considered. and after this comment, i'm wondering, councilmember portion of the comments is finished, we can turnover to the staff.

>> parking and i will just pass that comment on to them and make sure that they look into it. >> great. great, thank you so much. i know, i think about that often at this time, there is just you know, such a wrecklessness in general with the subject of scooters and i'm thinking, i don't hear people approaching behind me and if i make a turn just to cross the street and if somebody is on a roll at a very high speed, it can be a danger.

so there is been collisions. it's been an issue. it's something to think about in the project plan. so that is comment, i'll turn it over to the m.o. d staff members at this time to make comments. >> thank you, chair. this is niko, christina. i have a few questions and maybe for brit too if brit wants to pop back on. so regarding one of the challenges that we know we had especially during the veness project, we had multiple contractors in, it was difficult to coordinate maintaining the accessible route. i'm wondering if you can speak

a little bit about if we thought about coordinating, maintaining the accessible route and if not, if that's something that we would want to talk about. i do think that was a big reminder that we had during the vaness improvement project. we're all happy that the project is complete. but there were definitely challenges during construction, especially for wheelchair users and users blind. because conditions change literally daily. and if you have multiple contractors onsite, that can be difficult so. if you can speak a little bit more to that kind of coordination and then specifically about our market street, is it one contracting team? and then i have a few other questions. but if you wouldn't mind

speaking to that first. >> we're going to switch interpreters now, just a moment. >> no problem. >> so nicole to answer your question. >> just one second. >> okay, waiting. >> okay, i think we've got it. >> okay, to answer your question nicole, we will have one construction team, the prime contractor scoval grading and paving, they will have a number of sub contractors that will be doing specific work like electrical work or the landscaping. but they will be under the prime contractor. there is a few things that make the market street different. one is that the construction

for vanness was spread throughout the corridor from north point tovaness and we're, sorry. from lum bart to market street or to mission. we have intentionally selected a small area for our construction between 5th and 8th. so although we will have 1 contractors, working at the same time, it will be wnt three blocks. and we'll have a team to keep an eye on the work. and either traffic signal work

or water sewer. so we'll be monitoring the work closely. we also have a dedicated out reach public information officer. so if, if you see any problems with the construction, you can always call 311. but the project signs will also have the phone numbers for the contractor and our public affairs officer. so you can reach us, it's also nice that our offices are on market street and we're close by to all of the action. your first--did i get all of your questions? >> i think so, towards that, i feel that was sufficiently answered especially since it sounds like we're phasing this improvement. i think my other questions i had a couple of clarifications from your presentation, one you

mentioned that the that the sidewalk level bike lanes are not included. and i just wanted to clarify for the public, did you mean not included and for ever kind of deleted from the project? or not included right now? can you clarify that? >> sure. >> and then i have one additional question. >> they're not, the sidewalk level bike way is not included in the first phase of construction. the challenge that we had with the bike lane is that it was very narrow. it was typically 8 feet wide but narrow to 6 feet. the values exceed that wit or would need more swais to ride down market street. so we have we have moved to

sharing bike lane for the time being. and once we construct the new boarding islands, we can move the transit into the center lanes and then the bicycle would be in the curb lane with the delivery vehicles and taxis but with a lot of less friction. this is our first phase of construction. we will be learning a lot from this phase in terms of construction but also on the operation side and how it works. we do have high bicycle volumes, and we would have a dedicated bicycle facility extend beyond 8th street. right now the bike lane ends at

8th street and there is no bicycle facility east of 8th. so that is a goal of i think of our department. we're still trying to figure out what is the best design. is, you know, is bicycles are in the shared curb lane, they get 13 feet of roadway space. but it's shared so there is that trade off. so i think for now, we're looking at 5th to 8 street. there is no sidewalk level bike lane as parlt of this construction project. to add a bicycle level or bike lane, we would have to narrow the sidewalk by ten feet. so frn would know, you know, i think we would have another roundabout out reach, we would want to get input again after

this first phase of construction to see how it's working. how can we provide with dedicated bicycle space or is the shared space working while so thank you for that. >> my last question before we turn to debbie has to do with those boarding, so again you said that the accessible boarding islands are going to be done later? right now, can you say a little bit more about when, when are the boarding islands going to be improved and meeting appropriate accessibility standards.

>> yes, so our challenge for phase one was, you know, those boarding islands were originally part of the construction project. and then they were removed. and our challenge has been that building will take a while and a more intense construction. we also because these boarding islands will be two to two and a half times larger, we also want to do some of the utility underground utility replacement for sewer and water. so suddenly the project becomes longer. and we were hit with covid as we were finalizing design and getting ready for construction. and we were concerned about the impacts about construction. you know, how long construction would take?

and what i am pantingds would be to the public. and we would have to shut down the f-line to build them and replace the track and complete all the work. so we were looking at a long f-line shut down and very disruptive project. we don't have a time line right now for when we'll construct them. like i said it's a high priority for our department, we're working together on the funding plan and the schedule and i think we would really appreciate mdc and m.o. d participating in the conversation. again, it's a trade off. we need the accessibility improvements but we want to minimize impact to the local businesses and to the community. so i think it's going to take some conversations and just making sure that everyone is comfortable with the scope of work and with the duration.

a big part of me had wished we had started construction during covid because we would have taken advantage of those quiet days without traffic and movement. but we are where we are and we, you know, i think if we all work together, we can try to get them constructed in the next, you know, start construction in the next few years. >> this is last thing i will say, and i want to move to debbie's questions. i want to encourage us to be as transparent as possible in our project messaging, that it is intended to happen because as we know one of the things when you start construction like this, that are meant to improve accessibility among other things, there is an expectation that we would, that we would be working on things that we may not be working on on these phase. we need to acknowledge that

from mod's perspective. thank you very much for coming and presenting. i'll pass it over to debbie. >> thank you, so i have two questions and i guess i'll get them both at the same time, one is have you done any research or work to look at the repavement of the crosswalks and what can be done to minimize the bumpiness going over the market street for people on wheelchairs, it's really rough. and you know, it's a common problem where ever there are tracks in the middle of

crosswalks and i have a feeling there are other jurisdictions on what can be done to smooth that out without taking away from the purpose of the tracks? that's one question and then the other one is, i mean some of the issues that people have, are behavioral and some are, my question is, whether there is a way to influence the design. and the issue that you raise when you were talking about bicycles, the bicycles traffic gives already fairly and bicycles can go very fast. and i think the possibility of conflict between the pedestrians crossing and

bicyclist don't from my personal objections, always stop at the traffic line when the light is read. so i'm wondering, are there any bicycle traffic definds that would help to get bicycle respecting the pedestrians who are also sharing the area with them. >> thank you for those questions. >> change interpreters. >> all right, christina thank

you. >> no problem. so to address the first questions about the crosswalks, we have two problems with the crosswalks on market street. when they were built in the 1970s, they were built as decorative crosswalks, granite pieces, granite stones. and over the years, the granite has broken, it has sank. it's difficult to travel across those crosswalks. and then we have the tracks that cross the crosswalks as well. so two problems that we're trying to address. for the granite pieces, we'll be removing the decorative crosswalks and putting in new asphalt that is smooth and easier to cross.

for the tracks, i know we talked about those for years, i used to work at the sfpm as well and we have that concern where ever we have tracks. i know there was research into what other thifngz we could do to hefp minimize the space between the tracks and the roadway or the concrete and to see if there were way to see cover it up or fill-in the gap. but it's difficult with the street cars. i don't know if you have anymore information. i know the track ways envision to be concrete. so when we replace the tracks, it will no longer be decorative crosswalks and asphalt will have concrete. i don't know if that addresses all the concerns. >> yeah, i can add some

information to that. when, they repave the track way with concrete, it will be less likely to have as much as issues with changes of pavement. in the longer term when we do a full replacement of the rails which is not included in this, we would not rail system that will make less likely to get torn up overtime. and that will be a significant improvement. however, i think you might be asking for something like a planned filler which i'm sure you did not know the word of, but you can imagine what it is. >> that sounds good.

>> planned fillers are typically used for an application like this. however, we found that they're not feasible for us to use on market street. they're very high maintenance and will not really address the concerns in a reliable way. so unfortunately, in the nearer term you'll see improvement by switching to concrete, longer term by changing the fixation system to make it less likely to get broken up overtime. but, the more ideal systems like planned are not possible. and then i also wanted to respond to your question about bicycle traffic homing. in the longer term, when we are able to replace boarding islands and do some other changes to roadway, that allow us to remove buses from the

curb lane. at least where we have developed and approved this design. we will also be adding things like speed tables in the curb lane that will calm all traffic including people biking, by making them be more cognizant of or just travel slower that's what speed tables do. making sure that the people are obeying at u.n. plaza right by m.o. d, i know it's a location where some people may not feel

that they need to stop at the red light if they're biking through. with the longer plan to install boarding islands at the location, i think it will be more obvious that there is a reason to stop at the traffic light and that will improve compliance. >> thank you. >> this is orchid, thank you so much brett and christina. wondering if there are anymore comments from m.o. d staff? >> you can go ahead, thank you very much. >> can i. >> if there are no more comments then. >> sorry, can i jump in, i was able to get a answer about scooter enforcement. if you see illegally parked scooters, you can call into 311 or send an email to scooter

share. and they will be able to enforce it. they need a good amount of information, so if you have a picture that you can attach, that's great. otherwise, include the brand of the violation, or the approximately, the time and date and location and if possible, if there is an id number on the scooter, they can track down the user and they will educate the user on their how the behavior can be improved and if there are repeat o fepders, there are incentives such as suspending membership for the users that improve their behavior. so again, either send it to 311 or email scooter share at sfmt a.com.

>> so that is the problem with those e scooters, some of them are private, privately owned so you cannot bust the person violating it. comment noted. >> great. . i'm looking at the time and it looks like it's 210, so i think we'll go ahead and take a 15-minute break at this time. let's come back around let's see, is it 15 minutes we're taking? so around 2:25, we'll reroom at 2:25 or 2:30, there abouts. and the next agenda item is the

report on listening session, san francisco disability acts as pr

>> talking about city wide disability access work. list those out as well as on going concerns that continue to elevate to the m.o. d members from members of the public. once we're done with that, public comment is welcomed regarding anything that you would like to see, the mayor's disability council considered as part of the public meeting schedule for year 2022-23, mdc will also welcome written comments and you can send in your written comments.

so any emails that you would like to send us, you can send them attention to mdc, the mayor's disability council. okay? so, i'm going to let nicole go ahead and start. thank you we're good for that, that was a very thorough introduction, thank you very much. and thank you in advance to debbie for helping to advance slide. i'm going to adjust my own view for one second. okay. so at thank you everyone.

want to hear is from members of

the public as orchid referenced. so this is really an opportunity for that. i'll also be going through this content, i'll be going through this thoroughly but there are details on some of the and grass and other pieces of information that i will not be able to cover. so just for the public awareness and your awareness, this will be posted if it's not already on the mayor's disability website and also with the materials for today's public meeting. and with that introduction if we can go to the first slide. thank you, okay. so this is just a reminder what mod is. mayor's office of disability is a coordinator and we're

responsible for overseeing the implementation and adherence to title 2 of the american disability act. as well as other federal state and local access code and disability rights and accessibility application including our city wide grievance procedure. one of the other things that m.o. d does is serve as a liason between the city and san franciscoians especially in collecting public feedback around concerns. and then mod serves as a technical advisor to city departments and the board of supervisors and the mayor's regarding access, imagine planning and legislative impacts on the disability community. next slide please. to give you an idea who we're

serving, the disability community in san francisco, we know that one in ten san franciscoians report to disability per the american community survey and we have an estimated between 88,000 and 94,000 residents, almost half of people with disabilities are under the age of 65. and poverty is very prevalent, one in four people with disability live in poverty and even adults with disability who are employed are more likely to experience poverty. so keep that in mind when you think about how you want to prioritize initiative. also we know in terms of disability type, the majority of folks call into three categories, that being mobility, disabilities, cognitive disabilities and century disabilities meaning deaf or hard of hearing, the

community data does not currently correct information specifically about psychiatric disabilities. and we do think those members are higher than reported through the survey. next slide, please. we also know that 64% of people with disabilities in san francisco are people of color. so that is another very important overlay to remember as we're thinking about priorities. next slide please. so this is a little bit of about when m.o. d currently looks like and how the mayor's office of disability reports to put this information together specifically for a civil grand jury presentation, which i'll talk about a little bit later. but as a reminder, the mayor's fund disability is situated within the city administrator's office and we report indirectly to the mayor's office.

we have an operating budget of just under 2 million dollars and a capitol budget of about 2.5 million dollars. keeping in mind that the capitol budget funding is for architecture removal and only incompasses those projects that come directly to m.o. d that there is a lot more capitol funding related to disability access that happens outside of this budget scope. we have a pretty tiny budget. our currently is part-time person. that includes myself and two deputy director and our grievance coordinator and three senior building inspectors and office manager and a program aid who works just 3 hours a

week on some administrative task. and currently, we got some vacancies, so that our current staffing is all funded and budgeted for. we have additional vacant positions in our portfolio that are not funded so we're not able to fill them. that is two architectural positions and one problematic position. next slide please. and then this slide is a little bit about you, and the work that i yield both on, this has been presented to civil grand jury. so, as you know, you visas the mayor's disability council the mayor on disability issues, to help ensure accessibility compliance and most importantly, providing a forum for disability community feedback. so we have 7 seats filled and currently four vacant, if there are members of the public who

are interested in being considered for the mayor's disability council, please do so. let the mayor's disability council of mayor's of disability know. >> >> cross. >> this has been a very active group and we really want and appreciate engaged members of the disability community. and then just as a reminder to the public, m.o. d provides staff support to the mayor's disability council but it's not part of the disability council. and then there is a reminder primary for the public some of the things that this council advance this year. where the resolution of accessibility of golden gate park and drive, the resolution in progress, regarding the reinstatement on muni and this council has also done some work

on supervisors peskine scooter resolution that moved forward in january i believe and as you know, provided letters of advise through multiple city departments, following presentations and also to the california public utility's commission regarding tnc which that is uber and lyft as a reminder. specifically around the wlaoel chair access advocacy. and that has been used by the city. next, slide please. so some of other successes, this is nearly everything. we've done review of accessible

affordable housing, city projects that are not funded through department of public works contract. and architecture barriers complaints investigation. we received 23 new non housing city projects, and 25 housing projects. housing projects are very large so 25 housing projects for accessibility review, that's a lot of project. and we're very proud of the work that we're able to do on those as well as non housing projects that we reviewed. some and then this year state, we've received 23 total project in both categories, so we're just on track because we're halfway through the year.

and city entities like recreation and parks. the department of homelessness and supportive housing. and the san francisco public utilities commission. over the last year has involved our park system and i'll speak to that in a minute. lex slide please. and some happened in the early phasing of 2021, vaccine and the vaccine call center which

directly because happening because of m.o. ds advocacy. we also help to establish the home vaccination program with our colleagues in public health and disability community specifically vaccination clinics. most recently were held once again at the lighthouse for the blind who were again successful. this year, we also helped to advance the city wide accessibility and inclusion standards and adopted, i mean. we worked with the youth and disability interagency collaborative and provided training for those folks especially working through summer together program and other summer programming for kids. so we were able to do some work on that, based on feedback that that needed to improve.

and just as a point of clarification too, many of what we most of what we have chosen to do and focus oncious, has been based on specific concerns that we have received from the public. if you're wondering how we determine to focus on these things. and i'll get a little bit more into the concerns in a minute. we also in june, presented an acting strategies to the all of the managers in recreation and parks which was very well attended and very engaged. and then, we've had extensive involvement with legislation, impacting folks with disabilities which i'll get to on the next slide, next slide. so i'm going to mention these because i believe all of these, topics have been subject of

past mayor's council meetings, so i'll just highlight that legislation that we have advised and approved and in some cases advance with your help. the accessible business ordinance, mayoral housing directive as i mentioned. our architecture access team there is a lot of work with accessible affordable housing. you very well know that the jfk and golden gate park and access program has multiple legislative items that are on going. next slide.

>> can we switch the interpreter spotlight. >> of course. accessible both by mail. one thing i did want to mention, i mentioned senate bill 1480 which is ballot submission. i referenced my report where we talked about this and it did not pass. so there is more work to be done with accessible vote by mail. senate bill 1376 is the transportation network companies accessibility for all act. that is the wheelchair

accessible vehicle and other accessibility improvement about uber and lyft. virtual open meetings is assembly bill 361, as you know continuation of virtual meeting highly desired by san francisco disability community and it's proven to be a powerful advocacy tool. and then as i mentioned last month, we're monitoring autonomous vehicles and accessibility. those vehicles are not regulated by the city and county of san francisco, they are permitted through the cpu c and the department of motor vehicle but we still want to make sure they're accessibility is possible for everyone. next slide please. so they wanted to know some areas. so this slide is intended to

help you understand that and for you and for members of the public every single of the problem is hyperlink and you can delve in to each individual reference. if you have any difficulty accessing any of this, we're happy to get the individual content to you. i would just highlight that some of the things that we do in san francisco that exceed federal requirements are our curb ramp program standards, the way that we do architecture access affordable housing review. this year we created standards for loading zones, with our colleagues in public works engineering. the accessible business ordinance that i mentioned earlier is a san francisco ordinance not a federal requirement.

fwrendly san francisco is the effort that cross collaborative effort between community base organizations and department of disability and aging services, mayor's disability, mayor's office on disability and others around the specific age and disability friendly initiative. this council problem has not heard about that in a while, you may want to agendaize that as we have a new plan being developed now. and then, the empowered san francisco technology needs assessment, you heard about in a previous meeting. the image on the right is accessible design from the shared spaces manual. next slide please. so for the rest of the, that's all the great stuff. and it's a lot.

but, the civil grand jury and i want the public to know that we really have still a lot of, m.o. d and city wide accessibility challenges, many pertaining our capacity, our capacity to do everything that we want to do. and so the second half of the presentation is really about areas where we need to continue focusing and improving based on feedback that we've received from the public. so one of the things that we really want is, more of an adoption of disability access as an anti strategy so this goes above and beyond, just thinking about disability access as a compliance mechanism. we really want people to start and adopting and understanding that disability access for the disability community is a matter of equity and

accessibility compliances just one strategy. we would really love to be able to teach more about that. we have capacity, we struggle with capacity for removal and identification through capitol planning. we really want to focus on building a d.a. coordinator at the department level. and also contractor service knowledge obligations. what i mean by that, is we've got operators for instance in our in our affordabled housing facility. we really want to capture the emerging issues especially pertaining to those unhoused.

we've done better this year regarding having an eye to what is happening locally legislatively than any other year that i've been part of the city. in part because there is been so many legislation out of covid specifically that really directly impacts people with disabilities. and we want to stay ahead of our local legislation and help our board of supervisors understand disabilities acts a little bit better. we have had capacity issues with the enforcement within the public right away which is a dpw concern.

and/or chieed mentioned in her report today that that is something that you during the budget hearing brought forward as part of your public comment from the council so thank you very much for doing that. and then we want to involve people with disability early in design planning and really do better at affective and out reach to the disability community. this example is one place where we had one collaboration and sfmta is using these standards when we're using protective bike lanes. next slide, please. okay, so this next slide has to do with complaints and concerns that have come to m.o. d, this first slide is just a break down of what comes to us.

28% complaints, 25% referrals to other departments. and then we have curb request that come to us, request for reasonable accommodation, general questions and other service requests. we'll talk about that in the next slide. go ahead, debbie, thank you. so here's some of the primary complaints areas. so in architecture access, when the complaints that we received, primarily pertain to access with park webs and outdoor accessible feed anding architecture barial removal. regarding the public right away, obstructions such as barriers and accessible pathways around construction and encampments blocking the sidewalks, those were our biggest ones. and then housing example concerns with elevators out of service and m.o. d just dealt

with a urge enlt issue to a successful result. we have delays and responses to reasonable accommodation request and lack of knowledge and how to provide accommodations or services that we want to work on these things and want to make that better. and then other examples where we'll get complaints have to do with appropriate digital access especially for vision. recreation and better communication access for folks who are deaf or hard of hearing. next slide please. so this slide is a chart that shows last year, so this is as of this is comparative chart from fiscal year 1920 to march of fiscal year 21-22. so four months ago is the current as this is. but it shows the disability

acts complaints have increased especially since covid over the last three years. and the top three categories of complaint, 81% of all the complaints that we've received, 47% are public right aways, so that's the sidewalks. architecture and removal is 21% and then housing complaints 14% of that 8%. so those are the top 3 concerns that we really want to be making more progress on. next slide please. what we did in january of 2021, we really wanted to get an understanding in the mayor's on disability on how our dis act act were doing and where we needed to support. so we had thanks to iman a successful survey of departmental access coordinators.

we had a huge yield, 5le respondents from 49 departments. the the right shows where folks wanted trainer. and nearly all respond enters, 97% requested training on the topics that are on the right side of the screen. which are communication access, digital accessibility and disability etiquette and general coordinator responsibilities. another interesting thing that we found out is that, most of the respondents, indicated the less than 10% focused on a d.a. coordinate responsibilities. so that means that we have coordinator in the city department who have a d.a.

coordination as a small fraction of their other job. for the buildings, and have accessibility team and the department of elections has a full-time a d.a. coordinator. so you're almost done listening a little bit. so as you think about what you would like to consider for the 2022-23 agenda as the mayor's disability council. i would recommend any concern

or challenge that i discussed. or in my past director which i linked to the most resent one. another thing that you want to think about, is how can you continue to do budget and other advocacy with the board of supervisors and city departments, on burial removal for on going or new accessibility coordination, training initiative and the like and the staffing capacity to support them. there is a lot of stuff that we want to do on mayors fund of disability in the department of public works. in recreation and parks department. in homeless supportive housing in management. in the mayor's housing of community development and others. we do, we struggle with fiepding the xaf and capacity. so we need continued advocacy for support.

i mentioned at the givening of the presentation that i presented to the civil grand jury. on the mayor's fund of disability. most of the questions that the civil grand jury had for me, had to do with the way that we are approaching accessibility in our park system. and so, their report which you can reference online at safe and accessible parks for all, details all of this, it's a pretty comprehensive report.

i mentioned the on going implement of california general accessibility guidance, that and your advise letters on how to maintain accessibility and in looking through, the guidance, we're in pretty good shape as the city and county of san francisco, we do need to continue how we're a priding reasonable modification to improve that. i would like to redistribute as a refresher from any of our

city colleagues and the board of supervisors. and finally, on going implementation of the san francisco digital accessibility and inclusion standard. and that is just a starting point to spur your thinking. and i'll go to the next slide, debbie. i think that was all i had. we are v happily going to be converted to a better website by the fall and i'm so excited because our current one needs significant help as i'm sure you know. the m.o. d email is m.o. d as sf gov. org.

and our maintain 415-554-6789. and that's where i will stop. and we can move to public comment and hearing from the public orchid or alex and we'll move to council questions. thank you. okay, we're switching interpreters. okay, let's go ahead. are there any public comments,? we're going to hold public comment and then councilmembers will present later. >> as a reminder to the public, you can indicate that you want to make public comment by on

the zoom platform by clicking on the raised hand icon. if you're dialing in my phone, you can dial star-9 to indicate that you want to make public comment and you'll be prompted when it's your turn. you can also type your comments into the chat box to be red by the clerk or indicate that you like making public comment and you'll be prompted when it's your turn. i do see at least one person interested in making public comment. william you've been permitted to unmute. >> speaker: hi, will again. wow, what a great presentation, thank you. spofrg so much ground.

i hope each mindful of the great diversity and i think it's always a challenge to to remain mindful of the different needs different types of people, you know. we often talk about, you know, mobility issues but there are unique challenges for people who are blind or low vision for the death community. i noticed there seems to be no, a common process of coming to

the committee when some change is contemplated in legislation for example, in the accessible business program and shared spaces. as representative the end users who benefit from these programs. so we have a small membership of accessible san francisco. especially when it relates to all over parking all over the city when it's not accessible.

and service animal issues, the role of building inspection and improving and enforcing accessibility in the city. moving forward to complete all removal of outstanding barriers in the city. thank you. >> thank you for your comment. are there any other public comment?

>> jessica, you've been allowed to unmute. >> thank you to m.o. d and the mayor's disability council for all that you've been doing particularly the resent resolution about reinstating masking on transit, it's very important to come from this council. a few of the issues that i want to mention to work on, and continue working on. we still see housing as probably the most pressing issue with people with all different kinds of disabilities. we would love to have your and to work on the mast plan for housing and people with disabilities. home care is another on going issue that we need for funding

for a lot of programs that allow people to stay in their home. and i think have the crisis, we're seeing the importance of talking about the institutionalization. a long term issue. and really think outside of the box. to working together to continue hybrid meetings throughout san francisco government. and we're also looking forward to work together on enablism campaign that i think has been talked about for a while since the department of aging services lead their campaign to

reframe aging and something about ablism but most people still don't know as such potential. lastly, i just want to continue collaboration with the community and to really think about how the mayor's office on disability and disability council is not just reporting to the community at work, listening to the community but having real dialogue back and forth. to make the kind of change we need in san francisco, thank you. >> thank you, jessica. anymore comments. >> this is debbie, there is a comment in the q & a area from

jennifer. i'll go ahead and read that if that's okay. would like to continue to work with 311 could be more transparent when the public files of 311 report about damage sidewalks. there is no reliable way for the public to get a status update on when this sidewalk will be inspected and repaired. and preventing a good start. the 31 is a picture and

location base system making it difficult to report for people with mobility or low vision issues and those who don't use smart phones. and that's the end of that comment. with any issues, please don't be afraid, go ahead and send your emails to us.

at this time there is no other members of public indicating that they want any public comment. okay, public comment is over. >> if you would like to start. >> speaker: it's important to know and to update what is doing and think, question income came to mind what is that increasing of petition increase of fax to public and past people with disability.

are there any discussions or on how of phone number of what you guys do with covid-19. good for people with disabilities to have that resource to see when why they can access those resources? and accessibility, do you know if we have any updates via that

, thank you? >> thank you for the questions. for the first question, i believe you're asking, have we collaborated with the regarding any information or any other house concerns that's your first question, correct? >> yes, and possibly how the phone line. like what you guys did on covid-19 vaccination. >> right, so i have not

specifically talked with the department of public health about this, but i did recently speak with our health officer dr. suess an about ways that we can remember the disability community in the guidance that we're putting up. and then regarding your question about the accessibility business ordinance, correct? >> yes. >> so unfortunately, i don't have any new information at the top of my head except to say, a couple, i guess there are a couple of new pieces since the office of new business presented to the council. one is there has been, additional excess ability grants announced that small business owners can take advantage of. and the office of small

business working on promoting that now. but, if this is an issue and i do encourage the council to stay on top of this, if this is an issue that you would like information on, please agendize it for your coming year. the we're just coming into the compliance deadlines for turning in your accessibility checklist now. so it will would be good to have an update on that. thank you alex. >> thank you. all right, great points. i see that you are. >> yes, thank you.

as always for terrific presentation, i'm a firm, firm believer as many of us are in evaluation. and analyzing how we're doing so we can better gauge our effective as an organization, as an agency, all the work that we're doing. so your presentation was really really helpful. i appreciate all the work put into it. i think it has given us tremendous guidance on how we move forward. i also want to say i appreciate the public comment and to reiterate that the mayor's council really welcomes feedback from the public on what you like us to focus our efforts on. we're here for you and we're

happy to work together and to collaborate. >> thank you. are there other councilmembers who would like to speak at this time? anyone else that has not been called on? any comments? feel free to raise your hand. okay, seeing no one coming forward, i would like to agree with other things that have been stated. this has been quite a year, covid-19 impacting us, shelter in place, it's been interesting conducting things on zoom. and we made it through this far.

and we kept providing service and hosting meetings, it's been quite a feat. we didn't give up in the face of the pandemic. so we've been continuing to support access and equality which is very important in this time and to keep the city running with attention friendly attention to accessibility and supporting all people in different walks of life and of course there are always things to have bound to drop as we're trying to carry on forward. and we managed to do so with grace. and with our focus on key issues and our advocacy in the community, the support that we've been and have been provided and then also the collaborative process. without that community, involvement it would be impossible to carry on as we have.

so yes, we have quite a bit of goals and never ending checklist and the goals always to improve services and break down barriers which can be quite a process. and we just have to keep pushing and pushing and pushing until it gives. and that can be an arduous process at times. so we slow going at times. so i know that we've that's been part of our south that we have that tenacity to break that. and it's given that careful consideration and thoughtfully that directly contributes to our success and our ability to be self reflective.

we would love to see more parents join our team, maybe parents with children with disability. parents also offer a rich experience examine if there are members of the public that are willing to come forwardcious anyone that can, please consider joining our team. if we made it through this point, this tough period, then we can certainly continue on. okay, with that i'm going to ask one last time if there are any councilmembers that would like to make a comment. >> may i just respond to what you said, orchid, because i would like to if that's all right can you? >> sure. >> i would just like to say,

thank you for your enthusiasm and particularly to you and alex for your leadership this year. i want to say thank you to you and to alex and all councilmembers and just really couldn't accomplish this work without you, and disability has been i also want to work with

the collaboration with some of our disability advocacy organizations we have a lot of in common and we can do more together than apart. i want to say thank you and looking forward to planning and i must keep going. and we have the most success when we have individual engagement around your passion. and i know this group is very passionate so let's keep using that to our advantage.

>> great, yay all around. thank you nicole for all of your work. i think this has been such a rich experience and from myself looking from the outside and then looking within. you know, this city is not like others. and can only do what it has attention put to. it only happens when we work together. thank you for your work.

it's wonderful that we can work together. any last, sorry, any comments from the mod staff? we've given opportunities to councilmembers so any, well just, i think it's really valuable to take stock once a year and look at what we've done together. and not to get yourself con grad tory because there is a lot to do it's really a pleasure to work with this council and to work as people

have said in the city of san francisco. because i think a lot is possible. if anyone else has future feedback. anymore councilmember comments? we'll move on to the last agenda item which would be correspondence. correspondence. of excuse me, rather number 8, yes, correspondence has there been any correspondence since the last meeting? >> there is been one letter which i think the councilmembers are seeing but i'll go ahead and read it. this is from jeffery tom land director of the mta in response

torres losing that the mdc passed on to him. dear members of the ad, mayor's disability council, i'm writing in response to your resolution supporting the reinstatement of the mask mandate. committed to making all of our vehicles safe for our passengers and staff and we can appreciate your focus on keeping the most vulnerable people in our community safe and helpful. we want the public to understand that their action for instance, not only help to protect themselves but also safety for all those writing paratransit. throughout the pandemic, they have always followed in particular, the san francisco

department of public health in developing and modifying our policies. we have made numerous changes to our vehicles and to our agency practices to reduce the risk of covid-19 transition to turn the air over once every minute and we continue to strongly recommend that staff and passengers. to help protect all riders and especially those who remain of higher risk to covid-19. we recently added on board messages to vehicle who say thank you for wearing your mask. this message was developed in collaboration with the mayor's office on disability and built on best practices developed during past, public health campaign focused on behavior change.

the sfmta will continue to follow guidance. we will adopt that practice, until then, we will use the demonstrated tools of successful public health campaign to en shaourj masking on board, thank you again for your feedback and for your constant feedback. and that is the only sorry ens that we received in the past month. >> great, thank you so much debbie. so i think again, just as a reminder, public transportation, we just encourage everyone to wear a mask at this time, it's for your safety and safety in general. we've been doing it together so just a continued reminder. moving on to item number 9. this is general public comment, do we have any public comment at this time? iman?

>> as a reminder to the public, you can indicate that you want to make public comment in the zoom platform, by clicking on the raised hand icon. if you're dialing in by phone, you can dial star-9 and you'll be prompted when it's your turn to make public comment. you can also indicate that you want to make public comment by typing in the q & a box. you can also type your comments into the q & a box and it can be read by the clerk. at this time, i do not see any members of the public who are indicating they want to make public comment. okay, so there is no public comment right now, seeing nothing, we move on to agenda item number 10. any councilmember announcements?

or any events that would you like announce coming up? hearing none, we want to go ahead and remind everyone that there will be no meeting, oh excuse me. >> i would like to make one announcement, just a a reminder that in two weeks, we're already at the 32 anniversary of americans with disability act and many of our community organizations are entrusted in acknowledgment and some are under way in july. it's mod's hope that we can put some of these things together for everyone but i just want to acknowledge that the anniversary and also thanks to councilmember former

councilmember tiffany yu, she succeeded in ensuring that city hall is lit in purple which is the international color of disability on the 26th. so when you're out and about, and ub now tell people that you know why the city is lit up. and international disability awareness in recognition of july 26. thanks orchid. >> july 26 is the anniversary for the americans with disability's act. i remember 1990 was the first time we had the ada and from that point until now, it's been quite a road a journey to get to where we are now.

but it's very important that's a very important and it was in signed by president bush under that administration and we had it since, so it's 32 years. there is still work to do and yes, more tweaking happened and but an important federal law. so any reminders to the public? we have no public meeting this august, so the next meeting will be in september. so that's it, have a great rest of your summer. and if there is any questions or comments, please feel free to contact us directly. thank you, again to the councilmembers and thank you to the mods, staff, for all that you've done to make this meeting possible. i appreciate all of your involvement today. okay, so now is there item number 11, move to adjourn. is there any councilmember that would like to move to adjourn the meeting?

>> i move. >> wonderful, moved and seconded? >> i second it. >> wonderful thank you so much to everyone. so we'll go ahead and adjourn at this time. i'll see you all in september. >> thank you. >> thank you, everybody. >> have a good weekend.

>> i'm sergeant and i'm a transmale. >> i'm an out gay man. >> we're married. >> i knew i was gay when i was 16 years old. >> i was probably in elementary school that i knew i was

different. >> i had that fear that my parents would accept me. >> it wasn't as accepted as it is now. >> i was in the navy don't ask don't tell. >> i was in high school and i would have other students come up to me and say pretty awful things. >> it was hard because it was trying to cross that bridge of religion for my family. >> it took almost ten years to be exactly who i wanteded to be. >> we met 0 work. >> we got married in mexico. >> we wore two dresses. >> we have my 9-year-old boy and 3-year-old twins. >> here we go. [applause] >> i along with our lgbtq public safety officials will be marching in pride this year. >> it's going to be very

symbolic. >> it's a celebration of what our family is. there's a lot of pride with this uniform. >> one of the reasons i initially got into law enforcement was the representation that i wanted to be for other people. >> you know, we're all on the same side at the end of the day. >> i've marched 205 years in the parade. >> i feel like this department has been able to creatively save space for somebody like me. >> a lot of departments across america, it would be a different story. >> it's really great to be a member of this lgbtq community and to see the pride and love that comeses with it. >> love is love.

is r. my name is debra alvarez rodriguez. i'm the deputy director in san francisco. my background is one in which i have spent the entirety of my life committed to finding solution to poverty and addressing the issues of inequity so people and communities can have accesses to resources and financial freedom. one thing true anode dear to my heart was the power of business ownership in creating pathways to financial freedom. we have still in infancy. we had over 100 entrepreneurs come and start their businesses. some are food trucks. some are restaurants. some are in farmer's markets and so farther. that's an incredible legacy and record to build upon. this was the perfect opportunity for me to come back home, you know, come back to the neighborhood and take

my skills and networks and resources and put it backseat in service of the community. given everything with racial reckoning and pandemic it was time for me and everyone else that had the opportunity to leave and get educated to come back home. we have a opportunity to grow our impact in terms of the number of people we serve and how we serve them. we grow our impact in taking the money we make with our entrepreneurs and circulate those resources back interview the community for community development. the third thing is we have a opportunity to have an impact on public policy in terms of the policies and practices the district has been notorious about interms of inequities. all of those are just the beginning of what is possible in terms of growth and

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

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

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

this unified structure. so it's the department of emergency management, the department of public health, and our human services hughesing partners, so primarily the department of homelessness and supportive housing and human services agency. so it's sort of a three-headed command in which we are coordinating and operating everything related to covid response. and now, of course, in this final phase, it's mass vaccination. the first year was before the pandemic was extremely busy. the fires, obviously, that both we were able to provide mutual support but also the impact of air quality. we had, in 2018, the worst air quality ten or 11 days here in the city. i'm sure you all remember it,

and then, finally, the day the sun didn't come out in san francisco, which was in october. the orange skies, it felt apocalyptic, super scary for people. you know, all of those things, people depend on government to say what's happening. are we safe? what do i do? and that's a lot of what department of emergency management's role is. public service is truly that. it is such an incredible and effective way that we can make change for the most vulnerable. i spend a lot of my day in problem solving mode, so there's a lot of conversations with people making connections, identifying gaps in resources or whatever it might be, and trying to adjust that. the pace of the pandemic has been nonstop for 11 months.

it is unrelenting, long days, more than what we're used to, most of us. honestly, i'm not sure how we're getting through it. this is beyond what any of us ever expected to experience in our lifetime. what we discover is how strong we are, and really, the depth of our resilience, and i say that for every single city employee that has been working around the clock for the last 11 months, and i also speak about myself. every day, i have to sort of have that moment of, like, okay, i'm really tired, i'm weary, but we've got to keep going. it is, i would say, the biggest challenge that i have had personally and professionally to be the best mom that i can be but also the best public certify chant in whatever role i'm in. i just wish that i, as my

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

men will go for a job whether they're qualified or not. we tend to want to be 110% qualified before we tend to step forward. i think we need to be a little more brave, a little more exploratory in stepping up for positions. the other thing is, when given an opportunity, really think twice before you put in front of you the reasons why you should not take that leadership position. we all need to step up so that we can show the person behind us that it's doable and so that we have the power to make the changes for other women that is going to make the possibility for their paths easier than ours. other women see me in it, and i hope that they see me, and they understand, like, if i can do it, they can do it because the

higher you get, the more leadership you have, and power. the more power and leadership we have that we can put out

a city like no other, san francisco has been a beacon of hope, and an ally towards lgbtq equal rights. [♪♪] >> known as the gay capital of america, san francisco has bee